DFI #5 Collaborate - Visible Teaching and Learning

DFI #5 Collaborate - Visible Teaching and Learning

The concept of Visibility is simple - you can either see something or you can't. When we talk about Visible Learning Manaiakalani schools use Google Sites and Blogger as the vehicles for making teaching and learning visible, and in doing so have made parents genuine partners in the teaching and learning process.

Dorothy spoke about children having been unsuccessful at school in the past because much of the learning journey was hidden from them. 

That is was what school was like for me - trying as hard as I could but not actually knowing what was expected of me until I got my marked work back. Sometimes I would get an 8/10 and a comment 'good work' and other times I would get a 6/10 and the same 'good work' comment! As a cheeky 4th former I once submitted a book review assignment that I had written for an assignment in the 3rd form and had earned a C+. I was bemused to find that a year later and with no additions or improvements, it was worth a B+.

There was never any feedback as to how I could improve what I was doing.  No one ever talked to us about how to be successful at school - there was no such thing as WALTS or success criteria - we just knew that we were expected to be successful. 

For too long success in education has gone to the learner who had the ability to read the teacher's mind, - those who were able to 'learn' the teacher. 

I was interested to hear the discussion about See Saw, as it has become a bit of a sticking point in my school. Junior teachers love See Saw and the ease of its use for the younger children. Lots of schools seem to have continued to use it at the junior level, with blogs being used from Year 4 up - and I have not really been able to offer a reason as to why blogging is preferred. Today, I understood.. See Saw is not a visible teaching and learning experience because you need passwords for everything and only the people with the passwords can access the content. 

This article Be Careful With SeeSaw is an excellent read. It argues that because SeeSaw is so easy for teachers and children to use there is a danger that it will lead to a steady stream of low-quality images or videos that are captured with little or no thought or purpose and that provide parents with little or no substantial information about the nature of the learning that the students are engaged in, and also engages children in screen time that has little or no value. 

No doubt the same argument could be applied to blogging.

We need to be mindful that the aim is to make the learning visible. Unless we are purposeful, posting to any platform could become a  pretty pointless scrapbooking activity that gives parents a steady stream of images from within the classroom that they may start to depend on but not necessarily learn anything from.

This Week's New Learning

One of the ways that we can make learning visible is the use of Google Sites. Google Sites replace the blackboard, the worksheets, and even the things in the classroom that are there to help children learn are no use to the children when they are doing their learning at home.

While I take great pride in what I see the teachers at my school achieving with their Learning Sites before now I have never done anything in Sites myself - so today was a great example of me trying to catch up with them quickly. This is where being a perfectionist can really get in your way as a learner! I really like to know not just how things work and why, but also what is actually possible. I like things to look great - and the sooner the better. What this can actually do is slow me down to the point of inactivity!  

I did have a play in SItes to work out what goes where without getting too bogged down in 'is this the best picture I can find' and 'is that the right shade of blue'. Today was a slightly different DFI experience for me as I was learning alongside 3 of the teachers from my school - so it was good to have a 'reality check' every so often. 

As usual, far too much time is then spent getting my head around how to my new learning in a meaningful way. If I am going to spend time creating a site what will the purpose of it be? I have decided that making a site for the Board of Trustees is something that would be of benefit as they are not really managing the BOT Google Drive and all of the folders it contains. I haven't started yet - but the plan is to have something ready to share with the BOT at our next meeting on September 24th. I love a deadline!