Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

After taking some good advice from my classmates, I am re-investigating course texts from this class, previous classes, and my undergrad course work. These texts are providing me with an almost overwhelming amount of technology ideas I would like to try in my classroom. I have found that with an increasing bank of ideas that I need a way to organize what I am finding. I have devoted a notebook to my GAME plan. In the notebook I jot down ideas and a brief description so that I can refer back to it later. I will also include if I know of a location to find information/resources. When I have more free time at my disposal I plan to explore and possibly reduce/refine many of my new ideas.

For this month, I plan to look into software that sends reminder messages to students. While my initial goal was to implement 2 new devices/programs/technologies into my classroom, I am finding this undertaking to be rather time consuming. As well as programs, I am looking into district policy and formulating a permission letter. This undertaking is worthy of an ample amount of time because I feel this could be very beneficial to my students and their parents. If you implement something similar to this in your classroom I am curious to know the logistics involved!

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

I will need a variety of resources to carry out my GAME plan. The first steps I need to take has been to find reading materials/places that offer ideas and suggestions on the use of technology in the classroom. It is imperative that I find resources that match the courses and grade levels I teach. I foresee that I may need to subscribe to an educational technology magazine and also hope to find learning communities online. I will also need to develop a method for cataloging my findings and reflections each month.  

I have to admit that I have started to look for learning communities and other resources and am having a little difficulty finding what I need. Unfortunately, a lot of the information is tailored to a lower grade level elementary classroom. I have found many good resources for the primary classroom, but am struggling to find information that applies to a middle school setting. Also, because I know that I will need additional motivation to keep up to date on my goals, I am finding an additional personal incentive I can earn when I have completed my goal at the end of each month.

My Goals

I have selected the following two indicators to strengthen my confidence and proficiency with.  The first indicator is to engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.  The second indicator I have selected to focus on is to design and adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.  In order to achieve my goals, I will continue to research and read about technology usages in the classroom.  Every month, I will attempt to incorporate two new technology resources into my lessons and planning.  My goal will also be to allow my students to interact with my new resource in addition to myself.  At the end of each month, I will set a calendar alert that includes the following questions, three of which were suggested by the course text: 1. Have I met my learning goals, 2. should I modify my goals or my learning strategies, 3. what will I do differently in the future, and 4. How effective and useful was my new technologies, and 5. How will I use this resource in the future.

 As with every course I have taken, I feel that I grow as an instructor throughout the duration. A lot of my teaching focus has been on teaching the basic literacy skills, however it is now apparent to me that I have been missing a very important component. In order to properly prepare our students for the world and work force it is very true that they have to be able to read and comprehend written information. However, it was not initially clear to me how important it is for my students to be able to use the internet as a tool. Knowing how to effectively and efficiently locate information is a key life skill that is often neglected in the classroom. Students need to be exposed to the safe and proper way to utilize social networking and general web sharing through modeling and direct instruction in the classroom.

I have already made several updates to my teaching practices. Instead of using technology as a presentation method, I have made an effort to structure assignments so that students are interacting with the technology. Allowing my students to interact with technology has been very motivating and I have noted increased class participation. I have also taken steps to get my students more familiar with using technology in the classroom. After reading a novel, instead of taking a traditional printed test, I have created a web-quest to allow students to use online resources and their creativity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Hopefully I will be able to expand my horizon into blogging, social bookmarking, and other medias as they become available in my school district.

My professional development goal is to continue to learn about the educational uses of technology and their importance in preparing students for their future careers. Even though I am only three courses away from maintaining my masters degree, it is my intention to continue learning and attend classes and professional development on classroom technology. I would also interested in learning more about the use of technology with special education students. Teaching an individualized technology based intervention has really sparked my interest. I have found that through the use of technology, content can me more specific and individualized then any one teacher could ever imagine. I also plan to subscribe to informational resources that publish about new and interesting educational technology in order to keep abreast on new resources.

