First, I know that next week, I have a solid plan of attack before August 30 rolls around and a new batch of Freshman enter my room. I know that I need to check out websites to ensure that I can access them from my school computer. I also know that I need to have a tete-a-tete with the computer applications teacher and come up a plan to integrate what I’ve learned into the PBL units that we can create and collaborate on.

Second, I know that I have to start using what I learned about online collaboration, digital storytelling, etc. in small doses. So, I’m going to focus on one thing at a time. This first quarter, I’m going to focus solely on educational networking (social networking) and try to solidly incorporate that into one unit. Then, during the second semester, I’m going to try and successfully integrate digital storytelling into a unit. I’m not heading into the school year gung-ho, ready to integrate technology into every single lesson because I know it’s not realistic. I’m going to figure out what is realistic, test the waters and go from there.

Third, I already know that as soon as I get into my classroom, I’m going to set up a class blog and a Twitter. I want those set up for informational purposes. I want students to log on/follow me and get information that might have forgotten or missed. I want parents to be informed too and I think a blog and Twitter will be really good ways for both parents and students to stay informed.

Last year, my collaborative partner and I began promoting digital citizenship with our students. When they created multimedia presentations, they needed to provide links to where they got information or pictures. They didn’t understand at first and I had to explain, “You’re just giving credit to someone else’s work.” I’m also going to engage my students in social networking so they need to learn the proper etiquette for behavior on the sites that we use.

I’m also going to encourage them to use what technology-related skills they already have to be more creative and innovative. During presentations, there are a lot of boring PowerPoint presentations. I know this drives my partner crazy and I’ll admit, sometimes watching presentations can be a snoozefest. ISTE wants students to be creative, to explore new uses for technology, and to be on the forefront of the latest technology trends. By encouraging my students to push themselves to be more creative, then hopefully, they’ll meet those ISTE standards.

By creating this GAME plan, I’ve pushed myself too. I’ve begun to think about new ways of doing things in my classroom. Will Ning work once I get into my classroom, boot up my Mac, and type in the URL? I have no clue but I know there’s a back up: Interact. I wish there was a website I could lead everyone to that would fully explain Interact. Interact is email, it’s district resources, it’s a learning community (okay, that’s what it says on the CCSD website). I will have a class conference for each of my classes and if I can’t use any of the more “educational” social networking sites, then I’ll make use of those class conferences. Last year, I just posted information but I want to push myself to be more innovative and really use Interact to its full potential.

I’ve also been inspired to use digital storytelling in my classroom too. My school is dual-platform, which means we have Dells and Macs. The Macs are loaded with iMovie and Keynote. So, why note use these resources? I’ve thought of numerous ways to include digital storytelling into my curriculum, and by doing so, I’ll definitely be creating digital-age activities. I’m going to aim for two activities that involve digital storytelling: First, I’d like to use it during the short story unit and have students retell the stories that we’ve covered. Second, I’d like to use it with the research paper unit and have my students create a digital story that’s a more narrative form of their research paper.

At times, I’ve felt stuck with the GAME plan. Everything sounds great on the screen and in my head, but will it actually work in the classroom? Can I access everything or with the CCSD technology gods deny me? I can only wait and see but at least I’ve got a solid plan to try to execute.

I’m not really focusing on developing more goals other than focusing on the two ISTE standards that I’ve chosen. I want to do a really good job creating activities that have an authentic use of technology. I want my students to feel like the technology that they’re using when engaged in activities is adding to what they’re learning, and not feel like it’s technology for the sake of technology.

The biggest idea that I’ve had since learning more about integrating technology into my content is that I want to use blogs and Twitter to keep parents informed. Maybe that’s an extra goal – to create a blog and Twitter feed to keep parents informed about what’s going on in Room 817. I want to have those up and running by open house.

I do want to reach out to my fellow classmates for a moment. Are you creating “back up plans” i.e. the plan for when technology fails you or for when you have students who do not have computer/Internet access at home or for when the computer labs are all booked? All of the examples from the Walden University video resources are great but I also feel unrealistic for my district. I don’t have the kind of technology access that some of the teachers describe and I’m planning for what I know is within my means. Is anyone else planning that way too?

