Statement of Accomplishments and Future Plans:

 

My Specific Goals for participating in the NETs Work were to:

·       receive a professional orientation to various technological tools available for teaching and learning;

·       evaluate these tolls and choose the most appropriate for my courses at Howard University;

·       train myself well in the tolls and pilot them in courses in Fall 2001;

·       include another course and implement the utilization of these tools in Spring 2002;

·       include a faculty member from my department and share my expertise and assist this member use the same tools;

·       assist in improving the use of technology in my department of Educational Administration and Policy;

·       improve existing technology at the Journal of Negro Education where I am the Editor-in-Chief;

·       Share my knowledge and skills with fellow members at the School of Education.

 

Accomplishments:

 

Based on the Specific goals cited above:

 

·       I took part in two NETs Work training sessions (one-day in November and a week in August, 2001) in New York. The training workshops provided hands-on experience in the use of various tools: Dream-Weaver, Director, Flash, Blackboard, Video Streaming etc. The knowledge gained in this workshop was helpful in preparing a plan for utilizing technology in my classes.

·       I chose to develop my course materials on Blackboard and perfect my skills in Video-streaming.

·       In Fall 2001, immediately following the Summer Training, I offered a graduate course: Administration and Behavior Theory using Blackboard. Blackboard enhanced the learning environment so well that all my students in that class published and presented their assignments through Blackboard. The class interactions continued beyond class hours. Since HU did not have Blackboard available to me during this semester, one of the NETs Work instructor provided support for me to host the course from her university Blackboard platform.

·       In Spring, 2002, I developed and utilized a doctoral research course on Blackboard: Research in Educational Administration, Leadership, & Policy - Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. One of the challenges in this class was that there was a student who was blind!  I was able to secure support from the HU Blackboard administrators to find software with which this student could read all materials on-line. He was able to purchase JAWS software and put it to use for this class. Students in this class prepared all their presentation assignments in Power Point and posted them on Blackboard. In addition, they took part actively in discussion forums on-line.

·       I extended the use of Blackboard for the research course in the Summer I. Participation in this class was more intensified and it was such a rewarding experience for the students as well as to me. I developed an on-line exam (a pre-post test) and the students submitted all assignments utilizing the digital drop box.

·       Since August 2001, I have been reading up and practicing the use of video-streaming; the goal is to present on Blackboard selected class presentations and guest lectures in video format. I went for a one-day training to NETs Work in December for this purpose. Currently I am quite familiar with this technology and am using at least a few clips on Blackboard.

·       Currently (Fall 2002) I make use of Blackboard for a third course: Organizational Change in Education. Students will take quizzes on-line; present on-line; discuss class topics in the chat room. I have video-streamed a small clip of welcome address. I am encouraging students to prepare presentations using video technology. I am in the process of posting a 25 minute clip of a keynote address delivered by a colleague on to this site. It is my goal that by the end of the semester I will have video-streamed at least three more models of change on Blackboard for the use of students.

·       I am happy to report that since Spring 2002, another colleague from my department has joined NETs Work and is using Blackboard for her classes.

·       I planned along with the Chair of my department and implemented an electronic bulletin board for our department. Instead of posting  hard-copy bulletins, we now have a continuously running screen to make all announcements to our students.

·       NETs Work training has not only helped me make improvements in my teaching but it also has assisted me tremendously in other areas of my work. As the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Negro Education, I have overseen two important technological advancements: we have designed an interactive website and we have produced a business-card size computer disc which serves us as the press-kit.