2 Graduate-Level Continuing Education Units, Brandman University

Course Instructor and Author: Donny Wise has been an educator for 20 years, in addition to working for UCLA, Hughes Space and Communication, Monster.com, IDC, and RAND Corporation. He is known for providing very clear, methodological approaches to technology instruction and application, while being inspiring, as well. He is passionate about closing the opportunity and achievement gaps for students by empowering and equipping teachers with relevant, practical, research-based pedagogy and tools.

Course Objective & Learning Goals: This class gives educators a framework for introducing technology into their classroom in a way that works for them according to the degree of availability of technology in one’s classroom and school in a way that supports teaching objectives, promotes learning, advances creativity and critical thinking, promotes academic digital literacy, and prepares students to meet the technology demands embedded in rigorous learning standards.

• Lesson 1: Overview Participants receive a snapshot of the course in the context of the demands of the 21st Century for academic digital literacy, the implicit demands on the teachers to prepare students to meet those demands, and a methodological approach to successfully equipping students with the necessary technology skills. Benefits of such digital literacy and technology usage are boundless, as a game-changing factor for student achievement and opportunity.
• Lesson 2: Keyboarding (1) The theory and research regarding instructional approaches to keyboarding are discussed in various modalities.
• Lesson 3: Keyboarding (2) Since keyboarding is such a foundational skill, and since students no longer typically receive formal instruction in “typing” yet are faced with rigorous keyboarding expectations very early in their schooling, this lesson provides further practical approaches to this fundamental skill.
• Lesson 4: Gathering Information (Researching) How to skillfully research accessing the vast, even limitless, information on the internet in and efficient, effective, and grade-appropriate way is addressed in this lesson, in addition to recommended search engines that are safe, reliable, and accessible to children.
• Lesson 5-6: Comprehending One of the crucial usages of technology is to support and increase comprehension of academic content areas. Two lessons on this topic provide background, theoretical information and studies as well as practical approaches to teaching students to use technology to increase comprehension, including supporting academic English language development.
• Lessons 7-8: Evaluating With the vast wealth of resources, students must become well-able to evaluate content in order to become well-learned through internet usage, and to create quality products. Principles of evaluating sources and content on the internet are examined, resources recommended, and practical approaches provided.
• Lesson 9-10: Synthesizing In this lesson, participants learn how to guide students to create quality products in the form of written reports that are original, with cited sources from their research.
• Lessons 11-12: Summarizing These lessons cover the crystallizing of content in products that are powerful and effective, full of features that increase successful learning and heighten student enthusiasm and motivation in the learning process.
• Lesson 13: Project-based Learning and Technology Usage In this lesson, an overview of technology usage to support real-world, relevant, high-standard project-based learning is taught.
• Lessons 14-15: Lesson Planning These lessons provide teachers opportunity to apply learning from foregoing lessons into actual plans that can implement the instruction of the technology skills to the students taught by course participants. Incorporating technology into core content lessons, as well as creating focused lessons designated specifically to technology usage are taught and created.