Curriculum coverage

For the past year and a half I have been thinking about a solution to help us make sure that we deliver a balanced timetable for our students. Being the timetabler also helps to push that challenge.
At HPSS we want to develop the ideas of a Personalised LearnPath

Personalised LearnPath

The Learning Coach works with students to identify passions and link their interests and needs to their learning. Learners negotiate their LearnPath (personalised learning programme) with their Coach to ensure that what they are learning is relevant to them. The Coach supports and guides students to set and meet challenging learning goals.

https://sites.google.com/hobsonvillepoint.school.nz/hpss/curriculum/learning-hubs

We have a great system in place already to gather this information together when developing the module booklets, it is the next stage of the process. The part in hubs and selections for students that I want to develop. Looking at a students selections and trying to make sure that they have selected everything that you want, some of it is relied that it has been done correctly and the instructions followed by the student.

As timetablers we hope that this has been done correctly, checking 240 foundation students timetables takes a fair bit of trust. 

One of the teachers at the school developed a way to do this in Google sheets last year, but there is a fair bit of modification to get it going. I did wonder at the time whether I could get something similar working on the web, but I kept putting it on the back burner. 

paper checker

Ready for this year, I thought about what I had to do today and spotted some time, next thing I was in phpmyadmin developing a database to hold the requirements for our q2 programme, a quick copy of the structure and I had the q1 programme in as well. Next came entering all the codes of our modules, something simple to do with sql statements.

Then using my php template, I had all the students name listed. Now to develop a quick check programme against their selection and all the learning areas to see if the module name existed. Add a number to the counter, and display. 

Surprisingly I checked everything by running form the data exported from KAMAR and I had it working within an hour of starting.

Next I created the foundation years check and tested it from the data collected by one of my new hub students, eek, will have to go back over the requirements with this as it failed to meet the coverage.

Suddenly, this brought a new issue, why do we check at the end of the process, why not develop something that could check before the information is entered, to save any issues that may come up before they happen. A quick verification from some of the staff in the staffroom and away to develop the prototype. This will continue to develop as we go through the year that it will pull the information straight from the database, at the moment all dropdown boxes are entered manually. However it does check the selections against the database tables for learning area module names.

This is the start of the showing of what a student will have covered for a year. 

At present the student fills this in through a google sheet document. I would like them to see coverage throughout the year through a google chart API and webpage so that they can share this quickly and easily when doing reflections and check in's. How do we make learning visible?

Communities of Online Learning

"The Education (Update) Amendment Bill (the Bill) proposes to recognise the impact that technology is having on education, by introducing a new mode of education delivery – online learning. Technological change makes it possible for students to learn anywhere, anytime, and at any pace.
The Bill proposes to enable new partnerships between schools and online learning providers, and enable children and young people to access their education through online delivery. Online learning providers will come from the schooling, tertiary education, and private sectors, and will be able to seek accreditation as a Community of Online Learning (COOL).
The Bill proposes that COOL will have to meet criteria relating to their capability and capacity to deliver education to students in an online environment. Some COOL will be subject to additional terms and conditions, like which students they can enrol. All COOL will be subject to a robust quality assurance regime, including requirements to meet specified student outcomes."

http://www.education.govt.nz/ministry-of-education/legislation/the-education-update-amendment-bill/establishing-a-regulatory-framework-for-online-learning/

Digital Technologies teachers have used online communities to assist with the development of learning for years. Mostly around web development and programming. Many through the list have talked about the positive aspects of students engagement and learning, conversations then lead to the development of teachers dashboards so teachers could monitor and assist students progress.

Looking at this, and the conversation through our own Community of Online Learning, NZACDITT. Doesn't this enhance what is already happening in our school through the use of Online Communities. Online Community being learning platforms like Codeavengers (http://www.codeavengers.com) where the learning is prepared by teachers, delivered by teachers and who have also been developing assessments that can be carried out. If there has been a problem students have been able to email and seek help and guidance about a concept that they do not grasp.

Through the codeavengers.com/teachers page talk about

• Students learn the 'what' and 'why' with carefully sequenced lessons and gradual progression of difficulty. 
• Our code challenges, quizzes, points, badges and bonus games make learning fun for all ages. 
• Students build their own apps, games and websites as they learn. Seamlessly integrates into your school curriculum with any subject. 
• You can easily identify students that need support thanks to live updates of each student's progress. 
• With our lessons plans, supplementary notes, and assessment resources streamline your preparations; 

Codecademy (https://www.codecademy.com/) has also developed the same, though not directly being part of the NZ landscape. There is curriculum that they follow, projects and learning through to a student developing a portfolio of evidence. https://www.codecademy.com/schools/curriculum

Also look at the evidence being provided by khan academy, being posted today in the subject association forum, about there new computer science course available online. We've partnered with Dartmouth college professors Tom Cormen and Devin Balkcom to teach introductory computer science algorithms, including searching, sorting, recursion, and graph theory. Learn with a combination of articles, visualizations, quizzes, and coding challenges.

