Summer Course and Bummers

Well, we are half way into the summer course already.  Summer courses are more jam-packed-instead of 9 weeks they are pushed into 6 weeks. The first course that I am in right now is a Multimedia course.  I am enjoying it so far.  We are learning different multimedia tools which will be great for me to bring into the classroom.  It wasn't 100% what I expected I guess.  I thought it would be more lesson based-meaning here is how you can take this information and use it in your classroom.  Instead it is more about-here are some multimedia tools -learn how to use them yourself.  Major bummer for me that a couple of things that I was planning/hoping for this summer are not coming to pass.  Is that a saying?  Anyways-one of the things that didn't happen was a Cybersecurity course through DSU-I wasn't chosen.  Another thing is my Summer Challenge Camps through St. Mary's are not going to happen due to Covid.  The decision was recently made that they can hold the camps but they must be outside.  Well, that is impossible when you need computers and internet access.  I think in the end these bummers are actually blessings in disguise.  I think I was filling my plate with too many things.  I was accepted to take an online workshop for Exploring Computer Science in July.  I am looking forward to this course. 

Summer Courses and Opportunities

This summer-well technically it isn't summer yet-I am taking several courses online for my MSET Program.  One of these courses is called Multimedia Productions.  It started on Monday.  I am really hoping to learn and use some of the course ideas for my Multimedia course I offer for my High School classroom.  I do not have any curriculum for my high school classroom-so I will need to come up with ideas, lessons and tools to offer this.  This is our last week of "school" for my students.  We have had to be online for this last quarter-all of it.  Some students, like my own daughter did well with online learning-actually, probably better then being in the classroom.  She is a chatty one and gets distracted by others.  Being online-there are no others students to distract her.  Some students though really struggled with not having the support from home to help them stay on top of their assignments.  Or they were able to do the assignment-but need more support of going through the directions because they tend to not read them.  I think if I have to begin next year online-some of the changes that I would make would be doing a video through loom-where the students must watch the video and then answer questions.  I currently offered a video but many students skipped the video-how do I know these innocent angels were skipping the video?  Well-when you get questions that were answered in the video-you know they didn't watch it.  

Anyways on to my plans for the summer. I am taking another online course through USD which partners with DSU for their MSET program-it doesn't begin until June sometime and is something about Active Learning.  I also have signed up to take a 1 credit course called TEACH Camp.  That is free to take online June 1st and 2nd -half days.  If you want it for credit it is only $40.  I am hoping to be accepted for 2 other things that I have applied for.  One-I applied back in January or February for a one week workshop on ECS-Exploring Computer Science.  It is a curriculum that I will learn about and then implement in one of my classes.  I am thinking either 7th, 8th or 9th grade.  I also will receive a stipend for doing the class-which is also a nice incentive!  I am hoping to hear soon.  Another opportunity that came through my email was from DSU-Cybersecurity.  This would have me learning about Cybersecurity for a period of time and then implementing a course about it.  I could easily add a Cybersecurity course into my 9th Grade Computer class.  Another stipend is offered through this too.  

Another opportunity that I am considering is offering Summer Challenge camps this summer in July-IF we can.  I originally -before COVID-was going to offer 10 sessions on Scratch programming for students in 2 age brackets.  They are still considering Summer Challenge possibly for July-if the School Board says it is okay in June.  SO, we will see.

Week 14 

Final Project

This week is our final work for the class CET 720 Leadership and Evaluation.  This week we were to focus on an overview of what we have learned throughout the class by creating an IGNITE talk.  An Ignite talk uses 20 slides with an auto advancement at 15 seconds each.  I researched different ideas about how to organize an Ignite talk before starting.  I then created an outline focusing on the first 9 slides on the first book we read, "The Innovator's Mindset" by George Couros and then the next 9 slides on the book "The Edtech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools" by Mark Gura.  The first slide-I related it to my own thinking of technology and the last slide of what is happening in today's world for technology and a closing "gotcha."  My first information was way long for each slide.  I then began timing on a stopwatch to cut out extraneous information.  That was really hard.  Then you need to make sure you are transitioning with your words into the next slide.  Once I had a good overall outline-I began picking pictures for backgrounds.  To me an Ignite talk should have the focus on the speaker with just a visual for people to look at that relates to the point the speaker is making.  So all of my slides are background pictures only.  I also struggled with wanting to create a Title page!!!! I put one in and took it out, put it in and took it out, put it at the end and took it out.  The directions said to use the Apps Loom or Screen cast-o-matic.  I had trouble with each as you needed to have your webcam showing you at the same time as presenting.  I couldn't get them to work.  So, I emailed the Professor to use my tried and trusty Screencastify.  I then practiced and practiced.  I have 4 videos uploaded!  I then realized I looked terrible so I needed makeup!  So here is my overview of the course in my Ignite talk. ENJOY!

