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What is digital fluency?

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Image by George Couros under CC

A recent announcement from Hon. Hekia Parata signalled that digital fluency will be a key focus for Ministry centrally-funded professional learning support in 2016 (PLD Changes will lift student achievement, 23 Sept. 2015).

The value of growing digitally fluent learners was signalled in the Ministry report, Future Focused Learning in Connected Communities (2014) which asked that

“digital competencies be recognised as “essential foundation skills for success in 21st century society” and that they be supported by “cross-curriculum resources,  a responsive assessment framework, professional development and a programme of evaluation.”

‘Digital fluency’, as a phrase, does not occur specifically in the our various curricula (NZC, Te Marautanga, Te Whāriki) or in other oft-used touchstones for learning with digital technologies. However, the concepts behind it will be familiar to many educators already.

What is digital fluency?

‘Fluency’ derives from the word ‘flow’ and when we think about being ‘fluent’ in any context, it refers to being flexible, accurate, efficient, and appropriate. In other words, the way we use skills, language and speech flows naturally and easily. In a digital context for learning, fluency involves using technologies “readily and strategically to learn, to work, and to play, and the infusion of technology in teaching and learning to improve outcomes for all students”1

Broadly speaking, digital fluency is a combination of:

  • digital, or technical, proficiency: able to understand, select and use the technologies and technological systems;
  • digital literacy: cognitive or intellectual competencies, which include being able to read, create, evaluate and make judgements and apply technical skills while doing so;
  • social competence, or dispositional knowledge: the ability to relate to others and communicate with them effectively.

It is helpful to think of fluency as showing wisdom and confidence in the application and use of digital technologies, as reflected in the diagram below (Wenmoth, 2015):

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He whetū mārama i te mata o te whenua!

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A shining star on Earth!

Dawson TamateaHe aha rā tēnei hanga?
E puta nei te taniwhā kokoti ora i tōna rua
E kume nei i te tangata, e kati nei i te hā, e huti nei i te aho ki te ao tūroa, e kai wawe nei i te tangata e!
He aha tāna e mahue nei?
He ohorere, he rangirua, he taumaha kei taku ngākau e!
He hae kino, he ngau kino, he kai kino e kawa nei ki te waha!
Ko te kawa nā Hine-nui-te-pō, nā Māui Pōtiki e,
Hikohiko te uira, papā te whaititiri, he kanapu ki te rangi, ko koe rā tēnei kua riro e…!

He kupu iti ēnei i pupū ake i roto i te whatu manawa i te rironga wawe o tētahi … arā, ko Dawson Tamatea.

E kīia ana, ko Hongongoi te wā o te mātao, o te tahutahu ahi kia rongo te tangata i te mahana! Heoi, i te 20 o Hongongoi ko te anu mātao tērā i pā ki tēnei tangata. Ko ia tēnā i kume i te mano tangata ki runga o Te Kupenga o te Mātauranga hei takotoranga whakamutunga mōna. Ko te whare tēnā i poipoi, i ako, nāna tonu i tautoko ki te hanga i ngā tau kia puta ia hei kaiako, hei kaihāpai, kaiārahi, hei kaituitui i te tangata i ngā tini kaupapa o te hapori o Te Papaioea.  Ka noho ko ia hei tahutahu i te tini mahara, i te tini kōrero kei te ngākau o tēnā o tēnā i tae ā-tinana atu, i hono ā-ipurangi atu ki te tuku i ngā kupu poroporoākī ki a ia!!  Nā reira e te rangatira, moe mai rā koe i te kōpū o Papatūānuku, takahia atu rā te ara whānui ki a Hine-nui-te-pō, whakangaro atu rā!! Rārangi maunga tū tonu, rārangi tangata ngaro noa!!

whareAs I contemplate a suitable and relevant topic for discussion, I am drawn to the passing of a very good friend, who was a well loved and respected figure within the Manawatū community, Dawson Tamatea. At the young age of 55, in the wee hours of Monday morning, 20th of July 2015, he was taken suddenly from his beautiful wife and three lovely tamariki. His passing reverberated across the nation, with multitudes ascending on Te Kupenga o Te Mātauranga Marae to pay their respects, to celebrate a life well lived, and to give Dawson one hell of a send off!

His passing was so surreal and tumultuous for my whānau and me that, three months later, having also lost three grand uncles, my thoughts turn towards Dawson. Dawson, incidentally, was a previous pouako of mine, a job that gave him much joy and pride, and ensured a career that spanned 30 years. He was a special person with talents galore. Although Dawson was an amazing teacher, when he spoke, I often felt he was possibly working in the wrong profession. His ability to entertain and manage a crowd was world class. My heart breaks again at the thought that his infectious smile and great sense of humour will no longer grace this world. These feelings of sorrow vibrated through me in my final speech at Dawson’s poroporoaki, a tribute of words that bubbled and emerged from within, stirring my emotions, and guiding me to deliver a very emotional and uplifting farewell speech. Yet, his influence continues to surround me, especially as I ponder the attributes, skills, and values necessary to be a quality and effective facilitator at CORE-Education, I think of the influence we are expected to have on our kura. We are developing skills, growing understanding, and engaging staff across Aotearoa with the intention to lift the achievement levels of our tamariki. Dawson absolutely lifted the achievement levels of our tamariki, I and many other Māori are an example of his contribution.

