GAME Plan

Since beginning this Master’s program, I have increased my use of technology by 100 percent. Before the compliments start rolling in, the truth is I used hardly any to begin with. I believed that there were too many obstacles (the time it takes to learn technologies, time to teach them to students, etc…). The few WebQuests I had designed were little more than fill-in-the-blank from the website worksheets. Zemelman, Daniels and Hyde (2005) list these types of worksheets as less effective and less engaging than best practice instruction, a notion that is obvious to most educators. The bottom line is that I have a lot of catching up to do. In regards to the NETS-T performance indicators, I have created the following GAME Plan.

Goals-
1. My first goal refers to standard 3, performance indicator (D). My goal is to be able to fluently utilize digital tools in a variety of professional ways in order to not only advance my students’ learning but to demonstrate all aspects of learning including analysis, information location and evaluation. Through this goal I will become the “innovative professional” that I desire to be.
2. This is a particularly important goal for me. Standard 5, performance indicator (A) refers to professional growth and leadership in regards to local and global learning communities. Prior to beginning this Master’s program, I dreaded the idea of going back to school. I now find that I am afraid to NOT be in some form of learning environment. My goal is to find or form communities that will share and compare use of digital tools in their classrooms. Vicki Davis, co-creator of the Flat Classroom Project made quite an impression on me when she pointed out that regardless of what a person is teaching, there is another teacher out there who would be interested in collaborating.

Action-
1. I find that teaching through my own experience is usually the most effective route for my style. One idea through which I could progress to my goal is to create a Screencast for my initial attempts at learning a new technology. For example, while I have used a wiki in a previous class here at Walden, I have been hesitant to incorporate them into the classroom due to my lack of proficiency and the time involved in teaching the skill. If I were to create a Screencast as I spent time becoming more proficient with wikis, I could demonstrate to my students the thought processes as I maneuvered through steps for creating a wiki. This would have the benefit of modeling while instructing.

2. Over the summer and prior to the start of the school year, I will work with a friend/colleague on inviting teachers in the district to an informal meeting to discuss collaborations on technologies in the classroom. Ideally the meeting would be a cross between a formal professional development except that it would be an informal and voluntary gathering. My suggestion is to have teachers share what has worked in the past, what hasn’t worked and why as well as locating and experimenting with new digital tools.

Monitor and Evaluate-
1. Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) suggest that one may monitor and evaluate through two forms of reflection; “in action” during the actual process the action (essentially thinking about what you are doing, how is it going, what should you be doing differently, etc) and “on action” reflection, which is the assessment of the action. Cennamo et al note that reflection is not just about what happened, but why and how as well. As in the action portion of my plan, I find that it is in the process of planning to teach and teaching others when I am most prone to critical reflection. The adage, “To teach is to learn” is very true for me in these types of experiences. Modeling digital tools and putting them into action in my classroom will give me excellent opportunities to become more fluent and able to effectively facilitate their use while assessing my own learning.
2. In this scenario, monitoring and evaluating the progress of my goal would be done as regularly as the collaboration takes place. In addition to my own monitoring and evaluation, I would be able to include other perspectives on effectiveness of our meetings. As I have learned again and again, working with my peers has provided me with knowledge, insight and motivation far beyond what I could accomplish on my own. That may sound a little hokey but it is profoundly true in my case.
I am eagerly anticipating ideas, suggestions and questions regarding how I can best succeed in accomplishing my goals through this GAME Plan.

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.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf