Monitoring The Progress of My GAME Plan

This week I began to reflect on the actions I have taken to achieve my goals of incorporate technology based communication and collaboration students outside of the classroom and abroad. In order to do this I needed to become familiar with different technology tools that make this possible, as well as, proper netiquette procedures. Due to midterms and the end on the marking period nearing I have been very preoccupied and admittedly did not put as much effort as I would have liked towards implementing this new technology and activity. However, since we last spoke I have come across a plethora of useful knowledge. This week I feel that I have come a long way in my GAME plan.    

This week, I learned that my district would be providing all students with a personal school email which educators will be able to monitor. This helps me with the concerns I had about monitoring students’ discussions and posts on the net. After expressing my goal and concerns regarding using online communicative tools to the technology teacher at my school, he informed me of a book that they use called Net Cettera (OnGuardOnline, n.d.), to teach students proper netiquette. This book has been very informative for me and has helped overcome some of my fears and alleviate some of the concerns I had about using these Web 2.0 tools.  In continuing with the safety concerns that I had regarding these internet tools I communicated my goal with my school administrator and learned that there is a permission slip in place that students get signed in the beginning of the year in order to use these tools. This was relieving because I now know that the parents of my students already have approved them for these activities. I also asked the tech teacher and the administrator if they knew of any teachers in my schools currently using blogs, wikis, skype, or other online communication tools with there students to communicate with other students around the world. Although there were few I was able to begin collaboration efforts with some of them, as well.

Although I have gathered a great deal of information through research and colleagues at my school, my most insightful knowledge came from a friend of mine who teaches Italian at a high school in another district. I had not spoken to her in some time and was glad I did because she has proven to be an excellent resource for achieving my goal and enhancing my technology usage all around. Sue shared her strategies for using Skype with educators from abroad, finding real-life scenarios on YouTube and having students communicate about them on blogs, and using rubrics to assess their communications. I suggested using VoiceThread to upload different podcasts or scenes and having students collaborate with each other on different topics. We also decided that it would be a good idea for me to observe her class when she is using these tools. This will give me a first hand experience with how students react these activities and how to create effective and efficient guidelines and activities with these tools. I put in for a professional day this week to conduct this observation.  I will also be attending a workshop after school on using the iPads, which have different apps allowing for collaboration between students. I will also provide the parents with the account information so that they can follow there students collaboration and performance.

Based on research and continued collaboration with other colleagues within and outside of my district I have decided to start small and begin my first Web 2.0 collaborative activity with the other middle Italian class using VoiceThread. I originally wanted the students to Skype each other but the class times did not match. Rosa (Italian teacher at the other middle school) and I will collaborate weekly to create topics based on the on the learning content for our students.  Students will communicate in audio, visual, and text in the target language using prior knowledge and new knowledge. We will also provide the students with a rubric demonstrating the assessment guidelines. Students will begin by asking of other students based on the topics being learned. They will then have to reply to four questions of different peers from the other school.

This will serve as a formative performance assessment. Assessing students learning is a pertinent part in monitoring and evaluating that technology and learning goals are being met. Technology provides a plethora of options for assessing students learning. Through the use of this tool students are able to demonstrate their knowledge using methods that engage them most, communication with peers and graphics. For the most part students are also picking their own topics of communication, which in turn provides a sense of ownership over the task (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).

Thus far I do not feel that I need to modify my GAME Plan. However, I do plan to do more research on finding other schools to communicate with abroad. There are so many resources available to educators at the click of a finger. Every time I begin to research I feel overwhelmed with information overload. There are so many areas of technology that I would like to improve on; I just need to keep reminding myself to take it one step at a time. I am confident that if I take my time and thoroughly evaluate and use my resources I will successfully accomplish my goals.

Although this week was full of breakthroughs I am still very curious about using Skype, blogs, or even VoiceThread. Is it better to assign each student to one other student in the corresponding class, like a pen pal program? What is and effective and efficient amount of time to require students to spend using this tool per week? Are there any good tips or suggestions for creating a general rubric for these activities?  Any suggestions or recommendations will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to continuing my journey through achieving my goal!

Daniela Petruzzella

Resourcses:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011) Assessing Student Learning With Technology [Video webcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset

OnGuardOnline. Stop Think Click. (n.d.). Net Cettera, Chatting with Kids About Being Online. Retrieved from: www.onguardonline.gov

VoiceThread. Retrieved from www.voicethread.com.