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The American University
College of Arts and Sciences
School of Education
Syllabus - EDU 519 (Uses of Technology in Education)
Summer 2011 – Session 2 (June 21 – July 29)
Course Prefix, Number, Title, and Credit:
EDU 519.001 Uses of Technology in Education
3 semester hours
Location: Online
Adjunct Professor: Jack A. Hyman
Office Hours:
As Requested Online
Phone: 703.283.3820 (c) | 678-395-3830 (h) (Please call before 11pm)
E-mail: hyman@american.edu
AIM/GChat: JackHatAU/jahyman
Facebook: Jack Hyman
Course Description
An introduction to educational computer literacy focusing on the effective use of technology in teaching and
educational management. The course emphasizes criteria for evaluating software; using technology for effective
teaching; and applying technology to strengthen management systems. Also provides students hands-on experience
with a broad range of software and practical experience in applying technology to teaching and management.
Usually offered every fall.
REQUIRED COURSE TEXT
None
Philosophy of the School of Education:
The faculty of the School of Education is committed to excellence in advancing educational theory and
practice through the initial and continuing development of reflective, dedicated and proficient teachers,
administrators and researchers. Graduates are equipped to meet the individual needs, to nurture the
strengths and talents of students, community, diversity, equity, excellence of those individuals, and to
initiate and provide leadership in classrooms, educational institutions, and in public policy arenas. The
mission of the SOE is derived from the faculty's shared conviction that the fundamental task of schooling
in America is the advancement of the welfare of children. The faculty of the School of Education wants
our teacher education program to be known for preparing effective teachers who understand and model a
commitment to excellence, equity, community and diversity.
The School of Education faculty and staff are committed to celebrating diversity and building a
community of learners. As we work in collaborating in and out of the classroom:


We believe that respecting each other's differences and opinions leads to a positive and open
environment,
We believe that open discourse promotes reflective and thoughtful educators;
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

