DFI- ENABLING ACCESS SITES- WEEK 6

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today we went over the kaupapa of CONNECT. I have to admit before starting DFI, I was a Google Classroom user and felt that this was the best and only way to stay connected with my learners online. However, that instantly changed once I started DFI and created a class site. I have come to understand how useful Sites have been to stay connected with not only the learners but with families as well. Maria shared something around how we stay connected by having Consistency throughout all year levels within our schools. I definitely agree with this and that this is something our school is working towards because I do notice the challenges we face when students come to my class and have no knowledge about digital learning. We also have the same challenge with staying connected with students during this lockdown with them not having access to learning devices at home. Makaore mentioned how we want our students and whanau to be able to connect/access learning through 2-3 clicks. Hearing this made me think whether I need to make changes within my own Class Site. I know that this is one way that we can lose the connection with our students and families when they are having difficulty trying to find where they are supposed to be or what they are learning. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Having going through a few examples of other Class Sites, I realised that not everything needs to be presented such as student workbooks. My Class Site was becoming more of an art gallery rather than an online classroom. I learnt that 'buttons' is the way to go and just hyperlinking folders of students workbooks will make things much easier and it avoids scrolling down a lot. If I stick to what we went over last week with Sites being Multi-Modal and Multi-Textual this will help my Sites be more of a learning platform for my students. Today was definitely a good opportunity for me to make changes to my class site and making it easier for my audience to stay connected with their learning. Below are a few changes I made today by creating buttons for students to access their workbooks. 

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I really enjoy the new Hapara Tips and I was so focussed on it being helpful for myself as a teacher on Teacher Dashboard when it's also something helpful for my learners as well. At this time it is quite difficult to teach because they don't have devices at home but once we return back to school I will definitely be going over this with them and showing them how this can be helpful for them as well.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

What I enjoyed about this week was that we really got time to just go through our Class Sites and make changes. It was a good reminder that sometimes it's good to make time to go back and see if there are changes that need to be made to our Class Sites such as the layout, settings or even the content of learning so then we can be sure that we are staying connected with our learners.