Digital Fluency Intensive - Week 4 Reflection

Today was a very cool experience, to say the least! Meeting with 32 other people from all across the country, all from the comfort (or in this case, confines) of my own home! It just shows the wonders of modern technology and what we can achieve, even in the midst of a national and global crisis.

I was reminded today, during Dorothy’s opening presentation this morning was the fact that we have been sharing for centuries. From drawings which lined the walls of caves, to ancient scrolls, this isn’t anything new to us. Sharing is such an empowering experience for our kids. Whether it be sending a wee 5 year old down to the principal’s office when their story is finished, or an intermediate school student with a goal of 1500 blog posts in a calendar year. If we teach our students the importance and significance of sharing their learning, we instill in them a sense of significance and achievement which will set them up for success in life.

The session on Google Forms was really beneficial to me. Our school uses Forms a lot for the purpose of student surveys, and I have learnt some handy tips which will help to make the surveys more efficient and exciting for the kids who fill them out.

Before today I had never heard of MyMaps. How cool is it though?! I had a lot of fun plotting out all the places which were significant to my life and loved that this was possible by these means. I am looking forward to teaching measurement this year, as I can already think of cool ways in which this product can be used to teach children about this aspect of maths. Taking a deeper look into Sheets with Gerhard was also a great experience. I am quite comfortable with the basics of Sheets, mostly thanks to YouTube tutorials in the past (lol) having been my teacher. Having said that, there was a lot that I was able to take away from the extension session. The use of macros and conditional formatting in my class’ learning log will be really helpful in ensuring that my students only ever edit their own row and don’t accidentally (or otherwise) edit someone else’s link to their work. What a handy tip to know?

Learning some new formulas and ways to manage data with Sheets was a really helpful experience. I do some volunteer work at a kids camp during the holidays from time to time, and as part of the camp there is a canteen which the kids and other volunteers can purchase food and drinks from over the course of the camp. In the past there have been issues and struggles with keeping track of money which comes in, along with totalling and deducting the set amounts of money that the campers start with at the beginning of the week. I was able today to have a fiddle around with some formulas on a Sheet, and am confident that I have come up with a way in which we can manage the money coming in and out without the need for manual totalling at the end of the day, like has happened in the past and to date!

Again, today was a great experience, and one which filled me with a lot of pride, having been part of. The fact that we are still able to meet and do professional development by this means is a fantastic achievement, and a great demonstration of the good ol’ Kiwi ‘can-do’ attitude in action. Looking forward to the rest of the sessions of DFI!

Digital Fluency Intensive - Week 3 Reflection

Another great session today, filled with the usual ‘bits of gold’ that I’ve come to expect over the last 3 weeks. There was a bit of a different feel to the course today with half of the group joining in via Google Meet. I suppose this is an example of the wonders of modern technology on display, and great practice for us for if and when Covid-19 has affects our ability to meet as a group.

A particular area which I’ve been reflecting on over the course of this week, both during today’s session and also in a staff meeting which Gerhard facilitated at our school on Tuesday afternoon is the Create aspect of Learn - Create - Share. I think it is natural for us to focus our attention towards the Learn aspect of this pedagogy, whereas I have come to understand the importance of allowing students to put into practice the learning that they have been taught over the course of a session. A particular part of today's session which piqued my interest was the use of Google Drawings and Slides for the purpose of creating. Teaching Digital technologies, I can already imagine ways in which I could get my learners to put the theoretical skills they’re learning into practice in simple ways using the Google products.

I really enjoyed Dorothy’s presentation around the use of Slides for the purpose of presentations. Her process of using post-it notes for the purpose of planning each slide is a brilliant idea and it’s definitely something that I’m interested in doing with my own presentations in the future. Also, the idea that a person’s take away from your presentation being able to fit in a tweet is brilliant. I get my students to make slides presentations for different parts of their learning in class, and I think it’d be great to use some of the ideas from that presentation in order to help them improve the visual appeal and overall quality of their work.

As I said, I think the use of Google Drawings and Slides for the purpose of animations is definitely something I’m going to look at during my tech classes. We don’t have access to fancy animation software, but I think this is a great alternative to teach the basics of animation and for the kids to have a go at creating for themselves. On the topic of creating, I enjoyed the chance to have a go at creating my Digital Pepeha.

