Week 8 Reflection

Over the last eight weeks I have spent time learning how to integrate technology into my teaching and set professional goals to help me become a better educator with technology. The GAME plan for self-directed learning has been the strategy I used to set and follow through on my goals. As I went through the process of setting, acting, monitoring, and evaluating my goals for professional development with technology, I recorded each step on a blog. According to Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009), this type of reflection supported my learning and helped keep me on track with my plan. I found, even more than the actual goals I achieved, I gained a lot from the process of the GAME plan. By writing each week on the blog about what I had already done and planning what to do next, I was more conscious than I have ever been about the status of my goals. Additionally, the support and suggestions from colleagues kept me motivated to fulfill the goals I had set. Consequently, I was able to make progress on both of my goals. I was able to “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” through the creation of a website evaluation checklist that my students and I now use (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). Over the long-term I hope this will result in students who are more critical of the information they consume. I also began the process of “participat[ing] in local and global learning communities” to explore the use of my new IWB (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). Although I still have a few steps left to complete this goal, I am confident I will complete it because of the practice I have had in monitoring and evaluating my goals over these last weeks. I am now a more self-directed learner, a necessary skill for technology which Cennamo reminds us constantly changes (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). Keeping up with educational technology will require that I continue to develop as a self-directed learner. This will make me a more relevant and effective teacher who can adequately prepare students for the skills required for the 21st century.

As a result of this course there are two specific areas in which I will be immediately applying my new knowledge about technology integration in the content areas. The first is the evaluation of information component from my GAME plan. The website evaluation checklist I created is going to be an ongoing requirement for both myself and students. Secondly, I will be delivering the content area unit plan that I wrote. This plan includes effective teaching techniques and tools like problem-based learning, digital stories, and online collaboration. Due to my work in this course I am ready to tackle lessons like that and hopefully make them an integral part of my instructional practice. Despite the fact that I came into this course without any knowledge of digital stories, I am now prepared to use them with my students, along with other unfamiliar digital tools. I know that I just need to keep working to find tools that will help my students learn. (I need another GAME plan!)

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Promoting Self-Directed Learning with Technology. [Motion Picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Learning for the 21st century: A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved April 4, 2010, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf

Week 7-Using the GAME Plan with Students

Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) recommend the GAME plan as a way to foster and structure self-directed learning. The steps in the GAME plan help students to set goals, take action, monitor, and then evaluate their learning. These skills are going to be essential to students as they enter the workforce of the 21st century (Partnership for 21st Century Skills). The GAME plan also can help students to reach the technology standards deemed necessary by the International Society for Technology in Education (2007). Most notably, the simple process of using the GAME plan ensures that students are meeting the standard of “demonstrat[ing] personal responsibility for lifelong learning” (International Society of Technology in Education, 2007).

In my classroom the GAME plan will be the process I use to help students structure their independent projects. In particular, I am imagining it as a method for students to communicate to me their plans for reaching the standards on projects where they get to choose the topic and method of showing their work. The GAME plan will get students to plan out the steps of their project and remind them of the essential steps of monitoring and evaluating their learning. Students often forget to check their own work, believing that is something the teacher is supposed to do. The GAME plan reminds them that it is just as important to check their own learning and work.

Additionally, the GAME plan could be used to further the NETS for students. To integrate it with the independent project I mentioned earlier, I could require that students include technology in the creation of the project. This would then ensure that students account for standards such as creativity, information fluency, critical thinking, and digital citizenship (International Society of Technology in Education, 2007). This, however, is only a small portion of my classroom instructional time. If anyone has suggestions on how to include the GAME plan and NETS-S into more everyday aspects of the classroom, I would welcome them.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2007). NETS for Students. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Learning for the 21st century: A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved April 4, 2010, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf

Week 6-Revising My GAME Plan

I’m revisiting my GAME plan in order to share with you the progress I have made and plans for the future.

Goal #1:
Indicator 3d-teachers “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

This goal has resulted in the production of a checklist for students to use when evaluating websites. I have even shared it with the history department at my school and have asked for feedback from those teachers on how it works. I hope that the checklist will become a school-wide tool. From this experience, I have learned the value of taking time to ensure that students can successfully determine the validity of information. I still have to work on helping students locate information before I can consider this indicator met though. To do that I need to first expand my own search techniques. For example, I need to try using Google Scholar when looking for research in my Walden classes. I would also like to look through Google’s educator lessons on search techniques. I am sure they have many ideas that I can use to teach my students how to locate information.

Goal #2:
Indicator 5a-I will “participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

For this goal I have not made as much progress. I made a lesson using my Starboard to share with others on the IWB lesson community, however, I don’t feel like it is good enough to share yet. The assessment I gave students after the lesson presentation did not show improvement, so that indicates that there is room for me to make the lesson better. Then, my IWB stopped working this week and I had to spend an hour with tech support to fix it. So, I am going to continue to work on using all of the features of the board to create an interactive lesson that engages my students and would be useful to others. I will also search for more lessons I can use as examples. The Starboard lesson community grows everyday, so I just need to continue to communicate with them. They have already provided some helpful hints on engaging tools to use like the highlighter. As I continue to work on this indicator, I hope to take a more active role in the learning communities I have been exploring. This means that I will comment more, seek the advice of others there when I have a problem, and contribute my own expertise. I will definitely upload a lesson to my learning community before the end of the year!


The next time I try to improve my learning I will use the GAME plan strategy. I have found that it is a helpful way to remember the importance of not just making a goal, but also, planning the steps to take to achieve that goal. I often make goals but do not follow through because I don’t revisit and evaluate them. Without those critical steps I often fail. The GAME plan has been a successful learning approach for me.


References

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx