Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study/
Educational Specialist* in
TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

*This program is titled Educational Specialist in certain states where it is offered.

This program is designed for experienced educators with a Master's degree and background in computers who wish to develop and expand their skills in the varied uses of technology in education. The program includes courses for administrators, curriculum directors, and regular and special education classroom teachers. In addition to courses and other experiences directly related to mastery of the use of technology in education, students are required to take courses that address key issues in the field of education such as diversity, assessment, organizational change and special education.

These courses provide CAGS students with knowledge and understanding of the challenges that face educators in a leadership position, and ways to address these issues. In addition to the courses, the student is required to submit an advanced thesis project.

*ECOMP 7017 is ineligible as a substitution for any course in the Online Teaching Certificate program.

ECOMP 8000  Advanced Professional Seminar in Technology in Education In this course, students will advance their knowledge of technology in education and examine the students' previously unexplored areas of the profession.

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ECOMP 7011  Bridging Technology Gaps This course looks at the reasons that there are significant student disparities in performance with, and access to, technology. These disparities are along gender, economic, class, and cultural lines. In this course students will investigate existing on-the-ground strategies to redress these "divides" in the classroom, in the community, and nationally. Students will also explore curriculum and teaching techniques to broaden technology's appeal and engage more students in expanding their learning opportunities by using technology.

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EAGSR 7101  Quantitative Methods I Statistics for Research: This course is designed to introduce graduate students to basic statistical methods and involves two broad topics: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. In addition, students are introduced to statistical model building through the technique of regression analysis and correlational analysis. While the course centers on parametric statistical techniques, a brief introduction to nonparametric statistical methods, such as the chi-square test, is introduced.

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EAGSR 7103  Qualitative Research Methods I This course covers the background and history of qualitative methods and their application to a wide range of fields, ranging from natural science and he social sciences (anthropology, sociology) to the arts. Emphasis will be on the analysis of data gathered by a variety of methods, those of "triangulation," "charting," and other phenomenologically based (meaning-based) approaches will be presented. Students have an opportunity to frame research topics and designs appropriate to their field of interest and to discuss the methods necessary for converting experience in research activities.

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ECOMP 7103  21st Century Leadership: Supporting All Learners on the Ability Spectrum This course is a fully experiential, hands-on practice in the design, development, testing and validation of technology-based solutions for students with special needs in complex socio-economic, inclusive/sequestered, low/high technology and reform/traditional educational environments. Students are introduced to pedagogical/technology approaches that address the needs of students across the learning and cognitive disabilities spectrum. The course addresses: Impact of national legislation and policies on systemic change in education; experimentation and analysis of Assistive technology protocols and of Universal Design for Learning(tm) (UDL) protocols; analysis implementation case studies (both existing and student-developed); and bilingual education issues in special education.

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ECOMP 7105 Using Assessment Data for School Improvement This course focuses on data-driven decision making for effective school improvement. Participants will explore the use of data for continuous school improvement, including: identifying data sources in schools; gathering data from multiple sources; creating and administering questionnaires capturing dispositional data; interpretation of data; and reporting results. Participants will use technologies that support data collection, analysis, and presentation to audiences including school faculty, parents, administration, and community stakeholders for the purpose of continuous school improvement.

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ECOMP 7106 Qualitative Inquiry, Technology, and 21st Century Education This course engages students in addressing the compelling questions educators face in 21st century schools. By learning to apply qualitative methods to fully implement an inquiry project, students will better understand the issues surrounding effective technology use in their local settings. Student research projects will include the development of meaningful research questions, an examination of the context of the study, an appropriate research design, and the application of qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. This inquiry project may form the observational basis for the student's thesis work.

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ECOMP 7009  Leadership in Educational Technology: Systematic Program Implementation Using case studies, internet-based sources and publications in the market, and participants’ professional contexts, this course explores and applies key educational leadership principles in technology use. Participants will analyze these principles in their professional settings and develop a product that has significant value to their educational technology leadership role. Course topics include shared vision, planning, access, integration into instruction, assessment and evaluation, support, professional development, community relationships, and ethical legal issues.

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ECOMP 7104  Technology in Education Thesis Project The CAGS thesis project course is designed to assist students in developing and implementing a project that will contribute to the field of education. The project also helps to demonstrate that at the end of the CAGS program, students have learned how to conduct research, plan a major initiative, synthesize information and present the work to an appropriate and critical audience.

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ECOMP 6003  Program Evaluation An introduction to systematic, interactive program evaluation with an emphasis on underlying theories, current practices, techniques for collecting and analyzing data, and report writing.

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ECOMP 6011  Database Management Systems for Educational Settings. Today's teachers and administrators use Database Management Systems (DBMS) to a support a variety of purposes, and this is becoming increasingly true as educators adopt data driven decision-making. This course provides the knowledge and experience that educators need to understand, design and implement relational DBMS projects to serve a wide set of goals in educational settings. Course goals and objectives are achieved through group and individual projects that include extensive hands-on experience with Microsoft Access.

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ECOMP 7017  Teaching Online: Issues and Design This course is an introduction to concepts and issues related to online education. Students will advance their knowledge of teaching and learning online including design and implementation of online courses. Issues of pedagogy, methodology, challenges and current state of the field will be examined. With guided practice, students will engage in leading online seminars and designing course content for a mini course.

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ECOMP 6100  Educational Uses of Systems Thinking, Modeling, and Simulation This course is an introduction to “systems thinking,” a prescribed way of thinking about, describing, and understanding real world phenomena and its relevance to education. System thinking is the art and science of examining real world complexity and understanding patterns in relationships. Through computer-based exploration and discussion, students will develop understanding about this framework and about the use of models and simulations as thinking tools in educational settings.

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ECOMP 6201 Online Teaching: An Introduction for K-12 Educators
This course is designed to introduce teaching online to K12 educators.  Utilizing a constructivist learning approach, we will explore the advantages of online learning and features of online environments and online collaborative tools, and examine the best pedagogical practices for teaching and learning online.  Expectations, characteristics, and needs of online learners will be examined and specific strategies to help students assess their readiness to learn online will be developed.   Solutions for involving all of the K12 stakeholders and the challenge of keeping students motivated to produce quality work through online learning will be explored.

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ECOMP 6202 Online Teaching: Assessment and Evaluation 
This course examines assessment and evaluation in an online learning environment from the perspective of teachers and students in K-12 environments. A wide variety of effective assessment strategies are presented, including self-evaluation, authentic assessment, triangulation, continuous evaluation, pre- and post-testing, use of observational data, and others.  Particular attention is paid to selecting the most appropriate and engaging assessment strategies for students and content that addresses the needs of students, keeping in mind the need to apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles when selecting assessment methods.

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ECOMP 6203 Online Teaching: Building Communities and Facilitating Student Discussions
This course focuses on building the expertise needed to create a supportive and constructive online learning environment through appropriate facilitation techniques and strategies.  Participants investigate various aspects of facilitating online discussions, including teacher and peer moderated communication, developing guidelines and modeling substantive discussions, and the use of multiple technologies to enhance contact with and among students.

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Lesley University reserves the right to unilaterally add, withdraw, or revise any course offering in the above-mentioned program of study, including policies, provisions, requirements, and fees.

Lesley University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, handicap or disability in its education programs, employment, or in admissions to, access to or treatment in its programs or activities.