DFI - My final blog post

The final day of DFI. It has been 9 weeks of learning to become more digitally fluent. It was especially new to me because of the delivery online VS the in person class offered prior to COVID19. Thanks to COVID, I have both taught online and learnt online. This ended up being a blessing because during lockdown level 3, we were able to continue learning online instead of having to push our DFI course out into term 4.

Over the past 9 weeks I have learnt lots of things, some small, some much bigger, some that I had never done before and some that I just needed to brush up on. DFI afforded me the opportunity and time to be in a space with colleagues in very similar situations or environments as me. I was able to have professional conversations with colleagues about how digital technology fits into our daily teaching world. We were given plenty of support by our DFI facilitators and when they weren't sure (due to regular google updates) there was always somebody else to offer support. It was a nice learning environment, especially the smaller learning groups (thanks Vicki and the rest of my bubble for all the help here). 

What would a DFI look like on a more in depth scale for proficient google users? I have enjoyed learning all things google and would be open to continuing my learning in this area. YAY, I graduated!

DFI - Coding for Kids

 Scratch Junior 

Scratch Junior is a coding app that can be used on iPads and cell phones only. It allows you to add backgrounds, characters and objects. You use the different blue puzzle pieces below to help your characters move. Scratch Junior allows for multiple characters and settings which gives students a chance to tell their own story or retell a story. In terms of the structure of the coding I thought it was a little more complicated than the other coding apps I tried. This would be an app I'd recommend to our students who have prior experience with coding and who are happy to work on a long term project.

Lightbot

Light bot is an app that has different levels to it, starting from the very basic to more advanced. It is relatively easy to use and would be well suited to the junior school. Only once you pass the level you're on can you move onto the next level which means children are not skipping ahead to something they don't understand. The activities, especially in the earlier stages, are short and sharp which means students can see instant success. As a year 2 teacher, I would recommend Lightbot as a good starting point for direction and coding.

Code.org - Minecraft

The world is your oyster on Code.org. Probably my favourite of all the coding programs I have worked on to date. It has coding for a range of different interests (sport, minecraft, frozen, starwars etc). On Code.org it gives you small challenges located at the top of the page which can be read to you if you push on the small book and speaker icon which supports independence. The tasks flow in sequence telling a story that the students can follow. Each task gets harder and harder and students can't move forward in the story until they pass the task they are on. The coding is rather straight forward and focuses mainly on direction. Will be looking to try this with my students next term.

Kodable

Kodable is the type of game students are going to love. You earn rewards to buy things to change your avatars image / get new avatars. It is aimed at students from 4-9+. As you go up the ages the games change and become more challenging. Below is the 4 year old coding game. Students use the arrows to signal direction to help them collect the stars (which are used as points). Feels like a game for children while learning both direction and basic code.

DFI - Chromebooks and iPads

 How to use Explain Everything (EE) 

 

I use EE daily in my day to day teaching. It is a great app for showcasing students learning, getting creative and working towards being digitally fluent. While it is a great app for students it's even better for teachers. It gives teachers the opportunity to pre-create work so students can work independently. It's also a great way to display old lessons by using images, videos and audio clips so students can revisit their old learning.

Above is an example of todays follow up task of their Te Reo Māori. The students had to draw or colour in pictures of different images and label them with the different colours in Māori. It's an engaging activity for the student and breaks up the day of pen and paper. If you would like to see some other ideas of blogs, push on the link.

The only limitation to EE that I have noted is that it's not interactive when students upload to their blog. It can be uploaded as either a standard image or a video with an audio clip in the background. 

CREATE - Explain Everything

Below is a Cyber Smart recap for students I created on EE. The idea is that this is something students can go back to and look through if there is something they are not sure about regarding the topic Smart Relationships. Usually I would save this as a project which means students can download the EE and listen to the audio clips. 

Normally I would use students voices to explain what we have been talking about, that way it is both in student language and feels more like peer support rather than a teacher lecture. 

How to use a Chromebook

First time Chromebook user over here! Lots to be learnt. We focused a lot on shortcuts and how they can make navigating a Chromebook significantly easier. Above is one of the shortcuts (CTRL + F) I found the most useful and thought would be the most helpful for both students and teachers. Control F allows you to search for key words on a page or in a text. I wish I knew this shortcut when I was in University. 

Chromebooks have all the things you'd hope them to have on a learning device. For most students this is their first computer so they adapt quite quickly to the device. For those students who may have used a different device prior to their Chromebook, it may take a little bit longer to get used to. I personally found using the computer quite difficult because it was both smaller and I didn't have a compatible mouse so I had to use the touch pad for everything. However, I was able to do everything on the Chromebook that I would on my normal computer.