Technology for Teachers

(Eight Enlightening Saturdays during Spring 2010)

Click Here for the Spring 2010 brochure

Classes are held every other Saturday (with a break for Spring Break).  Please register  as soon as you to help us plan and prepare fully.  Registration will also be open all semester for individual sessions.

OPTION I:

Choose from 1-8  sessions. Receive 6 Professional Development Credit Hours for each day you attend.

OPTION II:

Attend all eight sessions and receive 48 Professional Development Credit Hours PLUS 3 graduate credit units. Some out-of-class work is required and a grade will be given.

TAKE-HOME MATERIALS

Teaching materials and sample lesson plans provided for each session.

LOCATION AND TIME

Sessions are held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in NJIT's University Heights Campus, with a break for lunch. Click here for directions.

LUNCH

The NJIT Campus Center hosts several eateries, which you can visit during the lunch break. You will find the food court in the main dining hall, the Grill, the Trattoria, and the Tech Cafe, which brews Starbucks coffee. A microwave is available. There is also a convenience store across from the campus center elevators.

Information:

• Session Details
• About The Instructor (What do attendees say about Roberto?)
• Course Features
• Fees
• Registration and Payment
• Graduate Course Information
• Session Location and Getting to NJIT (driving and easy access by public transportation)
• Feedback and Suggestions (whether you have taken the course or suggestions would make it more attractive to you)
• What Teacher's Say About this Program

Other neat links:

• High School Design Competition web site - bring your students!
• IS Department @ NJIT

This Web site: is.njit.edu/teachertech

Email: teacher@njit.edu

Session Details  (top)

Saturday January 23, 2010

AM: Wikis and Blogs

Explore the concept of wikis and blogs, their primary uses, and some of their main features. Create your own wiki consisting of multiple interconnected pages.  Then edit these pages, and add pictures and other features to enhance your wiki.  Create a blog, enter and view postings, and add additional elements to these.  View and discuss examples of existing wikis and blogs on the Internet, such as Wikipedia.org and Blogger.  We also discuss issues concerning blogs and wikis that could cause potential problems for different stakeholders.

PM: Freeware

Software is expensive.  Many times the same functionality can be obtained legally for free.  Explore the concept of freeware, its primary motivation, characteristics and associated risks.  Try out freeware that you could use in the classroom supporting activities such as educational crossword puzzles, zooming the computer screen in and out for class presentations, word processing, and a thesaurus with synonyms and antonyms.  Learn how to locate, download and install freeware on the Internet.  Explore some Web sites that have readily available freeware.

Saturday February 6

AM: Basic/Advanced Excel (2 tracks: basic & advanced)

In basic Excel, we discuss the concept of spreadsheets, their major uses, and explain the main features.  Create your own spreadsheet that uses relative and absolute references for constructing formulas, and functions.  Edit, rename, and do basic formatting of the spreadsheet.  Learn some tips for creating spreadsheets. 

In advanced Excel, we cover advanced formatting, adding and removing sheets to the workbook, as well as creating and enhancing charts.  We also create and use templates, use advanced functions to make decisions, manage scenarios, and create and use macros.

PM: Basic/Advanced PowerPoint (2 tracks: basic & advanced)

In basic PowerPoint, we discuss the concept of presentation software, its primary purpose, and explain the main features.  Create, format, and edit your own slides, learning aspects such as using design templates, and searching and replacing text throughout the entire presentation.  Preview your presentation.  

In advanced PowerPoint, add pictures and multimedia elements.  Incorporate animation schemes, slide transitions and custom animations to enhance your presentation.  Use features such as tables, action buttons, the slide master, and macros.  Lastly, package your presentation for optimal viewing.

Saturday February 20

AM: MS Publisher (& a bit of advanced Outlook)

Use MS Publisher to create and redesign publications.  Discuss concepts behind Publisher, its main purpose and some of its major features.  Create your own publication document fitting a desired publication type and subtype.  Assign the publication a color and font schemes.  Cover additional activities including inserting and removing frames, inserting pictures and other elements, and wrapping text around frames.  Utilize other features to enhance and polish the publication, including a master page, the design checker and producing a web publication. 

