technology | Expect the Miraculous

Today was National Digital Learning Day. I honestly didn’t plan anything specifically for the day, but rather looked at what we were already doing today and highlighted it. Using technology as a natural part of learning to both consume information and create it is a big part of our media center vision and mission. I appreciate this day to highlight the great work going on around our country, but I didn’t feel like I needed to go over the top with planning digital learning, when it’s already a part of what we do. Here’s a glimpse of the kinds of learning that took place today in the Barrow Media Center.

11 students used e-readers to download samples of multiple books and read them to make decisions about what e-books they will commit to reading
Two enrichment clusters used iPads, desktops, and laptops to explore different ways of using these devices. These 2 groups (one younger students and one older students) are trying to explore as many ways these devices can be used so that they can promote their use throughout the school among students and teachers. Two Kindergarten teachers are leading these groups and working in the media center.
A 1st grade class learned about the Athens quilter, Harriet Powers, and created a digital quilt using the iPads.
Three 5th grade classes worked on collaborative projects encompassing 3 units of social studies standards. They are taking research they found and creating glogs in Glogster. At this point they are linking their glogs to videos online, embedding screencasts of Google Earth tours or timeline reviews, and creating audio segments introducing their glogs.
A kindergarten group used the e-readers to listen to picture books and/or practice reading the books independently and doing summaries.
I held a professional learning session for teachers on Google docs so that they could learn how to begin collaborating on documents. Our teachers do a lot of collaboration, so the use of Google docs is going to help them share multiple documents and streamline their time.

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How do you celebrate digital learning day every day?

Over the past 2 months, Ms. Hocking’s PreK class has been studying weather. In collaboration with the media center, students have participated in several learning activities to prepare for giving their own weather forecast. Students have watched videos of meteorologists giving weather forecasts and made lists of words that the meteorologist used. They have studied various weather words and what they each mean. Students toured our broadcast room at school and learned about the different jobs that our 5th grade BTV crew performs each morning. They learned about producers, assistant producers, video mixers, audio technicians, anchors, and camera crew. Next, students worked with their teacher, paraprofessional, parent volunteers, and me (the media specialist) to write their own scripts for their weather forecast. After scripts were written, these same adults guided students in creating cue cards for their weather reports. Students then spent several days practicing their scripts and cue cards in class.

Finally, the big day arrived and the preK students came into the broadcast room buzzing with excitement. Each one assumed a role in the weather forecast: 2 anchors, producer, camera, and cue card holder. Each forecast was recorded and uploaded to Teacher Tube for the class to enjoy and share with the world. Please take time to enjoy their weather forecasts. What an amazing technology, science, and literacy project with such early learners!