Towards Self-Directed Learning and Creative Problem Solving: a Reflection on Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

 

"I never teach My Pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein

 

 

Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas seemed, at the beginning of this course, a simple black and white issue. I felt that I was already accomplishing this in, at very least, small ways throughout the year. As I continued throughout this course, I found that there are many simple and engaging ways that I can integrate technology further across the content areas. Most importantly, I found that the key to successfully implementing technology into my classroom was to combine the use of technology with developing self-directed learners through authentic learning experiences. "Authentic instruction provides for, and builds on, learner autonomy." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p.29) Authentic instruction experiences, self-directed learning and the infusion of technology into those learning activities and experiences will help to provide the right conditions, that Einstein spoke of in the above quote, for my students to learn and be able to use that learning not only in my own classroom, but in subsequent later classrooms, as well as any chosen career path. Technology enhances my ability to encourage creativity, innovation, problem solving, and self-directed learning (Cennamo et. al., 2009). In an era of urgency to improve student achievement, technology will certainly need to be intentionally and effectively integrated into these authentic learning experiences, to help ensure the success of our students.

 

Developing my Goals, Action, Monitoring, and Evaluation plan (Cennamo et. al., 2009) was an exciting experience for me. I found through my self-reflection and evaluation that I am at least beginning to meet many of the ISBE NETS-T (ISBE, 2009) standards in my classroom instruction. I am certainly meeting some of the standards better than others. I did find that there were specifically two standards that I need to begin addressing in my classroom instruction on a more regular basis. Simply put, I need to provide my students more real-world authentic problem solving opportunities and I need to make connections with and provide important information to community members, colleagues, and students through digital tools and available technology. The journey of developing the actions that I need to take to meet the goals of my GAME plan, monitoring and adjusting those plans, and then thinking of how to evaluate the effectiveness of my plan, has been an exciting, while simultaneously discouraging experience. I found that my goals are quite appropriate, and will increase student success in my classroom. What I found is the amount of research and additional work that it may take to acquire the technology that I need to meet these goals in my classroom. Technology, in many schools and districts, has or is beginning to go the way of music and art education; the funding is not placed in these programs, and technology, when available, does not allow for effective use of that technology for all of my students. Subsequently, throughout this course, I needed to modify the actions I was planning on taking , in order to acquire the needed technology through grant opportunities, or locating enough building equipment to meet the learning experience expectations of the particular lesson and unit. In my current position, this will require me to acquire grant monies in order to secure the vital equipment that will allow my students to engage in the technology rich authentic learning experiences that are so crucial to developing creative, innovative, self-directed learners. My future instruction will need to be altered in such a way that I can use the state standards, in conjunction with the NETS-T and NETS-S standards, to develop essential learning objectives. Once I have done this, I can then construct an authentic learning experience for my students to participate in. Then, and only then, I can begin to choose the appropriate technology that will be most effective in the lesson, rather than attempting to develop a lesson around the technology. As an added bonus to developing my personal GAME Plan for integrating technology into my classroom instruction, I also found this model for planning and lesson execution to be quite suitable for students to begin using, in order to reach their full achievement potential, rather than an arbitrary letter grade or test score. I truly believe that teaching my students to use this plan, while modeling its use, with impact their ability to achieve, understand and learn more throughout the year, thus making them more prepared to move on from my classroom.

On a final note, I feel that I have learned much more about different technology tools that, in the appropriate lesson, can offer my students the ability to be creative, solve problems, collaborate with others, learn reading and writing skills, and connect to content topics. I am intrigued by the use of digital storytelling, and I am convinced of the power that interactive and collaborative blogging and wiki creating can develop in my students. I certainly look forward to applying this learning and excitement to my lesson development and classroom activities when classes resume!

 

Resources:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Involving Students in GAMEs

Using the GAME plan, as presented by Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009), has been a great strategy for me to use as I attempt to improve the instructional practices that I want in my classroom. One of the thoughts I had early on in this process of using the GAME plan, was that the organization process could be quite useful for students. As my experience and understanding have grown regarding GAME plans, I can see that this process can be used by students, both long term, and short term, to help augment academic success.

 

I can see myself using this process with my students on at least one of several different levels. I believe this would a terrific tool to use with students in developing academic or learning goals for each term. Obviously, we want students to be successful in all academic areas. However, it might be more manageable for struggling students to focus on one academic area to improve at a time. Students would identify their goals, based on district and state standards. Then develop a very specific action plan to meet that goal. I would ask students to monitor the GAME plan through data collection and reflection about every two weeks. This could be done either in a journal or on the classroom blog. Students would then be able to evaluate how successful they had been in meeting their goal.

 

Additionally, I see the GAME plan as a great way to focus students at the beginning of a unit or project, so that students hold themselves accountable for their own success. Students could set goals for the unit or project, based on learning goals and rubric requirements of the unit and project together. This, again, would require students to reflect on their own progress toward their goal. It would help students meet the NETS-S technology standards, because students would be setting goals that parallel the use of technology in the classroom. In projects or units, students could set goals focused not only on content understanding, but also on the collaboration they will be having with peers, as well the use of varied technology tools, including podcasting, digital storytelling, and the use of the blog to present or discuss the topic.

 

Most importantly, I would use each of these smaller GAME plans to help my student reach their term or quarter GAME plan outline. Ultimately, using a GAME plan with students would be a great benefit to the organization, planning, and justification for every academic choice they make in their learning. I could even see a mini GAME plan put to use for students who struggle from week to week, or even from day to day in the classroom. Students could set a daily academic goal, and understand what his or her action is to meet the academic goal of the day (or week)

 

Using the GAME plan has certainly helped me to organize my lessons, thoughts, and professional needs.

