Happy Digital Learning Day! Today was the first ever national Digital Learning Day. I celebrated Digital Learning Day with my students, along with 16,000 other teachers and nearly 2 million students across the country. The purpose of this event was to celebrate innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology. Those celebrating Digital Learning Day believe in the same things I do; that technology engages students and provides rich learning experiences that promote 21st Century learning.
As a part of today’s event, the Alliance for Excellent Education hosted a live National Town Hall meeting. Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made a special appearance.
My class and I celebrated Digital Learning Day by creating a Puppet Pal presentation. This project was the culmination of our Understanding Maps unit in Social Studies. Each child took pictures of the huge community we made and gave a personalized tour of the community featuring the parts they helped to build. My students had a great time creating their digital puppet shows and we plan on sharing our puppet shows with our classmates on Edmodo later this week.
The best part of today was when a student of mine said, “Mrs. Fox, why are we celebrating Digital Learning Day when we use our iPods every day?” I smiled to myself and replied, “The hope is that every child in America will have the same access to technology that you have every day.”
If you were unable to participate this year, be on the lookout for next year’s Digital Learning Day. Let’s make it even bigger and better next year!