Ubiquitous Learning and Working

As term 1 focuses on the ubiquity afforded to learners now through the use of their own digital devices and an ever-present wifi, it has had me thinking about how this has changed my working life.

When I think about my early years as a Japanese language teacher, I used to spend a great amount of time creating resources from cardboard and paper, gathering objects such as McDonald toys, making OHP transparencies, and searching and ordering videos and films. In a trip to Japan in 1992, I hauled back a huge Japanese word processor that I had searched Akihabara (the electronics area of Tokyo) to buy. It gave me the ability to type in Japanese script which I was wildly excited about. About this time I bought my first computer for home. It was a desktop with a tower memory that sat under the desk. My children were using CDs such as Encarta and Carmen Sandiego. No mobiles, no laptops, no tablets, no internet at home yet, no wifi at work or in public places. The noises at home were largely of us talking and children playing. The landline phone rang now and again and I was getting used to the audio of the CDs that were continuously played.

Roll forward to 2017, I have two laptops - a Mac and PC, a tablet and two mobile phones - an iphone and an android. With the Mac I use cloud storage and as the PC has been with me for a while it has considerable internal storage and I have two external hard drives which contain professional and personal files using Microsoft software. That is me alone, not withstanding the other members of the household that have their own multiple devices. The noises at home are still talking and laughter even though the children have grown up and left. A landline phone sits on the bench. It is still here because it comes with the internet package but the only calls I get are recorded messages advertising companies send. However, with notifications on there is always one device or another beeping, purring or popping with their continuous messages reminding me that work is forever waiting to be done.

So, the ubiquitous nature of technology is an enabler as it connects me easily to the people and work that I need to do, but it also calls on me to be disciplined and thoughtful, to organise and stick to my off-screen time. Anytime and Anyplace gives me the freedom to choose the time and the place, but I must ensure that I am not modelling or espousing to others Everytime and Everyplace. Let's use ubiquity to enable rather than to pressure, to connect rather than to bind, to empower rather than to enforce.

Cluster Schools video

What a long way we have all come in 2016. When I watch this video, I see children and young people happy at school, learning with each other and with their devices, showing their parents what they are learning, teachers working together and learning from each other and the origins of the Trust and its logo.
I also reflect on my learning journey over the year. Being a newcomer to Google apps, I have had a huge learning curve and I continue to find out more each day - Google apps, Google Admin, Google site-building, blog creation and blogging, Hapara Teacher Dashboard, extensions, add-ons, a You Tube channel, more web tools and apps, the Manaiakalani Cybersmart curriculum.....the list continues to grow.
All this with thinking about how to use the affordances of the digital age and the pedagogy of learn-create-share in new ways that were previously unimaginable but personalised, authentic and relevant to the students of our community.
Onwards to another year of clustering, teaching and learning in 2017.

My Hour of Code Certificate

I am planning a teacher Toolkit for next week and trialled activity on the website here. It was easy when I had directions about what to do. However, when I had free choice as to what to do, it was harder for me. I had to use a lot of trial and error, eg writing the code and testing by running the script and then continuously modifying and testing. This did not come easy to me and I'm sure that some teachers and students will be much quicker at coding than me.

SAMR with Dr Ruben Puentedura

Apple recently brought Dr Ruben Puentedura to NZ to work with educators around his model for technological integration into teaching and learning - SAMR. I was fortunate to attend this professional learning day. Yes, it was an opportunity for Apple to showcase their products; namely their software for ipad and their new Classroom app which has many of the same features as Hapara Teacher Dashboard. However, it was wonderful to listen to Dr Ruben in the morning and do an activity with him in the afternoon. Other members of the Kootuitui and Manaiakalani community attended along with Maria and me. Notes from the day

Sparkshop

I went to a Sparkshop recently which was a day of some great google learning organised by the Google experts of Auckland. The day began with a slam session of the potential workshops that would be held. All potential presenters had added a slide to a slideshow and were given two mins to give their pitch. There was a google form that everyone used to rate whether they'd like to attend each potential session. After this, the organisers took 15 mins to sort through the voting results and then presented a board of the sessions that had received the most interest, separated into sessions and locations. We were able to pick three sessions and then all joined together at the end to share a slam of one min each for new ideas. I was keen to show everyone my new Google Space.  I attended sessions on sites, forms and extensions/add-ons. It was a really worthwhile day.

