Last Day

What a journey DFI has been for me. If you had told me nine weeks ago, that I would have increased my knowledge of all things digital, to this degree I wouldn't have believed you.
Today, we had a presentation from Hannah West From Point England school about Ubiquitous Learning.
Ubiquitous means making learning visible- anytime, anywhere or at any pace.
Ubiquitous learning can extend the day for our students and by that I mean that they have the ability to learn outside the standard school hours. In other words, we don't have to physically be at school to learn.
Children from decile 1 schools are typically arriving at school without the oral language experience of their peers form decile 10 schools . (30 million less spoken words less for the decile one children).
Not a lot of active learning has happened in some of these children's lives- so offering learning any place, any pace etc can help them gain ground.
The use of Technology enables removal of barriers and previously inconceivable solutions to problems- so it is not just a tool.
If it is worth teaching- it is worth capturing
Rewindable learning makes learning accessible to more students.
From there, we sat the Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam. This was something I had spent a long time preparing for ( thanks to rewindable learning) and I am happy to report that the hard work has paid off and I have gained this badge.
Tuesdays are going to look way different for me next term. I will miss the collegiality and support that we received in the DFI. I have learnt everything from taking a screenshot to sending a playlist and changing the privacy settings on a youtube list- I am not even sure I knew playlists really existed before on youtube, or at least I certainly didn't have the first clue about making one.
Probably the thing I have got most from this course is the confidence I have gained in all areas of the digital world and I am happy to say that there have been times when I have even managed to help other people on the course with how to do things. The other part of the course I have particularly enjoyed is learning about the history and background of Manaiakalani. The origins of it are fascinating.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to be involved in this course. Google Certificated Educator Level 2- here I come. It might take a while but I want to give it a go.

Devices
This week we met Gerhard who talked to us about cyber safety. This was the session of tying together of the kaupapa.
Manaiakalani have a strong drive to use positive language. For example, we don't talk about cyber bullying, we would use the words cyber smart. This is a proactive measure that Manaiakalani use. In the ideal world, we need to use it across the school so that everyone is on the same page.
Why is it important to be cyber smart?
We have a responsibility to equip our kids with the skills to be cybersmart. We want our learners to be at home in a digital world and of course it is for their safety.
The idea is to Empower student voice through digital citizenship. The Cybersmart curriculum is broken into 10 parts. Smart learners, Smart Footprint, Smart Relationships, Smart Media, Smart Surfing, Smart legal, Smart Money, Smart Values, Smart Teachers and Smart Parents
Smart Learning Needs to be a whole school focus.
We introduce (or revisit) the 3 categories most fundamental to daily digital lives EVERY year:
Term 1- Learners ( Learn)
Term 2 Footprint (create)
Term 3- Relationships ( Share)
Being cybersmart empowers learners to connect when their learning is visible and ubiquitous.
Empowering “Confident,connected,actively involved,lifelong learners.”
Ubiquitous When earning is accessible ( A4) - anytime,anywhere, any pace, anyone. Being cybersmart empowers our learners to harness technology in smart and clever ways.
Connected- empowering young people to engage in online behaviour and thinking that elevates positive actions.
Visible- whenever and wherever we share on line its personal.
The other important aspect is the whanau aspect which empowers parents by partnering with them to connect with their child’s learning. We need to engage families and in so doing, we are empowering them.
Part of being cybersmart is being careful and mindful when commenting on people's Blogs. Ensure the comments are Positive ( compliment author), Helpful (add more info ask a question) and finally Thoughtful - does the blog remind me of something similar? How did I connect to it?
Cybersmart learning at its best is when it is embedded into an existing educational programme. Young people learn that every time they connect, collaborate and share online, it combines to create their digital footprint. We need it to make them and their families feel proud.
Some of the other things we covered were Hapara Teacher Dashboard. This is a fairly new concept to me as currently we are not using it in the Hub. I found it interesting how we can track our children's learning etc. It was interesting discussing some of the things that we should be mindful of when using this tool. One of those things is ensuring you have the time set to school hours so that you are not able to monitor the children while they are at home.
IPad's- We looked at Explain Everything which was good to see a little deeper in to what the capabilities are for this app. It is amazing and very child friendly.
Chromebooks- We used a chromebook which was good because it allowed us to see what it is like for the children who are working on these all day. I have had some time recently using a chromebook as my Mac was getting fixed. I think the kids are pretty lucky to have such a great device to work with. We did some challenges that were helpful and provided us with lots of shortcuts and tricks.
Screencastify- This was a great refresher from when I did Mindlab. Below is a screencastify I made today.

