On the DL
Notes from Digital Learning and School Library Services
October 2021
It’s hard to believe that it is already October. The 2021-2022 school year is in full swing! Next week I will begin my Digital Learning Walk-thrus. We started these pre-COVID as a way to assess digital learning tool usage, target areas for professional development, and target areas of need. As we begin these in the post-remote environment, we are genuinely curious about how our use of digital resources has changed.
Don’t be alarmed if I visit your classroom. I plan to visit all classrooms several times throughout the year. I am not evaluating you or your teaching, but rather tracking what tools are in use, what resources are in use, and at what level of rigor students are using the tools. See the image below for a link to the rigor and relevance matrix. I love walk-thru days. I get to see friends and colleagues, as well as see the wonderful things our students are learning.
Make sure you check out all of this month’s newsletter. There are some exciting things to be found and learned!
See you soon!
Copyright Corner
(click the down arrow to see the response to the question)
I want to teach a novel next week and I found the PDF of the entire book online. I can just share it in my Google Classroom, right?
The short answer, no! Now for the long answer…
Copyright is the law that protects intellectual property from being used without the permission of the creator or copyright holder. So for something like a novel, while the creator is the author, the actual copyright holder is usually the publishing company. They have signed a contract with the author to co-own that work in exchange for printing and distribution. The fact is both of these entities (the publisher and the author) need to make a living or profit. That is why copying, either physically or digitally, isn’t really allowed. In the bigger picture, if artists can’t profit, they won’t share their works and the world will become a sad place.
“But, I didn’t copy it. I found the file on the internet.” My usual response to this is “Just because you can, doesn’t make it right.” If you deep dive into many of the hosting sites for such works, they include a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) statement that says something akin to “We believe in copyright but we believe in you having this copy more.” The reality is, as adults, you can decide for yourself if you want to access someone else’s intellectual property this way. What you can’t do is use it as a classroom resource.
Classroom resources must be purchased and distributed appropriately or else the district may be held accountable. Publishers have sued districts for copyright infringement previously. AS an example, see the article on Houston ISD. So how do you teach in this environment? Plan in advance and work with your school library media coordinator to provide the resources you need. We can purchase or even rent digital copies via our Sora Digital Library, but they need time to prepare these materials. They can also help you locate alternative print materials.
Modeling the respect for artists and creators allows for us to continue to have amazing works of art. For more on copyright and Fair Use, check out this Edutopia article.
School Library Spotlight
New Makerspaces Coming to a School Near You
Makerspace Winners! The Brunswick County Makerspace Leadership Team members are pleased to announce the following winners: North Brunswick High School, South Brunswick High School, Lincoln Elementary School, and South Brunswick Middle School. Each school will be provided funding to attend professional development opportunities and to purchase necessary resources, tools, and supplies to fully implement makerspace design challenges, workshops, and hands-on, open design opportunities within their schools for students and staff. Professional development is being led by the original makerspace grant schools: Belville Elementary, Bolivia Elementary, Cedar Grove Middle, Leland Middle, and West Brunswick High. Funding for this project has been awarded through a $50.000.00 grant from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Digital-Age Learning Initiative. Congratulations to all!
Digital Learning Resources
Are you in a K-3 classroom? Have you used SeeSaw? If not, check out this learning platform that is all about student engagement!
SeeSaw has recently updated several aspects of the program including parent and family connections! Families can download the SeeSaw app and stay connected to their child's progress in a convenient way! They can message the teacher, reply to messages, see post their child is tagged in and get all updates in their preferred language. You can keep parents involved by sending announcements not only about your class but about learning resources for them to try at home. Check out this video for more tips on connecting families and classrooms.
Seesaw has many more new updates including enhanced video and audio features for you to create engaging and accessible lessons for all students. Check out the "how to" slide deck here. Contact your DLS for more information!
If only there was an accessible resource that allowed for access to an array of text types, from nonfiction to narrative and poetry, that can be delivered to students with varying Lexile levels! Oh wait, there's Newsela!
Newsela, an application available to all 4-12 grade educators, will do that and more! Teachers can curate text sets, create assignments, assign comprehension questions, and facilitate digital student annotations.
Want to learn more? Click here to get started.
Please consider attending Brunswick County Learning Specialist Anamarie Neville's PD session on October 18 at Supply Elementary at 8:30 am titled " A Knack for Newsela: Tips & Tricks to Differentiate and Personalize Learning."
Have you checked out Canvas yet? This learning management tool is used at many universities. This robust learning ENGAGEMENT tool can be used to organize your units into modules, manage your classroom and create interactive learning experiences like discussions and quizzes. Canvas is continually updating and even has a repository of courses that you can use for your classroom in the Canvas Commons!
Check out the Canvas Copy for August if you are interested for a "how to". Check out the Tech Camp session on Cavas to learn more or contact your DLS for more information!
North Carolina Technology in Education Society (NCTIES) Call for Proposals
Interested in sharing your teaching expertise at the NCTIES 2022 Conference at the Raleigh Convention Center from March 2 to 4th? Click here to submit a proposal!
Required District PD Day on Monday October 18
Be on the lookout for information on the upcoming district PD day to view the offered sessions from the Digital Learning Department and more.
InstructureCon for Canvas Users-October 7th
If you use Canvas or are thinking about using Canvas, check out their free, virtual, professional development day full of great resources for Canvas users. Sign up and check out the agenda here.
Do you love using Discovery Education as a K-8 educator? Check out the awesome activity calendars below for curated resources to support your classroom instruction. Make sure you are logged into Discovery Education before accessing!
Over the summer, all of the Chromebooks received MAJOR updates to their operating systems. These updates now allow for things like capturing screen recordings, using the camera to scan QR codes without an additional application, and even annotating PDFs and images without other apps!
Want to know more? Check out the tutorials we've included on the Chromebook 101 page of our Digital Learning website.
South Brunswick High School's Robin Ventimiglia was highlighted in the DPI Southeast Region Digital Learning Update. Over the summer, Robin shared her expertise with PowerTeacher Pro at the NCBOLD virtual conference.
Check out her presentation - and the rest of the recorded sessions linked from the NCBOLD website.
Click on the image below to access the list and links.
Interested in learning more about using your Newline interactive panel? Look no further!
Jeannie Timken, Brunswick County Schools Digital Learning Specialist, has developed a presentation to guide you through essential use information to get you started.
Click here to access a presentation on the five things you need to know about your Newline panel - plus, at the end there are a few other tidbits of information about your Newline panel for you to explore!
Please reach out to your digital learning specialist for customized support.
The application formerly known as SMART Learning Suite Online is now LUMIO by SMART.
The major noticeable change is in the logo, but beyond that you will find improvements to the application. You can now:
Import files at any time in the lesson creation process.
Import specific pages from documents and even PDF files!
Add Desmos activites right in the application.
For more information and tutorials to get started with this teaching and learning tool, visit
Please click on the icon above to view October's Tech Tips! The focus is on logging into ZScaler, exploring WiFi, and navigating PowerTeacher Pro!
Do you need additional tech tips? Check them out here!
Please click on the icon above to check out October's Creation Motivation strategies! We will release three a month to help student's create digitally in the classroom!
Be Cyber Safe Monthly Resources
