Cliotech

Discover the DE Difference

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:07:00 +0000

What makes Discovery Education's 21st Century classroom solution different?

Listen to a special message from Lance Rougeux, the Director of the Discovery Educator Network.

Hear more about the difference the DEN makes from some of our STAR Discovery Educators.

Engage Your Students with Motivating STEM Resources

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Discovery partners with lots of other organizations to bring exciting resources to students. Here are a few great STEM resources to motivate and inspire your students.

Fuel Our Future Now - STEM resources for elementary, middle, and high school students

Teacher Toolbox with lesson plans and more
Elementary resources
Middle School resources
High School resources
Parent Corner
Dash+ Contest

Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge

3M Young Scientists Challenge

Scotch Science Fair Central

Siemens Science Day

Discovery WebMath

ThinkGreen Classroom

Inspiring Inventions

If you are a Discovery Education streaming subscriber you can also access some terrific STEM resources from within the Teacher Center.

EdTechConnect featuring Gary Stager

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:25:00 +0000

On Wednesday, November 18th at 7pm EST, we’re thrilled to feature Gary Stager as our EdTechConnect speaker! There are few speakers that are more passionate, dedicated and devoted to bringing about change in education. If you’ve never had a chance to see him present before, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. If you HAVE seen him, perhaps on the Keynote panel from this year’s NECC conference, then I’m sure I don’t even need to say anything more to convince you to register. As David Thornburg has stated, “Some people think ‘outside of the box.’ Gary is unaware of the box’s existence!”

Creative Computing and the Case for Project-based Learning

Veteran computer-using educator, speaker and journalist Dr. Gary Stager will explore how project-based learning fuels creativity and amplifies the power of computing. This webinar will explore questions of “What is a project?” and “What are the essential elements of a good project?” The theory underlying such practice will be discussed and imaginative applications challenging each learner to maximize their potential will be shared.

Click here to register!

Help Your Students Change the World

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:18:00 +0000

We have a lot of programs that teachers and their students can participate in for free. One of my personal favorites is the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.

The Challenge is designed to help your students work together to solve an environmental problem in their…

Classroom (K-2)
School (3-5)
Community (6-8)

Participating is easy. You can take a month to work on the Challenge or you could complete it in a week. The projects truly cut across the curriculum so you can teach Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies as part of the Challenge. All the resources you need (lesson plans, sample projects, virtual labs, eBooks, videos, parent resources, etc.) are on the website at: http://wecanchange.com.

Since the Challenge is open to K-8 (and next year it will be K-12), we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to truly engage the entire DEN since the majority of our community members can participate.

So, here’s our two-part DEN Challenge as part of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.

Any STAR Discovery Educator who enters the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge by January 31, 2010 will have his/her name put into a drawing to win a trip to the NSTA National Conference in Philadelphia, PA (March 18-21, 2010). Airfare, hotel and conference registration will be covered by the DEN. You must be a STAR Discovery Educator and you must let us know that you and your students have entered the We Can Change the World Challenge by completing this form.
The state (where there is a DEN Leadership Council) with the highest number of entries to the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will earn a Day of Discovery in conunction with the DEN’s Spring Virtual Conference. The day will be planned, managed and executed by the DEN team giving the state LC a break. Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo and other members of the DEN team will be there in person to present.

So, ready to learn more and get started? We have a whole series of webinars to help you. Just visit: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/wecanchange.

Good luck, have fun, and change the world with your students!

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 11/13/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:30:00 +0000

CosmoLearning | Your Free Online School: Courses, Video Lectures, Documentaries, Images, Books and more
tags: school, learning, resources, cosmolearning, education, free, online

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 11/10/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:30:00 +0000

100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School | Online Colleges
tags: Google, Tricks, search, technology, Google Tricks, education, aggregators, learning, mashups
50 Google Charts Tricks for Your Next Classroom Presentation | College@Home
tags: google, charts, chart, graphics, programming, api, web, tutorials, education, classroom, learning
Mutapic
Mutapic is an online picture generator. Use it to create original art.
tags: collaboration, mutapic, image, visualization, interactive, generator, visual brainstorm, DIY, web_2.0, images, mashups, learning, education
start.io
Make a start page with your favorite links.
tags: collaboration, startpage, tools, Web2.0, web, bookmarking, start.io, Social, homepage, mashups, PLC, PLN, technology, education, social_networking

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 11/09/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 11/08/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Google's New Assessment Tool | Teaching Matters
tags: education, presentation, media, learning, classroom, google, assessment

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 10/23/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 10/20/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:30:00 +0000

