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).