DFI 9 Final day

 Exam Preparation

Preparing for today's exam has been exhausting and frustrating.  I have never been a great exam person and tend to stress myself out before I have even started.  Here's hoping that this will go okay.

I can't believe that it has been 9 weeks already.  What I have learn't and grown to appreciate a lot more is the time and effort our teachers put into preparing their digital learning sites, sharing that information and learning with everyone in the class and then the additional followup work that comes with that.

I started this journey with a view of being able to help in the classroom in some small way.  It is clear that I need to try harder to implement and utilise the amazing Google Apps.  Unfortunately I haven't grasped the multi-google-tasking just yet, but I haven't given up yet!

Ubiquitous Learning

ANYTIME - ANYWHERE - ANYPLACE

TAMARIKI CENTERED LEARNING

MAKING AN DIFFERENCE IN LEARNING ACCESSIBILITY 

An amazing opportunity to log into the potential to access high quality learning.  Distance or location does not have to adversely impact your learning or teaching potential.  Learning inside and outside the classroom.  Learning, creating and sharing.

SUMMARY OF LEARNING

As a teacher aide I am really greatful for this opportunity.  To see beyond just logging in when I get to class and clicking on links is awesome.  I have a renewed appreciation for the mahi that goes on behind the scenes.  I have also found this a struggle as well, but I see this as a good thing.  It helps me to see how students can struggle with accessing and utilising their google skills.  This has most certainly helped to enhance my learning with our tamariki.

Thank you....

Ness and Kerry for always being on hand to help with my endless questions and eye rolling.  Sharing your knowledge has helped to top up my Kete Kukara. [I think that's right]  Thanks also Donna, the online knowledge group facilitators and of course Dorothy and the Manaiakalani team.  What a fabulous opportunity you are giving our tamariki.  Empowering our future generation to learn where ever they are is more than amazing.

Well I survived the exam and I am looking forward to growing into my learning.

Yv

DFI Week 8

Over the past 8 weeks I have been fortunate enough to participate in the DFI learning.  I have found this learning to be very intense and to be honest have struggled with some of the aspects of this learning kaupapa.

However, I certainly appreciate the level of accessibility that the Manaiakalani kaupapa gives our whanau.  Digital learning is not just another learning tool.  There is so much more to our digital learning than just searching for things on the internet.

The Manaiakalani has enabled us to be more engaged with our tamariki and their learning.  I love being a very small part of Empowering journey.  

USE IT OR LOSE IT -

I have been able to feast on so many digital delights for our learning.  I am sure my brain capacity has been flooded and there is no more room at the Inn.  Add to this the lack of time that I have to practice what I have learnt and then the speed at which each week rolls into the next! Whew.

The Future

Technology has advanced so much and changes are rapidly happening.  Maybe the Jetson's Tec is not far away.. Who knows

Lets see if this works.  Very first attempt at making a game.  My boys will not be impressed at all.

  Click here and lets see if my first attempt actually works. Yv Shark doo doo doo

While I have seen the kids at school whip up a Scratch with ease I have got loads to learn.  I am going to enlist the help of my 11 year old to help with this.  I can see the amount of fun the kids, big and small can help and I am looking forward to not being such a scardy-scratch and just letting my imagination run wild.

Not looking forward to the exam!

One more week to go, one more week to review 8 weeks of work!

DFI Week 6 Enabling Access - Sites

As with every DFI Dorothy spoke about the Manaiakalani journey, growth and experiences and how this applies to our professional and personal life.

It was great to have the additional time to work on Sites.  I have focused on the Basketball area of my life.  At the moment my family and I have basketball games or training four nights of the school week, we throw in a night of badminton, rugby training and games. Sunday is for fishing.  Not housework.

My confidence is slowly increasing but  I am looking forward to learning more.  What I particularly like is having access to so many DFI learners.

I have been using google keep with the Teacher that I work with to keep us up to date with one of the students that I work with.  

As I teacher aide I have really greatful to be a small part of this opportunity.  It is really great to be able to help the students that I am working with that aren't confident bloggers.

I am hoping to move our Basketball Whanau and also my own whanau into using blogger and google sites.  This will help us to keep the whanau up to date when we are away at tournaments etc.

What do I want to work on?  My confidence in working with the many awesome aspects of Google Suite and how to enhance my learning without trying to re-invent the wheel.  Still so very much to learn.  Another goal is to utilise my learning to fit within my busy schedule.

Thank you Manaiakalani for such an accessible learning site.

DFI Week 7 Devices

Here is a photo of the DFI group I am working with.

Cyber Smart

Fiona Grant - Auckland

• Empowering
• Connecting
• Confident
• Powerful, Positive, Comments

We spoke about the Kawa of Care, language appropriate responses.

Hapara -  Builds on Manaiakalani strengths to assist with monitoring of google suite access. Its good to be able to utilise the option in class.

Explain Everything

This was a lot of fun.  I do think I need to get some quick tips from Te Pihi though.  I did however forget to delete the second page of my project!
This also confirmed that I don't like selfies. 



Today was another intense day of learning.  I had the opportunity to use Explain Everything for the very first time as well as using Screencastify.  Not sure how I feel about either, however I can certainly see the value in using these for our tamariki.

Screencastify Learning.

DFI Week 5 - Collaborate - Sites

Today I have continued my DFI learning with Collaborate - Sites.

Venessa shared a link with us which I will look forward to looking into later.

 Teachers Google Link

Increasing my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy

In her opening address Dorothy addressed a clear message about Visible Learning.  I liked that it was very simple:

CAN YOU SEE IT OR NOT?

