Revising Your GAME Plan

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice? What goals are you still working toward?

I feel like that I have learned quite a bit that I will be able to apply to my instructional practices, but there is so much information to sift through in order to find the best ways to integrate technology into my lessons. It is a time consuming process, especially since I really need to be comfortable and confident with whatever application I choose to use before I can teach it to my students and expect them to be able to use it proficiently. Vicki Davis (Laureate, 2009k) emphasized that this was one of the challenges on online networking and collaboration in addition to other technologies.

Unfortunately, because of budget cuts etc… my teaching situation changed for the upcoming school year and I am currently working with my new administration and IT department in order to some technology into my new classroom. I have been told that they are “working” on installing a digital projector into my room and I have emailed the IT director about getting a couple of student computers as well. Once this is done, I will have to spend some time learning to use the projector, but it will be a couple of years before I can get another interactive white board.

Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?

After working on the unit plan for problem-based learning and deciding to work with students on starting a school newsletter, I realized that I will have to spent quite a bit of time on digital citizenship and responsibility so that students understand that “digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information” (ISTE, 2008). This also ties in with ethics and responsible reporting once we begin working on our newsletter. Towards this end, I will continue to design and develop “relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources” so that students are given ample opportunities to practice and apply this new knowledge.

What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?

I really want to empower my students in their learning through this newsletter, but in order to do that, it will be necessary to make them stakeholders and make them responsible for their own learning processes. My job will be to provide information and support, but for the most part—through problem-based learning—they will be in charge of gathering and processing information into usable data that will lead them to a finished product. All I can do is provide the framework and then be there to guide them. This will take quite a bit of effort on my part because I am a bit of a control freak. However, before I completely turn over the reins, I need to improve my own knowledge about what needs to be done in order to start publishing a newsletter. I have been doing this through research on the internet, but I need to be more proactive in reaching out to colleagues who are more familiar with the process. Once school is back in session, I will get right on this.




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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009k). Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part one. Baltimore: Author.