Digital Fluency Intensive - Final Session

Today was our final DFI session. We started the session looking in the final aspect of the Manaiakalani pedagogy - ubiquitous learning. Ubiquitous learning refers to learning that can happen anytime, anyplace at any pace. 

Breaking down ubiquitous learning - it is learning that is rewindable that be done at any point in the school day. 
This is important as it is making learning more accessible to our students. They are able to refer back to material, but also catch up on material they have missed. 

Reflecting on my own teaching in Kaupeka - lots of our learning is ubiquitous. Students have access to our google site - all of our planning and resources are located on here and accessible to all students. We present students with flipped learning opportunities across subjects - this is especially valuable for maths. 

It is reaffirming to look back on my own practice and see the ubiquitous learning taking place - I like that students have so much access to their learning and this is something I will definitely continue. 

Something I aim to look into in the future is the Woolf Fisher Summer Learning Journey - looking into how blogging over the summer break (or even 2 week break) can help to accelerate students writing. 

The final component of todays session was undertaking the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam. It was great to put all the learning from the past 9 weeks into practice and complete this exam. My next steps for learning will be looking into the Level 2 exam. 

Reflecting on the past 9 weeks I have really enjoyed learning about the Manaiakalai pedagogy and picking up heaps of new digital tools and tips to use both in and out of the classroom. This course inspired me to continue with my learning, I am now more motivated to further my understanding with using digital tools and google in the classroom. It has highlighted to me how important this is for the future of education and how valuable for the future this is. I am looking forward to putting my new learning into practice. 

Digital Fluency Intensive - Dealing with Data

Today is the second to last session of the DFI, I have spent some time reflecting on the course. I have found that one of the most valuable aspects of this course has been developing an improved understanding of the Manaiakalani backstory - why Manaiakalani has been formed this way and how it has been structured to meet the needs of our learners in our communities i.e. the foundations of learn, create, share. 

Dorothy Burt came down from Auckland today to give us some more insight into the Manaiaklani backstory - specifically looking into how we can ensure our learners are empowered (have agency over their learning). Creating empowered learners is the final piece of the puzzle.

In order to create these empowered learners we need to ensure that our learners are using digital devices as "not just a tool" but as something that is transformational for their learning . When technology "transforms the way we learn, it offers new unchartered experiences and opportunities". 

In order for our students to be empowered we need to ensure they are also connected (collaborative and social), ubiquitous (workers that are global and can work anytime they choose) and visible (they have agency in how they share their learning and their digital footprint). Without these other components they can not truely feel empowered in their learning. 

For the remainder of our session today we had a focus on dealing with data - specifically looking into using sheets in the most effective way. I learnt some great tips with using sheets such as formatting columns, filtering, conditional formatting, protecting cells and cropping sheets. These new tips will help me in the future with my management of using sheets to ensure I get the most out of them.

In addition to sheet, we also had a look at mymaps. We looked into using mymaps with sheets and using these two google tools together - this is something that I want to look into in the future to see how I can incorporate this into my teaching. 

Digital Fluency Intensive - Media

Today's session was all about media - looking into how we as teachers can use Youtube, Google Slides and Google Drawings in the classroom, for both planning and creative purposes. 

Manaiakalani stipulates that 'Connectivity is a way of life for our students'. Being part of Manaiakalani connects us to a powerful network and within this network we need to ensure we have shared language as teachers and that we understand this language. The visual below displays the shared language we must understand - learn, create, share - connected, empowered, visible, ubiquitous learners. This language was chosen purposefully to represent what we want from our learners.

Elements that I found interesting from today's session was the live streaming aspect. Last term as part of our Hub's PBL our students answered the following question 'How can we stand up against discrimination' through presenting either a talk @stfrancis, poetry slam, drama or podcast - to showcase their learning they went live on youtube.

Although I already had an understanding of what it means to go live and how to go live, it was great to get another perspective on how we can go live at school - for example, going live at sports events or performances. This would give our whānau more access to their children's learning. I aim to look into creating events on youtube to see how this can be done in the future.

Our students live performances can be found at the following youtube playlist link I created in today's session - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB8OXsuTGB8K8GwQobMhDg_PfpduL4ziM

A further component of today's session I found interesting was using Google Forms as a creative device with writing. I created the following slideshow on how to use google forms to create a 'Pick a Part Story' - I have put this on our class site and is something I aim to share with my students in the future.

I have really enjoyed todays session - particularly looking into the creative aspect of Google Drawings and Slides, I am looking forward to implementing these new tips in the classroom. 

I am also looking forward to using Youtube more in the classroom and creating specific playlists for different areas of my teaching - today I have created a couple of playlists and have added them to my class site to share with my students. 

Digital Fluency Intensive - Enabling Access

Enabling Access was the theme for todays DFI session - in particular looking at visibility when using Google Sites.

