lemonade makers

‘An invitation to play’

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“Play is the highest form of research.” – Albert Einstein

play dancersIt’s the school holidays, our learners all over Aotearoa are out and about — exploring, adventuring, and in charge of their own learning — they have time for uninterrupted play. Meanwhile, I’m standing at my desk, working remotely, collaborating with colleagues as we plan our presentations for next week’s uLearn Conference in Rotorua. The difference is, as I work, there are five learners outside the window, stealing my attention…. At this precise moment they are collaborating on the choreography of a dance they are preparing; iPad in hand, Video Stars in action.

My school holiday memories certainly don’t include filming our dances with iPads. I do, however, remember the time I spent playing with my cousins and friends, choreographing our own plays and dance shows. That feeling of being totally in control of your own time, being spontaneous, playing without structure, and having an opportunity to be creative, remains fresh in my mind. The bonus was being able to put on a show for any adult who would sit and watch, and hearing their applause!

My 18-year-old daughter is home from University and running a mini-holiday programme for her cousins and our friends’ children. Each of them has arrived with their ‘paraphernalia’ ready for a day of engaging with their friends. There is a collection of coloured wigs, dress-ups, nail polish, art materials, iPads, New World little gardens, and playdough — endless opportunities, and the most important commodity — time.

I have the privilege of ‘no responsibility’ for these learners; I simply continue working but have time to watch and listen. I see them all taking on different roles throughout the day, sometimes as a leader full of ideas, other times, simply participating. I see them problem-solving as individuals and as a group. I watch them working out conflict when it arises and stepping up as ‘older’ kids to look after the younger children. I see and hear them encouraging each other and giving each other good feedback and ideas for improvements, whether it be in their dance routine or planting their New World gardens.

lemonade-makers

The environment available also plays a part in their decision making for play. An overflowing lemon tree sparks the curiosity of one learner and she wonders if they can make their own lemonade — lemons are picked, a joint squeezing session begins, and thirsts are quenched. The enterprising learner thinks out loud about setting up a stall. Sadly, there is very little through traffic on our street, but ideas flow as they think about bagging up lemons and selling them at the bottom of the hill (much more traffic down there!). The rocks and shells in our garden are turned into houses, and the visit of fairies to inhabit them is eagerly awaited. The huge grass area lends itself to games of soccer and rugby — this provokes a very deep conversation between a 5-year-old boy who is sports mad and a 7-year-old boy who wouldn’t dream of engaging in sport. A surprised 5-year-old declares that ‘Everybody loves sports’ and listens intently as the 7-year-old explains, ‘Everybody likes different things; we are all different, and I don’t like playing sports.’ Who needs an adult to intervene?

In my teacher mode, and because I am planning an animation workshop for uLearn, I ‘butt in’ to their play to see if anyone is interested in learning about animation and creating one for me — sadly, they are all too busy at the moment but promise they will get back to me tomorrow! Reminding me of my beliefs — In my heart, I am a Kindergarten teacher, my pedagogy is to provide an incredible learning environment that provokes curiosity, creativity, and collaboration for all learners. The environment needs to be full of opportunities for unstructured, spontaneous play, and time to learn through exploration and experimentation. The teacher’s role is to recognise and respond to individual learners’ interests. By observing and listening to our learners, we begin to form ideas of how we can set up the environment, and what resources we can provide to deepen their curiosity and support their understanding.

The kids at my house go home at the end of the day full of stories for their parents, recorded dances on their iPads to share, coloured fingernails, crazy hairstyles, and huge smiles.

We are incredibly lucky with our NZ curriculum vision. Two points from this vision clearly describe this small group of learners I observed in my own backyard. What we want for our young people is for them:

  • to be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners
  • to be creative, energetic, and enterprising.

