Playing a new GAME

Goals: develop fluency in creating, posting, and managing blog posts and blog feeds

Investigate use of Google Docs and Google Notebook

Incorporate WEB Quests/ Inquiry project and flexible assignment options for thematic, cross- curricular units that allow for collaborative learning along with individual accountability.

Students will utilize tools to communicate creatively to demonstrate application of concepts

and critical thinking skills for digital story-telling, webblog creation and communication, and document archive and retreival through Google Docs

Actions:

I've set up a professional blog, and revisited a personal blog that I don't write in enough.

I've attempted to subscribe to everyone in my group's blog-feeds, but I haven't mastered that yet. As I return to the Course Weblog site list, I will use a mini-game plan, without even thinking about it, because the steps to analytical thinking are already automated. Directing my attention to both successful RSS feeds and to my understanding of how to connect to a community of blogs sets up a think aloud (quietly, in my own room—people hear talking aloud and they think you are nuts) of metacognitive monitoring, evaluating and taking action that repeats until I've learned by doing what I needed to know. From this, I need to boil down these new program tricks and tips into simple bullet-pointed steps and procedures, easily accessible in a classroom.

I've use Google Docs to communicate with other professional in the CCWP, and I've read of one colleague's initial success with collaborative documents. In terms of developing both editing skills in the advanced students, and modes of good language useage in the second language learning students, carefully crafted mixed ability groups can collaborate on a variety of materials connected to content to demonstrate their learnings. A Seedfolk unit, for example, allows for character study and point of view analysis, as well as the impact of setting on characters in the story. As each character is an immigrant to Cleveland form elsewhere, students can self select or be draw names to form groups of three to analyze any of these and work creatively and collaboratively to communicate what they've discovered about whey people from El Salvador or Korea came to this country.. (12 chapters after model, 3 students per chapter)

Monitoring

See above frustrations in the Action steps. I've learned to post and respond, but gathering all responses in one location eludes me. Some come to my Walden email address, others come through my gmail address. In order to facilitate class discussion groups, I will have to be able to take students through blog feed set up in relatively short sequence of steps. Simplify.

Evaluation.

Halfway to my goal, and incorporating Quests and self directed inquiries into unit questions. As I revisit past successful lessons, I look to blend the technology-enriched activities and projects into the unit. Dobler and Eagleton provide a dsk-reference in how to's for modeling the acquisition and practice of discreet new literacy skills, the constant recursive repetition of questioning, using information, evaluating results, searching and transforming information that makes up

No time yet for Google Notebooks, though I intend to remedy that soon. I like google docs for its accessibility from any internet linked device, and for it's collaborative editing features. Making better use of google docs myself, rather than immediately using Open Office's word processing program will allow me to better teach the skills of information archival and retreival as well as portfolio building. .

Next steps:

Dig into Google Notebooks, and resubscribe to blog feeds. Trying to accomplish the most technologically demanding class thus far in my program while I am bouncing around the Appalachian Mountains has brought to my attention the problem of areas with little or poor internet access, or those still waiting on slow internet connections. I whine when my hotel doesn't have wifi. The new normal is never thus... Get a little help from those more proficient to learn how to manage and incorporate 21^st century tools for my 21^st century students.  So, Alphabetical denizens of Group 1, throw some advice my way....