#sssc23

Okay reader, I have a confession I want to share with you.

Late last night I was paroozing my fabulous work on the 23 badges. 1....2....3...4...5......6.....7....8...9............( you get the idea).....22........WHAT 22? there should be 23! #23badges. The clue is in the title.

So, I took my time and looked through and realised that my witty, insightful blog on webinars and chat had gone....disappeared....wedi mynd, cabooshed.... so, please enjoy my Webinars and Chat blog - take 2.

I moved away from home and the lush green valleys when I was 17 ( I’m 40 now), I have lived all over the UK and now settled in Bonny Scotland, so as you can imagine, keeping InTouch with my family has always been important. I used to use SKYPE all the time. Every week I would log in 3 or 4 different times to skype my mum, dad, gran, grandparents, then when I had my children this became even more important because they wanted to see them grow. Now my children are pre-teens they communicate through text and video calls. We have what’s app, and I kid you not reader my children will FaceTime me either through facebook, video call me via WhatsApp or zoom call me from their rooms just to ask me what was planned for dinner....... We don’t live in a mansion, it’s not like you complete your step count for the day just moving between the east and west wing, we live in a humble semi-detach in a small village. So as you can imagine, I have had a wee bit of experience of video calling.

Now, bringing my blog back to the reason why I am writing it - evidence. So in March 20th 2020 one of my managers comes crashing into my room announcing that we have to pack all our personal stuff, book the leave, make sure that usernames and passwords are valid for systems x,y,and z and that the setting was closing because of COVID-19 ( or Corona). We had been expecting this but still, a shock. This meant that I was working from home, working in the education hub and having both children at home, working at different levels needing teaching and a husband who also is a key worker ( and a manager so he trumps me) AND I was still looking for a new job. OOOFFTT Meltdown Central!

Jumping forward 11 weeks and you will be pleased to say that I’ve not killed anyone. I am a little greyer and my waist has expanded but we are okay. We think that COVID-19 has sweeped through our house and we have recovered (this was before testing)....my apologies....I digress......

Since remote working we have utilised chat, video calling and webinars. We have been using Microsoft teams for work and school. VIdeo calls are always funny. These are the only times I put my makeup on and straighten my hair. Readers, you will be happy to know that I accepted a job which I had an interview through ZOOM.... Now this was funny as I was dressed tidily from the waist up, pj bottoms and fluffy slippers waist down ( I wanted to be comfortable). I have done a lot of professional learning and discussions and these have been through WEBINEX / ZOOM / Microsoft teams and Twitter. Having these tools at my fingertips have meant that I can still learn ( I am a visual learner, so being able to see something happening - like learning profiles and in the moment plannng in forest schools) which is developing my practice and engage with collegues and peers.

Aswell as using it for work, we have utilised it for our lives in lockdown. I dance twice a week ( I am no Darcy Bustle), this was a time which was my own. My fabulous dance teacher began doing classes via ZOOM. I swear, I have not laughed so much in my entire life. So good for your mental health. We also have ZOOM quizzes with family and a social organisation we are apart of. This is also good for your mental health and sustaining your social skills.

The evidence specification required me to discuss how I support others. I have actually done this a lot surprisingly. Some of my collegues have been sign posted to me to support them remotely, my fabulous in-laws are not very tech savvy, so I have had to talk them through how to use video calling and ZOOM so that they can still see us. Then lastly, my SCOUTING. Lockdown meant that scouts, cubs, beavers all stopped. Like us, our children need some normality so, working with my team we have succsssfully implemented weekly sessions. THe planning is a little different but the children love it! In fact, it’s Friday which means that its Scouts tonight (I’m not doing it this time). To get my leaders into this position took a lot of reassurance as for many of them it is the unknown. As lockdown doesn’t seem to be easing anytime soon, my next approach is to contact SCouting Scotland to see if they can do training for the adult leaders (I’m still working on my wood badge) via ZOom.... so watch this space.

I hope I have submitted enough evidence to be awarded the above badge, one last thing is GOoglehangout.... I had a look, we all had a look and agreed that we don’t need another platform ( it gets confusing) .

SSSC open digital badge #23thingsdigital. NUMBER 23!!!

Wow! What a journey. I started this badge because I was required to do a SSSC badge for work. I had already done loads of Early Years and mentoring ones so I started looking a little left field and found this beaut.

