DFI 8: Computational Thinking

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa today - specifically empowerment?

Being EMPOWERED - we want our young people to feel confident and EMPOWERED to drive their own learning.

How can we use technology to enhance learning and empower our students?

Decile 1 students on average have heard 30, 000, 000 LESS words spoken at school entry compare to those entering decile 10 schools.

To have a voice everyone needs to be empowered to be confident to use the technology as we move forward into an even more digital world e.g automated checkout, online voting etc.

EMPOWERMENT = Student Agency.
Agency is having the power or capacity to act and make choices. (NZC 2007)

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/NZC-Online-blog/Learner-agency

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

What is Computational Thinking?
What is the Digital Technologies Curriculum.

Computational Thinking is being able to give a set of instructions that a computer could follow so that they can become CREATORS of Digital Technology and not just users.
Coding is at the heart of Computational Thinking and the Digital Technologies Curriculum however this is not where is begins and ends.
Its about kids creating their own digital solutions to problems.


We had a chance to try out some of the technology.  Meg and I used a combination of StopMotion, GreenScreen App and iMovie to create a simple movie where the focus was on us using the software so we can take this back to use with our classes.  Here is the SHORT clip we created.
We even uploaded to Youtube!



Monika from the Waitangi Center told us about a free app called FLICK which allows files to be literally 'flicked' from one device to another e.g ipad to Chromebook.  This will be AMAZING for timesaving and frustration in being able to share video files especially.  I am looking forward to trying this out.

DFI Session 4 SHARE

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

The important of AUTHENTIC AUDIENCE and how this can give so much more purpose to the learning.

With a digital audience people are they because they are choosing to listen to you or view your work. 

Sharing creates a real reason for students to actually finish their work as it is going to be published online as opposed to just being shut inside a book.

This however is not only and ending.  Often in the process of SHARING new learning begins.  If people engage in what you have shared they will often provide though feedforward and feedback a spark for a new challenge or line of learning.

Multimodal = having different opportunities for students to engage with the leaning around one topic of theme.   Eg read the book / listen to the story online / watch it as a video.

Multitextual: using a variety of different text written for different purposes or audiences and being able to make meaning from these.

How can I use digital technology to reach all my learners in the way that will work best for them.

Same content displayed or received in different ways.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?  It was worthwhile having a go at creating a multimodal site and thinking about all the bits and pieces that can be put into such a tool to support learners across a range of levels and abilities.

It was also great to find out more about Google Keep and the many ways in which this can be used to simplify things.  I look forward to sorting out my array of 'sticky notes' that currently cover my desktop!

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  
The creation of multimodal sites is something that I would like to use next term.
Here is the one I created today on Gardening
https://sites.google.com/mangonui.school.nz/gardening/home

Creating and embedding playlists from Youtube into my site.  This was further developed from last week.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
The use of keep notes and how this can work together with Docs and Calendar will also help my personal life as it will help with reducing doubling up and searching for things.