This is my first attempt using Screencastify. It is a bit clunky but I can see it will be a useful tool in the classroom and I'm sure I will get better with some practice. I think my students will enjoy using this tool to explain their learning. We worked through the Digital Dig which I talk about in my video and I learned some useful new keyboard shortcuts for the Chromebooks. There is even a shortcut for seeing all shortcuts! Try it - ctrl + alt + /. Khismira Lal, a year 1 teacher from Point England School was our guest speaker at the Digital Fluency Intensive Course today. She works in a 1:1 iPad class and gave us lots of new ideas to use in class. The best tip for me was to save everything as a video rather than a project so it can be saved to and used in Google Drive.
This year I am completing a Post-Graduate Certificate in Digital and Collaborative Learning through Mindlab. Our first task was to share our reasons for doing this course and to then choose a response we connected with. This was the one I chose:
We then discussed the concept of knowledge. It is surprisingly difficult to define as it is such an abstract concept. First we brainstormed in pairs:
Next we made a 3-d model to represent our thoughts and teamed up with another group to combine our ideas and make a video:
We also learned about the importance of followership. Here are some qualities of an effective follower:
Think for themselves and evaluate the leader's decision before accepting it
Are active
Have positive energy
Give full support if they agree with the leader
Challenge the leader and offer constructive alternatives if they disagree
Dorothy Burt joined us via Google Hangout to talk about Learn, Create, Share. Sharing has been happening since the beginning of time - think cave paintings. Technology has allow students to have an authentic audience in class rather than just a compulsory audience. The audience is now global. As a teacher, it is important to hook students into the learning because the thrill of a new device does not keep them engaged in the long-term. This can be achieved through the use of multi-modal teaching materials. We practised creating a new Google site incorporating multi-modal material. Here is my gardening site:
I am planning to update my class Google site before the start of Term 2 to make it more engaging for students and whanau.