Week 13

Infographic

This week we finished up our infographic.  I ended up choosing the App - Snappa.  It only allows you 3 downloads a month though-which stinks when you are first trying to figure out how you need to download the infographic.  Anyway-here it is!

Week 12  

Evaluation Project

This week we were given 3 options to choose from for our Evaluation Project.  We were to then begin the project and create a video on FlipGrid telling our classmates which option we had chosen and the progress we were making on it.  I chose:

This option involves being a part of the Technology Planning Committee at your school. 

"As a part of this committee you are going to be helping to develop the school districts first ever technology plan. This is great news! You have known for a while that your school needs it. However, you have some people on your committee that don't think you need it. You have some people on the committee that were appointed to be on it because of their role with technology in the district. They say this is a waste of time and they don't have time to be involved with something like this. You have other people on the committee that are excited about doing it, but have no idea where to start. The committee chair thinks that a good place to start the process would be to look at what other schools have done. You volunteer to take on this task. 

After the meeting the committee chair pulls you aside and asks you what you think about this being a waste of time. She asks you to see if you can help get the others on board with the entire process.

What are you going to do?"

So I began searching for technology plans for my research.  I found 8 technology plans from across the country.  3 of those plans are from Catholic Schools, which I think is important to take a look at as that is where I teach.  I also wanted to try a different type of tool for my infographic.  I have used Canva before and Adobe Spark.  I found three tools that look interesting.  They are easel.ly, piktochart, and snappa.  

Here are there links in case you would like to check them out!  Next week I will let you know which one I chose.

https://www.easel.ly/     Easel.ly

https://snappa.com/       Snappa

https://piktochart.com/ Piktochart

Week 11 

EdTech Pilot Framework Site

This week we were to explore the website of the EdTech Pilot Framework from Digital Promise.  This site offers Pilot Studies of Educational Technology that schools have completed.  We were to select one Pilot Brief and review it, then post our thoughts on Seesaw.  The Pilot Brief I chose was based on Newsela.

Newsela features stories that are based on current events.  The same story is differentiated into 5 different levels.  Students also can access a quiz and writing prompt.  Students according to the Pilot enjoyed using Newsela and even checked it out when not required to.

The next thing we were to do this week was create a FlipGrid video screencasting from the same website a tool or resource that we thought would be valuable.  I am always looking for new tech tools and information about them.  The tool I chose focused on the DCPS example evaluation rubric.  This rubric allows schools the ability to look at various resources and compare them to each other.  Items such as grade levels, cost, teacher resources, student resources and pedagogies are listed.  You can find this tool here-https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DCPS-Sample-Evaluation-Rubric.pdf

I also found under Tools and Resources a great little gem that showcases new tools of technology. It is called the EdTech Roundup Reviews.  It is located here-http://www.edtechroundup.org/reviews

The last item that we were to complete this week was to access the website-IFTTT web site.   This website stands for If This Then That.  It helps to automate simple tasks. You first connect your app to the site that you want to automate.  I ended up connecting my Pinterest to my Google Sheets.  For every new pin-it will then show up in Sheets-this way I can keep track of my pins faster.

Week 10 

Resources and Infographic

This week we read Ch. 7 and 8 from the book, "The Edtech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools" by Mark Gura.  These are the final chapters in the book and contain some great resources especially in Chapter 8.  I am going to subscribe to some of the newsletters and articles online as suggested. 

A few suggestions I am thinking about are:

• Edtech Update at www.edtechupdate.com
• Smart Brief on Edtech at www.smartbrief.com/industry/education/
• Free Tech 4 Teachers at www.freetech4teachers.com
• Creative Educator at creativeeducator.tech4learning.com 

A couple of key points that were "WOW" factors for me:

1. "Digital transformation then, is the state of schools changing themselves to better accomplish their goals."

