Session Four - Digital Fluency Intensive "Dealing With Data"

Whew!!  I found this week very full-on.  I am definitely not a numbers person so working with data in spreadsheets is not something that comes naturally to me.  I did manage to make it to the end with everything (I think) completed and added to this blog post.

I really enjoy listening to Dorothy speak about the Manaiakalani as I always learn something new and get my assumptions tested.  I did not know that blogging and sharing learning was used as a vehicle to teach children about cybersafety.  You do not have to be working in a school long before you are aware of how much time children are spending on devices, often unsupervised, and how vulnerable they could be without the correct information and teaching.  The expectation of children continually blogging what they have been learning means that the safety messages are being reinforced constantly rather than just in one-off sessions.  

Finding out about all that was produced in 2005 was very interesting and it feels hard to believe that we have only been able to dive into a deep rabbit hole of cat videos on Youtube for fifteen years.  It is amazing how quickly we have accepted Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc into our lives and now can't imagine not being able to share or view what is going on in our own and others worlds.  I do not tend to share much myself on these platforms but am an avid viewer of other peoples lives from afar.

Learning about how to create forms was a tool that I found really useful today.  I am often the person who is tasked with coordinating meetings among many staff, families, or professionals.  Usually, I have been sending multiple emails or making many phone calls trying to find a time that suits all parties.  I realised that I could create one form that gets emailed out and that all the information I need can come back to me through this.  The form that is on this blog post is one solution to this problem.  This could be sent out when a child's I.E.P. is due to be updated to assist me in finding a suitable time.  By doing it this way it gives me time to get all of the information in and to plan my time to ensure that I don't double book myself also as I often have many special needs meetings to attend.

While I have used Spreadsheets often when looking at children's data and progress it was good to have time to try things again and refamiliarise with getting averages.  I picked up some tips that I did not already know, such as how you can continue on a repeating pattern and quickly get days of the week or months of the year.  Being able to filter our data will save me a lot of time.  In the past, I have had to go in and change the background colour of our target learners.  I no longer need to do that as I now know how to use conditional formatting to get all of the children below or above a certain level to automatically be colour coded.  

I had time to have a quick look at some of the add ons that go alongside Sheets and I would like to spend more time having a look in the Flippity link that was suggested.  It appears that you can use Sheets for a lot more than I am currently using it for so this will be something for me to explore in the near future.

I appreciated the information about what to expect in the exam around Sheets.  I was able to complete the tasks asked of me which gave me some small shred of confidence about what it will be like.  I will have another go during the week with the other staff members at my school who are also doing DFI as we have set up a regular meeting time each week to go over what we have learned.  This time is proving valuable as the other staff members share some of the tips they have learned while in their small groups which I was not present at and we can help each other with any problems we have encountered since the last Friday intensive.