Visibility is an important element of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa, effective online visible learning has the potential to be a game changer for students. In order for learning to be visible online it needs to be; accessible, available to the learner and be able to be given in advance.

Hapara has the potential to 'make teaching and learning visible'. It gives us a visibility lens, essentially we can 'look into each child's desk' through giving us access to all students work online.

Blogging is another fantastic way to make our teaching visible. Blogging enables teachers, other students and whānau access to students blogs. Furthermore, the skills taught with blogging teaches students to be responsible digital citizens. The visibility blogger allows for provides huge writing gains throughout the year for learners.

Google Sites provide the ideal platform in ensuring our learning for our students is visible. When our learners have their own devices and the teacher uses Google Sites, this is the ideal way to provide access to learning for students. But why Google Sites? Google Sites are; visible and accessible, enable learning available outside school hours, extend learning through collaboration, provides rewindable content, fostering higher motivation and engagement.

While digital technology and online learning provides many great opportunities for learning there are concerns that come with it, especially in regards to visibility for whānau. We need to ensure that we are not locking parents out of the learning process i.e. years ago parents had access to exercise books - we need to ensure that our online learning is accessible and visibility to parents. This is something we need to continually consider when working online. A takeaway I have taken away from this session is to continually reflect and reassess my class site to ensure that it is visible and accessible to not only my students but also to my colleagues and students whānau.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Devices

Today's session was all about using devices in the classroom and ensuring our learners are Cybersmart online. The phrase "Cybersmart" is a purposeful phrase, we are not teaching our students to be "Cybersafe" but instead "Cybersmart" and ensuring we are "empowering our learners as confident and connected decision makers". Devices and the digital footprint they leave needs to be taught in a positive light - students need to understand the wealth of opportunities online whilst also maintaining a positive digital presence online. 

It was great today learning about the different Cybersmart categories and the importance of teaching students about these categories i.e. Smart Learners, Smart Media, Smart Surfing. I will aim to make use of the teacher resources on the Manaiakalani Cybersmart site with my students. 

A take home message I took from today was the importance of ensuring that what the students are doing online is visible - nothing should be hidden. Hapara Dashboard is a fantastic tool to use in the classroom to ensure this. I learnt some great tips about how to use Hapara more effectively in the classroom, some of these include; 

• Sharing tab - allows access to all docs that are not in students specifically named folders
• Ability to access students blogs - both draft and saved posts
• Activity viewer - gives me the ability to record every URL - I can see what students are on and can take a 'snap' to record the time and date
• Guided browsing - I put in the web addresses that they can go to 
• Filter session - restrict students access to certain sites 

I intend to use these features with my learners in the future. 

A further element of todays session was using chromebooks and iPads. These are the devices our students use so we spent some time looking into their capabilities. I found it interesting using explain everything with the iPads. It was great to learn about the potential this app has across all curriculum areas and the benefits it will bring to the junior students. I can see how this has the power to transform their learning and give them more ownership over what they are doing.  

Digital Fluency Intensive - Computational Thinking

Today we unpacked the significance of the 'Share' within Learn, Create, Share. It was interesting learning about why sharing is such an important and significant part of the learning process. I enjoyed learning about how sharing has evolved over the years, 2005 was a turning point for online sharing with the introduction of social media sites such as Twitter and Youtube, these sites have brought speed and amplification to sharing. It is hard to believe how much sharing has evolved and become so much more global in the past 10 years and how it will continue to evolve in the future.

It is easy to see how important sharing is and how it will be for our learners in the future, sharing gives our learners an authentic audience which is important in regards to raising student outcomes. Furthermore, todays session highlighted to me how Learn, Create, Share is a spiral process - we need to ensure students "share to finish learning". Within this component of the learning process we also need to ensure that students are connected learners - they are confident and know how to share their opinions online - this can be in the form of commenting on others blog posts. This picture states how to be a connected learner online.

I really enjoyed the OMGTech! part of todays session. OMGTech! is a charity that teaches kids how to be innovative with technology. It was really interesting thinking about what the future will ask of us in terms of education. It was good to unpack digital technologies and the components within digital technologies i.e. inquiry, construction, communication and expression and see how they fit into the classroom. I am looking forward to having a look on the OMGTech! website for classroom activities to try with my learners. My confidence has grown within using digital technologies in the classroom and this site will give me ideas and activities that I can use with my learners.

One aspect that I enjoyed today that I want to use with my learners was the practical sorting algorithm. I liked that this activity was a practical way to introduce students to algorithms. I can see the links this activity can help not only to the digital curriculum, but also to other curriculum areas such as maths.

A further element of todays workshop that I would like to take back to the classroom was the binary maths activity on the OMGTech! site. This seemed like a fun way to introduce my learners to binary and is something I definitely want to try.

