“The Manaiakalani kaupapa of empowerment is about the advancing of
Rangatiratanga; taking back control of their own lives”
Pat Snedden
Choice of words - Manaiakalani point of view
Agency versus Empower
Agency - sounds flasher to an educator but can be confusing and also scare our whanau
Empower is a word that parents/whanau can associate with.
Like always the choice of words we use as educators needs to reflect the audience we have whether it be parents and whanau or students. If we are aiming our talk at teachers then we have a common language but often this shared language base is not the same for whanau and students
Dorothy shared with us a quote about devices
Devices: it's NOT 'just a tool'...
if it's just a tool then it's way too expensive... and we should go back to a cheaper option.
I can wholeheartedly agree with this, as the expense of a device needs to result in a substantial increase in learning opportunities and outcomes that it can deliver (and this is her point)
However ... it is WAY bigger than that.
If we look at devices from the point of view of it being NOT 'just a tool' then the device itself is what is going to improve learning which we all know is not the case. However, if we look at it from the point of view that 'it is just a tool' then the ownership for transforming educational outcomes is placed on the teacher and indirectly on individual students. This means that as educators we need to be looking/making opportunities students work on them in ways that do redefine education and learning. It reminded me of the SAMR model of digital learning. Devices themselves are useless without a purpose and a direction and although all levels of the SAMR model are important the transformational part of their use happens when students have to grapple with what they are learning, creating, and sharing it in different ways and acting on feedback and feedforward.
So merging Dorothy's quote with my rambling. The device is what makes a difference, if and when the teacher/educator is looking for ways to transform learning in the classroom.
AND THIS IS WHAT THE DFI IS ALL ABOUT DOING! - creating, motivating connecting, and reconnecting teachers with the transformative practice that inspires and moves teaching and learning practices in ways that capture, engage and empowers learners to 'be the best that they can be'. '
The device alone does not do this... It is a big part of the kete that we carry around with us as we work in classrooms. Just like technology is now integral in our society so too is technology in our educational system. Without technology assisting learning in the classroom, teachers can not access or make the same shifts as the same opportunities are not available. The Device and the pedagogy need to go hand in hand TPACK
In addition to this ...
Devices... "assist the making of connections by enabling students to enter and explore new learning environments, overcoming barriers of distance and time..."
P36 NZ Curriculum (2007)
Devices ..." when it transforms the way we learn, offers us new uncharted experiences and opportunities..."
Dean Shareski (2011)
Empowerment
One of the first things that empower you is having money or access to money, and in reverse, a very powerful disempowerment is not having access to money. This is because many of the choices we have are determined by this. And therefore money gives us the power to choose and not having money locks us into a very narrow set of options (where often there really is no real choice at all).
In addition to this other things either empower or disempower us along the way and for many of our youngsters, their options are limited and or non-existent. Many of our students suffer;
We as educators may not have any power over the first 2, and we don't have any power over how students begin in education but we do how the power to make the difference in the third.
Key facts to remember looking forward
Our kids are arriving so far behind in all areas fine motor, academic ... (close to half a lifetime behind e.g. coming in around 2.5 years to 3 years).
32 million words less - in any language - the conversations ... that an adult and a child has.
Many students we come across are Transient.
The New Technologies curriculum - Computational thinking
Our students need to be active participants in an online world so they can feel apart of a larger community. This is the community that they will need to eventually need to be apart of - e.g. a wider world. They also need to be confident and creative users.
Digitally fluent means that students/teachers decide when and why to use different technologies and tools to complete their work or complete tasks and solve problems. - It means you are able to create their own solutions using digital technologies.
This Create element to learning is becoming more and more important as we think of a thing like a maker movement. This movement looks at the need to develop a mindset of creativity in our students rather than maintaining a consumer's approach.
“The digital curriculum is about teaching children how to design their own digital solutions and become creators of, not just users of, digital technologies, to prepare them for the modern workforce."
Chris Hipkins, 2018
Digitally fluent students is a natural progression if you have digitally fluent teachers - This is where we are at. As educators, we need to adopt an Agile pedagogy - where it can change and adapt quickly for teachers and for students.
It starts at school with students being empowered and learning in a digital environment.
Digital Curriculum
Today we spent some time unpacking the digital curriculum again, its always a great to be reminded of this and to think of the strand and AO's form a student's point of view. This is also something we have been reflecting on and working on as part of our Digital team meetings at Ohaeawai so was a lovely reminder to keep going.
Technology strands include; Technology Practice, Technology knowledge, and the nature of technology
Technological practice
Planning for practice
Brief development
Outcome development and evaluation
Technological knowledge
Technological modeling
Technological products
Technological systems
Nature of Technology
Characteristics of technology
Characteristics of technology outcomes.
Then there are the Thinking about how technology can be used across the different learning areas and across outcomes.
Computational thinking
Programming (input, output, sequence, iteration, selections, variable)
Unplugged activities
Algorithms
Understanding human behavior
Understanding binary
Robotics
Sphero, Arduino lego, makeymakey
Scratch coding
App development: Code.org
Design and development
woven every part of the technology curriculum into these progress outcomes.
Create part of the day
Today the group that I was working in decided to work from scratch. Most used the scratch on the Chromebook/computer. As I was the only one teaching juniors I decided to do mine on Scratch Jnr - as this is the medium that my students use. It was both exciting and frustrating. I decided to try making a game using Scratch Jnr. Our facilitator thought this was a good idea and we had a quick look at ones online and decided to go for it.
The game I created was based around the maths context of chickens and rooster. This project worked well and this was quickly finished.
A question I had along the way included can you copy an entire page with all the sprites and coding associated with it and then just manipulate the code. Short answer ... NO.
Another question I had at the end was now can I share it. This was the part that was VERY frustrating as the only way the facilitator and I found to share it was merely recording the scratch project (which we had already been doing). This of course defeats the purpose of having it as a game because the only way it can be shared is as a video file. I really like the project I had created but have now challenged my daughter to recreate it using scratch on a computer so it can be embedded into our learning site.
Here is the video of the scratch I had created.
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