Digital Fluency Intensive

DFI Revision | Week 9

Today was our final session of DFI for our cohort, and we sat the Google Educator Level 1 Exam. I'm so thankful for each and every session during the course; not only did it prepare me for the exam, but I have genuinely become more confident, skilled, and capable when managing my workflow in both my personal and professional life.



What am I proud of?
I am so proud of my students for managing their learning while I have been away once a week during this term. I know that some of students have struggled with relationships, anxiety, and agency while I've been away, and I am so proud of my class and all their efforts to continue their learning, despite who is standing in front of them. I'm also really proud of them for their perseverance and problem-solving during this time, as I have implemented new routines and strategies throughout the course, and they have adapted very quickly, with such a positive response.

I'm also really proud of myself and my colleagues for completing the DFI course. Nine weeks is a long time to commit to professional development, and the days themselves are very demanding, so our efforts and perseverance is admirable. I have really enjoyed the collaboration and open discussions around teaching and learning that have come from the course. Not only have we started to communicate and collaborate among ourselves, but we have expanded our 'bubbles' and enjoyed collaborating with other educators across the country.

What do I regret?
I don't have many regrets during the course, however, I do wish that I had spoken up more and shared my own teaching and learning. When we work in our small bubbles, I am very capable of participating and contributing to the group discussions. Similarly, when we worked collaboratively to plan in small groups, we shared resources and ideas, and I was very confident sharing my thinking and asking questions if I was unsure. Looking ahead, I know I need to push myself out of my comfort zone and share my thinking and learning to larger groups, and not just small groups.

What will I be taking forward into the new era of schooling?
I have so many ideas for moving forward into my next few terms. I feel so much more equipped with the knowledge and skills to empower my students inside and outside of the classroom. Particular foci for me are literacy, maths, health and physical education, careers, and inquiry. My new knowledge of how to layout my class site so everything is visible, is going to be key when approaching the new term. I'm contemplating individual sites for different topics, so that they can be shared and re-used by myself and other educators, with small personalised tweaks along the way.

This is going to make the workflow of planning and teaching topics so much easier, and I will be able to reflect and adapt as I need to. One example of my thinking is teaching novels to my year 7 & 8 students - I'm thinking about creating sites for the novel study and linking it to my class site, as this will make planning more efficient for me in the long run.

I feel very grateful to have participated in the DFI programme offered by Manaiakalani, and have found the learning invaluable for me moving forward.

Digital Fluency Intensive

DFI Computational Thinking | Week 8

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to participate in this weeks DFI session. What I really like about learning online, is the accessibility of resources, whether you are working from work or home! I have been able to access each of the slides and look through the agenda, to support my understanding of computational thinking, even though I wasn't able to attend. Isn't that fantastic?

Manaiakalani Kaupapa - Empowered

Taking a look at the Manaiakalani Empowered site, clearly shows the underling ideals of Manaiakalani, and the goals they have for educators and their students. I really align with the quote they have provided "The Manaiakalani Kaupapa of Empowerment is about enhancing Rangatiratanga..." Now, if you're unfamiliar with this word Rangatiratanga, it refers to the ownership that one has over themselves; the right to exercise authority; self-management and self-determination; leadership; and autonomy.

Manaiakalani's choice of vocabulary here is very powerful. Our students are our Rangatira, and they are our future. It is important that we empower them by equipping them with the right tools, skills, and knowledge, in order for them to move forward into the world successfully. By enhancing Rangatiratanga, we are then transferring ownership and ensuring our tamariki can make their own decisions and access their own learning.



New Digital Curriculum
Kerry joined this DFI Session and ran everyone through an introduction to computational thinking and Hangarau Matihiko. I've done some professional development previously with computational thinking through Raranga Matihiko in Waitangi, both last year and this year.

