Context of different audience members and their perspectives for your inquiry.

Create a reflective entry to discuss how you are addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives for your inquiry.

The audience that I will be focusing on in the blogpost is the parents of these children in our learning space. We also have other teachers at my school and in the wider community which involves our cluster. 

I think that the other teachers in our school and in the wider community including our cluster would be the most supportive and onboard of this digital change and they would be early adopters in any kind of change like this. They would be interested in these changes for my inquiry as it is part of the skills that the children need to be successful 21st-century learners.  Early Adopters get on board and would be there to support you through any part of the inquiry.

I feel until the parents have seen progress and change in their children's learning but they are still going to be the Laggards in this inquiry. The parent's perspectives and attitudes towards children using digital tools is an interesting topic. The feedback that I most commonly get is that the children will not be able to handwrite like they did. However, there is more behind their concerns. I think that they need to be well educated and at my school, the parents are always welcome to be involved in their child’s learning. The Senior Leadership Team always have seminars showing parents how to use a variety of digital tools and use our digital reporting system.

The theme that I will be looking at is:

The role of current and emerging technologies. This model shows that for your practice to change all these four strategies need to work together.

Linked strategies needed to support educational ICT innovations

When my colleague and I first started our Mindlab journey we had so much support and advice from our colleagues. Our colleagues and cluster members were accepting of our inquiry and were accepting and positive about us scaffolding digital learning for the children.  We knew that our Laggards (parents) would be the ones that would need extra support from us. We have been showing them through the process with their children and what would be involved throughout the inquiry.  We knew that the parents were apprehensive but we have shown them step by step how they can be part of their child’s digital journey. They just need to be open and willing to listen and learn alongside their child. 

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

Reflection

Rolfe’s Reflective Model

Step 1 (What): Describe something that is significant and has happened during your Inquiry so far.

Our inquiry question was: 

How can we best use digital tools to engage boys in authentic writing? 

The most significant thing that has happened so far has been the engagement that I have seen with these children and not just the boys that I have been focusing on. Walsh (2010), says that there is a trend that children are moving away from engaging with print but at home would use their leisure time to engage with digital technologies. This is something that I truly saw happen during this inquiry. I have seen boys go from writing nothing on a regular basis to share with their peers something that they were proud of. We are a PBL (Project Based Learning) school. This gives the children many opportunities to share their learning with other teachers, peers and family/whanau. This engagement happened in the taking action phase of the inquiry cycle and I was really surprised how quickly the children got on board. 

Step 2 (So What): Evaluate the most interesting/important/useful aspects of this event.

I think that the most important aspects of this event were the full support that we had from our colleagues, The Senior Leadership Team, and the parents and whanau of these children.  I think that this can be explained through all the interviews that we had with many of the Year 4 boys and the information and research that we presented to the audience that was going to be part of this. It was really important to have evidence and research that suggested this was going to be successful. Many of these children's parents were not fully supportive of their children using digital tools so early on in their schooling and not using a pen and paper to write. This is when my partner and I needed to inform and educate these parents about 21 Century Learning in a positive way.

Step 3 (Now What): Analyse the implications from this event to the rest of your Inquiry.

I feel like so far our action plan has been working well for the children. I would like to try and get all children in the year level I work in involved in this inquiry as I feel it would benefit so many of them. Next time I would make sure that I had more time to show the children all the different digital programmes and apps that they could use. I feel like that was slightly rushed and they didn't get all the benefits of many of the digital tools that were offered to them. I learnt that you need to fail to succeed but as long as you get up again and keep trying it will all work out for you. All of the digital tools that I offered the children were the ones that allowed them to share with an authentic audience and having an audience gives their writing a purpose. This was my main goal in this inquiry.

References:

Otago Polytechnic. (n.d.). Reflective Writing. Retrieved from: https://www.op.ac.nz/assets/LearningAdvice/Reflective-writing.pdf

Walsh, M. (2010). Multimodal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 33(3), 211–239.

MindLab Journey

Reflect on how you have changed your practice during your Postgraduate DCL journey.

My goals for the mindlab course in week 1 were to be able to effectively use digital technology in the classroom, gain confidence and deepen my understanding of 21st Century Learning. Over the past 32 weeks, I have definitely achieved these goals and feel proud of what I have achieved.

Stage 1: Problem identification.

What drives you to make the change? (What is the problem that arises in practice?)

The problem that we could see was that our Year 4 boys were getting left behind and their engagement levels were low as writing had no authentic purpose for them.

Why is it important to implement the change?

We wanted these boys to achieve like their female counterparts and not be left behind. We knew that we needed to do something to help so that we can get them back on board.

Stage 2: Observation and analysis.

What kind of data have you gathered? What insights have you gained about the problem that drives the change?

The data that we gathered was interviews with the children as well as classroom observations. These interviews gave us many of the boys true thoughts and feelings about writing which in turn then provided us with motivation to make a positive change. 

Stage 3: Abstract reconceptualisation.

What new learning theories or research provide useful background to implement change?

The children that we are teaching have been born into the digital world and this is what they know so well. Carroll (2013) talks about the types of learning that boys positively respond to. She suggests that boys are more interested in learning in purposeful ways, having autonomy over their learning and positive collaborative experiences. For these to be successful, technology is a tool that we can harness and make engagement in writing possible. Brosseuk (2014) findings add to this idea that,

“Mobile Technology devices suited boys preferred patterns of learning. Mind-mapping apps, such as Total Recall and Think Tree created to boys’ preference for the visual mode of organising their ideas and thoughts.” 

What other perspectives are relevant to consider?

One key change to my professional practice was the professional learning standard. This standard has been well covered and I feel that I have improved in my professional capability and it has had a big impact on my learners.

Stage 4: Active experimentation.

What new strategies or ideas you have tried to implement in your practice?

The new strategies that we tried to implement were writing on Chromebooks without using their writing book. Not having to plan in their book, having an authentic audience for their writing. The authentic purpose was a major part of this writing inquiry being successful. When they knew that they had an audience they had a bigger responsibility to complete their work to a higher standard. 

What you have learnt from the change/ experience?

I have learnt that with support from my colleagues and team members anything is possible. I find being reflective hard, but I know that it is an important skill for educators and learners. I have enjoyed being challenged and tested during this 32-week course and I will be a better teacher for it. 

References: 

Brosseuk, D. (2014). A New Direction: Using Mobile Technology Devices to Motivate and Engage Boys in Literacy Learning. Practically Primary, 19(1), 17–21. 

 Carroll, J. (2013). Engaging and Authentic Technology Use for Literacy Learning in the Middle Years. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 21(2), 7–17.

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards.

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.