Digital Learning Day

Created by Peter Reynolds for Digital Learning Day

Today is Digital Learning Day in Wisconsin and we are active all over school using technology to enhance and transform instruction.  Announcements were unchained from the standard location when our principal and two students used a laptop and UStream rather than our bulky camera that is pretty much chained to one room.  Students have been using technology throughout the day posting on blogs, researching, and creating.  It is exciting to see all the things that the teachers are trying today.  The challenge for our staff was to integrate one new technology tool.  In some ways, today doesn't look a whole lot different than a typical day since our building uses digital learning every day.  The only thing is that today we are pushing ourselves to go beyond our comfort zone.  Hopefully, I will have more to post as the day progresses.  Happy Digital Learning Day!

Update:
It ended up being a busy day for me helping to make sure things went smoothly around the school, but it was really awesome to see people using some of the things they saw at the Technology Petting Zoo last week.  Playaways were checked out and the iPad cart was buzzing all over the school with kids videotaping themselves and each other, using new apps, and experimenting and creating.  Some classes were posting or commenting on blogs for the first time and both teachers and students had a high level of excitement about many of these experiences.  I loved having a part in it and hope to see continued growth with both staff and students.  I have ideas about what to do next time too.  I would like to do something like Sarah's Digital Learning Fair with students teaching and demonstrating.  Something to look forward to next year.

Technology Petting Zoo

This week flew by so quickly.  I feel like I have been on a roller coaster.  I had a crazy week at school, but in the midst of it all, I did have the chance to put together a technology petting zoo on Thursday.


Quite a few teachers were able to stop by.  It is something I have been wanting to do ever since I saw Sarah's example on her blog Page in Training. I shared the NookColors, iPad apps including how to create and store video, some online comic creators that I learned about in my Digital Storytelling for Kids class, our Playaways, how to make google forms, and our computer microscope attachment.  I had fun showcasing these neat tools that we have available to us.

One teacher has already put the google forms to use in a big way by creating a survey today.  Love it!  Others got ideas for what they would do on Digital Learning Day Feb. 1st.  One teacher and I set up a Playaway with her room sound system to use with the whole class.  One teacher used the iPad cart today that hadn't used them yet this school year.  Hopefully I will be able to do some more things like this.  I had a lot of fun and I hope the staff members did too.  Most of all, I hope that learning will be positively affected by these types of events.