Pre-Course+Email

Greetings, everyone! I just wanted to say hi before the official start of our course this summer, //MEDT 3401: Integrating Technology into the Curriculum//.

It’ll be fun, a lot of work, and it’ll go fast.

I am currently working to open the course up in //CourseDen// (http://webct.westga.edu). You’ll be able to access the course on Monday morning, and you’ll want to get in early in the week (no later than about Tuesday).

This semester, I will be using the chat tool //Wimba Pronto// for the very first time. I had the opportunity to play with it last fall, and it looks to be a very robust tool for communicating at a distance. For instance, we can voice and video chat with it as well as text-chat. And, it’s integrated with all your classes, so you should have access to all classmates and profs in your courses. All this to say that I will be learning to use it with you this semester. I strongly urge you to sign up for it, download it, and install it on your computer. It’s already installed on the College of Ed lab computers. Visit [|http://www.westga.edu/~distance/pronto/] to get started. And see if you can find me and say hi. Also, see if you can figure out how to post your picture and bio.

The class is 100% online this semester. This means there are no face-to-face class meetings. While Banweb states that we have a face-to-face at the beginning of the semester and a final exam at the end, I just want to clarify that we do not have any mandatory face-to-face meetings. So, don’t come to campus on any specific dates for this class: just be sure to check into the class in CourseDen.

I will not be on campus on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday during the first week of class. I’ll be at a conference (certainly not the best timing!). I will be on campus on Thursday and Friday. As you will see when you open the syllabus (once you can access course on Monday), I will be having lots of office hours for most of the semester, and I invite you to stop by and say hi.

One last thing you’ll hear several more times over the next week: check into CourseDen lots of times each week. Don’t plan to do all your work just one day per week. It’s conceivable that you could succeed this way, and you have ultimate authority when it comes to your work habits. However, you want to be dropping in every day or so to check for announcements and fresh discussion postings.

Enjoy your last few days of summer before school starts. J

Cheers,

Ms. Huett