Week 01 Update

Listen along while you read by using the audio file linked below:
https://app.box.com/s/xedtk19n0b3lg93hb3nna5urelf5shj4

With Week 0’s orienting activities behind us, it is time to get into EME5050 in earnest,
so Welcome to Week 01!

First, a quick word about these Weekly Updates….

Each week in these updates I’ll try to help you make connections between the themes and
learning activities of the preceding week with those of the upcoming week. I’ll also
summarize and respond to the feedback that I’ve received on the anonymous weekly
feedback form. Along the way I’ll throw in some tips and occasional opportunities for
extra credit that you won’t find anywhere else! Apart from the “official” content of the
course, think of this as just a friendly conversation from me to you.

Now, on to the update…! :-)

Continuity
During Week 0, you had the opportunity to complete a number of small tasks that lay a
foundation for the actual course work throughout the remainder of the term. Key among
these was the task of setting up your blog (just making sure that it exists) and submitting
the URL. In addition, the personal introductions of the Week 0 Discussion are intended to
give you a frame of reference for “who is who.” You might pop back in to that discussion
over the first couple of weeks to remind yourself what grade level someone teaches, who
was the GoogleDocs wiz, or who it was that is the 1-to-1 expert. Many of you will also
find that others have responded to your postings with comments or questions, and it
would be good form for you to reply to those. (This is good practice for similar
interaction follow-up via blog comments in the coming weeks.) I’ll be catching up with
responses to discussion posts made late in the week myself, so please log-in to read (and
reply) to responses your post has received.

A couple of things to think about from the Week 0 Discussion are: what is it about the
technologies that we use regularly that makes them useful? And how can we apply
some of these “everyday technology” principles to make our uses of educational
technologies more meaningful?

During Week 1, though, we’ll be into the subject matter of the course in earnest, and
since this is a foundational course about educational technology, we’ll start with spending
some time thinking about what educational technology is… (and should be). We'll also
consider the pace of technological change in contemporary society and the roles of
education in general and educational technology specifically to prepare students for lives
in a world that might look quite different (technologically) than today's. I should note,
also, that sometimes students expect that a “foundational course in educational
technology” should focus on how to use conventional classroom tools. However, in this
course, while we will certainly have the opportunity to consider the conventional from a
high level, we’re also going to spend quite a bit of time pushing the envelope so that you
are prepared to integrate emerging technologies (and especially free, public, web-based
technologies) in your teaching… and so that you might be challenged to think of teaching
itself in some new ways. (More on that in Week 3.)

Logistics
Most weeks (including this one) you will read the online module in Webcourses@UCF
and then complete a Search-&-Read activity to extend your readings on the topic of the
week. This is an opportunity for you to do some web searching for resources that fill in
any gaps in your knowledge of the subject matter. For instance, if you have adequate
foundational knowledge, you should push yourself into more advanced applications, but
if you have basic questions about the topic, you should find sources that catch you up.
Specific details are linked from the assignments list at the bottom of each module. (Check
the Schedule to make sure you are aware of weeks in which Search-&-Read activities are
not included.)

With Week 1, you’ll make your first required posting to your new blog (aka the
“Learning Journal” assignment). Watch your Webcourses@UCF “Announcements” area
for some methods of accessing each other’s blogs, but I might also suggest that you
“promote” a link to your specific blog posting (not your blog in general) via our
#eme5050 hashtag on Twitter to bring it to everyone’s attention. (Some of you went
ahead and practiced using our course hashtag on Twitter during Week 0 with an
introductory note to get used to using Twitter. Good for you!)

Remember that, in addition to posting to your blog during Learning Journal weeks, you
should also be commenting on the blog postings of others and rating the comments you
receive via the online commenting form I’ve provided. Please see Module 01 for details
on all of these logistics, including the time frame for making comments.

Twitter
In addition to the courtesy of tweeting out a link to the specific URL of your blog
postings, if you choose to do so, during Week 01 you will begin contributing relevant
information to our learning community’s “information stream” via Twitter. These
original, unduplicated contributions will most likely be links to relevant web sites or
research articles or (non-classmate) blog postings or videos you’ve found, but I might
also encourage you to use Twitter to share quotes from your readings that capture your
imagination. If the moment is right, you could even tweet a photo of some of the actual
educational technologies we’re studying. (That is, if we’re talking about computer
equipment and you find yourself near an amazing set-up (or a particularly old dinosaur
computer) snap a photo and share it via Twitter.) I’ll be right there alongside you,
tweeting out links regularly that align with each week’s theme.

Remember that I’ll review all of your #eme5050 Twitter contributions at the end of the
term and will award up to 50 points (5%) extra credit on your final course grade for the
regular, substantive tweets made throughout the term. (Also, as you’ve read in the
“Start Here” area if you are new to Twitter, it might take a while for your hashtagged
tweets to show up in our course’s Twitter feed. I’ve given you some suggestions on the
“Start Here” page for mitigating this delay, but meanwhile, just keep tweeting with the
#eme5050 hashtag, and I’ll see that you get credit regardless of whether your tweets
show up in the widget or not.)

