Revising My GAME Plan (Week 6)

Reading through my classmates blogs I have been able to come up with some new ideas and resources. For example: Susan Lorenzini uses a site to create online surveys for students and parents; (www.surveymonkey.com). I believe I can use it in a similar way to evaluate my lessons effectiveness with students and communicate with parents.

A major concern which was brought to my attention while going over the resources in week six of this course is that my knowledge of social networking is needs improvement. My goal is to become better educated in this area so I can successfully implement changes to my lessons. I plan to do so by examining the way my Walden courses are set up and also reading what ideas my classmate have regarding this area. Their feedback and ideas for lessons has proven to be very valuable! I am open to any suggestions my classmates may have on the implementation of social networking into lesson plans.

Right now would not be a good time to set new learning goals. I do not believe it would be a good idea to do so until I am comfortable with the goals I am currently working on. As I mentioned previously, a big hurdle I will need to make is becoming comfortable with social networking. Based on NETS-T a learning goal I have pertains to Indicator #4 Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. My school has become very concerned about teaching safe and ethical use of digital information they are often very reluctant to allow changes such as a school wide social networking plan. In the online article: “How To: Use Social-Networking Technology for Learning” Fran Smith mentions: “Administrators have to facilitate change, they have to decide this is valuable for the whole community”.

My plan is to speak with the principal in my school to get her approval to begin using some social networking tools in my classroom. In the resource media from week six Vicki Davis recommends the social network site “think.com”, she mentions it a very safe platform and requires a teacher to login every thirty days or it is canceled. Understanding how concerned the administration is with digital responsibility I believe this may be a good starting point. My plan is to get approval to try it out with one class to start.

References:

Edutopia: How To: Use Social-Networking Technology for Learning located at http://www.edutopia.org/print/3980.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009).“Spotlight on Technology Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 1” [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009).“Spotlight on Technology Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 2” [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.