DFI Day 9 - Last Day!

 Well hello everyone,

Today was the last day of the Digital Fluency Intensive.  It's been quite a journey, but one that I have appreciated and enjoyed.  I feel I have learnt a rather lot of information and skills, that I am sure over time will begin to manifest themselves in my teaching and learning.  Some of which already have - just check out this blog, and my site!

So anyway, today we had our last Google Meet with Dorothy on Ubiquitous learning - or in layman's terms - learn anywhere, anytime, any pace - and from anyone.  This of course is referring to our digital technology platforms.  Big takeaway today - affordances to technology have allowed learning experiences that many students could not have had in the past.

And today of course was our final exam, yes that's right kids, even teachers have to sit exams!  I am in two minds around my performance.  The tasks I completed I am confident that I did a good job, however I did run out of time - classic Mel - a bit of a procrastinator and perfectionist.  Whatever the outcome or result I am grateful for completing the course and upskilling myself to benefit my teaching.

Things that I am proud of:  my updated site which looks way better and the kids like it, ideas using forms (pick a path stories) to take forward next term, and I finally got to do an animation.  What would I do better next time: probably take a photo of the random user name and log in that the exam people set up for me...  What am I going to take forward: a heck of a lot really! I especially enjoy sharing my learning with my colleagues and am far more confident to try things out digitally with my students.  Looking forward to planning in Term 4 for the Korimako students.

Thanks DFI, it's been a blast.  Melanie out.

DFI Day 8 - Computational Thinking

 Kia ora everyone,

Well we are coming down to the nitty gritty of the course.  Can't believe that our next session is ... the exam!  Today we got organised and registered ourselves, I am good to go!

Back to the beginning of the day - we had our regular meet with Dorothy.  Todays session was on 'Empowered Learners and Teachers'.  Digital technologies is not just a tool, but a powerful tool that when used properly can transform the way we teach, and the way our learners learn by being able to explore and experience new learning environments.  Big takeaway today - devices can provide equity and access to communities.

Todays explore session was on the new Digital Technologies Curriculum.  At Marshland we are currently delving into this, so todays session was quite affirming. Our Inquiry focus this term is based around the two new areas, nice to know we are heading in the right direction to help our learners be confident, empowered and active in an online world - not just passive consumers but creators.  The curriculum is for teachers to accelerate and turbocharge learning while making use of available resources.  To feel confident to use language and direct learning, develop a natural progression to teach students to develop their own learning, be cybersmart and work side by side digitally.

Another explore today was coding - rather frustrating if I do say so.  I did enjoy the wee Minecraft tutorials, so much easier with a mouse :-)  Once again - props to our learners who can spend many an hour designing and creating on Scratch, Gamefroot and Minecraft Education. On Scratch I managed to change the colour of my sprite, make it move a bit, say hello and meow - that's it.

DFI Day 7 - Devices

Kia ora everyone, happy first day of Spring!

Today we began with a Google Meet highlighting - Being Cybersmart in a Learn Create Share World with Fiona.  We learnt that the kaupapa comes from Manaiakalani goals to teach and empower our students to navigate as digital citizens.  As teachers we need to model positive language and behaviour in the digital world for our students to be smart and secure.

Do our students really know about the reality of being online?

Cybersmart should be a whole school focus, planned and deliberate teaching, relevant and real scenarios embedded into an existing educational programme, or in response to student needs.

The Kawa of Care document is highlighted - so important for our students to understand and follow to empower and harness their device for learning purposes.  We need to get students to commit to these themes - the Do's about being a good online citizen.

Also - Blogging! Sharing on Blogs elevates positive actions - content that they are sharing maintains a positive connection that is authentic helping to develop empathy and understanding. More importantly when learning is visible students need to make smart decisions (digital footprint). 

The big takeaway - elevate being positive on an everyday basis to be Cybersmart!

Chalk n Talk today:

The Manaiakalani Journey

Partnership

Ako is a whanau or community experience

Engagement is in the decision making process

Engagement through device ownership

Participation

Every learner can participate

Every teacher can be supported to become digitally fluent when all the devices are the same

Engagement through device ownership

Protection

This should happen behind the scenes

Manaiakalani partnered with Hapara

Partnership with filtering

Today we also got to have a wee play on a Chromebook - thanks Korimako Hub, and my iPad.  Was fun to work through the Digital Dig (which the Korimako kids have done earlier in the year).  Working through the short cuts were harder than I thought - I have a new found respect for my students who navigate their devices like demons.  Explain Everything was the app to explore today on the iPad.  Was a bit of a novelty to use - useful for the juniors, but perhaps something that I would not incorporate into my planning.  Check out my creation below.

