Educational and Assistive Technology for Early Childhood

The course Educational Technology and Assistive Technology in Early Childhood is being run this year as a hybrid course.  There are four class meetings that are in-person and the remaining meetings are held online.  The class content delivery was particularly challenging given that a hands-on approach is most widely accepted when teaching about technology.  Along with software, hardware devices are discussed. Collaboration and discussion surrounding implementation of the technology in an educational setting are pertinent to the successful understanding of the role of technology in the classroom.  Troubleshooting is also an on-going need as students run into issues when using software or hardware during the class.  Maintaining rich content and providing an effecitve delivery system are two key factors in the succes of converting a traditional hands-on class into a hybrid course.  To develop this course successful, it took the collaborative efforts between the University of Delaware Department of Human Development and Family Studies, their IT department and CATIES at The College of New Jersey.

To design the course we first decided on the content as would be done with a traditional course.  However, we also had to choose the classes that would lend themselves to an online delivery method and ones that would best be delivered face-to-face.  We then drew up a course schedule that included the topics.  From this, we utilized the University of Delaware's Google Apps software and created a Google Site to host our course site.  This site can be shared only with enrolled students.  The site was structured by weeks.  Each week was given it's own page on the site and included all of the content that would be used for a traditional course.  This includes readings, videos of technology being used, tutorials, PowerPoint presentations, and class assignments. 

After the content and delivery system was decided upon, we chose to explore the potential of Sakai.  We have seen its value in supporting a traditional class and wanted to continue to use is as the tool for collaboration and the housing of resources.  We explored each tool offered by Sakai and then chose the best way to use them to meet our course needs as well as create a community within the classroom.

Although online courses provide great flexibility to the student, accountability is increased. Students have to show that they have experienced the content and provide some sort of feedback to the class.  We used a series of Sakai tools to accomplish this.  Most topics were following by an activity requiring the student to post to a forum, blog or wiki and share their reflections.  The professor would follow-up by replying to posts and other students also have the opportunity to reply.  

These tools allowed students to share ideas and it is the opinion of the professor that the posts are much richer in content than participation in class.  Often students would not share in class, but the posts provide them each with a time efficient way to share their thoughts with one another.  Students were encouraged to work in groups when reviewing content.  The posts and display of work seemed to reflect that these small group meetings were taking place fostering a sense of community within the class.

Ten topics were chosen from the course to be used in an eportfolio.  Students also created personal eportfolio sites using Google Apps.  They were able to share these with the entire University of Delaware or only the individuals they selected.  The eportfolio served to display work to potential employers or peers and collected artifacts of their knowledge obtained throughout the class.

Sakai also provided the hosting services of course content.  The resources tool housed instructions for projects and other course information that pertained to the overall course such as the syllabus and class schedule.  The web content page linked to the course site that was developed in Google Apps.  Assignment grades and feedback were shared through Sakai as well.

The hybrid experience seemed to provide a very rich experience for the students.  Posts to Sakai and the eportfolio were evidence of this.