Week 8 DFI: Computational thinking.

 Week 8 DFI: Computational thinking 01.12.21.

Today's session on Manaiakalani Kaupapa focussed on empowerment. This has certainly been on my radar recently following our NZCER wellbeing survey. Our students overwhelmingly commented that they wanted more voice and influence in their learning and school life. From this feedback, we are currently looking to set up a student council to help us shape up 2022. This will be totally new at our school. We will also be enrolling our students into the Summer Learning Journey to give them the option to engage in learning over the Summer. Within our classes, we will be looking for students to have greater input into how their learning is delivered. I reflected that our students really had a great opportunity during lockdown to extend their learning by closely connecting electronically with their teachers during check-in time for example.

The Digital Technologies session was valuable for me as this was a new area to explore. I found the decoded 4 learners a great resource that I will access in the future. The wealth of material available on Technology Online was wonderful and a real eye-opener as to what can be achieved. The comment was made that many of the targets within the digital curriculum can be/ are met during many other activities covered within the wider curriculum. For instance, giving instructions to others. Integration is a key aspect to focus upon during planning.

The afternoon session was with an aptly named app called Tinkercad which was a new experience for me. During the exploratory session, we were tasked with creating a Whare (house) here is my attempt:

 

I enjoyed the Tinkercad session and I look forward to exploring this further in the future. I can see that it could be useful in future projects at our school for both students and staff. This is something that I have never had the opportunity to explore before I can see that it is very engaging and hard to put down!