Please note: The first synchronous online meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 4th at 6:30 PM Central time. This meeting will be held in Collaborate, so please be sure that you have "set up" Elluminate to run on your computer before the first scheduled meeting.

After the initial meeting, class will meet both synchronously and asynchronously (through discussion board, listserv, and regular email). Tentative meeting time for synchronous meetings are:

• Wednesday 6:30 PM (Central time) in Collaborate, scheduled class meetings are mandatory!

Marie L. Evans, M.Ed., MTT

There is no required textbook for this course, but you will have a number of articles that you will be required to read during the semester.

Software: You will need an HTML editor, an image editing program and a movie editing program. You have several options for this software. Because we know that you probably work in an environment that has limited funding (K-12 education), we encourage the use of free software, freeware and open source software, when possible. This will allow your expenses to be low and offers you the ability to rather rapidly add value at your workplace because you will be able to share information about the availability and use of free software.

Email Account: All students must have their own e-mail account. Please verify that the email address you have for this course in the "Course eMail" is the account you prefer to receive email. Very important course information is communicated to you via email. It is crucial that you check your email at least once per day. Please see important information below regarding email communication.

Class Listserv: Class participants may use the course Web site as the class listserv. To send a message to the class go to "E-mail" on the left menu bar. Click on "All Users" and this will send a message to the entire class. After you have read the syllabus, please send a broadcast e-mail to the class members with a brief (or lengthy if you prefer) description of who you are.

Hardware: You are advised to closely read the information listed at
http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/technicalinformation.aspx and act accordingly. In this class, you need to connect your computer to Wimba Live Classroom. To do so, you need (a) a headset with a microphone and (b) a wired Internet connection, preferably broadband. Broadband connection is highly recommended because one dial-up user may slow down the communication speed for everyone. Additionally, please allow time to install necessary (free) plug-ins before you are first scheduled to use Wimba. For a tutorial on connecting to Wimba for the first time, please click HERE.

Digital Library: You will need to access the Digital Library at various times during your Ed Tech courses. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to access scholarly journals for use during your program. In addition, you will be required to review and critique tutorials that are available at the Digital Library.

SMARTHINKING: This provider of online tutoring allows students connect to live tutors from any computer that has Internet access. They provide online tutoring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also have an online writing lab where E-structor® Certified tutors critique and return essays within 24 hours. Students can submit questions or essays for a next day response, or pre-schedule online appointments. We encourage students to submit all essays to SMARTHINKING before turning them in. SMARTHINKING can be accessed through MyUTBTSC Online Portal (http://myutbtsc.blackboard.com) and login with your UTB/TSC credentials. For more information Contact UTB/TSC Distance Education and Instructional Technologies at (956)882-6696 or onlinecourse@utb.edu

Safe Assign: This provider will allow you to submit your papers to ensure that you are not plagiarizing anything in your document. I encourage EVERYONE to use this tool. It is the best way to ensure you are not plagiarizing, so please take advantage of it.

Assignment Due Dates (Read and keep up with the CALENDAR!)

In order to be prepared for course discussions, you should have completed the week's assignments before we meet for class. All projects are due at Midnight Sunday of the week indicated on the calendar. Generally, projects are to be uploaded to the server and the URL posted to the appropriate section on the Discussion Board. However, more specific directions will be provided in the description of each project. If you turn a project in late, you will lose 10 points. Please keep track of deadlines and submit your coursework in a timely manner to avoid losing valuable points.

Projects which are turned in after Midnight on the Official Due Date (Sundays no later than 12 midnight) without a documented reason will be assessed a 10% deduction. A late project will not be accepted two weeks after its due date, and no late projects will be accepted the last week of class.

Class meetings scheduled on the calendar are MANDATORY! All class meetings will be archived. If you are unable to attend a scheduled session you must listen to the archive and send a synopsis of at least 300 words with your ideas regarding the discussion. You must include at least 1 scholarly reference to support your opinions. Your synopsis of the class meeting must be submitted by Friday, NLT midnight of the same week in order to earn participation credit.

Online Discussions: The class is scheduled to meet in Elluminate approximately once every other week or as needed. Other modes of communication may also be used as they become available.

Email: Very important course information is communicated to you via email. It is crucial that you check your email on a daily basis. You may also contact your instructor via email. While we make every effort to respond within 24-hours (and usually much sooner), sometimes glitches cause the email to go awry. Please do not assume we are ignoring you, if you do not hear from us. Please re-send your email with Second Attempt in the subject line so that we may respond to you.

