The Name of the Game is GAME

     This week I have been asked to revisit my personal GAME plan to determine how I will move from wanting to use more technology to support my content in the class room (NETs, 2013) to actually making it happen.  Ironically I feel as if I am in a week at school that has been quite low tech.  We are close to the end of the school year and in the middle of HSA testing which tends to really scramble the schedule.  Granted the particular HSA test I proctored this week was administered solely online but all I had to be able to do was remember my password to enter the testing site from a URL link that my administrator sent me.  It only took me four tries.  My Research and Design students are busily engaged in collecting data for their projects and while some students are pecking away furiously on the keyboard, others are pouring water in coffee cans out in the dirt, some are counting wetland plants and digging roots up and a few others are hand razing a site to plant native bushes and trees to increase bio-diversity. I only got a little bit of poison ivy but they were engaged in real life, hands on inquiry and problem based- learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013), not a bad trade off. 

     I would love to spend a few days at the end of the school year to really learn about my interactive white board at the side of my more well trained room neighbors and I am confident that I probably have sufficient IQ to at least be able to turn it on and switch pen colors but in reality the last few days will most likely be spent frantically entering grades (online at least) and filing errant papers at least until I become so overwhelmed that I simply pick a filing cabinet drawer as a hiding place. (For the papers, not me) I figure they will be there when I come back in the fall or if I don’t come back, well then they will be my gift to the next educational martyr.  I must admit that I am hoping to be able to go through the labyrinth of electronic files and odds and ends with the purpose of better organizing them into self-contained units.  Frequently I find that I am out of sequence or forget to use a resource because it is not in the proper electronic file.  I also know that I have accumulated multiple copies of many files and clips and I have gaps in other areas that I would like to fill with resources such as web quests, animations and simulations, science songs and video clips.  If I can get my own technology resources in order then I hope to be able to better integrate new ones in the future.  One of my colleagues has an uncanny ability to organize a unit from first tease to final assessment and include every worksheet, web link, video and graphic in between. He has offered to share his units at the end of the year because he does not want me to be bored over the impending summer. Another colleague completes nearly every aspect of his curriculum on computers so he is a good resource for technical advice.  I feel as if each semester I get a little better and a bit more automatic with being able to find strategies to respond to the needs of my students but admittedly I am still gloriously under planned most days, much to the chagrin of my dutiful and by the book administrators.  Thinking content first, technology next will help me to streamline my timeline.

     Meanwhile I know that I must maintain the commitment to explore new technologies and to try to figure out how I could use them to support my content with a fresh start next semester.  The greatest resource I will need is time.  Much of my inability to develop my own personal technological growth stems from being constantly pulled in multiple directions.  My situation is not unique but it is currently mine.  I have to try to pick and choose what will truly work and what will just rob me of more time. I find that I am much more aware of the technology looking at it not so much for its bells and whistles but from how it can help me to focus on learning outcomes.  This will help me to customize instruction to meet the needs of all my learners (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). So far, as a result of tutoring several students who are out of the building I have been able to see projects and activities that other teachers are using in their class rooms.  This has allowed me to think about how I might use similar technologies such as a Prezi, voice thread or an Imovie to extend my own content in the future.  As far as monitoring my own progress I suppose that will come down to how long I can maintain a school mind set once released from the windowless room that is my learning environment but I do believe that I will pick it up again quickly in August.  Having online courses over the summer will hopefully afford me the luxury of exploring technology without the burden of external distractions.

I would like to use the computer as a tutor through animations and interactive websites, as a tour guide on web quests , a research tool via data bases and a communication tool both individually and collaboratively.  If I can get my students to connected computers on a regular basis then I say GAME on!

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Meeting the Needs of Learners with Technology, Part 1

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Promoting Self-Directed       Learning with Technology.

NETS-t retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets_for_teachers_2000.pdf?sfvrsn=2 on 5-15-13. (2000).