In looking at the International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for
Teacher (NETS-T) standards it is amazing to see how far I have come and yet how
far I still have to go. Through a GAME
plan I hope to improve on areas that I feel I need to work on before my Walden
studies come to a close.
At this point in my journey of
working toward greater technology integration in my classroom I feel relatively
confident with my “professional development and leadership” in technology
integration (ISTE, 2008). Through the
nature of our program I also feel that through my work as well as my studies
outside of school I “model digital age work and learning” (ISTE, 2008). In my most recent Walden course I also worked
on “digital citizenship and responsibility” to credit sources with students (ISTE,
2008).
The two areas that I feel I am
currently still developing are “facilitating and inspiring student learning and
creativity” and “developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments” (ISTE,
2008). I chose these two standards
because I feel that these two standards are constantly changing due to advances
in technology and I am working to integrate technology seamlessly in my lessons. It is critical that teachers model this type
of work and facilitate this type of thinking because it is this type of
thinking that will be needed for the future success of students.
Because I feel these areas would be
good areas for my development I have chosen two goals. One goal is focused on putting technology in
the hands of students and one is something I can do to better my use of
technology. My first goal is to personalize
learning activities to address the diverse needs of my heritage speakers using digital
tools and resources. My second goal is
to model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness through integrating
new technology tools in my lessons.
There are many actions that can be
taken to achieve these goals. Cennamo,
Ross and Ertmer (2009) suggest searching the internet and using online tutorials
to learn more along with traditional classes.
The internet is an important tool for learning, collaboration and
sparking new ideas. I plan to search the
internet for differentiation strategies and new technology tools. Also because my current class is focused on
technology integration and is full of resources to help use technology in
instruction I may be able to draw on some of the skills and ideas I learn. I will likely use some of the tools that my
instructor suggested in the past class I took with her and also in my current
class where she is my instructor as well.
I would appreciate any feedback on differentiation strategies using
technology or new technology tools I could try to model creativity.
To monitor both of my goals I will reflect
I will do so on-action and in-action as suggested by Cennamo, Ross and
Ertmer. As I conduct a lesson using
differentiation I will reflect on how the strategies are working for the
students as they are learning and modify the technology or the focus of student
thinking as the lesson goes on. Then I will
reflect back on the lesson and think about what happened and if the students
met the desired outcome for the lesson.
As I conduct a lesson modeling
creativity using technology I will reflect on the reactions and engagement of
the class. I will keep notes as the
lesson goes on so I can remember certain reactions, comments or breakthroughs. After
the lesson I will use these notes to think back on how my creativity affected
the creativity and learning outcomes of the students.
I
will evaluate my learning in the first goal by looking at data of individual
student gains in their communication skills.
I will extend my learning by modifying these activities for my students
that are on target and below target so they can also reap the benefits of differentiation
with technology. I can also extend my
learning of this goal by next learning to use technology to differentiate
learning for varying learning styles.
I will evaluate my learning of the second goal
by putting creativity in the hands of my students after I model creativity. Based on their creative thinking I will be
able to see if what I am doing with technology may also help them to create
with technology and the language. I can
also use the notes I take during my lesson as a basis to evaluate the effects
of my efforts. I will extend my learning
of my second goal by sharing what I learned with colleagues, suggest strategies
that are successful and ask them for feedback on how I could modify, improve or
expand creativity through modeling.
I
am very open to feedback on my goals or ideas to support them!
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. (2008).
National education standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Using technology to differentiate is something that works very well. I know one of the things I like to do when working with students and technology is to differentiate through the use of different groups. Even though it seems that ever student knows more about technology than you do, as the teacher, there are students that do not, and this is a great opportunity to allow them to learn more about it. I do a project where the students create a website Wiki as groups and I always set up those groups so that there is one person that really understands what is going on and is able to self-learn, a person who really struggles with technology and this will present an opportunity to learn more about, a person who is really good at research skills, and finally someone who needs to learn more about research skills.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading your post.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I like your idea of grouping and using Wikis. I like how that strategy allows students to teach each other and work on the skills they need while collaborating.
I could even do this with my heritage speakers because I have found that there is even a big difference between their skills. Recently my Spanish level three students (where my heritage speakers were placed) took the STAMP assessment (Standards based measure of proficiency) online. The Avant company reports their scores back to me so I can see their differing results in reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Starting a few wikis with these specific students based on their varying skill sets and needs could be a great way to differentiate even further within my efforts to differentiate my lessons for these students. I appreciate your idea, your feedback and your post! Have a great Sunday!
Jenny
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI really like your first goal for getting your students to use technology to learn a language. There are so many different application out there today that can assist your students in their learning of language. Have you ever heard of Voki.com or GoAnimate.com? These are website that allow students to express themselves through the creation of a avatar or by creating a cartoon. These two sites come to mind when thinking about your first goal. Your students would first have to write out or type the content of their Voki or cartoon, thus leading them to use Language in words. The second part, which is the animation of the students words allows them to hear what they have written. I am not suggesting that this is a technology that could be used all the time for your students to learn a different language, but it does allow for a really engaging activity that puts to use the written and spoken aspects of language.
Hi Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI tried to respond by phone but I learned that technique will most likely not work during Thanksgiving break. I have heard of Voki although I have never used it myself. Thank you for reminding me of it. Voki could be a good way to help my students who are afraid of speaking Spanish out loud. Podcasts and Voicethreads could also serve the same purpose. I would like to incorporate these as tools in my class. Thank you for your suggestion and feedback! I will be taking your advice!
Jenny