Monitoring my GAME Plan

My GAME plan is taking on a life of its own. As a result of the past two weeks’ resources, I have modified my plan. I am continuing to focus on the same goals, however some of my actions have changed. One of my goals is to model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments. I am still striving to meet this goal. One method I am integrating into my curriculum next year is digital storytelling. This will make such an impact on my students’ writing and presentation skills.

Currently, my class is mostly project-based after the first nine weeks. We study expository writing and students demonstrate their mastery of the skills through the presentation of a project on the passengers of the Titanic. They research a passenger’s life who was on the Titanic and present this passenger’s life to the class. With this GAME plan, I will implement digital storytelling to motivate my students and help them gain knowledge. They will use pictures from the computer to create the presentation on their passenger.

Through the resources in this class, I have learned just exactly what digital storytelling is. Through the use of MovieMaker and Audacity, students can easily create their product for free. They download their own images or images they find on the computer. Then they use MovieMaker to put the slides in order for their presentation. Then they record their presentation with the use of Audacity. Most web sites such as http://www.umass.edu/wmwp/DigitalStorytelling/Digital%20Main%20Page.htm help students by using step-by-step instructions that assist teachers and students. Many web sites, such as the above example, contain instructions and other project ideas that I would have never known about had it not been for this course.

Questions have arisen with this new knowledge. First, discovering everything about the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how to give my students multiple tasks to complete their assignment has been very overwhelming. As a result, one goal is to continue to learn strategies that will involve technology into my lessons in order to make more choices available.

How My GAME Plan is Progressing

Last week I wrote about my GAME plan and how technology could be used to facilitate it. One of the techniques included was the implementation of a learning log where I would record my challenges and my advancements. A suggestion was made by a cohort colleague to use this learning log as a model for my students. I found this to be a great idea. This would assist me when partnering with my students as their facilitator. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) suggest that teachers are no longer the all knowing communicators of knowledge but the faciliators. This has been one aspect of my course work on which I continue to reflect.

This week's resources introduce us to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL provides a blueprint for creating flexible goals, methods, materials, and assessments that accomodate learner differences (http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html. This affects my GAME plan in the sense that I must still stick with my goals that were developed last week, however I may need to tweak my actions in order to meet the individual needs of all my students. So many technological strategies exist that I should be able to use videos posted to my class web site for those students who must take extra time to review class material at their own pace, for example. On the other hand, other students may thrive on the use of the blog as a means for demonstrating their knowledge rather than writing the traditional paper. The ideas are endless, but the most important thing is to know my students in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html

How I Will Turn the Lights Back On

For my education class called Technology Across the Content Areas we are to identify two indicators in the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) on which we need improvement, and then describe how we will achieve these goals, monitor our progress, and extend our learning. Both the indicators I chose fall under the standard “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.” My first goal would be to learn more about promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. My second goal would be to model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

In order to achieve these goals, many actions must be taken. For example, I will do an internet search to find information on techniques involving technology which promote reflection. I will also collaborate online with colleagues to find out what collaborative techniques they have used or might suggest for the project on which I am currently working. Speaking with colleagues in my district helps tremendously with regard to new concepts that I would like to implement. With regard to my second goal, I would begin slowly by modeling collaborative knowledge with my students. During this process I would make sure I listen to suggestions made by students and acknowledge to them that I may not be an expert at this process, yet. Then I would feel more comfortable modeling these collaborative techniques with colleagues in a face to face environment or virtual environment. This process will be helpful because colleagues are typically helpful and offer valid suggestions.

Monitoring my progress is an integral part of strengthening my confidence in the acquisition of these two indicators. In order to monitor my progress, I will begin a learning log. The purpose of this log will be for me to record the different technological tools I use in the classroom and how they are implemented. In the first part of the learning log, I will list each technique used. Beside it, I will record the date used and give the specific content standards covered by the lesson. Challenges encountered will be recorded along with variables to avoid next time. This log will serve to remind me of where I began and the progress made. The second part of the log will list each form of technology (blog, wiki, podcast, etc.). Beside each technique I will fill in the date it was implemented. This list will be progressive and will be used to hold me accountable.

So how can these goals be extended into my classroom in order to benefit my students? First, after researching ways blogs can be used for student reflection, I would begin to implement these. My goal would be to set aside one to two days per week for students to reflect on their learning and respond to classmates’ blogs in the computer lab. In order to monitor their progress, I would also respond to their blogs to model the correct etiquette and format for them. For the collaborative indicator, I am planning a unit where my students will partner with a school in Denver, Colorado. Together they will build wikis on an assigned topic, create blog posts and respond to each other’s blogs. My students will learn how to collaborate online while watching as I model online collaboration with my colleague who is also with Walden.

Prensky (2008) made such an impact when he said that students come to school with the mindset that they must “turn out the lights.” It is my opinion that we must move past this attitude and show them that technology is a tool that provides a solid foundation in education. The only way for us to authentically demonstrate this to them is through our actions.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.