So, as we delve into Term 4, take time to think about these questions:

  • What does play look like in your learning environment?
  • Are you providing time for uninterrupted play?
  • Are you taking the time to observe and listen to learners?
  • Is there dedicated time in the everydayness of learning for being creative?
  • Is there the opportunity for learners to follow their individual interests?
  • Do you feel comfortable enough to step back and allow things to flow?
  • Have you taken time to explore Te Whāriki, our New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum.

 

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.”
-Charles Schaefer

 

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Bringing imaginative stories to life in Northland schools

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Animation is nothing new. Our screens have been filled with animated images for decades, often with the same awe and wonder reserved for new experiences. But how often have our learners taken the opportunity to really explore the how-to behind the scenes. Never before has there been such a wealth of tools available to learners today. Everyday objects take on a new purpose: the lego man that has sat on the window sill, the toys in the junior class’ wet break box, the containers of plastic animals and matchbox cars.  The conversations erupted as learners started thinking of toys from home that would be perfect to help bring the story, evolving in their mind, to life.

The journey taken by some students in Northland was simply ‘have a play’ with animation with the understanding that we couldn’t possibly expect our students to sit back and plan carefully when the shiny tool is at their fingertips? The instant ability to experiment and redo, re-record and edit in the digital domain has made learning instantly engaging. From a student perspective, learning has become doing, using technology and characters to tell simple stories. From a teaching perspective, it allowed the teacher to tackle substantive issues and challenges through an engaging and exciting vehicle. Simple things like building understanding of the importance of sharing sports equipment could be addressed on both a teaching and learning level. Students had to instantly think about their message alongside their authentic audience.

Once upon a time…

A storyboard was created. Three simple elements — a beginning, a middle and an end — differentiated within classrooms, with some teachers taking the opportunity to scaffold the learning around a literacy concept, whereas others saw it as an opportunity to foster independence and allow individualised creativity. Some students chose to use their digital device as their storyboarding platform, whereas others simply used pencil and paper.

Storyboard

Setting the scene…

Like any good movie, location remains important. The students were encouraged to collaboratively develop their backdrop, define their roles, and take ownership of the physical aspects of the task. Working in small groups meant the students had to have a shared understanding of each person’s role as well as a simple agreement for behaviour and process.

The process wasn’t seamless. It evolved. Students were encouraged to make improvements and unpack their work, often choosing to take their animation to their peers, using critical thinking skills and clear feedback and feedforward. Perfectionists emerged, and the room was filled with the sound of shutter clicks as the students completed take upon take to get the perfect shot. Students utilised the Chrome app, Stop Motion Animator, which automatically collates their shots and gives them the ability to either speed up or slow down how their shots play. The learning conversations continued as students discovered how many shots were needed to create just 1 second of animation, 10 seconds of animation, and then from there, how many shots would be needed to create 1 minute. These calculations gave our learners a true sense of what goes into the production of the animated films that they enjoyed watching. This naturally led to continued dialogue around the ‘jobs’ that were available in this industry, from the creative dreamer, to the cameraman, to the sound guy.

Setting the scene

Post Production and Editing…

Once students felt their ‘shooting’ was complete, the next steps were explored: how do we add sound effects, background music and/or our own voices? WeVideo remains the leading video editing tool for Chromebooks. From saving the finished animated clip to their Google Drive, students could seamlessly upload this into WeVideo and take advantage of the inbuilt sound effects, music, and text overlay features. Again, the ease of trialing different effects and sounds with the simplicity of clicking ‘undo’ meant the students could explore a range of concepts. Seemingly simple decisions around background music stretched the students’ collaborative skills as they began to understand the importance of using ambience to bring their images to life. The level of dedication meant that small choices around sound effects took longer than the creation of the scene!

collaboration

The sequel…

The playtime was over. It was time to develop the concept further, and really embed the new skills into the ongoing learning. After some collaborative talk, the students took their initial concept and wrapped it around a literacy focus. Further storyboarding, discussion, and planning meant that what started as students exploring new technology led to newly developed skills being applied to learning, in a matter of days. Another class utilised their animation skills to put together ‘how to’ videos explaining math concepts.  It seemed the choices were endless, the opportunity to present their work and share their learning in a creative way was a real winner on the day. Imagine my excitement (as Facilitator) and that of the teachers when the students took this learning home and worked alongside their whanau to create animations, building a community of creative users of digital devices!".

