DFI Day 3 - 28 March 2019

Today's theme was on Media. When I looked at the program I thought there would be lots to learn and some things I would be a little sceptical about.

We started the day with looking at Youtube live streaming which I was going to be sceptical about. I am concerned about the sharing rights and how this will affect my students. I am very aware that they are quite willing to put themselves out there on social media but having their learning out to the general public is always problematic. I would need more talking and working with others about this. We were shown how Pt England school in Auckland use drones and cameras to show their parents what their students were doing. A lot of this footage was big groups and from above. Even thought they have some very fancy cameras. I know that our DME department have all of this equipment and are using it regularly around the college to capture our school events.

A question is what happens to this footage? Does it go on the college website?

Our next session on the Manaiakalani kaupapa was on Create. This was an interesting discussion with a focus on what we mean by create, not just 'creating a doc' but more about having students doing something that will make them explore and use all their senses. I really like the quote from Kohl (2008) "Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery"  There are real questions around how this works in a secondary setting with the constraints around NCEA.

Next we created a Youtube channel. I was very surprised about this and I really think I will be able to set up playlists and link them for my students for listening and research tasks which I set them. Today I set up two playlists. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgDshSUmef1tUU9GkYsSyog/playlists?disable_polymer=1

Google drawing - I haven't used this much and it is something I would like to explore more but I would need time to think about how this can be used and then time to make them up. I did use the Explore tool with this and having a practise. I also learnt how to take a photo using my camera but now need to find out where it has gone.



In Google Slides I was able to start a Maths pick a path presentation. This took a bit of time and I would like to explore this a little more. I did have a thought that my students could make  a slide presentation about what they have learnt in Maths this semester which could be shared with the class.

DFI Day 2 - 21 March 2019

Today we started off by exploring the Learn aspect of the Manaiakalani kaupapa. We think we know what learning is being teachers but in this 21st century 'learning' is very different depending on your context. As a Music teacher the learning that goes on is a lot more practical than in another area where there is more written work needed. I also teach Maths and we've just done some practical measurement but a lot of Maths is thinking and writing in a traditional manner.
I really like the step ladder approach of Build knowledge, Making meaning, Apply understanding. It is a different way of saying what it is that we are asked to do as teachers. We spoke a little bit about the SAMR methodology, which I have heard about, and how we can move between this and it is also like a ladder.

We have also looked at Google Keep, Hangouts, Email, Calendar and how to handle our tabs. Apart from Google docs and drive some of these we need to use on a regular basis and it is interesting that at college we have staff who use these regularly and very well and others who are still learning.

Today I imported my timetable from Kamar into Google Calendar. I noticed that the calendar can be brought up next to my email and this means that I won't have to keep moving between google and kamar all day. I was very excited about this. I do use a written planner but don't put a whole lot in it. However I maybe able to plan a bit better and use this in my google site so parents know what is being done in class. This would be very helpful in my Maths class where there is a lot of content to get though in a short amount of time.

I also set up a filter for my Musicnet messages which seem horrendous but there were only 108 of them, however as I check I can see that 2 messages have been directed to the folder which is great. I would like to learn more about Hapara and how to use this more effectively so I don't have to have students sharing their work with me every lesson.

After having a quick look at Google Keep I'm not sure whether I would use it in a professional capacity, but will maybe explore using it in personal way. I don't use my phone much for other than txt'ing, phoning, maps, playing games, etc.

The final thing we did today was explore and use Hangouts which is now renamed Meet. We learned to use our headphones and speak with each other in a meeting situation. Again in a Music classroom I'm not sure how I would use this. Here is the conversation I had with Maria and Kylie about some blogs written by students in the Summer Learning Project.

DFI Day 1 - 14 March 2019

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

I had heard quite a lot about Manaiakalani at college through various presentations to our whole staff. There was some revision about the Learn, Create, Share and we have worked through this today.

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

An easier way to create posters using Google docs. I learnt how to make a background, hide a table and use a table to centre text and images. I also learnt the difference between Google groups and Contacts groups. I will be setting up a google group for the PPTA members at college. I had set up groups through my contacts and they had disappeared.

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

That an underline is a link and not to be used. How to format text using Titles, Headers, etc. This will be helpful for any work done online

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

I am interested in learning how to set up a personal account in my gmail so that I can access personal files.