I do find coding quite challenging, and favour the block coding as it is much easier than 'traditional' coding. My students really enjoy using scratch, and recently some of my students have used scratch to create and learn. I'm always surprised and impressed by how well my students can navigate online resources, including scratch, dash robots, film-making, etc. and they learn very quickly! They always show great perseverance and problem-solving skills.

 

Digital Fluency Intensive

DFI Devices | Week 7

Digital Dig
Today, we took a look at devices and the digital world through our students' lives. We worked in our small digital bubbles and worked through a Digital Dig activity, which I found very interesting. There were a few tasks that seemed very simple, but with a different device and using the chromebook simulator, I found it quite challenging to learn something new and adapt to the new digital environment. I definitely found the chromebook difficult to navigate, in comparison to my teacher laptop. The device was smaller, more compact, limited access, and different keys and mouse use.

This made me think about how well my students adapt to their devices at school, particularly the students that have to make adaptions during the week and need to switch devices for whatever reason. Watching my students navigate their devices, I feel that I have really taken their adaptability and initiative for granted. I realised that I haven't spent time teaching my students how to navigate their devices, or how to use their keyboards. While I do have a very digitally fluent class, I do have a small number of students who are new to digital learning, and would absolutely benefit from a digital dig.

Here is my digital dig that I started during our session today.

Explain Everything
We then explored Explain Everything, which is predominantly used in the junior school. This was the first time I have used this tool, but it was easy to navigate and fun to use. Here is my first attempt:



Create - Screencastify
For our create session this afternoon, we were given the choice of recreating an activity using Explain Everything, Screencastify, or Hapara Workspaces. I found an awesome Cybersmart activity that can be done with the whole class, and students play together in pairs. It's a race against the clock, and the whole team needs to collaborate and work together. I chose to record myself talking through this Cybersmart activity called 'Brainium', which is designed for Years 5+. Here's my screencastify.

Digital Fluency Intensive

DFI Enabling Access - Sites | Week 6

Manaiakalani Pedagogy - Connected

Dorothy connected us with Manaiakalani's pedagogy, and explained that one of Manaiakalani's original goals is to support young people connecting with authentic audiences. This really resonated with me as part of my teaching philosophy includes students working together collaboratively, and talking in order to process information and learn. It is really important for my students to be connected in class, and during the lock down period, there was an opportunity for us to connect via digital means. We spent a lot of time during the week, either on google meets or hangouts, and it was so special to connect, talk, and see one another.

We spent some time exploring sites across the cluster in different year levels, which was really inspiring for me. I really enjoyed looking over other teachers sites, as there is so much experience and expertise across our cluster, and everything I know about sites is self-taught. It was exciting seeing what others are doing and how they put their sites together.

We did a Chalk 'n Talk session and making the learning visible was a real learning curve for me. In the past, I have deleted things from my class site and Dorothy explained that we should never do that. We can hide things from navigation if we need to, but it is important for everything to be visible and accessible.

Dorothy also made it very clear that learning needs to be visible to anyone. This made me think about my home page and the tabs I have visible at the top of the page. I thought about students being able to navigate our site at home, or parents visiting the site for the first time. I decided to make some changes to my class site, including the way I structure and present literacy, inquiry, and art.

I updated my home page to include my students, so they are visible on our site. I also included two image carousals that shows their learning and activities over the first half of the year. Here is an example from my new literacy programme, and if you would like to take a look at my class site, here is the link.

Digital Fluency Intensive

DFI Collaborate - Sites | Week 5

Multi-Modal Learning

Kerry joined us this morning and connected us with multi-modal pedagogy. I really liked the priority goals that she identified: engagement, personalised learning, acceleration, and empowerment. 

We watched a short video clip about liberty's shop windows Kerry connected the home page of our class sites with the windows of a store. She mentioned that the home page is a reflection of us as teachers, and represents our class and our school. Hooking children in with the home page of our class site is really important, and Kerry suggests this will engage our students further in their learning.

