Digital Fluency Day 8 - Computational Thinking

WELCOME to our FINAL week of DFI

Today we have explored more of the Digital Technology/ Hangarau Matihiko Curriculum. I am passionate about learning and teaching students to be innovative creators of digital technology rather than users, so this has been a double BONUS for me today. 

One key resource that I found in the slide that Kerry created for us was the Progression Outcomes - decoded for learners. This is an extremely helpful document to be able to translate the language of programming to our students. I am looking forward to spending more time looking into this more. 

Progression Outcomes – decoded for learners

Manaiakalani Class on Air

I love seeing how teachers like Danni Stone create powerful lessons that combine programming in Scratch with other core curriculum areas, like transformation geometry, in this case.

 Definitely keeping this here for future use. 

AND FINALLY ....

Having a go at using the pen add on in Scratch was fun today. Watch my video as I explain a little bit more about what I have learnt and created today.

Reflecting with a Screencastify video

Mindlab Video

Really excited to share a The Mind Lab video for my journey through the Digital & Collaborative Postgraduate programme.

Digital Modelling Book - Writing Engaging Sentences

I saw great success today in our ALL writing, students were engaging in collaborative Google Document to work through the steps of writing interesting sentences. Today we started with Simple sentences, adding verbs, adverbs & adjectives.

We used Sheena Cameron resource : Additional information about sentences (CD15A)

Digital Technology - Using TIP charts as an acceleration tool

In her book Learning in the Fast Lane Suzy Pepper Rollins indicates that "vocabulary understanding is developed over the course of time and is a key component of prior knowledge, acceleration students in particular benefit from rich vocabulary experiences" (Rollins, 2014).

Using a TIP chart is one way suggested by Rollins to achieve this. I have used TIP charts in class previously so I thought I would try to add these TIP charts to the digital modelling book for the ALL students. The thought that students would be able to collaborate in a greater level, the TIP charts would be in view of each students and students would be able to create exciting and interesting charts that the would be proud to present to the class or have on a learning wall.

Here is an example from a student:

Digital Technologies and its impact on learner agency

As I continue to reflect on my inquiry and the big question... Can digital technologies impact Learner Agency. I found this blog reading interesting to help me further understand learner agency and to view what other schools are already doing in this area:

Reflections on Learner Agency blog:

Scott McKenzie, senior syndicate leader at Hampden School, explains that agency is when students are actively involved in their learning and they have choice, control and power over their learning.  A key question was asked “how do we reduce the reliance of the teacher? “and “how do the students own their learning?” (Ministry of Education, 2016). At the same time Claire Amos, deputy principal at Hobsonville Point Secondary School, maintains that agency is directly related to students having ownership of their learning. In a motivating excerpt, a student in Hobsonville Point Secondary, states that at their school there is “no irrelevant learning” and “everything has a purpose” (Ministry of Education, 2016).  Could this be the model of learner agency to follow?

In addition, Hobsonville Point Secondary School have created a school culture that encourages partnerships between teachers and students, which has resulted in an increase in student agency. In doing so the school is showing evidence of students having a say over the modules (curriculum) that they will learn. Amos (2016) reiterates that students come to school with a variety of skills to achieve agency but require purposeful teaching in order to be able to achieve this. Through deliberate scaffolding, students develop the future focused skills that they need to be able to manage themselves and their learning. Students are preparing for tomorrow's world where the 21st Century workplace will require people to work with minimal supervision, plan their own work, design their own work products and incorporate feedback to improve the quality of products.



Reference:

Ministry of Education. (2016, November 15). Learner Agency. Retrieved April 29, 2017 from TKI | Te kete ipurangi: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/NZC-Online-blog/Learner-agency

Digital Technology to engage in ALL writing

• After attending the GAFE conference in Auckland in the holidays, I learnt about using digital modelling books. I was so excited to get back to school and use this in my teaching. I thought I would start with my Accelerated Literacy Learning Group. This is the start of my journey, So I look forward to reflecting on the impact of using this digital tool.

Using a Digital Modelling Book Students are able to collaborate on the same document at the same time.

Setting Goals and using our school tracker in this way helps students to see what others have written and become more confident at using the planner.

Digital Technologies and the NZC - whats it all about

Today I joined my colleagues at Puketapu School for a CORE breakfast. Tim Bell led us through a presentation of how students can engage in activities around digits (Digital Technology). We all use digital technology everyday, programmes are written for people.
Some key points from further reflection...

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Tim Bell - http://csunplugged.org/

Hashing numbers (Barcode)
9 1 9 2 2 2   ----   5
4 4 5 2 0 7  ------ 2 always x 3  = 1 what bring it up to 0 (10)  = 9 last letter of barcode

Digital Technology: digits 

Students - Can add barcode's 

You can use Scratch to create a programme, to calculate your formula/barcode. 

What is special about digital technology? Digits 

Pixels - picture element (RGB numbers for each pixel) human eye can see red, blue, green. 

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Digital technologies to become part of the national curriculum

http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleId=9323

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Computational Thinking :

http://barefootcas.org.uk/barefoot-primary-computing-resources/concepts/computational-thinking/

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Diversity is celebrated in the technology field. Students should have opportunities to learn more to be able to work in this field. How am I doing this in my teaching?