Expanding the Boundaries of Teaching and Learning-Cohort 2
Syllabus and Assignments
Facilitator: John Doherty, Acting Superintendent, Reading Public Schools
Powerful technologies are creating a worldwide shift of power. For example, during the time that your students are in the work force, China will replace the United States as the world’s most powerful nation (Friedman, 2007). Are your students prepared to be globally competitive?
Our education system is based on a 20th century culture that creates dependent learners instead of empowered learners. As technology becomes more powerful and more ubiquitous it will be essential to re-define the roles of learners and educators. Educators will need to become knowledge facilitators and students will need to become knowledge generators. This course will challenge you to raise expectations of student achievement and to prepare students to be globally competitive.
Leadership skills such as communication, team building and literacy will be redefined based on global information and communication skills.
This course will use different applications to help you expand your boundaries of teaching and learning. In addition, it will help you with strategies to be educational leaders in the use of these applications to expand the boundaries of teaching and learning for others in your school and the district.
Course Requirements
6 credit course with graduate credits awarded from Salem State College 135 PDP’s from the Reading Public Schools. Graduate Credits cost $400 (total for 6 credits) and are tuition reimbursable.
The course requirements for participants include the following components:
A. Attendance
1. Attend all sessions and participate in the activities and discussions.
The dates of the sessions are as follows:
Tentative Calendar for Course (Subject to Change)
All classes meet from 3:30-6:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, August 27th (8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.)
Monday, September 14
Monday, September 21
Monday, October 5
Monday, October 19
Monday, November 2
Monday, November 30
Monday, December 7
Monday, December 21
Monday, January 11
Monday, January 25
Monday, February 8
Monday, February 22
Monday, March 8
Monday, March 22
Monday, March 29
Monday, April 5
Friday, April 16 (Staff Sharing Conference)
B. Online coursework
1. Complete three online courses from November Learning (You will be emailed a password and user name in late June). Each course is worth 5% of your grade.
a. Webliteracy for Educators (Due by August 28)
b. Blogging for Educators (Due by September 15)
c. Advanced Webliteracy for Educators (Due by October 20)
C. Required Readings (Will be distributed at orientation session in June):
· The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman (2007).
· A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink (2006).
· Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Will Richardson (2006).
· Why Don’t Students Like School? Daniel Willingham (2009).
· Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November (2008).
D. Complete all assignments (listed below) and post them on your blog. When you post an assignment on your blog, please put in the title of your blog entry the assignment number.
Assignments:
All assignments should be posted on your ning blog by the due date indicated.
Each assignment is worth 100 points unless otherwise noted.
Assignment 1: Complete the online course, Webliteracy for Educators, from November Learning. Password and User Name will be given to participants in June.
Due: August 28, 2009 (This assignment is worth 5% of your grade).
Assignment 2: Complete the online course, Blogging for Educators, from November Learning. Password and User Name will be given to participants in June.
Due: September 15, 2009 (This assignment is worth 5% of your grade).
Assignment 3: All course participants will create a personal Weblog on our Ning Community and will be instructed on how to add to and maintain their sites during the first class sessions. In addition, participants will be shown how to develop an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) on Google or Ning. You will be expected to add, at a minimum, one blog post a week along the lines of but not limited to the following:
* Reflections on readings and assignments
* Experiences at school
* Sharing of Lessons
* Interesting Websites or Blogs
In addition, course participants should maintain an RSS with a minimum of 5 blogs (from outside the cohort) and plan on offering one comment per week on one of your classmates’ blogs.
Due: September 16, 2009 – April 18, 2010 (This assignment will count as 20% of final grade. You will post to your blog each week for 30 weeks (including the assignment posts below.) Each post will be worth a maximum of 6 points for a total of 150 points for this component.) A weekly blog post will be awarded up to 3 points per week and a response to someone else’s blog post will be up to 3 points per week. A week is defined as Sunday through Saturday.
Assignment 4: Read or listen to The World is Flat and critically analyze the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ ). Answer the following question in detail as a blog post:
“Your Superintendent/Principal has read “The World is Flat” and is deeply concerned that the district/school is graduating students who are not globally competitive. He/She has asked you to produce a draft list of recommendations for their consideration of what the district/school can do to prepare students for a 21st Century Global Society. Your memo is in two parts:
1. What can the district/school do to take advantage of a Flat World?
2. How can the district prepare students to be successful in a Flat World?”
Due: Post it to your blog on October 1, 2009 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade.)
