DFI Day 6:  Enhancing our Google Sites

Manaiakalani Kaupapa story continues...

These slides from the morning's Manaiakalani Pedagogy Story - remind us the world our students are living in is always a connected one.  As such, our teaching and learning needs to be part of that process too.  Key slides for me in the Connected set shared today by Dorothy Burt of Manaiakalani   While this slide emphasises the gist of the Manaiakalani Kaupapa, the image with the foundational concepts and practices of Learn, Create, and Share being supported by the joists below, the support offered by Manaiakalani in our schools to help us learn with technological tools being ubiquitous, connected, visible and empowering for students, families, colleagues and the community.  

One aspect I had not considered - until today, yet seems obvious now, is the more I use sites or hapara or any tools to make the learning visible from anywhere, any time and any place, the more I will be able to spend less time "teaching the - what we are going to do today" and more time in the more important learning conversations with students - facilitating learning, questioning, and working with students. While I know I have made progress with this, in general,  I have not yet met one of the main goals of teaching students - using the technology tools to help students become more self-reliant, independent and in charge of their learning. Some of my class routines and structures will change to better facilitate this in class.  Prior to today, I had not considered how further "empowering" students in this manner will allow me to have deeper, more valuable learning conversations with my students. More 1:1 and small group discussions means deeper connections with students and hopefully, better outcomes. 

Afternoon: Leading the Learning with Google Sites

Much of the afternoon was spent exploring sites and considering these elements from our "Leading the Learning with Google Sites" slide set shared by Vicki from Manaiakalani.

This slide reinforces the idea that the research has shown as students become more independent with their learning online, the student experiences with the teacher can also be more personalized - engaging in teaching and learning conversations.  More "guide on the side" style vs the older "sage on the stage" style of teaching.  Both still have merit, but in today's world it is easier to address learning needs as well as the greater synchronicity we have been challenged with during the pandemic.  

Goals to work towards as my sites progress.

I am going to commit to making this shift to using Class sites as my main learning platform for at least 1 class in 2023. This will likely be for my junior classes - Humanities 9.  But, who knows, maybe I will gain enough confidence to try using sites as my primary learning access point for all my classes.

Exploring time:   These sites offered a lot of inspiration - thank you!

"Shout Outs" 

I like the simplicity and clarity of this site in particular - also in my subject area. 

Repetitive structure - easy to follow and clear for anyone who wishes to "see" into your classroom. 

Learning Goals, Content, Tasks. 

*This site is one of the ones that have convinced me I can "hook" learners without it being too busy or confusing, yet still attractive and appealing.

 Hornby High English and Media

I am still exploring these sites but each have some interesting features I have not yet tried - from collapsible content and buttons.  Some even have moving headers!  More learning to do!

Create time for Me:  

Sad to say - today was mostly a pen/paper planning day for me thinking of my bigger questions in the hopes of being able to sort out some of my questions.  I still have some reservation about switching from Hapara as my main learning "platform" but want to give it a go and compare next year. I have now a plan for structuring my layout and class sites.

Next Challenge - how do I want students to use their blogs in Humanities (or any course)?  This one is still percolating and processing in discussions - mostly in my head, to be honest, but considering discussing in my departments too.

I have also been thinking a lot about the sharing aspect for students and how their blogs may become their digital portfolios. My students so far have been reluctant to blog, but I am working on this and hope to embed it more regularly next year. 

However, one of my "wonderings" is around the empowerment aspect of sharing work.  To be truly empowering, we would want students to have choice in what they post.  To fit more Manaiakalani pedagogy - the more we share, data shows student learning accelerates.  I noticed this with my own students over 10 years ago teaching in Surrey, BC and using Blogger with my classes (we did not have sites -I don't think).  We usually started or used the blogging for one purpose at a time - eg. literature circle groups, or Law 12 discussion groups. My students also noticed their writing and engagement increased - as well as their interest in presenting and sharing "cool stuff" within their blogs - from games, videos and other little widgets.  We learned together and I am thankful for those early days and now the DFI course and Manaiakalani to further my own practice. 

Here are some of my rambling thoughts and questions:

Should their digital portfolios be more process focussed?
        Consistent posting on blogs would help with that. 

Or more "showcase" and summative in nature?  

        Students selecting towards the end of term to showcase their learning and reflections on their 

        own progress. 

In this case - perhaps a Google Site may be a better option? 

Or a combination - process work on main pages and published "proud" works on summative / showcase pages?  

Solutions discussed today suggested - to use the blogs for both digital showcase portfolios and ongoing process assignments.  How to do this without pages (like in Sites) instead use tags and labels on their blog posts.

This should work - but will it be as appealing and intuitive to find as they would be on Google Site pages?  

This might be a great conversation to have as a school - for some consistency around blog posting and doc labelling.  EG. student initials and course code / year  at the beginning of all posts or docs?

Example:  VLS HMT9A - Types of government 2022

                   VLS SCI 9A - Flora and Fauna of NZ 2022

Thinking - we are already having some consistency across our Hapara workspaces with Learn, Create, Share and adding New Pedagogies for Deep Learning Practices to our planning.  Perhaps a conversation around something like labelling our work, filing in folders and sharing on blogs would help us overall as a school.  "Singing from the same song page creates beautiful music, even when we sing in different melodies and beats."

I will be looking at a few more sites this week for sure - Waiopehu College (our hosts for DFI F2F Horowhenua 2022 Term 3 - has some great sites and ideas too!  I love their theme unit titles like Guts and Glory! 

Watch this space!