DFI Media

Today we shared the possibilities of media that you can use within your classroom and with your students. There are so many ways to engage students with their learning using Google Apps such as Draw, Slides and of course using the likes of YouTube for creating playlists of rewindable learning for the students.

I presented a breakout on creating pick-a-path stories. I always created my own as they were creating theirs, and I realised that I had left off some important information:

1. Use the titles to name your slides. I did share this with them, but then forgot to show them how if they change the title, it makes it easier to find the right slide you are trying to link to.
2. That all images and text boxes added to the slide will need to have a link back to the current slide so students can accidentally advance to the next slide.
3. I made mention part way through their create that they can use images instead of shapes and text as answers. 

My presentation with instructions.

This is my creation. I'm wanting to do something similar with Ngataki school around blog commenting once we have had a lesson or two around this concept of Smart Relationships.

Design Thinking

For the first part of our Manaiakalani Hui, we engaged in a team-building exercise.

The first fun activity was to play a variation of rock, paper, scissors called Ninja, Tiger, Granny.  Played like rock, paper, scissors; whoever wins goes ahead to the next person, and the losing person becomes the support person and creates a chain. A great ice-breaker.

The focus of the day was around design thinking. Design thinking has a human-centred core. The important message here was not to get stuck on your own ideas, to be critical and accept feedback. You need to be willing to let go of ideas that perhaps didn't meet the requirements of the customer.

To prepare ourselves for design thinking, we were asked to draw a buddy in a short space of time. This was to promote the idea that you shouldn't apologise for our ideas and designs, instead take on feedback instead.

Learning about the design thinking process, we worked in groups and completed practical, hands-on activities.  The first stage of design thinking is to empathise with the consumer/customer. We were asked to go into a cafe, order a coffee, and empathise with a customer around their cafe experience.  From that, we came back with some issues that may arise for our customer. This is the "define" in the process.

In our group, we made up our own customer, based on our own experiences and anxieties we face when going to a cafe. We came up with Danvery. Brilliant drawing, thanks Anne.

Ideate is the next step in the process, and we thought about so many different ways that we could solve the issues our customer faced/faces. We had so many ideas, some doable, others were very out there. We marked our ideas using the following scale.

The fun had only just begun! We had to prototype our solution. I think we were a bit ambitious with our solution. We designed edible coffee cups, and you could choose out of five cups - sweet, bitter, salty, sour and umami.

Our idea:  A garden wall, ambience music, hologram at each table which can state where all the ingredient came from, and edible coffee cups. So fun to act out and test our prototype with a customer. 

Becoming Reflective

With a focus on my inquiry, I would like to start using a google form with reflective questions to use at the end of teaching sessions. This would hopefully encourage students to start thinking more critically about the learning that has taken place, or not taken place.

Here is a link to the form I would like to use. This may be refined as we go along.

DFI Session 8

DFI Session 8

What worked well this last week?

After our visit to Manaiakalani headquarters and visiting some schools in the Manaiakalani cohort, Deb and I went home dedicated to use our student individual blogs for sharing their learning. This has had a huge impact for our students and they have embraced this next step towards sharing their learning. The students have all been very enthusiastic engaged towards this learning and 

Empowered - With Gerhard Vermeulen Ako Hiko, Auckland 

The device is not just a tool. Empowerment only works if we have the other three aspects of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa - visible, connected, ubiquitous. With connectivity, students are able to rewind their learning and is empowering them. 

Providing students the opportunities to be creative, hooks students into their learning to enable empowered learners. As a school and a community, we need to work on having all four of the elements of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa to ensure our students are successful on this journey. All four the elements have to fit together like a puzzle, with even one missing, the learning won't be as successful.

Empowered - Connected - visible - ubiquitous

Taming the Gmail Jungle

I have started using labels in gmail to organise my mail, because in the past I have deleted all my inbox mail to clear it, as I felt overwhelmed. I can now save all these emails without feeling overwhelmed by all the clutter. 

Google Hangouts

Using google hangouts to connect with people across the country side. I can see how this would even benefit me within my classroom, because I don't have a smart panel to share students screens/work.  A google hangout can be used to connect with a student, share their screen and the whole class would be able to see what they are looking at.

DFI Session 6

DFI Session 6

What I have tried before this session:

• Students posting their blog profiles to their blogs.
• Students using screencastify to record how to post to their blog.
• Share their screencastify video onto their blog also.

What I need more support with, or what hasn't work:

• Lack of devices in our classroom to fully implement all learning
• Students needing more time to familiarize themselves with google and the device, ie. navigating between tabs, etc.
• Students knowing how to make a copy of a document correctly, naming it properly, and saving it in the correct folder.

Visible Learning

The Manaiakalani kaupapa is for all learning to be visible.  This includes the learning, planning, etc.  This is why creating class sites. Students can share - this is what I'm learning, this is the purpose of my learning. This is beneficial to teachers also, as more ideas are shared across schools. Teachers can access other teachers sites to find ideas, resources etc.  

Having all learning, including student blogs, visible creates connections between home and school. The sites allows students to read what's in the teachers mind. 

