Changing Connections

Steve Dembo: "iThink iNeed iPads in the Classroom"

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:04:00 +0000

According to Steve Dembo:

Sure they're bright and shiny, but are they really learning devices? We'll take a close look at how exactly these technologies are being leveraged in the classroom and what the best Apps are for educational purposes. We'll also explore some creative ways that you can fund your own i-initiative!

Siemens STEM Academy: Register to join

Presented in partnership between Discovery Education and Siemens STEM Academy, this session has drawn a very global audience. Not at all surprised by the representation, or the numbers.

Before beginning, Steve reminded us that all STEM webinars are archived on the Siemens Stem website, as well as forthcoming webinars listed. Noting that iPads can become an addiction, Steve brought the question home, pondering his son's use of the iPad. But Steve said the iPod doesn't replace social time or play time, but rather zoning time. iPads let children control their environment via apps (a good 50 just for starters). There's always something new and it almost always educational and brain stimulating.

If you want iPads for the classroom, you can always write a grant for Donors Choose. iPads are also cost effective: 60 iPads can replace 20 laptops. You need to leverage your iPad use by writing about it and promote the grants that funded you as well. Most of the grant action repeats itself, so each year you have an opportunity to resubmit. Network with other schools/teachers who share what they are doing and ask them where they went. Learn from others.

Classrooms also share resources. Learn from these people; don't reinvent the wheel. The iPad is the perfect device for early childhood. It's easy and intuitive and children gravitate to it. And then it's just the right size--just right to frame your own face. And it's inherently social, more than tablets and laptops. Ease of use is phenomenal, but battery life--10 hours--makes it the best device for school use. No need to find a laptop cart or a charger for a 1:1 initiative. 10 hours makes it through a school day, even if you begin early. Students and teachers put iPads to good use; both love to show and tell educational apps.

Discovery made a huge investment in the iPad and created a mobile app for the entire site, and they made it iPad friendly by retooling the website. If you log on, you will notice that the site is touch friendly, clicks easily, and mimics the way an iPad is used in its interface. A recent change is the addition of Flash but H264 is the most recent way of streaming. A multitude of formats let you choose the way you want to stream, and it's perfect on the iPad. You can make quizzes and streamline them to your iPad. Apple doesn't let you download from video from the internet to the iPad, but you an do it in apps.

You can use the camera connection kit for $29.99 and you can plug in your devices. (I have it and love it). Or you can email your videos from Discovery to your iPad. You can use different apps to view videos. Save your video to your camera roll. If you email your video, click on Reply and one of your options is to view the video. Then you can go to iMovie to edit the movie, if that's what you want to do.

If you just want to watch the video, use the Road Show app. Road Show will check to see if there are any videos. When it finds the video, you can save it and view it. You can save multiple videos, but they are only available in Road Show; you can't do anything else with them.

Drawastickman.com is a great site that you can use to draw. To add creating to consuming, this website enables production. Now the Purple Crayon story comes to life. Pirate Scribble Beard and Kids Doodle are great apps that also enable interactive ownership of digital storytelling. Thousands of apps exist and at reasonable prices if not free. Comic Lite has a Keynote/Pages format, but the accessibility of control is astonishing. You can add images to your photo roll and then import the images to the app.

One of Steve's favorite apps is ePub, which lets students download books but also create ePubs. Many other programs do the same thing, but this site lets students add multimedia to their iBooks. Very compelling. Hyperlinks, audio files, videos can be embedded in the ePub, and that really gives ultimate control to book building. Creative Book Builder lets you build a book on the fly with sights, sounds, videos...to your book. But you have to get your videos into your camera roll so you can pull them into your books. As for copyright, share with people who have the rights to access Streaming, cite your sources. Same rules apply as always.

Posterous.com allows you to share via emails. The emails an post as a blog entry, creating a digital portfolio as you go along. You don't have to worry about Dropbox or file formats; just send it as an email and create your own digital portfolio.

iFontMaker teaches the alphabet but lets you take your alphabet tracings and create a font that uploads to a website where you can choose to create in your own font. How awesome to add that to your digital book--your personal project in your won font.

