This workshop was so timely - we are all working through a really challenging time at the moment trying to continue our relationships with our learners by distance and to provide learning opportunities for them that are creative and follow the Learn, Create, Share pedagogy.
We are going online to provide Distance Learning programmes because of the nationwide rāhui in place at the moment. It was great to have the google meet workshop already under our belts so that we knew we had this amazing tool to help connect with our learners. It has worried me that teachers may revert back to chalk and talk using this tool though - just get all their learners connected and then try to deliver content online.
Distance Learning calls for a different approach in some ways but there are things that we need to hold fast to:
- differentiated learning (no whole class teaching)
- Learn, Create, Share pedagogy
- no worksheets
- we want our students to be creators not consumers
So this was a really timely workshop to have access to. Huge shout out to the team that delivered the first DFI Online - a great success.
It was a wonderful example of how google meet can be used to start with a big group, then move into smaller groups for learning. The day flowed well - and I know many hours were put into making this work. I was not only thankful for the content but for the systems used that we can now share with our teams. A simple google doc with lots of links prepared earlier. A wonderful example of how teachers can group students for differentiated learning.
Create - It's All About the Hook
There has been a tidal wave of resources being pushed out through many different social media platforms since the onset of COVID-19, when we all started to realise that this was going to effect us all and schools were going to close.
It was and probably for some still is tempting to grab at everything and push it out to parents so that they would have something to do with their children at home - no wonder some of them are overwhelmed.
At St Francis we want to hold fast to the Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. We have tremendous support through our Education Programme facilitators Mark and Sharon and the whole Manaiakalani Team. In some ways we have been preparing for this for the last two years.
We are encouraging our teachers not to revert back to what has been comfortable in the past - whole class teaching. We have been given a bit of time and a challenge and that is just when people become creative and we are seeing our teachers create their own resources - ones that align with our localised curriculum - the way we do things at St Francis.
We are encouraging teachers to evaluate the resources that are being pushed at them rather than just take everything. We are continuing our Learn, Create, Share approach.
So what does create look like? It was good for me to have time to reflect on this at this workshop.
The idea that create is all about the hook has settled with me. The time that our students spend creating is time they are spending reflecting and solidifying their understanding - they are creating to learn. It is not a linear process.
The students create Digital Learning Objects (DLO's) to share their learning - these can be created digitally but don't have to be. (If they are not created digitally, more often than not are at least photographed to share digitally).
We are working on ensuring that the create part of our pedagogy is not just an electronic form of what could be done on paper - substitution. We use the SAMR model as a guide and we are trying to get over the line with the create tasks. We are not always successful with this but we are aware of this and working on it.
Media -
The topic of today's session was Media and there were several workshops within the session which were differentiated.
- Google draw
- Google slides
- deep dive into Youtube live streaming
- youtube channel and playlists
We had time to learn and time to create using some tools that I know I will be using more and more.
Great post Jo. You are so right that this DFI course is a great opportunity to both learn new digital skills as well as a time to reflect on what leveraging digital means to us in our context. The SAMR model is a great stop check for us to reflect on the different teams in our school. As you said in your post - this is not linear. As we so often say - a work in progress.
ReplyDeleteLots to think about, Jo. I am always amazed how our students take on a digital task or challenge with just a taster to create a product that I thought we might need to practise and take in small steps. I agree that the SAMR model is a great motivator for the "create" of our school pedagogy.
ReplyDeleteKia ora Jo,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great reflection especially with your approach to distance learning
Differentiated learning (no whole class teaching) - this is really going to require a lot of collaboration to create or use asynchronous resources that students can access when they are ready as well as thinking about how workshopping looks online. One thing I think is valuable is to have two teachers in any workshop / connect with more than eight students. This way one can monitor the chat and one can do the teaching, generating the discussions etc. I am looking forward to learning more as to how workshops for students work online work.
Just a question to think about when you talk about differentiation, when your teachers are creating their sites and resources are they planning for the students on the fringes to be the target audience?
The create should be the fun part as you say and like you stay the hook for learners, the caution is to always ensure the learners understand the purpose of the create is to share their learning with an audience. Students can get so engaged in the create tool they forget the purpose of the task.
Nga mihi,
Mark