DFI 9 Ubiquitous as pedagogy/kaupapa

Ubiquitous means 'able to learn anywhere, any time at any pace'. We place the learner at the centre of the learning when we not just allow, but plan for and act upon ubiquitous learning; learning doesn't belong to the school nor to the teacher, it is a viral context we are positioned in. What is not looking like ubiquitous learning in our kura currently? And why?

Lock down provided us a learning curve for how ubiquitous we really are. We had no lead in educationally, to covid-19 level four - the 72 hours we did get from level two to four would not be providing an opportunity to force one to happen with our rangatahi. We sat very nervously as a staff when the announcement was made, in our learning commons as it enabled us to spread out, listening to directives made by our senior leadership team, knowing full well they were having to invent the process as we went. Google Meet had already been allowed onto our systems by Harry our fusion technician that day in a pre-emptive move for us, as was google chat. Google chat was then discussed and disabled temporarily while we decided what our next practical step would be. All staff were initially instructed to have NO google meets with classes until we had ascertained a process to support our rangatahi and kaiako well-being. 'Unsure' doesn't really cover how we all felt going forwards. 

What am I proud of?

Having worked hard on my google site not only for my rangatahi learners but also for other kaiako to have as an example meant that I knew I had a structured and manageable way of delivering content. I was also in a fortunate position of knowing that my department staff were in fact using it as a model prior to this, so we had an aligned approach. 

What do I regret?

Before we went into lockdown, our rangatahi using their email with purpose and process was not there. We made these presumptions that our young people knew how to manage email and possibly even Google calendar, when in actual fact, some had never even opened them. Our/my first regret is right here. Students just didn't use email, yet a lot of teaching went there instead of on teacher sites with a directive to use these alone to access work. Students were up to 25+ unopened emails in some cases during this time from staff.

My second regret lies in what I could have done to affect how Google Meets played out; A plan at our kura was established for the first week of term two - following two strange weeks of learning from home with countless emails and shifted school holidays) to reconnect with rangatahi from a pastoral level first. All learning advisors and form teachers would contact each whānau one by one and check-in using google meet, getting us all used to this new technology. No formal teaching was meant to occur while this happened. Except it did, and it undermined that effort we were making to put well-being and front end curriculum first. Form teachers and learning advisors were not yet through google meeting with whānau, but class meets were being scheduled for curriculum - through emails generated by google calendar that many of our students did not regard as the norm. I did not make the decision to go with well-being first (though I adamantly agree it should have been top priority) and I didn't hold a position of authority over anyone who pursued this goal. It is a thing that happened that I couldn't control, but yet it impacted my charges - year 12 as a pastoral dean and later on, my curriculum area, as one that did not push the learning out in the first week, instead leaving the time until pastoral and well-being was sorted, as I saw it. Students were up to 40+ emails unopened in some cases by now. Keeping in mind MOE delivered chrome-books had not arrived in most cases. Those waiting on modems got them but often didn't have them connected up. My regret and frustration and brewing resentment was with the growth in inequity the scenario generated and the failure of others to see this occurring, rather there was that blindspot in empathy:

It appeared that telling staff NOT to do this was not effective, as it became a strange little competition to have the most engagement, without acknowledging the growing divide it was creating - it was like this fear of not being a good enough online teacher took over and one was not able to stand up on the balcony and observe the ball because one was too busy dancing in the competition. Once Google Meets for curriculum were all 'good to go', the ideal set out was for no more than one per week per class. Unfortunately, this also generated the competition again and no amount of persistence inhibited the several times a week in some areas that these were held.  It became overwhelming as a Dean trying to hold things together for the sake of whānau who wanted their child learning from home, teachers who wanted the engagement and young people who were just overwhelmed and over it all. I finished lockdown never ever wanting to go back into level three again. The empathy blindspot was perpetuated by the lack of physical nearnesss, as even though you can see someone in a google meet, you aren't truly connecting to their wairua through google meet. I defy anyone to prove me wrong on this; when you are physically present with another human, you are reacting to their wairua, you are adjusting your 'stance' somewhat to theirs and the relationship develops one way or another based upon this. That is not a possibility in a Zoom or Google Meet. You will see a controlled view of the other and a lot can be disguised or misinterpreted through the technology. Physical proximity is always going to be required, no matter how online we are. How often is a text or email or post on social media misinterpreted because of how each of us reads tone in written communication, rather than hears it from its author? 

What have I taken forward into the new era of schooling?

Pastorally, my communication to whānau is much more online following this. I was creating a video each week of lock down and sending it to my year 12's as a way of reassuring them that this would all end...soon... and ways to get through stuff. I wanted to carry the videos into level two and have one arrive in their inbox each Monday, but it has not been a thing I have managed just yet. I have however, made a weekly slide show with a small focus each week, which leading into our leadership-based next steps camp meant that we had rewindable content that matched up with the themes being imparted at this camp for year 12's. It was like a beautiful collision of pedagogy. 

I am not sure us Cantabrians take the threat of level three as seriously as we should; the idea that we would practice Google Meets just in case had not occurred to me and I doubt it had to many of my colleagues, unless of course they are holding back from bringing it up with the elearning leaders? On reflection it is not a silly idea to be investigating. Particularly in light of establishing and practising a tīkanga effectively before we need to rely on it. By having norms, rather than urgent need, we could stabilise the sense of competition that took over in a few areas if this were to happen again. A norm is something we have done before and are happy to practise, rather than a new directive that had to be made to get us going and feels foreign, because as Aunty Cindy says "you can say something 100 times, there will still be one person who never heard it". If it's the norm, that issue is removed. 

Questions this raises further for me:

What is good practice around ubiquitous learning in our kura currently? 

What is an interesting aspect of all of this so far?

What are our next steps around this?

At this point, I could provide answers to these questions but I think what I want to pursue is a solid framework around framing the elements of the kaupapa and pedagogy that exist already, with ways of stepping this forward further in the future. 

One of my biggest learnings through the DFI was about presumptions; just as we presumed our rangatahi understood email (when they didn't always and were just stabbing in the dark, or plain ignoring it), we presume the professionals we see interacting with a device are 'all over it' but there will be plenty of little things they don't know because they don't use. Is it because we are teachers that we presume we know everything? How cool was it for me to sit through a session about google docs, thinking, 'yeah I got this, what can I actually learn from this' and then a whole bunch of little things come up that improve how I function with it and what I do with a google doc?! Just because you know how to eat, doesn't mean you know how to cook. As those young people say 'mic drop' moment (the cringe this statement will illicit is absolutely intended). The DFI continued week after week in this manner - a lot of things came up that made me rethink ideas and challenged my stance and ultimately have effected not just workflow but pedagogy going forwards. A fully rewarding, worthwhile  experience.