Steve said that without a doubt, the iPad is the best book reader of all, and I have to agree. Also interesting is that certain things exist that could not exist without a touch format, both for audio and visual effects. The iPad adds a new dimension to the notion of art with value-added music. Things that did not exist before are kids' creations today. Think Singing Fingers. iEar app is awesome. Appolicious and http://www.apple.com/education/apps are sites Steve recommends.

From Banned to Planned ~ Hall Davidson's Teaching Them Spectacularly with Mobile Phones @ DEN Pre-ISTE 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:36:00 +0000

Cutting edge mobile tech: it's in your pockets

Director of Global Learning Initiatives for Discovery Education, Hall Davidson saw the future ahead of the paradigm shift, and he continues to define Discovery's cutting edge by teaching students with what's in their pockets. From banned to planned, this session builds challenging student projects that tap into mobile tools using texting, image, and camera options on smart phones and even plain old ones. Let's take a peek ahead at magical free QR tools and some dazzling apps--all Davidson and DEN trademarks.

Hall graciously shared his resources at the Discovery Education Resource Bureau. Click here for all of Hall's resources, including today's presentation.Click here for a list of resources for the day, aggregated on Symbaloo by Cynthia Brown. Hall's PowerPoint presentation:

Hall Davidson: DEN ISTE PreCon 2011 "It's in Their Pockets: Teaching Them Spectacularly with Mobile Phones"

View more presentations from changingconnections

Hall prepping presentation devices

I arrived early to see Hall taping a 45 power microscope ($4 at Amazon--11 new and waiting for you) that turns your cell phone into a microscope. Hands on mobile: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue--a DEN birthday party and this session is all about phones out and on. Hall predicts that in the next 3 years, high schools across America will be using cell phones in the classroom. Beginning with PollEverywhere, Hall selected a free text poll seamlessly in 3 seconds. We responded by texting our 3 favorite words to describe the DEN. Phones out and armed, we responded. You can use the internet, but cell phones make it faster, more fun in real time. You can choose a multiple choice question that displays a bar graph that moves in real time. And you don't have to be in the same room to use PollEverywhere.

Small but mighty speakers ($10)

If you take it to the next level, on a PC, use CamStudio to video capture (use QuickTime on a MAC) your poll. You could chromakey your students in front of their responses. Uses: unlimited. Think of creating a series of short polls for review; make a video, send it to your Moodle or Symbaloo account, or your website as a review device for a summative assessment. Next step: look at the response history. The text can be copied, put into Word, edited for the date, time and end up with just words. Make a Wordle. Yet another review device. Then chromakey and put someone in front of the Wordle. Fascinating engagement. Use in a health class: text healthy eating and see student responses and create your learning lesson building on the poll.

Word lens apps for iPhones and Droids abound because that's where the market has landed.

if you want to translate text on a mobile phone, download the Word Lens app, hold the app up to the text and it translates the text automatically. "Screamingly cool." App is free but the language patch is $9. Just forewarning. The text must be clear and steady and big to work, but think travel uses. Real time translation voice. The Android app is Android Translation; you speak in English and it is translated into _____ (language of choice). Think travel and bartering in the markets or world language classes. This app is not free but mind blowing, according to Hall.

Why do we want to start using mobile apps with our students at all levels. The explosion of bigger, better, stronger doubles monthly, so we need to try to use them in the classroom (or honestly, we won't be prepared). LeafSnap, your electronic field guide, is a great app; switch from your computer to your iPad (newest computer/camera?) and connect it to your projector. Using LeafSnap, you take a picture of a leaf and the app displays the identification of the tree/plant...and it works (but light is a factor in the process).

Think science class. Your 9th grade leaf collection just got so much easier. Can you imaging how this takes 9th grade science class leaf collections to a totally different (digital) place using your mobile phones. And this leads to something else. Tour Wrist lets you view where you are; the location at which you are. Before you entered SLA, you could have viewed the school and surrounding environs in Tour Wrist. The way you do this is with a panoramic camera, so if you have one, you can create your own tour. Applause!!!

