Leadership and Educational Technology
VERSION 1.1
Course Syllabus
Gary S. Stager, Ph.D. - Summer 2009
Pepperdine University Graduate School of
Education
Online Master of Arts in Educational
Technology
Instructor: Gary
S. Stager
Email address: gary@stager.org
Web site: http://www.stager.org/2009/ed667.html
Tapped-In sessions: TBA
Course Description
This course focuses on concepts and strategies necessary to step into a leadership role in the integration and application of technology and learning. Topics include strategic planning, leadership styles, institution change process, and policy issues in educational technology. Students create and share a vision of educational technology for their workplace, generate a technology plan that supports that vision, and write a proposal seeking funding for all or part of that plan.
The course should also help you prepare intellectually, empotionally and professionally for life post-Pepperdine.
There are no
links to the books on this syllabus. My personal collection of books suggested
for progressive educators is available by clicking on this
link. This site is
updated from time-to-time.
Required Books: Feel free to use your cadre Amazon account!
Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom DeMarco. Broadway (April 9, 2002) ISBN: 0767907698
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug. New Riders Press; 2nd edition (August 28, 2005). ISBN: 0321344758
Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition by Guy Kawasaki. Portfolio (Oct 30, 2008). ISBN: 1591842239 - READ BEFORE TERM
Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope by Jonathan Kozol. Harper Perennial (February 20, 2001) ISBN: 0060956453. Read LAST.
Select One of the Following...
In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization by Deborah Meier. Beacon Press (August 1, 2003) ISBN: 0807031518. K-12
Leadership Ensemble: Lessons in Collaborative Management from the World's Only Conductorless Orchestra by Harvey Seifter and Peter Economy. Times Books/Holt Paperbacks, 2001. ISBN: 0805071865. Non-K-12
Optional books:
Not With Our Kids You Don't! Ten Strategies to Save Our Schools by Juanita Doyon. Heinemann (January 15, 2003) ISBN-10: 0325004862.
Ourselves: Why We Are Who We Are by Frank Smith.
Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education by David N. Perkins Jossey-Bass (Dec 22, 2008) ISBN: 0470384522
This course has
the following goals:
This course's
requirements include active online participation, timely completion of
projects, reading of assigned articles, a collaborative projects and a
demonstration of technical fluency. Creative thinking, problem solving, risk
taking, humor and joyful exploration will be valued highly.
This course is
designed to provoke thinking, reflection and perhaps even argument. Feel free
to share your views. This is expected. However, your personal opinions are much
more valuable when supported by evidence or citations from the work of others.
You are expected
to share your ideas and be able to defend them.
This course is
intended to be challenging. You will get your moneyÕs worth.
Participation is
the major activity in this course. Candor, honesty and insight are appreciated
nearly as much as humor.
This class
requires active participation through collaboration, discussion, design,
research and development. Any work you produce should provide evidence of
participation in the intellectual life of the course.
All students are
required to share ideas and skills with their classmates and to expand their
own personal knowledge in ways beneficial to their classmates. Simply put, you
need to learn whatever is necessary to support the learning and growth of your
peers. I expect deliberate thought, cheerful participation and a willingness to
try new things. Your experiences, beliefs, thoughts, hunches and intuitions are
respected and you should be capable of defending such statements.
IMPORTANT! Student work should be easily accessible
via the student's web space. This means that students should have an INDEX page from which to
navigate to clearly labeled individual projects. Student email links should be
available on major project pages so I (and other users) may provide feedback.
Be sure to put a mailto: link on each page so comments may be returned to you.
You will get no credit for work I am unable to find on the web.
Please feel free
to share with your classmates any materials or articles that you believe may be
of interest. We will all profit from your extra effort.
Assigned texts,
articles, discussion board discussions and synchronous sessions will be used to
shape our own learning environment. Active participation in all appropriate
media is expected. The nature of the course requires all students to check
their email and class discussion board daily. This course will make extensive
use of discussion boards.
