Final Post

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