Digital Fluency Intensive - Computational Thinking

Ubiquitous

We started our last session with a quick look at why ubiquitous learning is so important for our leaners. For the community that I work in, this is an important step towards providing equality for all in education. 




Providing our students access to learning, anytime, anywhere and any place helps to 'level the playing field' so that all students, no matter of their social-economic background have an equal footing regarding education. 

We talked about the students who take part in the Summer Learning Journey don't experience the same summer drop off as their peers. This journey is offered to my students and I was reminded to make sure it is part of my term 4 planning. Setting it up during the last weeks of school and trying out some of the tasks from previous years will hopefully encourage more students to have a go during the holidays. We also looked at the latest writing data from Manaiakalani which continues to improve, year on year. Both of these positive results can be linked to providing students with ubiquitous, rewindable learning opportunities.

Following this, we spent the rest of the day in a TRAILBLAZERS workshop called OMGTECH! Pedagogical Framework for Digital technologies in the Aotearoa NZ Curriculum.

10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2019

We started with a discussion about the question "what will be the future of tech and what it means for our tamariki?" In 2019 the range of new breakthrough technologies is mind-blowing! This is the world our tamariki are growing up in. How do we best equip them to live and contribute successfully to this world?

Thinking about this and listening to our inspirational facilitators Zoe and Vivian share their thoughts, effective pedagogy is once again the most important factors. Effective pedagogy, alongside as the Tools, techniques, and applications of technology is needed to support true integrated, inquiry-based learning.  Only then can we  “engage all children in exploring, thinking, reading, writing, researching, inventing, problem-solving, and experiencing the world” to become confident 21st-century learners.  

Key ideas from the workshop:  We looked at some practical ways to introduce students to learn how a computer thinks by using a sorting network parallel algorithm.

Offline sorting networks

• Identify which number comes before or after in a given range of numbers. (Mathematics - Numeracy)
• Organise objects from smallest in size to largest in size. (Mathematics - Numeracy)

The next question that was asked is "what are the things about ourselves we value?" These values are reflected in the machines we use. in other words, the ethics and morals of machines depend on who has programmed them. “In authentic contexts and taking into account of end-users" - a person who uses it last.

An example of this is Sophia the robot. How she behaves and learns is a result of how she was first programmed by white middle age men. We see this in her actions and mannerisms. 

We then talked about the "Science" of technology. Learning how to create involves having an appreciation and understanding of how the applications we use work. The difference between "using Technology" and "creating technology" is the difference between using a game and being able to create a game. Or the difference between using an Instagram filter and being able to create your own photo filters.

NZ Technolgy Curriculum - Building mastery for your students

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING - how does a computer think.

Computational thinking enables students to express problems and formulate solutions in ways that means a computer (an information processing agent) can be used to solve them.

• students develop algorithmic thinking skills
• an understanding of the computer science principles
•  become aware of what is and isn’t possible with computing

UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPING DIGITAL - Digital applications and systems are created for humans by humans.

• skills for designing and producing quality, fit-for-purpose, digital outcomes
• manipulating and combining data, using information management tools to create an outcome

My key takeaways:

• think about teaching students to break down the task into steps that a computer can understand
• teach the language of digital technologies
• teach the binary system
• use programs to teach skills like code hour or scratch

To finish off the day I spent time walking in my student shoes by working through activities in an hour of code then scratch. Fun, easy ways to develop coding skills but it illustrated how important to teach our students the correct way to code using the shortest steps possible.

What a fun way to end the 9 weeks of our intensive digital learning. I want to thank Dorothy, Gerhard and my fellow DFI'ers who have openly shared their knowledge with me. I can't wait to pass all my learning on. 

Digital Fluency Intensive - Empowerment

EMPOWERMENT

One of the buzz words we use in education is 'student agency.' Unfortunately for some of our learner's families, the word 'agency' conjures up negative thoughts and feelings. Using the word 'empowerment' sit better with the message we want to send our community. 


To empower our whanau at home is to provide a digital device that can be brought home and free wifi access. This has the power to be a life changer!

Dorothy talked about how the Manaiakalani community has many challenges to overcome when supporting them to become empowered.

• Most families have an annual income of $19,000 p.a
• Housing that is Government owned - hard to get anything fixed
• Access to consistent medical advice. Don't see the same GP each time so things are missed.
• Preschools hear 1/3 less language is spoken at home compared to higher decile families.

Thinking of ways to support both our learners and their families to become more empowered is my takeaway from today's thoughtful discussion.  

The rest of the day involved taking the Google certified educator level 1 exam, which I passed.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Cybersmart

Words Wound - Make Kindness go VIRAL!  

Why cybersmart?

Our learners are growing up in a digital age, they don't know a world without it. So we need to prepare all students to navigate this environment smartly. To be confident, connected, actively involved, life long learners.

