DFI Session 6: Enabling Access - Sites

Gone are the days where schools only came together to compete against one another.....the introduction of the Manaiakalani Outreach made things explode into a world of collaboration where students, teachers and whanau share a common language. There is no reason now why any teacher should have to feel isolated or stuck on their own, as we have a massive community of colleagues who have all been brought together with the common goal of learning, sharing and creating together. I am stoked to be a part of it!

Our main kaupapa for today was looking at our class sites and seeing where we currently are in relation to the points below...

It was really beneficial to just have the time to sit and explore such a variety of sites. I found it really inspiring and motivating and I will definitely continue to do some more exploring and 'stealing' of ideas. The old saying of 'no need to reinvent the wheel' definitely applies and I just feel grateful to be part of this community. 

Below are my goals I set for myself for today in terms of my site and I was able to achieve them all...

-  Make our site more interactive  

- Apply the 3 clicks or less kaupapa (simplify things). 

- Make it appealing to whanau as well (link to fb, newsletters etc)  

My site is definitely still a work in progress but I feel more focussed about how I want to utilise it now. In the past my sites have pretty much just been a place where I organised all of the website links I wanted my students to be able to access easily. I now have a much better understanding of the possibilities and am planning to gradually start using it more and more as a living and breathing workspace. One thing I am a little bit confused about is Hapara versus Sites for setting work tasks. They both have their pros and cons and I think I will probably end up using a combination of them both. 

Here is a link to our class site...