Digital Fluency Intensive - Week One

 Today was the first of 9 sessions in the Digital Fluency Intensive program, organised by Manaiakalani, and run by Dorothy Burt. The course is focused on 4 Goals;

- Teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools our young people use for learning

- Teachers are supported to acquire fluency using the basic tools required for effective teaching, planning, assessment, and professional development.

- Teachers are supported to understand how digital technologies used effectively can have a significant impact on accelerating achievement outcomes.

- Teachers are supported to understand how the Manaiakalani Pedagogy and kaupapa has been co-constructed over more than a decade to maximise the impact of effective teaching and learning in a digital environment.

The course is designed to ensure that we are not only digitally fluent, but also that we model, share, and teach our students to use those same "Learn, Create, and Share"  skills. Students may be digital natives, but we should ensure that they can use their preexisting skills to have a more positive impact on their lives.

Today has been a very eye opening journey; from learning about the history and challenges Manaiakalani went through to provide this for our cluster, to a very cathartic tidying of my Google Drive, I have renewed vigour in my approach to how we use digital technology in the classroom.

The most interesting, and challenging idea was the conversation we had regarding voice typing. This challenged a lot of prior ideas I had about how we get students to present their ideas in the classroom; if we're restricting their ability to share their ideas by adding a spelling, or typing limitation, are we really seeing their best work? I will continue to reflect on this, and experiment with how I use voice typing in the future to encourage those students who are resistant to writing.

If you would like to read more about what we do each day, in depth, please check this out!

I look forward to continuing to develop my understanding of digital technologies in combination with the Manaiakalani pedagogical principles - I think it is crucially important for teachers to accelerate our own learning in the digital space so that we are able to keep up with students who are digital natives, and push them to learn, create, and share their learning in new and innovative ways.