DFI te rā tuawaru

Today was focussed on devices. We had some time with a Chromebook and an ipad. This integrated well with the Manaiakalani kaupapa because the explanation covered why these devices are the choices for use with the Manaiakalani model. There was also 101 Hapara Teacher Dashboard, a play with the Digital Dig anda chance to register for the Google Educator exam.
We were asked to create a screencast with reference to one of the content areas of the Manaiakalani cybersmart curriculum. I looked at Smart Media because I think this topic is a really interesting area for students and teachers to investigate. There is a lot of content that can be used or adapted to fit the age, stage and delivery angle, and it fits into a variety of learning areas for secondary school students.

DFI te rā tuawhitu

Today's session was dedicated to the two new learning areas of the Technology Curriculum - CT (Computational Thinking) and DDO (Developing Digital Outcomes). We were very fortunate to have Vivienne from OMG Tech with us sharing lots of great resources and ideas for use to meet the PO (progress outcomes) of these two areas. These things should be linked to our Maker-y site so that teachers have a 'one stop shop'.

OMG Tech lessons is a great resource with lots of lesson plans, ideas, videos.
Hour of Code which I have used in classes for a few years.  The most wonderful find of the day was Minecraft in te reo Māori - change the language bottom right of the page.
Another activity highlighted was Kodable for pre readers. Teachers were advised to check which activities work on the ipad.
Scratch (Simple Maze Game example and 10 Block challenge) and Scratch junior were shown. You can now bring your own photos into Scratch Junior - add blank button then click top right, draw frame, tap camera, take photo. and it is automatically added.
Compute it for coding beginners.

Vysor is an extension for the Google Chrome browser that connects to an app on your android smartphone, enabling you to control your phone from your PC or Mac using the mouse/trackpad and keyboard. Everything happens via a USB cable, which you'll need to connect the phone to your computer's USB port.

Also covered were the Binary number system., ASCII American standard code for information exchange and Hex codes and how colours work from 00-FF.

Overall this was a very useful day to set teachers up with resources, ideas and a link to a company really working hard to empower teachers to empower their learners in this space.

DFI te rā tuaono

Data was the big topic today and the group covered Google Forms, MyMaps and Sheets. There was a great amount of content. The challenge was to use a 'create' tool to analyse data and then share the analysis on our blogs. I decided to analyse my blog post frequency over the last 4 years and think about the trends that the analysis shows.

Firstly, I investigated my total posts. I was a little surprised by the downwards trend, although 2019 hasn't finished yet. I looked a little closer at 2016 and was reminded that in that year I was totally new to Google Drive and blogged everything I learned so that my blog could be used by me as a tutoring tool when I forgot. I also reflected that since 2017, I have been carrying two major roles for Kootuitui ki Papakura so that was the most probably reason for the dramatic decrease in posts. Oh, and with this post, my 2019 total will rise to 12!
Secondly, I investigated the monthly data for my blog posting. The trend over each year is quite clear to me that most of my blogging is done between March and September, which is the 'meat' of the year. I don't do much blogging over the summer period and not while I am on annual leave. This is quite reasonable because I only use this as a professional blog, however, I will aim to try and complete a couple of posts over the 2019-2020 summer period to see whether I get views of these posts.

DFI te rā tuarima

Today we had our second day on Google sites. We had a very quick look at each other's sites and gave feedback on them using a Google form. It was great to hear people talking about their sites as they reveal what they think are the most important features of their sites. However, there wasn't enough time to look carefully through each site and to give robust, quality feedback. Maybe we could have separated into groups of four so that we could have worked in a small group - sharing, asking questions, in discussion and giving feedback. These groups would contain people at different stages of site competence so that there would be opportunity for ako among the members. Anyway, the gold nugget today was quiet time to get some of the Trust website pages up-to-date.

www.kootuitui.org.nz

DFI te rā tuawhā

Tohatoha - (verb) (-ina) to spread around, spread out, spread abroad, distribute, share, deal (cards). Not just LCS, but SLC, CLS and LSC etc. Today was about the use of a website to 'hook' (noun: matau) or entice people in, using a universal approach to designing learning and creating a multimodal website. I started a website with a focus on level 5 social studies, NZ history and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Not having particular students in mind was the biggest disadvantage for me, but I have started gathering some text resources that may be of help to others. Click on the image to access the site.

DFI te rā tuatoru - kia awhiawhi hanga

Kia kaha te reo Māori. Whāia te ara poutama o te reo ka tohatoha ai - keep improving your language and share what you know. Ko tenei taku pepeha.

Let's Animate

At DFI 3 we spent some time focussing on animation. Four of us decided to create an animation that we could join together. We decided to use a plane flying through several landscapes. Above is my individual animation. While below is the video of the 4 animations playing one after the other.

