Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

          While developing my GAME Plan there were two standards in particular which the International Society developed for Technology in Education (ISTE). The first one is that teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. The second standard being to advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  In the following weeks and months, I hope to be able to make improvements to my game plan by working hard, and collaborating with my colleagues at the middle school level and with my colleagues at Walden University.

            The past couple of weeks I have been looking at various websites and other teacher blogs and classroom blogs to get ideas from on where to go with my class blog.  I found an interesting website that has tons of information in particular for art teachers called Art Education 2.0. There is a massive amount of information pertaining to technology and art education and I need to spend some time to process it all. When it comes to the second part of my GAME Plan about advocating, modeling, and teaching safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, I am going to have to talk with the technology coordinator about what they already have implemented.  At this point, I can get ideas from the students at Walden University and my Instructor, the text and videos and research ways to do these things in the classroom.

            Thus far, in the process I have learned that technology does not have to be the focus, but is useful as an aid in the teaching process to guide the teacher in teaching content and students in learning.  When it comes to technology, it can be used for student creativity, tools for student learning and assessment.  In the course text Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach it suggests “that as a teacher it is important to know whether how you teach, with or without digital technology, is effective in helping students learn the intended content” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  For now, I feel that I am on task with my GAME Plan, but am always open for suggestions.

            I feel that, I am jammed with lesson ideas for my students because I know that not all students will go to the high school and take a visual art class.  When I have them at the middle school, I do as many hands on projects that I can fit into 30 school days of art. If I had any questions that I had in mind it would be about the process of the GAME Plan is how do I fit this all in to my curriculum?  Any input with the above would be of a great benefit.  

References

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

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.