Syllabus

... part of George Norht's and Teacher Explorer Center's Web site at UNO ... Updated: August 29, 1999

WWW Site Development for Educators

EDCI 4993-604, Fall 1999
4:30 to 7:15, Wednesdays

Syllabus
and in class activities for September 1.

Why do you want to print this document? It is linked to many other important documents -- your printed copy is linked to the death of trees.

Links to Explore -- Search the Web -- more than

visits.

Important Dates	\| eMail -- \| George \| Emma \| Attendance \| Check Your Mail \|
	\| Top \| Texts and Resources \| Course Description \| Objectives \|
	\| Evaluation \| Grading \| Who is George North \| Class Web Pages \|

Date	Description
Prior Weeks	14 class meetings left -- not counting this one!

This Week Wednesday, Setember 1 First Day of Class Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1 Wednesday, Setember 1	Questions? House Keeping Get you picture taken! What was last week's picture? REMEMBER! sign all your eMail with your full name so that everyone knows who the message is from ... like when I am recording attendance. As best you can, don't attach documents to eMail ... include the full text in your message. Remind me, what are the important dates for our class? Who will be first to discovre a misspelled word? URL -- what is it, how do I copy and paste URLs. Why do I want to copy and paste URLs. Web Server -- how do I know one when I see it? What do I need to start building my own web site? Can I use an existing site to help start mine? Where do I find graphics to use on my site? Anybody remember the browser wars? What contributes to a "bad" web site? What contributes to a "good" web site? How do I contribute to my web site -- FTP This week Growing up Digital Everyone will comment on the chapter(s) they read ... and we will explore what was interesting ... what was not. In class tonight Demonstrate to yourself that you are able to Use browser features: GO, BACK, HOME, and RELOAD Find the UNO Search Page. Use Yahoo and Alta Vista to find colleges of education web sites. Read you own mail, send George and Emma mail Modify your class web page. Add Links to your class web page. Find over 100 lesson plans on the internet. Help your classmates complete these tasks. Did you bring a floppy disk to class tonight? Is there an FTP client program on the other computers you plan to use to complete required work for this class? Every week Bring a floppy disk to class ... one that you use on your one computer at home, school, work ... from the computer you plan to use to develope your own web site. Send me (gnorth@mac.com) an eMail message using this Attendance link. This is how I will know for sure you were in class. The text of this eMail should be your guess -- What is the picture of the week? Assignments Keep in mind that when you complete the below assignments everyone in class will benefit from your work. This is one great benefit of information networks. Think about it as text book readings ... except that the whole class reads a little part and tells the others about it. I expect that by the end of our semester together, you will look back on these assignments as very important to your overall learning experience. Due by 4:30, Sunday September 5: Using the Links to Explore page (or any links you want). Locate and explore web site that you feel are related to our roles at teachers and learners. Respond to the following by sending eMail to Emma. What is a URL? What is the URL of the web site(s) you explored? Included the URL in your eMail to Emma. What do you like (find beneficial) about this site? Be concrete. Please, don't limit yourself to reviewing one web site. Who will be the first to ask why we have a written assingment Labor Day weekend? . What if we finish early? What is an *Information Network*?
Monday, September 6	Labor Day
Wednesday, September 8	The World Wide Web, a global Information Network
Friday, September 10	Final date to drop courses or resign and not have courses recorded.
Saturday, September 11	Rosh HaShanah
Monday, September 13	Final date to change from credit to audit.
Wednesday, September 15	One page description of personal web site project is due at beginning of class. Consider this your first draft.
Monday, September 20	Yom Kippur Final date to resign and get 50% refund.
Wednesday, September 22	TBA
Monday, September 27	My son Denny's birthday, visit his web site
Wednesday, September 29	TBA
Monday, October 4	Final date to resign and get a 25% refund.
Wednesday, October 6	TBA
Thursday, October 7	Mid-semester break
Friday, October 8	Mid-semester break
Monday, October 11	Mid-semester examination period
Tuesday, October 12	Mid-semester examination period
Wednesday, October 13	Short presentation concerning the progress of your personal web site project. This is your mid-term exam, check Evaluation for details. Mid-semester examinations.
Wednesday, October 13	Mid-semester examination period
Thursday, October 14	Mid-semester examination period
Friday, October 15	Mid-semester examination period
Wednesday, October 20	TBA John Dewey's Birthday
Monday, October 25	Final Drop Date?
Wednesday, October 27	TBA
Friday, October 29	My Wife's Birthday, visit her Web Site
Wednesday, November 3	TBA Phase 1 Registration for 2000 Spring Semester begins.
Wednesday, November 10	TBA
Monday, November 15	My Father's Birthday, visit his Web SIte
Wednesday, November 17	TBA
Saturday, November 20	Last day of Saturday classes
Wednesday, November 24	TBA
Thursday, November 25	Thanksgiving
Wednesday, December 1	Our last regular class: Semester Project due at beginning of class (4:30 PM) Self-evaluations due
Friday, December 3	Last day of regular classes
Monday, December 6	Final Exams
Tuesday, December 7	Final Exams Guess
Wednesday, December 8	Our Final Exam: What will it be?
Thursday, December 9	Final Exams
Friday, December 10	Final Exams
Tuesday, December 14	Final grades available on TOPS

Prior Dates	Description
Wednesday, August 25	see Old Syllabus

Texts & Resources	\| Top \| Important Dates \| Course Description \| Objectives \|
	\| Evaluation \| Grading \| Who is George North \| Class Web Pages \|

Required reading for this class will be selected World Wide Web sites as indicated each week in the syllabus. These will be found using the link at the top of this pages titled "Links to Explore." From time to time we will mention and discuss some of the available texts covering this topic. You are encouraged to bring to class any books you find interesting and share these with the rest of us. Bring books and other recourses to class is one way to satisfy the class participation requirement.

