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SFU EDUC 804 Assignments (Fall 2005) | |||
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Your final grade for the course will be determined based on the following components:
Each of the above items
will be assigned a letter grade, according to criteria that will be discussed
in class. The weighted average of the components listed above will become your
final grade in the course.
Late Policy
If you are late in submitting something for class, marks will be deducted from what you earn for the assignment at a rate of a half letter grade per day. This formula means that it is possible to get an A on a perfect assignment which is one day late. After three days, a perfect assignment could only receive a B+. At five days late, the best a perfect assignment could get is a C.
Our on-line discussions each week start with each student making a short written reaction (about 200 words) to the assigned readings for class, and posting it on our on-line discussion forum. This should be done by Monday evening at the latest so that other students can read it and respond. Since our class meets face-to-face each week, the purpose of the on-line discussion is to maximize what we get out of the face-to-face discussions in class, not replace them. Having some limited discussion on-line prior to class helps to ensure that everyone has thought a bit about the readings before we meet, and given consideration to how others' thoughts about them differ. With this done, we can concentrate our face-to-face discussions on evaluating the ideas that have been put forward, and working toward a more cohesive view of the field. This is extremely difficult to do on-line.
Your on-line reaction may be
one or a combination of:
It's good to share personal experiences when these are relevant; but try to avoid purely personal reflections -- your thoughts should connect to the reading in a clear way, using quotations if possible.
You should contribute to the on-line discussion every week,
if it all possible. There may be a week or two in which the readings don't connect
very well with your interests (we can't all be intrested in everything), so
there will not be any penalty for not posting in a given week.
Your portfolio of contributions to the on-line
discussions will be graded according to the following scheme:
A+ |
There is evidence that you've engaged actively in helping advance not only your own understanding of the material and the field, but that of others in the class as well. |
A |
Your notes are thoughtful, well-written and coherent; showing evidence of having read the assigned texts carefully and worked the ideas over. Your portfolio documents advances in your own understanding of the field. |
B |
Your portfolio reflects somewhat hasty or incomplete reading, limited thought, or little effort to communicate ideas clearly. Your weekly contributions may consist substantially of summaries of the assigned text, or personal ideas that don't connect clearly to the ideas in the readings. |
C |
Your portfolio does not reflect consistent effort to engage in undertanding of the material. Many weekly contributions are missing, or are incomprehensible to the instructor. |
Your major assignment for the course will be an 8-page paper that explores in depth one of the traditions of research and development on the syllabus. Each tradition is associated with a particular kind of technology for learning (e.g. LOGO, Cognitive Tutors), but equally important is the set of ideas about learning that motivated the researchers to design the technology they did, and that shape its use and evaluation.
There is a lot to know about each of these traditions that
we will not have time to cover in class, and you will get to choose
which tradition is of greatest interest to you personally. For each tradition
I can recommend some additional reading to get you started, but you will also
need to spend time in the library and on the Net, finding additional resources
yourself.
Your paper is meant to be more than a summary of sources. We've
all written enough book reports for one lifetime! Your submission should, instead,
offer a reasoned and persuasive view of what you've read and experienced. You
can choose any angle you like on the material, but at a minimum, your paper
will have to address the following questions, which may not be directly addressed
in the resources you collect:
Note: You may find it useful to explicitly
organize your text around these questions (as headings), but this is not required
so long as you directly address each question/issue somewhere.
Here is how your grade for the paper will break down:
Description of the tradition and its "big ideas" about learning |
20% |
Brief history of work done in the tradition |
30% |
Predictions and/or suggestions for the future |
20% |
Explanation of general lessons for educational technologists |
20% |
Overall clarity of presentation, effective use of English, and format requirements met |
10% |
Your final paper should be no more than 8 pages in length (12 point times, single spaced,
one inch margins), not counting references. This may not sound like
much space to fill; but if you are doing good quality work you should find yourself
writing 10 or 15 pages, and having to edit down to fit within the limit. Marks
will be deducted if you go over the required length.
Further details on this assignment will be discussed in class,
along with this sample paper from last year.
Peer reviews of other
students' papers
As the introductory course for our Master's specialization
in Education and Technology, this course should help establish a learning community
within your cohort. Ultimately, your professors should not be the only ones
offering you feedback on your work; you should be able to rely
on one another for feedback as well. To this end, when you prepare a draft of
your major paper for the course, you will submit copies to two of your fellow
students, as well as to me. You will also write two brief, constructive reviews of other students' work, focusing on the most
obvious ways in which they can improve their submissions.
While this course is meant mostly to provide a base of knowledge
for your future work in the program, I know that every student has personal
and professional scholarly interests to explore in relation to Education and
Technology. I do not want to make you wait until your second semester in the
program to begin doing this. To this end, you will have some structured opportunity
in this course to "locate" your professional interests within the
literature, in consultation with your peers, your instructor and other professors
affiliated with the program. This is your opportunity to do some investigation
to resolve (or at least open up) questions such as:
Your inquiry may have to do with specific technologies (e.g. PowerPoint) or teaching practices (e.g. Problem-based learning), or may be more oriented around ideas (e.g. motivation to learn). Like the "Traditions" paper, this component of your grade will require some independent search of the literature on your part; but you won't be entirely alone. The class will work together on-line and in person to help you get a fix on what interests you, and find at least one or two publications that can serve as resources for you.
Your inquiry will be presented in the form of a short (15-minute) oral presentation to the class. For the presentation you may use any media you wish (PowerPoint, video, etc.) so long as we can provide them in the CET. For very tech-intensive presentations it is a good idea to come in early and test your setup so as not to waste class time troubleshooting.
Three evaluation criteria will be applied to your work:
Connection to the literature
Analytical/Evaluative component
Forward-looking component