Last Friday was our fourth session of the Digital Fluency Intensive course for term 3 - today's focus was dealing with data.
During this session, we kept on diving deeper into the Manaiakalani's Learn, Create, Share pedagogy. We started the session by exploring the 'Share' kaupapa - I was super excited about this one.
I really connected with the idea that, instead of sharing to learn, we are sharing to finish learning. It is true that sharing our work enables us to feel satisfied. If this is how we feel, as adults, it makes complete sense that this is how our students would also feel.
We looked at quite a few google tools today, I love getting a bit of diversity throughout the day during our create sessions.
1. Our first tool of the day was Google Forms. I am a big fan of google forms, that's one of the Google tools that I use quite a lot. I find that they are a really convenient way of collecting data, whether the information comes from students or from their parents. For example, I created one when we administered our eASTTLE writing prompt back in term 1, as it was a much easier way for me to collect my students' voices for the attitude questions. I also send some to parents via emails sometimes, I usually get more replies this way than when I ask them to email me back. I thought this 'Create' activity was rather fun to make.
My next goal with Google Forms would be to differentiate them depending on the answers that students would give. If they get it right, they can move on to the next section, but if not they could either get asked an easier question or else they could get a thank you message which would direct them towards some other activities for them to get more practice... That's something I am currently looking into, it's pretty fun!
2. Our next 'Create' activity was based on Google My Maps - a wonderful tool, which I had used before but would not have thought about using in my classroom. I took the liberty of adapting this task to something that my class would be more able to relate to. Instead of retracing someone's famous journey, I decided to try and remember all the places that I have travelled to before moving to New Zealand. This is something that my students ask me weekly (if not daily for some!), so I thought it would be a fun one to do. I'm sure I forgot a whole lot of places and events, I'll have to add some more to this as I remember.
Although I must admit, I got a little carried away and this map feels quite heavy now. I am yet to decide whether to use it with my class or not... Even if I don't use this one, I'm sure I can find some exciting ways to use this tool within my classroom program.
3. Our last 'Create' activity for the day was based on Google Sheets. Now, this is my absolute favourite Google tool: I am simply obsessed with spreadsheet. I am always trying to find a reason to justify creating a new spreadsheet, that's how obsessed I am. I use them to track students progress, monitor Google Forms answers, budgetting, and the list goes on. I don't think I could ever run out of ideas. 🧠💡 I'm the happiest when I can play with colour coding or formulas, when I can use data from different sources, when I can make pretty graphs... But I must admit, I haven't yet found a way to use them with my students.
As much as I love a good spreadsheet, my Year 2 students really don't. Although they do get excited when I show them that I can get a random name just by pressing a key, or that different numbers get a nice colour automatically.
Our Google Sheets 'Create' task was to create a chart out of a blog, looking at the number of posts that are being made on a monthly basis. I decided to work with Finau's blog, and wow, I was super impressed with the number of posts she already has on her blog. I am a long way away from catching up with her!
Here is the link to the spreadsheet I created if you are keen to check it out. I could not help myself form having a play with some formulas after having created my graph... I am hopeless, aren't I?
I think it is safe to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this session, I am really looking forward to some more learning next week to learn more about being collaborative. Stay tuned!
Oops, I am a little late to posting again this week... I'll catch up though, I might even post twice in one day!
Kia Ora Flo, Another great reflection on todays lesson. As an advanced student in this area I thought you created some wonderful stuff, and your take on the google my maps is a cool way to engage your kids with something they obviously are super keen on. It gives them not just a visual representation but also builds the understanding of reading maps and learning about other countries! Your use of spreadsheets was certainly at a level that most people wish they could, but it was great to see you problem solving throughout the session to find ways to make it easier to run the spreadsheets we were using. I think any lesson where we may feel like we know most of the content still ends up opening up some new ideas on how to use the tools. Keep up the great work!
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