What I’m learning as this current course progresses is that technology integration doesn’t have to be super high-tech and fancy. Something simple as word processing can be considered technology integration. However, sometimes integratng technology feels forced. We always tell our students when they are preparing a major presentation to have a back-up. What if technology fails you on the day of your presentation? So, I feel like I need to plan multiple activities incase technology does fail me. I need to back-up plan because technology isn’t perfect. So, I feel like that’s one adjustment to my GAME plan, to prepare for instances when technology will fail me (cause it totally will).

1. What resources will I need to accomplish my GAME plan? First and foremost, computers! I’m lucky enough that I collaborate with the computer applications teacher so I often plan my lessons with him. And it helps that we share the same group of students too! One the standards that I want to master involves creating digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I want to incorporate the interests of my students into the lessons that I create so I want to make sure that they’ll be able to complete the activities that I design. I also need access to some new reading material. My school is a pilot school for the Race to the Top program (http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html) and they’ve provided lists of short stories, poems, works of fiction and non-fiction that all ninth grade students should read. Some of the selections I have not heard of so I need to research them and see how I can work them into my curriculum. I want to “tweak” my short story unit to incorporate some of these new short stories and to also help meet my own goal of mastering one of the ISTE standards.

2. What additional information do I need? I need to look at the curriculum that the computer applications teacher has to follow. I plan on talking to him at the beginning of the school year to figure out how we can best utilize our partnership. I’m also going to start researching the standards that I want to master and see if there are ideas from other teachers who have focused on the ISTE standards too.

Currently, I’m reading Markus Zusak’s book, The Book Thief (Knopf Books, 2007), with the plan to teach it this coming school year. The Book Thief is on the Race to the Top list that we were given towards the last of the school year. I’ve been told that it’s a great book so I’m anxious to really focus on it. This will become one of the units that I would like to incorporate some digital age activites into. I’ll be scouring the Internet, looking to see if any teachers have taught this book and posted material online (If you know of any great sites for this book, let me know!). I’m learning that I can easily take some of the lessons that I taught last year and tweak them to incorporate technology. I’ll be modifying my short story unit to incorporate technology and some of the Race to the Top selections (as soon as I find that list, I’ll post it for all to see). I already have one solid unit, poetry, which incorporate technology effortlessly so we might be working on looking for a new medium to publish on the Web. Does anyone have suggestions? We used Wikispace last year but the students (and of course the teachers!) hated how fickle Wikispace was at time and each class, a new drama erupted when content was not saved and/or mysteriously deleted. So, if you know of something a little bit better than Wikispace or you know how to manipulate Wikispace to your will, please let me know!

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Zusak, M. (2007). The Book Thief. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) sets standards for teachers when it comes to technology in the classroom. You can read through them here: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

There are five standards but I’m going to develop a GAME plan to help me achieve to of those standards.

1. Set Goals: The two standards that I would like to focus on are: Designing and developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments (NETS Standard 2) and promoting and modeling digital-age citizenship and responsibility (NETS Standard 4).

2. Take Action: How am I going to meet these two standards? What exactly am I going to do? Well, the first standard involves creating authentic learning experiences involving technology. ISTE suggests creating activities that appeal to a students’ individual interests and using technology to promote active participation. I want to create more activities where my students get some freedom to explore topics that interest them and I also want to create activities where my students collaborate with one another in a variety of ways. Last school year, my students created poetry Wikispaces and they worked together in teams to create the Wikispace and they also worked as individuals to find poems that interested them. I plan on creating more lessons like this to create a more authentic, engaging learning environment. The second standard involves modeling digital-age citizenship and responsibility. One thing my students are learning about is giving credit, where credit is due. So, I plan to make references a more integral part of PowerPoint presentation or even handouts. While I like the idea of having my students believe I know absolutely everything, I know that it’s more humbling to admit that I don’t. I also want my students to understand that they can’t take credit for someone else’s work. I also would like to collaborate with another class and I know that I will need to model proper behavior when using technology to communicate.

