Course Syllabus Fall 2008

Here is our course syllabus. As new materials become available, we may incorporate them into the readings and class discussions.

Beyond WebCT: Integrating Social Networking Tools Into Language and Culture Courses

Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students to web-based social networking environments and provide them with the resources and experiences to effectively integrate them into their teaching repertoire.

Course Objectives:

1. Students will become familiar with web-based social networks and their use in education.
2. Students will explore and evaluate a variety of social networking sites through collaboration on a class blog.
3. Students, in consultation with the instructor, will implement one social networking tool in a currently taught course. Students will show evidence of integration with course content and objectives.
4. Students will develop a corresponding student assessment rubric.
5. Students will share results on class blog.
6. Students will develop a portfolio of effective, appropriate, collaborative teaching/learning environments, to include a pedagogical rationale for their use as well as suggested course applications. Students will submit this work on a class wiki.

Course Format: In-class and online discussions, in-class and online exploration and collaboration.

Required Texts: Online resources provided in syllabus. Unless otherwise noted, you are to read/listen/view these materials prior to that class date.

Course Requirements:

• Graduate status.
• Students must have taught a minimum of one year in the department and successfully completed the departmental methods course.

*Since this course requires the use of an iPod and iPod recording device, we will assign those items on semester loan to students who do not have them. Students who have need of a computer with speakers and microphone will receive an iBook (Apple laptop) for the duration of the semester.

Final Grade:
30% Wiki (Portfolio)
25% Classroom Implementation of Social Networking Tool
25% Blog Contributions
20% Participation

Introductory session: Course Management Systems

For Class Discussion:
Reminder: Please prepare the following four items before our first class:

1. Course Management Systems Versus Learning Management Systems by Saul Carliner
2. Toolbox or Trap? Course Management Systems and Pedagogy by Lisa M. Lane
3. Thomas L. Friedman’s discussion about his book, “The World is Flat” (Please note this talk is 1 hour and 15 minutes.)
4. Web 2.0 by Jeff Utrecht

In-Class Activities:

1. Poll Daddy
2. Information R/evolution by Michael Wesch (under 6 minutes)
3. RSS in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (3.5 minutes)
4. Work on RSS, class blog, podcasts. Here’s a nice how-to screencast by Molly McDonald on setting up a WordPress blog:
5. The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging…And When to Use Each One
6. Great blog post example from Will Richardson on: “Why Johnny’s Professor Can’t Read”

Starting this week, you will write a bi-weekly post for the class blog. Your blog posts should reflect on class resources, discussions, projects, and/or the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on language education. You will also respond to a minimum of seven blog posts submitted by your classmates. More specific information regarding this can be found on the course blogs page. You should also pick an education-focused blog and podcast to subscribe to for the semester; these will be another source of information for your blog posts. The instructor may periodically post/assign a topic question for you to blog about.

2nd session: Learning 2.0

For Class Discussion:
Reminder: Please prepare the following items before class:

1. Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?” by Brian Alexander
2. Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler
3. Getting Started with Web 2.0 by Professor Michael Wesch

In-Class Activities:

1. Web 2.0 & Language Learning by Graham Stanley (7.5 minutes)
2. 3 Steps for 21st Century Learning by Jackie Halaw (4 minutes)
3. Work on RSS, class blog, podcasts

3rd session: Educational Trends

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance)

1. IdeaCast’s interview with Don Tapscott, author of ‘Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything’. (First 15 minutes and 30 seconds of the podcast)
2. Map of Future Forces Affecting Education
3. Horizon Report, a collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative
4. The Machine is Us/ing Us by Professor Michael Wesch (a little over 4 minutes)
5. Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free, by Noam Cohen, NY Times

In-Class Activities:

1. Chronicle of Higher Ed special video on Digital Ethnography Project (About 7 minutes)
2. Beyond Borders
3. FlatWorld Knowledge
4. California Open Source Textbook Project
5. Web2.0
6. TouchGraph Google Browser
7. Personalized portals: Netvibes, Page Flakes, Protopage, Bloglines

4th session: Teaching Today’s Students

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance)

1. Information Overloaded by Thomas Washington. You’ll need to register to receive this article.
2. “Backwards into the Future: Seven Principles for Educating the Ne(x)t Generation” by Helen Sword and Michael Leggott
3. Authentic Learning for the 21st Century by Marilyn M. Lombardi
4. “The Demand for ‘On Demand’” by Bob Weir
5. Network Cha Cha by Katherine Grayson

In-Class Activities:

1. A Vision of Students Today by Michael Wesch’s students (under 5 minutes)
2. Teens and Social Media
3. Interlangua
4. LiveMocha
5. Examples of students online: Matthew Bischoff, Students 2.0, Future Kansas Teachers Scouting Site
6. A Quick iPhone Tutorial (under 5 minutes)
7. Our American Shelf Life
8. Web 2.0 Backpack: Web Apps for Students by Josh Catone of Read/WriteWeb

5th session: Collaborative Editing

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Editing
2. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs
3. “Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog” by Carie Windham
4. The Power of Wikis in Higher Ed by Linda L. Briggs
5. See Who’s Editing Wikipedia by John Borland

In-Class Activities:

