From the rākau to the ngākau: Exploring authentic approaches to leadership, policy, and pedagogy

This link has been shared across schools who are asking and wondering about their own schools culturally responsive/proactive practice (This is a very short and succinct read - equivalent to 1.5 A4 pages therefore...dive in and read! :-)

What are you thoughts after reading this?

Kia ora everyone

I've just returned inspired and empowered after attending The Indigenous Mapping Wānanga in Hamilton. The main purpose of the wānanga was to provide participants with access to mapping tools to support them with current or new projects in their communities. The wānanga also provided opportunities for participants to make connections with people working in the geospatial space and to find out what is happening in Aotearoa and around the globe in indigenous communities.

A major focus was helping people working on the ground alongside hapū and iwi to access public data held by government agency's and to learn how to create their own story maps, manage and share data using a variety of mapping tools. 

I applied to attend so that I could continue my learning about mapping tools to support schools, hapū and iwi with story telling. I was also interested in how people involved in cultural and environmental projects can collect data while out in the field. 

The wānanga was delivered in five streams including; Google tools, Esri ArcGIS, QGIS, Map Box and UAV Drones. I've attended previous works shops about google tools before and decided to focus on Street View Virtual Reality, QGIS Desktop, Esri Story Maps and Esri Survey 123. 

All workshops were really hands on so we had plenty of tutu time with all these amazing tools! I enjoyed meeting a diverse range of people from all walks of life and a real highlight was having time with mapping experts from around the globe and listening to their stories about how mapping tools are supporting indigenous communities. 

Key takeaways for me included:

• Google tools are much easier to use with little to no experience and are a great for creating basic maps identifying features such as maunga, awa, marae and wāhi tapu sites
• Anyone can start building virtual tours about places in their community with tour builder and Google Earth Pro
• Mapping tools are interactive and help to engage people more and help bring data to life
• Esri ArcGIS and QGIS are much more technical and require more time and training, but are powerful tools for analysing data in more detail
• Esri requires a license to use but is cheaper for non profits
• QGIS is free and available online 
• Mapping tools can help us work smarter and more efficiently 
• Enormous amounts of data is now available to support whānau, hapū, iwi with land and environmental management
• Original survey maps are also available to public which include the names of cultural sites that have become lost over time
• From an educational perspective there are numerous mapping tools to support schools with localised curriculum and place based learning related to tangata whenua in their communities
• Most tools are freely available for schools to use 
• Mapping is available to anyone that is interested, all ethnicities and ages 
• The most powerful message was to see how giants such as Google Outreach are supporting indigenous people to tell their own stories and to use mapping tools to challenge large corporate companies such as forestry, oil and gas. 

Read about two powerful stories: 

Chief Almir and the Surui tribe of the Amazon

India Literacy Project

This is story about how Google supported Tonga through Street View:

Wānanga Presentations:

Google Mapping Tools 

Earth Web, Voyager and Tour Builder Basic

Tour Builder and Google Earth Accelerated

Drone Deploy

Helpful inks to explore:

Tour builder

Tour Creator VR

QGIS 

Esri ArcGIS

Story Maps

Survey 123 for ArcGIS

Eagle Technology

Mapbox

Tamara Bell says, it’s beneficial for all students, all New Zealanders. This is a language that belongs to us as country, it’s a beautiful language and our students have a right to learn that language, and it will always be with them when they travel overseas...it's a fantastic way to link back to their own history and heritage.

In this EDtalks video, Tamara goes on to say,

NZ curriculum clearly states in its principles that Treaty of Waitangi is something that needs to be upheld in all of our classrooms and in article two of the Treaty it clearly states that Māori have the right to retain their taonga and Te Reo Maori is a taonga. It's a treasure for Māori people and it’s not an easy thing to uphold in the home, if you don’t have the support at school as well. All New Zealanders’ as New Zealanders have a right to learn Te Reo Māori at school.

So if we honour the historical perspective and affirm the value of Te Reo Māori as the indigenous language of New Zealand, what happens if teachers aren’t feeling confident to teach Te Reo Maori?

Project director for Ako Panuku, Hineihaea Murphy believes we need people – adults, children, Māori, non-Māori – to be motivated to learn te reo Māori. One solution for mainstream non-speaking teachers? Baby steps...

“Imagine if a child was taught two words and one phrase of Te Reo Māori each week from the time they started New Entrants. After 10 years at school they could potentially know 800 words and 400 phrases.” The big debate: Should Te Reo be compulsory in our schools?

What are your ‘baby steps’ for learning and/or teaching Te Reo Māori going forward? We'd love to hear from you.

Also see:

• Implementing Māori history curriculum in your school
• Te Aho Arataki marau mō te Ako i Te Reo Māori – Kura Auraki. Curriculum guidelines for Teaching and Learning Te Reo Māori Years 1-13.

