Forward from Scott Fitzsimmons, Instructor, Educ 5412 The Computer in Education Sect. 862 Spring Semester 2000

Hello to all M.Ed. Extension Partnership Members!

First off, I'd like to wish everyone season's greetings! I hope that you all are enjoying the holiday season and are finding the needed time to cover all of your bases in this incredibly busy time of year.

As you all know, on Tuesday, January 11th, the entire gang will be meeting at the UMD campus to spend the day in the computer lab pursuing the requirements needed to meet the Educ 5412 course work. This will prove to be somewhat of a challenging task seeing that we only have a short amount of time (one day of actual in-lab time) to be creative with. But, seeing that we are a group that is spread pretty far and wide...it's apparent that we need to stray from the norm a bit.

Educ. 5412 is a course that was designed to introduce and expose educators to the "basics" of a fairly wide variety of common computer hardware, software, and applications as they may relate to educational use. The layout of the traditional Educ. 5412 course does not allow students to obtain "mastery" level of any given area but instead... provide a general feeling or overview of various areas. The hope is that the students, now being made aware of these various areas, will further pursue their areas of interest in the future. With this in mind...I have attempted to lay out our course work so that it may hopefully fit well within the Tuesday that we will be spending in the lab. I have tried to design our day such that it will flow smoothly from topic to topic. I have also attempted to lay out a schedule of topics that will touch on most of those areas which will be required in your final Educ. 5412 portfolio. Below you will see the tentative schedule for the Tuesday, January 11th computer lab session at UMD. You will notice that it seems like a large amount of topics to cover in one day. I would have to agree...however...I'll do my best to guide you in the best way I can to make sure that it is worthwhile for you. My intent is to provide as many explanations, directions, and tips that I can to ensure you a solid pathway toward completing your Educ. 5412 requirements.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11TH TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

Past / Present / Future of Educational Technology... * Brief overview / discussion of where we've been, where we are now, and what it may mean in the future for all of us.

"This #*@&! educational technology thing is pretty overwhelming...just where do you start?...and are there any guidelines to follow?!" * Discussion...and exploration of... - ISTE Standards - NCATE Standards - Information Literacy Standards

Internet searching discussion and overview... * Are you finding what you really want on the Internet...how long is it taking you? (Search engine discussion and tidbits)

A brief discussion of the "basics"... * Overview of basic components, terms, troubleshooting, etc..

Databases... * We'll look at the basics of creating a database using the M. Ed. Extension group as our test subjects.

Word Processing and Desktop Publishing... * Using MS Word...we'll develop a survey which will incorporate "mail merging" and "desktop publishing" elements.

Email...slightly beyond the basics... * We'll look at how to "attach" this survey to an email message(s) to send to the survey subjects...as well as how to create aliases / address books.

Spreadsheet... * Using MS Excel...we'll show how to gather the survey data, record it into a spreadsheet, and create graphs/charts from the data collected.

Presentation / Slideshow... * Using the basics of MS Powerpoint...we'll see how easy it is to display your results in a Powerpoint slideshow.

Software Downloading / Software Evaluating... * Via the Internet, we'll Download the "Inspiration" software demo program so that we can use it to help us summarize our process through the creation of a flowchart. (Note...this also serves to show you just how much software is available to us via the Internet...not to mention how easy it is to get it!)

Educ. 5412 Portfolio

The Educ. 5412 course requires that a portfolio be assembled and handed in. Within this portfolio are various sections which serve to highlight and/or show examples of the various information and projects that you have covered throughout this course. Below is an outline of the various sections which are required to be included within your final portfolios. You will notice that the sections closely match the schedule of topics which will be covered in our Tuesday, January 11th computer lab session. Within our Tuesday session, I will further explain any needed further details of each section.

Required Portfolio Sections:

1) Table of Contents 2) Future of Education and Technology - 2 articles relatingSwith summaries. 3) ISTE / NCATE / Information Power StandardsS - 3 articles about or relating to these standardsSwith summaries. 4) Search Engines - Samples of 6 of your favorite search enginesSand why. 5) Computer Basics / Terms / TroubleshootingS - Each categoryS3 sample websites each (you pick your favorite sites and place them in this section). 6) Database - Sample printout showing one entire record (so we can see all of the appropriate fields). - Sample printouts of all entries sorted by three sort orders of your choice. 7) Word Processing / Desktop Publishing / - 3 sample printouts of your created survey showing the mail merging capabilities and elements of desktop publishing. 8) Email - Sample print out of at least 2 returned emails showing that the recipient had successfully received your attached survey. 9) Spreadsheet - Sample printout of spreadsheet showing survey results. - Sample printout(s) showing various graphs/charts of survey spreadsheet data. 10) Presentation / Slideshow - Sample printout of short slideshow explaining your survey and it's related results. 11) Software Downloading / Software Evaluating - Download "Inspiration" flow-charting demo software from InternetSCreate flowchart overviewing your entire survey process.

*Note...It is expected that each section be separated by title pages which act as dividers for each section. The intent is to give each student an opportunity to use a draw/paint program of their choice to demonstrate their learned draw/paint skills.

I hope that this gives you a comfortable explanation of the topics and areas which we will be covering on Tuesday as well as what will be needed to complete the required portfolio. I am under the assumption that all of the M.Ed. Extension members have access to the main Microsoft products mentioned above. If you would like to jump in and begin exploring any of these areas on your own, please feel free to do so. The best place to locate any help that you need while working in any of these programs is to access the "Microsoft Help Contents" located under the "Help" pull down menu within any of the Microsoft programs. Here you will find built in help on almost any topics you need. I've also put together a collection of websites that may be helpful to you to investigate along the way if you feel you need to. Below is a listing of some of them. Please feel free to contact me via email or voicemail (218-628-4938 x-4924) if I can be of any further assistance to you. Once again, have a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to meeting you all on Tuesday, January 11th!

Microsoft Word Helpful Websites: http://www.pcshowandtell.com/shows.asp http://www.furman.edu http://www.bamaed.ua.edu/~bray/online.htm http://is.rice.edu/~consult/cross/word/index.html http://www.bcn.net/%7Ebtep1/WordTutorials.htm http://isds.bus.lsu.edu/cvoc/learn.introit/word/ http://www.microsoft.com/education/tutorial/classroom/default.asp http://wichita.kumc.edu/it/edtech/tutorials/online.html http://wordinfo.com/links/tiplist.htm

Microsoft Excel Helpful Websites: http://www.oac.uoguelph.ca/Agec/c02641/cancarts/spread.htm http://www.doi.gov/selfhelp/ http://www.ar.cc.mn.us/technology/help/ http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/resources/lib_inf_res/tutorials.html

Microsoft Powerpoint Helpful Websites: http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/power/Tutorials.htm http://www.actden.com/pp/ http://wwwbamaed.ua.edu/~bray/online.htm http://wwwkysu.edu/academics/acweb/faqpower.htm http://medical.bris.ac.uk/tutors/presentn/presentn.htm http://imlab9.landarch.uiuc.edu/~chavan/la181/tutorials/index.html http://www.orst.edu/instruct/ed596/ppoint/pphome.htm

-- Anonymous, December 20, 1999