“The GAME plan enables you to customize your approach to learning tasks, to develop relevant skills that are important to you, and prepares you for lifelong learning” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, pg.3). This sets the tone for my personal goals for strengthening my confidence and proficiency for the following indicators: to participate in global or local learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning, and to promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.
For my first goal, I plan to collaborate with fellow health and physical educators within the county to share ideas and lessons that incorporate technology. When it comes to learning about new applications, I would find it extremely daunting to try to re-invent the wheel. I am certain that there are many teachers that have implemented creative lessons, I just have never asked for them to share. At our county in-service I plan to communicate my desire to collaborate with other high school teachers to put together a series of lessons that can be utilized in our classrooms. Once we begin to explore new applications, we can begin to post our ideas on our sharepoint website. This acts as an online resource directory that all teachers within the county can use to share lessons. Another way to monitor this goal would be for our local learning community to communicate using a blog throughout the year. The evaluation will take place at the end of the years in-service to see how many teachers utilized the lessons that were posted and see if there are ways that we can tweak them if necessary.
My second goal will be a bit more challenging for me. I am becoming more comfortable using technology tools, but I am still not 100 percent confident that I can trust my students to act appropriately when interacting with certain tools. For example, I am fearful that a form of bullying will occur if I set up a classroom blog. So often I hear about students creating false profiles for other students on Facebook. Although Facebook is not an option in our school, I am unsure of the capabilities that my students have when communicating with other students online. I plan to set up a Powerpoint with examples of inappropriate usage as well as consequences. Consequences may be school-related but may also affect a student emotionally. One way to monitor this would have consistency when reading student posts to ensure that they are reporting responsibly and that no forms of bullying are taking place. To evaluate my goal, I will have students create an example of an appropriate post as well as one that includes an incident where bullying, or other inappropriate action, had been present during a blog post or voicethread. They will then turn in a reflection on what actions should be taken when a student interacts inappropriately.
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.
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). (2008). Located at http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
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Charlene,
ReplyDeleteCollaborating with your fellow health and physical education colleagues in your school’s district sounds like an excellent way to connect and share lessons. I agree that there are probably many teachers who have already created lessons that we could utilize in our own classrooms. With your action of having a network of teachers sharing and creating lessons with you, how will keep accountable who is completed their share of the lesson plans and that teachers will participate? Maybe the sharepoint website that you are describing could include some sort of timeline or membership so that the teachers involved will be ensured to have creative lessons available.
Your second goal can be a challenging one I think especially for those students in high school because they may be more sophisticated in using technology and possibly abusing it or using it inappropriately. Teaching them the appropriate and correct ways to use technology is essential as well as teaching them the examples of inappropriate ways. What we think is appropriate may not be the same as our students or parents. It might be a good idea to involve students and/or parents in the drafting of the guidelines, expectations, and consequences when using technology tools in school.
HanNa Chung
HanHa,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great question regarding accountability. My initial thought would be only to allow teachers who have created a lesson to be able to view all lessons. As far as monitoring who posts...when teachers post anything to sharepoint they must put their name next to it. The hardest part will be getting them to participate.
I thing involving parents is essential in the drafting process for the guidelines. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
Thanks for posting!
Charlene
You list your first goal as initiating and sustaining a place for sharing lesson plans and ideas about incorporating technology into a physical education curriculum. I admire your goal and think that it is a great idea. However, limiting it only to educators in your county seems to reduce the number of people in you collaborative circle very drastically. I fear you may run into a stagnation of ideas and participation rather quickly. Expanding your circle to a more broad site may yield better results. I am sure a ton of nationwide and even international blogs and idea sharing site are available.
ReplyDeleteYou also mention the idea of accountability. I agree this is a huge problem with social networking. My county does not allow students to have access to blogs, wikis, and other collaborative tools for that exact reason. However, when setting up a blog or other collaborative tool you can adjust the usage settings to make the resource accessible to only students in your classes. Many of the resources require that students need to sign in and post under a user-name. Posting under a user name allows you to hold each individual accountable for what they post. As within the school day, you cannot ensure students won't make bad choices but they are then accountable and must accept responsibility for their actions. It is also important to discuss appropriate usage rules with students when introducing the tool.