Barry H Professional Blog

I agree that it's important that students have opportunities to be innovative designers and creators of digital solutions – moving beyond solely being users and consumers of digital technologies. In Hub Mako this is one of our mantuans - be a creator not a consumer ! To become a creator we must first build our digitally fluence as both teachers and learners.  One thing that has had me thinking is what is a student digital learning object?  “Digital entity or content object using ‘different media modalities (and often interactivity) to represent data, information, reality, concepts and ideas…designed to afford educational reuse" (Churchill, 2007) I was lucky enough to attend a Leaders of Manaiakalani hui this past week. We delved into some learning around digital learning object DLO and Student Design for Learning SDL. If your not sure what these are about please ask your Manaiakalani facilitator they'll be able to put you straight. It was a great session which challenged m

We all know the importance of reflecting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in the classroom, but what exactly does this mean and how are we along with Manaiakalani know if we're getting it right? The NZC states: "The Treaty of Waitangi is one of eight principles in the NZC that provide a foundation for schools' decision making. The Treaty of Waitangi principle puts learners at the centre of teaching and learning, asserting that they should experience a curriculum that engages and challenges them, is forward looking and inclusive, and affirms New Zealand's unique identity." Still confused?    Let's unpack the principles...  The three "P's" as they are often referred to, are the principles of partnership , participation , and protection . These underpin the relationship between the Government and Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi. These principles are derived from the underlying tenets of the Treaty. They are used to bridge the gap between

Being connected to your learners is such a powerful thing. Allowing learners to develop, engage, enjoy and while building confidence in learning is key. However, without first being connected you will inevitably find barriers for some of our most at risk learners.  I found throughout remote learning, my learners craved connection. Connection to their teachers, classmates, physical spaces and routines. By developing a class site I a was able to offer a safe space where learners and whanau could meet, discuss and connect through learning. Albeit on digital platform it became a hub for positive connectivity and sharing of learning. We connected with family, places, pets, friends and activities. As I was able to positively connected with my learners the rest kind of took care of itself, creating future focused learning, in a connected community.  An important part of any class site was that it needed to be a One-Stop hub for learning, accessible anytime, at any place. Information about eve

Visibility enables accelerated shift in students learning In my practice I've been developing the use of google sheets, they've allowed both Hub Mako teachers to edit, sign off, and comment on, while giving real time updates. The impact of this means no learner gets left behind, all learners are able to access their teachers. Messages and notes are clearly communicated between both teachers as well as learners.  By developing and supporting student agency - learners in Hub Mako support their own learning by using a Personalised Learning Programmes. The impact of using this form, allows feedback, feedforward, tracking, planning, time management skills, prioritising, and trend analysis. The goal here is to Manage (self), Motivate learners, and to Move learning.  “A future focused, personalised approach in the classroom allows akonga/students to take control of their own learning. Each akonga is unique and learns in different ways.”  I  am excited to be able to offer a space for l

Since the beginning of time schools have had an audience of   one another the class the school the local community Now in the digital age our audience is global -  The term authentic audiences is often a priority in progressive pedagogy, finding audiences outside of the teacher and classroom in the hopes of making the learning real and relevant. By sharing digital assemblies, your audience is choosing to view, engage and celebrate with our learners thus making the learning authentic. Below is an example of a digital assembly that I created to share with our GisInt community  

This task was set to allow us to incorporate our learnings from today's session - creating Google Sheets, collecting and analyzing data, developing interesting ways to share this data. By empowering our learners by creating opportunities to analyze their own blogs will both drive accountability and ownership.