GAME plan for Building NETS-T Indicators

Teachers of the 21st Century must be willing and eager to be students of the technology world. It is vital that educators are searching and perfecting the needed skills to complete this endeavor. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) list 5 standards known as the National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) that provide direction and guidance in preparing lessons for the 21st century class through: creative and inspiring lessons, providing and developing digital learning experiences and assessments, modeling digital tools, learning, and digital citizenship and continuing professional development. In order to be an effective teacher, I would like to focus on creating and implementing creative digital lessons that inspire, engage, and incorporate collaborative learning environments outside my physical classroom (NETS-T 1 and 2). These changes will be accomplished by creating a plan of action known as GAME (goals, actions, monitoring, and evaluation) and by applying the advice and assistance of my Walden colleagues (Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., 2009).



The first step in my GAME plan is to set goals for me as an educator. As a third grade teacher, I have to plan lesson plans each day for all content areas. Our district has created their own curriculum to assure that the state standards are being addressed and taught each day in every lesson. This practice does not allow for much diversity or creativity. However, as a technology magnet school, we are given a little leave way in this matter. With the pressure to improve our state scores and fill the student-learning gap, I have fallen short in diversifying from the district plan. Teaching only what is on the state test has left creative exploration and self-discovery out my plans. I have justified this omission on our fast-paced curriculum. My goal is to allow at least one creative project per content area each nine weeks. I also plan to collaborate with another classroom outside our school each nine weeks through virtual tools. This opportunity will offer authentic and real world experiences for my students.


The action step of my plan includes reaching out to my Walden colleagues to create collaborative lessons and/or projects. I have applied and been approved by my principal to use Skype to communicate with other classrooms and experts throughout our digital global community. My students will use several digital tools and forms of media to communicate and create student directed projects. Students will provide input and direction for each project by developing assessments and guidelines for each endeavor.

Monitoring the plan will be the responsibility of the class and educator. The students will reflect on progress through journaling and class discussion. The educators will also engage through discussions and goal reflections. A checklist of outcomes will be comprised and reflected on throughout the process. Revisions will be made or adjusted as needed.


Evaluation of the projects and lesson will be given informally and formally throughout. One area that I need to work on is the development of various assessments. Due to our constant test preparation, we use many formal data testing tools. I need to improve my skills on how to use the data to build stronger strategies or improvements in deficit areas. I would really like to learn more about building or implementing digital portfolios to promote self-discovery, engagement and for their own learning. Evaluation will also direct how or if this project was effective. The project’s effectiveness will be based on the ability to adapt or change in order for the students to learn or achieve the goals agreed upon.

References:

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.(pp. 26, 42).

ISTE NETS and Performance Indicators for Teachers(NETS•T) http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
the Content Areas


















 

Reflection Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

The most striking statement during this course came from David Warlick, “It’s not about the technology; it is about the connections and conversations made available to the students” (Laureate, 2009). Technology allows the students to connect to each other, experts, global classrooms and current real life connections to our content and standards. Our world is in a constant and rapid change. Textbook and strategies used five years ago are outdated and unable to equip the 21st century learner. We cannot allow our fear of technology and change to keep us from incorporating it throughout our lessons and daily interactions with our students. Our students are comfortable with technology and need the guidance to connect and apply to their academic world. When students are able to make these connections, they will be able to use their language to accomplish education goals and life skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workplace. Another great revelation is that it my responsibility as a third grade teacher to prepare them for the 21st century workplace as collaborative and global communicators.


The second Aha moment was in Sara Armstrong’s video, Safe and Ethical Practices, concerning modeling ethical practices. She stated that we must teach students to respect online work, authors and graphic illustrations by citing our sources on everyday plans, PowerPoints and other work displayed throughout our curriculum (Laureate, 2009). We should teach students to respect and be critical evaluators for materials and information found online. Armstrong also stresses that in order to keep students “cyber safe” we should teaching them to make responsible choices, thus remove “filters” from our class computers. Many of our students use computers and technology without any parental supervision and need to know how to practice and engage in cyber safety after school hours (Laureate, 2009). Due to budget cuts, our technology position was lost. I now know that not only do I train my students how to use technology, but must provide training for cyber safety skills and responsibilities. This means that I must remember to include time in a unit to teach technology, as well as curriculum content and standards. I cannot assume that my technology savvy students have the literacy skills to navigate the web and read the content found.

One area that I plan to pursue for myself is collaborative learning groups in a global capacity. My students lack background knowledge and experiences of many of their global peers. I want to fill these gaps with virtual field trips, classroom connections and hands on experiences through global classroom experiences. I am currently educating myself on how to use online opportunities and experiences with groups such as ePals Global communities, Skype, . edu20.org, and Collaborative Internet Projects. Collaborative inquiry based projects allow students the opportunities to learn or reinforce content standards while building learning networks. They also provide authentic experiences with real world application (Laureate, 2009). Science, social studies and math content can be easily be implemented in collaborative inquiry projects, especially for elementary students. Hands on projects that work with whole class participation would be most beneficial.

