Building the Learning one Site at a Time!

DFI Day 6 - Enabling Access:Google Sites

Today thankfully wasn't as cold as it has been in the past few weeks however I had come prepared with extra layers (and a blanket just in case)!

Clarelle, from Pt England School, joined us as guest coach today. It was great to have her with us with all her valuable advice. We of course started the day hanging out with Dorothy. Today's focus was around visibility.

Visible Teaching removes the surprise element, time up front and the learning rewindable for afterwards but also in advance. - Accessible - online, shared visibly to anyone with the link, removing password barriers. Available - everything the learner needs is present - no scrambling to share material, activities etc at the last minute. Advance - BEFORE it is needed, before the deadlines. No stress needed!! ( ... and we all need less stress in our lives!)

The learning journey being visible to the learner but also to whanau and colleagues has taken away the 'secretness' and hidden agendas which led to a lack of engagement. Maniakalani want it to be about success for all particularly as in previous years success was only for those that were able to get inside the teachers mind and work out what the teacher needed or wanted. An unfair education system! It may not have been set up that way but in general that was the outcome, visibility changes that.

Therefore, if the default is visible, the question should be, “What genuinely needs to be invisible or private?” In general we came up with the following: Bio data, health concerns, disciplinary matters, some assessment data… But NOT the day to day functioning and progression of the teaching and learning journey.

Thanks Dorothy, we really do appreciate your time and wisdom each week.

The remainder of the day was spent looking at some class sites, looking at what worked and what didn't. We then got the opportunity to share and look closely at our own sites. Boy was this valuable! Things we thought were visible weren't. It also meant that in looking at what some of our colleagues are doing it created oodles of inspiration to 'zhuzh' up our site. We are extremely thankful for the time that we then got to do exactly that. It's obviously a work in process but we are started ... Something as simple as sorting out all our folders so that they have the right sharing rites is extremely satisfying, extremely satisfying!

Delightful Devices - Another Brick in the Wall

Day 5 - DFI

Cybersmart not Cybersafe as there is more to living in a digital world than being safe and cybersafe does tend to have negative thoughts and it’s important that the digital experience is positive.

In the site below, these are the categories that are used for the cybersmart curriculum and it is suggested that we work our way through these and use the resources that are provided. Smart Learners (Term 1) Smart Footprint (Term 2)  Smart Relationships (Term 3).

Next we were off looking at Harpara (AKA Teacher Dashboard). I use Harpara in class all the time to support children at being in the right place at the right time, to open work the children have done, to smart share work out to the children. Today though I discovered that I can also access the documents that children have not put into the right place. A great visual way to ensure children put things away. Lovely way to liken tidying their drives is like tidying their bedrooms. We also explored the share links, which allows us to lock children into particular sites for a set period of time or to allow them to explore the internet apart from specific sites.

Part of being digitally fluent is about understanding what we ask our learners to do. We got a chance to work on an iPad (Year 1-3 students use this) and a chromebook (Year 4 - 13 students). Took part in a 'digital dig' in order to understand the chromebook shortcuts. This was really valuable and would be a great way to start each year. This is my digital dig.


This afternoon was about using screencastify which is a great tool that I do use but on reflection not as much as I should be. The tools that are now available mean that illustrating a point is clearer. A way of making instructions clear and learning rewindable. There was a new publication entitled '50 ways to use screencastify in education. As I was flicking through this I loved the following idea and would like to try it.

I then got inspired to change a maths lesson I had planned. I had initially planned for the children to write down where the mistakes are and then solve the problem correctly but now I will get them to screencastify where the mistakes are and then explain how they would solve it. I created an example for them to see how I would do it. This is now the new activity:


Goal: I need to take more advantage of this tool. When I find the time I would like to explore how other educators use it. I also need to finish looking at the '50 ways ..' publication.

Today wasn't as intensive for me as other weeks as I use Harpara and screen castify. However having said that, the information was relevant and I was able to learn new things that excited me. Another valuable day!

Computational Thinking

Day 4 - DFI

Hangout with Dorothy around Tohatoha (Share).

It is natural in life for us to share. We have been sharing since time began … our food, our emotions, newsletters, assemblies, displays ... This is not a new concept but how we share is.

2005 was a massive year for sharing - a number of social media sites popped up at that time (Flicker, Bebo then twitter etc). What is important that the tag line that these companies put with these sites which involved the word sharing. Social media bought speed and application to sharing.  

Every person on the planet had the potential to immediately share things in their lives. Teenagers wanted to share on line and therefore this could become a hook into learning and progression.

Sharing with a purpose requires an authentic audience. As teachers we ask our children to write for an audience and there is a compulsory audience who is forced or paid to listen or read this and then an authentic audience is someone who chooses to listen/read your work. Children understand the difference and this has impact on their learning.

