DFI Session 7 - Devices

Ubiquitous 

Learning Anytime, Anywhere, Any pace, for and from Anyone.  This was the new norm thrust upon us all as educators as we grappled with the new norm of distance learning.  It provided us with an opportunity to grab the bull by the horns and literally run with it.   We were well placed to deliver distance learning through our involvement with Manaiakalani and the preparation that had gone into making each class have a site  ready for the start of the schooling year.  The way that everyone got alongside and supported each other was a highlight of this time.  The bravery of our teachers to make learning accessible through the use of screen-castify and video clips, embedded you tube clips, ensured that learning through a digital platform could be achieved.

What wasn't envisaged was the unfamiliarity of the device and the apps learners were accessing at this time to parents.  Much like when we were asked to identify key parts and shortcuts on a chromebook, while parts were familiar there was new learning involved. Parent's were thrown in the deep in and much like a classroom there were your high fliers and your ākonga that need that extra bit of support to get them to be where they needed to be.  

This is where the ubiquitous aspect of our online delivery became very important and the video clips, meets with teachers, screen-castify tutorials allowed not only our students but our parents to learn along side each other and in some cases the child became the teacher.

This has provided us with an opportunity to grow our parents knowledge and skill around digital fluency.  A potential DFI for whānau.  

DFI Session 6 - Enabling access

 

A great session to be a part of.  It provide me personally with the many reflective moments, particularly around our school site and class sites.

Focussing on the connected joist of the Manaiakalani framework has highlight the importance of a school site that is able to provide that connection.  It is through our school site that the connection with our whanau is enabled through the links to our class sites.  It is the one stop place for our whānau, ākonga and kaiako. Our sites can provide us with the platform to connect with our learning when we are not physically present.  It provides us with ways to engage in learning and connects us to the vast possibilities that learning can afford us.

For my own personal journey with DFI and a leader of learning, it raised the following questions:

1. Are our sites accessible?
2. Do they present to viewers the 'Shop Window' effect required?
3. Are they easily navigated?" (no more than 2-3 clicks)
4. Is learning visible and easily accessible for learner and whānau? 

These questions were answered as we continued with the learning kaupapa for the day. Being able to be allowed the time to dabble and play with sites is great but the feedback received from colleagues was and is invaluable.  

Our sites, while they present our school and classrooms in a positive light, still have areas of improvement.  These include taking the plunge into other learning areas other than literacy.  Developing our multi modal delivery of learning, while ensuring whānau have a clear understanding of the how and the why we are doing this.  The ultimate goal for myself and ultimately our school, is to see our class sites being accessed by all whānau and learners as a way to enhance student outcomes, to accelerate learning and being used to rewind learning when it is needed.  A huge challenge / wero ahead not only for myself but our whole learning community.

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei

"Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain".

DFI Session Five - Collaborate Sites

Visible learning one the four foundation stones of learn,  create,  share.  Making learning visible has been usually confined to that of the classroom wall, the work book of students and in the mind of the teacher.  The use of sites and blogger to share what has been learnt and what is to be learnt allows for a wider and greater audience.  It invites an opportunity to showcase the learning that occurs during the day, while allowing an insight to the planning, preparation and thought that goes into each learning opportunity. 

"When teaching and learning are visible there is a greater likelihood of students reaching higher levels of achievement" John Hattie, Visible Learning.  

I find this quote to be highly relevant given the current climate we find ourselves in and the continued desire of those in our schools to improve the outcomes for our young people.  This presents a shift in the 'status quo' of teaching and learning, no longer is the sharing of learning confined to the walls of the classroom or the page of a workbook but through the affordances of technology it is there for all to access.  It creates a sense of partnership between whānau and the school that we are all in this together, "He waka eke noa".

Through the use of sites we have been able to showcase the learning that occurs within our school walls, whilst providing an authentic audience for our learner to engage with.  Our whānau are also privy to the teaching and learning occurring daily and have the ability to support learners with direct discussion or providing opportunities to access learning at home.  

The use of multi modal platforms to engage learners is a direct form of making learning and teaching visible.  It is also provides an opportunity for learners to access a variety of learning tools to encourage their understanding and development of a concept that they may not be necessarily be 'levelled' for.  The use of a multi modal approach takes that barrier away and allows for a more equitable learning environment geared towards greater creativity and critical thinking.

The benefits are endless if we encourage visibility of teaching and learning along with the use of a multi modal approach in our schools.  As a school leader the challenge is to nurture and support our teachers, whānau and learners to ensure that the change is not overwhelming and that it is effective and of benefit to all.

DFI Session Four Data

Another great week of DFI.  The opportunities are endless as we explored maps, forms and sheets. Unfortunately, I missed the second part of the day as we had our school swimming sports in the afternoon.  Thank goodness for rewindable learning. Because this was available, I was able to view and dabble with some of the concepts using sheets, which was beneficial.  Time has been my enemy this week and I have yet to look at the rest of the session slides - analysing data from a student blog and writing a quality blog post - but is on my list to do.