  

I think Google Drawing has definitely been a feature which has excited me over the course of the last 3 weeks. My artistic skills definitely leave a lot to be desired, and so i have never really felt very confident when it comes to creating or drawing. However, Drawing has taught me that there are plenty of ways to create, even for those like me who aren’t particularly skilled in the area. I am looking forward to continuing to play around with Drawing and see what I can create!

Looking forward to next week’s session, whether we are able to meet in person or if we’re all forced to meet via Google Meet. Excited, nonetheless!

Digital Fluency Intensive - Week 2 Reflection

This week has been another great session, filled with a number of tricks and tips to make not only my teaching but also my day-to-day life easier with the help of clever technology.

I have been reflecting on the Learn - Create - Share pedagogy this week and trying to think of ways in which I can change my practice to match up with it’s principles. An example of this is taking the step into sharing planning and files on my class site. I have come from a teaching background where class files and planning was stored on Drive, with only specific people given access to see and contribute. There are pros and cons to this approach, but I do believe that having it readily accessible to those with a link is the best way to go. Not only is it easier, logistically, but it also builds accountability and encourages me to ensure that I am preparing quality planning for the sake of quality teaching and learning.

Tricks and tips when it comes to Gmail and Calendar will definitely make things easier for my day-to-day life. There have been times in recent weeks where I’ve needed to be at home looking after my family where I have missed meetings or been unable to catch up with my students. Hangouts/Meet has solved this issue for me, and I am excited about being able to use this in the future to solve this issue.

I think the biggest take away for me, in light of current events around us, is the way in which we can use Hangouts/Meet in order to allow teaching and learning to happen, even if we end up not being able to be at school together. A lot of what I do in the classroom already would be able to still continue with the help of these features. I think, too that this is great for when in the event that students are unable to be at school for whatever reason. I had a student in my class this week who emailed me asking for work to do at home and saying she wasn’t able to make it to school in the morning due to a doctor’s appointment in the middle of the day. Hangouts/Meet would have meant that she was able to participate in class anyway. I will definitely look to make this part of my practice wherever I can.

I’m very much looking forward to being able to use Keep for the purpose of grocery shopping! Often, my wife sends me a long list of items to buy via text, which often makes the process stressful! The process of having to copy and paste the list from the text message to a new note on my phone is an arduous task, and one which is no longer needed with the help of a shared shopping list on Keep. I have set up the location function with my local Countdown too, which I’m sure will help me to stop “Dad brain” letting me forget to get the shopping!

For our Create session this afternoon, we had to get into groups of 2-3 on a Google Meet and record ourselves speaking about a student's blog post which we chose. We had planned on using the 'record Meet' function on Google Meet, but this wasn't working. So as a work around, we used Quick Time player to record ourselves instead. Sadly, we also forgot to enable to the microphone on the device before hitting record! Oh well, you still get an idea of the task from the recording here;

Already looking forward to what next week will cover!

Jeremy

Digital Fluency Intensive - Week 1 Reflection

 I had a great first day at the DFI course today. 

I can recall hearing about Manaiakalani briefly in the past during my time studying at Laidlaw College. At the time, there were lecturers and staff who were involved with the programme, and so I came to know a bit about what was going on. I also knew friends who did placements in schools part of the programme who had such positive things to say about it. I remember hearing about the community WiFi initiative and can recall finding myself amazed that such a concept could work in reality. The organisation is doing great things for children and whānau in our country, and I am excited to be a part of it in a small way. 

I have always considered myself to be reasonably proficient when it comes to digital fluency, but it has been great to learn little tricks and ‘timesavers’ here and there, which I know will help me in my day-to-day use of devices in my class. Tools such as the Add ons and extensions which we were shown in the breakout session are great and will definitely be looked further at, with the goal of incorporating them into my classroom practice.

Functions such as the explore capability in Docs, and the feature which allows the assigning of comments look really handy, and I am already beginning to think of ways in which I could have them a part of my student’s learning experiences. Also, I had never thought of the possibility of using Docs for the purpose of Graphic design. Using tables to lock text and images into cells is a fantastic idea, and one which opens up new creative possibilities to students who don’t consider themselves particularly creative. 

Here is my Create task from today's session. I decided to make a poster to do with our school's PB4L system.

Having grown up with Microsoft products at school, I am definitely more accustomed to using these products as my ‘default’. Having said that, today has taught me that Google products, along with extensions and add-ons can be just as, if not more effective.

I’m very much looking forward to what the rest of the course has to offer. 

Jeremy