How could digital tools enhance reo a waha for akonga?

KA PU TE RUHA KA HAO TE  RANGATAHI

                                                  When an old net is worn out, a new net is cast 

Description

This whakatauki is used to signify change and new beginnings or innovation, building onto the past.
According to Te Puni Kokiri (2018),
“It generally conveys the ushering in of new and fresh approaches as a means of building on the work and efforts of the older generation.  It is a meaning that aligns well with the purpose of the Maori Digital Technology Development Fund.  Evidence suggests that rangatahi Maori are early adopters of new and emerging technologies, and incredible savvy operators of those technologies.
The ability of new technology to create new and different ways for Maori to stay connected presents a number of opportunities, but this new terrain remains largely unexplored for now”
( https://www.tpk.govt.nz)
For learners and kaiako in rumaki reo settings, the terrain is new in terms of terminology, methods of connectivity and innovations with communication within te reo Maori.
What is happening?
Within our Reo a waha project, we are exploring digital technology as a tool to promote 21st century skills of collaboration.

Why is this important?

According to Seely-Brown, (2002), ‘our students are different from most of us here.  They have a new vernacular - a digital vernacular.  Today’s students also learn in ways that are different from how we learn.  These are included now in the 21st Century learning and ICT skills.  Kukutai (2012) also acknowledges that Maori identiy continues to evolve while they hold onto links to the past.  So if our students (and in our case Maori learners) have a 'digital vernacular' what is it that we must focus on?  A window to this is the 21st Century learning and 21st Century digital skills.

The learning disposition - digital vernacular

What will this involve within my practice?

In thinking about 'building learning capacity' I am keen to facilitate the collaboration skills for ICT (ITL Research, 2015) as the rationale and purpose for the pedagogical shift, and the linking of practical digital tools to build the learning capacity. We are planning to use Facebook as a social connectivity tool; Tour Builder as a collaborative digital tool for kaiako to integrate with their tauria; online dictionaries - google translate & maori dictionary to assist with translations tasks.

The priority ICT skill is: 

Collaboration

                           

Working with others    - in pairs/small group; discuss issues; solve problems; create products 

In thinking about 'working with others' how did we initiate a digital platform/environment for working with others? 

Shared Responsibility - joint responsibility for creating, developing and completing the task/activity

In thinking about 'shared responsibility' how will we develop, create and complete tasks and activities with joint responsibilities?

Make substantive decisions together - priorities, planning, content/detail, presentation  

In thinking about /making substantive decision together' what will be our priorities, how will we plan for these; what will the content and detail look like; and lastly, how will we present this?

How will we measure success?

This success ladder diagram will be used to help with self assessment for our kaiako.
We are envisaging that kaiako can not only self locate, but they are also able to project an outcome with a task and/or digital tool.  

Distributed leadership & its implications for a Community of Practice

htdisttributed leadership diagramtp://www.distributedleadership.com.au/node/143

Drafting my Thoughts for a Literature Review

TPS: Be informed by research and innovations related to: content disciplines,pedagogy; teaching for diverse learners, including learners with disabilities and learning support needs; and wider education matters  

Developing a research question

According to Fraenkel, Wallen and Hyun (1993), a research question is:

     

 ‘ a question that we can answer by collecting and analysing data’

There are 2 types:

• Sources of research data that already exists; 
• Sources of research data that you will collect as part of your inquiry plan.

For the purpose of my research question/inquiry, I have decided to focus on the use of research data that already exists, so my proposed research inquiry question is:

Teacher inquiry question:

• To what extent will Kaupapa Maori/indigenous approaches influence a Community of Practice?

Literature review question:

• How will Kaupapa Maori/indigenous approaches impact on a Community of Practice?

Continuum of Engagement

Week 18: Future Oriented Learning PERSONALISED LEARNING

 

Thought this was a bit of fun around Personalised Learning

Week 17: My Reflective Practice

Create a reflective entry in which you critically evaluate your reflective practice.  Your reflection should be based on a reflective model of your choice

                           

STEP 1: Description of Practice 

 How do I do this and does this work for me?   How does it make me feel?

I am an RTLB who works primarily alongside rūmaki reo settings and also with English medium kaiako who teach Maori learners.  We support kaiako to consider interventions and strategies that increase student inclusion and engagement within the classroom. So while I am not actively teaching a class of students, the quote from Dewey above is a critical part of what happens within my practice.Initially, when I hui with kaiako and whānau, their aspirations and perspectives are what I am most interested in, so that I can 'reflect on the experience' and gain clarity and mutual understanding.  I think sometimes this is both 'rapid reflection' (Zeichner & Liston, 1996) where I am reflecting on the spot and sometimes it is pondering and mulling it over in a solitary, individual activity.  I like to think that I am engaging in what Larrivee, 2000 (cited in Finlay, 2009) describes as 'fusing my personal beliefs and values'  so as to uncover my professional perspectives including gaining new insights that either challenge or acknowledge my assumptions.
What do I ponder and wonder about in my practice?
 Is what I do ethically respectful, responsive and acknowledging of those to whom I serve?
(Servant Leadership).  How do I know that what I am proposing brings out the best in those I work with?
STEP 2: Comparing, Considering alternatives to inform practice
How do other people involved or indirectly involved describe what is happening?
What research contributes to this?  How can I improve 
I regularly challenge my stance by accessing relevant research - particularly to acknowledge my hunches and to ensure that I am working in an ethical manner.  Personally, this works for me, but where there is no mutual agreement with kaiako, I feel vulnerable and therefore I need to seek ways to show empathy, compromise and at times looking for a respectful approach on how to initiate changes in teacher perspectives and stance when you know it could be adding to the problem or making the situation worse.  This can take quite a few discussions, observations and critical reflection on 'how' to manage this. In rumaki settings, I find dropping back into a maori worldview and use of maori tikanga helpful. The spiral of inquiry model works a treat. To do give real effect to this approach is do to this in a group approach and/or wānanga approach with others. 

