Playing the GAME

This was a productive week for me. I have done some exploring and have found some answers, though not necessarily those I was hoping for. One of my GAME plan goals is to do the research, planning, and learning necessary to launch my own teacher website. Though this may not seem like a giant leap considering the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of teacher websites out there, for me it’s a big deal and I want it to really work (as opposed to being something I start and abandon later when the newness wears off).

After speaking with our web-master, my suspicion that our school website is not set up to host teacher sites was confirmed. If I wanted to have my own site which I could easily update without first submitting all of my information to the web-master, I would have to look elsewhere. I visited Class Jump,Educator Pages, and Bloust, all of whom offer free user-friendly web sites for teachers. I also revisited the class blog I had previously set up through Edublogs to assess its features, possibilities, and limitations as compared with other hosts. In the process of exploring these sites, I set up user accounts and began to create preliminary, “draft” web pages at Class Jump and Educator Pages. Bloust seems a bit commercial, so I have skipped it so far, though I’m planning to give it more attention in the coming days.

What I have discovered in the process is this: (1) My own ideas for how exactly I want to use my website and what it should look like are not as clear as I had previously thought; and (2) It is difficult to find a free website hosting site that offers everything you’re looking for. As I tried to visualize myself, my students, and their parents using my website, I also became increasingly concerned that I might not be up to the job of updating and adding to my site as regularly as needed (which would actually be daily if students are tp be able to rely on it for assignments and documents). Suddenly the whole idea seemed like a lot more work than I had bargained for. This is the point when I stopped exploring and took a nap.

Optimistic and encouraging comments would be greatly appreciated.

GAME Resources

In order to carry out my plan for ISTE Indicator 2a, I will need to get a list together of potential website platforms available free for teachers in order to explore and evaluate them in relation to my needs (your suggestions are more than welcome!). Which also means that I need to get clearer about what exactly my needs are. At the moment I am thinking about using my website for organizational items (calendar, assignments), for student learning support (audio recordings of our readings, quality links, tips, rubrics), and as a place to publish student work in a variety of formats. I would also like to be able to have separate pages for the various classes that I teach. My target audience is primarily my students, followed by their parents, and the school community as a whole.

Another valuable resource will be exploring teacher websites which have been up and running for some time in order to expand my own ideas before solidifying them. Once I have narrowed down the possibilities, tutorials in the website platforms will help me to get better acquainted with the options and capabilities they offer. So far I haven’t got much further than articulating my goals and beginning to conceptualize what my site could look like.

For exploring multi-media student projects in connection with ISTE Indicator 3c, Classroom 2.0 and Edublogs could also be excellent resources. So far I have begun re-thinking several units I have planned for this year, and am focusing on a book presentation my ninth graders will be preparing in October to wrap-up their literature circles in order to incorporate digital tools and allow for a more individualized demonstration of their knowledge and skills.

Self-Directed Professional Development: My GAME Plan

In order to further develop my own learning and competence in regard to integrating digital learning tools into the classroom, I have developed a GAME plan. After reviewing the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers published by the International Society for Technology in Education (2008), I have targeted two indicators that I would like to tackle. These are: (1) design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity (Indicator 2a); and (2) communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats (Indicator 3c). In short, I want to feel confident incorporating digital tools in my classroom and be fully prepared to create and maintain my own website.

Goals
I already have some knowledge on these topics, for example, I am familiar with and have some experience using blogs, wikis, and podcasts to enhance student learning. I have even made a feeble attempt to create my own classroom blog to (theoretically) communicate with students and parents. However, my bits of knowledge and experience have yet to add up to a confident and fully-informed whole. If indeed I meet my goals, I will have chosen several learning experiences in my existing curriculum which are a good match for incorporating digital tools, and I will have planned my follow-through (in the longer term, of course, I will actually carry out my plans!). I will also have accumulated enough knowledge, resources, and confidence, and will have determined my intended audience, goals and content, to be ready and able to design, develop, and go online with my own web site.