In Outlook, create a distribution list, and learn features such as creating and managing tasks, appointments, and meetings.

PM: Advanced Word + Integrated MS Office

Practice tracking and managing document changes, by accepting, rejecting, showing and hiding the changes.  Cover how to save multiple versions of a document, incorporate comments, and protect a document with a password for restricted access.  Combine different revisions of the same document into a single document.  Use and customize templates to create new documents quickly.  Create and use macros.  Learn to do Office Integration such as linking Excel charts to Word documents, and inserting a spreadsheet into a PowerPoint slide and how to then access it during a presentation. Explore security issues related to these topics.

Saturday March 6

AM+PM: Podcasting (all-day session)

This session will enable you to teach your students how to create audio and video podcasts for their class projects.  Explore the concept of podcasting, its purposes, and some of the main features. Create your own audio-only podcast.  Edit podcasts and add effects to them.  Incorporate additional voice, sound or music files to your podcast, managing their volume levels.  Produce an MP3 file as your final product. 

Create your own video podcast, recording the computer screen and a PowerPoint presentation for later editing.  Incorporate music and sound effects.  Produce the video file as your final product.  Discuss important guidelines about the dos and don'ts of audio and video podcasting.

Saturday March 20

AM+PM: Digital Movie Making (all-day session)

Create your own digital movies.  Incorporate video captured from a webcam, or imported from other sources using freeware programs or software that comes with Microsoft XP and Vista.  Edit your movie by rearranging, combining, splitting, and trimming clips.  Add movie titles and credits.  Incorporate transitions, special effects and narration.  Include pictures, either obtained from a video frame or imported from other sources.  Preview your project to determine that all elements of the movie fit together correctly.  Finally, produce the movie project as a single video file.  This session will enable you to teach your students how to create digital video for their class projects.

Saturday April 17

AM+PM: Games in Education (all-day session)

Using online games for teaching???  Online games clearly can be an important learning tool.  Try out some online educational games and discuss their features, advantages and disadvantages.  Discuss a meaningful learning philosophy concerning how some games could provide students with a bridge between previously acquired and new knowledge.  Debate the pros and cons of learning through computer games.  Search for educational games on the Internet and review a list of online resources for games.  Examine virtual worlds such as Second Life and how they can be used for education.

Saturday May 1

AM: Beginning Web Development

In this session we focus on Web design using HTML.  Specific topics we cover include the basics of HTML, displaying content with headings, and organization using paragraphs, lists, and line breaks.  Practice adding images to make web pages more interesting and colorful.  Use "styles" to change how groups of items and their backgrounds appear in web pages.  Create links between web pages and also to external web sites.  Begin to use Microsoft Expression to design web pages.

PM: Intermediate Web Development

Enhance your web page and set up a full Web site.  Understand the different uses of hyperlinks in HTML.  We compare several tools to create Web sites, and then concentrate on Microsoft Expression.  Create your own full Web site with multiple pages in Expression and edit their content.  Add pictures, frames, and other elements to these pages.  Learn how to change the properties of elements and pages to refine the web site.   Preview and evaluate your work for correctness and aesthetics.

Saturday May 15

AM: SocialWare

We are teaching the MySpace generation.  Explore and understand socialware such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia and Delicious.  These have useful implications for teaching.  Discuss the concept of socialware, its main purpose and some of its key components.  Try out some socialware such as Wikipedia, YouTube, etc.  Explore social bookmarking with Delicious, set this up in a Web browser, tag and share bookmarks with others, create group tags, and search for existing content based on other people's bookmarks.  Learn about Facebook and its main features.  Learn how to create and customize groups, use discussion forums, create and customize events, and invite people to these.  Discuss some issues concerning the risks and consequences of socialware.  Lastly, examine some hardware devices with socialware embedded within them. 