Computational Thinking.
I have enjoyed today again and once more am going home to nurse a sore brain ( in a good way).
I have enjoyed all our hangouts with Dorothy over the last few weeks, however, I particularly enjoyed her presentation today on Empowerment.

I am enjoying learning the background about Manaiakalani. Dorothy explained that we used to use the work "agency" instead of "empowered" but the word came with many negative connotations for many families in low decile areas. They saw agencies as generally threatening and their experience of agencies was often not positive so the whanau didn't respond well to this word. The word got changed to "empowered"" which has had a much better reaction.

When we are talking about empowerment- we are not just talking about our children, we are also talking about our teachers. Some teachers have found the move to the digital world quite disempowering. In the past, teachers believed they had a clear vision of what effective teaching looked like without the use of devices so the change has been quite challenging for some teachers.

Manaiakalani are committed to the idea that technology is not just a "tool." If technology is to be used as just another "tool", is is far too expensive for schools and families. It needs to be transformational.

The way in which we can use technology, has the ability to change a community and the way they live and are connected to the outside world.  Dorothy talked a lot about the area in South Auckland in which she teaches and the many challenges they face because of poverty etc.  There's a real sense of disempowerment in parts of this community, and they face challenges we might not even realise- including things like getting rid of rubbish ( they cannot afford the trailer or the dump fees etc) and not being able to afford to get to doctors or not being able to buy things so they end up using rip off companies to sell them clothing and the such like.  Now that the children are connected and have access to devices, they are beginning to teach the parents so now they are beginning to shop online    (and being more wise about their purchases), and gaining a credit rating. They are even beginning to use skype to have doctors appointments if they are unable to attend the GP.  

Blogging is empowering the students as they can use their voice and have people provide comments  and feedback on their blog posts.  We disempower children's learning if it is not visible.  We cannot be empowered if the learning is not ubiquitous, connected and visible.

Technology is not just a tool- "When it transforms the way we learn, offers us, new uncharted experiences and opportunities

Dea Shareski (2011)

From here we moved on to learning about computational thinking with Viv. This was a bit like learning a new language. It was interesting to realise the use it has in the classroom. It was good to explore how algorithms can be used as fun activities in the junior and senior classroom. I was challenged with learning about the Binary Maths but I understood the place it holds with technology.

Media- DFI

Another wonderful but full day her at DFI. Today we worked with Kent Somerfield from Point England School who is a mine of information regarding you tube, google drawings and slides among other things.
The "theory" part of the day today was about "Connecting". We discussed the reason why we would choose to go digital. The reason is so that we can be connected to a wider audience. It is also so kids have a wide ( and authentic) audience ( blogger) . Back in the day , children used to Publish their work and it would end up on a wall for hardly anyone to read . To be digital is to be connected. Children can live locally to their school and walk to school but for kids to become connected through the digital world meant that they could live locally but be connected globally.
Manaiakalani realised the ability to share everything digitally was a wonderful opportunity for teachers to become connected, sharing planning, resources etc through the world of google docs. They then began the out reach programme - which meant that the connections strengthened and the benefits became reciprocal. By connecting with others, we keep bettering ourselves.
Each school has its own “language”. Manaiakalani value a shared sense of language and see it as is important for Manaiakalani. An example of this language is, eg Learn, Create, Share.
Manaiakalani also value collaboration and sharing of knowledge and ideas.
By being connected you can be visible. The visibility can break down barriers- it can empower parents etc so they feel like they can be more involved in their child’s education.
Being connected also means you are connected to a whole lot of resources.
Connected, ubiquitous, empowered, visible- Maximum effectiveness is achieved when all four goals are genuinely occurring.
You tube
We had a look at you tube and made some play lists. I have made playlist for singing. This can be embedded into the site for the children to access.
These will be useful both at school and at home. The three dots are one way in which you can create a playlist. We talked about different ways to live stream and some of the advantages of doing so. These include allowing parents and family members to be involved and to encourage students, again giving them authenticity.
Google Drawings, I found this the most helpful part of today's session. I have never really used it before today but I know feel like it will be something I use a lot and in many different ways.
A couple of tips to remember when using Google draw.
Has to be inside the pallet - can put instructions etc on the outside the pallet that can be manipulated. If an image or text is on the outside of the pallet, it won’t publish.
Download files as a PNG as it will cut away the background extra.
Can replace image to make things uniform but check you save it.Can take picture and make a text box with no text and pop in the link to their blog etc.
Command 'A" will show the text boxes- that could lead to different websites or children's blogs or work etc.
Slides
We might use slides for pick a path story. You can copy the url of a slide and link it to click back to the slide and link it.
Use for animation- lots of copy and pasting and embed the code (publish to the web) and change the 3000 to 100 in the code to make it faster.
Use slides to plan.- Others should not be able to see the comments and reflections that we write.
Can insert audio into slides. This could be used as a way to deliver instructions for children.
Here is an example of something I made in Google drawings today to introduce my blog. You will be able to see it in use on my blog. It could also be tweaked to use in sites etc too.

