Hapara Champ - Highlights

Okay, so I have decided to try adding more to my list of things to achieve this year (not like teachers don't have enough). 

I have used Hapara for around 5 years. It is interesting how it has grown, and I didn't really notice all the new developments as they came about. Doing this course, Hapara Champion has drawn my attention to them. 

After completing the Digital Fluency Intensive course (DFI) in 2018, I knew more about Hapara. However, I didn't understand that Hapara was created in New Zealand, with New Zealand schools in mind. 

This week is about getting started in Hapara. 

Highlights

As part of the Hapara platform, I have enjoyed using it for checking in on students and ensuring they are doing the right thing at the right time. This can be done through Highlights.

Through highlights teachers can:

• Browser Tabs - this shows the pages students have open and what they are working on
• Current Screen - shows an image of the screen students are working on (slightly delayed)
• Snaps - takes a photo of what students are doing (evidence of being in right place and at the right time)
• Schedule - you can schedule times when students have access to particular sites or not

These 4 are all located on the left of the screen in highlights.

On the right of the screen, there are more useful tools which include:

• Groups - this is great for sorting students, whether it be for a subject or table groups
• Sort - this lets the teacher sort the tiles of students; by first name or last name and A to Z
• 5 items - this allows you to change the number of items you are viewing

The part in Highlights I have learnt about doing this course is Activity Viewer. There are 3 sections in the Activity View; Class Activity, Unique Activity and Collaboration. You can view who has been on which google app or which sites, indicating who is on task and who may need more assistance and who has been working together. 

My favourite feature is the message button. You can send a message to a particular student, group of students or an individual student. This way we can encourage them, redirect them to a specific site or send them a reminder to return to the task.

Through Highlights, you can share links to help students get started on a new piece of learning. Use Guide Browsing to help direct students to specific sites (focus session) or filter out sites (filter session). You can use these functions to include up to 10 different links.

I am going to try to use the Activity view more to see who needs help more quickly.