Calling All CA Chemistry Teachers!

ATTENTION: California HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY TEACHERS

Would you like to earn 2 CEU credits and a digital Flip camera at NO COST?

Help review, contribute to and align a major new FREE and open source online chemistry course. The end result will be a great resource you can use with your students. In addition, you’ll be helping other teachers and schools combat the very high cost of high school science textbooks.

You’ll also be eligible to apply for Foothill’s summer MERIT teacher institute. It’s one of the best summer professional development programs—with a stipend of up to $4,000 and many CEU units of credit.

Curriki, in collaboration with DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc. and Foothill College’s Krause Center for Innovation (KCI), have joined forces for an exciting opportunity. Upon successful completion of an online course this fall, participants will have tuition refunded, and will receive two (2) Continuing Education Units (CEUs) of credit.

Fall Quarter 2008 Foothill KCI online classes begin the week of October 26. Class runs ~ 8 – 9 weeks. 100% of the class is online, and it can be done largely at your own pace, at any time you choose each week. Teachers will receive 2 CEU credits at no cost, plus free flip video cameras for successful participation and course completion.

CLASSES ARE LIMITED TO THE FIRST 20 APPLICANTS! TEAMS OF CHEMISTRY TEACHERS FROM A SINGLE SCHOOL ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.

To register now, use the online form to register for:

LINC 52D: Teaching CA Standards-Aligned Science Using SF Bay Area Museums & Other Free Web Resources in conjunction with Curriki’s new Digital High School Chemistry Course

(More information on registration can be found below)

Ted M. Kahn, Ph.D.

President and CEO, DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc.

Foothill KCI Instructor

408.252.2285 Fax: 408.516.9920 Cell: 408.569.4875

email: ted@designworlds.com

Welcome to a special group of high school science teachers who are helping invent a major alternative to traditional commercial science textbooks. Stimulated by the California’s new Digital Textbook Initiative, Curriki has joined forces with and the Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) at Foothill College and longtime KCI adjunct faculty member and educational technology pioneer Dr. Ted Kahn. Together, they present a unique opportunity to help “invent the future.” This is a chance to earn continuing education units for credit while collaborating on a complete chemistry course and teaching/learning resources. The materials, which will be an exemplary alternative to the traditional textbook, are to be made available free of charge.

All of the Foothill KCI LINC 52D class work is done online. Teachers pace their own work throughout the class. Teachers average between 8 –12 hours of time per CEU unit. Some teachers do a little during each week, while others tackle major portions of the class during weekends: class time is flexible.

Foothill College’s online registration system can sometimes be challenging. Therefore, we have tried to make the whole process very simple by using Dr. Ted Kahn, Foothill KCI online instructor for this course, as a primary contact. If you have a question or encounter any problems please call or e-mail Ted directly.

1. Print and read this entire document.
2. First try to register for admission to Foothill online:
   • Go to: https://registration.fhda.edu/prod/web/default.jsp#
   • And then go to: http://www.foothill.edu/cfi/linc/preregister.php
   • Choose LINC 052D-01W from the Class 1 pull-down menu… and follow the rest of the instructions.
3. If you have any trouble doing this online, see attached Foothill-De Anza College application form and the KCI LINC course application forms:
   • Check "Foothill College" and add a box for and check “Fall 2009" on the Foothill-De Anza application form. Be sure to enter either your social security number or another unique ID number on the Foothill and KCI application so you can get IDs and online access to the Foothill KCI online courses.
4. Be sure to complete both the Foothill and the KCI LINC course application. Call or email Ted if you have a question or a problem.
5. NOTE: If you have taken KCI’s online LINC 98.02W or LINC 228.01W courses before, you may still take this (or any other KCI LINC online course) again now for credit (and you may repeat this or other KCI online courses up to six times for credit per course ).
6. Sign, date and FAX both the Foothill application and KCI LINC course registration forms directly to Kathy Fransham at Foothill KCI: 650-949-7774 and also fax to Ted at 408-516-9920. He will take care of the rest of the registration process with Foothill College.

