The game plan according to Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer ( 2009), was a way to set goals, take action, monitor, and evaluate how I would modify my method to learning tasks, to develop skills that are important to me and is in preparation for my lifelong learning. I utilized two of the NETS-T indicators to strengthen my confidence and knowledge to integrate technology tools more effectively into the content areas. With the ever changing new technologies for teaching and learning I will need to closely monitor my ability to integrate technology in order to identify the new knowledge and skills that I need (Cennamo et.al, 2009). According to Dr. Ertmer, being knowledgeable in technology allows the teacher to present the content to students using the technology tool.
Throughout this course I developed new technology skills and learned how to use them effectively across the content area. I learned how Problem Based Learning or a PBL can address many content areas while at the same time integrating technology tools that attends to diverse learners’ needs, promotes creativity and critical thinking skills. As Dr. Ertmer noted the content is explored in an authentic and meaningful way. The impact this has had on my instructional practice is the realization that the students are engaged with the content and PBL’s can fit interdisciplinary curricular and content standards. Students have the opportunity to be assessed in diverse ways where it is ongoing and does not focus primarily on a final project.
The two NETS-T indicators that I choose to strengthen my confidence in were: 2c Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. 3b Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. Developing a game plan for these indicators promoted some immediate adjustments in my instruction as I mastered my own skill level and integrated some new technologies as a result in content areas. As an end result of learning in this course I will instruct my students how to utilize the GAME plan to address NETS-S indicators over the course of the year. This will increase their knowledge of technology tools, build self- confidence and empower them to become self-directed learners. With this instructional strategy I hope to build a foundation that will encourage and promote lifelong learners.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). “Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 1” [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Spotlight on Technology: Problem-Based Learning, Part 2 [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Using the Game Plan Process with Students
What came to mind when I read over the GAME plan chart (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, pg. 4) in the text was a KWL chart. I would like to use the GAME plan as I would a KWL chart. My plan is to have all of the students address the same standard as a goal to be set the first week of school. I will introduce and model the GAME plan and monitor student progress with their GAME plan. The students will use the GAME plan chart as a guide to their self-directed learning and will document their GAME plan in an electronic journal. After the winter break students will be asked to set a goal with a standard of their choosing. Students need to be empowered in order to take ownership of their learning and to set proficiency goals. I will continue to use the GAME plan process and become proficient in other NETS-T standards to continue to grow professionally and to better educate my students.
The NETS-S and NETS-T are inter-related in the respect that the teacher needs to be proficient in these standards in order for the students to be proficient. As the educator we need to be skillful and master the indicators in order to plan lessons, promote authentic learning experiences for students and help them to develop proficiency in the technology standards.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
The NETS-S and NETS-T are inter-related in the respect that the teacher needs to be proficient in these standards in order for the students to be proficient. As the educator we need to be skillful and master the indicators in order to plan lessons, promote authentic learning experiences for students and help them to develop proficiency in the technology standards.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Revising My Game Plan
The reflective review of the NETS-T indicators I chose for my game plan: Indicator 2c- Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources and 3b- Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation, are still a work in progress. Although my goals have proven to be ambitious considering the pace of the technology movement in my district, I have adjusted. Sometimes actions take time. What I have learned is that while educating myself, I am also educating other colleagues and students. So although the process has been slow, progress is still being made.
What I have been able to apply in my instructional practice is how a tool such as a blogs can facilitate the ability to reflect. Utilizing the questions what, why and how, students can channel their understanding and establish connections.
The new learning goal I will set for myself will be a small scaled version of a PBL. I will utilize self-directed learning and take from my experience of designing a PBL for my graduate course. The feedback from colleagues will aid in my monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of this plan. This future plan for incorporating a PBL into my curriculum will allow me to set a new goal by addressing the indicator 2d: provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
I am not ready at this point to set new learning goals but will continue to monitor, evaluate and adjust my current game plan. The approach I will take next time to improve my learning is to attend additional professional development technology workshops to learn new skills, improve on the skills I possess and to brainstorm with other educators. It is also in my best professional interest to subscribe to Journals such as Tech & Learning: www.techlearning.com. A colleague shared this journal and I found it to be a great resource for what new technology is out there and how it can be used in the classroom.
What I have been able to apply in my instructional practice is how a tool such as a blogs can facilitate the ability to reflect. Utilizing the questions what, why and how, students can channel their understanding and establish connections.
The new learning goal I will set for myself will be a small scaled version of a PBL. I will utilize self-directed learning and take from my experience of designing a PBL for my graduate course. The feedback from colleagues will aid in my monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of this plan. This future plan for incorporating a PBL into my curriculum will allow me to set a new goal by addressing the indicator 2d: provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
I am not ready at this point to set new learning goals but will continue to monitor, evaluate and adjust my current game plan. The approach I will take next time to improve my learning is to attend additional professional development technology workshops to learn new skills, improve on the skills I possess and to brainstorm with other educators. It is also in my best professional interest to subscribe to Journals such as Tech & Learning: www.techlearning.com. A colleague shared this journal and I found it to be a great resource for what new technology is out there and how it can be used in the classroom.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Evaluating My Game Plan Progress
When evaluating my GAME plan progress, I need to be a reflective learner who considers the effectiveness of my action plan while I continue to monitor and evaluate it looking at the past and present success (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer 2009).
