I have seen many types of tech emerge; some came and were soon superseded. Some are still with us today, and in some cases, hanging on the wall, covered in cobwebs and swimming lesson recount plans.
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| A typical-looking secondary school computer lab from the 2000s |
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| A 'Smartboard' in a class I visited in 2021, is not completely useless |
My first teaching position came with an introduction to Hāpara Teacher Dashboard, a classroom management software with a range of features to help with digital teaching and learning. Teaching in a 1:1 BYOD class, Hāpara’s Teacher Dashboard created individual subject folders in each of the learner’s Google Drives, meaning they could easily organise their work. Hāpara allowed me the ability to view, monitor and leave feedback on my learner’s work, all on one easy dashboard. Although I probably didn’t get a chance to make the most out of all of its features, Hāpara was a great digital tool to use in my class. (K-12 Online Learning Platform, n.d.).
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| A teacher's view of Hāpara Teacher Dashboard |
In my first full year of teaching, it was difficult to create an effective teaching and learning environment without the knowledge or understanding of what an effective digital teaching environment looked like. I had the tools, but not much support with how to use them effectively. The BYOD devices in my class essentially were used for publishing or reading and maths games. Looking back now, this wasn’t effective, nor was it collaborative.
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| The Manaiakalani Programme |
Starting a job teaching at a Manaiakalani school in 2020 saw a fundamental change in my approach to teaching in a digital learning environment. At the centre of the Manaiakalani programme is the Learn Create Share pedagogy. Professor Stuart McNaughton from the Woolf Fisher Research Centre talks about the LCS framework, “Using the Learn Create Share framework to manage learning in a digital learning environment that is truly visible, through Google Sites leading learning, blogging sharing outcomes and highly effective teaching practice, has enabled this accelerated rate of progress.” (Jesson, McNaughton, Wilson, et al., 2018).
The practicalities of teaching with the Learn Create Share pedagogy meant an intentional shift towards deliberately planning and the creation of resources with this structure in mind; learning, having a chance to create something related to the learning, and an opportunity to share. In Manaiaklaani schools, blogging is a central component of this sharing. Learners have their own blogs which they share individually, classes share using their class blogs, and teachers use a professional blog to share their own learning journeys.
A key component of the Learn Create Share pedagogy working effectively is through the use of Google Sites to make learning visible. Visibility is a key part of the Manaiakalani kaupapa, with the belief that all learning should be visible to everyone, anywhere and at any pace. Each class in Manaiakalani schools have a Class Site where their learning is visible and accessible. In classes Year 3 and above, learners use their devices to access their work and use the G Suite apps to complete it.
I first used Google Sites as a simple way of bringing together the links to the various learning sites and apps that I used as part of my programme. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective - at least it stopped my kids coming up to me every few minutes to ask for the link to the maths website they were supposed to be on, or for me to remind them of their password. It was once I had professional development in the form of Manaiakalani’s Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) - a 9-week course where participants engage with both the Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa, as well as digital technologies. This ongoing PD gave me an opportunity to increase my level of confidence in teaching in a digital environment, along with developing an understanding of the Manaiakalani pedagogy. At the conclusion of the DFI, we were given the opportunity to sit the Google for Education exams. It was at this point that I did both the Level 1 & 2 exams.
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| How my Class Sites transitioned over the course of my classroom teaching career |
As part of my first year teaching in a Manaiakalani school, I received weekly in-class-support sessions from a facilitator, who would come in and teach my class, allowing me to observe and co-teach on occasion. This experience was great, as it allowed me to observe a specialist in this area. Last year, an opportunity presented itself to work for Manaiakalani in a role doing the same type of facilitation that I was receiving in 2020. I am now working in this role, supporting teachers from a range of schools. The biggest transition for me has been towards learning how to teach both the learners and the teacher at the same time. Designing lessons that are both engaging for the learners, whilst being explicit enough to help the teacher understand what I am wanting the learners to engage with, and why. I am loving this role, and know that is exactly the kind of position I am suited for.
References
K-12 Online Learning Platform. (n.d.). Hāpara. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://hapara.com/workspace/
Rebecca Jesson, Stuart McNaughton, Aaron Wilson, Tong Zhu & Victoria Cockle (2018) Improving Achievement Using Digital Pedagogy: Impact of a Research Practice Partnership in New Zealand, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 50:3, 183-199, DOI: 10.1080/15391523.2018.1436012
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