It is sad coming to the end of this nine week journey. It has been nine weeks of reflection, new learning, revisiting old learning and reminding myself of why I do what I do! Today's focus was predominately on the google Certified Educator exam. It was interesting the level of stress and nerves I felt, and that others felt too. It makes you realise how much stress our students must feel when faced with exams and assessments, even when you know the content! Passing was a great relief!
Participating in this DFI has been an opportunity for me to have time to focus on my own professional development. Since going digital at OC, I have often been one of the ones running PD and workshops for others, meaning I have often missed out on being able to participate as a learner. I have spent countless late nights teaching myself, in order to continuously up skill in areas I am interested in, so it has been fantastic to have every Thursday to focus on my own learning and recognising that I am on the right track with what I am doing in my classroom. It has also been refreshing to be in a room full of other educators who are all passionate about doing what is best for the young people in front of us!
I have also had the seed planted in terms of applying for the Innovative teacher programme. I now have to think about what I would like to focus on! So many options and thoughts...
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Thursday, September 12, 2019
DFI Week 8: Devices
Today has been an opportunity to work with the devices our students are using, with Chromebooks and Ipads being available to us to engage with as learners ourselves.
For myself as an avid Mac user, using a Chromebook is an incredibly frustrating experience. However, when we first went Chromebook in 2014, both myself and Marion purchased our own Chromebooks as we both realised and knew it was important that we were familiar with the devices we were expecting our students to use. This enabled us to learn alongside our students, model the learning process as well as troubleshoot any problems that arose.
Doing the Digital Dig was a reminder of some of the simple tools and shortcuts we should be making sure our students know how to use, for example the ability to screenshot.
Ipads are not a tool we have access to at College, although I can see the benefits of apps such as explain everything in a digital classroom.
This afternoon we have had the opportunity to explore further the Manaiakalani Cyber Smart lessons and resources, as well as the planning and reasoning for this. For my Screencastify, I looked at the Kawa of Care. I think it is really important that we revisit this with our students and whanau as while they all sign this at some point when signing up for Chromebooks via the trust, I sometimes wonder how fully they actually understand this. I also wonder whether we should be doing some form of Kawa of Care beyond our Internet User agreement for those who are coming in with Chromebooks from other areas or that they have purchased themselves. I think that as a cluster/school, we need to be revisiting our parent evenings as our parents need support also in terms of supporting their children in their online use. While we did this previously, as time has gone on it has dropped off but with some of the statistics and information being released in the media about the rise of cyber bullying, the sharing of nude images by children as young as 8 and the increase in numbers of young people accessing online porn in various formats, the education of our parents is vital.
For myself as an avid Mac user, using a Chromebook is an incredibly frustrating experience. However, when we first went Chromebook in 2014, both myself and Marion purchased our own Chromebooks as we both realised and knew it was important that we were familiar with the devices we were expecting our students to use. This enabled us to learn alongside our students, model the learning process as well as troubleshoot any problems that arose.
Doing the Digital Dig was a reminder of some of the simple tools and shortcuts we should be making sure our students know how to use, for example the ability to screenshot.
Ipads are not a tool we have access to at College, although I can see the benefits of apps such as explain everything in a digital classroom.
This afternoon we have had the opportunity to explore further the Manaiakalani Cyber Smart lessons and resources, as well as the planning and reasoning for this. For my Screencastify, I looked at the Kawa of Care. I think it is really important that we revisit this with our students and whanau as while they all sign this at some point when signing up for Chromebooks via the trust, I sometimes wonder how fully they actually understand this. I also wonder whether we should be doing some form of Kawa of Care beyond our Internet User agreement for those who are coming in with Chromebooks from other areas or that they have purchased themselves. I think that as a cluster/school, we need to be revisiting our parent evenings as our parents need support also in terms of supporting their children in their online use. While we did this previously, as time has gone on it has dropped off but with some of the statistics and information being released in the media about the rise of cyber bullying, the sharing of nude images by children as young as 8 and the increase in numbers of young people accessing online porn in various formats, the education of our parents is vital.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
DFI Week 7: Computational Thinking
This week was thought provoking, as well as fun. Viv from OMG Tech! provided us with a lot of food for thought as she introduced us to many of the up and coming technologies and changes in technological use we are facing in this world of rapid change.
We also spent time listening to Dorothy presenting to us about equity and access not just with digital technologies. This is such a huge issue. It is startling when looking through Dorothy's presentation the inequities we face within the same towns, cities and regions. People are surviving on such limited incomes and access to resourcing such as housing, food and digital tech has to be prioritised within families in order of importance, so making access as affordable and easy as possible is vital. Thinking that there are families in NZ who are trying to live off $19000 a year, just blows me away. As costs of the basics - food, power and a roof over head rise rapidly, our families are forced to make incredibly hard decisions over what has to go. As educators, we have to do all we can to ensure our students have equitable access to technology, so that they are prepared for the future and can have all of the experiences that make learning valuable in a connected and online world.
Viv introduced us to some simple but fun activities to encourage computational thinking. Looking at the Binary code and a simple way of introducing this to our students, as well as simple coding ideas using Scratch. For me, it is finding the time to play and plan in order to work out how I can incorporate these in to my classroom programme, especially as this becomes a feature of the curriculum.
For me, one of the most thought provoking parts of the day was discussing some of the future technologies, especially AI.While the potential for AI is astounding, it is also incredibly scary/worrying when considering how it can be used to make decisions based on the training or algorithms that have been used. When looking at driverless cars and the exercise of making programming decisions - who is behind this programming and decision making? This has the potential to have a real impact in society and not necessarily in a good way. When these tools are used by the makers of weapons what are the potential impacts that can occur? We must also remember the value of human contact - the empathy, ability to work with others and engage in a meaningful way.
We also spent time listening to Dorothy presenting to us about equity and access not just with digital technologies. This is such a huge issue. It is startling when looking through Dorothy's presentation the inequities we face within the same towns, cities and regions. People are surviving on such limited incomes and access to resourcing such as housing, food and digital tech has to be prioritised within families in order of importance, so making access as affordable and easy as possible is vital. Thinking that there are families in NZ who are trying to live off $19000 a year, just blows me away. As costs of the basics - food, power and a roof over head rise rapidly, our families are forced to make incredibly hard decisions over what has to go. As educators, we have to do all we can to ensure our students have equitable access to technology, so that they are prepared for the future and can have all of the experiences that make learning valuable in a connected and online world.
Viv introduced us to some simple but fun activities to encourage computational thinking. Looking at the Binary code and a simple way of introducing this to our students, as well as simple coding ideas using Scratch. For me, it is finding the time to play and plan in order to work out how I can incorporate these in to my classroom programme, especially as this becomes a feature of the curriculum.
For me, one of the most thought provoking parts of the day was discussing some of the future technologies, especially AI.While the potential for AI is astounding, it is also incredibly scary/worrying when considering how it can be used to make decisions based on the training or algorithms that have been used. When looking at driverless cars and the exercise of making programming decisions - who is behind this programming and decision making? This has the potential to have a real impact in society and not necessarily in a good way. When these tools are used by the makers of weapons what are the potential impacts that can occur? We must also remember the value of human contact - the empathy, ability to work with others and engage in a meaningful way.
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