Developing My Personal GAME Plan

The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers (NETS•T) recommend five categories of expertise for educators to implement in their classrooms for student success. A couple of these are of particular interest to me. I set myself some goals for strengthening my confidence and proficiency in these areas of interest.

The first standard is to “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning Creativity.” Indicator 1b is to “engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources. My goal is to guide my students to use more digital resources. My action plan is to poll my students and find out what types of technology they use most often and what types of technology they are interested in learning. I will also review my current repertoire of lessons to determine if implementing technology will engage my students and increase the learners’ content understanding (Laureate, 2009). For example, instead of providing all students with a paper copy of a primary source document, I can guide them with a topic or prompt and then ask them to locate an appropriate resource online from the Library of Congress website. This change in the instruction creates an opportunity for students to think critically about what is needed, search for and evaluate the documents available and having chosen one, defend it (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). All of the steps in this authentic activity are part of the process in finding and selecting information to support an argument and can be applied across the content areas (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). I will extend my own learning by looking for more sites like this where my students can do guided inquiry instead of being handed a resource.

 Another way I can incorporate more digital resources is to use online news reports. The old fashioned current events activity has students bring in a newspaper clipping or print out an online article to summarize. A more engaging approach might be to use video from several different domestic and international sources (CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Aljazeera, etc.) covering the same issue.  After sharing the video in class, I can model for the students how to critically each source in their approach covering the story looking for how they differ in emphasis, bias, etc. This might be particularly interesting during election season as students realize how networks may or may not be more critical of a certain party or during a crisis and see how networks may or may not be more critical of a government’s response. Critiquing the information delivered to us through news broadcasts is a real-world skill they will need for the 21^st century! By making this process the new regular approach to biweekly current events, I will be able to monitor my progress as I observe how my students’ interest and critical thinking increase.

The third standard is to “Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.” Indicator 3b is to collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.  My goal is to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in this area using the computer for communication (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). I want to expand the traditional teacher webpage from a simple course outline that perhaps includes class assignments and worksheets to a more comprehensive collaboration with students contributing materials to the site as well. My first course of action will be to review other teachers’ web pages and note what I like and don’t like (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). I will also inquire of students and parents what information they would like to see on the site. With that in mind, each class will assume responsibility for maintaining a page on my teacher website as district/building policies allow. Using a rotation or “popcorn” method so each student has an opportunity to contribute, the students will choose or be assigned a text section to summarize, a review list of vocabulary, or the like. In addition, we can work as a class to develop features like recommended links for research projects, an “ask the expert” column, contests, etc. I can monitor my progress and extend my learning by periodically checking in with the audience (students, parents, peers) and getting feedback on the site.

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program four. Enriching content area learning experiences with technology part I. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf