Final Reflections

Final Reflections on GAME Plan and Course

Over the past seven weeks I have continued working on my GAME (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) plan and have reached my final reflection.  My first goal, to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility (NETS-T, 2008), has gone well.  I managed to get about 95% of my digital library properly cited or replaced and I have been consciously making student aware of each citation as it is used.  Students in the fourth and fifth grades will be signing their pledge for the online safety and ethical lessons starting the last week in October.  My second goal, to engage in professional growth and leadership (NETS-T, 2008), has also been going well.  The PLC meeting was productive and helped get everyone on the same page for integrating the new math and reading software.  To keep students engaged and on task, we created schedule and posted at each assigned computer along with a log documenting what skill(s) they worked on.  We will revisit the schedule and logs at our upcoming PLC meeting to determine how it is working.  I have gotten behind on entering my help sheet data this week, so I may have to rethink and modify how the data is collected and organized.  I may have to go digital with this one.

When summarizing new learning as a result of working through my GAME plan, two things come to minds.  First, I found out that modeling digital citizenship and responsibility takes a lot of planning and forethought on the part of the teacher.  Initially, I only taught a few lessons on digital citizenship each year and often fell short model the behaviors consistently.  After working through my plan, I feel confident that my teaching practices will now reflect a more rigorous approach.   The second new learning stems from my engagement in professional growth and leadership.  As I worked with my PLC and other collogues, I have developed a better understanding of their needs and how, as the technology teacher, I can help.   A more tailored approach can be taken when offering professional development to the teachers depending on individual or grade level concerns.  Sessions such as, sharing student usernames and passwords in a more effective way, customizing reports for better data, or a tutorial on the six new math CDs will be scheduled as a result of this new learning.

As a result of learning from this course, I will be making two immediate adjustments to my instructional practices regarding technology integration.  The first adjustment is to consistently model and discuss how and why we should cite the work and ideas of others.  Over the length of this course, I have made great efforts to update my own resources and files as the first step in making this goal a reality.  The second adjustment is to utilize a wider variety of technology when teaching, practicing, and assessing content knowledge in the computer lab.  Technology is changing every day and students need to be able to modify their own strategies along with it.  Keeping current with newer technologies can help students gain the skills needed for adapting in their uncertain future. 

Over the past four weeks, I have had the opportunity to integrate problem-based learning, social networking, online collaboration, and digital storytelling into my daily instruction.  I have found that all three strategies lend themselves to technology integration.  Integrating technologies such as computers, search engines, data collection software, and graphing tools with problem-based learning can increase student engagement and add authenticity to the problem being presented (Laureate Education Inc., 2010a).  No matter what the problem revolves around, technology can help gather information, organize, display, and share information.  Online collaboration is an excellent way for students to connect with others throughout the learning process.  Whether collecting, sharing, or teaching information, online blogs, wikis, and chat can engage the learner with a wider, more authentic audience (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b).  Digital storytelling is one of the best ways to cover material across the curriculum

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. (Producer). (2010a). Program number 9: Spotlight on Technology: Problem Based Learning: Part II [DVD]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010b). Program number 10: Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration: Part I [DVD]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.