The practical nature of todays workshop made the session really enjoyable. Today's session provided me with a good opportunity to really understand Scratch. Prior to todays session I had only had a little play with coding sites but I didn't fully understand how they worked and the capabilities behind them. It was great to have a play on these coding sites and develop my understanding of their relevance to education. Furthermore, I was able to gain some ideas of how they can be used in the classroom.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Collaborate

The importance of creativity was a dominant theme in todays session. It is evident that creativity is an essential skill that our learners need to possess for the future as these "creative skills help students become better problem solvers, communicators and collaborators" (Everyone can create, Apple, 2008). 

Kohl (2008) describes creativity in young people as "the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery", it is clear this is an important element of the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy. Furthermore, the value of using modern technologies to stimulate this creativity and therefore drive student engagement is evident within the Manaiakalani pedagogy. 

Today's session highlighted to me the importance of Multi Modal Learning, an important take home message was the importance of having a 'hook' when creating tasks for my learners - this ensures engagement. 

In addition to a hook, I need to ensure my content looks engaging online - by ensuring I present my information using different modes i.e. poem, video, audiobook - I know this will appeal to all my learners. This will result in my lessons appearing much more engaging and will appeal to a wider range of students. I have found that google sites are an effective way to present this information. 

Another take home message was the importance of students being creators of information and not just consumers - through exposing students to meaningful creative tasks we can ensure that students are drivers of their own learning.
One trick that I learnt today that I will be using with my learners relates to documents I want them to copy. 

• By changing the end of a slide link from 'present' to 'copy' and sharing this link with my students - this ensures that when they click on this link it will ask them 'do you want to make a copy of this document' instead of just opening up the document.

Another component of the session today was working with google sites. Although I already use google sites with my students it was good to learn a few more tips around adding buttons and looking into some different design features. Attached is the link to our google site which I created alongside some other teachers. 

Resources

Kohl, M. A. (2008). Fostering creativity. Excelligence Learning Corporation.

Learning Journey

Osterman & Kottkamp (1993) state that reflective practice is important to lead behaviour changes and improve performance. This is done by identifying and focusing on problems, gathering and analysing information and then coming up with new ways to think and act in accordance. We then need to test these new re-conceptualised behaviours.

In the last 32 weeks within the Postgraduate DCL learning journey I have gained a lot of new knowledge and have been exposed to a new range of ideas and thinking surrounding education. The biggest learning I have taken away from this course is the idea that the world is drastically changing and as educators we need to be keeping up and ensuring that the skills we are teaching our students is appropriate to prepare them for the future.

I knew that I wanted to make a change in my practice to ensure that I was best preparing my students for their futures. When I made the decision to do this course I knew that I was moving from the Year 1/2 team and into the Year 7/8 team and I wanted to be digitally prepared for these learners so I could challenge them in their learning. I value future focused education and providing our students with the skills to thrive in the 21st century - I wanted to learn the skills to best get them there so that I knew I was doing my best job as a teacher. I wanted to gain more confidence and a better understanding for and why it is important to teach students 21st century skills, especially collaboration.

A key change I have made to my practice is the increased use of digital technologies in the classroom. Prior to this course I hardly ever usd digital technology with my Year 1/2 students, when iPads were used it was for game based activities as opposed to transformational creative tasks. This year with my older students I now have more knowledge on how to use digital technologies with them, we use devices throughout the entire day, my tasks for students are digital and creative but also allow for collaboration and the ability to share with others. Prior to completing this course my understanding of digital technologies in the classroom was lacking, as was my understanding of 21st century skills, I knew I wanted an increased understanding of this as I knew the future of education is about to change rapidly.

ITL Research- 21st Century Learning Design has guided my practice in the classroom (ITL Research n.d). This also relates to Standard 5 of the Teacher Standards (Ministry of Education, nd). The students in my classroom are provided with digital tasks that are based on the curriculum content, 21st century pedagogy such as collaboration, creativity, communication and are created based on their learning progressions. Through my learning at The Mind Lab I have been exposed to appropriate resources and an understanding of how to implement these in the classroom i.e. introducing flipped learning to my maths sessions.

From this experience I have learnt that students are very willing to learn new ways of learning, I have also learnt that things may not go right the first time but it is important to keep trying because when they do go right it is amazing to see in the classroom and the benefits it is giving our students. In the future I would like to look into gamification in the classroom and how this can best be implemented for our learners.

References


ITL Research. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Registered-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 fromhttp://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Impact of Inquiry

I have come to the end of my inquiry and am now using evidence to form conclusions and evaluate the impact this inquiry has had on my current practice and the impact it will have in the future. I have followed the Spiral of Inquiry to guide my inquiry, this is broken up into six different phases and follows a very explicit process of developing professional agency (Educational leaders n.d).

