GAME Plan Reflection

I started out skeptical about following a GAME plan. I usually have to create my own tools of organization for them to work for me; and yet here I am having accomplished several goals. It turns out that making learning goals that are relevant to me now, writing them down and then checking back in the monitor and evaluate my progress (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009) has worked beautifully to build on my technology know-how and confidence. I believe that even though this was an assignment completed for a grade it has also become a catalyst for further learning for me in the integration of technology in my classroom.

New learning involved further detailed knowledge in how to handle a wiki and about several other applications that would work in parallel in my instruction using a wiki. Uploading files, importing YouTube videos and slide shows is now easy for me. I have raised my visual intelligence and speed for assessing work that has been done and evaluating the users of a wiki and have observed several different ways to organize the information on a wiki. An excellent support to what I want to accomplish on my wikis is epals and google.docs. These applications will bring more authenticity into student learning. After my current goal is reached, that of creating several digital stories of my own, I am confident of accomplishing even more after this class has ended. My method of teaching is newer and I was having trouble at first finding a way to adapt suggestions from the course resources to my particular style but now I have a clearer picture in my head of how to integrate technology into my curriculum.

As a result of my learning I will be starting my classes on a wiki the second week in January after sharing the GAME plan with them. I hope to get them signed up with an epal by then also but that will depend on who I can find to be our companion classroom. A month ago having my students creat digital story was intimidating because I didn't even know how to make one. Now, even though I have not finished any, I have confidence that I can figure it out so in February I will assign a simple digital story using slide.com. In March, their second digital story will require more and I hope to use photostory if it can be obtained for free on our school computers. If not then I will have my students use PowerPoint.

 

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.

 

GAME plan Progress

School is out! Hurray! And the family emergency continues to plague me...

But back to my GAME plan! I think I have figured wiki's out enough to lead a classroom full of students into a collaborative endeavor using one. There are still things I will continue to learn about them I am certain but I now feel comfortable enough to set another goal. I need to create a few digital stories myself. I will not feel comfortable having my students build one unless I can more or less do it myself and therefore do basic troubleshooting for them.

Powerpoint is one of the more common applications/software available that would work for this purpose so I will start with that. I will try to combine the effort with a great Christmas gift for the grandparents. This means that I will have a wonderful subject, my son, and incorporate pictures, video, music and narration. I think if I can get all four of those elements into a story/update about my son I will have mastered the most basic elements of a digital story. Also, burning it onto a DVD and or saving it to a thumbdrive will be another great accomplishment in my GAME plan. Woohoo! Progress in technology education!

I think the process of forming a GAME plan would be very beneficial to students. One of the digital stories I do could be about forming a GAME plan and the NETS-S with my students. Before doing the wiki or the digital story we could go over what the students want to work on. As long as I am modeling and supporting those goals through assignments that involve technology the students will find motivation and enthusiasm to meet the goals they make for themselves.

My GAME plan revisited...

Well, this blog is late due to a family emergency. It's much more work to be absent!

But about my GAME plan, otherwise known as my efforts to learn more about wiki's and integrate them into my instruction. Well, I have learned a little bit more about how to work a wiki but even more about some of the applications that would be wonderful to run in conjunction with the wiki. The idea is of course to get my students excited to use the wiki and motivated to use them (and thus continue learning content) outside of class time. I think Slide (http://www.slide.com/arrange?bc=0&fx=4&tt=24&sk=0&cy=ms&th=0&sc=0) is one such gem that students will have a TON of fun with. After having them write a short entertaining story in Spanish I will just "Let them loose" on this free online application that allows you to upload pictures and write in text students can create nice visual backdrop to their stories! It was so easy that even I was able to make a slide show quick and easy!

Epals is also something I am excited about because of the contact with native speakers that my students would get. I know how invaluable it was for me to travel to another country and get a broader world view and I hope that the experience with epals, possibly in conjunction with a wiki project, would engender some of the same benefits that travel had on me. The NETS T standards will take care of themselved, it seems, as I have my students working with each other and possibly other classrooms using technology.

I still have much more to learn about the wiki and what can go with it so I am not ready to set another goal for myself but I am ready to dive in again soon. In January I will unleash my Spanish 3 class on pbworks and we will see how smoothly I can get it to run. =)

My particular learning style is to get in and work with what I want to learn about so I hope to beable to more of this during the Christmas break. One week till Christmas break! Yay! Merry Christmas everyone!

Further technology know-how...

In trying to advance my GAME plan (and my homework) I have started a wiki page and some of my members have done some great things already! A new cool slide show greets the new viewer and is a great resource to any teacher (Thank you Sherrie)! Further, other comments and questions from my wiki-colleagues have helped me to further my thought processes in regard to how a wiki will work in my classroom. :)

I don't know if I need to make any adjustments to my plan yet. I have much more to learn and I believe the process of making this PBL, using the wiki and continuing to read and discuss is helping me to advance my goals.