I thought I was okay with digital technology and my scores back in badge 3 suggested this ( I’m a little humble) I feel that I am far more confident negitoating the world of digital literacy. I sent an email yesterday and there were 4 recipients. Prior to this I would have just put them all in the top line and left it, but now I used the CC and bCC and even went back to the bCC and checked if they could see the other recipients!! I have learnt to blog. I wanted to do this for years and never had the ooommph to do it. My husband thinks I should set a dog blog up, so I think I shall be doing this. I learnt so much about my digital footprint and digital legacy now I am mindful about how I post and how, god for bide anything did happen to me, how to make sure that me digitally will be safe. I never heard of Coggle. What a revelation! This tool will help me formulate my ideas and essays when I go to university. I’m a but on the fence about Doodle and with respects the LinkedIn, I am most defiantly Linkedout.

SO what next? Through working through the activities in the badges I have come across a leadership badge which I am going to undertake. My collegues and friends have been struggling with remote learning and the constant rigmoral of online working. I have suggested these badges to them. ALthough there are 23 of them, they are so quick and easy to complete and you can talk away to your hearts content. Because it is a blog, it means that your writing doesn’t have to be bland and formal like normal reflective accounts are. THis is probably why I have loved working through them. At the moment is it 5:45 and I am “just finishing off” - I’m addicted!!

What’s next with respect to this badge?

I’m unsure. Obviously I will and am apply all my learning into my practice. I hope to develop the digital platforms for my setting, or look at my new setting. As a wise old owl, I already advise my students to be mindful about what they are posting on social media. I am thinking about making a directory of the badges that I have completed across the SSSC open badge platform for others to use as a reference. I am unsure who to develope a 23things resource for my organisation...... but.....watch this space. I like developing.

I may have mentioned previously that I work in a Local Authority Early Years Establishment and recently, because of COVID-19 lockdown we have all be working remotely apart from the time we get to spend in the hubs. I have no idea how we would have managed this Without the use of emails, mobile phones and the internet. We wouldn’t have been able to share information and knowledge, keep relationships between everyone going and communicating with management. The access to the internet meant that we could develop our skills remotely and work collaboratively on projects. FOr example, just this very week the preschool team I am in had to work together via Zoom to develop a virtual graduation, videos and comments about each of our children, who we may never see again ( I wont see any because I am leaving for a new job in August).... We couldn’t have done thing without the digital world. Similarly, the centre has been keeping InTouch with the families using mobiles phones, emails and Twitter. We have sustained connections where in a world with not technology may have become fractured. We are in unprescentede times and new information about how we should and will present in the next academic year is coming out from the government all the time. DIgital technology has allowed us to share and collaborate with the parents to ensure that the transition back into the nursery is as smooth as possible.

That’s the positives, maybe we need to think of the negatives. One thing I have noticed since working remotely and communicating with my team is that we are all working on different technology and the work we are doing doesn’t set out the same on different media types. Secondly, technology costs so are we expecting everyone to buy technology so that we can communicate. There is a poverty barrier and the risk of pushing parents into debt. I am a parent myself. In my house I have 2 children ( teenagers) and a husband who are all trying to work remotely and using the internet at the same time. THis doesn’t work. I feel that we are in the fortunate situation where we can afford for each of us to have technology which we can use to engage with the outside world and google classrooms, Microsoft Teams, Zoom..... all of them. WE have had to buy an adaptor to boost our internet because we are all trying to use it at the same time. Now imagine there 4 people in the house, all needing to work at the same time and only having 1 computer or a slow / dial up or 3G internet. Scottish execuative have stated that all children will have the access to a chrome book to access the remote learning which I think goes a little way to reduce the poverty barriers to this type of communication and work.

I was looking through the list of other apporaches and the only 2 that shot out as sort of suitable is that of the virtual reality and the wearable technology. The reason for my choices are as followed. I work children and these children need enhanced transitions into new rooms and schools. THe use of VR would support this in the current climate because it would give the child a platform to explore their new enviroment and what the new normal would look like. THis does not outweigh the importance of real life transitions. Secondly the wearable technology. I would love to get a glimpse of what the children are hearing and seeing and saying. This would give us practitioners an insight into their world and from there we would be able to adapt the enviroment. Recently I was listening to a webinar on SOcial language and communication in the Early Years SUmmit and one of the researchers said that she had attached go pro’s to the children and recorded to level of communication in different areas of the setting and then established which areas were language enriched. I would LOVE to do this. Wearable technology would show how active a person or a child has been which would be of benefit. I come from a cardiology background ( random, I know) and we use to attach wearable ECG machines and blood pressure machines to people to see what their circadian rhythms were thoughtout the day.

