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Final Blog Post

As I reflect on the GAME plan that I have developed and modified throughout this course, I realize that this is a valuable asset for use in any instructional setting. Personally, the goals that I set for myself have already begun as we have recently started our 2010-11 school year. I am excited to take on the challenges before me. I intend to meet both goals by implementing new monthly technology tools into my classroom and creating a collaborative project with a neighboring school next semester. As of now, there are no immediate adjustments to my GAME plan that need to made. Overall, I feel that I have set reasonable, realistic goals for myself and look forward to the effect they have on my students.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students:

In order to help my students develop proficiency in the NETS-S standards, I feel it is important for them to first be aware of the specifics of each one. By providing examples of how multiple standards tie into various assignments, students are able to see the direct relation. In order to promote the development of these standards, I will have students provide a simple “Standards” section at the end of each assignment similar to the “References” section at the end of application assignments for this course. In this section students will provide all of the standards that the assignment was able to cover so they are aware of the various core concepts.

Revising Your GAME Plan:

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice? What goals are you still working toward?
Up to this point, I have learned that implementing a GAME Plan would be best conducted at the start of a quarter or semester term. This would allow for continuous feedback and monitoring. Also, implementing a GAME Plan is a great way to keep track of professional development in meeting specific goals. I am currently still working on implementing new educational technology practices and implementing a collaborative project.

Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
At this point, I am not ready to set new learning goals.

If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?
In order to extend what I have learned already, I continue to use my recently developed GAME Plan. I will implement it into this upcoming school year and focus on the goals I have set forth already. I will look to implement at least one new educational technology each month as well as introduce a collaborative project with another school.

What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
The next time I implement a GAME Plan, I will focus on NETS-T standard 5D: “evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning”. Now that I am in my 5th year of teaching my courses have a solid foundation and good routine to follow. However, I must continue to adapt my lessons to meet the diverse needs of my students. Hopefully, by focusing on my current practices and implementing new educational technology tools I can continue to improve the learning environment of my students.

Evaluating Your GAME Plan Progress

Overall, I feel I did pretty well in meeting my goal for Standard 5c: “evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning”. I have been able to find some good educational technology blogs and read about some interesting new ideas that have been implemented in the classroom. This can be difficult since I do not teach a core class but rather business and computer courses. There is traditionally a plethora of websites and databases available on content-specific courses, but business tends to fall through the gap. Since we are on summer break, I will know more about the effectiveness of my GAME Plan at the end of the first semester in December since I will have time to implement and reflect on it. I have learned that there are ample resources available for both teachers and students to use in the classroom and that it just requires the time and patience to locate them. I do not have any questions at this time, but I have learned that technology is ever changing so I will need to keep current on new trends and concepts as they happen. Since my goal is to keep introducing new content once a month, I may need to adjust this more or less depending on my workload at the school or how effective the new activities are.

With Standard 4d: “develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools”, I have not had near enough time to spend fulfilling this goal during the summer due to my busy coaching and summer-work schedule. However, I feel I have set solid guiding actions to help prepare me for an activity of this magnitude. I have learned that I do not want to jump into an activity like this without having all of my bases covered to help eliminate as many potential problems as possible. I also lack the experience in dealing with this type of activity so I have a lot to learn in that regard. I will likely need to adjust my plan so I can work with a mentoring teacher who has participated in this type of activity before so I can follow their lead and learn from their guidance and leadership.

Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress:

As I monitor my GAME Plan progress, I realize this is no small matter. There are several steps that are needed to accomplish an effective GAME Plan. I have been able to find a lot of good information and resources to help employ a collaborative project with a different school as well as educational technology blogs to help implement new assessment strategies within my classroom. I am comfortable searching the Internet so I typically can find what I am looking for when given the time to do so. As such, I don’t feel that I need to modify my action plan at this point as I am able to currently stay on track with the goals I set to accomplish.

What I have learned so far is that while creating a GAME Plan may seem a little overwhelming at first, when it is broken down into its smaller components it is not as daunting. To me it has similar characteristics as the research paper we created in a previous Walden course. Additionally, I have learned that the time needed to accomplish my GAME Plan goals is higher than I had hoped for, but that is also largely in part to the fact that I have a very busy summer schedule. Things really don’t slow down for me once school starts back up as I coach two sports (football and basketball), am the student council advisor, and am the sophomore class sponsor. My major concern is how to find time to stay current with new technologies and undertake a large collaborative project while fulfilling my duties within my school and trying to avoid burnout at the same time. I have done a fairly decent job of keeping balance with my professional and personal life, but I am ever fearful of becoming overwhelmed with too much.

Carrying Out Your GAME Plan:

In order to accomplish Standard 4d: “develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools”, I will need a variety of resources. First of all, I will need a cooperating professional from another school district to work with during the collaborative project that our students will be engaged in. Additionally, different forms of communication with said person such as email, phone, or discussion boards would prove to be beneficial. Having a mentor who has had experience with collaborative projects would be vital to creating a successful project. Lastly, examples of successful collaborative projects to use as references or pull ideas from would be of great assistance. Up to this point, I have only been able to research the Internet to find ideas and examples of collaborative projects.