The power of playdough… it cannot be left unsaid that good old-fashioned playdough was an integral ingredient in this process.  The ‘hands on’ experience of moulding and creating characters and props could definitely be described as therapeutic, and was enjoyed by all learners. The memories shared of early-childhood experiences with playdough and clay let us, as teachers, know that playdough has been seriously missed!

As we said at the beginning, animation is nothing new, however, the engagement and collaboration we saw between our learners proved to us that we needed to let our students continually learn in creative ways. Animation provides the perfect vehicle for practicing dispositions of being confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.

Top Tips

  • Involve learners in the whole process from imagining and planning to exploring animation to making playdough.
  • Stand back and let it happen — let the mistakes happen (eg hands in the photos), see it all as a learning process.
  • Embrace the noise and messiness — creativity at it’s best!
  • Let the learning come from the creating — this whole experience has definitely opened our eyes to the power of creating to learn.
  • Listen to the learning conversations, and take time to observe as learners work.
  • Look for further opportunities to utilise the power of animation across the curriculum.

 

Resources

Chrome apps needed

(Anyone using chrome as a web browser can utilise these chrome apps, you do not need to use a chromebook):

iPad apps:

  • Stop Motion – creating animation tool
  • iMovie – post production and editing tool

Resources

  • Google Slides – An introduction to Animation — utilised by students
  • Google Doc – An example of students brainstorm
  • Google Docs – A ‘How to’ for the whole process of stop motion animation created by students @ Paihia School

Examples using chromebooks and iPads from various Northland Schools

Self directed learners — taking the learning home and creating with whanau

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Google Apps as a platform for student and teacher inquiry

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Google Apps for Education

WHY Google Apps?

As a Professional Learning Facilitator working with both teachers and students in a variety of schools throughout Northland and New Zealand, I have been reflecting on my facilitation and teaching pedagogy. My main focus has been thinking about the concepts of personalised learning, differentiated learning styles, and self-paced learning. With these concepts in mind, what I was looking for is a platform that could support my pedagogy and provide opportunities for me to personalise learning for participants, whether that be teachers or students. The ‘said’ platform needed to support differentiated learning styles allowing for text, video, audio, pictures, and finally, it needed to provide anytime-anywhere access to allow for self-paced learning.

The winner on the day has been Google Apps for Education (GAFE), in particular Google Docs, Google Presentations and Google Blogger. GAFE has provided me with the perfect platform. By its very nature, GAFE allows opportunities for collaboration, which fitted perfectly with my thinking.

I would like to share an example of how I have used GAFE to launch a collaborative inquiry into Digital Citizenship. The idea for this student inquiry came about through conversations with the Principals of Kamo Schools and the Learning with Digital Technologies Facilitators. We were discussing the importance of digital citizenship as part of the curriculum, and ‘brainstorming’ the best options for integrating this learning. We were adamant that the learning needed to be student ‘owned’ so that there be a deeper understanding. We didn’t want to go down the path of creating a digital citizenship agreement, which was then given to students to sign. We envisaged students inquiring into what it is to be a responsible digital citizen in their home, school, community, and world, and being leaders in sharing this information as well as spinning the inquiry out further. Our thought was that students involved in the process would support their teachers and other students through the same process in classes.

Preparation of the teachers

Before I share how the student inquiry happened, it is important to tell the story of how I began.

