Last week I posted two
goals derived from the National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) to
help with the integration of technology in my classroom. The goals were to
strengthen my confidence and proficiency in designing learning
activities/experiences that incorporate digital tools as well as enabling my
students to be active self-directed learners. The other goal set was to use
virtual environments in the delivery of lessons as part of students’
collaboration and engagement.
This week I am looking
at ways I can carry out these goals using the GAME plan strategy. To begin the
process of carrying out my GAME plan I must ensure that all the digital tools I
identify to use in my classroom are accessible on the school’s network (not blocked
by the filtering system) by students. In checking out the various digital tools
- blogs, wiki, voicethread etc. - I found that voicethread was not accessible
to my students. To this end I contacted the school’s network administrator who
made the request to the offsite filtering service and got the voicethread website
accessible to all students. As a result of this my students not only have
access but also have voicethread accounts. I have begun to collaborate with the
information technology specialist on campus to co-plan technology rich
activities that can be used in my business studies lessons. Along with this I have
also join the edmodo.com community in the hope of collaborating with other
educators to gain insight into digital tools including virtual environment that
I can incorporate in my classroom along with the online research being
conducted.
Due to the situation of
these islands it is difficult for me to engage in professional growth in the
form of workshops as I would desire and as a result would have to defer the
attendance of such workshops until the summer break when I get the opportunity
to go off island.
Reference
International Society
for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for
teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.
Hi Leonie,
ReplyDeleteSome of the web based tools have webinars or how to video clips that will walk you through the features. For example, google tools have many web groups and forums that you can enter and learn more about the feature. If you run into problems, there is always someone in the forum who will answer your post. Google is my new favorite thing right now, if you cannot tell, I am trying to plan a virtual field trip right now using google maps and with all of the great features the students cannot only get a aerial view by a land view complete with landmarks and street names. It's really neat! You do need to download google earth as a separate program, but it offers an option to traveling for staff development. Lots of luck!
Melissa A.
Hi Melissa, I was going to ask in my original blog post for any information of online resources for professional development, but somehow forgot to include it. I too have become a fan of Google and begun to learn and explore the various applications they provide. I am looking into finding appropriate webinars for business studies and technology to help with my professional development. Thanks for your feedback and your help.
Delete~Leonie
Leonie,
ReplyDeleteYou have taken a number of steps to ensure the effectiveness of the technology in your classroom. I applaud you for doing so and setting up the student’s voice thread accounts ahead of time. This will help your class lesson move much quicker and more efficiently. You have found a great set of technology programs to use to start incorporating in your classroom; do not shy away from technologies that have not been discussed in the Walden program as there are many tools available that are exceptional learning tools. As far as collaboration, I feel that you have started a great process of finding a group of individuals to work with. I cannot imagine the collaboration challenges you face due to your location. Although there are some road blocks initially in your way to collaborate with others, I feel you have really stepped out of the comfort zone to share information with others. Keep up the good work.
Tami
Tami thanks for your encouragement. Embarking upon this Walden program has opened my eyes to the wealth of technological resources that are available to educators. And the good news is that most of them are free. I surprised myself as I got out of my comfort zone and not only exploring but using various technology in my classroom to increase students’ engagement. To overcome the challenge of my location to aid in professional development, Melissa in an earlier comment reminded me of the benefits of webinars.
Delete~Leonie
Hi Leonie,
ReplyDeleteI have used Edmodo in my computers classroom and I found it to beneficial. It looks very similar to Facebook so my students felt comfortable with it from the beginning. I was able to hold class discussions on it and I could see who was participating. I hope that you are able to attend some sort of seminars soon. In the mean time, you may want to consider webinars. You can learn a lot from webinars online and you can do it from the comfort of your own home! Good luck!!
Tanya
Tanya,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback on Edmodo.com. I am still finding out the features of it, but so far I like the interface and the possibility it holds for students in my classroom. My intention is to engage students in a deeper discussion for their business studies class and since Edmodo.com is similar to Facebook I feel they would be more comfortable and want to use it to be engaged in and out of the learning environment. Yes Tanya, I am looking into webinars to assist with my professional development. I have begun to research appropriate webinars that will help to inform my teaching of business studies.
~Leonie