Keep Calm and Keep Learning...

Here's what: 

This is my final reflective post of my learning journey through the 32 Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning). During this programme I spend 16 weeks in a face-to-face learning environment and the other 16 weeks online.

So What:

The face-to-face learning component of this paper was a highlight for me. I really enjoyed meeting like-minded colleagues and making new and lasting connections with these amazing people.

• Criteria 1: Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of all ākonga.

This course has really helped me to understand and value the importance of these relationships for support, encouragement and mostly to enhance my own practise and my teaching. For me this relates really closely to Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment. As I have learnt that I need to understand what collaboration is before I can expect my students to be able to be able to collaborate.  With the help of the course content and further research I have learnt that collaboration is much more than people working together but rather an expression of mutual understanding, shared goals and interdependency. In allowing people to use their strengths in order to achieve a common goal.

image from http://www.spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/instagram-cooperation.png

Other highlights include:

• Challenging my perceptions of my leadership style
• Learning new teaching approaches
• Exploring new and exciting digital tools... Who can forget Makey-Makey week!
• Time management challenges in the busyness of school life.
• An opportunity to work the Mindlab team to create a Mindlab Promotional video !!!!! 
• An awesome article about my learning the the Taranaki Daily news!

Now What:

My Dream .... is to continue learning and growing as a teacher. I want to always have a growth mind-set and be open to learning. Hopefully I will be able to go on to do my Masters in Applied Practise in the near future. In the mean time I am planning on going to to do Google Educator Level 1 & 2.

However, most importantly I plan to continue to develop the amazing relationships that I have established through this course. To always "Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice" (Criteria 4).

References:

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

He aha te mea nui o te ao

What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

Maori proverb

I think there is great power when we realise that people hold so many valuable skills and that we are much stronger and more effective when we use our strengths to benefit each other. Dr Deana McDonagh (2011), says that "not being an expert is an advantage". I think this is such an important attitude to have, and could enable us to value the skills that we bring to the table.  Joyce Thomas (2011) add that interdisciplinary collaboration brings people in and allows for previously unconnected connections to be made.


What does this all mean?

Staff  (2012) says that to foster interdisciplinary education it is to  take a "holistic approach to education and requires the close collaboration of multiple teachers to create an more integrated, enhanced learning experience for students". So as I reflect on this I have that there are many teachers, experts, students and valuable people that I can and do collaborate with the enhance the learning experiences of my own students.

One recent area of focus for me has been seeking collaboration from colleagues with more experience and knowledge of Te Reo Māori to enhance my students learning. This has worked really well this past term, as I have offered to support a colleague in an area of my strength being Digital Technologies. This term we have swopped classes on a Wednesday afternoon to support the current learning in the classrooms in these areas. This has been a new initiative in our school, so we decided to give it some time to decide if there were benefits to learning this way. 

I am happy to report that the benefits have far exceeded our expectations. Firstly as classroom teachers we have been able to build relationships with 28 other students in the school. New connections have been made. For both classes we have seen increased engagement in these learning areas and the skills they have been learning have been transferred to the relevant classrooms. Therefore the learning has definitely been enhanced.

What next? 

Well I am looking forward to Term 3 as we continue to build this close collaborative approach to learning. In doing so two other teachers in the school have decided to try what we have been doing, which is exciting to see. 

References:
Staff R. (2012). Fostering Interdisciplinary Skill Sets. Retrieved from https://rossieronline.usc.edu/fostering-interdisciplinary-skill-sets/

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. ( 2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA

# Twitter for Professional Development

The power of a passionate teacher cannot be underestimated ! This blog reflection has reminded me of one of my most influential lecturers at Waikato University, Dianne Forbes. As our ICT lecturer in variety of papers she challenged us to use Social Media as a method to reflect and connect with educators. Highlighted in her research article Forbes (2015) reports that "teachers are learners", so we were encouraged to have an open mind set about social media for professional development, before we could teach our students to connect this way.

We were prompted by Forbes (2015) to engage in a professional online social media site to learn how to: 

• Be Cybersafe: Protect your online identity and how to safeguard your professional reputation, integrity and privacy; 
• Being proactive: Establishing a professional online presence; 
• Lifelong learning: Using the Internet to build a personal/professional learning network; 
• Challenges: Expanding your repertoire of social networking tools for professional purposes

When I look back at how this all started I can see that over the last 4 years I have definitely grown in confidence when connecting in social media sites and I have definitely expanded my professional learning networks. My choice of social media was and still is Twitter. 

Challenges: 

The first step for me was to decide if I would use Twitter for my personal and professional online presence. I decided to keep my Twitter profile strictly professional. I think this has been key to the successful use of twitter for my professional development. 

Secondly managing all the updates, text messages: In this case I have chosen not to receive notifications in Twitter, except for certain people I am following. I feel in control of when and what I would like to learn and be a part of.  I think this is one of the most important parts of using social media for professional learning.

Benefits

The benefits of using social media relate back to the "teacher as learner" for me. Using Twitter has encouraged me to connect with other educators beyond the boundaries of our classroom.  Could this be exactly what we are aiming to guide our students to do?

The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum Achievement Objectives for eLearning states that eLearning may:

• assist the making of connections by enabling students to enter and explore new learning environments, overcoming barriers of distance and time;
• facilitate shared learning by enabling students to join or create communities of learners that extend well beyond the classroom;

Shapes et al; (2016) agree with this reporting that "Social media make it possible to involve and draw on the experience of people around the world" I hope that as I continue to develop as a learner myself that I will be able to lead my students to do the same.

A Highlight:

At the recent GAFE summit in Auckland I was so excited to meet Richard Wells, author of "A Learner's Paradise: How New Zealand is reimagining education". We had connected on Twitter prior to the conference, and now this connection has continued. 

References:

Forbes, D. (2015) Building Connections: Professional Online Presence and Learning Networks. Retrieved from  http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/9473/ForbesECSM15.pdf?sequence=5

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media Ltd

Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved fromhttp://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

Social Media & Ethics

As I consider some relevant ethical situations linked to digital online media and especially social media, a few dilemma's spring to my mind

• Do you have a Facebook account for your class? 
• Do you have to friend the parents/families of your students for them to be in group?
• Do you accept a student as a member of a classroom Facebook group?

Regardless of the digital media that you do decide to use,  one issue that is often highlighted to me is that of "Netiquette".  Dictionary.com defines 'Netiquette' as the "rules of etiquette that apply when communicating over computer networks, especially the Internet". When we are building relationships with a diverse range of students and families who have their own personal attitudes, values it can be difficult to decide what is good netiquette. Recently Seven Sharp reported in "So what is normal behaviour online?" a range of responses to what is acceptable behaviour online. 

What do you think of the range of responses? Can you see a pattern?

To me there definitely seems to be some blurred lines about what to post online. So in my opinion we need to be aware of this dilemma, and work towards some common goals for online posts.

The Code of ethics states for teachers & learner to :

Carefully consider the tone and content of your posts or messages when using social media as a teaching tool – think about how it compares to how you present yourself in the physical learning environment

With this is mind I have started to work with students in my class to help them to pratise writing posts using Todays.meet. I will prompt a question and allow the student to reply in a respectful manner. In addition I have created a simple tool to assist students to write blog comments. At the same time, modelling correct online behaviour is one of the most powerful tools we have as teachers (Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program, 2012).

I look forward to hearing from you about ways your school is preparing students to be respectful and show etiquette online?

References

Education Council of Aoteroa New Zealand 2017. (2017) Commitment to Society. Retrieved from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/guidelines/commitment-society

Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5_Manual....