LitTunes HOME Of Mice and Men
"The LitTunes strategy, which directs students to make connections from their reading to their music, is one I define by the term Musical Intertextuality (2009)."
tags: literature, education, music, littunes, of mice and men
Google Wave for Educators
tags: googlewave, google, wave, googlewaveeducators, wiki, education, teaching, Web2.0
Google Squared
Visualize search results a whole new way with Google Squared. Export your search results and data to a Google Spreadsheet.
tags: vocabulary, dictionary, visual, education, visualization, english, google, search, squared, google_apps, spreadsheet, googlesquared, searchengine

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 10/11/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 09/20/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Tagul - Gorgeous tag clouds
tags: tag, cloud, word, mashup, wordle, education, language_arts

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 09/04/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Official Google Docs Blog: New Features in Forms
tags: education, technology, web_2.0, learning, PLN, PLC, mashups, classroom, Google, Google_Docs, Google_Forms, forms, surveys, charts, spreadsheets
- You can now quickly gather responses for a group of similar questions in a new, compact grid format. The new grid question type allows you to label a few columns and create as many rows as you like.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 09/03/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Stock Markets in Plain English - Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation
This video is an introduction to the basic ideas behind stock markets.

Why companies offer stock to the public
Why people buy and sell stock
Why stock prices change
How we measure the stock markets using indices
tags: stocks, stock market, tutorial, Common_Craft, video, education, economics, money

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/28/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

ZuiTube - The largest collection of online videos for kids
tags: zuitube, children, youtube, kids, education, technology, web_2.0, video
FunPhotoBox - Best Photo Effects and Gif Animations. Photo Fun online. Create funny pictures.
tags: photos, editor, effect, funphotobox, image, montage, photography, fun, mashups, web_2.0, technology, images, education
Free Printable Sample Document Templates, Calendar, Invitation, Card
This site has lots of free downloadable and printable templates including some educational worksheets.
tags: letter, calendar, resume, organizer, education, math, worksheets, cards, templates, print, download
Home | MyPlantId : Find, Identify, and Post Plants
tags: botany, plants, identification, maps, mashup, images, education, technology, web_2.0, classroom, learning, PLN, PLC
5 Sites To Find Flu Symptoms and Trends
tags: flu, education, health, h1n1, prevention, trends
animoto - Using video clips in Animoto videos
Animoto now takes video clips! This is awesome for quick, slick video publishing.
tags: PLC, mashups, PLN, images, video, education, technology, web_2.0, learning, classroom

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/27/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

My StoryMaker
My StoryMaker is a flash-based free online application that students can use to create online digital stories.
tags: writing, DigitalStorytelling, literacy, mystorymaker, story, storytelling, mystorymaker.swf, english, web_2.0, technology, education, learning, classroom, mashups, digital_storytelling

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Summer School with the DEN

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Here are the resources from the two webinars in the DEN Summer School series that I facilitated. These resources have been cross posted on Dorman's Trouvailles.

THE THREAD THAT TIES IT ALL TOGETHER - VOICETHREAD AND GOOGLE EARTH

VoiceThread is one of my favorite Web 2.0 applications for education and it's a perfect partner for Discovery Education's rich media content. I will be featuring VoiceThread during the August 25, 2009, DEN Summer School Webinar.

You can access the resources from this webinar by clicking below. The webinar archive will be available on the DEN blog.

The Thread that Ties It All Together: VoiceThread and Discovery Education

Getting Started with VoiceThread in the Classroom

VoiceThead Wiki Page - Training and Integration Resources

TWO ROUNDTRIP TICKETS TO ANYWHERE WITH GOOGLE EARTH AND DISCOVERY EDUCATION

I used Google Earth often when I was in the classroom. I used it to reinforce geographic literacy and engage my high school social studies students with a colorful and interactive data visualization. Today, I'll be presenting "Two Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere with Discovery Education and Google Earth" as part of the DEN Summer School webinar series.

Click below to access the resources from this session. The webinar archive will be available on the DEN blog.

