Sunday, December 26, 2010

Reflection

The GAME Plan allows teachers and students to follow a structured practice of learning with the use of integrating technology. I have followed a GAME Plan that has allowed teachers to introduce technology web tools into their classroom effectively. This task will be on going and have short term goals to complete a main goal of integrating technology throughout the district. I have been introduced to new learning techniques that will and have been benefiticial to students in the classroom. Digital Storytelling is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom, but also allows students to show their true potential.

The immediate adjustments that I have introduced to our district is online portfolio's. Students are in the process of collecting digital data to capture the progress and the hard work of students projects. This allows everyone to reflect on the final product and evaluate based on true meaning. This will also give the students to show their best work in front of the community as a whole.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

Using the GAME Plan with my students would become second nature to them. Most of my curriculum is Problem Based Learning. Students are introduced to a real world problem and then need to address ideas and goals towards solving the problem. Students take action in their quest to come up with the best solution while carefully monitored by the teacher and if need be guided into the correct direction. They are also monitored on how well students work together on a project. After the project is complete and has gone through the testing phase, students will be able to reflect on the weaker areas of the project. Students after they have assessed the project for weak points will then be able to come back and make adjustments to improve their first design.

Incorporating NETS-S in Problem Based Activities has been very beneficial for students and teachers to stay on track to instilling technology not only in the classroom but in the community. It has allowed me to create new web tools to help students reflect on their projects. Students have found when using online collaboration web tools they gather ideas to innovate their previous design on a project. Using online web tools also gives students a chance to showcase their projects to the outside public. NETS-S has given students the goals that will benefit them in the future.

References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Revising Your GAME Plan

This week I have learned that not only using wiki’s for online portfolio could be useful, but using them to ask essential questions for introductions to problem based learning activities. Each student could engage into their own opinion into deep thought of the topic. The teacher will be able to assess the student during the process of the project to see if he or she are heading in the correct direction for success.

As for new goals that I would like to set for myself, I have none. I am trying to accomplish the two goals that I have set out to do and am still in the process of doing. I believe that creating too many goals can be counterproductive. I have learned that introducing technology in the classroom to teachers that do not want technology in the classroom is very difficult. They refuse to learn, but using the “don’t go away,” method has started to influence a certain few. I have found that is a success to me. I will keep encouraging the use of web tools in the classroom and hopefully will conduct some kind of progress.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress Week 5

My progress towards indicator 1c has been slow, but over time I have accumulating pictures of students work on my digital camera. Students have been working diligently to finish their sheet metal projects in Materials Processing class. I am in the process of creating the Wiki for student’s portfolio’s using Wikispaces.com. When I have finished set-up on the Wiki page I will then start a quick tutorial of how to set up their wiki Portfolio Page themselves. I have learned that creating a Wiki for student evaluations can become time consuming, considering that I will be including about 60 students onto this Wiki. I am also wondering if a Wiki can manage all of the pages including the pictures that will be add. I will need to do some research on how much space can be stored on a Wiki in Wikispaces.com.

The second goal indicator 3c, “collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student’s success and innovation,” has also become work in progress. As a part of my first goal is to incorporate a wiki in the classroom, I would also want to create a proposal to the technology department to introduce wiki’s as a guide to online portfolios for students from the middle school and up. Many problems that I am facing is teachers in the middle school teach every student, so there would be a lot of students that would only have one year as their portfolio and then move on to the arts or business. I would like to create a portfolio that allows the student to showcase their work through the stages of their high school academic performance so the student could have easy access to show their projects off campus. I believe this will create a more understanding of how wiki’s work and how they could be used.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.