Greetings Educators,

It’s fall once again and as teachers prepare to teach and students prepare to learn I begin again to think about how our Educational Technology Certificate Program can help teachers prepare for using technology in their classrooms.

Reflecting on the purpose of educational technology in Michigan I’m reminded that Michigan has but one single goal: prepare Michigan students to become productive citizens in a global society. Technology has become an integral part of our global society therefore as a teacher you must then consider how your teaching integrates technology to achieve that goal.

However integrating or infusing technology into your classroom and then utilizing it to have an impact on student learning is an extraordinary challenge, particularly given that most of us did not grow up with computers as kids today have. For many teachers learning how to use a computer is like learning to speak a foreign language while most kids seem to already know how to speak that language.

We have an assignment in CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Computers that addresses this issue and asks teachers to reflect on the ideas raised. Consider that today’s kids are “native speakers” when it comes to computers. They’ve grown up using computers, video games, email, the Internet, and instant messaging whereas we have to learn their language – it’s foreign to most of us. The assignment explores how kids are “digital natives” and most adults are “digital immigrants.” According to an article written by Marc Prensky entitled “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” (2001), “…today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently than their predecessors.” For this reason we must consider how that affects our teaching. Are you prepared with the skills necessary to teach today’s children using computer technology?  And if not, how do you plan to acquire those skills?

Keep in mind when considering the various options available to you regarding technology training that the main goal is preparing students to become productive citizens in a global society. That goal will require you to know how computer technology can enhance learning and lead to greater academic achievement. Choose a program that will take you beyond “just speaking the language” and will provide you with the knowledge and skills to infuse it seamlessly into your classroom.

If you would like to read Marc Prensky’s article you can find it online at: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
Best Regards,

Joseph Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program

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

The Educational Technology Certificate Program Goes Virtual and the LESA Summer Cohort Shares their Experiences

If you haven’t already participated in the MSU Educational Technology Certificate Program, what is stopping you? If you are like most educators it comes down to not having enough time. That is why we schedule our face-to-face program on Friday evenings and Saturdays to accomodate your busy schedules. With the Certificate going virtual we have made it even easier for you to fit our courses into your schedule.

Starting in January 2007 the Educational Technology Certificate Program will be offered virtually in addition to the face-to-face classes. We will bring you more information in the December issue of the newsletter but wanted to make you aware of the new offering.

Speaking of new offerings, our first summer cohort at the Livingston Educational Service Agency was a great success this year. Although it was a lot of hard work condensed into a short 4 week program, the teachers formed a wonderful “learning community” and learned new ways of incorporating technology into their curriculum. You can hear more about their experiences at http://geek-ed.com. Scroll down to the Special Edition episode and click on “Download The Show”.

We have already set dates for next summer’s program at the LESA. They are June 18-21,25-28; July 2,3, 9-12,16-19,23,24. When taking the program in this accelerated format you must register for all three classes.

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 Winter and Spring classes now.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

e3Link Program: Connecting Students in the US with Students in Algeria

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Algeria to visit with teachers regarding the e3Link (English, Education, Electronically Linked) Program. The e3Link Program is designed to create a link between Algerian and American secondary students. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), the project involves students from each country creating and sharing community profiles using PowerPoint and the Internet. The project is intended to help improve Algerian students’ English proficiency and provide a cultural exchange between students from both countries.

Four schools from both countries have been selected to pilot the project and will begin the program in September 2006. Of the four schools that will be participating three are situated in Michigan: Dewitt High School, Durand High School and Pinckney Community Schools. The fourth school is Valley High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. Six additional schools from both countries will be selected to begin the program in January 2007.

When I first was told that I would be going to Algeria I wasn’t exactly excited. Even though I had been working on the project for several months and writing the curriculum for the teachers within the program, I didn’t think I would have the “opportunity” to travel there. I’m not sure what bothered me most, the fact that there are travel warnings for the country or the fact that I had to get vaccinations in the form of shots. I hate shots.

When I arrived and met with the teachers, all my fears and worries disappeared.  Prior to working for MSU I was a teacher at the secondary level for 8 years.  When I sat down with the Algerian teachers I felt like I was talking with teachers that I had worked with for years.  We discussed some of the issues that they faced and the list sounded similar to what you would hear from teachers here in the United States.  Some issues they brought up were large class sizes, poor pay for teachers, difficulty motivating some students to learn, not enough time for training and sharing ideas, not enough resources such as textbooks, and the list goes on and on.   Sound familiar? 

In the end I gained a deeper insight on the Algerian culture and the similarities we share, especially within education.  I hope that the students that are participating in the project are able to make similar connections and expand their thinking in our global society. Although the e3Link Project will begin small, only affecting students in 10 schools in each country, its potential to change lives and breakdown barriers between cultures is immense.  I know it has already changed mine. 

Picture of the participating Algerian teachers in Blida, Algeria.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Atomic Learning Podcasting Workshop: Free through September 15

If you have always wanted to know about podcasting and how to use it, this is your chance.  Atomic Learning is offering a free Podcasting Workshop from now until September 15.  The workshop is presented in short videos and covers the following topics:

1. An Introduction to Podcasting
2. Comparison of Podcasting and Radio
3. How to Subscribe and Listen to a Podcast
4. How to Record a Podcast with Audacity
5. How to Record Audio with Garage Band
6. How to Create an RSS Feed
7. How to Use Feeder to Create RSS Feeds

The entire workshop is about 75 minutes of video, however you can pick and choose which videos you would like to watch.  There are also additional resources that you can download. This is a great way to learn more about Podcasting and how to begin creating your own.

Visit the Atomic Learning website at http://www.atomiclearning.com/podcasting to learn more.

