Digital Fluency Intensive Session 3

Well, what can we say, I guess we were well-prepped for our online teaching and learning from our last DFI course. Well-timed might I add! With schools closed due to C-19 our whole world was preparing to lockdown. This meant utilizing everything we knew from LCS to put learning into place for our tamariki. What a unique boat to be in! 

Today we joined another cohort to complete session three via Google Hangouts and if you were to ask me two weeks ago what this was I would have had no clue. We successfully managed to pop in and out of numerous Google Hangouts hosted by Dorothy and our facilitators. It was nice to. be learning again after feeling as though my brain had a break. We created work for our children to do prior to closure and keep in contact with them and their whanau over email to give feedback to completed work and check-in. On Monday we held a Google Hangout with 30 of our children who were able to join us. It was nice to hear their voices and see the smiley faces. They loved sharing what they have been up to during this unique time. 

We learned about the 'create' side of the Maniakalanai pedagogy. It’s all about the hook. Children need to create as they get older which will allow them to engage in their learning. It is often quite substantial in early childhood and may tend to drop off. Create is right at the heart of our pedagogy and young people. Create is in our roots. Play-based learning stems from developmental and is not a new thing. It is being brought to the forefront. Create is a doing word. Your body and multiple senses are involved in creating. I learned that we can not forget that it's not just the mind that is creating it is the whole entire body that it involves. Over time we have used modern technologies to engage in creativity and we empower learning by giving them choice. Creativity is one of the six C’s of education in the 21st century. 

Around workflow, we learned how media can help with many things. Something that I will use is the use of Youtube playlists, to set up groups of videos that my children can access on a particular topic. We were talked through the steps of how to do this and how to embed codes into sites or whatever way we wish to share with our children.  
I learned about pick-a-path stories with Kelsey, which I had heard of before but never really gotten into. They are very cool and I know that my learners will LOVE them. They are very engaging and interactive and can be used for just about any topic. I created one about Goldilocks and the three bears (see below). It is not completed yet but when it is I will add it to our hub site for the kids to have a go with! And if it's come up below then I learned how to successfully embed a slide!

I also learned more about Google Drawings and how you can create pictures for animations. As well as this we looked at creating animations on Google Slides. I know some of my children will love this kind of creating so I will definitely be taking this back into the classroom.

Until next time!