Alaska Pacific University

EDUC 58073 – "Social Media for Educators" Syllabus
http://lone-eagles.com/socialsyll.html

        TO BEGIN: Start by reading the informal "Welcome to the Class" bulletin at http://lone-eagles.com/socialwelcome.html

Important details on how to begin are at http://lone-eagles.com/socialbegin.html 

I. Course Description

A practical hands-on introduction to purposeful educational applications related to the booming social media phenomenon. Participants will learn by doing, as we explore key tools and trends, including cultural expression and village sustainability, and smarter info-diets as the basis for 21st Century Alaskan lifestyles. Participants will explore the digital counterparts for character education, civic engagement, service learning, entrepreneurship, and effective communication using many new media tools.

Mobile devices, mobile learning, and mobile commerce are impacting both educators and students in this era of accelerating change. With social media rapidly evolving to serve as our "personal learning networks," managing information overload via effective online collaboration is becoming increasingly essential. An emphasis will be on teaching how educators and youth can develop their ability to collaborate, think, and act, with innovative imagination.

This course is designed to support innovations related directly to over $180 million in new rural broadband infrastructure in Alaska including developing 21st Century workforce readiness skills and behaviors for growing an entrepreneurial culture.

The target audience is Alaskan K12 educators. This self-paced online course is presented in a mastery learning format with instructor support for questions of any nature.

II. Course Format

Self-paced asynchronous online course for Alaskan educators; Three 500 level credits, students may start at anytime with one year to complete the lessons. Eight four-hour lessons with one 8 hour final project. Frequent interaction with the instructor and other students is required.

a. 3.0 credits; 500 level.

b. Course is entirely Web based featuring a self-study design with constant interaction (on the Web) with the instructor and other participants. 40 hours or more are required to meet minimum course requirements.

c. Does not apply to any degree or certificate at API.

d. Lab fees may be assessed for this course to defray the cost of materials and/or services used or consumed by participants.

e. Coordination with other departments at APU is not required for this course.

f. Students may reregister for a one year course extension for only $90 IF they do so within 90 days of the course one year deadline date. Otherwise students much pay the full registration in order to finish the class and receive credit for work previously performed.

III. Course Objectives

ATTITUDES: The Participants will

· Demonstrate proficiency with effective class interaction using basic social media and basic new
media sharing skills

· Provide an overview of trends, best practices, and issues related to competent use of social media for
both school and community interaction for students, parents, community members, and peer
educators

PROCESSES: The Participants will

· Increase the ability to self-teach new social media tools and collaborative teaching applications

· Increase the ability to directly incorporate new media learning objects in original social media
teaching units

· Increase the ability to stay current and leverage effective collaboration to both send and receive
new educational resources via social media on an ongoing basis

· Demonstrate new media production skills for creating rich media content K12 curriculum

UNDERSTANDINGS or SKILLS: The Participants will

· Increase knowledge in community and workforce impacts of effective use of social media with
emphasis on use of social media “info-diets” as a strategy for “personal learning networks.

· Provide resources and online presentations for students, peer educators, and local communities
to raise awareness of the socioeconomic benefits of social media collaborative best practices

IV. Course Prerequisites

Participants must have Internet access, basic computer literacy, web browsing, and e-mail skills.  Otherwise, three are no course prerequisites or corequisites for this course. For those uncertain about their technology skills, consider first taking the "Making the Best Use of Internet for K-12 Instruction"  a 3 credit, 500 level course.  http://lone-eagles.com/asdn1.htm

Participants are required to consult directly with the instructor to discuss their broadband speeds, local filtering limitations, prior experience with online learning, web authoring , web 2.0 authoring tools, and social media.

V. Course Evaluation

Course grading will be PASS/FAIL based upon the following –

As a student you will be expected to:

· Complete all required articles and lesson text reading assignments, showing a competent
understanding of material presented.

· Complete all online videos viewing, and resource exploration assignments presented in the
lesson, showing a competent understanding of material presented.

· Complete required written essays, postings, and contributions to the interactive class discussion
for each lesson, including sharing new resources of interest, and demonstrate ability to
effectively encourage others in the class

· Complete required essay writing assignments with the minimum word count shown for each a
assignment

· Complete all media product skill-building assignments as core authentic assessments for each
lesson.

· Complete the lesson evaluation requested at the end of each lesson

Participation on the Listservs and various interactive forums - 30%

Participants must complete eight self-paced instructional modules

Lessons - 70%

Lessons submitted via e-mail and web pages created make up 70% of the grade. Lessons or web pages determined to be sub-standard will be returned for revision.

PASS:  To pass the course participants must

1) complete all eight lessons, including hands-on exploration of key

resources, written interaction with peers and the instructor using

multiple forms of social media, specific demonstrated skill-building

activities and a web-based product outcome reflecting original

curriculum and resource development.

2) complete a final project that incorporates multiple social media

tools in an original web-based activity suitable for classroom and

community use

FAIL: Participants do not complete all eight lessons, participants do

not adequately interact with their peers or the instructor, or

participants do not complete the final project.

