Reflecting on GAME Plan: Progress and Resources Feedback

I had two strands of comments that came out of my original post. The first pertained to the Smartboard. I am trying to find unique ways to utilize the Smartboard to create creative learning opportunities and assessments for my students. One suggestion was to insert images of my students into Smartboard presentations to keep students on task and paying attention. While I know I won't take the pictures - although, I can see this working very well for others, I wonder if inserting silly or interesting pictures of animals could have the same effect. Or, perhaps, with the Smartboard's ability to seamlessly transition from technology resource to technology resource, I could try to utilize more technology linked with the Smartboard.

The other strand of advice focused on resources to cite materials. These resources can be posted for students to reference and use to properly cite their materials.

Brad Feick
HS English
Walden University 

GAME Plan: Progress and Resources

My GAME Plan focuses on two goals: (1) to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments using a SmartBoard and (2) to be more cognizant of modeling digital citizenship and responsibility for my students.

Goal 1: To design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments using a SmartBoard
Before I begin taking action, I need to take into account the resources that I need to meet my goals. Considering my first goal, I am seeking a colleague or colleagues who have experience with SmartBoard technology – essentially creating a technological node for professional development (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009). From last week’s responses, there are many current Walden colleagues who have had positive experiences and understand how to use a SmartBoard effectively. While learning how to use the SmartBoard effectively through a blog may be difficult, I would love to hear how people have used SmartBoard in their classrooms.

Due to my coaching commitments after school, I am very limited in when I can learn how to use the SmartBoard unless it’s during prep time. I have asked a colleague who is considered to be a SmartBoard expert to help me learn how to use the technology. A SmartBoard tutorial with her has been scheduled for after Thanksgiving. If I don’t feel that her tutorial is sufficient, I may attend a class offered in the school district, but it is not offered until March or April.

Status: I have a date set to meet with my colleague about SmartBoard technology and have received a small guide on its use. I am looking forward to the learning opportunity.


Goal 2: To be more cognizant of modeling digital citizenship and responsibility
In addition to my first goal, I also need to gather resources for modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. Initially, I need to always have the most current APA guidelines accessible for my students and me. If possible, I would utilize my colleagues to practice digital citizenship as well since proper citation is critical in all subject areas. If every teacher was focusing on this, my success would be much easier.

Status: This goal has much less to do with an outside resource, but rather, the discipline to model digital citizenship every time that I use a resource online. While this goal may appear to be the easiest to complete, I find it very difficult to get into the habit of properly citing every resource that I bring into the classroom.

Questions to Peers:
1. Do you have any interesting SmartBoard assessment ideas that you have found successful?
2. Is there anything that you would suggest when using the SmartBoard?
3. How do you most effectively practice digital citizenship?

Thank you,

Brad Feick
Walden University
HS English



References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program 1: Self-directed lifelong learning. [DVD] Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Reflecting on Game Plan Feedback

After reading through my peers' feedback, I will certainly love my SmartBoard! Specifically though, Kerry-Ann offered a great point about how having technology in the classroom is great, but if the students do not have the skills to use the technology, it becomes a waste. This is exactly what I do not want to happen. I do not want the SmartBoard to be utilized as a PowerPoint projection screen; instead, I want students to learn how to fully use the SmartBoard.

Additionally, I can be sure to save my SmartBoard lessons using another form of software in the situation that I lose my SmartBoard or switch rooms. Not every room has a SmartBoard. This way I do not lose what I have already developed.

Finally I will be sure to watch other colleagues who have the SmartBoard and utilize it in a variety of ways. The school district does have classes to learn SmartBoard technology, but I received my SmartBoard too late to take advantage of these courses. The next available time slot will be in March, but I want to begin learning sooner than that.

Brad Feick
Walden University
HS English

GAME PLAN

Today’s students, according to Prensky (2008), enter our classrooms with the lights turned on or having already had access to a vast array of knowledge. Much of this knowledge is accessible via technology – Internet, iTouches, cellphones, and the list can go on. As teachers we must find ways to keep our students engaged not by forcing them to power down or limit their technological access but to learn how to teach in a world that takes our students beyond the walls of our classroom and into a world of endless possibilities (ISTE, 2010).

