Creating my Digital CV

For our last (ever!) digital immersion day we created an online CV.  It was a great opportunity to use our digital skills to showcase our learning journey, teaching pedagogies and digital capabilities.  

I had a look at my 'digital CV' I created last year when I applied for jobs and I couldn't help but cringe a little! I had just been introduced to Google sites and I created my first ever site as my Digital CV. I used the drop down menu function and choose a template.  It was a pretty good effort for a first timer, but it shows just how much I have learnt.  

My 2015 digital CV

My 2016 digital CV

For my 2016 digital CV I wanted everything to be on the same page.  I wanted it to look as simplistic as possible, so used HTML to create tables for each of aspects I wanted to include in my CV.  I  wanted to use more images and less text.  I used Google Draw to turn my images into links.

With the help of Dorothy, I created an album of photos to provide a snapshot of my teaching.  I did this by creating a Google Presentations and inserting photos onto each slide.  Also, on each slide I included left and right arrows, which were hyperlinked to the previous or next slide.  You need to publish it to the web and make sure the auto advance settings are on. Once you have created your Presentation, you add it as a Gadget on your Google site.  The Gadget you use is 'Slideshow Maker'.  Then you follow the steps to add in the slideshow and specify the height and width.

Make your site pretty

I use a few websites to help make my website look good.  I like to choose fonts that look interesting and compliment each other.  I will always use different fonts for titles and normal text.  It can be hard choosing from such a large range of fonts, so I always use 100daysoffonts to help me.  Note that this probably shouldn't be shared with students as some of the text used is not appropriate for kids.

I also like to choose colour schemes and use a few different sites to help me. Color-hex and coolors are my go to.  My favourite is coolors because a) you can adjust the shades b) you can save your colour palette by exporting it and c) you can upload an image and use the colour picker to find the hex-codes for the colours you want!

Creating a Site for Inquiry

A few weeks ago I created a site for LS1 and LS2's inquiry - Our Global Neighbours. It was great to use what I had learnt during the Current Events task, and apply it to a new situation. Whilst was a challenge to create the entire page with html (rather than inserting tables) it was very addictive! I enjoyed facing challenges and finding my own solutions. Here is the link our collaborative inquiry page. In the beginning I chose the font that we use for all our titles on our class site (Londrina Shadow). However we have learners with dyslexia in our class so I choose to keep the font plain and simple. This was an important decision because my site needs to be accessible to all.

Digital Immersion: Creating a Site Using HTML

Today we consolidated our learning and understanding of Google Sites, HTML and critical thinking in current events through the creation of a current events page.  The 2016 MDTA cohort was set with the challenge of each creating a multi-modal page on Google Sites about a current event.  In previous weeks we discussed critical thinking in social studies and reading, and chose current event topics.  We then had a week to come up with the content of the lesson.  

I found creating my change challenging but very addicting!  After plenty of trials and errors, it was a great feeling to correctly fix something using HTML.  A challenge I had was that I wanted to unmerge cells that had previously been merged together.  This was tricky as when you merge cells you need to delete another.  Merging cells  shifts the one cell to take up the space of two cells,  therefore you are left with an odd cell that is to the right of your table.

Merging Cells using HTML 

Merge rows by adding the code rowspan="(number)" inside the <tb> code of the cell you want to merge

This shifts the cell to the right of the table.  You then need to delete that entire cell.

Unmerging and Adding Cells

When you want to unmerge and add a row back in again you are left with a gap where it should have been.  After some thinking and reading of the HTML I had, I figured how to add a cell back in by writing the codes <td> and </td> below the code for the previous cell.

You can unmerge cells by changing the rowspan code to rowspan"1".  However this leaves you with a blank space where the previous cell was deleted.

Place some x's in the column next to the blank space. This shows where you want to create a new column.

Find the x's to locate where you need to add in a column.  Insert <td> and </td> underneath the previous </td> for the xxxx column

Whilst this may have been very simple problem to solve for HTML savvy people, it was quite the accomplishment for someone who had no idea about HTML two weeks ago!

My Current Events Page

Here is the page I created using HTML.  Please note that it is not entirely finished.  I would like to increase the white cell padding and change the vertical alignment within each cell to be centered.  I am still on my HTML learning journey and will fix it when I figure out how to. Click on the screenshot below to explore my page :) .

I will be using my multi-modal current events page with my learners next week. 

Digital Immersion: Create to Learn & Effective Site Layout

Create to Learn

'Create' is a vital part of Manaiakalani's learning cycle.  Creativity has a significant place in all classrooms, irrespective of the learners age and capabilities.  It allows learners to demonstrate their learning in ways that align with their strengths and interests. Gone are the days of dull, non-autonomous summative tasks!  In Manaiakalani schools, learners demonstrate and consolidate their learning by creating a Digital Learning Object (DLO). 

Learning about the importance of 'Create to Learn' got me thinking about my current teaching practice.  Am I creating to learn or learning to create? Are my 'create' tasks helping to consolidate my learners learning? Or is the focus more on the tools they are using? These are important questions to reflect on, so I can be certain that my lessons allow my learners to embrace their creativity and express their understandings in a way which best suits their needs, interests and strengths.

Effective Site Layout

After learning about 'Create to Learn' we moved examined the principles of effective site layout.  After discussing the ten principles, we examined 10 class sites from around New Zealand.  We had to think critically about whether or not the sites were effectively designed by rating them against the 10 principles and justifying our reasoning for our ratings. 

Click on this screenshot to explore Learning Space 2's site.

Critiquing the exemplar class sites got me thinking about how Learning Space 2's class site compares to the 10 principles of effective site layout.  Robyn, Kiri and I worked hard to collaboratively create a class site which meets each of the criteria for effective web design. 

Here are a few things that I believe demonstrates that LS2's site meets the principles of effective site layout:

• Each page is uniform and simplistic, creating a sense of cohesion amongst the teachers and their groups.  At a glance, you will notice that all teacher pages look the same which is our intention.  We did this because  a. we wanted the three of us to be seen as one, and b. we didn't want our learners to feel as though one teacher was doing something that was better/easier/harder etc. 
• Our use 'wee mee' avatars is a great visual prompt that focuses our learners attention.  Our learners know that clicking on their teachers face will take them directly to their tasks. 
• Get to where you need to be within 3 clicks.  This has proven to be extremely effective for our learners, as they can find their work easily without getting lost or confused.  
• Our class site is 'accessible to all'.  All our tumbles, tasks and resources need to be visible to anybody with the link.  It is beneficial for learners as it ensures their learning is 'rewindable', as they can go back to the learning at any time.  Moreover, it is beneficial for whanau as they can see what their child is learning.

In term 2 I will be in charge of creating a site for our inquiry unit.  I look forward to applying what I have learnt about effective site layout to create a site which fits the 10 principles.