Two years ago, I enrolled in a relatively new program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The program is called Curriculum Technology and Education Reform (CTER). With the rapid advancement of technology throughout the world, it’s very comforting to know that the U of I always has been and shall remain on the cutting edge of advances in technology. As an educator, I feel it is my responsibility to stay abreast of technological advances as much as possible. Therefore, I took advantage of the online educational program that U of I offered and I have no regrets. I’ve learned a great deal, met many new friends, and the assistance of the faculty and staff have been amazing. Below, you will find a link to the U of I CTER program, as well as a few of the projects I have completed through this program. Click on the blue links to see what CTER is all about and a few of my projects.
University of Illinois Curriculum Technology and Education Reform Program
My Class Projects
EdPsy 387 Computer Uses in Education
This project consisted of creating my very first Web site. Since I began with very little computer experience, it was a real challenge for an “old timer” like me.
EdPsy 490 NET Networks for Learning
For this project, I developed a web page to create better networking between health students and teachers across the nation. Although this was one of my earliest projects, I still get e-mail questions and information from across the United States. This is the project summary page. The project itself can be found here.
EdPsy 389 Evaluation and Assessment in Learning Technologies
On this project, I teamed up with one of the best teachers I’ve ever been around. Geoff Freymuth is a fellow student of the class and Fortunately for me, he also works in the same building as I. We did a building wide survey of the educational atmosphere at Edison Middle School.
EdPsy 399OL Issues and Developments in Educational Psychology: Learning and Classroom Management
This class should be a MUST for anyone thinking of going into the field of education. This class really made me sit down and re-think some of the strategies I had been using in managing my classroom. It also enable each of us in the class to compare discipline plans as well as research what the experts had to say on the subject of discipline and control in the classroom. The old methods just aren’t working too well anymore. These practices WORK!
EdPsy 490TER Technology and Education Reform
For this class, one of our goals was to develop a grant proposal for funding with the goal integrating more technology into our classrooms or programs. The grant proposal I wrote was towards upgrading our program of using Polar Heart Rate Monitors in our Physical Education and Health Classes at Edison. We then met as a class in a face to face session and “presented” our proposals to our peers as if they were the potential funding committee. Overall, it was another great experience and the food (all of our face to face meetings included food) was once again FANTASTIC!
EPS 313 Ethical and Policy Issues in Information Technologies
I think this class was my favorite. The class consisted of a hypothetical situation involving the use of technology, usually in an educational setting, posted on a web board each weekday morning. Professor Nick Burbules posed an ethical question on the web board and we were then encouraged to think about respond to each question. The total time to read the scenario was usually about five minutes. However, some of the discussions would continue through several days. There was a great deal of verbal “jousting” each day. The other part of the program was researching various ethical issues, with the final project of adding addendums to White Pages already created by former CTER students.
EdPsy 490ASA Issues in Traditional and Alternative Assessment
Have you ever wondered what goes into making up assessments and how you can improve them? This is the class for you. In this class, as it says, we reviewed traditional assessment methods, evaluated our own assessment methods, and made improvements on them. A Voice Narrated summary of my project can be found at this link.
EdPsy 490i Analysis of Advanced Instructional Technologies
In this final class, each of us attempted to put all that we have learned through the entire CTER program to work in a culminating activity…the updating of our original e-Portfolios. As you can see, the name of this course is highlighted in red and has no links. The reason for this is this entire e-Portfolio you are looking at IS my final project for this course. I can honestly say that enrolling in this program has been one of the most beneficial things I’ve ever done in my life. I don’t regret a minute of my CTER experiences…excluding due dates for projects! If you have any questions about the CTER program you want answered by someone who made it through with very little computer experience beforehand, contact me. I’ll be glad to answer questions. My E-mail address again is k.rodeffer@insightbb.com .