In order to do so, I am developing a professional GAME plan. Using the ISTE (2010), I have selected two standards in which I will seek to develop confidence in.
1. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
2. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Goals and Action
Specifically, I am seeking to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments using a SmartBoard, I plan to collaborate with a peer who is a SmartBoard expert in my school district. I, having recently acquired the SmartBoard, have limited knowledge but am willing to try. Currently, we share a prep time where she could provide tutorials in using technology.

In addition to creating the digital-age learning experience and assessments, I need to be more cognizant of modeling digital citizenship and responsibility for my students. I feel as if I know, since being enrolled at Walden University, how to site sources properly. However, I tend to skip citing information when I am planning for my classes. My students need to understand the importance of citing and providing recognition to the rightful owner. My action step will be to apply proper citation technique consistently to my lessons and to provide educational time teach students the proper citation patterns.

Monitor
In order to monitor my two goals and action steps, I will reflect weekly on my goals’ progresses. I will reflect while the goals are being met and after the action steps are completed (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2008). I will use journaling or blogging to reflect openly about the progress that I am having with a digital-age learning experiences and practicing digital citizenship and responsibility.

Evaluate
To evaluate my original goals, I will regularly reference my monitoring tools to provide insight into their progress. Within the same blog or journal as the monitoring stage, I will use periodic evaluation methods to check and challenge my goal’s results. Perhaps every month or two, I would ask myself the question, “How effective were you actions in meeting your goal” (Cennamo, et al, 2008).

After fulfilling the Game Plan , I hope that I will be in position to help students remain "powered up" and engaged using technological advancements.

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

Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.


Brad Feick
HS English

Reflecting on Inquiry Learning in the 21st Century

As a teacher, I am expected to prepare my students for success in society beyond the walls of my classroom. That being said, an evaluation of the skills necessary to compete in the outside world and an assessment of what is being learned within schools is an important step in understanding that proper education is taking place. In self-assessing my position as a 21^st century teacher and learner using Jukes’ (2007) 21^st Century Fluencies Quotient Insta-Audit, I recognized the current disconnect between the expected content that students are to learn such as the elements of the short story and poetry devices and the 21^st century skills such as working collaboratively as a member of a team and locating and managing resources that Jukes (2007) deems as important. However, the new literacy skills and state standards do not need to overwhelm educators; instead, new literacy skill acquisition can be used in conjunction to teach content. For example, new literacy skills can become the mode of learning for content.

            In addition to teaching new literacy skills in conjunction with English content, I am going to present the Internet, “which has far exceeded every previous information technology in breadth, depth, and immediacy” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 2), as a significant means to gather and acquire information. In a sense, the Internet is a resource that students and teachers need to explore and conquer. For students to conquer the Internet, they will need to resist settling on the first few Internet search results or selecting only one resource to answer a question (November, 2008); instead, they will learn to form questions, locate and evaluate resources, synthesize and transform information, and communicate new synthesized information (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007), (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a). In my future classes such as American literature, students will ask questions and seek and share answers, not from me but from the technological resources that surround them.

           Professionally, I want to develop my literacy skills by modeling the proper use of information (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b). How can I expect my students to respect information if I do not properly cite the materials that I use in my classroom? I often pull information from online resources to enhance my curriculum, but I inconsistently cite my source. This semester, when I use Internet resources, or any resource for that matter, I will model the proper citation process.

            In addition to respecting information more consistently, I will become more fluent and efficient in information acquisition. First, I will begin using Altavista.com as my primary search engine and utilize search extensions. These extensions help field information from more reputable sources such as education or government websites (November, 2009). Next, I will store relevant information using a Diigo.com account, which allows me to easily access information that I found relevant. Finally, after storing the information, I will review it and synthesize the information. Once I have created a synthesis, I can either keep my understanding personal or share it using a blog or a wiki.

            As an educator in the 21^st century, I have the responsibility to push my students to succeed in the 21^st century. No longer are we to be literate in a book culture; instead, we are to be literate in the digital age – able to access and use information digitally (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a). To do this, our students need to view us “as lifelong learners rather than all-knowing dispensers of information” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 277); together we will work to access these dispensers of information. 