WikiOffline is a pricy app but it is one of Hall's favorite. It works quickly and the links work. Hall loves it because when you are on planes, you can use it. He warns you that you do get updates, but the process takes a long time. The app ranges around $20, but lifetime updates.

Mobile QR Codes (Quick Response) is like a marker that sends your phone to a text, video or information site. You make, test, and use the code--in minutes. On your mobile device, search QR Reader and use Genius Scan. Use your camera on your iPad and place it over an online site and it creates the QR code. Or you can create your own code. Go to mobile.discovery education.com, intended to be used by a mobile device. Select your item of choice. Copy the url. KAYWA is the code generator of choice; add the link to create the code. Use Scan to go back to code to get to url you created the QR code for. Project Tomorrow (Speak Up) creates the demographic for shy students want to continue learning in college the way they learned in high school (with technology). What if the same QR code could go to a different video every day? Go to The Dynamic Davidson QR code and it will give you a dynamic link. Go to googol and shorten the url. If you go to details, it gives you QR code immediately.

Too real world? Hall showed us a video of a person who had a QR code on his arm. QR code can be linked to Twitter and tell a story (200 pages, each coded) and can only be viewed on a phone with renewable weekly QR story code. The "book" takes tweets with love in them and begins the story.

A cell phone is learning 24/7 anywhere. It's a cell phone adventure. You can create a message for your students that they can pause as they work through the learning adventure. A different form of geocaching without the expensive equipment? I really like this one. You can record it ahead of time and create sound effects.

For under $5, you can turn your cell phone into a microscope. If you have a YouTube account, if you go to account, you can get your mobile upload. Mobile setup gives you an address. Make a mobile video and send it to your mobile address. In under 2 minutes, you have a video with a challenge for your students. Prompt: the world will end in 2 minutes; what will you grab to save and why? Make the movie and mobile upload. Classroom uses: magically unlimited. You can also directly upload to your flickr account.

Merging Literature, Discovery Education STREAMING: Howard Gunther & Robin Medtaj @ DEN Pre-ISTE 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:55:00 +0000

Join Gunther on a DEN Pre-ISTE adventure

Howard Gunther, CT DEN Leadership Council Events Coordinator, delivered a multi-layered and exciting approach to an often overlooked area at conferences: language arts and humanities, aka English and Literature. This session is exactly what I have been looking for as we move as a district into block scheduling next year. This session's adventure promised to teach you

how to integrate Discovery Education Streaming media, Google Earth (to building a Google Lit Trip, embed images, video and fly overs), VoiceThread, podcasting, and Edmodo to promote meaningful communication about literature between students and teachers...by examining the tools and sharing implementation strategies while focusing on curriculum integration.

Howard Gunther, CT Professional Development

And it did. I have sat in many Google Lit tours over the years, but they just flew too fast for me. Howard's presentation was slow enough to absorb. A veteran presenter, Howard surveyed his audience and knew many of his viewers were new to the process he was describing. We all benefited from the kinder pacing of this presentation. Thank you so much, Howard.

New tools for interacting with students about literature are both welcome and necessary in the classroom. Howard Gunther is a technology integrator and professional development planner serving 26 school districts in CT. He has been a DEN STAR for the last 5 years and he states he "loves the DEN." October 23, 2011 is a Discovery weekend of instruction Saturday, golfing and/or wine tour Sunday, and their National Conference Monday. Stay tuned to the Connecticut LC Blog.

Howard began with The Lightning Thief, a perfect text, as he began merging literature with web 2.0.

Image from techcrunch

He merges it by beginning with a Google Earth Field Trip to Newport to study architecture, integrating social studies and art history disciplines with on-site hands-on field experience to study Greek architecture and gather multimedia data collection. Returning to the classroom, Howard's teachers segue to Discovery Education selected videos. Then they used Edmodo for sharing project design and integrated aspects of the Web 2.0 process of building a robust GE Lit Trip.