It is interesting that when we start to unpack the comments over the years that these are being pushed as ways to assist with the development of the digital technologies curriculum at NZC Level 6-8.

We have many communities of online learning(not exactly called that back in 2005) in New Zealand, due to our geographic nature, Many of these have morphed and changed, but I still see opportunities, many of these were needed with the earthquakes happened in 2011 in Christchurch for students to be able to carry on learning while there schools were closed.

Currently there are 4 Offers on the Learning exchange to help support digital technologies throughout New Zealand. http://pol.vln.school.nz/

We have a Virtual Learning Network in New Zealand, http://www.vln.school.nz/

One of these was created in 2005, called the Loop, http://www.nzine.co.nz/features/nelsonloop.html
The driving force behind this extraordinary regional initiative is the collective belief that: The richer the information that is available digitally, and the more extensive the networks that connect people, the greater the benefits that will accrue.

I believe we have to wait to see what comes out of the Ministry and its development before making judgements. The more I see and hear what the ministry is working on links back to the Education 2025 strategy http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Initiatives/Lifelonglearners.pdf

Prototyping on Paper - digital technologies - foundation years

One thing that I have normally struggled with in the Technology process has been the idea of conceptual development and prototyping.

As part of module, we co-teach. For this I was teamed up with a PE teacher. Our secondary students had to plan and teach a module down at the primary school, develop skills within a sport. So out of the three blocks for the week, one was around planning for the time with the primary students. Teaching the primary students, seeking feedback from the students in their learning space, then going to the portal (library space) to do reflection. Using the third block to do the technology design and modelling using the ideas that they had been doing on monday. 

Developing our Learning Objective of To Test design idea through prototyping or modelling. 

Normally I have done this through programming or developing a series of images through the computer. However, students normally update the files and you lose the great work on how they stepped up or made changes. 

The Rubric that we used, level 4 -6

One of the pieces of software that I used to help develop an app idea was POP, prototyping on paper. 

The app allows you to draw you ideas, take a photo of it and then allow the user to create clickable spots to be able to show workflow. 

Students could take photos using there device and then do the clickable areas on their computer. 

Students then take what they have created and test it with a bunch of users. In this case it was students from our primary school. Feedback was sought and then incorporated into the development.

The following are examples of some of the ideas that students came up with

Getting a student doing paper prototypes had them talking, collaborating, seeking feedback for an hour and a half, they want to continue developing prototypes, developing the functional reasoning behind their design, as well at the practical reasoning. Using http://popapp.in

What this helped them do was move towards Level 5 and 6 of the curriculum.

Meeting a need - nzc explorer

January 29 2014 

Hi there, 

Does anyone have or know where I can locate a spreadsheet or database of all of the Learning Outcomes as they appear in the NZC. We are wanting to build an interactive database where students can pull up LOs by Learning Area, Level and we also want to tag each LO with a corresponding Fluency (our Specialised Learning Leaders have developed a range of fluencies so that we are aiming to evidence student development in more areas than numeracy and literacy).
Any suggestions, advice appreciated!
Cheers
Claire

This got me thinking, is there such a thing. It has been getting at me all year. When startup education weekend happened I thought that this could be a good time to explore this idea a bit more, great for education, but not for a business solution. However, that did not stop me. This weekend I decided that I would work on a prototype to see if I could develop a solution. NZC Explorer was created.

I created a spreadsheet to enter the data in, and from there I have been working away.

Here is an example of what I have created. 

It allows for a Curriculum Area to be selected, and the level, you can add as many Achievement Objectives as you want, and you can clear your selection.

It is available here: http://bit.ly/1pcN17j

This has yet to have all the Achievement Objectives added into it, working on the last one which is English. This has to go through some manipulation before I can add it in due to the Indicators that are included within the English curriculum 

This has got me interested in this area and I am starting to explore what other possibilities there are. Maybe an integration into POND?

Expression Web

Having a look around this morning on the net I came across a new curriculum that Microsoft has developed. It is based on there product Expression Web. As well as this is available through the Microsoft Academic Alliance, High School Edition

"Your Learning Guide to Expression Web" provides a convenient method to learn valuable Web development skills using Microsoft® Expression® Web. In this self-paced, 55-page tutorial, you will learn the basics of using Microsoft Expression Web and build a creative, dynamic Web site from scratch with the design tools that IT professionals use.