The Sparkshop Participants

The Workshops Most Highly Sought

My Spaces

Manaiakalani Visitors' Day 15th June

    The day began with individual student presentations from many of the Manaiakalani schools: these children each did a speech about a particular aspect of their learning, eg an inquiry topic and its process, supported by video, slideshows, and explanation.
    After this, the Chef Executive of the Trust, Jenny Oxley, made a presentation. This began with the visit of the Hawaiian waka in 2015, which was a hugely important day for the cluster as the visitors spent time in Pt England school sharing the learning with students and teachers.

    Next, the cluster was explained via key labels and themes, eg decile 1a, geographical location, 2500 children, 13 schools, kura kaupapa, Catholic, and a special school and the paramount importance of equity. Links to the cluster include twitter.com/clusternz and manaiakalani.org. Followed by the members of the team, the trust (to provide more resources than the schools had access to), and the many commercial and philanthropic partners.

    The 3 main elements of the programme were then explained as:
1. Acceleration: children talking about their learning and using technology as a tool.
2. Whanau engagement: parents invest by paying for their children's device. The Trust makes this affordable via micro-financing.
3. Research: investigation of the effect of the programme on student achievement.

    There are 5 Outreach clusters of about 40 schools throughout NZ, of which Kootuitui ki Papakura is one, being supported by the Manaiakalani vision, structure and pedagogy. There is also another group of schools that has taken onboard different versions of the programme.
    Next came the goals of the programme followed by the background from the beginnings and the shift in student achievement. The opportunities for teachers were discussed in relation to the digital teacher academy, the innovative teacher programme, the professional learning groups, the toolkit sessions, the GEG groups, the annual GAFE Summit, the Google ClassOnair, the annual hui, f2f opportunities and the relationship with Auckland University. The Trust is thinking about establishing a housing trust which could benefit teachers as well as whanau.
    Participants were told about the cybersmart curriculum, the use of Blogger as the platform for sharing learning, and shown the circular model which combines LCS and the principles- visibility, ubiquity, connectivity and empowerment. There was quite a lot of discussion around the principle of visibility for both teachers and students. Once a student goes digital, parents can be disadvantaged if they don't have access because the opportunity to view bookwork may have disappeared. 
Dave Winter, Outreach Delivery Manager said, "Privatisation restricts the opportunity to improve. Visibility and Kawa of Care sessions also reestablish the relationship between parents and schools, as schools may have been unpleasant experiences for them in their childhood."
    GAFE, Google sites, Google+ Communities and Hapara were discussed and how they operate together. Also, how the work may be referenced to SAMR and technology is implemented into teaching and learning. Everything in Manaiakalani has Creative Commons so can be copied and repurposed.

Next, it was time for school visits. I meet Fiona Grant, the Lead Facilitator, at Kura Kaupapa Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa o Puau. The children were working on their digital footprint and public/private. The resources are in their class folder and there was plenty of discussion.
    Everyone met back together again for the afternoon session. We listened to 3 teachers about their digital 1:1 teaching-learning environment. 

The first was a year 4 teacher from Pt England School, Room 11, where she'd been for 15 years through the journey. She was in her 6th year 1:1 with both ipads and chromebooks. The approach was to chose a student and follow their learning through the class site. The 'Teacher Notes' were on the site accessible to the teachers and management, not to the students. The student had watched the videos, done a writing task, resolved comments by the teacher, loaded the learning to his blog and by 9.30pm his parents had commented on his blog post. The average child posted about 1-2 times a week. The teacher put folders on her site which contain photos and pictures she has taken through the day.

    The second teacher was a junior teacher in Room 19 at Pt England who used ipads with Explain Everything in her class. She started by working through the tools and then followed up with rewindable reading activities which took the whole lesson eliminating the need for a reading rotation. All activities had audio instruction so that the children didn't have to continuously come up to the teacher. Writing was still done in a book with a pencil, but 
augmented with an ipad and stylus. 


