As I look back on the seven weeks of this
course, the Problem-Based Learning lessons and activities using various sources
of technology and software, and through the collaboration of my Walden
colleagues, I have learned a great deal from the assignments and the close
communication with my Walden peers. I
collected a multitude of ideas, webpages, software ideas, and some new
technology pieces – some of which I have already began to use.
My goals within my GAME PLAN have made
overall progress; although more progress has been made with certain goals,
while others are still in the “at work” process. Even with my progress that I have made, there
is still room for improvement. I believe
this happens with time and experience.
Time has definitely been my huge obstacle with achieving all of my
goals; however, I do not realistically believe all of our goals can be met in a
seven week period.
My first goal was to collaborate with students, peers,
parents and community members using digital tools and resources to support
student success and innovation. I was
successful with finally getting a math class website up and running for both
myself and the math co-teacher. We have
used this website to provide homework help such as sample problems and breaking
the problems down step by step for the students to follow. We have had some communication from parents
and several students, although due to a large percentage of students and their
parent/s or guardian not having the Internet at home, the communication is
limited. I would like to continue using
this website for informational purposes to let those that do read the website
know when upcoming tests or quizzes will be, placing study guides into the
webpage for those that may not have this, notes for students that missed the
class and for parents/guardians as well.
For the future, I really wish to get our students involved in more
digital story telling. I feel this will
be a project that can be fun for the students participating but it is also an
artifact of what each of the students has learned with a particular
concept. It is also a way to have
outsiders view the students’ learning and demonstration of that learning in a
unique way that the “audience” (such as parents, grandparents, and other family
members) probably never had the opportunity to participate in due to age and
the era in which they were in school.
My second goal has been to
improve and enhance my own competencies with being able to engineer and utilize
more real-world, engaging lessons and activities that incorporate technology. Progress is being made with this. We have used several real-world scenarios
that engage the students, collaboratively and with the usage of technology to
make the learning meaningful and relevant, having the groups of students use
critical thinking skills, communicate with their fellow group members, work
together to find a solution or solutions to their “real-world” problem. This is allowing our students to become more
of the leaders in their own learning versus the activity or lesson being more
of a teacher-centered scenario which we all too often are guilty of using in
the classroom. I wish to continue to
strive in finding, creating and using more real-world activities and lessons
where the students are collaborating, using technology (that fits and ties in
nicely with the lesson) and pushing for the students to become more
self-reliant along with using the aid of their team members to problem
solve. I want these type of activities
to definitely be meaningful, productive, more engaging than the typical
independent work sheets and above all, I wish to see each student to take more
ownership of their own learning and feeling successful and good about
themselves for having worked with a group as a team, communicating and
discovering for themselves the possible ways of figuring out the problem or a
set of problems with the teacher and co-teacher doing more monitoring and
guiding when necessary.
