The Florida State University

College of Education

Prefix and course number: EDE 4341

Title: Technology and Learning in the Elementary/Middle School

Credits: 3 semester hours

Course prerequisites or corequisites: EME 2040 or permission of the Instructor

General course objectives:

This course is designed to help preprofessional/preservice teachers use microcomputers in a constructive process for the development of problem-solving processes with their own students. The major emphasis of this course is facilitating learning. Conce pts and skills from this course are to be applied throughout the Elementary Education Program to help build more integrated learning of technological skills throughout the teaching and learning process. By the end of the course, you, the preprofessional/p reservice teacher, will be able to:

Develop and use skills in the computer and other technologies and reflective thinking concerning the learning process as tools for life-long learning (Note: the most important skill is to develop skills to acquire additional skills);

Identify and use problem-solving/power learning/creativity/student-centered learning applications for computers and other technologies, including:

Relating problem-solving and visualization processes;

Using the computer as a tool for exploration of intellectual processes, such as logical thinking, spatial abilities, problem solving, and computer graphics;

Employing the computer as a tool for creating motion graphics and relate to a variety of settings for developing imagery and motivation;

Using problem-solving strategies for developing stacks/Home Pages to build integrated learning including sound, dynamic graphics, and verbal learning;

Identifying characteristics of problem solving in quality instructional software, and apply such characteristics for selecting software for developing thinking processes;

Make use of the World Wide Web and other telecommunications capabilities for developing a social community, including navigating, searching for and retrieving information, publishing and building a foundation for life-long learning, as well as building integrated learning in the elementary classroom;

Identify and discuss computer education issues and emerging technologies as related to the development of problem-solving processes and power learning.

Note the objectives are centered around intellectual processes. The specifics of implementation are focused around current software found in the area schools.

Recommended Texts

Cochran, D. W., & Staats, R. A. (1995). HyperStudio Macintosh: Quick course. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Co.

Harel, I. (1991). Children designers: Interdisciplinary constructions for learning and knowing mathematics in a computer-rich school. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Kehoe, B. P., & Mixon, V. (1997). Children and the Internet: A zen guide for parents & educators. Uppre Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR.

Papert, S. (1993). The children's machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York: Basic Books.

Papert, S. (1996). The connected family: Bridging the digital generation gap. Longstreet Press.

Ryder, R., & Hughes, T. (1997). Internet for Educators. Old Tappan, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Additional Sources:

Sources from the World Wide Web, as well as other sources will be used, including sources in School Improvement.

Pathways to School Improvement

Reinventing Schools

The Connected Family: Bridging the digital generation gap

Topical Course Outline:

Week 1-Sign up for email address. Introduction to problem solving, power learning, creativity, student-centered learning and World Wide Web (WWW); Examine sample learning environments, and components of power learning. Introduction to HyperStudi o and hypermedia and explore HyperStudio stacks already prepared. Examine Pathways to School Improvement.

Week 2-Select a theme and search for related WWW sites related to that topic. Searches will be integrated into one source related to that central theme. Introduction to building a social community for social constructions. Building stacks an d WWW links via buttons. Assignment #R1 due.

Week 3-Introduction to paint programs. Examine Reinventing Schools. Assignment #A1 due.

Week 4-Building Electronic Portfolios/Home Pages and more on using paint programs. Assignment #R2 due.

Week 5-Scanning pictures and other documents that can be incorporated into hypermedia for electronic portfolios and other materials; using New Button Actions; incorporating multimedia into HyperStudio or PowerPoint and preparing HyperStudio/Powe rPoint experiences for field experiences with children. Introduction to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Assignment A#2 due.

Week 6-Building transformations of graphics, including reflections, rotations, and dilations. More on HTML and building Electronic Portfolios/Home Pages. Examine. Papert's Children's Machines or The Connected Family. Assignment #A3 due.

Week 7-- Exploring dynamic relationships and motion graphics; Building motion graphics, and related to dynamic imagery. Assignment #R3 due. Building menus, connecting pages and stacks and adding finishing touches to a major project. Identifying sources in the WWW that could be used for field experiences; work on electronic portfolios/Home Pages. Identifying software programs that reflect higher order thinking processes that are appropriate for field experiences. Assignment #A4 due. Individual/gr oup interviews.

Week 8-Building more complex structures in stacks/Home Pages that reveal evidence of developing power learning. Prepare for field experiences and work on Home Pages. Individual/group interviews. Assignment #A5 due.