 

Julie

 

Resource: Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Slow Progress

This week's progress toward my GAME Plan has been extremely slow. I am still waiting for a response from the district technology guru about how to make my students active subscribers to our classroom blog. The district doesn't want to issue the students email accounts, but without email, I can't make it possible for students to comment and post actively on the blog. So, I'm waiting for a response from him to let me know how I can get the kids to be part of our blog.

I definitely feel as if the technology piece has been my greatest challenge. Other than trying to remain flexible and split my students up between the classroom computers, the laptop computers, and the library computers, I am at a loss at how I could otherwise complete both goals.

I am still working on getting grant money to help acquire all of the needed technology to complete both goals most appropriately. Partially because of that, I am not ready to change my own goals. I need more time to gather the resources I need to do a large presentation so that my students can collaborate and problem solve effectively. Without the integrated equipment, I will struggle to reach the community connection with a real-world problem

In creating better parent communication, I have felt as if I am at a complete standstill. Many of my parents do not have working telephone numbers. Some that do have said they refuse to answer the phone before 2pm. I truly feel that creating a quick, easy, and accessible online parent page would be the easiest, fastest way for me to communicate with parents on a more frequent basis. For those who do not have internet access, I could simply print the weekly page out for them. Beyond this, I am at a loss. I would love to hear any suggestions for improving this! Perhaps that should be my next goal: to work with colleagues and teachers from other buildings to hear about what different teachers do for parent communications. It would enable me to find a plan, or create a plan with new ideas, that would work for me, and my student's parents.

 

Suggestions to get around my greatest stumbling block in my game plan are most welcome!

GAME Plan Progress

The progress towards my goals, of implementing real world problems through the use of technology, and improving communications with parents and the community through the use of technology, have been quite eye opening. In the past week, I have been able to begin the set up of my classroom blog. I was also able to speak with the district technology director about the lack of usable and updated equipment available in my building. Unfortunately, like many districts across the country, my district is facing a budget crisis of epic proportion, which has led to significant budget cuts in the technology budget this year, with deeper cuts anticipated for next year. I will need to alter my action plan for implementing my ideas in my classroom, because I will need to utilize only the outdated and faulty equipment that is available. This will directly affect my instructional practice, since I will have to rotate the use of the classroom computers to accommodate all of my students as they participate in the blog. Additionally, it will also alter the type of multi-media projects that I can allow my students to complete as they make connections with the community concerning the impact and problems associated with the local neighborhood gangs. I may be able to work on a whole group project that uses my one updated computer, so that the students can still create a podcast or movie documenting the information and problem solutions they have gathered from the research. This will drastically change the look of the collaborative groups within my classroom. Instead of each small group or pair choosing a real world problem to solve, the entire class will need to work together to devise and create the questions together. The sub questions that will be involved in this problem-based learning activity will then become the choice for students as they choose what part to take in our project. This is a change from my original plan and vision, but completing the Problem-based learning unit as a whole class project that is broken down into smaller pieces will still allow me to provide my students with a complex and authentic learning experience; one that will provide opportunities for students to construct knowledge, complete organized inquiry, and have an impact far beyond our classroom (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

While the news regarding the availability of any technology equipment was discouraging, it allowed me to focus my attention to meeting 21^st century skills, regardless of the technology. When I was forced to see how I could accomplish this without the most basic of technologies, I began to realize that this goal is not as much about the type of technology equipment used, but rather about integrating some technology into the search for a solution to a problem that will affect my students and the community well beyond the walls of my classroom.

While I have altered my action plan to meet this goal, I have also begun to look too the future. I have been seeking out grants that could provide my building and my classroom with their technology necessary and most useful to facilitate my GAME Plan. Through suggestions from Deana, I have begun a partnership with a 5/6 teacher and a local community center mentor. Our plan is to write a grant to be submitted to ING for a Problem-Based Learning project to focus on resolving the problem of gangs in the local neighborhood. The area that I teach in is highly impacted by gang membership and activities, and many students from 3^rd through 6^th grade have close connections to gang members, or already have strong opinions about gangs. Unfortunately, it is an integral part of the community, my students' lives, and their experiences. I was also led to a grant opportunity through Lowe's that could also offer some support in acquiring the needed technology. I have moved on this opportunity quickly, and I am in the final stages of completing the grant application.

The achievement of my second goal has been much easier. With the creation of our classroom blog, I am close to being able to provide parents with a page where homework, activity, and classroom information can be readily posted. This will allow my parents to interact, provide support to our efforts in the classroom, or to ask questions about our activities and our learning. The challenge I am facing is the number of parents who do not have access to the internet at home, and will not be able to participate in the blog from home. Because of the high number of homes that do not have computers or internet access, I have altered part of my action plan to include the creation of a bi-weekly newsletter with the most important classroom information. Using Microsoft Word to create a classroom newsletter will still allow me to utilize technology to communicate more effectively with parents and with the community. By completing both, or simply posting the newsletter on the class blog, I will be able to communicate in multiple ways with the majority of my parents, and many more community members. One question that remains for me, in meeting this goal, is how I can accommodate the parents of my ELL students. These students speak several different native languages, and all of them are in very different stages of learning and understanding English. How can I get my newsletter translated so that these parents also have the opportunity to hear about our classroom learning and activities?

As always, any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated regarding the changes I need to make to my GAME Plan, or how to solve some of the challenges I face to complete my goals.

 

Resource:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.