Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) : Day 6

 In today's session Dorothy talked about being empowered. Teachers need to be empowered for learners to be empowered. The things we do and learn at Digital Fluency Intensive sessions allows us to focus on ourselves and learn. It gives us the opportunity to discuss and learn from each other and then takes this learning back and implement it into our pedagogy.

Digital devices are life changing, for example:
-being able to look at products online and order online.
-Having an online medical practise, and have a medical consultation were you can diagnose patient and give a prescription.
-Data from research shows that children in lower decile schools enter school with having academic performance of a 3yr old. They are two years behind their peers.

Using technology can empower our learners- LEARN CREATE SHARE.
VISIBILTY is an important component to empowering our learners, whanau (family) and our colleagues.

I really enjoyed the second half of the day where Gerhard shared with us some tips and tricks around our workflow.

How to manage your workflow?
1. Google calendars-  I felt anxious using the school calendar and messing up events and booking times so I used ical instead. I always wanted to learn how to use Google Calendar. Gerhard showed me how to use the sharing settings.  I used the time at DFI to add things to the calendar and am quite pleased with myself. I like the update on my gmail where I am able to view the calendar as I read my mail.

2. E-Mail- learning how to archive your e-mails and DO NOT TRASH them. How to organise my e-mails and set up filters.

3. Managing tabs- Using extensions for example: one tab, add a person, bookmarks, Toby and Toby mini. I particularly liked using Toby mini and over the weekend have set up my tabs to help manage my workflow. It is great, easy to use and a life saver . Thank you Gerhard- definitely saves my time and makes workflow manageable. I don't have to go into my drive or hit the search tool to access my slide decks, spreadsheets and documents. 

4. Hangouts-An interesting session with lots to learn. We had a whole class hangout and then broke into two groups to complete a task using hangout. Lots of fun however I feel that with practise I will be able to do much better. I am looking forward to my Hangout with Gerhard on Wednesday morning.

I would like to hear and learn from others about how they/we can use this formof communication  and learning with our juniors on their devices. A great start would be for Susan and I to have a hangout session with our children sharing their learning. We could use our laptops and iMacs.

Below is a recording of our Hangout session:

A great day with lots of information and ways to help manage workflow. I will definitely share this with my colleagues, family and friends. Thank- you Dorothy and Gerhard!