This course I developed a GAME plan. A GAME plan is the process of setting a goal, creating an action plan, monitoring the action plan and then finally evaluating to see if you have reached your goal (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). The purposes of my GAME plans were to address the National Education Standards for Teachers. Since I am a second grade classroom teacher I teach all subject areas and content areas. Technology is an important aspect within my classroom already. I use it to engage, motivate and clarify. Although technology is an integral part of my classroom I feel that I can use technology in different ways. To address this issue, I chose to work on using technology as an assessment tool and to encourage creativity through technology.
These goals made me start to think about all the different ways in which I can use technology to support my students' creativity as well as ways to use technology to gain valuable assessment data to help drive instruction. Using technology as an assessment tool makes total sense. Data can easily and efficiently be recorded, analyzed and stored. I have made one immediate change to my teaching this year due in terms of assessment. When I have to test students on reading assessments, I find it very hard to record areas of weakness in terms of fluency. Instead, I am going to start to uses informal podcasts to help record their reading of the text. This way I will be able to play back the recording to better understand what the students still need. Also, students would be able to listen to the recording as well and reflect on their recording.
This course has provided me with an endless list of possible ways in which technology could be used to share understanding and learning. One tool that seems to really spark an interest of mine is digital storytelling (Laureate, Inc., 2009). Digital storytelling is a process of sharing information through a narrative account. The ways in which students could use this tool to share knowledge is endless. It could be used across all subject areas and grade levels. A couple of examples of projects that students could do are interviews, tell stories, make speeches or PSA. I currently have students publish their writing workshop stories through this process but next year, I would like to expand how I use this tool. I feel that it allows students to express what they have learned in a creative and engaging way.
References
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.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 10: Spotlight on Technology:Digital Storytelling Part 1. Social Learning Theories. Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Week 7... Almost there!
Just at there are National Education Technology Standards for Teachers there are a set of standards for students (NETS-S). They are international standards that have been set to help students gain the skills and knowledge they need in order to be successful in the 21st century.
These standards include:
1) Creativity and Innovation
2) Communication and Collaboration
3) Research and Information Fluency
4) Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making
5) Digital Citizenship
6) Technology Operations and Concepts
(http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/for_students/nets_s.htm, 2007)
Just as we developed goals that were meaningful, realistic and attainable, I would want to help my students do the same process while working towards these set standards. Given that I teach lower grades (2nd grade) my students might not understand the language and or concepts that the standards are talking about. To help my students stay focused and support them through the process, I would probably limit the goal making to one standard. Where my students are currently, in terms of 21st century learning skills, I feel that the greatest need for improvement would fall under standard 1, creativity and innovation. Subsections of the standard include using knowledge to create new thoughts and creating unique products (http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/for_students/nets_s.htm, 2007). The section of this standard that I would really like to focus on would be the creative outlets that my students can use to share and express knowledge. I feel that a classroom goal similar to this might work. Students will learn how to use digital story telling to express ideas, concepts and knowledge that will be shared with the public on a class blog or website. By creating a single goal, I can structure classroom activities and support to meet the needs of my students. Gradually over the course of the year, from unit to unit, students will be able to view the success that they have encountered and develop short term, more personal goals, that will address their individual needs to help develop their personal understanding. Since digital story telling can be used for almost any subject or content area, there will be different projects that students will be able to explore the structure of while creatively sharing their knowledge, understandings and passions.
These standards include:
1) Creativity and Innovation
2) Communication and Collaboration
3) Research and Information Fluency
4) Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making
5) Digital Citizenship
6) Technology Operations and Concepts
(http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/for_students/nets_s.htm, 2007)
Just as we developed goals that were meaningful, realistic and attainable, I would want to help my students do the same process while working towards these set standards. Given that I teach lower grades (2nd grade) my students might not understand the language and or concepts that the standards are talking about. To help my students stay focused and support them through the process, I would probably limit the goal making to one standard. Where my students are currently, in terms of 21st century learning skills, I feel that the greatest need for improvement would fall under standard 1, creativity and innovation. Subsections of the standard include using knowledge to create new thoughts and creating unique products (http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/for_students/nets_s.htm, 2007). The section of this standard that I would really like to focus on would be the creative outlets that my students can use to share and express knowledge. I feel that a classroom goal similar to this might work. Students will learn how to use digital story telling to express ideas, concepts and knowledge that will be shared with the public on a class blog or website. By creating a single goal, I can structure classroom activities and support to meet the needs of my students. Gradually over the course of the year, from unit to unit, students will be able to view the success that they have encountered and develop short term, more personal goals, that will address their individual needs to help develop their personal understanding. Since digital story telling can be used for almost any subject or content area, there will be different projects that students will be able to explore the structure of while creatively sharing their knowledge, understandings and passions.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Week 6
•What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
What goals are you still working toward?
