Experimenting with WeVideo

Something I've been thinking about over the past couple of terms as I become more familiar with using chromebooks rather than ipads as the classroom device of choice, is finding an alternative to iMovie. Movie making is such a powerful CREATE option! And although screencastify is great for capturing voice and screen recordings, I really wanted to find a more suitable tool for making and editing short movies. 

My search has led me to WeVideo. I've had a bit of fun experimenting with WeVideo and was relieved to find that the free version offers some basic and very easy to use editing options, not dissimilar to iMovie. I really like that you can sign in using a Google account, and upload media easily from Drive. It is easy to download completed projects to Drive as well, provided they are no longer than 5 minutes long. Which leads me to the drawbacks. Unfortunately the editing options on the free version are somewhat limited. You are only able to create 5minutes worth of movie footage in a month. But the most frustrating of all, in my opinion, is the WeVideo watermark which is stamped through your entire movie. 

These detractions aside, I think WeVideo will be great to use as an option for CREATE tasks, and is a very handy alternative to iMovie when using chromebooks.

Here's one of my experimental movies:

The end of DFI

 External Recognition Day - Week 9

So we’ve come to the end of 9 weeks of DFI. Reflecting back over the past 9 weeks, I can’t believe how much was crammed in there! This has been the most amazing professional development. I have picked up so many new digital tips - thanks Vicky!! But even more than that - I’ve really appreciated getting a first hand account of the Manaiakalani kaupapa. Thanks to Dorothy for the enlightening and inspiring weekly chats! It has also been great to connect with fellow Manaiakalanians across the country. Thanks Maria for being such an awesome and supportive bubble coach. I’m not taking you off speed-dial just yet!

The final task was sitting the level two Google exam, which I’m pleased to report was successful!

Now I guess the challenge is to put all this new learning to good use. Wish me luck!

Computational thinking learning reflection

Computational Thinking

Shifting from passive consumers of technology to creating with digital technology

Skills required: being digitally fluent

Creativity empowers learning, and digital technology empowers creativity.

Exciting opportunities for innovative and creative learning open up when digitally fluent teachers are working alongside digitally fluent learners.

SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition): We’re heading for the top two rungs on the ladder!

Manaiakalani Kaupapa: Empowered

The terminology of “agency” didn’t fit for the community. (Agencies are organisations that do things to your family). Empowered became the more appropriate term to use.

Empowered

• $ allows choice.

Many of the students in low decile communities are disempowered: 

• Unable to choose where they live (if in govt housing). This can cause transience between schools.

• Language: 30million less words by the time they are 5 years old.

• Starship research suggests that there are also developmental and physical / motor skills delays.

Digital technology enables learners and their whanau to take back the power.

• Language: oral language = train students to engage in conversation (5 plus a day)

• Written language: harness the power of blogs, not just for sharing, but to use the comments as an opportunity for a written ‘tennis match’ conversation.

• Families having access to a digital device, and becoming more digitally fluent enables them to research ‘how to’ videos to fix appliances etc rather than having to pay for repairs or replace items. Allows families to choose the most cost effective power company. To book doctor visits online.

The greatest joy comes from Empowering students to become innovative creators and critical consumers of digital content. 

The future of Tech.

Exciting new advances in technology and automation are making our (near) future look very Jetson-like! 

Some of the breakthrough technologies that stood out for me were:

• Skin vision, which uses a database of 3.4 million images to compare moles and can therefore be more reliable than a GP who cannot hold as many images in their head, are examples of how automation can be a powerful tool for making improvements in health 

• Starlink, which is a network of satellites providing internet access to remote locations.

It’s not all rose tinted glasses though. With advances in automation, come some grey areas in terms of morals and ethics. Questions to ask about autonomous devices / developments: Who was the developer? What biases were built in?

