Week 8 Reflection

This last 8 weeks has been by far the busiest I've been during the long last year and several months of my Masters program, and I won't lie and say that I'll miss it! Throughout this course, we had the assignment to create a G.A.M.E. plan for self-directed learning and have followed that plan through as much as possible. My G.A.M.E. plan was to learn more about several different basic computer programs in order to be able to seamlessly integrate them into students authentic, self-directed learning. While I was able to mess around myself to learn a bit and was able to get some help from computer-savvy friends, I didn't reach the level of understanding that I had originally set out to accomplish. Largely, I think that many factors played into this, but none larger than the fact that we were not in a teaching situation (as it is summer break) to implement what we had learned. Blume tells us that the best way to learn is to teach, but since there were no students to teach, there wasn't a way to satisfactorily learn these programs. I do have a much better understanding of the Windows Movie Maker software now than I did prior to my G.A.M.E. plan beginning, so I don't think that my goal was completely missed.

The largest change that I will make come August and those bright smiling faces arrive back in the classroom came from Dr. Ertmers suggestion in our Week 2 video "Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology". As a part of the four variables to integrate technology effectively, Dr. Ertmer discussed knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and a supportive culture. Within her discussion of beliefs, she described how teachers were not the sole source for information anymore, and how teachers were going to have to be willing to give up some control to students. This is a huge part of Problem Based Learning strategy and will help students become the independent, creative thinkers that the United States desperately needs. I will relinquish much of my control next year, as I have students utilize technology more so than I have in the past to learn the curriculum.

Week 7 G.A.M.E. - How my plan addresses NET-S Standards

This week I find that I am perfectly positioned for a simple blog entry, as our topic of discussion is digital storytelling. I teach social studies, which lends itself perfectly to the idea of digital storytelling, and my entire G.A.M.E. plan has hinged around my learning of Window's Movie Maker software in order to teach students how to, you guessed it, create digital stories! The entire idea of digital storytelling firmly addresses the 5 NET-S standards for teachers (which have the trickle-down effect of addressing the 6 NET-S standards for students). Students will work creatively, within themselves and cooperative groups to create their digital stories. The seamless integration of technology (internet research, artifact recovery, and Movie Maker usage) into the learning of content shows digital-age learning experiences, and aiding students throughout the process of creating their digital stories models digital-age learning. As students research and begin developing their digital stories on Windows Movie Maker, they will have been taught about the ethical use of copyrighted material, and will know the joys and stresses of being a part of a collaborative group, showing good digital citizenship and responsibility. Lastly, as students grow, and learn through the process of directing their own digital story and sharing it with the world, so will I. I will learn new and exciting ways of presenting information, as well as assessing information.

After comparing the NET-S to the process of digital storytelling, it is easy to see that digital storytelling drives home the NET-S standards.

NET-S standards can be found on the ISTE website:
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Week 6: G.A.M.E Plan Update

As you can see, I am still working on my G.A.M.E. plan from several weeks ago. So far, things are going well. It started out slowly, with the idea to learn some new software programs to introduce into the use of students within the classroom. To learn these, I was hoping to learn from a colleague, however with Summer gloriously bursting through, there wasn't time to close out the school year AND push him to teach me the foundations of Microsoft Excel and Windows Movie Maker. I changed my goal to reflect that I would have to learn it all on my own, and made minimal progress on each program. I realized that despite my desire to learn the software, I would not be able to learn this stuff on my own and decided to again search for help. I enlisted some computer-savvy friends to help me with these programs, and have made several steps past what I had picked up on my own. I can now put together a fairly entertaining (albeit elementary) Movie Maker presentation. Overall, I am still working towards my original goal of learning how to effectively build quality, curriculum-based, authentic learning experiences that utilize technology as a means of instructing. Since we are now out on Summer break, I will not be able to teach students about Dr. Cennamo's G.A.M.E. plan, leaving me unable to obtain my other goal until the new school year rolls around.

Week 5 G.A.M.E. Plan Update

This week, I have found myself sprinting to keep up with the coursework in hopes of completing it all before leaving for my bachelor party this Thursday, and haven't taken much time to further my G.A.M.E. plan. Last week I realized that I would not have the luxury of help in learning the intricacies of new (to me) Windows software and would have to take it upon myself to explore these programs, and only had a small amount of time to devote to Microsoft Excel and Windows Movie Maker. In Excel, I figured out some basic computation formulas and quick links to find averages in any given row or column. I still have to learn how to use more advanced formulas, but I worry that I wont be able to figure them out on my own. To that end, do I simply quit? I think I will search YouTube for tutorial videos for Excel usage. I was able to employ this learning technique before when I was learning the basics of Photo Shop. I was also able to begin working with Movie Maker, and have found it fairly easy. The final product of my exploration was elementary at best, but with more work I think that I could fine tune the program and create a simple "How To" guide to aid students in the quick, step-by-step usage of the program to produce fantastic products. To help direct me in creating ideas for the usage of this software by students in self-directed, authentic learning situations Dr. Ertmer has given good pointers on what Problem Based Learning should look like, and what components it should entail. I will use this list as a reference to make sure that what I create will pass as PBL. At this point, my G.A.M.E. plan does not need to be modified, unless modification can include the addition of several hours to each day!

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology Parts I &II. Baltimore: Author.