About the Author

Photograph of Peter Albion Before I joined USQ in 1991, I had spent 17 years as a teacher and administrator in State and Catholic Schools in provincial Queensland. From August 2001 until May 2002 I was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Educational Technology at Purdue University.

My interest in computers dates from 1968. I began using them in schools for teaching and administration in 1976.

My doctoral thesis related to the design, development and evaluation of interactive multimedia for preparing teachers to teach with information technologies.

You can find more information on my web site.

Some basic assumptions & requirements

Students are assumed to be able to meet the following requirements:

Convenient and continuing access to a computer with Internet connection.
Fluency in the use of common applications such as word processor, web browser and electronic mail client on the computer you will be using for this subject.
Willingness to spend 8 to 10 hours per week on the reading and activities associated with the subject.
Commitment to meeting agreed deadlines for submission of work as indicated in the subject schedule.
Commitment to communication by checking the announcements and discussion areas at least weekly and advising the course leader promptly if submission of work may be slightly delayed for any reason.

Sharing of student work

The educational use of ICT is an active field. That makes it effectively impossible for anybody to be familiar with the entire range of research and other activity. Accordingly, this course will sample the field and students will be encouraged to spend some time pursuing their own interests. As a consequence, students will be locating, reading and responding to at least some material that is different from what other students are working with, at least until those who locate it share it with the class. The key venue for this sharing will be the course discussion areas where students are encouraged to share and discuss what they find.

Grading in this course is not competitive. Assessment of work will be against criteria and there is no predetermined distribution of grades. Hence it is reasonable for students, while ensuring that work submitted for assessment is their own, to cooperate by freely sharing resources and discussing ideas during preparation of assignments. It also makes sense for the work produced by students to be shared after grading so that others can benefit.

Several of the assignment activities require students to prepare documents that will be of interest to others in the class and more widely in the profession. Students are encouraged to consider submitting completed assignments for publication in appropriate venues, for example, at conferences or in professional publications such as QUICK.

A mechanism will be established for sharing graded assignments and students will be invited to make their work available for access by students in future offers of the course. This arrangement is voluntary. Students who do NOT wish to make their graded work available to the class should advise the course leader. Their work will not be distributed and they may NOT be given access to the work of other students. If you prefer not to share your work in this way please advise the course leader when you submit your first assignment.