Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
GAME Plan Reflection
As I look back at the GAME Plan I created during my course “Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas,” I’ve realized that there are several things that I learned by completing the exercise. I had two instructional goals and standards I wanted to integrate into my classroom. My first goal in the implementation of ISTE standards was 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). My second goal in my GAME plan was to create a collaborative learning environment to promote cultural understanding and digital citizenship. One of the first things I’ve learned is that by breaking down a goal using the steps outlined in the GAME Plan format, it makes accomplishing a goal a lot easier and allows me to make adjustments as I see fit throughout the unit. I have also learned that integrating new technologies can be frustrating at times, occasionally a slower process than I want, but overall, seems to be very rewarding.
One of the biggest things that I have learned is that patience is needed when incorporating new technologies into my classroom. As my classroom has been working with a classroom in Hungary in creating a wikispace, we have run into a few road bumps, namely that the classroom in Hungary has been slow to get started. It is somewhat frustrating to both me and my students, but I do feel that once all of the kinks are worked out, it will be a valuable learning experience. I have also learned that there are so many exciting technologies out there that I would love to try and incorporate into my classroom, even if it takes some time. I do feel that I have been exposed to so many new technologies through this course and attempting to meet my GAME plan that there is so much to use in my classroom. Vicki Davis (2009) talked about eduwiki (http://eduwikius.wikispaces.com/) in one of our course videos and I have learned that there are so many new resources that I want to explore and perhaps try to help meet my GAME plan goals. I think watching more online video tutorials before trying to jump right in may help with this process.
The biggest adjustment I want to make in my classroom is integrating more social networking and online collaboration. I have learned that the process can be somewhat slow at times, but overall, I think that student engagement will go up as well as student learning. My goal is to have simply my four common courses (our at-risk team members) collaborating first and then move to outside of our classroom doors. Since I have learned that I should start small and plan big regarding these new technologies, having my common classes collaborate seems like a reasonable start. This could even be done with having my classroom collaborate with their English classroom since I work on a team. Perhaps this would be a good starting point.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 10. Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, 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.
One of the biggest things that I have learned is that patience is needed when incorporating new technologies into my classroom. As my classroom has been working with a classroom in Hungary in creating a wikispace, we have run into a few road bumps, namely that the classroom in Hungary has been slow to get started. It is somewhat frustrating to both me and my students, but I do feel that once all of the kinks are worked out, it will be a valuable learning experience. I have also learned that there are so many exciting technologies out there that I would love to try and incorporate into my classroom, even if it takes some time. I do feel that I have been exposed to so many new technologies through this course and attempting to meet my GAME plan that there is so much to use in my classroom. Vicki Davis (2009) talked about eduwiki (http://eduwikius.wikispaces.com/) in one of our course videos and I have learned that there are so many new resources that I want to explore and perhaps try to help meet my GAME plan goals. I think watching more online video tutorials before trying to jump right in may help with this process.
The biggest adjustment I want to make in my classroom is integrating more social networking and online collaboration. I have learned that the process can be somewhat slow at times, but overall, I think that student engagement will go up as well as student learning. My goal is to have simply my four common courses (our at-risk team members) collaborating first and then move to outside of our classroom doors. Since I have learned that I should start small and plan big regarding these new technologies, having my common classes collaborate seems like a reasonable start. This could even be done with having my classroom collaborate with their English classroom since I work on a team. Perhaps this would be a good starting point.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 10. Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, 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.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Using the GAME Plan with Students
One of the key goals that I have for all of my students is to become more self-directed. Using the GAME Plan strategy, it allows my students to gain the necessary skills to do just that (Laureate, 2009). Since many of my at-risk students bring a lot of baggage and especially bad school experiences with them to my classroom, using the GAME Plan strategy will not only provide them with the opportunity learn how they learn best, but allow me to become more of a facilitator and let my students learn for themselves.
From ISTE, the first concept, or standard, that I think would be great to implement the GAME Plan with my students is standard 6 – “Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations” (ISTE, 2010). I think this standard could provide a good stepping stone for my students to progress into other standards and more meaningful uses of technology by allowing them to identify a goal (or in this case a technology in particular that they want to master), brainstorm ideas for learning and using this new technology that they are unfamiliar with, monitor how they are doing through several options like journaling, and then evaluating how well they accomplished their goal perhaps by creating a project with their newly learned technology.