Weeks 9 & 10-Field experience, as well as work on electronic portfolios/Home Pages

Week 11-15-- Discuss philosophical orientations for uses of technology and various readings. Prepare for field experiences reports and work on Home Pages. Begin Portfolio for Elementary Education competencies Presentation of Electronic Portfolio s/Home Pages. . Assignments #R4, #F1, # F2, & # F3 due. Assignments F, R, and A are due.

Teaching strategies or primary methods used in this class involve: Class demonstrations, student explorations, and students learning by doing.

Expectations on behavior, attendance, and punctuality:

  1. You are expected to be in class and on time each class period. If for some reason you can not be in class or have a scheduling problem, you should notify with the professor.
  2. You are also expected to e-mail the professor a weekly reflection on learning and related field experiences.
  3. Short-term assignments should be submitted in a timely manner.
  4. Long-term assignments should be submitted by the due date.

Grading criteria used and the types of assessment: Authentic assessment will be used. You will complete actual projects, put them into presentable form, and turn them in on time. Uses of Electronic Portfolio, cooperative groups, an d self-reflection/validation are all a very important part of the learning and assessment process. Assessment is viewed as an integral part of the on-going learning process. You, in fact, will be an active participant in designing your own assessment. Ass ignments will be of three major types: Field experiences (F), reflective experiences ( R), and action (A) in terms of materials developed. Class attendance, weekly reflections, participation in cooperative groups, and promptness of short-term assignments will also be considered.

An important part of your final assessment will be on Electronic Portfolio in the form of your own Home Page. You should create a Home Page that you will be proud to share with your peers, your students, your instructors, your parents, and future emplo yers.

Technology skills developed in this course will continue to be developed and expanded throughout your program, as well as skills in developing student thinking. Hence, it is important that you give careful thought and understanding to each assignment, and, in addition, extend assignments into field experience with students when possible. Note while you will be learning in a social environment and you will be doing group work, keep in mind that it is very important that you develop the ski lls and do your own final assignments. You are accountable for the Honor System that the work that you are presenting as your own is indeed yours.

The following are tentative assignments, which may be adjusted:

A. Assignment F: (20 pts.) Field/clinical experiences will occur simultaneously through EDE 4907r which will focus on facilitating students as they learn to use the computer for developing their own creativity/thinking processes. S uch experiences should include the following:

Assignment #F1: An inquiry of how students are using technology and reacting to it in the school where you doing your field experience.

Assignment #F2: Facilitating students to develop creative work such as an animation, a stack/WWW Page that conveys a central idea or theme, involving several content areas--which could include animation, and using the students' own creati vity/thinking processes.

Assignment #F3: Facilitating students to develop WWW skills, such as navigating, communicating, researching, and/or publishing as identified by the Leon County Internet Outcomes Study Group.

B. Sample long-term assignments include building a philosophy, social constructions, and power learning about the use of technology, and connected with your field experience, including:

Assignment R: (20 pts overall) Thinking about thinking--A reflection of weekly reflections including reflections on your experiences in learning as well as working with children/adolescents --due by the last class period The se should compare and contrast the ideas in the three sources listed below with your field experiences and your concept of how to develop education for the 21st Century. (Note: weekly reflections should be e-mailed to your instructor on a weekl y basis)-final reflection due Week 15 should be posted on your Home Page and should include: (1) What I have learned about my own learning, and (2) What I have learned about children's learning. The following are also short-term assignments, which should initially be typed using a word processor and saved and later put on your web site:

Assignment #R1: Identify five (5) ideas in Pathways to School Improvement, particularly in the areas of learning and assessment, that are different from the school experiences you have had.

Assignment #R2: Identify five (5) ideas in Reinventing Schools, particularly in areas of learning that are different from the school experiences you have had.

Assignment #R3: Identify 5 ideas in Children's Machines or The Connected Family, particularly in the area of learning that that is different from the school experiences you have had.

Assignment #R4: Identify 5 ideas consistent with the three sources above and describe how they relate these to what you are seeing in the schools.

Final Reflection: See above.

Assignment A: (20 pts overall) An Electronic Portfolio/Home Page illustrating your understanding of effective ways to use technology yourself as well as with children/adolescents for developing problem solving, power learnin g, creativity and integrated learning will tentatively due by Week 15. This electronic portfolio should also continue to be up-dated throughout your program in the spirit of building life-long learning Your Home Page should include the following (and each of you should express your own creativity by making your site different from everyone else's):

Your email address in a point and click form (Note: do not include your home address or home telephone for security's sake)

A branch to personal information, including pictures, about yourself (think carefully about what information you want to include here)

A branch to what you have learned about learning (including your vision of teaching/learning, what you have learned about your learning, and what you have learned about children's learning)

A branch to a team effort project

A branch to links you have found that are grouped into related clusters.