Lastly, we met a teacher from the high school who is a 
participant in the Google ClassOn Air. She talked about applications with the SAMR model and that the ClassOn Air lessons are potentially to be used with training teachers while at training college. Discussions are continuing with Auckland University Teacher Education Department.

This was a very enjoyable and interesting day. It confirmed the journey that Kootuitui ki Papakura are on. I could understand the presentations, the class facilitation and the teacher presentations due to my learning over the last 6 months. Even though our cluster is much younger than Manaiakalani in its digital enablement journey, it is still a work in progress that we are all collectively on. Thanks Jenny, Dave, Fiona, student and teacher presenters.

Students' Digital Footprint and the 'Cloud'

      It came as a revelation to some students this week that everything they do online is 'visible'. We have started working with them on their digital footprint and this has raised some questions and discussion. Some students think that everything they write gets saved only on the computer they are working on and if they destroy it, then their activity will be gone. We explain that it is the opposite and that nothing they do on their chromebook is actually saved their local hard drive. All of their commenting, drawing, slide-making, and blogging etc is stored on a huge cloud, which by association is somewhere up high in the atmosphere, away from anyone being able to delete or destroy it. In reality, everyone's data must be stored somewhere though and the 'cloud' storage is on large servers in large rooms of large buildings on large campuses of large IT corporations in large countries.
      I was fortunate enough to visit one of these cloud facilities in August 2015, where I was shown the new Z Series computers which operate in the cloud. They are just huge black cabinets with lots of flashing lights, electrical leads and fans to keep the machines cool. There was tight security so just nobody could gain access, but they could be destroyed by natural disasters, fires and malicious damage. In addition, storage media can fail, large corporations can get hacked, and data can get deleted just as easily on a server as it can on anyone's computer.
      Even so, it is important to realise that living in a world of connection through any device, at any time and from anywhere in the world, necessitates that users understand the implications of both their passive and active digital footprints being able to be stored and accessed. This may be through the tracking of our IP addresses, web browsing, facebook, twitter histories, and leaving comments on blogs etc. Have you ever realised that data about you has been collected via the internet without your knowledge? Every time you answer a quiz, buy something online or use social media, machines, and by default people, are collecting information about you and this information can be packaged and sold was IP addresses, mailing and telephone lists. While this can be used for good and things you need, want and care about, other less desirable uses, from pestering to bullying to breaches of your privacy could result. Children need to understand the need, skills and tools to safeguard their online character and reputation in their ever-expanding digital world.

Learning - anytime, anywhere, anyhow

Well, today I had arranged a meeting with Grant, one of the Trustees of Kootuitui ki Papakura, to work with him continuing his learning about how to use his new chromebook (provided by the Trust). I thought that I had ensured someone would be at the school to let us in, but alas when I arrived no-one was there and all we could do was drive into the grounds and wait. I didn't have the caretakers number and the office administrator and principal did not answer their phones. So, we sat down at the outdoor table and started working. The wifi signal was excellent, so we continued working.
First, a parent drove in looking for a teacher. Next, the fire extinguisher man drove in to check the fire systems. But there was only Grant and I to meet them and give them the news that we were the only ones there. The man who worked for the fire protection company took this photo of Grant and I. We were happy to have visitors and get our training done. It was a cloudy day, so not very warm sitting outside under the dull, grey skies. However, our experience proved that provided there is wifi, learning can occur anytime, anywhere and anyhow - even in unplanned ways.

Chromebook Launches

   A number of schools in the cluster have now launched their chromebooks. What this means is that the parents of all the classes involved in the 1:1 digital immersion programme have all committed to purchasing a device for their child/ren. This commitment is expressed in a $40 deposit and weekly on-going payments for 1, 2 or 3 years.
   When you consider that some families have multiple children in the programme, perhaps at both a primary and high school, this is a very significant commitment. These schools are all decile 1, bar one, which means that families have the lowest incomes, the most crowded homes, and the least education of everyone in the country. Just putting food on the table each day is a challenge, which some primary schools have responded to by providing a free breakfast, morning tea and lunch everyday for their students.
   The Papakura community is one of the poorest in NZ, yet, families have signed up for these chromebooks because they are intent on providing the same opportunities for their children as those in more wealthy communities have. One parent at a recent launch was seen to hold a chromebook and express the idea that now, her children will become the doctors, lawyers and teachers of the local community.
   These children indeed have their hands firmly on their own device for learning: for opening up to them the world of knowledge, of creativity, of thinking, of learning, of setting their own path into their futures. All credit to the parents and whanau for their support of their children and the schools. We are excited to be in partnership with you all.