In order to ‘test’ the resources I had set up within the Google Docs and Google Presentation around digital citizenship, I worked through the same inquiry process with a teaching team. At the team meeting, the teaching team were the learners, and I role modelled my ideas on how I would ‘kick start’ this inquiry with learners in the classroom. They worked in teams to delve deeper into their thinking around what is digital citizenship, and chose various ways to present back their thinking to the wider team. This process allowed teachers to follow their own learning journey, choose whether to work as an individual or within a team, and provided a variety of ways to view the information — through readings, YouTube clips, photos, and website links. Feedback from this teaching team was very positive. They reflected on the importance of being a learner, and going through the inquiry process as a teacher to give them an insight to how this feels for the student in their classrooms.

Teachers as learners

How the student inquiry happened

In term 4 2014, Catriona Pene and I began working with a group of students from four different schools in the Kamo community. The students ranged in age from year 3 through to year 9. We met with the students every Friday for an hour and a half. Our major focus with this group was to inquire into what a digital citizen in the Kamo community looks land acts like. Teams were formed, with students of different ages and from different schools making up the 4 teams.

Our role as Facilitators was to provide them with the necessary resources via a Google Doc/Google Presentation and Google Blogger and continually guide their exploration and learning along the way. Their goal was to delve into the resources, collaborate on how they would deliver their findings as a team, and present back to the wider group their understanding of a digital citizen. All of our ‘energy’ went into the organising of the resources within the Google Apps platforms for the students to explore. Our thinking was that if we simply sent them off to search ‘Digital Citizen’ they would come up with 168,000,000 results, some good and some not! Google Docs/Presentations allowed us to create a guided learning pathway, providing them with an opportunity to explore video links, websites, images, and audio that we knew would support them to see and evaluate the various perspectives and issues. Google Blogger simply provided us with the platform to share our continued learning, our reflections and our final products. The anytime/anywhere learning aspect of Google Apps allowed the students to share their learning with parents/whānau/teachers and other students in between our weekly sessions.

Students and teachers who joined us for our sessions reflected on the learning process and provided feedback that Google Apps had provided them with the perfect platform for their collaborative inquiry. They enjoyed learning at their own pace through a variety of different mediums and being able to collaborate within the Google environment.

students and teacher

Teacher’s reflection

  1. Minimal facilitation was required after the initial learning criteria and objectives were delivered by the facilitator
  2. The students drove their own learning and utilised prior knowledge and individual strengths to create presentations
  3. The older students naturally adopted leadership roles within the groups but did not dominate concepts or ideas
  4. Effective use of web 2.0 enabled students to evaluate and reflect on their learning at the end of the project
  5. Integration of technology into the collaborative project provided an opportunity for students to learn in new and innovative ways
  6. Students’ motivational and engagement levels were high due to the authenticity of project and connections made with the community

Student reflection

I enjoyed the opportunity to work with kids who were lots of different ages, different ages think in different ways so we learnt from each other. Because I was the oldest, I liked being able to be the team leader and encouraging everyone to listen to each other ideas. Using Google Apps for all of our collaborative work was good, it makes it easy to share and work together. We had access anywhere so if you forgot your device you can find it on another. Because it was in Google Apps it meant I could share our work with my Mother and Teacher and I could get feedback from them.

Zane — a student from Kamo High School

What next

I have continued to utilise Google Apps as my launching platform for inquiry for both teachers and students. I am excited by the changes I have made in my facilitation/teaching practice and encourage you to explore the examples I have provided below and think about how you too can utilise Google Apps as a launching platform.

Examples

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iPad mini review: The whole package. In a smaller package.

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Child with iPad mini

Last week we posted a review by CORE's IT Manager, that was published in the NZ Herald, on his experience with the new iPad mini. Over the last week or so, we sent out one of our e-learning facilitators, Tania Coutts to check out what teachers and students thought about the iPad mini experience. Here's the results.

The new iPad mini—described by Apple as ‘Every inch an iPad’, but is it? 