See y'all next week.

 

DFI Day 6 - Enabling Access - Sites

 Kia ora everyone,

Today was a great day!  Enabling access was the theme.  With our digital platform we are able to connect, create and share in a way that was not possible in the days gone by.  By enabling access we are able to strengthen outside connections, and learn from others perspectives.

Our explore today was to check out some of our colleagues Sites along with our own, and discuss visual appeal and user experience.  It was also quite handy as I found out which slides/tasks could not be accessed, which I could then change.  I found this highly engaging and have made several changes to the layout and look of my Literacy and Math pages.  Being able to discuss ideas with colleagues - what works for them, or what doesn't, or what their students enjoy was very valuable.

I was very impressed that I remembered how to make a button, and admit I spent a fair amount of time playing around with ideas... I am quite excited to start my Term 4 planning which I think I will take next level by making my own sites, then linking to my main page.

Here are some of my new buttons...

Day 5 - Collaborate/Sites

 Kia ora everyone,

Well I was pretty excited about today because we got to delve into Sites!  While I work on our Hub site and my pages everyday and try to make it pretty, today was cool because I learned a few new tricks about adding buttons and pages.  Also had a wee play with record to slides to put on my new fancy (trial for fun) site.  I am considering adding new pages to my existing Literacy page - to perhaps make it easier and more engaging for my my students.  Here is the beginnings of my trial site...

So to back track a little, we began our day with our Google Meet with Dorothy.  Today we discussed the Kaupapa - Visible.  Making our teaching and learning visible for everyone who wants or needs to - obviously especially our students and their whanau - who can become genuine participants.

Our Deep Dive today centered around Multi Modal - using a variety of resources to extend and deepen learning.  It is reflective of effective teaching practice for a digital learning environment, based on knowing our learners, it can show different perspectives and points of view, and uses different ‘types’ of texts - written, audio, visual, symbolic, etc.  I like to think that my pages on our Korimako site are beginning to reflect the use of Multi Modal learning.  I think Literacy is easier to use this, so my next goal is to work on my Math page...

See you next week!

DFI Day 4 - Dealing with Data

Kia ora Bloggers,

Well here we are at Day 4, Week 4!  Today we have be looking and learning about Google Forms, Spreadsheets and Maps.

Our session began with our regular Google Meet with Dorothy.  Today we discussed the Share aspect of Manaiakalani. Sharing with others can mean many things - share a book, a laugh, an idea. Digital technologies has just added an extra element to sharing for our learners. By sharing digitally our students are now able to communicate with not only their whanau and friends, but the wider community and beyond.  We hope that this type of sharing gives a sense of purpose, and helps make connections with others.

So I haven't created a Google Form for ages, was good to get back in to play around with the settings.  My next goal is to teach my writers to create a Pick A Path story...  And well, Spreadsheets is a whole other story for me.  I'm a proper newbie so it seems. My big moment was figuring out how to 'freeze' sections so I can still see the bits I need! I did manage to organise an assessment tracker sheet for maths, and put together this little beauty:

Who knew about Google My Maps!  A pretty cool tool that could be used in Math to Inquiry.  You can even get data from a Form - say where people have been around the world, and import it to your map.  I think the students will really enjoy using this. Check out this one:

See you next week!

DFI Day Three - Media

Kia ora Bloggers,

So today we started off with a Google Meet with Dorothy, delving into the Create - Hanga in Manaiakalani.  Big takeaway from the session is that we want our young people to be thinkers and creators.  As teachers we need to design engaging programs, in which our students can create stuff!  Creating can give purpose to learning.  Teachers can empower students through choice, information and building of skills through scaffolding.

Our Deep Dive was around the use of Media such as movie making, T.V, podcasts.  Lots of the apps are somewhat familiar to me, once again just need to have a go at them!  We have a new school build coming up in the near future, I can already envision a built in 'green screen' wall ready to go.  I've also requested a school drone...  Also love the idea of using old pizza boxes as back drops to stop motions.

Today I also made a channel on YouTube, pretty sure I will just be using it to make music playlists :-)

Google Slides and Draw are my new jam.  Had a great time setting up a new blog profile, which I will attempt to put on.  Today I also realised why my students love creating animations, I am rather invested in my Maui and the Sun animation which you can see below.  It is unfinished at the moment, but I am quite proud of it!