Reflections on setting up a ICT course for teachers

I've been spending the last few days thinking about how EDCI 336 will look for 2006. What has changed since 2005? How has my thinking about ICT changed? What do these potential teachers need to learn about ICT and what do we need to pass on. Well, out with the how to text books we used last year. We will be looking at videos and I will also send them out to look for tutorials on their own. Handing them a "book" has everything wrong with it. Learning about software products can most likely be learned better on the web. Should we be using AppleWorks? Or Office? Or some other package? I am tempted to look at open source stuff but find it unpolished and quirky at best. ApppleWorks 6 is free to educators in BC and runs on Mac and PC. Is the Swiss Army Knife of productivity software. Yes, there are better data base, paint, draw, and spreadsheet programs on their own, but none so tightly integrated and easy to use. Yes, it will be AppleWorks again this year. What about the Website assignment? That was the worst part of last year's assignments. Must use something easier that allows students to manipulate their sites and is transferable and useful. Looks like Geocities and Blogger will be my picks this time around. Last year no one knew what a Blog was. I'd be interested to see who is blogging already. What about Instant messaging? Would be interesting to use Yahoo for that too.. Anyway, looking forward to learning new stuff with these guys...