Kerry shared with us a few quotes that I really connected with. We strive for learners who are behaviorally engaged and actively engaged with their learning, and "...initially the technology itself does a mighty fine job of engaging our learners, but the novelty wears off..." We want effective teaching practice for a digital learning environment based on knowing our learners...

Kerry then talked about our class sites, and our teaching pedagogy, and highlighted the difference between design for behavioral engagement and design for cognitive engagement. This really resonated with me and I was very inspired by Kerry to make some changes on my class site, to empower my learners to become independent and self-scaffolding learners.

Manaiakalani Pedagogy - Visible

Dorothy talked to us about visible learning, and put it very simply: either it's visible or it isn't. As teachers, we need to consider if our learning is visible to our students, whanau, leaders and colleagues. We don't want invisible learning journey's for our students, and we also don't want children to be successful based on their ability to read their teachers' mind. As educators, we need to ensure our learning is available and visible for our learners and their whanau.

Connections and visibility:

• Communicating with a real audience and purpose in mind
• To inform others about learning
• To enlist others to my point of view
• To get others to think something they never think
• To make a difference

Google Sites

Most of today's session was spent learning and creating sites. We separated into groups to collaborate on site planning, prior to making our own sites. My group worked to find multi-modal resources around animal migration. We discussed the importance of spending time planning our site prior to putting it together, to ensure we have the information we want our learners to receive. We talked about main texts, scaffolding texts and challenging texts, and additional texts. 

We used jamboard to collaborate and plan our ideas, which I have never used before. I really liked this tool as I could see how easy and effective it would be for my learners. 

I also really enjoyed working collaboratively with others and I've been flooded with ideas of how this could be implemented not only in my own classroom, but across the school. I really like the idea of planning collaboratively with colleagues to deliver topic-based units to our learners, who have the opportunity to self-scaffold and self-extend based on their own abilities. 

Here is my new site I started to create about animal migration. I actually only used 3 of the resources my group and I collected due to time, however I can see how crucial the planning stage is before creating the finished product.

Digital Fluency Intensive

Dealing with Data | Week 4

Learn, Create, Share

We connected with Manaiakalani's pedagogy this morning, and Dorothy spoke to us about sharing. She spoke about the fact we have been sharing since the beginning of time, and that we are only constrained by time, place, and people. She talked about Manaiakalani embracing the power of social media and taking what we already have and harnessing the power of an online audience for our learners. We have always had an audience with our learning, including the class, school, local community. Manaiakalani have embraced the power of online users, and provided children an opportunity for a real, authentic, audience. 

Dorothy emphasised that it's not the connecting and sharing that changes, but simply the way he do it.

Why do our learners use blogger?

• Blogger resembles the spaces our young people want to be on, functionally
• We are able to provision this legally, systematically, securely
• There is no new sign in required for G Suite users
• Guarantee three check system
• Largest audience reach via Google
• Multi purposed
• Can be used by learners and teachers

Dorothy compared blogger to the vehicle we practise our drivers test in. It's not the flashest vehicle, but we have to practise on the road in order to become 'good' drivers. Just like driving on the road, students need to practise contributing to their online community, in order to become cyber safe.

Hāpara

Gerhard gave us some tips for Hāpara, which were very useful. I didn't know you could search for someone or drag a students' tile to the top of the page! 

Google Forms

Venessa talked us through google forms, which is great because I've never made a form before. It looked very simply and easy to navigate. We then split into our small digital bubbles to create our own google form. Here is my google form I made about our Solar System.

Google MyMaps

Gerhard talked us through Google MyMaps, which I have never used or seen before. He showed us how to use this tool and showed how it can be used for teaching measurement and comparing the growth in scales. We moved into our small digital bubbles and had some time to create our own map.

Google Sheets

Gerhard took us through a Deep Dive into Google Sheets and how we can use it effectively as educators. I really enjoyed the freeze feature, as this makes it so much easier to keep track of learners across different curriculum areas.

We split into small ability-based groups to work through the features of Google Sheets more carefully. Vicki was very helpful and showed us how to freeze rows and columns, find averages and sums of data, as well as create and input graphs or charts into the sheet.

Blogging Data

Dorothy talked us through the statistics available behind the scenes on blogger. I didn't realise how many amazing statistical analysis' were available on blogger itself! Dorothy really made me consider the authenticity of our online audience and our learners creating content that they actually want to share and talk about. This also made me think about the importance of time, and giving my learners time to explore other blogs and contribute to their own blogs.

I decided to analyse my own professional blog, and I was very surprised! I started my blog in 2018, which was my second year as a teacher and I had 56 blog posts! In 2019, I only published to my blog 18 times, and so far in 2020, I've only published to my blog 3 times. Take a look at the graph I made using Google Sheets and Google Draw.

Today's session has really rounded out my understanding of Manaiakalani pedegogy, as we've now covered Learn, Create, and Share. When my school first started the journey with Manaiakalani, I didn't have a clear understanding of Manaiakalani or their pedagogy, which made me very hesitant to embark on a journey that I had little understanding about. 

Now that I've had the opportunity to participate in the DFI course, it has really highlighted the Manaiakalani philosophy, and I am so thrilled with this opportunity. Manaiakalani really does have our learners at the forefront of their pedagogy, and everything is given serious thought and consideration. I really value the learning and professional development that we get to explore as educators through DFI, to enhance the learning experiences for our students as well as providing us with the tools to make teaching life more efficient.

Digital Fluency Intensive

MEDIA DFI | WEEK 3

Learn, Create, Share

Dorothy spoke to us about Manaiakalani pedagogy, and we focused on 'create' this morning. I really resonated with Dorothy's kōrero, particularly around creativity being a vital part of our hauora and well-being. She provoked thinking by asking if our students know they are coming to school to create and share their learning, or if they're just coming to school to learn, learn, and focus on the teacher.

It made me think about teaching online and my students working from home. I had a year 8 male student ask me over a Google Meet: "Miss, how do you make our learning so fun?" In my experience, lock-down was a great opportunity to experiment and encourage my class to be creative with both online tools and practical, physical resources that they have at home. I noticed the engagement level of the boys in my class rise over the lock-down period, simply because they enjoyed being creative at home. This has compelled me to think about how I'm going to continue such incredible creativity now that we have returned to school, and Dorothy's kōrero has really impacted me this morning.

"Creators of content, not just consumers."

Dorothy shared some quotes with us this morning, and then encouraged us to watch Sir Ken Robinson's Ted Talk, that asks the question: "Do schools kill creativity?"

1. Creating is a real purpose for learning. Case study teachers (with higher achievement shift) spend more time creating than in other classes. - Dr. Rebecca Jessen

2. The individual must be capable of creating something with the knowledge that they have worked so hard to obtain. It is in creating that the individual gains purpose. - Michael Fullan

YouTube

Gerhard then talked us through the importance of embedding youtube videos into our class sites, instead of sharing youtube videos to our students directly. There are so many reasons for this, including privacy, adds, and child-appropriate content. When sharing learning videos with my class, I usually insert it the videos into my slide, which I then embed to my site. This way, the students visit our class site and simply click the video, and it will play on our class site and children don't need to visit youtube at all. Gerhard shared two slides with us: Youtube Channels | Youtube Playlists

Google Drawing

Vicki then walked us through the Google Drawing tool. There were some things I learnt, including selecting all the shapes and changing colour, fonts and size that way, instead of changing every one individually. Such a time saver! The explore tool is also useful to search images on the web to then insert into the drawing tool. This is new to me as I usually copy & paste from the internet browser, which can be challenging with copyright permissions.

