Manaiakalani Digital Fluency Intensive Day One

Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) is a one day a week for nine weeks, a course intended to deepen understanding and application of a digital learning environment for practitioners. As an e-Learning leader already I wasn't sure what I would be getting out of this and did wonder if I was taking up a place that someone else could have used.  Fortunately, there is differentiation and depth within the basic skills that mean it is easily accessible for beginners and experienced practitioners.

Ako - Learn - to know

What did I already know that helped my understanding moving forwards today? What made it possible for me to gain momentum today?

My interpretation of LCS is as activation (to know), developing and refining (to act), followed by valuing the learning experience (to value) (Heick, T. 2017)  based on foundational, meta and humanistic knowledge bases. 

The first part of our day has been based upon what we know and if not, what we ought to know about the kaupapa of Manaiakalani. Making connections with those around us provides a relational base for what we will continue to do over the following eight weeks. 

Fluency in how tools work for learners is as important as fluency in how to use them in delivery, which is as important as evidence that they work and likewise leads back to how the Manaiakalani pedagogy is intended to gain positive momentum in a changing and now digital world. 

Foundational, meta and humanistic knowledge bases should not necessarily be an 'order' to learn in, rather they are interlinked and cyclical, not often strictly linear. That is how I see Learn, Create Share. It will be digital when it needs to be, and can and was analogue long before that. My classes are often inter-relating and back and forth combinations of LCS, which is like the balanced diet version of a good education as I see it. 

Waihanga - Create - to act

What specifically did I learn and create? 
How did I best retain the information? How can I use it in my practice forwards?

Here is a good example of where those delineations between Learn and Create cease to be, or at least are flicking back and forth consistently; time is given for exploring content, levelling up on what we may not have known, while others did, diving deeper into a tool, and gaining resources and skills that are adaptable to a range of subjects and levels with a bit of thought. 

Having prior knowledge whether it was provided today for the first time, or from where I already was at, was key to not becoming lost in the 'tips and tricks'. PLD provided as a bunch of how-to's without this would be difficult to retain and even harder to apply in my practice. It would lack the context. 

Aspects that I would want to extend on with peers and learners

Systematic understanding of the affordances of Google docs

Most of us in teaching now started out using products such as Microsoft word. Docs is the 'online' version. So when I approached it, I just looked for how it did what word had done. Possibly if I had begun using it as a product quite separate from word, I would have learned to use it very systematically and picked up some of this already. What I liked about this part of today was that I came into it thinking I wouldn't learn much and finished up with 'wow, I didn't know I could do that!'. 

Being coached through making a document that explores the tools specific to the product while acknowledging to us that 'yes you likely do know lots of this stuff' was aa good technique and meant that we finished up with a concrete piece of evidence as a reminder of how and what it does.  This translates well into other adult learning scenarios as well as in my classroom. I can see many applications for how I would approach teaching peers and students alike from this and emulating the approach at the beginning of a unit/topic/year would be a preferable way of managing digital assessments for me in the future, as it would allow more time for students to practice their skills with a purpose. 

Google groups

I am a part of a group through leaders of Learning, however, I just saw it as an email chain.

I also didn't really see any benefits to using groups as an end-user in this way as I didn't understand the affordances it provided. There are significant benefits; its something of a cross between google plus and email - to work from groups means that all of your topics and correspondence in regards to the one particular set of colleagues, such as a department are rewindable and stored on the one location online. when you go back to them it looks like a list of blog posts. when you are interacting with them it is no more difficult than responding to emails. It eliminates the fuss of having to search your emails for specific topics and/or contacts, if you are organised in the first place. Understanding this concept is far easier with prior knowledge of how email works, and how google+ aspired to work. I do wonder how easy this concept is to pick up and run with for someone new to a digital learning environment. I am possibly overthinking that. 

A Google-based scavenger hunt 

Such a simple concept, yet when presented like this, so hard to argue not to do this when you want that immersion into these digital tools for students, and so easily adaptable to a different subject or level. In order for me to adapt this, I would have to have a reason to use it fairly soon or it will be one of those things I never look at again as it fades from my poor memory.

A broad-brush look at a range of add-ons and extensions that improve workflow on google.

This is stuff I loved, but again, unless I actively figure out how to employ them within the week, I fear they will fade from memory. 

