Courses tagged with "Java" (5)

This course immerses students in the process of building and testing their own digital and board games in order to better understand how we learn from games. We explore the design and use of games in the classroom in addition to research and development issues associated with computer–based (desktop and handheld) and non–computer–based media. In developing their own games, students examine what and how people learn from them (including field testing of products), as well as how games can be implemented in educational settings.

This is a course about how research knowledge and other types of knowledge come to be actionable and influential in the world — or not. The course explores ways to make research knowledge more accessible, credible, and useful in the realm of public policy and practice, a project in which the course faculty collectively bring decades of professional experience, in both academic and non-academic roles.

The course addresses the politics of the policymaking process, the power of framing and agenda-setting, fads and paradigms in the design professions and society in general, how knowledge diffuses along knowledge and influence networks, and how varied types of knowledge (rational, craft, other) and deliberation shape decision-making and action. The course engages a number of guests to present case studies of research in use (and abuse) in varied fields, highlighting rich areas for potential research contributions, along with major conflicts in public values, political interests, ethical obligations, and more. The resulting dilemmas confront scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and others as they look to research — sometimes — for useful guidance, influence, or both.

This class discusses the economic aspects of current issues in education, using both economic theory and econometric and institutional readings. Topics include discussion of basic human capital theory, the growing impact of education on earnings and earnings inequality, statistical issues in determining the true rate of return to education, the labor market for teachers, implications of the impact of computers on the demand for worker skills, the effectiveness of mid-career training for adult workers, the roles of school choice, charter schools, state standards and educational technology in improving K-12 education, and the issue of college financial aid.

This course is designed to prepare you for a successful student teaching experience. Some of the major themes and activities are: analysis of yourself as a teacher and as a learner, subject knowledge, adolescent development, student learning styles, lesson planning, assessment strategies, classroom management techniques and differentiated instruction. The course requires significant personal involvement and time. You will observe high school classes, begin to pursue a more active role in the classroom in the latter part of the semester, do reflective writings on what you see and think (journal), design and teach a mini-lesson, design a major curriculum unit and engage in our classroom discussions and activities.

This is the final course in the three-course sequence (11.129, 11.130 and 11.131) that deals with the practicalities of teaching students. Areas of study will include: educational psychology, identification of useful resources that support instruction, learning to use technology in meaningful ways in the classroom, finding more methods of motivating students, implementing differentiated instruction and obtaining a teaching job.