Like many other Apple enthusiasts, I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this product and ‘sitting on the fence’ with my thinking. I jumped at the chance to trial one, and over the last few weeks have had the opportunity to observe the iPad mini in the hands of students in Whangarei primary schools and Early Childhood centres. I have listened in on their conversations, and questioned their thinking. I have enjoyed robust professional discussions with teachers as we reflected on the differences, the similarities, and the reasons why, or why not for the iPad mini.

So, my conclusion…

As with any teaching ‘tool’ there will never be a ‘one-siz- fit- all’ model, and the iPad mini does not appear to be any exception. I am absolutely positive some that have ‘touched’ the iPad mini over the last couple of weeks have been wooed instantly by it’s magic, and will be eagerly awaiting a delivery from Santa. Others have already made the decision that they are sticking with the iPad and there would be no reason to purchase an iPad mini.

Of particular interest was one Whangarei teacher's reaction—as he was walking into the staff room, I let him know I had an iPad mini for him to check out. His initial look said it all—wasn’t at all interested, and his exact words were ‘Why would you?’  But, not being able to resist the temptation to look, he headed over, and I passed him the iPad mini.  He sat down, nestling the iPad mini into his hands—it was love at first touch!  He was sold.  There is something about the way Apple make their products that makes it feel just right… 

iPad mini in the classroom

The reaction of students was also varied. Our younger ECE students weren’t at all phased—for them, size didn’t matter at all, it was all about what it could do for them. It was definitely ‘the whole package in a smaller package’ for them. What I noticed, however, was the ease in which they could manipulate the iPad mini. One of the main purposes of utilising an iPad in an Early Childhood centre is to engage children in literacy experiences. This may include documenting their learning and creating digital stories. Both of these require taking photos, recording their voice, and or typing their words. The iPad mini seemed to be the perfect size for their small hands—they could hold it with ease, and didn’t have to  juggle with moving to manipulate the buttons, as I often see them doing with the iPad. There didn’t appear to be any less collaboration happening because of the smaller size, which is something I was concerned about.

In the primary school context, students were very excited to get their hands on the iPad mini—the advertising hype playing more of a role in their expectations. To get their true view I decided on the PMI approach—using four well-known apps, the students, in groups of four, used both the iPad and the iPad mini to compare the pluses and minuses and think about what was interesting.

Their feedback:

Plus (iPad mini)

  • The camera takes way better photos—when you enlarge the photos in the pic collage app they are really clear and when you print it out it looks way better.
  • It is way easier to take photos with, it is better to hold and click the camera button without having to shuffle your hands.
  • It is easier to type on—you can hold in your hands and type with your thumbs really quickly.
  • It is lots lighter and easier to hold.

Minus

  • Not as easy to play collaborative math games together—it seemed a bit squishy when all four of us were trying to have our turns

Interesting

  • It would be way easier to carry to school, it is heaps lighter! 
  • If I could take a iPad to school – the iPad mini would be awesome.
  • It would be good to have a mixture in class of iPod touches, iPad minis and iPads
  • The iPad seems big and clumsy after holding an iPad mini!

For me, there weren’t many surprises in their feedback. It seemed clear as they were exploring they were going to favour the iPad mini—perhaps the only reason being that it was newer, and as one student said, ‘shinier’. I was most impressed with their thinking that, actually, a mixture of devices would be good. It is very clear that students, when given the opportunity, will pick the right tool to fit the purpose needed to support their learning. 

As with any new device, there will be those who jump in boots and all and line up for hours to be the first to own one, and those who sit back and wait quietly to see if it's worth jumping for. As an educator, making a decision about whether to ‘jump in’ with any device, requires research. We know it’s not about the size, it’s not about the shininess, or even how many apps it can hold. It all really comes down to researching how the chosen device will support teaching and learning. How will it engage and motivate our students to learn, to create, to use their imagination, to foster independence, to collaborate and connect with others, and to share their learning with the wider world.

It is important that we continue to collaborate and share our thoughts as educators.  Conversation around the iPad mini has started on the Virtual Learning Network. We would love others to join us in this discussion and look forward to hearing your thoughts. 

