Seattle Pacific University

EDTE 5411
Designing K-12 Internet Instruction

Syllabus

Course Description:

Surveys the best K-12 Internet curriculum design methods and models for individualized and small group student learning. Looks at issues of designing lesson units, such as WebQuests, for one-three class periods, longer term WebQuests for one-four weeks, and 6-12 week online courses. Covers options for student-to-student online interaction, scalability of online courses, and issues concerning instructor-led instruction as opposed to self-directed instruction. Gives practical advice on issues of copyrights, promotion and sale of online instructional materials, and the changing role of teachers to that of facilitator of the best resources and instructional practices on the Internet.

Gives practical hands-on experience with existing lesson and course authoring templates and models from the Internet. Addresses key issues regarding innovation diffusion and the rapid change our educational system is undergoing currently and impacts projected to be just around the corner.

Withdrawal Policy: Registrants have 30 days to withdraw with no penalty, less a $25 administrative fee. No refunds will be made after 30 days. Non-completion of this course will not impact your GPA.

Course Completion Deadlines

Quarter Registered	Deadline
Autumn 1999	Nov. 15, 2000
Winter 2000	Feb. 15, 2001
Spring 2000	May 1, 2001
Summer 2000	August 1, 2001

The very first thing you will need to do is decide on your timeline for completing the lessons and send the completed timeline template below to your instructor so he'll know when to expect your lesson submissions.  If you draw the class out over a full year it typically becomes harder to remember skills and details from previous lessons. We strongly encourage completing the lessons within a three month timeframe! 

Click here for the Timeline Template!   Note that this template is NOT interactive. Use "Cut and Paste" to move the template into your wordprocessor, edit it as necessary and use "Cut and Paste" to move it to an email message to send to your instructor!

While the lessons are already presented in the recommended logistical order, you are welcome to complete them in any order you wish. You are welcome to complete the lessons within any convenient timeframe. You are welcome to change your timeline at any time convenient. A 50 hour minimum of work is required for this course and suggested times for all course activities are given in the lessons. There are eight five-hour lessons, totaling 40 hours, plus a ten hour minimum required for work on a special project.

Your Special Project:

Throughout the course you'll see how educators have creatively used web page authoring to create instructional materials and resources for their students. This "special project" is your opportunity to create something of interest and value to yourself and your students. Before you begin your special project you are asked to describe what you'd like to do and to get approval from your instructor. This allows an opportunity for the instructor to offer you suggestions and perhaps to refer you to similar work that has already been done such that you can build upon, or incorporate, the work of others. 

There is virtually no limit to what you can do as a project as long as it relates to the use of Internet in your classroom. Your project should clearly demonstrate the minimum time investment of ten hours. This project might take a variety of forms - a Webquest unit, a directory of web sites, and/or a collection of original instructional web pages. It is important to choose a project you can get excited about; make it fun and relevant!

Here are just a few project ideas:

    1. Create an instructional Web Tour to guide others through a unique learning experience. 

    2. Create a quality hotlist/clearinghouse in an area of need and interest: special education,
         multiage curriculum, health, suicide prevention, etc.   Free space on the Lone Eagle web
         site is offered for quality listings. Your web pages will be free to all and will only be
         incorporated in printed publications with your written permission.

    3. Conduct a classroom web project, project-based learning unit, or curricular
        component of your own design.

    4. Acquire a new skill such as how to add sound and video files to a web page, etc..   

Here are a few sample projects created by class participants:

Larry Louck’s Tutorial on Building Dog Sleds from Nelson Lagoon!
http://www.aesd.schoolzone.net/aesd/nlg.school/sldhme.html#anchor864510

How to find a Teaching Job in Alaska!
http://lone-eagles.com/cory.htm

Special Education Hotlist!
http://lone-eagles.com/virginia.htm

Here's a listing of dozens of web curriculum units created by past teachers in this course and the "Making the Best Use of Internet Resources for K-12 Instruction" course -
http://lone-eagles.com/teachercreated.htm

Course Activities

This is a self-directed hands-on course featuring eight five-hour modules and a ten-hour major project. Each participant works closely with the instructor communicating via e-mail and listservs. Participants interact electronically to build a learning community of educators. Participants create instructional web pages, Webquest structured Internet activities, and will design a one six week mini-course for K-12. Participants will acquire a robust collection of courseware authoring resources to allow them to create and promote their own online curricular products from short term units to full semester online courses.

