As I started my journey in furthering my education, I realized that I needed to develop my skills in technology. I also wanted to help my students become successful citizens and to do that I would need to bring in 21st century technology skills into the curriculum. In order to achieve this goal, I need to develop a GAME Plan as described by Cennamo, Ross and Ertner (2009)as a self-directed learning plan that I will be able to set my own Goals, take Action to meet those goals, Monitor my progress toward reaching those goals and then, reflect or Evaluate the effectiveness of the learning process and learning outcomes. In order to identify the areas in which I need to improve, I referred to ISTE (the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers. I chose tow areas in which I would like to focus and create a GAME plan for myself.


I. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S.
A) Teachers design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

GOALS
My goal is to develop learning experiences using new technology tools such as the ipod to promote student knowledge and creative thinking.

ACTION
I plan to explore new web applications that can be used in conjunction with my current curriculum to promote better comprehension of curriculum concepts.

MONITOR
In order to monitor myself and track the number of times I use the ipad, I will circle IPAD on my lesson plans.

EVALUATE
An evaluation of my lessons using the ipad will be to use a rubric to rate student comprehension of lesson, interest and activity.

II. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.

D. Teachers communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

GOALS
I would like to improve the communication tools that I already implement. I want to add audio and video clips to my wikipage.

ACTION
I will review and and become proficient in enbedding Animoto and Audacity into my wikipage. I will take pictures of two classes a week working on their projects and showcase them on the wiki.

MONITOR
As a form of monitoring my wiki, I will keep a record for ten weeks of which classes were featured on the wiki.

EVALUATE
I will ask parents for feedback to determine how often they looked at the wiki and whether they found the site to be informative and interesting.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. (M. Staudt, & M. Stranz, Eds.) Mason, OH, USA: Cengage Learning.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf on May 12, 2010.
Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the Lights. Educational Leadership , 65 (6), 40-45.

Reflection

Technology is changing the way we interact with others as well as providing accessibility to more information than ever before. Staying up to date with the changes will require continual learning on my part. I believe that it is necessary for me to create an environment that will also enable the student to be a continual learner.

In reflecting on my most recent Walden University class, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (EDUC - 6712I - 3), I have learned how to prepare effective lessons using the internet for research activities by my students. By demonstrating and modeling safe and evaluative methods for searching the internet, I will be teaching life skills to my students. I also learned that citing sources is necessary and important and that I must actively discuss and demonstrate the proper ways in which to give credit to an internet author.

This summer I plan to take additional technology courses through my school’s IT department so that I can continue learning how to integrate technology into my class curriculum.

Critical Evaluation of a Website using a Screencast

In my class on Information Literacy and Online Inquiry, we were assigned to evaluate a website on its validity and reliability. I chose the website on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Using Jing to create a screencast, I used the "think aloud" process to walk my students through the process of critical analysis of the site. I had viewed a screencast presentation before and this exercise gave me the opportunity to create a project, that in the future, I will be able to implement in my classroom. As I went through the steps in making this screencast, I realized that I needed to create a script so that I was sure to focus on the important aspects of the website that I wanted to show to my students.

In "thinking aloud" while creating this screen cast, I didn't realize the many thought processes that went on in evaluating a website. the author of Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November (2008), explained the thought scaffolding process using the acronym REAL to evaluate the validity of a website. The first step of the acronym is to Read the URL. The URL address provides clues about a site, its creator and its information. The second step in the process is to Examine the Content of the site. Carefully evaluating the information and cross checking with other sites helps the reader to judge the quality of the website. The next step is to Ask About the Author. By thoroughly examining the site (looking in the fine type), one can often find out who authored the site. However, sometimes the author's name is not listed. November (2008) suggested using the website www.easywhois.com which "collects information from the Internet to track who owns and is responsible for a domain name". By following these steps of evaluation, a reader can carefully determine the validity and reliability of a website.

November, A. (2008) Web Literacy for Educators.Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Corwin Press.


This is the link to my screen cast for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

http://tree_octopus_jing

Screencast for class

My assignment for my Walden class was to create a screencast describing my thought process to students about how to critically analyze a website on its validity. I chose the website Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

As I look back on the learning theories as presented in my class, I focused on the combination of the behaviorist theory as well as the cognitivist theory. The behaviorist theory focuses on learning is influenced by external stimuli while the cognitivist theory is based on learning occurring through different intelligence or talents. (Lever_Duffy & McDonald, 2008) My style of teaching continues to reflect more of the cognitivist point of view though I now see ways in which I can incorporate other learning styles into my teaching.

My New Year's resolution is to implement more learning activities that incorporate project-based activities which promote a more student centered learning environment and artifact creation. In this way, I hope to guide rather than instruct my students to build and increase their knowledge while creating a concrete artifact in which the student can use as a reference. I also intend to incorporate more concept mapping activities. Concept mapping allows for students to explore key concepts and how they relate to each other. Students will be able to use software programs, such as Kidspiration, to work individually or collaboratively, creating graphic organizers.

This course has shown me many ways in which technology can be used to combine learning theory with instruction. By recognizing the different ways in which we learn and assimilate knowledge, as educators, we can utilize new technology tools to enhance learning.

Link to my Voice Thread

http://voicethread.com/share/778568/