CoLInquiryPLDPTC01PTC04PTC05PTC11PTC12SPARK MITVTaL and Student AchievementVTaL for StudentsVTaL for Teachers
VTaL : Impact Burst 2017!
What happened for the learners?
Learners Achieved!
Shift of Student Achievement in Senior DigiTech from September to November
The following diagrams show the shift in achievement in my Senior DigiTech class from September this year, to November.
The learners within my Senior DigiTech class include students undertaking either NCEA Level 1, NCEA Level 2 or NCEA Level 3. As well as being a multi-level class in terms of NCEA levels, the class is multi-ability at each year level. Within each of the year levels, only three students in the class had taken DigiTech as a senior subject in 2016, the previous year of learning. This impacts on prior knowledge of content, technical skills, and an understanding of technological practice which is required to achieve at curriculum levels 6 to 8 for NCEA. Three students also enrolled into the course partway through the year from abroad. A multi-level (of all three NCEA levels) and multi-ability NCEA class, is not common. This classroom structure includes a wide range of teaching and learning variables that potentially impact on student achievement. Identifying achievable teaching and learning strategies is instrumental in enabling student achievement to take place.
The colour codes represent the following; bright green (standard is moderated and achieved), light green (standard is on track to achieve if fully completed and moderated), orange (standard is a work in progress), dark gray (standard is not yet started).
VTaL and Accelerated Shift - Own Practice
The use of various VTaL tools enabled accelerated shift to occur for some of the learners in my Senior DigiTech class. The following image links to a description and evidence of accelerated shift in my own practice for one of the learners in my class.
VTaL and Accelerated Shift - Staff
It was awesome to see how VTaL has contributed to accelerated shift for students in other learning areas. This was reflected in the presentation that Lenva delivered at our recent staff meeting, whereby some staff indicated that different VTaL tools were used to accelerate shift in achievement with at least one of the identified learners in their class.
Click on the Full Screen option in the black panel to view the presentation in full.
What evidence do I have for this?
Student Feedback, Staff Feedback, Own Reflections
VTaL and the Impact on Student Achievement – Own Practice
The following are VTaL tools that have had a direct impact on student achievement in either my Senior DigiTech class, or Junior DigiTech classes this year. The impact on student achievement is either outlined by measuring NCEA standards achieved, or by student feedback explaining that the tool has impacted on their ability to achieve in the subject.
The following are VTaL tools that have had an indirect impact on student achievement by promoting student engagement, in either my Senior DigiTech class, or Junior DigiTech classes this year:
The following are VTaL tools that I am either trialling, or are yet to be trialled, and therefore requires time to gain evidence on the impact on student achievement:
Staff uptake of various VTaL tools
The following presentation shows the uptake of various VTaL tools by staff from Term 1 to Term 3 of this year.
Click on the Full Screen option in the black panel to view the presentation in full.
What did I do to make this happen?
Modelling Visibility and LCS, explicit Teacher Practice
Embedding VTaL Tools into my Subject Site
Modelling the use of VTaL Tools and Learn Create Share was achieved by embedding the various tools into my Subject Site, DigiTech with Ms Anderson, and ensuring all tools were visible at all times. Also, using my Subject Site as the main portal by which students access their learning was important.
Own Teacher Practice that directed students towards learning processes using various VTaL tools
It was really important that in my own practice, I was able to direct students towards the use of various VTaL tools with a particular achievement outcome in mind. For example, asking students to load work into a community is one thing, but directing students to the community, and explaining the use of the community as a portal by which to guide their own learning, is a deliberate action on my part that lead to the community being a useful tool that contributed towards student achievement. The same goes for Class Project Task Lists. I embedded links into calendar posts as well as embedding the Task Lists themselves into web pages in my site, and directed students to those links and pages, in order for students to make use of the VTaL tool. In this particular instance, the Class Project Task Lists gave students feedback about their current achievement within a project, and feedforward about what they needed to progress within a project.
Taking the Journey with Technology Staff
I spent time throughout the year with Technology Staff, helping to integrate VTaL into their teaching and learning programs for a specified senior class. Throughout this process, this enabled me to gain insight into some of the trials and tribulations that staff were experiencing associated with integrating VTaL into classroom practice. From this, we were able to identify different VTaL tools that could easily be integrated into teacher practice (shown in the image below), and further trialled during JumpStart and also in 2018.
Contributions at Middle Leaders Meetings
Through my own teacher practice, and also throughout my inquiry this year, I have been able to contribute and feedback into discussions at Middle Leaders meetings on a regular basis, about VTaL as well as ideas around Visibility and Consistency.
Creation of VTaL Resources - Google+, Site, StarterKit
The creation of different VTaL Resources such as the Google+ Community and Google Site, are platforms that I set up to share information and resources about VTaL, and enable others to share information, resources and feedback about VTaL as well. This has been a deliberate action on my part, to enable VTaL to be utilised beyond my own teacher practice.
Wonderings about what next?
More trialling, more refining, more sharing
More trialling
I am keen to continue trialling some of the VTaL tools that I either haven't used extensively yet eg. Workspaces, or that may have more potential to contribute directly (as opposed to indirectly) towards student achievement.
More refining
As updates occur within different apps that are used to develop VTaL tools (such as new or different functions and capabilities), the updates could enable the opportunity to refine existing VTaL tools for greater efficiency and use. An example of this is the updates to NEW Google Sites. The easier that an app is to use, may appeal to stakeholders to utilise these tools more extensively in teaching and learning. Sounds obvious, but when stakeholders invest time and energy into developing resources, it can sometimes be overwhelming to consider that updates that require significant change, may actually be more beneficial to learners and student achievement in the long run.
More sharing
There is a gold mine of information of great examples of teacher practice using VTaL by colleagues from throughout the year. I'm keen to catch up with these colleagues about the amazing work that they're doing within their teacher practice, and the impact that this has had on student achievement in their classes.
It's been an exciting and interesting year as far as my inquiry goes. I'm pleased to see the impact that VTaL has had within my own teacher practice in contributing towards student achievement. I'm also delighted to see the positive impact that VTaL has had with some of my colleagues who have generously shared evidence of their findings into the 'Visible Learning Accelerates Shift' presentation. In addition to this, that students are feeding back on the benefits that they see from different VTaL tools on their learning and student achievement, reflected in my blog posts labelled Feedback - Student Voice, and VTaL for Students.
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