Upon completion of the course, participants will:

1.0 Explore the unique advantages and disadvantages of online instruction and the appropriate and inappropriate applications for online learning.

2.0 Explore the progressive steps for classroom integration of specific internet curriculum, course models and authoring templates, and specifically address key online curriculum key design issues for K-12 classrooms.

3.0 Explore design issues and current models for online courses; draft a plan of an online 6 week course reflecting decisions on these design issues.

4.0 Explore diffusion of innovation theory, change theory, impacts of online instruction on traditional educational roles.

5.0 Participate in a group listserv by sharing the best resources identified for online courses and curricular units for specific grade levels and content areas.

6.0 Review issues and methods of innovation diffusion in our traditional educational system and consider how best to work with peers to minimize anxiety.

7.0 Review key issues concerning copyright, intellectual freedom, promotion and sale of online curriculum.

8.0 Complete a project-based learning short term unit and review top online course directory sites and models.

Grading:

Grading for this course will be A-E. Each of the eight lessons will be worth 100 points total.  8 lessons times 100 points equals 800 points, plus 200 points for the special project brings the total to 1000 points, of which 700 points are required to pass this course.. 10% of the available points for this course, averaging 10 points per lesson totalling 100 points, will be given for participation in the class listserv as recorded by the instructor as follows:
. 
           - Five points will be given for each resource help request listserv posting.

           - Five points will be given for each general resource sharing listserv posting.

           - Ten points will be given for each resource sharing listserv posting responding by name
              to a specific resource help request.

Points for listserv interaction need not be directly associated with each specific lesson. The maximum possible points for listserv interaction is 100, or 10% of your grade.. (While not absolutely required to pass this course, it is strongly recommended you make a genuine effort to expand your online collaborative confidence, and skills, by interacting with the other participants through the listserv and web conferencing system!) 800 points for the lessons and 200 points for your special project,  brings the grand total to 200 points, of which a minimum of 700 points will be required to pass this course. It is expected all required submissions will be sent for each lesson, from which a minimum of 70% of the total points available will be needed to pass the course.

Grading Summary:

8 lessons times 100 points each = 800 points

Special Project = 200 points

__________

1000 points TOTAL

(You must earn at least 700 points to pass the course.)

950-1000 =A                     767-799 =C+

900-933 =A-                       734-766 =C

867-899 =B+                      700-733 =C-

834-866 =B                        600-699 =D

800-833 =B-                          0-600 =E

SPU Academic Integrity Policy

The structure and format of most distance learning courses presume a high level of personal and academic integrity in completing and submitting coursework. Individuals enrolled in an SPU distance learning course are expected to adhere to the following standards of academic conduct.

Academic Work: Academic work submitted by the individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests) shall be the student’s own work or appropriately attributed in part or in whole to its correct source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group prepared) materials as if they are one’s own work is unacceptable.

Aiding Honesty in Others: The individual will encourage honesty in others by refraining from providing materials or information to another person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used improperly.

Violation of these academic standards may result in the assignment of a failing grade and subsequent loss of credit for the course.

One big advantage of self-directed instruction for educators is that by posting self-directed learning activities on the web you could potentially help hundreds - even thousands - of students learn, worldwide. Unmotivated students are those who most need a classroom teacher to help them attain a "love of learning" so they will become self-directed lifelong learners - one day - themselves! Learning to be a self-directed learner using the Internet is an important survival skill for the constantly changing information age. We all have different learning styles and self-directed learning (SDL) is not necessarily intuitive for everyone. The skills required to become a successful self-directed learner are to be able to follow the instructions carefully, step-by-step, exercising patience and perseverance, and asking questions of your instructor and other class participants whenever you feel frustrated or 'stuck!" The most common problems in a self-directed course are 1. procrastination, and 2. giving up in frustration without have asked for help.

Internet access, your own email account (available free at http://hotmail.com ), and use of a computer (Mac or PC) are required. The Netscape Communicator browser, which includes the Netscape Composer web authoring tool, is highly recommended. You should be able to get copies from local computer stores, computer labs, and/or can download the program from many sites such as http://www.netscape.com and http://www.tucows.com.

