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.
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