With my own technology GAME plan now underway I look forward to the future, considering further uses of the organizational technique, originally created by Katherine Cennamo, John Ross, and Peggy Ertmer in their book Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use (2009). Students as well as teachers need to find ways to self direct their learning within a exponentially growing technological and global society. Therefore, the GAME plan is an excellent tool for student use as well as for teachers to plan for self directed learning. For instance, students today are responsible for learning more than just academic content standards. To stay competitive in a global society they must also be current with the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S). They must be able to plan for personal development of creativity, innovation, communication and collaboration. They must also plan to develop their web literacy skills, critical thinking and problem solving capabilities and all under the umbrella of digital citizenship (ISTE, 2007). With this seemingly insurmountable amount of skills to become proficient at students must set some goals. That’s were the GAME plan comes in. Using the GAME plan students could choose several NETS•S that they would like to become more proficient at and set up a plan to meet them. They could keep a journal of the actions they plan to make to achieve their goals, and then monitor their own progress by reviewing their journals and re-evaluating their plan on a weekly basis. This type of self propelled learning is exactly what 21st century learners need to stay competitive in modern society.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
ISTE International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). NETS-S. Retrieved November 9, 2009, from Http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2008Standards/NETS_S__Standards_Final.pdf
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Bonnie,
ReplyDeleteYou make several wonderful points about the amount of standards our students are expected to learn by the time the graduate. The expectations have changed so much and I agree that they can be overwhelming for both the student and teacher. The GAME plan is a great organizational tool for students to use in order to accomplish objectives and understand the importance of setting realistic goals. Your idea of journaling could be used at any age level. Students love to write about their own feelings, thoughts, ideas or reactions to things and this is a great way to incorporate learning into this process.
Thanks for sharing your ideas this week! I found themto be very helpful.
Bonnie -
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more regarding your comments about students needing to stay abreast of current technology and adhering to the NETS-S so that they have the necessary 21st century skills and are ready for the workplace.
along those lines, I do also agree with your statements regarding the use of a GAME Plan for students as well as for teachers. The GAME Plan is a wonderful way to organize your learning and improve upon the skills in which one is lacking. "Self-propelled" learning is a fantastic way to describe this process of using a GAME Plan to accomplish learning goals as a teacher, or as a student.
One may think that this could only be applicable to the "Regular" classroom. However, I would venture to say that the GAME Plan would be quite effective at pointing your music students in the right direction towards accomplishing their goals musically as well. Journaling , as you suggest, is a very good way to manage, and eventually evaluate the process of reaching one's goals.
Great post!
Heather and Rachael,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your supportive comments. Good luck to both of you as you set your own self-propelled learning goals.