@FionaGrant
kiwi, learner, MEd, Google Certified Innovator "living local, learning global" #Manaiakalani #GoogleEI, Tāmaki Makaurau
Tuesday, 30 April 2024
Creativity and AI
Wednesday, 1 November 2023
Toolkit: Create a One Shot Film
Friday, 9 September 2022
Supporting Connections, Learning and Whanaungatanga
Our Manaiakalani Cybersmart Learning includes supporting our young people to critically examine information online and we are enthusiastic to be piloting a media literacy programme Newshounds this term.
The programme includes a series of podcasts created and presented by Amanda Bower and Bryce Corbett. After five sessions we were excited, this week, to join Amanda online in a scheduled Google Meet. Learners shared feedback and also had the opportunity to ask questions, hearing directly from Amanda about her experiences creating the weekday news podcast, Squiz Kids Today.
In this context it was important for Amanda to see the learners and hear what was being said in the room. All learners joined the Meet on their chromebooks and Amanda could see and hear learners as they spoke.
Being Cybersmart has empowered our young people to connect online, confidently making the transition to online learning over the past two years (see The Josh Smoothie a Technology lesson during lockdown 2020).
This week's opportunity was also about thinking beyond video conferencing as a tool only for learning in lockdown. Using Google Meet to connect with Amanda, was an opportunity for our learners to experience how we can harness the technology to tap into the knowledge and experience of an expert. This exemplifies The Manaiakalani Programme's Learn | Ako pedagogy. Harnessing the affordances of technologies to offer new experiences and opportunities not accessible prior to digital technology.
We often see our schools utilising local experts, parents, professionals and community members to help further learning in the classroom. How are we continuing to harness the connectivity digital technologies enable to connect with this expertise and knowledge at a distance?
Friday, 2 September 2022
Visible and Connected
Harnessing online spaces to share and collaborate just makes sense to me especially when devices are 1:1. From 2006-2008 I facilitated in a group of schools in central Auckland and realised quickly that email updates were not going to cut it if we going to harness the digital to share and collaborate.
As a cluster of schools we met regularly then for Cluster Shares, face-to-face opportunities designed for teachers to share their Teaching as Inquiry progress and to support digital fluency. We also quickly acknowledged the need for an online collaborative space that was visible and accessible publicly and would enable us to curate content that supported real time collaboration and rewindable learning for teachers... we even made the Ed Gazette!
Manaiakalani Google Sites for Visible Teaching and Learning |
Friday, 19 August 2022
Tohatoha
The session was designed to be conversational with small groups formed in response to curriculum level and Teaching as Inquiry topics. This was an opportunity to connect and share strategies with educators who have been focussing on similar achievement challenges. We shared conversation starters and each group met online for 45 min.
We believe sharing is fundamentally about people making connections. Early feedback - the opportunities to connect with teachers and school leaders, specifically to hear how schools are approaching their unique contexts, was valued.
Friday, 12 August 2022
Hanga
Thinking about creativity today and reminded how being creative also encourages collaboration and problem solving.
I have shared on the Blogger platform for many years. In 2022 our young people moved to edublogs to share their learning.
Creating a media gallery is a smart, image formatting feature in edublogs and a time saver.
I was able to set this up while editing, however the formatting would not save when published.
A problem shared and thanks to Lars from my DFI Bubble a solution!
This requires activating the CSS plugin and updating with the following:
.gallery > figure { width: auto; }
Getting creative with Google Slides and Drawing
I demonstrated today how to create an interactive poster to share in a blog post.
While Google Drawing is a great go to App to create a poster or graphic any hyperlinked content will not be clickable in a blog post. Google Drawing Resources
An option is to create an interactive poster using a Google Slide.
Example: Using a Google Slide, embedded in a blog post, enables hyperlinks to remain active.
This option includes removing the Google Slide navigation bar.
Note to self:
Read: Elwyn Richardson and the early world of creative education in New Zealand' by Margaret MacDonald. Recommended Robin Sutton What a gift - being creative in selling the 'creativity' message
Rent: The HeART of the Matter
Tuesday, 9 August 2022
Ako
The Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy recognises effective practice in any learning environment AND the digital learning environment. Why is this important?
The last two years have highlighted how critical this has been for learning and effective practice in any context.
We know for learning to accelerate, our learners need to be able to access learning beyond a physical location and time (McNaughton 2018). This has meant new tools for learning and a new pedagogy to support learning outside of school.
In Term 1 this year we were challenged again with schools open and learners either onsite or learning from home. Listening to a podcast earlier this year, and the following from Derek Wenmoth resonated for me...
Our Learn pedagogy prioritises recognising effective practice |
If you can search for your school website … one link to rule them all! |
Friday, 29 July 2022
Set Up for Success
The Team |
Today's session title "Core Business" is all about building our knowledge and understanding of how to confidently utilise some of the foundational Google Workspace tools both in the classroom and in our professional day-to-day lives.
Today evidenced how important empowering our teachers to harness their device is. Harnessing the affordances of technology enables us to do more, faster. It also follows that teachers are better positioned to empower their learners.Created in Google Docs |