Sharing is Caring

It was really interesting thinking about how sharing has been redefined through the ages. What once started as a necessity to survival by sharing food and resources has now been completely revamped with the introduction of technology. The concept of audience is now remarkably different - what was once a teacher with a red pen is now conceivably the world. We are now able to share as both teachers and learners with the click of a button.

With the new skills I have picked up in creating Google Sites it should be a lot easier to organise the information in the class site, as well as create unit plans for upcoming weeks. I am particularly excited about creating a unit plan following Learn - Create - Share to really engage my students.

Being able to create more order with the Class Site means that hopefully we are able to reach a wider audience and be able to engage more parents. I think this is an essential part of education and will reinforce how important it is to embrace the use of technology in class.

Learning to Create

Week 3 done and dusted! another day of exploration and new understandings. A lot of things that I found I really agreed with and related to today. Humans learn by doing! Making sure kids get time and space to play and to figure things out on their own is imperative, and adults need to be given the same leeway. This was evident today when we were given time to play around on Google Drawings and Slides to try and figure out what we knew and what new things we can apply.






















A Google Drawing of a whakatauki I did.

Using Google Slides was something I found almost tedious at times. An extension of powerpoint, just another slideshow presentation... Today I saw that there was a lot more potential in Google Slides. Using slides as a stop-motion animation vehicle showed me there is the opportunity to create something entertaining and not just the classic information with pictures I was used to. Another interesting use was creating a pick a path slideshow by linking buttons to other slides on the slideshow. That's something that I'll be looking forward to using in the classroom in the near future.

A Google Slides animation I did

Trying something new...

During the week I created Google Groups for my reading groups in class. This meant I was able to put in the texts and activities done during guided reading lessons. So far it hasn't proved as useful as expected, largely because the students can find everything on the class site, but I will persevere with it and hopefully the students will have a handle on it before the end of term.

Digital Fluency Day 2

Another big day of learning today. We learnt all about the Manaiakalani pedagogy. Two tracks were laid down, an evidence based programme and increased teacher effectiveness. These factors need to work hand in hand in order to accelerate learning and digital technology is at the forefront of this movement. We talked about how there are levels of device usage in the classroom; substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition. Moving toward the modification and redefinition parts will be challenging but rewarding no doubt.

I learnt a few new tricks to help organise my mail and calendar that should help keep my workload a bit more streamlined which can only be helpful. finding out about using Google Hangout and Google Meet to conference in people for discussions could have some wide reaching positive consequences as we can talk with people from other schools about new ideas, both teachers and students. This fits in nicely with the Share part of the Learn - Create - Share template used in Manaiakalani schools.

Sharing my knowledge of the organisational tools I have picked up today with my students should help keep things much simpler for them to find emails and events. Time management is always an issue with people of all ages so being able to keep the calendar under control should help keep the peace in the classroom.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 1

What a day! Lots of learning and teaching done by all. Great to meet lots of new friends in the profession.

I feel much more confident about using Google apps to help the kids in Te Maunga really engage with their learning.

I was really impressed with the vision of the Manaiakalani Education Trust. The way they started with an idea and still have the same values almost 15 years later shows how forward-thinking the organisation is.

Being able to use Google Docs more efficiently by creating a table of contents and being able to link straight to headings will definitely help me save time for my colleagues when showing them documents we can collaborate on.

My biggest takeaway for the day is how much more engaging workshops can be with the use of Google Docs and the add-ons that you can download. The writing add-ons and word cloud generator make writing easier and makes students more aware of the purpose and topic they are writing about.

This is the word cloud I generated using the notes I made.

I'm all about efficiency and the little tips and tricks learnt on day 1 will definitely help reduce my workload by helping streamline my groups and also helping give more relevant and engaging feedback when marking students' work online.

Welcome!

Kia ora koutou!

My name is Ben Ngata and I teach a Year 4/5 class at Paihia School. This blog will document my learning journey through digital fluency