GAME Plan

By Maureen Burton

As I reflect on the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers, the two areas that I feel I should establish a GAME Plan for are numbers one and two. By developing a GAME Plan, I must think about and take steps to direct my learning about technology and how to integrate it into the curriculum (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 3). 

GAME Plan One addresses NETS standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.

In developing a GAME plane for standard one, I want to focus on engaging students in real world engagement using digital tools and resources.  By creating realistic context for students’ learning, the teacher provides a holistic, complex problem in which to ground their learning (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 47).  My goal is to have my student create a multi-media presentation for the Earth Day Celebration in our town using as many new technologies as possible.  For this project I want to move beyond a simple PowerPoint presentation.  Our sixth graders do an Earth Day town clean-up each year.  The picture on my profile is of my student showing off their days’ collection from last year.  Over twenty years ago our town recycling center put together a video on the importance of the 3 R’s.  The information presented is outdated.  I want my students to evaluate the information in the old movie, research and develop a 21^st century multi-media project.  My action for this goal will be to begin working on the project with my students.  I need to go for it and push myself outside of my comfort zone.  As a part of the action, I have selected a few technologies that I want my students to incorporate into the presentation to expand their 21^st century skills.  One of the technologies I would like to incorporate into the project is to have my students Blog with others about ideas for how students can make a difference in saving the environment.  I am trying to figure out whom to collaborate with on this.  In our video this week, it suggests that the best collaboration is grassroots (Laureate Education, 2011).   I will monitor my progress on providing my students with a real-world experience and new technologies as we progress on the development of the presentation.  I will need to collaborate with other teachers for learning some of the new technologies and they are available in the district and community.  I will evaluate by our ability to produce an awesome Earth Day multi-media production.  Students take more pride in work that will be viewed by many eyes (Jansen, 2005, p. 27-28).  I think that I have given myself enough time to effectively implement new digital resources one at a time as my students work on producing a multimedia presentation for the community. 

GAME Plan Two addresses NETS Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessment.

The first step is to select a current technology and set specific goals for learning about the topic (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 7).  I am learning to integrate my new Mimio Board into my curriculum.  Since it is new to me and I have had no training, I must be a self-directed learner.  I have been learning to use the tools and have tried to sketch together two lesson ideas, but have not completed the lessons or used them with my students.  Everything was so difficult to do.  After expressing my frustration with having to scan anything I wanted to add to the interactive mode of the Mimio Board at home, the technology director figured out that my system was set up wrong.  Now that I will be able to add more content, my goal is to develop interactive reading and writing lessons using the Mimio Board.  The action that I will take is to develop at least one lesson each week.  I am open to any ideas on where I might get more training on it or ideas.  I have read the instructional manual.  It sure would be nice to find lessons already created for the Mimio board.  Does anyone know of a collection of these? I will monitor my progress by my ability to do a lesson each week.  I will then reflect on the lesson in order to evaluate its effectiveness on content knowledge, literacy skills as well as how it allows for student creativity.  It is important for teachers to evaluate how well a new technology is their educational goals (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 75).  Based on this reflection, I will decide what I can do to add more technology, engagement and creativity to future lessons. 

References

Cennamo, k., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Jansen, B. (2005). Meaningful products:Making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Library Media Connection, 27-28. Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8c5c86a4-ede7-4cc7-a569-0615c8675c76%40sessionmgr13&vid=6&hid=13

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Program 4: Enriching content area learning experiences with technology. [Webcast]. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Baltimore, MD: Author.