As always, an interesting day, only slightly marred by problems with Grid View. Great support from facilitators, some of whom were suffering from the same problems, to sort this out. College responded quickly to my email and managed to correct the problem at their end. This meant everything was running smoothly again after the last break. It did mean that I was not able to fully concentrate on Manaiakalani's Share philosophy. The day's learning, however, fully reinforced the philosophy and, I feel, filled in any gaps.
For me the day highlighted the ways in which the google suite of programmes can be used with each other - and the fact that they form a far more powerful tool when used together than on their own. Whilst there are definitely programmes that do certain things in a better way than google, when used together the sum is greater than the parts.
My Maps - and its use as an illustration of data gathered through forms - was an example of this. I had never used My Maps before and I could instantly see lots of uses for it. I hope to introduce our International Department to this feature and produce a cool little map to put on our college website (in the hope that international students will, at some point in the near future, again become frequent visitors). It would also be suitable to put into the on-line version of our prospectus.
I have used forms before, but not the pathways feature. I am looking forward to putting this to good use.
Again, finding out how easy it is to use the data from a sheet in a visual way on a slide or drawing, was enlightening - I have included my, very rough, experiment with this below:
Link to Sheet
Link to Drawing
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Media Session DFI
Great day's learning.
Large amount of background info/resources etc. I am looking forward to going back and getting a better grip on a lot of the resources offered. I became caught up in the all the design tips for creating slide themes and didn't get very far with actually creating my own, but it was really interesting stuff. Looking forward to putting it to use.
Good to know about the background settings for setting up a Youtube channel. I do have a question - is it possible to put a Youtube playlist on loop?
I feel there are lots of opportunities for live streaming - will try and put some of them into action.
I particularly liked the idea of creating a livestreaming event for the future and having a countdown to it on our website.
Was impressed by google drawings. I had always found this a rather difficult programme to use, but now realise that I was trying to use it to manipulate text rather than as a means of putting together professional images.
Useful tips on including sight, sound and motion in slide presentations. Lead to thoughts about having our touch screen tv available on our open day so that parents can play short videos of students in different year levels talking about the College. Hoping that our Media Studies class might be willing to work on a virtual tour of the College which we could have on our website as well as our open day.
p.s. - must mention Gerhard's tip re unroll.me - superb way of cleaning up your email subscriptions.
Large amount of background info/resources etc. I am looking forward to going back and getting a better grip on a lot of the resources offered. I became caught up in the all the design tips for creating slide themes and didn't get very far with actually creating my own, but it was really interesting stuff. Looking forward to putting it to use.
Good to know about the background settings for setting up a Youtube channel. I do have a question - is it possible to put a Youtube playlist on loop?
I feel there are lots of opportunities for live streaming - will try and put some of them into action.
I particularly liked the idea of creating a livestreaming event for the future and having a countdown to it on our website.
Was impressed by google drawings. I had always found this a rather difficult programme to use, but now realise that I was trying to use it to manipulate text rather than as a means of putting together professional images.
Useful tips on including sight, sound and motion in slide presentations. Lead to thoughts about having our touch screen tv available on our open day so that parents can play short videos of students in different year levels talking about the College. Hoping that our Media Studies class might be willing to work on a virtual tour of the College which we could have on our website as well as our open day.
p.s. - must mention Gerhard's tip re unroll.me - superb way of cleaning up your email subscriptions.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Workflow Session of DFI
Really great day, useful in many, many ways.
It was good to have a few words said about the fact that technology is only a tool for teachers and that the things that make a good teacher are the same as they always have been - inspiring students to want to learn and giving them the best tools available to help them do so. My own daughter, when she was in Year 10, absolutely hated being given an on-line Maths extension programme instead of being taught by her classroom teacher. She felt that being able to ask her teacher questions was by far the most important part of her learning. I think her experience today would be a very different one - in those days online meant nothing much more than a worksheet to be done at a students' own pace - now it has the capacity for full teacher involvement. We have come a long way, and Manaiakalani has played a huge part in this at Ōtaki College. Thanks to you all.
I think that the country being in Lockdown has reinforced my daughter's views. Teachers and students have been enjoying both their online time to ask and answer questions and share ideas, and the flexibility to then go away and practice what they have learned (and do marking!) at a time that fits into their wider life. Hopefully students have learned that time with their teacher is precious and not to be wasted, and teachers have learned that reading a novel or practicing maths problems to reinforce learning are tasks that can be much better done at home without their input. It seems likely that innovative timetabling solutions may be the result and may carry forward long after COVID-19 seems like a distant memory.
Back to today:
First of all, particular thanks to Gerhard - really enjoyed being part of your group.
On the workflow and sharing fronts - Ōtaki College is currently upgrading its staffroom (recognising the importance of staff wellbeing). I have spent the last few days gathering info on furniture from many different companies and have been juggling tabs, split screens etc to try and get comparisons of colours, shapes and forms and prices. I have already started putting all of these into a Toby Mini - which I had not heard of before today. I feel this will be a lifesaver. Knowing that I can embed this in a doc is great news for when I start trying to convince SLT that they really do need these particular items. It will also be great when it is ready for staff consultation. Fantastic way to gather lots of different images/possibilities together so that people can get an overview of what's possible and go away and do their own research. (And Vicki, I promise you will finally have somewhere comfortable and fairly private, if necessary, to work and to run small meetings).
