Syllabus (APBT 4391 Summer 2013) THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT BROWNSVILLE

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT BROWNSVILLE
College of Education
Syllabus (APBT 4391 Summer 2013)
Conceptual Framework & Knowledge Base
The conceptual framework contains four core
concepts that are themes through which we
organize and deliver our programs; hence they are
central to our vision of professional educators and
scholars. These include:
Interculturalism
Interrelatedness
Inquiry
Pedagogical Leadership
College of Education (COE) Mission Statement
To prepare highly skilled
professionals to assume roles and positions in teaching, research, educational leadership,
and human development.
To provide undergraduate and graduate programs based on proven best practice,
knowledge acquisition, reflective inquiry, critical thinking, and respect for the cultural
and linguistically diverse learner.
To continuously develop a dynamic local, state, national, and international, dimension
that promotes innovations and contributes to scientific educational, economic, and social
change.
College of Education (COE) Vision Statement
The vision of the College of Education is to be consistently recognized as fully-accredited and as a
nationally and internationally respected college in the areas of science, mathematics, educational
technology and intercultural dimension (language, literacy, culture and interdisciplinary studies in
regard to preparing teachers, counselors, administrators, educational researchers, and professional at
all levels, not only for the school system but for other economical and service areas which require
training, human resources, development and life-long learning.
Teacher preparation programs of the College of Education will be central to the mission of the
University and will have national prominence. It will be at the forefront in programs for English
Language Learners and, through teacher preparation, P-16 and life-long education initiatives will be a
model for helping to close the student achievement gap.
All of these will require the COE to be noted for the quality of its graduates, the scholarship of its
faculty, and the leadership and service they provide to the local, regional, and national educational
communities in the previously mentioned areas.
Note: Be advised that the College of Education conducts ongoing research regarding the
effectiveness of the programs. You will receive one survey in the final semester prior to graduation
regarding your program during your time here. A second survey will occur within one year
following graduation from or completion of a program, and will be sent to your employer. This
survey will focus on the preparation received at UTB. Please remember that your response to these
surveys is critical to UTB excellence.
DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING, LEARNING AND INNOVATIONS
APBT 4391 CURRENT ISSUES IN APPLIED TECHNOLOGY
ON –LINE WEB-BASED COURSE
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course discusses and examines current social, legal, ethical and
industry issues for computers and the internet. Unique characteristics of
managing and exploiting information technology, business technology,
communication and administration of an organization operating in a
global, networked environment will be researched.
COURSE PREREQUISITES
None
FACULTY MEMBER INFORMATION
Dr. Irma S. Jones, Professor
Department of Teaching, Learning and Innovations
E-Mail Address: [email protected]
COURSE INFORMATION
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS
Paparella, M. S. and Simko, E. Current Topics in Technology; Social, Legal,
Ethical and Industry Issues for Computers and the Internet, Third Edition.
ISBN#13: 978-1-4390-3870-3 or ISBN#10: 1-4390-3870-8, Course Technology /
Cengage Learning.
Wall Street Journal Subscription: You can purchase the subscription by going to
http://www.wsjstudent.com online. On the first page of this site, click on subscribe
now. This takes you to a second page where it gives you a choice of semesters
or quarters. Select Semester schools (15 weeks) for long terms, Summer
Classes (6 weeks) for summer sessions. Fill in all your information, choose a
password and type in 785 for the zip code and Select U Texas Brownsville in
the select a school area and submit page 1 of 4. On the next page, under student
information select your major, and pick other for course you are using the journal
in and select Irma S Jones for referring professor. Make sure you click the agree
to subscriber agreement and submit page 2 of 4. Confirm a subscription plan and
submit page 3 of 4 (If you feel that you have the time to go to the library to
do the research required with this journal, and if your library carries it, you
do not need to purchase this subscription although you will find it is very
convenient to get the subscription delivered to your home or computer.)
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Either a Macintosh or PC (at least a Pentium) with a sound card and
speakers.
A headset with attached microphone (optional)
Microsoft Internet Explorer in the latest version
Ready access to the Internet at a minimum of 28.8k
The free RealPlayer 8 software to see online video (optional)
MATERIALS
One 1-gig jump drive/thumb drive/ USB flash drive.
GENERAL COMPETENCIES
Upon satisfactory completion of this course, the student will be able to:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
Discuss current issues and opportunities in managing information
and technology.
Develop an issues paper that includes definition, values
emphasized and values compromised, arguments for, arguments
against, validity of the arguments, personal position and rationale
and bibliography.
Discuss the impacts of business technology issues on business
strategies.
Develop argument for and against the organizational and
administrative impact of information and business technologies and
their systems.
Identify trends in administration and communication in a global,
networked economy.
Research information using all sources, online or printed, for
summarizing articles on issues.