Implementation - Planning is collaborative and makes use of deliberate acts of teaching to support learners Learn, Create and Share in a positive relevant way.

We always use positive language!

Hapara Teacher Dashboard - Making Learning Visible

Hapara allows you to focus on teaching, not the technology!

We recapped on the key features:

• How to make groups
• How to check that all doc are shared into the right folders
• How to check emails, posts, and comments.
• Using focus browsing to support on task behaviour.

Manaiakalani 1:1 Journey The principals of the Treaty drove their thinking. Here is a summary of this journey.

BYOD - Bring your own Disaster!

In 2010 Manaiakalani made a conscious decision to no use BYOD as most of the learners would no have equal access to these. They asked the question "how can the children in the lowest socioeconomic 10% of New Zealand’s population have their own, personal learning device?" The answer was Chromebooks.

Now Ipads and Chromebooks are used to support Learn, Create, Share.

For the rest of the day, we had multiple opportunities to walk in our student's shoes by using a Chromebook and Ipad to access our learning. I really enjoyed the digital dig that was shared with us. 

As I was using a Chromebook to do this learning I was reminded that having good fine motor skills are important for our learners to have to these tools successfully. Reminding students that they can use a wireless mouse if using the trackpad is frustrating is something that I need to revisit. 

Going forward: I will use the digital dig with my class. It was a fun activity to remind leaners of all the tools and keyboard shortcuts that can be used. It will also be a great way to take a snapshot of my learners to check how digitally fluent they are and to plan the next learning steps. 

My personal challenge is to use screencastify regularly as I find it difficult to relax and be natural when recording myself. I also find it a challenge to listen to myself talking. This is one of the few situations in my teaching where I don't practice what I preach! Time to make a change.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Enabling Access- Sites

 Deep dive into Effective Sites


We started the DIF by evaluating some of our colleague's sites through TWO lenses: Engagement and User experience.  

On the one hand, the site needs to be inviting and appealing - draw you to it.  
On the other hand, it is a working and learning environment. It needs to be very easy to use.  Effective sites combine both elements.

Here are some of the ideas we came up with:
For visual appeal use:

• relevant images
• large buttons with less writing, very clear message for directing
• white background with few buttons
• simple eye-catching buttons that link to learning
• images in each button which are engaging.
• a clean and clear landing page- easy to navigate and know where to go
• students pics on the home page and buttons

For a good user experience have:

• learning groups accessible from the home page.
• current learning at the top of the page
• just a few clicks to find the learning
• a home page that is  simple, clear and child-friendly
• clear identity and authenticity
• a home/blog/ school website buttons to take you back and navigate quickly through
• a way to navigate easily and have clear distinct buttons to reach relevant pages.

Connected Learners and Teachers

• Manaiakalani has a shared language - the pedagogy and kaupapa language. This is made possible because it is visible.
• Face to face makes connecting easier and shared experience

Here are some of the ways Manaiakalani shares:

@clusternz - our young learners     

@MDTAcohort - our MDTA teachers share their learning

@TeachInquire - teachers share their professional inquiries

@mitSpark - Spark-MIT teachers inquiries

#manaiakalani

Google Sites - Here are my takeaways!

Start with the why.

The Purpose!

Who are your learners?
Why are they using the site?
What is your theme?

Choose and theme and stick to it. There is nothing worse than looking at an overload of colours and layout.






Remember to think about all learning tasks using the SAMR model. This way they will be purposeful.

Layout

Think about keeping page layouts similar as this makes it easier for the learners and you. 
You will want to plan each page and its context before creating it. 

Fronts

Try to keep fonts consistent throughout your site and if possible embedded items. 
You will want no more than two fonts.

Planning Your Class Site

How many pages do you need?
What will be linked off your home page?
What is the layout of each page?

Three-click rule 

When then spent some time evaluating our class sites.
My feedback included: 'Very visually appealing! Love the buttons...', 'super clean and crisp', 'love the images used on buttons', 'Lots of writing (parent well educated) and clear links to WALTs', 'Really like the layout of your home page.' 

A good tip is to check out your site in an incognito tab. This will show you what your learners and parents will see when they are using your site outside of the school domain.

The rest of the day was a chance to used the feedback we got from our peers and edits our class sites accordingly. I checked that all learning was accessible within 3 clicks and shared appropriately.

Going forward - how will I support teachers back at Owairaka? One idea is to support using a shared team site in middle school. Another is to upskill teachers during staff meetings. Both will be easily achievable using learning from the last 5 DFI's as a guide.

Digital Fluency Intensive Collaborate- Sites

Visible - one of the 4 Kaupapa that Manaiakalani believes in.

Key question - Can your eyes see (with your eyes) the learning?

Key Points

Historically: 

• Many of our Whanau haven't had the best experience with school and learning because it wasn't visible. 
• Many teachers told the student what to DO,(page 23 today) not what they were learning. A big difference when helping a student to be successful. 