For Standard 5c: “evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning”, the resources needed would be largely independent and research based. I would need an aggregator to compile various educational technology blogs. Also, researching the Internet for additional sources outside of blogs would be useful in implementing new technology into the classroom once per month. So far, I have found a few educational technology blogs and found a few technology ideas that could prove to be beneficial.

Developing Your Personal GAME Plan

In order to strengthen my proficiency integrating technology into my classroom I have evaluated the NETS-T Standards and identified what I believe are my two weakest areas that I would like to improve. The first is Standard 4d: “develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools”. The second area is Standard 5c: “evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning”.

GOALS:
Standard 4d: The goal I have set in regards to Standard 4d is to create a collaborative project assignment with a class from a different high school. As this is a brand new experience to me, it is definitely an area in which I am severely lacking. I will need to absorb as much information as I can during this initial project to help ensure success in future endeavors.
Standard 5c: Since technology is always changing and evolving, it is difficult to keep current, especially with all of the other roles that each of us plays in our own lives. In order to stay current, my goal is to implement one new educational technology tool into my classroom each month. This technology can vary in difficulty or size, but must be something I have never used in my classroom before and occur once per month. By the end of the school year, I will have tried nine new tools in an effort to stay current with technology.

ACTIONS:
Standard 4d: In creating a collaborative project assignment, I will need to take several actions. Researching previous collaborative projects and how they were performed will help give me information based on others previous experiences. This will help me narrow down timeframe, content, assessment, and communication. Additionally, I will need to contact several educators who either have experience or would be willing to learn with me in this endeavor. To do so, I would need to look at educational forums, blogs, and websites to help identify potential partners. Lastly, I would need to have constant communication to my collaborating partner to continually assess, evaluate, and receive feedback.
Standard 5c: Since the Internet is a vast ocean of information, it can be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for when you aren’t quite certain yourself of what that is. Thus, I will let others do that work for me and subscribe to several different educational technology blogs which will gather that information into one location for me. With the information coming to me instead of finding it, I have more time to evaluate and try different technologies and find ways to implement them into my classroom.

MONITOR:
Standard 4d: Monitoring progress will need to be done at the end of each segment to ensure that students are working collaboratively and meeting the requirements. Again, communication with my collaborating partner will be a key factor as we will be able to identify what successes we are having with the classrooms and what difficulties we encounter. We also need to let our students know that this is a learning process for us as well and that they need to ask questions and provide feedback whenever they need to.
Standard 5c: Monitoring for this Standard can be a little more tricky than others, but jotting down notes in my agenda and finding assignments whose assessments or instructional strategies I feel are lacking is a positive way to start. From there, I can look to pair a new educational technology into my classroom that will be fitting for the content I will instruct. I will have to record notes on student excitement, engagement, and degree of difficulty as well as promote feedback and questions from students to help enhance the new technology being used.

EVALUATE AND EXTEND:
Standard 4d: Evaluation for collaborative project will come from the level of involvement between the students from differing schools, the quality of work submitted, the amount of time involved, and weighing the pros and cons from the various components. Working with my collaborating partner would allow us to build upon the aspects of the project that were positive and change the aspects that were negative to help improve the project as a whole for the next time. Additionally, receiving feedback from the students (whether it be through surveys, reflections, etc.) is a great way to receive firsthand information about the project.
Standard 5c: To evaluate the effectiveness of using each of the new technologies, I feel creating a folder or document to keep track of the strengths and weaknesses of each that was implemented will provide beneficial when I seek to implement them again in the future. Also, any difficulties I encountered the first time around would need to be prominently addressed to prevent reoccurrences in the future. While every new tool that I implement in my classroom may not be used again in some format, the process will continue to help my classroom adapt and evolve with the technology of today and the future.

Reflection

Reflection:

The most striking revelation about teaching new literacy skills to students is the gap that exists for students between professional and personal settings. Students, being digital natives, are immersed by technology and constantly surrounded by it in their daily lives. Engagement comes through a variety of different medias but tends to be most popular in social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging. While the exposure and experience in these medias does help their skills, students struggle to differentiate between personal and professional settings and use impersonal language, acronyms, or poor punctuation when completing various assignments. Students possess the know-how to use the technology provided, but need the support and instruction in how to use it properly when involved with professional activities.

While many of us continue to use search engines or technologies we are comfortable with because of their familiarity, it is still important to broaden our horizons and look at features provided from others. Using AltaVista to search .org websites is a great way to find credible sources and is not a feature provided by the more popular Google website. Additionally, there are a variety of great educational websites available for educators to help implement technology into our courses.

One goal I would like to pursue in the forthcoming school year is to implement a project involving students from another school district. This type of project not only helps my classroom meet a NETS standard, but also gives students an experience in online communication with students from a different district in pursuit of a common goal. While I am hesitant about creating this type of project as it is completely new to me, I am also excited about the engagement the students will have and their involvement with other students. In order to accomplish the goal, I will need to contact other educators who teach the same courses as me. I feel that using a cooperating teacher near to my location will prove to be beneficial in case we need to speak in person or go over different aspects of the project that could prove difficult online. From there, determining time allocation and communication times for students would be the next major concern as well as how students will divide the work to complete the project. Finally, a reflective survey for the students would be an effective way to receive feedback as to the pros and cons of the project and to enhance it in the future.

