Reflections on my GAME Plan

           I began my GAME (Goal, Action plan, Monitor, Evaluate) plan almost two months ago. Based on the plan for self-directed learning suggested by Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009), my plan originally called for me to find more opportunities for my students to do authentic writing using digital technologies. I am happy to report that I have already made significant progress in that area. For example, my summer school students are currently involved in online discussions about our class novel and short stories. Although the school district blocks most blogs, we have this opportunity through a site called My Big Campus. This site allows us to hold online discussions that we can share with other schools that subscribe to My Big Campus, or we can limit the discussions to our own school district.

            A major advantage of online discussions is that they are so engaging to students. Yesterday, for example, my students requested an opportunity to respond to the day’s reading in their novel; students do not often request opportunities to respond to literature in a typical classroom discussion. In addition, my students tend to think more deeply when they post online responses, rather than talking only about what is on the surface. As Cennamo notes (Laureate Education, 2009), online environments tend to promote creative and critical thinking.

            My students will also be creating a wiki to show what they have learned in summer school. One important audience will be their families, but another will be the teacher for the second half of summer school, since I am teaching only the first half. The new teacher will be able to look at the wiki to see exactly what students learned during the first weeks of the class. Others who may wish to view the wiki include the guidance department and administration.

            Based on the first part of my game plan, I expect to continue the online discussion and wiki during the school year, and will add a class web page with the students doing much of the routine updating. In addition, I will be using the lesson plans I created in EDUC 6713 to increase online writing by students.

            I have adjusted the second part of my GAME plan. While I still plan to eventually arrange video conferencing, the hardware and software requirements both create problems at the classroom level; the hardware for including the entire classroom is expensive, and Skype is not available at school. Therefore I plan to first focus on helping my students learn video creation. I have arranged with our technology department to have Movie Maker installed on some of the computers at school, and video cameras are available in the IMC. I have used video editing programs in the past, but that was several years ago, so I will need to develop a new GAME plan to become more proficient with video editing.

            Nearly every unit that I teach can include at least one of the technologies we learned in EDUC 6713. All I need to do now is match the content with the most appropriate technology and help the students develop their own GAME plans, and I can hardly wait to begin.

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Cennamo, K., presenter. Promoting creative thinking with technology. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author.