2. "With the advent and adoption of technology, a far greater variety of more elaborate activities are now practical to implement, thus transforming teaching and learning."

One of our assignments this week was to create a "Big Picture" Representation to plot the kinds of edtech resources and practices available and currently in use for ourselves and to share with the community we serve.  Below is my "Big Picture" Representation.

This was not an easy task to accomplish!  First, we were to create a list of items associated with school technology.  Below are my lists of Edtech resources and Practices that I began with.

 

#2 Create a flowchart of how technology is used in schools and how it is integrated into the curriculum. Then I opened the software Canva and became hung up on the word "flowchart" from the directions.  I just couldn't see how flowchart would allow my "Big Picture" idea to work.  I then considered a fishbone diagram and worked on that for a while, but again it just didn't work for me.  I then thought about how technology is learned about by the teacher through the types of Edtech and the practices of Edtech which were already represented in my lists.  I really wanted a diagram more along the line of a Family tree I thought.  I tried to work that representation for awhile-again I just couldn't get it to work.  Then I began creating the Edtech Practices as main areas with the Edtech Resources coming from the different types of Practices. The final "Big Picture" came together. These resources and practices are mainly what I utilize in my K-12 classroom.

Week 9

Reflection of Chapter 5 and 6

Chapter 5 focused on having a vision for your technology plan, and Chapter 6 focused on how to implement a technology plan.   I think it is important to have a vision of what technology will look like in the future for your school.  Years ago at my school, we had a technology team.  The computer teacher at that time helped to develop this team to help solve IT problems at the school and develop a plan for the future.  I remember visiting with her several times about her frustration with the administration to devote time and resources towards technology and create a plan for the future.  After a while, the tech team dissolved due to a lack of leadership and frustration.  Around that same time, teachers were asked what do you want to see technology-wise for our future.  Now, looking back I think that was wise to include the teachers' thoughts-but it did bring more issues as teachers then were excited about improving our technology.  Smartboards were purchased from this, but training was not provided.  This caused technology to be used as a whiteboard only in some classrooms.  In the book, it talked about supporting teachers and including professional development for technology and how it can be used properly in the classroom.  These are things that are necessary to create change.  Dr. Smith mentioned that prior to the year 2015, each school had to have its technology plan posted with the state to receive e-rate.  It's unfortunate that that was no longer required.  The information in Chapters 5 and 6 cause me to want to create a Vision for our school and create a technology plan to move forward.  

Week 8

Reflection on one of the Frameworks/Models of Education Transformation

This week we focused on Chapters 3 and 4 in the book, "The Edtech Advocate's Guide to Leading Change in Schools" by Mark Gura. The focus of these chapters is on the digital transformation of schools through frameworks and tools. Several frameworks were briefly discussed such as Microsoft's Education Transformation Framework, Intel's Education Transformation Technology Adoption Blueprint, SAMR Model, and the TPACK Framework.

The Model that resonates with me is the SAMR Model because it moves up from the bottom layer increasing the technology transformation as it goes. Dr. Ruben Puentedura created this model and categorizes four types of technology integration in the classroom; substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition.

The first or lowest area of technology integration is Substitution. With substitution, you are just replacing a tool with another one. An example of this would have students write on paper and then have them write in Microsoft Word. You are just substituting the task with a different tool.

The next area above substitution is Augmentation. This is taking the substitution part and adding extra services like having students use the Microsoft Word document and importing it into a Google Doc and then using Spell Check or the thesaurus with their document. The first 2 areas involve the process of transforming education. The next 2 areas branch into enhancements.

The third area of technology integration is Modification. Modification allows technology to be used more effectively with redesigning tasks. An example would use the Google Document and incorporate the comment feature for students to collaborate on the assignment.

The final step of technology integration is Redefinition. Redefinition uses the highest order of thinking skills to create new tasks or a new experience for the student. An example of this would take the google document and have students create a presentation with their document.

I like that the SAMR model is easy to identify where my technology integration falls into. For me-the hardest part is coming up with the ideas for the redefinition phase. I can easily work the first 3 areas into technology integration, but the fourth area-I need ideas. I just can't envision what or how to make the technology integration move to a higher-order thinking level. I need to continue to investigate further ideas that support the fourth area of the SAMR model.

