Final Reflection: Course EDUC-6713

This course has provided me with a lot of new information that I have and plan to incorporate into my classroom.   This course has taught me that technology can be used to advance students’ skills in critical and creative thinking (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a). Throughout this course I have learning several useful strategies to implement technology into my science lessons.  Although I have learned many useful strategies to implement technology into my classroom overall goal I learned from this class is to become a self-directed learner.   Self directed learning is an essential skill that educators must focus on throughout their career (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I learned the importance of updating my knowledge and skills of the use of different technology tools.  I learned that in order to be an effective teacher you must set goals you plan to obtain, the actions you would take, monitor your learning and evaluate your learning process.

My personal game plan was to strength my confidence in the following to goals: in promoting students reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students conceptual understand thinking, planning, and creative process and design and adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.  Throughout this course I feel that my confidence has grown in both of these areas through personal research, collaboration of classmates, and through introductions new technology based lessons in my classroom.  This is a goal that I will continue to monitor throughout my career to keep up to date with new and emerging technology.  In addition, after each lesson I teach I always evaluate my lesson to determine the benefit technology had in my lesson.  I also write down notes to myself on strategies that worked and did not work to improve future lessons.  In the future I will modify my game plans to keep up with the current technology.  If I feel that I mastered the goals I have set I will modify my goals so that I as a teacher can continue and grow as well. 

As I conducted my first WebQuest assignment after feed back from classmates and students I decided to add a collaboration portion into the assignment.  I will have students work on a wiki page where they are able to compile different resources they discovered on their WebQuest.  In addition, it will provide them with the opportunity to collaborate and learn from classmates as well.  I never realized the education benefits that a wiki page can have until the past two weeks when I worked on a wiki page.  I like the idea that students are able to add and modify information while their changes are also being track.  I also was unaware that students can add comments and have discussion on a wiki page as well.  I think it is a great tool for students to work on projects and collaborate together.  I look forward to the introduction and gaining more confidence in my wiki skills. 

In my class I plan to incorporate many of the skills that were learned in this class such a problem-based learning, social collaboration, and digital story telling.  I feel that students use technology on a daily basis and should learn to incorporate it to enhance their content knowledge in my course.  I am currently working on designing a digital storytelling lesson that I can incorporate into my class.  It will allow students to improve on research, creative thinking, problem solving, and communication skills (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b).  In addition, a goal I plan to implement in my classroom is authentic blogging to engage students in higher order thinking skills and collaboration with peers.  I think in todays world as students have information available to them at the tips of their fingers worksheets are no longer a useful tool of homework assessment.  I plan to begin to implement blogging into my lessons to encourage online communication outside the classroom.

This class has provided me with a great deal of information that I have started to use in my classroom.  In addition, I have also provided colleagues with valuable information I learned in this class as well.  As much as I am excited to finish another Walden course I am truly going to miss the interaction and learning experience this class has created for me.  

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Integrating technology across the content areas: Promoting creative thinking with technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Integrating technology across the content areas: Spotlight on technology: Digital storytelling, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

Through my research and collaboration with my colleagues my GAME I have been able to find a great deal of research to incorporate into my action plan.   I feel that my action is currently on track and at this current state I do not need to alter it.  I have been finding a great deal of resources that I can use to enhance my GAME Plan progress. 

I am currently working on a project with my students that they are incorporating technology as their presentation method.  The students are able to choose a location of their choice to compare to a Eukaryotic cell.  The students in my class were given the option to choose a multimedia presentation method of their interest.  In my class several students choose to create a Prezi presentation that they able to work on in class and also collaborate with each other at home as well.  In class I set time aside for students to work together to brainstorm and create their analogy.  In addition, I also provided students with two class periods to work on their projects in class however, any additional time would need to be worked on at home.  This assignment is incorporating real-world context to engage students to use higher order thinking skills (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  Students need to incorporate higher order thinking skills to create an analogy of their place of interest to the cell.  This activity I used to incorporate into my lessons but students would create a poster as opposed to a multimedia presentation.  I have noticed in the past that many of my students would complain that they could not draw and often would print out pictures of their location.   However, this year students were excited to be able to incorporate technology because they would be able to incorporate images of their choice and did not need to worry about their drawing abilities. 

