DAY 4: Dealing with Data

Focus: Share - Tohatoha

What a great day of Sharing and Learning!

We deep dived and explored Google Forms, Spreadsheets and Maps.

Using these particular Google tools was a first for me, and caught my curiosity and attention. 

MYMaps included simple exercises of pinning locations, using a measuring tool and uploading data from a google form database to the map. We all came up with different and FUN ways that this tool could be used; Create a map for your community, Create a route, Measure Distance and Area, Mobile Maps to name a few. 
The following is a map I created, and the pins displayed our DFI Teams best holiday destinations. I've also pinned my walking route to work. 



Some of my learning included Google Sheets by using pivot tables to summarize data, making it easier to understand all information contained in a spreadsheet. You can analyze large amounts of data and narrow down large data sets to see the relationships between data points. We were introduced to different students blogs to see how the data of posts and locations can be analysed and displayed in different ways. I looked at a student from Point England School blog post data. The column graph below that I created on google sheets, shows the monthly data. From looking at this graph you can tell that this student may have taken part in the Summer Learning Journey; having shared 29 blog posts during
January 2019. Fabulous effort!




As the week goes on I feel I will be titivating this blog as there was so much information to process. A big thank you to the wonderful facilitators and sharing their knowledge and experiences.

Mauri ora,

Tracy

DAY 3: DFI - Media

      

The Manaiakalani Pedagogy: Learn Create Share

Today we focused on Create. Anne Sinclair presented the Novel, Creative and Education paradigm with great gusto! One of the foundation goals of Manaiakalani programme is to; 'motivate our learners to engage with the curriculum' as creators of content, not merely consumers.

Empowering through creative knowledge:

choice

information and knowledge

developing skills

building capacity

scaffolding

Collaboration, communication, creativity

Facilitator Kent Somerville dived into Live Streaming youtube, and explored Youtube; Youtube Channel, and Create Playlists. Exploring three sides to Youtube: Consumer, Create Live Stream and Create a studio. I will definitely be revisiting these tools to embed my knowledge and skills! I particularly enjoyed creating Playlists, the possibilities are mind blowing both personally and professionally, accessing and sharing information with colleagues, parents and whanau.

Google drawing tips and tricks was shared by facilitator Amie Williams. Digital art offers a myriad of opportunities to create mind maps & flow charts, digital drawing and more...

Google Slides was FUN! and shared by Maria Krausse. We had an opportunity to create an animation.

It was suggested to keep it simple which resonated with me, and to use a consistent theme throughout each slide. Google slides is a tool to create presentations from scratch or from a template, where images, video, audio, shapes, tables, charts, diagrams, word art and animations (as above, my very simple attempt at animation) can be added. There are also different sharing options available, and slides can be embedded into blogs and websites.

Thanks for such an informative and enjoyable day.
Mā te wā,
Tracy

DAY 2: DFI - Workflow

WOAH! What a full day of Ako, learning about Google Keep, Hangouts, GMail, Calendar, Scheduling, and taming tabs, chrome extensions - OneTab & Toby Mini just to name a few. 
I learned to:

• Send an invitation via calendar to join a Hangout meeting and vice versa
• Utilise Tools for curation, to manage and use GMail, Tabs, folders...
• Present a picture/doc and discuss; e.g. sharing and discussing an interesting blog post
• To ensure that my microphone was turned off while the other parties were presenting otherwise everyone in the meeting would hear me
• To record my presentation talking my audience through a blog post. I definitely need more practice around this to ensure I will do it with confidence next time.

I can see the Manaiakalani goal increasing my confidence and using digital tools for effective planning and teaching for learners is becoming evident here. This strategy would be useful to  present a new learning point for all learners by using a picture or site and then discuss further. 

Lanva Shearing’s presentation highlighted the parallels between digital and pedagogy working together. To Recognise effective learning enhanced by digital practice. Amplify was definitely put into practice today giving and getting information - with the sharing of information through digital search and reading and sharing our practice. Amplifying effective practice. Turbocharge is an opportunity to discover new ways of learning and hook learners 'ME' in! Take what we know and moving it to a digital environment. 

Kia a pai to ra,
Tracy

Day 1: DFI - Awapuni School

The day started with group introductions, and an overview of the DFI history, which built a contextual insight and helped increase my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy. This kaupapa helped to ease my anxiety being a newbie to Google Docs. This gave me confidence that my own digital learning will continue to develop long after 9 weeks of DFI. The facilitators devised and shared smart strategies to support one's professional learning and strived to inspire collective efforts.

Navigating Chrome and Google was an experience. Setting up my user profile was fun, uploading my photo and name creating an element of professionalism. The toolbox of Docs shortcuts and tricks was enlightening for this novice. Utilising the keyboard opposed to the toolbar was very cool, for years I have watched my own children do this and I wondered how do they know that command+shift+C translates to word count or bold text translates to command+B. Pretty simple stuff. But, then came the afternoon tasks; making posters and blogs? These tasks were way beyond my skill set, hence why I am writing this piece in the evening at home. 

I realise that developing my tech knowledge and skills will enhance my new role as Learning Support Coordinator ECE. By utilising Google Docs in collaboration with our community of learners - working together productively, communicating with tamariki, and their families which will instill a sense of identity, purpose and resonate for successful learning outcomes for all.

Nga mihi
Tracy