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April 2009

Volume 4 Issue 2

From the Program Coordinator

Spotlight on Students and Alumni

Student Services

What's New in Technology

Instructional Technology Program in Action

UHCL Alumni Association

International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE)

The Texas Computer Education
Association (TCEA)

Association for the Advancement of
Computing in Education (AACE)

American Society for Training & Development (ASTD)

Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)

Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA)

United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA)

Important Dates from the
UHCL Calendar

Finally, I get to say, “Breaking news!” The UHCL Instructional Technology Program has just been accepted as a training provider for the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). New TxVSN teachers will be able to select INST 6437 Interactive Distance Education for their initial training. Highly experienced distance education teachers, who want to be TxVSN approved teachers, will be able to take INST 6137 Technology and eLearning and/or INST 5135 Multimedia Design Applications for their training. As soon as I receive additional details on this project, I will let you know.

INST faculty members Caroline Crawford, Jana Willis, Trudy Driskell and I attended the Texas Computer Education Association 2009 conference held in Austin, Texas. Once again it was a spectacular event with sessions ranging from “The Cognitive Art of Educational Technology” to “Open

Richard Smith

Source Software in the Classroom” to “Web Conferencing with Skype.” If you ever want to learn a great deal about what teachers are doing with instructional technology and the new products that vendors are offering, this a conference that you should not miss. It always takes place in Austin during February of each year.

The TCEA Technology Research Symposium is an event that is related to the conference and takes place the day before the TCEA conference starts. Caroline Crawford and I did a presentation at the symposium titled, “The Importance of Teacher Time Considerations in Applying Standards for Online Teaching and Course Design.” This is the third year that the symposium has taken place and each year the Instructional Technology Program has had papers selected for presentation.

Remember, to keep up with instructional technology after you graduate join organizations such as TCEA and the Texas Distance Learning Association. Attend their conferences, participate in their events, and become active organization members.

Richard A. Smith
INST Program Coordinator

Alumni

Shelia Warren

Sheila Warren, INST 2007 alumna, has been accepted to the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education doctoral program for Instructional Technology. Sheila received a full-tuition waiver as part of her position as a graduate assistant with the university’s School of Engineering. She will be working on creating virtual labs for the engineering school's distance education program. Sheila, who worked as an engineer at Johnson Space Center, will be combining her engineering background with her instructional technology skills to help the University of Virginia offer engineering education to students via distance education.

Summer 2009 Courses

This summer the Instructional Technology Program will offer a variety of courses. The undergraduate course, INST 3133 Survey of Instructional Technology will be offered during the summer nine-week semester. Students will have their choice between taking the course completely online or face-to-face where they can take advantage of UHCL’s great computer labs. Two other undergraduate courses will be offered, INST 4535 eLearning and INST 4635 Web Development. Both will be offered completely online during the summer eight-week semester.

At the master’s degree level, during the summer eight-week semester, several sections of INST 6031 Applications of Technology will be offered in both online and Web-enhanced versions. In addition, INST 5035 Creating Digital Resources, INST 5130 Learning Theory and Instruction, INST 5233 Systematic Design of Instruction, INST 5433 Instructional Design, Project Management, and Grant Writing, INST 5635 Web Design and Development, INST 5135 Multimedia for Educators, and INST 6437 Interactive Distance Learning will be offered online.

For those students who like to work intensively, INST 6031 Applications of Technology, INST 6137 Technology and eLearning, INST 5131 Trends and Issues, and INST 5535 Internet for Instruction will be offered during the first five-week semester, also completely online.

Program Advisory Committee Meets

The INST Program Advisory Committee met with Richard Smith, INST Program Coordinator Tuesday, April 14. The committee members provide suggestions for INST program improvement. For example, as a result of last year’s meetings the Instructional Technology Program revised course requirements for the master’s degree and the Online Distance Educators Professional Development Certificate. The committee members were happy to note that in addition to keeping up with current technology trends and including them in INST courses, the INST faculty were also significant contributors to academic journals and made presentations on instructional technology and instructional design around the country.

Important Dates from the UHCL Calendar

Important Dates from the
UHCL Calendar