Google Slides

Gerhard took us through a workshop on Google Slides, and I really like the idea of ditching the defaults and embracing the blank slides, as it allows for more creativity to flow through. Gerhard encouraged us to deliberately consider the way we present information using slides, especially as formats, colours and images can either support the message, or distract from the message. We then separated into groups and I worked with Latham, another Manaiakalani facilitator, further exploring the aspects and tools within Google Slides. One thing I really liked was, again, the explore tool because it also allows you to select a new template (not the defaults) and it automatically templates the entire slide deck for you! These time-saving, efficient tools are my favourite!

Here is my Pick-a-Path that I have started to created using Google Slides:

Digital Fluency Intensive

WORKFLOW DFI | WEEK 2

Today was our second online session with DFI. We started the day in our large group hangout with an introduction from Dorothy, our Manaiakalani facilitator. We then moved into our small digital bubbles to share our reflections about what has been going well for us and what we need support with moving forward. I really enjoy our small group hangouts, our digital bubbles, as we get the opportunity to talk, share and listen.

This is actually my second time participating in the Workflow session (only), however I've done one session face-to-face and today's session was online. Here is a photo of Dani, Ayla & I working collaboratively at our first face-to-face session, learning how to use Google Meet for the first time.

We returned to our large google meet, which I have been calling google hangouts by mistake, and Dorothy talked us through the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy.

Learn | Ako

• Recognise
• Amplify
• Turbocharge

What does ako mean to me?

Ako is centered around teaching and learning relationships with both the student and their whanau. I also believe it is important for learning opportunities to enable and encourage a child's critical thinking - learning experiences need to be intentional and purposeful to our learners.

What do I think is important for my learners?
I think positive relationships are the core of any learning. Students need to feel safe, cared for, and valued, when they come to school, to ensure the best possible outcomes for their learning. Again, learning experiences need to be engaging and relevant, that foster collaboration among students and student discourse. I also believe students need a positive classroom culture that encourages perseverance, critical thinking, failure, and growth mindsets.

What does learning look like in my kura?

Our school vision is: 'Whakatupu ana i te huarahi pai mo naianei me apopo | Growing success together, today for tomorrow.' We believe in students, teachers and whanau working together collaboratively, for the benefit of the child. We also encourage collaboration within our classrooms, to encourage students ability to discuss their thinking and learning. We also aspire to create mixed ability groups within our classrooms, in order to give every child the opportunity to learn and succeed at their curriculum level. Student agency is also very important to us at our kura, and that has become more achievable through the use of class sites. 

Google Keep

Dorothy took us through a Deep Dive into Google Keep. I use Google Keep quite often, but I've only used it on my phone before, not on my computer. Dorothy really made me think about "The Power of Collaboration". I can see how this would be very beneficial in my personal life with family and friends, but I also wondered if this would be useful in my classroom somehow? I do like the 'reminders' section on Google Keep, as this isn't something I've used on the app before. 

Gmail & Google Calendar

We also spent some time today exploring Gmail and Calendar. There were many things I already knew, partially because I've used these apps before, but also from my first DFI session. 

One of my new favourite things on Gmail are the labels, filters and archive features. These features have helped me organise my emails and label them in the correct folders. I previously had 4,319 emails sitting in my Inbox, so you can imagine how relieved I am to have them organised into folders or labels, and archive them knowing they aren't deleted. This could be something I teach my students how to manage, once they are digitally fluent and can confidently navigate their devices and online tools. I can see how it would make things easier for them as they work through their inbox of shared items.

I also liked the way events can be colour coded on Google Calendar as this makes it easier for me to see important events and due dates. It also feels more organised as things are categorised by colour/importance. This is something I would use in my professional life predominantly.

Google Meet

In the afternoon, we separated into small groups or pairs to create our own Google Meet. We then shared our screens and talked through a students' blog post, discussing the teaching and learning behind the blog post and learning tasks. This was interesting as we had to multi-task, and I was stepping out of my comfort zone by recording myself talking online. This is definitely a great feature, especially during lock down, as it allows teachers to record their online meets with their groups and upload it afterwards, making the learning rewindable for students.

