Ubiquitous Learning

 Ubiquitous learning 

Anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. 

When we share all that we do in our classroom on our class site, we are opening a big beautiful door that has often been closed in a standard classroom for many years. Through the help of digital devices, we are able to open a window and take a sneak peak into what we do in our classrooms. This lets our learners, whanau, colleagues and anyone who is interested access to see all of the fantastic learning going on in the classroom. Not only does this strengthen the connectiveness of our learning community but it also makes learning accessible for anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. 

I have had a brief stint of experience working in a year 5/6 class at Wainui beach school as a reliever. When I walked into the class for the first day, the children showed me their classroom site, their groups activates, their time table and of course their learning. It truly was amazing to see just how well practised the students were. I simply followed their timetable, took the lessons that were scheduled and followed the learning intentions on the planning slides that their teacher had left them. The students were settled, focused, and motivated. It was like taking a sneak peak at the happy ending of a movie. It was clear that this pedagogy has been ingrained over time for the learners, and that both teachers in the space had a lot of digital fluency. But for me, as the reliever, it was a dream. 

I can really see the impact this would have on children's learning. Whenever I am out of my classroom, I try to often leave my planning and tasks for the reliever. I know how a lack of routine and programme (especially disruptions that are occuring frequently over time) can impact learning. Definitely something to think about for my Year 3 & 4 students. 

Today I took the time to complete a digital dig. It is the same tasks that my learners have done in class as well. It was a great way to cover the basics, and to learn those all important keyboard shortcuts.

We also looked at creating our own cybersmart lesson using slides to help. I found this really easy and fun to create.  Using screencastify was a great tool in order to talk about the purpose of the lesson, and my thinking behind it. I now can also add this onto my class site, perhaps under a button/section called early finishers for those students who have finished everything and need to do something productive.