Spotlight on Emerging Technology

This week our Walden group was assigned to investigate a LMS which stands for Learning Management System. I chose a free LMS tool called Edu2.0. This LMS was created by a gentleman named Graham Glass. I created a Glog for the rest of this assignment which can be viewed at http://mrswinner.glogster.com/glog-6386-4529. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Walden Class Reflection

I believe that this course, EDUC-6714I-4, had been very worthwhile. I feel as though I have gained an abundance of knowledge and many essential tools that will aid in the way I utilize Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction in my classroom.

There are several immediate changes that I am going to make in my classroom. First off, I am going to begin to use the classroom management plan that was created during this course. I also plan to use a tic-tac-toe choice board, similar to the one I created during this class, during my weekly centers. I found that my regular weekly centers were good but by using a tic-tac-toe choice board and integrating more technology into each center I was able to get my students even more engaged in their learning. I knew that each student was being more productive and successful because they were the ones that chose the centers that appealed to them. These choice boards also allow me to cater to each learning style and personal student interests. I will also use a variety of the interest inventories and online surveys to gather data about each student in order to learn even more about their lives as well as how they learn. Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) has been a resource that I have utilized to ask specific questions that correspond with each unit.

This course also opened my eyes to the copious amounts of resources available to me and my students online and how easy it is to use these resources to differentiate learning. As I learn about each resource I will continue to expose my students to them as well. This allows students to explore, research, be creative, and feel successful as they learn. I look forward to making these subtle changes in my classroom and observing my students thrive as they use more technology and learn in a way that is meaningful to them.

The Final Blog Posting...

I can not believe that this class is already coming to an end. I feel like we just started. I have learned so much about technology, myself, and my classmates and I feel as though I am well on my way in terms of successfully using technology in my classroom.

As I as result communicating with my classmates I discovered that my original GAME plan was too broad and needed to be turned into a simpler plan. Since then, I have been very pleased with my progress in achieving these goals. As I learned new information I shared my findings with my students so I am not the only one who has benefited from my GAME plan. A goal that I am going to add to my GAME plan is to work with my students as they create their own classroom GAME plan. I mentioned this last week in my blog and I can not stop thinking about how beneficial a classroom GAME plan would be.

Overall, I an very pleased with this class. I feel as if I have learned the most from this course and I am excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel as I complete the last two courses at Walden.

Happy Holidays to all and God bless!

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

I know how important it is for my students to understand NETS-S. I say this because I know how important it is for my to the the NETS-T standards.

In order to show students the importance of these standards I would start by showing them my GAME plan. I would take the time to describe my goals and why they are important to me. I would also have my students brainstorm ways that I tried to reach these goals in the classroom. Following this discussion I would pull up NETS-S on the mimio for the class to review. Together we would point out each standard and discuss what each indicator means.

Finally, we would create our own "Classroom GAME Plan". Since my students are young I think starting with a group GAME plan and reviewing the plan as a class periodically would be a good way to demonstrate the importance of the technology standards. Together we can help each other be successful and achieve our goals.

Revising My GAME Plan

I feel like I have gained even more knowledge in the world of technology since the beginning of this course. I have learned new and exciting software and social networking sites as well as learning more about some technologies that I thought I new all about! Best of all, my students are benefiting from this knowledge because I have been teaching them most of the new and exciting technologies as I learn.

I also believe that I am more aware of the NETS-T and the importance of each standards. My GAME plan has evolved. I went form a broad lengthy GAME plan to a more specific plan that focuses on just one factor for each goal.


Facilitating and Inspiring Students Learning and Creativity was my first NETS-T standard. I took that standard and modified it to the following:



1. Students will create meaningful age-appropriate activities that incorporate technology and promote creativity.



I am still using many of the resources that I found or that my classmates shared on their blog postings to promote creativity but I have also started to let me students find various activities on our school's "Student Intranet". This "Student Intranet" is our schools version of the Internet for kids. All of the website on this page are safe and wonderful for students to use. I think it's important to get students feedback in the classroom and having them help to find creative technology activities is one way to keep them engaged with technology.



My second NETS-T standard that I chose was Design and Develop Digital-Aged Learning Experiences and Assessments.



Here is the goal I created for this standard:



2. Students will use various forms of technology indepentently and interdependently to show their understanding of the particular subject being taught.



Last week I talked my lesson for application where students research cultures on a particular continent, compare and contrast the cultures to their own, and present their information. Since then I added the steps of researching how the particular culture celebrates Christmas. My students are really enjoying this project as they work on their own and in their small group. They also get plenty of time to use the computer and other resources. I have not really done much else for this goal since this project is taking up the last two weeks leading up to Christmas.

For now, I am happy with my progress in the world of technology and I am also pleased with the materials my students have learned about and learned how to use. I look forward to setting new goals for my GAME plan in the future.

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

After reading my classmates thoughts and ideas I decided restate my 2 goals in a simpler manner.





Goal #1: To create meaningful, age-appropriate activities that incorporate technology and promote student creativity.



Goal #2: To have students use various forms of technology independently and interdependently to show their understanding of the particular subject matter being studied.

I believe that in this weeks application, Application #5, is going to cover both of my GAME plan goals. As I create my Social Studies lesson based on the People and Societies, I will be determining how students can use their creativity to present their information about their continent and the culture of people who live on each continent. I will also allow my students to use various forms of technology to research and present their information to the class.

Though this PBL lesson will take some time and planning on my part, I am looking forward to creating and implementing this PBL lesson in my classroom before the holiday season.

Monitoring my GAME Plan

After reviewing my GAME plan, I feel as though my plan is a little too lengthy. Because of this I feel that maybe I need to modify my GAME plan. I would love any thoughts/suggestions from my classmates. As a teachers I know that collaborating with others is one of the best ways to learn so I would appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

One part of my GAME plan was to keep myself current in the world of technology and I feel as though I am doing this rather well. I have been researching several websites and resources and have found several that I think will be quite useful. I have also had a chance to get some really great resources from my classmates' blog postings. Here are a few resources that I think are wonderful:

www.funderstanding.com/content/inspiring-creativity-in-student

I was able to get some inspiring ideas from this site. Creating meaningful learning that involves students showing their creativity is a huge part of my goal and I was excited to find this site.

www.4Teachers.org

When you get to the 4Teachers home page there is a link called Teacher Tacklebox which is a wonderful resource for any subject and how to incorporate technology!!

www.school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html

This is a site created by an educator named Kathy Schrock. This site has some really great rubrics for assessing students work.

Overall, I am pleased with my findings and the resources that I've been able to use from my Walden classmates. I am anxious to get some feedback on my GAME plan so I can have a more concrete plan set into place.

Finally, I just wanted to share with everyone how thankful I am for all the blessings in my life and I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! God Bless!!