Thursday, September 13, 2012

GAME Plan for integrating iste.nets-t standards

Developing a GAME plan for you can be difficult but is necessary for teacher improvement and helping students meet 21st century skills.  “Setting goals, taking action to meet those goals, monitor progress toward achieving goals and evaluate whether the goals were achieved and extend your learning to new situations” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009 p. 3). are the key components of any GAME plan. My goal is to create a plan while using iste.nets standards for teachers. Of the five standards, I have chosen to work with standards one and two. Standard one for teachers is to “facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity” and standard two states “design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments” (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 2008).

            For standard one, I will continue to have my students explore “real-world issues” while using digital tools and collaboration. My goal is to add components of technology into these plans so that students can engage in “learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments” (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 2008). Given the example set by Laufenberg, when her classes held interviews on Election Day and posted their findings via twitter, Flickr, Gcast and other programs, she was able to have her students interact with the community, with each other, and with a school in Texas (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). I need to improve my lessons to include collaboration with other students from other schools because it will only enhance the learning experience for my students.

            ISTE.nets-t standard two is to “design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments (International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), 2008). To meet the performance indicators that are part of standard two, I will continue to adapt my lessons to include the use of digital tools and to promote “student creativity”. I will work on continuing and improving the use digital tools as a way to meet the diverse learning styles of my students. Using digital storytelling, blogs, voice thread, podcasts and other digital tools I will improve on meeting the needs of my diverse students.

            To monitor my progress with standards one and two,  my department chairperson will be conducting informal observations and aiding me in my use of the new short throw project and its’ interactive capabilities. Using the short-throw will be one of many digital tools I will use to meet the diversity of my students and improve the quality of my instruction. In addition, I will have students evaluate the unit lessons to see what they like the most in the classroom. I will adapt according to the feedback from students and my department chair. I plan to extend my learning by continuing to attend workshops for technology and content infusion in the classroom.  Finishing my program at Walden University will be meeting a goal I set for myself as well as a tool for extending my learning.

            To my classmates, I would love if you could share with me some of the lessons you have used with a short throw projector. Do you have any insights on how I can make my presentations more interactive in the classroom?









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: Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education (2008). National education standards for teachers (nets-t). Retrieved 09/10/2012 from 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology- Part 2. Integrating technology across the content areas [DVD]. United States

7 comments:

  1. Debbie,
    It certainly sounds like you have a well thought out GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) for incorporating the iste.nets standards (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008) in your classroom. Providing students the chance to interact and collaborate within the community at large is a great way to create not only social awareness but instigate the social change that Walden espouses, and digital tools are the means to make that happen. I particularly like the inclusion of your students in the monitoring and evaluative stages of the process. Often times we come up with the objectives for the lessons but fail to receive feedback from our audience as to what they received from it. Including this piece in your GAME plan will provide you an insight into how well the integration of technology is working.
    On a side note, what exactly is a short throw projector and what is it designed to do? I have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom but am not certain if that is similar to what you are asking about or not.

    References
    Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
    Education, I. S. (2008). iste nets*t. Retrieved September 13, 2012, from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

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    Replies
    1. Sandra,
      Thank you for your positive comments about my GAME plan. As for the Short Throw you can go online to the Dell site, they make Short Throw's. The URL is:
      http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx//global/products/landing/en/ultrashort-throw-projector?c=us&l=en&s=gen

      These Short Throw's turn any white board into a SMART board with the convience of being anywhere in the room, you just have to use the pen that comes with the projector. You can stand in the back of the room & w/ the pen interact with the slides projecting on your normal white board. It's pretty neat but I still need more time to learn all of the software that came with it. I only had a 15 minute tutorial the day before my kids entered my classroom.

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  2. Debbie, I have always liked the idea of having my students work with students in other classes. One year, my freshmen answered letters written by first graders to fairy tale characters. It was fun because my high schoolers were reminded of their own reading pasts, and we all had some fun remembering what it was like to be in first grade. However, if I get the chance to do something like that again, I would look for a web based tech tool instead, something that created a really youthful looking and visually appealing email maybe. My students could answer the letters but use this tool instead. I would have to think about it a little more and research the tech tool better, but it might be fun. We could, at a minimum, review business letter formats:)

    I have also used digital story telling, blogs, and wikis all with varying results. I love Voice Thread and recommend it. I used it with an interdisciplinary class I teach (American Lit and 20th Century American History). The students researched the life of a person in the Depression, wrote a letter or journal that was really a research paper, and then we created Voice Threads so the kids were telling stories. It was awesome. I highly recommend it.

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    Replies
    1. Rachel,
      I like your idea about story telling on Voice Thread. What better place to this activity than in a history classroom? I could have my students make stories about historical figures from history. For example, have 6 girls make 6 Voice Thread's as the wives of Henry VIII, telling their story from the women's viewpoints. I think that would be a lot of fun.
      Thank You,
      Debbie

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  3. Debbie,
    I am not sure what you mean by a short throw projector. I use a projector and a screen (no smart board or mimeo board) in my computer lab. Students basically follow my projected model on the board, then open their laptops, open the application we are studying, and then create their own version of my model.
    Resources we have learned about in our Walden courses that worked well for me right away were www.spiderscribe.com concept mapping, and www.voicethread.com.
    My students were better at voice thread then I was! It reminded my of my first wiki page when the students joined the page before i even understood completely how to invite them! In your history class, I think voice thread might work well with character development. Your students could create a narrative through the eyes of a teenager from the era you are covering. Students love to center their education around themselves so offering them to be the character from the past might appeal to them.

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    Replies
    1. Mrs. Ruetenik,
      I'm going to repeat what I replied to in an earlier post about the Short Throw projector. For information on the Short Throw you can go online to the Dell site, they make Short Throw's. The URL is:
      http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx//global/products/landing/en/ultrashort-throw-projector?c=us&l=en&s=gen

      These Short Throw's turn any white board into a SMART board with the convience of being anywhere in the room, you just have to use the pen that comes with the projector. You can stand in the back of the room & w/ the pen interact with the slides projecting on your normal white board. It's pretty neat but I still need more time to learn all of the software that came with it.
      Give the website a try, these Short Throws really make it easy for a teacher who likes to walk about the room, like me, to interact with the board.
      Debbie

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  4. I love your goal of exploring "real-world" issues using digital tools. Twitter and Facebook are both so popular, but I have had trouble figuring out ways to use them as quality learning tools. Your idea for the election is fantastic! Please post again after the assignment and give feedback about how everything unfolded. I will be very interested to hear!

    -Alexander D. Veltz

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