My GAME plan progress

I have made some progress on my GAME plan this week. I have a lesson plan that I would like to do that introduces my students to a new technology- voice thread. My next step is to check and see if I can access my voice thread account at work. The lesson plan not only implements a new technology, but it meets my goal of being activity based. Now I need to figure out when this lesson plan will fit in with my district’s pacing guide. It fits it with curriculum, I just cannot remember what unit.

My GAME plan has also taken an unexpected turn this week. After talking with my principal and a couple colleagues, I have decided to start an after school computer club with older students. None of the teachers at my school site teach their students about new technologies or about how to be responsible on the Internet. While I plan to expose my own students to these concepts, they are still a bit young to fully grasp them. My goal is to start the computer club and give some of the older students (grades 4-6) some of the skills that they are going to need in Jr. High and High School. I have already started a framework for what the club will look like. We will meet after school one day a week. I will start by teaching the kids about blogging and we will design a Computer Club blog page- in part for the students to communicate together outside of the club meetings. My next project will be to teach them how to do research online. Having just learned more about this myself, I have a passion to share what I learned with students. I will teach the students the steps I just learned about creating research- able questions, conducting a search online, evaluating resources, and eventually I will help them synthesize this into a project. Who knows what we will do from there. Since this is a student club I want to give them options and skills and let that design the activities we do together.

I am so excited to start this new project. If I would not have had this GAME plan, this idea would not have happened. It was only when I was researching and looking into ideas for my own class that I got the idea to expand and work with more students across three grade levels. I am learning that setting goals for myself works like oil in an engine. As I strive to achieve my goals, and focus on an area of my teaching new ideas come up and I start thinking about ways to take my goal to the next level. It has been an exciting process!

What do I need to carry out my GAME plan?

The first goal in my GAME plan is to implement one new technology in my classroom this year. The information I will need to carry out this plan is to talk with the technology department in my district and learn exactly what technologies are allowed and which ones are blocked. I already know that we are allowed access to blog sites, but not to wiki sites. I will need to find out about the voice thread site I am registered with along with podcast sites.

The second goal in my GAME plan is to do one self directed learning activity with my students this year and allow their feed back to shape the activity. I have a lesson plan that I created in another class that I want to try to implement. What I need to do now is clear it with my principal and make sure I have the technologies available to me to carry it out.

Completing these steps will put me on my way to meeting my goal.

My G.A.M.E. Plan

When examining the technology National Education Standards for Teachers I certainly see room for improvement. However, there are two areas where I am not as confident in executing as I would like to be. Those two areas are standard 2.a and standard 2.b. Standard 2.a states: teachers design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Standard 2.b states: teachers develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. In order to meet these goals I have set up a plan for myself called a G.A.M.E. plan (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009).

The first step in my plan is to set goals (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). I would like to work with my district to find new ways to incorporate more web 2.0 technologies into my classroom. The current thinking in my district is that if you use the SMARTboard you are integrating technology, but I think that technology integration can be much more than that. To be more specific in my goal, I would like to actually implement one new technology probably Web 2.0 in my class this year. Another goal I have is to turn over some of my teaching time to my students where they can participate in a structured, content based self directed learning activity. Again, to be more specific, a realistic goal for me would be to do one self directed learning activity where I also use student input to shape and guide the experience. Knowing if I am successful in my goals is easy- I will either follow through or not.

The next step in the G.A.M.E. plan is to take action (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). To meet my goal I will need to use my curriculum to find a subject area and content standard to focus on. I will also need to research to find which technology best supports the content. To do this I might turn to the internet to research, or look up lesson plans in a teacher café type of website. Once I determine the technology I would like to use, I will have to work with my district to make sure that the technology policy allows me to use my desired technology. Finally, I will have to create lesson plans that help me to meet my goal.

The third step is to monitor my progress (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). I might consider setting timelines for myself for each part of my action process that ultimately leads to my implementation of new technology and incorporation of a self directed learning activity. As each due date in my timeline approaches I can stop and evaluate if I have completed the task or not. If I have not completed the task I will stop and ask myself what is keeping me from completing that task. As I answer that question I can evaluate and change steps in my action plan as needed.

The final step in my plan is to evaluate and extend (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). My goals are to implement a new technology and to incorporate a self directed learning activity. Monitoring these goals is as simple as checking to see if I have done them or not. If I am successful in my goals I will evaluate what a next step might be. A next step could be anything from creating lesson plans to use my newly implemented technology, to designing more self directed learning lessons. I will also be sure to journal some of the struggles I had during the process along with things I can do differently next time to make the process easier. If I am unsuccessful in meeting my goals I will sit down and evaluate what my struggles were that kept me from meeting my goal and create a G.A.M.E. plan to overcome those struggles. I will also consider modifying my goals to make them more attainable.

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

Reflection

The most striking revelation I had this semester about teaching new literacy skills to my students is that learning to read on the web is a complex process and involves several skills that traditional reading does not. I had never really thought about the difference in reading on the web vs. traditional reading, but there is so much more students need to know how to do when reading online. The internet is filled with millions of different web pages, each with their own unique layout and design. Children do not always instinctively know how to scan a web page for information. Web pages are also full of links that take you to other websites or to different parts of the webpage you are on. Children do not always know which links are worth clicking on or how to navigate back to the original web site. Another consideration in reading online is the grammar and syntax of a particular web page. Some web pages are more kid friendly and easy to read and some are more academic and difficult to read. Before this class I had always assumed that if you could read a book you could read online. I now believe differently. I believe that traditional reading skills are the building block for web literacy, but as a teacher I also need to teach my students the specific reading skills that are needed to be literate online.

