Day 1: It's been good to be shown new things and supported to find and try them .. Although I am not too afraid of 'asking google' how to do stuff - I don't know what I don't know so I am delighted the DFI is presenting road-tested and relevant apps and tools (with very patient coaches)
What did I learn that:
- increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?I love that the kaupapa and pedagogy is grounded in social justice and basically loving students as if they are family i.e.wanting them to reach their potential, wanting and preparing them to experience success and wanting them to feel hopeful. The message aligns with my values and the staff and students that I am privileged to work with.
- could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional? I am very happy to have learned a few more tricks in drive (e.g. shortcuts to avoid having to go between folders or copy and move items) and lots more tricks in docs (they are way more versatile than I thought) - that I will use in my personal and department planning, and that I can share with colleagues to add more to our toolkit.
- that could be used with my learners? I will definitely teach some of the scavenger hunt skills in docs so the kids have way more control over what their document looks like and what they can do in docs.I will encourage them to use Explore (and Insert > Drawing> +New) as much as possible - so the kids are using open source material AND they are not going between tabs and getting lost elsewhere so much.I haven't ever used google groups but I am thinking it could be useful to organise differentiated resources (rather than clogging up their inboxes with all the options).Voice typing is a real food for thought tool - my fear at the moment is it could make it too easy to avoid writing .. yet it may also be a tool to free kids up to create (without stressing about spelling or typing speed) and prove to themselves that the written word is simply spoken words on paper anyway.Voice typing could easily have a role in tracking and improving reading fluency - either teacher tracking, parent tracking or student self-tracking
- could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life? My life in the google-sphere will be a bit faster!
My docs creation (a scaffold for a research presentation)
Kia ora Lisa. Thanks for sharing you honest reflections on the day. You raise a good point about voice typing but from my experience it can be a real game changer for reluctant writers. It can turn the normal amount of writing from a couple of lines into a couple of pages. In a couple of weeks we will be working on Google Sites and you might come across some other options for providing differentiated resources then. See you next week!
ReplyDeleteKia ora Lisa,
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you have found practical things that are helpful from the very first day! I didn't know most of what Google Doc's was capable of until I completed the DFI. And using shortcuts is a brilliant way to ensure that any shared document is always the most up to date version when you are collaborating with others. Look forward to seeing what new tips and tricks you pick up next week!