Students skills and fluency with ICT are just as important as teachers. As students progress through their schooling they are building a certain skill set with using ICT for learning and for life so schools need to consider what this progression looks like and where it is headed. I encourage schools to collaboratively map out students acquisition and mastery of key ICT skills.
Education is a demanding and complex occupation and educators can often be time poor so at the forefront of my mind when supporting a school is the importance of clarity and cohesion. These two keys elements in supporting empowering change are summed up nicely by one of my favourite Māori quotes, ‘He waka eke noa, We’re all in this together’
The BBC micro:bit is an amazing tool but what is the most effective way to introduce it to students? By initially focusing on the hardware could we support the students to be more creative in the long term?
It is possible to deliver a STEAM project to students which kills creativity. Without significant and purposeful learning design STEAM learning can inhibit the very things we are trying to support students to develop. Here are five tidbits of thought to help you think critically about STEAM and creativity.
Integrating STEAM and robotics in the classroom can be expensive. Thankfully there are many low-cost options such as the BBC micro:bit which, with a little resourcefulness and tinkering can be a great tool to get started with. If you are
More and more teachers and students are using G Suite to redefine the learning journey. Teachers are using technology to increase student agency by supporting students to reflect on their learning and think critically and creatively. By showing students how to use the insert > camera image tool in G Suite students will be well placed to do this
Do you find yourself wondering what other schools are doing with STEAM? Have you started STEAM in your school but feel like you don’t know what it should look like?
The answer, rightly so, is that STEAM looks quite different from school to school. With unique communities and local curriculum, there is no one size fits all approach.
Google Sites is an extremely powerful tool for curating resources for your students. If you are already familiar with Google Sites you might be wondering how to extend its use and curate even more engaging activities for your students.
In Google Classroom you have the ability to give feedback, manage and grade student work all in one place. Teachers are able to give students a number grade and the total grade can be customised to your marking system. There is also the ability to copy all grades into a Google Sheet, allowing teachers to work with student data in powerful ways.
Using Google Blogger is not only a great way to reflect on your practice but it also offers an efficient way to align samples of your practice with the Teaching Standards. I have seen many teacher blogs which are done on Google Slides or Sites but the awesome thing about Blogger is that you can label your evidence with the Teaching Standards.
All teachers are designers. By mastering a few simple techniques, you can be sure the resources that you create and use engage all students. This is not just about making things look good, as effective design can make information more accessible and easier to navigate.
In education it seems change is the only constant. Schools are rapidly integrating new ways of teaching and learning in order to make the most of new technologies and innovative ideas. It is difficult for school leaders and teachers to stay perfectly in tune with best practice and emerging trends and as several teachers have told me this last week, ‘We just don’t know what we don’t know!’.
