Monitoring your GAME plan progress

I have started reading the laws that are related to technology and I have begun to realize that there is a lot to know. I get frustrated because I wonder how many of the laws we as teachers need to worry about. I think I will need to modify my GAME plan to limit it to a couple laws and focus on those laws so that I can become an expert on them and teach them to the students.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

My GAME plan is to learn more about the laws related to technology so that I can be a good role model to my students and teach them the proper laws. After searching the internet I came across a site the Federal Law technology that list a lot of laws related to technology. This site is http://www.thecre.com/fedlaw/legal8.htm. I would use this site to review the laws as well as share this with my students. The second part of my GAME plan is to become more familiar with the software that I use in my classroom so I am more capable of showing my students how to use the software. There is a lot of tutorial out on the internet that teach you how to use software. I would like to watch tutorials on Photoshop as well as Microsoft office.

To prepare for the GAME plan I have started by research where I can find the information that I need in order to improve my skills. Now I need to find the time to read through this information and put it to use.

Developing my GAME Plan

After reviewing the NETS-s I feel very comfortable with the standards. I feel as though I am qualified to teach students about technology and how to use technology to develop creativity. The first standard that I do not feel as comfortable with would be 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility, I do not know all of the proper laws about the internet and copy right. The second standard that I am not very comfortable with would be 3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning because I know there is still some software out there that my students know more about than me. I am continuously learning but it is hard to keep up on the changing digital community.

In order to make sure I feel more comfortable with these standards I will make sure that I am a life long learner. I will make sure that I never say "I don't want to learn how to do that" because that is not being a good role model for the students. I will also take the time to look up the copy right and internet laws so I can pass along the proper information to my students. It is important that we do not give our students false information.

Reflection - Information Literacy

This course was about teaching students about the 21st century skills that they will need in order to succeed in our growing world of technology. This course showed me why it is so important for our students to have these skills. Student are no longer relying on books to find their information, now they are relying on the internet. The internet is not always reliable therefore students must know how to differentiate. I am now more aware that I need to teach my students how to use the internet before we head to the computer lab. This is something that I have skipped in the past. In the future my goal is to spend more time exploring reliable websites and non-reliable websites with the students. I would like to show my students the non-reliable websites that we found in this course.

Reflection

I think that before this class started I was unaware of what my "Personal Learning Theory"was. I think that I just taught what I wanted to and how I felt. I never thought about what theory it fit into. After being able to explore all of the learning theories and how they apply to technology. What I realized the most through out the course is that there is no one theory that should be used in the classroom. If that were the case then do many students would be missing out on important information that they were not retaining.

An immediate change that I will be making to my classroom this year is to make sure that I am covering the information in multiple ways so that the students are getting the information in multiples ways. This will help them to retain the information and be able to apply it. A goal for future classes is to be aware of the strategies that I am using when I teach and make sutre that I am covering multiple strategies. I would also like to incorporate more technology into the classroom. I have discovered more about how useful it can be in helping the students learn the pertinent information.

Connectivism and Social Learning Theory in Practice

The social learning theory is a great theory. I think that by students working together and holding each other accountable they can learn a lot more and retain the information rather than listening to the teacher all of the time. By allowing the students to work together with less guidance form the teacher students learn through self discovery as well as from their peers. Sometimes their peers can put things in a context that is easier to understand.

Technology can be incorporated by allowing students to use blogs to communicate as well as a social networking site such as facebook. There are also a lot of other good resources out there that students can use to collaborate such as a Wiki or Google reader. The voice thread that we were asked to create this week would be great for students to use if you were in a classroom that had good computers and students were able to spend a lot of time on their work. THe truth is I don't think that applies to a lot of schools or classrooms. I think that the social theory works and can be used without technology, although technology is a very helpful tool.

Voice Thread

My Voice Thread...

http://voicethread.com/share/779519/