Mike Wolking visit: the role of technology in developing key competencies.

On Thursday 31 May, Grey High hosted Mike Wolking, an Axford Fellow, usually based in Los Angeles, who is spending nine months in New Zealand researching the role of technology in developing key competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum. Key competencies are the skills students need to access life long learning: thinking, relating to others, using language, symbols and text, managing self and participating and contributing.

Year 13 History students, year 12 English Literature students, 10QI and MSA students all met with Mike and shared their experiences of learning at Grey High. Level 2 English students shared their perspectives on the highs and lows of the chromebook era and ways in which teachers are adapting learning tasks to make them more relevant to students’ lives. MSA students shared their stories of their journey to being more engaged with education. 10QI students were interested to find that Mike had worked with some of the ‘real’ Freedom Writers in Los Angeles, as we have been studying the film “Freedom Writers” this term.

Mike also spent time with Madeline Campbell talking about our work on using devices to make learning deeper and more relevant and with Angela Seyb on our upcoming school project linking blogs (digital learning portfolios) with our graduate profile. In junior classes in 2018, students are blogging in each subject at least once per term, and building up evidence of the range of their learning over their time at Grey High.

Building student (& teacher) confidence in blogging

Building student and teacher confidence in blogging is one of my key projects for 2018.  It forms part of my inquiry with my year 10 students into building key competencies to support learning and engagement.  We've been talking about this project (blogging, building confidence in blogging, linking to key competencies in blogging, linking to the graduate profile via blogging) in small groups throughout the school.

Earlier this term Angela & I ran a session with HODs on blogging (the verb) and digital learning portfolios (the objects).  We've spent time on what is working, challenges and next steps with blogging in English department meetings.  Today I ran a late start with colleagues on building student and teacher confidence in blogging.  We got to think specifically about how this could look in Maths and in Social Science classes.  Some of our thinking and discussion is captured in pictures below.  For me, two themes emerged:
1. The technical how-to aspect.  We can keep on supporting teachers with this, and Madeline is always willing to be involved, which is an awesome resource.  Bringing Madeline in helps with pedagogy and learning design as well as the technical aspects.
2. The strong links to key competencies.  Building respect and trust are key components of building student confidence in blogging, and building teacher confidence that students are ready to blog their learning.