Reflecting....

One of my favorite things I have come to learn in my studies is the GAME plan. I have found that its simple steps are something that we already do to an extent. Putting it in a plan format allows me to evaluate my progress and really keep up with the success of my actions. I made a GAME plan this course that I am still working on. The end of the school year was definitely a bump in the road to my plan. At the same time the end of the school year gave me more time to research and make a plan of action for next year. The summer time will allow me the time to find new technologies and learn how to incorporate them into my plans for next year. It will allow for me to do some of the work before school even begins and be better prepared to implement more technology. My plan for the future is to make sure I have a set time each week to monitor and evaluate my GAME plan. I also plan to keep a log for myself to make sure I am making progress on the plan. Any plan can sound good but if I am not checking on my progress it is just that a plan and not action.

I feel that my current use of technology is minimal. I may be using it in every lesson with one group of students but there are ways to use it more often. Throughout this course I have found so many new resources to use in the classroom. I have already thought of ways to use a digital camera or flip video to enhance lessons. Both items are already prepared to be in my classroom next school year. I am excited that we are getting new classroom computers next year. If these do happen it will be much easier to use the computers to access the Internet and other software options with the students. I also plan to have a microphone attached to each computer to allow for students to record voice and make digital stories. I want to incorporate more problem-based learning. I want there to me less of me talking, and more of the students leading the lessons. I want students to feel like they can ask questions and find the answer without relying on me giving the answer. I want to commit myself to finding at least two other teachers, whether in the building or out, to collaborate on a project with. I would love to do a Flat Stanley project with my students to learn about different states. I know that all of these goals will take time, but I plan on starting to plan these goals over the summer and already have them in place for the New Year.  I do not feel that I have set my goals to high. Here is to accomplishing these goals and adding to them.

Week 3 of my Game Plan

I have found that with the impending end of the school year activities I have not been as successful as I had wished to be with my game plan. Students have been given time on the computer to send e-mails and have communicated a lot with me. I have not gotten any feedback from any other teachers about their communication. I still feel like I have made slight progress with that goal. I have also found that using new technologies is much easier then expected. I have used my computers much more often the last few days. I have had students using basic software, such as power point and word, and also work on the class wiki site. We have discussed podcasting and some students have started to conduct searches for examples to share with the rest of the class.

Are you finding the information and resources you need?

Yes, I am using internet searches and relying on my student’s ability to use some problem-based learning to look into new technologies. I am also finding myself having the students circulate through the computers and they like e-mailing each other or myself.  One website my students found that was very beneficial to them was all about “What is podcasting” (Housley, n.d.) and gave them ideas for what they want to do their first podcast on.

Do you need to modify your action plan?

At this point in time I do not think I need to modify my plan. I think that I can use this last month of this school year to play with and perfect my plan to be better effective next school year. I am finding that I am meeting my goals faster then originally planned and that my students are enjoying the new learning. I do think it helps that I can concentrate on the technology itself and not just the learning content since we are at the end of the school year.

What have you learned so far?

I have learned that students can do things if you let them experiment alone. Some students are going to insist on you holding their hands and showing them how everything works. Some students are going to be fully capable of knowing the basics of something and be better at using it then you by the end of the activity. I have learned that it is not hard to incorporate a game plan and use it effectively. It takes some self control and work to maintain but is very beneficial.

What new questions have arisen?

How can I better monitor students’ ability to email as a form of digital citizenship? How can I allow for students to pick new technologies to experiment with in class? Is allowing the students to search ideas and create their own activities beneficial?

References:

Housley, S. (n.d.). What is Podcasting?. Podcasting Tools. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.podcasting-tools.com/what-is-podcasting.htm

G.A.M.E. plan follow through

As discussed last week, reflection is going to be a critical part of conducting my “GAME plan” (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). A plan can easily be made but takes a lot of work to maintain and execute. One week after creating my “GAME plan” I have little to show for it. I have started to look into my next use of technology. I am going back and forth between podcasts or a voice thread. With only four weeks left of this school year I want to be able to thoroughly use at least one new piece of technology. I have gone to the students to better gauge what they would like to do. We are currently working on making a podcast. We then hope to be able to extend this podcast into a voice stream that was we get to both.