While creating a Web site about laptop computers using Expression Web, you will:
• Learn about ASP.NET
• Create page layouts with layers
• Incorporate images
• Format text with Style Sheets
• Use CSS with other elements
• Design and use Master Pages
• Create links
• Include an interactive calendar

You will be able to apply what you discover in this tutorial to create many styles of Web sites.

This tutorial can be used as a stand-alone resource or to accompany the "Expression Web Curriculum for Pre-collegiate Students" (listed below as a related item).
Copied from: https://www.academicresourcecenter.net/curriculum/pfv.aspx?ID=7209

The curriculum link are available here https://www.academicresourcecenter.net/curriculum/pfv.aspx?ID=7208

Details of the curriculum

The "Expression Web Curriculum" is a Microsoft teaching and learning tool for high school Web development students. The curriculum unit (with lesson plans) was designed and tested by high school teachers for high school teachers and students.

The NETS (National Education Technology Standards)-based activities guide students to answer an essential question, conduct research, and communicate their learning by building a Web site.

The curriculum unit can be customized to focus on technology integrated with a variety of curricular areas and is adaptable for collaborative team projects. About 10-15 hours of class time is needed to complete the activities. It requires the tutorial, "Your Learning Guide to Expression Web," which is available as a related item listed below.

Essential Question posed in the curriculum:
"What electronic device (e-cessory) has had the greatest impact upon your life or the life of your friends, family, or community?”

Learning Tasks:
Students will identify an “e-cessory” to research and create a Web site to communicate their learning. The content of the research will include identifying four events in history, inventions, or people that have led to the need for, and development of, their chosen “e-cessory.”

The tutorial will guide students in developing a fairly simple Web site about laptop computers. The tutorial topic serves as a model for the type of information students might want to research on an electronic accessory of their choice. After completion of the tutorial, students can either use it as a template to insert in the information they discover or create a Web site from the “ground up”, incorporating what they’ve learned and adding additional features they learn about from the other readily available resources from Microsoft.

Our major goal in developing this curriculum unit is to provide Web development teachers with lessons for teaching creative, state-of-the-art Web development.

The new versus the old

This appeared in the nzherald describing the new versus the old curriculum.

I wonder how relevant it will be in the next couple of years when it has changed.

Technology and Key Competencies

The Relationship between Technology and the Key Competencies

Technology, as an essential learning area, has a responsibility to work with all other learning areas, to ensure the key competencies are mediated into the classroom curriculum. The capabilities captured in the identified five competencies are all essential underpinning capabilities for the development of a technological literacy that is broad, deep and critical, in nature, and one that will result in increasing student empowerment for future citizenship.

Key competencies cannot be developed or evidenced outside of a context. Technology provides a range of diverse contexts, where students can develop their capability with regards to these five foci as well as use these capabilities to support their learning in Technology. In this way, technology-specific learning intentions and the competencies become integrated within the learning environment.

All aspects of Technology education would support and be supported by an increase in sophistication across the key competencies. Examples of how the key competencies are embedded within technology learning experiences are discussed below.

Relationship: Thinking

Critical and creative thinking are essential in Technology education, as is the development of a high level of awareness of the nature of thinking underpinning any decisions. Being able to step back from a situation and answer questions such as ‘what is happening?’, ‘why is it happening?’, ‘should it be happening?’ and ‘how could it be done differently?’ rely on sophisticated thinking skills.

These thinking skills are required across all three strands of technology education. Such thinking is essential for making informed decisions that are based on ethical, as well as functional grounds, allowing for an understanding of fitness for purpose, as well as explorations of the fitness of any stated purpose. For example, opportunities for the enhancement of such thinking are clearly identifiable when:

• undertaking technological practice within innovative problem solving situations;
• understanding the nature of technology through exploring examples of existing technological outcomes or developments, debating contentious issues, or projecting into alternative scenarios; and
• developing key technological knowledge that is then used to evaluate within technological modelling, or to explain how and why products and/or systems work.

Relationship: Using Language, Symbols, and Texts

The specialised language of technology provides significant opportunities for enhancing students’ competency in using language, symbols and texts. This will be reinforced through informed technological practice where critical evaluation, as part of ongoing experimentation, analysis, testing and final evaluative judgement, requires students to understand specialised language, symbols and texts. They will also need to use such language to explain and justify their thinking across a diverse range of contexts.

Because Technology draws knowledge and skills from across a range of learning areas, and additional disciplines, it allows students to appreciate how and why language, symbols, and texts differ across disciplines and contexts, and why what is thought of as accepted knowledge and skills, also differs across disciplines and contexts. Understanding these differences supports students in their ability to interpret and use language, symbols and texts in appropriate and informed ways in their own lives.

