>Looking Back At 2021

Image from Minds Of The Lab - Malcolm - https://youtu.be/mSprv8AR_BA 

In the 2021 Academic Year, I was given the go ahead to change how I deliver my DigiTech programme at school. As a school, we are in the process of changing our teaching model to fit within a Flexible Learning Environment. This is in preparation for a new building which will have space for purpose built classrooms and a dedicated STEAM space.

As part of the change to the way we will be teaching lessons at school, I will get to work with all the classroom teachers to provide opportunities for learning Digital Tech within an 'authentic context' in class. This will mean my lessons are co-constructed so as the class teacher provides the curriculum context and I provide the Digital Technologies content where it appropriately fits. In turn, this will provide all teachers with ongoing DTHM professional development opportunities throughout the year.

To illustrate this change, the teacher may be doing Geometry as part of the Maths lesson in a particular week. I might provide the authentic context for the lesson by using Scratch coding to reinforce some concepts with the students. With this, I hope to also look at developing some Local Curriculum opportunities within the lesson.

It was an exciting and sizeable change for me personally as I navigated my way through incorporating ideas from other curriculum areas. It was also a year which evolved as much as it could, considering we were disrupted for nearly four months.

Term 1: Year 7

For the start of my 'new venture', I have decided to concentrate on getting both the Year 7 students and their teachers up to speed.

The lessons will alternate between Year 7 and Year 8 each week. This will allow regular sessions spread throughout Terms 2 to 4 instead of all the learning concentrated into six weeks of the year.

This is part of the initial email I have sent the Year 7 teachers:

"I would like to find some time to explain my 'bigger picture' thinking around how we want to progress with DigiTech throughout this term. The intended objective is to allow you to drive your learning by having an input into what is taught and how this is done. But I suspect you won't have much of an idea unless you see some of the 'lessons' that are possible.

"No rush, but I would like you to have a think about the best way for you all to learn and grow your knowledge. As part of your own learning, you will need to be familiar with using Scratch, Makey Makey and micro:bits. Do you want this to be done in class with you learning beside your students or would you like a familiarise yourself before we teach the students in your class? I need to have some idea as I would like you to be comfortable with your new learning but at the same time, it needs to be easy for me to help you to learn."

The feedback that I received regarding the sessions in Term 1 were positive. Here are some paraphrased statements from both staff and students:

"I found it really enjoyable and helpful when you took my class last week, and I felt like I definitely learnt heaps..."

"...it was quite valuable for the kids to see that I don't know it all..."

"I liked that I was able to 'fail' alongside the students..."

"Thanks for the great lesson Matua. That was fun!"

"Am I allowed to log on to my account and do some more Scratch at home in my spare time?"

Term 2: Years 7&8

By Term 2, most students have a basic understanding of what is on offer within DigiTech lessons based on what they have learned previously.

One of my aims around the delivery of DigiTech is to be able to incorporate the learning into other curriculum areas without my colleagues having to do any 'extra work' on top of what they already do. I appreciate that most of my colleagues did not have much of an idea as to how this will work. So I wanted to find out more around what their needs are for the rest of the year.

My intention in Term 2 is to be in class for one block every fortnight. From my perspective, I can happily provide DigiTech activities that can compliment what is already happening in the classroom. The medium term challenge for me was to provide the right activity for what is happening in a practical and sustainable way.

So, to facilitate this, I had a korero with my colleagues as to where they are at in the school curriculum plan so that can happen as easily as possible. That korero could was either via email or in person. However, having several conversations on an individual basis was not the most practical way to make this happen. They probably needed to know a bit more about what was on offer in terms of hardware, software and peripherals such as Makey Makey, micro:bits, robotics and electronics.

To get an idea of what was possible, some classes had a look at how they could integrate DigiTech into their learning. An example of this was the two classes who chose to working with the robotics kit to compliment the theme of 'Space' that was part of the Science curriculum plan. The ideas mostly came from the students with very little input from their classroom teachers or myself. Some other students were also starting to connected to their prior DigiTech learning and knowledge to individual pieces of work or projects.

I didn't want to put too much onto my colleagues plates. So I made the decision to continue to provide the DigiTech class content for the first few weeks of the term. After that, we will had further discussions on how to best provide for each teacher as this needed to be both achievable and sustainable for us going forward...

Terms 3&4: Dealing with Restrictions

Much of Terms 3 & 4 was disrupted by the national lockdown restrictions. Term 3 was the start of our school inquiry topic of 'Journeys'. This is an account of the limited progress that we made.

I had been working with a few classes to use Scratch as a way to tell the stories of their whānau journeys or whakapapa. The students can tell their stories as an animation and narrated in any way they like.

I used the example video I found on Animating Captain William Hobson's Journey to Waitangi as a starting point for demonstrating how to tell each story in Scratch.

I have also provided them with ideas on how they can make the journeys animation more interesting by either recording their own voices as an mp3 or using the 'Text-to-Talk' feature of Scratch if they did not feel confident with recording their voices.

The intention is for the finished program to be operated using a Makey Makey. So each element or section of the journey programmed in Scratch will need to be assigned to a particular key. To assist the class, I constructed a prototype of a touch panel using cardboard, aluminum foil speaker wire, aluminum tape and duct tape for the students to attach the Makey Makey onto.

This worked really well, but I decided the panels would not last long as they are not robust enough. Through one or two iterations, I have now made several panels using wood instead of cardboard.

The hope was to resume this project on our return to school. Alas, there was no time to complete this so I will reserve this project to be delivered in the future.

Term 3 was also an opportunity to work with all Y7 students (and some of our Y8s) to look at how we could develop cross-curricular ideas for our Maths programme at school. These ideas are detailed in the section Cross-Curricular Contexts.

It’s times like this that I love my job...

To conclude, 2021 has been a tough one for us all, especially in Auckland as we had nearly four months of disruptions due to lockdown restrictions. Learning the coding and other ‘device-based’ elements was at times great fun over Zoom lessons. The physical ‘hands-on’ elements of the DigiTech such as Makey Makey and micro:bits became impossible. Having said that, just when you assume the kids are over online learning and all things 'Tech oriented', you are surprised by their resilience.

I thought I would share this with you all as this email put a big smile on my face, especially the use of binary code.

The email from this particular student has reassured me that I have made an impact on the rangatahi at our school. Of course, I had to reply in the only way I knew...

(If you’re not sure what is written above, you can convert it for yourself here!)

I really look forward to reconnecting with the students in 2022. #teacherlife #ilovemyjob #binary #digitech