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ED569a Designing Internet Activities for the Calssroom

Arcadia University
Education Department
Arcadia Online
Summer 2 2010

Instructors:

Amy McLaughlin
Phone: 267-280-3467
Email: mclaugha@arcadia.edu

Materials:

Since this course is being delivered online, your computer system will need to meet specific hardware
and software requirements. You will find a complete listing of hardware and software needs at
http://student.arcadia.edu/online . For this course, you will need to have access to the Internet. We
will use the following applications:

Wetpaint.com and bubbl.us

Overview:

Welcome to your Arcadia University course, ED569a – Designing Internet Activities for Today’s
Classroom. In the current landscape there is much debate over what topics students should be
learning and how it should be delivered to them. Since we have students who are both traditional and
non-traditional learners we must provide them with differentiated instruction. The integration of
technology allows for students to operate in and around their comfort zone while we the teachers can
provide them with opportunities to expand their horizons. The learners of today have almost a
limitless supply of information, we must not change our role as “teacher” and become guides, helping
them along the way to transform information into knowledge and ultimately wisdom.

Grading Policy:

A 90% to 100%
B 80% to 89%
C 70% to 79%
D 60% to 69%
F Failure to complete required
work
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Required Assignment Description Value

Storyboard 10 points
PBL 1
WIKI Field Trip 40 points
Storyboard 10 points
PBL 2
WIKI Webquest 40 points
Reflection 1 WIKI Reflection 5 points

A Vision of K-12
Online Week 1 20 points
Students Today

Online Week 2 High Stakes Testing 20 points

20 points
Online Week 3 Constructivism
20 points
21st Century Student

Online Week 4 Virtual Textbook and 50 Points

peer review
Reflection 2 Course Reflection 5 points

Class participation, scholarship and academic honesty will have an effect on the final evaluation. If
you experience difficulty at any point in the class (i.e. hardware problems), please notify me
immediately. There will be no extensions given for the due date of any project. Conventional rules of
plagiarism apply to all assignments. Anyone caught plagiarizing will receive an “F” for an assignment
and will have their final course grade reduced by one letter grade. More than one incidence of
plagiarism will result in an “F” for the course.

The Online Aspect of this Course:

This course is being presented in an online fashion; it is important that you login on a regular basis
(daily if possible) and work on a consistent basis to complete your requirements. Since we are not
meeting face-to-face, it will be imperative that you participate in the discussion forums by replying to
the postings of your classmates. Also, the Cyber Café is available for you to develop community
outside of the course content. You will need to be self-motivated and try to stay as organized as
possible; developing a schedule would be a good idea. I also suggest that you login in the beginning
of the week and copy all assignments to a Word document. This will allow you to construct a quality
answer, spell check, grammar check, and copy and paste into the forum.

Requirements for Discussion Board Sessions:

1. You are required to answer each question that is posted by the professor in the Discussion Board
area. Please make sure that you support your comments with research from the field. Citations are to
be provided at the end of each post as well as within the body of your answer.
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Example:

Within the context of the posting:

"Constructivism is an epistemology, a theory of knowledge used to explain how we know what

we know" (Lorsbach, 1997).

• At the end of the posting:

o Lorsbach, A. (1997). Constructivism as a Referent for Science Teaching.

Retrieved January 5, 2006, from
http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/research/constructivism.html

• You are required to respond to a minimum of three other student postings. I will be
looking at the way you analyze the postings and extend the conversation. Please use
this opportunity to share your own experiences, but remember to support your
assertions with current research findings. At this level we can all learn a great deal by
sharing our experiences.

o "Studies report that peer learning promotes greater conceptual and procedural
gains for students, accommodates a broad range of learning styles, results in
greater enjoyment of the learning task, and encourages a stronger persistence in
learning" (Johnson & Johnson, 1999).

• Your postings will be evaluated based upon the substantive nature and how it efficiently
addresses the question at hand. Simple responses such as "I agree" are of no value
and will not be counted as an acceptable posting. Try to use what I call the "no scroll"
rule. If you have to scroll a great deal to read the posting, it becomes an arduous task.
Please try to be succinct and to the point. Strive to respond at the synthesis or
evaluation levels.

