TCET News and Events

TCET Moves to Discovery Park

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:30:34 -0500

The Texas Center for Educational Technology is now located in Suite 195 of Discovery Park at the rear of the Department of Learning Technologies (Suite G150). All of our phone numbers are the same, but the new mailing address is:

University of North Texas
name of the person

Texas Center for Educational Technology
1155 Union Circle #305280
Denton, Texas 76203-5017

TCET, along with the Learning Technologies Department, is teaming with the School of Library and Information Sciences to create the College of Information. While this change offers many opportunities to develop new collaborations, it will not affect any of our existing projects. We encourage you to come visit us at our new location.

NECC

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:39:54 -0600

The 29th annual National Educational Computing Conference was a great success! More than 18,000 teachers, technology coordinators, library media specialists, teacher educators, administrators, policy makers, industry representatives, and students from all over the world gather3d June 29–July 2 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on the San Antonio River Walk. Go to the NECC 2008 conference site for more info on what happened and to find out more about NECC 2009 conference in Washington, D.C.

Begin the BEGIN

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:21:32 -0500

TCET has partnered with Midwestern University, Vernon Community College, North Central Texas College, ESC 9, and Wichita Falls ISD on BEGIN, a 3-year $3 million Teacher Quality Enhancement Recruitment grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant serves people who are entering community colleges or universities with the intention of becoming teachers by offering scholarships, online mentoring and support, and opportunities to work in local schools.

AACTE Presents UNT with Award

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:37:24 -0500

New York, N.Y. (February 27, 2007) The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) presented the University of North Texas (UNT) with the Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology at the Association�s 59th Annual Meeting & Exhibits in New York City.The award, sponsored by AACTE�s Committee on Technology and Innovation, highlights implemented applications of technology that support particular aspects of teacher education in promising and original ways. The award�s focus is on programs with specific, forward-thinking innovation in teacher education that go beyond meeting national or state standards for program-wide educational technology integration.

With support from the Center for Parent Education and the Texas Center for Educational Technology, teacher and parent educators at the University of North Texas developed an online resource to support teacher candidates in acquiring knowledge, skills and dispositions associated with effective engagement of families across cultures. Over a three-year period, six online resource modules (Communicating, Parenting, Learning at Home, Volunteering, Advocacy and Decision-Making and Collaborating with the Community) have been developed and infused into a variety of teacher education programs in the colleges of education at the University of North Texas and three partner sites�the University of Mississippi, the University of North Dakota and the University of Texas at El Paso. At all four universities, pre- and post-program attitude and knowledge assessments showed significant growth for teacher candidates who completed the modules.

�The Parent Teacher Education Connection modules and their contents are part of the UNT College of Education�s initial postbaccalaureate teacher certification programs. These modules challenge future teachers to make strong connections in the community and to work with all families,� said Jean Keller, dean of the College of Education. �These modules reach out to K-12 schools, infusing technology into professional development through the web library of the Texas Center for Educational Technology in partnership with the UNT Center for Parent Education and our collaborators at the University of Mississippi, the University of North Dakota and the University of Texas at El Paso,� Keller said.

MAT Goes Pod

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:04:10 -0500

The Master's Across Technology (MAT) program in the College of Education made some online multimedia content podcast ready. Formats include mp3, wmv, and rm. This summer, students have been experimenting with iPods, handhelds, iTunes, Juice, Omea (the favorite so far), and their own RSS feeds.You can find the feeds for the lectures at classes feed. Hubdog looks very promising as a handheld aggregator. The TCPMP player is also an excellent alternative to the Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket Media Player.

The Little Elm ISD Even Start Family Literacy Program

Thu, 1 Jun 2006 09:13:04 -0500

The Little Elm ISD Even Start Family Literacy Program provides instruction in English and computer and life skills to parents of children up to age 8.This successful collaboration between Little Elm ISD, Communities in Schools, the University of North Texas Department of Reading, the Denton Four County Coop, and the Little Elm Public Library work together to provide an even start to all children. Learn More

TCET's RSS Feed

Thu, 1 Jun 2006 08:00:00 -0500

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), is a file format used by websites, videoblogs, weblogs, podcasting, etc. to inform their audience of new content. According to Wikipedia, a program known as a feed reader or aggregator checks a list of RSS feeds a user subscribes to. Google ig is a personalized home page that offers RSS functionality. Using DHTML, feeds can be added or organized in a drag and drop environment. Google has a list of suggested content feeds, or the user can add their own feeds. TCET's home page uses NucleusCMS which offers an RSS feed. Internet Explorer 7 offers RSS functionality. Other types of feed subscriptions can be found at TVTonic and podcastready.

Second Round of SCGC Grants

Wed, 24 May 2006 10:14:05 -0500

The SouthCentral Girls Collaborative announced the second round of mini-grants. Projects have been funded to support girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. Please go to the SouthCentral Girls Collaborative to view the complete list of funded awards.

Summer 2006 - $1500 Master's Level Scholarships

Wed, 24 May 2006 10:00:09 -0500

A limited number of $1500 scholarships were made available to new UNT students (or students who had not taken a course at UNT in the last 12 months).
A total scholarship of $1500 each and a Pocket PC were offered to a select number of qualified students required to take 3 courses (9 hours) of Computer Education and Cognitive Systems graduate courses in partial preparation for the SBEC technology certifications during Summer 2006. The classes were:

CECS 5030.826 Introduction to the Internet: Introduction to Internet technology. Using the Internet for research and professional productivity.

CECS 5800.800 Studies in Education: Organized classes specifically designed to accommodate the needs of students and the demands of program development that are not met by the regular offerings. This course includes but is not limited to software and hardware evaluation, planning computer education curricula and facilities. Topics are district specific and prepare teachers to achieve current goals and needs of their districts.

CECS 5800.801 Studies in Education: Organized classes specifically designed to accommodate the needs of students and the demands of program development that are not met by the regular offerings. This course includes but is not limited to basic skills in the production of audio and video materials for multi-media and other digital presentation media. Study of both analog and digital production techniques, nature of audio and video signals, and how those signals are optimized in both the analog and digital domains. Topics are district specific and prepare teachers to achieve current goals and needs of their districts.

The curriculum is offered online with CECS 5030 also available on the handheld.

Literacy for Special Populations via Technology

Wed, 24 May 2006 09:50:32 -0500

In keeping with Verizon's commitment to raise literacy levels, a grant was awarded to TCET to foster relationships and conduct research and development that addressed the diverse needs of America's students.
The project targeted student populations with special needs, including students with limited English proficiency and specific needs related to organizational and social skills (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Asperger Syndrome (AS)).

Students and teachers participated using Dell Pocket PCs. Programs developed in this project can be accessed at Texas STARgate: Handhelds. Other versions are available. Please contact TCET for more information.