EDUC 6715 Reflection

The immediate effort I will be making to my plans of week 6 and 7 is to get involved with the grant writing team at my school. With my knowledge of emerging technologies, I can provided ideas that some other teachers might not have. If I joined this team, I could focus on the whole school getting technology grants instead of just myself. Gerding and Mackellar (2006), in their article Wishing won’t work: 10 things you need to know and do when applying for technology grants, say “The fastest way to grant funding is actually by taking the time to plan. A technology plan is not simply a list of what technology should be purchased and when it should be upgraded. It is a method to prioritize and to budget for the technology tools that are most important” (pg. 8). As a member on the grant team, I can coordinate with the technology team, other teachers, and the principal to help make a technology plan for my school. Once that plan is created I can then begin to write different grants to help fill our needs.

On the other end of the spectrum, once the technology is in our school, I would love to help teachers create lessons using the new technologies. If I have spent all this time writing grants and making a plan, I will want to see that is done right. I will help teachers create lessons and show them how to use each specific technology. This way, teachers will feel more comfortable using technology in their class and the money spent will go to good use. During this process I can get the help from the technology team and other teachers who are well adept in using technology. With a team of grant writers and a technology integration team, technology can become an even bigger part of my school and assist the 21st century learners that are the students of Sweetwater Middle.

Spotlight on Emerging Technology: Online Learning in K-12 Schools

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6339571

Differentiation Station Assignment Week 7

The social network that was developed by my group on Ning.com was very helpful. Ning gave us a great forum to share ideas and discuss different aspects of our assignments. This resource can be very useful in my classes. I can set up an account for all four of my classes and use it as a forum to share ideas and discuss topics covered in class. Students can develop their classroom relationships at home in a forum where the teacher can monitor their work to make sure it is appropriate. Social networking is not only limited to the classroom anymore. With a website like Ning, teaching and learning can happen at any time or any day of the week.

Technology provides ALL students with opportunities for learning. By letting students use different types of technology in my class I can make sure that all different types of learners reach their potential. With the technology of the 21st century available, teachers can modify lessons to reach individual student by differentiating instruction. For instance, giving students many different choices on completing an assignment will more students enjoy and get involved with their work. If a student loves to write songs and sing, teachers can give them the option of writing and recording a song about the topics covered in class instead of making a presentation. By giving students choices teachers can differentiate instruction and give the students a feeling of choice that students often feel is missing from their work.

Final Blog Post

I feel the GAME plan I developed is working very well. I have learned a new way to integrate technology standards and goals into my classroom that will benefit me and my students. Using this GAME plan I can help my students develop their own GAME plans to make sure they know the direction they are heading. Another result from my GAMe plan is integrating technology in my class every single day. Since I have made this a short term goal, I have been more aware about doing it. My students seemed to have noticed all of the technology that is being used in my class and they like it a lot. I feel I am working well towards my long term goal of being able to teach teachers how to use technology in their classes.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

The standards provided by my county include very little technology. For me to properly integrate technology into my classroom, I will need to use the standards and indicators in the NETS-S. Just as the NETS-S standards have helped me develop lessons and improve my use of technology, I can use these standards to help my students develop their use of technology.

With these standards in mind, I can have my students develop a GAME plan the same way that I did for this class. A GAME plan can help my students come up with an end goal in which they can work towards. Students using a GAME plan can see how great it is to develop goals and work in increments to meet those goals. Students can also give themselves, teachers, and other student’s positive feedback about meeting their goals. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2010) say “The GAME plan requires you to think about and take steps to direct your learning process, specifically, while learning about technology and how to integrate it into the curriculum” (pg. 3). If students can develop their own GAME plan, then they will be able to develop higher order thinking skills. Being able to develop your own GAME plan means you can use goals to guide your learning. I feel using a GAME plan is an integral part of using technology in my class and I need to incorporate this activity into my lessons.

Revising Your GAME Plan

So far, I have learned that online discussion is a great tool to use in the classroom. Creating a forum where students can discuss topics at the safety of their key board gets many students involved who would never volunteer in class. I already incorporate a blog discussion in my class, but in the future I going to incorporate the dialogue from that into the grade book. I want my students to understand how important it is to discuss topics between each other, whether it is in the classroom or on a blog.

I am still working towards encompassing my class in technology. I took a step further to reaching that goal this week by using my updated school website to post homework and assignments. At the beginning of last week, I showed all of my students were I will be posting their homework and assignments. I am actually one of the only few teachers to be using this tool at my school. I feel it is very convenient tool that can help parents know what their students need to be doing.

The first NETS-T standard that I chose is to “engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources” (ISTE, 1997-2009). The second NETS-T standard that I chose is to “collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation” (ISTE, 1997-2000). I believe I am getting closer to my goals, but I have not completed them to the level that I want. I think I will need to continue to work towards these to goals before I can choose any more. My progress in the past week with using my school website to post homework and assignments is a great leap forward to meeting the second goal I chose.

Evaluating Your GAME Plan Progress

I feel my goals are slowly being met, but I am making progress. After last weeks post, I realized I need to get a move on developing more technology based lessons. I feel I did a lot earlier in the year, but stopped after I got super busy. On December 14th I have a meeting with the technology specialist at my school. At this meeting we are going to discuss different ways I can integrate technology in my class. My principal has provided a sub for me, so we can properly develop lesson plans using technology. He is going to help me do this, so I can be an example teacher at my school.

One of the main things I have learned in this class is how to use problem-based learning using technology. I have learned what problem-based learning was in a previous class, but really understand it now. I feel I have learned a lot of new ways I can use technology to incorporate problem-based learning. For instance, Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2010) say “The availability of intuitive, user-friendly, video-creation software, such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, has also opened up a new avenue through which teachers and students can create meaningful projects that fuse images, music, video, and narration as they develop digital accounts of events in order to demonstrate their deep understandings of the topic” (pg. 297). I have used videos before, but they were just scripted by the students. I never took the time for students to create videos and then use computers to fuse aspects like music and narration. Before the end of the year, I plan on creating a lesson where students create a movie about a topic in social studies.