Monitoring The Game Plan Progress

This week I began to reflect on the actions I have taken to achieve my goals of integrating technology-based communication and updating my understanding on formative and summative assessments using technology. In order to do this, I have to get used to with a variety of technology tools that grant this access, as well as assessments strategies. Due to the summer break I admittedly could not put as much as I would have liked towards applying this new technology and activity.

I learned that my school would be giving all students with a personal school email which teachers will be able to access and monitor. This assists me with the problems I had about monitoring students’ discussions and posts on the internet. After sharing my goal and concerns in related to using online communicative tools to the administrators at my school, they suggested a book called Net Cettera (OnGuardOnline, n.d.). This book has been very useful for me and has assisted solving some of my problems. In continuing with the safety concerns that I had on these internet tools, I discussed my goal with my administrators and learned that there is a permission slip in place that students get signed at the beginning of the year in order to use these tools. This was relieving because I now know that the parents of my students already have permitted them for these activities. Although I have collected a lot of information through research and colleagues at my school, I got my insightful knowledge from a friend of mine who teach in another country. She has been an excellent resource for achieving my goal and enhancing my technology usage all around. Septy suggested her strategies for using Skype with teachers from abroad, searching real-life scenarios on YouTube and having students post out about them on blogs, and using rubrics to assess their communications. I planned to use VoiceThread to upload different podcasts or scenes and having students working together with each other on different topics. We also agreed that it would be a good idea for me to see her class when she is using these tools. This will give me a first-hand experience with how students react these activities and how to design effective and efficient guidelines and activities with these tools. Thus far I do not feel that I need to change my GAME Plan. On the other hand, I do plan to research more on finding other schools to communicate with abroad. I am still very curious about using Skype, blogs, or even VoiceThread. Is it better to put one student to another student in the corresponding class, like a pen pal program? What is and effective and efficient amount of time needed for students to spend using this tool per week? Are there any good tips or suggestions for designing a common rubric for these activities?

I haven't had as much excitement with my second goal of learning more about assessments and technology combined. I did learned a lot through our class resources this week, especially Chapter 6. I was able to read about the variety types of assessments and how technology can be used with them. Technology can also make collecting, analyzing and reporting data more organized and efficient (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I need to work more on this goal. I might also be able to talk with my colleague and ask teachers from other areas how they assess their students with and without technology integration. Has anyone had any suggestion? I don't feel I need to make any changes on my action plan at this time. I am just going to continue to make connections and ask questions.

Any suggestions or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.


References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Assessment and Evaluation. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

OnGuardOnline. Stop Think Click. (n.d.). Net Cettera, Chatting with Kids About Being Online. Retrieved from: www.onguardonline.gov