Digital Fluency Intensive Day 2

Today was a lot more challenging for me as I felt the teaching was at a much quicker pace, with not as much practice time as last week. I think I may be feeling like this because most things today were new to me.



Hangouts
Hangouts was great to learn about. I have a hangout meeting scheduled with my principal. I managed to send the invitation and write the title. My own children often discuss google hangouts and how they are keeping in touch with their friends. Sometimes I think they prefer to speak to their friends by this means! I'm looking forward to teaching this particular task to the three year 5 children in my class.

Learn Create Share
The message I took from Dorothy this morning was the effective use of a teacher within the digital classroom. Because I do not have a digital classroom, my thoughts always go back to my own children. "Any teacher that could be replaced by a computer, should be". Children will always need a teacher to keep them motivated, look after their wellbeing, and to provide them with exciting learning opportunities. We are very lucky to be able to do this through digital technologies too. As Dorothy said, 'great teaching + digital affordances = acceleration.


Google Keep
This was the first time I have heard of google keep, and it will be the one thing I know I will take away and use on a regular basis. I am a note taker. I need to take notes to enable my thinking to take place and for ideas to come out. Last week I started a google doc titled 'DFI Day 1' and today, I made the same thing for Day 2. I will no longer have to do this and flick between the screens. I can have google keep at the side of the screen and add to or refer to it whenever needed. I love that it is also on my phone so I don't have to open up my laptop every time I need to see a reminder or note. This will save SO much time! This will be very handy in research tasks with the children in my class.


Gmail
This is the area in which I struggled today. I think the fear of doing something 'wrong' in gmail limited my ability to keep up with what we were learning. I managed to make a signature, but have now noticed that it doesn't go on the emails when I reply. I will need to take the time to go through gmail during the weekend and write down any questions I have, so they can be answered next week.


Calendar
I use calendar on a very regular basis, both professionally and personally. I was pleased that I knew some of the short cuts discussed and taught. I couldn't get the sync with my phone calendar. I noticed I can put something on the calendar on my laptop, and it showed on my phone. However, when I made an appointment on my phone calendar, it wasn't present in the calendar on my laptop. I will look into this.


'Taming Tabs'
At first, this seemed VERY confusing as I couldn't see everything sitting right in front of me. I think you get used to your screen looking a particular way and it takes time to change and adjust things. I need to experiment more with Tobymini to ensure that I'm using it to benefit me.


Quicktime Player
This was my first time using quicktime player. It was time consuming learning how to get the hangout, hyperlink the text, check the microphones, connect with a small group, follow the learning conversation and then check to see it's recorded properly. Our group were successful but there were a few technical issues that needed to be resolved. I feel confident enough to pass this onto learners and to find a way to use it in the classroom.

Now that I've written this blog, I feel less overwhelmed with the things I may have missed, and more proud of the things I have learnt and feel confident that I can share with others.