Reflection

Self-directed learning is a skill highly desired by teachers, but rarely instituted. Self- directed learning helps teachers determine how students learn best. Self-directed learning is, “any increase in knowledge, skill, accomplishment, or personal development that an individual selects and brings about by his or her own efforts using any method in any circumstance at any time” (Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer, 2009, p. 2). As teachers go about developing lessons implementing self-directed learning, a GAME plan is often needed to organize and develop thinking. Laureate Education (2009) recommends setting goals, taking actions to meet the goals, monitoring progress of the goals, and finally evaluating effectivess and extent of learning. As students are exposed to the unlimited access of the technological world, there is a wide variety of resources to help students progress to becoming self-directed.

I constructed my own GAME plan:

Goals: I will learn and implement digital-age technologies. I will develop and execute strategies that include the needs of all learners with the use of technological tools.

Action: The iPad, Virtual Field Trips, visualization tools, concept maps, blogs, electronic books, graphic organizers, and digital presentation tools will be used to support and engage all learners in the classroom. Strategies for authentic instruction will be used: Inquiry/Discovery Method, Problem-Based Learning, Inductive Method, Role-Play, and Simulation.

Monitoring: I will monitor progress by considering behaviors of my students. Are students responding positively to the new technologies? Are they confused? Reflections will be noted as progress is made. Do I need to modify my game plan? Formative assessments will be conducted to help answer these questions.

Evaluation and Extension: Did all students meet the learning goals? If not, why? Is there a particular topic that needs to be re-visited? What could I do differently to improve my instruction in the future?

The iPad was of particular importance to my success of the GAME plan. The specific student I had in mind with the plan learned best through verbal and visual stimulation. An app on the iPad, called Proloquo, was easily customized for my student to help him throughout his day. The iPad became a friend to him where he could communicate and revisit certain feelings, actions, and activities throughout the day.

I learned several things in the process of executing the GAME plan with my student. First and foremost, I realized I am creating authentic learning environments to develop critical and creative thinking skills while teaching standards (Laureate Education, 2009). I had to be creative with this child and recognize his desire for technology. I also learned that I need to have an understanding of where kids are going to help them succeed in the future. Students need all kids of skills including “critical thinking and problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration, ethics and responsibility, and global awareness” (Prensky, 2008, p. 6). My student got practice with all of these skills and standards. Assessment was not held in a formative or summative format, but in a more informal way like observations. I will continue this GAME plan in the state it is now, slowly weaning the student off of it as he learns he doesn’t need it to be successful. Initially, I was using the iPad at every transition and activity throughout the day. As he is learning and growing in the classroom, he only needs it a couple times as day.

Integrating technology in the classroom requires knowledge, confidence, beliefs about teaching and learning, and a supportive culture (Laureate Education, 2009). Authentic instruction and experiences include learner autonomy, active learning, holistic activities, complex activities, and challenging activities. As a teacher, I should be “asking thought-provoking questions and providing opportunities for students to construct their own understandings and to be accountable for their own learning (Cennamo et al, 2009, p. 40). Often times I am leery about relieving control over to students. With the process of implementing the problem-based lesson, social networking lesson, and storytelling lessons I was able to realize how independent students must become in order to be successful in the future. The student performance profiles (Cennamo et al) illustrate how they should be engaging, collaborating, producing, finding, evaluating, exploring, demonstrating, and independently applying technological skills in the classroom (2009, p.8). I plan on furthering my execution of these types of lessons for my students.

References:

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas: Promoting self-directed learning with technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas: Promoting creative thinking with technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas: Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45. Retrieved from the Academic Search Complete database.