Week 7  

Part 2

How does technology improve teaching and learning in your school?

Technology improves teaching in my school by allowing students to learn at different speeds.  For example, in my computer classes, students use computer programs online to facilitate their learning.  One of these online tools is a website called typing.com.  This is a great website that monitors students' typing skills and provides valuable information to me as a teacher.  This improves learning because the students can see the results of their typing speeds and the gamification portion of earning stars and points help them "grow up" within the platform. Sometimes though, technology can be a lot of work-if you don't have the content prepared for you and you have to create it yourself.

What are some areas in which this could be improved?
As stated previously, adding technology into your lessons can be a lot of additional work. To create a lesson for example using Nearpod, lesson preparation is exhausting versus just assigning a paper assignment or direction from the teacher for the students of where to go to watch a video. But, once the lesson is prepared then it can be used year after year.

How do you go about making decisions about what technology to use in your classroom or school?

Usually, I learn about new technology first.  Then, I start to think of ways that I can use it in my classroom to be beneficial for students.  Then I take lessons that I have been using and incorporate the technology in some way.  An example of this would be using powerpoints in my lessons.  Sometimes I will create lessons with powerpoints and then have access for students so that they can look back on it for later.  

Week 6

This week we were to either present for Leadership or make an innovative change in a lesson.  I chose to do a presentation for my leadership project.  I sent out an invitation to my colleagues.

 My leadership project represents a good example of leadership and innovation because it is a short workshop telling others about fixed, growth and the innovator’s mindset. It is an exceptional way to create a true learning community.  It is a great way to tap into other’s expertise and share it with others. I presented the workshop for my fellow colleagues, which shows leadership, and it is innovative because we rarely have meetings to share what we know or have learned.  This leadership project relates to the 8 characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset-empathy, problem-finder, risk-taker, networked, observant, creators, resilient and reflection.  Each of these characteristics is essential to the innovator’s mindset.  Knowledge is important, it is what we can do with that knowledge that helps us become innovators.

Number 1 of the 8 characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset is empathy.  Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and truly experience their senses.   My project shows empathy, because I understand my fellow teachers need for professional development and learning opportunities.  I understand their environments and learning opportunities from their point of view.  Relationships play a key role in this project.  My coworkers know that I am a great source of information so they can trust that this will not be a waste of their time.  Years ago, I was the Curriculum Director for them and would present and help my colleagues with various curriculum resources.  This relationship that has been established allowed a successful completion of the project. The teachers were appreciative of the opportunity to attend and learn about some new ideas.  Number two of the 8 characteristics is being a problem-finder.  One problem at our school is a need for quality professional development opportunities.  The school does not fund professional development opportunities.  Teachers must provide the funds for this on their own, so many choose not to take the opportunity to attend workshops.  “Finding the problem is an essential part of learning,” notes George Couros.  So many times schools focus only on finding the answer.  Number 3 of the 8 characteristics is being a risk-taker.  Risk taking is something I struggle with the most out of all the characteristics.  It is important to challenge and question our teaching practices so we can find the “best” practice. I am taking a risk by presenting a workshop to my fellow colleagues.  It is easier, in my opinion to teach to students rather then fellow colleagues.  You tend to feel judged for your performance. I also am taking a risk that these teachers do not already know the topic of my discussion!  Number 4 of the characteristics is networked.  According to George Couros, “Being in spaces where people actively share ideas makes us smarter.”  Every idea that I am using for my presentation is based on a network of ideas from other people.  By presenting on this topic I am also branching out with my network.  Number 5 is Observant.  This has to do with locating ideas within other ideas. I utilized ideas from George Couros from his book, “The Innovator’s Mindset” and other presentations that he has provided.  This helps expand the learning opportunities for my fellow colleagues.  Number 6 of the 8 characteristics of the innovator’s mindset is Creators.  Learning happens by creating.  I discussed in my presentation the importance of students creating.  Creating builds deeper learning.  Number 7 of the characteristics deals with being resilient.  Being resilient was definitely within my presentation.  There are teachers that I have worked with that have trouble with change and see mindset as just another gimmicky “feel good” words to try to get students to persevere.  I’m sure there are teachers and administrators that questioned my wisdom of presenting and worried that I might disrupt the normal conventions of our school.  George Couros notes, “It is important to keep pushing forward, even with the risk of rejection.”  With number 8 as the final characteristic of the Innovator’s mindset it is appropriate that it is last-reflection.  We should consistently reflect on what we are doing in the classroom, in life etc.  These are crucial to innovation. 

