Greetings Educators,

Online virtual education, today’s hot topic in education, is one that continues to grow and gain legitimacy.

I’m a 58 year old educator and my early impression of distance education was that it was just a poor substitute for a traditional classroom. Later, with the advent of technology, my thinking changed a bit but I thought the computer only automated a poor substitute for traditional learning. But keep in mind that my first memories of distance education programs (more than 40 years ago) were those advertised inside matchbook covers; art, locksmithing, gun repair, and auto mechanics.

However, my impressions and understandings of distance education were just plain wrong. Over the past 15 years I’ve learned that correspondence and distance study has been an educational mainstay throughout most of the 20th century and now into the 21st century. Interestingly, one of the first modes of delivery for distance learning, and a high tech solution at the time, was radio. When the radio was first introduced in the early 1920s it began bringing education opportunities to many who lived in rural and remote areas. Since that time, many new technologies have improved the delivery of education including the telephone, television, video recorders, and computers. And with the advent of the Internet in 1969 the world of distance learning was changed forever. Today, with well over one billion people using the Internet, the opportunities for online education are expanding exponentially.

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I am writing from Michigan State University about a ground breaking project linking high schools in the United States with high schools in Algeria. This “Partnership Schools Program,” funded by the U.S. State Department, is a collaborative program between Michigan State University, Creative Associates International in Washington, D.C., and the Algerian Ministry of National Education.

Over this past year we’ve built “bridges of understanding” between our two countries and the students who participated in the program.In 2007 students involved in the pilot project told their stories about their communities, cultures, and countries. The pilot project is now complete and the U.S. State Department has agreed to extend this important project for another semester (January through June of 2008). (more…)

Would you like to complete a master’s degree in Educational Technology and/or earn the Educational Technology (NP) endorsement? If you have already completed the Certificate program, there are two paths to achieving your degree: hybrid and online learning. You may begin the master’s program as early as this spring by taking an online course in the next cluster of courses. During spring semester 2008 we will be offering: CEP 815: Technology and Leadership. The enrollment deadline for the Online Educational Technology Masters is December 14, 2007.

Alternatively, you may enroll for our hybrid program in East Lansing. After acceptance into the Master of Arts in Educational Technology, participants will come together for one month: two weeks of face-to-face and two weeks of virtual sessions. On campus room and board is available for a nominal fee for those traveling from out of town. During the 2008-2009 academic year, students will complete three additional online courses and then return to East Lansing for a capstone seminar in Summer 2009. This version of the program combines the power of working together in a summer cohort with the flexibility of completing courses during the academic year. Enrollment deadline for this program is February 15, 2008. (more…)

With the development of Web 2.0 has come a host of free online office suites that are great for the classroom. Google Docs, Zoho Office and ThinkFree Office are just three options that are available. All three offer comparable programs to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Although they may not have all the features that you get with Microsoft Office they offer most of what a user needs and provide a great way of being able to collaborate on a file.

The ability to do group collaboration using these office suites makes them very useful for the classroom. Google has created a great video that explains how this collaboration piece works in Google Docs but the same idea applies to Zoho and ThinkFree. Students can work in groups on one project and only have one file to update or to change. You can also have your students conduct peer editing using any of these applications as well as use them to submit documents to you electronically so you can edit them. The best part is that there is no software required. So students can work on a project at school and then access the same project at home. No saving, no worrying about file extensions or having the right software to open it up. All students need is an Internet connection to be able to access the file. (more…)

Back in our March 2007 issue we asked our readers to submit their ideas for uses of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. We have compiled the submissions together to share with you. Choose a Web 2.0 technology from the list below to view free or low cost sources, educational benefits, and examples of classroom use. If you would like to suggest your own example to be added to our list of resources you can visit http://edutech.msu.edu/newsletter/news-03-01-full.html#fyc and complete the online form. The drawing for the free USB has already ended. (more…)

Web Sites Worth Visiting

Website	Description and Educational Applications
http://www.visuwords.com/	Visuwords™ is an online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate. (Submitted by Leigh Graves Wolf, Program Coordinator for the Master’s in Educational Technology Program at MSU)
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/	The Internet is changing the way teachers teach and students learn. Thirteen Ed Online is helping shape the future of education in the digital age. This free service features everything from standards-based lesson plans and classroom activities to a multimedia primer, online mentors, and reviews of curriculum-based Web sites.
http://www.exploratree.org.uk/	Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides. Thinking guides can support independent and group research projects with frameworks for thinking, planning and enquiry. We’ve provided a set of ready-made guides which you can print out or use online. All of the guides are completely customizable or you can start from scratch and make your own! You can share them and work on them in groups too. (Submitted by Leigh Graves Wolf, Program Coordinator for the Master’s in Educational Technology Program at MSU)
http://www.teachertube.com/	Teacher Tube’s goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.(Submitted by several students in the Educational Technology Certificate program in the Sharing Tips and Tricks forum)
http://www.scribd.com/	Scribd is a Silicon Valley startup creating technology that makes it easy to share documents online. You can think of Scribd as a big online library where everyone can publish original content, including you! Part of the idea behind Scribd is that everyone has a lot of documents sitting around on their computers that only they can read. With Scribd we hope to unlock this information by putting it on the web.

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 . . .

Leigh Graves Wolf, Program Coordinator for the MSU Master’s in Educational Technology.

Leigh started her career in 1997 as a network administrator and technology coordinator at the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills. While at the International Academy she ran the desktop publishing club and assisted the faculty with integrating a relatively new technology “the Internet” into their classes. In 1999 she moved to Detroit Country Day Junior School where she taught elementary keyboarding and also assisted the staff with integrating various technologies into their curriculum. In 2000 she moved to the Upper School to coordinate the one-to-one laptop initiative and assist faculty with laptop integration. (more…)

Question:One of my friends recently shared with me a photo book that they created and had printed professionally. It looked fantastic. I was very impressed by the quality of the book. My friend said that he did it digitally and used a company called Photoworks to create the book. Do you know of other companies out there that create similar products and if so which one would you recommend?

Answer: With the holidays coming up in just a few weeks, a photo book may just be the gift to get the hard to buy for person on your list. On a recent trip to Germany I came back with some great photos that I thought would be great in a coffee table book so I decided to create my own. Before doing so I did some research to see which company best suited my project. In the end I ended up going with MyPublisher.com and was very happy with the results.Below is a brief summary of what I found while doing my research. (more…)

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 Carrie Albin to get your district started with the program.

Spring 2008

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