Thus far I am making what I deem to be fairly good progress in
meeting the goals I have establish in my GAME plan. First I set out to further my ability to
strengthen ISTE standard 1b regarding the presentation of real-world issues and
problem solving opportunities for my students.
Next, I established a focus of action in regards to improving use of
collaborative tools to aid students in clarifying understanding during the
creative process.
In the initial stages of the action part
of my GAME plan, I discovered what I believed to be the “holy grail” of
resources for a unit that I was planning to teach about Heroes in connection
with two works of literature. This web
resources was a fully developed website titled MyHero.com equipped with
everything I would need to guide my students through a problem-based learning
experience. However, my action plan
called for me to strengthen my overall practice of providing these real-world
experiences throughout the school year at many optimal points in my
curriculum. I ventured back into the
world of online exploration and have been able to identify many viable websites
that call for students to immerse themselves in the real-world connections tied
to many of the novels we read in the 9th grade English classes. Many of these online resources are WebQuests
that already map out the context, task, performance steps, assessment, and
resources to accomplish the real world tasks.
It is a tremendous blessing to discover a problem-based unit that has
been fully developed. However, the
frequently missing component in these resources was the consideration of
formative assessments that would help the teacher measure student understanding
and facilitate further instruction before the final product is complete. This indispensible area of instruction would
need to be fully considered if I were to use these resources.
My second goal for incorporating more collaborative tools to
aid in the instructional process has been a somewhat more difficult road to
tackle. While I understand that there
are numerous software programs that now offer collaborative opportunities, some
are more authentic to the task than others.
For example, I have explored the website Turnitin.com for use in both a
collaborative and reflective fashion.
However, I feel this is an artificial and somewhat forced platform to
ask students to collaborate. Its
advantages are that the teacher can easily manage and facilitate the discussion
ensuring originality and focus with the use of attached rubrics. Its disadvantage is the fact that the
collaboration and reflection happens in a separate platform from the authentic
task platform. Instead, the use of
Google Docs or Apps has the ability to serve many purposes in the same
space. Students can create, revise,
share, offer feedback, and reflect using the same online tool and space. Additionally, teachers can use the add-ons
“Goobric” and “Doctopus” to facilitate the use of rubrics with assignments they
are requiring of their students. I also
feel that the use of blogs should always remain authentic to the task that is
presented to students as well. For
example, if students are to participate in blog discussions, these discussions
should whenever possible be authentic discussions of a topic related to the
content in the real world as opposed to a blog created for the class
specifically.
I have been
utilizing a table that tracks the websites and technology resources I have
discovered as well as their purpose in connection to my curriculum. I could create an additional column in this
table that tackles the questions that I must consider when using this resource
including the pros and cons.
Dina,
ReplyDeleteAs I read your blog post, I noticed it was a thin-aloud process to monitor the progress of your action plan. How you evaluated the WebQuests and determined that formative assessments are missing in order to measure student understanding and what additional instruction is needed prior to having a finished product. I have not used WebQuests, but plan to in future lessons and with your information, I have made an awareness to look for formative assessments. The other reflection I saw was how you made note of the disadvantages of the collaborative tool as being in a separate platform and how it is somewhat forced to ask students to collaborate. I agree that a blog created specifically for the classroom may limit student creativity as opposed to having a discussion of a real-world issue. The variety of technology tools to use for assessment will serve for many purposes as well as support how teachers present instruction (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).
Reference
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Amalia Hinojosa-Becerra
Dina,
ReplyDeleteI like how you made reference to you resources as the , "Holy Grail". I as well feel very confident when I have adequate resources. In reading your game plan it appears that you have things planned out really well. Great luck on your implementation!! Dorothy made mention of Having the students come up with their own game plans at the beginning of the year!! I feel that this is a great idea and wanted to share.
Dina,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a great feeling when we find something that will work for us? We often find things that we can make work, and occasionally, as you say, find the Holy Grail. Through the use of technology, we are able to find, use and share these resources. I like your use of the table that tracks the websites and technology that you have discovered. Have you considered a similar type table for students to use in the classroom? Going back to your use of Google docs, my district uses this. My wife uses Google docs in her 7th grade English courses and really enjoys it. Keep up the great work!
Andrew