Frustrated in Colorado No Longer

My Final Reflection

When I developed my GAME plan for this course, I was a frustrated music teacher desperately wanting to integrate technology in my classroom and not sure how it was possible beyond the one simple computer game my students are currently using. I was convinced there was no easy answer.

My original goal was to increase my competency level on NETS-T standards 1 and 2; Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity and design and develop digital-aged learning and assessment. To monitor this goal, my intent was to replace at least one instructional practice with a technology based tool in each class by the end of the current nine weeks. While this was a lofty goal, it gave me a little kick to actually get going and find something, anything, that I could use in my music classroom.

How would I rate my GAME plan now? I didn’t meet my goal of replacing one teaching strategy with technology by the end of the nine weeks. But I did find a wealth of technology, most of it free or something I already possessed, that I can use. I also developed one digital-aged lesson that I successfully used in my piano lab.

The biggest thing I have learned is what I stated in my last blog post, that technology needs to enhance my instruction, not replace it. For example, I used my Zoom H2 digital recorder to let the beginning band hear the advanced band play their same songs and it raised the beginning bands desire to do better. In piano lab, we put away the book and I let my students be creative with their keyboards to develop a soundtrack for a simple one minute stick figure movie I created using Power Point and Movie Maker. The creativity they played with when they were bored found a place in a lesson. And finally, as a result of the content unit plan created over the last few weeks, my choir classes will research, collaborate and present their findings all in preparation to completely produce their final performance for the year. Enhancement, not replacement.

Technology is a powerful tool and when used wisely, students in the 21st century will get a 21st century education. As I sit at the beginning of a two week Christmas break, I am actually looking forward to next semester and many of the technology tools such as collaboration and digital storytelling, I can integrate into my instruction. I am frustrated no more! OK, maybe just a little, but at least I’m headed in the right direction now.


http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

The GAME plan and How to Use it!

Over the course of the last seven weeks, I have been working on and re-working my technology GAME plan. Each week I have taken time to analyze the progress made from the original plan. While this has been a frustrating and yet progressive process for me, the overall structure of using a GAME plan in the classroom is a good idea. The National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S) and teachers (NETS-T) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) outline technology goals for both groups. These standards are designed as a guide for using technology in a 21st century classroom.

What is a GAME Plan?

The idea behind a GAME plan is simply the “plan”. Too often students know they have an assignment, but don’t quite know the process to complete it other than start at the beginning and finish. A GAME plan helps students, and teachers, plot a course of action. What is the Goal? What Action will be taken to reach the Goal? How will the Action be Monitored? And finally, How will the Goals and Actions be Evaluated? This is a great sequence of steps that will benefit any student, regardless if the NETS standards or the content standards
are being used.

In the Classroom

As I have discovered over these last seven weeks, technology integration takes time. Even my own GAME plan had to be adjusted to accommodate time. The same could be said for using this process to help students become proficient in the NETS-S standards. A look back at the first 10 years of the 21st century is evidence enough of this. While technology has skyrocketed in recent years, integrating it into an education system and structure that is much older presents obstacles. Impossible? No, just a slow process. But if teachers develop GAME plans based on the NETS-T standards that get students creating projects using a GAME plan format, standards will be met and 21st century skills will be taught.

I like the GAME plan format and I think it is a strong instructional tool that I plan on using with my students.


http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm

Enhance, not replace! That is the key...

My originals goals were to research techniques and technology that can be used to replace a current teaching strategy in my music classes. While I don’t think I will ever be able to use technology to replace the element of everyday rehearsal, what I can do is use technology to enhance it. Maybe that has been the goal of this class all along. Either way, my apprehension of finding that golden bridge to take my music classes to the 21st century has started to ease.

I think the biggest progress I have made so far on my GAME plan actually came as I started to develop my Unit Plan for our Application assignments. I am working to develop a plan that will allow my students to use digital aged learning to guide the music rehearsal and final performance that will take place in the spring semester. Students will conduct online research (with the perfect web site I discovered by accident.) They will collaborate to share research with their fellow choir-mates in the very next hour. And finally, they will use online presentation tools to present their final designs. This will have most of the benefits of online collaboration that Vicki Davis spoke about in this weeks’ DVD program from asynchronous teamwork to multiple contributors to a final product. (Laureate, 2009) It will be these student designs that will shape and guide the rehearsal side of choir for the rest of the semester. So, students will be conducting digital-aged learning and using a lot of personal and group creativity to guide this project. To be honest, this entire project was birthed out of the frustration I had with one choir class just not wanting to put forth any effort while the other class can hardly be contained. By giving them the controls that will shape their performance, my hope is there will be greater personal buy-in and thus greater involvement. Their final performance will be one they designed, created and produced. I will merely be the facilitator.

I do realize, as I posted in my discussion this week, the challenge for this type of teaching strategy is the time that will be involved in teaching my students how to do all this work. The technology must first be taught in order to do the work required to use it. So that will take time. It is time I will have to balance very carefully so the technology does not overshadow the end performance.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

Three weeks in and this is the progress my GAME plan has made.


• How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?

My original goal was to increase my competency level on technology standards 1 and 2; Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity and design and develop digital-aged learning and assessment. To date, I will replace a lesson I taught last nine weeks in my piano lab class with a more digital-aged lesson. Instead of students performing a song from the book as their final, students will use any of the pre-programmed voices on their piano keyboard to ‘compose’ their own song. While this is not that much of a lesson, they will have to compose this song based on a video prompt. Essentially, they will be composing a soundtrack for a one and half minute video. Their songs and story narration will be recorded and compiled into a Movie Maker video. This video then will be uploaded to the music class web site I have created. So, I feel I am meeting my goal with a monitoring step that was part of my original GAME plan.

• What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I have learned that I don’t need a wall full of electronics and tech-toys to integrate technology into my lesson plans. Several of the suggestions given in chapter 16 of our course text, Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use, are tools and resources I already have. (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009) Add to that the free online resources I have recently discovered and I have a good base to work from. The strategies learned from this course, such as assessing diverse learners and problem-based lessons give framework to the tools I have to work with.

• What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?

I’m not sure about this question. I don’t feel like anything new has surfaced nor do I know what I still need to learn. I just need to kick in my own creative thinking skills to find new ways to incorporate the tools I now have for the variety of classes I teach on a daily basis.

• How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I still feel like the only thing that needs to be adjusted from my original GAME plan would be the timeline to implement my plan. This will continue to be an ongoing, slow process and my desire to replace one lesson plan in each class with a digital-aged lesson plan by the end of the current nine weeks has proven to take much more time than expected. But at least I am moving in the right direction.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.