My GAME Plan

My GAME Plan:

Constantly improving my knowledge and understanding of technology is crucial for me as I look for ways to improve my teaching. As students are entering my classroom with what seems like more and more ability to use computers, my ability to stay on top of the newest information and uses of technology is key. However, simply being able to use the technology is not my only goal. I understand that I must be able to incorporate it successfully into my classroom in a way that challenges my students to think for themselves, be creative, and perhaps even take risks (Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., 2010, p. 40).

Cennamo, et. al. (2010) laid out a GAME plan for helping both students and teachers meet learning and professional goals. One of the areas that I want to incorporate a GAME plan in is to help strengthen my ability to incorporate 21st century technology. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is an organization that hopes to increase the use, understanding, and facilitation of technology in our nation’s schools. ISTE laid out several standards for the integration of technology that I would like to use to help transform my classroom. After I successfully implement these two standards into my classroom following my GAME plan, will help move my classroom further into the 21st century and make sure that my students are leaving my room with the necessary 21st century skills.

My first goal in the implementation of ISTE standards is to “facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity” (the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 1997-2010). One of the focus areas that I have that the ISTE put in this standard is “exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems” (ISTE, 1997-2010). For my GAME plan, that area will be my focus. As I teach world history, I would like students to experience learning history through authentic and technology-based ways that help them explore and learn the facts on their own. My goal would be to implement one authentic, real-world experience for my students every marking period. One of the ideas I had this week is to use more online resources; from WebQuests, online simulations, and interactive reference sites. Dr. Peggy Ertmer (Laureate, 2009) commented that technology allows students to interact with technology. By finding great online resources, my students would not be gaining information from my lectures; they would be allowed to find real-world, authentic information for themselves through simple guidance on my end. Finding great online resources will be my biggest “Action” movement in my GAME plan as it will require additional planning and finding of resources than I am normally used to. To monitor this goal, I would just ensure that I am incorporating one of these learning experiences every marking period. To evaluate this goal I would ask students, whether through verbal interaction or anonymous surveys, how they feel about the authentic projects that they have been completing. This would allow me to know if students are gaining the information I want them to through authentic learning experiences.

My second goal in the implementation of ISTE standards is to “promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility” (ISTE, 1997-2010). The area of this standard I would like to focus on especially is to “develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using…collaboration tools” (ISTE, 1997-2010). One of the great things about world history is it provides a great opportunity for students to gain multiple perspectives on different events throughout world history. Collaboration with classrooms around the world would provide a great way to learn different perspectives on events that we learn about in my classroom as well as gain a cultural experience by working and collaborating with classrooms around the world. One action that I would take to achieve this goal is to search for collaborative classrooms whether through ePals (www.epals.com) or Flat Classroom (www.flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com). There are so many teachers willing to collaborate and many resources to make that happen. I would need to obviously plan ahead to make this type of collaboration possible, but the overall cultural experience would be amazing for my students and make it worth it. I think a good goal for this year is to choose just one collaborative project to complete in my classroom. To monitor this, I would need to break down the steps it would take to complete a collaborative project and simply use a checklist to make sure all steps are completed. This would include figuring out a project to collaborate on, finding a classroom or group to collaborate with, creating a project to collaborate with, etc. My learning can be extended by trying to add a collaborative project every year in my classroom. For me, that means perhaps attending professional development opportunities that allow me to learn more about this type of learning experience, find classrooms willing to collaborate with, and work on projects in my classroom that would promote collaboration.

As these are two standards that I do not feel completely comfortable with, yet also standards that I want to try and incorporate in my classroom, setting up a GAME plan seems like a fairly easy way to establish these goals in my teaching repertoire. Both provide my students with opportunities to experience 21st century learning and allow me to take the learning experience for my students out of my hands and allow them to learn for themselves through guidance. These two goals would allow me to push my classroom further into the 21st century and provide valuable learning experiences for my students.


References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 3. Enriching content area learning with technology, Part I. [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