Image from http://doane21st.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0+Tools

This project also embeds podcasts, VoiceThreads and a number of other web 2.0 tools. I am a huge fan of VoiceThread and have used it with great success with PBL; we asked our students to record in 3 languages and engage their parents in comments as well. Brings the entire community easily into the learning and teaching process. Howard says that this collaborative interdisciplinary project was a paradigm shift to teaching to any standards/content with a rational, pedagogical justification for student engagement. Initially, this project experienced some difficulty with the IT, since the educational version of many of these tools did not exist. Still, without the .edu versions, they were able to participate (after making a case for it during several conversations) with wonderful success. Sites were unblocked because the uses were legitimate and promoted authentic learning.

The project continued with Discoverystreaming, using vetted videos saved to Discovery Builders and then uploaded (final projects) to media share. From DEN STAR Lee Kolbert's Palm Beach Cafe on using DiscoveryStreaming comes this wonderful instructional video.

Students had individual access, and project leaders incorporated writing prompts and podcasting. Instead of creating student podcasts, students recorded celebrity podcasts of their chapters. As they proceeded with the program, the celebrity podcasts were used to identify the speaker/reader. Music, art, and social studies married to literature produced an amazing result, as we heard in a snipped of one celebrity caster, aka a teacher.

Edmodo was incorporated into the learning design; Howard said they liked it because it has the look and feel of Facebook. Edmodo has an iPhone, iTouch, iPad, and Droid app, so it is ubiquitous and easily used in any device. Next year, students will experience an open campus with students enabled to bring their favorite device to school to learn. For students who cannot afford a device, the districts will provide eBooks, opening up a 1:1 initiative networked throghout the system. Grades can be exported to Excel and then uploaded to their grading system. In spite of, or perhaps because of budget cuts to education, districts throughout many states are embracing an advancement of use of student devices to offset district expenditures.

kti2009.wikispaces.com

Glogster, an electronic poster board (use .edu version--free) Anything, pdf, Word, graphic, text, video, images--anything--can be added to the board. For some schools in CT, Glogster becomes a student's portfolio, carrying a student's work throughout his/her academic years.

A favorite tool of teachers and students, VoiceThread enables collaboration using a varied menu of comment options: type, record,video,telephone (like gCast when it was free), maps, cartoons--you get the idea--lots of versatility here. When I used VT in 11th grade, our students responded in 3 languages, engaged their parents as well as other classes. This tool has marvelous flexibility and unlimited possibilities for all grade levels and subjects.

http://mwedwardstechnology.blogspot.com/2011/03/from-lit-trips-to-wordle.html

Word clouds--Wordle, Tagxedo, and other cloud devices to aggregate content. Word clouds are excellent ways for students to find main ideas in a text. Think about: copy/pasting students' writing assignments to Wordle to provide a visual on redundancy. Wordle each revision to track improvement. Use for vocabulary improvement as well on your projects. Tagxedo presents a greater learning curve because you create an image filled with text. You can google an image and use that as well; lighter images with less fill and more outline work better in Tagxedo.

In the educational use of Animoto, you can extend your 30 second free version by googling Animoto in Education for a code which will extend videos past 30 seconds. The code is free, but you must apply. You can add your own images, short video snippets, and your own music. Or you can work from their image/sound bank. Like the tools mentioned in this presentation, this tool gives you embeddable code. If there is a go-to tool that my students LOVE, it's Animoto. Here's a quick tutorial, although this tool is so intuitive, your students will likely just jump on and do it.

Google Lit Trips are the jewel in the crown of web 2.0 tools. Google lit trips to see an aggregate of existing trips you might use in an educational setting, based on grade and subject level. You can also add your own. If you are working on a text that takes the reader through a variety of locations, Google Earth is an excellent vehicle for creating a lit trip (not to be confused with a field trip which is less robust endeavor). From flyovers to embedding Discoverystreaming, Discovery Builders, or Discovery Writing Prompts, a Google Lit Trip is an expansive and robust tool for your students.

