Since last week, I took action to achieve my goals and have made some progress. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) mention that “you’ll need to monitor whether you are making sufficient progress toward your goals and reflect on whether the strategies you have chosen are working” (p.4). Accordingly, in this post, I will reflect on my actions and monitor my progress.
Goal of my first GAME plan was to follow and read articles from 5 different websites. After reading comments, I decided to change my goal; to form a community and discuss one of five articles in my PLC. Thanks to google, I managed to find and evaluate websites that I need. Additionally, I reviewed the school policies and physics curriculum. So far, I evaluated the websites that I mentioned last week. I found http://www.eschoolnews.com/ and http://www.sciencedaily.com/ websites very useful and bookmarked them. Additionally, I asked my school administration to subscribe to physics teacher journal, and they said that they will consider it. Moreover, I talked with my colleagues and they are interested in discussing one article per week. When I reflect on my progress, I am happy to see that I nearly achieved my goal. Still, I will need to locate two more website about educational technology and research. Additionally, I will wait for the final answers of school administration and my colleagues and act accordingly.
My second Game plan’s goal was learning digital portfolios. I found the information and resources that I needed. So far, I do not need to modify my action plan and goal. I learned that: “A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work demonstrating the student's achievement or growth as characterized by a strong vision of content (Brown, 2002)" Additionally, I acknowledged that electronic portfolios are enduring, enables collaborative work, easy to access, easy to edit and provides student voice-feelings and emotions (SMS Services Team, 2011). I read the digital portfolios- guidelines for beginners article (http://myportfolio.school.nz/artefact/file/download.php?file=187483&view=24719) and understood the basic requirements to prepare an electronic portfolio. I located several free online creative portfolio community sites such as behance network(http://www.behance.net/), Carbonmade (http://www.carbonmade.com/ ) and SHOWND (http://shownd.com). I think that Carbonmade is suitable for my students. Most probably, I will advise them to sign up to Carbonmade website, and prepare their first electronic portfolio.
I hope to successfully complete my GAME plans within a few weeks. However, my success depends on the engagement and participation of my colleagues and students. According to their response, I may modify my action plan.
References:
Brown, M. D. (2002). Using Technology | Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom. Retrieved 9 26, 2011, from Education Worl: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach: Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.
SMS Services Team. (2011). DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS G u i d e l i n e s f o r b e g i n n e r s. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
