DFI: Week 9 External Recognition

 Kia ora, 

We've reached the end of our DFI journey. Today was the exam- thankfully I passed- do not know my percentage yet. It was definitely a test of making sure you slow down and read what the question is asking carefully. Overall it was a good challenge and test of what I have learnt and have been able to do the last term. 

This course has been helpful in solidifying my knowledge and confidence using several different apps and resources. I have found it very useful to share my own work and see others to gain different perspectives and new ways of doing activities and thinking. Peer feedback is a great way to reflect on your own practice- especially in areas you are not confident in yet.  

It was a good model for online learning as well- helpful given the 5+ week lockdown we are currently in. Some good ideas that I have shared to my class. 

To reflect on how the course is structured- maybe including a rotation of the bubbles- mixing up the bubbles to increase that natural connection that happens when you are having discourse with colleagues? It was great to interact with new people when doing the create tasks, but generally we were focused on completing that task rather than discussing with peers.  

It has been great to see what people have created through DFI and how this could effect their practice in the future. I know I have shared my learning with my students and they have enjoyed it. I look forward to building upon this. 

DFI: Computational Thinking

 Kia ora Readers, 

Our focus today was on the Digital Curriculum and computational thinking, the possible direction and future digital technology can go towards. It's both an exciting and scary thought. This connects to a course I did several years ago on Technological convergence and its impact on people/culture- the way we behave and interact with the world. I can only imagine how far technology has come since then.  I would say that being "digitally savvy" is a necessity this day and age. So much of our lives is digital now, we are encouraged to be consumers, but to thrive you also must be a creator/developer which is where the Digital Curriculum comes in. 

As teachers we should be preparing our learners to adapt and be fluent with digital technology, a more critical, yet open mindset to approach new technologies with.  

I've previously looked at the Digital curriculum, but never really got into the thick of it and understood it fully. I always saw it as an extra subject to set time for. After seeing examples of it today I realize that I have been teaching it to some degree more often than not. It was great to see these examples of just how to thread computational thinking into a lesson, and the different contexts- some I would definitely not thought of- such as the Maori Myth of Maui and the Sun. 

Our create task was to choose a workshop on a different platform. I chose Scratch and how to make a basic 'Pong' style game. Eerily coincidental as my class have been doing Scratch toolkits this week and my class asked if I could make something on it. I've used Scratch as a "Creative Time" task, but never really accessed it myself so this was a fun experience. 

DFI Week 7: Devices

 Kia ora, 

This week we have looked at learning more from a student perspective. Focusing on creating and using tasks from the devices that our learners would be using- namely Chromebooks and iPads. 

For my Kura, iPads are not used in the Senior, Year 5-6 classes aside from a few exceptions. The Explain Everything app I can see being fun to use, but not sure of its place in my classroom and if it could be used on Chromebook properly. 

The Chromebook section was focused around shortcuts for Chromebook users and Screencastify. I am becoming more confident using this. I have done little "How To's" over lockdown about things covered in our Cybersmart lessons and in DFI. I've received good feedback from my class on this- definitely a win for "rewindable" learning. 

My Create task was based on designing a lesson using the Cybersmart resources on Hapara Workspace. I chose Hapara over the others as I do believe it is something I would use in the future- if not Term 4, 2021 then definitely in 2022. I used resources from the 'Smart Surfers' lesson- this stuck out to me as my learners are always asking questions about topics that they can easily ask themselves online. The lesson is very basic at this point and there is a lot of 'finer' points of creating lessons that I'm still figuring out. 

Today's Blogger tip about linking your class site to your class blog made sense- was surprised at myself for doing it before this point. Do'h!

DFI: Enabling Sites

 Kia ora, 

This week was a more "hands on" session looking at different class sites and evaluating them based on 2 key criteria: Visual appeal and User experience. I found it very useful to see other sites to compare against my own and reflect on what I could do better on mine?

I found that both of the criteria we assessed the other sites on was very subjective- what one person likes and finds easy may not be the same for another, and ultimately it's the question of "does it work for the students of that class?" that probably matters most.  I think student input would be a vital component of any successful class site. 

The second half of our session was looking at our bubble groups, receiving feedback, and making changes based off the feedback we were given. I did enjoy seeing the class sites of different  year levels. I focused my site changes around minimizing scrolling through my pages, creating a specific page for Cybersmart lessons, and adding links to the other classes of my FLE cohort. Overall, minor changes but ones that will hopefully improve the site.

I will apply the general idea of todays session on visibility and user experience to any future sites and pages I make.

You can check out my class site through this Link

Unfortunately my internet was impacted by the DDOS attack and I was unable to participate in the latter part of the day.