Reflection

When reflecting back over the content of the course “Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology”, I have reaffirmed my personal theory of learning. I continue to believe that using differentiated instruction and a variety of assessments will help meet the needs of all learners and provide them ample opportunities to become well-rounded students. I will try to incorporate more constructionist activities for my students and have them create different artifacts in an effort to help them gain a deeper understanding of the content.

I would like to incorporate the use of VoiceThreads into my courses. I feel this is a new, yet seemingly familiar, technology that the students would enjoy using. With the increased use of social networking sites and programs being used by students today, this technology will likely be well received by the students. Another technology I would like to utilize is the concept mapping tools. These interactive maps help provide structure to various topics and would allow students to organize their ideas in a different manner. Both of these technologies would engage the students while providing them experience with new technologies.

Since my classroom is a computer lab, one long-term goal I have is to have the students use the computer every day in each class. Whether it is for an entire period or just for a few minutes, I want to find a way to increase their use on the computer. In order to reach this goal, it will be easiest to start with small activities and projects and then increase the volume and complexity of their use. A second goal I have is to stay current with educational technologies and use them frequently in my classroom. I would like to implement at least one new technology per semester and then continue to incorporate it throughout the year when possible. In order to reach this goal, I will start by incorporating the technologies I am exposed to from my courses at Walden University. I will then need to research technological trends and find new methods that I can use in my own classrooms. I feel that implementing 1 new technology per semester is an efficient way for me to continue to promote technology within my classroom and expose my students to new experiences.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Voice Thread Link: http://voicethread.com/share/893128/

Cooperative learning has many positive aspects in which students can work together to construct new knowledge by interacting with others. While there are a variety of different methods that can be implemented for students, it is important to use them consistently but not to overuse them. Similar to Ms. Ortiz's movie project about famous mathematicians, I have my students create a celebrity endorsed commercial in my Introduction to Business class. Students select a product, celebrity, and must include everyone in the video in some capacity. Additionally, they must create a storyboard and create a script before they film. Also, the rubric provides the structure they need as this is a relatively new experience that they are engaged in. The interaction between the students helps them construct that knowledge with the aid of others.

One component that jumped out to me was the "face-to-face, promotive interaction" through the use of "applauding efforts and success". This reminded me of a system we put in place during the football season with our players known as the Character Draft. Our four captains picked teammates for their Character Team. If any member of a Character Team had failing grades, received a detention, was late or missed practice, or several other negative points, that entire Character Team had a punishment at the end of practice. It was very eye-opening for players as they saw how their teammates truly felt about their character. While this was a focus on negative interactions, it helped promote synergy within the teams as they helped each other with grades or got on a teammate when their grades slipped or their behavior was inappropriate.

Construcitivsm in Practice

When looking at the instructional strategies used from the text, it is apparent to notice the correlation between them and the constructionist perspective. For example, Mr. Dave McDivitt's multiplayer World War II strategy game is very similar to the board game "Risk". Students who are familiar with "Risk" will have a much smoother transition of assimilating the game into an existing mental map than other students. Students who are unfamiliar will have to accomodate the information by adjusting their existing mental maps.Thus, students are able to accomdoate their mental equilibrium.

Additionally, students in Mrs. Omar's 5th grade class created a spreadsheet with Microsoft Excel in order to learn about savings, investments, and interest rates. Through the creation of the artificat, students are actively participating in constructionsim and creating mental maps of the knowledge they gain. While students may not remember the mathematics or the graphing skills they used, they do create a foundation to build upon later. Most importantly, however, is learning that savings and interest and lead to big earnings over time.

Cognitivism in Practice

Tools such as concept maps and rubrics can be directly related to the cognitive learning theory. Since this learning theory focuses on how one thinks or the mental processes that one undergoes during learning, these tools help in that regard. By providing a concept map of a topic, students are given the framework to begin learning. This tool helps the student organize his or her thoughts in a logical manner and prepares them for the content. Rubrics are great organizers as it allows the student to apply their skills in the correct manner and in the correct situations. These tools provide students the structure needed to complete their mental processing that occurs during learning.

Behaviorism in Practice

Behaviorism and technology defintitely have a correlation in regards to education. In order to help students appreciate the role that effort plays in achievement, Mr. Ekuban created a free survey at surveymonkey.com to collect date to then share with incoming freshmen. From this, students are able to see how achievement is reached with strong effort and good attitude, both qualities that are controllable by the individual. Furthermore, learning with multimedia can be more engaging and worthwhile than learning from multimedia. I have seen students do some amazing things when they are given the freedom to explore the software and use different features rather than be limited to just a select few. Reinforcing this type of exploratory learning and then allowing the students to demonstrate to the class how it was accomplished has been a positive and rewarding method within my classroom.