• Many students failed because they couldn't read the teachers mind to know what to learn and what was going to be learnt.

Nowadays:

• We know that to support our students to succeed we need to make all learning visible and that there are no surprises. 

• Teacher Dashboard is a great device to support this in a digital environment. 

Check out these teachers sharing their teaching and learning.

Multi-Modal -what do we mean when we use this term?

An inclusive, differentiated approach to teaching in a digital learning environment.

Behavioural engagement first, then cognitive engagement:

Behavioural - The HOOK

• differentiation for personalisation
• mind frame for learning
• engaging C21st tools (Chromebooks / iPads)
• creating to learn (learning to create)
• authentic audience (sharing on blogs - realising the value of own voice, growing agency over information and knowledge)

Cognitive:

• ready to learn
• ready for the cognitive challenge
• ready for acceleration...

Think about how you share the learning with your students. 

Class Site Key ideas

• plan the layout before you start
• ask yourself - who is the audience? 
  
• can they get to their learning within 3 clicks?
• drop down menus are not student friendly - use buttons instead.
• how can you make your site multi-modal? 
• use a range of texts, videos and images - all at different levels.
• make their learning path open. They can choose what to investigate first. 
• use a page of your site or embed a Google drawing

Made by my neighbour Cam. A great way to engage your learners. Click on each image to find the learning. Thanks for sharing.

• this is a great link to royalty free pictures!
• inserting a google form and its spreadsheet is a great way to get feedback on your site. 

Buttons

• use a Google Drawing. Designed to be downloaded as a png for Google site. 
• use images and shapes - Insert image - Crop image - Mask Image
• add text by double-clicking the shape or use a text box

Gerhard showed us how to make all your buttons in one drawing. This way they are all consistent. Here are some buttons I made today to refresh my class site with.

Today was an opportunity to refine what I already do in my classroom and on my class site. I am looking forward to making a few changes to my class site this weekend.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Dealing with Data

Before Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa became common practice, many of our learners from lower decile schools thought that their sports and art skills were the only valuable things that they had to share. Many believed that their academic ideas were not worth sharing. What we needed to find out was how to hook these learners in academically? Authentic audiences and sharing learning on a social platform!

Trialled many sharing platforms and it quickly became clear that Blogger was the most effective to use with underage students.

Learn about something, create a DLO then finish creating it to share. All students need to learn to finish things! Posting helps!

John Hattie has identified that feedback is the most critical and powerful aspect of teaching and learning. How do we make feedback relevant and current? Commenting on learning posts is a very effective and motivating way.

Google Forms - Had the opportunity to make one for my science leader role. Some ideas to try. Using these for basic facts and spelling tests. Link to spreadsheets and the add-on flubaroo.

Google Maps

• Learnt that I can add in information straight from a Google spreadsheet. One idea is to use student info from a google form about family etc to create a class map of our class community and cultures, for the class blog.
• Dorthey shared with us the tacking aspect of my maps. This would be great to use when on class trips. Share where we are with the DP so school know how long until back at school.
• There are tracking tiles that can be slipped into bags, wallets, keys etc. You can track these on your phone.

Google Sheets - Check out these add-ons

http://robynjanderson.blogspot.com/2018/02/using-statistics-to-create.html

CREATE Data Case Study:  Select one learner from the table below and statistically analyse the data that can be gathered from the child’s blog. 

Embedding makes everything live. Changes will automatically be seen on your blog.

• Remember to add in the height/width after the " but before the ><.

Embedding whole spreadsheets like this can be a bit messy. Think about only embedding the chart. That makes it live if the data changes. 

Example from the above sheet.

Big takeaway today - Time to revisit how I use these tools in my class and in our team as they have endless possibilities. 

Digital Fluency Intensive - Media

That was my takeaway from our sessions all about:

We started with a deep dive about live streaming by Kent Sommerville from Point England School. It was interesting hearing the way they have included live streaming into key school events like sports games and cross country. What a creative way to help more of their school community to access these events. 

Next Dothery talk about how all kids are born CREATE and how traditional school knocks it out of them. We talked about Ken Robinson and his excellent TED talks. 

"Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining" Kohl, 2008 

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”  John Dewey

How do we plan for 'create' in our daily teaching?

Next, we had some chalk and talked about Youtube and making a playlist. Check that your videos are set to unlisted.


The rest of the day was looking at Google Slides and Google Drawing. I enjoyed playing around with these tools I know so well.

A button for my blog using Google Draw

Self-portrait using Google Draw

And finally, my visual pepeha made using Google Slides.

Check that you use WHITE SPACE well! That your animations enhance the content and don't take away from your message! Think about adding in extra slides instead of the animation (stops mistakes when sharing) and remember to use your arrows when presenting.