Looking at my completed learning activity, implementation plan and grant rationale, I can see that I have come a long way from the start of the course. This project demonstrates my learning in this course because I was able to take everything we’ve discussed and put it into a plan. Throughout this class, we learned about how to identify, incorporate and influence the adoption of emerging technologies. My finished work demonstrates what I have learned for each of these. I designed a learning activity that incorporates a digital game, an emerging technology in education. I also described how this activity could support content area and 21st century learning in order to influence their adoption. Finally, I developed a rationale for a grant proposal for using digital games.
I didn’t know much about emerging technology and I knew even less about getting my school to adopt them. After completely the course I feel more comfortable about my ability to incorporate new technology in my classroom activities and about influencing technology change at my school. My new knowledge and experience has given me the ideas and strategies that I can share with my school. It has also given me the resources to continue my learning now that the program is done. Since this is the last course in the program, I also want to mention that this ten course sequence has given me more insight and strategies then I ever expected. I am excited to implement what I learned and pass it on to colleagues.
I plan to continue to use the resources and links that we used in this course to keep myself up to date with emerging technologies. I have already added some of the websites from this course to my bookmarks. As a result of this course, I have learned how to look at emerging technologies through an educational stand point (even if they weren’t made for that purpose). I also plan to continue to gradually incorporate what I’ve learned in this course and the entire program at Walden into my daily teaching repertoire. Finally, I plan to take what I have learned in this program and share it with my colleagues. Hopefully, I can volunteer to run some workshops on staff development days to share the ideas and insights I have gained through Walden about educational technology.
March 28, 2010
Online Learning in K-12 Schools
I have created a cartoon video using xtranormal to give information about the potentials of online learning. You can view this video at
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6327887
References
Johnston, S. (2007). Developing Quality Virtual Courses: Selecting Instructional Models. In P. Adamson, B. Adamson, & N. Clausen-Grace, et al (Eds.),What Works in K-12 Online Learning (Chapter 2, pp. 21-31). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
Young, J., Birtolo, P., & McElman, R. (2009). Virtual success: Transforming education through online learning. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(5), 12–17. Search using the Education Research Complete database by the article's title.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6327887
References
Johnston, S. (2007). Developing Quality Virtual Courses: Selecting Instructional Models. In P. Adamson, B. Adamson, & N. Clausen-Grace, et al (Eds.),What Works in K-12 Online Learning (Chapter 2, pp. 21-31). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
Young, J., Birtolo, P., & McElman, R. (2009). Virtual success: Transforming education through online learning. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(5), 12–17. Search using the Education Research Complete database by the article's title.
February 27, 2010
Reflection Blog EDUC 6714: Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology
The Differentiation Station social network portion of this course turned out to provide me with so many useful resources in Universal Design for Learning. Due to the group effort and collaboration, we were all able to accumulate so many more links and resources than we would have individually. There are many resources that my group has posted that I have already bookmarked and used for our course assignments. I also plan to continue to refer to these resources for additional ideas and support as I gradually start implementing UDL in my classroom. We searched, located and shared a large amount of valuable resources
As a result of this course, I have learned many ways to use technology to customize instruction. I also learned and I think I got the most out of using technology to customize assessment. Before taking this course, I offered my student some options and I have differentiated my instruction to some extent. However, the area that most of this was taking place was in the actual teaching and learning part of my instruction not the assessment. I was stuck in the traditional written exam format for all students. This course helped me to see that this is not the only way to assess my students and it has offered me many new options that differentiate assessment, offer options to my students in the area of assessment and incorporate technology into my assessment. An immediate adjustment I will make as a result of this course is to offer my students more options and flexibility in my assessment methods and to have at least some options use technology tools. I love the clickers and I think I will start to push my school to invest in them. I also loved the on-line surveys we developed in week 2, I plan on implementing them immediately also to replace my paper versions.
As a result of this course, I have learned many ways to use technology to customize instruction. I also learned and I think I got the most out of using technology to customize assessment. Before taking this course, I offered my student some options and I have differentiated my instruction to some extent. However, the area that most of this was taking place was in the actual teaching and learning part of my instruction not the assessment. I was stuck in the traditional written exam format for all students. This course helped me to see that this is not the only way to assess my students and it has offered me many new options that differentiate assessment, offer options to my students in the area of assessment and incorporate technology into my assessment. An immediate adjustment I will make as a result of this course is to offer my students more options and flexibility in my assessment methods and to have at least some options use technology tools. I love the clickers and I think I will start to push my school to invest in them. I also loved the on-line surveys we developed in week 2, I plan on implementing them immediately also to replace my paper versions.
