Game Plan Progress

The steps I have already taken toward meeting the goals established for learning about technology and technology resources.

1. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.
i. Finding the information and resources I need?
I have already started incorporating the digital tools where they have helped my students develop skills they did not have. They have started using tools such as webspirations for concept mapping, survey monkey for surveys and polls, they have already started using and preparing prezis, voicethreads, glogs, moviemaker, powerpoint and blogs.
I have still to learn more about the creation and how to implement the use of Digital Portals. I have been reading about them and how to create them but have not yet got down to producing one. If anybody can give me some support I would appreciate it.

ii. Do I need to modify my action plan?
I think that the students are enjoying their work, so I think this is the way to go, and continue without stopping.

iii. What have I learned so far?
I have learned that students, even adult students, try to do the same as other students when they like the product that the other students have produced. As I am working with adult students, and they have had a days’ work when they arrive at my lessons, some of them do not want to learn new ways to do things because it takes longer, but when they start seeing the results of the work done by other colleagues they want to try out the tools themselves and are able to do better research because they are so much more motivated.


2. Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership
i. Finding the information and resources I need?
I am searching for the information I need, some information I have already managed to get other information has been much more difficult to access.
I have also been trying to keep myself informed about what is new in other educational blogs and it is quite challenging yet interesting getting new ideas, because it is so important for us to exchange our thoughts and ideas. We get so much richer in capacity to innovate and prepare different learning opportunities for my students.

ii. Do I need to modify my action plan?
I do not think that I should modify my action plan, I must organize myself in a better way to be able to apply it properly.

iii. What have I learned so far?
I have learned that if I monitor the blogs on a daily basis I am able to keep myself informed about what is being posted by other teachers and this is important as we all have drawbacks and we are able to learn with one another and learn from all those that know much more than we do in certain areas. I myself have learned so many interesting things about education of younger students, the challenges and the compensations.

iv. What new questions have arisen?
I have come to realize how much I have been missing out on. I thought I knew so much about technology and meanwhile I have come to see that I have just come out of the Stone Age.

Maria

Reviewing GAME Plan

1. Design and develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments:

Resources:

· Computers with internet access;

· Survey monkey, webspiration, audacity, webquests.

· Voice Threads, PowerPoint’s, Movie Maker, Glogsters, Prezi’s, blogs and sites used to share final products that students will present and finally become artifacts in their personal portfolios.

Information...

• on how to use the internet and evaluate the search engines;
• on how to validate the information on the web;
• on how to research for information on the web;
• on how to use digital tools they will need.

Learning strategy:

• I will ask the students to start off by analyzing a webpage.
• I Supply worksheets and podcasts explaining the steps they should follow to do their research.
• They would then search for the information they need, evaluating them, synthesizing and then transforming this information into a product that is theirs.
• They will perform their surveys using the online surveys,
• They will organize their concepts using concept mapping tools.
• As their program does not contemplate laboratory experimentation (adult students) they may use simulations when they need to understand some concepts better.
• As these students are not all doing the same work at the same time, my contribution is individual to each one of them.

2. Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership:

Resources:

· Computers with internet access;

· Blog; RSS feed; portfolio

Learning strategy:

I need to view and answer the blog postings on a more regular basis. I have being viewing the posts although not as often as I should, but have failed to interact with my colleagues on a more regular basis on their blogs. I am able to view the blog posts each time I use my search engine because the blogs I have iGoogle as me homepage (as the page opens I see who has posted on their blogs). When searching the web and I am able to view the posts quickly before proceeding with my work, if I have a minute.

Maria

GAME Plan

My GAME plan for two indicators in the NETS-T.

1. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and assessments.

Goal: I intend to incorporate digital tools and resources to maximize content learning and develop knowledge skills and self development attitudes in my students. With my adult students I realized that they need to research certain themes and present their conclusions, using word documents. My goal has been to firstly help them do effective research on the data validity using the proper processes and tools to do so, then prepare a presentation form other than word document making their learning experience richer and more diversified.

Action: They will analyze the validity of websites as they do their research on the various topics. They will then prepare the presentation of their work using different technologies to do so.

Monitor: I will monitor the work they do, how they analyze the sites, which tools they use and then also monitor the diversity of tools they decide to use, and also monitor the tools the tools they appreciate most, using them in other subjects with other teachers after having learned how to use them in my classroom.

Evaluate and extend learning: We are able to evaluate the adult motivation through, attendance, enthusiasm as they come to the lessons eager to work and learn more about the topic they are studying and the method they will use to present their work.

2. Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership.

Goal: I intend to keep myself informed as to current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of students learning.

Action: I would start in this course using the RSS reader in order to be able to visit each of my group members’ blogs, review their GAME plans and see if I may be of assistance and gladly accept the assistance of my fellow colleagues.

Monitor: I will try to view the blogs on a daily basis and monitor the updates to the blogs and view how many blogs entries I have made.

Evaluate and extend learning: View my blog participation throughout this course and reflect on my learning experience in order to be able to enhance my students and fellow colleagues at schools’ learning experience with this tool.

International Society for Technology in Education Home. (n.d.). International Society for Technology in Education Home. Retrieved March 11, 2010, from http://www.iste.org

Reflection: Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

This course gave me the opportunity to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses regarding information literacy skills, as well as those of my students. Knowing that the internet is a powerful tool and that is able to inspire us, although it may also be intimidating. Students need to develop their own evaluation skills to enable them to use internet resources on their own outside the classroom.We should provide them with the opportunity to know how to conduct meaningful searches, developing their new literacy skills.

