DFI Session 4 (Group 2)

DFI - Session 4 of the second group of teachers from the Tairawhiti Cluster.

Some reflections to share:

Teachers in this group showing they are "brave knights and are heroically courageous" in the digital world:

Gisborne Boys High x's 3

St Mary's Catholic School's x's 4 (including the Principal)

Cobham School

Awapuni School x's 2

Riverdale School x's 1

Tutors: Maria Krause & Cheryl Torrie

Great group of educators with capable tutors makes the day most worthwhile.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy? Even though I participated in the first round of DFI I have picked up many more trick and been even more informed about the Manaiakalani programme. We covered Cybersmart, Chromebooks and Ipad, revisited Hangouts and Screencastify. All very good stuff. Felt more confident this time. Cybersmart resources were awesome. Would love to be a classroom teacher again.
• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I still need to fully utilise the opportunities screencastify affords. Will reflect on this. For example I could use it to good effect on my professional new sites.
• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  If my learners are the Principals then I could improve my Google Site to be a source of information and a place for interaction.
• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life? Since being forced onto a vegan diet to reverse the onset of heart disease I would like to create a site with appropriate recipes and a run down on the effectiveness of diet on heart health and sharing of cardiac research.

If you're smart you will work out a way to look good when you are really on show . . . these guys worked it out . . .

Connected Learning means "Sharing"

• Sharing is a human instinct since the beginning of time 
• Sharing positively makes a positive difference to our lives - academically and to our wellbeing
• Current medium for technology includes digital
• Digital has REACH and SPEED advantage

otherwise my friends . . .

“My Dear Wormwood, be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics.

Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control.

Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing.

Ensure that the patient continues to believe that the problem is "out there" in the "broken system" rather than recognising there is a problem with himself.”

Keep up the good work people,

From C.S. Lewis

More on Manaiakalani Community, Pedagogy and leadership (these are fundamental)

FOR . . . 

Woolf-Fisher Research Centre Reasearch

Important research around the Manaiakalani Pedagogy.

https://wfrc-manaiakalani-research.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/

This is work in progress but at this stage it looks like emerging evidence that there is an acceleration of writing progress and big gains with a Summer Learning Journey programme. 

and . . .

DFI Session 8

DFI Session 8 - EMPOWERMENT 10 May 2019

A Manaiakalani expression for "Student Agency"

Why use digital technologies in the school?

Not merely a "tool."  Otherwise much cheaper to use a pencil and exercise book.  Digital devices open up a world that can significantly make a difference to people with low incomes who battle against all the problems of making ends meet from an educational, health, diet, educational challenges of being successful in society.

Today's Reflections:

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Dorothy's presentation was awesome. Clearly outlines the Why Manaiakalani? "Empowering" learners from low socio-economic backgrounds through the connectedness, visibility and ubiquity of the digital world. Manaiakalani supports whanau getting through the barriers through cost restraints.

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

Need to spend about 20 minutes per day practicing the new learning. Take the plunge with doing Google Level 1.

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

As I am not in a classroom teaching role I am more able to articulate the key principles around Manaiakalani with local school leaders and teachers.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

With a Down Syndrome grandson I would like to utilise Co-Spaces to create social stories for him to learn how to cope with challenges he faces. For example what to do when he finds himself getting anxious during a school assembly with lots of noise and people going here and there in order to avoid him lashing out at others around him.

OVERALL today at MindLab was excellent. Loved learning how to use coding with Co-Spaces.

Also great introduction to the Technology Curriculum.

  

DFI Digital Fluency Intensive 7

Digital Fluency Intensive Session 7

What have I learnt today?

NUMBER ONE:  
Excellent Hangout with Dorothy around "connected."  Excellent set of slides.  Particularly like the last slide with the x's 4 puzzle pieces linking

                         

 "Connected," "Visible," "Ubiquitous," "empowered."

NUMBER TWO: Google Sites

Explored a number of Google Sites from around the wider Manaiakalani Clusters and had face-to- face chats with the group to evaluate them.  We then evaluated our own.  Most of us are beginners but the classroom teachers seemed well down the track. Learnt how to insert various useful items such as the calendar. Great help from the leaders.