PM: Effective Web Searching, Internet Safety & Ethics

Web Searching:  Move beyond basic Google by  learning how to search effectively!  Explore the concepts of Web directories, digital libraries, search engines, and meta search engines. Compare the different search engines and their features.  Practice advanced searches using Boolean operators, numerical ranges, and special keywords, etc., and then techniques for refining the search.  Learn how to evaluate search results to determine accuracy.  Discuss how to use search engines to detect plagiarism. Use Google's additional features such as the calculator and unit conversion.

Internet Safety and Ethics:  Discuss concepts and concerns with safety, privacy, misinformation, and malware regarding email, Web sites and other Internet tools.  Consider specific examples.  Contrast and debate different ways of dealing with these issues.  Explore the concept of ethics regarding the Internet and its distinction from legal aspects.  Review how ethics are incorporated within computing guidelines.  Learn how to do an ethical analysis comprising a series of well-defined steps.  Then analyze and debate a case study regarding ethical issues. 

About the Instructor (top)

Course Features (top)

• Receive professional development credit.
• Each class provides lesson plans and materials to help you teach these topics to your students.
• For each topic, practice what you learn with a hands-on practicum or case study analysis, which you can use with your students.
• Experienced instructor.
• Easy access from major highways.
• Free parking.
• NJIT is convenient to public transportation - only a five minute subway ride from NJIT Penn Station.
• Reasonable fees.

Fees (top)

To cover our costs, we are asking the following fees:

• single session: $75 (covers two topics, morning and afternoon, 6 professional development credits)
• all 8 sessions: $500 (48 professional development credits)
• registration as a graduate course: $2637 (standard NJIT graduate tuition rate for 3 graduate credits, includes 48 professional development credits)

Registration and Payment (top)

Click here to register

You will receive a confirmation of your registration within one week of registering on the web site. Please pay by purchase order, check or credit card.

Make checks or purchase orders payable to "NJIT - IS Department". Let us know if you need an invoice. Mail payments or purchase orders to the following address after registering:

NJIT
Information Systems Department, GITC 5500
University Heights
Newark, NJ 07102-1982
Attn: Technology for Teachers Course

Graduate Course Information (top)

If you enroll in the full graduate course, there will be some additional requirements. For homework you will need to prepare a full lesson plan for each day's 2 modules, based on the materials handed out in class. You will participate in follow-up discussion online between sessions with the registered students and the instructor on the materials. We also are considering a semester project which will take about a day to prepare.

If you go on for further graduate studies, the Technology Issues for Teachers course will count as one elective course towards the 10 courses within the MS in Information Systems degree.

To register for the full graduate course:

1. Register your name and address for our records with the Technology  for Teachers site.
2. The NJIT graduate course number is IS 698-104. You will need to apply to NJIT as a non-matriculated student, and then register through NJIT's registration system.
3. Apply as a non-degree student. You do not need to get any signature approvals to take this course, as the form may request.
4. If you do not apply online, then fax the form to (973) 596-3461.
5. Once you get confirmation, you should create a university ID (UCID).
6. Register for IS 698-104 at http://my.njit.edu (the Highlander Pipeline). [This will not be available until late November.  Please do the prior steps now in preparation.]
7. Select "Student Services" and then select "Student Services" under "Web for Students" and then "Registration". Register for IS 698-104.

Session Location and Getting to NJIT (top)

• location, directions and maps

Feedback and Suggestions (top)

We welcome your feedback, whether you have taken the course or have suggestions on changing the course to better suit your interests.

• feedback/suggestion form

What Teachers Said about Technology for Teachers with Roberto Muñoz (top)

• Great!  Instructor was very knowledgeable and patient.
• I learned a great deal today and will take more courses in this series
• Hands-on experience was great
• Very interesting and useful
• Roberto is very patient
• Roberto has an excellent style of teaching on the college level—very patient and knowledgeable
• Good use of specific examples from a variety of disciplines
• Nice job
• Excellent presentation
• I wouldn’t change a thing.  Great presentation.
• Great lesson
• This was great!!
• You were excellent.  I give you an A+
• Excellent course (all sessions)
• Exceeded my wildest expectations.  Will recommend to fellow teachers.
• Perfect! - Thanks!