Other Podcasting Resources
http://maetshowcase.educ.msu.edu
http://www.apple.com/education/resources/podcastingvideos/
http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/index.html
http://www.stager.org/podcasting.html

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Showcase of Teacher Project: Conjugation of Spanish Verbs ending in -AR

Each quarter we will be showcasing a teacher’s project completed during his/her participation in our program. Sometime this fall we are planning to archive these lessons on our website for you to refer to throughout the year. For any students that have previously taken the Certificate we are asking that you complete a Permission to Use Student Work form so that we can compile the archive. Please download the form here and mail or fax it back to Brook Thompson.

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 the Conjugation of Spanish Verbs ending in -AR created by Lynette Daig, Spanish teacher at Brighton High School in Brighton, Michigan. Lynette participated in the LESA summer cohort program in 2006.

Lynette created her StAIR to help her students understand the concept of conjugating -AR verbs. The final product is done in PowerPoint. There is a review and a quiz that can be done online as well as a printed quiz toward the end of the show.

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

This quarter’s Web Sightings highlight some great resources to help you and your students with getting Back To School.

Website	Description and Educational Applications
http://teacher.scholastic.com/ lessonrepro /k_2theme/bktoschool.htm	Teach Now Back to School is a content resource that contains interdisciplinary activities appropriate for the first few weeks of school. Students take a class census, make mini-books, and learn more about their classmates. Links to resources and learning activities are included.You may want to also visit http://teacher.scholastic.com/ professional/backtoschool/ for additional resources.
http://www.teachervision.com/ teaching-methods/ teacher-training/6600.html	Teacher Vision features a section on Back to School. Start your new year off with ease and enthusiasm. Their resources range from assisting students in learning the school layout to taking attendance.
http://www.teach-nology.com/ themes/holidays/back/	Teachnology has several Back to School resources for teachers from lesson plans, to bulletin board sets, to help for the first day jitters. Use this resource to help you and your students with getting back to school. Explore the rest of the site to access thousands of teacher resources, lesson plans, and rubrics.
http://www.learningpage.com/	Learning Page provides professionally produced learning materials for the elementary classroom. Printable worksheets, activities and lesson plans for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade can be downloaded from the site.This month, Learning Page has created back-to-school worksheet activities. These include a school supply sort, a street address worksheet, a classmate interview, and more.
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/ Themes/Back_to_School/	A to Z Teacher Stuff is a teacher-created site designed to help teachers find online resources more quickly and easily. Find lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion forums for teachers, downloadable teaching materials & eBooks, printable worksheets and blacklines, emergent reader books, themes, and more.One of the themes they cover is Back To School with lesson plans, bulletin board ideas and first day activities.

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 . . .

Melissa White , Instructor for MSU Educational Technology Certificate, Supervisor of Media and Technology at REMC 13 Ingham ISD

Melissa graduated with her BA from Western Michigan University in 1982. She completed her MILS program at the University of Michigan in 1989 and finished MSU’s Educational Technology Certificate proram in July, 2000.

She has been a High School Librarian/Media Specialist for 17 years and is now starting her 7th year at Ingham ISD as Supervisor of Media and Technology. She has taught for the MSU Educational Technology Certificate program for three years. She was runner up for the MACUL Technology Teacher of the Year in 2002. She was also the Program Chair for MAME from 2001-2005.

Currently in her position at Ingham ISD, she supervises area technology trainers and provides technology training and consultation services to schools in Ingham, Clinton and Eaton counties.

Question: I have enjoyed learning more about using Excel and have found quite a few additional uses for Excel that at first I did not think possible. For example, I have used Excel to set up calendar pages, using the columns for the days of the week and the rows for the weeks of the month. This has been helpful in setting up assignments pages for students. But I feel there must be a better way to enter the days of the week and the days of the month. Can you help?

Answer: The designers of Excel must have had uses such as this in mind and for such uses the designers included some amazing shortcuts. To see one of these shortcuts in action, key in the following example:

1. Open a blank Excel workbook and in Cell A2, key in “Sunday:

2. If you look closely at cell A2 you will see when it is selected that there is a small square in the lower right corner. You will also note than when you place the mouse pointer over that small square, it turns into a “plus sign.” With that plus sign displayed, hold the left mouse button down and drag to cell G2.

3. As you can see, Excel “knew” you were going to enter the days of the week and by dragging across the row, Excel did the data entry for you. You probably already have guessed that if you were to drag the little square into column H that “Sunday” would appear in cell H2, and the series would be continued. But we still have the days of the month to enter. Place a “1” in cell A3 and drag the square to the right to column G.

4. As you see, Excel wasn’t certain what you meant by entering the “1”, so chose to play it safe and just duplicate the “1” in the next six columns of row 3. But there is an easy way around that. First delete the “1’s” in B3 through G3 and then key in a “2” in B3. Then select both cell B3 and C3 and drag the little square to the right to include cell G3. Now Excel knows what you meant in the first place.

5. There are several ways to follow to complete the calendar. Obviously you could key in a “8” in A4 and a “9” in B4, select A4 and B4 and drag to G4 and then continue this process until the calendar is complete. However, there is another way. To see it in action, key in an “8” in A4, select A3 and A4, and drag the plus sign down to A7.

6. As you see, Excel continued the series, counting by 7’s, and entered the days of the month for the Sundays of that month. Using the same steps, let Excel enter the days of the month for the Tuesdays.

7. Now to get Excel to enter the rest of the days, select the cells from A3 diagonally through B7, drag the little square to the right through column G and see what happens.

8. It is obvious that some of the cells in row 7 will be cleared because at my last check there were no months with more than 31 days. But with Pluto no longer being a planet, who knows?

Hope that helps with data entry. The designers of Excel certainly appear to have been very interested in helping us reduce the tedium in data entry.

–Norman Bell, 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.

Fall 2006

Spring 2007