Greetings Educators,

As director of the Educational Technology Certificate Program for almost 10 years I’ve seen the manner in which teachers use computer technology in the classroom change significantly. Yet many of the problems related to technology integration in the classroom remain the same.

Ten years ago teachers in many of our classes first asked, “How do I turn this thing on?” and many were worried about pushing a button that would erase all the programs and data. Consequently, the focus of many technology programs was on “how to” use the technology that is how to use the various software programs. And our program was no different. We emphasized technology skills with a secondary focus on instructional strategies.

As computers in the classroom have evolved so has our program. Today we put a far stronger emphasis on the pedagogical aspects of technology – how computers are tools for teaching and learning. We explore various instructional strategies that facilitate technology use and improve student outcomes.

But, as I look at the big picture regarding technology use I’m wondering why many teachers are still resistant. Why don’t they take advantage of this extraordinary tool? Most professional development technology-related programs focus on two strands; technology and pedagogy. That’s what teachers are most interested in and that’s what most programs cover. But two strands are not enough. Perhaps a missing piece is “change.”

The literature and research on technology use demonstrates that the core concepts of effective technology integration must include technology, pedagogy, AND change. The concept of change includes not only a willingness to try something different, but a willingness to seriously measure the effects of such change, and to move ahead on the basis of that evaluation. If administrators and policy makers fail to address change which includes these two major ingredients, there is little hope that their district will integrate technology on a large scale. It will more likely be where technology use is isolated and occasional.

Several years ago we recognized that for technology integration to be widespread it must focus on “change with a difference.” If computers are used only for automating current tasks it will most likely be “change” but “change without a difference.”

Understanding the process of change is critical. We are all resistant to change in some way. We know how to do what we do, in this case teach, and we know what works for us. Changing how we teach by incorporating technology can be threatening and time-consuming – we don’t know for sure how it’s going to work and we already have too much to do. We all fear failing. For some, beginning to use computer technology in the classroom is a leap of faith. We already know how to use it for common tasks (writing letters, e-mail, taking attendance, etc.) but many are not confident about teaching with computers. So as teachers go through our program they learn new instructional and pedagogical strategies and they learn new ways that technology can enhance and support the learning process. Then they take those skills back to their classrooms, their schools, and their districts. By building learning communities with their peers they will begin initiating the process of change that does make a difference.

So my message is that, for technology to be successfully integrated into classrooms and schools we must consider the core concepts which include technology, pedagogy, and change. If we fail to address “change” we’ll fail to move forward and we’ll fail to use technology in meaningful ways.
Best Regards,

Joseph Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program

Contact us at: 517-432-9259
http://edutech.msu.edu

We are excited to bring our program to some new locations this fall. We already have 8 sites currently set to begin in September/October and are looking to add a few more to the fall lineup. We will continue to offer our program in Dewitt, Birmingham, and Traverse City and have added Pennfield, Mancelona, Flint, Grand Rapids, and Wayne to our schedule. For dates and locations please see the Location Information column below.

If you are looking to earn 9 graduate credits before next fall, check out our accelerated summer programs in Traverse City and the Livingston Education Service Agency. There are still a few spots left for both of these programs. We will accept applications through June 19th.

The LESA program was featured in the Geek-Ed podcast from Pinckney, MI. You can listen to the podcast to find out more. Episode 27, May 21, 2006

As always if you are interested in getting the program offered in your school district, please contact Carrie Albin or Brook Thompson at 517-432-9259. You only need 14 other teachers to sign up for the program and we will help you with the promotion. We are scheduling for Fall and Winter classes now.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

College of Education Graduate School Programs Top National Rankings
8 Graduate Programs in the Top 10

MSU’s College of Education has done it again. For the 12th year in a row the college’s graduate programs in elementary and secondary education have been ranked number 1 in the 2007 U.S. News & World Report guide to “ America’s Best Graduate Schools”.  The Rehabilitation Counseling program retained its number 1 ranking from 2003. The College of Education had a total of 8 graduate programs ranked in the top 10 nationally and an overall rank of 14th in the nation.

