Revising My GAME Plan: Week #6

Goal #1:
1c Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes (ISTE NETS-T, 2008).

Goal #2:
5a Engage in professional growth and leadership by participating in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology and improve student learning (ISTE NETS-T, 2008).

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To begin with, I am too excited about the progress I am making toward my initial two goals to consider changing course at this time. I feel as though the number of resources I have looked into, the insight I have gained from the ideas and lessons of my Walden colleagues and the understanding I am gaining from the course materials are coming together in a way that is empowering me to make true progress.

What have I learned so far that I can apply in my practice?
One of my goals last week was to scale down PBL ideas to use a bit more frequently throughout the school year. I can honestly say, that I have added a new layer to the way I present material and facilitate closure or reflection on the part of my students. I am presenting many ideas within my content area as problems, and have shifted my way of thinking in such a way as to frame my students as problem-solvers most of the time. It has been a kind of paradigm shift, a new way of approaching content. As for the Ancient Rome Project, I plan to make that a full-scale PBL, including data collection, analysis, online collaboration and digital presentations. It may take some careful integration of home and on-campus after school computer time to make it work, but I am up for it.

What goals am I still working toward?
New strategies I am working on with respect to both of my goals is the online educational networking piece, or really using technology to enhance student reflection and allow students to learn from the reflection and input of their peers. I feel much more able to get a web-based learning and collaborating network up and running this coming week, and figure out how to have students tag posts to make them easier for my to manage according the class period. Given all of the information Vicki Davis imparted in this week’s course DVD detailing the features and benefits of blogs, nings, wiggios, micro-blogs, and the like. I am currently in the process of comparing some of the web resources she mentioned and plan to have students begin some form of online social/educational, similar to what we do via Walden, once they return from Spring Break the week after next. I have wanted to use the asynchronous reflective response model for some time, but honestly didn’t quite know where to begin and what the differences between some of the resources were. After this week’s video, I feel that I know enough to choose a platform and start small in an effort to work out the kinks prior to my unit on ancient Rome.

How will I extend what I have learned so far?
I was also excited this week to locate some collaborative learning projects that I could participate in with other teachers around the world. A couple of things have come together to make this more likely for me. First, I was granted a new assignment for next school year, teaching seventh graders, using laptop computers, in a world geography context. I am thrilled with this assignment, because it gives me both the hardware resources and the flexibility to explore many projects already in place including some of the “flat classroom” offerings. So, in terms of extension, I would like to narrow online collaboration opportunities down to a short-list of 3 to 5 that I can present to my team for next year. It is my hope to make these projects interdisciplinary, and build collaboration opportunities between the other teachers joining this new cluster for next year.

What learning approaches will I try next time to improve my learning?
Along with my new assignment comes a new team and a team from last year that is looping to eighth grade with their students from this year. The group of teachers looping will be a valuable resource for me to learn from and share new ideas and resources with. So, my “new learning approach” for the near future is to develop enough of a tech plan to approach the looping team and ask for advice, while having the potential of offering them some ideas they haven’t explored yet. I intend to do this using what I have learned this week from Vicki Davis and my colleagues’ ideas posted on their blogs.

References:

International Society for Technology in Education (2008). National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved on 02/08/10, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program 8. Spotlight on Technology: Problem-Based Learning (Motion picture). Integrating technology across the content areas.Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program 9. Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration [Motion picture]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author.