The construction of an activity for searching and evaluating content on the internet and including it in my inquiry based unit plan using screentoaster was wonderfull. This tool along with other social networking tools such as voicethreads and blogs are wonderful tools to evaluate the validity and reliability of internet resources. This course was very important to help me cultivate better the critical evaluation skills in my students.

I was wonderfull to construct activities for their inquiry-based unit plan that address the internet resources evaluation and synthesis as well as effective communication.

One of the most interesting experiences I had was with the flat classrooms. The opportunity to have our students collaborate with colleagues around the globe is absolutely awesome. Some of the web 2 tools I am planning to integrate in my classrooms are the voicethreads, virtual fieldtrips, blogs, prezis, glogsters, powerpoints, movie maker films. I would also like my students to use the webspiration concept mapping tool as well as a survey tool which is called surveymonkey and is so helpfull with the surveys the students need to do. As for bookmarking, I also feel that it is important and will start using it properly myself and introduce this tool to my students.

As I advance through these courses I see so many new things that do help us so much with these digital natives which are our students.

Evaluating Research Methods

Based on the Research Methods learned these last three weeks, and having reflected on the four scenarios presented, I suggest the following examples of how a researcher might design a study on the subject of peer mediation:

Scenario 1:

Ten students are available for in-depth interviews. Participants will be selected based on their involvement with the peer mediation program. They will be observed over three weeks. Analysis will attempt to determine issues concerning peer mediation.

As ten students will be selected based on their involvement with peer mediation for an in depth study, I suggest a qualitative research method. The research is based on human interaction and is done on a face to face basis. I would say that the research purpose is descriptive explanatory which identifies relationships influencing peer mediation (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006, p. 137).


Scenario 2:

Two classrooms of students are selected. There are 30 students in each class; each group will have similar demographics—age, sex, race, socio-economic background, etc. Classes will be randomly divided into two groups of 15 students. Of these two groups, one randomly selected group will get training on peer mediation and the other group will not. Thus in each classroom there will be one group that is trained in peer mediation and one that is not. Analysis will occur on which groups have the fewest office referrals.

In this analysis I suggest researchers need a explanatory mixed method approach, firstly the researchers determine the age, sex, race, socio-economic background among others continue pursuing a quantitative research and after the selection of a group of 15 for peer mediation, the research will then become a qualitative research based on students with peer to peer mediation for an in depth study.


Scenario 3:


A school counselor is interested in knowing how student attitudes affect the value of peer mediation to decrease the number of office referrals that are being filed for inappropriate interactions.

A school counselor is interested in finding out if student attitudes affect the value of peer mediation to decrease the number of referrals for inappropriate interactions. I think I would use an Action Research Method for this study. This research method is the process of using research principals to provide information that educational professionals use to improve aspects of day-to-day practice. This research is conducted in three four phases, first focusing on the topic of study, then collecting the data, analyzing the data, and finally followed by taking action based on the results (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006, p. 174).

Scenario 4:

The feelings of those involved in the process are little known—either from those doing the mediation or those receiving it. The ZASK-R Acceptance Preference Survey will be given as pre- and post-tests to 40 students participating in mediation. Follow-up interviews will be conducted on a bi-monthly basis.

I would suggest a mixed method; this time I would use an explanatory mixed method research starting with the quantitative data collection (in this case, data from the survey) followed by the qualitative “follow-up interviews on a bi-monthly basis”.. (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006, p. 165).




References

McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2008). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry (Laureate custom edition). Boston: Pearson

Research Questions

Since last week I have build up on my problem statement and questions. Some information given on the discussion board was very important. Thank you. Please give me some more suggestions.

Problem Statement:
I plan to determine the effectiveness of the adult educational training programs which integrate technology, when performed by students who have had different levels of contact with technology throughout their lives.

Who: students in adult educational training programs
What: effectiveness of adult training using technology
Why: Determine to what degree students in the adult educational training programs are able to use technology.

Questions:
1.Is there a difference in student motivation to learn in a traditional learning environment without computers and a learning environment with 1:1 computers? (Difference question)
2.To what degree does student mastery of technology, determine the level of the work produced by the students? (Relationship question)
3.What is the best procedure for a teacher to use with students that are not familiar with technology? (Descriptive question)

I would say that mine is a mixed method research as I have quantative and qualitative questions and the design I am thinking of using is the triangulation design.

Maria

Problem Statement

This year is my first year working in the adult training program. The program was developed by the Ministry of Education and implemented in schools around the country.

The course is integrated in the government´s plan to bring the Portuguese populations’ minimum education level up to twelfth grade.

"The RVCC system has addressed the need for qualification of adults who, having no opportunity to achieve and complete cycles of general school-level, yet having a wide life experience in different fields of action, could recognize and certify their key skills through RVCC processes in appropriate settings working with technical specialists". (1)

In this course the students need to work with information technology as well as search for the information required.

I plan to determine the effectiveness of these adult training programs which integrate technology.
Who: students
What: effectiveness of adult training using technology
Why: extend knowledge in various areas including information technology and certify skills.

I have reoriented my problem statement so that it would be easier for me to do my research for this course because of the lack of research literature for my previous problem statement.

Maria

(1) Ministry of Education, Inc. (Producer). (2006). Operational Guide for secondary level Adult Education and Training. Lisbon. Author.