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.

Quality Blog Commenting

Today I leant how to write a comment on a blog and then make it a better comment by using our class padlet ideas. 

I liked doing because it was fun looking at Room 10's blog and then writing a really quality comment. 

Now, I hope that I get a reply to my comment. I will wait and see....

I posted this as an example to a class that I was facilitating in of a piece of finished work with an embedded DLO and a short reflection.

Replying to Comments

Today in class we learnt about how to make good replies to blog comments. "Positive, thoughtful and helpful" are the buzz words here.

This is an example sentence I gave students to put under their DLO, "I found this interesting because it will help me write good replies when I receive comments on my blog".

In modelling this, I was also reinforcing with students how to embed a slide presentation on their blog.

uLearn 2016 Attendee