Today we are celebrating Digital Learning Day at Van Meter with thousands of others around the country.
We have a lot of special activities planned in the libraries. The elementary students will be using, collaborating, and creating with awesome online tools such as Wallwisher, Symbaloo, BiblioNasium, and Edmodo. We will be using the interactive eBooks from Rosen Publishing to create digital postcards.
They will see how technology and media have evolved by visiting an awesome display and creating in the "Digital Learning Day Makerspace" in the secondary library with our friend Michele Beschen.
We will be Skyping in with the Digital Town Hall Meeting and my friend Tom Murray. The 8th graders will be showing off their "Little Free Library" Google Sketch Up plans. The 6th and 8th graders will be sharing the progress of their "Technology Passion Projects." Our friends at Mackin and Symbaloo will be stopping in virtually to say "Hi" and connect to our students. The "Somewhat Virtual Book Club" #SWVBC will be meeting after school to discuss the book Unwind.
They will be reading on various devices such as iPads, iTouches, tablets, and laptops. We will be sharing our favorite StarWalk Kids Media eBook using these devices and writing about the eBooks on their KidBlogs.
One thing we will have a lot of today and throughout this week is researching and searching for the right eBooks and print books within our library collection, while finding other resources online.
The 3rd graders will be gathering resources for their country projects and the 4th graders for their state projects. The 2nd graders are researching national monuments and the 5th graders are learning more about their gardens.
The students will get to these eBooks and the others in Van Meter's MackinVIA. This is the portal that holds all of our eBooks and databases. One of the things that we love most about MackinVIA is the ability to have our very own Mackin Backpack.
And this week....We are going to get our MackinVIA Backpacks ready to fill up!
The Backpacks are very easy to set up and manage through Mackin.com on the "Backpack Management" page.
During library and technology time, I am reviewing and teaching them about their MackinVIA Backpack. We passed out their new bookmarks when they came into the library today. They did a really great job using their bookmarks to login.
Van Meter Elementary Library Resources" Symbaloo.
Next, type in the UserID and Password that was assigned to you for your Backpack.
It is very simple to add things to your Backpack. You can click and drag the covers of eBooks to your Backpack like Hagan is doing in this picture above. He has the Alaska: The Last Frontier eBook almost in his Backpack.
The eBooks can also be added by clicking on the "Add To Favorites" button underneath the eBook cover which is shown in this picture.
I can't wait to see what the students put in them. With our wonderful eBook collection there is always something perfect for everyone.
Happy "Digital Learning Day" friends. We can't wait to hear what you are doing in your library and school too.