DFI te rā tuarua

Kia ora te whānau. Rāmere, 6th Hepetema, he DFI te rā tuarua. He reremahi ko te kaupapa. He pai ki ahau te taupānga Kūkara. Ināianei, i te mahi ahau te wātaka Kūkara, mahara Kūkara, īmera Kūkara, hui ataata Kūkara me te ripa rorohiko.
The create task was to use Quicktime to record a hangout meet and discuss a blog post. For some reason my internal microphone was not working and I only recorded the video with no sound, which I deleted. So, then I did a bit of troubleshooting and discovered that I needed to give Quicktime access to my camera and microphone, which was strange as I only used it about 2 -3 weeks ago for the Online Toolkits. Anyway, then I did a short test which is attached.

All things 'Doc(k)y'

DFI day 1 has been focused on Google docs. The first thing that hit me was the words and phrases that I am increasingly seeing in use. The current one for me is 'deep dive'. This has recently been coming at me from all directions. No, I'm not researching an underwater holiday, but encountering this term meaning 'taking a thorough look at or into a particular subject matter'. Gone are the words 'focus', 'probe' or 'enquiry'. That got me thinking about the nature of language and common kīwaha, or sayings, which perhaps not coincidentally was the topic of this week's Te Reo lesson for the course I am on. The one I liked from my lesson was 'pai kare' which means 'by golly!', so every time I hear or read 'deep dive', I am going to think 'pai kare'! My first love is language so it's quite hard to distract me from language musing most days.
Anyway, I did concentrate on the content and for my 'create' part of the day, I decided to do a revision of the Trust meeting agenda and add a table of contents. I have created newsletters in docs and drawings, but am currently trialling 'mailchimp' which is the app that most organisations use for a professional look and which also automatically manages the newsletter subscription list.
So here is my new look agenda. I will trial it with trustees until the end of the year.

Media Moments - part 1

This blog post will discuss the four national media events for Kootuitui ki Papakura in the last few months. They are a
1. TV interview - June 2019
2. Radio interview - July 2019
3. Radio news story - August 2019
4. TV news story - August 2019

The media we have been seeking is for national coverage of our Ko Huiamano: Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes programme. This programme is significantly different from other types of provision in this area because it is a community-led development model, being:
- developed by whānau through co-design
- delivered by whānau largely through their commitment to being volunteers
- built on the kaupapa of 'fill my kete, fill your kete'
- focussed on education for behavioural change rather than provision of goods
- not funded through any government scheme such as AWHI (Auckland Wide Healthy Homes)

The first national media event was a short segment on What's Next? where our Kootuitui Whānau were featured on episode 3 being interviewed by Nigel Latta. On Demand here and the text article here. This was excellent timing for us with the winter just getting underway and we felt so proud to be in the spotlight. It was wonderful meeting Nigel and the segment reflected fairly on our work. We received lots of 'congratulations' and 'you guys are doing amazing work' but no direct offers of support. There wasn't any direct link back to us as an organisation as the media didn't actually mention our name 'Kootuitui ki Papakura' or show our logo and the segment sounded a little like a group of people helping others without a charity or organisation behind them. At that stage, I hadn't started to harness the power of social media so after the screening, I shared the On Demand and text links and the euphoria of being on national TV ebbed away. Maybe the viewing demographic for this programme were not the people we were trying to reach?

We recently had support to publish a booklet which details the story of our Homes strand and the Ko Huiamano prototype and I was looking to once again get a national spotlight on our work. I began contacting reporters I knew and emailing TV sites. Then, quite suddenly, I was rung by Radio NZ to do an interview with Jesse Mulligan. This was recorded at 1pm one afternoon and published on their website. Through this interview people were beginning to become more aware of Ko Huiamano: Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes and understand how this part is situated within our whole scope of EDUCATION, HEALTH AND HOMES.

The same RNZ reporter who linked us with Afternoons with Jesse was really keen to attend a home installation and see what happens, in particular the effect of the bubble wrap on the temperature. This led to our Radio news story. This story was broadcast on Checkpoint with photos, video and commentary as well as a short article. This was a tenanted Housing NZ property which showcased our partnership with HNZ. At this stage the social media just took off, maybe because RadioNZ had the story as a feature article on their website.

Even though I had not received any direct replies to my approach to TV media, Te Ao News saw the second RNZ article and contacted me. They wanted to cover our work from a different angle and we agreed on an interview with Māori homeowners. The added piece to this story was that a warm house had had a positive impact on their health. The segment was screened on a cold, Friday, August evening and is here. This is such a positive story of helping our kaumātua and the impact of a home on the health of its occupants.

My next blog post will focus on the social media that has come from the mainstream media above. I am still looking for opportunities for publicity through mainstream media, so if you can assist me in any way, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you. Help us support by Māori, with Māori, for Māori for the improved lifelong outcomes of the young people of Papakura.

