DFI Day 7 Reflections - Devices
Today's session was all about the effective use of devices to enable the students to learn, create and share. Being cybersmart is one way that we can empower our learners and support their digital learning. Manaiakalani have developed the Kawa of Care as a digital citizenship programme to empower our students and community. The Kawa of Care allows us to navigate and harness the power of the device, while teaching our students and community the responsibility and skills that are required to connect and work in cyberspace.
One thing that stood out for me was how the principles of the treaty of Waitangi have been woven into the Kawa of Care. Partnership, participation and protection transcends time and challenges us as educators to ensure that our students have rangatiratanga (sovereignty), equity and access over their device. To be honest, I have never thought about these themes in light of the treaty before, but it has struck a chord with me. When the students own their own device (with the help of their whanau, of course), we as a school take a step forward to achieve equity in their access to learning. This is inspiring me to think what else we can do as a school to better support our students and whanau so that there is equity to access their learning ubiquitously.
We also had the time to get familiar with Explain Everything on the iPad. There has been a significant update to this app since I last used it 4 years ago. This new layout is more user friendly and has more functions that will enhance the learning process. Here is a screenshot of the work I created:
The next section in our DFI session was to explore the Chromebook. This is was my first deep dive into the Chromebook as I had previous been teaching in the junior classes. It is good to learn that most of the functions are similar across platforms, eg: Apple to Chromebook to Windows. Here are some shortcuts that I have discovered today:
We ended our DFI session with a chance to use Screencastify. Many of my staff members have been using Screencastify to rewindable learning on their class sites. It was good to finally make my maiden Screencastify video. Here is my lesson on Cybersafety where I am explain how to use keywords to search for answers in Google. This lesson was designed for a Year 3/4 class, but can be easily extended to a Year 7/8 class too.
Kia ora Angel,
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely reflection on your learning from Friday. I was really struck by your thoughts around the connection of the Kawa of Care to the Treaty of Waitangi and how that speaks to equity. Equity is a really big issue, and lockdown highlighted how little equity there is around NZ. I am pleased that the conversation you had on Friday is making you consider the role you and your school have to play in allowing equity to happen. If we all did that, imagine how our education system would look.
I'm glad that the explore time was worthwhile and you were able to learn and try some new things. You've done a great job with your screencastify. My only comment would be to try and keep it under 3 minutes ... I struggle with this too, but I know that students find anything longer than that hard to focus on. It certainly didn't seem like your first time though so ka pai!
Ngā mihi,
Sharon
Hi Sharon,
Deletethanks for your reply and kind words. I totally agree with you, 3 minutes is a good target. I'll aim for that the next time I do a Screencastify... but time just flies when you get in the groove. :)
Kind regards,
Angel
Mālō e leilei Angel. I enjoyed reading your reflections on this bog post. I'm glad you enjoyed Screencastify, it's such a great tool for creating rewindable resources and students love making them too. It's also great to spend time on a Chromebook to you can trouble shoot the problems students are having easily. Do you have a favourite shortcut?
ReplyDelete