Get Ready for Digital Learning Day 2017

Digital Learning Day is coming up on Thursday, February 23, 2017. The Digital Learning Day website provides the history behind this national event:

Started in 2012, Digital Learning Day has provided a powerful venue for education leaders to highlight great teaching practice and showcase innovative teachers, leaders, and instructional technology programs that are improving student outcomes. This grassroots effort blossomed into a massive nationwide celebration as teachers realized that Digital Learning Day is not about technology, it’s about learning.

Teachers in my district are providing digital learning experiences to students every day and this is most likely true for anyone who may be reading this post. My challenge to you is to provide ONE new digital learning experience to your students on or near February 23. Need ideas? See list below to spark your thinking:

• Record a short video (1-3 min) with FrontRow lesson capture and post it to your classroom website or blog. It might be to explain directions to an assignment, show a writing sample with oral feedback, or highlight main points of a lesson for review. If you are nervous about recording, do it in the privacy of your home! Did you know that you do not even need to be connected to your classroom equipment to record a video? See two min tutorial here.
• Create a Safari Montage playlist for an upcoming unit and share it with students using a "permlink" or QR code. Students will be prompted to log in with their WL username/password. Learn more about Safari Montage, including how to create a playlist, by clicking here.
• Try using a formative assessment tool such as a Google Form, Kahoot, adding a question in Google Classroom, or another one from this list.
• Try using SMART Notebook to create an interactive lesson for your students. There are teacher-created lessons that you can use/modify on the Smart Exchange website.
• Introduce all of your students to Snap&Read and Co:Writer, learning support tools. Walk them through how to install and use both of these powerful tools. See how-to info here.
• Explore other ideas posted on the Digital Learning Day website: digital tools, online resources, and/or lesson plans submitted by teachers.

Remember, I'm available to help and want to support your efforts. Please let me know your plans to provide a new digital learning experience for your students.