The role of
technology in learning (even the role of schools in learning) is far from
decided or agreed upon. This class is designed for risk-taking and no
educational tradition should be safe from scrutiny, revision or elimination.
Some of the books were selected to provoke reflection and discussion. Feel free
to share your beliefs, opinions and expertise with the class via classroom
discussion and the class discussion board. This class is highly collaborative.
Your educational success is inextricably connected to the learning of your
peers.
Students will
engage in role playing, debates and hypothetical scenarios related to the
implementation of learning technology. Articulate arguments must be supported
by evidence.
All work should
be of such a caliber that it could be published in a professional setting. If
it is not your best work, do not submit it.
The standard
rubric is that you should use your knowledge, experience, intellect, creativity
and technological fluency to create work better than you thought you were
capable of generating.
All students
must have and maintain Internet access for the purposes of exchanging email,
communicating in the class discussion board and publishing on the
World-Wide-Web. You are expected to check your email and class discussion board
daily.
100% of your
grade is based on class participation, discussion & learning adventures This includes posting, online class
participation, homework, readings and reflective practice. Students are
strongly advised to read educational journals, books, computing magazines, and
any trade publications that would enhance their understanding of education,
educational computing and school design. Such information makes a welcome
contribution to the learning environment and student projects.
This semester's learning adventures will be more focused on technical issues and mechanics than in ED 664.
There will be a lot of things to do, read and discuss in this course. I am painfully aware that you have ARPs due in July, but you must not panic or cheat yourself out of all you might learn in this course. As an acknowledgement of your stress, I plan to have all coursework done by the end of June and will use Tapped-In less frequently than in other courses. However, I have an evolving pedagocial theory of simulating intimacy in an asynchronous learning environment and it involves volume and velocity. Simply stated, in order for asynchronous communication to feel like a conversation, it needs to be constantly in motion. I assume that you have developed personal online discussion strategies by now. |
|---|
Students are
expected to not only complete all individual and collaborative tasks, as well
as be active discussants. I highly value students who "have a go" and
endeavor to get the most out of the educational experience.
This includes
attendance, in discussion boards and synchronous (Tapped-In) participation,
homework and assigned readings. Students are strongly advised to read
educational journals, books, computing magazines, and any trade publications
that would enhance their understanding of education and educational computing.
Such information makes a welcome contribution to classroom and online dialogue.
You will
mess-about with computers in ways that test your creativity, habits of mind and
ability to reflect upon those experiences. These learning adventures will last
a week or two at a time, be guided and helping one another is always welcome.
Some adventures will be collaborative. Others are for you to tackle by
yourself, but you are always free to ask for help, share your work and make
contributions to the work of your classmates through constructive feedback. It
is always virtuous to make your private thinking public.
You can count on
the following learning adventures:
The professor
reserves the right to announce learning adventures throughout the course.
A variety of
online technologies and publishing tools will be used for learning,
communication, collaboration and expressing one's knowledge. Students who
believe they need additional assistance are expected to ask for it.
Students are
expected to contribute to the learning of others and pull their own weight
during collaborative projects.
Students should
take notes on the assigned readings and any other materials that may contribute
to personal understanding or the learning of the cadre.
Each week,
students are expected to post their thoughts and/or questions about the
assigned reading and respond to at least one other studentÕs published
comments. Online dialogue is a critical aspect of this course. You must post in
the class discussion board and ÒspeakÓ in Tapped-In in order to produce
evidence of your understanding.
A notable
improvement in technological fluency is expected as part of the participation
grade.
I expect
students to ask questions, follow their curiosity and use all of the learning
resources - human, digital and print-based - available to them.
Share your
views. Tell us what you think and be able to support your arguments in a
thoughtful collegial fashion. It is expected that students will share their
expertise. Do not be afraid to speak with candor or disagree. Such dissent
should be civil and defensible.
In any community
of practice, expertise is distributed and respected. I expect to learn from you
and I expect that you will gain benefit from my expertise and often-unique
perspectives if you choose to do so. Socratic dialogue is a staple of this
course and I will
push you to clarify your
beliefs, reflect on your assumptions and be an articulate champion of progress.