3. Monitoring my Progress: I know that I won’t be able to achieve these goals right away. I also know that I’m lazy so there may not be times where I create amazing, creative and engaging activities or where I don’t give the proper credit. I do understand that I need to make an effort. I need to create and achieve mini-goals. Perhaps I can focus on one standard per quarter. Maybe I can create a contest where my students can earn prizes if they catch me “plagiarizing.” Other than giving it the old “college try,” I’m not entirely sure how I will monitor my progress.

4. Evaluate & Extend: One good way of evaluation is discussing projects as a class. After major project-based learning assignments at my school, we “debrief.” The students have an open-ended discussion, entirely student led, where they discuss what they liked, didn’t like and what they would change about a project. This is the time when I will be able to evaluate whether or not the activities that I created were authentic. This is when I will know if I used technology in a productive and innovative way. In evaluating the second goal, I will know if I’ve done a good job of modeling appropriate behavior and responsibility if I see my students doing it too. Are they providing references? Were they successful with MLA style? Did they respect the people they were communicating with? This will help me know if I have achieved my goal and mastered those two ISTE standards.

Modeling Digital-Age Citizenship: I didn’t come up with the GAME acronym on my own! You can read more about it here:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Once again, the ISTE standards can be found here:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

During this course, my students finished a research paper. This course helped me to re-evaluate how I went about teaching the research process. To me, researching is quite simple and I can do it naturally. To my students, research is a foreign word. They perceive Wikipedia to be the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to information about a certain topic. When they Google something, they don’t quite understand what they should be looking for in terms of reliable information. By creating the unit plan for writing a research paper in this course,  I have developed a plan of attack for next year. I’m armed with the tools that I need to help my students understand how to locate credible sources and how to identify sources that are not credible. Students may perceive a website as the truth because it looks authentic (November, 2009) and I feel more prepared, as a result of this course, to help my students figure out which websites actually contain the truth.

After finishing this course, I have a few goals in mind. One goal is to show my students my professionalism by citing the work that I use when developing my course materials. That’s something that I know I’ll forget about but a Post-It stuck to my computer screen will help me remember. However, a larger goal will be to try to learn more about how I can incorporate more technology into my classroom by using what the district has to offer. One resource is Interact, which is the district-wide email and information system. Both teachers and students utilize Interact, but in different ways. There are several professional development classes offered on using Interact and by taking one of those courses, I’ll be learning how to use it more effectively. Once I have learned this information, then I’ll be able to use it my classroom in a more efficient manner. I also want to utilize some of the resources that were used not only in this class but in previous classes, like screencasting or blogging. I definitely will be using Jing as a way to show my students how to research and evaluate sources.

With each course that I take at Walden University, I learn more and more and build upon what I already know. The course that I’m finishing now has been the most helpful because it has helped me understand how I can improve upon certain lessons and it has helped me to understand how modeling certain practices can be beneficial to my students. I am also more knowledgeable about technology that I never knew existed, like screencasting, and can find ways to utilize them in my classroom.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Safe and ethical practices [Motion Picture].

            USA: Laureate Education, Inc.

November, A. C. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

I am also more aware about the new learning processes of my students. They are Digital Natives! They live their lives surrounded by technology, totally plugged in. Their lives revolve around cell phones, iPods, and computers. They cannot sit in quiet, they need their iPod to concentrate or they need  that frantic pace of multi-tasking that technology encompasses. In my classroom, I allow for these new styles because I am apart of the Digital Native generation as well. I, too, work better when there is an iPod playing or when I am multi-tasking between windows or assignments. When my students are drafting, I allow them to pull out those iPods or iPhones. As long as I don’t hear the music, I’m fine. I’m breaking administrative rules but I know my students are more productive. During group work, I plug my own iPod in and put in on shuffle.

Today’s classrooms are also more student centered. I’m learning that while it’s my classroom, and my name is on the door, I am not the star of the show. My classroom is not all about me. There  has been a shift in education from teacher centered learning to student centered learning. What this means for me is that I am not the source of information; my students have the ability to search out the answers to their own questions and construct their own knowledge. This type of learning is extremely important in my school because our curriculum is structured around project-based learning. My school embraces student-centered learning. There are still moments of teacher centered learning but when my students are given a new PBL assignment, they are driving their own learning. Their projects take shape based on what the students want to explore. The information that they include in their projects or presentations is based on the questions they ask themselves: What do I want to say? What information is important? How do I want to present this information? One thing that project-based learning allows for is reflection. Since students today move at “twitch speed”, they rarely reflect on learning and that is one drawback to the massive influx of technology. However, project-based learning cannot occur unless there is reflection and debriefing. Students have to take time to discuss what went well, what did not go well, and what needs to change.