VI. Course Outline

Lesson one: Tools and Trends

A review of the most commonly used tools in the context of key trends and what we can expect to see in the near future regarding their impacts on K12 education and all aspects of 21^st Century living. We live in an age of accelerating change with many disruptive impacts due to sudden new global realities as 2 billion citizens can now access anywhere, anytime information and Elearning. The impacts include a boom in bottom-up innovation, worldwide. “Fun, social, learning” in a constructivist context requires: Everyone must become both learner and teacher, both consumer and producer, all the time.

Lesson Two: Best Practices for What Matters Most:
A review of best practices for both satellite and terrestrial broadband, educational and community capacity building, cultural impacts, and “What Matters Most” in the Alaskan context. We’ll review what’s happening now with Alaska’s rural broadband grants, and understanding the positive possibilities in the context of the current budget crisis in education.

Lesson Three: Assessing Our Info-diets.
How mutual support networks can make everyone’s life easier, and how we can leverage best practices for “fun, social, learning” to stay atop the crest of this digital wave of new opportunities. Potential risks and abuses will be addressed including Internet addictions, gaming, privacy, cyberbullying, and cybercrime.

Lesson Four: 21^st Century Workforce Readiness

Social media is creating new forms of “Reputation Systems” that impact one’s employability. Building an attractive digital presence and peer network with an eye toward the future will be addressed along with serious cautions and risks. Extensive resources for students will be shared. Continual retraining is likely as workers can now expect to be shifting to new work positions every few years.

Lesson Five: Professional Learning Networks for Educators

Ongoing feeds using multiple tools to minimize the time required to stay current with peers in your topic areas can be as fun as it can be useful. We’ll review “best practices” examples of common collaborative tools such as E-newletters, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Lesson Six: Motivating Accelerated Learning Outcomes

Teaching the “Love of Learning” to be sustained lifelong by our students has been a challenge in the past. Today, smart use of mobile learning will reap rewards as personal mobile devices are becoming more interconnected, more powerful and central to the daily lives of us all. “The New Normal” is learning to do more with less, and out of necessity the economic scalability of mobile learning and smarter collaboration will produce “solutions of necessity.” A constructivist approach, where students build their own knowledge while developing multimedia skills, is likely to be more motivating than sitting in a traditional classroom. This is true for educators, too. “We’re always ready to learn, never to be taught.” Winston Churchill.

Lesson Seven: Acting Locally, Thinking Globally

Digital technologies can empower our local cultures and communities in very significant ways. As we embrace our own cultures, we must recognize that in a very real sense, everyone worldwide is becoming part of a global monoculture, as our one human family begins to recognize our commonalities as well as our rich diversity. We’re all in the process of becoming global citizens as connectivity continues to make the world smaller.

Lesson Eight: Best Practices for Vulnerable Populations

Social media personal learning networks focused on ‘What Matters Most” for diverse “vulnerable populations” will be discussed. The “best practices” for elders, individuals with disabilities, youth not in school, single parents, and others will be reviewed along with rich examples of innovative sites and resources.

VII. Bibliography or References

There is no required text for this class - we'll be accessing extensive quality current resources via social media tools and methods.

Strongly recommended Edupunk's Guide - Free Download

The book: DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education now has a new free downloadable version.

In fact, at the links below you'll see how the author, Anya K. is using social media to market herself. Creating free content and Ebooks as a promotional strategy has become very common. Note her "Blog Roll" gives you links to other key resources as her way of demonstrating her high level of connectedness and expertise.

http://diyubook.com/

http://diyubook.com/2011/07/now-available-for-free-download-the-edupunks-guide/

Free download of Edupunk's guide, sponsored by the Gates Foundation is at this specific link

http://www.scribd.com/doc/60954896/EdupunksGuide

Two other exceptional resources strongly recommended are the "Challenge" at http://www.challenge.co/training, and the free or "fee" video courses at www.udemy.com

VIII. Instructor Description:

As president of Lone Eagle Consulting, Frank has enjoyed teaching online courses for ASDN since 1998. Frank served as a faculty for 13 years at the University of Montana, Western in Dillon, Montana, Frank received his BA degree in Psychology from the University of California, Davis, and his Master’s degree in Instructional Technology from the University of Wyoming. From 1988 to 1998, he was director of the well-known Big Sky Telegraph network, providing on-line courses to rural teachers. Frank's work has been recognized for excellence by four congressional reports, the White House, and dozens of books and publications.

Web 2.0 resources for this course are at http://web2fork12classrooms.pbwiki.com
Lone Eagle Curriculums and Guides are at http://lone-eagles.com/guides.htm

All Frank's resources, courses, articles, and inservice workshop services are at http://lone-eagles.com
(An internal Google search engine on the home page allows for specific topical searches; search “Alaska”).

Frank’s resume and published Alaskan history are at http://lone-eagles.com/articles/frank.htm

2011 Lone Eagle Update at http://lone-eagles.com/expertise.htm International and national professional activities

Frank's summary of online course innovations is at http://lone-eagles.com/online-innovations.html

Contacting the Instructor:

You may contact the instructor by emailing Frank at frank@lone-eagles.com. Morning consultations are preferred for voice and Skype consultations. Frank specializes in friendly mastery learning support of Alaskan Educators.
Ph/Fax: 406-683-6270, Cell: 406 925 2519

Skype ID: frankodasz