I ended my presentation with ideas that teachers could provide to students to help them develop the innovator’s mindset.  One of those ideas was to include reflection time for students.   The presentation went well by focusing on the 8 characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset.  If I planted one seed of curiosity with my fellow teachers, it will have been a success!

I then created a video presentation about my Leadership project.

Week 5 

Visual Created using the tool Piktochart

This week we were to include a visual in our blog that represents our summarization of key ideas from the book by George Couros, "The Innovator's Mindset."  My thought process while creating the visual was to keep the infographic clean with pictures that represent the words from the 8 characteristics of an Innovator's Mindset.  I also felt that the top should reflect on fixed mindset, growth mindset and then a continuation into the Innovator's Mindset.  I centered the book in the middle of the infographic because that is the focus of where these 8 characteristics come from.  Then, emanating from the book are the 8 characteristics in a clocklike order. I included the 8 characteristics because to have the mindset of an innovator you must have empathy for the other person, you must be a problem finder and risk-taker.  You must have a network of other professionals to lean on and learn from.  You must be observant and then able to create by being a creator.  An innovator's mindset must be resilient-to keep on keeping on even when you are frustrated and possibly fail.  Then finally, you must reflect on your journey and where it will lead you next. 

Week 4

Being a Global teacher and impact the world with one small step

What did you learn from the book this week?  I learned that in order to unleash the talent by empowering educators, you need to develop trust and collaboration.  Innovation is not a command- “you there-you-go innovate now!!”  Instead, as a leader, it is something you are willing to do as a team. I also learned that exploring our strengths and passions-along with sharing and learning provided innovative professional development for George Couros.  So, I began thinking-I have no control over what professional development looks like at my school but I do in my classroom.  What if I took this idea and used it in my classroom?  I could have students think about something they are passionate about and share it with others or something that they want to learn about and share it with others. Then they could comment on others and then reflect on their own learning. 

What did you learn from the videos this week?

This week I learned from the videos three interesting things.  First, I want to work at a place where you can never get fired for performance issues!  I love that the company will support and offer lifetime employment.  Just like a family, you don’t get kicked out of the family for doing something wrong; you are embraced and loved and supported to get through it.  Second, sharing digitally has transformed innovation.  I have never understood why others have watched hours of online videos.  My daughter, for instance, has watched videos on makeup and a few of my other children watch gaming videos.  I ask them, "why don’t you just game instead?"  They would rather watch others play and learn from them.  But the idea of openness, using online video to spread ideas to the world and learning from others is a great concept.  Finally, I really enjoyed the last video.  She talks about releasing the power of our students.  Lately, I have begun not to ban my students from their cell phones-but I find myself telling them if admin comes in-they need to put it away.  She also talked about don’t feed the fears-I am afraid that I will get in trouble for breaking the policy of no use of phones in the classroom.  I agree that we need to focus on real-world environments.  I loved her comment that technology is the language students speak.

I thought also about that they could use some different apps and learn about them and teach them to us-with using their passion/or want to learn something but, then I think, "whoa, Nellie"-one small step at a time.

Week 3  

What are the 3 key takeaways from the book thus far?

There are lots of takeaways I am getting from the book -most of them are questions for me to think further on, like-How does what we teach impact a student's future?, What is more, relevant to today's students, an essay or a blog post?, and What is best for the learner?  

1. In the book, it talks about the idea that innovation is a way of thinking that creates something new and better: invention creates something new and iteration changes something that already exists.  I used to think innovation only meant invention, but now that I know it can be iteration-I feel more confident in being an innovator.  

2. Another takeaway from the book that I found inspiring was the concept that students have been learning compliance in school systems but we need to unleash their talent and stop controlling the students.  I wonder what this looks like...and how would you grade this?  Most parents expect grades and that is all they are focused on.  That is what schools focus on- the GPA.  When in reality, we need a mind-shift in the education system of giving a score to the work performed of students.  I think of report cards and the change that needs to happen there as well.  Many schools provide a grade for English overall, while others have changed to having objective-based report cards.  Objective-based report cards at least explain what skills a student is specifically struggling in with each subject.  