Much of this debate at a national level focuses on the dichotomy between a 21st century skills-based curriculum and a knowledge-based curriculum. http://bit.ly/2NjIS9i

In our latest blog, post, Should we review our curriculum? Carolyn English explores what is important for Aotearoa New Zealand, the context in which curriculum review can be explored as part of a design and development process.

From vision to reality...what conversations are you having at your school/kura about how curriculum design and implementation is best serving the needs and aspirations of your students? We'd love to hear more.

By now you'll have pre-booked your breakouts. (And there's still time to book if you haven't of course, but it's a good time to do so. There are still seats left in most breakouts). 

What are you most looking forward to? Is there a session you're particularly excited about? We'd love to hear from you.

We've created a new page to help get ready for your uLearn18 conference experience, but no-one knows uLearn better than the delegates themselves - and that's you!

Have you been to uLearn before? If so, what tips would you give to a first timer to help get the most out of uLearn?

It has been an amazing week where I have had the real pleasure to work with a school who is implementing "Te Takanga o te Wā - guidelines for teaching Māori history. I saw Māori history timelines in classrooms, a strong focus on identity through a Māori cultural lense and a deep inquiry into the biggest question of all - why? Once we find the why, the how and what become a bit easier. One of the most touching things of all is the fact that even though the Māori student role is very small, this school was doing all they could to reflect Māori culture in all they do, from the ground up. Interested to see who else is implementing Māori history/culturally located curriculum throughout Aotearoa. Have you read Te Takanga o te Wā? http://maorihistory.tki.org.nz/

Meet Mike Walsh 

For uLearn18, Mike will be talking about how...

We live in an age of wonder - cars that drive themselves, platforms that anticipate our needs, and robots capable of everything from advanced manufacturing to complex surgery. Automation, algorithms and AI will transform every facet of daily life, but will the next generation be prepared for the radical redesign of the workforce and the skills that will be needed to survive? While many fear that robots will take their jobs, the rise of machine intelligence begs a more important question: what is the true potential of human intelligence in the 21st century?

In this Youtube clip, The future is now, Mike talks how digital devices are effecting our young people; the way they communicate, see the world, the way they frame reality, understand how they get their entertainment and content, and that we're only starting to understand the implications of this generations as they get older, join the workforce, become consumers and make decisions for themselves - they are going to expect very different things as customers and clients, the implications for the business world is huge. 

But what about the implications for us as teachers and educators? If every one of our students' experiences is shaped by data and deep machine learning, what do WE need to do well, better, differently to help 'shape them' for the future?

"Endless collaboration between teachers sharing the spaces has distracted them from teaching pupils, who are in turn distracted by each other. Learning outcomes have gone down, not up, but no one wants to discuss the elephant in the room, he says." www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/90983510/teachers-struggle-with-modern-learning-environments​

It was also interesting to watch the ping pong comments sway between comments that MLEs are nothing new and open-plan classrooms have been around since the 80's (without new gadgets) and didn't work then and aren't working now - to comments that say collaborative teaching in an MLE is only as good as the teaching, and;

If you collaborate, share, respond to individual student needs proactively with your colleagues, and focus on improving student outcomes through building key relationships, then of course it can work. But teachers need to be trained, receptive and supported to implement new ways of doing things. And they have to be people who connect and work well together.

No doubt this great debate happens all over the country in and out of staffrooms. Is there some substance to concerns? Is there research to either confirm or deny the impact of modern or innovative learning pedagogies? What are the bigger issues here and what supports your argument?

Image source: classroom

Does working with data scare or excite you? What is BIG data (machines/algorythms) and small data and how can data and learning analytics make a difference to our student's learning? What are your thoughts? Feel free to share these below.

Learning analytics, algorithms and big data are knocking on the doors of many schools promising fast improvements and new solutions to wicked problems facing schools today. In the midst of datafication educators need to remember the power of small data: tiny clues through personal observations, collective human judgment, and raw instinct that can lead to big change in schools. Leading with small data requires collaboration, trust and professionalism as key features of educational change. 

Meet Pasi Sahlberg

Prof Pasi Sahlberg has recently been appointed a professor of educational policy in the School of Education, UNSW, and will be working closely with Prof Adrian Piccoli setting up the new Gonski Institute for Education. Pasi has worked as a school teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems, analysed education policies, and advised education reforms around the world.

In this video CORE eFellow Craig McDonald talks about how true inquiry is Authentic contexts, motivated by a genuine need and discusses a student inquiry that explored child labour and the issue of water justice. Craig talks about the way projects like this can have a long lasting effect and he uses the example of a past student’s learning to illustrate this. He describes the way students carry their learning into street action to raise funds for their campaigns and the effect that this has on them which he believes often leads to further learning and an awareness of global issues.

Also, see his CORE blog post, The 'e' in E-Learning is for Empathy.

EDtalks: eFellow research Student awareness of global issues

What inquiry contexts are your students engaging in right now? Is it local or global? We'd love to hear more.