When asked at the end of the session, Howard said that each tech integration piece had a separate rubric, and students were given a project design at the beginning so they would have a scope and sequence for this larger project. The endgame is the Google Lit Trip, where all the web 2.0 components are housed and live as a resource for this humanities project. You can find Howard's resources on his wiki at http://my-tech-wiki.wikispaces.com/. You can contact Howard at hgunther@aces.org.

DEN ISTE Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:18:00 +0000

DEN ISTE Resources from Cynthia Brown linked in Patti Ruffing's post, Create Your PLE With SymbalooEDU.

Resources from DEN's Birthday Bash: Great Tool but no embeddable code yet.

Be sure to check Dean Mantz's Cover It Live for more resources from the DEN.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=304cb7d924" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Discovery Education PreCon ISTE 2011&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Happy Sixth Birthday, DEN!

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:28:00 +0000

The Many Faces of the DEN Community: June 25, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 03:47:00 +0000

A Father, A Son and an iPad Before Bed: Steve Dembo #DEN PreCon2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 02:04:00 +0000

Steve, 2nd from left with the DEN "crew"

Steve Dembo and I landed at Discovery at just about the same time, plus or minus. Steve was one of the first people I met, beyond Scott (Kinney) whom I knew from IU #21 and Lance (Rougeux), when we both began at Keystones that same first year. If you are new to the DEN, you will quickly learn that DEN friendships are forever. Having said that, Steve is one of my all-time favorites. Director of Educational Social Media Strategy and Online Communities for DE, Steve's four-year-old son and first-born Aiden is the inspiration for this presentation about a magical device. Whether it's bedtime learning or early education, this presentation

explores creative ways to use popular apps for classroom purposes, and some surprising ways to share what your students create!

I have a vested interest in this presentation, because I am blogging (or trying to) for the first time with an iPad. Steve graciously shared his presentation; scroll to bottom of post for his excellent resources.

Fellow PA blogger Patti Ruffing and I arrived early to the conference, and lucky for me because Steve gave me a quick tutorial on the iPad (in addition to the day spent with friend, mentor, and coach Jennifer Brinson, PA LC Events Chair). Steve told us that while Aiden inspired this presentation geared to early childhood and education, he notes that he will branch out with applicability to other levels. "Magical" is the word Steve returns to again and again, guilty of the hype because it does deliver. Steve said the moment he opened the box on the first day the iPod was available, he bought it and the roof of his house opened, letting in sunlight. Demographics for use of the iPad for the early and later age spectrum makes this the device of choice.

Aiden & Steve agree: a magical device

Point to remember: it's not a computer, but with the cloud coming, you won't need to connect to a computer for setup (think initial iTunes computer connection). So is the iPad rapidly becoming a computer? It's getting there. Grading, reading, all experiences outside of the work environment work Steve does on this techie toy. There is no one reason why you NEED an iPad; it's just so handy that all the little reasons why you love it make it an amazing tool. BUT the killer reason as a right device: 10 hour battery life. Students can take advantage of every teachable moment; no cart/powering problems.

Having iPads in the classroom takes all the responsibility off teachers and puts it onto the students: take your iPad home and charge it overnight. 10 hours means 10 hours nonstop real-world usage. Seamless experience = no left click, no right click. Doesn't matter. It's a click less immersive experience. Feedback: it's just the right size; it frames your face. The camera is not great, but it does plug into good apps. In addition to everything else, the iPad is inherently social: collaborative fun sharing with ease of use. Steve showed Bill Sweeney's "How I Use an iPad," and notes that he was the one who turned him onto the "framing your face" concept of immediacy.

Bill Sweeney - Using the iPad in his Classroom from Alex Ragone on Vimeo.