Relationship: Managing Self

When undertaking their own technological practice, whether individually or as part of a group, students are required to develop self management skills in order to effectively plan ahead and manage resources efficiently. The ability to understand and undertake technological practice that takes account of wider social and physical environmental factors allows students to develop a strong sense of self, and recognise how they can manage themselves within and across a range of life situations inside and outside of formal education communities.

Relationship: Relating to Others and Participating and Contributing

Technology programmes provide opportunities to develop ongoing and mutually beneficial community relationships critical for developing student competency in relating to others and participating and contributing. Because of the inclusion of a range of knowledge and skill bases in Technology, both technological and those from other disciplines, it is common practice in Technology education to draw expertise from the community and/or industry. Inviting people in as valued experts provides a meaningful opportunity for the development of relationships with a range of people from local and extended communities. Students also often work alongside service organisations, local businesses and other community groups to meet an identified school or community need. This type of working relationship allows all parties the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the ethics, beliefs and understandings of respective groups and individuals, and thus enhance future interactions.

All technological practice and resulting outcomes are situated in specific social and physical environments, resulting in both opportunities and constraints. Conflicts and the need for collaboration are common factors that students in technology have to deal with. In turn, students become empowered to operate across a wide range of social groups. This is key to increasingly sophisticated technological practice, and the development of a broad and critical understandings of technology’s role in contemporary society.

copied from http://www.techlink.org.nz/curriculum-support/tech-key/page2.htm

New Curriculum

By the end of this week, New Zealand Schools will have a new curriculum that will be released by the New Zealand government that is to be taught in all schools by 2009. I look forward to seeing how the key competencies have been written and how the technology curriculum has been presented. Also I wonder what aspects of ICT have been included.  

Technology Curriculum - NZ update

For your information:

I wish to tell you about what kind of second tier support will be available initially to support the release of the finalised technology curriculum later in 2007. Please share this information across your communities.

Upon release of the finalised New Zealand curriculum, support for technology will include a package of support materials online at Techlink (www.techlink.org.nz) and hopefully on TKI. This will be in the form of an interactive website with hyperlinks between achievement objectives, indicators of progression, explanatory papers and case studies of current practice.

The first phase of this will coincide with the release of the curriculum most likely in September or October 2007.

The website will include the following:

1. Explanatory papers – one for each of the eight components across the three strands.

• These are clear descriptions of the each component, suggested examples from technology, and suggested learning experiences with a discussion of what student achievement might look like at different levels within different contexts.

2. Draft Indicators of Progression papers: One for Technological Knowledge and one for the Nature of Technology.

• This work was developed from the Ministry of Education contract for research into the two new strands, 2005-2007.
• Each paper looks at the components within the strand, and provides indicators of how these may progress from level 1-8. This progression is based on the achievement objectives of the curriculum.
• Each paper includes a component description (and a cross reference/hyperlink to the explanatory paper), and a description of possible supporting learning environments that might assist student achievement at each level.
• The indicators and supporting environment descriptions for Technological Knowledge and the Nature of Technology are in draft. These will be trialled and revised as part of a three year research project funded by the Ministry of Education.

3. Indicators of Progression paper: Technological Practice.

• This work was developed by Compton and Harwood, from research undertaken during 1999 – 2003, and has resulted in a set of indicators for each of the components of technological practice. This work has been made available to support the reviewed technology curriculum.

4. Discussion Document – Background Information on the New Strands

• This paper has been written to explain the thinking behind the two ‘new’ strands (Nature of Technology and Technological Knowledge) that have been developed as a part of the reviewed technology curriculum.

5. Discussion Document - Design Ideas for Future Technology Programmes.

• This paper suggests a set of principles that could underpin programme design within schooling in keeping with the direction of technology education. This paper supports programme design within schooling that is in keeping with the aim of technology, that of developing a New Zealand student technological literacy that is broader, deeper and more critical in nature.

6. The best practice case studies on the Techlink website will be continually added to over 2007. These case studies are of student work, teacher’s practice and programmes and industry practices in technology.

7. Papers giving guidance to schools for delivery of technology programmes based on the new curriculum.

• This guidance will include implications for Primary, Intermediate and Secondary schools regarding the form and function of quality technology programmes.
• As this advice needs to be in line with general guidelines from the Ministry of Education it is likely that these would be developed later in 2007 or in 2008.

Finally, I would like to invite further feedback from you as to what other support for the technology curriculum might be useful for schooling further down the track.

email address provided

Regards Geoff Keith

Senior Advisor Technology Ministry of Education.

My Notes: One of the things I would like to see is clusters getting together to discuss this, kind of like the introduction to NCEA that we had 5 year ago. that is one of the only ways that this type of new curriculum document will get owned by the teachers. Discussion with others, not Discussion documents is what is needed.