Course Reflection

I have incorporated many of the things I learned in this course into my personal theory of learning. After experiencing the course materials, I have found that it is critical for the students to be actively engaged during the learning process. While I was aware of this before, I feel more strongly about having the students construct a product that is representative of their learning. In the future, I will tend to shy away from using technology simply as a means of presentation. I will allow my students to interact with the technology. I plan to use Voice Thread technology in both an upcoming 2-step algebra unit as well as a literature unit I will be doing with my students. Just last week, my students went on a field trip to Gettysburg Pennsylvania. The students who were unable to attend for a variety or reasons were given an assignment to complete after taking a virtual field trip of Gettysburg. The assignment required students to explore the web resource and find key pieces of information. In the future, I would like to use and explore new technology in my classroom. I have not been actively keeping up to date on new educational technology. In an attempt to educate myself, I have subscribed to educational technology blogs of fellow educators and have found several website on the topic. Also, I would like to lend a helping hand to students who continue to struggle with technology. In the future, I would like to provide after school technology tutoring. The students in my school have such a wide range of technological abilities. I would like to provide assistance to students who lack skills or are not comfortable with what they know.

Voice Thread Link

Click here to go to my Voice Thread!

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Cooperative learning calls for students to work together in a group to create a product and extend their knowledge. The strategies present offer many mediums and activities that student can use collaboratively construct a culminating product. Group work is a powerful tool because it allows students to springboard and expand on other student's ideas. Individuals bring many aptitudes and skills that contribute to the common group product. Social learning allows students to showcase their creativity and exercise their collaboration skills. Tools like social networks, web quests, shared bookmarking, and web site creation eliminate the regional restrictions that traditional classrooms have. When utilizing online tools, students have the potential to interact with individuals from anywhere in the world.

Constructivism

Constructivism holds that learning happens by classifying new knowledge based on what the student already knows. When faced with new information learners will assimilate the information fit into an existing experience. If assimilation is not possible, the learner will form a new schema to hold the new information. Through thought and research, student construction an understanding/relationship for a topic. In the classroom, students working under a constructionist model will be given an issue and then create a product as result of finding a solution. The course text suggests “generating and testing hypotheses” as a model for constructivist learning. Under this idea, students are given a set of circumstances where they have to come to a justified conclusion. Throughout the process students will gather and interpret data before ultimately making a decision. Students operating under this ideal become immersed in the learning process. They are active in the learning process thus it is more meaningful to the learner.   

Cognitivism in Practice

 The cognitive learning theory focuses on how learners take in information and store and use it. Learners take information into their short term memory, make meaning of it, and then can potentially store information into the long term memory where it can be later accessed. The instructional strategies presented this week are learning experiences teachers can set up to assist and guide students to make connections with new information. Students are able to better understand new information when they can connect it with something they already know. Advanced organizers, cues, questions, summaries, and note taking present a format for the student to manipulate information into meaningful information networks. Concept maps allow students to have a visual representation of the relationship between concepts. This instructional strategy allows students to organize their thoughts in a meaningful way. Virtual field trips allow student to encounter places that they are not able to visit. It assist in providing a visual image to accompany an idea/place.

Behaviorism in Practice

The key idea behind the behaviorist theory is eliciting a desired behavior through the use of rewards and punishments. The course text defines the instructional strategy of reinforcing effort is a method of illustrating the correlation between completion/effort and score. The completion/effort piece would be considered the behavior while the score is the reward/punishment. Students sometimes feel powerless in their educational world. Using technology such as Excel graphs allows them the opportunity to visually see the correlation between work ethic and success. The text homework and practice instructional strategy is a method used to to reinforce material presented in the classroom. The resources posted this week most fall under this category. The resources presented allow students to practice learned skills with reinforcement. While sometimes drill and practice gets a bad reputation, we learned from Dr. Wolfe's presentation on brain research that connections in the brain that are used more often form stronger pathways for recall.