DFI Course - Week 7

Since Last Week

In the past week I have built on my successful introduction to the world of “pick-a-path” last week and had even further success with using this to reinforce the components of a narrative (using Google Forms and Sheets).

I’ve also spend a lot of time working on a new-look websites, and using it more effectively. This included adding a photo carousel. I now intend to spend time creating and displaying more multi-modal elements in my website when we start a new Hurumanu class rotation in a couple of weeks.

This Week: Devices

A copy of this week's agenda can be found here.

This weeks focus was on using the devices that our students use in the classroom - chromebooks and iPads. The specific sessions held this week covered:

• Cybersmart
• Hapara Teacher Dashboard
• Life as a Chromebook User
• Using iPads / Explain Everything
• Using Screencastify
• Blogging Tips: Sidebar Gadgets

Cybersmart

This first session was dedicated to Manaiakalani's focus on Cybersmart, as opposed to cybersafe. Over time Manaiakalani has developed a suite of lessons for students and their whānau on making the most of their digital learning experience.

While the emphasis is more on educating "smart" learners it is reassuring to know that this is just the tip of the iceburg - the bit we see. What we often don't see is the "secure" below the waterline - and all the ways we ensure our learners (and teachers) keep safe in a digital world.

Hapara Teacher Dashboard

 

I knew quite a bit about what was covered in this session - things I picked up over the past few years out of necessity (unfortunately largely without any specific training). 

The big message that came out of this session for me was the reminder that the key role for Hapara is to remove the need for teachers to be tech geniuses so we can focus on our real areas of strength.

There was some discussion on the benefits of Hapara Workspaces as a means of allocating learning tasks to students, especially with the option of setting due dates for individual tasks. While this sounds like a very good way of sharing tasks and learning with students, I feel this is one step too far at the moment, as it requires another platform for students to have to use to access their learning. At this stage I'm sticking with my Google Site (and three clicks to access the learning).

Life as a Chromebook User

This session was designed in part to help us to develop empathy with our learners by getting us to "walk a mile in their shoes". By working on chromebooks and completing a "digital dig" I learnt quite a bit about the challenges my students face each day.

I have never been a great fan of shortcut keys (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V are normally my limits), but I can see the very real benefits of using a wider range of shortcuts when using a chromebook.

One thing I have vowed to do, and that's to run the "digital dig" session with my students to make sure they all know the shortcuts available (or at least where to find them when they need them).

Using iPads / Explain Everything

In Manaiakalani schools we tend to use iPads in Years 1 - 3 classes, before "graduating" to chromebooks. The key tool used on iPads to promote learning with these students is the "Explain Everything" app.

As I don't have any aspirations of teaching this level (although never say "never"!), this session didn't hold much interest for me. However I remember with some fondness starting at Hornby High School in 2014, and discovering that we had inherited class-lots of iPads from the former Branston Intermediate School. I felt incredibly lucky, but really had no idea what to do with them. If only I had attended this session six years ago!

Using Screencastify

I have used Screencastify a few times with varying degrees of success. I can best describe this app as a tool for recording your screen in a video format. It is a really powerful tool for demonstrating to learners how to perform a particular task on their chromebooks. It also has great potential to be used to record a specific skill (e.g. a maths strategy) on a "digital whiteboard" in the same way that the Khan Academy does (click here to see an example). That video could then be stored on a teacher's Google Site for rewindable learning.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to identify a useful way to create a "digital whiteboard", and having rejected Google Slides and Google Docs I settled on Microsoft Whiteboard (a free app). I am planning on spending some time over the next few weeks developing some skills on this app, and using it in conjunction with screencastify to create videos to use in class and with small groups.

Blogging Tips: Sidebar Gadgets

This final session dealt with modifying our blog layouts by adding, modifying and deleting the gadgets on our blogs. I had already spent some time looking into this before I migrated to the Manaiakalani blog template, and I have made (admittedly minor) changes to the gadgets on this template. At some point I will undoubtedly have a play with gadgets on my blog, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks at the moment. When I get time I will go over some of the gadget options with my students as well.

Conclusion

There was a lot of "sandpit" time this week, which was really helpful as this gave me the time to try some new things and to get some of my ideas together. I'm conscious that next week is the final week prior to the Google Certified Educator Exam (which introduces its own pressures), but to be honest I'm more focused on the fact that I have less than 2 weeks before my new Hurumanu topic rotation happens, and I have a lot of changes to my websites and my teaching techniques to put in place before then.

I'd better get busy!