I learnt that it is important for the students learning to be ubiquitous. When the learning can take place anytime, anywhere, at any pace. This model of learning enables students who are out of the classroom during a lesson, the day or week to access to their learning online. We want the learning to be rewindable so that students can go back and revisit the learning they missed and access it from anywhere on their devices.
Technology is not just a tool - It is a power enabling tool.
This saying reminds me to really think critically about the ways that I am using digital learning in my classroom and for what purpose. It is important for me that I connect students to digital learning, so that they can be empowered to learn, create and share their mahi.
What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?
After completing the DFI courses I am feeling very confident in my skills and capability to navigate, create and share using the Google Suite. I have been using all of the Google Suite programmes in my classroom and I have the confidence to teach my students the tricks and skills that I have learnt. We are using the technology not just as a tool but in a way that is enabling students to work collaboratively in and out of the classroom. My workflow on Google Sites has become a lot more fluent and I am regularly adding more content for my students to access.
What did I learn that could be used with my learners?
The Summer Learning Journey is a programme run that allows students to access learning throughout the summer holidays. Research shows that students who participated in this were achieving at much higher levels when they returned back to school after the summer. The expectations for them are to post at least three posts a week and records of the number of posts and comments students were making encouraged students to post and comment more on Blogger.
We touched on making the learning for our students rewindable and I am in the process of making my guided reading sessions digital for this purpose. I have recently had some students who have been away from the class, and they were able to continue their work outside of the classroom on their Chromebooks using the rewindable learning on our Cass Learning Hub. It is not only important for the content the students are accessing to be rewinadable but it is also important that the work they are creating can be renewable also so they can go back and access their own and others learning.
What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?
Completing the Google Certified Educator Level One Exam today was a great opportunity for me to use a lot of the skills I have learned throughout the DFI course. I was able to confidently complete the tasks and I also know what areas I need to work on in the future. I struggled with some of the data gathering questions in Google Sheets, where you had to sort the average results from highest to lowest. I was able to complete the task but this was an area highlighted to me that I need to work on. I learned how to add tasks from my Gmail, link documents to refer to and set reminders for tasks to be completed. I am going to begin using tasks to set reminders and keep on top of my uncompleted tasks and Gmail messages.
