I have continued to work on my GAME plan. According to Dr. Katherine Cennamo, in order to be effective at achieving a desired learning goal, self-directed learners must first establish a GAME plan. A GAME plan consists of the following areas: G.oals, A.ctions, M.onitoring your actions, and finally E.valuating how effective your actions have been towards meeting your goals (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). We are currently in the fourth week of working on our GAME plans and have reached the Evaluation stage.
The actions I have taken up to this point have definitely helped me to maintain my original goals. The first goal I set was to create a class website to help increase and maintain a steady communication system between our class, my students and their families. The second goal I set was to take a leadership role by piloting a product called eBeam. I have been able to get my website started, but have had difficulty finding the time to update my website on a regular basis. My original intention was to have the entire website completed and up and running by the middle of November. I am a little behind, but plan to use some of my extra time during the winter break to finish the website.
The idea of the eBeam is great, but unfortunately I have continued to have several issues with the connectivity. My students have been able to use the tool to record their problem solving strategies during our morning math, but it has not been a consistent tool and not always reliable. I have contacted the official eBeam company representative for our school district with some of my specific concerns. I am still awaiting a reply to see if there is anything I need to do to establish a stronger connection and touch with the included stylus pen.
The insight that my GAME plan issues have provided me with is the ability to maintain patience in front of my students when technical issues arise. As a student in an Integration of Technology program, I want my students to be intrigued by the new types of technology available for their learning purposes. Even if the eBeam is not always consistent, the students are still very eager to use the product when it is properly working.
Some of the questions I am hoping to address throughout this course relate to the Problem-Based Learning unit we will be creating throughout the next few weeks. According to Dr. Peggy Ertmer, the advantage of using a PBL approach is that, “students learn content as they learn higher-order thinking skills” (Laureate Education, 2009). I would like to apply this teaching method to the goals I have set for my GAME plan. I would like to look further into how I can integrate my GAME plan with the PBL unit I will be putting together. As Dr. Ertmer explained, technology is used throughout the learning process (Laureate Education, 2009).
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2007). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning
Laureate Education, (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author
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I think that you have an outstanding goal of creating a web page that will help with communication to the students and their parents. It can be an incredibly effective resource for all involved. What program are you using to create the website? Is it a school based site and program, or is it a program you have found on your own? Do you currently have the page published to the web? If so, I would love to see what you have in the works.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have good ideas and concepts planned. We all get a little frustrated at times when things don't go as planned. If those students are excited about what you have going on, just make sure you don't show your frustrations to them. They are probably just excited that you seem motivated and excited to teach them these new things. Good luck with your next objectives!
Joe Wesche
There are so many things you could do with a class website and it sounds like you are off to a good start. You mentioned having difficulty with regular updates, I don't know what level you teach but if you teach the older grades you may be able to get student volunteers to help you update the site. Not only are they great at it, they could probably give you some ideas of things to post as well. They would still need some supervision but it is a way to get them involved and take some of the work off you hands. You could also make a schedule of how often you need to update it, maybe every friday or every 1st of the month. Once you find a good routine through trial and error it will probably become easier. Right now you are still in the beginning stages since you just created it but that is a great first step, good luck.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are moving along very well with your GAME plan. I was sondering if your school/district has any sort or limitations on whether or not you are allowed to publish your own personal website? For example, last week I was told by my technology teacher that my classroom website will have to be published on our school website. Our county does not allow seperate classroom websites to be published outside of the school domain. The webmaster is instructed to monitor and evaluate teacher's websites and ensure that they are being used in a educational and productive manner.
I find this to be a bit overwhelming for my technology teacher and also have become a bit frustrated with my county. I found that they discovered teachers were using not monitoring their sites, and students were using inappropriate communication means in some of the comment areas with the lesson. It is a shame that we all need to change our ways due to a few irresponsible individuals.
I was also wondering if you have had a chance to contact other school or read blog postings regarding the issues you are having with your eBeam technology? Perhaps other teachers are having the same problems and their is a simple, much faster fix then waiting for the company representative to contact you. Best of luck!
Joe,
ReplyDeleteTo create my classroom website, I am using our school district’s school based website called SWIFT. I am currently in the process of putting it together, and do not have it actually opened to view yet. Once I get it up, I will post the URL for other to view.
Vicky,
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great idea to keep up a regular routine of posting every Friday. This will help to keep both parent and students up to date with what is currently happening in our classroom.
Rachael,
ReplyDeleteThe website/program that I am using to put together this classroom website is through our district based program called SWIFT – Simplified Web Interface for Teachers. However, prior to the SWIFT based website coming out, I was able to use the Scholastic.com website feature for my previous classroom website. While the features on the Scholastic website were limited, this at least gave me some exposure to creating a classroom-based website.
Regarding the eBeam technology, I have contacted our district’s technology representative with direct questions. He directed me to the eBeam representative. I am still waiting to receive a reply back. We are supposed to be attending a second eBeam training in January. Hopefully they will fill us in with some additional support as how to best integrate the technology.
Thanks for the information about the websites. I plan on checking them out and hopefully using them to guide me through my planning. I hope you receive a response soon regarding the eBeam technology. It can definitely be frustrating waiting for a response. I hope that they respond to you soon!
ReplyDelete