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.
Monday, 29 June 2020
Monday, 15 June 2020
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 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.
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.Monday, 1 June 2020
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...
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.
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