EDUC 744 964 Workforce Development: Every Teacher’s Responsibility
Online Course 3 semester hours graduate credit
Instructor: Becky Mather
Tuition and Registration
Dates
Spring 2010 February 15 - April 11, 2010
Summer 2010 June 21- August 13, 2010
Description
Research the relationship between skills needed in today's workforce and those commonly taught in schools. Explore and implement new strategies and tools for infusing problem solving, teamwork, and creative and innovative thinking into any curricular area's content.
Textbook
McCain, Ted. (2005). Teaching for Tomorrow: Teaching Content and Problem-Solving Skills. Corwin Press.
ISBN: 978-141291384-5
Learning Outcomes
To be most effective, citizens of the 21st century will need to creatively blend several relatively traditional skills with emerging information and communication tools, problem solving, collaborative teamwork, and creative and critical thinking skills. And they will need to practice these skills in an information landscape that is media-rich, participatory, and socially connected. To be most effective, students also need understandings of traditional information structures as well as understandings of the shifts in the way knowledge is built and organized.
Business and industry have continually purported that today's schools are not in sync with the learning needs of today’s students. This course will address that gap and model the use of Web-based tools and resources, among the best vehicles we have for achieving 21st century skills -- and, in the process, expand your own 21st century expertise.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Use the online environment to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. (WI DPI 6)
- Analyze current research on the profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills needed in increasingly dynamic communities and workplaces. (WI DPI 1, 3, 4, 7)
- Understand the impact of aligning classroom environments with real world environments by infusing problem-solving. (WI DPI 4, 7)
- Measure the impact of problem-based scenarios and simulations combined with technology on student learning. (WI DPI 8)
- Assess the level of 21st Century Skills implementation in a school and begin a dialogue about the importance of 21st century skills among stakeholders.(WI DPI 6, 8, 10)
- Apply instructional strategies for infusing problem-solving, rigorous and relevant questions, systems thinking, problem identification, formulation and solution) into instruction. (WI DPI 4)
- Apply current research about successful teaching strategies to guide students before, during and after case scenarios, brainstorming, role playing, and simulations. (WI DPI 3, 4, 7)
- Adapt problem-solving learning appropriately for diverse populations of students, including students with exceptionalities.
- Analyze the relationship between critical and creative thinking. (WI DPI 4, 7)
- Apply technology tools in classroom instruction to develop high level information and communication literacy skills. (WI DPI 3, 4, 6)
- Design and publish an electronic portfolio of course artifacts infusing problem solving, teamwork, creative thinking, contextual learning in curricular areas, and technology tools. (WI DPI 1, 3, 4, 6, 7)
Alignment with Teaching Standards
Course objectives are aligned with the following teaching standards:
Wisconsin Standards for Teacher Development and Licensure (WI DPI) 3, 4, 6, 7, 8
Content Outline
- Defining the Need for Change
- What skills will students need for the 21st century?
- What gaps exist between 21st century skills and current instructional content and delivery?
- Digital immigrants and digital natives
- NETS standards and AASL revised technology and information literacy guidelines
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores
- How teachers learn to use technology
- Measuring the quantity and quality of technology integration
- Framework for 21st Century Learning Overview
- Rigorous and Relevant Questions
- Team-based Problem Solving and Inquiry
- The Big6™ Information Problem Solving Model
- Information, Media and Technology Skills
- Creativity and Innovation in a Flat World
- 21st Century Assessment
No travel to campus required
Because this class is online and open to you 24/7, you may participate from your home or work computer during hours that are flexible and convenient for your work and family schedule and responsibilities.
The class is highly interactive with a significant discussion component. All discussion postings, projects and assignments will be submitted via the course discussion board and dropbox. Activities are conducted according to a schedule with specific due dates each week; there are no required "live" chat sessions.
What Our Students Say...
“This has been one of the best classes I have taken in a very long time. I so appreciate being able to use what I am learning in my classroom, and this class also allowed me to connect with my students -- how they are using technology.”
~ Jean, River Falls, Wisconsin“ We learned all of these cool new tools that we can actually utilize daily with our curriculum, not something we develop and never use.”
“ I would definitely recommend this course to all teachers who want to find a way to connect with learners in the 21st century. Each module that I completed in this class excited me because I learned about so many new ways to learn and share online. The resources and readings have been incredible. … I think back on how uninformed I was about all the valuable communications available and smile--it's never too late to learn”
~ Jim, Appleton, Wisconsin
~ Bonnie, Sheldon, Wisconsin
SIGN UP SOON!
The School of Education reserves the right to cancel classes that do not meet minimum enrollment requirements.
Accreditation
University of Wisconsin-Stout is accredited by the Higher Learning
Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges & Schools
(NCA) located at 30 LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60602.
Phone: 312-263-0456 or 800/621-7440 fax #312/263-7462.
The School of Education is accredited by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and national specialized program associations.
For More Information...
Request Information Online
Contact Us: School of Education
Online Professional Development
University of Wisconsin - Stout
Menomonie, WI 54751
phone: 715-232-2253
Browse Courses
e-Newsletter