The Resurrection of my Blog Why??

So over the New Year period, I had been doing a lot of thinking about the resurrection of my blog site and thought no better time than never. I have a website specifically set up for my Masters of Education, however that has somewhat also been neglected over the course of 2020. I was thinking that blogging is a much easier way to reflect and share ideas 💡 pertaining to Education. Rather than a continual update of my website. 

The last blog post I had written was about the GIS training I completed back in 2019! Upon my return to the Boys school, I was teaching at. My HOD Science and I developed a level 3 Geography and Science course. Based on Water Quality in the HB taught in one term and fortunate enough to have the students 20 hours per week. We had the SHMAK water testing kits (purchased from HBRC) developed a survey using the Survey 123 application (ArcGIS) program and used the SHMAK kits to collect water samples, temperature readings, conductivity readings, photo evidence of riparian planting. Using Ipads and phones to input the information into the downloaded Survey 123 application. We went to 29 locations streams and rivers, investigating Human land use and measures taken to reduce the impacts of use, such as riparian planting and stream monitoring. 

Survey 123 application has the ability to create powerful analysis, tables in excel or CVS format, to analyze and manipulate. The survey also creates layer files (shapefiles) that can be imported into maps to create visual data and GIS queries, such as proximity source to pollution, terrain watershed analysis. I coached the students in presenting results into the Story Maps application. Students also attempted the GIS paper 3.8. Geography Standards completed 3.5 Research, 3.6 Contemporary Issue, 3.7 Global Issue. 

The Earth & Space Science papers completed were 91410, 91411, 91415, 91412 Biology & Physics Investigation and Biology and Physics Socio scientific Issue and Physics Application were also completed. It was great to work with Sciences and deduce the workload for both students and staff.

Students were able to draw upon skills and knowledge learned in both subject areas, building student agency through clever coaching, repeated processes. By week 3 students were straight onto their desktops and laptops, logged straight into their Story Maps, and worked on the analysis of results, watching videos made and collected through Edpuzzle, via their Schoology classroom. 

The term was buzzing as students started to see the fruits of their hard work as did we. To date, this had been one of the highlights of my teaching career. Being able to teach a small class of 9 levels 3 Boys, and working in a collaborative and co-teaching environment, fieldwork, and in-depth learning. Plus the Boys learning how to become agents of their own learning.  

In my new school completely different environments, girls' school, high decile, and have made the move into the Technologies subject area a new and exciting challenge. Tasked with building the Digital Technologies curriculum years 7 to 10. Year 10 will be a co-taught class and will be called Multitech. A completely new course, using Digital Technologies to capture the design process, create tangible outcomes (3D and Laser Printing), present the outcomes (E-portfolio). Watch this space.

Below are examples of the GIS work that I had been doing in early 2019 when I was teaching across Geography and Sciences in a STEAM context. Our school had an account with Eagle Technology to access the ArcView online GIS tools. It is free and all teachers need to do is email Eagle Technology. There are a number of pre-made resources developed by Claire Thurlow and many other teachers around the country that align with NCEA levels 1, 2, and 3. There are also short taster lessons for social studies.

GIS is a disruptive technology. Whereby users can create, manipulate this technology to analyze the environment and make accurate predictions and problem solve issues in our natural and cultural environments. GIS is used in a number of industries, re-estate, police, armed forces, Healthcare. 

This is the technology that our students (Taihoi) and teachers must embrace. 

“As work and life in this century transform due to increasing globalization and the application of information communication technologies, so too should modern learning environments reflect these changes.’ (Magana, 2017, Pg12).

Magana, S. (2017) Disruptive Classroom Technologies, A framework for innovation in Education. Sage Publications Incorporated.