M.S. in Educational Technology Suggestions / Ideas

[bdean]

As you may have noted from my blog entry, the faculty approved a M.S. in Education - Educational Technology at CUW. It still needs to go to the Board of Regents for review, so this is a tentative announcement. I am creating this as a place to get your input. So, how about some suggestions? What do you think needs to be part of this program? All suggestions are encouraged: course ideas, skills and technologies, suggested future adjunct faculty, etc. I should note that the program is designed to follow the NETS for Technology Facilitators.

Course offerings for the spring include:
EDG 670/970 "Integrating Technology in the Classroom"
EDG 639/939 "School Leadership in Technology"
EDG 608/908 "Critical Issues in Educational Technology"
EDG 589/889 "Applying Technology in the Content Areas"
EDG 657/957 "Building Online Learning Communities"

Four courses that I hope to offer by summer or fall include Multimedia for the Classroom, Instructional Design, Learning Theory & Educational Technology (or a similar title), and Ministry in the Digital World. I am also interested in putting together a Video Games and Learning course within the next year. If you have suggestions for additional course offering, please share them here.

[bdean]

Oh, I forgot to mention that we are also currently developing a course that deals with some of the networking and hardware types of issues. That one will be taught out of our computer science program. By the way, I should note that CUW already offers an online M.S. in Information Technology for those who are more interested in the technological than the educational perspective.

[Joshua Sommermeyer]

Here are a couple of course ideas

Teaching in a 1:1 Learning environment
K-12 Open Source Technologies
the Ministry in a Digital World Course should be required for graduates in the Teaching ministry...
Something on 21st Century Skills... don't know if that needs to be specific course or if it should fall somewhere else...

There has also been talk of putting together a 1-2 week crash course for technologies for teachers... Blogs, RSS, Wiki, PodCasting, Online Learning... etc... and using it as professional development... Something like "Teachers Technology Toolkit" - maybe that is something to work on with MTM as opposed to a specific "course"

Another idea is that the culminating "project" for this course should not be required to be a paper, but possibly a demonstration of how this is changing what you are doing in your classroom/school... some sort of artifact(s)

[Joshua Sommermeyer]

*Cheer*

looking for help?

[bdean]

"looking for help?" Absolutely!

[Andrew Eickstead]

That is awesome. I am currently working on a Masters in Educational Technology at Texas State University and it is an extremely valuable program. My professor, David Byrum, is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. His e-mail is [e-mail] if you are interested in contacting him about how their program is structured. I just finished an Instructional Design course that was very helpful, that is where we put together the New Tools for Digital Learning (let me know if the link doesn't work). The program also included a course in using video in the classroom, grant writing, web design, research methods, and 4 administration classes to help teach those in the program how to best teach others to implement technology in their classrooms. I have been happy with all of my classes, that Teaching Ministry in a Digital world would be a great addition.

[bdean]

Certificate in Educational Ministry in the Digital World - So what do you think about our possibly adding another option within the Ed Tech program at CUW...a 15-18 credit Certificate in Educational Ministry in the Digital World? It would require some ed tech courses like Critical Issues in Educational Technology (all sorts of ethical stuff), Technology and Ministry (exploring quite a bit about digital culture), and a few other courses. This idea relates to opening things up to not just people in the Lutheran school teaching ministry but also DCEs, pastors, missionaries, etc. This is just an idea at this point, but I would be interested in your thoughts.

[Dan Reinert]

I think this type of program would be great! I think there are a lot of people who would like to explore these issues, especially in youth ministry. The difficulty would be that as soon as someone completes the certificate all the things they learned would be outdated. But anything would be helpful to many people in the ministry who are overwhelmed by the idea of diving in to learn on their own.

[bdean]

Thanks for the feedback. I know that outdated part is a concern for some and, like the sciences, one is often studying thinks that are dymamic. So, we try to help people learn how to study digital culture (for lifelong learning), and we will consider the implications of general principles and ideas that have more of a shelf life. The cultural trends don't change as quickly as the technologies. For example, there are new open source projects all the time, but the idea of open source (and the cultural impact) has been around for 30+ years. Come to think of it, one of the key books/studies about the nature of self/identify in digital culture is now almost 15 years old :-).

[Rob Jacklin]

Excellent idea about creating learners, that sounds like it's the key. As the saying goes you never really know how much you don't know. Once students have had a taste, they just need a little prodding in the right directions to continue learning. Shoot...half the course may just be getting them hooked into a learning community. They'll eventually teach themselves......like.....I don't know....like we have! :-) I definitly didn't learn what I know from academia. Keep up the great work! Just think, if we do our job in the elementary, middle, and high schools, you eventually won't need the course :-)

[Mike Kratzer]

I am assuming that Ministry in the Digital World will cover ethics. That sounds like an exciting class and can't be mirrored in secular universities.

The titles of your courses suggest a lot of flexibility as to the actual topics covered in each. You might want to consider a course on integrating the internet into the curriculum to follow the integrating technology class. I am assuming that digital video production, podcasting and use of digital photography will be covered in the multimedia class. You might want to consider separating some of those into individual classes.

Another consideration would be a class on planning educational technology facilities unless this is covered in one of the other classes such as "School Leadership in Technology".

Finally you may want to consider a class such as "Topic in Educational Technology" where you can plug in a current specific topic that might be of interest. For example I have taught a graduate class called "Integrating Multimedia from the Internet into the Curriculum".

[bdean]

Thanks for the feedback Mike. BTW - I noticed that you are teaching as an adjunct for Webster. Let me know when you would like to apply that expertise teaching as an adjunct at CUW. If you are interested, please contact me at [e-mail].

Yes, ethics is the central them in Critical Issues in Educational Technology. That was the theme of my dissertation so it is a course that is special to me :-).

I have thought about your idea of a specific course in integrating the Internet as you noted. As it stands, that is a theme that runs through many of the courses. The multimedia course is the only course for dealing with video production and digital imagery. As you noted, we may well want to add a second course in due time, as enrollment allows us to do so.

The facilities aspect is included in the Technology Leadership course right now. The entire course walks each participant through the process of writing a technology plan for their school. Assignments require them to host focus groups, engage in various studies of their school, etc. With that said, the overall program is geared toward technology facilitation with some attention to technology coordination. In due time, we will also add a track for those who want to become technology coordinators.

"Finally you may want to consider a class such as "Topic in Educational Technology" " - Excellent idea. Those are not very popular at CUW as a detailed course syllabus for every course needs to be approved by the entire faculty, academic council, etc. But, there have to be some examples of this on campus. I'll look into it to see what is possible.

[bdean]

It has been a couple of months since I first posted this. The program has now been approved by the board and is official. Please spread the word.