IT 560

Institutional Contexts for Technology

Last Modified: April 15, 2001

Peter Theodore
Alumni Hall, Room 1111
(618)650-3291
ptheodo@siue.edu

Course Description

This course will focus on many of the issues related to integration of technology in educational institutions. Planning models, leadership, management, professional development, and integration models will be explored.

Learning Community

Students will participate in a learning community, working together to learn about issues related to technology in educational institutions. Discussion will take place in class during weekly seminars and on an electronic bulletin board discussion. The following questions were agreed upon to begin the discussion:

How do we change beliefs and practices about technology in schools?
What role should technology play in schooling?
How should we plan for technology integration?
How should technology be managed and organized?
How do various kinds of technology affect who we are, what we communicate, and how we learn?

Students also divided into teams to investigate various aspects of technology in institutional contexts. The following forums were created in the electronic bulletin board discussion to facilitate the work of these groups:

Curriculum (technology and the curriculum)
Curriculum Theory
Grant Writing
Internet
Job Descriptions (for technology coordinators)
Professional Development
Software
Technology Integration

Required Readings

The WWW resources found by students and posted to the Web site the class created as a manual for technology coordinators provided most of the readings for the course. In addition, the following two readings were assigned:

Chapters 12, 13 and 14 from The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst, by Stephen Talbott. (The title of the book links to an html version available on the WWW.)
Computer-mediated Communication and Education: An Exploration of How Whitehead, Dewey, and Freire Might Respond to the Eduational Challenges and Opportunities, by Peter Theodore (The title of the essay links to a pdf version available on the WWW.)

HTML Resources

Learning about the construction of Web sites is an important part of this course. The following HTML resources are provided as resources for students:

Compatibility

AWARE Center homepage - HTML Writers Guild
http://aware.hwg.org/

Viewable With Any Browser -- Campaign
http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/

HTML Authoring Services
http://www.delorie.com/web/

Validation

W3C HTML Validation Service
http://validator.w3.org/

HTML Validation Tools
http://www.weblint.org/validation.html

HTML Validators
http://www.flfsoft.com/html/html_validators.html

Dr. Watson
http://watson.addy.com/

A free, downloadable validator you can use on your own computer
http://www.htmlvalidator.com/lite/

(The main page of for the CSE HTML Validator, professional and free versions
http://www.htmlvalidator.com/)

Other

Text-friendly Authoring Topics
http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/alt/

The World Wide Web Consortium
http://www.w3.org/

A Manual for Technology Coordinators

Students constructed a Web site, Institutional Contexts for Technology, that brought together what they learned in this course and could serve as a resource for those interested in learning about technology in institutional contexts, especially with regard to working as technology coordinators in k-12 educational settings.

Student Evaluation

Class Participation	10%
WebCT Participation	30%
Other Projects/Tasks	30%
Final Project	30%

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