Each week,
hypothetical scenarios concerning educational IT and planning will be presented
for discussion and debate.
Students will
work on developing or improving knowledge/skills in the following domains:
Students will
complete the following learning adventures individually and collaboratively
during the term. Specific objectives and due dates will appear in the class
discussion board. Some mini-adventures will be serendipitous and others a
surprise.
COURSEWORK
As you graduate
you may wish to have a web site that does your OMET work justice. The first
assignment is to use the web design books to inspire at least three
improvements to your web site based on KrugÕs recommendations and those of your cadremates. This will
be due May 30th, although continuing improvement is desirable. I expect that
the class will make design suggestions and provide feedback during the
development of newly improved web sites.
Create a Technology Improvement Plan
Write a funding proposal for a technology investment in your professional setting. This proposal must include a thoughtful rationale, budget, timeline and evaluation plan.
Students will
collect free and low-cost tools that may be used by others interested in
learning and communicating via the web. Each student should collect and
annotate/review their favorite resources throughout the course. A Wiki will be
established for the purposes of sharing and collecting these annotated links.
Do NOT wait until the last minute!
Technical documentation
It is critical that you are skilled at teaching others to perform technical tasks in a methodical fashion. This may be accomplished via text or video.
I have strong reservations about both grades and rubrics. I
believe that both practices have a prophylactic effect on learning. Doing the best job you can do and sharing your
knowledge with others are the paramount goals for this course. I expect
excellence.
Therefore, I am
trying a new experiment this term. You should evaluate each course artifact you
create according to the following Òrubric.Ó The progression denotes a range
from the least personal growth to the most.
READING CALENDAR
Kawasaki should be read by the start of the term or soon thereafter. The ideas in this book should improve and influence the other work you do in the course.
May 4-18 Read Krug and begin planning your web site redesign
May 19 - June 1 Read "Slack"
June 2 - June 22 Read Siefter or Meier
June 23 - end of term Read Kozol
MAINTAINING COPIES OF ASSIGNED COURSE WORK FOR PROGRAM EVALUATION: The Graduate School of Education and Psychology evaluates its programs on an ongoing basis. The data from such evaluations provide us with information to help improve the quality of the educational experience we provide our students. In addition, the data are used by our accrediting bodies, such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). California Council on Teacher Credentials, and the American Psychological Association (APA), to make decisions as to whether we can maintain our accredited status with these respective associations. To this end, we may archive copies of the papers, examinations, exercises, etc. that students complete as part of their required course work so that we can track if students appear to be meeting the objectives of the program in which they are enrolled. Names will be removed from the assignments we opt to archive for evaluation purposes. If you prefer that your course work not be archived for evaluation purposes, please let me know immediately so that I can make such a notation in the files I keep for each student who enrolls in my courses.
CODE OF CONDUCT: The Graduate School of Education and Psychology strives to create a learning environment which is respectful of the rights and dignity of all members of our learning community. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a collegial, respectful, and professional manner while participating in all activities associated with this course. Students are expected to exhibit behaviors and attitudes consistent with appropriate ethical-legal standards, and to refrain from any fraudulent, dishonest, or harmful behaviors such as plagiarism, cheating, or harassment, which compromise the integrity of the academic standards of the university and/or impact the safety and security of fellow students, staff, and faculty. Failure to comply with appropriate standards of conduct may result in a grade of “F” in the course and dismissal from the program.
PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is commonly understood in the academic community to involve taking the ideas or words of another and passing them off as one’s own. When paraphrasing or quoting an author directly, one must credit the source appropriately. Plagiarism is not tolerated at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology.
DISABILITY STATEMENT: Any student with a documented disability (physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations should contact the Disability Services Office (Malibu Campus, Tyler Campus Center 225, 310.506.6500) as early in the semester as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. Please visit http://www.pepperdine.edu/disabilityservices/ for additional information.