Ubiquitous Learning

Digital Fluency  Day 9

Wow 9 weeks done and dusted. What a journey we have had and what great things we have learnt.
I remember a few years ago- our first staff meeting that James Hopkins held, he talked about Learn, Create, Share and ubiquitous learning, among other words that made me think he was from another planet. NOW it all makes sense. How I wish I had known that then. The Manaiakalani journey all makes so much sense and I really have enjoyed learning about the why and how.

Our last session was about ubiquitous learning-   which is about learning any time, any where and any place. No longer is learning only inside the 4 walls of the classroom and between 9 am and 3 pm. By using digital devices and wonderfully teacher, created activities,  students can learn anywhere and at anytime. The beauty of it is, if the child has forgotten some part of their learning, they can go back and access it again and again.

I am so ready for our next parent session where we will be talking to our parents who will have children in the digital classes and about digital learning, next year. I now have the knowledge, understanding and passion to give an informed session.

As far as my own digital learning- I have learnt so much about the google suite and how to use them to improve my planning, teaching as well as giving my students the skills they need. Watch my children soar.
I am excited about using my class site and creating multimodal learning activities for my students.

Although this part of my learning is over for the time being,  I will use what I have learnt to become even more confident and  be able to help other staff members when they need it.

I just want to say a huge, huge thanks to Gerhard, Dorothy and the crew, it has been a really great PD.


My next goal is not to have such a big gap between the next post, but you could always see what my children are blogging about- May Road School's Room 13.

Cybersmart

Digital Fluency Day 8

The ambulance at the bottom of the cliff
This phrase suggests that a problem is being looked at backwards, as through we are trying to treat the consequences rather than the cause. In essence it’s a restatement of the proverb, “prevention is better than cure”. I am that ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. And my reaction is inhibiting the ability to empower some of my learners.

We are teaching, or should I say Gerhard is teaching, cybersmart lessons once a week throughout this year. This covers smart learners in term one, smart footprint in term two and Smart relationships in term three. And if we keep using a positive educational approach as well as using a common language and asking if they are leaving a “smart footprint”. We probably need to imbed this ideas into our daily thinking and approach it in a similar way as our Schools Learning Powers and PB4L. This will also need to be taught from at least our year two and three classes, not just in the digital classes. This will probably have a better impact than the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

A question to discuss at our syndicate meetings- How do we use the digital lure to empower our learners in the choices they make- instead of unsuccessfully trying to stop the use of what we see as unsuitable material.

       

Visability

Digital Fluency Day 7


A lot of learning again and a real sense of stepping out of my comfort zone again.
The more I listen to the Manaiakalani journey the more excited I get about teaching.
We are now at a stage where we as a syndicate, are making our learning more visible for our children, digital technologies allows for that. Our next step is to entice our children's parents to come on board and see what the children are learning about. And I know exactly how to do this- every year we have a meeting for the future, new parents of the digital classes, where we explain how the children's learning will change. So now I am better equiped and will show them at this meeting how they can access thin new way of learning, showing them the class sites at the meeting and let them navigate the site for themselves.

It was quite nerve-wracking having our peers critiquing our class sites, exp when one knows that it is not something one is proud of. But the comments we received were really helpful and I also asked my children in the class what they thought about it and what the thought would make it more exciting to use. By empowering students I am hoping to have more buy in and excitement in the revamped class site. I also asked what they would prefer to use-  topic buttons or term buttons, topic buttons won so that is what we will use on our class site. Some children wanted the main photo changed as there were a few children absent on  the day I took the site photo and they were not represented so I have changed that too. The revamped site will go live on Monday 20 August.

Empower

Digital Fluency Day 6

Boy I have had a lot to digest to day.
I have never really thought about how important empowering people really is. I have always been a person who follows the rules, a typical "goody two shoes". This idea is really outside of my comfort zone. I need to look at how to empower my students and their families especially when it comes to upholding the cyber safety part of our curriculum.
I do believe learning for our children should be learner centered, future focused, differentiated and personalised

What I am working on is that digital devices do not just a tool to replace the the exercise book but are used for creation if ideas.

Today we have learnt about Google Hangouts- which is blocked at our school. Here again is the dilemma, I can see how Google hangout could work in a classroom setting, I can see the gains it has in collaboration across our senior classrooms, but again I worry about the miss use of this programme when the children are not at school.