The tools I will be attempting to work into my own practice this coming week are:

TLDR (Too long, didnt read!) 

doc to form

eZnotifications

Docutube 

MindMeister

Tohatoha - Share - to value

Why does it work? Why should I? What do I envisage happening with learners in my class if I apply specific elements? 

The value of completing a course like this is that I am constantly reflecting on how I could use this information in my classroom and practice. I enjoyed taking a day out of classroom practice to focus on this, rather than troping over to a staff meeting following a day in the classroom to try and absorb some information, knowing that all the while I was forcing my eyelids open, and deliberating over whether I would eat the last of the lollies/slice/nibbles on the table there to share.  

My fear still remains that I may not apply what I have learnt due to time, good intentions and all. 

The two I am confident I will apply are google groups, which may be because we used that tool for the delving deeper section, so I know more about it and stronger structure in how I set up using google drive and docs with my two new junior classes this term. I will be integrating the scavenger hunt into this. 

Our weekly department meeting for Visual Arts would be a great place to pick out apps and extensions and teach to the department, challenging them to use these tools meaningfully over the next week. 

Pause-reflect - leadership TAI LCS NOTES only

Analyse recording of staff meeting for what I have managed well and areas to improve:



Before we presented, we shared this with two other staff members. One went through it on her own at home the other went through it with us and teased things out, questioning points, phrasing and wording of certain elements and how we would deal with certain reactions from staff.

Both critiquers noted that our original presentation was too long - you can see we now have a part two inserted. Both also felt like our point lacked clarity. This led to changing the title of the presentation after orally reworking it with the second critiquer.

By the time we were presenting, we had developed a clear understanding that we would set this up to finish wherever we got to by 4.15pm regardless. We were able to stop at any point up to Part two without compromising learning for staff.

Analysing voice file for examples of my good and bad practice as a leader and presenter

The recording was made as audio only to simplify the technology at the time:
(link here) 54 minutes long, Katie Tozer and I presenting.
What I wanted to achieve:
A shared understanding that we must craft our language to reflect our desired outcome; LCS.
A reflection from all staff involved in their own use of language
Connections made between how language has been used to fool the user and the power of it.
Willingness to collaborate on learning between colleagues
A concrete interpretation of LCS and creating a DLO along with fish hooks you might encounter.
Setting the scene to develop cultural responsiveness from language forwards.
Opening of possibilities for learning by seeing, hearing and sharing different points of views and ways of thinking.

Positives:
- I set a time limit of 4.15pm - reassuring staff that there was going to be a stopping point
- Explained a rough structure of what we were presenting and expecting regarding interactiveness.
- Voice appears clear in presenting.
- I paused with straight outta the south pacific slave trade! and tried to paraphrase...
- I believe I made each task the 'why' for each task pretty clear.
- Pulling staff back together seemed fairly successful
- Paraphrasing what one of the staff wrote on the Padlet to sum things up.

Negatives:
- Fumbles with the technology
- I pronounce AKO badly. I can do that stuff better.
- Stuttering when we got to the slides about language... I knew that I might offend and was ducking linguistically?
- Have to work on paraphrasing as I am often just restating what has been said.
- "Not a horribly long article" is definitely my kind of phrasing that I should work on! It is said from negative pretexts; "not a" and 'horribly'. How I phrase these things can be better.
- Inflexion of my voice - I often end with my voice moving lower.
- "give us some feedback I guess" so not professional. Annoyed that I said it like that.
- I don't hear myself feeling happiness in my voice when I hear it back. I am actually feeling really happy when I am presenting once I am into it.

I'm still in the Learn phase of my inquiry. I'm still gathering evidence and developing my hunch and hypothesis more fully. Although some of that is happening concurrently, which is preferable to me, as I would rather see this as a fluid process.

 Notes:

Stuff for me to look up and reflect upon for next steps:
Joan Dalton -"Develop the art of the inquiry"

In questioning to open up the language of possibilities; how do I pause to reflect and allow myself . and others time to paraphrase in their own heads what is it we want to develop a shared understanding of.
It  takes 3 - 5 seconds to process high-level thoughts

I want to develop my capability around this as a leader.

Book 4 page 13 - 32

6 types of paraphrasing.

All stuff that I want to process and use somehow in how I develop my leadership capabilities.

What my next steps are:
1) Get someone to monitor my classes during the day for feedback purposes
2) Get a range of people from a range of leadership scenarios to assess me against leadership dimension 4.
3) Work through the Joan Dalton stuff and identify how to use pause, paraphrase etc... (book 4)

Move forward based on this and my own analysis.

