"Emerging Educational Technologies"

 

Course Number: EDIT 750, Section 001

Tuesdays 4:30 - 7:10

Robinson A350 (Mac Lab)

Instructor:   Chris Dede

Graduate School of Education
George Mason University

Office Hours: M 4-7, T 1-4, or by appointment

Office: Commerce II Building, Room 111 (on University Drive just south of the fire station near the center of Fairfax); follow online directions, then go to first floor of Commerce II building next door

Phone: (703) 993-2019

Fax: (703) 993-2013

Email: cdede@gmu.edu

Website: www.virtual.gmu.edu

Table of Contents

•  Course Objectives
•  Course Resources
•  Course Requirements
•  Class Activities
•  Assignments
•  Assessment
•  Course Topics and Schedule
•  On-Line Resources

Course Objectives

As a result of this course, participants will be able to :

• describe a broad spectrum of current leading-edge research in educational technology
  
• depict how the "affordances" of information technology (e.g., distributed cognition, access across barriers of space and time, sophisticated representations) aid the educational process
  
• discuss how innovations such as hypermedia, intelligent tutoring systems, shared virtual environments, multisensory immersion, computer-supported collaborative learning, knowledge networking, and modeling and visualization can support improved teaching and learning
  
• delineate the likely evolution of information technology in education over the next decade
  
• describe the challenges to educational equity posed by emerging technologies and strategies for overcoming these problems
  
• assess the challenges of integrating advanced technologies into educational practice and plan strategies for overcoming these barriers

Course Resources

Course Requirements

• Attendance and participation in class sessions -- whether face-to-face or virtual -- is mandatory, as discussions and shared experiences are important parts of the course. The class schedule may change as the course progresses; changes will be posted on the course website and in GMU's Townhall.
  
• Each student is expected to complete all readings, exercises, field trips, and written assignments, as well as to participate in class and electronic discussions.
  
• Students missing a class are responsible for completing any exercises, readings, etc. before the start of the next class. Students missing the due date for an assignment must make immediate arrangements with the instructor to fulfill that requirement before the next class.
  
• Obtaining and regularly using a computer account with access to the Internet, the World Wide Web, and GMU's Townhall discussion site is required. GMU makes such accounts available for free to its students.
  
• To enable individualization of the course to the needs of each student, special arrangements on requirements and assignments may be negotiated in writing with the instructor. Revised assignments typically involve direct, extensive involvement in some project engaged in the design, development, implementation, or evaluation of an emerging educational technology.
  
• Some of the software utilized in the course requires access to a Macintosh computer with a CD-ROM drive.
  
• The ScienceWare CD is loaned to students for the duration of the course and must be returned to the instructor.
  
• This is an advanced, "capstone" course for the educational technology master's degree program at GMU. Except by permission of the instructor, students are expected to be in their final year of degree work.

Class Activities

This course will utilize a combination of lectures, hands-on experiences, media, guest speakers, field trips, discussions, and projects to help students understand how emerging technologies can empower educational reform, mastery of complex content, and the use of sophisticated pedagogies.

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Assignments

Each student is expect to complete the following two written assignments along with their associated activities. Both a brief individual plan for each of the two assignments (submitted via email) and the assignments themselves are due on the dates specified in the Course Outline. In addition, participation in class and via electronic discussions counts for 20% of the grade; this is assessed by both quality and quantity of interactions.

1) Research Synthesis (50%)

This assignment involves selecting an emerging educational technology for detailed analysis; scanning the research literature and related materials for studies about this technology; experiencing hands-on usage of a typical application (if feasible); and synthesizing its merits, demerits, and likely evolution into an eight page paper.

After this paper is submitted, the assignment also involves making a ten minute oral presentation to the class about your findings. This talk/demonstration is required, but ungraded. If several students select the same emerging educational technology to study, longer joint presentations are encouraged. However, each person must submit an individual paper.

Examples of emerging educational technologies suitable for this assignment are given below. Emerging technologies were selected based on whether hands-on experiences or demos could be arranged and whether evaluation studies are available. Most of these resources evolved from research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and therefore center on science and mathematics education. This list is illustrative, not inclusive; the instructor welcomes suggestions of other possibilities, especially those relating to other disciplinary fields such as the social sciences, literature, history, and the arts:

The Web-Based Integrated Science Environment (WISE)

The Classroom Tool for Mathematical Investigations Using Digital Video (CamMotion)

The Kids Interactive Design Studio (KIDS)

The Epistemology and Learning Group at MIT

MOOSE Crossing

The Concord Consortium Virtual High School

The ActiveWorlds Virtual High School

EChem

Science Controversies Online (SCOPE)

One Sky, Many Voices

WorldWatcher

StageCast

Institute for Learning Sciences (click on link to "educational software")

Schools for Thought

The Math Forum

Tapped In

WhaleNet

ImagiWorks

2) Innovation Assessment and Implementation Plan (30%)

This first part of this assignment involves a) identifying an organization attempting to implement a (relatively) advanced educational technology, b) assessing the opportunities and challenges involved and delineating the underlying causes of problems encountered, and c) describing this situation in an eight page paper. After feedback from the instructor, the second stage of this assignment requires revising the first stage of the assignment (if necessary), then incorporating an additional six pages of analysis that detail implementation strategies for overcoming the problems and barriers described and discussing how these implementation strategies influence the causes underlying the obstacles.

