As I am well into my GAME Plan, it’s time to evaluate my progress of integrating technology that will enhance student learning experiences (Laureate Education Inc., 2009) and teaching my students to become digital citizens.
My actions included reviewing lessons to determine if integrating technology tools would enhance and enrich the learning of my students and if so, selecting technology tools that would be most effective. I adapted a recent lesson on the effect of wind currents on ocean currents into a PowerPoint presentation, using several print resources and adding images and videos to enhance student understanding. This lesson was content heavy and this technology tool provided me the opportunity to present the information in a variety of ways, tapping into students’ differing learning styles. The podcasts created for previous week’s lessons have enabled students to follow along in their reading and re-listen to the content as much as possible.
The pre-assessment on citing sources and plagiarism has determined the mini lessons my students need in order to become solid digital citizens. I have discovered talking about how I create a product, the Ocean Currents PowerPoint, for example, brings citations and the importance of using your own words to the forefront and has increased awareness. This is only a start, but it is progress.
What have I learned so far that I can apply in my instructional practice?
I am in the process of creating my first digital storytelling product using Windows Moviemaker. I participated in an online tutorial last week to learn the basics of this technology tool and then spent time working through the various features. My product will have its debut at my family night later in the month. It will give students and families an opportunity to experience a creative problem solving activity students took part in. Through the tutorial and my experience creating this product I feel comfortable introducing this tool to my students.
What do I still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
There are so many options for student collaboration using technology tools. Although I have used blogs such as this one and a wiki for collaboration and see the benefits, I have yet to incorporate any of these into my learning activities for my students. I need to build a bridge from what I know about using them to teaching my students to use them so they can reap the benefits. My questions center around effective management strategies for using these in my classroom.
How will I adjust my plan?
After reviewing my initial plan, I don’t see any adjustments needed, but I do see the importance of continually reflecting on my progress so that progress is made. Throughout the past few weeks I have integrated streaming videos, podcasts, and PowerPoint presentations into my lessons on Oceanography. The movie I made will enhance my family night event and keep families informed about the kinds of learning activities their children take part in. Students will begin their own culminating activity for our oceanography unit and at that point, I will introduce mini lessons for notetaking and citations to develop skills needed for my students to be good digital citizens.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Davis, V.
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Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteI like that you are going back and reviewing lessons plans to see how technology can be integrated. I have been doing the same myself recently and can't wait to try some new things, not only this year, but starting fresh next year. Also, I agree with you that it's important to continue to reflect on your progress to make sure that you are still making progress.
Tanika
It sounds like you have been making fantastic progress on your entire GAME plan, great work! I think it’s great that you have been outwardly sharing with your students your mental processes while you deliver technology-rich information. I also struggled with how to incorporate the digital citizenship components of 21st century learning into my curriculum and still have time to meet all of my curriculum requirements. I found, like yourself, that by verbally explaining my own presentations, highlights quotations and citations, as well as a works cited or reference page, students began to see how diligent I am in ensuring that I do not take the credit for someone else's work, even if it is an image from Google or a media file from another website. After continually giving students these metacognitive mini-lessons while still allow them to access the curriculum I began to see a large uptick in questions about how to properly cite a quotation from websites, magazines, blogs, etc. Again, it sounds like you are doing a great job and keep it up I am sure your students really appreciate all that you do.
ReplyDeleteMovie maker? I'm impressed! Almost entirely due to this program, I've played around with the other technologies you've mentioned, but not that... - you're motivating me to check it out. I have tried using new technologies with my students. I was trepidatious, but I made a pact with myself that as soon as I learned something new, I'd teach it to my students. I am a science teacher, and far from expert on anything that has to do with computers, yet shockingly, the first time students had done blogs, podcasts or wikis was with me! It was actually a lot of fun for all of us. I told them I had just learned it and wanted to get their opinion... they loved everything, and I think they really liked that we were learning side by side, and we ran into things they had to help me with. We laughed a lot, and I did make some serious mistakes - like letting them blog under a sign-in name I couldn't identify. I learned :-)!
ReplyDeleteTanika, Derrick and Diane,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments! I have been amazed how effective modeling has been in raising my students' awareness of digital citizenship. It is just a start, but I'll continue to support it with mini lessons. Diane, I was surprised how quickly I was able to make a very basic movie. The program really is very user friendly. I do know there are many features to incorporate that I will learn in time to enhance my products with Movie Maker, I encourage you to give it a try!
Carolyn Doyle