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.

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.

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.

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.

Monitoring My GAME Plan

Monitoring my GAME Plan and finding the information and resources that I need has not been a problem. I want to incorporate the knowledge of creating a Wiki for students and teachers in the district. When doing some research online I have come across many tutorials that will assist you when incorporating Wiki’s in the classroom. I have been able to share my findings with some of my colleagues through e-mail but have not received any feedback to the teachers about the use of Wiki’s in the classroom.

I may have to change my GAME Plan somewhat in order to provide a better understanding of the goals and how to assess the goals of incorporating web tools in the classroom.

When sitting through a professional Development Day and a class on websites it is clear to me that many teachers do not have the patience for the learning of web tools and how they could be benifeical to their classrooms. I may change one of my goals to provide examples of how Wiki’s can be used in the classroom

One of the goals is to create a Wiki to share students work as an online portfolio. I would like to do some research not only on Wiki’s but all portfolio based web tools, to decipher which tool could be the best for students and the teachers in the district.

GAME Plan

GAME Plan:

When looking at the National Education Technology Standards for Students, some goals have come to mind for strengthening in engaging technology in the classroom. One would be to incorporate web tools into not only the classroom, but the district. There are many teachers that may not know how to use the tools necessary to instill technology into the curriculum. As a person that has grown up in the communication era, it is only right to take a leadership role when incorporating tools from the internet and infuse them into the classroom. The second goal is to exhibit the skills necessary to represent digital age work and learning. It is necessary to share your knowledge of information with technology and the tools that are available for teachers through the internet that is easily accessible.

I would like to incorporate an online Wiki that would allow students to update their digital portfolio to showcase their work over the internet. When creating a Wiki it is necessary, especially when students can have access, to make sure you have control and manage the site.

I will also will add a reaction page to allow viewers to share their insight and comment on certain pages. It is important for students to feel some kind of critical critique of their work and be able to constructively take that information and grow as not only professionally but also as a person.

Resources:

The ISTE NETS and Performance Indicators for Teachers (NETS•T)

http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx .

Reflection

As I reflect on the course, I find myself developing new ways to effectively teach students new literacy skills through Inquiry-Based Projects. I have found new teaching tools and techniques to guide students in the correct process of searching the web for supportive information on a project. Students will be able to think creatively and essentially define problems that are confronted and be able to search for supportive information on the topic effectively. Using Inquiry-Based Projects will help students ability to successfully solve problems and allow them to transition from a school setting to a real world atmosphere.

Finding the best ways to make sure sources from the internet are valid and reliable teachers can use different teaching tools for students to understand the validity of a website. Mostly this class has influenced me to teach students how to search and what to look for to become efficient at using new literacy skills to help improve their information. Students will need to make sure they are required to give credit to authors and owners for their work. Using Inquiry-Based Projects also allows students to conduct deep thought when researching their topics and also develop new literacy skills through essential questioning. Using Inquiry-Based Projects allows for students to become self-motivated when searching for the correct information to problems that arise.

One professional development goal that I would like to pursue would be using teaching tools from the web to teach students the validity and reliability of a website for supporting information on a topic. Using screen casting I would show students the key element s when looking for reliable sources from the internet. I would give examples of bias websites and point out why the information is not reliable and valid for an Inquiry-Based Project. Then using the web they would be able to create a search on their topic and continue to use the literacy skills that they have learned from the screen casts.

This course has provided me with the correct information to teach students how to support information on a topic and to improve internet literacy skills. Students will be able to adapt to essential thinking and be able to support information on the web using new practices learned. As I reflect on the contents of this course, it has allowed me to enhance my capabilities when teaching students the effective practices when finding and supporting information using an Inquiry-Based Project.