Its a great place to be in some respects. But I barely have time to reflect or learning anything new as I am so busy having to do, do, do. This is G Suite for Education and in Meets several times a day with colleagues on the Digital Team, with staff or with students.
And then two or three times a week I will find myself back online doing a Zoom meet or quiz with different friends and family. And even joined a Town Council Zoom meet.
I made this today:
This is is part of my Google Educator Level II training. Today I am working on a Google Tour > an interactive itinerary that pops up with images and text. I can also use video and 360° images which I will have a go with too in due course.
Forget the Masters in Open & Distance Education, from my point of view. Pte J F Vernon, in the frontline of teacher and student support, I need to be able to make Google Classroom sing, and Turnitin, and Google Drive and Docs. And Planet eStream. And Thinglink. And WordPress. And video production ...
At times it leaves me feeling inadequate at everything. Like Roy Castle spinning China plates on the end of long bamboo poles in an 'Guiness World Record' attempt on Blue Peter in the 1960s.
From time to time the plate drops. From time to time the plate appears to be able to spin forever my further intervention unnecessary.
These are at the core of G Suite for Education.
It might be as basic as learning how to drive - but you still have to learn how to drive and then set off on a journey where the road signage changes, and slow side roads become slick interstellar space ports overnight. Accepting constant change is part of working in digital.
I have taken an educator through Google Classroom and Google Drive twice or three times in a year so doing this requires me to revisit what I knew then, check all updates and give things a go myself before hand. The tutors themselves, with there 25+ students and a term of assignments to prepare are more versed in it than I am.
This isn't how I would chose to be, or not to be in my case - an industry expert. I need to be doing on a daily basis. What I currently do on a daily basis is Twitter, WordPress and Umbraco, and every few months a newsletter using MailChimp.
For me to develop a skillset requires time and constant practice.
So I am back peddling and using time set aside this week to work on video and scenario-based learning for SEND students.
I'm not the kind of person who handles these kinds of frequent adjustments in direction well.
The MAODE taken 2010-2013 has been rendered largelly theoretical given the onslaught of the likes of G Suite for Education. Why don't all institutions, schools and universities, move to Google Education tools and platforms. They are free. They have had vast sums of investment put into them. They do everything anyone was wishing and trying to achieve from 2000 onwards.
I started what was the MAODL in 2000! Things have changed radicaly ... and imperceptably? Dare you be away from it for long Dare you be freelance and not realise how fast, slick and connected we have become (and can be).
Just doing the learning to get my very modest Google Educator Level 1 I have been going through my own use of Google and am staggered at how willing I am to let Google do everything and assume everything - over 10 years at a swimming club I have assembled a vast amount of contacts for club officials, coaches and teachers, as well as the parents of swimmers - all of whom I must have contacted at some stage and have been listed, or grouped somewhere ever since.
So just now I knock together a Test class, as if I want parents of a group of swimmers to encourage their kids to view a carefully chosen video on a swimming technique. It is as quick as playing Chop Sticks on the piano ... one refrain.
Of course, the expectation is that teachers, tutors and associate lecturers are all a whizz at this. Some, circumstantially, if freelance, may not be aware of just how much things have moved on, nor will they be paid, necessarily, to take the time, to get on top of things.
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