Category Archives: Digital Learning Day

We’re Glogging Our Way on Digital Learning Day

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It’s Digital Learning Day!

I am bringing my students onto Glogster.edu for the first time this year, but we will be using the digital poster site quite a bit as the year progresses for projects around multimedia writing in ELA, engineering explorations in Science, and a history poster in Social Studies (and who knows, maybe some graphing in Math). What we will be doing today is talking about “design principles” and then, they are going to working on a Glog that connects with the Adventure Short Story they just completed yesterday. Their Glog will focus on:

  • Summary
  • Protagonist/Antagonist
  • Setting

I want to keep it simple, and doable, but also, I didn’t want them to being a random project, either. Yesterday, I shared the Glog that I created for my own short story so they could envision what I am expecting. They also received a brainstorming sheet to gather ideas, so that today, we won’t have to worry about what is going to be written — just how it will look.

Peace (on Digital Learning Day!),
Kevin

 

WMWP Pop Culture/Technology Conference

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This Saturday, our Western Massachusetts Writing Project holds a technology conference in conjunction with Digital Learning Day. We will have about 25 to 30 people (including the presenters) attend as we explore the intersections of popular culture, technology and the new (Common Core-influenced) Massachusetts Curriculum Standards. I’m pretty excited about it. I am leading a session with my friend, Tina, on video game design and kicking off the day with a quick introduction.
Here is what I will be talking about to start off the conference:
Pop Culture, Technology and the Common Core PDF
 

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

The State of Technology Webcomic

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This is an annual survey that I give to my students, with some changes each year, to give me a sense of my students. This year, it coincided nicely with Digital Learning Day and an upcoming unit around digital citizenship and safety.

You can access the full comic here, too, if the flash format does not work for you.
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Digital Learning Day: The Tech We Use

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Next week, on February 1, it is Digital Learning Day. I have some technology ideas brewing for my students, but I thought I would pull together some of the ways that we engage in digital media and technology in my sixth grade classroom. Since I will be bringing my students into Glogster EDU next week, I figured I would use Glogster as my platform to showcase a few of our projects, and explain why it is that I do those things with my students.

Here is my Glog overview (those of you reading this in RSS will need to use the link, I think):

 

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

PS — It’s not too late to get involved in Digital Learning Day There’s even a video challenge component to the day, sponsored by USA Today.

WMWP: Pop Culture, Technology and the Common Core

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Our focus at the Western Massachusetts Writing Project has been on ways to make the new Massachusetts State Standards (influenced by the Common Core) a workable reality for teachers in the areas of literacy. Our upcoming technology event will do that from a slightly different angle: looking at how our popular culture, technology and learning can come together in the classroom. This event was inspired in large part by Dr. Ernest Morrell’s presentation at last year’s National Writing Project Urban Sites Conference, in which he encouraged teachers to turn the lens on the culture that influences and shapes student interaction, writing and engagement.

We’re hoping to do that with a keynote presentation from a group of high school video producers called Video Vanguard, and then provide some opportunities for attendees to “learn and play” with technology around topics of gaming and social networking and more. We’ll also be providing time for reflection and connection with other educators. Our aim is to show how to validate the worlds of our young people while exploring the ways these cultural ideas can connect to the curriculum that we teach. In fact, the Common Core opens up a lot of doors to using technology, media and more for research, writing and publishing.

If you live in Western Massachusetts, please consider signing up for our event, which is taking place on Saturday February 4. (You can now register and pay online for WMWP events.)

WMWP Technology Event Feb2012

This event is also in conjunction with the national Digital Learning Day, which seeks to highlight the ways that technology and digital media can transform education and engage students. We’re also putting together a survey for Massachusetts teachers around their use of technology and digital media in the classrom for Digital Learning Day, in hopes of creating a database of educators who are on the leading edge of this movement.

Peace (in the culture),
Kevin