April 20, 2020
At the Community Education Leadership and Learning Academy we were challenged to participate in a Day of Service. As a Digital Learning Team, we decided to work with the 31st Annual Walk for Peace, Justice and Equality held on January 20, 2020. This walk is an annual event in our county but the location rotates, this year the event was held in Elgin. We were honored to be part of the day. As a service to the community we helped set up for the program and clean up after the event.
In addition to the service we provided, we also took this opportunity to use technology to reach out to our community. At the conclusion of the program, we hosted a station of activities using iPads to allow participants to create their keepsake. These digital keepsakes were emailed to the person who created them. Members of the Digital Learning Team were at the station to help the community members get started and to answer any technical questions.
One of the popular activities was a Keynote template that allowed participants to add images that represented their feelings about the day into a silhouette. This activity was adapted from an idea from the All About Me Apple Teacher Project. Another activity was to add thoughts, about the day or about those who fought for equality and peace, to an image. Participants found images on the web and used a Logitech Crayon to write their thoughts on the image. Both of these activities are featured in the gallery at the end of this post.
The two other activities gave community members the opportunity to draw a picture representing a memory or make a quick video where they could verbalize their thoughts. Participants could use Sketch to draw a visual image to help the remember the day. Finally, they could use Clips to create a quick, fun video to describe their experience with the walk and/or the program.
Overall this was a great experience. The challenge from Apple pushed us to seek an opportunity to serve our community. This was the first time most of us had participated in the Annual Walk for Peace, Justice and Equality. We all wore our Code Squad shirts, which allowed us to show we were a group, but not draw undo attention to ourselves. The activities gave participants a way to create a keepsake and gave them experience using technology tools.
Sandra Negro 