Week 3: Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Last week I shared my GAME Plan with all of you. Before I go an further in this week's post, I would like to elaborate on the goals I have set for myself through my GAME Plan.

GOALS 

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning  

     a. demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situation  

     b. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats (The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, 2008)

•  As I have progressed through this graduate program, I have learned both new ways to implement technology into my teaching and about new types of technologies that can be utilized as learning tools, as well as, instructional tools. I have chosen to concentrate on "Modeling Digital-Age Work and Learning," (The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, 2008) because I see the important role that technology plays when developing lessons/units for all students in the classroom. As Dr. Ertmer and various teachers explained in the DVD resource, "Enriching Content Area Learning," integrating technology into the classroom effectively requires knowledge, confidence, strong beliefs, and a supportive culture of educators (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). It is through both learning new technologies and communicating/collaborating with my classmates that I hope to strengthen the four components described by Dr. Ertmer (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). 

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership  

      a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning  

     b. exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others (The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, 2008)

• Again, Dr. Ertmer's ideas of effectively integrating technology into the classroom, has influenced my choice to pursue the goal of "Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership" (The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, 2008). Having a strong community to communicate and collaborate with will help to build my knowledge base in regards to technology in the classroom. As I share my ideas with my classmates, their comments and perspectives will help me to better understand new uses for technology, how to best integrate technology to best enhance content information, etc. As I explore Twitter, Diigo, Prezi, and Animoto, and describe/model the diverse uses for these learning tools I will also be contributing to my classmates knowledge base. In return, many more ideas and projects will be generated through suggestions, further research, and the diverse teaching backgrounds of my classmates (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).

 ACTIONS

• Find four different types of technology (i.e. PowerPoint, Inspiration, etc.)
• Share the different projects with you all and explain how to use the technology to benefit students

MONITOR

• Use the comments and questions provided by you and clarify/add information to my explanations

 EVALUATE

• Reflect on the comments and questions, as well as, the types of technologies I used and decide what went well, how I changed my plan as I went, etc.

I  NEED YOUR HELP...

If you have time please respond to the questions I have posted below. Soon I will be posting links to projects that I have created or that I am working on with short explanations describing the technology and its uses. As of yet, I still have to continue working on these mini-projects. 

This week, I want to share with you some of the details of my GAME Plan, as well as, some small changes I am making in the plan. Rather than just creating and writing about four different types of technology, I am going to work on one or two mini-projects and model how a couple different other learning tools (Diigo.com and Twitter) can be utilized in the classroom. I will still be reflecting on your comments/questions and follow through with the rest of my GAME Plan, but just in a little bit different way.

RESOURCES

• Twitter.com, Diigo.com, Prezi.com, and Animoto.com
• Readings and articles covering topics of technology, education, etc.
• Classmate opinions and comments  
• I will be using your comments/questions to guide my GAME Plan. If my explanations or justifications for the use of a technology, such as Diigo, does not make sense or it is unclear how this social bookmarking tool will help fulfill the need of a diverse population of students, please let me know. Not only do I want to give you ideas or prompt discussions, but I also want to be able to strengthen my leadership skills so I can help my fellow teachers begin to understand the importance of technology integration in the classroom (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION NEEDED

 Please help me gather information for my GAME Plan by answering the survey found at the top right-hand corner of this posting. Thank you for your participation!

PROGRESS

• I posted the following message on the "Class Cafe" message board for our class

Happy Summer, Everyone!  
I would like to invite everyone to take part in the Walden Grad Student group at Diigo.com, that I created eons ago. In our previous class, some of you joined in the fun, but I know some of you are new to the group and I wanted to extend the invitation to you as well. There are so many wonderful resources out there that we all stumble upon while doing our course work, preparing for lessons, etc., and this list of sites helps to let others know about what we are finding.

Diigo.com can also be used as a great collaborative tool for those of us who are concentrating on the collaboration and/or communication standards for our GAME Plans. The highlight/comment features would allow for conversations or critiques of sites and/or technology tools with others in our class. The link to the “Walden Grad Students” group is: http://groups.diigo.com/group/waldenu-gradstudents. If you join it and your posts don’t appear right away, please send me an email and I will take a look at the settings so that everyone can share whatever, whenever without permission. Diigo.com also has a group for educators that has MANY more resources available for you to peruse. The link to that group is: http://groups.diigo.com/group/diigoineducation.

I’m not sure how many of you are on Twitter, but I would love to follow any of you that are members. There are some fabulous posts by educators and great technology information and tools that get sent out to the masses. So, if you haven’t entered the world of Twitter and would like to check it out, feel free to take a look at the sites I follow my username is: msclausen.

I realize that everyone is REALLY busy during these summer months, but these resources may be useful to you as you progress through your GAME Plans and/or in the upcoming school year.

Thank you,
Courtney Clausen 

• Posting this message gave me the opportunity to explain to our classmates the different ways that these learning tools can be utilized in the classroom. I was able to explain how we as students can use Diigo throughout this class, as well as, model how a teacher might implement Diigo into his/her classroom. In both instances, Diigo can be used as a mindtool and/or a support tool for reflection/conversation. These are two of the three roles  computers usually play when technology is implemented into instruction,  (Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer, 2009).

• Began modeling the use of the social bookmarking website Diigo.com at: http://groups.diigo.com/group/waldenu-gradstudents. To see an example of the notes and annotation features scroll down to the link CAST: What is the Universal Design for Learning 
•  Diigo allows readers to bookmark, annotate, organize, and collaborate with others with a user friendly toolbar. These features allow students to use all three neural networks that impact learning. Once a student has bookmarked a page with Diigo, he/she can highlight the text in different colors, draw shapes, capture text, create floating sticky-notes or annotations for your private use or for others to provide feedback. A student would be activating his/her recognition networks while taking advantage of these tools (Cennamo et al., 2009).
• Diigo can also activate the strategic learning networks for those students. Through the manipulation of the text, grouping of websites through tagging web pages, and having students search throughout the web pages already annotated, tagged, highlighted, etc., gives the student flexibility for creativity. He/she can create lists and collaborate with other members in the class to choose what resources should be used in the next unit or topics that interest them (Cennamo et al., 2009).
• Educators can create lists of websites related to content information and then have students explore those sites and ask each student to tag the sites, summarize what they have read, and then find similar sites using common search engines like Google or Yahoo to add to their personal list. The affective learning networks will utilize a student's prior knowledge and past experiences to help categorize and work with the required sites, but then the student will also become engaged in the topic once he/she is allowed to surf the web and look for sites that present similar information, but in different ways (Cennamo et al., 2009).

LEARNING STRATEGIES

• Inquiry-based--find answers and create responses to classmates' comments
• Model Technology as a learning tool-- using Twitter and Diigo as learning tools
• Collaborative discussions-- Talk with classmates and/or members of Twitter and Diigo to gain further knowledge about technology and education
• These learning strategies directly connect to the two main goals of my GAME Plan and by using these strategies, I will be trying to activate all three neural networks of learning (Cennamo, et al., 2009).

Thank you for helping me with my GAME Plan!

Courtney Clausen

 

 Reference 

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. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer) (2009). Program three [Motion Picture]. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part I. Baltimore: Author.

The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers [Electronic version]. (2008). International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved July 8, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf