MIT 2020 - Building a Prototype (Part 2)

prototype: the first design of something from which other forms are copied or developed (Oxford Dictionary)

Newly enthused from our MIT meeting on Monday and lock down looming,  I was focussed on getting a website prototype up and running pretty quickly. Without the luxury of 'user' testing with a group of my target students, here's how things unfolded:

Tracking Student Participation/Building Connections
One gremlin was to find a way to track and give visibility to students as they completed the challenges. Matt suggested a survey form similar to what he was already using to monitor student learning for his class. Students were asked to log their challenges and the comments they had made on others blogs.

Student centred content
A team of TAHA Challengers - a mix of Year 7 & 8 students - created the video/visual content for the site. Due to time restrictions and physical distancing, I chose students who I was already seeing online for distance learning at the end of Term 1. We met informally  at the end of a GOOGLE MEET session (all filmed!)and using a spreadsheet were able to plan and assign tasks amongst ourselves with time lines to get as much content finished as quickly as possible. A template script for the TAHA videos proved helpful to support students as they added their own flavour to the TAHA  'adverts' they created.

Engaging Tasks
A key element of the whole TAHA CHALLENGE was to find a collection of tasks that  Year 7 & 8 students would be willing to try - nothing too serious but nothing too lame either! I got inspiration from a lot of different sources including:
- a BINGO Board of Awesomeness from the folks at KIWIKIDS NEWS
- the Mental Health Awareness Week initiative
- Rangitahi Tū Rangituhi , a rangtahi leadership organisation in Wellington that offers Ngā Taonga
  Tākaro wānanga (traditional Māori games workshops)

MIT 2020 - Building a Prototype (Part 1)

prototype: the first design of something from which other forms are copied or developed (Oxford Dictionary)

Newly enthused from our MIT meeting on Monday and with lock down looming,  I was focussed on getting a website prototype up and running pretty quickly. Without the luxury of 'user' testing with a group of my target students, here's how things unfolded:

Digital Tool
It made sense to use New GOOGLE Sites to build my new website. It would be less stressful than trying to design something from scratch using another software programme that I was less familiar with.

Overall Concept 
Big shout out to Matt for letting me throw ideas at him and troubleshoot how my digital tool was going to work. His timely wisdom had already steered me clear of trying to develop an app.  My thought now was to design a site as the hub through which students could stay connected with each other. There would be a series of tasks, with elements of competition (points) and opportunities to share their experiences (blog posts) and also check out and give feedback on what others were up to (blog commenting).

A culturally approriate framework
Our Year 7 & 8 students were familiar with the Te Whare Tapa Wha model of Maori health from the term's inquiry topic. They had been introduced to the analogy that a person's overall health was like a wharenui or meeting house - it stands strong if all four walls are all in balance.  Framing the challenges to the four dimensions of Te Whare Tapa Wha -  Taha Tinana (physical wellbeing), Taha Wairua (spiritual wellbeing), Taha Whanau (healthy relationships) and Taha Hinengaro (emotional wellbeing) would allow students to build on their prior knowledge and understanding of Te Whare Tapa Wha but also provided a real-time context for them to see this approach to hauora/wellbeing in action.

Branding
 I kicked around a few ideas for naming the site including Kia Kaha! and Make the Taha Connection! I really wanted to focus on the importance of being resilient and staying connected with their peers.  I  eventually settled on TAKE THE TAHA CHALLENGE!  It provided a clear invitation for students to try something new while also developing their personal wellbeing 

Digital Fluency Intensive 8: Empowerment, New GOOGLE Sites

Hard to believe that we are already at Week 8 of the DFI sessions - so much learning has taken place!  Today James Hopkins from CORE EDUCATION shared his thoughts on EMPOWERMENT in the Manaiakalani pedagogy: if learning is not VISIBLE, CONNECTED and UBIQUITOUS, students will not be able to take charge of and progress in their learning.
He also shared with us how to use moderation mode in Padlet - a great way to avoid any curly comments from students being made public to the whole class!

Next up Gerhard guided us through a session on the NEW GOOGLE Sites. It is much quicker to create a site in this new version, using a range of preset options. However you are limited in how you can customise your site so despite all the time saving shortcuts NEW sites offers, I think I would prefer have more control over how my site/pages will look and 'work' . The original GOOGLE sites has my vote! I got to try out the NEW sites by creating a landing page for all the different sites and blogs that we have been working on for the past few weeks. It also includes links to the individual class/team sites for each of the other DFI participants. Click here or the image below to view the site page in full.

Next week, our DFI group will take the  GOOGLE EDUCATOR LEVEL 1 exam - let's see how much we really know!