Action
In order to meet my goals, there are some resources and information that I need. I plan to find out exactly what digital resources are available for my students to use at school and exactly how I can access them by talking with my colleagues (it is not always immediately transparent what we have, who can use it, and how to go about getting one’s hands on it). By exploring existing teacher websites and blogs, tapping into the knowledge of more experienced teachers, and accessing resources at websites like Classroom 2.0 and Edublogs, I also intend to find out what the best way is to publish student work in various digital formats so that it can be viewed read, or listened to by our school community. Similarly, I intend to determine what website services would best meet my needs, and what concerns I need to be aware of in order to assure student safety when publishing their work. By exploring other teachers’ websites and considering my own teaching situation, I also need to plan the audience, goals, and content of my own future website.

Monitor
To monitor my progress, I will consider the questions posed by Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009): (1) “Am I finding the information I need?” (2) “What patterns are emerging from the information sources?” (3) “Do I need to modify my action plan” (p. 4). By regularly reflecting on my progress, I hope to maintain my focus, make any necessary adjustments, and move steadily toward fulfilling my goals.

Evaluate & Extend
As my action plan wraps-up, I will evaluate my learning to determine if I have met my goals. If I have not, I will reflect on the actions I took, as well as the goals themselves, to try to understand why I fell short. By reflecting on my GAME plan – what worked well and what was less effective, I will be able to inform future learning experiences.

References:

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

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Back on the Blog!

Greetings fellow teachers! I'm happy to say that after several months of non-use, I have returned to my blog. I'm looking forward to exploring and discussing the use of technology in the classroom with my readers and hope to hear from you soon. I'll be posting again in the coming days...till then!

Reflection: Online Inquiry in the Classroom

I don’t know how many times I have sent learners off to find information with a phrase like “Google it,” or “Have a look online and see what you find.” Without intending to, I have sent my learners off to explore the ocean of information that is the World Wide Web equipped with little more than a make-shift raft and paddle. Before this course, I had never fully considered the challenges that reading the Web presents or that learners need and can be taught to use specific strategies designed to help them become effective navigators, consumers, and producers of the information that makes up today’s vast digital landscape.

Indeed, my most striking revelation as a result of this course has been coming to understand the necessity of teaching Web reading skills. Eagleton and Dobler (2007) stress that the literacy skills needed to effectively and efficiently read the Web are essentially the same as those needed for traditional reading; however, Web readers must apply these skills and strategies in a much more complex reading environment. Hypertext documents, which “allow the reader to select her own path through extensive networks of textual and multimedia information,” create a reading situation in which a text “[can] literally change its characteristics as a result of being read” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 33). And as readers navigate the Web, they must contend with rapidly changing text structure and purpose, with a multitude of potential distractions, and with the heavy integration of visual images as they attempt to understand and construct meaning from what they have read. This is a highly complex process and demands a strong set of reading strategies backed up with ample online practice. 

Compounding the complexity learners face is the fact that Web texts can be produced and published by anyone, making evaluation for reliability and bias a critical issue in Web literacy. Unlike traditional printed texts which have a clear and limited scope, contain images meant to reinforce facts, and have gone through a thorough editing process, “many Internet texts are not carefully edited, link to vast amounts of related information, and are designed to deceive or persuade young readers” (Coiro, 2005, p. 33). Concern about the reliability of Internet texts is shared by Leu et al (2004) who acknowledge the “essential need [for Web readers] to understand the stance of the person producing a message, the motive behind the message, and the need to critically evaluate these messages” (p. 1587). Fortunately, through the instruction, modeling, and practice of effective evaluation strategies, learners can be taught to be critical consumers of Internet information – that is, if we educators are ourselves 21^st century literate.

