Nurturing a New Normal with Digital Fluency

Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai

Nurture the seed and it will grow

The context

Recently we celebrated a mid-way point with Frankton School to assess where we are, where we have come from and to offer an opportunity to shift the markers for where we need to go from here. It was a reflective meeting supported with data, teacher observations, senior leadership observations and wonderings and our own documentation and future recommendations. (Check out our process here). 

What Glynis Knox (the Assistant Principal) said in the meeting really resonated with us: “You know the change is here when it becomes the new normal.” 

She was referring to the fact that Year 3 students were making digital posters on Canva as if it ‘was no special thing’ and showcasing their work without it being difficult, hard or new. The digital fluency that was their annual target was becoming normalised, integrated, embraced and owned by the tamariki. It was a really special comment because it indicated that the changes were becoming embedded into the school’s identity, ‘this is the new way we do things’ and ‘this is us’. 

Meanwhile, in a Year 6 classroom, Connor Chesham’s students are exploring Anchor as a podcasting tool. His students are writing scripts, collaborating on the editing process, refining their scripts based on specific learning outcomes and even recording podcasts about wanting all teachers to be podcasting! The audio is so professional sounding and you can really hear the students’ confidence and pride in their mahi.

“We can really see the potential to be real-life journalists” says Connor. “The engagement has been massive.” And from the students, “It is so good to be able to hand in work outside of a book.”

In Whaea Jo’s class, the Year 4’s are starting their journey by creating brochures about Pirongia on Canva. In Miss Mooney’s class students are about to start an inference focus using hyper-journals. “The students have come a really long way and they realise that you can do amazing things even with relatively simple technology like Google Docs for example. They are accessing their learning easily and assuming navigator/driver models to help each other really naturally.” The peer support is echoed in other classes where the students are helping each other as ‘drivers and navigators’ and digital technology is not ‘scary or hard’. The range of tools used by classes is also growing to include iPad apps like MyStory and Puppetpals, interactive hyper-journals and interactive slides. Tayla Hobden’s Year 4’s are engaging with Google Slides using scavenger hunts to upskill with digital processes for reading groups. Megan Whitburn (Year 2 teacher) even has her students self-checking their learning on iPads with a personalised deck of Boom Cards and the Year 5’s in Holly Mason’s class are also investigating ‘best sentence’ models using magnetic poetry. Vickie Sue and Jess Weston are also exploring vocal recording for embedding writing and encouraging student reflections on learning. The learning is exciting and the energy is contagious.

The importance of the vision

This school had a thematic approach for the year. They chose a vision to work towards - ‘Digital Fluency’. The vision for change is anchored to a theme to make it easier to hold on to and to enable classroom teachers to use digital tools as a natural part of all learning programmes. 

Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and author of “The Willpower Instinct,” also endorses picking a “theme” for the year. That way, even if a particular habit doesn’t stick, the overarching intention will. This school chose ‘Digital Fluency’ and the team at Momentum Learning unpacked it into separate categories of leadership (leading with experimentation and collaboration), confidence (offering opportunities to grow together) and new digital tools (offering opportunities for staff to ‘play’ together to experience how students might explore new tools together with guidance). 

Doing something deliberate towards a goal or vision every day also resonates with James Clear’s Atomic Habits. He says, ‘Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.’ He, too, points out that nurturing a seed daily can grow the vision you want to blossom like the whakatauki that was chosen for this blog post.

Every day, do something that will nurture the seed.

With collaboration, clear intentions and the right kind of support, the seed will suddenly bloom and can become ‘the new normal’.