Day 3 Digital Fluency

Todays focus around media and its impact on learning/teaching was a really interesting topic. Learning some finer details around Youtube was an interesting session. Only just realising I had a Yourube channel with videos already uploaded on the channel was definitely a surprise this morning....

Some of the cool features I learnt to use more effectively were      

• How to use the playlist feature on Youtube to collate all the relevant videos I might need 
• Creating different channels wher eI can post different videos (for the subjects I teach)
• Turning off the comment feature on Youtube (only use videos for viewing purposes, not its commenting features)

I have already set up a simple playlist for the rules of games we regularily play (makes it easy for me to find, and I can share this playlist with students to refresh their memories on the rules, concepts etc.)

I am planning on setting up a fitness channel for my class. This is where I am aiming to regulairly post content around key exercises points, different kinds of workouts, nutrition, etc....   

For our creating component today, I created a Digital pepeha using Google slides. While doing this I learnt a couple of cool points to do with slides and how to navigate slides a little easier. 

• I learnt some shortcut keys (Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down arrows=Moving your layers forwards and backwards, Crtl+D=Duplicate what you are higlighting)  
• How to grab the embedding code off Google Slides (hopefully it is similar for other videos, Google apps as well)
• Using the explore feature to quickly have access to the internet without having to switch tabs (very handy when working on something and time could be a contraint)

I also had a look at the formatting features on Google slides, and can see how these can be used to make our slides look appealing. This is something I am going to show my students so they can work on their presentations.
  

This is the slide presentation I created for our create component today!!                                                             

Day 2 Digital Fluence

There was a lot of good learning for myself today, more around the little shortcuts I can use around the Google tools after they have been set up. I have hardly used Google meets, but knew a little about how to use it. Some of the useful things that I will start using in Google meets (while hopefully also teaching my students and other teachers how to use Google meets effectively as well) will be;

• You can control the chat, whether it’s available for use or not….

• The activities tab has a few different features (poll, breakout rooms)

• Captions underneath (could be used for students that are hard of hearing)

• Can control how people have access to the meet (whether they can come straight in or require admin to accept entry)

• Can kick students out by ending the call (when hanging up the call, not just leaving it), so students don’t linger behind or try to rejoin once the teacher has left.

For our create component today, we recorded a discussion around a students learning in their Blog post. It was a good reflection on what I've learnt around Google meets today, and getting the opportunity to apply some of the features of Google meets was pretty cool (I didn't do this in the recording, more like just had a haututu while I was waiting in the meet room).

Another valuable piece of learning I received today was around tab management. I am one of those people who have a whole screen filled with tabs, so learning to pin the main tabs (while also making them slightly more obvious that they are the important tabs) is going to make searching through all my tabs to find the correct resources a lot easier, making life in the classroom a lot easier as well. Some other notes I took away from the ‘TAB’ section of our learning today;

• Reading list, good for saving sites (things, documents readings) that you want to have access to later, for reading later on

• One tab, is good for getting all the sites/tabs that you will need for a lesson (has everything easily available for the future (will be way easier using this for all the programs in Challenge i.e one for Inquiry, one for Fitness etc…)

 

Day 1 of Digital Fluency intensive

Today I learnt a few tips and tricks around Google drive. I learnt how to improve some systems to easily navigating through Google drive, which will improve my workflow. The priority section was not really an area I looked at, but I am going to give the workspaces a go. It seems like a really easy and quick way to access files that I use daily. So I’m going to try and set a few up for the different areas I teach in. 

Google groups is another platform that I want to try and use with my learners. Having a platform that can easily share important information without missing anyone can be hugely beneficial for the learners. Also having a space where the information is easily and conveniently stored/accessible would be great for rewindable learning, plus finding information that could take a while to find.

Today I created an exercise table with  video links to key points around technique and images to easily identify which exercise the video is focusing on!! I was trying to use some of the tips and tricks we learnt today. There’s still a lot I can implement, however I am pretty happy with how my table turned out. Just a couple of tweaks and I think it will be up and pumping!!!

I'm looking forward to sharing some of the tips I've learnt with my colleagues!!! 

Nau mai, haere mai!