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Playing to learn

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playing to learn

Playing games at uLearn

The pre-conference theme at this year's uLearn was titled "Permission to Play". As the day unfolded, and during my own session in the afternoon, I noted how apt that title was. We were giving delegates permission to get out of their chairs and have fun. The learning, and for the meta cognitives, the learning about learning, was sneaked in under the radar.

I had smashed four books together. Two were about learning design, and two were about games design. Essentially, we set up a learning environment based on well-established principles of constructivism, and then we overlaid a symbolic games language. These sources came from recognised authors listed at the bottom of this article. Then we created and played a sample game within this framework, and at the end, asked each other how it went. For me, it was a way to get peer feedback about my incubator project, and for the delegates, it was an introduction to how easy it is to make games that can be played out in an environment wider than the classroom and augmented using near zero cost tech. All you need, really, is the light scaffold of ARGEF (Alternate Reality Games in Education Framework) that I have just described, and a free mind.

First failure, but try again…

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about the spectacular failure of my first analog mission. It was a puzzle game in which a wooden puzzle called the Locked Cross was disassembled, and each piece was packed into a luscious and mysterious blue purse with a gold cord for hanging it around a player's neck. Then the purses were hidden around the venue, which served as the game environment. The first mission failed because we were playing in a sprawling venue and relying on Twitter for communication, but there was a no-Tweeting policy in place. Oops. This time, we played the game in one room, and I facilitated by good old-fashioned unmediated voice and gesture. Success! Serious fun was had, and the players cooperated to solve the puzzle. Step up you geeks, you Meta Cognitives!

The type of game that fits with learning

What were we doing here? We were playing a teeny, tiny pretotype of a cooperative pervasive game — the very type of game I believe is a tight fit with learning. While an air of healthy competition exists at one level, it is only when the players start to cooperate that they will beat the game. Pervasive, because it can be played over an hour, for the duration of a lesson, over a day, a week, or a whole school year. It scales. It can scale from the six players in one room that we had, to thirty players in the school grounds, and potentially beyond to national champs.

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The Tuakana-Teina model — Building the ‘Feagaiga’ between teachers and learners

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Feagaiga – relationships. Feagaiga also comes with trust, love, caring and sharing

relationships

We all love to hear success stories for all sorts of reasons. Here’s one that I have been privileged to be involved that may be of interest and of benefit to others. I’ll let the teacher (I’ll call her “Teacher A”) explain the genesis of this story:

“[As a teacher in the 80s] I teamed the seniors up with the juniors each morning for reading. This meant every child got heard at least twice a day and then at home at night. The Hoani then told me the concept was Tuakana-Teina (big sister/brother with their younger sibling). What was interesting was that these students had the highest reading scores in that year from our class. There were several factors that could have contributed to this and as teacher inquiry was unheard of in the 80’s I never researched the possibilities.”

Teacher A transformed her professional practice and processes using the Teaching as Inquiry model.  She explored her past experiences of implementing the Tuakana-Teina concept by applying it in her class, which included priority junior students who were refugees and spoke English as a second language (ESOL).

The Tuakana-Teina model is a buddy-system model. An older or more expert tuakana (brother, sister or cousin) helps and guides a younger or less expert teina (originally a younger sibling or cousin of the same gender). The teacher at the centre of this story had a high percentage of Pasifika students, and the Tuakana-Teina model is easily transferred as Feagaiga in a Samoan context. This model was effectively used in Teacher A’s class, and reading levels were raised for the priority students as a result of her inquiry into her own practice and the impact of the model.

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Libraries are dead, long live libraries?

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Try typing Libraries are into Google.

If you’re expecting your results to be positive, something like Libraries are thriving you’re in for disappointment. My first Google search told me that Libraries are dying and then that Libraries are obsolete.

I’ve also been hearing that libraries can be replaced by the internet, and school libraries are unnecessary as all students are now carrying one in their pocket … a mobile phone.

Ok, so libraries are dead.
Long Live the library.

Libraries dead?

Just hold on a minute! Let's look a little closer at this.

What is a library?

What do we mean when we talk about the library?
Are we referring to buildings stacked full of books?
Spaces bathed in hallowed silence where food, drink, and social interactions are banned?
Places where librarians sit behind desks and services are accessible only by being physically present, within business hours?

By thinking this, are we conforming to and perpetuating an out-dated stereotype?

Imagine instead, if we questioned and challenged that perception and wondered out loud what libraries really are, and as communities we visioned and brought to life what they could be?

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