1. Wikis in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (under 4 minutes)
2. Google Docs & Spreadsheets, MindMeister, Zoho Docs
3. Work on Class Wiki. Some examples to explore in class:
   • 21st Century Learning
   • the Schommunity Wiki
   • wikifachdidaktikws07
   • Cultural Anthropology at KSU
   • CivWiki: Culturas de España
   • Horizon Project Wiki
   • Connected Intelligence Wiki
   • NoteMesh
4. WikiTrust,
5. Brainstorm class projects

6th session: Assessment

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Beyond Campus Boundaries ePortfolio Transforms into ‘Cultural Application’, a conversation with Trent Batson
2. Student Web Portfolios St. Olaf College
3. UCONN’s eportfolio You’ll need to get an account to view this.
4. The Chronicle of Higher Ed: The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority by Michael Jensen for subscribers only. For an earlier and freely available version, see Authority 2.0 and 3.0: The Collision of Authority and Participation in Scholarly Communications by Michael Jensen.
5. Educause—Technology and Learning: Defining What You Want to Assess by Joni E. Spurlin

In-Class Activities:

1. Work on class project
2. Work on course wiki

7th session: Digital Storytelling

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling
2. Podcasts: What it is and how it works by Craig Syverson of gruntmedia
3. The Chronicle of Higher Ed: Lectures on the Go by Brock Read
4. Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective by Carie Windham
5. Campus Technology’s iPod Course Design not required reading
6. Consensus: Podcasting Has No ‘Inherent’ Value by Paul McCloskey
7. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting not required reading
8. 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story Wiki by Alan Levine

In-Class Activities:

1. Voicethread, podcasting, animoto, mogulus, talkshoe
2. Work on class project
3. Work on course wiki

8th session: Social Networking

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Comparing Social Networking to Online Communities by Lee and Sachi Lever
2. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Facebook
3. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Facebook II
4. I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You by Clive Thompson, NYTimes
5. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter
6. Why I Still Love Twitter by Isabelle Jones

In-Class Activities:

1. Social Networking in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (under 2 minutes)
2. Facebook, pownce, jaiku, twitter, ning
3. Work on class project
4. Work on course wiki

9th session: Social Annotation

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Five Ways to Mark Up the Web by Nick Gonzalez of TechCrunch
2. Educause: Calibrated Peer Review: A Writing and Critical Thinking Instructional Tool
3. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking
4. Social Bookmarking in Plain English by Lee and Sachi LeFever (3.25 minutes)
5. Wordle: using word clouds in a lesson by José Picardo

In-Class Activities:

1. Del.icio.us, Diigo, Fleck, Flickr, Stickis, Wordle
2. Using del.icio.us to create an easy, always updated online portfolio by Michele Martin
3. Why Would Teachers Use Diigo? by Clif Mims
4. Work on class project
5. Work on course wiki

10th session: Presentation Tools

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educating the Net Generation: Chapter 7, Convenience, Communications, and Control: How Students Use Technology ; Chapter 9, Curricula Designed to Meet 21st-Century Expectations
2. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Google Jockeying

In-Class Activities:

1. Spresent, slideshare, Flickr Slideshow, Google Docs, Screencast-0-Matic, CamStudio (Windows only)
2. Work on class project
3. Work on class wiki

11th session: Virtual, Mobile Connections

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educause: From Distraction to Interaction: Incorporating Cell Phones Into the Learning Environment
2. eSchool News Online: Educators Assess iPhones For Instruction. You’ll need to register for a free account to see the entire article.
3. The Official Google Blog: The Future of Mobile
4. Liz Kolb’s Wiki: Cell Phones in Learning
5. Liz Kolb’s K12 Online Conference 2008 presentation
6. Educating the Net Generation, Chapter 12, Learning Spaces
   

In-Class Activities:

1. Skype call with Liz Kolb, author of Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education
2. Skype, GizmoProject
3. WizIQ
4. Dimdim
5. skrbl
6. ClassSpot
7. TeamSpot
8. Work on class wiki

12th session:Viral Videos

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About YouTube
2. Educating the Net Generation, Chapter 15, Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles: Implications for Investments in Technology and Faculty
   

In-Class Activities:

1. YouTube, GoogleVideo, Vimeo, TeacherTube, Viddler, Ustream
2. Work on class project
3. Work on class wiki

13th session: Online Rights and Safety

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Digital Millennium Act: An Overview by the UCLA Online Institute for Cyperspace Law and Policy
2. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Creative Commons
3. Creative Commons
4. Identity 2.0 by Dick Hardt
5. “The Online Amplification Effect” by Margaret Soltan
6. “Admissions of Guilt” by Terry Calhoun

In-Class Activities:

1. Example of Higher Ed Creative Commons Use: Drew University Writing Program On-line Resources for Writers
2. MIT Digital Repository
3. Connexions
4. Next Vista for Learning
5. OpenID
6. ClaimID

14th session: Mashups and Virtual Worlds

For Class Discussion (to prepare in advance):

1. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Mapping Mashups
2. Dr. Mashup; Or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix by Brian Lamb
3. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Google Earth
4. The Power of the Mashup by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss
5. Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Virtual Worlds

In-Class Activities:

1. Google Maps: Create Personalized Maps (under 2 minutes)
2. Google Earth
3. Supermarket 2.0 (under 6 minutes)
4. Second Life
5. Share class projects
6. Wrap up, review
7. Course wiki