I would like to include some of the things that I learned in this course into my classroom. I find that this could be a challenging goal because our district-wide server blocks many websites that students might need to access. Another challenge would be the constraints of my collaborative partner, the computer applications teacher. He has certain things that need to be covered. I do have the ability of talking to our school’s ECS (technology god) and getting access to some of those sites. Creating blogs and podcasts and wikis easily fits into the realm of project-based learning however, our Internet and technology constraints prohibit our students from fully utilizing these resources.

A second goal that I have would be to seek out technology that I haven’t learned yet and find a way to become proficient enough to utilize it in the classroom. I would like to learn more about video conferencing because I think that it’s a great way to bring guests into the classroom without leaving the classroom. I know that one challenge will be the software and platform. Will it be something that is going to cost money? Can I access the software/program from my computer? Secondly, there is connection. I know that I’d have to practice this several times to make sure that my connections are stable. There is so much that can go wrong with something like video conferencing but I really think that if I can seek out the right program/software and find a way to utilize it successfully in my classroom, then it will bring learning to another level.

The greatest thing that I take away from this class is a greater appreciation for technology. I do think, that like everything, it has its place in education. I do not think that it should be utilized in the classroom every minute of every day because there is some validity to learning how to do things the “old school” way. From experience, everyone should know that technology is not always reliable and that there should always be a back-up plan. I think that in the 21st century, teachers should show their students that technology has wonderful uses and our students should be able to figure out for themselves when it should or should not be used.

http://room817.podbean.com/mf/web/tzj3nz/podcastwk5.mp3

Please pardon the bad edit job…I used Audacity and it was my first foray into editing audio clips.

The most surprising thing about the Partnership is the amount of support that they receive from huge corporations like Apple, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, NEA and the list goes on. It is amazing to see these huge corporations supporting this initiative. The other surprising thing is that not every state has become apart of the Partnership’s State Leadership Initiative. There are only 11 state right now that work with the Partnership to develop new standards, assessments, and professional development opportunities. To be honest, I had only heard the  term “21st century skills” in passing and when I transferred schools, I kind of got a mini-crash course in what exactly 21st century skills are and through this website, I am learning much, much more.

The only problem I have with 21st Century Skills and the Partnership is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). I strongly disagree with the latest push for math and science and the thought that this is what makes our students inferior to the rest of the world. I am not anti-math or anti-science because there are a lot of students whose interests in math and science lead to brilliant careers. What I am most angered by is the fact that literacy is not a major focus. Yes, I am biased because I teach English but what good is a brilliant scientist that cannot articulate his/her thoughts? How are the future computer programmers, doctors, engineers, etc. supposed to be successful if they cannot write articles about their findings or latest developments? The Partnership believes that all students should be proficient in STEM, even if they are going into non-technical careers. As a successful adult, I don’t think that I am incapable of succeeding in the world because I am not proficient in STEM. I still have critical thinking skills and the ability to problem solve without the help of STEM. With the exception of the financial literacy component of 21st century skills (Seriously, economics and finance are not my thing), I’ve mastered 21st Century Skills.

So what does this mean for the teachers of America? I think we’ve got to step up our game. We cannot just teach content area anymore. We need to show our students how the content they are learning in our class fits with the “real world.” It’s almost like we have to prove to our students that what they learn in our classes has real value. Where I teach, our gradebooks are set up with the six tenets. I don’t have the standard gradebook categories. My students know that and every day, they see the six tenets on the wall. They know that because our curriculum is based around project-based learning, that what they learn is just a little bit different from their friends who attend a regular high school. Our students give more presentations; they are more hands-on and they are expected to ask questions and then find the answers. As teachers, the most important effect that 21st century skills will have on our classes is that we are no longer supplying the questions and the path to find answers. As teachers of the 21st century, we are giving our students the skills to ask their own questions and to find their own answers.