Dr. Lomax: EDM 310 Spring 2015 Blog Post #1

EDM 310 is course that will explore the idea of teaching for the 21st Century learner. The fact that you are enrolled in this course suggests to me that you either desire to become a certified teacher in the state of Alabama or you would like to sharpen your skills as a teacher to adapt to a new instructional environment that is increasingly being populated by a different kind of student. What are the features of this new instructional environment and the characteristics of the students that are a component of this environment? These features and characteristics include: collaboration, creativity, evaluation, analysis, application, understanding, and memorization.

Collaboration and creativity are the watchwords and will be essential components of your experience as a student in EDM 310. Much like the students you expect to teach, through course-related projects and activities, you will need to inquire, invent, design, dream and build ideas to support the active problem solving you will engage in during the conduct of this course. In the classroom and in life, students will be required to evaluate, analyze, apply, understand, and remember many things and to do so often. One of your jobs as a teacher will be to help your students hone all of these skills; regardless of your eventual content area or specialization. Through the suite of activities, projects, assignments, and the use of a variety of information resources and technologies that are all elements of EDM 310, you will gain greater experience in developing all of these skills and more as a student in this course.

There are expectations that come with your enrollment as a student in this course. EDM 310 is a course that will require at least 9 hours of your time per week. As has already been mentioned in the syllabus and in class discussion, you are expected to both be and behave like a professional educator. This means that you will submit your projects and assignments on time. This also means that you will attend ALL mandatory classes (including group meetings) unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.  I will take roll in my sections of EDM 310 on a random basis. After the third mandatory meeting of this course (1/20/15), if you cannot support the reason for your absence from class with credible evidence (e.g., a doctor's note), I reserve the right to lower your final course grade and/or award you a failing grade for this course. This proviso will also hold true for all group meetings.

In your professional practice as a teacher, you will learn that a late arriving student can be a disruptive influence on instruction and instructional activity. Please arrive to class on time. If you are a student who is habitually late to arrive to class, your final grade for this course will suffer from your tardiness.

In completing your activities, projects, and assignments related to this course, you will be honest and truthful in your dealing with your colleagues and classmates and you will support the integrity of your research activities by using quotations and citations when using the work of others as a component of your activity, project, or assignment.  Beyond our discussion in class and your consent to follow the plagiarism pledge in this course, it will be your responsibility to explore and gain greater familiarity about the rules and regulations related to plagiarism, copyright, and the protection of intellectual property here at the University of South Alabama and when using networked information resources such as search engines and file sharing sites such as YouTube.

If I discover that you have plagiarized any of the content in any of the activities, assignments, or projects you submit as a student in this course, I reserve the right to pursue action consistent with the policies of this College and the University of South Alabama in the area of plagiarism to the fullest extent possible.

Thorough our use of engaging and challenging activities, assignments, class discussions, presentations, and projects, Mr. Tashbin, the EDM Student Lab staff, and I sincerely hope that you will have both a positive and memorable intellectual journey and experience as a student in EDM 310.

I look forward to seeing all of you blossom as both students and teaching professionals in this course.