The magazine ranks the nations 276 graduate education schools that grant doctorates or Ed.S. degrees. The rankings are based on six attributes:

• reputation
• faculty resources
• research activity
• student selectivity
• overall rank
• speciality rankings

Rankings from the US News & World Report

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Aspect ratio and PowerPoint using Photoshop

Often in the classroom it is of real value to develop PowerPoint presentations to display a series of pictures you have taken. For example, at the beginning of the school year you may wish to have a self-running PowerPoint displaying pictures, together with the names, of all your students. Or you may have taken a series of pictures of a class project and wish to have a PowerPoint containing the pictures running for parents to view as they wait for their individual conferences with you. Your task is then to insert each of the pictures in a PowerPoint slide and then set the timing for each picture to be shown in the automatic display mode.

In checking the specifications of various digital cameras, it appears that there are several “standard” aspect ratios, that is the relation of the width of the picture to the height of the picture. Some cameras have a 10:6.5 aspect ratio, others a 10:6.6 aspect ratio, and even others a 3:2 aspect ratio. You may very well wonder what difference that makes. Because the PowerPoint full screen slide has a 4:3 aspect ratio, you will have to crop each of your pictures if your camera has other than a 4:3 aspect ratio.

In the past I have been using an Olympus E20 which has a 4:3 aspect ratio. As long as I took pictures in the “landscape” mode, that is holding the camera horizontally, I could very quickly insert full-frame pictures into a PowerPoint presentation. However, I recently switched to a camera that has a 10:6.5 aspect ratio, and I found the task of inserting full-frame pictures into PowerPoint to be suddenly much more tedious and time-consuming.

As an example, here is the screen showing a picture from a camera displayed in Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. A careful noting of the horizontal and vertical rules indicates that this camera has a 10:6.5 aspect ratio.

In order to place this picture as a full-screen display in PowerPoint, I need it to be cropped so as to have a 4:3 aspect ratio, or 10 inches by7.5 inches. One approach would be to resize the picture such that it is 7.5 inches in height and then crop some off each end of the picture, and through successive approximations, eventually end up with a 10 by 7.5 inch picture. As you can imagine, even when using the ruler, that is a quite tedious procedure and the only way to really check out the result is to complete the cropping, check the dimensions, and then check the picture to determine if it were cropped appropriately.

Another approach in Photoshop, and most other picture editing programs, is to use one special aspect of the cropping tool. In this screen display, you will note that when the cropping tool is selected, the width and height of the cropped area can also be specified.

With the cropping tool and the indicated dimensions selected, the area cropped will always result in a picture with dimensions of 10 inches by 7.5 inches. When inserted into PowerPoint, the picture will be a full screen display.

What is really advantageous about this cropping method is that it is possible to move the cropping rectangle around and thus select that portion of the picture most appropriate for the PowerPoint slide. In this display you can see how the cropping rectangle has been moved.

–Norman Bell, Co-Editor

Showcase of Teacher Project: Direct and Inverse Variation using PowerPoint

Each quarter we will be showcasing a teacher’s project completed during his/her participation in our program. By next fall we are planning to archive these lessons on our website for you to refer to throughout the year.

As part of the Certificate program teachers need to create what we call a StAIR or Stand Alone Instructional Resource. These resources can than be used in the classroom as a tool: 1)to help students that may be struggling with a particular concept; 2)to provide gifted and talented students with a means to learn higher level concepts; or 3)to provide a class of students a means to learn a particular concept at their own pace.

In this issue we are showcasing a StAIR on Direct and Inverse Variation created by Emily
Parker, Math and Science teacher at Novi High School in Novi, Michigan. Emily participated in the certificate program in 2006.

Emily created her StAIR to help her students understand the concept of Direct and Inverse Variation. The final product is done in PowerPoint. There are two worksheets that students can print out and complete for review.

View the StAIR

If you don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint you can download a free PowerPoint Viewer to see the presentation.

