Reflection

     It's slightly unbelievable that we are at the end of this course.  Truthfully, this has been one of the most motivating and exciting courses so far!  I have really and truly enjoyed myself.  At the end of this course, I have realized that I learn or I am motivated to learn when technology is involved -just like my students.  Finding a way to motivate students is essential within the classroom and nothing is more relevant than real-world situations involving technology.  

     By creating the three GAME plan lessons, I see how easy it is to weave technology into the curriculum; although, easy doesn't necessarily mean quick.  It takes time to think over how and what to do, but the end product is much more substantial.  According to Dr. Ertmer (Laureate Education, Inc, 2010), "a good problem-based learning problem is meaningful, authentic, and allows investigations."  Students need to see the purpose of learning to become "self-directed learners" (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  As my three lessons were due, each one evolved into the other.  All utilized technology and were completely based on a real issue concerning our school district and the purchase of technology.  Everything just seemed to mesh together.  I'm not saying every lesson dealing with technology will be great the first time, but I"m willing to try more implementation in the future.

    My initial GAME plan was to create a blog with my students to improve their writing skills which developed into a collaborative activity in Google Docs and then progressed into digital storytelling.  The students will not always need to create all three activities, but that's how it progressed in my head this time.  In the future, I could pull one of the activities for a particular lesson or let the students chose.  It depends on what works best for the situation and the students.  

References

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Spotlight on technology: Problem-based learning, part 1[Webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.