At the end of the ‘learn’ phase of the Spiral of Inquiry one of the impacts I anticipated was that students would become more confident users of digital technology and they would have more autonomy over their learning that allows them to be creative. I collected evidence in the ‘take action’ phase of the Spiral of Inquiry. As discussed in my previous post this evidence has been identified from various forms of my qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. This evidence suggests that the students are much more confident using the iPad apps to help with their literacy, they enjoy using digital technology and they believed it helped them with their literacy tasks. Furthermore, the iPads were allowing for transformational learning as students were using the iPads to create their own videos and books collaboratively (Using the SAMR model, n.d). Evidence that supports these observations were noted in the students interview questions, the tally chart but also in the learning tasks they were creating.

A further anticipated outcome I identified was that teachers would have a better understanding of how to incorporate digital technologies into their practice and this would allow for changes in the classroom pedagogy. This impact is very different to the actual impact, I don’t believe that I gave teachers enough support to incorporate digital technologies into their practice. Support was given to the students and while they have an understanding of how the iPads can be used, more support is needed for the teachers so they understand what iPad apps will work best with their learning goals.

However, the evidence does suggest that parents were supportive of the use of iPads in the hub, as long as they were for educational use. Although, it was apparent they lacked understanding on how they can be used in transformational ways that would support creativity and collaborative learning. Evidence to support this was noted in the parent survey questions.

Learnings that I will take from these impacts is that many different impacts can come out of the inquiry process whether they were anticipated or not. It is important to continually reflect on the process and make modifications. In the next cycle of inquiry I would give more support to the teachers and look into ways that digital technologies can better integrated in as opposed to being separate from the learning programme. They need to be viewed as not just a tool we can bring out occasionally, but a fully integrated device to improve learning outcomes. I think this inquiry is well supported in the school I am at. Our school culture is very future focused and supportive of changes to practice to ensure we are providing students opportunities to be innovative, creative and competent digital citizens. I would like to continue building on this inquiry as i know the benefits it will bring to students learning.

References

The spiral of inquiry / Evidence-based leadership / Pedagogy and assessment / Home - Educational Leaders. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Pedagogy-and-assessment/Evidence-based-leadership/The-spiral-of-inquiry

Using the SAMR model. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Teacher-inquiry/SAMR-model

Data Analysis

Data and evidence is an essential part of teacher inquiry, analysing data and reflecting on the evidence allows us to process and interpret the data to see the impact of the teacher inquiry (Babione, 2014). Data and evidence are defined as two separate units of information, Shaddock (2013) states that data is basic units of information, while evidence is data that has been processed, this evidence is used as the basis for decisions.

The first step of my teacher inquiry was to collect data, this was in the form of qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data included; interview questions with the students, classroom observations/notes and some open survey questions for the parents and teachers involved in the inquiry. This data is all in the form of transcribed text based documents or has been organised into a table (i.e. google form - spreadsheet). Through reading through this data I have got an overall sense of the students, teachers and parents understanding and view of digital technology for literacy learning.

Quantitative data collected included; closed interview questions from the parents (collected via google forms) and a tally chart to illustrate the talk time between students and to determine if they were on task. Both of these forms of data have been formatted into a table.

As qualitative data is typically very descriptive, I have decided to analyse this data by looking for any patterns or themes (Babiona, 2014). To organise and classify this data, content analysis has been used to identify the themes within the data - I have decided to code the data into categories to identify these themes and therefore summarise my findings. Whilst reading Babione (2014) I have utilised some preset codes to analyse this data these include; Perspectives Held by Subjects and Subjects’ Ways of Thinking about People and Objects.

To analyse my quantitative data, I have created a table for my tally chart - when forming my conclusions from this data I will ensure consider all students in the inquiry.

It is important to understand when interpreting this data that ‘data is not a perfect reflection of the world’ (Gray, 2012), it is a representation and can help us understand a topic. Therefore, I will keep this in mind when interpreting my data and establishing whether or not is addresses an answer to my research question ‘How can we use technology to enrich the junior school literacy programme’.

Looking into this data it is apparent that the students are a lot more confident using iPads to support and transform their learning, they have more knowledge of how to use apps and are happy and comfortable doing so. Observations have been a powerful and authentic data collection tool throughout the inquiry, for example, I noted that certain apps such as Book creator and explain everything allowed for more collaboration and talk time, whereas puppet apps didn’t.

However, this data doesn’t address the impact it has specifically had in enriching the literacy programme. If I were to repeat this inquiry, I would collect more data from the junior school teachers to gather their understanding of the impact this has had to literacy. I don’t believe this data addresses the improvements to the literacy programme, instead it shows increased confidence of the children on devices.

In the future I will be more strategic when collecting data. The majority of my data was collected at the start or during the inquiry, this resulted in the inquiry lacking data at the end and as a result it was difficult to provide solid evidence regarding the inquiry question.