Outreach Support and Collaboration

Yesterday, the Principal Convenors of the Outreach Clusters met in Auckland at Edmund Hillary School. They come together about once a term to receive the assistance of the Manaiakalani leadership. These meetings move around the the clusters and yesterday was Kootuitui's turn. There is a lot of serious talking to be done in a day, as well as a little socialising on the night of arrival, but it is a pity that the group do not have longer to visit one or two of the other schools in the cluster being visited. Principals have travelled a long way from the West Coast, Christchurch and Northland and yet they only get to meet the staff and students of one school.

Principals from the Ako Hiko Cluster (above) and the Hornby
Cluster (below) address the students at Edmund Hillary School.

Another thought I have was that there could be some benefit from the other principals of the cluster being visited meeting with this group. These people do not have to travel far and could perhaps spare an hour or two participating in one section of the Convenors' Forum. A form of leadership development or at least a session involving a wider number of the school leaders who have opted into the outreach programme. There could be huge benefits to offering a part of the Leadership
Forum day to all school leaders
when the forum visits their cluster.

A third thought from yesterday is that no secondary principals were present. I think there is an issue that all the Principal Convenors are from the primary sector.  In NZ, it is a disadvantage for our children that in our system the sectors are separated and that primary teachers and principals don't have a full understanding of how secondary schools work and vice versa. Secondary schools are different and need to be represented at the leadership level. In fact, the need for secondary school participation is nowhere more plain than for one of the clusters which does not have a secondary school member. Our children all pass through primary and secondary school within their educational lives and therefore secondary schools must be brought on board as full participants.

Thanks to Raina for hosting a lovely karakia with the delightful students of EHS, and for organising class visits, morning tea and "meet the staff" at the school.

Kootuitui 4

Tuesday was the inaugural formal meeting of the Kootuitui 4: Raina, Dave, Maria and me, although we had met the week before at a local cafe for introductions and coffee. The Tuesday morning spot is a time for us to get together to discuss administrative matters around the many facets of the Kootuitui programme. Notice, my place at the table (I'm taking the photo) is signified by a tablet, pen and paper. However, later in the week I borrowed a cromebook from Maria and now my laptop is on its way. Actually, being flexible in all aspects of the work not just the tools, is a great approach to take, because it allows those involved in project implementation to engage in open communication and be more responsive to ideas and opportunities.

Kia ora Kootuitui ki Papakura

I am so delighted to be appointed to the new role of Education Programme Leader for the Kootuitui ki Papakura schools' cluster. In my first two weeks I have visited five of the six schools and met the principals, attended three Manaiakalani and one Kootuitui professional development days, started working with Dave Winter, the Manaiakalani Outreach Delivery Manager and Maria Krausse, the cluster's Outreach Facilitator and spent time at my base school, Edmund Hillary School, with the Principal Convenor, Kataraina Nock, and her staff. What a dedicated group of professionals there are in this cluster and working with this cluster, all with their focus firmly on the children and their learning.

"He waka eke noa"

We are all in this canoe together and I am privileged to have been given a seat in this waka.

My blog is going to chronicle our journey. I will write about our plans, activities, successes, failures, and things we learn along the way, and discuss how these shape our direction. Along with the narrative, I will add my reflections and ideas, especially in relation to the quality of my paddling in the waka. 

Well hello Google! Since 2011, I have had just a few forays into the world of Google, sharing documents in Drive and forming circles in Google +. As Kootuitui ki Papakura operates in a Google world, I am busy getting to grips with this world so that I am conversant within it. I now have three 'user' profiles in Google so that I can separate Kootuitui from home and from my base school through which I blog. I have joined a number of communities in Google+ and shared into the Kootuitui site from other sites. I have started using Google calendar, had my first Hangout and have started learning the basics of a Google Site. Finally, Blogger is my first serious attempt at blogging.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.