Self-directed learners set goals, take action and then monitor and evaluate their progress towards meeting those goals. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) assert that self-monitoring and self-evaluation are essential components to becoming a self-directed learner (p11). This week, I monitored the development of my GAME Plan. My goals include exploring new technologies to facilitate and inspire student learning, and creating lessons that promote and model digital citizenship and responsibilities (ISTE, 2008).
I have been able to locate an unlimited amount of online resources available for helping teachers scaffold, engage, and enrich student learning through the use of technology. To facilitate and inspire student learning, I have located multiple points in my 7th grade language arts curricula that can be supported by the new technologies I have learned, to create authentic learning activities for my students that foster critical and creative thinking skills. I have explored several ideas such as incorporating wikis as a means of group communication for students while they work collaboratively on a project, blogs as a literature response journals and reflection journals, and WebQuests when beginning a new unit or when researching background information or author information on a novel (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p55-68). Students can create a website for the Greek god or goddesses they research, or use flips cameras and Windows Movie Maker to create a video book review or write a personal narrative in the format of digital storytelling. Students can also take virtual field trips to the settings of our class novels. I also plan to implement the use of talking text for my English Language Learners and Special Education students, and have all of my students search for non-fiction online articles or websites to read at their lexile level (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).
To promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility I have started a unit based on the QUEST model for Internet inquiry (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). Students will use the QUEST model to write and research their own questions, evaluate resources, synthesize the found information, transform their findings into new understandings, and publish their work online through the use of a glog (http://edu.glogster.com/). Students will also present their findings to their classmates. Students will also create a delicious account, a social bookmarking tool, where they can save and share the websites, articles, and videos they locate while researching (http://www.delicious.com/). Through the use of this research model, students will learn the safe, legal, and ethical uses of digital information. Students will use their blogs a means of communication and reflection during this project-based assignment, thus learning the importance of digital etiquette and responsible social interactions (ISTE, 2008).
I feel confident that I am following through with my GAME Plan efficiently. Unfortunately, I cannot proceed with my plan completely because I am not presently working with any students. However, within the next month, I will be able to begin implementing the new technologies I have been exploring. One modification I plan to make to my GAME Plan will be to have students create online portfolios where they can store their work. Students can use their eportfolios as workspaces for learning and reflection, or as showcases to present what has been learned or created (http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/index.html). Thus far in my GAME Plan, I have learned many new technologies that are available to support students learning. With technology, students become more engaged and invested in their learning. Technology enhances and enriches content area learning experiences for students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).
One concern that has arisen this week involves sharing these lessons with other teachers at my school. Due to new state testing requirements and standards for next year, and the curriculum bundles generated by my school district, we have decided to write our lessons plans together next year as a team throughout the school year. I am hoping that the teachers in my department will be open-minded and willing to undertake the new lessons I plan to implement this school year.
Whitney Barber
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: strategies for internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education
standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 1. [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ertmer.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Meeting students’ needs with technology, part 1. [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ross.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Meeting students’ needs with technology, part 2. [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ross.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Achieving My GAME Plan
The primary goal of my GAME Plan is to foster a classroom environment that is conducive to self-directed learning. Self-directed learners are confident, motivated, persistent, and open-minded. They are driven by an inward purpose to learn and grow (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). The GAME Plan learning model promotes the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of your own educational actions. It helps students and teachers evaluate their own learning (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I hope to achieve my goal of creating self-directed learners through implementing lessons that support the creative thinking process and utilize current technologies to engage learners. To facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, and to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibilities, I plan to implement the use of several online learning tools that I will first explore on my own before transferring the knowledge to my students.
To facilitate and inspire student learning, I plan to implement authentic learning activities that address the curriculum using technology and multiple forms of critical thinking (ISTE, 2008). To accomplish this goal, my first step will be to read through my district’s new 7th grade language arts curriculum bundles to locate places where student learning can be supported through technology. I will also review my lesson plans from the previous years, to uncover lessons that can be enhanced or differentiated through technology use. I also plan to keep an on-going list of new technologies I want to explore. First, I want to learn how to create a wiki. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) state that “a wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages quickly (p58). Throughout the next two weeks, I plan to create my own wiki to use as example in my classroom. I will also continue my education on incorporating technology through viewing my colleagues and former professors’ blogs, watch YouTube videos that explain how to use new technologies, and conduct online searches for technologies I can employ in my classroom. I also plan to attend at least three professional conferences or trainings throughout the next school year to learn more about using assistive technologies for students will special needs, English Language Learners (ELLs), and my Gifted and Talented students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). As educators, it is our responsibility to stay current on the continually evolving technologies of the digital age.
To promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility I plan to implement the QUEST model for Internet inquiry (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007; ISTE, 2008). QUEST stands for questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing, and transforming. I will use the text, Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet Inquiry and its companion website (http://readingtheweb.net/) to help guide my lessons on teaching how to evaluate online resources, document resources, respect intellectual property, and communicate appropriately. For this goal in particular, I will need access to my school’s computer labs or lap top cart.
Additionally, I plan to survey my students at start of the school year to evaluate their knowledge base on technology and Internet usage; just because our students spend a vast amount of time online, does not mean they are educated on its appropriate uses (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I also plan to assess how many students have access to any personal digital technologies that can be used in the classroom or at home. I only have five classroom lab tops, so any other technologies that can be brought into the classroom will be highly useful.
Whitney Barber
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: strategies for internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Meeting students’ needs with technology, part 2. [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ross.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Promoting self-directed learning with technology [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Cennamo.
To facilitate and inspire student learning, I plan to implement authentic learning activities that address the curriculum using technology and multiple forms of critical thinking (ISTE, 2008). To accomplish this goal, my first step will be to read through my district’s new 7th grade language arts curriculum bundles to locate places where student learning can be supported through technology. I will also review my lesson plans from the previous years, to uncover lessons that can be enhanced or differentiated through technology use. I also plan to keep an on-going list of new technologies I want to explore. First, I want to learn how to create a wiki. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) state that “a wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages quickly (p58). Throughout the next two weeks, I plan to create my own wiki to use as example in my classroom. I will also continue my education on incorporating technology through viewing my colleagues and former professors’ blogs, watch YouTube videos that explain how to use new technologies, and conduct online searches for technologies I can employ in my classroom. I also plan to attend at least three professional conferences or trainings throughout the next school year to learn more about using assistive technologies for students will special needs, English Language Learners (ELLs), and my Gifted and Talented students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). As educators, it is our responsibility to stay current on the continually evolving technologies of the digital age.
To promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility I plan to implement the QUEST model for Internet inquiry (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007; ISTE, 2008). QUEST stands for questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing, and transforming. I will use the text, Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet Inquiry and its companion website (http://readingtheweb.net/) to help guide my lessons on teaching how to evaluate online resources, document resources, respect intellectual property, and communicate appropriately. For this goal in particular, I will need access to my school’s computer labs or lap top cart.
Additionally, I plan to survey my students at start of the school year to evaluate their knowledge base on technology and Internet usage; just because our students spend a vast amount of time online, does not mean they are educated on its appropriate uses (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I also plan to assess how many students have access to any personal digital technologies that can be used in the classroom or at home. I only have five classroom lab tops, so any other technologies that can be brought into the classroom will be highly useful.
Whitney Barber
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: strategies for internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Meeting students’ needs with technology, part 2. [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ross.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Promoting self-directed learning with technology [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Cennamo.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The GAME Plan
To effectively prepare our students to meet the challenges of the Information Age, we must teach them how to become self-directed learners that plan, monitor, and evaluate their educational actions (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). The GAME Plan is a self-directed learning model that teachers and students can utilize as an active means of planning, monitoring, and evaluating their goals throughout the learning process (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Teachers, especially, can use the GAME plan to help them stay up-to-date with current technologies available for classroom use. The GAME Plan encourages you actively plan and evaluate the steps of your personal learning process, particularly in regards to learning new technologies and incorporating them into your curriculum. I will use this plan to deepen my understanding, confidence, and proficiency of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), and to continue my journey as a life-long learner (ISTE, 2008).
GOALS
-Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
-Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility: Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.
ACTION
To facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, I plan to create and implement authentic learning activities that incorporate current technologies, explore content area knowledge, and foster multiple forms of creative thinking (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Creating authentic learning experiences that utilize technology will help my students become more self-directed in their learning. Cennamo et al (2009) insist that technology supports learning by doing. When students are actively using technology to understand and create, they become immersed in the content as well. They must become confident learners of the content if they are to effectively explain, present, or publish their findings using technology.
To broaden my knowledge base of technological skills I can utilize in my classroom, I plan to keep an on-going list of the next three technologies I want to explore. To facilitate student learning, teachers must model the new technologies they want students to learn. One way of I plan to model is through exhibiting my own personal artifacts as examples. My students will view my blog and my classmates’ blogs before they are asked to create their own. The three new technologies I plan to explore are wikis, WebQuests, and digital storytelling (Cennamo et al, 2009). By investigating these technologies further, I will be able to discover the most appropriate places in my content area curriculum that could be best supported by these technologies.
To promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility I plan to implement the QUEST model for internet inquiry with my 7th grade language arts students to exhibit how to effectively model and teach the ethical use of digital information and technology. Students will learn the importance of intellectual property and how to appropriately document sources used in their research. Students will learn these necessary 21st-century skills while interacting with the QUEST model for inquiry. Students will learn how to create effective questions, conduct online searches, evaluate websites for validity and reliability, organizing and making meaning multiple sources, and transform their information into knowledge. QUEST stands for questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing, and transforming (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). Being able to evaluate and make judgments about online resources helps students develop critical thinking skills and allows them to view information from multiple perspectives (Leu et al, 2000). Students will learn about proper digital etiquette and responsible social interactions while they communicate with me and peers through their blogs and other social media tools.
MONITOR
To monitor my progress on meeting my professional goals I will keep daily reflection journal, taking notes of the challenges and success I encountered while teaching lesson or integrating a new technology. I will keep a log of the new technologies I explore, how I use them with my students, and what were the outcomes after implementation. My reflection journal will help me keep track of my personal learning process and those of my students. I will consider which components of the lesson were meaningful to my students and which should be taken out or improved (Cennamo et al, 2009). It will also help me to understand patterns emerging from the information I have found about certain technologies and how particular students respond to them.
EVALUATE
I will also use my reflection journal as a way to help evaluate my learning and my student learning. My reflection journal will help me evaluate if I am meeting my learning goals and help me extend my goals by make plans for the future. If my logs state a particular technology is not supporting the content area effectively, I may need to modify my teaching strategies to better meet my students needs (Cennamo et al, 2009).
By employing the GAME Plan, I will become a more organized, self-directed learner, and I will learn skills that I can utilize with my students. By teaching my students how to utilize the GAME Plan, I am preparing them for the rapid and continuous technological changes of the 21st-century.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful
classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom
ed.).Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education
standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Promoting self-directed learning with technology [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Cennamo.
Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Cammack, D. W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other information and communication technologies. In R. B. Ruddell & N. J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1570–1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
GOALS
-Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
-Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility: Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.
ACTION
To facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, I plan to create and implement authentic learning activities that incorporate current technologies, explore content area knowledge, and foster multiple forms of creative thinking (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Creating authentic learning experiences that utilize technology will help my students become more self-directed in their learning. Cennamo et al (2009) insist that technology supports learning by doing. When students are actively using technology to understand and create, they become immersed in the content as well. They must become confident learners of the content if they are to effectively explain, present, or publish their findings using technology.
To broaden my knowledge base of technological skills I can utilize in my classroom, I plan to keep an on-going list of the next three technologies I want to explore. To facilitate student learning, teachers must model the new technologies they want students to learn. One way of I plan to model is through exhibiting my own personal artifacts as examples. My students will view my blog and my classmates’ blogs before they are asked to create their own. The three new technologies I plan to explore are wikis, WebQuests, and digital storytelling (Cennamo et al, 2009). By investigating these technologies further, I will be able to discover the most appropriate places in my content area curriculum that could be best supported by these technologies.
To promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility I plan to implement the QUEST model for internet inquiry with my 7th grade language arts students to exhibit how to effectively model and teach the ethical use of digital information and technology. Students will learn the importance of intellectual property and how to appropriately document sources used in their research. Students will learn these necessary 21st-century skills while interacting with the QUEST model for inquiry. Students will learn how to create effective questions, conduct online searches, evaluate websites for validity and reliability, organizing and making meaning multiple sources, and transform their information into knowledge. QUEST stands for questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing, and transforming (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). Being able to evaluate and make judgments about online resources helps students develop critical thinking skills and allows them to view information from multiple perspectives (Leu et al, 2000). Students will learn about proper digital etiquette and responsible social interactions while they communicate with me and peers through their blogs and other social media tools.
MONITOR
To monitor my progress on meeting my professional goals I will keep daily reflection journal, taking notes of the challenges and success I encountered while teaching lesson or integrating a new technology. I will keep a log of the new technologies I explore, how I use them with my students, and what were the outcomes after implementation. My reflection journal will help me keep track of my personal learning process and those of my students. I will consider which components of the lesson were meaningful to my students and which should be taken out or improved (Cennamo et al, 2009). It will also help me to understand patterns emerging from the information I have found about certain technologies and how particular students respond to them.
EVALUATE
I will also use my reflection journal as a way to help evaluate my learning and my student learning. My reflection journal will help me evaluate if I am meeting my learning goals and help me extend my goals by make plans for the future. If my logs state a particular technology is not supporting the content area effectively, I may need to modify my teaching strategies to better meet my students needs (Cennamo et al, 2009).
By employing the GAME Plan, I will become a more organized, self-directed learner, and I will learn skills that I can utilize with my students. By teaching my students how to utilize the GAME Plan, I am preparing them for the rapid and continuous technological changes of the 21st-century.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful
classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom
ed.).Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education
standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Promoting self-directed learning with technology [Webcast]. Technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Cennamo.
Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Cammack, D. W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other information and communication technologies. In R. B. Ruddell & N. J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1570–1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
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