Project+Instructions+and+Outline

Assignment 3: COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT [30 points]

This assignment **begins on Monday, August 30, 2010** and **ends on Monday, December 13, 2010**.

This assignment presents students with an opportunity to apply their newly-gained technology-related knowledge and skills to a real educational context.

Students may work with **one or two other students** in this class **__and/or__** with **one or more site-based practitioners** (classroom teachers, school library media specialists, trainers, managers, administrators, etc.) to **develop and implement technology solutions** to an **identified need** in an **educational setting**. Students wishing to use their own educational workplace as the site of their collaborative technology project are encouraged to do so. Where appropriate, students should incorporate visual images and/or sound into their final projects.

Each collaborative team should meet very early in the semester in order to clarify the goal(s) and scope of the project. Students are encouraged to use Blackboard, email, telephone, web conferencing, face-to-face communication, synchronous chats, wikis, and/or any other communications methods available to collaborate. The teams should meet or communicate with the instructor before they finalize their choice of topic and scope of work.

For this semester-long assignment, students will fulfill three tasks: (1) submit and post one initial proposal to the appropriate class discussion boards; (2) submit and post one progress report to the appropriate class discussion boards; and (3) submit and post a final report describing, in detail, the completed project to the appropriate class discussion board **__and__** the Blackboard Assignment folder.

** Task #1 – Initial Proposal [10 points, due on Monday, October 11] ** Each team will post a proposal for its collaborative technology project to the appropriate class discussion board **and** the Assignment folder on **October 11, 2010**. Your initial proposal should include the following information:


 * 1) Project title
 * 2)  Brief introduction of the overall project and project team
 * 3)  Needs assessment: justification of the importance of this project, what was the context? how did you know there was a need for this project?
 * 4)  Goals and objectives of the project
 * 5)  Target audience
 * 6)  Technology or technologies to be used (what, how, why use)
 * 7)  What your final product will include (three components are required in your final project product: **(a)** Instructional materials; **(b)** learning activities (** authentic and inquiry-based ICT ** [information communication technologies] activities, age-appropriate, relevant to the topic); **(c)** Assessment of learning)
 * 8)  Tentative timetable for project completion (list weekly dates, major tasks to be done each week, and what you will need to do that task)
 * 9)  Challenges to be faced (organizational, attitudinal, physical plant, technical, etc.)
 * 10)  Expected results
 * 11)  Demonstration. How will you document the project process through visuals as well as text? How will you include your project in the final report?