I have been able to use several technology tools to help my students share their understanding. I have used movie making and podcasting to have students share their ideas. I still need to do more work at sharing finished products. Learning more about blogs and or websites will be helpful.
•Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?
Where I am right now, I don't feel that I can set any new goals for the current year. I know that I have not totally completed my goals from this course but I will continue them next year. My two goals address many of the NETS-T standards. When I work towards using technology to help foster students creativity and using technology as an assessment tool I will be also working on teacher standards. To be quite honest I will be working on all five standards. (Fostering creativity, digit-age experiences and assessments, digital-age work, digital responsibility and professional growth).
•What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
I think that if the school year was at a different point I would have been able to address my goals with more success. Due to this fact, I am going to continue to work on my goals over the summer and implement them in the fall as an ongoing process.
What goals are you still working toward?
I have been able to use several technology tools to help my students share their understanding. I have used movie making and podcasting to have students share their ideas. I still need to do more work at sharing finished products. Learning more about blogs and or websites will be helpful.
•Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?
Where I am right now, I don't feel that I can set any new goals for the current year. I know that I have not totally completed my goals from this course but I will continue them next year. My two goals address many of the NETS-T standards. When I work towards using technology to help foster students creativity and using technology as an assessment tool I will be also working on teacher standards. To be quite honest I will be working on all five standards. (Fostering creativity, digit-age experiences and assessments, digital-age work, digital responsibility and professional growth).
•What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
I think that if the school year was at a different point I would have been able to address my goals with more success. Due to this fact, I am going to continue to work on my goals over the summer and implement them in the fall as an ongoing process.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Week 5: GAME Plan
•How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?
To meet my first goal, I need to become more familiar with the technology resource of WebQuests. I still don't feel comfortable in developing my own. As for my second goal, using technology as an assessment tool, I feel that I fully understand the technologies that I will implement. The only technology that I need to become more familiar with is web development. Our school has space available for each teacher to develop a website. This is where I would like to develop my classroom website, the only issue is that our media specialist is currently out until the end of the school year. I guess that This may just have to wait.
•What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
In learning about WebQuests, I have done a lot of searching for websites that are helpful and useful for my students. I have been able to find online resources that are supportive of current curriculum. Although I have not developed a WebQuest yet, I have found sources to support other projects and learning.
•What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
I still need to learn the development of a WebQuest and website development and management. Has anyone ever developed a WebQuest? If so, what site should I use to host my WebQuest?
•How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
As for this year, I don't think that I will be able to develop a website that would host my technology based assessments. I will still continue with using technology to assist in the assessment but the sharing aspect will have to wait.
To meet my first goal, I need to become more familiar with the technology resource of WebQuests. I still don't feel comfortable in developing my own. As for my second goal, using technology as an assessment tool, I feel that I fully understand the technologies that I will implement. The only technology that I need to become more familiar with is web development. Our school has space available for each teacher to develop a website. This is where I would like to develop my classroom website, the only issue is that our media specialist is currently out until the end of the school year. I guess that This may just have to wait.
•What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
In learning about WebQuests, I have done a lot of searching for websites that are helpful and useful for my students. I have been able to find online resources that are supportive of current curriculum. Although I have not developed a WebQuest yet, I have found sources to support other projects and learning.
•What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
I still need to learn the development of a WebQuest and website development and management. Has anyone ever developed a WebQuest? If so, what site should I use to host my WebQuest?
•How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
As for this year, I don't think that I will be able to develop a website that would host my technology based assessments. I will still continue with using technology to assist in the assessment but the sharing aspect will have to wait.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
GAME Plan Progress
•Are you finding the information and resources you need?
I have done some searching online to find resources that describe how to develop a WebQuest. I have also taken some time to look at examples that have already been created. This is a website that I have found to answer many of my questions http://webquest.org/index.php. This site has information on creating WebQuests, sharing WebQuests and resources. I will continue to use this site. I am still looking to find videos. I find that I learn well when watching videos because they can describe and show the steps. I will continue to search for this information. If anyone knows of a great place to find helpful videos on web resources please let me know!
•Do you need to modify your action plan?
I feel that my action plan and goals are appropriate for my level of comfort with technology. They are reasonable for me to tackle and implement effectively into my classroom.
