Developing a GAME Plan

Goals:

• To increase knowledge and effectiveness in educating and implementing

1.      National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) 4c = Promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information

2.      National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) 4d. = Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools.

Actions:

•  National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) 4c

1.      Actions for Contact the school technology coordinator to see what if any district curriculum exists in the area of digital citizenship.

2.      Search for resources through blogs, websites and other colleagues to collect content on digital citizenship.

3.      Create some basic lessons on digital citizenship

4.      Fuse lessons authentically into the curriculum

• National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) 4c

1.      Contact the school technology coordinator to see what my options are for the use of blogs and email in my classroom, since I know that the option does exist. 

2.      Create or obtain the permission slip needed to allow students to use tools such as email & blogs. 

3.      Implement the use of a classroom blog to reflect on student learning. 

4.      Use blogs for student discussion about books that they are reading this will create a class directory of books we like or don’t like.

5.      Connect students with long distance pen pals through a service provided at school or epals.

Monitor:

• I will be keeping a reflection log of my actions and ideas as I work on these two indicators 
•  I will keep a calendar of how often I allow for in class time for students to post to blogs
• Monitor the enthusiasm and motivation of the students through these activities.

 

Evaluate:

• Create and share the lessons on digital citizenship with colleagues for use and feedback.
•  Success or needs improvement reflections in my reflection log 
•  Formative and summative assessments of my students on digital citizenship.
• Inviting the technology coordinator into my classroom  and asking them to provide feedback and support.

Reflection on Learning

Reflection

As I reflect on this course I begin with my personal learning theory and note that not much has changed about it over the course.  I still hold that my classroom theory of learning is a recipe that works for me and my students and evolves each and every year.   It is a combination of Neuroscience, Constructivism, Multiple Intelligences, Social Learning and Behaviorism.   Even though there was no real change to the theories I base my classroom and teaching upon there was significant growth in how I can use technology to expand upon my theories and enrich learning in my classroom.  

One key adjustment I plan to make is discovering more ways to have students arriving at learning from their own research and construction.  I plan to find more problem-based instructional activities to heave students work toward solutions and therefore gain greater understanding of the topic or concept being taught (Orey, 2001).  I have already made one change and that is how I introduce weekly vocabulary.  I have students learn a new word in pairs, through the dictionary or web search.  Then they are to find a synonym, antonym, write it in a sentence and illustrate it.  After about 10 min all students then present their word to the class.  The next step in this will be to have them digitize their work so that students can go back and review the words and classmates presentation to help with acquisition of new vocabulary.  I believe that I am going to use VoiceThread or iMovie to create the presentations and post them to my webpage.  I am planning to start with a few pairs and build up until the whole class can complete this activity with meaning and efficiency.  A second tool that I want to integrate in my classroom is a class social network.  I was originally going to use Edmodo for this, however now I am considering using e-pals because it has a larger spectrum of uses.  Using e-pals will take more approval and parents being on board because I will need parent permission to provide students an email address since they are under 13.  Additionally, I will need administrative approval too.  While for Edmodo I can just set it up and begin using it.  It is a lot to consider and think about, but I will begin using one of them in my classroom this year.
               There are so many things I want to do to expand the learning in my classroom through the use of technology.  It is difficult because there are only 4 computers in my classroom and limited lab time, so until that changes I will have to continue to be creative.  The first goal I want to set is that all of my students learn some internet safety and effective evaluation of internet sources.  I do not feel that with all of the academic content that is piled on my plate that I do this enough or effectively.  It is my plan that during our get to know you 2 week curriculum suspension at the beginning of the year that I will use this time to teach my students some of these basic technology skills.  Another goal is that I make my leadership notebooks and graphs digital.  Each of my students has a binder that they record all of their assessment data in and then they use that data to set goals and reflect on their learning.  I want to move this from a physical binder to a digital binder where my students are using excel to enter data and through the use of a template it will automatically graph the data.  In order to do this I will need to create the excel templates for all graphed data and teach the students at the beginning of the year how to use Excel and the specific template.  I think this would be a great way to introduce the students to the uses of Excel.

               Over the course of this class I have discovered ways that I can be more effective in the classroom by adding technology to some of the things that I am doing.  I deepened my understanding of my personal learning theory and how to use technology as an enhancement to my classroom structures.  I will continue to integrate technology in new ways and will use material from this course as resources to help others understand the important role technology should play in a modern classroom.  

Resources

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program thirteen: Technology: Instructional tool vs. learning tool [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

 

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved

from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page