DFI - Session Eight

Today we started with Pedagogy and Kaupapa around the word 'Empowered' and what this means within the Manaiakalani programme. Technology is not just a tool, it transforms the way we learn and offers learners new experiences and opportunities. Dorothy talked a little about her community cluster and how they ensured that the students were empowered and had equity to be able to learn with technology.

Computation thinking - what is it? Computation thinking means thinking or solving problems using technology. 'A digitally fluent person can decide when and why to use specific digital  technologies to achieve a specific task or solve problems' (MOE, 2018). The Manaiakalani programme helps teachers to become digitally fluent, to create digitally fluent students. This is a way forward for students to be successful 21st Century learners. I am still going to do more learning around computation thinking to ensure I have a sound understanding.

Coding - We were given the opportunity to give coding a go or to extend current knowledge this afternoon. Students in my hub that I have worked with seem to be interested in coding so I really enjoyed having the time to be able to explore and up skill myself with coding. Scratch Junior is a wonderful app and today I was also exposed to game.kodable.com. I am going to introduce this to my students through our challenge room. 

I was also exposed to gamefroot.com where I was creating with the Mihi maker. I found this really hard to use and navigate. I would like my students to be able to use this to present there MihiMihi so I am going to spend some more time figuring it out and create a video to help my students use it. 

I am off to study for the Google Exam! Do you have any advice for me? 

DFI - Session Six & Seven

Week 6 - DFI this week looked at changing and improving our sites. I was so involved and excited about this that I forgot to write my blog post! I am happy with the changes that have been made as I feel that now the site is more appealing for children and hopefully more accessible for them to use. I took the changes back to my team and they were happy with how it was looking. The biggest feedback I received from my team was how easy it was to now put our planning onto the site. There are still more changes and tweaking I would like to do. Here is a before and after photo of our blog.

Before 

After 

Week 7 - This week was all about devices. We started the day with unpacking Cybersmart. The main points I took away from this session were that Cybersmart is about empowering our learners as connected and confident decision makers. It's more than teaching our students how to be safe online. It is creating lifelong Cybersmart learners. Another point was the use of positive language inspires students. This means being very careful and selective with the language I use around my students teacher Cybersmart. 

Next we became the learners and explored using the Chromebooks. I really enjoyed being the learner and seeing how the students work on the Chrome books by completing the Digital Dig. I now have more knowledge about the shortcuts on Chromebooks and what digital tools can be used on them. 

Finally it was time to be an iPad learner. We looked at Explain Everything and what tools it has. I felt confident working with Explain Everything. One thing I had never used was the voice recorder. I played around with this and am going to put it on all my create tasks to ensure all learners are able to understand the create tasks. Here is a photo of one I created.  

Have you got any hot tips about being a Chromebook or iPad learner?