ED 880AR and ECMP 490-040

Class Organization



Class Meets on: May 5, 10, 12, (13--extra), 17, 19, 26, 31; June 2, 9, 14, 16
Remember, May 24 is a holiday (Victoria Day) and on June 7 Vi will be at a math conference.

Class Organization:
A--Presentation Groups:


Each student in this class will be expected to help with the delivery of (at least) one of the class topics. That will mean that one or more of you will need to consult with me prior to that topic being offered and TOGETHER we will prepare and "deliver" that topic to the rest of the class. On the first day of class you will be able to read through the different modules that are listed in the course outline and determine which module you would like to help with, OR you may want to suggest an additional module that you would like to work on. Depending on your expertise with that module I may not be involved in its "delivery."

B--Reading Groups

There will be roughly 4 groups of 4 students who will prepare reading material for each day of the class. I will assign some material and will let you know if I expect each group to prepare different portions of what I assign or if all students should read all the material. Within your groups you will discuss the readings and one group member each class will record a summary of this discussion, which will then be e-mailed to the group and to me. There will also be a general class discussion on some of the major ideas from the readings.

In ADDITION to what I distribute in class for the NEXT class day I will occasionally expect EACH reading group to find ONE additional piece of reading material. Within your group please decide who will search for this additional reading. This ONE person will find the article, book chapter etc. and will be responsible for reading it, summarizing it, and responding to it. This SAME person will also record the reading citation and e-mail the citation and the summary and response to all members of the reading group--and to me. One of the first things you will do in class on the first night is to decide on the membership of these reading groups. Within your groups you will discuss these readings. The 'expert' for each class (i.e., the person who has found, read, and summarized the article) will 'present' the article to the rest of the group. The 'expert' will also have a few choice questions on the article to ask the group.

NOTE--For anything you read you should ask yourself:

  1. What is the author trying to convince me of?
  2. What is the summary of what this reading is about?
  3. Am I convinced; do I agree with the author's point of view?
  4. How would I respond to the author?
  5. How does this reading relate to:
  • life in the classroom
  • curriculum/technological integration
  • the role of the learner, teacher, subject matter -- in relation to technology, and so on.

# 5 relates to wider application/generalization of the ideas put forward in the article.