Reflecting on 9 weeks of DFI

When something is unfamiliar, there is a scale effect - things seem bigger, harder, scarier when we have never done them before. So it was for this course, the first journey to Manaiakalani HQ felt like a looooong way to go on a Friday morning. Now that the roads, faces and format are familiar the scale seems normal, the journey seems shorter and the course has passed very quickly.

In our WWW this morning, I said that the name, 'Digital Fluency Intensive' is an undersell of what this course involves. It is far more. We are all familiar with the time poverty experienced by teachers; one of the effects of this is that 'new' resources, ideas and practices are not able to be capitalised on or are understood at a superficial level. Dorothy reiterated her stance that the devices are not JUST a tool. I would add to that, Kootuitui, as a Manaiakalani outreach, is not JUST devices. The quality of teaching is crucial to our learners' success and the learning needs to be at the centre of decision making. Yes, we can increase engagement with digital devices, yes we can increase engagement with creative 'doing' but if this engagement isn't leveraged for learning, we are not making the difference our learners deserve.

Most of the day was dedicated to future thinking, facilitated with fantastic skill by Zoe and Vivian from OMG Tech. My thinking was really challenged, and there is a lot of good stuff percolating in my brain that I will make sense of over the weekend. Sometimes big ideas need to float around for a while before they become clear. More to follow...

The bigger picture of an exam

Today was exam day, the culmination of our learning over the last few months of DFI. Murphy's law would have it that this is the week that I'm stuck at home with a cold and had to miss the exam... except that I didn't. I made my own little DFI at home and did the exam here. Note the extension cord and multi-box for authenticity 😉.

My virtual DFI set up

I had been feeling a bit apprehensive about doing the exam, thinking it would be much more demanding than the level 1 exam, but in truth it wasn't a huge step up. Some of the tasks were more involved, but I think the practice opportunities that we have had through the deep dives and sandpit time were really good preparation. Those who have done the level 1 exam today should definitely challenge themselves to take this next step and consolidate the learning we have done together. Go on, be brave!

The thing that was demonstrated for me today wasn't necessarily showing off my techy skills, but putting the Manaiakalani kaupapa into action. I was able to participate, even when things didn't go according to plan. Even though I was sitting by myself in my kitchen, I knew that there was a roomful of other people who were sharing the same experience (Thanks Dorothy for the Viber photos!)

Yay, the exam is finished!

Congratulations to all of my colleagues who have taken the time and the risk to improve their digital fluency. Your students are lucky to have people like you, who believe they are worth it. Looking forward to catching up with everyone for shared lunch and OMG tech next week.

Digging into Devices

I love the feeling of being introduced to something that I can immediately see will have a positive impact for me learners. That 'something' for me today is the Manaiakalani blog app. I have been feeling a little apprehensive about introducing students to blogging where there is a huge desire to share their learning with the world, but the technical skills and understanding are still at their early stages of development. This app features a much simpler user interface and gives students immediate access to the drive in order to share their DLOs.

One of the things I have been pondering, as I have been planning for facilitation, is how to differentiate my instruction and support learners to take greater autonomy in their learning. This is a great scaffold to ensure that the learning will be shared with the world while it is fresh and the enthusiasm is high. As students gain digital fluency, they can step up to the full blogger app. I plan to use this in the coming week - results & reflections to follow!

Connected Learners Share

This morning's session looked at 'Connected' from the Manaiakalani kaupapa. The power of connectedness is something that we probably take for granted in this day and age, until we find ourselves out of range or in a power cut. Thinking beyond the wifi zone though, connectedness is hugely important for our wellbeing as individuals, communities, and society.

Listening to Dorothy this morning, I was reminded of the idea of social capital, a concept that spans the fields of economics and sociology. By fostering connections for our young people, we increase their social networks and broaden their fields of opportunity. My hope is that the digital connections gained in class lead to human connections through life. 

Looking at other class sites, what's working, what's not. My wondering is - are we too quick to abandon text? I know that I am privileged to be a competent user and producer of text, but the idea of minimising the amount of text on our sites to make it 'more engaging' kind of pains me! I understand age appropriateness, but perhaps rather than avoiding text, we need to be developing digital texts, i.e. sites that follow similar conventions to those we teach our students to read, and then explicitly teaching those conventions through the sites. 

Another thought that occurred to me as we were evaluating class sites was the lack of student generated content on the sites. I understand that this is often found in the class and individual blog, but if I was a parent, that would be what I would want to see first. I thought it was neat that some of the sites had a specific page for whānau who were visiting the site to explain how it worked and convey the information specific to them.