We have looked at EMPOWERMENT this morning both learners and teachers and how being digitally literate helps both learners and teachers take control of their lives in ways that we could not have imagined.
We have over come barriers of distance and time during this lockdown in being able to access the digital tools required to make learning accessible to all. My example of this would be on my class site for Maths. I wanted to use craft as a way to access maths learning in particular fractions (as in class we would normally use this type of activity in the juniors as a hands on activity helps develop the understanding.
Using a site that was made during DFI on dinosaurs I provided clips of activities to make and then through a slide show provided instructions and explanations of the fractions, for example:-
Take the kitchen roll and cut it in half for the dinosaurs legs or use 4 toilet rolls.
When thinking about how to make the dinosaur's , flower etc I needed to be aware that the video clips I was selecting were using nice card and paper that my students might not have access to. I looked around my house and have begun collecting all of my recycled goods that my students may have access to. So I then provided an example of the completed task using what I could easily find around my home.
I have made a new button during DFI on my class site to celebrate my students' art and craft which I have included below.
We also looked at the advice from Woolf Fischer on the need of 5+ a day. In the junior school we already practise this during sharing time, which we aim for after each learning session, where students get to talk about what they have learnt and the audience gets the opportunity to ask questions. But I will now also encourage the use of blog commenting, we were about to learn how to blog when we were forced into shut down, however through online correspondence and talking on the phone one of my pupils has begun to use blogger from home and records his work on a daily basis. I leave comments and he is beginning to reply to my comments. I have asked him to be my blogger expert when we return to school, he is very excited!
Next today we looked at the new digital curriculum that is broken into 2 parts.
1. Digital fluency for example knowing the correct terminology or language
2. Digital technology - providing opportunities for students to create their own digital solutions.
Kerry Boyde-Preece shared with us some very good links and web sites for us to view and discover so that we can help our students attain these goals
We were then given the opportunity to delve deeper block coding and how we could use this with our students. Here is my first attempt of block coding on a Minecraft voyage. It was fun, I'm sure my junior students would love to give it a try as long as it is available or something similar on the iPads. But to also remember that the digital curriculum is not solely on devices it can involve unplugged activities.
In the afternoon we had the opportunity to look and use coding further. I looked at Mihi Maker @ https://make.gamefroot.com/ unfortunately although I got the activity completed I was unable to publish, I just got the circle of doom for 30 minutes so decided to leave the site. If I get the opportunity to try again later in the week I will.