December 21, 2009
Reflection: Final blog post (EDUC 6713)
Throughout this course at Walden, I have developed and followed two GAME plans. The GAME plan is a process for self-directed learning with the following steps: set Goals, take Action, Monitor progress, and Evaluate and Extend. I set two goals for myself in the area of technology, one for instructional purposes, WebQuests, and the other for assessment purposes, digital/electronic portfolios. As a result of using the GAME plan, I learned a great deal about both of these things and how to use them to make my teaching more effective. In addition to learning about these specific technologies, I learned to approach anything that I want to learn or that I want my students to learn using the GAME plan. I have always considered myself a self-directed learner because I like to learn new things but my downfall was lack of organization and following up. The GAME plan has given me a way to break down and organize my own learning and my students learning as well. I did not major in education as an undergraduate so when I began teaching, I had no idea the best way to design and organize my lesson plans. I took other education courses but I still felt that they did not help me in this area. I was never formally taught how to write a lesson plan and I think that now after these Walden courses, I feel more knowledgeable and feel like I have improved in this area. The GAME plan has been a tremendous help. What I have learned as a result of the GAME plan and this course will allow me to improve as a teacher and help me to be more organized and more effective. Besides using it for my own learning and for my lesson plans, it is equally important that I guide my students to use the process as well so they could become self directed learners.
As a result of what I learned in this course, I plan to make some immediate adjustments to my instructional practice regarding technology integration. First, I would like to take what I learned about digital portfolios through my GAME plan and put it into action with students. While researching digital portfolios I learned how I could implement them and I came up with a list of artifacts I would like my students to include. Now it is time to incorporate it into my classes. I would also like to start implementing some of the social networking/online collaboration tools that we explored. These types of tools are new to me and I have never used them in class. With all the useful information we have learned in this course, this has sparked the most interest for me and it will probably be the first thing I explore further and start integrating first.
When I first began these courses at Walden I have to admit that I was hesitant about how I could incorporate technology into the math high school classroom. Except for graphing calculators, spreadsheet software and graphing software, I couldn’t think of other things I could use. I was concerned that I would be stretching my content standards to fit and couldn’t see how I would use a wiki, blog or the Web 2.0 in my math classes. I am excited to say that I was wrong and that I have learned many new ideas and came up with a few of my own as a result of all of the courses in this master’s program. They would all allow me to provide my students with authentic learning experiences and not be a forced fit like I thought. While it was difficult to come up with ideas for some of the tools we have explored, it was definitely possible to use all of them with my high school math students.
As a result of what I learned in this course, I plan to make some immediate adjustments to my instructional practice regarding technology integration. First, I would like to take what I learned about digital portfolios through my GAME plan and put it into action with students. While researching digital portfolios I learned how I could implement them and I came up with a list of artifacts I would like my students to include. Now it is time to incorporate it into my classes. I would also like to start implementing some of the social networking/online collaboration tools that we explored. These types of tools are new to me and I have never used them in class. With all the useful information we have learned in this course, this has sparked the most interest for me and it will probably be the first thing I explore further and start integrating first.
When I first began these courses at Walden I have to admit that I was hesitant about how I could incorporate technology into the math high school classroom. Except for graphing calculators, spreadsheet software and graphing software, I couldn’t think of other things I could use. I was concerned that I would be stretching my content standards to fit and couldn’t see how I would use a wiki, blog or the Web 2.0 in my math classes. I am excited to say that I was wrong and that I have learned many new ideas and came up with a few of my own as a result of all of the courses in this master’s program. They would all allow me to provide my students with authentic learning experiences and not be a forced fit like I thought. While it was difficult to come up with ideas for some of the tools we have explored, it was definitely possible to use all of them with my high school math students.
December 17, 2009
Using the GAME Plan Process with Students
The GAME plan is a guide that can support teachers' and students' self-directed learning. There are two ways that I could use the GAME plan with my high school students. These would be effective in helping students develop their proficiency in both technology standards and content standards.
The first way I could use the GAME plan is to use it to help me plan my lessons. By using the GAME plan process for designing and implementing my lessons, I will have my students’ needs in mind. I will think about what the goals of the lesson should be and the action in the form of what type of instruction would be best. I would need to monitor to make sure my students are learning, and evaluate how the lesson went. I could use the GAME plan lesson template to help me remember to think about the process and to help me organize my lessons into these steps.
The second way I could use the GAME plan with my students is to have them learn how to use it themselves so they could become self-directed lifelong learners. I could teach it to them, model it for them in our daily lessons (as described above) and most importantly I could provide them opportunities to practice it in class. Once I teach the process to my students, they could use it with all of our project/problem based and inquiry based learning activities.
I think that both of these ways of using the GAME plan will help my students in the technology standards and in our math content standards as well. I can use the GAME plan to help me plan authentic learning experiences for my students that will meet both sets of standards simultaneously.