Revisiting the importance of sharing provided myself personally with many wonderings.   The notion that we have been sharing for along time now was refreshing.  The most significant change in sharing is that our content can be shared far and wide, not confined to planned whānau evenings or conferencing evenings.  My main wondering is around the authentic audience that sharing through blogger provides our learners and how do we engage our whānau with the tools they need to provide relevant feedback that with promote future learning opportunities for our akongā.  Our learners blog but we have yet to nail the engagement from our whānau around this.  Is it the fear of the unknown, not wanting to seem inferior when seeing the shared learning in all its excellence or are they just not sold on the benefits?  For what ever the reason, we need to find a way to engage and excite our whānau to engage in a meaningful partnership with their child's learning and the content they are sharing.  With the right support in place, i'm sure we can overcome this for the benefit of our learners and their learning outcomes.

DFI Session Three 2021 - Media

Another week of learning tricks and tips as well as useful tools that can be used to enhance the learning experiences whilst using digital technology.

Providing our learners with the opportunity to create and demonstrate their understanding of concepts learnt is a great use of the many apps through the digital platforms.

Being creative is something that is naturally found in our ākonga and somehow we stifle that creativity by following generic art or activities that have a pre determined outcome.  I do wonder whether teachers have, potentially sub consciously, gone down the road of searching for tasks instead of being creative themselves because of the hecticness and the busyness of our profession. We need to be brave and allow our children (and ourselves) to be creators, provide them with opportunities to take risks and showcase what they are capable of.  

Digital platforms provide an exciting opportunity to be creative.  The breakout session  - pick a path - allowed us to be creative, we had our brief but what the final look and outcomes was all us.  Not one presentation was the same as the creative process was all that of the individual.

As has been mentioned, we need to provide opportunities to create so it allows for creative and critical thinking to be a driver of engagement and that our tamariki are the creators of content not just consumers of it.  

DFI Session Two 2021

 Connecting with Manaiakalani: Dorothy

The Manaiakalani Pedagogy: Learn, Create, Share allows for a common language across school, but allowing for the differences / individualism as school's have autonomy on how they use learn, create, share.

The message that rang clearest was that of when moving into a digital world we can't lose focus on effective teacher practice. The ongoing argument of digital devices and screen time vs the use of traditional methods is a thorn in many educators / leaders of learning as we justify the use of digital tech to enhance learning. We all need to realise that good practice should be recognised as good practice and without good practice in any learning area, student achievement is seriously hindered or lacking.

The challenge for all of us as we move further into digital technologies as a key learning area, is to be able to identify effective practice and share this with our whanāu and community so the benefits of effective practice with digital technology is understood and appreciated and acknowledged as a key driver in amplifying / turbo charging learning.

The wero set by Dorothy was that of identifying and articulating our school's learning model - What are our beliefs about how learners learn? What are our foundations of learning? Are our teachers / learners able to share this when asked? This provocation digs deep into our belief systems of teaching and learning and is worth exploring deeper with teachers, learners and whanāū.

Chalk and Talk  / Deep Dives:

These sessions again provided us with handy tips that can be used in our busy every day lives.  Being able to organise Gmail, calendars and Tabs is extremely useful.  While I'm comfortable with labels etc in gmail, there is definitely room for improvement in the other areas.

Google meet is a tool that we became familiar with during lockdown.  It is a platform that is used to communicate when we all can't be in the same room.  The continued upgrades provides us with reassurance that when in use we are getting the best possible platform to operate from.  

The record function is one to be explored further, particularly when using the tool with small groups as a way to make learning rewindable and accessible at anytime.

Videoing is such a powerful learning tool for either front loading or future follow ups.

Blogging and embedding videos is still something that I need to do more regularly to become more familiar with the in's and the out's of this.  The more practice I get the better I will become.

Unfortunately, the meet recording from my discussion partner did not work, but here is a digital assembly video from our school's time during the alert levels.

 

DFI Session One 2021

DFI Session One Reflections:

An excellent day of integrating the 3R's - Reconnection Revising and Reflecting.

Reconnection:

It was great to reconnect with the pedagogy and the history of the Manaiakalani programme and it's journey to date to provide equitable outcomes for all akongā / learners. The key message that learning is ubiquitous and that our most vulnerable learners are afforded the same learning opportunities as those who are deemed to be more fortunate. The Learn, Create, Share pedagogy allows all learners to have the opportunity to challenge themselves with new learning, allowing them to create either digitally or by more traditional methods and then through the power of technology and the innovation that is the internet, they are able to share their learning success with a wider audience through digital platforms such as Blogger. This allows for a vast range of feedback from peers, whanau and teachers. The spin off of using this pedagogy is that it provides our akongā with an authentic audience as well as an engaging way to access and develop new learning skills and knowledge.

Revising:

The 'Chalk n Talk' provided the opportunity to revisit many tools that are used all the time and provided a few new tips and tricks to be used within these platforms such as the explore tool and short cuts to speed up productivity. The 'Explore" session allowed an opportunity to reacquaint with those tools that have only been dabbled with briefly. The speech to text function has many benefits for those who struggle with putting pen to paper and for those learners who struggle with reading fluency and articulation. So, while it was a revision session, there were some very handy new learning that occurred.

Reflecting:

From this session, it was evident that like the classroom there were a range of abilities and skills. We are all at different points of this DFI journey. It provided us the opportunity to put ourselves into the shoes of our learners and to feel the uncomfortableness of entering the learning pit. We all play an important part in providing the support required for all "learners" to emerge from the learning pit. Through our discussions and collective knowledge we can support each other through the challenges that lay ahead!

'He waka eke noa - We're all in this together!'