Using Data

In our DFI today, I have been reminded of the criticality of Visibility to effective learning. This is so refreshing in comparison to my own experience throughout primary, secondary and university education in the 70s and 80s, where we had to guess what was in our teacher's mind and how she might want our work presented back to her. Incredibly, this approach was still in evidence for my own children going through Primary school in 'the noughties'.  So it is very exciting to be part of the creativity and motivation that Learn, Create, Share enables for our Manaiakalani learners, and how this shines through in what these kids are producing and achieving.

I enjoyed thinking about how data can be collected and presented in a way that is accessible and interesting for my audience.  From a user perspective, I have learned about a number of add-ons and shortcuts that will to make my spreadsheet work much easier.  I've been playing around with graphs - we spent some time analysing learner blog post frequency, and I have graphed the results for one student below.

Today, I have also taken my Google Maps knowledge to a new level. I have been impressed by the many ways teachers can leverage this tool in the classroom.  While I'm still at the most basic level myself, I did have fun charting my journey from home to my office each day, and measuring the distance.

I have also learned how to translate content from forms on to a map - just like magic!

The session on Google Forms has been very timely - there is so much scope for me to utilise this tool so much more in my work, and achieve many efficiencies as a result. 

A new goal

Now that I am extending my skillset, I can start to progress my goal to develop a site for the Manaiakalani Education Trust (MET), to sit as a part of manaiakalani.org . Even though I am still at such a beginner level, the high level of DFI learning, resources and support encourages me that, with some dedicated effort, this goal could well be within my capability. Yay! My intent is to make content about the Trust more easily accessible, and to highlight the way in which MET supports and serves the work of the Manaiakalani schools. It will also provide a landing place for key groups such as trustees and staff. The former will want to access documents such as the Trust Deed, Annual and financial reports, minutes, agendas and content they can use when they are promoting the work of the Manaiakalani programme with others. For our Manaiakalani staff team, it may be helpful to have a place to access HR policies, communications, and other employment-related matters. To make sure I target my audiences as effectively as possible, I need to do some 'market research' to confidently establish what content will be most useful, and what I need to be working towards for the user experience. I've also got examples from a number of the Education Trust in the Outreach to draw on.