Digital Legacy : You are a legend !

I am a parent and wife and healthy. I pay into a pot for my pension ( only because I have visions of living like a nomad travelling the world in a VOlxwagon camper van teaching English to children and volunteering at schools, and watching the sun set and rise in hot climates. I have a will ( although there isn’t allot to share ) but I never considered my ‘digital legacy” and actually, I need to be honest.... I didn’t know what a digital legacy was. I have had a good look through all the information which was relevant to me: for example social media and banking. I am fortunate that I trust my husband explicitly so he knows my passwords and I know his and as for banking, its joint aswell as our savings. I’m a bit of a wannabe stevejobs but still technophobe so I always back my stuff up in case I do something and the whole lot crashes before my very eyes.

My mortality isn’t something I really think about, I don’t know what I would like to happen to my information when I die. I’m a person who thinks that it’s not up to me to decide what happens to my social media platforms etc because i wont be around to see it ( although, I will be haunting those from the after life who have hacked me off during the life). This badge has made me face it and I intend to explore the digital legacy association website to understand more. I work with very young children and although I support them through bereavement and I am sure that I will be supporting some of them with this once we return to the “ new normal” I don’t think they will be worried about the digital legacy aspect of death. I’m sure if I was working in adult services, I would be blogging at a completely different angle.

From this badge I am going to do a couple of things

1) research digital legacy a wee bit more....from a personal perspective

2) write down all the details for all my accounts, passwords etc and put them in a box and add it as an instruction in my will.

Now I think I is Gin o’clock after researching and writing this blog.

This blog is supportive evidence to go towards the above badge.

Well, number 20 out of 23....... getting there.

Collaboration. I have down loaded doodle and Padlet and have dipped my toes into both. I have to be honest I more of a survey Monkey type of gal , however, even that has its limitation especially when you are looking at getting a big cohort of results. Doodle was very easy to make a survey. 4 steps and you were there. The limitation of this was that there was no room to expand any of the questions or to make more questions. I am not sure whether it’s Doodle or me, so once this blog is finished, I shall be going back into it to have a play around ( I am currently in work mode, so playing with new technology / apps, albeit for a work based activity isn’t high on my agenda.... I can do this tonight when I am sitting mindlessly looking at the TV) I have noticed that doodle makes you change your settings so that a person can only vote once. I have never considered this before and i am not sure whether this is the same on SUrvey monkey, because if it is, then my data for my HNC project may or may not have been skewed.

There’s always a risk when you are collaborating with others, it’s the same as social media. There are those who will take your work and use it as their own ( been there and worn the T-shirt ) and there are those who may adapt the work creatively so that it can be misconstrued. A good example of this is WIkipedia. Anyone can go on and add to the information, so when one is using it as a source of knoweldge and information, one needs to be very mindful that they take due diligence and check their sources and ensure that the information you have read on one page is repeated on other platforms. One other problem with collaborating and collaborating through the medium of text is that they can be misinterpreted and that people feel braver to express their opinions and emotions #keyboardwarriors.

This is a rare occasion where. I feel that I have very little to comment on the COllaboration. I’m not sure why and this is something which I will need to take into consideration. In September I am embarking on my Masters in Education ( I may or may not have mentioned this like a million of times since I set this blog up) - most of it will be online and so there will be a lot of time for collaboration, so i think I will stop this blog here. Should any other gold nuggets arise, I shall either edited this post or add another. But for now, this is me signing off.

SSSC Open Badge work : Digital Leader badge #19 : Apps# 2

This blog is to act as evidence submission for the above badge.

I have said it before, and I have the evidence of 11 weeks worth of notes in my house. Paper everywhere !! I have moved on a wee bit, I now have iCloud, OneDrive and google photos and no longer search for my USB stick ( although I did catch myself using it in work recently because I didn’t have the time to log into my online storage).