On the personal front, one of my Lockdown pleasures was going back through my old House & Garden magazines, particularly the recipe pages. As I like to keep my magazines (and have been doing so since 1998), I was wondering how best to capture the recipes that I tried and qualified as successes. I had thought of taking photos on my phone, but was still left wondering about the best way to categorise and store them. Also, my phone died the day before Lockdown and I have not been able to replace it. Now with Google Keep I have the perfect solution. Even without my phone, knowing I can use my tablet instead but later access the notes from any device means I am ready to start the project this evening.
I am also finding the general sharing of knowledge very useful. I was reading Paul's comments on the table we filled out before the meeting about giving different permissions for individual pages of a site. This immediately lead me to think that I could allow individuals to contribute directly to our Newsletter, which is a site, by giving them editing access.
Thank you all for sharing. Looking forward to next Tuesday.
It was good to have a few words said about the fact that technology is only a tool for teachers and that the things that make a good teacher are the same as they always have been - inspiring students to want to learn and giving them the best tools available to help them do so. My own daughter, when she was in Year 10, absolutely hated being given an on-line Maths extension programme instead of being taught by her classroom teacher. She felt that being able to ask her teacher questions was by far the most important part of her learning. I think her experience today would be a very different one - in those days online meant nothing much more than a worksheet to be done at a students' own pace - now it has the capacity for full teacher involvement. We have come a long way, and Manaiakalani has played a huge part in this at Ōtaki College. Thanks to you all.
I think that the country being in Lockdown has reinforced my daughter's views. Teachers and students have been enjoying both their online time to ask and answer questions and share ideas, and the flexibility to then go away and practice what they have learned (and do marking!) at a time that fits into their wider life. Hopefully students have learned that time with their teacher is precious and not to be wasted, and teachers have learned that reading a novel or practicing maths problems to reinforce learning are tasks that can be much better done at home without their input. It seems likely that innovative timetabling solutions may be the result and may carry forward long after COVID-19 seems like a distant memory.
Back to today:
First of all, particular thanks to Gerhard - really enjoyed being part of your group.
On the workflow and sharing fronts - Ōtaki College is currently upgrading its staffroom (recognising the importance of staff wellbeing). I have spent the last few days gathering info on furniture from many different companies and have been juggling tabs, split screens etc to try and get comparisons of colours, shapes and forms and prices. I have already started putting all of these into a Toby Mini - which I had not heard of before today. I feel this will be a lifesaver. Knowing that I can embed this in a doc is great news for when I start trying to convince SLT that they really do need these particular items. It will also be great when it is ready for staff consultation. Fantastic way to gather lots of different images/possibilities together so that people can get an overview of what's possible and go away and do their own research. (And Vicki, I promise you will finally have somewhere comfortable and fairly private, if necessary, to work and to run small meetings).
On the personal front, one of my Lockdown pleasures was going back through my old House & Garden magazines, particularly the recipe pages. As I like to keep my magazines (and have been doing so since 1998), I was wondering how best to capture the recipes that I tried and qualified as successes. I had thought of taking photos on my phone, but was still left wondering about the best way to categorise and store them. Also, my phone died the day before Lockdown and I have not been able to replace it. Now with Google Keep I have the perfect solution. Even without my phone, knowing I can use my tablet instead but later access the notes from any device means I am ready to start the project this evening.
I am also finding the general sharing of knowledge very useful. I was reading Paul's comments on the table we filled out before the meeting about giving different permissions for individual pages of a site. This immediately lead me to think that I could allow individuals to contribute directly to our Newsletter, which is a site, by giving them editing access.
Thank you all for sharing. Looking forward to next Tuesday.
Monday, May 4, 2020
Useful Tips From Day One
Useful Tips From Day One
Pinning Tabs
Chrome Shortcuts (link on Agenda)
Cntr/Shift/T - reopen a closed tab
Shift Z = placing a shortcut to a doc in a folder
Start the name of a folder with an asterix if you want it at the top
Tools - Voice (could save time for non-typists)
Explore tool brings up copyright free images (and puts in automatic authentication)
If you use Headings function it creates a URL for that section - can put this in a link in another doc - thereby taking reader directly to a particular paragraph
One of the add-ons was Save to Google Drive - would this work for the newsletter?
https://www.remove.bg/ - for removing background
Add-ons work in docs
Extensions work across all google formats
Questions
Can you view the other members in a group
Can you add a member who has a non gmail email (previously at OC this got wiped overnight)
Can you see who owns the group if you want to request changes?
In new google sites can you merge 3 different calendars
Pinning Tabs
Chrome Shortcuts (link on Agenda)
Cntr/Shift/T - reopen a closed tab
Shift Z = placing a shortcut to a doc in a folder
Start the name of a folder with an asterix if you want it at the top
Tools - Voice (could save time for non-typists)
Explore tool brings up copyright free images (and puts in automatic authentication)
If you use Headings function it creates a URL for that section - can put this in a link in another doc - thereby taking reader directly to a particular paragraph
One of the add-ons was Save to Google Drive - would this work for the newsletter?
https://www.remove.bg/ - for removing background
Add-ons work in docs
Extensions work across all google formats
Questions
Can you view the other members in a group
Can you add a member who has a non gmail email (previously at OC this got wiped overnight)
Can you see who owns the group if you want to request changes?
In new google sites can you merge 3 different calendars
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