Now that I have had the opportunity to slowly walk myself through the GAME Plan process over the last several weeks, I have found that the learning curve for some items is bigger than I thought and that some things are easier than I thought. If I want to help my students begin to develop proficiency in NETS-S standards, having them complete an achievable goals in the first play by becoming proficient in standard 6, they would have the ability then to believe that they could become proficient in the other student standards knowing that they will have road bumps, yet they can overcome them by breaking down the entire process into smaller portions as well as understand that they have help and can constantly monitor and revise their progress the entire time.
What I think could be so useful with the GAME Plan idea for my students is the idea that the entire process is broken down into very useful and yet feasible steps for students to work towards a goal. In all reality, it could work not only to implement ISTE standards but in all aspects of a student’s education from classwork, grades, relationships, etc.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 1. Promoting self-directed learning and technology. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S) located at: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx.
From ISTE, the first concept, or standard, that I think would be great to implement the GAME Plan with my students is standard 6 – “Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations” (ISTE, 2010). I think this standard could provide a good stepping stone for my students to progress into other standards and more meaningful uses of technology by allowing them to identify a goal (or in this case a technology in particular that they want to master), brainstorm ideas for learning and using this new technology that they are unfamiliar with, monitor how they are doing through several options like journaling, and then evaluating how well they accomplished their goal perhaps by creating a project with their newly learned technology.
Now that I have had the opportunity to slowly walk myself through the GAME Plan process over the last several weeks, I have found that the learning curve for some items is bigger than I thought and that some things are easier than I thought. If I want to help my students begin to develop proficiency in NETS-S standards, having them complete an achievable goals in the first play by becoming proficient in standard 6, they would have the ability then to believe that they could become proficient in the other student standards knowing that they will have road bumps, yet they can overcome them by breaking down the entire process into smaller portions as well as understand that they have help and can constantly monitor and revise their progress the entire time.
What I think could be so useful with the GAME Plan idea for my students is the idea that the entire process is broken down into very useful and yet feasible steps for students to work towards a goal. In all reality, it could work not only to implement ISTE standards but in all aspects of a student’s education from classwork, grades, relationships, etc.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 1. Promoting self-directed learning and technology. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S) located at: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Revising my GAME Plan
When I look at my GAME plan, I had two goals: create real-world, authentic problems to inspire creativity and set up collaborative workspaces for my students. I have progressed towards trying to meet these two goals rather quick at first and somewhat slower as I have progressed. When we first were given this assignment, I felt really good about these two goals and thought that everything would work out great. This has not been the case with both goals. The biggest thing I have learned is that patience and time are needed to complete any type of technology-based plan that I may have, including especially online collaboration. As my classroom has been working with a classroom in Hungary, we have run into a few road bumps, namely that the classroom in Hungary has been slow to get started. Right now I feel as if my classroom is sitting and waiting on them to get started. My students ask about it daily, but I do not have a reason for why the Hungarian classroom has not started. This has been somewhat frustrating.
I do feel that I have been exposed to so many new technologies through this course and attempting to meet my GAME plan that there is so much to use in my classroom. Vicki Davis (2009) talked about eduwiki (http://eduwikius.wikispaces.com/) in our videos this week and I have learned that there are so many new resources that I want to explore and perhaps try to help meet my GAME plan goals.
The biggest goal I have set for myself after working through my GAME Plan and through our course resources is to slowly integrate social networking into my classroom. My goal is to have simply my four common courses (our at-risk team members) collaborating first and then move to outside of our classroom doors. Since I have learned that I should start small and plan big regarding these new technologies, having my common classes collaborate seems like a reasonable start.
I would change my approach slightly regarding how I learn about using some of these technologies and that is in two ways – watching more online video tutorials first before diving right in so that I can decide which is the best possible site or resource for my classroom. The other change in learning that I would take is to go to some of the really tech-savvy people in my building and feel them out about these new technologies and see if they use them at all. Although I probably should have done this immediately with my GAME plan, I just was not able to fit this into my daily grind schedule. However, I think it would be so important in moving forward next time.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 10. Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part I. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
I do feel that I have been exposed to so many new technologies through this course and attempting to meet my GAME plan that there is so much to use in my classroom. Vicki Davis (2009) talked about eduwiki (http://eduwikius.wikispaces.com/) in our videos this week and I have learned that there are so many new resources that I want to explore and perhaps try to help meet my GAME plan goals.