We believe that equitable treatment of each other is necessary for a positive, sustained, and
working community, and
We believe that each and every member of the community can make a valuable contribution to
the community.
General Information for School of Education Courses
Information about the University
There are three University publications you will need to refer to for various academic issues:
The University Catalog, 2010-2011
The Academic Regulations, 2009 (Nineteenth Edition)
The Student Handbook, 2010-2011
Incomplete Grades [Regulations, p. 21]
Faculty members may approve student requests for an incomplete grade in rare and extreme classes,
and must do so before the end of the semester. Only students who are passing a course (with a C or
better) are eligible for a grade of incomplete. Students must complete and submit an Incomplete
Contract Form to the faculty member.
Academic Integrity Code [Regulations, pp. 93-96]
Students are expected to conform to the regulations of the University in regard to academic
integrity, especially in regard to plagiarism, inappropriate collaboration, dishonesty in
examinations, dishonesty in papers, work for one course and submitted to another, deliberate
falsification of data, interference with other students' work, and copyright violation.
Services for Students with Disabilities [Handbook, pp. 81-88]
Appropriate modifications to academic requirements may be necessary on a case-by-case basis to
ensure educational opportunity for students with disabilities, and individual faculty members may
need to modify specific course requirements to permit equal participation by students with
disabilities.
Protection of Human Subjects Catalog, pp. 34-35
Any research involving interviewing, surveying, or observing human beings is subject to review
and approval by the University Institutional Review Board (IRB) and information about the
university’s IRB process is outlined at http://american.edu/provost/osp/IRB.cfm. The university
IRB liaison is Matthew Zembrzuski and his email is zembrzus@american.edu
Using Appropriate Documentation Formats
The School of Education, Teaching & Health permits the use of two formats for research
citations, footnotes, list of references, and layout, and all written work must adhere to
those guidelines:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, Washington, D.C.:
American Psychological Association, 2009. Online guide at
http://www.apastyle.org/manual/index.aspx
OR
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition) Modern Language
Association of America (2009). Online guide at
http://www.mlahandbook.org/fragment/public_index
Failure to use the format selected appropriately and accurately will result in a grade penalty.
Attention students in all graduate degree programs
Comprehensive Examinations [Regulations, p. 72]
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All students in masters programs must satisfactorily complete one or more comprehensive
examinations. In the School of Education, Teaching & Health written comprehensive exams consist
of oral comprehensives (for Health Promotion) or a series of one or two-hour essay responses
completed in a 4 hour testing session each semester. Comprehensive examinations are based on the
contents of the entire program, with the content of specific courses included in the comprehensive
exam cumulatively.
Emergency Preparedness
In the event of a declared pandemic (influenza or other communicable disease), American University will
implement a plan for meeting the needs of all members of the university community. Should the
university be required to close for a period of time, we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our
educational programs will be delivered to our students. These may include altering and extending the
duration of the traditional term schedule to complete essential instruction in the traditional format and/or
use of distance instructional methods. Specific strategies will vary from class to class, depending on the
format of the course and the timing of the emergency. Faculty will communicate class-specific
information to students via AU e-mail and Blackboard, while students must inform their faculty
immediately of any absence due to illness. Students are responsible for checking their AU e-mail
regularly and keeping themselves informed of emergencies. In the event of a declared pandemic or other
emergency, students should refer to the AU Web site (www. prepared. american.edu) and the AU
information line at (202) 885-1100 for general university-wide information, as well as contact their
faculty and/or respective dean’s office for course and school/ college-specific information.
Student Expectations:
You are expected to participate in all aspects of the class: complete assigned readings before the dates on
which they are to be discussed, participate actively and thoughtfully in class discussions, complete
required writing assignments, and follow university regulations regarding academic and behavioral
integrity. 3-hour courses at AU typically meet face to face over a 15-week semester for 37.5 hours. This
does not include the additional time it takes to read and research for the course.
Standards of academic conduct are set forth in the University’s Academic Integrity Code. By registering,
you have acknowledged your awareness of the Academic Integrity Code, and you are obliged to become
familiar with your rights and responsibilities as defined by the Code. Violations of the Academic
Integrity Code will not be treated lightly, and disciplinary actions will be taken should such violations
occur. Please contact me if you have any questions about the academic violations described in the Code
in general or as they relate to particular requirements for this course.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Using another’s ideas and/or words as your own constitutes plagiarism.
It is therefore critical that you cite all sources you discuss and consult. As a rule of thumb all sources
(texts, photographs, music, internet materials, interviews, etc.) that are directly quoted, paraphrased, or
consulted need to have a proper citation. If I suspect plagiarism, I will submit the case to the office of the
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences as required by the Academic Integrity Code. The Dean’s office
will then investigate the claim and determine the outcome. The following websites should help you with
regard to what constitutes plagiarism and how to cite sources properly. The University Library’s
“Information Literacy Tutorial” is helpful in conducting research. Please use MLA, Chicago or APA
citation formats. Should you have any questions about how or when to cite, please ask me. Should you
have further questions about writing in general, feel free to ask me or contact the university’s Writing
Center in Battelle-Tompkins 228 at 885.2991. Citation software can be useful in documenting and
formatting sources. The university supports the use of Endnote, offering tutorials throughout the semester
in the library. Zotero is also a helpful, free web-based citation software system. You can watch various
Zotero tutorials to learn how to use Zotero and its variety of features.
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All announcements for the course will be posted on the front page of the Blackboard site.
Late work will result in a reduced grade. For each day an assignment is late (excluding daily
postings), half a letter grade will be deducted from the assignment. Extensions will occasionally be
graded for extenuating circumstances with documentation.
If you experience difficulty in this course for any reason, please don’t hesitate to consult with me. In
addition to the resources of the department, a wide range of services is available to support you in your
efforts to meet the course requirements.
Academic Support Center (x3360, MGC 243) offers study skills workshops, individual
instruction, tutor referrals, and services for students with learning disabilities. Writing support is
available in the ASC Writing Lab or in the Writing Center, Battelle-Tomkins 228.
Counseling Center (x3500, MGC 214) offers counseling and consultations regarding personal
concerns, self-help information, and connections to off-campus mental health resources.
Disability Support Services (x3315, MGC 206) offers technical and practical support and
assistance with accommodations for students with physical, medical, or psychological disabilities.
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please notify me in a timely manner with a
letter from the Academic Support Center or Disability Support Services so that we can make
arrangements to address your needs.
Computer Accounts:
Students may acquire computer accounts providing access to the email system and campus wide network
at AU (Eaglenet) through Computer Accounts in the Office of Information Technology. All students
MUST read their AU email, and are strongly encouraged to forward their AU email to the account they
read most frequently. All AU email accounts are issued free of charge and will expire when you graduate
from AU (or shortly thereafter).
Green Teaching
This is a Certified Green Course. This means, for example, that I will not hand out any printed materials,
but I will use Blackboard extensively to post handouts, collect assignments, and provide you with
feedback on assignments.
To help make our class as green as possible, I encourage you to buy used books, minimize paper use by
submitting assignments electronically as instructed, and read course readings online rather than printing
copies. If you choose to print, please print double-sided, and recycle the paper after the end of the
semester.
Assignments
All assignments will be submitted to the appropriate drop boxes on Blackboard or Emailed To Professor
Hyman at hyman@american.edu. Assignment due dates indicated on the schedule below.
Pedagogical Focus
Technology is only as good as the content it supports. Alone, technology is useless to educational endeavors,
particularly the learning process. Teaching about technology in isolation has limited value, although some
experiences that allow the learner to explore the technology for its own sake are necessary.
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My goal in teaching this course is to immerse you into experiencing the day in the life of an educational technology
expert. The class trains you on pertinent topics that are essential for being a subject matter expert in instructional
technology, with particular emphasis on Web-based learning. Through case studies and module based learning, you
will gain the knowledge to complete a capstone project.
Through the use of projects and literature reviews/seminar based discussions, an exploration of technology-oriented
subjects will be examined. Projects are collaborative in nature while social networking/blog based discussions are
more individually focused. Together, we will explore the capabilities of how technology can be leveraged to help
you teach in your native environments.
Course Objectives
 Students will gain advanced knowledge of computer applications and functions, including web-editing software,
multimedia authoring applications, educational and instructional software, and operating systems.

