Manaiakalani Innovation Team - Connecting with Each Other

Today I spent a great day with the Manaiakalani Innovation Team which comprised the Manaiakalani leaders, the outreach facilitators and education programme leaders of the first and second outreach clusters. The second outreach is beginning and the team has expanded greatly with wonderful educators coming onboard.
Through the day everyone delivered their 5-minute introduction. This was a way for people to connect with one another. The DLO above was my introduction. I have changed the first slide because I didn't have my pepeha (introduction in Te Reo Māori) written on it at he time. I hadn't put it there because I didn't want to read it. So I had it on my phone as a reminder. However, I used my phone too much and have decided to learn this by heart for the next time and learn to rely solely on my memory.
I shall not be able to join the group again during the week as I have Kootuitui orientation and meetings scheduled, but I am keen to join the weekly online meetings from the start of the term. There is so much we can share about our work and I can learn from the others of the group.

Create: Kootuitui ki Papakura

This was my first real creation project using imovie. It took me some time to get my head around how the video editor works. The features are similar to but a little different from others that I've used, eg wevideo, so discriminating what was alike and what was different was something that kept me thinking and testing, especially in the beginning. 

After that, it was quite straightforward to use. I was able to place and trim the videos, add photos, download and upload ambient music, add titles and labels.

Then I uploaded the finished video into my YouTube channel. From here I played around with the captions. The captions that YouTube gave me could not transcribe the Māori words, so I typed and placed the captions myself. I'm pretty proud of the end result.

Things I could work on next are getting better videos and photos, as well as more voices - as us four only represents a small portion of the people and groups who have a part of our work.

Thanks to Maria, for some of the imovie tips and to Jason, for the YouTube caption help.

Tellagami

Here is a little app called Tellagami that you can choose a character, upload a background and add sound for 30 seconds. It was easy to create and then share but I didn't get an embed code in the iphone app, only when I sent to my email, clicked on the link and opened on my mac where I could hit 'share' and get an embed code. Once created, it saves onto the camera roll on my phone. I learnt of this from one of the digital leaders in our cluster schools.

PowToon

Interesting app. Not too hard to use with lots of options for creation and music to add. I still have to experiment with a voice over. Embedded on the blog fine too. I think students will really like using this creation tool.

Uploading a movie (.MOV)

To do this the file needs to be less than 100MB. If so, it can be uploaded straight into a blog.

Chatterpix

This is a simple app that can be used on an iphone or ipad. Easy instructions and a video can be created in a matter of minutes. Neat result too!

Story Builder

This was my first attempt with Story Builder. It was easy to use with a Google account. You really need to decide who your characters are and then start typing the dialogue among them. After this, you can add music and then finish. It was a bit tricky to change spelling mistakes because to edit it seems everything written under the edit is removed and needs to be retyped. Students could write their story in any language that uses letters of the alphabet or maybe even in other language scripts if their device is enabled. This needs more investigation but quite a neat tool.

See the story

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.

Animating Google Slides

I'm testing the animation and transition features of google slides. I discovered that the Research Tool is now called Explore. I found the pictures fine but I'm not able to search by licence - I presume these are all images that are labelled for non-commercial reuse. It was straight forward to do this and I hope my three classes on Friday enjoy it.

Well, the three classes loved making their own animations. Although all used the honey bee and ant storyline, some embellished the story by adding other text and relevant backgrounds. One student showed me his animation with the story taking place in a field, another on a flower - what great imaginations the students have! Most students posted proudly to their individual blogs. I suggested that they might now offer to teach another class in the Outreach (through Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu) these new skills.

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.

Using Movenote

https://www.movenote.com/presentation/view

I had a try using Movenote and found the programme really easy to operate, but there are some downsides. Firstly, it is a site that you now have to pay to access. I tried as a guest and it said that I could access my Movenotes created for 2 days, however, I can't find the two that I've created. This image is a screenshot that is still open in another tab and when I put a link to it so that the video can be watched from my blog, I got a message to say that 'no such presentation exists'. Give it a try.

My conclusion is that it is not likely to be very successful unless a subscription is purchased.

My Word Cloud

I was learning to make a word cloud about quality blog posts. I thought it was easy because we helped each other. Choosing the colours was fun.

This was a piece of work that I completed with a year 4 - 5 class to show them how to post a blog that has a title, labels and a short explanation of the writer's learning.

Kootuitui ki Papakura AGM September 2016

I have recently started my own Youtube channel and this was an early attempt to use Youtube video editor to create a movie from some of the photos taken at Kootuitui ki Papakura's first AGM in Sep 2016. It is quite easy to use. There is 1 track for the photos/video and 1 track for the audio. I chose an audio track from the list that Youtube offered.

My Quality Blog Post Learning

Here is an example of work that I was doing in a year 5-6 class on learning around making a quality blog post. The class had a discussion of the word 'quality' which is a word they said they don't use very often. It is more a 'teacher' word they told me. It just shows what we as teachers expect our students to understand sometimes without checking it out with them first.

Canva makes design simple

My first play with Canva was very easy. There is a range of templates, pictures, frames etc available, although some are at cost, to create graphic designs in no time. This tool could be used to graphically show the characteristics of something, eg survey responses, blog statistics, places in the world you've visited....the possibilities are endless. Would be good to trial with a class possibly with making a blog post as the context.

Using voki to Record Learning

Voki is a great tool for students to share their learning by creating their own avatar, choosing a background and then recording their voice or using a range of provided voices to speak about what they have learnt. I saw these DLO's on the blogs of students who are working with another facilitator and so decided to try my own. My short voki below explains one of the characteristics of a smart blogger. I would definitely use this with my classes in future.

Voki app

New Magisto Movie

I was at a slam session at the high school and the teacher who presented it showed everyone Magisto. The school here has purchased a licence for all staff but I used a free version that allows a limited number of pictures. You can choose your theme and pictures and the video is created in a few minutes. Very easy to use with good results. Definitely worth showing teachers and students who don't want to use a proper video editing programme.

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