Why Digital Literacy and Learning Spaces belong together.

  “The teacher no longer needs to be the holder of information…but rather can become a co-learner…”   When we reenvision our spaces together, what do we learn together? You may have seen a few posts documenting this year’s experimentation and thinking around learning spaces in this post, this post, this episode or this one….

Non-Fiction Text Features: Incorporating the Digital

There is so much to be gained from walking through the corridors of your school and popping in to see what classes are doing. This morning, I happened to pop into Kim Duffy’s Grade 3 class and discovered a really neat learning experience the class was exploring on Non-Fiction Text Features in digital books. Kim…

Learning How to Focus

Take a look at the photo below. What does it tell you? What do you notice? It tells me that with close to 60 tabs open, this student was so distracted by the extension that he/she wasted a significant amount of time being off task. The worrying thing is that if this student continues these patterns…

Digital Bytes March 9th 2015

This week’s Digital Bytes features some excellent apps (organised by age level) for Coding, Art, Music, Writing and Film-making, a tutorial for moving incorrectly placed content in a Google Site, and some advice for parents for talking about Digital Citizenship at home with their children.

Grade 5 Exhibition – Printed Display Boards

This year at East we are lucky to have access to a large format printer. I say large, and I mean HUGE! It is about the size of a piano (see the door in the picture as a frame of reference!). The Grade 5 students were given the option of printing their display boards in…

Nice to Know – Infant Digital Literacy

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” – John Dewey We no longer question whether or not the use of digital technology improves learning; there is a large body of research that clearly shows that it does. The vast majority of our students arrive at UWCSEA with a…

Grade 1 Students Start Blogging with Easy Blogger Jr

At UWCSEA we like to empower our students to share their learning in lots of different ways. They take charge at Student-Led Conferences, and interact with various service groups as part of the school year. In Grade 1, we wanted to add blogging to an authentic audience to the list, both as a part of…

Email, Spam, YouTube Subscriptions and Snopes

One of the many wonderful things about having Google Apps at our school is that our students are able to have GMail accounts. This really does enable them to have the functionality we adults enjoy with having an email, with the added bonus of learning to use it in a supportive school environment. It allows…

Getting Started with your Class Google Site

This year, each class has been set up with its own Google Site. The purpose is to keep our parents informed about specific goings on in each class, and to host weekly homework. Below is a screencast showing how to navigate to and get started with your class Google Site. Each grade has been set up…

The Best Job in the World

http://www.imagechef.com/ Digital Literacy Coach, Computer Teacher, Technology Integration Teacher, I think we have a very cool job no matter what you call it. Here at UWCSEA East we are called Digital Literacy Coaches. But what exactly does that mean? What role do we play at school and in the classrooms? A quick look on dictionary.com…