Here’s a great read, Developing a local curriculum (NZC Online blog) from Bede Gilmore where he outlines a process at Winchester School, where they match curriculum delivery with the aspirations, values and desires for/of their students. He also asks what's more important, skills or knowledge and references Shane Kennedy's post, Curriculum, the culprit?

What do you think? Is our curriculum 'too open' for interpretation and reliant on individual teacher knowledge and experience, would a curriculum with specific content help build teacher confidence and consistency or is it not that simple? What does curriculum design look like at your place?

CCO Creative Commons image source: Pixabay

Meet Hana O'Regan

​Hana O’Regan (Kāti Rakiāmoa, Kāti Ruahikihiki, Kāi Tūāhuriri, Kāti Waewae) is the General Manager of Oranga/Wellbeing for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Hana’s career has been largely focused on the areas of Māori language revitalisation and Māori educational achievement whilst also being an active advocate and driver for her own tribal language revitalisation strategy within Kāi Tahu.

Why not get up close and personal with Hana, before her keynote at uLearn18 this year.

Feel free to ask Hana a probing question or share your own experiences of growing 'positive dispositions and capabilities' in our Māori learners. We'd love to celebrate your stories about this kaupapa.

Tip #1:

Complete your profile. If your profile is complete - with first and last name, details and an image this will enable others to connect with you more easily.  Once you've done this, sit back and watch the friend requests roll in!

Find out more the distinctions and new directions for Digital Technologies in this post from Enabling e-Learning, Digital fluency and Digital Technologies - what do these mean? with references to this PDF file from Kia Takatū ā-Mātihiko, National Digital Readiness Programme.

What is your interpretation of Computational Thinking and Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes? Is this something you have been doing already or is it something new? What kinds of conversations are you having about how the new areas of the Technology curriculum? We'd love to hear your views in the comments section below.

Everyday you will get an email with a small, creative programming challenge designed to help you explore different computational concepts and debugging strategies in Scratch . 

How are you using Scratch in your classroom and how do you and your students deal with the challenges around getting stuck and debugging?

Engaging whānau is a priority area of a school I'm supporting in CFPLD.  This year we decided to trial the use of Seesaw to provide parents with information on their child's learning journey.  At first,  the teachers and students trialled  the app becoming familiar with the process and discovering the easy way in which they could communicate. We decided to run a parent's evening to discuss the 'digital' way the school was going to communicate with them.  One of the teachers came up with the idea of having two students per class to prepare a 5 m in brief about some of the activities they used  the digital technology tools in their learning.  That evening we had a great turnout, it enabled us to introduce how we were using SeeSaw, even had the parents using it to post photos etc. then the students set up in little groups,  parents moved around the groups listening to the students talking and showing what they had been doing.  It was perfect - the students shone and were so confident.

Do you have anything that you tried that worked well?  Getting parents to connect is a slow process.

https://gazette.education.govt.nz/articles/a-comprehensive-approach-to-conferences/

We will run a webinar for uLearn newbies in August and let you know how to access it. If you have any questions bring them to the webinar, or post them here beforehand. 

I'll offer some more conference specific tips closer to the event. Right now I'm into the programme build. It takes a wee while with hundreds of keen presenters lining up to share their learning. Warm fuzzies to all of the uLearn presenter community - the new and the frequent, who prepare and share their latest professional offerings.

So I'll leave you with this - if you're joining us this year at uLearn, what are your top tips for getting the most out of the PLD experience? 

Next time:  What social plans do you have?! We can help with that too!

In the last week the information and media around the game 'Fortnite' seems to have heightened, a game played by 40 million people worldwide. I recently held 2 parent sessions on digital citizenship and the game Fortnite was a part of the presentation.

Most parents were aware the game and their child played it. One parent had caught her son playing it at 3am! Teachers have also had conversations in their classrooms and students as young as 6 are playing. Common Sense Media recommends 13+ for this game! Something I've heard a lot of lately is 'oh yeah it is violent but there's no blood". Mmmm, does this make it appropriate then? Also, the celebrity endorsements are growing and the amount of people just watching other people playing the game on YouTube. 

Here are some of the latest media articles about the game:

E rua ngā Anga Tupuranga Hangarau Matihiko me ōna whakatupuranga ka taka iho i te aho Hangarau Matihiko.

Te Ao Māori me te Hangarau Matihiko, is the understanding, that computational thinking is nothing new, it has always been a way of life for Māori. Think Tāne, Māui, Kupe, then we think about tipuna (ancestors), and we realise just how fundamental resilience, problem solving, collaboration and creativity (pakirehua) have been for Māori to respond to real world issues and needs; to succeed and become a strong, proud, resourceful people of today.

As we gaze to the stars and navigate a new way forward, how will our young people call on the skills, knowledge of their ancestors and create new possibilities that is, Te Ao Māori me te Hangarau Matihiko? 

http://hangaraumatihiko.tki.org.nz/

Image source: Wikipedia