Discussion: REQUIRED - Personal Technology Projects Introduction

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2014-03-11T13:40:47-06:00

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS - Getting Started

Over the course of the next 3 weeks you will do your last major project. Actually, this project will consist of a few, mini projects referred to as Personal Technology Projects (PTP). The rationale behind these projects is to provide you with opportunities to learn more technologies that are of interest to you and would be beneficial in your teaching. To complete the requirements for these assignments, you must earn a combined total of 15 points from all of the projects. Many projects are worth 5 points, so doing 3 projects would provide you with the 15 points you need. Some are worth 10 points and a few are worth 15. It does not matter what combination you choose to do so long as you get the 15 points.

Each week there will be an assignments page that will allow you to turn in a project. If you choose to do 3 projects worth 5 points each, turn one project in each week. If you are doing a 10 point project you have 2 weeks to do it, so you may not turn in a project one of the weeks. Obviously, a 15 point project would not be due until the end of the third week. On the weeks where you do not submit an assignment you must comment on the assignment page by saying "I'm working on _____ project and here's where I am at on it". Doing this allows me to know that you are actually working on a project and helps you stay on top of the class.

You can see several of the most popular project options on the http://iptedtec.org website. Click on "secondary education" and then the "personal technology cluster" badge. You'll see that it says, "pick one of these (i.e. these are the 15-point projects) or three of these. (these are the 5 point projects)."

However, remember that the point of this project is to provide maximum flexibility for you! We want you to pick a project(s) that (1) is a technology, or two, that you don't know already and (2) will be useful for you in your teaching. So whatever technology fits those two requirements will be a good choice!

Select Your Projects

You can select projects to work on by visiting the badges/tutorials website:

http://iptedtec.org/

And completing projects in the Personal Technology Cluster.

You are welcome to learn any technology that (1) you don't currently know and (2) will be useful for teaching your content area.

Workshops

Part of this unit is having some opportunities to learn and be exposed to some new technologies that you might be able to use later, even if you don't use them for one of your personal projects. To that end, all of the IPT 286 teachers will be teaching workshops during the next three weeks on various technologies. Some will be useful to you in your subject area, but some won't. Your requirement is to attend two workshops of your choice. These don't have to be workshops that I teach. If you go to a workshop, be sure to ask the instructor to mark you as attending so we can give you credit.

Here's the workshop schedule. All places are the MSE computer lab @ 4-5 p.m. unless otherwise stated!

1 - No workshop

12 - Social bookmarking & online polling

13 - Studiocode with Anneke in SFH 249 / in the MSE fishbowl: iBooks Author

14 - Google Earth

18 - making infographics with Adobe illustrator

19 - Online Presentations

3-4: Excel

20 - Studiocode

21 - Audio editing

25 - Photoshop, iMovie on iPad, (maybe based on student interest after hearing there is an info graphic workshop available as well?)

A few important notes:

1. You don't have to do any of these technologies listed as badges. If you know of a technology that you think you would love to use in your teaching, you are free to do it! Just email me, tell me what you want to do, how long you think it will take to learn it, and what you will produce that you will show me afterwards, and we'll negotiate an assignment expectation for you.

2. You don't have to do the technologies you learn in the workshops. We ask that you attend at least two workshops just to learn some new things, but you can end up doing your projects on other things if you wish.

3. Make sure when you go to the workshops that you tell the instructor who you are and which instructor, so they can mark you down for attendance!

Discussion

Before moving on, let's talk about what technologies might be good to learn. Please participate in this discussion by answering the following questions:

1. What are some of the most difficult teaching and learning problems you envision facing in your specific content area?

2. What technologies do you think might help you better teach these challenging topics?

3. What do you think are the most important technologies in your subject area and why? (may or may not be the same as for #2).