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.