You should already have basic computer literacy skills such as the ability to create, edit, save, and move files, as well as the ability to create folders for storage of your files. It is strongly recommended you identify and make use of any local technical support that may be available to you!

Participants must have basic Internet access skills, computer skills, web browsing skills, and e-mail skills.  Otherwise, there are no course prerequisites or corequisites for this course. However, it is strongly recommended participants first take the

EDTE 5471 "Making the Best Use of Internet for K-12 Instruction"  a 5 quarter credit graduate level course. All lessons are available for review at http://lone-eagles.com/spu1.htm.

Our Class Listserv:

        We'll have two options for online communications for this course;

                1. Private email to/from anyone we wish. This will be used primarily for
                    sending lesson submissions to the instructor and for asking questions
                    that don't need to be shared with the other class participants.

                2. Public messages via the listserv to/from class participants and the instructor
                    only. This will be used to informally ask questions which might be of value to
                    others in the class, to share those  lesson submissions you're asked to share
                    with the class, and to informally share ideas, humor, and resources.

You will be automatically subscribed to the listserv once you register for the course. You can expect to receive an initial welcome message telling you you've successfully been subscribed to the class listserv. You'll be able to post messages to the listserv (post messages to edte5411@spu.edu)   for all class participants and the instructor to read.

The listserv will be the main means of interaction for this class. If the volume of messages is high you may only be able to scan the messages for relevant resources. Liberal use of the delete key help minimize frustration from too many messages. The listserv is your opportunity to interact and share resources and ideas with peers. Here are the few things you'll really need to remember about how the listserv functions:

        1. When you reply to a listserv message, your reply goes to the author of the message
             to which you're replying, only!

        2. Please don't send attachments (attached files) to the listserv as not everyone is set
            up to receive them and many students have low bandwidth  Internet access and
            attachments can take forever to download! It is much better to send web
            addresses than entire web pages and graphics!

Interactive reading and writing is a new communications medium which has never existed before. It’s importance for building reading, writing, and thinking skills is only beginning to be appreciated! Expectations of the potential of the ten Internet collaborative tools increases with hands-on experience. There is no upward limit to the creativity to which these new tools can be applied in the service of education.

When you finish this course, you'll need to know how to unsubscribe yourself from the class listserv. Be sure to save these instructions on how to unsubscribe to this listserv for when you finish the class and wish to unsubscribe! 

Simply put, all you have to do is send an email to listserver@spu.edu and put in the subject field type <unsubscribe edte5411> (do not type the brackets). Do not put anything in the
message field. You will receive a message within 5 minutes confirming
this action. Refer any problems to Megan Hamshar Email:mego@spu.edu

          The required textbook for this course is "Virtual Architecture" which is only partially online    
          offering listings of articles related to each chapter at
             http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu/

         It is required that you purchase this wonderful resource from
          http://amazon.com, or by calling the publisher http://www.iste.org at   800-336-5191

The course text is available in the SPU bookstore for around $30 (last time I checked). You can order the text over the phone, by mail or by fax. Their number is (800)778-3401. Fax number is (206)281-2688. Address is SPU Bookstore, 310 West Bertona Street, Suite 220, Seattle, WA 98119-1950

Your instructor, Frank Odasz, frank@lone-eagles.com, will receive and record all lesson submissions, will regularly post new resources to the class listserv, will respond to any and all questions, and continue to scout for new resources and regularly update the lessons. The ability of the instructor to interact directly with each participant will depend on the number participants. As you can understand, interacting with 20 participants would be far easier than 200! We generally have about 25 educators actively involved with the class at a given time. Frank welcomes messages of any type, from anyone, for any reason. Biographical information on the instruction is available at: http://lone-eagles.com/articles/frank.htm

Contact Information: Frank Odasz
                                    2200 Rebich Lane
                                    Dillon, MT 59725
                                    Email: frank@lone-eagles.com
                                    PH/Fax: 406-683-6270

Seattle Pacific University Contact:

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me!

Megan Hamshar
Distance Learning Registration
Seattle Pacific University
School of Education-Continuing Education
(800)482-3848
(206)281-2505
www.spu.edu/spiral
Email: mego@spu.edu

LET'S GET STARTED: