Digital Fuency Intensive # 1

For the next nine weeks I will be participating in the Manaiakalani Digital Intensive online.  The DFI programme was developed as the teaching profesion is constantly changing and is designed to give the opportunity for all teachers to become digitally fluent.  Teachers need to be able to use the tools of the trade.

The course started today and is very fast paced but also very practical.  Today we focused on Google Drive and particularly the use of google docs. I picked up lots of tips and tricks today to help me use google docs more effectively.  I am looking forward to going back to my classroom and sharing the tips I learnt with my students. 

The Beginning: Dorothy Burt 

The first part of the day took us back to the beginning of Manaiakalani in 2006 to now.  We looked at the  development of the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy. Some of the interesting points I took from this presentation were:

• Innovation - is think and make something happen even if it doesn't exist yet.  
• Learn, create, share was started and initially implemented with limited resourcing.  Equity came later.  For four years Manaaiakalani was implemented with little to no technology.  What did they do? Focused on literacy and set up literacy cycles.  There was a component of create and share. It became clear that students wanted to share outside the classroom wall. 
• We need to keep looking at the data as it challenges us to continually rethink and reshape what we are doing.
• What is important is the innovative thinking not the device as the device is just the pencil we are using.
• Google was collaborative and free which is why it was chosen.
• Visible learning - Teacher perspective - we can see everything students do on hapara.  Learners - learners have visibility of the teaching through the class learning site.  

Two words that stuck with me from this presentation were equity and innovation. Equity from the point of view that although all my students have equal access to a chromebook device I need to reflect on if I am using the device to its potential particularly in regards to learners who have specific learning difficults so that they have equal access to the curriculum?  Innovation was the other word that stuck with me because it reminded me that the innovation comes from the thinking and and then finding a way to make it happen. 

Deep Dive: Google Groups

Google groups is a tool I have not really utilised and explored before however after this presentation I reflected that there could be some ways this could be used to help me manage some of professional responsibilities imparticularly the PB4L team. Key points were

• Creating google groups - You will be an owner if you create it, you can then add people as managers or members.   It is a really great place to access all of the emails sent from the group so people can access past content.  
• Could be a good way to run our PB4L team? Equity - noone is left out and is able to easily access all things Groups is a fantastic way to collaborate and it also protects the privacy of everybody in it.  Perhaps a way of sending emails to whanau next term.  
• Unable to create groups in the Grey Main domain as only admin has access to this so will need to follow this up.  
• Review the slide deck and video clips.

Chalk in Talk: Google Drive 

When organising your digital life the key points to think about are Names / Permissions / Order.

• Set permissions at folder level so that all files and subfolders within them will have the same permission.  Good idea to do this for all planning and teaching resources so then when placed on site etc you know they will be visible.
• Shortcut for add to drive: Use shift + Z to Add to drive
• You can disable options for downloading, printing or copying of shared docs for viewers and commentors

Ideas to Explore With My Students

As a teacher am I explicitly teaching students how to use the google tools efficiently? I think I often assume that they know how to use the basic google tools well however after today I now think I will go back and review these skills with my class.  I also will be making sure that I teach this to my students in my class every year in week 1.  Some ideas to cover are listed below.

Get the students to open the folder you want them to create the doc in before starting to make the document you want. Use Hapara to monitor that everyone does it correctly by having that folder open and cast to the the tv.

Make a doc and then this is like your exercise book. When you make a doc you always put your initials first then name the document as I set it.

Copy and paste. Copy the text by control c but do not paste go back to the original doc and use the edit tool to select paste without formatting. Each time you copy and paste this is what you need to do.

Do not use the underline tools for any type of heading as this is solely for hyperlinks.

Use the power of the word processor to create the title. Use select format then title.

Put in titles for your paragraphs by selecting heading type (find under paragraph styles in format toolbar) option for all headings in the doc e.g. heading 1. Then you can change one of them to how you want them to look then go back to heading one and select apply heading 1 to all.

Another tool to teach is how to insert a table of contents which is in the insert tool bar. This will then create a table of contents at the top of the doc with a hyperlink to each paragraph heading.

Teach them to use the explore tool for finding and inserting pictures and text as they are free to use

Teach them to use voice typing. - could make sound proof boxes for kids to use where they put their chromebook in the box and then lean forward to talk.

Google Docs Practical Activity for Reading: Voice typing eyes on text reading mileage activity here. Multi purpose task as students practice reading fluency, enunciation, decoding and then of course it is a spelling, grammar practice activity as once they have read they then need to check their work against the text. We really don't know what children are doing when we do SSR. WOLF Fisher says children are reading less and less. This is actually going to help get every child reading.

Google Docs Practical Activity for Inquiry: Scavenger hunt type activity around text this is a great activity that creates digital engagement for exploring reading texts. Could use this as part of t shaped literacy to perhaps explore the focus text.

Creating in Google Docs: When creating infographics in google docs use a table then change the line colours to match the background. Use remove background site to improve look of inserted pictures. You can also create boomerang videos where you remove the background from a video.