The biggest goal I have set for myself after working through my GAME Plan and through our course resources is to slowly integrate social networking into my classroom. My goal is to have simply my four common courses (our at-risk team members) collaborating first and then move to outside of our classroom doors. Since I have learned that I should start small and plan big regarding these new technologies, having my common classes collaborate seems like a reasonable start.
I would change my approach slightly regarding how I learn about using some of these technologies and that is in two ways – watching more online video tutorials first before diving right in so that I can decide which is the best possible site or resource for my classroom. The other change in learning that I would take is to go to some of the really tech-savvy people in my building and feel them out about these new technologies and see if they use them at all. Although I probably should have done this immediately with my GAME plan, I just was not able to fit this into my daily grind schedule. However, I think it would be so important in moving forward next time.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 10. Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part I. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Evaluating my GAME Plan
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). One of the first actions that I took was to just take an afternoon or two and explore different resources available to me for my world history class and ask my colleagues what they used and sites that they found were interesting. As there is only two other world history teachers in our district, the amount of information I was given from them really was not too informative as far as finding online resources. I did manage to find several on my own that I have been using. I have especially been focusing on using more WebQuest-type learning that requires students to facilitate their own learning. Two that I have used thus far were on World War I (http://schools.4j.lane.edu/churchill/library/classes/WWIQuest/WWIProcess.html) and the Russian Revolution (http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=28026).
I have learned that through problem-based learning that perhaps I could do more of an interdisciplinary project or activity that might allow my students to work collaboratively with what they are also learning in English class. Our at-risk students are on a team that the English, Science, Math, and Social Studies (me) work together. As the English class reads Animal Farm, I was thinking that using a collaborative project would be a great idea since Dr. Ertmer (2009) mentioned that some of the best problem-based activities are interdisciplinary.
My questions have come more from my second goal that I had for integrating 21st century technology. My second goal in my GAME plan was to create a collaborative learning environment to promote cultural understanding and digital citizenship. As I have created the collaborative wikispace with a classroom in Hungary (www.hungary-us-history.wikispaces.com), I have been moving along with this goal but we have had to adjust our schedule for completing different sections of the wikispace. My biggest question regarding this wikispace and collaborative project is how I am going to assess it. I moved pretty fast in setting up the wikispace and never really sat down to decide how to grade and evaluate what my students are doing. I also am wondering if my students are learning anything from the collaboration as some of it tends to be a review for my students. This has really been a collaborative project that I feel I am learning as I go and will probably need to reevaluate later.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 8. Spotlight on technology: Problem-based learning, part I. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
I have learned that through problem-based learning that perhaps I could do more of an interdisciplinary project or activity that might allow my students to work collaboratively with what they are also learning in English class. Our at-risk students are on a team that the English, Science, Math, and Social Studies (me) work together. As the English class reads Animal Farm, I was thinking that using a collaborative project would be a great idea since Dr. Ertmer (2009) mentioned that some of the best problem-based activities are interdisciplinary.
My questions have come more from my second goal that I had for integrating 21st century technology. My second goal in my GAME plan was to create a collaborative learning environment to promote cultural understanding and digital citizenship. As I have created the collaborative wikispace with a classroom in Hungary (www.hungary-us-history.wikispaces.com), I have been moving along with this goal but we have had to adjust our schedule for completing different sections of the wikispace. My biggest question regarding this wikispace and collaborative project is how I am going to assess it. I moved pretty fast in setting up the wikispace and never really sat down to decide how to grade and evaluate what my students are doing. I also am wondering if my students are learning anything from the collaboration as some of it tends to be a review for my students. This has really been a collaborative project that I feel I am learning as I go and will probably need to reevaluate later.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 8. Spotlight on technology: Problem-based learning, part I. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monitoring my GAME Plan
My first goal in my GAME plan was to implement more authentic, real-world experiences for my students. What I had in mind was using more online materials; WebQuests, simulations, and interactive reference sites. I have found some resources that I have found helpful. The unit that I am currently on in my world history sections is World War I. The British Broadcasting company, along with PBS, seem to have great websites set up for World War I that offer simulations and interactive sections. I have found a few WebQuests that I like thus far; I am even using one this week in class as a sort of trial run. My government and economics class has been somewhat harder to find online resources because of the nature of the way our course is designed. Some of the materials that I have found online have been extremely in-depth, much more that we cover in my class. I have been trying to focus more on finding ideas for authentic, more hands-on type learning instead. This has been a slow process.
