ECEL517: Integrating Science and Technology in Early Childhood and Elementary Classrooms

Explores the nature of science as a discipline and examines how to integrate science, math and technology into the classroom curriculum. Students will learn strategies to engage children in active explorations aligned with the NJ Science, Math and Technology Standards. Students will recognize the integration of science and math content as vehicles for critical thinking, and children's engagement in the wonder and study of the natural and physical (human-made) world. Students will experience hands-on, minds-on science activities supported by technology and will examine successful management techniques and science safety codes. Students will gain confidence and skills in the scientific concepts and principles that unite the science disciplines: systems, order, and organization; evidence, models, and explanation; change, constancy, and measurement; evolution and equilibrium; and form and function. 3 sh.

EDTC510: Technology Planning for Education Renewal

Students assist district or organizational leaders in the systemic design and implementation of a technology plan that is customized for a school or organization's philosophy, budget, and individual staff needs and abilities. Comprehensive planning considers goals, standards, resources, community structures, school or organization-based support, and staff development. Students conduct a needs assessment, facilitate planning meetings among leaders, educators, staff, parents and community representatives and address practical issues of purchasing and technical support. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: EDTC 500, EDTC 501, and EDTC 502 or graduate program coordinator's approval.

EDTC530: Integrating Technology Across the Secondary Curriculum

Ths laboratory course provides students with hands-on experiences in creating educational and instructional technology environments that are student-centered, collaborative, inquiry-based, and emphasize critical thinking. The course explores the fundamentals of interactive design using both MacIntosh and PC-based computer platforms. Students orchestrate object, print, video and digital media technologies to support specific curricular goals at the middle- and high-school levels. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: EDTC 500 and EDTC 501 or graduate program coordinator's approval.

MEDI500: Media, Technology, and Learning in the Curriculum

The organizing and integrating of media in school curricula and other educational programs. Identifying instructional purposes and defining roles for technology and media in learning and teaching. Examining and comparing curriculum designs for their concordance with the procedures of technology in education. Selection and evaluation of materials. 3 sh.

MEDI503: Critical Basics of Media and Technology Production

This course introduces critical and practical frameworks for producing educational media. Students engage in hands-on production of multiple media forms to support a variety of curricular goals, with emphasis on digital media. Students explore the possibilities of multimedia and non-linear teaching and learning for educators and learn the fundamentals of interactive and integrative curriculum design across MacIntosh and PC-based computer platforms. Open to matriculating and non-matriculating students. 3 sh.

MEDI506: Evaluation and Selection of Educational Media

Emphasizes the evaluation and selection of research materials in multiple media formats - from print to digital. The course provides opportunities to discover what kinds of resources are available and generate criteria for evaluating the quality and usefulness of new and traditional media in supporting the research process. 3 sh.

MEDI520: Production of Materials for Media Technology

For developing advanced proficiency in preparing audio, photographic, and graphic materials. Especially for persons charged with materials preparation in media centers. Laboratory instruction. 3 sh.

MEDI521: Design of Innovative Curriculum Resources

Emphasis on systems design, software, program development, creative development of media for special learning situations, basic design of programmed instruction and multi-media techniques. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: MEDI 520.

MEDI523: Integrating Technology Across the Elementary Curriculum

This laboratory course provides students with hands-on experience in creating educational and instructional technology environments that are student-centered, collaborative, inquiry-based, and emphasize critical thinking. The course explores the fundamentals of interactive design using both MacIntosh and PC-based computer platforms. Students orchestrate object, print, video and digital media technologies to support specific curricular goals at the early childhood and elementary levels. 3 sh.

MUED518: Technology for Music Teachers

A history and overview of computer platforms and applications for music. A review of pre-college, collegiate, and professional music software; the basics of music programming; a review of MIDI applications and interfaces; the use of interactive media in music pedagogy; and the future of computer applications in this field. 3 sh.

READ503: Literature for Adolescents

Offers background for the development of recreational reading programs in middle schools and high schools. Literature written for students, as well as literature intended to be read widely by adolescents, criteria for book selection, censorship, role of mass media, minority group identification through books, bibliotherapy, bibliographic tools, and the importance of the librarian. 3 sh.

READ522: History of Literacy and Media

This course examines literacy evolutions through physical innovations from cuneiform to the printing press to the internet, educational initiatives from the tutor system to mandated public education to No Child Left Behind, and historical eras from ancient to modern to post-modern. This course will run as a seminar co-developed by the professor and students. This class engages students in learning the history of literacy and literacy pedagogy and, through that, wrestling with issues of discourse, culture, theory, and practice in education and society - both as practicing or potential teachers and as scholars. Topics covered include: development of literacy as related to the printing press, literacy definitions and educational policy, new media and new Literacies, and issues of literacy and power in educational settings. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: READ 500 or READ 501 or instructor's permission.

READ524: Teaching Multiethnic Literature in P-8 Classrooms

This graduate-level course is designed to assist in-service teachers and school media specialists in their efforts to examine multiethnic children's literature as both aesthetic forms and pedagogical tools. Students will analyze the social, political, and educational implications of such literature and its use in P-8 classrooms. If teachers and school media specialists introduce powerful, but enjoyable, literary pieces through which they explore the topics of race and ethnicity and ask critical questions, children might have a greater chance of living up to democratic principles and becoming active participants in the global community. This course will help teachers to use multiethnic children's literature more frequently in their respective classrooms and to approach that responsibility with confidence. 3 sh.

READ525: Literacies, Digital Technology and Learning

This course is designed to provide a context in which pre-service and in-service teachers can explore a range of "new" Literacies and the implications of these new Literacies for school-based literacy education. This course comprises a theoretical dimension that focuses on literacy as a social practice, and a practical dimension that includes hands-on use of a range of new digital technologies and new literacy practices. Attention will be paid to developing effective ways of taking up new Literacies in classroom contexts. 3 sh.

SPED585: Technology for Inclusive Classrooms

The course is designed to provide educators with an understanding of how to use technology as a seamless part of the teaching and learning experience for students with disabilities in inclusive settings. Two main purposes for students with disabilities will be emphasized. Teachers will learn how to provide access to the curriculum for students with disabilities by using the principles of Universal Design for Learning as a framework for curriculum design. They will learn how to utilize technology to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities in order for them to attain maximum independence and participation in all environments. 2 - 3 sh.

Prerequisites: SPED 567, SPED 568.