Revision (Day #9 of DFI)

For our final session of our DFI we looked at Ubiquitous Learning (learning at any time, anywhere and at any pace from anyone). This has been a concept that Manaiakalani have been focusing on from their very inception. Some ideas to ponder include:

• Learning isn't solely confined to school between 9am and 3pm. 
• Technology removes barriers to learning.
• Devices are more than tools
• Rewindable learning brings added value

We were asked to reflect on the recent lock down (season#1 and season#2) and our readiness for ubiquitous learning with these questions:

• What are you proud of?
• What do you regret?
• Where have you taken forward into the 'new' era of schooling?

I would say I'm lucky to be in a school that uses class sites for students to access their learning tasks. This meant that the transition from learning in class to learning in home was much easier for students because they were already familiar with where to go and what to do. Something I have taken from lock down learning back to the classroom is using rewindable learning (screencastify) more regularly as this has helped students who need a reminder or who have been absent. No regrets.

Today we sat our 3 hour Google exam...

...less stressful than I was expecting!

The DFI has been such a positive experience for me. I was slightly anxious initially but put at ease straight away. I felt fully supported by my facilitator (thanks Vicki) and it was invaluable having a 'bubble' to meet with regularly to share ideas, struggles, successes etc along the way. Breakout groups with mini lessons were always clear and easy to follow. 

I feel way more confident in using what I have learnt from these sessions and more confident in trying to figure out how to do something if I'm not entirely sure (a recent example: showing a group of students how to embed a slideshow animation into their blog).

Here's one last view of my funky wallpaper...

And here is my DFI badge...

Computational Thinking (Day #8 of DFI)

We looked at the third Manaiakalani kaupapa of Empowerment this week. Some concepts about this principle include: 

• empowering learners and teachers is about the advancing of rangatiratanga - the idea of people taking back control of their own lives 
• learners have 'voice, ownership and choice' in their learning
• devices have become more than simply tools - they can give us access to new learning environments 

We also had a look at computational thinking tasks by visiting different sites and having a play. It is interesting to see that there are many basic block coding sites that follow similar steps (which makes it easier for students to use). Some of these included:

• Lightbot
• Minecraft
• Scratch Jnr
• Kodable
• Code.org

These sites are probably more suited to the students in my class. I like how they generally start out quite basic, allowing you to succeed and work out what to do before becoming progressively more challenging and, in doing so, give you the opportunity to make mistakes and have to debug. 

There were also coding sites that were text based. These are a bit more advanced and included:

• Compute It (where you are given the code and have to follow it)
• Code Combat
• Trinket

I feel that these would probably be too challenging for the majority of my students (but I may have to investigate some of these a bit more myself!)

During a breakout, I had a chance to explore Scratch a little more. Unfortunately there seemed to be a few problems along the way with work not saving and having to start over. I ran into difficulty when I tried to share it and lost what I had done a second time. The upside of all of this is that, the more I revisited it, the more familiar I became with using the tools. This is something I would be interested in exploring with my students, though I think I would like to have more time to play around with the site first.

Below is my third attempt with using Scratch to move a sprite and make it talk. Some instructions to help:

• Use the arrow keys to move the sprite across, up and down
• Use the flag to get back to the starting position
• Use the space key to make the sprite talk

Different Digital Devices (Day #7 of DFI)

Smart Learner (Learn) - Smart Footprint (Create) - Smart Relationships (Share)

We had a look at the Cybersmart curriculum this week. This is designed to empower learners as connected and confident decision makers with the understanding that learning is visible and ubiquitous (available at any time, anywhere by anyone). Over the years, devices, connection and access to the web has grown significantly. With this in mind, the Cybersmart curriculum aims to foster confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners in this arena.

Tip: Modelling positive Cybersmart language is a key element of this curriculum. Focusing on positive, thoughtful and helpful comments enables students to recognise when something is not right (we should focus on the do's rather than the don'ts).

Later in the day we had the opportunity to use Chromebooks and iPads to complete tasks so we could get a feel for what these devices are like to use for students. The idea was that classes are using one device per student (regardless of which one) so each student would have a personal account. Introducing the Kawa of Care at the beginning of the year is beneficial so students know how to look after these devices from day one. 

Chromebooks: We looked at the Digital Dig which enables students to find shortcuts when using apps. I have used this before with my class but it was good to revisit as a refresher (and learn a few more shortcuts that will be useful). 

Here is my (almost) finished Digital Dig:

 

iPads: We had a play with the Explain Everything app and used drawing tools, photos, shapes and recordings to produce a piece of work. It's good to see what younger students at school are using and how this app uses the same language for functions (copy, paste etc) that they have when using chromebooks.

Here is my poster:

We had a task where we used a recording app to discuss an area of Cybersmart. I chose screencastify as this is something both my students and I are familiar with. The area I chose was about using key words from questions when searching for information on the web. I chose this because I thought it could be a useful lesson with my class.
 

 We reflected on:

• What are the key messages/learning intentions in this lesson?

• How could you personalise this lesson for your learners?

• What would it look like on your learning site?

• Are there opportunities within one of your current lessons to integrate these cybersmart concepts?

It was more challenging that I though it was going to be as I am more used to explaining a task or strategy rather than commenting on something created by someone else. 

Here's what I came up with: