DFI Day 7 - Devices

 It is a cold and wet day so the hot cheese scone and coffee seemed like a great idea (plus the usual ginger crunch). We started the day with a discussion of what we have been doing since last week. It's always interesting and inspiring to listen to others' ideas and what has been working well for them.

Google Meet with Fiona looking at Cybersmart. There was a lot to think about here and as Fiona was talking I reflected on the online activities some students take part in at home and how the safety measures we put in place in our classrooms can differ to those in our students' homes. Some parents allow their children access to digital platforms which they shouldn't be on given the age restriction and some parents have the attitude that it's ok and I'm fine with it. As a teacher, I need to be careful that I'm not intruding but on the other hand, I feel a moral responsibility to 'remind' the parent of the restrictions and also that we all need to be aware of what our children are accessing online, no matter how much we trust them...Empowering our students and modeling the behaviour in the digital world which we expect is a powerful approach. Fiona made the interesting point, which I hadn't really thought about, that we need to take a more positive approach - there are lots of don't do this or that, we need to focus on the do and remember families/whānau have an important role to play with our students' online learning.

We looked at Hapara with Lenva. I don't use Hapara and am not really familiar with it. However, it looks user friendly and it was interesting to have a deeper look.

There were plenty of opportunities to play and we played with chromebooks. I have never used a chromebook before and enjoyed finding out the different features. They are easy to use and I could see how great these would be to use in the classroom with the simplicity of its features.

I love ipads, and we had a play with Explain Everything and I created a couple of things. This part of the day was a lot of fun and I reflected on the amount of time I need to give students to just 'play' and 'discover' using Explain Everything rather than completing work. I discover more during 'play' than being shown. My students know that I attend this course each week and I'm looking forward to sharing this part of my reflection with them to see what they think.

All in all another great day of learning and lots to think about moving forward next term and into 2021. My confidence is growing and being around others that are also learning has helped - no question is too dumb and actually I want to learn and if I can't remember it's ok. It's reaching the end of the course and the exam is looming!