Reflection and Steps Forward

Reflection and Steps Forward

Today is my final day of professional development with the Manaiakalani facilitators.

It's a day full of expectations and goals to succeed.  I know that this level one exam will be intense (three hours) and it was!  I believe I did the preparation and revision but unfortunately I did not complete this exam.  Time management was my foe!

My personal thoughts on the exam content

I was told that time management is essential I still spent too much time on the eleven scenarios.  There was a lot of scenarios under 'Google Classroom' this was not covered in the Manaiakalani programme.  At school and in my role I do not use Google Classroom.  I did find it difficult flicking from tab to tab reading the instructions, for me personally this wasted time.

I did learn so many skills, knowledge and terminology.  When I commenced this professional development I didn't even know what a 'widget' or gadget was.

I was in a unique position to do this professional development in an on-line meet with teachers from many regions in New Zealand.  The ability to listen and learn with quality presenters was amazing!

Ubiquitous

Presenter: Dorothy Burt

The goal for Manaiakalani programme is rewindable learning.

Effective teachers cause learning and this was evident with students who participated in the 'Summer Learning Journal' and blogged throughout their summer break.  It is important to know that these young bloggers receive feedback through comments from the facilitators.  Data is collected and analysed. 

The evidence for the power of Ubiquitous learning is most clearly displayed in the Summer Learning Journey reports.

Young people learning over the Summer holidays with no teacher present.

Their Term 1 progress / achievement is carefully matched with a non-blogger - and the infographic displays the clear difference between the groups.

Overall I am proud of my participation and learning throughout this professional development.  I have made huge steps with my digital learning and I will keep on practising and refining my knowledge and skills.

Computational Thinking

Empowered: Pedagogy & Kaupapa

Presenter: Dorothy Burt

It's NOT just a tool!

Digital learning needs to transform the way we learn, it needs to offer new experiences and empower learners, teachers and whanau.

Dorothy talked about the challenges for low income families and the statistics gathered about low decile learners.  

Below are some sobering statistics:

• The mean academic level of new entrant students is they come in at a level of a three year old.
• These young learners have 32 million less spoken words than a decile 10 school.  (It doesn't matter whether they speak Maori, Tongan, Hindu, Spanish)
• 1/3 of the children change school every year.
• 50% of students change schools where there are new government housing developments.

The Future of Technology & What it Means to Our Tamariki

Presenter: Gerald Vermeulen

Gerald focused on looking into the future.  

According to Bill Gates these are the 10 breakthrough  technologies.  These technologies were amazing, the skill and expertise with developing and programming.  Manaiakalani programme enables our young learners to develop skills and their own digital kete so they are not just participants but they have many opportunities to be creative and reflective programmers, users and confident cybersafe citizens.  Who knows what our students will become... its exciting!

10 BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES
… according to Bill Gates

The New Digital Technologies Curriculum 2020

Presenter: Kerry Boyd Preece

Kerry talked about the new digital technologies curriculum, discussing the  new technologies in this curriculum and clarifying key points.  I definitely need to reread this presentation and familiarize myself with using the digital language.

Explore: Coding

Computational thinking and the Digital Technology Curriculum 

Presenter: Gerhard Vermeulen

Gerald's presentation gave me the opportunity to explore different coding games and attempt to some very simple coding.
Minecraft Coding Game
Breaking into small Google Meets was an excellent opportunity to practise basic coding.  I chose the Minecraft coding game which you can view on the link above.  I found this very easy to use.  There was no problems loading the game or using the coding tools and you get instant gratification.  For a first time user I was very chuffed with myself.

Now the 'Mihi Maker' coding game was not a great experience.  Initially I was so excited about the prospect of embedding this coding game in my blog but unfortunately I ended up feeling tired and exhausted.

Coding was at times very frustrating especially the coding game 'Mihi Maker' at times it froze then my computer got stuck with uploading a photo of myself that was too large.  On saying that according to the specifications on this game the photo was within the specifications.  Then I had difficulty publishing and embedding my animated mihi.  But unfortunately I still have a lot to learn as my mihi is not animated.  In fact you can't see view any of my mihi!

I am now in the final days of my professional development with the Manaiakalani facilitators, and it's time to revise and practise all the skills I have learnt.  My learning goal this week will be to do lots of deep dives and rewindable learning so I become more proficient and confident with Google sheets, and screencastify.