GAME Plan

• Goals for confidence and proficiency in at least two indicators in the NETS-T.
• The two indicators that I want to work toward confidence and proficiency in would be Indicator Two: Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments and Indicator Four: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. I do not necessarily lack the knowledge in these areas but I definitely could build my confidence levels, especially with Indicator Two. I struggle when it comes to effective assessment. I find it difficult to know what to assess, how much to assess, and how to change my assessments to fit the needs of my students at times. I am the kind of person that always puts in too much rather than too little. I want to be able to hone my ability of choosing what to assess as well as how to assess it. I also want to look into the technologies available to me for assessment as well as learning experiences. I also feel that I need to become more proficient in modeling digital citizenship. I need to take more time to cite where I find pictures for my presentations. Modeling is a good way to show our students the correct way to do things. When they see the teacher modeling what is appropriate, they are more apt to take it upon themselves and do the same with their resources.
• Actions I will take to achieve those goals.
• I want to spend more time finding authentic assessments on the web as well as researching ideas on assessment. I want to explore the realm of technology when it comes to implementing different ways of bringing the outside world into the classroom. One action I would like to achieve for the coming year is a digital field trip. I want my students to experience something in the science realm that they would not normally experience and I want to do it through technology. I would also like to work on a collaborative project with another classroom in the local area. I have a few friends that are teachers at different districts and I would like to link up with one of them through a wiki and do a collaborative project. I feel that these digital age learning experiences and assessments will help me achieve confidence in Indicator Two. With regards to Indicator Four, my actions would be to start citing all pictures, video, and information I gather from other sources in my PowerPoint presentations. It is not enough to cite them, however. I want to bring attention to my students where I gathered this information and how important it is to cite something.
• How I will monitor my progress.
• One way that I can monitor my progress is to keep a small journal and write down what things worked and what didn’t work in the classroom. If an experience with technology did not work the way that I expected then I need to write that down so I remember for the next time. I can then tweak the experience to fit the needs of my students. Teaching is a trial and error kind of profession. If we do not keep track of what works and what doesn’t, however, it makes it hard to adjust our lessons. I also will pay attention to if my students start citing websites on their own. Even if they write down the name of the book, author, and page number or just list the website where they found their information, I will know that they are taking what I am modeling into consideration.
• How I will evaluate and extend my learning.
• I will have the journal to look back on with what worked and what didn’t work. I will also have my students write down what they enjoyed and what could have been done better. I do this at the end of each school year with my students as a rule because as a beginning teacher I want to know what is working and what isn’t working. One has to be objective in reading the responses because sometimes students just don’t like school and very little you do will get them to change their mind. I know that my PowerPoint notes need adjusted and that is the first thing that I am going to work on. I can also evaluate my learning by how much the students are retaining and if they are enjoying the process of learning. I can go to my peers for help or even offer some advice when they have issues with technology in their classroom. I can also keep researching on the latest technologies that can be utilized in the classroom. Keeping up with the times is a good way to extend my learning.

Reflection: Application 8

When I started this course, I wasn’t quite sure what new literacy skills were, let alone how to incorporate them into my lesson planning. The most striking revelation that I had about teaching new literacy skills is how prevalent they are in my students’ everyday lives. This combined with the fact that most of us do not teach new literacy skills in the general classroom setting amazed me. Our students are using these skills everyday either via social networking, cell phone communications, reading articles online, searching the Internet for various items, and programs such as instant messaging. It occurred to me that our students may know more about new literacy skills than we do and we are the ones that are to be teaching them these skills. If we don’t begin to assimilate these skills into our everyday teaching, we will not be reaching out students and teaching them that there is a right and wrong way to use these skills. It is our job not only to bring the content to our students but to teach them the correct way to utilize new literacy skills to respect both the information infrastructure and others when utilizing these kinds of skills.
The knowledge and experience that I gained from this course will help me to incorporate new literacy skills into my everyday teaching style. I have already begun to utilize some of these skills during the summer school session that I have been teaching the past few weeks. I thought I would try out a few things with my students that I took out of this class. The great thing has been how open they are to the new learning of not only content but new literacy skills. I have talked about how to search for items in the proper manner, what to do and not to do when you are communicating via the Internet or other messaging service, and a little about social networking sites and how they can be utilized in the proper manner. I hope that they take a little out of this summer school session and apply it next school year when it comes to their own individual research and communication. I am also looking forward to being able to apply these new literacy skills to my regular classroom for the coming school year. I want to make it a point to cite everything I use, whether it be from the text book or a website. I want to stress the fact that students need to cite anything they take out of a resource. I am planning on starting out projects with an in-depth discussion on the new literacy skills that the students will be utilizing along with giving them a checklist to monitor their own progress. These are all goals I have made for myself in dealing with that I took out of this class.
Dr. Warlick stated in his video segment that technology increases the ability for students to connect with each other, connect to experts, connect to other classes, and connect to content (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). A professional development goal that I have for myself is to find workshops that deal with this “connected connectivism.” I want to take the opportunity to perhaps attend a short workshop on videoconferencing and collaborative projects over the Internet. I would love to connect with a classroom in the coming months and work collaboratively with their classroom to complete a project. I think that it would be a wonderful opportunity for the students to utilize not only their new literacy skills but for myself to apply what I have learned in a professional setting. I also want to start bringing these ideas to my colleagues in a productive way and perhaps do a professional development session at our next in-service day that deals with new literacy skills. I want share the knowledge I have gained with my colleagues and really make a push for more technology professional development in our school district.

