Workflow - DFI learnings

http://hpscelinep.blogspot.com/2020/04/oreo-cheesecake.html

Something I learnt: For the people to see what I'm looking at, I must present my work. This is not something I did during my screen recording. See the above link for the blog post.

This week our focus is on Learn which is the first of three key concepts for schools in the Manaiakalani cluster and our workflow. By workflow we are referring to being organised on our computer and making things a little easier for ourselves.

We talked about Google Keep which is an app I use personally a lot. I use the collaborative feature regularly with friends and family and it just makes things easier and more efficient for everybody involved. I don't yet use it professionally but am able to see many ways that it could be used within a work environment. Yesterday I went through my art cupboards to see what I needed for the art order and put it into the google doc. Google Keep could replace the doc in this area. Similar to a shopping list it could be an opportunity for teachers to add things they need, as they need them and when the art order gets put in, everything is in one tidy google keep that is regularly updated. This is just one of the many ways a Google Keep could be used in a school. It is something you have access to everywhere you phone is, it can link to your google drive, it's quick, easy and collaborative. Lots of opportunities through this app to improve workflow.

We did some work in our emails, adding labels, filtering emails into those different folders so that they are easier to find. I'm one of those people that doesn't like having unread emails and likes to have everything neatly put away so it was nice to be able to do this digitally also. My personal email got a clean out too thanks to these tips too.
Another area we looked over was our calendar; creating events and organising google meets. The new google calendar extension was the thing I loved the most. It's basically a straight to the point google calendar of your day right at your fingertips. Picture below.

Screen recording was the last thing we did today, I have seen lots of people doing it but I haven't known how to do it myself up until today. Although not something I use in my day to day life, it's nice to have this knowledge in my tool belt. Another awesome session of DFI with plenty of things to take away and apply in my everyday life both professionally and personally.

Digital Poster - DFI

It was my first day on the DFI (Digital Fluency Intensive) course that is held online every Friday for the next 8 weeks. Above is a digital poster that I created using some of the new tricks I learnt throughout the day.

Maniakalani was first thought up in 2005 with a group of innovative teachers, principals and board members who were eager to raise achievement outcomes for students in low decile schools. The aim was to motivate the learners (that statistics showed were failing in the current school system) by engaging them in a modern and innovative digital environment. The hope was to offer students a 21st century approach to learning by empowering our students to use their voices.

Today I Marie Kondo'd my google drive which has been something I have wanted to do for a long time but didn't really know where to start. Seeing examples of other peoples drives gave me fresh ideas about how best to do this in a way that is both organised, easy to navigate and useful in a day to day situation. I managed to find a home for all un-homed files as well as merging a few folders together so that everything was in the same place. Naming and filing labels is important and something that I work hard to support my students with.

Working on the digital poster gave me the opportunity to implement some of the tricks I learnt throughout the day. This kind of digital design is where I'd like my students to be heading so it was nice to know some of the smaller things to help them get there. It's as simple as giving your designs a coloured back drop to make them more appealing. One of the cool tools I learnt to use was the background remover, I used it twice in my digital poster, it was super easy and made my poster look more appealing. My focus over the next term with my students will be backgrounds, different fonts as well as different font sizes.

Personally, I learnt quite a few tricks that just make things easier. Command 'D' to mute yourself in a google meet. Command 'D' to add a tab when you're not in a google meet. The voice tool on a google doc was quite nifty and reliable. This is definitely something I could use in the classroom too. Endless possibilities here. I learnt that command followed by a number takes you to that number tab (very helpful when you have lots of tabs open). One thing I learnt that I probably should have known was NOT to underline titles or other parts of texts. In the modern world, underlining is left for hyperlinks.