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We live in a world surrounded by a wide range of digital information and experiences. The use of technology continues to transform the way we live - shaping our homes and community, and changing the way that we interact with each other and live our everyday lives.
In order to teach our students for their future the Ministry of Education has now included Digital Technologies as part of the national curriculum for all students from Year 1 - 13.
ICT within the classroom is more than just a means to replace pen and paper, it is more a tool to not only support your child to intelligently consume information and ideas, but to also design and create new ideas using technology. BYOD increases the opportunities your child has to transform their learning experiences.
Best practice e-learning enables accessible, relevant, and high-quality learning opportunities that improve student engagement and achievement. e-Learning has the potential to transform the way teaching and learning takes place. It is about using technologies effectively across the curriculum to connect schools and communities and to provide accessible, relevant, and high-quality learning opportunities so that every student is better able to achieve their full potential. http://elearning.tki.org.nz
Dr David Parsons, Associate Professor Massey University, explains the need to teach higher level thinking skills and develop key competencies using technology to prepare students for the 21st century.
What might digital learning look like?
What might digital learning look like?
Below is an outline of how students may use their devices to raise achievement in the core curriculum areas of mathematics and literacy. Digital learning is about enhancing learning not replacing it. There are many learning opportunities with a device that would not be possible without it. BOYD students will not be restricted to a certain digital activity based on the availability of shared classroom devices. Your child will not spend the entirety of the day on a device, some learning will be best suited to be done by hand and your child will learn how to choose the best tool for the job.
Mathematics
Mathematics
During our student led timetabling there is a range of different maths activities taking place in the Kereru Block. There are instructional workshops with a teacher, students working on digital activities, book work, and independent and group activities.
Ways that technology assists your child during mathematics:
- Reinforced learning through creating and designing instructional videos.
- Workshop notes shared with the students so that they can seek understanding when working independently.
- Work can be uploaded and shared with family at home and to use as evidence of learning progress.
- Specific apps that are tailored to individual learning needs, such as quick math, Xtramath, Khan Academy, etc.
- Digital materials that allow students to group and sequence their understanding.
Literacy
Literacy
Creating and Making meaning activities where students are using iPads for a range of uses both with the teacher, in groups and independently.
Ways that technology assists your child during literacy:
- Supportive individualised apps/programmes for students with learning difficulties.
- Hand written planning, drafting using google drive allowing children to collaborate on a shared document and use the text to speak functions to hear their writing. Once complete students may use blogger to publish to their personal blog and receive feedback from the world.
- Creating a video or voice recording of their reading as evidence of learning and to share at home.
- Using a range of apps such as PicCollage, Comic Life, Pages and Book Creator to create digital media and interactive learning activities such as advertisements, book reviews, videos and presentations. Students are engaged and focusing on the learning rather than the medium of learning.
- Photographing and videoing content around the school to use for digital literacy activities. Making book trailers, reports & more...
- Research and authenticating beyond 1 story.
At VPS we use Google Apps for Education (GAFE). This is our mains means of creating, sharing and collaborating.
The Google Apps for Education suite offers apps for email, calendar, blogs, documents, presentations and website creation as well as Google Drive, which is a way of organising all of the work done on these apps. The use of these apps are free and can be used in ‘the cloud’ - a collaborative environment where others can access and work on documents together in real time. GAFE allows students to access their work from school, home, the local library - anywhere with an internet connection.
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