This course has made me aware of how important the ISTE standards are to both teachers and students. My Game Plan helped me use and teach technology in the classroom for my students. When I first entered teaching, computers just arrived in schools, but teachers were not equipped with the skills to access such great tools. As time went on standards were built, but in our area they are not stressed like other subjects. Reports cards carry standards for each subject except technology. We have the standards in our curriculum guides, but that is where they stay.
My only requirement in the past 14 years of education for technology was to complete a portfolio by year three of teaching. Since that product was turned in, there has been no additional follow through. My game plan was beneficial and gave me the confidence needed to implemet technology to my teaching on a regular basis. I set goals and feel they have been achieved throughout the past few weeks. When looking back at the NETS-T standards, I discovered that I was fulfilling other technological standards. This plan is a process to enrich teachers by adding and keeping up with the tools in our schools. These tools are always updated and a plan will ensure a direction for not just you, but the students in your classroom. It will give them meaningful experiences that will be useful to their future (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009).
It was encouraged in our text reading to develop a portfolio of artifacts, products and skills. This portfolio would be your techology resume where you can assess where you are confident and where you need to develop skills (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). If you show growth, then your students will show growth in skills they will need outside classroom walls. The game plan helped me realize the importance of tech skills needed, whether or not they officially show up on a report card. Fururists say students leaving school will need a few key skills to thrive in the job force. Students need to have problem solving skills, collaboration skills, and technology skills. The first two skills can be accessed while working with computers. At our school principals ask us to put up the stadard we teaach with the number of the strand. Maybe itis time to put up the tech standards and help create student portfolios that can be kept in their files.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
gradrunner,
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of having your students select a goal and use the GAME Plan to monitor their own success? I thought the process could be used with NETS-S standards or any academic goal my students wanted to set for themselves. Since I experienced positive results, I feel my students would benefit from the GAME plan, too.
Mintzer,
ReplyDeleteThis is something to consider. I do allow my students to use technology when they complete other tasks i the classroom. My tech supervisor lets me keep the laptop cart in my room because I use the computers all the time. This would allow my to offer my students more flexibility in their learning. We have no clear cut tech standards, so students could use the NETS-S like a check off sheet. Thanks for your input.
@ gradrunner,
ReplyDeleteYou make a frightening statement when you mention that the last requirement asked of you to use technology was to make your portfolio at the start of your teaching career. I am impressed you took the initiation to dive right into a masters in technology when it is not pushed at your school. I like your idea of posting the technology standards as well. Have you thought of printing the standards out and making them into magnets so that you do not have to write them out each time? Your school is lucky to have you! I also have to say I am incredibly jealous that you get to store the laptop cart in your room!!!
I am very lucky to have the lap top cart in my room. We use it for extra math help and learning to use new tech tools. Some of my higher students have created animal reports and started to create a digital story product. This will be beneficial when we do this as a class. You can never have too many tech helpers when creating classroom projects. I wish others teachers were using technology in the school, but with limited resources I won't complain. Right now this is my gold mine.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about technology not being a part of the report card got me thinking. We are supposed to have the important skills that we assess as educators on the report card. We have definitely learned in this class that technology is a skill that students must have in the workforce. It should be assessed on the report card for this reason alone. It may help send a message to kids and parents that technology is a skill of our time that is nearly as important as math or reading. I will raise this issue at our school to see what the rest of the staff thinks. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of the portfolio as a means of gauging progress, whether as a student or a teacher. When a student creates a project that they are proud of (especially with technology), they want to keep as as evidence of that learning. I think that students could also identify the standards that they have met through various assignments!
ReplyDelete