Description:  The artifacts above were collected during the Fall of 2012, just one semester into the Instructional Technology Program.  During the Welcome Dinner we were encouraged to introduce ourselves and tell a little about who we were and what we were doing.  The objective to meet one another with the hope of collaborating was met within the evening.  These artifacts are representative of the redesign of a course to include focus on TPACK, NETS standards, and collaborative thinking through peer feedback.  Included are a screen shot of the Learning Management System housing the blended learning course, the course syllabus, screen shots of student created wikis which housed the Lesson Plan Transformations (LPT), rationales written by the students, and peer feedback.  Finally, a link to the presentation reflecting what we as a group learned from the experience.

Reflection:  The Welcome Dinner and meeting for IT Cohort 5 changed my life. It was here that I met two individuals who were willing to collaborate with me and help me with the task of redesigning a course for pre-service teachers.  Due to staff shortage, I was asked to teach the course, EDU 365 Teaching Integrated Social Studies in Middle Grades. This could not have happened at a more perfect time, right as I began my doctoral studies. Through collaboration with a cohort member (subject matter expert) and Dr. Carbonara, the syllabus was redesigned to incorporate a variety of performance-based assessments.  I met with the content expert to provide an overview of the standards and objectives for the course.  We used TPACK as the focus for determining both the process and the product for meeting these objectives.  We then developed a set of ten lessons used in the content expert’s middle school classroom that pre-service teachers taking this course must transform with intentional technology integration and a specific focus on content knowledge. A great amount of time and effort contributed to the analysis of the learners and intentional thinking and metacognition regarding the creation of a learning environment to facilitate optimal student outcomes. The careful consideration of strategies used within and throughout the planning and implementation stages of redesign translated into a transformation of my students' understanding and integration of technology.  This collaboration also was the beginning of my research interest in TPACK and lesson design.  Our collaborative group continued and presented our findings at the ISTE Conference the following summer.