The evaluation questions were based on :

Day two of Manaiakalani Facilitators' Hui 

12 April 2019

DIGITAL DEVICE MANAGEMENT:

Learning about the complexities of Manaiakalani device management across all the clusters.  Huge area of work if not done well will bring about  much frustration for teachers / facilitators.

My Comment:  I am unsure whether or not school leaders appreciate the complexity.  I can see the reason for a single tech provider across a cluster.  The intertwining of tech support with every aspect of the programme means that having to deal with many tech providers would be unworkable.

ADVICE: After a year of experience working as a cluster in Tairawhiti with 14 schools, and having many hurdles to scramble over, I think our ability to "COLLABORATE" is being challenged.   We need to settle with ALL SCHOOLS having one provider and at least move toward this as an important goal over the coming term. 

Can our schools make progress here . . . ?????

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ...

Quote from Alice in Wonderland
"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." 
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Manaiakalani Facilitator Hui

My notes / reflections / learnings from Manaiakalani Facilitators Hui

Thursday 11 April 2019

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.C. S. Lewis

“I don't think..." then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

LEARN:

Digital is foundational to sound teaching practices.  Teaching reading is still supported by quality shared and guided reading practices.  There is nothing digital about this.  It involves deliberate acts of teaching.

My questions:

• Is this fully understood by teachers embarking on the changes brought about by the digital world?
• Are we making strong links to the proven, and often traditionally effective teaching practices, with what we intend to do with learners in a digital world.
• When teachers think about moving from CREATE to LEARN do we need to be careful not name or even suggest the "road" to be taken?
• How much does "CREATE" need to be "COLLABORATIVE?

Create to Learn
In making a short simple video clip with mobile phone camera three of us created a scene where LEARNING happened.   Showed that LEARNING happens whole CREATING . ie CREATE to LEARN.    It is, however, very intentional not a free-for-all.

“Give the pupils teachers something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

John Dewey

Creating provides students with an opportunity to reflect on, synthesize, and come to a deeper understanding of what they read and know – or think they know.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'' That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.'I don't much care where -' said Alice.'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.'- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.”― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

LEARN - CREATE - SHARE                       linear or integrated??

Digital Fluency Intensive 5

Here we are again with the fifth DFI session.  

Have learnt about screen-casting which is incredibly valuable.

Other learnings:

🗹 "Explain Everything" on the Ipad.

🗹  Going over "Digital Dig."

🗹  Going over "Cybersmart Curriculum.

NOTE:  I can see huge value in using much of the Manaiakalani resources for school Digital Strategic Planning.

Day 4 of Digital Fluency Intensive

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

🗹  Google Sheets:  Using "natural language" to ask questions around the data.  Creating more meaningful charts to suit my questions.

🗹  The group dialogue around SHARE and the importance of relating to an "audience."

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

🗹  Using Google Sheets charts is most relevant to my work.  For example: I can create a chart and make a "live link" to the number of blog posts for each student and the chart will be updated automatically over time without me having to go and update data manually.

DAY 3 - Digital Fluency Intensive

My Learning Today:

🗹  Setting up Youtube channel.

🗹  How to livestream.

🗹 Reviewed Slides

🗹 Made a gadget for my blog.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Creativity Empowers Learners

To quote Hornby Secondary school Principal - "We are pushing hard to develop the use of digital tools in our students' learning. Digital tools are acknowledged as an accelerator of learning, as long as they are used with new pedagogies. Using new technology to do what we have always done is, as Alan November would say, simply creating a $1000 pencil.

The evidence being accumulated by the Woolf Fisher Research Centre out of Auckland University supports the belief that the technology, combined with the Learn Create Share pedagogy, is an accelerator. Actually it's more than that, it's a game changer for our learners.”

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

I am learning to switch more confidently between Google apps which will indeed improve my workflow.

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

My learners are not children but adults involved in education. I would like to encourage my colleagues to invest in more time 

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

My confidence is growing daily as I use the tools and tricks of the trade in my usual workflow.

Visible Learning:

I can see many parallels between the Maniaiakalani LEARN CREATE SHARE pedagogy and "Visible Learning" . (John Hattie stuff).  I would like to provide some posts and draw some connections if I can.  Here's a start . . .  check this blog . . .

https://bbullis.edublogs.org/2016/03/16/john-hatties-top-ten-visible-learning-takeaways-number-one-self-reported-gradesstudent-expectations/

Liked this - it is part of the above blog coming from Carol Dweck of Growth Mindsets fame. . . 

