On-LIne Manaiakalani Professional Development

Share Tohatoha

Welcome

Today was an exciting day, I was learning online under the guidance of the Manaiakalani presenters.  I was feeling a bit apprehensive ... What if I can't join the meet or follow the instructions.  These are all thoughts and feelings that our students would be experiencing.  It was great to be connected through Google Meet, to visually see everyone, share our learning and instantly receive feedback!

Pedagogy 

Sharing has completing changed over the centuries from talking on a one to one basis, writing letters to family and friends and waiting eagerly for the arrival of the post. To the introduction in 2005 of Facebook, Bebo, You Tube, Twitter.  This transformed sharing to a much wider audience - THE WORLD IS OUR PLATFORM!

Manaiakalani focus' was to raise the achievement outcomes of young people specifically those who were disadvantaged e.g. isolation, poverty.

Sharing must have a purpose and needs an authentic audience!  Dorothy Burt stated, 'who choose to listen to you.''

It was very interesting to hear Maniakalani's story ... why they selected Blogger?

• Blogger is the main online space for young people to share.
• It resembles spaces our people want to be on.
• Able to provide this legally, systematically and securely.
• No sign in required for G-suite users.
• Largest audience reach via Google.
• Multi-purposed.
• Can be used by learners and teachers.
• Guaranteed three check.
• Kids (under 18 years in NZ) can't sign up to Google Products.  The Board of Trustees owns the kids blogs.

My Professional Learning - Forms - Presenter Gerhard Vermeulen

I didn't even know that Google Forms existed, but within my role as Learning Support Coordinator I can definitely see myself using this digital tool.  I will be practising using forms especially with teachers across my cluster.  Another area I will be utilising this tool will be to collect data from families and the wider community.

Google MyMaps 

This presentation given by Gerhard Vermeulen was really interesting!  The ability for students to map out routes for school and family trips, mapping out distances and routes that the Maori took from Hawaiki to Aotearoa, measuring the distance of local parks and sports fields, mapping and identifying cities, countries of the Olympic Games.  The learning opportunities are immense and very exciting.  

But unfortunately I had a couple of hiccups, initially I had navigated to a view of the world in globe form, then I could locate my tools bar to insert pins images etc.  My learning goal for this week is to create a personalized map of distances between my clusters and also to create one with local landmarks of historical interest in the Tairawhiti region.

Google Sheets

Indepth presentation showing how to use Google sheets.I have had some experience using Google sheets within my role as Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO).  I am familiar with some of the tools.  The most useful tools I have learnt today is using autofill, find the sum and averages and creating interesting graphs.

Each time I embed a graph or image I learn something new and I can more confidence and develop my skill level.  
Another valuable and timesaving skill I learnt today was how to freeze the headings.  This has been really frustrating in my role as SENCO and will be used with the online registers in my new role as Learning Support Coordinator that are scheduled to come online sometime this year in New Zealand.

Blogger Tips-Labels 

Presenter Kerry Boyde-Preece

Thank Goodness for rewindable learning as I was nearly 'brain dead' by this stage.  I will have to go into a deep dive and rewind my learning for this presentation.  I have some labels but I definitely need to learn and add relevant labels to my blog.

Overall this day was all about sharing knowledge and learning using the digital medium Google Meet.  It was authentic and a valuable learning experience!

Vicki Swider