Digital Fluency Intensive Week 5

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today's focus on Visible Learning hooked me in from the start. Visible teaching is empowering to students. When they can visibly see what their learning looks like for the week and where the learning is heading it provides them with support and gives them some ownership. The whole of the process should be visible - PLANNING which is embedded into your class site; PROCESS which are the learning tasks accessed and explained on the class site;  OUTCOMES - what students have learned/created/shared during the learning and how they went about this [method/collaboration];  ASSESSMENT using evidence of what students have done. 
There are no surprises for students and parents also have access to their child's personal learning blog and the class blog through a parent portal. 
Visible Teaching needs to be 'Accessible' - teachers are to make sure their sharing permissions are sorted so that it is 'Available' to their students. Visible Teaching has to be prepared in 'Advance.' 

Danni Stone from Pt England School shared insights into the benefits of 'Multi- Modal' learning. This is used as a hook to get students interested and keep them engaged both cognitively and behaviorally.
It is very important how teachers use the technology and how the learning is presented. Students need to be quickly engaged  [behavioural], then quickly move into the learning and then deeper learning. For example you can give students increasingly more complex text.The following video explains the effect of visible learning. Achievement data from Manaiakalani schools is collected by Woolf Fisher Researchers and analysed. 

Multi-Modal teaching/learning can be applied in blogs. This was compared to 'window dressing' in blogs and sites which has the aim of hooking viewers in to explore/inquire further. It can be used in the same way as a hook for teachers, parents and whanau.

Danni stressed that technology itself can be a hook when students first get to use devices. This wears off and it is the learning tasks themselves using a Multi-modal approach to engage, which strengthen learning and deepen understanding. 

What did I learn that will increase my confidence, capability or work flow as a professional?

I have not created a class site as yet, however we had the opportunity today to create a multi-modal gardening site for children. Click on the picture link to it. 

I know that I will be able to add to this and use it in the future. The new Google Sites app is certainly more user friendly than the old Classic sites that I have used before and I am now more confident to attempt a class site as a portal to student learning.

What did I learn that I could use with my learners?

I saw how a class site can be used as the access to learning for students. At a click of a button they will be able to see what they have to do and how to do complete the task. I look forward to being able to manage my planning,  student/group activities,  formative assessment and collaborating with other teachers in my syndicate in this way. I am also looking forward to next weeks DFI when I'll learn how a class site links to Explain Everything on the iPad.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability and workflow in my personal life?

Hopefully after the initial creation of my class site, learning how to use it effectively and teaching the students to use it in tandem with the ipads, my workflow will be improve. Having visible teaching and learning accessible to all stakeholders in one place is my goal.