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.