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting Information Literacy
and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.

Reflection

When I looked back on my personal theory of learning written during the first week of this class, I saw that my personal learning theory really has not changed over the course of this class. I still tend to take a constructivist's perspective when it comes to student learning of content and a behaviorist's perspective when it comes to student learning of correct behavior and manners. These I have incorporated into my classroom, however, I see evidence of perhaps incorporating more constructivist activities when it comes to certain areas of my teaching. I have also started to lean toward the social learning theories and have tried to modify my cooperative learning activities in such a way to promote effective social learning and communication.

There are some immediate adjustments that I have started to make in my instruction in regards to technology. In particular, I have added activities to my PowerPoint's in which I present Cloze notes to the students. These activities are hands-on and allow students to either work together to complete a task or complete one and share it with another student. They take the content we are learning in the notes and allow the students to apply that content to a physical activity. I hope to see results of these activities in the understanding of my students on quizzes and also in informal assessment. These activities are new to my students but the first reactions have been positive. I also plan on incorporating more cooperative learning activities with programs such as VoiceThread and even some of the concept mapping tools we have learned about. I have a project planned with my students using VoiceThread and I am working with our technology coordinator to add on some programs such as Inspiration to the computers on our mobile lab. These I hope to utilize in my classroom and also encourage my colleagues to try them out as well.

Two long-term goals I have for changing my instructional practice regarding technology would be to have at least one project a nine-weeks period assigned that utilizes technology, whether it be an out of class project or in class assignment and to take at least one day a week or every two weeks to teach my students how to use a new type of technology and complete a small assignment with that piece of technology. I want my students to feel comfortable using some of these tools so that down the road when they are able to choose their own way of doing a project they have a variety of things they could utilize on their own. I want my students to start thinking outside the box of posters and papers and start thinking of creative ways of doing the same thing. I have given an opportunity with my students this nine weeks to choose a PowerPoint presentation for their book report. Some of my students have chosen this route but most of them have chosen to do a poster. This is the attitude I want to start changing.

I will come up against some issues as a lot of my students have not used technology even in their homes. I do have a few students without computers and a few that do not have the Internet. This may pose a problem only because I do not currently have classroom computers to make up for those who do not have them at home. We are getting a mobile lab put together but it is not together yet and may not be for a few more weeks. As soon as this becomes available I am going to start utilizing it in my classroom. I will get some out of class assignments such as blog postings that the students will also be able to do in their computer class, which they have once a week. With all these ideas in place I hope to integrate technology in my classroom on a regular basis.

Voice Thread

Here is the link to my Voice Thread debut! Enjoy!

http://voicethread.com/share/889140/

Social Learning Theory in Practice

When thinking about social learning theory, cooperative learning comes to the forefront of my mind. Cooperative learning allows students to work together in a group to accomplish a common task. Through this group work they usually have to use the skills that they already have to "learn" a new skill or present how they "learned" this new skill. These groups "focus[es] on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning" (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler, 2007, p. 139).

The cooperative learning strategies that were a part of this week's resources correlate well with the principles of social learning theories. Multimedia presentations such as video, podcasting, and use of this week's resource VoiceThread can allow for students to collaborate together on an online project or something that can be presented to the class in video format. The students must plan together first what they are going to do. They then must experiment with the different programs allowed to them to figure out how they are going to put it all together. Finally, they must pay close attention to detail in their projects and complete the project together. The teacher can tell when a group of students hasn't worked well together as their project fails. Up-front preparation and communication skills play key roles in this type of cooperative learning strategy.

Something else that caught my attention in this week's resources was the web-enabled multiplayer simulation games. These games are becoming ever popular outside of the classroom with games such as Call of Duty (my husband and brothers play that together over an Internet connection) and even Mario Kart. It is amazing how in some of these games you can be on the same team and work on solving a problem together even though you are not in the same room. The same can be done with educational programs. The one that particularly caught my eye was Revolution in which students work together online to solve problems, debate, and communicate during the events that led up to the American Revolution. While I am not a social studies teacher I can see how this type of cooperative learning exercise would both enhance students' social and communication skills but also their content knowledge about a particular time period in American History. This was a pivotal moment in our nation's history and to be able to simulate what it might have been like for the students gives them a better understanding of what exactly was going on.

