Setting Our Sites On Visible Learning (Day #5 of DFI)

We started our session looking at one of the aspects of the Manaiakalani kaupapa - the idea that teaching and learning is visible. When we look in our classrooms there are some questions we might like to ask ourselves:

• Can we see what is being taught? 
• Can we see what is being learnt? 
• Is teaching and learning visible to teachers, learners and whanau? 

We need to be intentional in making the teaching and learning visible (what we find on whiteboards and in modelling books can also be present in the digital world):

• Learners can view their learning via their class site 
• Teachers can view learning via the teacher dashboard (Hapara)
• Whanau can view learning via the class site as well as the class blog and individual student blogs

We spent a good part of the day creating and developing a site (my group's was based on the theme of superheroes). It was good to have a bit of a refresher on how to create a new site as it has been a while since I have done this. To make a site more child-friendly there are some things to consider:

• Use graphics and colours more than chunks of text
• The fewer the clicks the greater the chance of students finding the correct task
• Using voice/video recordings can assist students with understanding what the task requires

Note: when linking pages to the Home Page it is important to remember to open the preview of the page you are linking or you might give editing access to your audience (likewise when you are sharing the link to your site - first open the preview and copy the URL)

Below is an image of my site (the link is attached so, go ahead...click on it). It might be a little on the unfinished side but it's a work in progress (I need a super power where I can stop time in order to get everything done that I need to!)