•What have you learned so far?
So far, I have learned the most about the WebQuest process. I have not completed a WebQuest yet but I feel that the use of this resource for classroom instruction is endless. There are so many ways to differentiate instruction without going crazy. It is an easy structure that students can navigate with ease after little instruction. I am excited to see how my students respond to a WebQuest.
•What new questions have arisen?
At this point I don’t really have any new questions but if you have any suggestions or questions to help me move along with my GAME Plan please let me know!
I have done some searching online to find resources that describe how to develop a WebQuest. I have also taken some time to look at examples that have already been created. This is a website that I have found to answer many of my questions http://webquest.org/index.php. This site has information on creating WebQuests, sharing WebQuests and resources. I will continue to use this site. I am still looking to find videos. I find that I learn well when watching videos because they can describe and show the steps. I will continue to search for this information. If anyone knows of a great place to find helpful videos on web resources please let me know!
•Do you need to modify your action plan?
I feel that my action plan and goals are appropriate for my level of comfort with technology. They are reasonable for me to tackle and implement effectively into my classroom.
•What have you learned so far?
So far, I have learned the most about the WebQuest process. I have not completed a WebQuest yet but I feel that the use of this resource for classroom instruction is endless. There are so many ways to differentiate instruction without going crazy. It is an easy structure that students can navigate with ease after little instruction. I am excited to see how my students respond to a WebQuest.
•What new questions have arisen?
At this point I don’t really have any new questions but if you have any suggestions or questions to help me move along with my GAME Plan please let me know!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
GAME Plan Continued...
Goal 1: Developing inquiry based projects where technology is used to find data, collect data and share learned information.
To support myself in helping achieving this goal I feel that I will need to seek out the help and assistance of several resources. I feel that one way to accomplish the goal of using data to develop understanding and finding information on a given topic would be to develop WebQuests. I will need to read, watch and use tutorials on developing WebQuests. Also, I know that there are other teachers who I work with that use WebQuests in their teaching. I will have to seek them out and see if I could get some personal one on one help. I don't think that I will be able to create a WebQuest this year for the unit, as we have already started, but I play to explore this option over the summer when I have more free time. I will be able to develop and implement these into units next school year.
We began our unit on plants last week. So far we have been using technology to help develop understanding by watching videos and exploring websites. Also, we have been taking pictures of the steps we have taken and picture of what we have seen. We are on our way to a photo album of the cycle of the plant. These images and our writing work will be used in the final project.
Goal 2: Using technology as an assessment tool.
I currently use technology to help my students publish their monthly writing pieces. I would like to continue this practice. Currently I have the projects on a flash drive. To make these projects have more meaning and effect on students progress and growth I would like to create online storage and display. I know how to create a blog but I feel that a website would be a better venue for the projects. I would like to learn more about website setup, design and operation. I can view tutorial, enlist the help of colleagues and read texts. Through this students would be able to share their work with friends and family.
To support myself in helping achieving this goal I feel that I will need to seek out the help and assistance of several resources. I feel that one way to accomplish the goal of using data to develop understanding and finding information on a given topic would be to develop WebQuests. I will need to read, watch and use tutorials on developing WebQuests. Also, I know that there are other teachers who I work with that use WebQuests in their teaching. I will have to seek them out and see if I could get some personal one on one help. I don't think that I will be able to create a WebQuest this year for the unit, as we have already started, but I play to explore this option over the summer when I have more free time. I will be able to develop and implement these into units next school year.
We began our unit on plants last week. So far we have been using technology to help develop understanding by watching videos and exploring websites. Also, we have been taking pictures of the steps we have taken and picture of what we have seen. We are on our way to a photo album of the cycle of the plant. These images and our writing work will be used in the final project.
Goal 2: Using technology as an assessment tool.
I currently use technology to help my students publish their monthly writing pieces. I would like to continue this practice. Currently I have the projects on a flash drive. To make these projects have more meaning and effect on students progress and growth I would like to create online storage and display. I know how to create a blog but I feel that a website would be a better venue for the projects. I would like to learn more about website setup, design and operation. I can view tutorial, enlist the help of colleagues and read texts. Through this students would be able to share their work with friends and family.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
GAME Plan
The National Educational Technology Standards supplies teachers with six performance indicators to provide effective and meaningful learning experiences for their students. While looking over the standards I feel that in order to strengthen my students’ classroom experiences I need to focus on the first two goals (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).
