Sharing

 Sharing

As far as we know it, mankind has always had the desire to share, weather it be sharing food, resources, skills, or knowledge, it is become hard wired in our DNA to share. Not only has sharing helped us to survive but it has become a fundamental tool in consolidating and passing on learnings. My students LOVE to share. Its safe to assume almost every teacher has heard stories from their students lives in the weekend. Whether it be that they went duck shooting, to a friends birthday party, or that they had a playdate. The sharing pedagogy is one of the final steps that engages students in this hook of sharing what they have learnt online. This online audience is not only a powerful tool that gives students a voice, but it requires the students to properly reflect, and think about what exactly they have learned, before sharing it to their online platform.

 Much like I am doing right now! 🤔

Powerful stuff! 

Google Forms  & Google My Map

Google forms was something that I had seen on occasion here and there but I never really knew the first step in understanding how they work and operate. Having this time in the day during my DFI i've really been able to explore and follow that curious part of myself that wonders what this button does, or what happens if I click this. Admitientely, I would often categorise google forms into the "I don't have time" section of my brain, as I would not really have the time to have a play around to understand it better. But, as most of the things I have learned during DFI, it's a lot easier than I think. And if I set aside this time to have a proper look and play around, its going to save me a lot more time in the future.

Below is a My Map of a road trip I did in Australia in 2019 in a campervan, just before the cursed COVID19. We travelled all along the east coast of Australia. Making our way to every major city aside from Perth. Amongst our travels we drove through the vast outback, and then along busy motorways, we managed to get caught it a flash flood, and accidentally parked up at a nudist beach in south Melbourne! 😳

It was a great chance to have a play with My Map, and to also reminisce about a time where international travel was easily possible. I'm going to use this tool to plan my next trip in the South island!

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Google Spreadsheets 

Our create task for today was around the use of google spreadsheet. With only a limited amount of experience with spreadsheets it was a great opportunity for me to learn not just the basics, but how to create graphs and concisely look at data results. I found this create exercise really powerful because I was able to use this alongside another google tool. Using both google spreadsheet and google draw really has taken my digital fluency knowledge to that next level. I am beginning to find myself becoming more fluent with the tools that I am using, and therefore my confidence is also improving as well. The more fluent and confident I am in my understandings, the more fluent my learners will be also.

I loved been able to be creative with my graph, choosing a colour scheme, deciding what the text bubbles will look, even changing fonts was a really nice little chance for me to add a hint of creativity into my learning. Below is a graph of data I collected from a student blog, reflecting on how many blog posts they have made per month in 2020. 

Using spreadsheets will definitely be my next point of reference for my students to create their graphs. I think this is more efficient than making them do it by hand. Plus, with google spreadsheet they can be creative, and then of course share their learning, rather it sit in their maths book untouched for months or even years after its complete.