A branch related to your field experiences, which might include links you have found for your students and perhaps links to work your students have done 

With short term assignments, as follows:

Assignment A#1: (4 pts) WWW assignments: (a) Identifying at least 15 World Wide Web locations visited, and (b) With at least 5 such sites that fit into a central theme--tentatively due by Week 3

Assignment A#2: (4 pts) Build an initial stack/WWW Page integrating buttons or links, graphics, and text-tentatively due Week 5

Assignment #A3: (4 pts) Build a stack/WWW Page that includes animation and sound due by Week 6

Assignment #A4: (14 pts) HyperStudio/WWW project centered around a central theme, including buttons, animation, scanned graphics, text, sound and demonstrating your ability to build connections between thinking processes and creativity to carrying out a central theme-tentatively due Week 7

Assignment #A5: (4 pts) At least 3 software reviews of software not used in class --tentatively due by Week 8. Factors to consider in evaluating software:
      1. Allows for experimental learning, including explorations, investigations, and building hunches
      2. Is conceptually based
      3. Contains underlying structure of the content to be explored
      4. Allows major cognitive restructuring and the facility for students to construct meaningful knowledge
      5. Allows students to generate feedback from which they can judge the efficacy of their methods of thinking
      6. Is intrinsically interesting enough for students to want to discuss alternative strategies with other students about explorations, hence allowing social constructions
      7. Facilitates reflective abstractions
      8. Is easy to get started.

Overall. (10 pts) Completion of assignments in a timely manner, weekly reflections, class attendance, participation in cooperative groups, and class participation.

Final evaluations will include consideration of both enhancements and distracters. Examples of enhancements include: overall appearance, organization, creativity, going "beyond" course requirements, thoughtfulness in doing assignments, reflectin g thoughtful planning, and putting assignments on your web site. Distracters include spelling errors, incoherent sentences, the weird character that comes from ' and ", disorganization, background over powers text giving difficulty reading the text, synta x errors, links that do not work, and lack of formating.

Grading will consist of the following: A, 100 to 93; A-, 92 to 90; B+, 89 to 87; B, 86 to 83, B-, 82 to 80; C+, 79 to 77; C, 76 to 73; C-, 72 to 70; D+, 69 to 67; D, 66 to 63; D-, 62 to 60; F, below 60.

 Reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities may be arranged by contacting the instructor of this course on an individual basis early in the semester.

Instructor: Dr. Janice L. Flake

Office: 107R Stone Building

Telephone: (850) 644-8481 (O)

E-mail: jflake@garnet.acns.fsu.edu

World Wide Web Home Page: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jflake/

Course Home Page: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jflake/cgs2160-01f97.html or http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jflake/cgs2160-02f97.html

Ms. Diane Judd

Telephone: (850) 644-5458 (O)

Email: dlj7659@garnet.acns.fsu.edu

WWW Home Page: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~dlj7659

The following is a tentative overview of work for the term:

 

Week#

Reflections

(R)

Actions

(A)

Field Experience (F)

Comments:

1

 

 

 

Introduction to power learning. Introduction to HyperStudio & WWW. Examine Pathways to School Improvement

2

R1 due.

 

 

Do searches on WWW. Building stacks and WWW links via buttons.

3

 

A1 due.

 

Introduction to paint programs. Examine Reinventing Schools.

4

R2 due.

 

 

Introduction to HyperMedia.

5

 

A2 due.

 

Scanning pictures. Starting Home Page. Building point & click links, & using paint programs. Examine Children's Machines or The Connected Family.

6

R3 due.

A3 due.

 

Building transformations with graphics. Building motion graphics and dynamic imagery.

7

 

A4 due.

 

Identifying WWW sources and software for higher order thinking for field experience..

8

 

A5 due.

 

Building more complex structures with Hypermedia. Preparing for field experience. Philosophical orientations & preparing for field experience

9

 

 

 

Field experience

10

 

 

 

Field experience

11-15

R4 & R due.

 

F1, F2, F3 & F due.

Reflections on field experiences. Completing assignments and begin Program Electronic Portfolio.