What resources will you need to carry out your plan (video, reading, experts or colleagues, etc)? In order to carry out my plan I will need help from my colleagues, readings, internet searches, and research. I will need help from my colleagues to view our work and help my students and myself with different sources they know. Colleagues will also be expected to respond to students who choose to email them. I will need to encourage my colleagues to take the time to respond to students and inform them that their communication helps our students become more effective with technology. I will need to read and conduct internet searches to give me the research on the new technologies I will use with my students.

What additional information do you need? I do not need much additional information. I will be finding the information as I go along and using the information I feel necessary. I will need to assess my student’s knowledge and make sure they are progressing on their learning while using technology. I also need to have a way to monitor my student’s ability to communicate though technology by allowing them time to communicate with others through the use of their email accounts. I need to find an appropriate way to assess this skill.

What steps have you been able to take so far? So far I have discussed the first new technology skill I want to use with the students. Some students have voiced concerns about recording their voices while others are very excited to start creating their podcast. I have also set a schedule for students to use the computer to write an email to a teacher. I choose to make the students email a teacher first because I could better monitor this by having any teacher who received an inappropriate email let me know about it. Students have not yet started their email process because of working on finishing up our monthly benchmarks first. It is something I hope to have started by the end of this week.

Overall I would say that I am making progress with my GAME plan. Being one week into the plan I feel that I have a good start with the activities I want to achieve. Even though it is the end of the school year I am still working strong towards my plan so that I can perfect it for next school year.

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.

My G.A.M.E. Plan

When looking at the NETS-T indicators I find myself wanting to get better at most of them. I feel that currently I am only skimming the surface on these skills. We can all better perform if we set goals for ourselves. The two indicators I choose to focus on are number 1- “Facilitate and Inspire Student Leaning and Creativity” (ISTE, 2008) and number 4- “Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility” (ISTE, 2008). There are many thoughts behind me wanting to focus on these two indicators.

Focusing on the GAME plan that Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer discussed in the book “Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use” (2009) I needed to set goals for myself. A commonly asked question at this stage is “What do I want to know or be able to do” (Cennamo, et al., 2009, p. 4). When it comes to indicator one I want to find more meaningful digital tools that I can incorporate into the lessons that I teach. My goal for this is to use at least one new tool every two weeks. This will allow me time to learn about the tool before incorporating it. I do not want to make this goal to hard to reach so setting it at two weeks allows me some time and if I can incorporate other digital tools I can excel past my goal. For indicator four my goal is to have my students utilize their school email accounts at least once a week to communicate with a fellow classmate, teacher, or administrator. This would allow me to better “promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information” (NETS-T). Giving each student a set time on the computer could allow me to accomplish this goal.

The A of the GAME plan is to take action. The first thing I will need to do is fins a digital tool that I can use with my students. Once I locate the first tool I can spend some time evaluating it and preparing to use it with my students. Then I can sign out the computer lab or prepare my classroom computers for use of the tool. To make sure I am taking action with my goal in mind I will keep an excel sheet that I can make notes on and update on my use of new tools. For indicator four I will create a schedule for each student to have computer time. I will inform the students of their times and make sure the computers are accessible to them at those times. I will also create a sheet where the students can sign in that the used their computer time. This will allow me to keep track of my student’s use.

This of course ties in with the M, monitor. The big question in monitoring becomes “Are my students understanding the content and mastering the skills they need?” (Cennamo, et al., 2009, p. 31) For indicator one this will be monitored though the use of informal assessments, discussions, and observations. Each tool will have its own case depending on the students understand and use of the tool. If any tool is observed to not be effective or the students seem to not be using it properly modifications will need to be made. Being reflective will be very important at this stage with the different tools I decide to use. For indicator four monitoring will be slightly different. I may need to require my students to check in with me via email once a week. I can also ask other teachers if students have contacted them and talked about things that are relevant and thought out. The use of email should not just be for chatting but for communicating effectively. Monitoring this is not easy but can be done with an open relationship with the students.