Dr. Ted Kahn

email: ted@designworlds.com

Voice: 408.252.2285

Fax: 408.516.9920

Cell: 408.569.4875

Foothill College: Krause Center For Innovation (KCI)

At a time of one of the most severe budget deficits in California history, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Education/California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) have recently created the California Digital Textbook Initiative to encourage the creation and use of exemplary, free (or low-cost) digital, web-based open education resources as alternatives to traditional commercial state-adopted textbooks. In collaboration with many high school science teachers and other science educators, Curriki has developed extensive digital collections of high school science resources as an alternative to traditional commercial high school science textbooks.

This course will introduce, and enable the completion of, the new (and free) Curriki digital high school chemistry course and related online digital learning resource collection. (A sample of the section on “acids and bases” may be found here)

20 California high school chemistry teachers and/or high school mentor science teachers and curriculum directors will participate and collaborate in this online course to:

• Develop a common template for lessons and units of this major digital chemistry course
• Develop a collaborative process for the review, editing and revision of these materials, using one or more online web project management and collaboration environments
• Review, test and add other engaging web-based open education resources (e.g., from museums, government and private research centers, etc.) and align these materials with CA high school chemistry content standards
• Complete this project within the 8–9 weeks allotted for this course

The main objective for this course is thus to ensure that this extensive, teacher-created, free and open source high school digital chemistry course is acceptable for adoption through the California Digital Textbook Initiative — and used as a major curriculum resource for high school chemistry classes all over California.

In addition, the San Francisco Bay Area has a wealth of science-technology museums, aquariums, zoos, and other informal science learning and research centers which have well over $1 billion of assets for teaching and informal learning of science, math, engineering/design and technology. Based on a 7-year project called the Bay Area Science Museum & Education Collaboratory (funded primarily by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation), this web resource will be available for use by teachers taking this LINC 52D course.

The estimated time commitment for completing this two (2) CEU unit course is between 18–24 hours, spread over a period of approximately 8–9 weeks. All teachers who successfully complete this course will receive 2 CEU units of credit, and they will also then be eligible to apply for the prestigious summer 2010 KCI MERIT Program as teacher fellows at the MERIT summer Institute held at KCI at Foothill College.

Class Dates: Target Start Date: October 26 - December 14, 2009

Units: 2 units (CEUs)

Time: Online, Anytime

Class location: Online, Anywhere*

Dr. Ted M. Kahn is the co-founder and CEO of DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc. and Chief Learning Strategist for DesignWorlds for College & Careers. He is also a Fellow of the Center for Science, Technology & Society at Santa Clara University, and the first NMC Fellow of the NMC: New Media Consortium and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar with the Media X project at Stanford University. He has also been a Visiting Senior Fellow at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and a GLEF Fellow and member of the Speakers Bureau of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. During the 1990's, he was a Senior Research Scientist & Technology Strategist with the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL), where he was a co-founder of the US Dept. of Education-funded Silicon Valley Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project. Ted has been an employee, advisor, consultant or a member of the board of directors with several Silicon Valley high tech companies and R&D organizations, as well as national/international agencies and public-private alliances, including: Lawrence Hall of Science, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Atari, Picodyne, Digital F/X, U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), Apple, Microsoft, the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, USAID, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation & the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and UNESCO, the United Nations Development Program, the World Future Society and the global Millennium Project. He has worked with teachers and students around the world helping them to use technology for creative and global collaborative projects for over 35 years.

Ted is internationally known as a pioneer and innovator in action-research projects and award-winning commercial products and web communities involving technology and learning in schools, homes, workplaces and museums. As the founding director of the Bay Area Science Education Collaboratory, he has been active in the co-development of these free open source science education resources, in collaboration with over 175 Bay Area science teachers since 2002

Ted holds a B.A. in computer science (with honors) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology, all from the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information on DesignWorlds for Learning, the Bay Area Science Education Collaboratory, or on Dr. Ted Kahn, visit:

• http://www.designworlds.com and http://www.designworlds.com/corporate.html
• http://www.designworlds.com/collab/project.html
• http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/kahn/kahn.html

email: ted@designworlds.com

phone: 408.252.2285