Discussion Etiquette

In this course, I welcome the creation of a dialogue that is open, thoughtful, and founded on the basis
of research in the field. At times, some of you will not agree on the positions that are taken in the
forum. This diversity is welcomed. However, each student must exercise respect for the thoughts and
comments that are posted by their peers. If any posted comments are inappropriate or of an offensive
nature, they will be removed from the forum and I will address the issue with the author of the
content. Please follow the following guidelines:

o Never post, transmit, promote, or distribute content that is known to be illegal.

o Never post harassing, threatening, or embarrassing comments.
o If you disagree with someone, respond to the subject, not the person.
o Never post content that is harmful, abusive, racially, ethnically, or religiously offensive, vulgar
or otherwise potentially offensive.
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PBL 1

Objectives for Unit 1

• Tsw discuss the benefits and challenges of multidisciplinary activities.

• Tsw participate in PBL activity 1.
• Tsw create a solution to the presented problem scenario.
• Tsw create a WIKI Page using WetPaint.com
• Tsw will create a Story Board in Bubbl.US

Assignments
• Create BUBBL.US account
• Create storyboard
• Create Wetpaint account
• Create Virtual Field Trip
• Reflection 1

PBL 2

Objectives for PBL 2

• Tsw discuss the benefits and challenges of multidisciplinary activities.

• Tsw participate in PBL Activity 2.
• Tsw create a solution to the presented problem scenario.
• Tsw utilize bubbl.us to create their storyboard and wetpaint to create their webquest.
• Tsw post the project solution to the Internet.

Assignments:
• Create Storyboard in Bubbl.US
• Create Webquest in Wetpaint
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Online Week 1

.
Objectives for Online Week 1 - This is an INDUVIDUAL assignment
• Tsw think critically and respond to questions posed about how they perceive a learning
environment and how students perceive a learning environment.

Assignment/Discussion Board

• Please watch the following video entitled A Vision of K-12 Students Today
and consider the following questions. ( watch it a few times!)
o How do you feel about the subject presented?
o What is your response to the presentation?
o Would you feel this way if you had read the same quotes and statistics?

• Please read the following article entitled "Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants"
o Based on the information relayed, how do you think you can take traditional classroom
material and physical space and transform it for digital learners?

Online Week 2:

Objectives for Online Week 2- This is an INDUVIDUAL assignment

• Tsw evaluate learning on an individual basis and on a global level.
• Tsw consider the cost of testing versus learning to the student and to the institution.

Assignment/Discussion Board
• In this assignment, you will need to compare the information presented in Online
week 1 and examine the connections to today’s high stakes test environment that students
are exposed to day in and day out.
• What is the goal of education?
• Are we deviating from our directives as educators?
• Considering the activities that you have been exposed during this course, how does
the focus on testing impact you developing these types of activities in your classroom?

Articles:
• Don't Weigh the Elephant -- Feed the Elephant: Feedback Is Key in Assessment
• Why Has High-Stakes Testing So Easily Slipped into Contemporary American Life?

Online Week 3:
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Objectives for Online Week 3 – This is an INDIVIDUAL project

• Tsw reflect on their teaching environment and determine how constructivism can be beneficial
to a learning environment.
• Tsw create a personal definition of constructivism.

Assignment

Conduct a thorough online search on scholarly articles . Read and provide THREE of the articles
that defines constructivism so that you feel that you have a working knowledge of this concept. In
your group's Discussion Board post your personal definition of constructivism and respond to 2
other students.

• Based on the information relayed, how do you think you can take traditional
classroom material and physical space and transform it for digital learners?
Update your group WIKI with images, videos and ideas

Online Week 4:

Objectives for Online Week 4 – This is an INDIVIDUAL Project

• Tsw create a virtual textbook using Wetpaint
• Reflect upon the overall learning experience of the course.

Assignment
• Your students have become bored with their text books. The have complained of the
redundancy, and lugging it home every night. You have come up with the idea of
creating a collaborative classroom textbook. By using a WIKI as your collaboration
tool, you are to create a virtual textbook which each of your students will contribute to.

• You are expected to create a WIKI, include an introduction, table of contents, and
content for at least 2 chapters as an example to the students.
You must include the following:

Text
Pictures
Animations
Video