The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). I reflected on these standards and decided upon two indicators to set a GAME plan for myself. The first standard I chose to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in is the following:
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity:
a) Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).
My goal is to learn more about computer tutorials, and computer mindtools, and how to use them to help develop creative and critical thinking skills. Specifically, my goal is to model for my students at least one new tutorial, WebQuest, interactive graphic organizer, and virtual field trip. The action I will take is to find computer tutorials on the various subjects I currently teach. WebQuests have numerous computer-based tutorials which contain sound instructional design components, and I need to explore these (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). There are websites that can help my students to create graphic organizers, which will serve as a visualization tool in helping my students organize information. I use www.Spiderscribe.net right now, but I know there are more interactive graphic organizers that I have not tried yet. My colleagues have websites they currently use for concept mapping and mindtools. I will explore their recommendations, along with the expert advice of our computer lab teacher. The world of virtual field trips is new to me, and I will do research in this area to try to find virtual field trips that can apply to our 2nd grade curriculum. Next, as I explore the many options available, I will create a rubric or table of my assessment of what tutorials, virtual field trips, and mindtools I particularly like and why. I will start incorporating these new computer tools in my classroom, and evaluate if they really do help my students to develop better creative and critical thinking skills or not.
The second National Education Standard for Teachers that I need to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in is:
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility:
d) Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).
My goal is to learn how to operate and set up ePals.com, and learn more about webconferencing. I want to use ePals as a way for my students to connect with other 2nd grade students in another country, so they can compare and contrast their cultures. Webconferencing would be an extension of our communications with their ePals. The action I will take is creating accounts for each of my students, getting permission from their parents, and then initiating the contact with the ePal website so they can connect us with another 2nd grade class on the subject of Social Studies. Webconferencing is new to me, so I will need to learn how it operates, and the many uses for it. All of the ePal mail will come through my inbox, so I can monitor for appropriateness and to protect my students. This may be an enormous project, or it may run smoothly and not take a great deal of time to monitor. I will evaluate the effectiveness of both technology tools to see if they really help to promote global awareness and cultural understanding, in this digital age.
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity:
a) Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).
My goal is to learn more about computer tutorials, and computer mindtools, and how to use them to help develop creative and critical thinking skills. Specifically, my goal is to model for my students at least one new tutorial, WebQuest, interactive graphic organizer, and virtual field trip. The action I will take is to find computer tutorials on the various subjects I currently teach. WebQuests have numerous computer-based tutorials which contain sound instructional design components, and I need to explore these (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). There are websites that can help my students to create graphic organizers, which will serve as a visualization tool in helping my students organize information. I use www.Spiderscribe.net right now, but I know there are more interactive graphic organizers that I have not tried yet. My colleagues have websites they currently use for concept mapping and mindtools. I will explore their recommendations, along with the expert advice of our computer lab teacher. The world of virtual field trips is new to me, and I will do research in this area to try to find virtual field trips that can apply to our 2nd grade curriculum. Next, as I explore the many options available, I will create a rubric or table of my assessment of what tutorials, virtual field trips, and mindtools I particularly like and why. I will start incorporating these new computer tools in my classroom, and evaluate if they really do help my students to develop better creative and critical thinking skills or not.
The second National Education Standard for Teachers that I need to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in is:
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility:
d) Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).
My goal is to learn how to operate and set up ePals.com, and learn more about webconferencing. I want to use ePals as a way for my students to connect with other 2nd grade students in another country, so they can compare and contrast their cultures. Webconferencing would be an extension of our communications with their ePals. The action I will take is creating accounts for each of my students, getting permission from their parents, and then initiating the contact with the ePal website so they can connect us with another 2nd grade class on the subject of Social Studies. Webconferencing is new to me, so I will need to learn how it operates, and the many uses for it. All of the ePal mail will come through my inbox, so I can monitor for appropriateness and to protect my students. This may be an enormous project, or it may run smoothly and not take a great deal of time to monitor. I will evaluate the effectiveness of both technology tools to see if they really help to promote global awareness and cultural understanding, in this digital age.
Reference List
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cenage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NET-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Janet,
ReplyDeleteWebQuests are a great way to challenge students as well. I think it is important for all students to do them, but I have found it can really push my students that need enrichment because they are accelerated learners. Two great resource I have discovered are http://www.webquest.org/ and http://tommarch.com/ . The first link actually has a searchable database by grade and subject area which makes it a lot easier to find WebQuests relevant to what you are working on. Of course, one day I would like to develop my own.
I have not tried ePals, but the more I hear about it, the more I want to do so with my students. I think it is also important to remember even though it is great to connect with others around the world, even communicating with students in a different state but within the same country you can see differences in cultures and backgrounds. It may be easier to start out with classrooms that speak the same language and then build up from there, although I could see students being highly engaged either way. I am like you, however, in that I would want all communication to go through me just to monitor and protect my students. It may also help, if you do choose to communicate with a class that does not speak the same language, to clarify terms or words that were lost in translation. Great ideas!
-Whitney
Whitney,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the websites where I can locate WebQuests. I love to hear from other teachers what has worked for them. It is always reliable information.
By the way, I plan to do ePals with an English speaking country, only. You are right, it would be hard to clarify all the terms and words from a foreign language. There are plenty of English speaking countries that we can be ePals with. It would be too labor intensive to try to translate all the communications, if their ePals spoke a different language. At this point, I have no idea how much work will be involved in reading every email that comes and goes from my classroom. I will limit their communications to once a month, so it does not become overwhelming for me.
Thank you for your response.
Janet Bissett
Janet,
DeleteI think that is a realistic goal to limit their communications to once a month. Even twice a month should not be too bad. Do you plan to give your students a window to respond so that e-mails trickle in or do you think you will have them all write their e-mails on the same day or in the same period? I think for your first time, you have the right idea and I am going to follow in your footsteps. I cannot wait to hear more about how it is going for you. I guess as far as communicating with a country that does not speak the same language, the free translators available on the internet are getting better so it may be possible. I would just start with an English speaking class until you get your feet wet and work out all of the logistics.
Thanks,
Whitney
Do you have access to iPads? I have seen kids use Poplet which is a concept mapping tool that allows them to add text, images, and maybe even videos. I visited a classroom where students were using their iPads to make webs on "All About Me" They took pictures of themselves on the iPad, added images of things they like, changed the text color and font, and more. I was amazed by how much these second graders could do so early in the school year! Another nice feature was that it allowed student to email their web to the teacher for easy grading.
ReplyDeleteI too am intrigued by ePals, but I'm not 100% sure how to incorporate it into my math classes. This is something I plan to look into this summer to see if I can create a partnership with another teacher to focus on math skills while also strengthening writing and communication skills.
At this point I have shied away from this because I would want to monitor all of the comments, at least in the beginning, and simply don't have time for this right now. I get so many emails a day from colleagues, I get emails from the site we use for facts, letting me know when one of my 95 kids passes an operation, and I get emails any time one of my kids posts to our Edmodo site.... but maybe one day I'll be ready to take this on!
Mindy,
ReplyDeleteWe have no iPads at my school. It would be lovely if I had enough iPads for even half of my class. There are so many wonderful Aps on Mac computers. I know many of my students' parents have iPads, so they are familiar with how to use them. Hopefully, someday we will have them at our school.
I have no idea how much time will be involved with ePals, but I am going to give it a try. If it turns out to be too labor intensive for me, I may ask for a couple of parent volunteers to come in and help me read the emails for appropriateness. I have plenty of great parent volunteers this year that would be happy to help.
I will let you know how it goes in a couple of months.
Janet Bissett