Final

 Today we reached our final session of our DFI journey and I have been reflecting on all that I have learned and want to continue learning.  

I started this year only having used Reading Eggs and Mathletics with my students and programmes that essentially run themselves.  I was fortunate that in years prior to Lockdown I had spent quite a bit of time familiarizing myself with Seesaw and was able to use that as an easy platform for learning during Lockdown.  Like everyone else I also became very familiar with Google Meets but not with students.    

Besides my own personal knowledge of Docs, Youtube and the like it was therefore a huge learning curve to start looking at some of the other suite for the first time.  It was a timely reminder what it feels like to be a learner when others seem far ahead of where you are at.  Unlike many young learners I have plenty of experiences to draw upon and remind myself that I would get there in the end and avoid being frustrated!

Though we are hopeful of not having to have round 2 of level 3 or 4 Lockdown (in our area of NZ as Auckland has already returned) I am feeling much more able to use my new found knowledge to set up Meets with my juniors and prepare some more personalised learning opportunities.  Of course I am able to  do this in our in school classroom but in limited form as we have 10 ipads to share.  

I would have loved to have had more face to face opportunities during this DFI and would certainly recommend it for those in a similar situation to mine, namely in the juniors and "early on" in the Google suite etc. knowledge stakes, as I didn't want to take up others valuable talk time,  it would be of benefit if discussions were more at a similar stage/learning level.  Those who are already teaching in a one to one classroom seem to find the online learning suitable.

I am excited about what is next in my online learning and have already made a document today that will remind me of some of my next steps...

Thanks to Amie, Vicki and the team, as well as my digital bubble and co learners who guided and supported me along my digital journey so far.  

Ngā mihi nui!

computational thinking

 Today we reflected on the need to empower students to be able to change their world and be an active participant in it.   For many people the choices in their world are limited by economics and birthright yet allowing young people access to information enables them to more access to decision making.  The important decisions about their health, homes and how they live their lives...

Our focus today was on Computational Thinking and we were encouraged to think about programming as in essence simply an ability to follow instructions in sequence, and at an early level this can simply mean for example learning the steps of being able to cross the road.  There are very important applications in literacy and numeracy of being able to work in sequence so applications and practice opportunities can be very wide and varied with links made.

The NZ Digital Curriculum is being implemented in 2020 and the fundamental steps of a programmer are applicable to the school learner.  Learn to use the tools, using a sequence of steps to create a programme - repeating where necessary, and then the if- then options.  Once created - looking for the "bugs' in the system are a necessary skill also.  We are also required to teach the vocabulary of programming to students.  

We also considered ethical considerations when looking at the latest technologies.  Many science fiction writers accurately predicted upcoming technologies and were suprisingly accurate - from mobile phones on Star Trek to predicting the moon landing with 3 men in a cone shaped object.  We are surrounded by imminent technologies even in nz with space launches in Gisborne and driverless cars.  Ethical considerations are very real and it is concerning to reflect that important decisions about life or death in the event of an imminent accident with a driverless car are being faced by programmers and companies.  If a car has to hit something and there are choices of gender, age, race etc then who will make these decisions?  moralmachine.net

Today I also explored lots of sites with computational learning in mind - from Minecraft to Scratch Junior and I also experimented with using programming of a mihi maker in Gamefroot where children are able to programme their mihimihi to share with others.  Options are available to include relevant information and the site instructions are currently being updated.  I can imagine students at my school loving the animated journey showing their own mihimihi!  

Devices

Today we reflected on the principles of being cybersmart.  Fiona Grant shared some of the guiding understandings from the Manaiakalani project work.  

Namely, that we encourage the students to always focus on positive messages, so that this becomes the norm for their online experience.  There are many programmes that provide for this learning available to schools but this should be a clear understanding for students right from their early journeys online.  In doing so - this will also mean that they are sharing positive messages about themselves.  It is a reality that once online - they are a visible presence and it is important that they present a view of themselves that they are proud of.    Positive is the norm.  

Another important aspect if how much the children are able to connect with their parents and whanau online and how schools are able to support this valuable connection through online provision and that many will need support with this as they are likely not to have experienced the same online opportunities, and even if skilled in this area, knowing how to support their children needs to be made explicit and achievable.  

We also explored using chromebooks and ipads with varying degrees of success.  It brought home the importance of having the same or similar devices in a school environment otherwise teachers are literally unable to support the variety and number of problems children experience in a BYOD environment.  Our ipads and chromebooks apparently needed updates or early models were not able to support the media we were working with, or were responding in ways that we were unable to decipher easily - especially in an online environment! 

Moving to learning about Screencastify was therefore a relief in many ways.  The extension itself is very easily set up and once permissions were given I was easily able to record a practice video using online slide decks and links.   I quickly chose a junior option about blogging and as it was simply a first run through as I went, and it was done with plenty of time to spare.  I have embedded the video below.  

The advantage of being able to easily create rewindable learning opportunities - especially in areas where teachers need to support children repeatedly (e.g. punctuation 😏) or if some have missed a particular learning opportunity due to illness, or other absence.  Furthermore, special opportunities such as out of school learning are also available - more than just photos or simple video footage without a voice over or making learning outcomes explicit.  And similar to our recent online learning during Covid lockdowns, teachers are getting used to being on video frequently so it should be getting easier!