MIT 540: Colloquium I

Syllabus

Course Information

Colloquium I is the first seminar series in the Master of Instructional Technology program. It will be followed by MIT 541, Colloquium II and then MIT 542, the Internship. Colloquium I is designed to help MIT students examine the field's trends and issues from practitioners' perspective.  The general theme of the colloquium I is "Instructional Technologists: Who they are and What they need to know." The instructor leading the seminar will invite instructional technology specialists to the colloquium to discuss new trends and issues or projects they are involved in and to describe their roles and responsibilities as an instructional technologists in the field.   The seminar, therefore, involves attending each of the presentations, listening to the invited speakers from the field and actively participating in the discussions by asking questions and preparing a report.

Course Description

Colloquium I examines issues, theory and practice shaping the field of instructional technology.   It is designed to focus on the knowledge base for instructional technologists. Students will engage in reviewing issues, identifying trends, debating theory application, and developing researchable questions.

Course Goals

The purposes of the course are for students to:

• Become aware of current trends and issues in the field of instructional technology.
• Identify knowledge, skills and competencies required of instructional technologists.
• Become aware of instructional technologists' roles and responsibilities in different settings (public schools, business & industry, military, higher education, etc.).
• Develop ideas and researchable questions.
• Find specific areas of interest for their program of study.
• Make connections with the practitioners in the field.

Course Requirements

Students enrolled in this course are expected to:

• Attend each of the presentations, and to arrive at each session on time.
• Participate in the discussions during and after the presentations.
• Prepare one 3-page summary/reflection paper describing the particular presentations that interest them the most. In the reflection paper (more details below), you should:
  • summarize the main points made during the presentation.
  • indicate the value of the presentations and explain why you thought that the presentation was of value. Focus upon the new knowledge or information that is important to you and/or your fellow classmates.
  • list questions/ideas that you generated as a result of the presentation and explain how they could direct your future work and your program of study.
  • include ideas for future presentations.
    make certain that your paper is written in a professional, graduate-level-appropriate and grammatically correct manner

Grading

Participation and/or attendance is key for this class. Each class, with the exception of the first day, is worth 100 points for your participation and attendance (8000 points in total). Class promptly begins at 5:00 pm and the instructor will take role at that time (whether it is in an on campus or in our Virtual Room). We have such a short duration for meaningful discussion that promptness is essential. It is also unprofessional to walk into a guest speaker presentation in the middle of it (this also includes the Virtual Room).

If you are more than 10 minutes late to class or if you miss a class, you will need to get with a classmate, get notes for the day and submit a single page write-up over what you missed (or lose the points assigned for that class). You can only use this make-up option one time. If you are significantly late on a consistent basis or miss more than one class, you should consider dropping the course.

Final Paper: The final paper is worth 200 points and will be graded on the aforementioned criteria (under Course Requirements), in addition to the quality of the writing and writing style.

The discussions and final paper fall within the domain of Applications of Knowledge and Practice.