Day 4: Digital Fluency Intensive - Dealing with Data

Kia Ora,
 So this week we looked at what Share is and what does it look like in a Manaiakalani school. Sharing is not a new concept, it goes back probably to the beginning of time, mans need to share and communicate, to show and to learn. So for our students today are faced with so many ways to share. Blogger was chosen as the platform to do so because it resembles the media world the students live in but is restricted and controlled for their safety. I learnt this week some neat tricks with sheets like the use of add-ons for one. Conditional formatting is definitely something I will be using especially with the thousands of assesments to keep track of. What I was most surprised about is CSV!! Just the other day I had trouble with downloading some test results that was in csv form and I had no idea why or how to access it. I tried opening it with Google Chrome, but thats just a browser. Then I uploaded it to google drive to then open with Google Sheets. Aces!!! now I won't have to manually type in the results, I can just copy and paste. Time that I definitely need.

 Another activity we did, was using Mymaps, I had not seen this before and definitely did not think I would be using it. We mapped out our ideal holiday destinations as seen below.

 I will be using this with my students to turbocharge their learning and not just talking about the places we read about but to pin them on a map to go on a journey together. How awesome would that be.


We also created Google forms which I will be using with my students in our statistical investigation and getting feedback from my students who may be too shy to put up their hand.

 Thanks for reading next our topic will be Collaborate.
 Until next time!

Day 2 of Digital Fluency Intensive: Workflow

At times I have found myself saying if only there was an easier way of doing that. Well I wasn’t the only one thinking that. Today’s topic is Workflow, and as the title suggests it is about creating procedures and using the appropriate digital tools to create that flow in our work day. We looked at Google Keep for creating notes, drawings, taking pictures and creating lists. I had been using Keep for my shopping lists as I can check and uncheck an item depending on the week but what I learnt today is how I can use keep to connect with the other Google applications which will streamline that flow. We looked at our Google Calendars and some of the features which I wasn’t aware of like creating Google meets and RSVPing to events. Colour coding is also something I will get into to prioritise appointments and making it more visible at a single glance. Tabs was another topic we looked at, and I do find myself with many tabs open, but I could group them together depending on their relation to eachother so that when I need to look at a certain topic for instance, reading, they all can be saved together. What I have done already is look at changing my bookmarks on the bar to only show the icons and no text. I initiated a Google meet for the first time today, I experienced some technical difficulties, where my computer froze; probably because I had so many tabs open, but powered through and with the help of my Facilitator I was successful. The recording shows the meet we had to discuss the learner blog I had reviewed, and I must say the student really impressed me with his creativity.Take a look at my response below.





This is definitive something I would open up to my learners, that it doesn’t have to be basic typing or static images, but they can be creative and use the digital tools available to them. All these tips and tricks I will be using to make my day flow better and especially streamline my gmail account so that I do not feel so overwhelmed with the amount of emails I get. Thank you for reading my blog.

Day 1 of Digital Fluency Intensive course

Kia Ora

Today the first day of the Digital fluency course started, and it couldn't have come sooner. As you may or may not know with the Covid-19 Pandemic the emphasis for education has been Distance learning.
As a first year teacher, whose first term was abruptly cut short I can tell you it has been no easy feat. So after day 1, I am feeling much more confident in the possibilities of my new teaching environment.

The Manaiakalani programme has greatly influenced how important it is to prepare the your people for the future and how to approach it.14 years ago, the forward thinking individuals who started the Manaiakalani programme had great intentions but could not have imagined how important it would've been due to recent events.

We learnt about how to use the chrome browser and organize our drives to our advantage and create a workflow using bookmarks; we looked at why creating google groups may suit organisations better than just relying on your contact list, and then explore what google docs can do other than just creating texts.

In light of our nation progressing to Alert Level 2 and having the students return to the classroom I created a poster using Google docs.

The learning I will be taking with to class, is to definitely review the skills I may assume my students have when it comes to docs and teach them the new tricks that I learnt today. Voice typing, is definitely a technique I will be practicing with my students too.

I can't wait for the next session, watch this space to see more of what I am learning.

Until next time. Bye!