DFI Day 2

These are some of my learnings from the Digital Fluency Intensive today. Friday 7 March.

• Organising my emails.
• Google Keep
• Practiced Google Hangout.  Very successful.
• Toby
• Organising my calendar better.
• Linking my google stuff to my phone.
• Installed LOOM on my computer and learnt how to record and present my screen with speech to a Hangout group.  (Thanks Herman for your help)

A thought:  At our Manaiakalani PLG yesterday we discussed the importance of our Cluster having a "roadmap."  A sample framework for creating a Roadmap has been sent out to Principals but much work by each school is needed to complete it so as to reflect the particular school's unique character.

The LEARN, CREATE, SHARE pedagogy is a great place to start.

The above "LEARN" set of slides prepared by Dorothy is an excellent place to start the thinking.

How Herman helped me learn to embed a recording.

My Reflections on todays Learning at the Digital Learning Intensive.  (i.e. my first try at embedding a recording)

DIgital Fluency Intensive - Session 1

Being “At Home in a Digital World” is my goal. 

This indicates my competence and attitude of an empowered, life long learner.

This is what I can do without much effort at this stage.

Google Drive

Create Folders  ✔
Access Folders ✔
Organise files within Folders ✔
Manage Folder permissions ✔
Work with Office files ✔
Work with Apple files ✔
Work with other non-Google files eg pdfs ✔
Upload Files ✔
Convert Files ✔
Share Files ✔
Share non-Google files ✔
Add Folders to your Google Drive ✔
Share a Resource Folder in Drive ✔
Add Files in Drive, without moving them from their ‘home’ ✔

Google Documents

Create a Google Document ✔
Share a Google Document ✔
Share a Google Document with copy restrictions ✔
Format (word process) a document ✔
Layout a Document ✔
Use headers and bookmarks effectively ✔
Collaborate using Google Docs ✔
Provide Feedback with Comments in Docs ✔
Provide Feedback with Suggested Edits in Docs ✔
Direct Comments to specific users ✔
Add links to comments ✔
Access and Review Revision History in Google Docs ✔
Review Comments in Google Docs for Contributions ✔
Revert to Earlier Versions of Google Docs ✔
Use Explore Tool effectively ✔
Citation tools to avoid plagiarism including footnotes ✔
Master Voice Typing ✔
Paste without formatting, clear formatting ✔
Find and replace ✔
Create Tables and manage properties ✔
Get Add-ons ✔
Manage Add-ons ✔
Script Editor ✔

Blogging

I am re - learning using Blogger after many years of absence:

Blogging - Getting started

Time to reflect and share with colleagues

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

MK origins arose from innovations around the use of digital devices for each student in 2000 "The Tamaki Achievement Pathway and PLD 206/7."

Hence, Manaiakalani provides a way forward to adapt teaching and learning using devices with access to the internet while bringing along whanau in the process where strong links add much value through "rangitiratanga." The experience of the Manaiakalani cluster and Outreach Programmes along with robust, reliable longitudinal data shows that students make accelerated progress in Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

Manaiakalani have a clear pedagogy - LEARN CREATE SHARE.

A Cyber Safety Component and Kawa of Care embedded in teacher and student use of devices using Google.

Some practical essentials for teachers include setting some clear parameters around naming documents and saving to folders. eg document titles prefaced with the student initials. Spend a good deal of time on this at the start of year.

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

To engage closely with colleagues using the Google platform which enables "sharing" of my learning including this blog. Overall give everything a go.

Reflect and include my new learning sin my regular work eg create shared docs together with people I work most closely with over the coming months.

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

If I regard my learners, who are adults, I need to encourage our communications using the tools I am learning to use. Essential to use new learnings to embed them in my regular work.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Spend a little quality time practicing, fiddling etc around ad-ons. Incorporate new learnings in my work with voluntary organisations. eg Tairawhiti Voyaging Trust and as church treasurer.

WORK IN PROGRESS - Very bland

David Langford Educational  Consultant 37 Haisman Road RD1 Makauri, Gisborne, NZ Mobile: 027 243 8152