Beyond BlackBOREDOM ITEA Conference San Antonio, Texas Presented by James Boe Instructor, Department of Technology Valley City State University Valley City, ND

National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education Program (ATE) Engineering Technology Competencies: Integrating Curriculum and Forging Pathways.

Project Goal  Develop a curricula and implementation model that results in increased ability and pursuit of careers within the field of engineering. Model: K-12 students apply critical math, science, and technology knowledge while planning, designing, testing, revising, and implementing engineering activities. Challenge: Prepare, motivate, and retain students in the pursuit of engineering related opportunities.

Project Objectives  Objective 1: Online Teacher Education Model Design, implement, and document a model of effective, interactive, online teacher training that results in teacher retention and satisfaction.  Objective 2: Develop and Disseminate Classroom Implementable Products All participating teachers will develop three standards-based products for each of their eight course units. These classroom implementable products will score at least a 2.5 on the rubric and will be shared online.  Objective 3: Articulated Standards-based Engineering Technology Pathway Create an articulated standards-based engineering technology course series that informs, motivates, and prepares middle and high school students for progressively more sophisticated competencies.

Project Partners  Bismarck Public Schools (fiscal agent, implementation)  Valley City State (curriculum and teacher training)  Bismarck State College (curriculum, support)  ND Department of Career and Technical Education (curriculum and support)

Project Overview  This project is developing a curricula and an implementation model that has provided in increased ability and fostered the pursuit of higher education in the field of engineering. The curricula and model is resulting in middle and high school students applying critical math, science, and technology knowledge while they plan, design, test, revise, and implement engineering activities.  The value added product, as a result of this project, is standards-based units of study at the 7-12 level and an articulated pathway for learners to successfully transition to two-year engineering technician programs. The units of study are assembled into two separate curricula for the middle and high school levels and a model implementation plan.

ETP Website

The Model  Research-based curriculum Standards-based and interdisciplinary  Comprehensive pathway and articulation plan (K-14)  Instructional model Unit design Instructional strategies

Courses  TECH 665: Innovation and Engineering Design (middle school) Course prepares prospective teachers to teach a middle school course emphasizing engineering design activities to understand how criteria, constraints, and processes affect designs. Brainstorming, visualizing, modeling, constructing, testing and refining designs will be studied.  TECH 660: Design for Engineering (high school) Course provides an orientation and exposure to the careers and challenges of engineering. Major engineering concepts included are modeling, systems, optimization, technology-society interaction, design and ethics.

Online Course Delivery  Course is delivered through Valley City State University

BlackBoard  Create learning content online  Custom learning paths for individuals  Facilitation of communication, participation and collaboration  Evaluation of work  Deliver Publisher content. Learning Management System (LMS)

Online Course Delivery  Valley City State University Online Course Homepage

Online Course Delivery  Unit and Assignment Description

Online Courses Should Be Great! Right?

Not Always  They Can be: Time consuming Boring Confusing Isolated

What Can Make It Better?  The amount of involvement and participation of online students is based on how the instructor develops, organizes, and facilitates the content.  Images/Diagrams  Multimedia  Communication  Collaboration tools  Video  Interactivity

BlackBoard Collaboration Tools  Most LMS have limited collaboration tools built in for students and instructors. Chat room – Basic instant messaging software for class participants and instructor. Virtual Classroom – This is a simple collaboration software with whiteboard, shared browser and polling software. Discussion Board – Static bulletin board system for posting and responding to students and instructors.

Other Collaboration Options  Online instruction has numerous options beyond the Learning Management System. Desktop video conferencing Web collaboration tools Virtual Classrooms Instant Messaging Streaming Video

Desktop Video Conferencing  Desktop video conferencing has improved and now many are absolutely free. NetMeeting/Xmeeting iVisit Marratech Free Skype Ineen And many more….

NetMeeting/Xmeeting  Peer to Peer calling utilities allow users to collaborate via video.  Some applications also allow desktop or application sharing.

iVisit  Multi-party conferencing software allows up to 16 users to video and audio conference  Desktop sharing and whiteboard options.

Marratech Free  Multi-party video/audio conference.  Server software allows for private rooms and up to 5 participants.  Browser share and white board features.

Skype  Cross platform peer- to-peer conference software.  Multiparty calling is also available.  Allows computer users to call land line telephones.

Web Collaboration Tools  Free Utilities Vyew Yugma FREE vRoom DimDim (alpha)  Pay Utilities WebEx Elluminate Wimba Connect Professional

Vyew  Free online collaboration utility. Allows presenter to share desktop and applications with participants.

Yugma FREE  Downloadable collaboration software for one to many or many to many conferencing, chat, and desktop sharing.

vROOM  Free java based collaboration utility.  Allows desktop/app. sharing, audio, video, and polling.

Elluminate  Virtual Classroom Software.  Allows desktop/app. sharing, audio, video, and polling.

Horizon Wimba  Virtual Classroom Software.  Allows desktop/app. sharing, audio, video, quizzing, and polling.

WebEx  Virtual Classroom and support software.  Allows desktop/app. sharing, audio, video, training, and meetings.

Instant Messengers  Instant messengers can create a wonderful collaboration environment for online students. Most have presence detection so students can view who is online and chat about coursework or research.  Commercial instant messengers may not be a good idea if they are also used for personal chatting. It could be a distraction.

Instant Messengers  Live Messenger  Yahoo Messenger  AOL Instant Messenger  Google Talk  Jabber  Wildfire

Video Support and Instruction  Streaming video is an excellent option for video. It requires fewer resources from the user  Downloadable Video is another option but often requires long download times  Flash and Shockwave videos/tutorials  Multimedia webpages  Learning objects

Streamed and Downloadable Video  Streaming Services are generally subscription based and require reasonable fees for access to online videos. Some are free! United Streaming – Discovery Channel Teacher’s Domain Merlot MIT Open Courseware

Teachers Domain  Teachers' Domain is an online educational service with two related components — collections and courses — that help teachers enhance their students' learning experiences and advance their own teaching skills.

Multimedia  Multimedia websites and Flash or Shockwave tutorials are great for delivering tutorials or instruction on software applications.  Captivate  Camtasia  Camstudio

Free & Open Source Software  Free and open source software can help to ensure that all students are exchanging information and assignments in a format that is compatible with others.  Open Source software is often cross platform and works as well as commercial competitor software.

The Goal  Make your online courses interesting, challenging, engaging and easy to understand. Higher level of interaction/participation Increased success rate Better retention More fun

NDETP Questions

D-Link  i2eye – DVC 1000  teched.vcsu.edu

Thank You  Presentation is available at: Valley City State University Online Technology Education Program