Finally, the E which stands for evaluate and extend. This step will be the most important part of the process. It brings it all together. I will evaluate myself on the ability to meet my goals. Am I effectively using technology at the level that I intended to? Am I encouraging students to communicate with each other through technology resources? What should I change? What can I do differently next time? All of these questions will be asked during this stage of the GAME. My intention for this stage is to be reflective, adding thoughts into my journal or even my blog discussing my strengths and weaknesses of a lesson or use of student’s email accounts. I may even extend m knowledge by increasing my goals or adding new features to my goals to extend my knowledge of the NETS-T indicators.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Chapter One. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
ISTE | NETS for Teachers. (2008). International Society for Technology in Education | Home. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx

Reflecting... 6711

Upon entering this course I had a very basic knowledge of how learning occurred. I knew that students learned but did not take it as for as how their brains processed their learning. I thought that every student should just learn through seeing and taking notes and then practicing. I knew that there were certain strategies out there but did not know how to enhance those strategies with technology.

Coming out of this course I now know that technology can do nothing but soar learning to a new level. Learning comes from different ways of teaching. Learning is a forever process that can take place in many different ways each day. Before this course I never thought about the behaviorist learning theory or constructivism. I have now learned about these theories and have realized that I do indeed use them, but not to their full potential. But that reminds me, do we as teachers ever use things to their full potential? Do we use technology to its full potential? Most likely not, and this is not because we don’t try to, we definitely do. It is because technology is always changing and we do not always know about things that could maximize its potential. I did not know about Voice Stream or Webspiration before this class. I did not know that children need to be exposed to something about twenty-four times before it is mastered (Pitler, et. al., 2007).

I now challenge myself to use the tools of webspiration, voice stream, excel, and word to a better potential in my room. I have already integrated wiki’s as part of the class system and have started to be successful. I challenge myself to use more virtual field trips and WebQuests. I want to have the students do more learning and not rely on me as much. It is like Dr. Orey discussed in the final video of this course, instructional tools help the teacher, learning tools are what the students can do alone (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). To help me meet my challenge I plan to include one activity each week. I am hoping over time I can make this once a week thing turn into once a day. I plan to use my weekly lesson plan as a way to make sure I have one activity included whether it is a WebQuest that takes a few days or a voice stream to start a lesson. I hope this changes the learning of my classroom. I want students to take ownership of their learning and I feel technology really allows for them to learn on their own.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program thirteen. Technology: Instructional tool vs. learning tool [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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

Voicestream

Here is a link to a voicestream I created about a problem in my classroom. Unfortunately I could not add voice to mine because my son broke my microphone. The joys of a two year old who is into everything. Enjoy!

http://voicethread.com/share/1553433/

Social Learning and Cooperative Grouping

It’s time for workshop groups. Although these groups are suppose to be differentiated instruction they can sometimes lean towards cooperative grouping. Cooperative grouping is a great example of the social learning theory because students are working together and creating a product. Dr. Michael Orey states that cooperative groups allows for students to “see each other as a teacher and student” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). This shows that students take on more then one role in their learning and are given responsibility for their learning. They are socially aware and able to communicate with each other to facilitate their learning.

Cooperative grouping is also an example of Connectivism because it allows for students to use different networks for their learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). George Siemens states, in his discussion about Connectivism, it is “not just the individual learner but the broader environment they are located in” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). With cooperative groups students are not just individual learners but they are working with other people and the networks available to further their learning.

With technology we can do nothing but enhance our students’ learning. There are so many different tools available to be used for cooperative learning. WebQuests are an awesome way to engage students in their learning. In the book Using Technology in Classroom Instruction that Works it says “WebQuests are designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Instead of just teaching the content we can allow the students to learn it themselves through the WebQuest. This of course is just one strategy we can use that allows for social learning and cooperative grouping at the same time.

The question now becomes how will we embrace the ideas of technology, cooperative grouping, and social learning together? What will us as teachers need to do to ensure that our students are learning to the best of ours and their abilities?

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program eight. Social learning theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program nine. Connectivism as a learning theory [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

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