3. The third takeaway from the book that I can relate to is School versus Classroom Teacher.  It mentioned that a classroom teacher only looks out for the interests of the class, whereas the schoolteacher looks out for the whole school.  When I was teaching in Elementary, our school consisted of one grade level for each grade.  Occasionally, there would be a large class that was split for a year or two into 2 grades and another teacher would be hired.  Being the lone teacher for that grade and then having another teacher to collaborate with sounds great.  But I would notice, most of the time, one teacher would teach one way and another would teach differently and then they would be compared-which one is better?   And there was no collaboration happening!  

Reflection Questions:
What did you learn from the reading and videos?
How does it change your thinking moving forward?

The reading this week was from Chapters 1-3, from George Couros' book, "The Innovator's Mindset.  I learned several key ideas this week.  The first interesting concept is:, "If we ask teachers to use their own time to do anything, what we're telling them is: it's not important."  I located this on page 5 in the last paragraph.  This is interesting to me because how many times do teachers have to take their work home?  Many hours of nights I have researched new ways of teaching and emailed myself to remember the next morning.  Teachers also need time to learn and grow.  This was a powerful statement!  Another idea that spoke to my soul was, "Don't change for the sake of change.  Make changes that allow us to empower teachers and students to thrive." (Page 7, Paragraph 2).  I love that statement!  I have always believed in learning for myself.  I love to learn new things.  Sometimes I have learned something new, absorbed it, and then decided it wasn't for me and my classroom.  My whole career has been a "constant evolution to make things better for student learning."  Innovation is something I struggle with, and I wonder now if that is because schools have conformed students not to be creative and maybe that has affected me.  One video mentioned the need to learn from other teachers.  Who can you learn from best? Other educators in the same field/grade level.  The story of schools replacing the vending machines from junk food to healthy food was interesting to me.  I wholeheartedly agree with the fact, that kids just stopped purchasing from the vending machines and went to the gas station to stock up on junk food.  I learned that simply replacing one item with another is not innovation.  Innovation is using the skills that you have learned and creating something new with it.  It is important to ask the question, what can you do with what you know? 

Learning more about innovation helps change my thinking about my classroom and what kind of learning I want for my students.  I'm nervous about how to create problem "finders" in my classroom, the curriculum that I would need to design and the grading of this curriculum.  How do you assess personal learning in this way?  Reflections?  I will try to be the guide on the side instead of telling how to do something.  Last semester, I started a Robotics course for 9-12th graders at my school.  I began researching other schools with Robotics courses like mine-I couldn't find any.  The curriculum to support the Vex IQ Robotics program is very limiting.  So, I had to use some of that and my creativity to create the course.  But what I really loved-and I believe the students loved was after the first 9 weeks of "learning" about the sensors and building a robot and various tasks we moved on to them creating their own robot to meet a problem/challenge.  The challenge was 5 weeks away, and they had to create an engineering notebook with biographies, etc that they would do if they were actually competing in a world championship.  My guidance to them was only to the team leaders for the first 3 days.  Student team leaders led the rest of the weeks in their own groups.  They continued to work on designing their robot to solve the problem/challenge.  I created a field for the teams to practice the challenge with a final project date.  What was interesting to me is that, of course, there were a few kids that were not doing what they were supposed to, but most kids were invested and on task.  They were researching the best ways to create their robots.  They were seeking answers from other resources.  In this way, students were able to try to solve the challenge and learning.

First Blog Entry

What do you want to get out of this course? 

I am taking this online course, called  "Leading Evaluation and Change in the Educational Technology Environment," from Dr. Kevin Smith through Dakota State University.  I would like to get out of this course an understanding of what "leading" means through evaluation and "leading" means with change in context with the Educational Technology environment.  I am guessing that I have already been an instrument of leadership regarding Educational Technology at my school.  I took over the position of K-12 Computer teacher with the idea that our high school students needed more than the limited Computer Science classes that they were provided previously.   I proposed course offerings to the administration that could appeal to our students and allow additional options for them to acquirecredits.  I believe this might also follow the "change" in the Educational Technology environment also, as with many of Computer Science courses, it involves working with other students through teamwork and problem-solving.  So, I hope that I am on the right track in my thinking.