Google Class OnAir!

Today we had Matt Goodwin come in to talk to us about his Google Class OnAir experience so far. Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir is a site which follows a group of teachers and learners on their collaborative learning journey throughout the year. It is a rich online resource on which others can access the shared learning, what has been created and the resources required to complete the lessons in another learning environment. Matt provided us with a great insight and tips on how to create the videos that accompanies the planning on the Google Class OnAir Sites. We were then challenged to create our own version of a Google Class OnAir site to gain an authentic understanding of the process. I have decided that my lesson will be with a reading group and on how they engage on their iPads to support the learning. Although I have yet to finalise the planning of the lesson, I have used the HTML off one of Matt's sites to create my own Google Class OnAir page. Below you can see a sneak peek of what it looks like so far. Once I have completed the recorded lesson and edited the video to accompany my page I will post the link for you all to see!

Digital Immersion - Term 4

Today at the Manaiakalani Digital Immersion day we got to connect with other teachers in the Manaiakalani learning community. It was great to have the chance to share and learn about what other teachers have been learning, creating and sharing in their classrooms. A major focus of the day was multi modal learning and how we can create a variety of opportunities to meet the variety of learning needs of our students. I decided to create my mini-inquiry around Popcorn as this is an up and coming lesson for science in the next few weeks. Below you can see a screenshot of the almost finished slide I have created for our lesson (with some great help from Juanita) . I have included two texts (a PM reader at green level and an orange level Ready to Read book) which will link to a soundbite of the teacher reading the story so that students at a lower level can read by following along. I also found a video which shows that popcorn comes from the vegetable corn. The two EE activities are still yet to be created however one will include a poem with a series of related literacy activities and the other looks at students describing the popcorn by exploring the five senses. Below you can see a screenshot of how it currently looks!

Keep posted to find out how it goes!

Hour of Code - Flappy Santa

Today, I created my first online game using Hour of Code. Hour of code scaffolds you through the basics of block coding in a series of puzzles/lessons and then at the end gives you the opportunity to create your own game. You create your game by assigning a command to an event e.g. When Santa hits a chimney he falls to the ground or loses a certain amount of points. As you build your game you are given the opportunity to test the game along the way - this was extremely valuable as you notice changes that you need to make which you didn't initially think of e.g. how does the level of gravity you have associated affect how possible it is to flap through the width of the gap you have associated to the chimney spaces Santa flies through. When you are satisfied with the game you simply click Finish to get a shareable link. Hour of code is extremely interactive and I could just imagine how much fun students would have creating the games and sharing these with their friends!

Here is a screenshot of the coding for the game I created and a screen recording of the game being played:

To play Flappy Santa click the following link - Play here!

After I had finished Hour of Code I then also had a look at Scratch and Gamefruit. Osmo is another great piece of technology which includes activities on the basics of how to code for younger students.