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  • Technology for Educators
    March 20, 2010 (08:30 - 16:30)
    (TechinEd Calendar) (Courses)
    Course for pre-service educators.

    Richard Stockton College of NJ
  • Technology for Educators
    April 03, 2010 (08:30 - 16:30)
    (TechinEd Calendar) (Courses)
    Course for pre-service educators.

    Richard Stockton College of NJ
  • Technology for Educators
    April 17, 2010 (08:30 - 16:30)
    (TechinEd Calendar) (Courses)
    Course for pre-service educators.

    Richard Stockton College of NJ
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postheadericon Joomla! It's Not Your Mother's Website Anymore

Remember back in the days when frames were the big rage for websites. Websites jumped aboard the use of frames in creating websites that allowed access to multiple pages with the ease of a simple menu selection. The NJAET site was based on frames and made it easy to navigate through the website.

During numerous NJAET Executive Board meetings discussion ensued as to how disjointed things were becoming.  We used one service for processing the annual fall conference fees, another service to email our newsletter, we blogged on another site, registration forms had to be manually manipulated and sent back and forth between members.  It seemed it was time for an extreme makeover whereby members could go to one place to get everything done and open communications. But how do we get there?

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postheadericon Moodle Article - Appeared in NJAETJournal Winter 2008

If I were to climb inside the Way-Back machine (think Peabody and Sherman), I would see classroom days of sitting in class feeling extremely restless and not being a very good passive receptor of information or knowledge. In those days there wasn't much interaction among students. If I journey back to present day, I see some of the same things happening. In some classrooms, students are sitting with that glazed over look in their eyes as they are spoon-fed information that they "need" to know for the next test or to prepare for some state-wide standardized test.

But behold, there is a bright light shinning on the horizon. It is the light of the sign saying, "Classroom open 24/7!" How can this be? Aren't teachers overworked already? Now you expect them to be in school every day of the week and all hours? Relax and take a deep breath. What I'm talking about here is a great resource that is catching on world-wide. What is it? It is creating a Moodle. As the March issue of Technology & Education, The Case for Open Source suggests, a moodle is a free open-source curriculum management system (CMS). As a doctoral student at the University of Delaware, the focus of my studies has been on two issues: technology integration into the curriculum and professional development. As I pondered how to make technology as commonplace as students using paper and pencil, I came across this great tool available for free. I was made aware of Moodle by one of my fellow students at University of Delaware. I had a mild interest in it at the time, largely due to running my own website off of a hosted Windows server. My incorrect understanding at the time was that you needed to run Moodle on a Linux server.

 

When I attended the NECC conference in San Diego last summer, the big buzz was on open-source software. Again this "Moodle thing" was a topic of conversation. I began to look further into the potential of this open-source software. As a part of my doctoral work, I was planning on establishing a collaborative plan with several teachers in my school district as a way of providing professional development and integrating technology into the curriculum. All of a sudden the light bulb came on and the idea of utilizing a Moodle came to light.

Last Updated (Tuesday, 02 March 2010 17:57)

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postheadericon Recent Hack Into Site

Due to a recent hack by spammers into the site, Technology in Education Online website is undergoing renovations and security updates.  Please check back soon.
 

postheadericon Philosophy - A Reflection on Educational Technology

One of the major concerns regarding our educational policies today is the trend towards a "back to basic" approach to education.  Whereby, test scores are the key measurement of success.  In preparing our students, when looking at mastery learning, incorporating numerous instructive materials, is it just a method of memorizing a specific set of materials rather then truly learning?  And in so mastering of concepts are we truly promoting learning?  In our methodology, we have trained not educated students.  Students become disseminators of sound-bites of information without any knowledge beyond the simple yes or no answer or choice between A, B, C, or D. In being so focused on standardized testing to measure what students know we have turned students from learners into products. "This "scientific'' movement was predicated on three main concepts; (1) The School as Factory, (2) The Child as Product, and (3) Standardized Testing as Quality Control. The child was thought of as a piece of raw material to be shaped by the educational "factory" into a quality "product.'' (Serafini F. W, 2002)

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