Google Sites Day 2

We have just completed day 5 of our DFI course. I am writing this blog at home because I was so engrossed in what I was doing this afternoon - that I didn't quite get to blogging. Again I have had a great day today and really enjoyed Danni's company.
We started our day as usual with the www. Our hangout with Dorothy was the beginning of the next four sessions related to the first of the four words that help to define Manaiakalani which are Visible, Connected, Ubiquitous and Empowered.
Today we discussed what it means to be visible. Here are a couple of things that stood out for me from today's sessions.
John Hattie has become the guru about what it means to be visible. When we talk about making learning visible, we are talking about moving barriers. We need to consider all parties when we are thinking about visible learning including teachers, students, colleagues and whanau.
In the past, successful people were the ones who could read the teacher's mind and those who could anticipate the teacher's intention- there is actually no science around visible learning- we are simply talking about people being able to SEE it. This has been highlighted by our focus recently having been on things like success criteria and WALTs etc which has opened up the learning journey for us.
The international game changer in making learning visible in recent times has been technology. Having a device in front of the children is a bit like having an interactive whiteboard, but one that can be used both inside and outside the classroom.
Visual learning creates a no surprise culture where everything is visible, available and in advance. This means making the majority of things visible including the teachers planning. It does, however, raise a question of which that if being visible is the default, then which parts of the journey should remain "hidden" or private. I would think these would include health issues, discipline matters and some stats including date of birth etc and possibly some forms of assessment.
In many schools and in certain situations, we have erected barriers with technology, not removed them. Passwords are a barrier. We have got to remember so many different ones and some schools lock parents out with the passwords. Many years ago a parent could look at their child's exercise books to gain an idea of how they were working , but technology can make that difficult, only, though if you can't see the learning journey. We must make learning visible - we know the more we make visible the more chance our learners have of making a connection.
GOOGLE SITES-PART TWO
We had a short session on why we use Google Sites?
Sites can be visible and we can access their screens. All the work is up on the screen. Not everything is up on the site- but they should be able to use the learn create share on the site.
Learn,Create, Share- we can create templates and learning resources using drive and Explain Everything. We can share learning resources and planning using sites and we can review progress using dashboard.
For learners, the benefits include easy access to resources, collaborating with others, sharing learning and view and interact with the global community and whanau can view the learning.
A couple of other things to consider when designing a site include colours. Consider how easy it is to read. Are any of your students colour blind or do they have any disorders that affect the way they see colour?
It is important to think about the layout and what the home page will look like? Remember to use the 3 click rule which means that learning should be accessible within 3 short clicks so that students don't lose interest or become distracted.
The remainder of the day was great because we had the opportunity to design our sites. Mine is a long way from finished not to mention a long way from perfect, but I am now officially on my way and trying not to have ideas above my station at this point. I think I love the google site thing, and I am going to head off now and see if I can add something else to it.

