DFI Second Blog Post 2020

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 2: 'Workflow'.
                                                                   

Kia ora koutou,

Today's session was all about making one's workflow more efficient and thus more productive.

We began by going into our Digital Bubbles and discussed what did and didn't work well from what we had learnt in last week's session.

Next we learnt about connecting with Manaiakalni and how important it is to have a shared language. We then focused on the learning aspect of the learn/create/share Manaiakalni motto, including the concept of 'Ako', meaning teaching and learning are reciprocal. We learnt how the Manaiakalni Kaupapa and pedagogy embraces the idea of analogue and digital learning being used side by side, with effective teaching practise being at the core of these. The acronym RATE was then used to explain the ideal learning construct: Recognising effective practise, Amplify effective practise (by harnessing technology), Turbocharge effective practise (by redefining and modifying tasks), Effective practise(the resultant combination). The advantages of rewindable learning were then discussed-obviously a major tool for teachers and students.

We then learnt about managing our workflow with Google Meet and were introduced to the basics of how this works. Next we joined our Digital Bubble to further explore this tool. We all found a Google map of a favourite place and a YouTube video of a favourite song and shared these on our screens for everyone to see. 

Our next topic was Google Keep. There was a lot of information to process and I'll have to put rewindable learning into practise and revisit the slideshow. I did, however add the extension to my phone and school account so I'm good to go. It seems like an excellent tool for organising as well as for several other uses.

This was followed by and introduction to the main features of Gmail. I was familiar with most of these but I learnt how to schedule a time to send a message, how to 'snooze' an email and how to add signatures. 

We then went to our Digital Bubble and had a play with taming our Gmails. I changed the 'undo send email' time setting to 10 seconds. I attempted to add a couple of signatures (a personal one and a teacher one), but will need to do this once I've changed my keyboard to the NZ/Maori option.

We were then introduced to Google Calendar From there we went to our Digital Bubbles where we put our learning into practise by taming our calendars. I changed date the set up, changed the colours of reminders, cleaned up a few things, and learnt that clicking on the day makes it full screen with every hour specified. 

Our next session was looking at ways to efficiently manage and keep track of your tabs. I'm happy with my current tabs system but I did install the extension 'The Great Suspender' and gave it a whirl. I didn’t like it as takes too long to re-awaken a window which defeats the purpose of me having them open in the first place, so I deleted it. 

Next, in our Digital Bubbles we got into pairs, set up meetings on Meets, recorded the meetings, presented our screens of someone's Blog post, discussed what the teaching was behind the post, what the learner's response was, who responded to the post and how this supported the learning experience or contributed to the learning of the child. 

 We then learnt how to embed the video into our Blog (which is at the bottom of this Blog). 

As with Day 1 of this course, I have learnt much! It was great to get clarification of how Manaiakalani's Kaupapa and pedagogy can be put into practise alongside analogue methods. The rest of the topics we covered have indeed made me feel more confident in incorporating even more digital organising, teaching and learning into my teaching practise.



I'm looking forward to round 3 of this course and learning even more digital wonders!


Ka kite ano.