DFI Session Seven

Today we heard Fiona share her expertise on all things Cybersmart. It was a good reminder to delve into the Cybersmart resources beyond smart learner, smart footprint and smart relationships (luckily I got a chance to do so on this very afternoon). 

I realised that in the last month or so I've focused a lot on the visible aspect of the Manaiakalani kaupapa, especially in terms of class sites and school websites. Fiona's session made me reflect more on the ubiquitous aspect. If the visibility is there and students have access to their learning (I realise some do not), what other barriers are there that might be preventing them from engaging in distance learning?

It was a timely reminder to check in with leaders around whether Cybersmart is being taught in all classes and how teachers are embedding Cybersmart learning into their existing programmes.

...

Gerhard's session on Chromebooks was really interesting. I've been using a Chromebook as my primary device through necessity but now I can see how valuable it has been as I am fluent and comfortable with the device. Having said that, I still learnt a lot of new shortcuts during the Digital Dig. For example:

• search-l to lock my screen 
• ctrl-l to copy the contents of the omnibox.

In the afternoon we were able to make a Screencastify based on the content of one of the Cybersmart areas. I chose Smart Surfing and created this summary.





Ngā mihi

Distance Learning Week Two

Today I meet with the leaders of the seven schools in the Ako Hiko cluster. I'm excited to hear about the success stories that I'm sure they will have to share. We have been discussing two main areas:

• supporting and encouraging blogging
• keeping engagement up in Google Meets

Again, this week I've been fortunate enough to be involved in meetings with teachers from all over the country sharing their expertise and resources. Some of my favourite ideas have been:

Amy @ Glenbrae School and her spreadsheet to challenge bloggers to comment on other people's blogs. It looked like a huge success!

Kiriwai @ PT England School and her student set Taha Challenges. This definitely inspired me to think about other ways we can empower our students and give the more ownership over blogging.

And students continue to pump out the work on their blogs. I've been so impressed with the content and quality of the posts, even from relatively new bloggers. It has also been amazing to take the time to leave comments and make connections with these learners. Here's a couple to have a look at:

Angelina @ Waikowhai Primay

I love this post because of it's multi-modality (is that a word?). Instructions, images, quotes and video!

Mahrosh @ Hay Park School

This post blew me away because Mahrosh has only completed a handful of blogposts yet he has the courage and foresight to share different stages of his work, not just the finished product.

I can't wait to use these bloggers as role models in Term 2 Cybersmart sessions!

I'd love to hear other people's thinking around encouraging and supporting blogging as well as keeping engagement up in Google Meet sessions and distance learning in general.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Ngā mihi

Distance Learning Week One

Well, what a week! I feel exhausted from just a couple of days of distance learning and I don't even have my own class to teach! But my overwhelming feeling is of pride in the wonderful teachers and leaders in the Ako Hiko cluster (and all over the country) for the amazing effort they have put into making the transition to distance learning as smooth as possible.

I'm extremely grateful for the collaboration and support the lead teachers of schools have been giving each other, the enthusiasm with which teachers with differing levels of experience have adapted their sites and set up Google Meets with their classes and with the gusto with with students have been posting on their blogs. This post is really to share and celebrate the awesome successes I have seen already.

I've been really impressed with the class sites I've seen with teachers considering how to make them visually appealing to students while keeping them simple and easy to navigate. This is true from new entrant classes up to Year 7 and 8 and also from beginning teachers through to more experienced staff. Here are a few examples:

I've also been inspired and enthused by students posting on their blogs and seeing teachers and support staff leaving positive, thoughtful and helpful comments.

Zara @ Waikowhai Primary

Gaylene @ Hay Park School

Floyd @ Owairaka District School

And I also need to acknowledge the vast raft of support that has come from the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme and from facilitators around the country. I couldn't imagine being in the role I am in without the advice and expertise that is oozing from such an amazing group of professionals. Thanks team!

Moving forward my efforts with the cluster will channelled into blogging and engagement. I'm asking myself (and others) how we can best support students to blog independently and effectively, especially those who haven't had any practice at this (check out some 'how to' videos o the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site). In terms of of engagement, students seemed engaged by the Google Meet sessions. Our challenge may be how to keep the enthusiasm and engagement up as the days and Meets go on.

Ngā mihi.

DFI Session Six

Kia ora. Today we focused on 'Connected.' Dorothy made an excellent point about how hard it is to connect with someone who doesn't share. My thoughts immediately jumped to the Ako Hiko Google+ Community and the Ako Hiko Blog, both of which need a bit of an update and a push.

Gerhard's slides around Google Sites had some great reminders. I like this quote by Rebecca Jessen:

And this slide is a great visual for explaining the two main aspects of an effective site:

We were able to get feedback on our class sites (or for me the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site) and were then gifted time to work on them. Based on Rebecca Jessen's quote and on feedback from my peers I decided to focus on making sure the site:

• Had multiple texts to support each lesson
• Used multimodal texts to engage students
• Had a choice of different create tasks for learners

Here is the Cybersmart page. As ever it is a work in progress.

Ngā mihi

DFI Session Five

Hump day of the DFI course already! Today we kicked off with Dorothy talking about visibility. I enjoyed the explanation of it being as simple as 

'Can you see it?' 

This means can students, whanau and colleagues all see content easily? It reminded me of another quote that went something like: 'It's not ok to keep doing something wrong if someone next door is doing it right.' Now with sites and blogs the 'next door' isn't limited to our physical buildings. So how can we make sure all teachers are 'getting it right!'

The WillIAm story is inspirational and also a perfect example of how important visibility is. If Manaiakalani was not as visible as it is think of what they would have missed out on. I will definitely be checking the Ako Hiko school and class sites to make sure they're are visible as possible. And what other ways are there for us to increase our visibility in the community, the country and the world?

Additionally we looked at multiple texts and multi-modal texts. A great reminder that...

 there is no one size fits all.

This got me thinking, how do I reflect this in Cybersmart sessions? Especially when I don't know the learners as well as the classroom teacher. Can I always offer an option to shift up or down? 

Creating these multi-modal resources using Google Sites will be invaluable during distance learning. One thing I will be bearing in mind is...

can this resource stand on its own? 

I created this site with the big question of 'What would we need to take to Mars with us? I tried to refine my site so that there was lots of engaging content but not too much scrolling to do.

My Site

And my last takeaway was to click the box to receive replies on comments that I leave on blogs. I can't believe I've never noticed this button! #lifelonglearner