"If you can see it, its Visible - If you cant, well then its not"

I didn't really appreciate that the idea of learning for our tamariki should be at a level that they can absorb or enjoy.  Our Tamariki should be at the center of their learning.

Today has given me a better idea into what is involved in setting up various classroom and school learning sites.

My initial thoughts on Sites was that it appeared easy to navigate, however I got myself stuck and will need to practice more.  The most time consuming aspect of this would be planning the site.  I do see how this can work across the different learning, professional and personal areas in my life.  Sport [Basketball], Business, Recreation and School.

This was interesting.

I did find it difficult to add the link to a picture and then a link to txt when using a preset layout.  The breakout groups were really helpful for this.  I didn't really enjoy this part but pushed through all the same.

This is my very first attempt at a Site.  I really do have a new appreciation for our amazing teachers that pull these together for our tamariki that are easy to navigate, fun and full of age appropriate facts.

Improving my confidence, capability and workflow 

Today my confidence took a bit of a knock.  But that's okay that just means I need to review and practice a bit more.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

That they are the center of their learning.  Keeping things age appropriate and learning is still fun.

DFI Week 4

My blog for week 4 is a work in progress...12/08/20

Fantastic day of learning today even with the news of Covid 19 Level 2.

I was apprehensive about Google Sheets and up to today I have tried to avoid them with a passion.

Quick access to data, implementing formulas, dragging data cells across and down wowza.

Forms - Data to add [Im am updating information that I have loaded] I can implement this in positive ways for the basketball teams that I manage.  I can see this as a way to keep up to day and information to our parents.

Maps - See below.  This is a great way to move around the digital map retracing my adventures with my family in England, Ireland and Wales.

Sheets - updates to follow.

















Today we were looking at Google MY Maps and adding lables etc.  It was great to be able to search where I grew up and where I lived in Ireland.

This would be very interesting to use for Pepeha project and treasure hunts for whanau.



Form to embed here....

DFI Week 3 Media

This week we focused on Media, how to utilise slides, linking actions within slides, youtube and settings. I was looking forward to this session as I am sure there is more to the Media world than just Facebook, PM's and using youtube to listen to a song. If I can take back to my class and my personal IT life one thing learn and implement this well in both environments then I will be happy.

I have also found that DFI is also about learning a new language. Using the correct terminology. Adding or putting in now becomes Embedding, coding, linking and using the duplicate quick keys. Lets be fair quick keys in general.

The students that I learn with are well versed in embedding slides into their blogs and navigating their way around digital devices. My main focus for DFI for school is to ensure that I learn alongside our tamariki and that I am able to assist them more effectively.

The breakout groups were a great opportunity to practice the skills that you learnt during the lessons. I found that the time went really quickly. Learning on line as opposed to face-to-face wasn't as scary as I first thought.

On a personal level I have stayed away from Youtube Channels but identifying the age appropriate settings was good to go through.

• What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

        

        Learn = Create = Share LEARNING is always on going, CREATING is getting a smidge quicker, SHARING         is becoming less scary

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

           That Jada will make a fantastic teacher. Look into settings, creating a Youtube Channel isn't scary just do             it, and most of all more practice. Preferrably before the next lesson.

• What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

    

           Im still learning. But I would guess this would be linking slides and duplicating slides, colour gradients.

• What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

    

           Just keep learning and keep practicing.

All going well to follow is my Story Line that I started. I still have a few things to update and change but its a start.

DFI Week 2 Workflow Overview

Work Flow

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

That there is always something more to learn and share. Limited device and access does not mean you are limited to learning

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

The best away to improve my confidence is to practice, research and ask questions.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

Regular use of the google meetings with presenting and utilising splitting the screen would certainly help. I have schedules a google meeting with another teacher aide at our school and two students to assist with sharing our learning from today.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Learn create share repeat. Being able to practice our learning and asking the facilitators questions while we are on site has helped a lot. Labels and filters have changed the look of my email for the better.  It has helped to simplify things.

We continued to look at aspects of google that can help us to complete tasks quicker, tips about google keep for instance.  Its good to know that we can share these labels.  I have set one up for the tamariki that I am working with to help keep connected with my classroom teacher.

Google Meet and Recording

There is something about recording yourself speaking that for me is a bit intimidating.  However it was great to practice scheduling a google meeting with our group and recording our assigned data.  We had to review a blog and shear the screen with our group.

For some reason my video did not embed correctly.  I am checking the settings and will re-post.

Another fantastic day of learning.

DFI Week 1 Learning never stops

Today I had the opportunity to be a part of the DFI Learing group.

I learnt that the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy started back in 2006 with a group of wonderful people that saw the need to implement a learning platform to capture the creativity of a community.  This community didn't have access to today's devices or internet connectivity but they still made it work. It would be interesting to see how this initial project has impacted the tamariki, whanau and community.

When I started this I did not have a lot of confidence in navigating my way around all things google.  What I quickly found out is that there is always something new to learn and the best way for me to learn is to practice, access and do.  Mistakes makes learning interesting. Questions are great.

What can I take back to class, well Headings for one thing and voice typing!  Who knew this was even a thing.  The explore icon is more that just a tool to insert pictures or facts, you can also add the link to the article without adding the full text. I am excited about sharing what I have learnt with my class.

How can I improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life.  Well like google drive maybe not having so many folder's open.  Merge what needs to be merged, try not to duplicate things and use quick keys.

This is my first attempt at a poster.  Still a lot of work to be done.  I am looking forward to improving this.