Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences "The GAME PLAN"

Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences

There is so much talk about falling standard of education and high school dropout rate. Things have to be done differently to make a change in this unhealthy situation in schools. Technology offers a very potent means of increasing efficiency in the classroom (King-Sears & Evmenova, 2007). Technology engages student in active learning, offers lot of resources in different mode of presentations to meet student learning stylesand diversity (Laureate Educational Inc., 2009). It also helps student to become an autonomous learner as he takes more responsibility in his own learning. However teachers that were not educated in the technological times will find it difficult if not impossible to help students learn using technology despite the opportunity it holds for enduring learning in class. The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) has outlined some performance indicators for teachers (NEST, 2008). Two of the performance indicators from NETS that I will like to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in is to engage in professional growth and leadership and use the gains in this to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity (NEST, 2008).

In other to satisfy these performance indicators, I will need to have the knowledge of technical skills and how to help the student use technology to learn content (Laureate Educational Inc., 2009). The GAME PLAN (Cennamo, Ross & Etner, 2009) will provide a frame work of setting my technology goals, plan of action to achieve the goals, a plan of monitoring and a means of evaluating the progress and efficiency of the plan thereby improve my technology skills and its use in helping my students to be an authentic learner by being self directed and creative. My goal as stated earlier will be to improve my knowledge and use of technology to help my students learn more efficiently. Several actions that I will take include changing my belief that technology is difficult to use and a waste time. Instead, I have learned in this class that technology has expanded the tools and resources that can be use to expand students learning and I need to be confident that failing in the use of one technology tools should not be a discouragement. To strengthen my confidence, I am going collaborative with teachers in my district who teach same subject with me. Already, we share teaching strategies I am going to be more willing to ask questions and support others. I am also going to join a learner’s community online to keep abreast of recent happenings in education. Lifelong learning is going to be my rule. In the classroom, I am going to design and model more ‘of technology supporting content learning experiences to address student’s individual learning styles and diversity by incorporating technology skills and software appropriate for content learning. I am going to give students more autonomy as they make a choice of how to learn content using technology resources and tools in the way they find comfortable and engaging so that they can be critical and creative learner. Monitoring and evaluation of the progress in achieving the goals will be done both formally and informally as I watch the students collaborate and grow in their problem solving skills and the state standards, open myself to learn from others and ready to change when necessary. Modification of the plan will be made to improve proficiency, avoid boredom and produce effective learners.

Technology in conclusion has a great potential on the hand of students and teachers to change our teachers, student and the world when it is relevant, appropriate and real to life.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. Chapter 1, “Digital Tools That Support Learning” (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

King-Sears, M., & Evmenova, A. S. (2007, Sep/Oct). Premises, principles, and processes for integrating TECHnology into instruction. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(1), 6–14.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Program One. “Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology”. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

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

Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis - Reflection

Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis
Reflecting on this course, it is easy and sobering to realize what wrong assumption I have held that students are well versed in the use of technology but are just not willing to learn with it. It can be readily seen that technology has defined a new meaning of literacy in the 21st century much different from what it was in the last century. It is relatively easy to access and communicate information by just a click of the mouse. Students apart from traditional literacy skill of read and write, need skills to navigate through the myriad of available digital based resources so that they can interact with information (Laureate Educ. Inc. 2009). They also need skills to questions, evaluate and synthesize the information, collaborate with peers and expert and communicate information (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).
Four strategies which include modeling, scaffolding, practice and feedback were identified techniques that can be used to teach literacy skills (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). This strategy can be carried out with guided inquiry project assignment. This project will offer student practice in various types of literacy skills and technology under the guidance of team of experts like content teacher, librarians, IT specialists (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007). The use of instructional team affords students guidance, close supervision, ongoing assessment and target intervention (Laureate Educ. Inc. 2009). The students are better for it as they gain practice and competence in use of tools and resources for learning in content area, increased motivation, improved writing, evaluate and communicate skills critical for lifelong learning and knowledge expansion for the 21st century.
Guided inquiry relies heavily on information obtained from the web. However many information on the web are not factual, not educative in intent, and some are simply distractions and diversions. The implication of this is that students need to learn how to evaluate, validate and identify resources that will be valid, authentic and useful. Students will need to learn skills and practice to search, evaluate and validate information. Again, teachers will need to teach and model these skills to students. It is instructive to learn that teachers need to teach and model the skills to help synthesize information and enhance presentation.
This will help students to process the facts and information they found on the web with a higher level of thought and presentation form that reveals students best (Jansen, 2005). Guided inquiry when properly designed and planned by a team of experts will foster the 21st century literacy skills like problem solving, communicative skills, and collaborative skills. However teaching students to learn using the web has to be cautious so that students will use the web safely and ethically. These also has to be a deliberate teaching of students to respect the right of others by plagiarizing and use the power of technology to expand self knowledge, collaborate safely , identify and avoid inappropriate relationships and information.
This course has offered a rich source of opportunity for me to learn how to help student learn and practice the use of the literacy skills of planning, locating, evaluating, synthesizing and communicating. Several tools that I learned from the first time include the use of Google doc and screen casting. It is my desire now to make the use of guided inquiry as a regular part of my instructional process. I believe when it is well taught, it can foster the spirit of independence in learner as learning become student centered rather than teacher centered.
Several web 2.0 tools made the teaching of guided inquiry learning easy. My own professional development goal is to keep abreast of these tools as more gain entry into the internet at a fast pace. This will help me to help students keep current and engaged in learning that is fun and equipping for the work force of the future. To achieve this aim, I am going to continue to attend workshops that can increase my fluency in use of technology in the class room I am also thinking of subscribing to journal and join a community of learners group.
In conclusion it is very necessary for teachers to teach new literacy skills and not assume that the wide use of technology by students outside of the classroom will be automatically transferable for content learning. Student need to learn a safe and ethical use of the internet. It is the only hope that student will use the internet safely and ethically while becoming fluent in the skills of the future today.
















