EdTech
Connection December 2014
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Boise State graduated 1,718 students on Dec. 19—53 of them with EdTech master’s degrees and 19 more with EdTech graduate certificates. Hi, Jerry. I just received the EdTech newsletter with information about the Dr. Thorsen medal. It’s wonderful! Congratulations to all of you in EdTech for the wonderful achievements. I graduated with the M.S. in 2002 and met everyone at commencement and the special lunch. I didn’t realize that I was an early graduate of the online M.S., but I just want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed everything about the program and faculty. Please pass this note on to Dr. Thorsen who was also my thesis adviser. I am still teaching in the classroom and fully online in the Theatre Arts Department at San Francisco State University. Jo Tomalin, Ph.D. Professor, Theatre Arts San Francisco State University
EdTech Connection Published three times a year by the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University
Jerry Foster Editor and academic adviser 208-426-4008 jfoster@boisestate.edu
LETTERS WELCOME
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dTech student Buffy Naillon published a novel in late November and Amazon.com has already christened it an international best-seller. Naillon is a writer, rather than an educator, so she is not a typical EdTech student. Teachers are communicators, of course, but Naillon works on a broader level. She interned years ago at Der Spiegel, Germany’s most respected magazine, and later worked in newspapers, public radio, and the motion picture business. So what’s her angle? Why is a late-career journalist with a bachelor’s degree in German literature enrolled in an education-focused master’s program? Because of the skills. Mobile app design, video game design, web design, podcasting, digital story telling—these are book-promotion skills as much as teaching and instructional design skills. Book promotion and merchandising used to be the purview of publishers and stores. But, authors today, particularly unknowns and especially indie authors like Naillon, are finding they have to promote themselves because traditional publishers focus most of their promotional time and money on big-name writers with large followings of loyal readers. Left-over allotments of funding to promote less-known authors is usually too little to break through the media clutter that smothers book buyers and other consumers. It’s a sink or swim world. So, it is little wonder that many writers, like Naillon, are taking their publishing destiny into their own hands by choosing to self-publish on Amazon.com because they can set their own prices and change them as market forces and merchandising strategies dictate. Writers under contract with traditional publishers don’t have that option. Because she is a first-time novelist with no following,
Boise State EdTech Connection
Naillon has chosen to sell her book electronically for 99 cents and the 602-page on-demand paperback for about $11. Ninety-nine cents is cheap enough that anyone intrigued with the book’s description can buy it without much risk. If they don’t like it, they’re not out much. But Naillon is betting that readers will like it and tell their friends, which means more book sales.
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that happens to be King Thrushbeard again, but this time clean-shaven and disguised as a penniless minstrel. In Naillon’s version, The Girl Who Fell into the Sky, temperaments are reversed. The kindly king-father character is replaced by a media mogul and the princess is a reluctant reality television star. Everything she says and does— including dating—is scripted by her father to manipulate ratings.
For the next few days, she’s offering a free holiday recipe book to attract readers who, she’s betting, will want to buy the novel.
Naillon said she has always wanted to write a book that people couldn’t put down, so, when an adult friend finished the book and hugged a pillow while rocking back and forth on her couch, Naillon knew she had achieved intensity.
The story is a modern re-telling of King Thrushbeard, a European folktale in which a selfabsorbed princess rejects all the suitors suggested by her father. When she turns her nose up at Thrushbeard, a handsome and rich young king, her father forces her to marry the next eligible bachelor who comes along, and
While most young adult works are held to fewer than 200 pages, Naillon’s book measures 600, which means she has the courage of J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Myers, and Suzanne Collins, whose YA novels boldly exceeded the limit of conventional wisdom. “If I bucked the trend,” she said, “it wasn't a conscious decision. I wrote the story that needed to be told.”
EdTech assistant professor Patrick Lowenthal has co-authored a chapter in a new book called Student-Teacher Interaction in Online Learning Environments.
The book discusses social presence as a means of improving performance, interaction, and a sense of community in online courses. Lowenthal’s chapter, co-authored with University of North Texas doctoral student Whitney Kilgore, is called The Human Element MOOC.
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EdTech adjunct instructor Jackie Gerstein has written a chapter in a justpublished book called Experiences in SelfDetermined Learning, in which she traces education from the monastic model (version 1.0) to the present constructivist model (v. 2.0) and predicts that education in v. 3.0 will be based on personalized, self -determined or interest-based learning in which problem-solving, innovation, and creativity drive education. Education 3.0 is similar to what Gerstein teaches in EDTECH 543-Social Network Learning. Discover more at her blog: Http:// usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/ 2014/12/01/.
Teachers can prepare for the Google Apps Certified Teacher Exam Jan. 25-31 at Go-Go Labs, the spin-off professional development company developed by EdTech faculty members.
will learn at their own pace in a quest-based game environment. Some synchronous events, which model classroom integration strategies, will be required.
The workshops will be facilitated by Sean O’Neil, a Google Apps for Education certified trainer. Regardless of experience level, teachers
Email lisadawley@gogolabs.net for more info.
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Boise State’s Department of Educational Technology has received two platinum MARCOM awards for marketing projects designed to promote the online graduate program to a nationwide audience. The projects, a series of posters and online videos, were created by EdTech chair Brett Shelton in collaboration with Sovrn, a Boise-based creative design and branding firm. “We are honored to receive the top awards in this year’s competition,” Shelton said. “These projects reflect the same level of excellence, innovation and quality we offer in our courses. We strive for excellence in all that we do and it is great to be acknowledged for that effort.” The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals hosts the prestigious MARCOM awards competition each year to honor individuals and organizations who produce exceptionally creative print, visual, audio or web promotional items. This year more than 6,000 entries were submitted from Fortune 500 companies, media conglomerates, advertising agencies, public relations firms, associations, nonprofits and government agencies. Educational technology is a graduate degree and certificate program in the College of Education. All coursework is offered completely online and is designed for teachers and other working professionals who want to improve student engagement and learning through technology integration and online teaching. The department offers both a master’s and a doctoral degree, as well as fast-track certificate programs. To see the posters, visit edtech.boisestate.edu.
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QUESTION #1—If the Department of Educational Technology offered a second master’s degree—related in some way to educational technology—on what topic do you think it should focus?
QUESTION #2—If the Department of Educational Technology offered an Educational Specialist degree (an Ed.S. is an intermediary degree between master’s and Ed.D.), would you be interested in enrolling?