DFI Session 3: Media

What a joy it was to not have to be out there battling it on our roads in peak hour traffic this morning for our third DFI session. 

Normally I go against the flow of traffic to and from work, and often glance at the opposite lane and pause to feel a moments pity for the poor souls that are crawling along at something less than a snail's pace. Since I've started this DFI course, I have become one of those poor souls...battling my way out to Panmure from Point Chevalier, fighting to get into lanes, out of lanes and across lanes before the necessary exit.

So imagine my delight that this past Friday, our session was online and from the comfort of our homes. Dressed down in sweatpants and my warmest but lecture inducing jumper (my mother thinks it needs to go as it is old, threadbare and holey - not in the way that all good Catholics should be either - she hates seeing it on me, even in the private confines of home!) with freshly percolated coffee in hand, fully appreciative of the extra sleep time gained, I began the day with zesty enthusiasm.

By 11:30am, I was brain drunk and saturated with information overload. There was so much happening I was struggling to keep up with the information and browsing the links to explore, jumping into and out of breakout rooms for specialised sessions, taking onboard multiple bytes of data and trying to make sense of them all. It was exhaustipating and I was exhaustipated and the day wasn't even half begun.

I am in awe of our facilitators who are these fountains of knowledge and skill, and super efficient with what they do, and all so effortlessly. They are like the EverReady bunny that just never stops. And they choose to share it all with us, up-skilling us to be better facilitators and practitioners in our own classrooms. I've tried to imagine what it must be like living inside their heads with all that endless activity...Picasso on steroids in a Klimt world I'm thinking.

I have a new appreciation for how my students must feel sometimes with new learning when we're pushed for time.

Our focus today was Media and more specifically, the Create section of Manaiakalani's Learn-Create-Share pedagogy. We travelled through the world of You Tube, Google Slides and Google Draw. We learned a lot about the whys and why nots, and also the ins and outs of these tools, which added a layer of interest to the lessons. I enjoyed how it was not just all about the skills, hacks and functions, but also conversations around the usefulness of the technology.

We were encouraged to set up our own You Tube channels for subscribing, organising content and embedding videos  on blog or Google sites. Setting up playlists was a lot of fun, as was the discovery that playlists can be shared with colleagues for collaborative storehouses of good video resources for our team themes. I've just committed a cardinal sin and underlined a word that is not a link, but I am mindful that it is currently a real buzzword in educational circles. I'll say 10 Hail Mary's and give up chocolate for a week as penance, Dorothy. 

In Google Draw I learned that you can change the size AND orientation of your page. This is exciting for me and something I am going to take back to my class and team to experiment with. I can't wait to do my next class newsletter now. 

We had a great discussion around how to organise for Google Slide presentations that we use with our colleagues or classes. The tip is that if you can't fit it onto a Post-it note, it can't go on a slide. Put each idea on a Post-it note and move them around until your story takes shape and becomes exactly as you want it. A minimal use of pictures and words is also a good idea to help you monitor content.

All in all, another overwhelming but completely beneficial day. Although I do notice that after the Friday sessions, I usually have quite sore eyes and something of a headache by late afternoon/evening. The effects of this have been twofold - my Friday night social activity has come to a dead-end, and my Saturdays/early Sundays are now completely digital free. By Monday, my eyes are well rested and recovered for a new week. Until Friday again. It's a bit of a hamster wheel situation...