References
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.
Jansen, B. (2005, October). Meaningful products: Making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Library Media Connection, 24(2), 27–28.
Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century Chapter 1, "Introduction to Guided Inquiry" (pp. 1–4). Westport: Libraries Unlimited.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). “Inquiry based projects.” Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom. Baltimore: Author.

Reflections

Reflection
Reflecting on the past weeks in this course, I am satisfied that incorporating technology into the learning process is possible and is a necessity. The course transformed my now old perception of technology as a distraction to the learning process. The problem was of a digital immigrant teacher that was ignorant of the power of the web 2.0 (Prensky, 2001).
In the course, I had the privilege of collaborating with professional colleagues through blogging. I was intimidated with web resources and research on the importance, implications and ways of using technology to enhance learning. I subscribed to the feeds of my classmates and some educational research websites like Tech & Learn, Partnership in learning 21st century skill among others. I explored the rich resources by various institutions that provide information that a student can use as a source of information. Learning is both for the teacher and student in the 21st century workplace. I was exposed to learning experiences like research findings, articles that underscore the importance and implication of the digital disconnect between the student and instructional process (Bull, 2004). I also had the opportunity of practicing the use of some 21st century skills like collaboration with the wiki, communication with podcast.
The course brought the awareness that my role as a teacher is one of facilitating and assessing learning (Thornburg, 2008). It also provides ways to guide my students to acquire and use the requisite 21st century skills in preparing for the workforce of the future. This implies that my instructional procedure must incorporate technology tools to allow the student acquire and practice the web 2.0 tools for learning rather than social networking only (Thornburg, 2004). Most of our students are digital natives so incorporating the digital language in learning increases motivation and engagement which is needed for effective learning process.
In order to expand my knowledge, I am going to continue collaborating with colleagues through blogging, subscribing to feeds, seminars as well as sharing my experiences (Nussbaum-Beach, 2008). I am also going to commit to lifelong learning
In my classroom, I am going to increase the frequency of the use of technology so that students get to express themselves and take control of their own learning as well as remove the classroom boundary to learning. They get to express their knowledge in the way they understand and that conform to their learning style (Prensky, 2001). I am also going to liaise with the instructional technology personnel to help in getting the outmost form of technological tools available. I will create an environment for learning from one another, other teachers using the web.
In conclusion this course has provided me with the necessary skills to teach content using 21st century skills with content in science using 21st century tools.

Resources
Bull, G., & Bull, G. (2004). The digital disconnect: A recent pew study. Learning and Leading with Technology, 31(4), 28–31
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Program #17: Transforming the classroom with technology: Part 1 [Motion Picture]. In Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.
Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2008). No limits. Technology & Learning, 28(7), 14–18.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5)
Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008b). Program 11. Skills for the 21st Century [Motion Picture]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.

podcast

http://flosi.podbean.com/

podcast

http://flosi.podbean.com/

Hope for 21st century skills

Reading through the article “The partnership for 21st century skills”, was refreshing to me because of the “scary” article “The world is flat”, it is refreshing to know that people are aware and are trying to do something about the digital disconnect.
My surprise is the wide range of support the partnership has been able to garner from the federal to state to local business educational and even parents and families. I would expect that with that wide range of support, all teachers should have known about its existence and mobilized it for its support. I think more work needs to be done in getting every teacher to know, appreciate the need, support and implement the partnership vision.
The implication for my students is probably that the days of “double lives” are over. The technology saturated life outside the school can be merged with that inside the school. School and its knowledge/skill will become more relevant and transferable. It is then we can hope that the knowledge of core subject as is being taught will not be intrusion from the past but rather as skill necessary for the future. Kids will be prepared to live and work and over the challenges of 21st century.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf

Blogging as I see it

I had used blogging a few times in the past but never appreciated it as a powerful teaching tool until now. Since going through this class, I have come to lose my skepticism on the effectiveness of blogging as a teaching tool. I can see in it, a potential of helping teachers in the nearest future.