DFI 5: Collaborate-Sites + DFI 6: Enabling Access

The hamster wheel has been working overtime in the last fortnight, and I am thinking how blissfully wonderful life would be if I had 10 clones and could be everywhere I needed to be, doing exactly what I was needed to be doing, in each space. Maybe 11 clones, and one would just be permanently hibernating under the duvet covers, resting, breathing, relaxing and escaping from the busy world.

I have just completed proof reading and editing a class set of reports, and it is now DFI reflection time. (Yes, I know that Sunday was created as a day of rest, but I've already covered myself with a few Hail Mary's and forfeited chocolate today, so entry through those Pearly Gates is still within my reach!) 

How comforting and reassuring it was to be back in the face to face cohort, after completing DFI Session 5 online last week. Coming through the door and back into a room of the DFI cohorts and educational rockstars that have become my Friday village felt so good. (FYI, "educational rockstar" is a legitimate occupation, as I've been reassured by my students who came up with it early on in my teaching career. I have indeed used it when filling out the myriad of immigration, travel, registration, hospital, banking and data forms stating it as my occupation, and never once been stopped and questioned.)

There is great joy in being in a space with fellow colleagues who are all on the learning journey with you, as opposed to being a solitary figure in front of a screen - I have long since thrown off the luddite coat, but I still feel strange talking to a screen and watching someone else talking back at me from a piece of technology. There is something to be said for being in the presence of others, or at least feeling like you are not the only presence around. And it all comes back to connecting,  being connected, and the connections that we make, something that humans feel an innate capacity for.

Our DFI focus for Week 5 and 6 was on being visible, accessible and multi-modal in the digital age, particularly when we are driving Manaiakalani's vision and shared language of LearnCreateShare. Being visible is about making the teaching and learning visible and easy to access for our stakeholders. This means a well designed website that makes the content and context for teaching and learning clear, accessible and user-friendly for all. 

Like a beautifully dressed shopfront window, a website must look inviting at first glance. It must lure the viewer in and entice them to step into the world you have so carefully crafted for them. They need to want to stay inside and sample as much as possible.

Like tasty bites on a grazing platter, the merchandise needs to deliver as good as the promise made by your shopfront window dressing. The bites have to not only look delicious, they need to taste delicious too. You want a shopper to return through your doors as many times as possible, and not be a once and done client. A well dressed window is only the beginning.  

Once in, they then need to successfully and efficiently navigate their way through each section, sampling as they go. To do this, they must be able to use a minimum of 2 clicks to get to the final product. Imagine a customer trying to find the merchandise she wants by having to enter room after room after room until eventually, there it is. Most people in todays robotically enhanced world want instant gratification, right here and right now, and aren't ready or willing to spend time hunting for too long. 

A labyrinth is definitely not the goal here! 

Along with the weekly regulars of Harpara Tips, Deep Dives and Chalk and Talk sessions, we had time to explore website development and put some of our learning into practice, to do some window dressing of our own and to think about being multi-modal with our resources and planning. Some things to consider were being creative with colour choices, graphics and photos; making sure you had an icon that represents you as you look in live time rather than an avatar; connecting your school site and class blog to your website, and 2 clicks only. 

I found this time to be really valuable because being a tutu is my main mode of learning. I have to practise new learning repeatedly before it becomes a default setting. And there lies the conundrum. I am thoroughly enjoying the DFI sessions. They have given me so much insight into Manaikalani, the digital portals in schools and increased my own digital skill set. I might even venture so far as to say that apart from a Murray Gadd writing course I attended many years ago, this would be up there in the most relevant, practical and well worth the time spent away from class.

I am finding however, that once I walk out of that DFI room, I'm parking a fair bit of stuff "to come back to", and to practise "later". Along with the DFI stuff is all the regular other stuff that comes in a teaching day, week, month...my car park is getting pretty full. 

I do try to share little pieces with my class and teams at school to keep things fresh and in play, but still end up feeling like there's so much more to rewind and go back to, with never enough hours in the day to do it all. 

So on reflection, along with the clones, it would be immeasurably helpful to have just one extra day in the week that was entirely devoted to sitting quietly and having time to think, to practice, to do. No meetings, no reports to write, proof read and edit, no Ako Hiko presentations to prepare and present, no Pasifika Initiative Funding projects to work on, no Social Science curriculum refreshes to comb through, no language week to organise.....just one day to sit back and have the head space to free up some of those car park spaces.

I think it's do-able- 11 clones and an 8 day week.