References

Babione, C. (2015). Practitioner Teacher Inquiry and Research. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Gray, J. (2012).What data can and cannot do. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/31/data-journalism-focused-critical

Shaddock, A. (2014). Using data to improve learning: A practical guide for busy teachers. Acer Press.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Workflow

Today was the second day of the DFI course, this week we had a focus on managing workflow through the following google tools;

• hangouts
• calendar
• mail
• google keep 

Our session started learning about the Manaiakalani pedagogy - looking into how we are using digital technologies to accelerate student learning outcomes and ensure our teaching is effective. 

We looked into the importance of 'learn' with the learn, create, share pedagogy. How can we ensure that students have access to and are engaging in existing knowledge in a digital world? We need to be using technology in our classroom to amplify our practice, this will help to ensure that our teaching is effective. 

Today I thought about what learn looks like in my school, I believe that the students in my hub are using technology in meaningful ways to make meaning and build on their knowledge. The use of technology in the hub isn't just a tool but it is being used to amplify their learning. 

I enjoyed learning about Google Keep today, I can see this being very helpful for me in the future regarding organisation i.e. creating To Do lists to stay on top of my various tasks. Furthermore, I liked the feature of being able to 'keep' slides and docs that I come across and want to save for later. I also found some of the tips within gmail helpful - such as being able to create labels within my gmail to save emails to i.e. DFI, Sport etc. 

Today I also learnt some 'how tip' tips regarding blogging which will be helpful to share with my students, such as - embedding slides and videos into their blogs. 

I can see how the tips and tools I learnt about today will be very helpful for organisation and improving my workflow both at school but also in my personal life. I am looking forward to using these and seeing the impact they have on my workflow. 

Ethical Considerations

Throughout my inquiry it was important to take into consideration any ethical issues that may arise. As teachers we have professional ethical obligations. Our Code, Our Standards (Education Council, 2017) provides us with guidance professionally when interacting with others in the school community.

As discussed previously in my inquiry, ethical issues that I deemed were important to take into consideration included; maintaining a duty of care to learners by considering their welfare, seeking consent from all communities, keeping individual information confidential and ensuring that no students are held back in their learning. Hall (2001) guided my ethical decision making in the initial stages of my inquiry, I ensured that I considered the code of ethics and school policy when designing the inquiry and I brainstormed any ethical issues that may arise throughout this inquiry.

Although none of these ethical issues arose throughout the inquiry I have decided to reflect on an issue that could have arisen if there were no policies in place. This is the issue of violation of privacy and confidentiality and misuse of student data. As the inquiry was centered around the use of 1:1 digital devices, there are certain risks and dangers that can come with this. The devices that the students were using had a camera and online sharing capabilities, therefore it was paramount that students privacy was maintained and that we keep them safe online.

I believe that the best time to address these ethical issues is before it takes place. Therefore ensuring we are proactive by creating a learning environment that teaches students how to use digital technology safely and responsibility is important. I already knew that the school has policies and actions in place to ensure student privacy and confidentiality is kept safe online i.e. accessibility to certain sites. Additionally students take part in Cyber Smart Lessons, these lessons explicitly teach safe and responsible use of digital technology and teach students how to make positive choices when using digital technology.

In addition to these policies and actions in place I took further measures to ensure student privacy and confidentiality was maintained, these included; using only first names on any saved work, any individual information is kept confidential - for the purpose of the inquiry they were named ‘student A, B etc.’, using iPads that only have access to certain apps and limited search capabilities.

If issues of privacy, confidently and misuse of student data did ever arise in the future the actions I would have taken would have include; looking into the stakeholders involved i.e. the child, their parents and teachers. Depending on the severity of the issue I would also consult with the Senior Leadership Team, after consulting with them I would then determine a course of action to take (Hall, 2001).

Through reading the literature it has come to my attention that there are a lot of ethical considerations to be met and there are a lot of things that could go wrong. I understand that especially when students are working with digital devices there is the potential for violation of privacy, abuse of ICT in school and also intellectual property violation, these can all have a detrimental effect on the learning environment. In the future I will definitely be considering the Our Code, Our Standards when designing my inquiry but I will also consult Digital technology- Safe and responsible use in school, if any further ethical issues surrounding the use of digital technologies were to arise.

References

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. In IIPE Conference, Brisbane.

Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital technology- Safe and responsible use in school. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf

Digital Fluency Intensive - Core Business

Today was my first session in the Manaiakalani digital fluency intensive course (DFI). I found it really interesting learning about the origins of Manaiakalani and how the pedagogy has continue to develop since it began in 2006. I learnt about why the Manaiakalani trust was formed and the reasoning behind learn, create share and the important role devices play within the pedagogy. I found it interesting how forward thinking and innovative Manaiakalani was when it was first formed and how relevant the initial goals still are today. 

My confidence within google drive and google docs has improved. I have enjoyed learning about simple tips that have the potential to drastically improve my capability and workflow as a professional. For example;

• Creating 'google groups' - this will be useful for my 'PALs' student leadership group
• Simple google docs features such as; voice typing, various extensions, using headings and adding contents pages and the 'explore' tool in google docs. 