Two Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere with Discovery Education and Google Earth

Google Earth Users Guide

Google Tools for Schools: Google Earth

Civil Rights KMZ

Frogs KMZ

Math Activities KMZ

Google Lit Trips

KMLFactBook (blog post about KMLFactBook)

Discovery Education
DEN
Discovery Educator Network
education
technology
Web 2.0
Turbo Tagger

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/25/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

iLoveSchools.com
iLoveSchools.com works with teachers, schools and districts, encouraging kids to stay in school while helping them gain a lifelong love for learning. We match America's school teachers with individual, group and corporate donors of new, used or in-kind classroom resources. Donors select the classrooms receiving their donation as well as tell us how much we can use to cover our administrative costs.
tags: education, supplies, grants, donations, donation, funding, teacher, iloveschools.com, web_2.0, classroom, learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/22/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

The Knowledge Sharing Place - LiveBinders
tags: education, technology, web_2.0, learning, classroom, mashups, PLC, PLN, images, aggregators, video
KMLFactBook
KmlFactBook is a unique site which lets you load data sets from CIA Factbook and WRI Earthtrends into Google Maps and create cool presentations from them. You can view facts such as population of various countries, their GDP, immigration rate and a lot more on Google Maps and on Google Earth. If you would like to view the data offline then you can download it in kml format and open it with the desktop version of Google Earth.
tags: maps, googleearth, Google, Google_Earth, geography, data, visualization, Factbook, KML, gis, education, technology, web_2.0, learning, classroom, mashups, images
Printable Maps - Reference
tags: maps, geography, reference, map, travel, printable, download, pdf, states, counties, cities, county, city, state, atlas, education, technology, classroom, learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Going Googley with Google Tools - Week 11

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:28:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

This article was cross-posted on Dorman's Trouvailles and is part of the ongoing series, Going Googley with Google Tools.

I love the ways that Google Earth allows you to explore and interact with highly engaging visual data. So, when I came across kmlfactbook I nearly flipped! kmlfactbook allows users to tap into the data contained in the CIA World Factbook and the World Resources Institues EarthTrends. Registered users can also upload their own data sets to kmlfactbook.

Users can access the following data sets from every country contained in the CIA World Factbook through kmlfactbook:

People
Economy
Transport
Military
Geography
Government
Communications

The data from WRI EarthTrends includes:

Climate and atmosphere
Forests, grasslands, and drylands
Population, health, and human well-being
Energy and resources
Economics, business, and the environment
Agriculture and food
Biodiversity and protected areas
Water resources and freshwater ecosystems
Environmental governance and institutions

The data can be viewed through the web browser in preview mode or can be downloaded as a KML file for use in Google Earth.

The applications for kmlfactbook are nearly limitless. It's colorful and interactive interface make it perfect content for your interactive whiteboards, tablets, and LCD projectors. Importing the KML files into Google Earth adds additional functionality and allows students to use the data to build their own Google Earth tours and data sets and allows users to layer additional data to create hypotheses and generalizations. The ability to readily access data from all geographic areas instantly allows students to compare and contrast with ease. Downloading the KML files and opening them in Google Earth allows students to create their own thematic maps. (Not sure what a thematic map entails? Check out this great Google Earth resource on Thematic Maps.)

Here is a listing of some of the additional Google Earth layers that are terrific classroom content.

Don't forget that if you are a Discovery Education subscriber you can enhance your Google Earth placemarks with DE media.

To learn more about Google Earth, access training and tutorial, and explore educational applications, visit my Google Earth training site. You can also download my presentation, Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere: Discovery Education and Google Earth.

Google
GGWGT
GCT
Google Certified Teacher
Google Earth
Discovery Education
Turbo Tagger

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/21/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

AudioPal | Home
tags: audio, audiopal, education, technology, web_2.0, learning, PLN, PLC, mashups

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Free Audio Book Downloads

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:53:00 +0000

I came across a pretty cool website that might be of interest to teachers and students at the start of the school year. ThoughtAudio.com is a website that offers free MP3 streams and downloads of audio books.

Here's a sampling of some popular books.

Call of the Wild - Jack London

The Prince - Nicollo Machiavelli

The Occurrence of Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane

The Declaration of Independence

The Constitution

The books are segmented into chapters. The chapters can be streamed over the Internet by clicking on them or can be downloaded for local playback on your computer or MP3 player. For $10/year users can purchase a Zip Pass to allow them to download the entire book's segments at one time. The Zip Pass is unlimited and can be used for as many books as a user wants.

