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!