Devices DFI Course - 23rd June 2021

Day 8 DFI Course - Paparore School 

This is our second to last course day together. We started our day by reflecting on the past week. This reminded me to print out the resources that I have found to use with the Bee bots in class. 

Our first session of the day was with online with Dorothy. The focus was around the word ubiquitous. This session discussed how research shows that decile 1 kids have heard 30 million less spoken words by the time they start school than decile 10 kids. These words can be in any language but the huge amount of words that some children miss out on in those first few years of their lives, affects the amount of learning they have access to. 

Dorothy shared how technology helps us to remove barriers, find solutions to problems, and provide opportunities for new ways of learning. She highlighted the importance of technology and ensuring we don't dismiss it as just a tool. She said it is a tool but not just a tool. Dorothy showed us some apps that students can use on the iPads or Chromebooks to create rewindable learning. She also shared a range of questions for us to reflect on that were based around ubiquitous and rewindable learning. These will be interesting to reflect on in the upcoming weeks as we approach the end of term. 

The next session was around the cybersmart curriculum and how we should focus on teaching the students to make smart decisions with technology as opposed to teaching them how to keep themselves safe. Being Cybersmart is the roof to the whare of Manaiakalani. Vicky talked about how while we need a strong foundation, we also need a strong roof too. She also introduced a systemic approach to teaching the students how to be cybersmart (each term had a particular focus). Vicky also talked about the need to teach students about their digital footprint as this can greatly affect their lives. For example, secondary students need to be aware that what they are sharing online can impact on their job opportunities. 

Our next session was based on the Manaiakalani journey. It began by looking at how Te Tiriti of Waitangi principles are woven through Manaiakalani. Equity and access was a key focus for Manaiakalani when looking at devices that would be used within the programme. We also learnt about the devices that were introduced and used throughout the Manaiakalani journey. 

Next we had the chance to explore using Chromebooks. This was great because I haven't had many opportunities to use these before. We practised using different shortcuts and finding different things on the keyboards.

We then had a session around iPads. The beginning of the session was around teaching the students how to care for the devices. These were things that we have covered in class both in my own lessons and lessons with Whaea Donna (Manaiakalani Facilitator). We had the chance to use the Explain Everything app. We tried using a few tools on the app. This is not an app my school uses but it was good to explore it today. Here is my quick creation below. 

In the afternoon, Vicky talked to us about the exam and what this will look like. We also learnt how to register for the exam. We had the chance to create in either Explain Everything, Screencastify or Hapara Workspace. I explored Hapara and learnt about creating a workspace, giving feedback and submitting assignments. My Hapara workspace wasn't loading properly so I couldn't finish creating but it was great to learn more about Hapara. 

Vicky shared some tips about gadgets we can add to our blog and ways that we can monitor our student blogs too.