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.


                         

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 2: Workflow

Today's session has helped me to become more confident with using Google Meet, Gmail and Google Calendar, and has also introduced me to Google Keep.

I have used Google Meet frequently during the lockdown, so I was already relatively confident with using it (creating a Google Meet, using grid view, teaching etiquette etc), however, I have now learned about the close captions function, and have practised recording a Google Meet (see video), and sharing a Chrome tab while presenting.

I have adjusted themes and settings on my Gmail and Google Calendar so that they are easier to use, and have learned new shortcuts to use in Google Calendar (such as pressing the letter 'd' to show the day, 'w' to show the week, and 'm' to show the month).

What I will take away from this session to teach my students, is how to insert a video into a blog post using the embed function.

Digital Fluency Intensive - Session 1: Core Business

Today's session has helped to improve my confidence and capability as a professional. I have learned ways to personalise Chrome, and organise my Google Drive so that it can be used more efficiently. 
It was particularly helpful learning ways to personalise Chrome, and organise my Google Drive so that it can be used more efficiently. Creating folders for my many bookmarks will keep my saved online resources more organised. I have also learned some new shortcuts (such as how to switch between tabs) to help me move more quickly when working between multiple tabs. It was also helpful to use the voice tool again and learn about some different ways that this can be used with students, such as to track their reading fluency. 

The 'Create' part of today's session involved creating a poster using Google Docs. I chose to make a poster about different science experiments, as the children in our hub have been doing these experiments as part of their home learning. This task reminded me of ways in which we can make posters on Google Docs more visually appealing by using the remove.bg website to take out unwanted backgrounds, and colouring the edges of a table so that it merges into the background and reduces the amount of visible black lines on a table.

I have also taken away from this session that it is important to take the time to teach children how to set up Google Docs. While I have previously focused on ensuring that students' Google Drives are tidy and organised and that all documents are named, I would like to focus next on teaching children how to set out the Google Doc itself, depending on the task we are doing, and teaching some of the skills learned today (such as using headings and a table of contents).