Partnering Pedagogies Web-enhanced Lesson:  Part A

Partnering Pedagogies Web-enhanced Lesson:  Part C

Competency 8:  Apply Computer-Based Technologies and Media to the Solution of Instructional Problems

Sub-competencies

• Plans and designs effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology
• Applies technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and evaluation strategies
• Demonstrates understanding of social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology and applies it in practice
  

Narrative

To demonstrate this competency, I am presenting two documents, both from EDCI 568.  For this course, I designed a web-enhanced classroom-based course to help participants compare their expected retirement expenses to their expected retirement income and make plans for using their retirement investment accounts, such as a 401(k) or 457 plan, to address retirement needs.  I should point out that the participants in the course receive a monthly pension benefit as their primary retirement income.  Their retirement investment accounts are supplemental to their pension and can be used to cover irregular retirement expenses like trips or home repairs or to fill in the gap between their regular monthly expenses and the income provided by their pension check.

Plans and designs effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology

In document C, Table A shows each performance objective and the associated activities, scaffolds, assessment items and web based tools (expected to be used by the participants).  Each performance objective has one or several related investigations that the participants perform on the Internet.  In one case, (performance objective #2) they are researching the impact that inflation can have on costs in retirement and using an inflation calculator to determine the future costs of some of the items they plan to pay for with money from their 401(k) or 457 account.  To meet performance objective #3, the learners search the internet for appropriate investment tools, resources and information related to investing and improving the performance of their investment accounts.  They later use the Internet to research criteria for evaluating those tools/resources so they can "weed out" those that are less effective and apply the effective tools to their own investing.

Applies technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and evaluation strategies

This workshop includes a variety of web-enhanced assessment strategies including:

• A quiz created on Kahoot to evaluate the learners' understanding of concepts such as "variable expense" and "fixed expense" as those concepts apply to retirement planning
• Creating a retirement plan in a web-based tool of their choice to showcase their plans for their using their retirement investment accounts
• Using a web-based tool to create a comparative organizer for evaluating the investment tools/resources they discovered and rating those tools based on researched criteria

All of the strategies above provide the instructor with evidence that the learners understand the material presented in the course.  They also provide the learners with a portfolio of resources that they can access from their home to implement their investment plan to reach their retirement goals.

Demonstrates understanding of social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology and applies it in practice

To demonstrate this sub-competency, I am including one of the preliminary design documents associated with this same investment strategy course.  The section of document A entitled "What makes your question meaningful and authentic to your students?" addresses several key social and human issues related to retirement planning.  These factors include

• Colorado PERA members' lack of interest/motivation for creating a written investment plan and the subsequent anxiety that lack of planning creates as people approach retirement (human); and
• The difference between Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials in saving behavior and the likelihood of retirement plan members from each generation to participate in the workshop (social) .

In terms of legal and ethical issues, the entire course is designed to address one legal and ethical issue simply by design.  On the one hand, it is the fiduciary duty of the retirement plan to provide information about the retirement savings investment accounts we offer like the 401(k) and 457 (legal).  On the other hand, employees of the pension plan are ethically forbidden from giving financial advice (ethical). We are not required to hold the same kind of certifications that an investment advisor would hold, so we cannot tell people how they "should" be investing.  Employees, however, are allowed to provide education about how to invest.  The course design attempts to balance the legal/ethical dilemma of the organization and it's employees, by guiding the workshop participants through their own discovery process of how to best invest for their retirement needs and plans.  The participants gather their own tools and resources, then find their own criteria for evaluating these tools.  The participants obtain their own investment information and "advice" in a course with a student-directed format.