GAME off, GAME ON...GAME PLAN

ThinkQuest: 21^st Century Students, Teacher & Tools

     Clearly one of Prensky's “digital immigrant teachers,” (2001. p. 4) one who prints out discussion to read it, write comments in the margins, then return to the online world to compose a response, I have come to recognize my students inhabit an entirely different world. If students bemoan “every time I go to school I have to power down,” (Prensky, 2001, p. 4), then we have to find ways to teach our students in their world, with the tools they use every day, to teach them skills that serve them well beyond their schooling. In order to help 21^st century teachers reach 21^st century students, the International Society for Technology in Education's National education standards for teachers (NETS-T) provides five standards for infusing technology skills into the curriculum for increased student achievement and engagement. At this juncture, my focus is on these two:

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:

     Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer's GAME Plan for integrating technology skills allows a teacher to set goals, take specific action toward a desired outcome, teach and model cognitive skills to monitor progress toward meeting goals, and evaluate the results against desired outcomes. (2009, p. 3). People with mature reasoning and critical thinking skills make use of this recursive process whenever they learn to use new technology: email platform for work, new attendance and grade reporting systems, new websites to provide lessons and resources for classroom use. While these hallmarks of critical thinking seem effortless and embedded into the web-surfing experience or any other self directed learning activity, our students need to practice these metacognitive skills in guided, scaffolded, differentiated learning inquiries and WEBQuests to develop both content and procedural knowledge that allows them to set goals, take action, monitor their own progress, and evaluate their own results in their self-directed learning and, as Newmann identifies, “authentic intellectual work” beyond their academic careers. Teaching students to “construct knowledge” through “disciplined inquiry” resulting in work that has “value beyond school” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p.35)

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.

     To meet the challenge presented in this standard, I have multiple goals: Ideally, my students and I create and archive and portfolio documents and presentations using Google Documents. Both free and easily accessible at any internet connected computers, Google docs will allow students, teacher and parents to keep a record of the ways in which student meet standards and learn in innovative and creative ways. New teaching tools provide “opportunities in teaching Digital Natives...to figure out and invent ways to include reflection and critical thinking in learning...but do it in the Digital Native Language.” (Prenksy, 2001b. p. 5) Put simply, my goal is to break down my own sophisticated internet browsing and surfing to find what strategies I use to analyze, evaluate, apply and synthesize information. Blogging invites students and parents into the classroom to see lessons, discussion highlights, project requirements, rubric, and general communication about the learning environment. Using a blog in the classroom enables me to develop a line of communication via email and comment sections, as well as create for myself a website that can be quickly adapted for any school site as I switch from the southern-most end of Northern California to the southern most end of North Carolina, a blending of my dream job at South Lake Tahoe High School combined with a rich, distinctly Appalachian, distinctly Asheville mix of cultures familiar and new to explore and teach with, to and about.

References

Cennnamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. 2009. technology Integration for meaningful classroom instruction: 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 from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Prensky, M. (2001a). “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1.” On the Horizon, 9 (5), 1-4. Retrieved from Education Research Complete.

Prensky, M. (2001b). “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 2: Do they really think differently?” On the Horizon, 9 (6), 1-6. Retrieved from Education Research Complete.