Digital Fluency Week 6

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

Being Cybersmart was the initial focus for the day. A Cybersmart Curriculum supports the Manaikalani pedagogy. It needs to be specifically taught and revisited to enable students to be safe on on the internet. 

The categories are: Smart Learners, Smart Footprint and Smart Relationships, which link to the Learn, Create, Share philosophy of Manaiakalani.

Being Cybersmart empowers our learners as connected citizens. When their learning is visible and accessible, anytime, any place, at any pace, our young people learn to make smart decisions and understand that every time  they connect, collaborate and share online it combines to create their digital footprint.

Cybersmart clarity: Each component in the table above is broken down into key indicators. 

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

The focus today on Explain Everything for iPads was presented by Khismara Lal from Pt England school. Her extensive knowledge at using this app for 'Learn, Create, Share' for Yrs1-3 was obvious and I now have a clearer picture of how EE is used by the teacher and students. Her slide presentation is a helpful  introduction to using ipads in a junior class.


I will be referring back to this during the next months. Students access the class site on their ipads, click on the visible learning area buttons to access  their learning for the day. Further buttons lead the students to learning activities for the day/week. They use the different features of  EE to complete these activities. Here is the link to Khasmira's Class Site. Actually visiting the site and following the links helped me to see how my class site could function. I think once it is set up and streamlined to fit each group/individual, EE will make preparing for learning and teaching less time consuming and more manageable. Learning will be visible to students and activity instructions clearly explained within each project. EE has an easy voice recording system which can be used when setting up projects [perfect for New Entrants], and by the students to complete activities. There are lots of resources that other Manaiakalani teachers have created and shared. I will look at these once I can access them through an ipad as 'Explain Everything Reader is only available on Mac devices. Next step: to get New Era to make my google account accessible on one of the new ipads which I will keep for myself. I will also ask for a mac laptop from Tela next time I am eligible for a replacement. This should make the whole planing/creating/filing and sharing process more maneagable. 
My goals are: 

1. create my class site
2. learn how to create learning projects in EE
3. learn what parts of a project is created in google slides and what is created in EE
4. set up all iPads  the same - icons in the same folders, lock screen
5. set up indivdual students' Google Accounts
6. sign all iPads into individual learners’ Google Accounts (Google Drive, Chrome & Explain Everything)
7. label iPads on the outside with learners’ name [will have to be inventive because adhesive stickers/tape etc won't stick]
8. label individual Styluses with learner's names [styluses have been ordered]

Explain Everything downloads link

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

I will need to continue using a structured approach to the 'Kawa of Care' of the ipad and using the various features of Explain Everything. This will involve the use of a stylus which we don't yet posses and also accessing the class website which is still in the design process.

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

Knowing that I can access already completed resources rather than starting from scratch is a bonus that will be such a time saver. Working collaboratively and sharing resources within our school, Ka hui ako and wider afield will help strengthen networking and our profession. Working collaboratively within our local area will mean growing a bank of resources that are the authentic to our students. Having accessibility to a range of existing resources will also give me ideas for creating my own.