My Personal GAME Plan

As an educator, I will continue to strengthen my confidence and proficiency as I explore strategies for seamlessly integrating technology into my content area instruction. With this in mind, the onus is on me to adequately prepare students for the 21st century, to not only integrate technology in my classroom, but also engage students’ learning, and enhance the learning environment. Knowledge increases every day, and as a teacher, I must seek ways of improving on classroom practices to expand student’s learning capabilities and develop a supportive, professional learning community.

Therefore, I have visited the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) website, and have examined the National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T). Having gone through the standards, I am not as confident or proficient in some areas, as I would like, and will develop a plan to develop my competency. The areas I would like to strengthen my confidence and proficiency are: Indicator 2b – To develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress, and Indicator 4b – To address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies, and providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. To assist me with this process, I have adopted the plan of developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating my personal GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009), which I will implement.

GOAL:   In order for me to develop technology-enriched learning environments, I would have to incorporate technology in the design of learning experiences and lessons that support students’ self-directed learning (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). Additionally, I would develop, support, and scaffold student learning in a technology-enriched learning environment through actions taken before, during and after the lesson. Secondly, understanding my students would be of paramount importance, so that I am able to explore methods for supporting their diverse needs. In addition, in designing my lessons, I have to plan and manage classroom activities to ensure all students have access to technology resources (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009).

ACTION:   I will have to work collaboratively with my colleagues in gathering information on students, particularly, their background and how best they learn. Likewise, I will have to talk with parents and students on their technology use outside of the classroom. I will also observe the students in different environments to have a better understanding of how to design and develop technology-enriching learning environments that meet the needs of each student. I will also evaluate my learning styles and instruction based on the information collected. I have to focus on the differentiated instructions geared towards differentiated learning styles of the students, while incorporating technology. My overall objective would be to design and arrange experiences that help students meet their learning goals.

MONITOR:   Reflection will be an integral part of my monitoring process for classroom practice. I will monitor my classroom progress by measuring my desired goals against my accomplishments. Students will have an opportunity to monitor how well they are meeting their learning goals. I also plan to create formative and summative assessments that will allow students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. My students and I will reflect on their performances in a formal assessment, and reflect in action on the day-to-day activities in the classroom (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). Based on my reflection, I will make assessments that will further inform my instructions. In addition, I will also question the students and parents to find out how often the students have access to technology outside the classroom, so that I can tailor my instructions to suit each student.

EVALUATE and EXTEND:   According to Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009), evaluation is the key to determining how successful your instructions have been. I will focus on whether or not students experienced a learner-centered classroom. Additionally, I will make field notes, while observing the students, and I will seek to find out from my students the frequency in technology access outside of the classroom, to better prepare my instructions that will meet the growing technological demands of society. In addition, I will periodically question myself to ascertain if my lesson was good, and what should be done differently in the future. Most importantly, I will assess my learning environment to examine if students achieved the desired goals.

Implementing the GAME Plan is an excellent way of strengthening my confidence and proficiency to develop a supportive, professional, and technology-enriched learning environment that encourages students to manage their learning. Four important practices, as mentioned by Prensky (2008) are to give students the opportunity to use technology in school, find out what they want to be taught, connect students to the world, and find out where in the future students are going and help them get there.

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 on January 13, 2012 from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45. Retrieved on January 14, 2012 from the Academic Search Complete database.