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The Digital Textbook Playbook is a guide to help K-12 educators and administrators begin building rich digital learning experiences for students in districts across the country. The playbook offers information about determining broadband infrastructure for schools and classrooms, leveraging home and community broadband to extend the digital learning environment, and understanding necessary device considerations. It also provides lessons learned from school districts that have engaged in successful transitions to digital learning

"There are some remarkable efforts underway in American schools to invest the next generation of students with the literacy skills needed to innovate, solve problems, and meet unprecedented challenges. Until now, there has been no way to connect these initiatives, to provide models for advancing literacy learning in every subject, to collaborate in identifying and pursuing critical research questions about literacy teaching and learning on a consistent, sustained basis. That's about to change. The National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE) is building a coalition of stakeholders representing the premiere education organizations, policy analysts, researchers, and foundations who are working together to identify and share the plans, practices, support systems, and assessments used by educator teams working to improve literacy learning. NCLE will celebrate the work of successful school teams across the country that are achieving remarkable results in advancing literacy learning, and share what is learned with education policymakers…NCLE is providing the Literacy in Learning Exchange as a free resource to all educator teams. All educators are invited to use the free site to build or further develop a team in their school, district, or across schools/districts, or in their out-of-school setting. Educators that embrace the challenge of sponsoring and supporting a team will be eligible to apply for recognition and support as Centers for Literacy Education." Does your school have (need) a literacy team? If so, hopefully library staff is involved. Centers for Literacy Education, or collaborative groups/teams working toward capacity building for literacy: http://www.literacyinlearningexchange.org/about/centers-literacy-education

Infographics work in the classroom because they grab students and allow an entry point to learning - and because they sum up pages and pages, even chapters, of information that would take a reader hours to process. Interactive infographics make kids want to immediately start clicking around to see what's what. For a teacher who prioritizes an inquiry-driven classroom, that's a great starting point. Infographics and Data visualization are not just for consumption though, teachers and students can also challenge the learning process by creating original graphics for themselves.

To mark Digital Learning Day, we'd like to spotlight the work of librarians who are making a difference, leveraging technology and digital content to enhance learning. Below you'll find examples of their work covered in School Library Journal and here on The Digital Shift, along with links on topics of particular interest to our users: ebooks and apps.

The five Cs below will empower educators to discover how they and their students can begin building personal learning networks specific to the learner's needs extending relevant learning connections to like-interested people around the globe.

This information applies to 2012. I'm not sure if this will be an annual event. Connected Educator Month is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and several organizations are sponsoring programs and activities, including AASL and SETDA, the State Educational Technology Directors Association. So what is CEM, anyway? "Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing 'just in time' access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren't realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning. For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education's Connected Educators initiative has made August 2012 Connected Educator Month. Throughout the month, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one's personal learning network." As one ad for the program proclaims, it's "all of August, all for free, all online - shape the future of the profession." Explore activities in the starter kit at your own pace: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38904447/starter-kit-final.pdf

Leveraging the Discourse of Common Core Standards to Spur Conversations for Student Learning and School Libraries by Buffy Hamilton June 2012

Oodles of free printables for kids Early learning resources for preschool and beyond, kids parties and fun games for holidays ... it's about having creative fun times with kids and learning together!

The mission of Web 2.0 Labs is to continue to cultivate, incubate, and grow existing and future opportunities for peer learning in education. Educators, librarians, and students are given the opportunity to learn from and work with each other, and to promote the personal and collective value of that work through social media projects. 

Standards for the 21st-Century Learner offer vision for teaching and learning to both guide and beckon our profession as education leaders. They will both shape the library program and serve as a tool for school librarians to use to shape the learning of students in the school.

"Welcome to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Lesson Plan Database, a tool to support school librarians and other educators in teaching the essential learning skills defined in the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner." You can both utilize and contribute lesson plans. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/lessonplandatabase/lessonplandb.cfm

I can see amazing potential here for amazing resources!

In first grade we are learning about poetry by playing the paper bag game. I don't tell the students what we are going to be studying for the next few library lessons. Instead I  introduce poetry with a game - The Bulldog Paperbag Game!

Universal Design for Learning. A categorized list of free technology resources to provide improved access and accommodations for learner differences

IWitness is an online application that gives educators and students access to search, watch, and learn from more than 1,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.

APPitic is a directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning. These apps have been tested in a variety of different grade levels, instructional strategies and classroom settings.

"The findings show that New Jersey school libraries and school librarians contribute in rich and diverse ways to the intellectual life of a school, and to the development of students who can function in a complex and increasingly digital information environment," said Dr. Ross Todd, lead researcher in the study and CISSL director.

"We need to continue reinventing because this is the one place that all the students have in common, more than the cafeteria or the dorms or any other social place on campus," she said. "It's where they learn. It's an extension of the classroom."

Great ideas on extending learning through board games, good slide show w/research.

The TL Virtual Cafe is committed to creating transformative conversations about teacher-librarians, educational technology, and collaborative connections to facilitate meaningful and lifelong learning skills. FREE MONTHLY WEBINARS

ISTE's NETS for Students (NETS*S) are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge students need to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly global and digital world.