Everyone of these has been available to our learners but by choosing blogger it resembles the spaces our young people want to be on. In legal terms Board of Trustees are owners of all our blogs. An important part of sharing is the Cybersmart Curriculum that runs from Y1-13 to empower them to be a positive digital citizen and to have a positive presence online.

OMG Tech!          Presentation   - Website

Sorting Algorithm. Find a number, then go through the steps to order from smallest to largest. Smallest number always goes left, bigger number always goes right.

Ethical concerns around programmes like 'Big Dog' which is funded by the military. The technology can be used against humans if in the wrong hands. Is there an opportunity to take what has been developed to have it's purpose changed in order to support or help communities?

Hanson Robotics Sophia - singing a duet on Jimmy Fallons tonight show (Say Something)
This robot Sophia tends to absorb the knowledge of the world around her and adapt. She taught herself to sing by watching youtube videos. This technology is invented by a private company so does this matter? Is this therefore better than the Big Dog technology?

Technology is changing the way we go about our daily lives. There is the 'fear' that if we go too far then will technology take over the world. (We've all seen those movies!) At this stage it just creates further questions for me. Like who has ultimate control? What is the goal? Will others use the new technology for bad over good? I know it's fairly cliched and very movie like and maybe I need to open my mind further in order to fully embrace it, however, I wouldn't be me if I didn't reflect on all angles.

Other Technology Gains worth a mention:
- Image recognition technology - Skin Vision - mole mapping. Able to recognise when you should be concerned about your moles. $80
- Self Flying Drone Planes - Zephyr's Cora
Has been tested up in Auckland. No pilot, 6 passengers. Is this the future to come? A new Uber in getting from one place to another?

Introduction to Coding

I've watched some of our ako engaging with scratch but I hadn't had a go myself. Today was great as our guest coach Kawana took us through step-by-step. I understand why children love it so much. I would like to explore this further, particularly around children sharing learning through the scratch platform.

This was my first go at a simple maze game. The idea is to get the ladybug through the maze to the wand without touching the walls and using the mouse.

Sites with coding lessons:

Hour of Code

Minecraft Code Activities

Kodable

Code Combat

Toxic Code

Silent Teacher

Well worth a look. It's a collection of free teaching materials that teaches Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string and lots of running around. - https://csunplugged.org/en/

A site to help us up-skill as teachers. This took us through a quick self review and has many valuable video lessons that help teachers with the ideas presented in the digital curriculum. Well worth visiting time and time again for my own development and understanding.

Another great day with many valuable ideas.

Collaborative Cool

Day  3 has all been about the Coolness of Collaborate Sites.

Hangout with Dorothy:

CREATE ...Hanga - It's all about the Hook!

IMPORTANT: Creativity is a doing word that involves the whole body not just our fingers on keyboards. The digital world can give us a world that turbocharges our creativity .. but it isn't a more important wedge as is illustrated in the image below.

The question is Have our Ako (and us) been given time to be creative in their day/week? Why we imagine we do, it  is really important for us to be reflective and ask this question regularly, almost like a stocktake.

A reflective moment for me is to whether the push for learning at school to be visible and the idea that wherever possible we should always choose digital means that the digital wedge is bigger than the other empowering tools. Hopefully this is something we can engage further with on returning to our school.

The 6 C's of Education in the 21st Century

Chrissie Butler - Universal Design for Learning -

A framework that is based on 3 principles. The first principle is in how we all perceive information. I can't just present text I need to present the information using a multi modal approach in order for the children to perceive the information I want them to as they don't all learn the same way. What engages one learner doesn't necessarily engage another. A couple of colleagues have been to some of her professional development courses and throughly recommend her.

Multi-Model

Multi-model is a way of keeping our learners engaged and interested. Point England hold a full immersion assembly at the start of the term to introduce the topic. When I was at Harrington Hill we used knowledge harvests to hook, enthuse and engage prior to a new unit. Once the children have been hooked behaviourally, then it is time to hook them cognitively. This gives opportunities for the children to go wide and deep with their learning.

Google Sites - This was not something I have had a lot of experience with but I have created a site etc before. Not something I openly set out to do though. We had an opportunity to look through how other educators create multi-modal resources for topics, a great opportunity. We then had a go ourselves.  This is just a screenshot as it is still a work in progress but so far so good ... I think.

Our guest coach today was Danni Stone from Point England School. It was great to meet her in person as her class and our Year 7/8 students are Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu buddies this year. Our children have made some real connections with her students and it is awesome to see that excitement and connection that happens through the blogs. It's really powerful. So great to meet you Danni  and thanks for all your wisdom and guidance today :)