Revision + Google Educator - DFI Session 9

What a whirlwind of a journey this course has been. 

Lot's of content to reflect on from over the past 9 weeks. Today's post is mainly going to be a reflection of it all. 

Due to Covid-19 this year has given us a great opportunity to refelt on our readiness for ubiquitous learning... 

A^3 - Anytime, Anywhere & Any pace

I am proud of the way I had set up my class site at the beginning of the year. It was clear and easy to navigate. Because we had been using the class site from Term 1 the children were so familiar with it and knew know to independently access their learning. 

I regret not covering enough on being a smart learner by showing the Kawa of Care. I regret not exploring the Gdrive throughout the year.

I will be incorporating features of Gdrive from Term 1 to familiarise the children with it. 

The DFI sessions have definitely had a positive impact on me. Although I had already been using many of the digital tools, the DFI was a good reminder of the vast variety of functions embedded in behind the scenes. I have walked away from every session with new learnings and ways to practically embed features into my existing program. I enjoyed having a smaller bubble to help breakdown content. It gave everyone a chance to speak and share. 

If I was to choose a highlight it would be the Google Keep app. Check out my previous post when first learnt about it. It has definitely become an integrated app in my workflow. 

I also enjoyed the Hapara Hot Tips section. A few features I've never used have been introduced to me.

Overall very content with the PD. I walk away feeling like I have gained an abundance of tricks and skills. I have also learned more about the Manaiakalani pedagogy and Kaupapa. 

A massive thank you to everyone who was involved in putting the content all together and of course all the facilitators. 

Computational Thinking - DFI Session 8

Empowered - give (someone) the authority or power to do something.

I touched on empowerment in my last blog titled Devices - DFI session 7. 

With the speed technology is advancing, who knows what technology will look like in the next 10 years for the learners of today. By only using a device as a tool we are limiting their creativity and accessibility to only those tools we use. 

Rather, if we teach learners how to use a device safely, and everything a device can offer (including warnings about the bad things that can happen to) they are becoming enriched with all this knowledge which can be transferred from one device to another, from one environment to another. And even when device/technology do change, these learners are still embedded with this knowledge which can then again be transferred and adapted to suit their circumstance. 

We tried out the Moral Machine Activity - a platform for gathering human perspective on moral decisions made by machines. When shown the first image I froze and thought to myself 'are these the only 2 options'?

Slightly unrelated to the moral machine aspect, but it got me thinking. When giving children options we tend to give a good option and a bad option. This limited there thinking to a 50/50 chance of something happening. However, if given a good nor bad option this enables them to think a lot deeper.

I would consider myself a beginner when it comes to computational thinking. ie. I can happily cover the basics. 

In the new digital curriculum, I feel I already cover a fair bit of the first strand: Computational Thinking. Especially through the Cyber Smart program.

  

 

Devices - DFI Session 7

In today's session we started off by looking at the Cybersmart curriculum created by Manaiakalani. A key pedagogy of the curriculum is to empower children on how to manage a device and the tools a device can offer. 

I love this as it can be used by any type of learner no matter what device they have or what the purpose of the device is. 

I think the following proverb really complements the Cybersmart curriculum:

The Hapara hot tips have been very helpful, complemented with today's section on Hapara. I'm still getting my head around Hapara but learning the basics sure does help. 

Today's digital dig into Chromebooks was a great insight. It was good to see what and how seniors at our school use these devices. 

Of course, by far my highlight of today was the work we did on iPads, as this is linked directly to the main tool we use on a daily basis in our practice. 

I'm still not 100% sold on Explain Everything. 

Con: As a teacher/creator I find it a little too fiddly, especially considering the projects can not be created on a laptop. 

Pro: However, it is very user friendly for younger students (year 1-3), especially those new to a digital device. 

I gave it a go... here is a snippet of a project I started creating:

Enabling access - DFI session 6

In class, our class site is used throughout the day for children to access and support their learning. 

It creates a platform for:

• Rewindable learning
• Access to multimodal learning
• Ubiquitous access (this was especially helpful during lockdown)
• Connected and enables data to be transparent (student agency)

I don't think there is an end to the creation of the class site. It's forever growing and changing. I enjoying tutuing around, but can be caught on it for hours on end. 

I'm notorious for forgetting to link a page/site to a button or image for the children to access their learning. The kids love it when this happens and have become very understanding. 

Rae Class @ Hay Park School

Click on the link above to have a browse around. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Collaboration - DFI session 5

Having just had the T-shaped literacy PD facilitated by Phil from Ako Hiko, today's agenda couldn't have come at a more perfect time. 

With such a diverse range of learners in a class, I found the T-shaped multi-modal structure creates opportunities for all students to connect in more than 1 way to the learning.  

I'm still getting to grips with the different types of texts. I found the WFRC breakdown especially helpful: 

With some guidance from Cheryl we collaboratively created a plan for a muti-modal literacy site. 

We used this to help us create a google site. 

I found using the class site a great tool for visibility in the classroom. This is something we already use on a regular basis in class. It has created the opportunity for children to go back and revisit areas of their learning in their own time.