Create

The create task I participated in today was using GameFroot to create a digital pepeha. I was really excited to see a coding space that was specifically designed for Aotearoa. The Mihi Maker template I found a little disappointing to use as it was a bit too prescriptive in terms of the content and organisation of the pepeha. Especially for learners (and myself) who may not have Maori ancestry and therefore need to use slightly different terms. It was possible to miss out certain sections, if these did not apply to you, but not to add or change them. The main problem that I found however, was that towards the end of the session, I lost connectivity for a moment and lost everything, even though I have been saving regularly after I reached each point in the game! So unfortunately instead of my digital learning object today looking like a super fancy digitally coded pepeha…. I will just have to upload a screenshot of the GameFroot site :(

On the positive side though, after talking through my woes with my bubble group, I have been re-inspired to give GameFroot another go. It seems that although some of the pre-made templates can be a little glitchy, the opportunities to create your own code are still worthwhile. And having learners create their own content, rather than just being consumers of digital content, is much more powerful anyway.

DFI Day 7 Reflections

Ubiquitous access to learning

Anytime

Any where

Any pace

Anyone

The power of rewindable learning

Whether you are there, in the classroom, or not, rewindable learning allows students to access the same high quality learning opportunities. The power is in the learners’ hands to pick up learning and rewind it to access content that they didn’t quite understand the first time around, and want to access again at their own pace. Learners who are unable to get to class due to illness, or for any other reason, can still access the same learning opportunities as students who are in the classroom. When teachers are out of the classroom for release, the classroom program can continue as normal, with students and relievers able to access classroom learning material.

HOT TIP

Use students to help create rewindable learning!

For example: If a student asks you to show them how to do something on their chrome book, Open up screencastify first and record your mini teaching session, then make it available for other students to access if/when they come across the same learning need.

Sites are one of the key components of visibility. They are a great platform for making learning visible and accessible (by anyone, anywhere, at any pace, and at any time). 

Cybersmart links

Be internet awesome

Manaiakalani Cybersmart

Rewindable Toolkits

I have been really embracing rewindable learning this week through the online toolkit recordings. So great to be able to access these at any time, especially of you want to attend many and can not be in more than one at the same time! I've been enjoying putting some of my new learning into practice putting together this create task based on the story: Giraffes Can't Dance. 

Thanks to Cam for the awesome tips about how to design create tasks in 'Create to Accelerate'. I used smart chips to link in the youtube clip for the story, from Dorothy's Future of Google Docs Toolkit. 

I also had fun playing around with textures in Google Drawing after Vicky's Toolkit. Anyone who didn't get to attend the Toolkits should pop in and have a look through! Manaiakalani toolkit recordings

Google Level 1 Educator exam

I sat my Google Educator exam this week. I have to say that I was a little nervous going into it. I haven't completed a 3 hour exam in quite some time! But all of the DFI sessions had prepared me well, and it went well... I thought. 

I was still a wee bit tense waiting for results, because I don't like to count my chickens until they hatch! 🐣So I was very happy to open my emails this morning and read these words: Examination Successful

I now have a Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam certificate in my hot little hands. Well my hot little drive folder anyway. Yay 🙌

DFI Day 6: Leading learning with class sites

Connected

Digital technology enables us to be connected, within our schools, communities, Aotearoa and globally. Being connected means having the ability to collaborate, share, support each other, and feeds our need, as social beings, for contact.

I thought this was beautifully summed up in this whakatauki: 

Te mea nui rawa ia ko te noho tahi, ko te whakawhanaunga, ko te whakawhitiwhiti whakaaro. 

The important thing is living together, making friends and exchanging ideas.

Classroom Sites

Today was all about classroom sites. Although I don’t have a classroom or a class site of my own, I was really looking forward to this session and having the opportunity to explore how to set up really effective classroom learning sites, as they are such a great way to make learning visible and easy to access.

Having a collection of exemplar sites to visit and critique with our bubble group was really valuable, as was the opportunity to visit and give feedback about each other’s sites. I have saved a few of my favourite sites in my bookmarks folder to refer to as I continue to design (and redesign) my wee test site.