Google Sites

Today takes the cake as far as learning and clarification of how the digital world can work for our kids. I feel a bit like I had a bit of an "ahah" moment.
We started as usual with the www and then had a focus on the third part of the Manaiakalani programme of "Share"-Tohatoha. Some take outs for me from today's session included that fact that sharing is not something new- we have been born to share. Some people don’t like to share and others do.  Human instinct is to share and throughout our life journey we tend to share to some degree or another bth the good and the bad.

2005 was a special year in story of humanity.  Not so much the year 2000 as we might have expected. 2005 was the year it changed and many of us missed it ; youtube, facebook, bebo etc became mainstream in 2005. Each one of these platforms talked about sharing.  Through the use of these platforms, among others, the digital world has turbo charged sharing.

In the past we used some different and more simple ways to share our learning. Some of these may have included taking your book to the principal for a sticker, newsletters, assembly etc. While many of these ways of sharing our learning still have merit- the fact remains that all of them are constrained by time, place and people etc. the digital world eliminated these constraints when it comes to sharing our learning.

GOOGLE SITES

The other day, Mark set up a google sight for our Hub - and I was in awe of how amazing it was that someone could so quickly create something that we will potentially use to guide our planning, teaching and assessing and a place where all of this learn, create, share will take place.  I was so impressed, until today, when I realised how easy it is to get started.  I have created two google sites today and I actually enjoyed doing them.  This is a must do for the weekend- to have a play.  By the way- thanks mark- I do appreciate you setting up our site still.  

Google sites are a great place to keep everything for the children- all their learning can be accessed in the one place and all our planning can be there too.  Multi modal sites are a great way of ensuring the learner is hooked into engaging activities. 

A couple of tips for me to remember are that you need to be careful with the header- keep it the same- you don't want the children having to scroll down as we need to pack a punch on the landing page so you put all the engaging bits in the first view.

If you follow your nose and use the drop downs to with a logical mindset- google sites seems to be pretty accessible to all and it looks like it my be my new favourite.  here is one I had a go at today.

Garden with Science

Google Maps

Today was day three of the Digital Fluency Intensive.  We have covered a lot today.  We started again with sharing what worked, what didn't work so well and what we needed help with.  This is always interesting to hear how each other's week has been.
We then had a "hangout" with Dorothy in Auckland.  Last week we learnt about "learn" and this week we were looking deeper into the "create" part of the thinking behind Manaiakalani. It was interesting to have it confirmed that creating is such a vital part of the learning journey for  children.  We are "learning through play" in our Hub and lots of Dorothy's presentation confirmed that what we are doing is valuable for the kids.  A quote that resonated with me is from John Dewey who said " Giving the students something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results."
The next session for today was about Google Forms.  Here was a section where I was feeling comfortable as I have used these a few times lately for various reasons.  I learnt that we can embed photos into forms and that possibly the easiest way to send forms is by the link option. I learnt you can have several forms responses  and send the information to the same spreadsheet.  The three dots are located beside the green box with the white cross.
A very cool part of the day today was working with Google Maps. We learnt how to put information from a google spreadsheet to a google map. This would be very handy in the classroom. Without thinking about it too much I thought we could used in the junior school this at the beginning of the year to display where everyone is from or to look at where children have travelled to in the holidays. There are several more sophisticated ways this could be used up the school as well. One example of this could be studying where refugees come from or using Maps to look at an area of interest in the world eg places New Zealanders fought in World War 1.
Google sheets was another area covered today. Who knew what information you could gather from using Google sheets. I learnt a lot of new information about sheets. My favourite thing ( which probably seems quite insignificant in the big scheme of things) was clicking and dragging the curser at the bottom right and making a pattern or autofill ( eg the months of the year). Turning the data into a chart or a graph was also valuable information to learn. Learning to sort data is also something that we will use in the future. All in all - a very busy day but another great day of learning.
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Today we have been learning to make charts from google sheets and then embedding them into my blog. This even involved some rearranging of the coding.  This information came directly from a blog of a child so this will be helpful in the future.