Additional features of google docs that I found would be useful for my students was the 'word cloud generator' add-on. 

I created a word cloud today based on my students answers to 'What are the biggest problems in the world today'.

I thought this was a really interesting and fun tool to display student voice and opinions. 

A further feature I learnt about today was called 'talk and comment'. I think I will find this really useful when giving students feedback. 

I have found the session today really relevant to me as a teaching professional. I have enjoyed learning about tips and shortcuts and how to get the most out of google docs. I am looking forward to learning a lot over the next 8 weeks of the course. 

Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection to discuss what has happened during my Inquiry so far - How it impacts on taking action

I have chosen to apply Rolfe’s Model of Reflection to reflect on my teacher inquiry. I will first look at the ‘what’ - what happened and who was involved.

Something significant that has happened during my inquiry so far is the students immediate uptake of the chosen apps. I have found it really interesting how quickly the students have picked up how the apps work. They are not afraid to ‘explore’ and use ‘trial and error’ with the app in order to find out how it works. The phase of the Inquiry in which this event took place was week 25 ‘Act on your plan’ - this happened right at the beginning of implementation.

A further notable event I have identified in my inquiry is knowing the place of the iPads in the hub. When they are being used I need to ensure they are not disrupting other students work and the students have the capability of using them independently. The iPads should not just be ‘brought out’ at certain times of the day, rather they need to be used throughout the whole day when needed and as a learning tool for all. This was observed during the implementation stage of the action plan. In both of these events students and teachers have been involved.

So what? - I will now consider the theory and knowledge behind what has happened, I will look into the most interesting aspects of these events and how they can be explained.

Regarding students uptake of apps on the iPads, I found it interesting how keen, eager and engaged they were to do their learning on the iPad. Research suggests that through the use of iPads, students are keen to take an active role in their learning. They enjoy deciding what and how they are going to learn with the iPad. It is indicated in research that children are less fearful than adults in how they approach technology, therefore they learn much more quickly in comparison. As a result of this, I think we can introduce students to a wider range of iPad apps. The students have demonstrated their competence when using iPads and have proven that all children can successfully use an iPad - it isn’t something that should be kept exclusively for older students as a privilege.

With reference to the place of iPads in the hub, I think that this comes down to the teachers dispositions surrounding digital technology and understanding of the benefits it can bring to learning. Research indicates is important to continue to educate and inform teachers of the reasoning behind the use of digital technologies and the importance of these being freely available for students. Research states that teachers attitudes and understanding is a major factor in the implementation of digital technology. This impacts the ‘taking action’ aspect of inquiry as the iPads need to be available as often as possible for students to use and explore.

Now what? Looking towards further action and into the future, I have learned that children are very adaptable and open to learning new things. They enjoy creating original pieces of work and sharing this work with others. This would impact my ‘taking action’ in the future as I would offer a wider range of apps for students to learn and be exposed to. Further changes I would make to the ‘taking action’ component of my inquiry would be to consult with the junior team more regarding the launch of the apps in the hub to ensure they have a good understanding of what my intention is for my teacher inquiry.

Resources

iPads and opportunities for teaching and learning for young children

Reflective Writing

Trends Shaping Education Spotlight

How indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness is informing the way I am taking action

When implementing my teacher inquiry I will take into account indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness. I believe that a culturally responsive pedagogy is one where teachers know how to make a difference. They have a strong understanding of their students' culture and how they make sense of the world. This ensures they can get maximum engagement from their students. Teachers should be able to help all students and believe that all their students can achieve no matter what. The classroom needs to be culturally meaningful and the context needs to be authentic. In order to be a culturally responsive classroom, it needs to relationship centred.

I will be using the following framework; ‘Culturally Responsive Practice for Māori Scale’ to critically examine how I am taking action throughout my inquiry. The area I wish to focus on for discussion is my community’s needs. Within this framework I will be focusing on the concept of Whanaungatanga (building relationships).

When considering my communities needs for my teacher inquiry I took into account Whanaungatanga. I considered the members needs of my community - what did I want to develop within these members and what needs did I need to consider?

Working with junior children meant that I wanted to foster a strong home-school partnership throughout the inquiry. I understand that from the ‘Culturally Responsive Practices for Māori Scale’, building strong relationships is important. Therefore when assessing my communities needs for my inquiry I ensured that talked to parents and got a good understanding of their perspectives regarding my inquiry. This ensured my understanding of the communities needs were consistent with the students' parents.

In regards to fostering home school partnerships I believe that my inquiry will address this through the use of technology. As students will be using technology to create digital work they will be able to send this home or upload onto LINC-ED. This enables parents to anytime access to their child’s learning providing a two way interaction between home and school. Evidence suggests that it is important for schools to collaborate with whānau, to have honest and open communication and to have whānau in the classroom - I believe that the sharing of work through technology can address these important values. Furthermore, this is consistent with ERO’s findings regarding the importance of involving whānau in the classroom and extending learning across school and home. Positive student engagement is evident when the parents and the school worked in a partnership to benefit their child’s development.

