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. 

Dealing with Data - DFI Session 4

A highlight for the Manaiakalani pedagogy of the shared element was a quote by Dorothy Burt about having an authentic audience: 

'People who choose to listen to you'

I thought this was a great analogy of an authentic audience. It's simple enough for children to understand as well. 

I loved the new addition of the Hapara Hot tip. I found it very beneficial and look forwarding to learning more through these snippets. 

A couple of highlights from this week:
It was informative seeing the link between Google form, My Maps and Google Sheets. 

Google forms - I look forward to trialling google form as a testing platform. I can see it being used well as a quick snapshot before a unit of learning. 

My Maps - I think this would be handy during our current unit of Diversity. As mentioned during the session it's a great way to show children's heritage. 
I'd like to try to embed it onto the class site for children to see the spread of diversity in our class. 

Google Sheets - I love a good sheet. I use Google Sheets quite regularly both professionally and for personal use. 
I haven't used the chart/graph function very much, so it was a good refresher. It wasn't as user friendly as Microsoft excel graphs use to be. 

For our create session we looked at analysing blog post data. Particularly looking at post frequency and analysing any trends and dips and looking at the reason for them.

Here is a graph showing a snapshot of my class blog frequency over the last 2 year:

I started blogging last year and as you can tell from the data there were very few posts. However this year I have found (especially due to distance learning) my number of post have increased.

A big focus will be on continuing to blog regularly. Once this becomes common practice for me I will focus on sharing and using the blog posts in class. 

Media - DFI Session 3

As a hands-on visual learner, the 'create' element of LCS is a very important part of the process for me.

Going through the Manaiakalani kaupapa each week is definitely helping me gain a better understanding of each element and how to implement it.

My next step is to try and make it visible in my class. This is to start developing student agency so learners can track their own stages of learning.

This week we covered:

Youtube - I currently use the playlist feature in class every morning. I like to have a playlist of all the songs the kids are/have learnt this year. My musically inclined learners will quietly sing away to the lyrics while they get on with their start of day activity, while the singers who are slightly more reluctant will tap their leg or bob their head to the beats they can hear.

Google Draw - I have started using this a lot more over the last year. I enjoy using it to make PNG labels for videos on iMovie.

Google slides - I will definitely be using slides a lot more on my class site. At the moment I create a new page for every new task, however Google sites can be a bit restricting at times. I can definitely see slides being a lot easier to manipulate and add to once shared on the Class site.

I thoroughly enjoyed the mini-workshop run by Vicki Archer on creating animations using Google slides. I could definitely see myself sitting on this for hours.

As I am in a 1:1 iPad class I would be interested to see how this would work on an iPad. I would need to give it a go and watch a few videos to learn some tricks on creating them on an iPad.

Here is a little something I made during the mini-workshop of a duck race, it was inspired from watching the Annual Rubber Duck Fundraiser Race in Luxembourg in 2018. 

If you have used or heard of any creative ways for students to use google slides on iPads I would love to hear about it?

Workflow - DFI session 2

I have realised in today's sessions and following on from session 1, that so many of the Google apps I use so regularly have so many hidden perks which I am totally unaware of.

A few highlights from today's learn session for me:

Meet - 

Children screen sharing - I regularly share my screen during our daily google meet calls, however after today's session I trialed a child sharing their iPad screen with me in order for me to help them navigate their way around (to solve an issue they had). 

Dual window - I find with screen sharing I prefer to share a window and have the Meet window open alongside the shared window. This gives me the ability to see my students and see the screen they are seeing on their end. I have found especially screen-sharing an iPad, there is a lag and a lot of the time I explain something and the kids aren't able to follow due to the lag on the screen share. 

Gmail - Learning to schedule an email to be sent. 

Keep - I have never used this app and I feel I have been missing out. I was quite overwhelmed by the number of tasks it can assist in. Personally, for me, I will start by integrating 1 aspect of the Keep tools into my workflow a week. 

Today's create task (which was to: think about the learning behind the post, how the student responded and how the responses to the post support/contribute to the learning experience) made me reflect on my practice. 

I'm not a very frequent blogger, nor do I comment on blogs. Since our last session, my post frequency on our class blog has increased. This week I would like to focus on leaving meaningful comments on learners blogs. 

I found the following graphic very helpful in forming a comment: 

Core Business - DFI session 1

Kia Ora, 

Today I started a new journey along with 30 or so educators around New Zealand. Traditionally the DFI course is run in regional clusters around New Zealand, however, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we are diving straight into the digital side of things by starting the course online. Starting something new does come with a couple of speed bumps, the first being communication, as I experienced first hand. But! we have networks for a reason, after emailing a few people I was connected with the correct people who had the information I required. In this case, Dorothy was able to catch me up and point me in the right direction. 

Phew, what a start! 

Being my 2nd year in the Ako Hiko cluster, part of Manaiakalani, I am gaining a better understanding of how things work and the massive support network created through Manaiakalani. For me, the best way of making sense of it all was through a graphic organiser shown during my Ako Hiko induction in 2019. I see Manaiakalani as the overarching big 'umbrella' under this big umbrella there are lots of little umbrellas, Ako Hiko being one of them.
My take away from the Manaiakalani origin story was how Jenny She used her limited digital access to LCS 10 years ago. That was a real eye-opener to see how even with limitations the final product can be such a reward.

Being a 1:1 iPad class, when physically in class we used the iPad more as a resource, rather than a tool. I've realised during all our distance learning there is so much more to it. I can see myself creating and sharing more through the medium of our class site. Moving over into student agency learning.

Even though I have been using Google Drive for many years, there are so many tricks and tips that have fall through the gaps. In particular, I liked how the voice typing feature was used for the Eyes on Text: Reading Mileage. With a bit more practice I'm sure I will gain enough confidence to start rolling it out in my program as I can see it fitting in quite nicely.

Making meaning of content:
I recreated a current system I have been using for distance learning in my class. I can see this being used in a classroom setting as well, covering multiple aspects of the literacy curriculum. 

Initially, these 3 steps were bullet pointed down as 1, 2 & 3. How boring was I! 
Using some skills learnt in today's DFI I created an organiser which I will use as a template. Children will have this available on our class site for student agency. 

I would love to hear your thoughts and any feedback you have. Thank you in advance.