As a result of the knowledge and experience I have gained in this course, I feel I am in a much better position to effectively guide students in the online inquiry process in the future. I look forward to sharing my new knowledge with learners as I guide them in finding their own questions - the kind which, to use Thornburg’s (2004) words, “take hold of the learner and don’t let go until an acceptable answer is found” (p. 4). Going forward, I intend to structure learner inquiry projects to include ample time for instruction and guided practice in the new literacy skills needed to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information found on the Web. Further, I have gained both the inspiration and confidence needed to expand my repertoire to include a variety of student generated multimedia products which will give learners the opportunity to present what they have learned not only to their teacher or classmates, but to a potentially global audience, thereby becoming part of a “society of ownership [in which every person has] the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet” (Richardson, 2009, p. 4). In the process I hope to help learners understand “the ethics and social responsibility of having anonymous power…at [their] fingertips” (November, 2008, p. 51).

I emerge from this course with a clear professional development goal: to expand my knowledge of and experience with guided inquiry as an approach to learning, and integrating the instruction and practice of new literacy skills and Web 2.0 technology into my content curriculum in the process. To accomplish this goal, I will take several steps. Firstly, I will build on my learning in this course by seeking out educators and professional literature that can further expand my knowledge of the inquiry-based approach. Secondly, I will gain concrete experience in the classroom by integrating online inquiry into my current, more traditional curriculum, and by reflecting on those experiences in order to improve, refine, and extend my use of inquiry-based learning. Thirdly, as I guide learners through the inquiry process, I will focus on the careful integration of new literacy skills through explicit instruction, modeling, and guided practice. These skills will include developing essential questions, searching for and locating information, evaluating Web sites for usefulness and reliability, synthesizing information from several online sources, ethical use, and using Web 2.0 tools to collaborate and communicate what was learned to others. Finally, I will build my repertoire of multimedia products by exploring what has been done in other classrooms, by tapping the knowledge of more experienced colleagues through networking, blogs and Web sites such as www.edutopia.org and www.classroom20.com, for example, and by bravely trying out technology-based products side by side with my students in the classroom.

Through this course I have gained new understanding and appreciation for the complexity of Web reading and of the urgent need for learners to acquire strategies that will help them to create knowledge in a complex digital landscape. I have also been inspired by the seemingly endless possibilities for students to communicate what they have learned to others in an authentic, meaningful, and creative way. Most importantly, I have come to understand that the inquiry process provides learners with a real opportunity to explore their world, expand and pursue their interests, and engage in meaningful, lifelong learning (Kuhlthau, 2007).

References

Coiro, J. L . (2003). Rethinking comprehension strategies to better prepare students for critically evaluating content on the Internet. New England Reading Association Journal, 39(2), 29–34. 

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.

Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Cammack, D. W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the internet and other information and communication technologies. In R. B. Ruddell, & N. J. Unrau, Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed.) (pp. 1570-1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Thornburg, D. (2004). Inquiry: The art of helping students ask good questions. (Executive Briefing No. 402). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/inquiry.pdf

Reflection: A Steep Learning Curve

In his book Web Literacy for Educators, Alan November (2008), in referring to the powerful communication tools available to today’s youth, poses the question: “Who should teach them how to manage the power of these tools?” (p.83). The answer, of course, is that we, the teachers, administrators, and schools that make up the educational system, must take responsibility for this important task. But how? Well, the first step, as Richardson (2009) asserts, is to become adept and passionate users of today’s technologies ourselves, thereby transforming our own learning practice and better understanding the exciting pedagogical implications of these technologies for our students and classrooms.

During this course, I have taken the first steps into a world that I had previously only observed from the outside, whose complexity overwhelmed and intimidated me, and whose potential for improving student learning I had not fully grasped. Over the last eight weeks I have come to understand how to use and set up a blog, quickly access information through an RSS feed, collaborate through a wiki, and create and publish a podcast. Today, I feel capable of and in the position to begin integrating these technologies into my instructional practice. Not only that, I find that I have become much more confident in my use of technology in general; today I am more likely to troubleshoot solutions to any technological problems that come up than I was before the course. Whereas in the past, I would have asked my husband for help, today he comes to me for assistance! Basically, I’m more comfortable with the technological tools that I use and I feel that I can go on to learn how to use the plethora of tools that are out there just as well as anyone. The veil surrounding the mystery of technology has been lifted!

