Session eight continued - Hanging out with Google Hangouts

For the second half of our day - we were asked to explore Google Hangouts in small groups.  This was perfect as Toni, her team teacher Verbina and I are all planning to connect with a school in Auckland through google hangouts.  There were a lot of technical difficulties, the entire cohort was exploring hangouts so the bandwidth could have been affected, the microphones were picking up a lot of "noise" etc.  After speaking with Gerhard, he said that we shouldn't experience this issue when we connect with Tamaki Makaurau. I will upload a reflective blog after next week giving everyone an update on how the google hangout went.
Tips for teacher's planning to use Google hangouts:

• Practise with your class first, it is pretty hectic and pretty crazy - teach them how to mute their mikes, take turns, etc - let your tamariki go crazy on it under your watchful eye, then after the craziness settles, connect with others.
• Headphones make the difference - make sure everyone has headphones.
• No glass or windows behind the speaker - this creates a glare and your face is not clearly seen.
• Make sure the students on the hangout are not close by unless you are keen to hear a very annoying screeching sound.

Below is a screencasting of Toni, Dwayne and myself, as you will notice there is no sound, not sure why (could possibly be the muted microphone? I have no idea) and underneath the video is, of course, some funny photos we managed to capture during this exploration.

Above is a picture of Dwayne's screen whilst presenting his screen with everyone.



And this is Dwayne's Korero - Take one lol

Session five - Coding Crazy and Makey Makey Madness

Today we explored coding through code.org and Makey Makey. First, we looked into coding through a website called Code.org.  I really enjoyed this website because it was straightforward with teaching how coding works.  My tamariki have recently been looking into coding through the CSFirst website, but I feel that my students are quite lost when it comes to this website, maybe this is a more simplified website for them to explore.

Next, we were given a quick tutorial of Makey Makey.  This was a very hands-on activity which I also enjoyed.

Makey Makey important tips:

• If you don't connect to "Earth" - nothing will happen.
• You can connect your Makey Makey to anything that is conductive.
• Can be connected with scratch, code.org

Below is a screencast of me having a little tutu with Makey Makey.  Putting it all together was a little tricky but, once everything was hooked up it was very fun.  I could imagine my class creating their own game with code.org or scratch, and then using Makey Makey as a way to create a joystick of some sort.  I may revisit code.org later after I receive more feedback from my students about how they would feel about this.

Beginning my digital fluency journey

This morning we began our digital fluency course with introductions at the beautiful Taipa Area School.  I am really looking forward to working with the Northland Cohort as we grow together in Gsuite and all the other amazing things that technology has to offer.  I am also looking forward to travelling back to my old Kura - Northland College every second week.

Check out my introduction on slide 16 and click on some of the images.  It takes you to my class site, this blog page and other things my class and I do

Here are the Label's that I will be using while I have this Professional Blog.