As a high school teacher, where students are very close to moving on to college, I think it is extremely important for me to teach this process to my students so they can use it themselves. If a review the list of NETS-S (http://www.iste.org/ ), I see that most of them align with the GAME plan quite naturally. NETS-S #1 is Creativity and Innovation, this is necessary to plan your action. Once you have a goal, sometimes it takes some creative thinking to come up with ideas on how to reach it. By having students plan out their own actions to meet the goals, they will be exercising creativity and innovation. NETS-S #2 Communication and Collaboration, this will come into play with group activities because when working collaboratively it is extremely important to have a GAME plan. By having students use the GAME plan when they are working with others, they will be learning how to effectively communicate and collaborate. NETS-S #3 Research and Information Fluency, this can occur while working on the action part of the GAME plan since many methods for meeting goals will involve some type of research. Also, you can think of it in the reverse as well. When learning how to research effectively, students need a GAME plan. NETS-S #4 Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, this one is pretty much the GAME plan in a nut shell. While using the GAME plan students will be doing all three of these things.
The first way I could use the GAME plan is to use it to help me plan my lessons. By using the GAME plan process for designing and implementing my lessons, I will have my students’ needs in mind. I will think about what the goals of the lesson should be and the action in the form of what type of instruction would be best. I would need to monitor to make sure my students are learning, and evaluate how the lesson went. I could use the GAME plan lesson template to help me remember to think about the process and to help me organize my lessons into these steps.
The second way I could use the GAME plan with my students is to have them learn how to use it themselves so they could become self-directed lifelong learners. I could teach it to them, model it for them in our daily lessons (as described above) and most importantly I could provide them opportunities to practice it in class. Once I teach the process to my students, they could use it with all of our project/problem based and inquiry based learning activities.
I think that both of these ways of using the GAME plan will help my students in the technology standards and in our math content standards as well. I can use the GAME plan to help me plan authentic learning experiences for my students that will meet both sets of standards simultaneously.
As a high school teacher, where students are very close to moving on to college, I think it is extremely important for me to teach this process to my students so they can use it themselves. If a review the list of NETS-S (http://www.iste.org/ ), I see that most of them align with the GAME plan quite naturally. NETS-S #1 is Creativity and Innovation, this is necessary to plan your action. Once you have a goal, sometimes it takes some creative thinking to come up with ideas on how to reach it. By having students plan out their own actions to meet the goals, they will be exercising creativity and innovation. NETS-S #2 Communication and Collaboration, this will come into play with group activities because when working collaboratively it is extremely important to have a GAME plan. By having students use the GAME plan when they are working with others, they will be learning how to effectively communicate and collaborate. NETS-S #3 Research and Information Fluency, this can occur while working on the action part of the GAME plan since many methods for meeting goals will involve some type of research. Also, you can think of it in the reverse as well. When learning how to research effectively, students need a GAME plan. NETS-S #4 Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, this one is pretty much the GAME plan in a nut shell. While using the GAME plan students will be doing all three of these things.
December 10, 2009
Revising My GAME Plan
There are some things that I have learned while working on my GAME plans, that I can apply to my instructional practice. First, I have learned many new things about Webquests, including how to use them and how to create them. I know that once I use a Webquest (either a pre-existing one or an original creation) then I will have an even deeper understanding. I have also learned about digital/electronic portfolios and started to design one that I could use with my classes. Again, I learned quite a bit but now have to put it into action in my classroom. Finally, the most important thing I learned is the process itself, the GAME plan. Now that I have gone through it myself, I will be better equipped to teach it and use it with my students. Not only will it help in my lesson planning and implementation but I will also be able to teach my students how they could use it themselves for their self-directed learning. Like I stated in a previous post, I have always been a self directed learner but I have never approached it so systematically before and I have never thought about my learning so consciously.
I am still working on both of my original goals. While I learned a lot about both WebQuests and digital portfolios, it was mostly facts and ideas. My next step is to take all of that new knowledge and put it to use in my classroom. I need to do a Webquest with my students and I have to help them create portfolios before I can say that I officially met my goals. Once I have done both of these things then I can reflect on what happened and decide what I need to learn more about or modify. I am also still working on learning about technology in general. While my GAME plan goals were much more specific, I am slowly trying to do the same thing with many other educational technologies. This would be my new learning goal until I complete my studies here at Walden, at which point I could dedicate more time and effort to setting more goals for self directed learning.
Next time, I think that I will try harder to find a colleague or even a friend of a friend to help me learn a new technology. While some of my colleagues and classmates gave me some good ideas and resources, I think for me personally, it would be more effective to have someone there to show me and be there to answer any questions as they arise instead of relying on mostly research and discussions. I would also be stricter with myself as far as scheduling a time when I would work on my goals.
