In this assignment, I chose to focus on the following two ISTE (2008) indicators from which to further develop my confidence and proficiency:
- 2(a) Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
- 5(c) Evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning. (ISTE, 2008)
To become proficient in these two indicators, my long-term goals will be to do regular research on new digital tools, and then use them to enhance or even replace some of my existing lessons. To put this plan into action, I will follow a strict timeline:
- At least biweekly, I will spend one conference period or take on hour after school to research new digital tools that could potentially be used to create new learning experiences for my students.
- At least monthly, I will either incorporate the technology into a previous lesson, or design a completely new lesson with the new technology in mind as well as the relevant content standard.
To monitor my plan of action, I will keep Microsoft Excel to keep digital log of my research in which I note the new technology, give a brief synopsis of it, note the url where I found it, and write a summary of its potential use in a lesson.
At the end of each month of research, I will either restructure a lesson utilizing one my newly found digital tools, or design a new learning activity where students could use it to teach themselves the content. Lesson adjustments will be recorded in my plan book and then performed either this year or next. Once the lesson is executed, I will take the advice of Cennamo, Ertmer, and Ross (2009) and keep a digital reflective journal using PlanBook so that I can assess the overall effectiveness of the lesson and technology that was utilized. I will also be sure to design a formative assessment for each new lesson so that I can monitor the progress of my students and be sure they are in fact learning.
To evaluate and extend my own learning, I will use the reflections from my plan book to make further adjustments to each lesson so that they become better each time they are executed. I will also be mindful of new digital tools that may crop up and possibly be better alternatives than the one currently in use. Finally, I will seek out any professional development which may further extend my proficiency of these two NSTE indicators (i.e. those that focus on digital tools and accompanying learning environments).
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 (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Tom,
I constantly research new digital technologies to implement within my classroom to make my lessons more meaningful. In addition to your plan, I think that you would also benefit from visiting different educational blogs in researching new digital tools. One website that I visit often is http://www.edudemic.com/. This website offers its viewers a wide variety of blog posts that include topics on how teachers can effectively incorporate technology in their lessons. Furthermore, this website offers teachers a list of digital tools that teachers can utilize, as well as, tutorials on how to use these various technologies. The fact that this website offers tutorials on how to use these tools is the aspect of this site that I find the most beneficial. In my experience, while there are many websites and blogs that discuss different digital technologies, most do not offer step-by-step instructions on how to use these tools. As a result, I think that utilizing the resources available on http://www.edudemic.com/ would further enhance your current plan and give you the opportunity to achieve your goals (Edudemic, 2015).
References
Edudemic. (2015). Edudemic: Connecting education and technology. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.edudemic.com/
Tom,
In order to make our lessons become more engaging and educational, we must be willing to put in the work through research to find out what are the latest technology tools, digital devices or learning strategies are out there that we can implement in our classrooms to make our lessons more creative and educational. It is great that you are one of those teachers who remains on the cutting edge of technology in your class where you will incorporate new technology tools into your lessons regularly. As teachers, we should never be too relax with only using the same technology tools in our classes, every year. We have to try new things so that our lessons can evolve with the time. In Edutopia(2008) it says, “technology also changes the way teachers teach,offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess students understanding through multiple means. It also enhances the technology between teacher and students”(para.5). All the best with your GAME Plan!
Alicia
Reference
Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many. (2008, March 16). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction
Good point about allowing technologies to stagnate, Alicia. Indeed, if I were unwilling to explore new technologies, I would still be stuck using my graphing calculator for everything (not that it is a bad tool), and would have missed out on Desmos and Geogebra, two of my favorite classroom technologies. Edutopia is also one of my favorite resource sites. Ever since I subscribed to it during one of our classes, it is usually one of the sites I check out in my RSS feed when new articles crop up.
Tom,
I checked out desmos which you have talked about. It is so interesting because it is user friendly and the students will be able to graph just about anything. I know that my students would be interested in this tech tool. I will certainly tell my math and science teachers about it. Thank you for posting this information.
Alicia
Tom,
I think your idea of being well organized and creating a digital log of your research is a great way to go. So many times we come across a new website or tool that we can’t use at that time. In the future we try to remember what that site or tool was because we sure could use it now. When planning a new lesson or unit you would be able to go back and look at your list of resources and determine which one would work for your needs. Way to be organized.
Do you belong to any professional math organizations or subscribe to any math blogs where you may find more resources for your research? Does your school district provide any teacher resources for learning new technology? These may be other options.
Have you been to http://edtechteacher.org/ ? There are some interesting resources on their website.
Tami
Thanks for the reply, Tami.
It is not often I get compliments on organization, so thank you! To answer your first question, I do indeed subscribe to “Teaching AP Calculus” a blog by Lin McMullin, an expert on AP Calculus. His blog contains many resources for AP calc teachers including several digital tools that I currently use in my classroom. I also belong to the AP calculus community. If I could find a resource similar to these two resources for geometry, I would be eager to latch onto it.
Thanks for the website also, I will add it to my favorites and give it a look during my digital research time.
Tom,
I constantly research new digital technologies to implement within my classroom to make my lessons more meaningful. In addition to your plan, I think that you would also benefit from visiting different educational blogs in researching new digital tools. One website that I visit often is http://www.edudemic.com/. This website offers its viewers a wide variety of blog posts that include topics on how teachers can effectively incorporate technology in their lessons. Furthermore, this website offers teachers a list of digital tools that teachers can utilize, as well as, tutorials on how to use these various technologies. The fact that this website offers tutorials on how to use these tools is the aspect of this site that I find the most beneficial. In my experience, while there are many websites and blogs that discuss different digital technologies, most do not offer step-by-step instructions on how to use these tools. As a result, I think that utilizing the resources available on http://www.edudemic.com/ would further enhance your current plan and give you the opportunity to achieve your goals (Edudemic, 2015).
References
Edudemic. (2015). Edudemic: Connecting education and technology. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.edudemic.com/
Thanks for the tip, Irene.
Education blogs, in addition to blogs written by other math teachers are certainly another route I can take in my quest for more digital tools. Although I only perused edudemic, it certainly seems to contain a wealth of articles regarding digital tools and ideas for the classroom. I will add it to my favorites and give it a closer look during the research time I have put aside for digital tools.
Tom,
I am glad that you are adding it to your list of possible resources! I have gained many ideas of how I can utilize technology within my classroom from this site and I am confident that you will too!
-Irene
Hi Tom,
Thank you for taking the time to share your GAME plan with us. I like that one of your long-term goals is to do research on new technologies. I think that will be very beneficial as there are several new technologies that sprout up all of the time. I am still finding new technologies to use for my own classroom. I agree with Irene (Below) when she stated that there are several different blog sites that you could use to help in your research of newer technologies. I think that another possible action that you could take with this is to talk with your colleagues about the type of technologies they are using in their own classroom. Furthermore, I think that the use of Excel as a digital log is great. I honestly did not think of excel being a tool that could be used to take notes on digital tools or even lessons. Thank you!
Krysten