Dealing with Data - Session 4 "Hump Week"

Dealing with Data - Session 4 "Hump Week"

I had to laugh when Dorothy opened the session with an explanation that we had hit 'hump week' of the Digital Fluency Initiative PLD. I think I breathed an outward sigh of relief that the sessions weren't going to get trickier.  I am surviving and I'm quietly chuffed each week with how many new tips I pick up and implement.  I can confirm that Phil's earlier claim in 2020 was indeed correct... this is the best PLD! (Big statement... I know... you have to do it, I guess to believe it). 

Today's session was about the 'Share' component of the Manaiakalani kaupapa and I love it when the team uses the metaphor of the 'hook from heaven'.  In addition to 'Share' we were also tackling spreadsheets and I think the word 'tackling' works in nicely with spreadsheets because they can be tricky - conditional formatting, formulas (are your eyes glazing over at the mere thought) etc...

First of all, I'd like to start my Blog with a revelation from one of the last sessions of the day.  I think (?) it was Mele's blog (student blog) that we looked at, and I was staggered to see that she'd had over 130,000 hits since 2014.  The reach and impact  is phenomenal on so many levels and you really get a sense of the importance of audience and the power of Blogger as a tool.  I had a quick catch up with Maria about our students blogs today and my understanding is we are ready to deploy, so I am keen to discuss - audience engagement, cybersafety, blog commenting etc... with the team at our next catch up.  

I'm not sure it's very politically correct to admit to not being the biggest 'Blogger' fan when you are actually using the platform.  That's probably not the best look.  However, I had a shift in perspective today and Dorothy's explanation/metaphor of Blogger as the car/vehicle that the children learn to 'drive' on (the Granny car if you like), rather than the Ferrari that they all wish for.  Made a lot of sense to me.  Blogger is absolutely, 'meat and potatoes' but if it does what we want it to (and it does) then let's not jump to the fade.

I think it would be fair to say that opinions on the humble spreadsheet often diverge - some of us are traumatised by complex formulas and others celebrated as spreadsheet ninja's.  The facilitators did well to cater for the range of abilities in the group and I picked up some great tips from Jeremy on conditional formatting, data validation etc... I felt quite proud that I managed to keep up in this session and I picked up some excellent tips.  I made a solid start on a simple 'Fale' (House Points) table for our New Windsor Way competition and Jeremy showed us a great example of how we can expand this tool across classes/school.  

I have another list of LOVES from today 

• Access and tips on Hapara dashboard - I also signed up to the Hapara forum on a recommendation from Dorothy.  
• Google Forms and a reminder that I can break up my survey's into sections.
• Google Maps and a good overview of how I can use this tool for tasks such as mapping out the school Cross Country

As an aside, I also really enjoyed the opportunity to have a walk around Papakura Central School and could make a number of connections to New Windsor - same decile, similar size, similar demographic, they even had the same Auditorium as us.  Realisation #2 we desperately need heat pumps in our space.   I'm all over that!

DFI goes online again for us next week and because we can't make the Friday session because of our Kahui Ako CoLference we are online.  

Another great day.  Thank you team.