Kindergarten to Grade 12
Technology in K-12 Education
Academic research is rife with studies touting the educational benefits of technology use in the K-12 classroom. Chief among them are the engaging and motivational aspects for students; classroom use of skills used in everyday life; instant access to current and relevant information; and the development of a strong foundation in the multiple skills of global, digital, technology, visual and information literacies – collectively known as 21st Century Literacy (Banaszewski, 2002;Robin, 2008; Lowenthal, 2009).
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MET Program and K-12 Education
For educators working with students at the Kindergarten to Grade 12 level, a Master's degree in Educational Technology provides the theory, knowledge, and skill required to effectively, and meaningfully, integrate and utilize technology in today's K-12 classrooms. The MET program offers courses designed to focus on designing, managing, and implementing, as well as utilizing learning technologies within a wide variety of subject and content areas in the K-12 classroom.
The following highlights the elective courses offered through the MET program which hold particular relevance for graduate students working with school-aged learners. A brief description of each course, as provided through UBC's MET (2012) website, follows.
For a complete description of each course, please click the title link!
ETEC 540: Text Technologies - The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing
This course explores how technologies for writing have changed through the course of history and how such changes have affected writing styles and genres. To understand these changes personally, students experiment with writing and creating different styles, genres and media in the process of examining the rhetorical strategies promoted by different media. In doing so, students learn how writing facilitates or hampers access to knowledge and how the information explosion has modified human understandings of what it means to be educated. ETEC 565A: Special Course in Subject Matter Field: learning technologies - selection, design and application This course is an online seminar that provides several theoretical frameworks to assist educators in evaluating, selecting and using various learning technologies. Students will gain hands-on experience using a range of learning technologies and platforms: web-publication, course management systems, communication tools, community and collaboration tools, multimedia, and social software tools. Students will complete a number of small assignments using different learning technologies as well as a larger project in which they bring several of these technologies together to design materials and activities to support student learning. ETEC 530: Constructivist Strategies for E-Learning
In this course, students learn about constructivist teaching strategies for online learning as well as face-to-face learning. Assignments are geared toward students incorporating constructivist principles into the development of learning materials for online use. |
ETEC 533: Technology in the Mathematics and Science Classroom
This advanced graduate level course aims to address contemporary, international research on how people teach and learn mathematics and science with digital technologies. In this course, we will analyze video case studies, conduct field-based interviews, critique primary and secondary research papers in the field, examine historically substantive technology-enhanced science and math learning projects, and interact with dynamic information visualization tools, online networked communities, and multisensory immersive environments. Course activities and assignments will enable students to build upon and share informed and grounded positions on contemporary issues related to technology in the mathematics and science classroom and create pedagogical designs for math or science technology-enhanced learning experiences. ETEC 532: Technology in the Arts and Humanities Classroom
This course helps students understand the role of the arts in technology by 1) historically reviewing the development of various technologies and their impact on development in the Arts, and 2) examining socio-cultural considerations and their impact on the uses of technologies, aesthetics, pedagogy and curriculum in New Media contexts. |
If K-12 education is your area of specialization, please post your opinions and comments to the questions contained within the K-12 MET Specializations Discussion Forum. |
References:
Banaszewski, T. (2002). Digital story-telling finds its place in the classroom. MultiMedia Schools, January/February, 2002. Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/jan02 /banaszewski.htm
Lowenthal, P. (2009). Digital storytelling: An emerging institutional technology? In K. McWilliam & J. Hartley (Eds.), Story circle: Digital storytelling around the world, 297-305. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishing.
Robin, B.R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 41, 220-228. doi:10.1080/00405840802153916
University of British Columbia. (2012). Master of Educational Technology. Retrieved from http://met.ubc.ca/index.htm
Lowenthal, P. (2009). Digital storytelling: An emerging institutional technology? In K. McWilliam & J. Hartley (Eds.), Story circle: Digital storytelling around the world, 297-305. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishing.
Robin, B.R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 41, 220-228. doi:10.1080/00405840802153916
University of British Columbia. (2012). Master of Educational Technology. Retrieved from http://met.ubc.ca/index.htm