Educational Technology Program: General Information

	Electronic Portfolio The College of Education at Northern Arizona University uses TaskStream as the interface for students' electronic portfolio. Since having an account at TaskStream is mandatory in the Ed Tech programs, you may want to check the Electronic Portfolio Project to learn about special discounts to NAU students.

Materials Required to Participate in any Ed Tech Program

Hardware: For this program, you will need to have a reliable computer and a fast internet connection. It is best if you have DSL or cable, although it is not mandatory. You will find that you will engage in many synchronous activities in your courses and a fast connection is always a plus for that purpose, especially when you are doing audio and/or video. And that is also why you should have a microphone, headphones, and speakers. The most useful mics are the ones that come with the headphones and microphone in one piece. Although used less frequently in the program, a web cam will also be helpful to communicate with your peers and your instructors.

Software: Some courses may require different software programs but the basic software that you must have is the MS Office suite (Word, Excel, Power Point are required, Publisher and Access are optional), and Dreamweaver for your HTML editing. The NAU Bookstore offers a reduced price on the MS Office suite. If you do not have this suite and cannot buy it, please download Open Office. It is a free suite that is usually compatible with MS products. If you cannot afford Micromedia Dreamweaver, you may want to ask permission from your instructor to download and use the open-source program KompoZer. This software program is free and it has a similar feeling and interface as Dreamweaver does. Remember that having the appropriate hardware and software will save you time and frustration.

Books. Besides the textbooks required in each course, students are expected to use the following book throughout the entire program of studies:

Maimon, E. P., Peritz, J., & Yancey, K. B. (2005). A writer's resource: A handbook for writing and research 2nd. Ed. McGraw-Hill. ISBN-10: 0072962097 and ISBN-13: 978-0072962093.

Online Accounts. NAU provides its students with free email accounts. However, students participating in any of the Ed Tech programs are required to purchase a TaskStream account. This electronic portfolio account allows students to create a growing repository of their work in the program. For more information on how to obtain a TaskStream account, visit the Electronic Portfolio Project.

NOTE: All of the open-source software recommended above have versions for Windows, Mac OSX, and Lynux.

Questions? Feel free to contact the Educational Technology Program Coordinator at edtech-coordinator@nau.edu.