I am beginning to review my next unit on Homeostasis and Cellular Transport.  I have begun to research and discuss with colleague effectives formative and summative assessments for my next unit.  My colleagues and I are working on creating and interactive webquest for students as a formative assignment.  Students often have difficulties visualizing how molecules more in the air and how water moves within the cell.  The webquest we are creating will allow students to look up animations and formulate explanations to explain the animation.  I am also researching information to creating an effective webquest.  I have begun to review webquests I have found online to looks for effective questioning skills to increase higher order thinking skills. 

I personally love learning knew ways to incorporate technology to enhance student learning.  I do not want to create lessons that are only using technology for the sake of using it.  However, I want to stimulate and captivate the attention of my students.  I have noticed that they are disinterest and unengaged when a lesson is dull and boring.  I have currently felt that my research has given me insight for new ideas to incorporate into my lesson.  In addition, my research has also given insight to the creations of new teaching methods that I can incorporate into my teaching.  The new questions I have are new effective learning strategies only suppose to be incorporated in the classroom or at home as well.   In addition, as always am always interested in learning new information that can be incorporated into my lesson. 

I am really excited to incorporate the knowledge I gain from my GAME plan into my lesson.  Like any learning experience my GAME plan requires trial and error to enhance and improve lessons.  I also look forward to the suggestions and inputs that my Walden colleagues incorporate for my own personal knowledge growth.

Reference:

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.

Carrying Out Your GAME Plan!

My GAME plan is to promote student reflection using collaborative tools and design relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools to promote student learning and creativity (ISTE, 2008).  I want to incorporate technology to differentiate instructions to provide materials and task that support the needs of all students (Wahl & Duffield, 2005).  I want students to collaborate with each other through the use of digital technology.  This will allow for students to critically think and problem solve without having to be in the same location.  In addition, the use of technology will allow for students to creatively demonstrate their understanding, synthesize, and evaluation of the topics discussed in my class. 

I order to carry out my GAME plan I am would like to speak to other colleagues that are currently familiar with incorporating blogs, wiki pages, and Google docs in their classroom.  I would like to find out useful strategies to how I could effectively implement them into my classroom.  I would like to discuss with other colleagues areas of problems or concerns that they experienced implementing these collaboration methods into their classroom.  In addition, I would also like to discuss with them how they are effectively implemented.  In addition, to talking to colleagues from my school and this class I would also like discuss information with other science or biology teachers as well.  I plan to implement blogging with my students and in order to teach myself I want to begin to blog with other teachers globally similar to how we do in this course.   In am also interested in researching effective strategies as well and look forward to any article or information that anyone has to share. 

I also want to incorporate differentiate lessons where students design and develop assessments that incorporate digital tools.  I am constantly researching new lesson ideas to incorporate into my classroom to help captive and interest students.  However, I want to incorporate the use of more technology.  This current school year I have been researching effective assessments to incorporate into my class.  The incorporation of technology can address the learning needs of all students, which would provide for an optimal learning environment in my class.  In order to obtain this goal I am constantly researching lessons, modifying current lessons to incorporate technology, and reading information to learn about different technology tools available.  In addition, I often review information from previous Walden classes to enhance and brush up on different available technologies that can be used to enhance student understanding.  Although, I am not familiar with most available technology I am always interested in reading information and trying new tools. 

As I am looking to increase the incorporate of technology into my classroom I also need to become more familiarized with the technology available.  In order to educate my self I am currently looking for professional development opportunities that can attend to increase my knowledge.  My district often has after schoolwork shops that I plan to attend to gain more information, practice, and useful skills to incorporate into my classroom.  So far I have been able to discuss with classmates useful blogging strategies.  I have also changed a currently project in my class that instead of creating a poster students will create a digital presentation.  My students will begin to work on this project next week and I am excited for the learning experience I will encounter.

I am often a creature of habit and have difficulties implementing change in my life.  However, I like most of my students are constantly connected to the global world through my cell phone, computer, iPad, and television.  I am looking forward to the changes that I plan to implement into my classroom to encourage creative thinking and collaboration through the digital world.  I look forward to any suggestions or ideas for classroom lesson or experiences that you encountered.

