GAME Plan Final Reflection

     There are so many concepts and ideas I gathered through this course of "Integrating Technology across the Content Areas" that I am honestly overwhelmed with all the information I have now. First of all, I never heard before about the GAME plan process, which we all do at certain points in our lives without realizing it, and, at the same time, it helps us to stay updated in our teaching career, either to learn new concepts and technology or stay updated about those we already know. Then, all the new technologies that I did not know exist and could have so many applications in our classrooms. At the end, it was great to learn more deeply about the problem-based learning, the benefits of educational networking, and digital storytelling because of the scope of ideas I have developed to help our students to reach our main goal: master the content area concepts.

     Through my path into the GAME plan I developed, I learned so many new tools I can use with my students. I decided to explore video making, which is one of my weaknesses, and I learned so many ways of working with videos. I even edited some videos I had that my mom sent me and made a small movie with them. Now I am working with pictures to prepare something special about my dad for his birthday. As the reader can notice, even that I had done the whole GAME plan process with videos, I am going back again, checking new features and evaluating their results. My next step with this particular GAME plan is with music features, which I know less than with videos, and I am sure this particular tool could be pretty powerful to use with some students. I also enjoyed doing the GAME plan implementing a lesson. I found out it is pretty easy to prepare a well-designed lesson using this template and it includes everything we need to cover with our students. I will definitely use GAME plan to develop activities for my students and to emphasize in them the importance of planning.

     One of the immediate adjustments I might consider to integrate in the classroom about technology is the educational networking. I have never seen so many benefits the students can gather from it as I noticed through this course. I definitely want to use the GAME plan, not only as part of my instructional planning, but as part of the students’ planning. Most of all, I have seen more broadly how to implement math and technology in a more attractive, significant, and enriching way. 

     I have always liked to integrate technology in every subject I have taught, even with the very young students particularly because of the visual benefits it has. About problem-based learning, it has been tough to integrate it because I am not used to that kind of learning, and I am barely touching the surface about this subject. Even though, I am more than willing to try it in my classroom because of all the content areas, concepts, and skills that can be integrated and developed through the process of only one problem-based project. 

     I would love to integrate educational networking, not only for my students’ benefit, but for their parents as well. This can provide them the quality time they need to spend together, and they will both learn in the process. On the other hand, the students learn how to communicate effectively among each other, and this provides an excellent opportunity to make emphasis about Internet safety. 

     The digital storytelling goes along with my personal teaching philosophy of “doing by learning.” This will definitely be a special part of my curriculum, either digitally or with hands-on activities. I have used it in the past, and it provides wonderful results, not to tell about all the students learn from the process of talking about others or explaining what they have learned.

     In conclusion, this course has been so enriching for me as a professional that I have done an index of all the important concepts I have learned, keeping it handy for future use. I just want to make emphasis in one single aspect that I have always mentioned. Even that technology can provide the students with tools to help them master the concepts and skills they will need for the 21st century workplace, we need to keep a balance with technology and hands-on activities. The students should not lose the skills of drawing, handwriting, and creating with their hands, even that technology will be an integral part of their everyday lives in the future, probably much more than it is today.

Monitoring My Game Plan Progress

 

As you know, my main goal in my GAME plan at the moment is to find more information about the most reliable software to do videos for my students. I have been looking for information about the several choices I was given in my last post. I have picked two particularly, Windows Movie Maker and AVS Video Editor. I decided to pick only two because that will give me time to evaluate both and I would not be overwhelmed with the information.

To find more information about my video research, I submitted a discussion post in www.classroom20.com, and I read some of the information available in this site about videos. I am still waiting for responses about that matter, and this week I will use another PLN to find answers and suggestions. I even watched some samples of students' work. Watching those samples gave me more ideas about the things my students could do with videos in the classroom.

I worked with Windows Movie Maker using a video I had already saved from my Mom's digital camera. I found the features really easy to work with, especially when adding titles into the video. The only feature I could not find was to cut scenes in the video already taken. If someone knows how to do this, let me know. I really like this particular software because is use- friendly and very easy for the students to use. Besides, it provides so many options in effects, font, colors, and titles positions throughout the movie that I am sure it will help students to develop and express their creativity when doing their own videos.

Working with AVS Videos was a little of a burden. I am still working on it. It is kind of hard to find all the features and what they can do, and, at times, there is not even a certainty that it is doing the given command. For example, I wanted to trim a little section of the video, and, even that it showed it did it, when I played the video, it presented the part I wanted to eliminate. I am still working on it because I got somehow frustrated with it. It could be a good resource, but I would have to learn more about this software. The advantage Windows Movie Maker has over AVS Videos is that the first one is free.

My next step will be to find more information through Diigo and Delicious. I have not done this step because of lack of time. Besides, I need to learn to use these resources as something else as bookmarking sites. I have no idea of how to use them to find resources.

So far, with what I have done and I am planning to do, I do not believe I will need to change or modify my action plan. Now I am more curious about what can students do using videos because the concept I have about them is still very limited. I would need to find sample videos done by students to expand my concept about it.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Reviewing my GAME plan, I need to learn new technologies that I can use in the classroom and develop good approaches to model their use to my students. One kind of software that I need to develop the most is creating and editing videos, which includes everything related to music, pictures, and sounds. In the first stage of my plan, I want to work in this particular matter, finding out the best alternatives available to use with my students working with videos. The success of any instructional resource lies in their content and design, but the main impact comes from how a skilled teacher uses it in the classroom (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 96).

Among the resources I will need to carry out my plan, I will need to make a research about all the video software available and which could work for my students. I will also need to address colleagues who have used these resources in their classrooms to learn which has worked better for them and how they use it with their students. At last, I need to choose those that could work for me and practice on my own to master its use to be able to model its use to my students. Additionally, I will need to contact other teachers to learn how they introduce and scaffold this particular technology to their students.

So far, I have been able to find some alternatives I can explore about available video editing software. Among these options, I want to explore Windows Movie Maker and Avidemux, which are free downloads. My next step will be to post my options and asking for others that could have worked for other teachers into the Walden First-Year Student Community forum, this blog, and at www.classroom20.com, which is a social network for teachers interested in Web 2.0 tools and technologies in the classroom. I am pending approval to access to Classroom 2.0. It will love to hear from the readers about a video editing software that has worked for them in the classroom and ideas to present it to the students.

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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: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

        Learning to teach and to teach with technology are lifelong journeys, and as a lifelong learner, much of the teacher's learning will be self-directed and the teacher is responsible of that process (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 1). Exploring the National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), I found out I need more proficiency in two particular standards. I will present the GAME plan I have designed to improve in these standards, which is composed of four steps: set Goals, take Action to meet those goals, Monitor progress toward achieving goals, and Evaluate if the goals were achieved and Extend the learning to new situations (Cennamo et al, 2009, p. 3). 

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ISTE Standards:

3(a): “Teachers demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations” (ISTE, 2008).

3(d): “Teachers model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

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        Even that I am good with technology, there are a lot of tools I am barely learning to use recently, and much more I still do not know about. My GAME plan is designed to learn more tools I can use to include in my instructional planning with my students. At the same time, I will need to be able to present it to students properly for their use.

GOALS:

• To master individually the technological tools I know already, applying different ways to use it in the classroom.
• To learn new technological tools and its applications in the classroom.
• To model and facilitate their use to students appropriately.

ACTION:

• Beginning the week, I will choose a particular tool to practice the features it provides and creating a particular short project to explore its possibilities.
• I will use no less than three one-hour sessions using that particular tool.
• The goals will be done a week alternating each, one week to master a known tool, and one week to learn a new tool.
• Every time I use a particular tool with my students, I will dedicate a lesson to show them the proper use of that technology and allow them the opportunity to explore it before using it for their work.

MONITOR:

• I will auto-evaluate at the end of the week about the use of each tool to help me monitor what I have learned so far and what I will need to learn.
• I will observe my students' reactions with the chosen tool and their comfort using that particular tool.

EVALUATE AND EXTEND:

• I will auto-evaluate at the end of the week about the use of each tool and write a journal about my experience with the particular tool, the features I learned, and how can I use the tool in the classroom.
• I will prepare index cards of each tool to summarize this information to have it accessible for future use, filing them in alphabetical order for easy access.
• The students will write a journal about the tool they had the opportunity to explore about and give an idea of how they would have liked to have this tool introduced for the first time to apply it in future lessons about that same technology.

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        I would love to know more ideas that could improve my GAME plan to become more proficient and confident using technology with students. As teachers, having colleagues willing to take risks and support the technology usage helps to face the challenges this implies (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). For this reason, I will appreciate your contributions.

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: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences With Technology, Part 1. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1341773_1%26url%3D

Starting a new blog for EDUC6713 with Instructor Lebeau

Here we are again, in a new path with blogging for this new and interesting course. I hope you all enjoy and learn from my view in the same way I will learn from yours. Have a nice term!