Middle School Technology Topics ‘08: Online Syllabus

Technology Requirements:
• Your laptop
• Connectivity—(ISP at home or at Kinkaid)
• Browser—Firefox is required for Moodle
• Skill level: Novice to Experienced

Instructor: Mrs. Brenda Meyer Email: brenda.meyer@kinkaid.org

Work Address: 201 Kinkaid School Dr. Houston, TX 77024
Work Phone: 713-243-6446
Email office hours: 10:00 – 11:00 pm, Monday – Friday
(Note-I can be available on weekends for chat with prior notice)

About Office Hours:

Since this is an online course, I will expect to correspond with me online—either through
the forums or through email. If you have problems with any part of accessing the course,
please let me know as soon as possible.

Welcome to your Middle School Technology Topics ’08: This course is a

continuation of MS Tech Topics started in 2007. It is a compilation of information and
resources for you to peruse at your own leisure. You will gain more from coming online
to class and checking out topics early in the year and regularly throughout the year before
you use them in the classroom with your students—they have learned most of this
already!

The goal of the course is to provide online information and resources to teachers whose
time for staff development is limited by the number of hours in the day. Upon
completion, the teachers should be able to recognize the value of integrating technology
in their curriculum and apply newly acquired technology skills in their classrooms and
for their personal needs.

Course Description:
“Today’s classroom teachers must be prepared to provide technology-supported learning
opportunities for their students. Being prepared to use technology and knowing how that
technology can support student learning must become integral skills in every teacher’s
professional repertoire.” (ISTE: National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, NETS•T, 
Project ) The topics covered in Middle School Technology Topics ’08 will be the resources 
and information to help prepare teachers to provide technology­supported learning 
opportunities for their students. 

Course Overview: 
Topics to be presented are:
1) Current Thought in Educational Technology; 2) Using Kinkaid Subscriptions; 3) Web 
2.0 and Moodle; 4) Veracross Gradebook; 5) Finalsite Webpages; 6) Physically­­Phones, 
Labs, Printers; Virtually—Our Network, Server Accounts, Email control 7) iLife08—
iPhoto, iTunes; 8) Podcasts—Garageband, iMovie; 9) iWork08—Keynote, Pages, 
Numbers; 10) Google Tools, Rubistar, Other tools, Copyright Issues

Course Objectives:
Teacher should have the same skills that we expect of our eighth graders leaving Middle
School:
1. Apply strategies for identifying and solving routine hardware and software problems
that occur during everyday use.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of current changes in information technologies and the effect
those changes have on the workplace and society.
3. Exhibit legal and ethical behaviors when using information and technology, and
discuss consequences of misuse.
4. Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations (e.g., environmental probes,
graphing calculators, exploratory environments, Web tools) to support learning and
research.
5. Apply productivity/multimedia tools and peripherals to support personal productivity,
group collaboration, and learning throughout the curriculum.
6. Design, develop, publish, and present products using technology resources that
demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to audiences inside and outside the
classroom.
7. Collaborate with peers, experts, and others using telecommunications and collaborative
tools to investigate curriculum-related problems, issues, and information, and to develop
solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.
8. Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety of
tasks and solve problems.
9. Demonstrate an understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, and
connectivity, and of practical applications to learning and problem solving.
10. Research and evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness,
and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems.

Class Policies:
• Log into the online class at least twice a week--you may want to more often just
so you'll remember how!
• Remember you can do this at home as well as at school.
• Read the resource instructions carefully and follow all of the steps.
• You will have very little face-to-face (f2f) supervision from me so you must take
on a lot of the responsibility of motivating yourself to come to class.
• If you are a procrastinator, you should make a plan that includes when you will
work on this course and stick to it!
• I will be providing you with unit checklists to help you get organized and keep
track of your work.
• If you need extra help get it before you get overwhelmed.

Attendance:
You need to check the course daily and be in touch via email/forums. I will be checking
you for attendance and participation “virtually”, since I will be able to tell when you are
online in the course, where you are investigating, and how long you stay in each section.
Assignments:
Do all the assignment in a topic area—they are there to help you learn about the topic. I
will provide you with feedback. You will get out of the course what you put into it!

Evaluations:
Quizzes are the unit evaluations. Some are fun, some are serious. Again you will be
getting graded and feedback will be provided. It will be interesting to feel like a “student”
again!

Grades:
You will need to move on to the next activity each time you submit an activity in order to
give me time to grade it. This may take a few days. As soon as I have graded the
activity, I will post the number of points you have earned in your online report card. At
the end of the year, there will be awards for high points!

Netiquette (online etiquette):

• Take responsibility for your part in group discussions or forums.
• Respect your colleagues' views and suggestions--even if you oppose them!
• Be kind to your teacher and classmates—we all have feelings!
• Be honest at all times--I'll be straight-forward with you.

Help:
• Download these instructions and print for future reference.
• Use your email to email me to ask questions
• Call me if you need to—6446.
• Most of our software tutorials can be found on atomiclearning, a subscription
that Kinkaid has paid for and can be accessed at school or from home (with a
username-kinkaid and password-found in the MS201 lab):
• Let me know if you have a technical problem with anything.

Get Started:
• First you'll want to log into Moodle.
• Click on Miscellanous, the Middle School Technology Topics 08, and type the
Enrollment Key
• Read the Forum topic (main topic of discussion) for your area of interest.
• Post an entry to start discussion or reply to a post that is there.
• The more you participate in the Forum discussions, the more you will learn!
• Check out the resources I have made available for you.
• Let me know if you have questions that aren't answered in the Forums.
• I am looking forward to working with you.

See you online!