There are many other strategies in our resources that correlate with the principles of social learning theories. I do like what the author said, however, that cooperative learning should be used "consistently and systematically" yet should not be "overused" (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler, 2007, 139). Overuse of anything can create bad situations and bad student-teacher experiences. However, cooperative learning is a great tool to use in the classroom and it benefits not just the students involved but the teacher as well.

Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., Malenoski, K., & Pitler, H. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Constructivist/Constructionist Learning and Technology

This week's resources were full of technology-based constructivist/constructionist strategies that can be incorporated into the classroom very easily. One resource that I found highly intriguing was actually from the website listing in chapter 11 of the book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler, 2007, p. 215). This website, entitled "By Kids For Kids: How To Invent" had a number of projects listed such as producing your own television show, creating your own signature style fashion line, and recycling and reinvtening items from the trash. When I first saw these projects listed I was thinking that it was like a guided tutorial that allowed them to create a "prototype" online. I was wrong! I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that it gave steps for physically creating these projects! Kids of all ages can go to this site and follow the steps listed to create these one of a kind projects. They have to construct their own project using their own materials. This is basic level constructivism. There is no prototype to look at to compare as to whether they are doing it correctly. Just directions for them to follow. They are making something and constructing knowledge along the way.

Another resources I found interesting was another website from the listing in our reading for the week entitled "Practicing with the Catapault" (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler, 2007, p. 215). When I went to this site I noticed immediately that this would be for students at a much higher level of learning, say high school. What I liked is it gave directions for completing the activity but I was immediately drawn to just playing around with the starting height, launch speed, and the like. I was beginning to construct my own knowledge about this particular activity. I had to dig around in my brain to when I was in high school physics and remember what terminal velocity was, however, I was actually able to complete the activity by just trial and error. That is a lot of what constructivism and constructionism is - trial and error. Students are given a problem and a method for finding the solution but they have to do it on their own. It is their job to solve the problem and in the process begin to construct their own knowledge.

There are many other great resources in this book that bring constructivism and constructionism into the classroom that are easily accessible and create seamless instruction. Technology opens up a world to the classroom of opportunities that may have been unattainable in the past. Students are able to create more on their own without much help from the teacher and in the process participate in a learning experience that far outweighs that of any lecture.

Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., Malenoski, K., & Pitler, H. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Technology and Behaviorism - Is there a common ground?

When looking over the resources for this week in Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works I read about a lot of strategies that I have either used myself or assigned for my students to use. I did read about some I did not know existed, however. For example, I did not realize that Microsoft Word had a research tool. I can see how this would help students (and myself) greatly!!

As I read through some of these strategies I was thinking of how behaviorism fits into the grand scheme of it all. In particular, Ms. Powell's Effort Rubric deals with student effort and, in a sense, behavior (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler, 2007). Students rate themselves on items such as how they feel they take class notes, how well they pay attention, participation, homework, and studying. That is then turned into a grade for the week. I like this because students are being reinforced in one way or another and they have the chance to change that behavior if they so choose. This is something I may implement in my classroom because I am curious to see exactly how my students feel about their effort. I need to be more proactive about student effort. Each student knows I believe they can do it but they have never really been pushed hard enough to improve on their own. I want them to WANT to improve!

Another strategy that I feel deals with behaviorism is giving students a choice for a multimedia project. Students receive reinforcement after they complete their project and receive a grade on it. It then allows the student a chance to either choose the same type of multimedia for the next project or choose something that maybe they will do better at. If a student received negative feedback on a particular project, they are less apt to choose that same venue again. I do like giving the students a choice and have done that in the past more because most of my students do not have these applications at home to complete the project. There are also no computers at school for them to access on a regular basis.

Another strategy I found dealt with behaviorism is that of web resources. Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, & Pitler gave a list on pages196-199 in their book of web resources where students can go and play games that test and practice skills. These games give the students immediate feedback, either positive or negative, on their level of skills that they possess in certain areas. This immediate feedback allows the child to either feel intrinsically motivated when they receive positive feedback or allows them a chance to make a different choice if there is negative feedback. They will then change the way they go about completing the task or doing the skill. This is behaviorism at its finest! I have had the chance to use web resources with my intervention students, and while I do not think that doing this every week is a great idea, it is a nice change for the students (and for myself).

Lastly, I liked the communication strategy. This strategy gives a group of students the opportunity to work on a project at their own pace even if they cannot physically meet. They access programs such as Google Docs or Your Drafts to collaborate on a project. Each student provides feedback to the other members of the group and behaviors are changed as feedback is provided. If a student is upset at another student because they have not added their share of the information and mentions it to that student, then the student in question is more likely to add their share of the project. If a student is doing exceptionally well on their share of the project and the others praise that student for their efforts, then that student will more than likely continue to excel in that particular area.

All of these are examples of how some of the strategies we read about in this week's resources correlate with the principles of behaviorism.