Students will apply knowledge of learning theories to the development of technology-based instructional
products and environments, such as websites, e-learning tools, digital classrooms, and multimedia presentations.

Students will become acclimated with best practices for supporting educational technologies in the classroom,
from a hardware/software and networking perspective including issues related to Internet and Information
Security.

Students will identify practices in which technology can enable educators to develop communities that are
culturally, economically, and socially diverse and equally open to both genders and to persons with
exceptionalities. This includes through the use of information retrieval tools and knowledge systems available
for educational and commercial use.

All projects and discussions that are components of this course are expected to meet criteria for excellence for
technical elements and instructional design.
EDU-519 GROUPS (as of 6/20/2011)
Three of the four assignments you will be completing are to be done with the groups assigned below. I expect that
everyone will use the tools on Blackboard under the link EDU-519 Groups to complete a majority of the
communication if you do not meet in person. Except for the online lesson plan, I have specified the topics each
group will be completing their assignments on. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to speak up sooner rather
than later.
TEAM 1
Blackwell, Joshua
Cantor, Julie
Cruz-esquea, Indira
Stuart, Matt
TEAM 2
Briggs, Clair
Campbell, Lincoln
Delaloye, Lauren
Dohmann, Gregory
TEAM 3
Collazo, Eric
Dunn, Beth
Dwivedi, Anamika
Frigolette, Marie
TEAM 4
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Garcia, Kristine
Glick, Michelle
Kansal, Ankit
Keo, Kamellia
TEAM 5
Kirk, Chelsea
Kolling, Jessica
Marek, Miriam
Mceldowney, Heather
TEAM 6
Swain, Emily
Washington, Amanda
Whitesides, Keenan
Williams, Jennifer
TEAM 7
Meserole, Callie
Pandolfo, Teresa
Payne, Tiffany
Pernell, Sean
Rippe, Carolyn
COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Online Lesson Plan (25%) – GROUP ASSIGNMENT
You are being create an interactive lesson plan based on a concept or topic relevant to professional
development, parental education, or a subject that could be taught in the classroom. The end goal is to
integrate a variety of tools into a single Website. You can complete this by building an online assessment, a
Webquest using an online educational resource provider, building a Website, an interactive video
presentation on a Website such as YouTube or Vimeo, or even a podcast. The sky is the limit with the
format. The goal here is to write a 3-5 page paper based learning script (Webpages for all purposes) which
outlines learning objectives that integrate web-based tools such as web-search, video, audio, and relevant
artifacts to enhance the learning experience for the student using a multimodal approach.
This assignment will be graded using the following criteria:
o
o
o

Content (10 points)
Format (6 points)
Integration of Multimedia and Web 2.0 (9 points)
Blogs (20%) – INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
You are expected to write five journal entries aimed at helping develop a classroom resource for your
students or parents to augment a lesson plan, communicate with your students and parents, or review an
educational worthy topic extensively discussed in your classroom. In the past, some student have infused
educational theory using web-based research tools such as those provided by Aladdin, Google Scholar, or
academic literature. It is expected that you will write well-structured 3-4 paragraph entries. For example, if
you were completing a lesson on quadratic equations, you would present the entry as follows. Each entry
would be graded in the same manner listed below (totaling 4 points per entry)
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a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Name of Entry (0 point)
Goal of Instructional Unit (1 point)
Basic Description of Assignment or Discussion Theme(.5 point)
Educational Theory Applied and Messaging Details (1.5 point)
How your students performed in completing this activity and what you will do to augment the
learning in future instructional units. (1 point)
Upon submission of all five entries (minimum), you will have a score of a maximum of 20 points.