On a personal note, as an avid reader and online learner, I am hoping Santa will bring me an iPad mini—I am  impressed with the size, the clarity of the display, and the feel. I can just imagine myself relaxing in the shade of a tree reading a good book, having the option to check out twitter, catch up on the news online, and jump up every now and again to take a photo of my kids enjoying the Northland summer. :-) 

We welcome your comments and questions below.

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Exploring QR Codes with children

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"Do we have to go to fitness today Mrs Moore—can’t we just stay doing this…" The room was buzzing with excitement as the children engaged in learning with QR codes.

Children using QR codes in the classroom

Tania Coutts is an ICT Facilitator based in Whangarei. As part of her work with CORE Achieve, she has been spending one day a week working with the teachers and children at Whangarei Primary School. CORE's Tara Fagan has also been involved as a colleague for collaboration and discussion, and provided a podcast for the children to access using a QR code, as well as being part of the QR Code treasure hunt.

QR codes are a barcode-like image where QR stands for “quick response”. They can be read by most devices with a web camera, and almost anything can be turned into a QR Code, including a short piece of text, and contact details such as a website or email address, or phone numbers.

The QR code reading app that we downloaded for free on the iPod touch  for this activity was QRReader from the Apple apps store. If you would like more information about QR codes, check out this previous post.

Room 23 Whangarei Primary

As an introduction to QR codes, we wanted to show the children a variety of ways in which they can be used. As Tara wasn’t physically with us in the classroom, she recorded a podcast to connect with the children in a virtual way. This was also an opportunity to show one of the ways QR codes can be used to access data, with a QR code that linked straight to Room 23’s blog, demonstrating a quick way of accessing websites. The children were very surprised to see their blog come up on the iPod Touch!

We also utilised a YouTube clip made by a child talking about how they used QR codes in their class. Thanks to Allanah King and an idea from her blog we were also able to introduce the idea of using QR codes for story writing. The highlight for the children was scanning a QR code and discovering their name and the names of class friends. The iPod Touches were provided for our activity, but having seen the success and range of ways in which these cn be used, the school has now purchased their own set.

This might sound like loads of fun, but what learning is actually happening here for the children? It ws clear the students were strengthening a range of skills and knowledge:

  • They were learning how to use the technology to access new content.
  • Literacy sklls were evident as the children read, interpreted and create their own codes.
  • The increased engagement from the reluctant readers and writers was noticed by the classroom teacher.
  • There was also much lively talk between the students about the patterns formed by the codes.
  • They noticed that more text creates more complex code, as they compared their names.

As we know enabling meaningful collaboration is essential, and the teamwork shown by the children in this learning opportunity was very noticeable, including the turn taking within the groups (5 children to 1 iTouch), and a real sense of ‘fairness’ as groups organised the way they would work.

A highlight for me was the children’s respect for the ‘tools’. Because of her total trust in the children, it wasn’t until the end of the session that teacher Katarina Moore realised she hadn’t discussed the cost of the tools, and the need for being careful. This care had already happened automatically and I felt very proud to feed this reflection back to the children.

After much fun and experimenting, scanning and reading QR codes, our next step was to create our own codes. A quick ‘how to’ and the children were away! The children were already thinking about other ways they could utilise QR codes as they worked, as well as trying to come up with ideas for how they could get iPod Touches for their class!

Where to next?

Because the junior school at Whangarei Primary School have been learning about Pirates, and our idea is for them to create a QR code treasure hunt for the junior classes. The children in Room 23 have been given the mission of creating this treasure hunt. In teams, they are working on developing their clues utilising pirate language. They are reading pirate stories to give them ideas and inspire their creativity. We look forward to sharing this treasure hunt in a blogpost soon.

We would love to hear any other ideas teachers have used in their classrooms with QR codes.

Check out this QR code that was sent to me at the end of the session.

What's this QR code?

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