If you find this resource useful please let us know by sending us an email at newsletter@edutech.msu.edu.

Web Sites Worth Visiting

Website	Description and Educational Applications
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/	Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutorial for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles, record narration, etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.
http://del.icio.us/	del.icio.us is a collection of favorite web sites – yours and everyone else’s. You can keep links to your favorite articles, eduational websites, professional development sites, blogs, music, and more on del.icio.us and access them from any computer on the web, share favorites with students, colleagues, friends, and family. Great for creating a resource list for students to use instead of having them do random searches on the Internet.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/	HowStuffWorks explains hundreds of subjects, from how a USB drive works to how Gas Prices work, using clear language and tons of illustrations. Use this web site to help you understand how many new technologies work or to have students do research on topics ranging from Science, to Health, to Entertainment.
www.isafe.org	i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of youth everywhere. i-SAFE’s education component provides students with dynamic, interactive, up-to-date Internet safety curriculum lessons online, in the classroom, and in the community. These lessons employ peer-to-peer communication and cooperative learning activities to help students retain this valuable information. i-SAFE provides a free Professional Development Program (online or face-to-face) and all the materials necessary to train and certify you.
http://nvu.com/ NVU Tutorials http://learn.dccc.edu/~lori/nvu/ http://www.webbriefcase.com.au/ categories/how-tos/nvu/	A complete Web Authoring System for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (which stands for “new view”) makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. Click on the Download link in the top navigation menu and then choose the download for your operating system. There are several tutorials on the web for using NVU. Two are listed to the left.

Our courses are taught by an outstanding team of MSU adjunct faculty, many of whom are:

• K-12 classroom teachers themselves who have experience using educational technology in the classroom
• Graduates from our certificate program
• Exceptionally skilled in educational technology
• Winners of awards such as technology Teacher of the Year from the Michigan Association of Computer-Related Technology Users in Learning (MACUL) and the national award of the International Society for Technology in Education

This quarter’s instructor spotlight is . . .

Nancy Ayers, Instructor for MSU Educational Technology Certificate, Elementary Teacher and Technology Contact at Challenger Elementary School in Howell, MI

I really enjoy both of my jobs.   My full time career is elementary teacher. I have taught 3rd through 8th grade.  I also spent two years as the technology teacher in our school.  This year I am teaching 4th grade.  I really love working with students and being part of the great team at Challenger who work hard to educate the children in our care. For the past ten years I have served as our Building Technology Contact/Coordinator, which includes serving on the District Technology Committee. For the past five years I was a building NCA co-chair. We used technology to help us as we worked to establish a data driven model for our school improvement efforts.

I also enjoy my part time job as part of MSU’s Educational Technology Certificate program.  For nine years I have taught the three classes in the program in many different places, like Manchester, Chelsea, Howell, West Bloomfield, Birmingham and Lansing. It is great to get to know people from all these different areas.  Although most of the people who take these classes are working in education, there have been quite a few from other fields as well.  They bring a different perspective to the work we do, helping those in the class understand how business and education serve the needs of each other.

As technology has evolved, so have the classes. Preparing to teach the classes helps me to stay current with advances and new programs, while also exploring the research and new ways to use technology in classrooms.

Question: In the last issue you highlighted the freeware program CutePDF. Could you please provide instructions on how to use this program?

Answer: CutePDF is a a great freeware program that allows you to create quality PDF files. We are providing links to a few tutorials that will help you with downloading the program as well as use it. The first link is to a PDF file that explains both of these and the next two links are video tutorials.

Instructions on Downloading and Using CutePDF

Video Tutorial on Downloading CutePDF

Video Tutorial on Using CutePDF

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Are you a teacher interested in MSU’s Educational Technology Certificate Program? Check out the list below to see if the program is being offered in your area. If not, email Joe Codde to get your district started with the program.

Summer 2006

*Participants in the Traverse City and Livingston ESA programs must register for all three courses.

Fall 2006