Through examining the ‘Culturally Responsive Practices for Māori Scale’ and specifically looking into Whanaungatanga I used this as a measure of my own and my schools cultural responsiveness. There are strong relationships with Māori students and their whānau. Furthermore, tukana/teina relationships are in place throughout the school, this is evident in my teacher inquiry as I am using older students ‘the Googlers’ to help teach the junior students how to use the iPad apps. Additionally, I believe that Māori students know their teachers care about them and have high expectations for them like any other student in the school.

In order to move up to the next level of cultural responsiveness I need to find ways to allow students to implement their world views and prior knowledge to enhance learning i.e. using Puppet Pals or Book Creator to explain a traditional maori creation myth. My next steps are to find a way to incorporate the Māori worldview more authentically this into my inquiry.

Resources

A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Education for Māori: Relationships between schools and whānau

ERO - Educationally powerful connections with parents and whānau

Partners in Learning: Schools’ Engagement With Parents, Families, and Communities in New Zealand

A School-Based Measure of Culturally Responsive Practices

Culturally Responsive Practices for Māori Scale

How do aspects of law, regulations and/or policy impact on teacher inquiry?

Throughout my teacher inquiry I will take into consideration the Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession ‘Our Code, Our Standards’. I will unpack this document and discuss how this will help to guide and identify aspects of law, regulations and policy relating to teacher inquiry. I will consider how professional relationships, learning-focused culture, design for learning, teaching, Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership and professional learning will have an impact on my teacher inquiry.

‘Our Code, Our Standards’, has influenced the way I inquire into my practice, I will unpack several of these standards:

• Developing a learning-focused culture is central to my teacher inquiry. The students are active participants in the process of their learning, they have agency in the iPad apps they wish to use for learning and have ownership over their learning and sharing i.e. which apps they choose to use to showcase their work. Furthermore, the environment the students are in allows them to collaborate with others, this fosters respect and cooperation, thereby maintaining learning-focused relationships.
• Design for learning is a further standard that has influenced my practice. Throughout my teacher inquiry I have ensured my students interests and needs were considered i.e. using iPad apps that would interest them such as ‘Puppet Pals’. I also took into account curriculum and pedagogical knowledge when designing my inquiry - I knew literacy was an area that I wanted to see progress, therefore I would need apps that would support this. Furthermore, my inquiry was situated around the use of technology in the classroom, I knew that with the emerging digital curriculum, technology was going to be essential to my teacher inquiry. 
• Professional learning has had a huge impact on my inquiry. I have engaged in professional learning through The Mind Lab and school PD and have applied this to my practice. Research specific to the digital learning discipline and pedagogy has provided me with evidence which has informed my inquiry (research articles linked below). 

I believe these standards are evident in my schools policy and practice. Our school uses research to inform teaching which ensures professional learning is ongoing. As a result of this teachers are teaching in a knowledgeable and adaptive way and are designing learning tasks based on appropriate curriculum content, pedagogy and progressions for learners.

TKI states teacher inquiry is used as part of the appraisal process and policy in schools across New Zealand. It is used to provide evidence of accountability against the registered teacher criteria. This enables schools to show that standards are being met. The aim of this is to provide a link between teacher appraisal and school development, the aim is that teacher appraisal should be used to look into the relationship between teaching and learning, so teachers can improve their practice.

Using teacher inquiry as part of the appraisal process can present some challenges. Due to appraisal being an outcome dominated activity, an issue with teacher inquiry being linked to the appraisal process in schools is that teachers may choose inquiry topics where they know they will achieve the best outcome.

Furthermore, Wood (2015) states that using student achievement data as a starting point to the inquiry process could have an impact on making the teaching inquiry process outcomes focused and “nullifies the essence of inquiry of discovering other potential legitimate areas of practice”. It is apparent that teacher inquiry across schools is interpreted differently, i.e. it could be individual or collaborative. Thereby making the application and impact of teacher inquiry different across New Zealand schools despite the same regulations and policy being in place.

Resources

TKI - Appraisal and Teaching as Inquiry

Education Council - Our Code, Our Standards

Wood, C. (2015). Teaching as Inquiry: form, purpose and application in New Zealand Secondary Schools (Master's thesis).

Readings specific to my teacher inquiry:

Dobler, E. (2012). Using iPads to promote literacy in the primary grades. Reading Today, 29(3), 18.

Flewitt, R., Messer, D., & Kucirkova, N. (2015). New directions for early literacy in a digital age: The iPad. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 15(3), 289-310.

Marsh, J., Plowman, L., Yamada‐Rice, D., Bishop, J., Lahmar, J., & Scott, F. (2018). Play and creativity in young children's use of apps. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(5), 870-882.

