PDI Studio 5
Fall 2012 Mon  Thurs   9:00-11:50  SAGE rm 2211

Instructor: Dr. Ron Eglash

Learning Outcomes:
A. Students will learn how to design educational technologies using:

B. Students will learn to analyze their designs based on the 9 “main criteria” below.

We will be conducting our fieldwork with the 5th and 6th grade classes at Ark Community Charter School, 762 River Street, Troy, NY.

To contact instructor:
Dr. Ron Eglash: Office Hours: Tuesday 10-12 and by appointment, rm 5502 Sage. Email: eglash@rpi.edu, phone: 276-2048.

Requirements:
Evaluation will be based on the design project (50%) and class assignments (50%, including attendance). You are required to bring the reading to class so that we can discuss the texts in detail (be sure to have read the material assigned for that date before coming to class). Included in the assignments are three labs that will build your understanding of electronic hardware and software; be sure that the instructor checks off your completed lab each time so that you receive credit.

Here are the main criteria for your work. Even the best designs will not perform well in all areas, so your goal will be to learn how to maximize as many as possible.

• Use of technology (pedagogy supported by software/hardware innovation; safety considered)
• Use of culture (responsive to children’s heritage, sense of local community, etc.)
• Use of aesthetics (design should be attractive to users, communicate well, etc)
• Use of data (falsifiable testing of learning goals; qualitative insights about user experience)
• Relevance to curriculum (our primary justification for being there).
• Social justice (opposing sexism, racism, etc; help them be producers not consumers)
• Learning efficacy (inquiry, kinesthetic learning, or other innovative pedagogy)
• Participatory approach (teachers and students contribute ideas and directions)
• Dissemination (access by public, develop as Open Source, entrepreneurship, etc.)

Academic Honesty

While ideas are available to everyone, credit for ideas, and the particular text used to express them, belongs to their originator. Plagiarism occurs when a student attempts to pass the ideas or words of someone else as their own. It is surprisingly easy to do. For example, students who are not writing in their first language will sometimes try to use a sentence from another written text, simply because they are worried about their grammar. Plagiarism also occurs when a quotation is reworded in an attempt to avoid citation—always make sure the sources of your quotations are specifically cited. The internet makes plagiarism particularly tempting, since you can copy and paste from the web to your paper. Recycling your own paper from another course would not be plagiarism, but it would be academic dishonesty and thus subject to the same penalties, which include failing the course (a grade of “F”).

Special Needs
Please contact me if you have special needs such as disability or religious holidays.

Texts:
Online web readings linked with the url
Other readings on reserve at library http://www.lib.rpi.edu/cgi-bin/crsind.pl/STSH461001
A $10 fee will be charged to cover the cost of lab materials (covering solder, things we break or lose, etc.)

Course Schedule:

Part I: Overview: issues in educational technology design and intro to course

August 27 1 Intro to design for educational technologies.

August 30  

Sept 3 No classes (Memorial day).

Part II: Ethnographic techniques for educational technologies

Sept 6  

Assignment 2: Eliciting ideas from youth. Each group will prepare presentation on one of the following:
1. Comicboarding: http://ocs.sfu.ca/nordes/index.php/nordes/2011/paper/download/382/224
2. Eliciting children’s social capital: http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/255.full
3. Playdough neighborhood: http://www.ehow.com/info_7843800_neighborhood-activities-kindergarten.html
4. Mixing Ideas: ftp://ftp.cs.umd.edu/pub/hcil/Reports-Abstracts-Bibliography/2004-01html/2004-01.htm
5. 15 writing exercises: http://www.eduguide.org/library/viewarticle/211/  
6. Posing problems to children: http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-student-motivation
7.Drawing with children: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v19n1/gustafson.html

Sept 10 Guest speaker David Doria on Open Source. Reading: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-11/ff_openmanufacturing?currentPage=all ”Presentation of assignment 2. upload ppt (or just notes -- whatever your group used for presentation) with all names to \\hass11.win.rpi.edu\classes\stsh-4610.
           
Sept 13 Assignment 3: Arduino i/o.

Sept 17  Finish assignment 3 in studio: groups demo their gadget. Reading: Baumberger, Jeanne. “Action knowledge and Symbolic Knowledge: the computer as mediator.”
           
Sept 20 Field trip to school: participant observation. Assignment 4: ethnographic writing (individual not group).

Sept 24 Guest lecture, Libby Rodriguez, "Intro to Android App Inventor." Discussion of assignment 4: (informal oral discussion; no ppt needed); upload written version to \\hass11.win.rpi.edu\classes\stsh-4610. Reading: Gutstein, Eric “Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice in an Urban, Latino School.”

Sept 27 Guest lecture, Audrey Bennett, "Intro to Flash." Assignment 5: software/hardware interaction demo.

Oct 1. Presentation of assignment 5. Studio: Assignment 6: response device.
Studio: work on response device.

Oct 4. Studio: work on response device.

Oct 8. No class (Columbus day)

Oct 9. (Tuesday follows Monday schedule) Reading: Druin, A. “The Role of Children in the Design of New Technology.”
Reading: Theory of multiple intelligences in education:
Intelligence in seven steps (Howard Gardner)
Multiplying Intelligences in the Classroom (Bruce Campbell)
Curriculum for Success: A Portrait of a Student Failed By the System (Ellen Weber)

Oct 11 Field trip to school: response device.

Oct 15 Studio: Presentations of assignment 6 (informal oral discussion; no ppt needed. Upload softcopy of ethnography to \\hass11.win.rpi.edu\classes\stsh-4610. Reading: Nemirovsky, R., Tierney, C, & Wright, T. (1998). “Body motion and graphing.” Cognition and Instruction, 16(2), 119-172. Studio: brainstorm for prototype for final project. Start on assignment 7: proposal for prototype. Divide into final project groups.

Oct 18 Studio: Presentation of assignment 7 (group PowerPoint). Work on prototype for final project.. Studio: work on prototype for final project.

Studio: work on prototype for final project.

Oct 22 Studio: work on prototype for final project. Reading: *Brunner et al “Girl games and technological desire.”

Oct 25 Studio: work on prototype for final project.

Oct 29. Studio: work on prototype for final project.

Nov 1. Field trip to school: User feedback on prototype. Assignment 8: ethnographic description.

Nov 5. Reports on assignment 8 (upload to \\hass11.win.rpi.edu\classes\stsh-4610). Assignment 9: proposal for final project (group grade). Studio: work on proposal for final project.

Nov 8 Presentation of assignment 9 (upload to \\hass11.win.rpi.edu\classes\stsh-4610). Studio: work on final project.

Nov 12 Assignment 10: describe how your final project might be disseminated: as open source, or commercial product, or other. Each group turns in 1-2 page essay. Studio: work on final project.

Nov 15 Assignment 10 due. Lecture on evaluation design. Assignment 11: design an evaluation for your proposed final project. Each group turns in 1-2 page essay. Studio: work on final project.

Nov 19 Studio: work on final project.  

Nov 22 No class (Thanksgiving break)

Nov 26 Studio: work on final project. Assignment 11 due (send softcopy to  eglash@rpi.edu).
 
Nov 29 Assignment 12: demo working version of final project (grade F if it doesn’t work, even if it looks nice). Peer critique, actually using the design. Studio: final tweaks.

Dec 3 Final field trip to school: Gather user feedback for presentations (assignment 13)

Dec 6 Presentations (assignment 13)

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