DFI Day 2 Workflow

The day started very positively for me, compared to the way I was feeling at the end of Day 1.  A few questions that I had were answered within minutes!

Hapara hot tips

I have not made good use of Hapara previously, however I now see how useful it could be to be able to see every class when they are in the library .

• I still have to work out how to use a split screen.

Ako, Hanga, Tohatoha

Dorothy Burt provided more valuable insights into the rationale behind the kaupapa of Manaiakalani.  The “Learn Create Share ” are the floorboards of the whare, what we can see and stand on.  She used a lovely analogy of the railway line with its two tracks; The LHS being effective teaching leading to accelerated learning and the RHS being teachers and students at home in the digital world.  Digital toools alone will not result in accelerated learning.  We don’t throw the baby ( effective practice ) out with the bathwater.

She spoke about the need to Recognise effective practice , Amplify teaching using digital tools and Turbocharge the learnng. RAT

Effective practice has been described by much research including by Wolf Fisher, an external network, where the actions of teachers with students making the most progress are pinpointed.

R: The MOE determines the what and how of the curriculum but in our own schools we need to establish what learning looks like for our students, articulate it clearly and align teacher actions.

A: Use technology, sharing what works with other teachers eg professional blogs. Check out “Lesson Bites”

T: Use digital tools to connect with more (SAMAR model) Rewindable learning is the most significant element of turbocharging. It’s not necessarily a whole lesson but snippets, bites or key elements.  I can see the relevance of recording online the operating instructions for sewing machines, procedures etc in the soft materials tech classes where much of the vocabulary etc is foreign to our students. This will be my first challenge in creating some rewindable resources.

In summary; the use of technology

• removes barriers
• provides solutions to inconceivable problems
• creates opportunities for learning

Google Meet

Michele Tate explained the benefits using view only live screening when teaching from home.

There are three ways to access google meet;

1. meet.google.com
2. gmail
3. calendar

The skinny snowman is how to access background and effects

I don’t feel at all confident with this application yet.  Sharing my screen is still a bit of a mystery and I will seek support with this. This is obviously a very useful tool for online PD and perhaps seeking support from a colleague (being able to share screens and talk to it)

Google Keep

Stacey Salton showed us how to pull text out of an image in Keep and move it to docs by saving the website to Keep and then dragging the text back to a doc.

Again, I’m not sure if I would use this myself but I can see that it might be helpul to be able to support senior students who may be doing research in the library and preparing a report. 

Also perhaps to modify a text for differentiated learning.

Gmail

Many helpful tools were explained in this session.  In time I will make use of some of them. In fact this is probably a priority in terms of time saving and being organised with systematic filing and being able to retrieve relevant emails quickly. 

Learn the shortcuts!

Calendar

This is a very useful app which I already use in fairly basic fashion.  I could nearly do away with my paper diary!

Taming Tabs

Having too many tabs open can really slow down the working of the device.

• Show learners how to bookmark TABS
• can remove the words and just use icons (tune icon – can put it anywhere. Star goes to the end of the list)
• Rt click on the TAB to see the options eg to PIN tabs

Use Googles priority workspace in Google DRIVE for docs that you want to have easily accessible.

Use Reading Lists for sites that you want to revisit frequently, instead of bookmarking.  This will be very useful in the library for sites such as booksellers or reviewers (eg Bookhub) that I refer to often.

However I didn’t catch how to make a reading list so that is a definite follow up.

Follow up!  Reading Mode –  great to be able to extract text without ads but I haven’t found it yet. Under more!

Saving the best till last! Control Shift T goes back to a tab closed by accident (or inapropriate site!)

A timely reminder about being Cybersmart

It’s not only children who need reminding. Your online footprint is

• personal
• visible
• and amplified

Practice session

We finished the day with a session to set up a Google Meet with another participant to share a verbal critique of a student’s blog from his Summer Learning Journey.  The aim of this was to demonstrate the benefits of blogging.

Aspects to consider when commenting

1. The teaching design behind the student’s post
2. The learner’s response to the task set
3. Who responded to the post, and how did this support the experience of the blogger or contribute more to the learning of the child?

There was no learning intention detailed in the post I chose. I surmised that the task was to use imagination, combined with research and digital tools to create an imaginary creature combining the attributes of one or more real animals.

I thought that the student combined imagination with prior knowledge and/ or research of the biology of his animals to create a creature with the attributes of both animals (camouflage, deception, hunting etc). There was no explanation of how the knowledge used was gained. His digital image demonstrated a sense of humour, creativity and proficiency with the digital tools. He had a very clear explanation of his reasoning. I thoroughly enjoyed this post.

However, I needed a lot of support to use the tools we were supposed to be practicing and I am really not sure that I could do it again independently. I lot more learning and practice is required including how to attach the video recording of our meet.