Sprucing up your site

This week's session was all about Enabling Access and being connected. I was feeling really excited about this session as I know my site needs some serious reworking. 

Dorothy began by summarising the priorities of Manaiakalani during lockdown, which we know are top priorities at all times. 

1. Being connected. During lockdown we made sure we were checking in with our learners everyday. We were fostering well-being on a digital platform. We've had this point reiterated time and time again - maintaining positive relationships is, and always will be paramount! 

2. Ako. We were encouraged to back ourselves as teachers. We all know our learners. We already have those connections face to face, so connecting via hangout or whatever other digital means wasn't too far out of our comfort zone. Don't get flustered by all the other jazz in our inboxes (offers of other digital platforms). Know your plan forward and harness the tools we've worked with. 

In light of wave 2 up in Auckland, and the possibility of another out break down south (fingers crossed this doesn't happen!) we need to make sure kids know how to join a meeting, mute their mic etc...Would my tamariki remember how to do these things? 

Key taking from Dorothy's intro this morning - If you want to be connected with other people, you have to be willing to share. It needs to be a 2 way thing. 

Sites

Questions to pose when creating a site ~ How is this enabling accelerated learning for our tamariki? What is the role of the teacher, the nature of the assigned task (SAMR), the nature of the site that is accessed by the learner, wat is content, degree of student choice and collaboration. What is it that we are doing for kids, whānau, and for our own practice. How are we making sure the learners are empowered? Is the learning accessible when they're with us and when they're not?

What is the purpose of a learning site? It is one-stop hub for learning, and learning should be accessible everywhere, any time, any place.  Visual appeal is important - hook your audience! Use consistent colours, keep the layout simple. Only use 2 fonts! Again, make sure the kids can get to their learning in 3 clicks! 

Here's a recipe for success when it comes to creating a site... 

We were given the chance to take a good look at some sites within Manaiakalani and assess visual appeal and site functionality.  Then we were invited to analyse each others' sites in our bubbles. This was a very interesting activity and I wonder if it would be valuable to do within our staff. I actually think it would be very valuable, if we tread carefully and kia tūpare! 

Kelsey and Dorothy talked about the benefits of using Google Analytics to investigate people viewing our sites. We could look at where these views were coming from, and how often. Something to speak to Fusion about ...

Here is the feedback that came from my group ~ 

"I love that is in in te reo Māori. I liked seeing your planning on the site - Also how you were using it for notes etc so you don't have to go to different places. It would be great if your teacher place maybe had images to make it easier for students to follow. Adding the link to the cybersmart site as a link may also be worthwhile. I wonder if it could be a wee bit more personalised to the students eg photos of them or their drawings as buttons etc. "

Here were my goals from the day, based on the above, and from what I'd seen on other class sites.

1. Get rid of some of the backgrounds - far too busy! Keep it simple! 
2. Add in a teacher section - images of me, Raewyn, Christine... so whānau can put a face to the name and email addresses if suitable. 
3. Add images on the home page buttons so tamariki who struggle with reading know where they are going (why didn't I think of that 8 months ago??) 
4. Add in a Google Form - a check-in for tamariki to tell me how they're feeling - this would have been amazing during lockdown!  

Here is my Rūma 7 Site. There's lots of mahi still to be done, but getting there slowly nonetheless. Should be more than happy with it by December. 

Kupu Hou (new words) from today

Cybersmart - Ngā Tapuwae                Website Links - Kuputoro

Blogging Tips & Spam

We spent the last part of the afternoon talking about spam. There have always been procedures in place to deal with spam. Never, ever, ever click on a link. It might be something as simple as data numbers for their (who ever is leaving the messages) analytics, or it might be something more sinister. As soon as you click, they know your page is active and they've got you! Make sure you always mark spam, it trains Google to recognise spam in the future. Spambots tend to be aim towards older posts. Set moderation on posts older than 14 days. 

Today was another interesting day. It's nice to have time to put some of my new learning into practice. I'm looking forward to getting some feedback from my wee cherubs on Monday. 

Over and out.