Course Description	\| Top \| Important Dates \| Texts & Resources \| Objectives \|
	\| Evaluation \| Grading \| Who is George North \| Class Web Pages \|

Prerequisites:

Knowledgeable in the use of computers

An eMail address

Good work ethic

This course is intended to help educators acquire a working knowledge of electronic Information Networks. Begun in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web (WWW or W3) didn't appear in popular culture until after 1995. Today, web site addresses seem to be everywhere. Do you really know what -- http://www.ed.uno.edu/index.html -- is?

We will discuss how teachers can use WWW sites in curricula development. Especially, we will attempt to show how developing WWW sites themselves will make teachers more productive. There is a substantial initial investment in building your own web sites, but once started, it will be easier for you and "for others" to reuse your work. It may be "for others" is most significant. Not only do educators directly benefit from their own work, they benefit from all the other educator built web sites. One example of a great web site to link to you own site is: http://ed.uno.edu/. This is the hyper linked part of WWW.

We will learn that the WWW is just one example of a hyper linked environment ... that the web is the best known prototype of an information network. It is my expectation that you will come to understand that no one benefits from information networks more than educators.

Most of this class will be conducted as a business, we will be web publishers. We will be planners, copy writers, editors, graphic artists, and technologists. We will learn what is a web server, how to build one, what is needed to start a web site from scratch. We will also discuss what are the future WWW trends.

Information Networks:

provide educators with access to abundant resources;

provide students with new ways to participate in knowledge creation;

provide simultaneous access to information and publishing;

bring us closer to the goal of Universal Education;

empower students, decreasing the roll of teachers as purveyors of knowledge;

make teachers and students partners in learning;

join together teachers, students, parents, and community members;

build Communities of Learners in a single location (the classroom);

join learning scenarios with abundant resources;

The goal is learning -- taking place in a social context where knowledge is created from information with action guided by pedagogy.

We will build information networks!

Objectives	\| Top \| Important Dates \| Texts & Resources \| Course Description \|
	\| Evaluation \| Grading \| Who is George North \| Class Web Pages \|

Helping educators develop the skills needed to build WWW sites for themselves (home pages), for their classrooms, and for their schools are the foundation for the objectives of this class.

Students will be given the opportunity:

To develop the vocabulary needed to understand the terminology found in web site development.
To improve competency in identifying appropriate uses of WWW in their classroom.
To improve conceptual understanding of all the skills and technologies needed to operate a WWW server.
To improve the computer skills needed to aid in classroom management.
To build the skills needed to teach other educators about WWW site development.
To demonstrate competency in a broad range of the above skills.

Evaluation	\| Top \| Important Dates \| Texts & Resources \| Course Description \|
	\| Objectives \| Grading \| Who is George North \| Class Web Pages \|

Please note that it is possible to earn more than 100 points. Read carefully each of the six evaluation areas below. Hint ... follow the links to details of each area.

30 points - Individual WWW site project -- Build a personal WWW site

10 points - Mid-semester exam -- Who will be first to ask me about it?

30 points - Group semester project: rebuild College of Education WWW site.

------------ Final exam -- "In class presentation"

20 points - Participation -- attendance and contributions to in class activities.

20 points - Emma -- Weekly written assignments posted to our list server.

Final grade will be based in large on student's self-evaluation. Remember, evaluations are due at the beginning of our last class -- see important dates above for exact date.

Grading	\| Top \| Important Dates \| Texts & Resources \| Course Description \|
	\| Objectives \| Evaluation \| Who is George North \| Class Web Pages \|

A = 90 - 100 points

B = 80 - 89

C = 70 - 79

etc.

Who is George North	\| Top \| Important Dates \| Texts & Resources \| Course Description \|
	\| Objectives \| Evaluation \| Grading \| Class Web Pages \|

Today, I am Ph.D. candidate in the College of Education, Curriculum & Instruction. In my past life, for 30 years, I was a systems analyst, programmer, Information Systems manager, and computer consultant. I earned a B.S. in

Liberal Arts from the University of the State of New York, and a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of New Orleans. My goal is to teach at the college level ... to help educators integrate Information networks into their daily lives as teachers and learners.

George North
Office: ED 308A
Phone: 280-6523
Home: 834-1891
eMail: gnorth@mac.com
Web Site: http://georgenorth.net/~george/georgeHome.php
Office Hours:
Monday: 3:30 - 4:30
Monday: 7:15 - 8:15 PM
Also by appointment