You’ll see that in Module 1 I’ve provided some extensive links to teacher blogs and have
encouraged you to practice making blog comments on a couple of these. These blogs
might be good sources of substantive content for you to post via Twitter. You might also
experiment with “following” other educators on Twitter as the source of high quality
resources. (You’ll notice from time to time that I’ll credit another educator as the source
of links I share. Clicking that educator’s Twitter handle (username) will allow you to see
if that person has other useful information. You could choose to follow her/him at that
point.) Another way to discover such educators (and a wealth of resources) is to search on
Twitter for certain keyword hashtags (e.g., #edtech and #edchat). You’ll be amazed at
what you find! (Additional sources and strategies will emerge in Module 2.) These kinds
of global connections are part of what many refer to as a personal (or professional)
learning network (PLN). More about that in weeks ahead.

Other than those comments on the logistics of Week 01, I’m going to refer you to the
“How to Succeed in This Course” update and the “Schedule” document for what is due
when and the general rhythm of weekly activities such as readings, etc. A caution: While
the Webcourses@UCF “Assignments” area or the “To Do” list can seem like helpful
punchlists of what to do, please do not become dependent upon these lists. Use the
modules, “Schedule” other course documents, and even these Weekly Updates to make
sure you understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I’ll be holding you
responsible for this information.

“Secret Word”
Just for fun I will occasionally drop a “secret word” in these updates. The way this works
is that if you creatively incorporate the secret word in that week’s blog posting or other
assignment, I’ll add a specified number of extra credit points to that week’s assignment.
Stay tuned. :-) Also, keep an eye out also for some non-scored fun activities/challenges
within the modules and the Weekly Updates in the weeks ahead. To get us started, if you
use the word “laterigrade” appropriately in your first Learning Journal entry, I’ll add an
additional 2 points to the score you earn during the first grading period for your Learning
Journal entries.

Feedback Form
Remember that I’ll post a link to an anonymous feedback form each week in the
“Announcements” area of Webcourses@UCF. Please use this to provide general
feedback on your experiences during the preceding week and to ask any questions that
you don’t feel comfortable asking directly. I try to make the feedback form available
from the last day or so of the week through the first couple of days of the new week.
• Based on the few comments I’ve received thus far, on average it took you just
over 3 hours to complete the Week 0 orienting activities. Overall, you were clear
about the instructions, and you felt connected to others. (I will say that the
orientation week contains activities that can be done rather quickly. As we move
into the rest of the course, I will caution you to please not wait until the last day of
the week to start your activities and, thus, not get the most out of the experience.
This will be to your detriment. Just a word to the wise.)

• A couple of you appreciated the introductory discussion. One of you liked the
guidance in going beyond the basics to a deeper introduction, and another liked
that so many classmates followed the suggestion of including a photo to “put a
face to a name.” [I’m glad that was positive for you!]

• Another person found the delay in response time from classmates a bit off-putting
during the orientation week. [Do please bear in mind that the nature of a paced,
“asynchronous” course is that while we are all moving at a weekly pace, when we
complete our interactions and other activities will vary. That being said, it will
really help if you do not try to complete all of your activities late in the week.
This limits the effectiveness of the interaction opportunities.]

• Speaking of Discussions, one classmate expressed some dismay at setting up a

public blog when “the Canvas platform has many conversations and discussion tools.”
[The two major differences between the LMS tools and the blogs you’ve set-up is
that 1) your blogs are public, not restricted to those in our course; and 2) your
blog is yours, you control it, and you’ll still have it to use when this course is
over. We’ll reflect more on both of these characteristics, but if you’re still
mystified, please take a look at some of the links to educator blogs I’ve shared in
Module 0 and in Module 1 and note the power of educators sharing their insights
publicly as they connect with other teachers around the world.]

• Finally, one person said: “I felt like I was always clicking here and there to find the
explicit directions for the actual assignment. Rather than have the same information
posted in multiple places, I would rather have the directions listed with the specific
assignment. The Modules were detailed, but I felt scrambled while trying to process all of
the information.” [Actually, what you have is a way to look at the same information
from different perspectives for different purposes. One tip: You may just refer to
each module page if you are confused by going anywhere else. On each module
page, just under the “Assignments” heading for that module is the following set of
annotated links making it easy to cross-reference other ways of seeing this
information as you wish.]

As a reminder, the rationale for each assignment type is addressed in Learning Activities (within “Syllabus”
under “Modules”); logistical instructions for each assignment are contained in each module; and the due dates
for each assignment are detailed in the Schedule (within “Syllabus” under “Modules”). Scoring rubrics for
major assignments are also available in the “Syllabus” area and, where applicable, within the "Assignments"
area of Webcourses@UCF. Additionally, get "insider info" on making the most of each week's assignments by
accessing the Weekly Updates.
If you haven't yet filled out the Week 0 Feedback Form, feel free to add your comments.
I'll read them, but obviously I can't respond to them in my weekly update as I did to those
I just mentioned. (However, if one or more people raise an issue that needs action, the
whole class will hear from me.)

If You’re Not 100% Clear…

If you’re anything less than 100% clear on what you’re to do at any point, then send me a
message via the Webcourses@UCF inbox (preferred), or email me or IM me or Skype
me or tweet me or call me. All my contact information is at the top of the “Overview”
document in the Syllabus area. I’m here to help you be successful in this course. Let me.
:-)