Annual Stakeholders' Event

Last Wednesday we held the annual morning where we welcome sponsors, partners, schools and local community organisations to hear about our activities over the past year. It is a short showcase for our funders, sponsors and partners to get an insight into Kootuitui ki Papakura.
This year, the event was hosted at Papakura Central School and included a welcome to the 70-ish attendees, short presentations (above) from representatives who work in each of our three strands and a tour of 1:1 hubs and the school clinic. The Education strand was presented by four PCS students who showed attendees how they learn in an online environment through their teacher's visible website, some of the Google apps they use and the cybersmart learning around making positive, thoughtful and helpful comments on blogs. Having students present is always well received, as is hearing from whaanau who share their stories and others' stories of change through their engagement in the Homes strand initiatives.
This is our third year hosting this event and I have learnt through that time some things that have helped the planning for each successive year. These include the preparations that need to be made at the Trust level, at the school level and at the level of connecting with the various delivery partners. The run sheet invariably gets behind, so I have learnt to factor this into the programme and to break up the 'listening' activities with time for the attendees to talk, walk, network and have refreshments.
The Kootuitui team gets behind this event and pulls together to make it happen. Right now, there are 10 employees, including full and part-timers, with additional volunteers, and we are also supporting the salaries of about 6 FTE - so we are growing as a roopu.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Connections are continuing to be made with other organisations as we focus on our vision of improving the lifelong outcomes for tamariki in our community.

Changing lives one home at a time

A TSI (The Southern Initiative) collaboration with Kootuitui ki Papakura set out to support whaanau to create solutions to the challenges they are facing in day to day living.

This project came about as we were looking to establish an initiative focussed on 'Homes' for families in Papakura. This resulted in a unique peer-to-peer model aimed at empowering locals to improve housing conditions in Papakura in a practical way, while delivering positive social outcomes.

TSI input led to a co-design process that built the capability of whaanau. It then helped them develop a low-cost home intervention kit to create warmer, drier and healthier homes. 

By using a strength-based approach, the whaanau involved experienced greater social connectedness, built a network of authentic and trusting relationships, learnt how to implement their innovative ideas and grew their self-confidence and basic DIY skills.

Due to the high level of training the Kootuitui Whaanau have received, they expanded their knowledge of their tenancy rights, learnt budgeting skills and through whakawhanaungatanga (the building of authentic and trusting relationships), the families transferred what they learnt to whaanau across the community through a 'Fill my kete, fill your kete' approach.

The initiative delivered specific results – meaning many whaanau now have warmer and drier homes. This model will continue to be developed and opportunities sought to scale it further.

Kootuitui ki Papakura would like to thank TSI for its support to produce this document which chronicles the story of our Homes strand. 

Focus on the Homes strand

The Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes programme came about as a direct result of the prototyping from co-design over 2016 and 2017. The Kootuitui voluntary whaanau learnt about the elements of a home that are important for the health of its occupants - namely insulation, moisture control, mould control, heating and ventilation. They then worked with stakeholders - Habitat for Humanity, Beacon Pathway and Auckland Council, to identify how houses could be simply remediated to make them warmer and drier. Whaanau offered their homes for testing to find out the effect of bubble wrap on windows, draft stoppers on doors, v-seal around windows and long curtains. These had an immediate and positive effect.

Ko Huiamano - Warm, Dry, Healthy Homes has three parts:

1. Education workshops on the elements of a warm, dry, healthy home
2. House assessments and a written report provided
3. House installation and minor repairs service

During 2018, a programme of workshops, house assessments and interventions rolled out.

• - 11 home performance workshops were attended by 102 people. This resulted in 63 homes being assessed and 41 interventions being carried out.
• - Three of the Kootuitui Whaanau gained employment and others have taken up community leadership roles, such as school Board of Trustee membership. 
• - Many families in Papakura not normally reached by traditional services now have better housing conditions. 

The 2019 programme is underway. Watch videos of stories from whaanau who have been impacted by this prototype and listen to an interview on Radio NZ here.

Evaluation of Kootuitui's holistic approach

In the period 2016-2018, Kootuitui ki Papakura was excellently supported by the Middlemore Foundation for Health Innovation. The Foundation provided most of our funding and also offered expertise in system development and the building of stakeholder relationships. With our pilot period coming to an end, the collection of data across all three strands was pulled together and analysed. The report attached here is a testament to the hard work of everyone involved - the trustees, employees, volunteers and key partners. Although our outcomes may be more apparent in the medium and long term, there are many indications that such an holistic approach as we take does lead to some very real positive outcomes, even in the short term. Coupled with recommendations for further development, this document both acknowledges areas of strength and achievement and encourages us to continue to iterate to achieve our vision of ensuring lifelong outcomes for tamariki.

https://sites.google.com/kootuitui.org.nz/papakura-kootuitui-trust/research