My first goal is to support student learning and encourage student creativity through the use of technology. Creative thinking can be described as “complex thinking that requires effort and produces valued outcomes. These outcomes are not predictable because the process of higher-order thinking is not mechanical” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, p. 25, 2009). Inquiry-based learning embraces the concept of creative thinking as well as the integration of technology. Through inquiry-based instruction students develop questions about a given topic. They then come up with a plan to determine where they will find their answers. The students set out to collect data. From the data they are able to answer their questions and then share the information with the learning community. To implement this structure into my classroom I am interested in using it to teach my 2nd graders science. Given a unit on plants, as a class we will first come up with a list of questions. We will look at one question at a time and think about how we will find information about the topic. The sources can be from books, experiments, and online resources such as videos, pictures and websites. Students will conduct research and gather data. After we have finished the data collection we will come back as a group and discuss the finding and come to a realization and answer. Finally students will use podcasting, video making or digital art programs to share what they have learned. After each cycle of questioning, researching and sharing I will evaluate the process by seeing if all the students understand the concept, can explain what they have learned with or without the help of their finished project and see if students can make a connection to the world beyond the classroom. From the evaluation I will alter the next cycle.
My second goal is to use technology as an assessment tool. There are many different modalities of learning. Some students are visual learners while other could be audio learners or kinesthetic learners. Although it is not necessary to use technology to provide a varied learning experience to suit all types of learners, technology makes it easier. I am currently able to give all students in my class the teaching tools that are necessary for their understanding. I would now like to focus my attention towards the products that students create to demonstrate their understanding of the given content. There is an abundant number to computer based programs that help students share information in their preferred modality. Podcasting is great for students who like to share information orally. Video making helps students who are kinesthetic learners share what they have learned. Through concept maps other students can visually show what they have learned. The focus of these projects is that students are sharing their understandings while using a modality that they feel comfortable and confident in working with. To monitor the effectiveness of this practice I will view or listen to the final projects. From these projects I will be focusing on if students were able to clearly explain what they have learned. My focus will not be on the technology but rather on the learning process.
Technology is a great tool. When content and technology can be joined, students are given an engaging, active and insightful experience into the world around them.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009).Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education (2008). National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•T) and performance indicators for teachers. Retrieved May 12, 2010 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
My first goal is to support student learning and encourage student creativity through the use of technology. Creative thinking can be described as “complex thinking that requires effort and produces valued outcomes. These outcomes are not predictable because the process of higher-order thinking is not mechanical” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, p. 25, 2009). Inquiry-based learning embraces the concept of creative thinking as well as the integration of technology. Through inquiry-based instruction students develop questions about a given topic. They then come up with a plan to determine where they will find their answers. The students set out to collect data. From the data they are able to answer their questions and then share the information with the learning community. To implement this structure into my classroom I am interested in using it to teach my 2nd graders science. Given a unit on plants, as a class we will first come up with a list of questions. We will look at one question at a time and think about how we will find information about the topic. The sources can be from books, experiments, and online resources such as videos, pictures and websites. Students will conduct research and gather data. After we have finished the data collection we will come back as a group and discuss the finding and come to a realization and answer. Finally students will use podcasting, video making or digital art programs to share what they have learned. After each cycle of questioning, researching and sharing I will evaluate the process by seeing if all the students understand the concept, can explain what they have learned with or without the help of their finished project and see if students can make a connection to the world beyond the classroom. From the evaluation I will alter the next cycle.
My second goal is to use technology as an assessment tool. There are many different modalities of learning. Some students are visual learners while other could be audio learners or kinesthetic learners. Although it is not necessary to use technology to provide a varied learning experience to suit all types of learners, technology makes it easier. I am currently able to give all students in my class the teaching tools that are necessary for their understanding. I would now like to focus my attention towards the products that students create to demonstrate their understanding of the given content. There is an abundant number to computer based programs that help students share information in their preferred modality. Podcasting is great for students who like to share information orally. Video making helps students who are kinesthetic learners share what they have learned. Through concept maps other students can visually show what they have learned. The focus of these projects is that students are sharing their understandings while using a modality that they feel comfortable and confident in working with. To monitor the effectiveness of this practice I will view or listen to the final projects. From these projects I will be focusing on if students were able to clearly explain what they have learned. My focus will not be on the technology but rather on the learning process.
Technology is a great tool. When content and technology can be joined, students are given an engaging, active and insightful experience into the world around them.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009).Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education (2008). National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•T) and performance indicators for teachers. Retrieved May 12, 2010 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
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