Digital Fluency Day 4: Collaborative Sites

I have had the most inspiring day. It has been a wonderful in site around how Google Sites have been used as a tool for engaging students, especially through the use of multi modal texts. I like how user friendly it is for the students. Currently I am using Google Draw to present my multi modal texts on. I find it has worked okay, but tasks have become rather cramped. There have been too many URL's copied into one cell of the table. During the session it was good to unpack Reading to Learn and how this linked to Multi Modal texts. It was great to see some examples around how Multi Modal texts have been used in the classroom. I particularly liked Matt's site on the Titanic, the Very Hungry Caterpillar site, and the Romeo and Juliet site. Also Angela's spreadsheet around how other teachers use multi modal. Lots to takeaway. Some takeaways from today - Coconet TV (A fantastic website on anything Pasifika), Kea Kids News and using the carousel option on sites to create an interactive slider of photos.

Also great to know about Chrome Cast. Haven'y had much luck with getting sound transferred from laptop to TV. Found out today that I needed to cast from tab. Will try this on Monday. 

Tapa Cloth - Multi Modal Google Site

   

Session 3:

This session I sadly missed due to my very dear friend and ex DP from Glenbrae School passing away. It was wonderful to see her Literacy Cycle displayed at the first session of the Digital Fluency Intensive. This session would have been a great session to attend and learn about YouTube Channels and Playlists. I've made Playlists previously. They do provide a wonderful platform of engagement for students to learn a wide of material. I've mainly used them for Inquiry Learning.
I also missed out on the Google Drawing Session. I've mainly used this application for displaying student learning on. I would like to explore the videos around using them for actual drawing. When I was down in Christchurch a young girl used Google Drawing for drawing her dog. It looked so real. I think I need to have patience and time. However when I first used Photoshop 14 years ago I did very cool drawings where the photograph was the first layer and then I drew over the top. I created something similar to the Andy Warhol artwork "Marilyn Monrow Tableu".

Digital Fluency Day 2: Work Flow

Today we have been learning about managing work flow through using Gmail, Calendar, using Tabs effectively and using Google Hang outs. It was great to go through the settings of Gmail and Calendar. At this stage I am happy with the way my Gmail and Calendars are set out and they are working for me. Probably one thing I need to do is to group children's blog posts, so once they are posted they all don't need to go to my Inbox.

It was great learning about using the website: Unroll Me. It was good to remove the junk emails that I have subscribed to over the years in which I don't look at any more and to have a cleaner Inbox.

 I enjoyed using Google Hangouts this morning. I feel Hangouts have a lot of potential but I just need further practise around sharing the screen and ensuring all members are recorded under Quick Time. (Note to Self) No head phones needed if you are using Quick Time to record a group discussion. It was a little disappointing, but it has been a great learning curve.