Thoughts on Digital Learning Day 2012

Did you have a chance to follow any of the Digital Learning Day event on February 1, 2012? I was able to catch a few bits and pieces. Here’s my thoughts on what I saw:

1. I thought it was interesting (and appropriate) that Digital Learning Day didn’t have a singular focus. This wasn't a showcase for Apple, the new ipad, or other tablets. It was a survey of all the options that are available to schools now and it demonstrated how classrooms can use that technology to its fullest advantage.
2. Gov. Bob Wise (WV) led off the meeting. I liked his quote, “If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get the results that we’ve always gotten.”
3. Arne Duncan talked about US schools being behind the curve in terms of implementation of digital technology. Costa Rica has a laptop for every student. South Korean schools will be all digital within 3 years. He said he wanted to make the US a leader again in education, and the way to do that was to expand the scope of  digital technology in classrooms. Arne also had an interesting visit on The Daily Show a few weeks back. If you missed it, you might want to check it out. He talks about Race to the Top, State Initiatives, and the art of teaching.
4. Then they jumped around to several different classroom locations. Here are the highlights I noted:
• A classroom was doing a science experiment and skyping/videoconferencing with another classroom doing the same experiment! They had a computer set up and teams of two students from each classroom were talking over the video connection, talking about the experiment and comparing results. Cross-site collaboration. And these were 2nd graders!
• A class used ipods to record and broadcast presentations.
• A class went on a field trip using smartphones for an “augmented reality” tour of a nature preserve. Students went on a hike and used a smartphone app that added an information layer to the camera function. So they’re looking around and then they can look at the video screen on their smartphone and see additional information about their surroundings, like the scientific name of a tree, landform information about the preserve, and other data that they wouldn’t know by just taking the walk. (Think of it like Google Goggles, but instead of telling you what restaurant is around the corner, it tells you what plants/animals live in this habitat, etc.)
• One school even developed a program for students to create their own smartphone apps. Yes, these were fairly simple apps, such as pressing a button to create a sound. Still, they had the experience of creating this themselves.

I know it's a cliché, but these are exciting times. I’m struck by how much steam the digital revolution is gaining in entering every facet of our lives. And this digital learning day reflected that. Also, I was struck by the fact that they didn’t have technical difficulties during this event,  considering they were switching from site to site all across the country (including classrooms, conference rooms, and a talk-show video format).

It was an incredibly energetic, invigorating presentation. If you’re interested, you can still see the recorded videos on the website. And if you’re a teacher, I recommend you check out their toolkits.

~PC