COURSE TOPICS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Emerging Technologies and Cyber Exploits
CyberCriminal Profiling
Technology Infrastructure: The Semantic Web on Computers with Personalities
Internet Violence and Cyber Safety
Educational Technology and Compliance
Human Evolution and Technology
Internet Censorship
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
Usability: Electronic Voting Systems
Open Source Software
Microblogging and Office Productivity
Online Personal Health Records and Privacy
Network Vulnerabilities: Script Kiddies
Copyright Protection and the Electronic Textbook
Wireless Mobile Computing
Information Overload
Technology Literacy
Internet Safety
Technology Research and Development
Cybercrime Investigations: Botnets and Honeypots
Global Network Governance
Digital Politics and Copyright Law
Digital Authentication: Cryptography
The Power of Information
Deep-Packet Inspection
Computer Databarges
Cyber Weapons: Distributed Denial of Services
Electronic Mail Snooping
Moore’s Law and Technology Predictions
Computer Waste
Reality Mining
HOW THE COURSE WILL BE TAUGHT
This course runs for a five and a half weeks - Summer I June 3 – July 9. Time
management is usually the greatest difficulty faced by students taking these
compressed online courses so please make sure you can devote the time
needed to completing work each day. To overcome this difficulty, it is
recommended that students schedule specific times each week to log on to the
course, read and complete the assignments. This course will involve readings,
discussion board participation, research and Wall Street Journal summaries.
You may contact your instructor by email anytime and will be responded to by the
next day. Or you may leave a message on my office voice mail.
BLACKBOARD INSTANT MESSENGER
The instructor will be using the BlackBoard Instant Messenger feature for answering any
questions that students may have throughout the course. Students will be able to chat
with the instructor in real time as is done with instant messaging systems. Unless the
instructor is attending a meeting, this forum is available. In order to download the
BlackBoard Instant Messenger, login to your BlackBoard Account. At your “My
Courses” tab, scroll down until you find the following information:
Click on the blue link that says “Get BlackBoard IM.” And follow the instructions on the
screen. Be sure to check the courses where you want to enable the instant messaging
system. The instructor will be available for instant messaging on Monday’s from 1-5 or
any time she is logged on to the computer.
WEEKLY MODULES/ASSIGNMENTS
A weekly (Summer I Session) module or assignment must be completed each
week. Apart from reading the forums, the module may consist of research and
summarization of Wall Street Journal articles, discussion board postings or
development of different parts of an issues paper. These assignments are
geared to enhance the information that is found in the textbook and thus end-offorum questions will rarely be assigned. All assignments are due by midnight on
the date indicated on the class calendar. Late assignments will have 10 points
deducted from that assignment grade.
DISCUSSION BOARD
There will be a thread (topic) developed weekly (Summer I session)for discussion
by everyone in the class. This discussion board will serve as a place to share
ideas and experiences with others. When completing the discussion board
questions, please click “reply” to post your information about the weekly thread.
Students may find it easier to first compose their response using Microsoft Word
and then copy and paste the response onto the discussion board. Interaction
between students about information posted is welcome and urged, just please
remember to be polite and not criticize what is posted. It is fine to disagree, just
disagree without resorting to rudeness. The instructor reserves the right to delete
an inappropriate posting.
All discussion board postings will be due no later than midnight on the Sunday of
the week. Everyone must post a response to the thread of the week as well as
respond to at least two other postings. So each student will have to complete
three responses each week: one to the thread topic and two to other students
postings. When responding to another student’s posting, be sure to provide
information to them, not just something like “I agree with you.” That statement
gives no additional information about what your opinion is. Make sure to
compose first and then post to the discussion board. Check your spelling and
grammar before posting. Your instructor will review all the responses to the
thread, in addition to responding to some individual student posts. In the
gradebook you will either receive a 1, 2, or 3 points for the weekly posts
determined by how well you respond to the thread and to the other students
posts.
Wall Street Journal Articles
There will be two Wall Street Journal (WSJ) articles assigned to provide practice
of current events and information external to the textbook. It is recommended
that each student read the Wall Street Journal daily with an eye for distinguishing
the current and latest technology trends being developed. (Do not limit your
reading to only the technology area as there are many other articles that provide
for developmental and wireless data throughout the paper.) For each WSJ
Search, the student must provide a minimum of one-page double-spaced
review of the highlights in the selected article. The last paragraph must
include the answer to the following two questions: Was the article selected
an excellent, good, fair, or not good resource of information? Would you
include this article in a course bibliography (or webliography)? The last
section of this summarization must include the appropriate reference
information in APA style (see example provided under the Examples button
labeled WSJ Search). Please be sure to submit to “Safe Assignment” which in
turn submits the paper to the instructor for a grade. By looking at your
BlackBoard grade book, successful submission will be indicated an exclamation
mark (!) in the grade area. This exclamation mark will be deleted by the
instructor after the assignment has been graded and a grade assigned.
