CEP 909 Welcome

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CEP 909 - Welcome

• September 1, 2005

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Whos Who?

• Team up with someone you dont know
• Talk to them for 5 minutes
• Introduce them to the class

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Hands on Activity - Read a Story

• Handouts coming.
• Hand back the story when youre done.

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Hands on Activity - Make Some Definitions

• Form groups of three
• Take 15 minutes to come up with a definition for
  TECHNOLOGY and a definition of COGNITION
• You may use whatever you want (including the
  internet)
• Be prepared to defend your definition
• Write your definitions on the board

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The class

• Almost everything you need to know about the
  class can be found online from home page
• http//mkoehler.educ.msu.edu OR
• http//www.msu.edu/mkoehler/

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Where do Cognition and Technology Meet?

• Theories of mind - The advent of the digital
  computer started influencing how people thought
  about cognition.
• Designing Technology - How people work, think,
  and learn has an influence on the kinds of
  technology we build.
• New Forms of Learning - Advances like the WWW,
  gaming, digital video, etc. has an impact on how
  we learn
• Modeling - New forms of science are possible, we
  can now model complex phenomena (like the
  weather), including cognition.

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About the Class

• Semester long project
• Together, starting at ground zero, we are going
  to design and conduct a study on how (or if)
  people learn from games.
• This will be collaborative project, done by the
  whole class.
• Most of this work will be done in groups of 3-4
  person teams, and the tasks will vary from week
  to week (e.g., design survey that measures
  peoples level of interest in gaming).
• How we will do this, and what we will do will
  evolve from week to week.

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Topics in the Course

• Early weeks - Background readings and discussion
  about cognitive psychology and information
  processing theories of mind.
• Middle weeks - Armed with our firm footing in
  cognitive theory, we'll begin to move into what
  the research has to say about learning with some
  of the more recent technologies (e.g., web,
  video, games, simulations, etc.).
• Later weeks We'll continue our reading into
  recent research into learning with technology,
  but focus more and more on our own study that we
  have been designing.

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About the course

• Things we will be doing
• Reading - You have to do the readings.
• Writing - Once a week, every week
• Talking - You must talk in class
• Think - try out ideas you might not agree with
• Argue - It's okay to disagree
• Collaborate - get along with team members
• Attend Class
• Have Fun - Joke, laugh, enjoy yourself

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Course - Yahoo groups

• We are going to use yahoo groups to communicate
  outside of class, and to share files back and
  forth.
• We are going to sign up for the yahoo group in
  this class in a little bit

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Course - Participation

• 24 of your grade
• Contribute in class (12), both the right
  quantity and quality
• Contribute out of class (12) as well (using
  email and the yahoo group). A good rule of thumb
  is to have something substantive to say at least
  once a week

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Course - Weekly Assignments

• Every week, Im going to give you something an
  assignment, that is relevant to the topic for the
  week.
• For example, since we are talking about
  re-orienting towards the cognitive approach to
  mind in the first week of class, your assignment
  this week will be about your current approach to
  a theory of mind.

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Course - Weekly Assignments

• These weekly assignments are intended to be
  manageable and meaningful, and to get you engaged
  in the material.
• Also, they are intended to get you in the habit
  of writing about your thinking, and sharing with
  others.
• These assignments are always due WED night
  1159pm.

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Course - Weekly Assignments

• Thinking and writing are only 1/2 of an academic
  discourse and community the other 1/2 is
  reading and listening. Accordingly, I expect that
  you will routinely read other students work
  before class on Thurs.
• I might you questions about this so be
  prepared.

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Course - Weekly Assignments

• The weekly assignments are 33 of your grade.
  Each one is graded on a 5 point scale.
• 5 Points - Goes beyond the requirements of the
  assignment, and makes good connections to the
  course readings and outside readings. Careful
  attention to good writing
• 4 Points -
• 3 Points - Meets the requirements of the
  assignment, and connects to the readings, ideas
  presented in class, or other students' work.
• 2 points -
• 1 point - Incomplete, not answering the question
  posed. Not including any connections to the
  readings or other people's work.-1 point for each
  day it is late.

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Posting Assignments

• Your job is to make a web-portfolio that
  showcases your work in this class, both to the
  other members of this class, and to the general
  public (you can delete it when the course is over
  if you want to).
• Your MSU webspace
• Any other webspace you want, Geocities, blogs,
  etc
• Youre responsible for learning how

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Web portfolio

• Get it up and running as soon as you can (I
  understand this may take longer for some of you
  than others).
• When you get it up and running, give me a correct
  address so I can link to it on the people page.
• This week send mail to the yahoo group w/ an
  address of where to find your work regardless of
  where it is (on yahoo group, as attachment, on
  your portfolio)
• 10 of your grade (8 for doing one, 2 for
  better ones)

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Class study of games

• 33 of your grade
• 1/3 of is determined by estimation of your own
  contribution and efforts to the project
• 1/3 is determined by evaluation of your group as
  a whole. There will be many mini-assignments
  given to groups, and how your group does on
  these assignments will determine how your group
  is evaluated here. Everyone in the group
  receives the same evaluation for this 1/3.
• 1/3 will be the final presentation of results
  which will happen on the last day of the class.

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Questions? Comments?
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Passwords
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Pictures

• I really like pictures of people, its much more
  personal, and it helps me put faces to names
• Especially after the class is over.
• So please send me a picture you want me to use
  for you in the class.
• If you really do not want a picture used, please
  send some image that has some personal attachment
  (icon, etc.)

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Week 1 Assignments

• Lets review them on the website.
• http//mkoehler.educ.msu.edu

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Hands on Activity - Lets Write!

• Take out paper and pencil / pen, and write as
  much as you can recall about the story you read
• Put your name on it, and hand it to the
  instructor

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Almost Done

• Review Assignments for next week
• Get to a computer and sign up for yahoo group
• After instructor has approved your membership,
  youre free to go
• See you next week.