STEP 3: Critical Reflection

What alternatives do I need to consider?  How does this reflective process inform and renew my perspectives?

• What scholarly /peer reviewed material will help me either affirm or initiate an alternative is to be considered.
• What could I do differently?
• Am I focusing on the right thing?
• Is the learner at the center of our thinking?
• Be open to other viewpoints and change 
• Link theory to practice - focus on pedagogical leadership 
• promoting a participatory approach
• analyzing and evaluating my actions as a continuous self improvement cycle. 

REFERENCES:

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice.  Practice based Professional Learning Centre, Open University.  Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Greenleaf, R.k (1970). What is servant leadership?. Retrieved from https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

Timperley, H.,Kaser, L., &  Halbert, J. (2014).  A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry.. Centre for Srrategic Education. Seminar Series Paper No.234. 2014. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/.../49.%20Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%2...

Week 18 - Future-oriented Learning and Teaching

Activity 2: Reflecting on changes in my future oriented teaching practice

Create a reflective entry to critically reflect upon how you have positively changed your practice during your postgraduate journey.  Your reflections should be based on a suitable reflective model of your choice.

The reflective model chosen is Gibbs" Reflective Model

1. Description - He aha te mea I tupu? What happened?
Attending the Mindlab course has not always been a positive learning experience for me. The journey at times has been confusing, frustrating, unclear, challenging and confronting to my practice.
I work predominantly in Maori medium settings consequently, connecting, contextualising, tailoring and personalising the new learning has been a process as described in the literature as ‘unbundling’ which essentially engages and confronts me in ‘deconstructing established structures and routines and reassembling them in a newer, smarter way’ (Bolstad, et al, 2010, p14). Merely translating the material from English to Maori would not be a process of deeper personalisation. Consequently, in exploring the Personalised Learning material, I was deeply moved by these statements from the report:
Learners have to want to learn the material
They have to be able to see a purpose to learning it
Seeing how learning this material will allow them to contribute to something beyond themselves (p.15)
In digging deeper to make better sense of these statements, I decided to explore the notions of ‘Shallow and Deep Personalisation’ as it applied to my practice, both here and also as it applies to being future focussed.
2. Feelings - he aha oku whakaaro kua whakamana mai ki ahau? What are my thoughts and feelings?
I wanted to learn more about how to integrate some digital tools into everyday classroom activities to support akonga. It started initially with ‘shallow expressions of practice’ with me selecting material, contexts and tools FOR akonga to use. Essentially - my practice was situated in the ‘things for students to learn’ and learning the curriculum content decided by me. This is expressed in Table 4 of the context of Shallow expression of practice. I needed to refocus and unbundle my practice. So future focussed learning would require me to to allow akong more autonomy and opportutuities to ‘co-shape, co-construct’ what would be of interest to akonga. The challenge for me is that we are instructing in Te Reo Maori, so graduated and tailored selection of digital tools needs to be considered carefully. Despite this, I chose 3 tools to use.
(A) Google Translate - it helped akonga translate English kupu and phrases as they needed it. Akonga found this quick and easy to use. BUT still a shallow expression of practice at this stage - I believe it is still useful within this context.
(B) Facebook (closed group) was set up so that we could share, reflect, pose questions for problem solving from our learning community. My thoughts were that this could be linked to Deep Expressions of Practice - how? ‘Learners could link their learning to aspects of their lives or see connections with their goals and aspirations for thei lives beyond School - having greater access to tools and resources to promote and communicate in Te Reo Maori.
(C) Tour Builder - we introduced this to enable akonga to create a whakapapa related to them and others in the group so they could then model and use this in their respective classrooms with their own akonga.So the notion of Deeper Expresion of Practice is fostered via providing learning activities that were meaningful to them.
3. What was good/bad about the experiences? - Nga Painga/Nga Uauatanga?
HIghlights - introducing tools and resources that were useful in the Maori Medium context - both familiar and unfamiliar tools. It increased engagement, cooperation, and problem-solving within the group of akonga.
Challenges - the limitations of the tools within a second language context - Google Translate - need to be cautious about its grammatical translations.
Continually needing to use an English platform, then doubling back to translate and contextualise into Maori medium (Tour Builder) - takes twice as long for akonga.
4-6. What else could I have done? If it arose again, what would I do? Me pehea hei kokiri whakamua?

Engagement of learners as co-constructors
Seeking for their ideas, aspirations and priorities around what would be useful for them.
How might we promote digital tools in rumaki reo settings on a daily basis?
Where could we start?
Differentiated provision within the context of deeper personalisation of practice -
Adapting and innovating the resources with teachers
Educate the diversity - think between, outside and beyond them - how will this benefit and enhance Maori learners worldview?
REFERENCES:
Bolstad, R, Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - a New Zealand perspective, Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306..
Gibbs’ Reflective Model - YouTube.com. Retrieved from https://www.google.co.nz/search?g=gibbs+reflective+cyce&riz=ICICHZL_enNZ696&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8kajb3r3aAHUCYbwKHTTaDnYQ7AkleQ&biw=1242&bih=602#imgrc=DecR4Gv6rhPY7M

REPLY

