Session 7: Devices

The thoughts behind the Manaiakalani term of 'ubiquitous' was unpacked, meaning anywhere, anytime, any pace and (from) anyone.  It allows for learning to happen outside the constraints of a school day and if gives learners choice.  It was researched and analysed through data the 'summer dip' where learning from the year dropped right off.  Through having ubiquitous learning and also the 'summer learning journey' this could meet the need and support students.  Technology enables the removal of barriers, adds to solutions and gives opportunity of a new way of learning.  It is not just a tool.   Considering my own readiness for ubiquitous learning during our lockdowns of Covid  I was proud that I could move with the different tools my 2 different schools used.  I didn't say "I can't" but learnt and tried to develop my skill set.  While this was something I was proud of, now that I have done DFI I regret that I didn't totally understand how sites work, rather I 'threw' things at my site.  With an increased understanding and building it more carefully I would have been still using sites more in my class today.  Since the covid lockdowns I must admit I haven't taken forward a large amount, more the superficial site that was created in August.

We then had a session on being 'cybersmart' - not safe but more positively what are our choices as users.  This is the roof of our whare, if we have holes the roof will leak and it will create problems and we want to keep learners safe from the outside elements.  There are 10 cybersmart categories with learning objectives within each.  It is important that is covered across the whole school and collaborative planning is done so that students encounter all aspects of the cyber safety curriculum.  The three most important areas being Smart Learners (learn), Footprint (create) and Relationships(share).  Crucially it is important that students are aware that when they create and share this is public and leaves their footprint for anyone to access, be careful in what this is!

Using a chromebook - I found it a bit fiddly and hard to move mouse around and use - Vicky suggested having a seperate mouse to help.  Many shortcuts were similar to normal PC, but some were even faster, eg a screenshot.  Great to take time to see it from the student view so you can help with trouble shooting.

In the next session we worked on the ipads and using Explain Everything.  I have tried this out a little at school so had a basic understanding.  Unfortunately we had trouble opening the files that had been created and shared with us.  I find it quite an easy tool to use to make things on, however more difficult directing students to open projects I have made.  I can see how Explain Everything is a great tool, but I have struggled getting my students to become competent users of it.  We are not 1-1 which adds to the challenge.  I managed to create a lesson for the students on one of the Cybersmart lessons, I focused on the tools of Explain Everything as I thought this would be very handy to have as rewindable learning on a class site.  It also helped me in understanding and using tools.  There is a video below of my work.

Session 6: Enabling Access - Sites

 The Manaiakalani pedagogy today was focus on the joist of being 'connected'.  Working across NZ schools together, has allowed for some professional learning that have been very beneficial.  Essentially everyone has the shared language of 'Learn, Create, Share' and the kaupapa behind this, allowing us to connect.  The continuing connection is given through multiple levels of principals across school through to admin PD.  Twitter used to push out children's Blog posts so everyone can stay connected with learning.  Within the 'share' aspect, connections have to be made both ways.  Being connected only works with the three other aspects.

Leading learning through sites

Important to consider the visual appeal, functionality of navigation and access.  We had a chance to explore teachers sites, a good way to see what does/doesn't work and to give ideas for clear visuals and functionality.

We then begun working on our own sites, this gave me a chance to start a site for next year.  The link to my site can be found here.  For now there isn't a lot of information, it will need to be a work in progress as I get a little more info about the role in the coming weeks.  Good to have some basics set up ready to go though.

Vicki also gave me a tip on calendar with adding 'appointment slots' this will be helpful for next years scheduling.

As my next learning step it will be to use the draw tool more often, I have never used it before so didn't know how easy is worked, particularly with adding to the site.  I probably will need to go back and reread the notes from that session.

Session 5: Collaborate

Today for the Manaiakalani Pedagogy session we focused on the 'floor board' of being 'Visible'. Manaiakalani focuses on the idea of content being specific and intentional with delivery of this through the use of technology.  Another key idea was that the whole process of teaching and learning should be visible - planning, process of students, outcome, reflection and assessment so that there is no mystery behind what is being taught, and needing to achieve. The ability to use Google Sites has repurposed the modelling book/board, making this teaching always accessible for students. When developing this visible learning two perspectives should be considered- learner (sites) and teachers (hapara).

We then moved on to consider multi modal learning and the use of sites.  It was great to learn a bit more about sites, I have my own class site which someone gave me the template for earlier in the year. Through today I learnt how to actually create my own, which made a lot more sense for adding work for students, I had been taking some long roads to do some very simple tasks. The key takeaway for multi modal learning was that it increases student engagement, you are activating student interest through multiple mediums.

For our Create session coincidently Vicky had chosen the topic of 'Celebrations' which has been our focus this term at school. The link to the site I created is here.

Today it has been most helpful to have so many shared planning and resource docs. I don't know if I have ever attended a PD where you got such a large bank of useful work in one day! Manaiakalani has really set up to support it's teachers in an ongoing way.

I look forward to being able to update my site/create a site for next year.  The idea of mapping it out before beginning is important and having a clearer understanding of how to use the tool will help with this thought process.

Session 4: Dealing with data

The focus of the Manaiakalani segment was around Share, with the key idea being that the conccept of 'sharing' has been important in many different formats all through time.  Manaiakalani saw the opportunity to engage students when a whole new way of sharing began in 2005.  The hook for students was the excitement of engaging digitally in sharing, they wanted to share and using blogger provided an educational means of this.  The audience gives the purpose and reason to share.  The digital opportunity to share gives a much wider audience base.  Blogger is the 'learner drive' opportunity to share in a safer manner while learning the appropriate skills.

Forms

I haven't used Forms before so was great to have a rundown.  So many format options which creates many options.  I can see plenty of uses for myself to gather information.

The session on My Maps I felt I didn't grasp as well, a little bit of a whirlwind and I was struggling to think of application in my current classroom situation (although I know there will be, just understanding and thinking all at once was a little challenging).

Sheets

I have used Excel a bit so was nice to compare this to Sheets, I found it was more user friendly and easier to navigate.  I created the below chart from inputting data about a students blog post.  I can see lots of benefits to analysing children's assessment information within sheets, the sparkline was a great quick visual.

As one of my Bubble Group members mentioned this morning the format of the day really helps learning - going through the 'how to' and then following this in a smaller group giving it a go helps to immerse in the learning.