New PTC's in NZ Teaching; how I see the relationship to TAI and Appraisal

Simplified version of our RTC's now called PTC's. The language seems more modern and there is a clear, concise e-learning version of how they could be applied here too. The first thing I thought was 'great, my labels all need to be remade on my blog... thanks EDUCANZ', more work on top of TAI for appraisal, actually teaching my students, the leadership and pastoral roles I already hold and the new staff member we will have in the Art department next week (yay :-) ). But in reading them, the language is better, the concepts are modernised and there is the e-learning study that CORE ED have done here too. 

What I like:

• The overarching statements cover everything nicely and the criteria and indicators are nice clear guides:

Overarching statements

1. Teachers play a critical role in enabling the educational achievement of all ākonga/ learners 1.
2. The Treaty of Waitangi extends equal status and rights to Māori and Pākehā. This places a particular responsibility on all teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand to promote equitable learning outcomes.
3. In an increasingly multi-cultural Aotearoa New Zealand, teachers need to be aware of and respect the languages, heritages and cultures of all ākonga.
4. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Code of Ethics / Ngā Tikanga Matatika commits certificated teachers to the highest standards of professional service in promoting the learning of those they teach.

• You can approach it from a place  like this blog, where you detail the why, how and what of what you are doing and detail that with evidence, labelling statements and/or criteria and/or indicators appropriately

What I don't like about it:

• Even though it says these are interdependent and overlapping, you could still turn it into a checklist for teachers to tick off. Defeating the purpose of them being interdependent and overlapping. 
• I don't see how a teacher can construct one single TAI that is used for appraisal purposes as well as meeting these all at once and I think it is worth debating whether we should be trying to do this.

What I find interesting:

• I'm just not convinced you need to apply one massive big TAI to the whole year to meet these, nor the old ones for that matter, and I recently had a discussion with a colleague about whether TAI should be used to demonstrate these over the course of a year long focus inquiry, or whether it should be a process that happens naturally and repeatedly because of your continual reflection on your own practise. I cannot remember who the colleague was or how the conversation came about, but my brain kept reverting back to 'but this is the direction the ministry and our school is wanting us to develop - TAI integrating with PTC's to test appraisal'. That is such a weak argument. It should not be why we do anything, because the ministry says so... (don't sack me).

So could I say no I'm not doing A TAI, to prove I meet these overarching statements, any of the criteria or key indicators, because I could probably prove every single one if I continue on like I am; posting up evidence of mini TAI's happening naturally, within the course of my teaching and leadership roles, and clearly identifying how they answer these a bit at a time. Could anyone at my school say 'you are doing that wrong, you are not competent'? Could I even be accused of failing to meet the first criterion? I wonder if your whole appraisal is based on a major TAI as we are being directed towards, we cannot manage this lofty goal?

The last time I applied for my registration, I sent the URL's for my teaching site and for this blog. All I was asked for that was extra, was a birth certificate from this millenium (why do you need to keep providing a birth certificate every three years?). Cool, much less work than jumping fences with unknown heights through the TAI system of appraisal I was initially involved in creating at my school (and I enjoyed the academic work of doing it too) .

In any case, my own TAI that I started 2017 is no longer relevant. However, several off-shoots of the TAI I started with SPARK - MIT have developed since then, that easily meet the PTC's.  The whole 'thing' has become so much bigger, but also so many more that are smaller, easier to document, more relevant to the on-ground job at hand and less 'constructed' to fit other peoples boxes, that I think we ought to be rethinking how we 'test' appraisal. One major TAI that has to be forced along and ignores the fact that TAI exists all over the place in all sorts of ways in your practice doesn't do it. But, it becomes a monstrosity or it becomes lip service. In my opinion. Having being trying to push myself through this exact concept for 2 years now. 

So for however long I can get away with it, I will not be doing a major TAI. That is my TAI. Can I document my natural processes as a teacher, leader and learner through the lens of TAI, as it happens, remain competent and still be steadily working towards our school vision of Learn, Create, Share; Actively involved learners? I would happily challenge any other professional or academic to prove that I do my students, colleagues and community a disservice by doing so.  I am also happy to be appraised separately. Any one can come in and see my teaching, go through our planning, collaboration, offer advice, make up check lists that address an appraisal of sorts. I just don't want us to be calling it a day after one major TAI for the year being constructed and isolated to do that for us.