Using the GAME Plan process with Students

Whether ahead or behind in the curriculum, alternative education students typically need to work at their own pace and the GAME Plan (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) is perfect for allowing me as a teacher to help them develop proficiency in the technology standards and indicators that I have been trying to integrate into my English Language Arts course. By using the GAME Plan to increase my own knowledge, I have been able to build my technology skills through inquiry and practice. I can now apply what I have learned to my classroom practice by helping my students set goals, create action plans, monitor their own progress, and evaluate their learning. This will allow them to take on more responsibility in their own learning processes and become stakeholders in their education. Using technology allows them to engage in both the physical and virtual classroom environments. Through practice using the various components of technology introduced into the classroom, students will become more proficient at using word processing programs, online networking and collaboration, and learn to create digital stories. The technology skills they will learn as they progress through high school will be greatly beneficial to them in the 21st century global job market. The English classroom is a wonderful place to do this because it is uniquely flexible in its ability to incorporate most if not all of the NETS-S (2007) standards for students. Creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts can all be incorporated into various lessons embedded with technology. Students can be innovative through problem-based learning and use their individual creativity to solve those problems as they communicate and collaborate both in the classroom and through the use of online networking such as wikis and blogging. Learning to sift through all the information on the Web will help them develop research and information fluency and increase their ability to make decisions and think critically. Most importantly, they will become digital citizens who are responsible and ethical in their use of this technology because they will be monitored by the teacher, themselves and each other as they are guided through their learning efforts.

Resources:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2007). National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/NETS/forstudents/2007standards/nets_for_students_2007.htm