Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 9: Revision

We began this session with a talk about ubiquitous learning (anytime, anywhere, any pace).
We reflected on our readiness for ubiquitous learning during the lockdown:

What are you proud of?
Learning new skills quickly (such as using Google Meet and Screencastify) to provide quality distance learning during the lockdown period, and how well my team worked together to achieve this.

What do you regret?
I don't have many regrets from this time - perhaps that I could have prepared more rewindable learning for my reading, maths and writing pages on our class site. This is something I did more when we were back at school.

What will you be taking forward into the 'new' era of schooling?
Using the skills I have learned to come up with more fun, creative and engaging ways of teaching children, and providing rewindable learning more consistently across different subject areas.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 8: Computational Thinking

Today's session began with a discussion about equity and access to technology. Devices are not just a tool - they empower students and teachers and help to overcome barriers such as distance. We also discussed the future of technology and what it means for our tamariki. It was interesting to try out the self-driving car scenarios in the MIT moral machines activity and think about the ethics and morals of new technologies.

I have a small amount of experience with coding- it is an area that I would like to work on. We had time to explore a range of different coding programmes. I tried out Lightbot, which was very simple and would be ideal for beginners. I then created games of Flappy Bird and Minecraft by following instructions and using coding blocks. These activities would be very engaging for the children in my class and would be a great way to introduce coding.

We also had a go with using Gamefroot to put together a Mihi game. This was a bit more complicated and would be more difficult to teach, however it's a different way of presenting a mihi that I've never tried before.

I have attached screencastifys of the Minecraft coding and Gamefroot mihi coding.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 7: Devices

In today's session, we had time to complete tasks on a Chromebook and an iPad. This year, I am in a Year 3/4 space where the Year 3s use iPads and the Year 4s use Chromebooks, so it has been beneficial using both of these devices today to see learning from the kids' point of view.

I learned lots of keyboard shortcuts during the Chromebook session. I think the most helpful shortcuts I learned about today were Ctrl + L (to highlight the address in the omnibar) and Ctrl + 0 (to reset the zoom in/ zoom out function). Although I often support children to use their Chromebooks, I am not very used to using them myself, and it was good to be reminded how to use some of the basic functions, such as taking a full and partial screenshot.

                      

 Although I have used Explain Everything on iPad before, I am not very confident with all the different buttons, and usually have to play around with it to find what I am looking for. It was useful to have time to complete an activity on it today and become more used to it. I would like to use Explain Everything more frequently for follow up activities, and it was handy seeing people's ideas for Explain Everything tasks.

At the end of the session, we had to choose a Cybersmart lesson and create a Screencastify about the key messages, and how we adapted and repurposed it for children in our class. I used a lesson about Smart Media (Don't Fall for Fake) and added some visuals to aid the children's understanding of 'phishing'.



This year, I am in a Year 3/4 space where the Year 3s use iPads and the Year 4s use Chromebooks, so it has been beneficial using both of these devices today to see learning from the kids' point of view.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 6: Enabling Access - Sites

Today we continued to focus on Google Sites. We discussed the importance of visual appeal (like a shop window) to engage children, functionality and accessibility. It has been really helpful today to see examples of other class sites, and I have seen plenty of ideas that I would like to incorporate into my class site.

We were given time to work on our class site today. My goals were to tidy up the 'Monday Funday' and 'Inquiry' parts of the site, and to add some more resources that I have come across today.
To tidy up parts of the site, I resized, rearranged and restyled buttons to make the pages more clear and functional (see some of the buttons I created below). I added a couple of the resources that I came across today when looking at other people's sites, and I have more that I would like to add when I have more time.

At the beginning of this year, I adapted last year's class site, but after the last two DFI sessions I now know for next year how to create a new class site from scratch.

I have gained lots of ideas from this session, and I will continue to have a look at other sites to see how I can adapt and change my own site.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 5: Collaborate - Sites

In today's DFI session, we have covered Blog tips and Google Sites.

I frequently use Google Sites for our Team Toi Toi site, and have only learned what I know by having a play around with it, so there will be plenty more to learn. Before today I had never created a Google Site from scratch - I had only ever built onto pre-existing sites that someone else had made. By playing around with Google Sites I know how to create sub pages and buttons, and how to embed Google Slides etc. I currently have Reading, Writing and Maths buttons on my class site.

Here are the main points that I picked up from this session:

Blog 

• I have learned how to change the settings so that my live traffic feed and total page views are visible, and I have linked my class blog and class site to this professional learning blog. 
• I learned how to change the date/ time to NZ time, as I had noticed that it was showing the incorrect date and time when I created blog posts. I have also fixed this on our class blog. These tips were helpful, and I feel a bit more confident navigating the layout and settings of my blogs.

Google Sites

• Creating a site from scratch is really easy and can be done from in the Google Suite.
• I had never really scrolled down the tool bar to explore what other options and tools there were - so it was great to have a look and see what was there (such as image carousel)
• I explored the settings for the first time, and learned how brand images and logos can be inserted into the Site.

I have started to create a new site to have a play around with, which you can access here, and I will continue to apply my learning from today to my Toi Toi class site.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 4: Dealing with Data

Today's DFI session we have covered using Hapara, Google Forms, Google My Maps and Google Sheets. I have filled out Google Forms previously, however I had not created one before.

Here are the main points that I have picked up from this session:

• Hapara hot tip - can move the tiles with children's names on them around to move priority learners up the top and keep a closer eye on them.
• Google Forms: This was my first time creating a Google Form, and trying out the different question types, themes etc. This will be a useful tool to use with students and staff.
• Google My Maps: Learned about adding different layers. This tool will be useful when looking at where students and their families have come from, and when discussing world events. I will need to have more of a play around with this tool to feel more confident using it with students.
• Google Sheets: I use Google Sheets occasionally, and have mostly learned what I know through playing around (such as freezing columns and rows and resizing multiple columns). It was good to have a reminder of how to use the functions, as I don't use these often. When creating my chart about how many blog posts we make each month, I found it a bit tricky to show what the blue and red colours meant (labelling them as 2019 and 2020) - however after a play around I was able to figure this out.
• Recording screens on an iPad: This is something that was mentioned in our smaller bubble chat, and was a tool that I was not aware of. This will be helpful to use in the classroom, as I am in a Year 3/4 space where the Year 4s use Chromebooks and the Year 3s use iPads. The Year 3s will be able to record their screens this way while the Year 4s use Screencastify.   

                      

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 3: Media

Today's session covered YouTube, Google Drawing and Google Slides.

YouTube
At the beginning of the lockdown, I created a YouTube channel to upload videos of me reading our chapter book, so I had played around with it and changed some settings. I have learned how to create a playlist and where to find some other settings that needed to be changed.

Google Drawing
I have used Google Drawing before, however I had not explored a lot of the functions, so this session was really helpful. I have learnt about resizing the page, how to change the shape of an image, how to make an even sized shape, and how to format an image to adapt it using format options. These will all be useful tools to teach to my class. I also liked the idea of putting instructions around the edge of a Google Drawing, which will be good for explaining how to set out a poster etc. The Google Drawing slide had some useful ideas that I can see myself using as follow up activities.

Google Slides
I use Google Slides often, and embed them onto the class site. I mostly use them as modelling slides, and for my 'Must Do' and 'Can Do' activities. I enjoyed creating an animation on Google Slides. I have seen children do this before, but I had never created one myself, and I can see it being a useful activity.