The World Came to My Place Today (thanks to Manaiakalani)

The World Came to My Place Today ...

                                         

And just like that!  Here we are into our fifth week of the Digital Fluency Intensive here in Tairawhiti. Today's session saw us learning about the Cybersmart curriculum, how to use Chromebooks and iPads, as well as tools such as 'Explain Everything' and 'Screencastify'. 

Cybersmart curriculum

The importance of using positive terms and consistent vocabulary across classes and schools was raised.  Having had the difference between the term 'Cyber smart' and 'Cyber safe' made me reflect more thoughtfully about the language I will use from now on.  The Cybersmart Curriculum is about learners and educators being smart and empowered through the use of digital technologies.  Although a subtle difference in terminology, this message resonated with me.

Here's the link to my presentation about Smart Teens, a strand within the Manaiakalani Cybersmart curriculum.  In learning about this topic I was introduced to a range of valuable resources.  Of particular interest was the importance of knowing what personal information is available about you online, the need to respect that once an image or video is posted that it is permanent, and how mindful we must be about how we use and share our biometric information such as facial recognition, voice recognition and thumbprints.

Cybersmart Teens

Explain Everything

Today was my first time to experiment and learn about potential applications for the app 'Explain Everything'.  Although my trial version didn't afford the full functionality of the paid versions, today was a good opportunity to familiarise myself with the key functions.  I can see so many benefits of using such tools - not only is it making the learning more engaging, it is increasing visibility and providing teachers and learners with rewindable learning opportunities.  Not being a classroom-based teacher, I need to think more about how I could apply this to my professional life.

Here's the simple activity I completed about a book called The World Came to My Place Today.  Note the back to front map, still a work in progress ...

Key learnings

It is interesting to reflect on how much I have learned so far and I can feel a growing confidence in the use of Blogger, as well as how my broader knowledge is contributing to the effective use of digital tools.  For example, I can see how interactive tools which are engaging and empowering for learners recognises incorporates the elements of SISOMO introduced to us previously. 

Although I do confess to still feeling a little uncomfortable in front of a camera, it is becoming more familiar as we practice on Loom and Screencastify.  This course continues to open my eyes to a raft of apps and tools that support collaboration, save time and help share stories and projects with a range of audiences.  This applies across both my professional and personal life and I look forward to incorporating more of these each week.

Thanks to Manaiakalani for your vision, team and resources that truly do help bring the world to my place and many others each day.  'Til next week.  

Nga mihi, Jo

Maps, formaluae & data (it's more fun than it sounds!)

This week we focussed the start of the session on 'Share' and Stef spoke about the essential role that sharing and communicating has played since the beginning of humanity. 

To effectively communicate and share our stories and learnings we need to have an audience for it to be authentic.  The value of blogs in providing an authentic audience for learners and educators was discussed.

We spent time learning more about the following:

Google Maps
Dave Winter introduced us to practical applications for Google Maps through the use of MyMaps.  As a groups we discussed how others had already used this which included topographical maps to identify rivers and build understanding to water quality.

Here's an example of how I applied this to identify which schools are members of the Tairawhiti Manaiakalani Outreach.  I'm looking forward to applying this to a range of other areas too.

Google Forms
This is an efficient tool to capture information and collate data in an easily digestible format.  We spent time applying this to our own roles and here a sample form I designed today.

Google Sheets

Similar in many ways to Excel, I found this session helpful as we learned practical tips like how to freeze columns and rows (View, Freeze, 1 row or column), the ability to highlight the data set and the way that Google then automatically calculate commonly used equations like sum, average, minimum and maximum will be a real time saver.  Take out for me from this session was a real time saver - highlight the columns you want to resize the width of then adjust one and then all will be converted to the identical width set.  The ability to use formulae to colour code data sets is another excellent tip.

It was an emotional day as we paid our respect to those affected by the awful tragedy in Christchurch.