What stuns Steve most is the number of initiatives that are in works in elementary school. It is the device of choice for early education. Steve began his bedtime iPad with Aiden with videos, using the Discoverystreaming mobile app. His first video-- "Harold and the Purple Crayon." Everything evolved from this first video to games, but they are educational games, learning opportunities. From there, they went to downloaded books, but Steve wonders if Aiden will develop a nostalgia for these books in the same way we loved our paper books. Will dragging across a screen create the same love of books? But as a teaching tool, the Dr. Seuss books let you optimize language acquisition by tapping on words that grow exponentially. Tap, expand, and discuss. You must check out the Stories Before Bed app because they allow you to videotape your reading to your children, personalizing children's picture books. What an amazing opportunity for classroom learning, for children and their parents to make connections. If you are a parent or grandparent in the military, you can get a discount. This iPad app lets you send links to anyone to view, making Skype redundant, in a sense.

iPad eBook Resources abound and let you become interactive by adding videos, links, texts, photo albums--you name it, can be done. First Words Animals is a great simple app with pictures, letters, and audio spelling with letters that fly in, organize, and are clickable for repeating audio. Teach your students how to spell in the classroom: ask them the letters before you click the audio. iFont Maker is another fantastic app; click on a letter and you get an outline to trace. Think learning to print and write: excellent app for a letter-by-letter application. You can also link out to a provided url and you can then create a real font, your very own handwriting. How cool for students to create their own font for PBL; how cool to have students create labels for things on their desks, books, around the classroom. Your very own font, and the joy of this is that the app is not a real learning and teaching educationally-designed app.

Nothing beats a straight up white board using Doodle Buddy. Whether you paint, draw, scribble, or sketch, it's addictive. You draw the letters, upper and lower case, and teach writing and spelling with letter transformations. Add a doodle and the letter becomes___. Random learning with a fun app. From letters you can make drawings: houses, animals. Wonderfully creative; your iPad with your Daddy (or teacher) becomes a powerful learning and teaching tool. Bedtime with Aiden is not crayons and messiness; it's digital and Aiden's work gets posted via email to his blog. Aiden is 4 years old ad his blog is aiden.dembo.org.

Starfall.com is a wonderful app with images without normal text; just images, so when you blow it up full screen it doesn't lose view ability. Starfall has been reconfigured so that is does not require Flash, but only for the alphabet. Alphabet/Phonics Resources abound. Favorite apps from the audience: Make a Snowman, Bob's Books 1 and 2, Frosty Letters. Steve reminds us that many books are in Discoverystreaming and definitely wonderful, and you don't have to pay for them. All 30,000. Download them as a QuickTime, drag into iTunes, select convert to iPad, and you just created your own iPad app for a video. Reel Director and iMovie are good apps, but Apple locks down things, so there are things that apps can't do and that includes you can't import other videos. You have to convert them, sync them, and send them into the Photos folder (not the video). Open in QuickTime and save as an m4v. In iTunes, select a folder and import them into Photos. Complicated but it does work as a transfer to a camera roll.

Toontastic allows you to create a fully-interactive animation; characters move, speak. You get to create backdrops, record your own voice, and create a wonderful video cartoon. You can choose the degree of intensity (volume, happiness, one single moment in the story arc). Steve reminds us not to stress; there are things Aiden can't handle yet but who cares. It uploads to ToonTube, similar to YouTube but for cartoons. You can select your privacy settings and maintain the integrity of your level of viewing audience.

For math, Steve admits Math Drills Lite is a good app because you can restrict the level of learning. For example, you can set 3 as the limit and you will get all the possible combinations of 3. Jungle Time and Jungle Coins are excellent; Monty's Quest, Rocket Math, and Counting Bills and Coins were audience recommendations.

Some people go way far in their iPad use. GarageBand is an incredibly cool app even if you have no musical talent (me) because they have "smart instruments." Some folks connect their iPad to large speakers and amp up the GarageBand experience. App costs $4.99 but is incredibly worth it, because you can add so many layers to the music production. Think this one could even work well in a high school music class. Love it. Singing Fingers is yet another phenomenal app. You draw music with your fingers; you get a picture that translates into music. Magical. And a new music genre, transformative in music composition. You can actually jam with your iPad with other people. Angry Birds is an audience favorite, good for logical thinking development.

