After a nine-month slumber, EDTEC 670 is slowly returning to life. This site, and the syllabus attached to it, haven't been updated yet as I'm still playing a bit with the options. For those already enrolled, though, I can preview some of what looms ahead.
What's the Same?
We'll still use the two texts from last year. There's a new text on simulation that I might add to the list as an interesting optional reading but I haven't had a look at it yet. As it did last year, the course will culminate in the egame project in which you'll document the design of some form of interactive game or simulation.
What's New?
For the first time, EDTEC 670 is being offered online in tandem with the campus-based section. I'm open to people who are physically here partnering with distant peers out there on the net. I think it will add an interesting dynamic to our conversations.
Our first project will be the design of an educational board game, a tradition that the course has had for more than a dozen years. This time, though, you won't need to find a board, decorate a box, or ransack your kid's toy box looking for just the right game piece. This time you'll create and deliver your board games as a PDF document. That makes the game completely self-contained, easily reproduced and instantly distributable.
Something else that's new: we'll be using Moodle to organize our asynchronous discussions and assignment feedback. I used Moodle for EDTEC 570 over the summer with great success and I think you'll find it to be a bit smoother than Blackboard.
Another first: we'll be using a wiki to organize one of the major assignments of the course. A wiki is a system for creating hyperlinked documents that are open to being revised by all the participants. It might sound chaotic, but it's really a powerful idea for knowledge management. To get an idea of what a wiki is, take a look at Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia with tens of thousands of co-authors. We'll be doing something similar but narrowly focused on the domain of this course.
Well... that's enough of a teaser. Of all the courses I teach, this is my favorite. I look forward to throwing out the first ball when we meet on September 8. See you then.
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