GAME Plan Reflection

Over the past six weeks, I have been engaged in an individual professional development plan utilizing the GAME format of setting goals, performing actions, monitoring progress, and evaluating/extending the results. My goals were primarily focused on increasing the effective use of technology by educators as part of my districts current focus on incorporating the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), National Education Technology Standards (NETS) for students and teachers. For one of my action plans, I gathered video footage of technology integration occurring in my district as a result of collaborations between school level educational technologists (ET’s) and educators. As a result of these observations, I learned new ways of utilizing technology to improve learning in a variety of subject areas and grade levels. I now also realize that technology in my district is often being utilized in a ‘special project’ format and is not truly integrated into the curriculum in the powerful ways that it could be. The Walden course on Integrating Technology across the Content Areas has allowed me to develop new ideas on how technology can be regularly utilized within the curriculum framework in ways that continually promote self-directed learning and emphasize problem solving. This is a change in perspective relative to technology integration that I will now incorporate in all my teaching with both educators and students.

My second action plan involved creating a technology integration intranet site to be utilized by educators throughout my district. Through the creation of this technology resource, I discovered a wide variety of new internet resources in the areas of web quests, concept mapping, electronic portfolios, internet literacy, educational networking, digital storytelling, online tutorials, problem based learning, and assessment with technology. I learned the value of focusing on effective instructional pedagogy such as problem based learning which naturally promotes the integration of technology tools. Because of this, the intranet site I created emphasizes learner focused instructional practices, interdisciplinary education and collaboration. I plan to emphasize these effective instructional strategies in all of my future educator training sessions.

The actions I took as part of my GAME plans increased my personal knowledge on how to effectively integrate technology in ways that promote self-directed learning and emphasize problem based learning. In addition, both the technology integration videos and technology intranet site will help educators throughout my district effectively integrate technology in order to promote highest achievement for each and every student.