Reference:

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Wahl, L., & Duffield, J. (2005). Using flexible technology to meet the needs of diverse learners: What teachers can do. Retrieved from the WestEd website:http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/kn-05-01.pdf

Developing Your Personal GAME Plan

Technology is a tool that can be used to deep and enhance a student understanding of material.  Students grow in a society when they a constantly exposed to technology on a daily basis.  Students are constantly connect to technology daily through media, personal devices, and digitally (Prensky, 2008).  However, when kids are in school they are often required to power down and put aside their technology.  This results in children mentally powering down as they entered into a world that they are no longer familia

r with.  I feel that instead of requiring children to push aside technology they use daily teachers should find ways to incorporate it into the students’ learning process.  I feel that the technology can be used as tools to help enhance a students understanding, collaborations, and assessment methods.

I reviewed the National Education Standards for Teachers and took the time to reflect on the standards to determine areas that I would like to strengthen my confidence and proficiency.  The two areas that I would like to strength my confidence is according to the International Society for Technology in Education (2008): 

·      Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.

o   c. Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes

·      Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessment

o   a. Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity

I want my students to use my knowledge of biology to enhance students learning experience by using technology, creativity and innovation through virtual environments.  I want students to be able to use technology as collaborative tools to enhance their thinking, planning, and creative process.  Technology can also be used to enhance student’s collaboration with each other both face to face and digitally.  I also want to become more confident in designing, developing, and evaluating more authentic learning experiences for students.  The technology can be used to promote their learning, creativity, and addressing diverse needs of students.  In addition, it can be used as a summative assessment method that encourages students to demonstrate their learning, understanding, and creativity through the development of digital technology. 

In my GAME plan to strengthen my confidence in technology I want to become more confident in my use technology incorporation in the classroom to enhance student communication and collaboration.  In addition I also want to become more confident with my technology incorporating in the classroom for students to demonstrate their creativity and innovation.  As a teacher my goal is to implement more technology into my classroom that can enhance student understanding of the biology content I teach.  I want to become more familiar with technology that can be used as learning tools to enhance my classroom-learning environment. 

In order to achieve this goal I am going to begin to research different technology tools and skills weekly that can be incorporated into the classroom as suggested by Caitlyn Thompson (Laureate Education, Inc. 2009).  I will enhance my knowledge of technology weekly that I can share with my colleagues and students to enhance their learning environment.   As I begin to research new technology skill I will be able to gain confidence in them and try new activity in my classroom.  I would also like to incorporate online discussion blogs that students will be able to collaborate and further discuss biology content online.  Students will also be able to demonstrate their creativity and critical thinking skills as discuss information on the blogs.  Students will also be able to collaborate and communicate with each other with the incorporation of multimedia and cloud based projects.  I would like to incorporate a new multimedia tools that I have never used with my students before to create an online group project.  In order to achieve my goals I am going to also look for professional development opportunities my school offers to enhance my understanding and knowledge of technology tools I have available to me.

I plan to monitor my goal by reflecting on the different strategies that I implement with my students.  I know that some activities will run smoothers then others.  In addition, I am aware like all lessons I must critique each new strategies I implement.  I must reflect on tools that worked and did not work.  In addition, I will keep a journal of skills that worked and did not work along with implementation I will add. 

As I monitor my strategies I am incorporating to reach my goals I will also evaluate the learning process.  I will identify tools, skills, and strategies that worked and did not work.  I will also determine areas of strengths and weakness of area that I need to further work on.  I will focus on areas of weakness on how I can enhance my learning goal I set for myself.  I use the evaluate process as a tool that will allow me to grow as a teacher and create confidence in the incorporating of technology in my classroom.

Education is a learning process that both students and teachers can deep their knowledge.  As I teach my curriculum to students they are enhancing their content knowledge while incorporating technology tools they may be currently familiar with.  As a teacher I will enhance my knowledge how to effectively incorporate technology to increase collaboration, communication, creativity, and innovation. 

Reference:

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas: Promoting self-directed learning with technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning On the Lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0892c2f3-decc-40a2-b7e0-73ad271b80d3%40sessionmgr111&vid=5&hid=107