SAFEASSIGN
SafeAssign is a software feature that allows students to upload their papers to be
checked for plagiarism. Remember than when summarizing or taking information
from research sources or articles, students must cite the reference where the
information was obtained as well as the author of that information. Failure to cite
the reference is called plagiarism and is illegal. By submitting, the paper to
SafeAssign, it is vetted against publications to ensure students have cited the
idea if it is not original to them. For our course, any plagiarism check that is over
5% will constitute an “F.” Please note that that when looking at the total
percentage reported by SafeAssign, not all the items noted are plagiarized. This
software marks all items that are identical to the source as plagiarized. There is
no distinction for correct citing of the material. For example, if you type the title of
an article in a citation, SafeAssign indicates that this information is plagiarized
when in essence it is not. Your instructor will review all the items that SafeAssign
marks to ensure that you are not being penalized for items that are not
considered plagiarism. If a student does not understand this section, please
contact your instructor for additional explanation. (See example section labeled
SafeAssign).
SMARTHINKING
SMARTHINKING is the leading provider of online tutoring. Students
connect to live tutors from any computer that has Internet access.
SMARTHINKING is a virtual learning assistance center. We provide online
tutoring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We also have an online writing lab
where E-structor® Certified tutors critique and return essays within 24
hours with suggestions for improvement. If you have concerns about your
grammar and sentence structure, please complete your assignment with
at least one day to submit to Safeassign as a draft.
EXAMS
There will be no exams for the summer session course.
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ISSUES RESEARCH PAPER
By first week (Summer I session) of the course, each student will be asked to
look through all the different topics or forums listed in our textbook and select one
forum to develop over the semester. There can be no duplication of forums or
issues, so to that end, please indicate the issue you would like to select by
replying to the posting on issues listed in the first week of the Discussion Board.
This will allow all students to view the issues already selected by students and
avoid duplication.
This development of an issue will include: an abstract, overview and definition of
issue, values emphasized and values compromised, arguments for, arguments
against, validity of the arguments, personal position and rationale, and
bibliography and will be submitted at the final exam project for this course.
Because it is important that students understand the process of developing an
issues paper, weekly assignments will concentrate on having students create a
different section or two of an issue. This incremental development of each
section will give students practice and suggestions for the developed section so
that student may improve those sections for the final project.
Each section of this paper should include a minimum of at least five printed and
web references and contain current information about an issue discussed in the
text. All sources must be no older than five years from the current year. Use
APA style formatting for citations and references on this paper. There are
several web sites that provide automated information on APA style and a
student can input the appropriate information and the site will set up the
correct formatting for the reference. Some are: Citation Machine
(http://citationmachine.net/); and Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style
Guide (owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ (Please see the
“Developing an Issues Paper” section under the Examples button.)
GRADES
Wall Street Journal Articles*
Discussion Board and Section Assignments
Research Issues Paper*
35%
15%
50%
*Please note that the Wall Street Journal Searches and Research Issues Paper consist of 85% of
the grade. Not completing these sections will jeopardize the passing of this class.
UNIVERSITY DEADLINES
Deadline
Summer Session I
Last Class Day July 8
Final Exam
July 9
COURSE NAVIGATION
This course consists of several sections. These sections are described below.
It is recommended that you become familiar with each of these sections,
as some may be regulated by time and date. This means content in some
sections will only appear for the periods set up by your instructor. (If you
should need access to content no longer visible, please contact your
instructor.)
NOTE: Even if you print any course material, please remember to check these sections often.
The content in each of these sections may change after you have made your printouts.
Announcements
Syllabus
Weekly Modules
This section of the course provides updates with information relevant
to you. Announcements may come from your institution and
instructor.
To access this section: Click on the Announcements link in the Main
Menu on the left.
This section provides the general requirements, expectations and
outcomes for the course. Please review this section thoroughly and
become familiar with it.
To access this section: Click on the Syllabus link in the Main Menu
on the left.
This section provides weekly details of assignments, tasks, quizzes,
exams, projects and other course activities. Please visit this section
frequently to keep up with your course.
To access this section: Click on the Weekly Modules link in the Main
Menu on the left.
Calendar This section provides you information on important dates and lets you
know when assignments are due.
Discussion Board
Student
Gradebook
To access this section: Click on the Calendar link in the Main Menu
on the left.
This is the section where a lot of your online interactions will occur
with both your instructor and fellow students. Visit this section often
to participate in your course.
To access this section: Click the Discussion Board link in the Main
Menu on the left.
This section lets you check your progress in your course. You will be
able to check any grades posted by your instructor.
To access this section: Click the Student Gradebook link in the Main
Menu on the left.
This section is for students to use to communicate with socially with
classmates when working on group assignments.
Student Chat
To access this section: Click the Student Chat link in the Main Menu
on the left.
This section is for students to use to submit papers that are to be
checked for plagiarism when submitted for a grade.
SafeAssignment
To access this section: Click the SafeAssign link in the Main Menu on
the left.
©2011 – The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College and Irma S. Jones