Now that I have made the initial steps, I intend to continue developing my knowledge and skills by building on the base that I have attained in this course. I will continue to expand my use of collaborative tools such as social networks, blogs, skype, and podcasts in my personal life, and work to create my own Personal Learning Network. I also intend to begin using other tools, such as twitter and social bookmarking, which I have yet to try. Most importantly in our quickly changing technological landscape, I will keep my feelers out there for new and exciting technologies and applications by visiting sites such as Classroom 2.0 and The Teacher’s Podcast regularly.

I have two goals for integrating technology into my instructional practice over the coming two years. Both goals aim to have an innovating rather than an automating influence on classroom learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008) and to meet the “educational needs of young people entering a dynamic workforce where lifelong learning and creativity are among the few certainties for success” (Thornburg, 2004, p. 11).

My first goal is to develop and use a classroom blog to provide space for reflection and journaling, extend the classroom conversation, and post links, assignments, and the like. Aside from helping with course management and thereby encouraging student responsibility and self-direction, a classroom blog will provide students with an authentic audience for their work, which is a powerful motivator. Most importantly, blogging allows us to move away from the traditional teacher-centered classroom, where the teacher is the sole judge of student work which has been produced for the sole purpose of pleasing that judge, and move towards a student-centered classroom in which student writing is made available to other students, who in turn can respond with comments. In this sense, integrating a blog into the classroom environment can help establish a social, collaborative atmosphere in which meaningful dialogue takes place outside of the confines of the physical classroom.

My second goal is to integrate podcasts and/or wikis into the classroom as a way for students to consolidate their learning and present their work to a larger audience. This kind of presentation not only requires a whole different level of student ownership of work, it is also great fun. Publishing meaningful content on the Web is what November (2008) describes as “probably the most powerful opportunity the Internet can provide – the ability to communicate within a global forum, build knowledge content as a community, and publish writing to an authentic audience” (p. 80). I’m looking forward to facilitating a classroom experience in which students are encouraged to ask questions, seek answers, and work creatively to convey what they have learned to others. In short, I want to enable them to become collaborators in the co-construction of meaningful knowledge.

In meeting these goals, I hope to shrink the gap between the information rich, collaborative, and creative technological landscape my students inhabit in their personal lives, and the way learning is approached in school. I hope to create a classroom reflective of the realities of what Trilling (2005) calls the “Knowledge Age” and engage my students in the acquisition of 21st century skills such as collaboration, self-direction, media literacy, communication, and creativity. By incorporating technology into my instructional practice in this way, I also hope to get on board with what Richardson (2009) refers to as the “two unstoppable trends” of contributing to the flow of content being made available online, and creating that content in collaborative ways.


Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008b). Program Two. Evolution of Technology and Pedagogy. [Motion picture]. The emergence of educational technology. Baltimore: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and Education: Expectations, not Options. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from Thornburg Center Podcasts and More: http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf

Trilling, B. (2005). Towards learning societies and the global challenges for learning with ICT. TechForum. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/events/techforum/ny05/Toward_Learning_Societies.pdf

Do they fit the bill?

There's a lot of talk out there about "today's students". They live in a technologically rich environment, have skills their parents and teachers don't, and may even be evolving neurologically, thanks to neuroplasticity. But what I wanted to know was: do my 8th grade German Waldorf students fit the bill? Are they so-called "digital natives"? I surveyed 31 of my 8th grade English students, and followed up with a small group interview. What I found out, I've put together in a short podcast. Click on the link below to listen and decide for yourself if these students fit the bill...

http://tsenalapaul.podbean.com/