DFI Week 9 Revision

Week 9 Dorathy discussed the huge power that Ubiquitous teaching and learning can have. When there is no longer the constraints of learning only occuring within the four walls of a classroom a finishing bell. It can actually extend much futher with access and availability beyond school hours. It can reach into the home, it can streatch out to seek other experts in other places, spaces time zones or countries. It certainly yeileds a different type of power.

If you are away, you are traveling, if covid 19 hits and your in lock down- well you don't have to miss out because its right there and accessible for you. Its even rewindable so if you don't get it the first time or want to go back over something - easy peasy thats' rewindable Ubiquitous teaching and learning. Following this chat and after a few hairy minutes waiting to reshedual and get on to the Exam... Well what can I say it is done! It was a really full on day and on this occasion I had my 14 year old son Around - someone mentioned it being a good thing to do this exam and put our selves in the shoes of our young learners. This was gold my year 10 boy witnessing Mum about to do an exam, was she comfortably? No in fact it had been over 20 years since she sat a 3 hour exam.. Was she jumping for joy to be doing this? No she was a bit unsure about some aspects and was very concerned about the time pressure. On top of all this as life often does it had thrown in some unexpected excitement and change so the leadup to this day had been unavoidably manic in the entire Newlands household to say the least. Despite all this I (Mum) was brave and sat down and got stuck in. Well how did it go? I ran short of time - this was something that I was concerned about, however I was really encouraged that as I was going along I actually found that so much of what I was having to do I actually had the knowledge and skill to do - I truly have learn so much and I can put this into action when required. I do know that if I practiced and used these digital skills on a more regular basic I would be much quicker. As I teach year 1 students and only sporadically need to use many of these tools I am not as polished at using them quickly BUT the exam proved to me that I do know about so much and I now have the confidence to use and develop these skills when situations require. ...To top it all off my son got to see me tackle something that was challenging and that I had to keep a growth mindset about and really just face head on even though the lead in has been hardly ideal. I know this one will be hugely valuable in the exam sitting years that my own children are about to embark on. Life lessons all round and I must say a great deal of digital knowledge intensively imparted on me over this past 9 weeks. Thanks to All the awesome experts and fantastic presenters we had the privilege of learning from and a special mention to my truly fantastic small group leader Venessa who was just brilliant at her role! Thanks DFI