Having learning visible ensure there are no surprise. Students know where they are starting from and where they are going. 

Hapara enables visibility for the teacher to see where students are, what they are doing, follow up on work etc. 

Keeping learning visible makes it easy for anyone to access. As soon as you put up barriers like passwords etc, people usually only try a couple of times then give up.  Then this is a learner lost, or a lost connection with whanau.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu

A collaborative sharing platform using blogger to connect to a school. This is something I would like to have a look at doing next year when our students have their learning blogs up and running and we have 1:1 devices. Students make comments on other students learning. 

Hooking Student in

Teachers at Pt England school hook students into their inquiry learning at the start of each term. This is showcased as a large assembly at the start of each year.  An example of new entrants teachers can be viewed on this slide, slide 6.

Google Sites

Today we are creating google sites.  We were given information to use, and with that we had to create an engaging site for our learners.  In our group, we created a garden breakout. This requires students to find hints on the site, to answer questions on a form. Here is my example.

Reflection

Today was an exciting day for learning. I have enjoyed learning more about google sites and how they can create a learning platform for students to use, for example a hook into an inquiry topic. 

Experimenting with Slides with my students

After our DFI session 4, I was excited to continue building my class site, as well as using slides to make my planning and teaching 'rewindable' for students.

I have a long way to go towards creating my own learning videos for students, but to experiment with my new learning, I was able to embed a relevant youtube video into my slides.  My slide is also embedded into my class site, for easy student access.

The only big issue that I face at this time, trying to make learning sites and learning slides available to my students, is the lack of technology in my class.  I can see the benefit of students being able to access all my lessons and links at all times, but until we have 1:1 devices with our students, this won't be effective or even viable.

I will continue to work on my site and slides, in preparation for the day we have access to 1:1 devices for our students. I'm excited about the prospects of this, and the opportunities for learning this will create for our students.

DFI Session 5

DFI Session 5

Code.org

Using code.org, students can learn coding basics. I have been using this with my class during our STEAM sessions. Students work at their own pace through the tutorials.  When students are ready, they can have a go with the projects available on the site.  Each requires students to think creatively, problem solve and use algebraic thinking. When using this in my sessions, students made connections to the algebra learning we have been covering. Each time, they had to find the 'rule' to move their sprite.  Below is my attempt at making a 'Flappy Bird' game using code.org.

I'm glad I learnt have to add this to my blog as this is what my students are hoping to do.

Hour of Code - Original Maze

Hour of Code - Flappy Bird Edition

Scratch and Makey Makey

Using Makey Makey, Anna and I created our own musical performance. Students can share learning with whanau, by creating interactive displays using Makey Makey. Possibilities could include sharing their pepeha, creating stories, set of instructions, each one linking to a previously recorded voice sharing the matching information. 

Scratch

Using scratch, I have created the following animation. Students will be able to create animations, linked to our current learning. At the moment we can learning about the procedure of a powhiri. Students could create a short animation showing the order of proceedings of a powhiri.

Some of my other creations include:

DFI Session 4

Creating

Back in the days students used many natural resources to create learning - making huts, weaving flax, build mud sculptures, etc. These days we need to think about ways that we can allow this freedom to create for students, using digital technologies. Many options are available for this purpose: stop motion animation, videos, writing music, virtual tours of the world, and so much more.

The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read ad write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

Youtube

Creating playlists for students to view can decrease distraction for students viewing irrelevant videos. Below is a playlist I have created to experiment with this new learning.  Embedding playlists (like how I have done here) into class sites makes it easier for students to access the right video, first time.  My next learning steps are to remove the 'extras' that are part of youtube, ie, removing the comments, the side view, and the option to view the videos in youtube, rather than remaining on the class site.

Live Streaming

Students can live locally, but learn globally. This can be used to live stream sporting events to whanau, but also throughout the school so that students can watch the events as they happen in class.

Google Draw

Had a go again today creating buttons using google draw. I created buttons that will be used for our new school site, giving students access to all their learning and blogs. Google draw can also be very useful when creating infographics.  Pictures can be loaded to google draw, and overlays can be used so that when clicking in certain parts of a picture, it could link you to another page, or give some information.  This would be great for our current learning about the Marae. Students can create an infographic labelling the parts of a marae. 



Google Slides

Google slides are useful for creating animations, lesson plans and much more.  From what we had learnt today, I'm excited to give google slide a go for my planning. I'm hoping to create a flipped learning environment for my target maths group (this is currently my teacher inquiry). Students would be able to access the slides at all times, meaning that any past learning can be 'rewinded' and revisited again.

Reflective Questions

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

• Google slides for planning flipped learning content
• Google draw for creating my class and school site

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

• Google draw to create infographics
• Google slides to share their learning - possibly use this with screencastify

Digital Fluency Intensive #1

Digital Fluency Intensive

My learning for the day included:

• creating a collaborative doc, where students each add their learning, before sending it to another person to add more.
• add-ons like change font, easy accents, read write, icons by nouns (for picture stories)
• Creating posters using google docs
• Sharing and saving google docs for ease of access
• Use "convert' files in settings to convert handwritten sheets (taken as a picture) in a word document that can be edited.