DFI- COMPUTATIONAL THINKING- WEEK 8

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He aha aku akoranga hei āwhina i taku mārama atu ki te ariā ako me te kaupapa o Manaiakalani? 

EMPOWERED: Lack of money disempowers you! Something that Vicki shared that was Raw but True! This kaupapa acknowledges and embraces the reality of some communities. Living in Tamaki Makaurau, this hits home because this is definitely the reality for some communities and having experienced this growing up it brings so much joy to know that Manaiakalani embraces this raw experience and have provided pathways to empower learners through this amazing programme. This kaupapa has been at the forefront for majority of teachers throughout this pandemic. Thinking about what we can do to empower our learners from a distance but most importantly finding ways for learners to share their voice, give them a choice and take ownership in their learning. Watching the video about Equity definitely filled my heart with joy. Knowing that Manaiakalani had put their kaupapa into practice by providing a way that learners/families/communities could continue to thrive in their learning with learning devices and internet is very empowering for me as a teacher. It is a great reminder of what we as educators create to empower our learners to be successful life-long learners.

He aha aku akoranga hei whakawhanake i te ngaiotanga,  i taku māia, i taku kakama, i te rere rānei a te mahi? 

I really enjoyed going through the TKI-Technology Online Resource and how this can be very useful with planning. I definitely will be familiarising myself with this resource and trying consider some of these tasks to encourage the computational thinking through paper based learning before using digital devices or technology devices. Coding was new learning for me so I'm looking forward to exploring the resources that were shared today and finding which ones will be suitable for my learners.

He aha aku akoranga kia tukua, kia tohaina atu ki āku ākonga? 

I will definitely be going over a few of the apps that were shared today for coding. The ones that stood out for me and I could see them being suitable as an introduction are Compute it and Code Combat. I would've loved to do scratch with my students however, we don't have ipads just chromebooks. 

I really enjoyed squeezing pictures into codes with Phil. I have seen it before and was always curious on how it was done so learning about it today was really fun. Awesome new learning for me and I can't wait to do this with my learners. I have been doing some learning around measuring area on google meet this week and I thought this would be so awesome for learners to be able to draw their different shapes and then not only measure the area but also include the coding as well. Oh how I wish these were done while I was in primary! Below was the task we did with Phil. This was definitely the highlight of my day because I had a lightbulb moment about how fun this will be for my learners even if they do not have a device, it is a paper based learning as well.

He aha aku akoranga hei whakawhanake i taku māia, i taku kakama, i te rere rānei a te mahi ki taku ao whaiaro? 

Great Blogging Tip learnt today around being able to compose a blog through gmail. This seems handy when you are not on your laptop. It doesn't provide all the functions you can do however as Phil shared it does allow you to add the meaty part of your blog "body" and then you can add labels and embedded codes before publishing. 

Today was a good reminder about what we may already be doing that incorporates coding and computational thinking. The good thing about computational thinking is that intergrades with all learning areas. It's just a matter of finding how we can utilise this resource to equip our learners for more opportunities and pathways in the future.  

"The greatest joy comes from empowering students to find their inner voice in becoming innovators and leaders in their communities."

  



Comments

  1. Phil @ Ako HikoSeptember 17, 2021 at 4:20 PM

    Kia ora Gillian. I love your closing sentence, such a nice way to think of a teacher's role. Scratch 100% works on Chromebooks. The iPad version is called Scratch Jnr and is quite different. I'm glad you enjoyed the create activity. I'd love to see what your students end up creating!

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