Woloshyn, V. E., Bajovic, M., & Worden, M. M. (2017). Promoting Student-Centered Learning Using iPads in a Grade 1 Classroom: Using the Digital Didactic Framework to Deconstruct Instruction. Computers in the Schools, 34(3), 152-167.

How I am addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives in my inquiry?

For my teacher inquiry I am looking into how current and emerging technologies can play a role in teaching and learning. I will consider international, national and local perspectives and their context when designing and implementing this inquiry.

A national theme that I need to consider for my inquiry is the role of future-focused learning and the place of digital technology within this. I will consider research and emerging national trends within this theme. After reading Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective, this informed me of the most effective ways to incorporate current and emerging technologies.

We need to remodel our current learning environments to ensure they are best being used for learning. Research states when incorporating technology into learning it is essential to consider our educators technological abilities and ensure they see the possibilities for learning - they need to believe in the value of ICT. The following four strategies have been identified by national research when it comes to integrating technology into education;

• Providing enabling tools and infrastructure
• Providing inspiring ideas and opportunities to connect ideas 
• Enhancing capability
• Supporting innovation

I will incorporate these four strategies into my teacher inquiry through; 

• having access to iPads and appropriate apps (tools), as well as providing teachers with ideas on how to use in the classroom
• the apps will be easy to use so the children will be able to use them independently
• wider support from the school is currently in place regarding professional development and support for the innovation

Similar themes were noted internationally. ‘Trends Shaping Education’ released by OECD in 2018 considers education based global trends in technology. We need to be improving teaching and learning with technology and preparing children for future jobs as there is serious demand for these new skills.


The following insights were identified in international literature in order for technology to have a positive influence on students learning. We need to;

• have specific technologies available
• acknowledge students’ prior knowledge and learning needs
• acknowledge teachers’ professional competence and the context in which teaching and learning develop

In order to value the importance of the above insights we need to rethink our current teaching practices and reassess the teachers role in the classroom. For technology to have a beneficial effect on learning the following must be considered;

• the level of confidence and digital skills of teachers and students using ICT
• the actual use that teachers make of technology
• their ability to integrate it into their teaching to further learning 

Teachers’ attitudes to technology are crucial. We need teachers to value and fully understand the benefits technology brings as this corresponds to its adoption and use. In order to do this professional development needs to target the school culture so that teachers understand how to implement it into their practice. To ensure that we are addressing these international perspectives I will address the teachers attitudes to ensure they are confident and understand the reasoning behind the implementation of digital technologies. I think that the professional development on offer at school currently is allowing for this.

Lastly, local perspectives I must consider in my inquiry are the teachers in the Junior Hub. Their attitudes towards digital learning is mixed regarding their adoption of digital technologies in the classroom. They are not yet eager adopters and are still skeptical about the process. From looking at the national and international evidence, it has become clear that these teachers will need support and professional development to ensure that they are confident with integrating it into their teaching practice.

Furthermore, parents offer another perspective. I think that some parents are skeptical surrounding the use of technology in class, however, with the right infrastructure, tools and appropriate support/education this will ensure they are happy with the changes.

Resources

Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching - a New Zealand perspective

Trends Shaping Education

Teacher Inquiry - ‘How to integrate the use of iPads effectively to enrich the junior literacy programme’.

My Teacher Inquiry for this year is to look into "How to integrate the use of iPads effectively to enrich the junior literacy programme'.

The Research topic for my inquiry focuses on introducing digital tools to Year 1/2 students. Recently we have acquired enough new iPads for a 1:2 ratio in the junior hub at our school. The devices are in the process of being set up with apps to facilitate cross-curricular learning. As we are still at the beginning of our digital learning journey we have not yet developed a framework for delivering digital learning and how it will be implemented in the hub.

After scanning the communities needs and I identified that there is a strong desire to integrate digital tools for learning to prepare children to be lifelong learners and effective participators in 21st Century society.

Our schools vision is “Choosing to be an innovative, Catholic, learning community that inspires and empowers learners to succeed.” Furthermore, this vision is future-focused and the philosophy of the school facilitates the importance of incorporating e-learning and digital technologies in the school. This is strongly supported by our board of trustees and parent community who are keen to see the use of devices in purposeful ways. Our parents expect that we are using devices as learning tools as opposed to using them for entertainment. We are part of the Manaiakalani Cluster which follows a Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. This provides teachers with professional development, support and resources. When using this pedagogy in our planning this ensures that the use of digital tools is purposeful and transformational.

With the upcoming introduction of the new digital curriculum we are making steps to ensure the needs of our community are met by developing lifelong learners who can Learn,Create, Share and use digital tools in innovative ways and to create connections both locally and globally. For these reasons I have chosen to focus on the purposeful implementation of digital tools in the junior hub.