Workflow. DFI Week Two

Today's session has been timely as our school prepares for the possibility of students staying home and accessing learning in a different way.

We have been planning for self isolation and school closure over the past couple of weeks; timetables, what teaching and learning will look like across the teams and how we will connect with our tamariki have been the questions that the staff has been focusing on.

We had already decided to use Google Meet in a variety of ways: scheduled workshops, giving feedback on work that students have shared, and generally checking in.

At today's DFI session, along with some useful tips such as tab control and gmail maintenance (!) we practised using Google Meet, which now includes a record function.  This practise was timely and the use of the record button will reduce some steps and will make it easier for our teachers to be able to provide rewind sessions for our students.  Knowing how to use the technology confidently will reduce a lot of stress for our teachers as they prepare to provide home learning for our students. I know that I feel a lot better about supporting our teachers to use Google Meet after today. Inviting, sharing, presenting between screens and leading and contributing to discussions will be necessary skills.

Some aspects of today's 'Learn' focus resonated with me:
How do we know what effective practice looks like?
Would we be able to recognise it? This does not mean throw out the old for the new, but know what effective practice looks like. If we accept that the whole point of the digital world is to be able to do things in a way that we could not do before - what does effective practise look like in a digital world? How can we use digital technologies to accelerate learning for our students?

These are the questions that we ask ourselves constantly in our Senior Leadership Team:
Do you know what Learn looks like in your school?
How do you know?
Do you have a model or shared understandings about Learn in your school?
What is happening in your school in terms of your local context?

Core Business DFI Week One

Today has been a great introduction to the digital fluency world. The history of Manaiakalani was a great insight into how this movement was born and I marvel at the far reaching effects of this dream.

Something that resonated with me was the statement that our computers are a pencil not a book. This spoke to me of the kaupapa around digital technologies in schools being about opening up possibilities for ubiquitous learning, access to information, creating and sharing; not as an alternative to a textbook or worksheet.

I use google docs every day in my professional and personal life. Today I learned some excellent shortcuts and tips that will make working with docs more efficient. eg I had not known that explore at the bottom right of the doc allows me to search for free images without having to use the free images filter on google images.

Some of the 'Create' features within google docs are going to be useful when creating docs.
I was able to explore some of these features. This image is my work in progress.

Other highlights have been having the opportunity to give DFI my full attention, ask for and receive help, and to connect with another professional learning group.