References:

Collaborative project site http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/gayle/projects/projects.html#other-current

Edu2.0 http://www.edu20.org/

Epals Global Communities http://www.epals.com/

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (DVD). Inquiry Based Projects. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (DVD). It’s Not About the Technology. Baltimore, MD: Author

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (DVD). Safe and Ethical Practices. Baltimore, MD: Author

Skype http://about.skype.com/

Square of Life http://k12science.org/curriculum/squareproj/

screencast ABC Navigatio

ABC Navigation on the web

Lewis Tech Quest: Diigo Social Bookmarking

Lewis Tech Quest: Diigo Social Bookmarking

Diigo Social Bookmarking

Please visit and join my social bookmarking list of friends on Diigo

Redirection and Reflection of My Personal Theory of Learning

My main redirection is to create a student centered and focused classroom. I will immediately begin to ask what the students can do. I also want my classroom to become more inquiry oriented. I plan to have my students enhance their understanding of content by generating and testing hypotheses throughout all content areas. The students will accomplish this by utilizing cooperative learning groups and rubrics to guide and direct their inquiries (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007). I will also provide more opportunities for the students to create the class PowerPoint Presentations. According to Dr. Orey, learning technology tools are most effective when they are student generated. Allow the students to interact with the whiteboards and limit the lecture style presentations. He also recommends using images in place of text to provide visual and mental imaging (Laureate, 2009). I will also use media such as Discovery Learning to provide background knowledge and allow the students to produce their own movies. .

Two new technology tools that I plan to use are MovieMaker and VoiceThreads. MovieMaker will allow my students to use Discovery Learning images and digital photos to create digital movies. These movies can easily be made from PowerPoints and narrated by the students. Students can also download music to enhance their projects free of charge with sites such as Free play music . Spotlight on Technology introduced us to VoiceThreads. “It is picture slide show that holds images, documents and videos and allows various users to comment using computer microphone, telephone, text, audio file (MP3/WAV), and webcam ”(Laureate, 2009). This technology tool will also allow students to interact with classroom all across the world. Both of these tools provide opportunities for students to engage and create, thus internalizing and taking ownership of the content that is learned.

One long goal would be to become more a constructionist facilitator than a behaviorist awarder. By providing more opportunities to create projects with technology, I will curb the restless or disruptive behaviors. Students will become more excited and engaged about content and standards. We will use sites such as Know It All , Compass Learning Odyssey and Our Timelines for interactive activities on our interactive whiteboards.

A second long time goal is to implement more investigative activities such as Plimoth Org and Darwin . These sites help students distinguish fact from fiction and develop prediction skills. They also assist in expanding decision making skills by modifying or manipulating the environment with various variables. Students can also use Excel Spreadsheets to practice math and manipulate or discover graphical patterns in everyday life. These goals can only be achieved in small increments and achievements. This classroom will require more prep time and teaching student procedure and responsibility from the first day of school.

References:
Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Spotlight on Technology: VoiceThread
[DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Technology: Instructional Tool vs. Learning Tool [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

Moviemaker http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/windows_movie_maker.aspx?WT.mc_id=moviemakerguide_google

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Pgs 202, 141

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

In Social Learning Theories, Dr. Orey defines social learning as “students engaged with other students with items or projects that they are constructing together” (Laureate, 2009). This theory allows students or learner to begin to apply the knowledge that they are learning. Dr. Orey also states that these collaborative or networking practices can enhance students’ problem solving skills and build their confidence as they learn together. Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy that allows or provides opportunities for students to interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance or strengthen their learning (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007). Students can work together to brainstorm, plan strategies of discovery or apply new concepts through projects and inquiry. Cooperative learning groups provide a safe, small learning community to ask questions and build confidence in problem solving.

Jigsaw strategy, as explained by Dr. Orey in Social Learning Theories, creates a cooperative learning group that work together to teach other (Laureate, 2009). Students are divided into two groups. The first group is their base or home group. The second group is the expert group. The expert group researches and studies one aspect of their project and returns to home base as the knowledgeable being. The expert then teaches his home base about his field of study. The group can apply this new information along with their area of expertise. This strategy builds confidence and develops team building skills and interdependence. Students have assigned roles and responsibilities. A cooperative learning group rubric can guide the students through the project. Rubrics can be created for the collaborative group and/or the project with rubistar.4teachers.org . This helps to define the task that are required and the level of expectations.

The Web provides access to experts in every field and instructions to complete any and all projects. Web resources have expanded from being a research tool to a collaborative learning environment (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007). Students are able to work and collaborate with other students all other the world. Wikis, blogs and Voicethreads allow students the ability to develop ideas and content without ever coming together. Skype and chat rooms allow students the ability to discuss or brainstorm ideas together with no geographical boundaries.

Keypals are electronic pen pals for the purpose of educational projects. ePALS is the world’s largest K-12 learning environment network. According to their web site they are the “leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning network. With classrooms in 200 countries and territories, ePals makes it easy to connect learners locally, nationally or internationally”. Education World, a teacher resource web site, provides a list of sites for creating free student emails and other pen pal sites. These resources will enable the students to develop into 21st century global learners.

“Collaborative Organizing allows students and teachers to collaborate over the Web by logging on to sites that allow them to share and edit calendars, bookmark and share Web links, and create online learning communities” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007). Currently we use our class web site to bookmark files, link, pictures and our current blog topics. The students are able to access this site on and off campus. The bookmarks can be saved and archived; thus saving the teacher many hours of preparations. Bookmarking allows the students the ability to access the appropriate sites and allowing more time for collaborative production of the project.

Cooperative learning strategy provides the opportunities for social learning. Students are actively engaged with other students, locally or globally, to construct or build projects, ideas and human relationships. Social networking allows students to become more knowledgeable, build confidence, and develop problem solving skills(Laureate, 2009).  Cooperative learning groups of two- pair sharing verbally or through small web based groups are the building blocks of social networking for the 21st century learner and employee.

References:

Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Connectivism as a Learning Theory [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Social Learning Theories[DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Pgs 139, 140, 141, 149.