Indicator 2c- Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. My actions have been fairly successful in brainstorming with colleagues for ideas on what content area/skills should be considered to integrate into technology. Unfortunately the arrangement of colleague’s school and personal schedule has limited the capacity for everyone to get together at one time to brainstorm. We however have prevailed with the use of social networking and have established some areas where the students need to be more engaged with the content. What I have learned so far that I can apply to my instructional practice is that students can benefit from this type of social networking like blogging. I will create a voicethread where I talk and illustrate how to blog and blogging guidelines to follow.
In addition I will have to learn to how to incorporate the use of digital pictures and or videos that correlates with the content areas the teachers would like integrate into the technology curriculum. The questions that have arisen is how much time should I set aside for the implementation of these new tools and will the learning of new tools interfere with the learning of the content?
I will adjust my plan to fit my current needs by first evaluating the student’s prior knowledge of particular software and hardware to determine how much instruction/modeling is needed. I will utilize an on-line survey as well as teacher observation. These assessments will help guide me to facilitate self-directed learning and to determine an approximate time line for a unit.
3b- Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. In evaluating the GAME plan for this indicator it is not so much of the effectiveness of my goals as it is the time frame with which it takes to gain access. I have incorporated a blog on my web page for the students as I wait to hear about the approval for the use of http://kidblog.org. In the mean time since the blogging is done through my web page, I simply sent a notice to parents via e-mail informing them of this new instructional tool where they can view the posted blogs at anytime. Parents without an e-mail address were informed in the monthly newspaper. What I have learned from this experience that I can apply to my instructional practice is the usefulness of on-line surveys. In an effort to monitor the effectiveness of my blog, I created a short survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/ with various questions about blogging. This is a great technology tool for my 3rd and 4th to learn and use in projects.
I am still learning about two video-conferencing tools to compare and contrast differences, similarities, and user friendliness for future use for classrooms and or experts. The question and concerns that have arisen is will my district allow this tool to be used by the students or will they only allow teacher access? I will have to adjust my plan of video-conferencing depending on the decision. A teacher only access decision will mean that video-conferencing will be a teacher directed activity done either in whole group or small group.
A huge part of the success of my game plan progress has been gaining access to specific Internet web 2.0 tools even though they have been free and technology hardware.
References:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/windows/
http://www.oovoo.com/Download.aspx
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Indicator 2c- Customize and personalize learning activities to address student’s diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. My actions have been fairly successful in brainstorming with colleagues for ideas on what content area/skills should be considered to integrate into technology. Unfortunately the arrangement of colleague’s school and personal schedule has limited the capacity for everyone to get together at one time to brainstorm. We however have prevailed with the use of social networking and have established some areas where the students need to be more engaged with the content. What I have learned so far that I can apply to my instructional practice is that students can benefit from this type of social networking like blogging. I will create a voicethread where I talk and illustrate how to blog and blogging guidelines to follow.
In addition I will have to learn to how to incorporate the use of digital pictures and or videos that correlates with the content areas the teachers would like integrate into the technology curriculum. The questions that have arisen is how much time should I set aside for the implementation of these new tools and will the learning of new tools interfere with the learning of the content?
I will adjust my plan to fit my current needs by first evaluating the student’s prior knowledge of particular software and hardware to determine how much instruction/modeling is needed. I will utilize an on-line survey as well as teacher observation. These assessments will help guide me to facilitate self-directed learning and to determine an approximate time line for a unit.
3b- Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. In evaluating the GAME plan for this indicator it is not so much of the effectiveness of my goals as it is the time frame with which it takes to gain access. I have incorporated a blog on my web page for the students as I wait to hear about the approval for the use of http://kidblog.org. In the mean time since the blogging is done through my web page, I simply sent a notice to parents via e-mail informing them of this new instructional tool where they can view the posted blogs at anytime. Parents without an e-mail address were informed in the monthly newspaper. What I have learned from this experience that I can apply to my instructional practice is the usefulness of on-line surveys. In an effort to monitor the effectiveness of my blog, I created a short survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/ with various questions about blogging. This is a great technology tool for my 3rd and 4th to learn and use in projects.
I am still learning about two video-conferencing tools to compare and contrast differences, similarities, and user friendliness for future use for classrooms and or experts. The question and concerns that have arisen is will my district allow this tool to be used by the students or will they only allow teacher access? I will have to adjust my plan of video-conferencing depending on the decision. A teacher only access decision will mean that video-conferencing will be a teacher directed activity done either in whole group or small group.
A huge part of the success of my game plan progress has been gaining access to specific Internet web 2.0 tools even though they have been free and technology hardware.
References:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/windows/
http://www.oovoo.com/Download.aspx
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
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