When I realised that I was going to be off work for a long time due to being in lockdown ( which I am still quite enjoying) my gorgeous husband went out an bought me this goooochy iPad that I can write on, take notes with a pencil which costed more than my whole wardrobe of clothes. It’s very kind, but I cant retain the information when I am typing notes, I am a visual learner who benefits from writing. So one note ( or I use good notes if I’m honest) is there, and I do use them but not all the time. If I want to make a shopping list I either tell Alexa to keep on for me and then she sends me a list or a type it into Facebook messenger or in my notes on my phone.

So that’s the negative part of the badge evidence submitted, now the positive. I have heard about clouds, and often make word clouds, however I have never experienced Coggle before. What a fabulous app! It’s now downloaded onto my iPad and I am sure I will be using it in the future. I have attached my first attempt at a mind map ( again, I usually draw them ), to be put on the spot to make one, I found challenging, so I bare with me.....it will take time and practice.

Urm.... okay.... OER? Open Educational Resources. This is something which I have not heard about until I opened the SSSC information on the subject. I have worked remotely for 11weeks ( give or take as I have also been in the hub working), I have done online work and courses all my adult life, I have even trained induviduals on a specific subject, but never realised that I could have used these type of resources. Until now, I have made my own PowerPoint presentations and referenced like a would when writing an essay. These OER’s can be used in so many different ways. I could / will from now on use them to support training ( should I ever be asked to do one again), I could use them to develope my centres website and conversations with parents.....although, now I am reflecting on our practice, I / we have inadvertently used OER’s with our parents and fellow educators to share ideas and information about specific areas of the curriculum and enviroment. I feel though...and I talk from experience from being a person who has been on the receiving end of an OER that sometimes, the materials are set up in such a way to support the cause and that could be a bit of a limitation from that aspect, but then, a good practioner, trainer, advisor would check the information before using it and then adapt or add to it so that it is more suitable for the reason it is being used.

It is material which I have used, adapted but I never realised that there was an actual name for it. Even though there is no copyright on the material ( something worth checking), it is still advisable to reference where the material has come from.

This blog is to provide the evidence required to achieve the above open badge.

The COVID-19 pandemic threw us all into a world of digital learning unknown. I have been asked to reflect on myself as a digital learner and the skills required

Self Confidence : I scored myself a 3. Just average. The way I would build my confidence up it to look at where I started and where I have got to in terms of digital learning. I can not negotiate most learning and interactive platforms with relative ease and the idea of a Zoom call or a teams call doesn’t put the fear of god into me.

Motivated : I love learning. Fullstop. SO to have an opportunity to study at my hearts content in subjects which I am motivated to learn more about AND get paid for it is amazing. I have scored myself a 4, however, I should have been a 5, but my self confidence put a stop to that score..........

Positive Attitude : Again, I scored myself a 4. I do what I need to do and maybe more. The waking up in the morning knowing that I am going to need to be tied to my laptop for another 7hrs learning / working doesn’t put the fear of dread into me. I didn’t score myself a full 5 simply because, there are days where I feel... less positive and this is due to environmental and mental health issues ( the pandemic does this to you) to get to a 5 I would need everything as an equilibrium which, during a pandemic where you are an Early Years officer, mentor, counsellor but also find yourself a primary school teacher, secondary school teacher, caretaker, cleaner and dinner lady all at once, it is not.

Good communication skills : I scored myself a 4. I am not perfect, hence not a 5. THere are times where ( probably through reading my blog, you will be able to understand this) I have an idea and try to put it down into words but get all muddles and I’m pretty bad at interrupting from time to time. All theses can be managed with time and precision which I something I have very little of at the present.

Good Collaborator : On the whole I feel that I work well in a team, even today I spent 2hrs on a teams, Team call collaborating with my collegues. There are times, I feel that my input is taken off me and someone else takes the credit....this really peeves me so I find myself keeping information / knowledge and only share is necessary. This would take me to a 5 instead of the 4 I put myself in.

Compentant ICT - 11 weeks back I would have put myself as a 5. 3 weeks back I would have put myself as a 2 but now I am a 3 or a 4. I can negotiate many different platforms and manoever through them.

Looking at these skills I don’t feel that they differ much from the skills needed for a traditional approach as you are required to use all theses skills, but in a slightly different way ( face to face t start with....)