Here's my experiment:

Digital Fluency Intensive

Core Business | Week One

Teachers, principals and education facilitators connected online for our first Manaiakalani DFI today. We opened with karakia, listened as Dorothy shared the Origin Story behind Manaiakalani, and spent time connecting with our small digital bubbles. I'm working in Venessa's digital bubble, which is lovely because we introduced ourselves and now have a small, safe space to ask questions and seek support when we need it.

Google Chrome
Venessa lead us through how to set up our google accounts online, and how to switch seamlessly between multiple accounts. We learnt how to upload profile pictures, save passwords and manage our chrome browser. I already have two google accounts, a personal one and a professional one, that I switch between when necessary. However, I really enjoyed learning how to change the theme of my chrome browser, as I didn't know how to do this. I've chosen a gorgeous rose-coloured theme for my browser.

Google Groups
Dorothy talked us through how to set up and organise google groups. She shared a Deep Dive slide with us to follow along with, which I found very supportive. While I don't have access to create my own google groups at school, Dorothy made it very clear that we are to use groups, not contacts, to create new google groups.

Google Drive
Venessa lead us through how to organise our files into folders. Venessa explained that we need to be cautious with sharing permissions when sharing files and folders, and to ensure that we don't move a file out of someone else's folder. I always use 'Add to Drive' to save shared files into my drive, and if I want to edit it or have my own permissions, then I'll make a copy of the file itself. Venessa also discussed sharing with specific people, set overall permission settings, prevent editors from changing access and inviting more people.

Google Documents
Dorothy took us right back to basics and taught us how to use expectations when our students are creating google docs. She talked about how to name documents - it's really important to set expectations for naming google docs and I completely understand why. When students name their docs, it's a good idea for students to put their initials at the front of the doc, followed by the document name. This is important because when I, as the teacher, open all the docs in multiple tabs on my computer, it's easy for me to navigate and identify which doc belongs to which student.

Dorothy also gave us some really key points when using google docs, which was all new learning for me. When copying and pasting from the internet, it's important to paste without formatting to remove links, coding and to keep the text formatted correctly. Dorothy showed us how to create headings and titles using the styles tool, which again was new learning for me. After copying and pasting an example text, we then followed step by step to insert headings, and change the font, size and colour of all the headings in the document by using the styles and match tool. After this, we then inserted a table of contents, which is automatically created using the headings we've chosen.

"Do we want our learners to be 'writers', or do we want them to be good at writing surface features?"

Dorothy really made think when she raised the question. When thinking about this, I could really see the benefit and rationale behind the voice typing tool, and feel confident to use this in my classroom as part of my students' learning.

We then moved into our small bubble again, where we participated in an activity designed to support our students with reading mileage. I really enjoyed this activity and believe it will be very beneficial for my students this year.

Garhard then showed us some key features for creating using google docs. He shared the quote:

"Give me the freedom to create in a restricted space."

I really like this quote because it relates well to some of the students in my class, who need a lot of guidance and directions when it comes to creativity - if there are too many options available, they can really struggle. After Gerhard modeled how to create in google docs, as well as how to make an image transparent using remove.bg. We were then given some time in our digital bubbles to design and create a poster or info-graphic using google docs. I knew google docs had limitations that other google tools had, such as overlapping images and text, and using images as the background; however, I'm quite impressed with how creative I could be using only google docs. What do you think of my poster?

Whaiwhakaaro
My biggest take away from today's session, is using google documents to support students' reading and writing. I'm really excited to start implementing my professional learning from today, in my classroom when we physically return to school. I especially liked the voice typing and the eyes on text resources.

After listening to Dorothy and other experts speak today, I feel the need to slow down, set expectations, and solidify some of my students' knowledge around using and navigating google docs.