Jacob Walker Professional Blog

So I have had my students have a small play with the website to see if they can access the content and help find any bugs or areas they think should be reworked. This was an interesting process and although I have designed the site to be a 3 click max experience, I still found students might need the site to be less scroll orientated. This presents some issues for me around the amount of content I have and how to get it into a more functional format, but it has made me look at how I can use HTML to add the features I want. Which in itself is a fun learning experience, recently I figured out how to use a carousel and have started looked at other more advanced (to me) functions. After this experience I know I need to look at forming a team to help get the build up to scratch. My next area for work is also around the content and creation. I have tried to make as much content as I can but because of this I feel it is potentially limiting the experience that could be given. I would hate t...

The website is live. I figured I am at a stage where I need to start having people critique and find bugs in my site. So I have opened it up to all who wish to critique. Below you will find a link to the site. If you find any areas you wish for me to have a look at please comment below and I will endeavour to answer your queries and fix any bugs you may find. Just to note however, as this task is monumental in the amount of content I need to create at the moment many of the sites pages do not go beyond the initial landing pages for each subject area. Inferencing is the only one nearly completed and some more may be ready by the time you read this. Please be steadfast in your accusations of lazyness as I am getting there with the content. What I need from you however is to check these few things - Can you access the work (all open to make a copy) - Can you see the videos (nothings wrong there hopefully) - Does the content you think meet the need by level - Are most areas 3 click ma...

Quick I need some makeup!!!!! just kidding, that won't help.... Filming has begun. When I say filming I mean I have started to create the tutorial videos for some of the key strategies being taught. However some areas I may need to consider - Do I need to get a haircut (Jokes but maybe wear a shirt to look more like a teacher) - Do I need to get a quality mic? I mean its not bad sound but its not great sound -Do I need a high quality video? Screencastify is great and useful but would people prefer quality - Should I script it to the max (Maximum script or more real life) - Should I find other teachers to do tutorials. Would students benefit from having a consistent teacher do the model or have a range of teachers to share their understanding? Food for thought whilst I create the content.

Enough moaning about content and other such issues. Building websites is still fun! I have always had a passion for a little graphic design and have after receiving a little push from my partner (as she said it looked boring) decided to revamp some of the plainer buttons on my site. I have created all buttons in google drawing and downloaded as pngs to give it a better fit. Most shapes were created using only the basic shapes functions. Check out my results below.

I don't want to start this post off on a downer but man is it hard to create quality content when under the pressure of time! My first idea for having a group of teachers to help collaborate with over how lessons might be approached and levelled has sort of fallen through. All though many teachers would like to help, no one seems to have the time to really get into it. So I am stuck here trying to create some lessons that will hopefully provide the benefits I so want out of this site. I believe I need the input from others as I feel the more experience and input I receive then the better the results will be. I will continue to endeavour to create and hopefully my content and lessons will be what people are after. My next steps will be to have to find a creative panel who can at least judge the quality of my lessons and provide feedback as to the positives and negatives and the next steps.

The website is now in its functioning stage with the bare bones being laid out and some of the surface features being added in. It has been fun designing and playing around with how the sight will look and feel. Mostly all content I have had to create by myself so this has taken a little bit of time but hopefully this will add the sites look and feel in a way that makes it standout as a tool. My next step is to get enough content so that I have a working demo. The site won't work well if I haven't got any lessons on it now will it!

This will be a fairly quick update of the happenings that have been going on in regards to my inquiry. So to top this list off. I have finally go some data!!!!! Let me repeat that.... I HAVE FINALLY GOT SOME DATA!!!!! This may seem like something I should have achieved last term or even in term one. Yet I have found there are consistent barriers to collecting data in my community. The list of blockers are as such  Time... Release time is rare and although my school does do it's best to support me through this process, if a single teacher is away it can derail any plans of progress I may have had. This is also in part what we are striking for so hopefully changes will be made.  However after a busy few weeks of ups and downs I have finally had a chance to sit down and nut out the workings of my website prototype. I have managed to get all pages made and I am in the process of finalising some of the technical aspects of explaining the language used in asTTle Ge...

This week I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend the Edtech Conference in Sydney. As I am currently working with the Mannaiakalani innovative teachers group we were all challenged to submit our application to present and to our surprise (my surprise) we were invited to attend and present. Over two days I was able to sit with some fabulous educators and look at and reflect on my use of digital technology and especially google applications within my own teaching practice. From this event I have managed to get some great takeaways which I would like to share. MY LIST OF TO DO IN THE CLASSROOM TOOLS Geo Guesser  link Google Quick draw Insert Learning Google expeditions Google earth (chrome version) Google Feud Google Cardboard Along with these tools I had a great look into how to use google earth in order to create a virtual tour of your school. So me being me, I created a site to share with my school and anyone who is interested about how you could add VR int...

Today has been a great time to reflect on how our inquiry is going and look towards our next steps. We started the day with a quick run through of What has been working, what hasn't and what our next steps are. What had been working for me was starting to gather resources outside of my collection. Although my issue at the moment is around data gathering as I have found this to be a big issue when trying to gather student voice and parent input. Using Google forms has been my go to, however I am now wondering if I will need to go into classrooms in order to gather enough data to get reliable results. I have also been thinking about whether my issue is an issue. Is my inquiry around test to task clarity the issue students are facing, or is it to do with the language used and students from other ethnicities needing a cultural and dialect link to the next learning steps/goals. After some serious discussion with other members in my school and some outside influencers I feel that thi...

Today has been another great day of design thinking and pulling apart our inquiry tools. My idea remains in the realms of building clarity between test and task, but with some tweaks towards a parent portal that sits with the student portal. I also need to look at how it can be used if testing does not take place (however it does challenge me to think schools would do no testing!) Unpacking the user interface and how it will look and feel was a great experience to help identify how my tool will meet the needs of my students and parents. Next steps for me are to arm myself with evidence to show my assumption is correct and I know I need to be designing my questions in a more accurate fashion so that I get credible reliable evidence. An all round great day for exploring our inquiry at KPMG Auckland, and right in the viaduct too! Such a lucky group.

This week I have been working on designing my website and sorting out the ebb and flow of the user experience. Looking at how students would use it and also how the tasks and designs can be accessed by parents and caregivers. The whole experience I have designed needs to facilitate easy access to tasks along with a multi modal design for rewindable learning. I also found through this design that I may need to design an entire Level area first as the base test for this sight. I believe aiming at level 2 will be the starting point to begin a trial for the site. The whole process I realise will take a fair amount of work and I believe that collaborating with other teachers about the tasks they use to facilitate the learning around these Learning objectives will be an important area I will need to access in order to deliver enough content to cover all levels. Step by step, getting closer now!

Well my year has started with a bang! Straight into setting Chromebooks up and making sure new students are enrolled and rolled into our system. Now onto Blog creation and maintenance. Really this new ICT Admin role is full on but I am falling into place with it. I also have the opportunity this year to teach robotics. This is a new area for me and I look forward to testing myself in a new subject area. One area of concern for this year so far has been the amount of students not turning up to school with chromebooks and also having no interest in buying one. Being a digital school this makes teaching and testing really hard, however we are looking at ways to engage with the community more about how to share these expectations before enrolment begin. I am looking forward to being part of the Mannaiakalani Innovative Teachers group and going to Sydney to do a presentation on my inquiry. I am continuing to build the AsTTle reading website and watch this space for more information arou...