Multimedia Presentations (25%) – GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Using PowerPoint, you are to create an instructional unit for your intended target audience given the topic
assigned in Lecture 3. It should be substantive in content, rich in graphics, integrate audio/video
(videocast/podcast), and provide some form of end of unit assessment. This should focus on how to use
these Websites, Social Media Tools, or Content Creation platforms for a classroom/professional
development purpose. Using the rubric (provided in Lecture 3), the format is specified.

Mobile Technology Research Report (15%)
In a seven (7) to ten (10) page well written single spaced research report, which is formatted using APA,
you will write on one of the following topics. This assignment must be researched using peer reviewed
literature and industry-based publications only. Blogs and unverified sources will not be accepted. You will
submit the final paper as part of a Blackboard thread so that others can learn about the topic you have
selected. Selection of a topic is on a first come first serve basis. Each topic can only be written twice (at
most). Each team has been assignment a topic below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Contextual Aware Digital Content (Team 1)
Gaming, Simulation, and Augmented Reality (Team 2)
Mobile Applications (Selection, Design, Implementation) (Team 3)
Multimedia Delivery (Podcast/Videocasting) (Team 4)
Search Capabilities (Team 5)
History of M-Learning (Team 6)
Mobile Usability and M-Learning (Team 7)
Participation (15%)
Active participation is necessary. Attending class is as well. You will receive up to 15% of your grade for attending
and actively participating. Each week you will be required to do the following:
1.
2.
respond to one question in our discussion on Blackboard
respond to two of your peers, and
Each week, the discussion forum is worth 3 points of your total grade.
Overall Grade Breakdown
Course Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
% Value
100-93
92-90
89.9-87
86.9-84
83.9-80
79.9-77
76.9-74
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CD
F
Date
6/21-6/27
6/28-7/4
7/5-7/11
7/12-7/18
7/19-7/28
73.9-70
69-60
Below 60
CLASS SCHEDULE, SUMMER 2011 – SESSION 2
These details are subject to change at the discretion of the professor.
Topic
Assignment Due
Introduction & Mobile Learning
None
Blogging, Vlogging, and WIkis
Mobile Learning Research (7/5)
Educational Presentational Media
Online Blog (7/12)
Online Assessment & Web 2.0
Online Presentation (7/19)
Designing an Online Lesson Plan
Online Lesson Plan (7/28)
Additional Information for students from the:
American University Academic Regulations
http://www.american.edu/american/registrar/AcademicReg/index.html
The Student Handbook
http://www.american.edu/handbook/StudentHandbook.pdf
Incomplete Grades
Faculty members must approve student requests for an incomplete grade, and must do so before the end of the
semester. Students must complete and submit an Incomplete Contract Form to the faculty member. Incompletes are
given only in cases of severe emergencies, or special, well-documented circumstances, etc.
Academic Integrity Code
Students are expected to conform to the regulations of the University in regard to academic integrity, especially in
regard to plagiarism, inappropriate collaboration, dishonesty in examinations, dishonesty in papers, work for one
course and submitted to another, deliberate falsification of data, interference with other students' work, and
copyright violation.
Services for Students with Disabilities
Appropriate modifications to academic requirements may be necessary on a case-by-case basis to ensure educational
opportunity for students with disabilities, and individual faculty members may need to modify specific course
requirements to permit equal participation by students with disabilities.
Protection of Human Subjects Catalog
Any research involving interviewing, surveying, or observing human beings is subject to review and approval by the
University Institutional Review Board (IRB). In the School of Education, the teaching unit liaison to the IRB is
Professor Sarah Irvine (Dean of the SOE), and inquiries about policies and procedures may be directed to her.
Using Appropriate Documentation Formats
The School of Education permits the use of two formats for research citations, footnotes, list of references, and
layout, and all written work must adhere to those guidelines:
American Psychological Association, (2009) Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth
Edition American Psychological Association Washington, D.C.
Failure to use the format selected appropriately and accurately will result in a grade penalty.
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