A large part of the knowledge and experience I gained in this course has to do with conducting what I think of as good solid research online. As a long time fan of Google, I had always taken for granted the information that was presented me in a Google search. After this course I feel as though I am a little more savvy in using different search engines and typing in keywords and phrases that will yield me the most useful results. I have also learned about evaluating a web site for reliability of information. This is a new skill to me. In the past I have read some websites that I have questioned the information, but I never really had a clear process for doing it. Learning the Get REAL strategy of evaluating web pages was very eye opening for me and I believe has made me a better consumer of online information (November, 2008). This knowledge has given me fuel to teach my student to be better at navigating the web when conducting a search, and to be better at questioning and evaluating what they are reading. I have already taken what I have learned and shared it with other teachers. A teacher friend of mine would like to use my screen cast where I walk through the steps of evaluating a web site to teach her high school students this skill. I feel so much more empowered when I am online now and I want to share that feeling with as many students as I can.

Throughout this course I have developed a pretty solid research project to conduct with my class. A goal for me will be to actually do the project with my class. Sometimes I get so caught up in my everyday work that I do not do projects like this that take a lot of preparation. I have also designed smaller lessons that use new technologies such as a screen cast or a voice thread. A goal for me is to get permission through my district to use these technologies and then to not only use them with my own class, but to train other teachers at my school site how to use them as well. The steps I have taken to accomplish this goal is to give myself a timeline on when I want to have accomplished them. By January I want to have permission to do screen cast and voice thread and begin to implement them in my classroom. I would like to start working with other teachers in my school and showing them how to use those technologies by February. By giving myself a timeline and sticking to it I will achieve my goal of implementing these strategies.
References
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Reflection

When I started this class eight weeks ago I was of the mind that my personal theory of learning was mostly constructivist. The core principle for the constructivist approach is that “knowledge is unique to the individual who constructs it” (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008, pg. 16). Now that I have learned more about other learning theories I think that my personal learning theory is still strongly constructivist but it also contains parts of each theory. I use behaviorism as classroom management and sometimes as motivation. I see the role of contructionism and the importance of student’s creating artifacts that they can share with others.

One adjustment that I will make in regards to my integration of technology is that I will make more of an effort to make my students the creators. They can help create PowerPoints, publish stories on Word, and help write on a class blog. The norm has been that I create all presentations for the class, but if by turning technology over to them I can increase their engagement and understanding in a lesson I will certainly do it. Since the brain seeks meaningful patterns, making information meaningful will help students to remember it. These tools help to create networks in their brains through concrete experiences, and the more networks to information that we can create the better chance students have of retrieving it later (Laureate, 2008).

One of my long term goals I would like to make in my instructional practice is to let my students create more. I said it before in the previous paragraph, but as a teacher of young students with limited technology in my classroom this is a very big goal for me. This will take a lot of very careful planning on my part. I will have to create organized lessons to teach my students how to use the technology and have them practice using it. Once they are comfortable using technology such as PowerPoint or Word, I will create projects where I give my students a subject such as a letter of the alphabet and they create a power point for that letter with minimal teacher help.

A second long term goal for me is to integrate Web 2.0 technologies. I currently do not do any of those technologies in my classroom. I would like to start a classroom blog next year where I can inform parents of our weekly activities and we can highlight students who did exemplary work for the week. This is actually not very difficult to do. I just need to set up a blog account and then make the commitment to update it weekly. The real key will be to do the blog with my students where they are helping to add information and create a website they can be proud of and excited about.

References
Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Program number 2. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. [Motion Picture]. Brain research and learning. Baltimore.

http://voicethread.com/share/1194456/

Here is the link to my voicethread. The voicethread shows the biggest problem with technology in my classroom

Social Learning Theory and Technology

The social learning theory is based on collaboration. It is about being actively engaged/constructing learning, but it also includes an element where the learner has conversations about what they are doing. Social learning has the idea that students teach each other. Dr. Orey states that teaching others helps the learner to develop a deeper understanding of the content. Social learning also has an element of connectivism in it. Connectivism holds that knowledge resides in the pattern of how different concepts are networked. Learning is the act of forming networks and navigating networks of knowledge (Laureate, 2008).

Technology is the perfect tool for the social learning theory. “Technology can play a unique and vital role in cooperative learning by facilitating group collaboration, providing structure for group tasks, and allowing members of groups to communicate even if they are not working face to face” (Pitler, et. al, 2007, pg. 140). “Student created multimedia is a natural environment for cooperative learning” (Pitler, et.al, 2007, pg. 141). In a project such as this students often use the jigsaw strategy where each member of the collaborative team is responsible for learning information and teaching it to teammates (Laureate, 2008). These situations are great preparation for the workforce students will one day become a part of.

Technology also offers us web- enabled collaborative learning where students can engage in collaborative projects across the globe. A technology that I want to explore for use in my own classroom is keypals- an email pen pal. “Communication with students in other cities, states, and countries broadens the perspective of students and challenges them to learn about other cultures, languages, and issues throughout the world ( Pitler, et. al, 2007, pg. 145). I think my own students would really love to have pen pals from across the world. I remember having a pen pal when I was in grade school. Getting and writing letters to someone I had never met was exciting.

The amount of web based collaborative projects available to us is really limitless. Web 2.0 allows students to work together to create web or wiki pages, blogs and podcasts. These types of projects allow collaboration without restrictions to time and space. Students could work together with people from all over the globe. These types of collaborations would expose students to cultural experiences that would not have been possible a few years ago. It is these types of collaborations that I believe will be the most beneficial to students in regards to preparing them for the world outside of school.

Resources:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Laureate Education Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program 8. Social learning theory [Motion Picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology Baltimore: Author.