Formatting for all class Emails: To enable everyone in the class to easily organize emails, please include the course number, your name, and then the subject of your email in the subject line: 6342 Your Name - Your topic here. If you do not include the course number and your name, it may be inadvertently overlooked and thus take a longer time to receive a response.

Discussion Board: You will be posting your discussion question responses, abstract summaries, and your projects' URLs in the Discussion Board under the appropriate section.

Face-to-Face Meetings: While not mandatory, we would be happy to meet anyone face-to-face if needed or wanted. Please contact the instructor by email or phone to set up a time to meet.

The UT TeleCampus (UTTC) provides Web publishing space for all students in the Master Technology Teacher program for the purpose of storing and publishing your student projects and portfolios. This space is known as the Komodo server. The Komodo Web server is independent of your Blackboard courses, and is hosted and maintained by the UTTC in Austin, Texas. For information on how to request an account and retrieve your project URL that begins with "http://," click here.

Should you choose to subscribe to a Web publishing service other than Komodo, you will carry full responsibility for its use.

Each student will be required to complete four projects. Please read the description of each project carefully when you begin each module. Each project will have an evaluation rubric and your compliance to the standards in that rubric will determine your project grade. Do NOT get behind on your projects. There is a 10% penalty for late projects. No project will be accepted two weeks after the due date.

Projects (worth 80%):
You are expected to complete seven projects. All projects must be completed to a satisfactory degree (see the Projects link in the sidebar for more information). Each project has a due date (see Calendar).

Specifically, the six projects are:

While each student is required to turn in their own projects, you are encouraged to contact class members when you have questions about projects. Often, there is a wide range of skills in the MTT program, but we have found that others are always willing to share their expertise. Contacting peers and building a network of professionals who share like interests is a strong benefit of participating in the MTT program.

Each project will have a rubric. Please use the rubric as a guide for what is expected to be included in the projects. If you follow the rubrics, the grade that you make should come as no surprise to you. If you are uncertain what a rubric category means, please contact me by any mode of communication. In addition, this is also an appropriate conversation for a Wimba discussion.

Class Participation (worth 20%):
Your class participation in this graduate course is a vital part of your distance education experience. It allows you to share your ideas with your instructor and your fellow students. Class participation is a required component of this course and refers to your contribution to class/group meetings, presentations, and abstracts.

Online class meetings are scheduled for discussing course content. Class meetings scheduled on the calendar are MANDATORY! All class meetings will be archived. If you are unable to attend a scheduled session you must listen to the archive and send a synopsis of at least 300 words with your ideas regarding the discussion. You must include at least 1 scholarly reference to support your opinions. Your synopsis of the class meeting must be submitted by Friday, NLT midnight of the same week in order to earn participation credit.

Late Projects: One letter grade will be deducted from any project submitted AFTER the due date (at midnight) as posted on the calendar. If your project is two weeks late or it is submitted after the last day of the class (whichever comes first), you will receive zero credit for that particular project.

Evaluation: Grades for the semester will be derived as follows:

Grade Distribution:

Students are expected to be above reproach in all scholastic activities. Students who engage in scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and dismissal from the university. "Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts." Regents' Rules and Regulations, Series 50101, Section 2.2.

Since scholastic dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the university, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced (refer to Student Handbook for more information).

Students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, who wish to request academic adjustments in this class, should notify the Disability Services Office in the semester so that the appropriate accommodations may be made. In accordance with federal law, a student requesting academic adjustments must provide documentation of his/her disability to the Disability Services Counselor. For more information, call or visit the Counseling Center Cardenas North 103, (956) 882-8292 or email steve.wilder@utb.edu.

This UTB graduate distance education class is facilitated via the UT TeleCampus (UTTC). This allows faculty members and students to continue their teaching and learning via UTTC Blackboard http://uttc.blackboard.com, whether or not the university shuts down as a result of a hurricane or any other natural disaster.

Should any disaster occur, announcements will be made within Blackboard. To facilitate the completion of classes, most or all of the communication between students and the institution, the instructor, and fellow classmates will take place using the features in your UTTC Blackboard.

To receive credit for a course, it is the student’s responsibility to complete all the requirements for that course. Failure to access course materials once reasonably possible can result in a reduction of your overall grade in the class.

This page was last updated on August 20, 2014.
Pages are maintained by Marie Evans and
Distance Education,
The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
© Copyright 2008