This might be a great option for students who require audio support for reading. It looks like ThoughtAudio is planning on adding more titles soon. Check them out at ThoughtAudio.com.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/16/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

iNet - Investigate
This online conference for students will explore why it is important for students to connect with other students from around the world, and how schools can support you to do this. Students are invited to submit resources around the conference theme which could include films, poems or essays.
tags: inet, education, technology, web_2.0, learning, classroom, students, conference

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 08/14/2009

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Data Visualization: Stories for the Information Age - BusinessWeek
tags: visualization, businessweek, web_2.0, learning, technology, education, images, video, aggregators, mashups
Science Books Online
Science Books Online lists free science e-books, textbooks, lecture notes, monographs, and other science related documents. All texts are available for free reading online, or for downloading in various formats.
tags: science, books, education, technology, textbook, free, classroom, learning
Simple password
generate a unique password for each website you use from a single master password
tags: password, passwords, education, technology, web_2.0, PLN, PLC
ThoughtAudio.com
an audio book publisher providing audio book downloads of philosophy and classic literature titles.
tags: audio, audiobook, books, audiobooks, literature, ebooks, philosophy, web_2.0, technology, education, classroom, learning
CORRECTMYTEXT.COM
experts will check your text in a foreign language
tags: correctmytext, traduction, writing, tools, correctmytext.com, collaboration, technology, education, social_networking, world_language, translation
punypng - PNG Image Optimization and Compression
punypng is a free optimization service that can dramatically reduce the file size of an image by converting it into a highly-compressed, lossless PNG image. That translates to outrageously efficient web page loading, and just makes the web more puny.
tags: image, punypng, gracepoint, png, tools, images, web_2.0, education, technology

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Using Media to Teach Genocide

cliotech@gmail.com (Jennifer Carrier Dorman) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:48:00 +0000

Discovery adds new content to its Discovery Education streaming media library all the time. Here is my new favorite media asset - Interview wih Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager featured in Hotel Rwanda. This video is part of the new content added to the DE streaming service this summer by the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, one of the new organizations joining the 180+ content providers who license their media for teacher and student use through Discovery Education.

Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, shares his thoughts on freedom, personal responsibility, heroism, and social justice.

Click here to access the full 28-minute video. (Note: you will need to log into Discovery Education to access the video.)

As with most DE streaming videos, the interview is segmented into chapters to make it easier to use in targeted classroom instruction. This interview is organized into 70 chapters, one segment for each interview question and response.

I wish that I would have been able to use this when I was still in the classroom and teaching my students about genocide. I would likely have used it in juxtaposition with First Person Singular: Elie Wiesel, which I used to prepare my students to read Night.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel reflects upon his life, his work and his concerns for the future of mankind. The celebrated author of the Holocaust memoir Night reveals how he reconstructed his life after surviving the horrors of Auschwitz to enter a world of writing, teaching and campaigning tirelessly against threats to human rights throughout the world. He presents a warm and lively account of his experiences as a journalist in Paris and Jerusalem, of his authorship of more than 40 novels, plays and essays, and of his human rights activism. He also focuses grimly on the ability of human beings to dehumanize each other in order to kill with impunity. In discussing the events of September 11, he reflects on how the re-emergence of terrorism in a new and unimaginably more dangerous form casts doubts on whether the 21st century can avoid re-creating the nightmares of the 20th.

The Genocide Education Project has some excellent classroom resources to teach about genocide, focusing in on the acknowledged instances of genocide in the 20th century -- Armenian Genocide 1915-1918, Holocaust 1939-1945, Cambodia Killing Fields 1975-1979, Rwandan Genocide 1994, and the Genocide in Sudan 2004-today. I have used some of the materials from the "Confronting Genocide: Never Again" unit from the Choices Program developed by Brown University. Click here for more resources to teach genocide.

I think it would be a terrific social studies - language arts collaboration to have students explore the different first-person experiences with genocide and how survivors managed their memories and used them to inform their future commitment to humankind. I did something like this one year as an integration with my partner language arts teacher. Students read both Night and Maus: A Survivor's Tale and produced multimedia representations of survivors' experiences during and after the Holocaust. One of my favorite projects was this podcast. It was an imaginary conversation between Elie Wiesel (Night) and Vladek Spiegelman (Maus I: A Survivor's Tale, My Father Bleeds History) in a coffee shop in New York City.

I could see expanding this project and including exploration of the survivors from other genocides. Perhaps, Elie Wiesel might have a conversation with Loung Ung, survivor of the Cambodian Genocide and author of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, or with some of those survivors from the Rwandan featured in Philip Gourevitch's book, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.

The video segments from DE streaming could be used to provide the scaffolding so that students gain a foundational understanding of genocide before starting to read the first-person accounts and memoirs. In addition to the segments I already highlighted, here are a few others that would be useful.

The Legacy of the Pol Pot Regime and Khmer Rouge
Keepers of Memory: Survivors' Accounts of the Rwandan Genocide
The Holocaust: In Memory of Millions
Civil War and Genocide in Rwanda: Video Yearbook Collection 1994

DE streaming has many more videos, images, and articles to support learning about genocide. The media is helpful in providing background when teaching a very difficult and emotionally charged topic.