As I continue to move forward with my GAME plan, I am finding it easier to step outside my comfort zone and explore more technology outlets to use for myself and for my students in the classroom. The resources this week gave me a better perspective on what I can also do to add more technology to the assessment process and provide students with the opportunity to do more than sitting down and taking a paper and pencil test. I plan to learn how to incorporate more testing and online software into my classroom by finding more time in the lab for the students to be able to take their assessments. I also plan to engage my students more by providing them the opportunities to use Activotes as a mode of formative assessment and in our class discussions to monitor their progress throughout the units. I am still most comfortable with allowing the students to create multimedia projects, but I would like to expand on this format and try to get the students away from wanting to do PowerPoint presentations and introduce them to other media presentation software.
As for conducting my own personal research to expand my knowledge, I am still not having the kind of progress I would like to have. I am not finding as much time as I would like to do all that I would like to do. I have researched more about the content mentioned in the Cennamo text and I am utilizing those resources to expand my knowledge. As we move into the next couple of weeks, we will engage with wikis and I look forward to understanding more about them and how they work as I have never used them before.
At this point, I do not feel I need to revise my GAME plan, but I do feel I need to engage more with the plan I have committed myself to. I am finding the resources I need, and I know there are more resources out there for me to explore if I can take the time to do so.
The only question I have is how teachers find more time to integrate technology into their classrooms and how they find the time to learn the software and work with it? This is something I have struggled with over the past couple of years as we have been required to do more and learn more with all of the advances in technology. I still do not feel like I am able to catch up and stay caught up.
Rachel-
ReplyDeleteFirst off, what is Activotes? I may have missed something in a former post, but I am not sure I know what that is.
Secondly, I understand about the time. It is so frustrating. I feel the same stress about finding the time to figure all of these things out. We are learning such great ideas from Walden and from fellow students; yet I feel like because of life and being busy I do not have time to devote to learning extra things. I wish I had great advice, but unfortunately I do not.
In my plan I have decided to devote 1 hour every Saturday to sitting down and searching the internet or trying new tools. I guess I just have to make the time. I am also learning that you cannot do too much at once...baby steps and then slowly add more.
Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) named chapter one, "self-directed lifelong learning". I guess learning is not all meant to happen at one time. Do you have someone you can work with? Or can you find an accountability partner that will help keep you on track?
Don't give up!
Renee Scott
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.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI like that you are taking the initiative to implement new assessment formats into your classroom practices after reading this week's resources from Cennamo (et al., 2009). The mention of utilizing technology as an assessment support tool is really helpful in remembering the role of technology to enhance student learning and to expose them to forms that they may need to use in the future. One way to implement more multimedia presentations away from PowerPoints could be to utilize other tools like iPods for video recordings and taking pictures, adding these videos and pictures into a website or other publishing tool, like a brochure or online portfolio. All of these take learning beyond the content, and helps expose them to self-discovery mode of learning new technology skills that can help them in future jobs to be successful and knowledgeable about their technological abilities (Cennamo, et al., 2009).
I also have to give you major credit for the fact that you have developed a set schedule for your self-discovery and location of new research and learning tools. I, too, have set up Saturday mornings as my "learning time", and use this 2-hour chuck of time to devote solely to finding new ways to utilize technology and other media formats into my lessons and unit plans.
Good work this week!
Ryan McGinnis
Resources
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.