 Welcome to the third week of the Educals Massive Open Online course. I'm Shelly Sanchez, and I will help you complete this part of the course successfully. In this unit, you will gain a foundation in digital learning and teaching pedagogy. You will also learn about your students' digital footprints and evaluate how students currently use technology, the internet, and social media to learn, share, and communicate. All teachers have studied different learning theories that guide their instructional practice. How many of the learning theories you read about during your education and training specifically relate to learning with technology and digital devices and the internet? We are educators who teach students who are growing up in a digital world where they connect and learn with others online. Therefore, we must add to our knowledge digital learning theories and approaches which highlight how students learn with technology, mobile devices, the internet, and social media. In this unit, we will evaluate various digital learning approaches such as blooms, digital taxonomy, connectivism, SAMR, TPAC, and design thinking. These digital learning theories and approaches help us understand what skills our students need to navigate the digital world successfully, safely, and responsibly. Some of our students' digital footprints began before they were born. When my daughter was in my womb, I shared images of her in my womb and news about her development with friends and family online. Friends all over the world know my daughter's name and about some of her first moments. My daughter's birth is much different than my birth. I can't immediately locate my baby pictures. My mother knows where they are in the scrapbook in a box somewhere in the house. We need to realize that our students are growing up in a connected world in which they will share personal information, images, passions, ideas, opinions, and more. In this unit, you will survey students to discover what they have already shared and share regularly online. Then you will identify specific digital skills you believe students need to gain based on these findings. The information and data we collect from the surveys will show us how different our students' journey with technology is from our own. Many of our students began using mobile devices, tablets, gaming devices, and computing devices as toddlers. They connect with people around the world to learn and exchange ideas. Our students share information freely and trust the information they gain from people they have never met in person. Students need their teachers to provide them guidance in navigating the internet safely and protecting their digital footprints. Thank you for going on this digital learning journey with us. Your completed tasks will help you to better guide your students in this vast digital world. We look forward to seeing what insights you have gained this week when it comes to determining what skills your students need to navigate their digital journeys. We also look forward to reading your reflections about this unit in your portfolios.