I am still working on both of my original goals. While I learned a lot about both WebQuests and digital portfolios, it was mostly facts and ideas. My next step is to take all of that new knowledge and put it to use in my classroom. I need to do a Webquest with my students and I have to help them create portfolios before I can say that I officially met my goals. Once I have done both of these things then I can reflect on what happened and decide what I need to learn more about or modify. I am also still working on learning about technology in general. While my GAME plan goals were much more specific, I am slowly trying to do the same thing with many other educational technologies. This would be my new learning goal until I complete my studies here at Walden, at which point I could dedicate more time and effort to setting more goals for self directed learning.
Next time, I think that I will try harder to find a colleague or even a friend of a friend to help me learn a new technology. While some of my colleagues and classmates gave me some good ideas and resources, I think for me personally, it would be more effective to have someone there to show me and be there to answer any questions as they arise instead of relying on mostly research and discussions. I would also be stricter with myself as far as scheduling a time when I would work on my goals.
December 3, 2009
Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress
In the GAME plan, the last phase is to Evaluate and Extend (E). During this part of the process I will reflect on my plan to evaluate my success in meeting my goals and to think about how I could extend what I have learned to other areas. “Both self-monitoring and self-evaluation are considered essential components of self-directed learning” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
Evaluating progress towards Goal #1: Learn more about WebQuests and how to create my own that will support my high school math curriculum.
For this goal, I feel that my action plan had some good points but I don’t feel that I have met my goal completely. I learned about WebQuests and got some ideas about how to use them in my classroom but I have not yet created one myself, which was part of my action plan. I still plan to continue to work on this goal over the next few weeks. I don’t think that I planned enough time to work on the creation of a WebQuest and I ended up putting it aside in order to finish other things that had to get done first. I need to make a better schedule and then stick to it.
Evaluating progress towards Goal #2: Learn more about digital portfolios (electronic portfolios) and how to use them to assess my high school math students.
For this goal, I feel that my action plan was very effective and I am satisfied with my progress towards achieving my goal. I learned many things about portfolios and how I could use them with my classes. In addition to my own research, fellow classmates offered insightful information that helped me to reach this goal. I started to make a list of items that I could have students include as artifacts along with room for some student choices. I feel that I met my goal as far as learning about portfolios but I will still continue to search for additional ideas. Also, I don’t think that I will truly be able to evaluate what I have learned until I can put the portfolio to use in my classes and see how it works. That will take time to implement, assess and reflect upon which I plan to start doing with my next semester’s students.
__________________________
While I carried out both of my action plans, I learned that I need to be more organized with the information I was finding. As suggested in the course text, I should have kept a journal (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) and made folders on my computer to save useful sites and resources in a more effective way.
Throughout this process, I have learned how to use the GAME plan to guide myself through self-directed learning activities (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Although I have always been self-directed and I can say I am self-taught in many areas, I don’t think that I have ever approached it so systematically. What I have learned is a procedure that I could use to learn new things and to use to help my students learn how to be self-directed in their learning. Going through this has made me consciously think about my learning and has made me more aware of what, why and how I learn.
______________________________________
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Evaluating progress towards Goal #1: Learn more about WebQuests and how to create my own that will support my high school math curriculum.
For this goal, I feel that my action plan had some good points but I don’t feel that I have met my goal completely. I learned about WebQuests and got some ideas about how to use them in my classroom but I have not yet created one myself, which was part of my action plan. I still plan to continue to work on this goal over the next few weeks. I don’t think that I planned enough time to work on the creation of a WebQuest and I ended up putting it aside in order to finish other things that had to get done first. I need to make a better schedule and then stick to it.
Evaluating progress towards Goal #2: Learn more about digital portfolios (electronic portfolios) and how to use them to assess my high school math students.
For this goal, I feel that my action plan was very effective and I am satisfied with my progress towards achieving my goal. I learned many things about portfolios and how I could use them with my classes. In addition to my own research, fellow classmates offered insightful information that helped me to reach this goal. I started to make a list of items that I could have students include as artifacts along with room for some student choices. I feel that I met my goal as far as learning about portfolios but I will still continue to search for additional ideas. Also, I don’t think that I will truly be able to evaluate what I have learned until I can put the portfolio to use in my classes and see how it works. That will take time to implement, assess and reflect upon which I plan to start doing with my next semester’s students.
__________________________
While I carried out both of my action plans, I learned that I need to be more organized with the information I was finding. As suggested in the course text, I should have kept a journal (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) and made folders on my computer to save useful sites and resources in a more effective way.
Throughout this process, I have learned how to use the GAME plan to guide myself through self-directed learning activities (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Although I have always been self-directed and I can say I am self-taught in many areas, I don’t think that I have ever approached it so systematically. What I have learned is a procedure that I could use to learn new things and to use to help my students learn how to be self-directed in their learning. Going through this has made me consciously think about my learning and has made me more aware of what, why and how I learn.
______________________________________
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
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