So far, I think that I would need to modify my plan and focus mainly on one class instead of both. I decided this week that I wanted to try and implement my first goal in my World History classes and forgo the Government and Economics class. My evaluation method was through student surveys and also by verbal interactions. As my students are scheduled to start their first WebQuest tomorrow, we will see what the feedback is. Most seemed excited today in class when I was quickly giving them something to look forward to as class was ending. The biggest portion of my learning curve regarding the WebQuest idea for more authentic instruction is that they will probably most definitely need to be modified to fit my class schedule and my group of students. I do not know if it is feasible to use a WebQuest that is already in place. My biggest question would be if there is a website that allows me to create my own WebQuest that is user-friendly. I can always retype a WebQuest and put it on my webpage that I have modified, but I figured that it would be easier to make one online. My other question is how I am going to grade a group-based WebQuest. I have a plan in place for this current one, I will find out if it works. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on how to grade a group project?
My second goal in my GAME plan was to create a collaborative learning environment to promote cultural understanding and digital citizenship. I have actually been pretty active in this goal and have a collaborative wikispace set up with a classroom in Hungary. Check it out and tell me what you think: www.hungary-us-history.wikispaces.com. We are still planning how we are going to put this all together as this is both of our first times, but so far, it has been a decent experience. My students in one of my classes will begin working on the first section of the wikispace – The French Revolution – beginning Monday. I will have to let you know how that goes with the collaboration in Hungary.
So far, I have not needed to modify this goal of my GAME plan, but time will tell. Depending on how well the first section goes will depend on how many questions I end up with. My biggest issue is fitting this wikispace into my class time. The classroom in Hungary is currently on the French Revolution; I covered it three weeks ago as it was my first unit. The classroom in Hungary also only has 10 students. My world history classes are four classrooms of 10 (I know, great numbers, but that is the way our at-risk program is set up). So I decided to let each section complete a section at a time. For example, my best section will go first to see how it goes and I will have the opportunity to change anything I see after they begin. My second group will complete the next section on Europe in the 1800’s, and so on. I have learned that it is extremely difficult to communicate with another classroom teacher from another continent and that it could take days for an answer. But, overall, it has been a good experience. I will let you know how it goes once we get started.
So far, I think that I would need to modify my plan and focus mainly on one class instead of both. I decided this week that I wanted to try and implement my first goal in my World History classes and forgo the Government and Economics class. My evaluation method was through student surveys and also by verbal interactions. As my students are scheduled to start their first WebQuest tomorrow, we will see what the feedback is. Most seemed excited today in class when I was quickly giving them something to look forward to as class was ending. The biggest portion of my learning curve regarding the WebQuest idea for more authentic instruction is that they will probably most definitely need to be modified to fit my class schedule and my group of students. I do not know if it is feasible to use a WebQuest that is already in place. My biggest question would be if there is a website that allows me to create my own WebQuest that is user-friendly. I can always retype a WebQuest and put it on my webpage that I have modified, but I figured that it would be easier to make one online. My other question is how I am going to grade a group-based WebQuest. I have a plan in place for this current one, I will find out if it works. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on how to grade a group project?
My second goal in my GAME plan was to create a collaborative learning environment to promote cultural understanding and digital citizenship. I have actually been pretty active in this goal and have a collaborative wikispace set up with a classroom in Hungary. Check it out and tell me what you think: www.hungary-us-history.wikispaces.com. We are still planning how we are going to put this all together as this is both of our first times, but so far, it has been a decent experience. My students in one of my classes will begin working on the first section of the wikispace – The French Revolution – beginning Monday. I will have to let you know how that goes with the collaboration in Hungary.
So far, I have not needed to modify this goal of my GAME plan, but time will tell. Depending on how well the first section goes will depend on how many questions I end up with. My biggest issue is fitting this wikispace into my class time. The classroom in Hungary is currently on the French Revolution; I covered it three weeks ago as it was my first unit. The classroom in Hungary also only has 10 students. My world history classes are four classrooms of 10 (I know, great numbers, but that is the way our at-risk program is set up). So I decided to let each section complete a section at a time. For example, my best section will go first to see how it goes and I will have the opportunity to change anything I see after they begin. My second group will complete the next section on Europe in the 1800’s, and so on. I have learned that it is extremely difficult to communicate with another classroom teacher from another continent and that it could take days for an answer. But, overall, it has been a good experience. I will let you know how it goes once we get started.
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