Assignment 5: Once you complete the online course and read the book, Web Literacy for Educators, work with cohort members who are similar in either grade level or subject and develop lessons on how you will incorporate web literacy skills for your students. Write about your experiences on your Ning blog. Please note that each person in your group must post on his or her blog. You will present your information in small groups in class on October 5.
Due: October 5, 2009 (This assignment is worth 5% of your grade).
Assignment 6: Complete the online course, Advanced Webliteracy for Educators, from November Learning. Password and user name will be given to participants in June.
Due: October 20, 2009 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade.)
Assignment 7: Read A Whole New Mind and Why Don’t Students Like School and listen to the podcast interviews that Alan November did with author, Daniel Pink. (Links on iTunes via November Learning Website http://novemberlearning.com/ ) You will be participating in a group presentation that incorporates A Whole New Mind, The World is Flat, and Why Don’t Student’s Like School. More details will follow. You will have at least 6 hours of class time to prepare for the presentation. The presentations will begin on November 30th.
Due: Due: November 30, 2009: This assignment will count as 10% of the final grade).
Assignment 8: Edit or create a Wikipedia entry, which must stay on Wikipedia for a minimum of 1 week. Please link your edits to a blog post and reflect on the process. Also, answer this question on your blog post: “What do you think the significance of Wikipedia is in terms of helping our students understand how information and knowledge will be created in this century?”
Due: December 15, 2009 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade)
Assignment 9: You are to become an expert in one of the following web 2.0 applications:
· Blogs
· Wikis
· Podcasts
· Video
· Photo Story
· Voice Thread
· Voiki
· Jing
· Flickr
· Delicious
· Google Applications (Different from Assignment 11)
OR
· Another one of your choice of a Web 2.0 tool that is approved ahead of time by the instructor.
You will use this application in your own classes for a curriculum project or lesson of your choice. Write about your experience on your blog
Due: January 15, 2010 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade)
Assignment 10: Design and implement an assignment where your own students/faculty are presenting to an authentic audience somewhere in the world and post it to your blog. This audience needs to be at the minimum, outside of your school. Make sure to discuss in some detail how you would go about connecting your students to other classrooms or teachers and what that connection would facilitate.
Due: January 30, 2010 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade.)
Assignment 11: Using one of the Google Applications (Different from Assignment 9) or Wikispaces, design and implement a way to change how you would instruct your students/staff. Post your experience and example on your blog.
Due: February 15, 2010 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade.)
Assignment 12: Create a podcast and post it to your blog. You may either use an MP3 recorder, audacity/lame or record a Skype conversation with someone from around the world. This podcast can provide support to professional development, communicate with your community or support instruction. (Note: You will be shown how to use these tools ahead of time.)
Due: March 1, 2010 (This assignment will count as 5% of final grade.)
Assignment 12A (Optional): Attend the MassCUE technology conference on October 28 and/or 29. Write about the experience in your blog. In addition, make a 10 minute presentation on the workshops that you attended at a staff meeting in your school. Explain how the information that you learned at the conference could impact your school or classroom. Here are some possible guiding questions:
· What technology applications are currently being used that could transform classrooms?
· How can we connect our classrooms globally with other classrooms in other parts of the world?
· How should we rethink the way that teaching and learning occurs in our schools and classrooms?
· What will tomorrow’s classroom look like?
Due: March 9, 2010 (If you do this assignment it will replace one of the assignments that count towards 5% of your grade.)
Assignment 13: Prepare a 20-minute presentation that discusses a clear expansion of the boundaries of learning in your school/classroom where you didn’t simply bolt technology on top of current practice but, instead, engaged students in work that can only be done with technology. Use at least one of the applications that you have learned in this course. Group projects are allowed if the practice is being implemented in each presenter’s class/school. In your presentation, explain what 21st Century Skills Students learned and how they were assessed.
Due: March 22, 2010 (3rd to last class) (This assignment will count as 10% of final grade.)
Assignment 14: Present at the Annual Reading Public Schools Staff Sharing Conference in April on a topic that you have learned and implemented in this course. Explain in your presentation how this application has changed the way you teach in your classroom or lead in your school. Post the presentation on your blog.
Due: April 16, 2010- Staff Sharing Conference (This assignment will count as 10% of final grade.)
Assessment: These assignments will form the basis of your final grade for this module. Each assignment will be assessed based on the number of points possible. The assignments will be weighted according to the percentages listed in the parentheses next to the due dates for each assignment.
© 2008 Reading Public Schools