DFI - Visible Learning and Computational Thinking

8 May 2019 - Day Five 

Visible Learning

Some children have no idea of the purpose of their learning.

Dorothy discussed the importance of visible learning. Children fail because they have no idea really what they are learning. They need to have a clear pathway so they know where they are heading and its purpose. Learners need to know what is coming - it shouldn't be a secret. Some children may cope without knowing this but many others don't. Making connections for children before learning starts really supports them. This is visible learning.

Dorothy's analogy to being 'lost in a maze' reinforced how some children feel in class and why they have no clear idea of what their teacher is expecting of them. Manakalani focus is on keeping learning visible. This includes teacher planning and student assessment. All students deserve and need to know the results of their learning assessments.

Visibility to parents - parent portal on Hapara. This is the one area on Teacher Dashboard that my school is not yet using but we are moving in this direction and are looking to make this 'live' to parents in the coming terms. It will be very interesting to see how this further supports and encourages students as well as making both myself and my students more accountable for what they are learning and doing in class. Dorothy was quite clear in her message that visible learning is the way to support students and parents. To support this is it really imperative that parents and whanau know how to access student learning. Even more importantly students need to interact with each via blogs and blogging. It is no point students sharing work on their own blog that no one interacts with or gives feedback of. This has been the biggest stumbling block to my learners so far. They get very few comments on their work. I now make it a point to comment on at least 5-6 students sharing a day and have shown parents how to sign up for alerts to their children's' blogs. I have noticed that I am now getting a handful of parents giving comments. The next step is to have students send replies back. Professor Stuart McNaughton's data shows that this is the way forward for learners.

Digital Technologies - OMG Tech!

We spent time learning about the artificial intelligence that exists in the world today and how the biggest difference with these from early robots is that they can programme themselves and make their own decisions. This is not the world that our students are heading into but this is the 'future' now. 

Who knows in the future what this will mean for teachers - will we be replaced by a 'Sophia'??

Digital Technologies Curriculum 

Scratch - I have used this before but it is a site that I do not use enough in class. I know that the boys, in particular, enjoy coding using Scratch and some of them have advanced skills in this area. I need to create time in the class to incorporate this within the class.

It was good to learn about a range of online sites that I can use to help teach about digital technologies. These being code.org and studiocode.org. This can also be used as a lead-in to Scratch. Zoe suggested I use the Minecraft to hook the kids in. I know that many of my students will be able to whizz through the first stages of this but then it quickly begins to extend their digital thinking.

A real fast packed day today due to the NZEI meeting but lots more information to absorb. Going to go into class tomorrow and model the code.org and also work with a group of kids on the binary system for computers that Viv showed us.