References

Eagleton, M. B. & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York:   The Guilford Press.

Jukes, I. (2007). 21st century fluencies quotient insta-audit. The InfoSavvy Group.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a) Program 2: New literacies. [Motion Picture]. Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom. Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b) Program 10: Information literacy: ethical usage. [Motion Picture]. Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom. Baltimore: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Reflecting on Technology

            When the year 2009 came to a close, I was an educator teaching in the 21^st century; now two months later I am striving to be an educator learning to incorporate 21^st century skill development and technology into my teaching repertoire. As a child I was surrounded by technology, three gaming systems, tapes and compact disks, two televisions, a computer, and high speed Internet. This constant access and technological stimulation labeled me, according to (Prensky, 2001), a digital native – one who has grown up using technology. As a digital native I eagerly set out to try these new pieces of technology assigned through applications that I had yet to incorporate regularly into my classes. While I had used blogs in my American Literature class, I was able to create a podcast and a collaborative wiki (as opposed to the wiki storage space that I previously developed). In addition to developing my technology skills, I have altered my approach to technology in the classroom from simply using the technology to doing something differently such as a speech with a PowerPoint component to doing something totally different (Thornburg, 2004). For example, I want students to engage in an academic discussion beyond school walls through blogging or to share ideas and resources to complete a project on a wiki. In addition, I am acknowledging that I do not need to know everything about the technology to use it in class. There will be struggles and challenges that will need to be overcome. At times, the best resource to solve these problems is my students. By giving students ownership over the technology that they use in their educations, they can help teach me to use it in a variety of different ways.

            Due to the need to teach 21^st century learning skills, I need to stay current with the most recent research and technology available to educators and students. I will continue to subscribe to educational resources through RSS feeds. Currently I use Google Reader to bring new information to my laptop. I can peruse the provided technology resources that are pertinent to my teaching. I will also participate in educational blogs such as The English Companion Ning to collaborate with educators on topics of technology. This interaction enables me to see what has been successful for other educators. Furthermore, as an educator, constant collaboration with peers within my building will help bring my teaching, my school, and my students into the 21^st century. We can, as a collaborative group, develop ways to use technology to do different things.

            My classroom and teaching – the area that I have most control over – must continue to develop 21^st century learners. In order to do this, I plan to shift my teaching to one of a facilitator of learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008). My students enter my classroom having access to knowledge through technology. I need to show them how to withdraw the appropriate and accurate knowledge to apply it to their learning. For example, since my school has a class set of iTouches, I plan to have them investigate areas of interest connected to the literature that we are reading as a class. They may also, through the use of a wiki, create collaboratively a hyperlinked text for a more in-depth understanding of literature. Another goal in which I will seek to achieve is to integrate technology that enhances composition. My students are digital natives who revise essays as they write them. They type, delete, change a word choice, delete, add a phrase, delete, type a few sentences and repeat the process. By giving them opportunities to write essays and complete assignments on the computer, they are able to use the skills that they have developed since childhood. Once these assignments and essays are completed, they are able to submit them online through either Google Documents, where I will make comments and revision suggestions, or a blog, where their answers and responses are shared with their peers. I realize that this hinges on regular lab time or permanent lab availability so I have already placed a request, having spoken with a fellow educator with a lab in his room, to pair his prep time with my class period. I hope that our schedules can accommodate this change.

            Technology is pushing us to do different things that we have never done before. I look forward to finding new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into my curriculum and to share my discoveries with my colleagues.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). [DVD]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society, “The changing role of the classroom teacher: part 1” Baltimore, MD.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). Database: Proquest Central Database. Accession Number:1074252411.

Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved February 25, 2010 from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf

Today's Students

Who are today's students? While we can make generalities in how to best teach America's students, it is incredibly important to know our students of our classrooms. Each of my students needs to be considered as an individual and assumptions cannot be made. Different backgrounds, experiences, socioeconomic levels, and learning styles are just a few differences that separate each of these students. Before I can apply advice, information, and theories to my students, I need to know who they are.

In this podcast, I explore their backgrounds and interactions with technology.

Podcast Hosted by Podbean: Who Are My Students?

Brad Feick
HS English
Walden University