Digital Fluency Day 7 - Devices!

I have been loving this session about Devices today. Our hands-on learning about the Chromebook keypad functions, shortcuts and so much more has been very beneficial. I know I get asked a lot of these questions daily and I feel more equipped now to be able to empower my students to succeed. 

Adding my slide here from some of the work I have done today. 

 

Having a  go with Explain Everthing. 

It has been a long time since I have used iPads in my classroom as the majority of students use Chromebooks in our year 7 & 8 classroom. Bring on a new challenge for the day. As I continued to experiment with the various tools like the DRAW TOOL, I started having fun and I could see some students in my class enjoying this app! I especially liked the INSERT NEW tool. I felt my students would be engaged in creating presentations like this while being able to include images and gifs. I have a few iPads in my classroom ... So it might be time to bring these out and have go with my class. 

My Explain Everything video

Thinking about REWINDABLE LEARNING 🧐

"Have a think now about the idea of rewindable learning
Ie capturing the teaching, capturing the learning
Enabling young people to revisit it over and over again

Manaiakalani "

Dorothy encouraged us to think about rewindable learning today. This is definitely been a key area of learning for me throughout the DFI sessions each week. I know I am thinking about each lesson I plan now, in a completely different way. I have learnt to become more confident with teaching using Screencastify. Even if it is only a short clip to enable a student to revisit an instruction of the task. 

Here is my example...

Today our create challenge was to Create or repurpose a Cybersmart lesson using EE covering one of the Cybersmart concepts for your learners.

Following on from our amazing learning with the Digital Dig today I repurposed the Digital Dig slide by BoI College by Kerry Boyde -Preece.

https://cybersmart.manaiakalani.org/being-cybersmart/smart-learners/digital-dig

Coffee & Blogging

Another great start to the year with our staff coffee & blogging. We meet on Wednesdays at 8 am for a techie time for learning skills to use our blogs more effectively.

iPad set up Part 2

Today I have been working on setting up the 10 new iPads in the school. It is very exciting to be getting new technology into school. I have found the that process has been supported by the installation of Meraki, which allows apps to be installed from a central management system.

Add caption

First 2 weeks using iPads...

It has been an exciting start to Term 2 as the school has embraced the introduction of iPads. Further to my first post on setting up the iPads. We have now installed a few apps, using Meraki, which has been brilliant! It is so easy to assign apps to each device and then install the apps on the iPads.

In addition, we have started a Wednesday morning coffee group before school at 8am for staff to practise using the apps and to share ideas. I am really enjoying sharing what I have learnt about iPads, apps, Google Drive etc and learning from my colleagues. At this stage we are sharing 14 iPads between the classes. The first issue we encountered was how were we going to save students work? The solution at this stage is that students will use the Google Drive app to achieve this.

Students are able to sign into the app and instantly add photos, videos, documents.Once this has been done, students sign out of Google Drive once they are finished with the iPad. Students are then able to view these pictures and videos at home, school, anywhere where they can log into the google account.

To upload photos or videos that are already stored on your device:

1. Open the Drive app.
2. In the top right, touch the + button.
3. Select Upload Photos or Videos.
4. Touch one or more photos or videos in your camera roll to upload it to Drive.

Issue:
How do we add these videos to blogs?
I have created a short video to explain how I think we can do this...

Setting up iPads

Setting up 14 new iPads in my school has been one of the most exciting and challenging opportunities I have had in my first term of teaching. I can say the excitement has outweighed any learning opportunities along the way :-)

I look forward to how this journey will develop over time. At this stage the 14 new iPads that have been set up and will be managed with Meraki. My next step is to purchase app's which will be pushed out the the iPads.

The Process:

Justine Driver's blog : Setting up iPads & Meraki

I followed Justine's blog instructions, especially the "Next Time" advice. These instructions were crucial in the successful implementation of the VPP account and Meraki. I would have been so lost with out this information. Thank you Justine for recording your experiences for others to use and learn from.

VLN: Volume Purchasing Information

I was reassured to read posts in the Virtual Learning Network from colleagues who have had been through this process in the school and could offer advice and tips. 

Allanah King : Initial iPad Setup 

Allanah's site has tutorials, printable pdf's so show how to use an app and embed it in your blog, app suggestions as so much more.

A special thanks to Scott Walden & Raylene Hunt !!

My learning:

1. Taking time to read and find information before jumping into any project like this is invaluable and will save time and frustration in the long run.
2. I found that installing Meraki directly to each iPad using https://m.meraki.com/mdm/ , entering your school's Network Id was the quickest way to invite each iPad onto Meraki.
3. Factor in time over and above the VPP & Meraki management to set up each iPad from new.
4. I have actively contributed to my own professional learning, at the same time my enthusiasm in setting up the iPads will hopefully benefit the teachers and students in my school.