Thanks to everyone for your collegiality, warmth and presence.  

'Til next week, Jo

Channeling YouTube

15 March 2019

Today's session highlighted the importance of creativity.  Mindful of the importance of creating content and not simply consuming it, I found Kevin Roberts (former Saatchi & Saatchi) SISOMO a very useful framework to support future creativity.  SISOMO is short for 'Sight, Sound & Motion' and found me reflecting on previous presentations and how they incorporate these elements.  The conclusion was that there is an opportunity for sure, to amplify my messages through the use of effective audio and video files. 

Not being a classroom teacher, the context in which this was applied was a presentation about the Bikes in Schools Tairawhiti project.  Having received wonderful videos from teachers and principals I saw an opportunity to integrate these.

Today involved setting up a YouTube channel and customising playlists, as well as learning how to upload video clips to my YouTube channel and then insert that link into a Google Slide presentation.  I found this pretty exciting!  Here's a copy of the Bikes in Schools presentation here. Check out the drone footage of the Tolaga Bay Area School!  Thanks to Richard Tuhaka for the footage.
Oh and check out the new About Me gadget too!

Ahhh...the joys (and frustrations) of lifelong learning...

Learn I Ako

The focus of today's session was on the Learn (Ako) element of Manaiakalani's Learn, Create, Share model.  As I find myself happily in the learning pit again, I can empathise with learners of all ages seeking to gain new understanding about what can at times seem to be an overwhelming plethora of digital tools.  

It is energising to learn new content and to then put this to practice through the 'create' process and then to share this new knowledge.  There was more rich learning for me about the Manaiakalani kaupapa and key takeouts were:

• Digital learning is not about throwing the baby out with the bath water.  It recognises that nothing replaces great teaching but that with quality pedagogy and appropriate digital tools that accelerated learning and increased engagement can be realised.
• Effective practice with digital affordances creates an acceleration in learning.  

So many time-saving tips!

Building on from last week's deep dive into Google Drive and Google Docs, today's focus on Gmail and Google Calendar provided several practical ways to work smarter.  Setting up GMail so that functions like automatically adding events to Calendar help with time management and visibility.  Setting up appointment slots and gaining confidence with Google Hangouts, so too do shared calendars.  Today's Google Hangouts session was challenging, particularly with a few technical glitches with microphone and camera settings which took time to resolve.  But we got there (better late than never!).

Google Keep is another digital tool.  Having had an introductory 'play' with it some weeks back, it was good to learn how to pin notes and archive old items.  I hadn't used the Loom extension before and found it useful to learn how to record and then trim the video.


Extensions to help manage files and time more effectively are always welcome and today I added Toby Mini to my suite of tools.  Having previously used OneTab already, I  like how you can set up collections and customise it to curate tabs and related sites.

We covered a lot of information and I have a greater appreciation as to why this course has the word 'intensive' in its title.  This opportunity to learn new skills and improve my practice is energising.  I will be applying my deeper understanding of Gmail, Calendar and Hangouts with gusto!

Let's get this digital learning journey started

1 March 2019

After a little trepidation, today marked the first day of the Digital Fluency Intensive.  Excited by the prospect of developing my skills and confidence in digital tools, this day revealed several practical time-saving tools - always a bonus.

Key take outs from today included tips about Google Groups and collaborative inboxes.  Google provides plenty of opportunities to enhance collaboration and increase visibility amongst team members.

As a long-time Windows user, the overview about Google docs and some of the functionality (for example voice typing, sorting content by effectively using Headers were very useful and I could see how they would be put to use right away.

The ongoing challenge of taming my Google Drive was assisted with some proven systems.  The importance of setting up sharing permissions currently and how much time can be saved by saving the document in the correct folder in the drive at the start was another simple, yet effective suggestion.

The last session exploring some of the more creative tools available in Google docs saw me exploring infographics and building more confidence in formatting in Google.  It's early days, but the journey has started...