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Assessment

Grades will be based on completion of course requirements and on the scope, quality, and creativity of the assignments, including participation in class and electronic discussions. Incompletes in the course will be given only under unusual extenuating circumstances.

Course Topics and Schedule
(Subject to Change via Postings in Townhall and on Course Website)

Date	Topics	Readings/Assignments
8/31	Introduction to the Course  The ScienceWare Project and Project-based Learning	Readings for 9/7:              Learning with Technology Introduction, Chapter 2 Interact with multimedia presentations on ScienceWare CD Assignments for 9/7: Post Introductions to Townhall Register for Course Mailing List go through illustrative websites listed under assignment one above; browse for an emerging technology for your research synthesis
9/7	New Models of Learning and Teaching Distributed Learning ScienceWare Tools Hands-on	Readings for 9/14: Browse tools and readings on ScienceWare CD Scan HI-CE website Assignment for 9/14: Come prepared to discuss your initial ideas about the emerging technology on which you will do your research synthesis
9/14	Assessing Emerging Educational Technologies Scaffolding Inquiry with ScienceWare	Readings for 9/21: scan SimCalc website scan Institute for Learning Sciences website (click on link to "educational software") skim website of National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) Learning with Technology Chapter 3 Assignment for 9/21: Research Synthesis Topic Due (via email) please see submission guidelines
9/21	Training "People Skills" through Guided Experience Distributed Cognition SimCalc Hands-on	Research Synthesis Topic Due (via email) Readings for 9/28: "Multisensory Immersion as a Modeling Tool for Learning Complex Scientific Concepts" OR scan GenScope website Assignment for 9/25: scan National Demonstration Lab website directions to National Demonstration Lab at AED
9/25 Saturday	Field Trip to National Demonstration Lab at the Academy for Educational Development (AED)
9/28	Visit to Virtual Reality Lab (Krug Hall, Room 113) or Genscope Hands-on plus Assistive Technologies	Readings for 10/5: "Assessment of Emerging Educational Technologies That Might Assist and Enhance School-to-Work Transitions"
10/5	No Face-to-Face Meeting  Asynchronous Townhall Discussion on Mapping the Spectrum of Emerging Educational Technologies
10/12	No Class - Columbus Day Recess	Readings for 10/19: Learning with Technology Chapter 4 "Multisensory Immersion as a Modeling Tool for Learning Complex Scientific Concepts" OR scan GenScope website Assignments for 10/19: Research Synthesis Due (via email) please see submission guidelines
10/19	Visit to Virtual Reality Lab (Krug Hall, Room 113) or Genscope Hands-on plus Assistive Technologies	Research Synthesis Due (via email) Readings for 10/26: Learning with Technology Chapters 5, 6, 7 Assignment for 10/26: Innovation Assessment and Implementation Topic Due (via email) please see submission guidelines
10/26	Sophisticated Representations and Learning Theories about Implementing Innovations in Organizations Research Synthesis Presentations	Innovation Assessment and Implementation Topic Due (via email) Readings for 11/2: Leadership without Followers Learning with Technology Chapter 9
11/2	Planning to Implement Emerging Educational Technologies Research Synthesis Presentations	Readings for 11/9: Learning with Technology Chapters 1, 8 Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide
11/9	No Face-to-Face Meeting  Asynchronous Townhall Discussion on Visions of Emerging Educational Technologies and Equity Issues	Assignment for 11/16: Part One of Innovation Assessment and Implementation Due (via email) please see submission guidelines
11/16	No Class - Release Day for Field Trip	Part One of Innovation Assessment and Implementation Due (via email)
11/23	No Class - Release Day for Field Trip
11/30	Groupware and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Research Synthesis Presentations	Readings for 11/30: scan Practical Algebra Tutor website
12/7	Artificial Intelligence: Agents, Tutors, and Coaches The Practical Algebra Tutor Research Synthesis Presentations	Assignment for 12/14: All of Innovation Assessment and Implementation Due (via email) please see submission guidelines
12/14	No Face-to-Face Meeting Asynchronous Townhall Discussion on the course	All of Innovation Assessment and Implementation Due (via email)

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On-Line Resources

Resource Sites

Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT)

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

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