Getting Started
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​Badging
As you read in the syllabus, this course is designed around a series of lessons and challenges that will push you to explore and apply course content. To help keep track of the challenges you have accomplished, we will use the Badge Tracker. Simply click File-->Make a Copy and then change the title to 401_Last Name_Badges. Be sure to share with Dr. Falbe. All feedback for course challenges will come in on this badge sheet.
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You will notice that while there are eight course challenges, there are ten available badges (all ten are needed to satisfy the requirements for an A in this course). That ninth badge is the Community Engagement badge, which is earned through actions that result in a positive contribution to our learning community. This includes (but is not limited to) completing the Getting Started module, and completing the responding to your classmates post on EduBlog by intentionally responding to your classmates work using the available prompts. The 10th badge is the Critical Learner badge. For this badge you will reflect on your work throughout the semester and identify the ways you pushed yourself to submit your best work even when this meant going outside of your comfort zone in terms of creativity and critical thinking. I will send you a Google Form survey in Week 4 asking for this.
How this class works:
The purpose of TCH 401 is to explore the affordances of various applications and technology in education. You'll be asked to critically, creatively, and collaboratively reflect on your use, understandings, and beliefs about technology in the educational setting that you're in, as well as challenge yourself to investigate, evaluate, and integrate new technological tools as you move forward in this rapidly changing aspect of teaching, learning, and life.
As you may have inferred already, you and your classmates are positioned front and center in the design of this course. As graduate students, your experience and expertise in education is taken as a given, as is the expectation that you will take this class as an opportunity to critically reflect and make changes to your practice that you design. We all know that in education, time and opportunity to reflect, plan, and prepare is far too limited!
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For this reason, this class has been structured to help you experience the digital world at your own pace. You will find a series of lessons that are paired with challenges that allow you to experiment with the ideas of our class, challenging you to expand​ your understanding of lesson design, tech integration, and what it means to be a digital citizen.
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Each lesson involves three steps:
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Read and watch the texts posted to the lesson page.
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Take the challenge and post your work to your blog.
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Read and respond to your classmates work using the response prompts.
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Check out our COURSE SYLLABUS for more information about class policies. I invite you to do more than just read the syllabus. As part of our first ways to interact with and learn from one another, please engage in annotating the syllabus. As Remi Kalir explains, annotation is the addition of a note to a text. These annotations are important as we work together as a learning community to read, make sense of, question, and discuss the course content and structure. As you annotate, please ask questions, share thoughts, and start a discussion about learning together.
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To get started open the Course Syllabus by clicking here: Course Syllabus. This will take you to a shared Google Doc.
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Add a comment by highlighting a word, phrase, or sentence and look for the + button to the right.
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Click on the + and that will allow you to add a comment (if you are not signed in to Google please be sure to add your name so your comment is not anonymous).
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You can also respond to classmates annotations with additional questions, answers or thoughts.
Social annotation can be a powerful tool in your classroom. If you want to know more about social annotation (what it is, why do it, and tools to facilitate) check out these sources: Social Annotation, Tools for Social Annotation in the Digital Age, What Tool is Right For You?
​Goal Setting
As you read in the syllabus, this course is self-paced meaning that you get to decide when each assignment is due. To get you started on the right foot, I am going to ask you to preview each of the challenges, and look at your calendar for the next four weeks. In your BadgeTracker set a goal date for when you plan to submit each assignment. There are eight challenges to be completed so for some of you this will look like two a week. Some of you though might have vacation, or other responsibilities so you might split it up differently. These are your goal dates, you can make changes to these at any point in the semester. I will check in with you at midterm to see how you are doing on meeting your goals!
Getting started with EduBlogs
You will post your challenges on your own EduBlog. This is a great tool that you can use in your own classrooms, making its use beneficial to you because you can experience it as a student and see one potential way to use it as a teacher.
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Here is an abbreviated set of instructions from EduBlogs. You can find more detailed instructions on their help page.
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Create your own blog at EduBlogs.
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Navigate to EduBlogs at edublogs.org.
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Sign up as a student.
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Title your blog with something that captures the essence of you and your journey. It is helpful if you include your first or last name in the title so that you blog is easy to pick from a list. Change the blog domain if you want the blog URL to be different from your username.
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Customize your blog. I like this post to walk you through how to change your theme, header, images, etc. This blog should be a reflection of you.
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Join our class.
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Login into your blog dashboard.
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Go to My Class > Join a Class.
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Search for our class blog by entering tch40su23
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Click send a request to join.
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Navigating between blog dashboards.
Once approved to the class blog, you will have access to the class blog and your blog dashboard. To publish posts, you need to be in the dashboard of your blog. To change blog dashboards:
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1. Go to My Sites dropdown menu in your admin bar.
2. Click on the dashboard of the blog you want to access.
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Create your First Post.
Use this post as a way to introduce yourself to the class. Be sure to include your name, area of focus, content area and grade level (if appropriate), or other information about yourself. Please consider adding a picture of yourself, your classroom, and any other other images that add some insight into who you are as a member of our learning community. (I like this quick video for a walk through of making a post: Make a Post in EduBlog)
ISTE Standards for Educators
This class has been designed around the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards for educators. ​ISTE describes their organization "as a passionate community of global educators who believe in the power of technology to transform teaching and learning, accelerate innovation and solve tough problems in education". Watch the video below for a brief introduction to the standards. Then visit the ISTE Standards for Educators webpage and carefully read each of the standards. You can press the + to locate the substandards. While viewing pay attention to the characteristics, skills, practices, and dispositions listed. Are there others that you think should be included in a 21st Century Connected Education? Which skills and dispositions are you looking forward to developing over the course of this class?