DFI Reflection - Day 7 - Devices

Ubiquitousness - part of the kaupapa of Manaiakalani. Learning must be ubiquitous. Everywhere, available anytime, anywhere to anyone. By having our sites and workspaces available online, with rewindable learning, our tamariki can partake in learning whenever they like, from wherever they like. This includes over long breaks.  We were shown the increase in good outcomes the Summer Learning Journey offering made to those ākonga who participated. Learning over the summer break for 30 minutes a day with engaging programme meant they were coming back at a higher level than they were at the end of the year before, no drop! This is exciting.

When we had our first lockdown in 2020, we had devices one to one for our students, but they were second hand donated devices, or very old. Some were in a very precarious situation! We looked at giving out the devices for use, but we discovered that a majority of our whānau did not have access to good internet, or internet at all. We ended up going with paper packs and letting those that had their own devices access some very quickly cobbled together google sites. We had little training in sites. Our tamariki were absent for most of our time in lockdown. My biggest regret after going through the past year and participating in the DFI is that we didn't start sooner. Our second lockdown (which we came out of yesterday school wise) was a completely different scenario. Over the past year our whānau had gotten themselves better connections to the internet and we had started on our Manaiakalani journey.

When we hit our second lockdown, by then our school had purchased enough Chromebooks for the seniors (three classrooms) and one of the middle school rooms. These were sent home to the tamariki for them to use for school. It made a huge difference to engagement. They were used to using our sites and the work we had online. It was gratifying to have so many at our Google Meets each day and to have interaction online with the students. It was completely different! It showed how far both the teachers and learners had come.  We still issued hard packs as we knew our kids enjoyed worksheets (!!) and sometimes they needed a break from their devices. They included some cutting out and gluing work and mindfulness colouring too. A real mix of activities to do.

On my site I included screencastifies of how to do a few things as some kids had forgotten - and I wasn't there 24/7 to help them. It helped those that were slower picking up changes I had made too. My class has a wide range of abilities, from reading at a 4-5 year old level, to reading as a 14 year old. It is essential that I offer work and learning opportunities for everyone and rewindable learning makes more opportunities available for my lower achieving learners. It allows my high achievers to continue ahead also. 

We have dedicated relievers for our rooms for pre-booked days, so we avoid too much disruption for our learners. They do not cope well with change in personnel so we do our best to reduce the number of relievers they have to ensure their well-being comes first. Our relievers are therefore well known to the tamariki and they have great relationships with them. They arrange all their own work for these days and dovetail the learning they plan and present into what we are doing. They use our sites and add their own content to them. It would be great if these long-term relievers could be trained in the Manaiakalani pedagogy also. We share as much as we can with them but that is not the same as attending a DFI.

We completed an exercise on iPads with Explain Everything (EE). Awesome app! Our school does not have the licences for the paid version though which is a pity.  

A teacher created activity I completed on EE:

And another activity with a recording. Click on the image to hear my thoughts on EE:

During the last part of the day I completed a Workspace in Hapara which I have looked at for two years now and didn't know how to use.  I am going to make the work I completed today available to my class next week with it linked on my site for them to use to access. Exciting! I like the ability to put completion dates on the work as sometimes I'm sure some in my class think the work I assign is optional. I will definitely be using this tool more. This lesson is based around use of our chromebooks. My class was unfortunate to have me not participate in the DFI until term 3, but they received their chromebooks in term 2. We have done some work on how to use them, but not to the degree the classrooms with teachers who have completed the DFI have done. It will be good to see their faces when they find out how much more than can do - in a far more easy manner!