Digistore overview for teachers

This guide profiles a collection of digital resources and activities called Digistore that is available to schools and their students. There is a wealth of materials within the site to help enrich the work you are doing within your classroom.

How do I access Digistore?

The collection of resources called Digistore can be accessed by going to http :// digistore . tki . org . nz

While you will be able to browse through the Digistore contents and search for specific topics, you will need a log in to be able to open a specific resource. On the homepage of Digistore, use the login button from the left hand navigation, under the heading ‘My Account’.

Registered schools have one username and password for staff, but you are able to apply for an individual login as a teacher so you can create and store your own personal learning pathways. To request an individual password or to be reminded of your school's login details please contact digistore@tki.org.nz.

What can I find in Digistore?

Digistore contains digital learning objects and digitiesed items from New Zealand and Australian cultural and scientific organisations such as Te Papa.

A learning object is a multimedia activity related to the New Zealand curriculum that helps students to develop key understandings in that curriculum area. Typically, they combine images, text, audio and animation to engage and motivate students and support their learning. The screenshot below is an example of a learning object where students have to solve eight challenges using literacy and maths skills to help Pirate Jack find the treasure. While this example is for children in lower primary school, there are learning objects for all levels of schooling including early childhood and senior secondary.

A digitised item is something housed in one of the cultural and scientific organisations that has been captured digitally (generally photos, audio or video) and then made available along with background information about the item. This is like being able to visit a museum from the comfort of your own home. These can be used to help develop understandings about our own and other cultures and to explore key areas of science knowledge. An example of a digitised object is the photo below which shows a Samoan fue (whisk) from the collections at Te Papa. Below the photo you can get further details about the object itself as well as cultural information on how this object is used within the Samoan culture.

Reproduced courtesy of Te Papa

How do I find things I’m looking for in Digistore?

Searches can be conducted by simply typing key search word/s or phrase into the search window on the home page.

You can use the ‘Map’ and ‘Timeline’ options next to the search bar to conduct a search for objects related to a specific location or objects related to a specific period in time.

There is also an ‘Advanced search’ option on the left hand side of the home page. The big advantage of the advanced search is that you can add filters to your search to reduce the number of results you get. These filters include: age level of the student, curriculum area, language of the resource (many are available in Maori and other languages), and type of resource (such as learning object). This could save you a lot of time.

You can also browse by learning areas to the left hand side of the Digistore home page. This will show you sub-categories related to this topic.

When you view the results of a search or click on a sub-category for a curriculum area, you will see a list of related objects. If you didn’t use the advanced search option, you can still narrow down the number of search results you can see by selecting what kind of resource you are looking for under the ‘Types of learning resource’ heading on the right of the search results and then clicking ‘Filter’.

When you are looking at the search results, you will see a title and brief description for each of the objects. The little icon to the left of the object title shows what kind of resource it is. To view more detail about a specific object, you can click on ‘View details’.

What information is available for objects in Digistore?

A learning object will have a screenshot of the object, a description of the object, and then the key learning objectives. A digitised object will have a preview of the object, a description of the object, and then bullet points that outline the educational benefit of the object for students. There is further information about both types of objects displayed below this such as related topics and the curriculum area it relates to but the top three sections will give you the most useful information. To open the object itself, click on the screenshot or preview and it will open in a pop-up window.

What is a learning path?

Learning paths are collections of your favourite learning objects and digitised resources that you build up as you use the site. You organise the learning paths you create into your own folders within Digistore. For example, you might have a learning path folder for a specific student or group. Inside that folder, you could have a learning path containing four learning objects to help with improving comprehension skills at the appropriate level and another learning path containing five learning objects to help the student/s improve their spelling.

When viewing an individual learning path such as the space example below, all the objects and resources are listed that have been saved to that path. For each item listed in the learning path, there is a preview of the item as well as a title and brief description. Clicking on the title of the resource will open up a window with more detail about that resource and then the resource itself can be opened from that screen.

How do I create a learning path?

When viewing the details of a resource that you want to add to a learning path, click the ‘Add to my learning paths’ button below the rating area for that resource.

In the next screen, you choose to add the resource to a folder of learning paths you have previously created using the drop down menu or to a new learning path folder by clicking on ‘Create new folder’. You can then further specify if the resource is to be added to an existing learning path within that folder or to a new learning path. You the click on ‘Save’ to add the resource.

In the example below, the resource is being added to Zoe’s folder and will be the first resource in a new learning path called Space. As there have been no learning paths saved previously inside this folder, there is no option to add the resource to an existing learning path.

Once you have created at least one learning path inside a folder, you will have the option to add a resource to an existing learning path or create a new one such as in the example below.

After saving to a learning path, you will be given the option to go back to the details page for the resource you just saved or to go to the list of your learning path folders. You can also access your learning path folders at any time by clicking on ‘My learning path folders’ under the heading ‘Browse learning path’ on the left.

How can my students easily access a learning path I have created?

Digistore generates a unique pin number for each learning path that students can enter to be taken directly to an individual path without needing to log in. You could keep this pin number visible near your computer to make it very easy to access the learning paths you create. You can see the PIN number at the top of each learning path.

To enter the PIN, students go to the Digistore website and then click on ‘Student pin’ under the heading ‘My account’.

This jumps them to a screen where they can enter the PIN for the learning path you created. Bookmarking this page will make it easy for your children to get to the right place. Once they have entered the pin and clicked on ‘Login’, the path will open and they will be able to access all the resources within in.

Another way to easily link to a specific learning path is to find the URL (internet address) for each of the learning paths you have created by clicking on one of your folders under the heading ‘My learning path folders’ and then clicking on ‘Edit’ under the title of a specific learning path.

I still have questions. Where can I get support on using Digistore?

There are two advisors that can provide you with further support on the use of the site. Their contact details are below.

Rochelle JensenDigi Adviserrjensen@waikato.ac.nz...............................................................

Suzie VesperDigi Advisersuzie.vesper@core-ed.ac.nz