As a physical education teacher I have not spent much time with technology standards. In previous courses I have skimmed over them but never really broke down what they actually meant to me. I figured out that some of these indicators I already do without much trouble but there are plenty of them that I could improve upon. The two for me I posted below.
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
b. exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others
Goals-My goal is to become better at using technology on a daily basis. I would like to be able to use technology on a weekly basis to collaborate with my colleagues and students. I would like to become a leader with technology so that I can share ideas with the people in my building.
Action-“That is, when used as a support and resource for the communicative processes of teaching and learning, the computer can be used to increase creative thinking processes among groups and communities(Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p.70).” I want to set up a couple blogs or wikis that I could use with my colleagues to communicate with. The other I would like my students to be able to access to answer question that I post. We do a good job as a faculty of using email but I think we could really get more done with the use of these other options. I am interested to see if anyone has any information to make this transition easier.
Monitor-I will monitor the progress by watching the traffic on the blogs. We will see how many people are using the blogs to communicate with each other. I can make my students use it by assigning homework to be down by answering on the blog.
Evaluate-If the students are using the blogs to communicate with me I will be able to mark it down in the grade book. I would like to have a hundred percent participation but know that this can be difficult with some students not having internet access. What can be done with these students? It’s a little harder to make the staff use this but would hope that if we make it worth their while that they would want to participate. That is where the burden falls on my shoulders with the help of some of the other technology savvy teachers.
I still have a long way to go before I am anywhere near savvy with technology. Every day through this class I become a little better and hope that with some insightful thoughts from my peers that I can continue to grow. I am looking forward to your critiques and hope that I can also help you out as well.
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.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved on September 13, 2011 from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx.
Your idea of having multiple blogs, or wikis, seems like a great idea, however I would caution you if you are not overly savy with technology, this is a large undertaking. My advice to you is to set up a wiki with your colleagues to get started, and use the knowledge that you gain from that to later start a classroom blog or wiki where you and your students can interact. The key to technology integrated into the classroom is that you, as the teacher, must become comfortable using it, so that you can better teach your students how to effectively use it. There are so many great websites out there for physical education teachers, you don’t have to be without technology, you just need to find where the natural fit is for your specific classroom, whether it is as simple as having your students track fitness progress online, or as complex as setting up group wiki pages where students can interact, and collaborate on large scale projects.
ReplyDeleteWe have a teacher that uses blogs to communicate with his students and parents. It has been extremely useful for providing missing assignments, discussing assignments, and for students to ask questions. The students really enjoy it because they can ask questions and not have to worry about what others think. Parents find it useful to find out what the students are working on in the classroom. Teachers have found out that he does this and want to use this method also. Many teachers have responded to the blog and provide their input.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate both of your suggestions. I am not all that familiar yet so your ideas of setting up a blog with other teachers and having them help me out is a good one. I also think it is a good idea to start on a smaller level like having the students track fitness progress. Thanks for both of your great post and I will take what you said into consideration before I start anything.
ReplyDelete-Jakob-
I think you would be surprised at how many students have internet access. I would recommend that you conduct some type of survey, maybe asking questions about their physical activity outside of school, but integrate a couple questions about access to the internet. Make sure to ask not only do they have internet access, but is it always working. To some families those are two different answers. These days there are great ways to integrate technology into physical fitness. The Nike + shoes integrate iPods with fitness and many people track their running online. You can even have it regularly post your times on facebook. Another website is called www.loseit.com. This is a free weight loss website. You could use this website with your students for educational purposes.
ReplyDelete