Is it all too much? Are we addicted to iPads? It's not that the iPad is taking us away from is a static screen. The iPad is collaborative; just ask this father and son. Magical bonding.

Steve Dembo's iPadsBeforeBed

Does the DEN Impact Your Teaching & Learning?

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:51:00 +0000

And the answer is a resounding YES! Shared to the DEN Global Blog by Porter Palmer, the results of the Harvard Study are now public.

DEN Research Study Highlights

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DEN Impact Study 2011

View more documents from Porter Palmer

Highlights include 89.2 % answered "tremendously" and "very much." In addition, the main formative information about where the DEN should go in the next 6 years include events and other concepts. When asked how our instructional use of technology to support student learning said that 97% of people polled said the DEN community made a difference. Over 60% of people polled said the DEN community encouraged growth. On the social media side, 70% responders said they interact with the DEN regularly. The beauty of the DEN is its uberconnectedness. Main way: blog at 39%.

Major upgrade was last year, but Steve Dembo said the front end will be upgraded to 3 featured spots. In other words, a global aggregate and 2 spots with high interactivity. New WordPress themes and other surprises in time for the summer institute at San Diego.

The challenges of professional growth: helping to integrate technology; providing access to practical resources; networking with colleagues; keeping up with current trends.

What has made the DEN endure and grow is that the community is ours. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEN!

Welcome to the DEN PreCon 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:03:00 +0000

Welcome to the DEN's Sixth birthday party at Science Leadership Academy, a great day full of surprises, all of them engineered by the DE Team under the direction of Cynthia Brown. Fantastic job, Cynthia. Let me tell you that Discovery pulled out all the stops and brought their full court press to PA. Included are Lance Rougeux, Scott Kinney, Patti Duncan, Traci Blazosky, DEN GURU, and Kristen Olfan from PA; Nancy Sharoff, DEN GURU from NY, Janita Demian and Hall Davidson from CA; Steve Dembo from IL, Kyle Schutt, Daren Sander, and Matt Monjan from MD; Cynthia Brown from VA; Tim Childers, DEN GURU from TN; and Elizabeth Lipsomb from NC. With over 1000 members and 3000 events, the DEN is proud to be 6 years old.

Lance began with a video the Discovery Team created that dug deep into the archives, covering many major DEN and Leadership Council events, as well as testimonials from over the years. It's vintage DEN. Enjoy!

Remarking that Discovery has branded DEN on almost everything, Lance said that over 6 years, we have printed 8,000,000 certificates of webinar attendance. One million educators have been reached via Discovery events, locally and globally. An amazing collaborative group, the DEN is a community of meaning, of friendships, of networking, and there is simply nothing better. A day of meaning, celebration, connections, a Day of Discovery.

DENny Awards 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Wed, 18 May 2011 04:26:00 +0000

Life rarely catches me without words, but tonight finds me speechless and feeling a overwhelmed (but very thankful). A very special thank you to DENny Awards hosts Steve Dembo (for doing things twice), Porter Palmer (for rewinding Steve), and Lance Rougeux (we ARE streaming you live next year). Special congratulations to the recipients, and much gratitude to all the DEN members who made nominations for our community awards. Steve will be archiving the webinar and we'll post it ASAP. Until then, the DENny goes to...

DENny Awards 2011

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Caching Up on the DEN Spring VirtCon: Archives

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:24:00 +0000

If you missed the DEN Spring Virtual Conference, you can view the archives on Discovery Education's YouTube channel. When you click this link, you'll find the VirtCon playlist with 18 archives. Thank you, DEN.

Scoop.it Up ~ Day of Discovery 2011 Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Wed, 11 May 2011 02:59:00 +0000

Porter Scooped.it in Session 1

What a week! Solid Teacher Appreciation from the DEN, some great new tools, capped by a Day of Discovery at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. The first session I attended was Porter Palmer's Teaching Humanities in the Digital Age. She had already curated her presentation in Scoop.it, our newest tool from a DEN partnership with a great company. Inspired by Scoop.it popping up during the day, I curated the DOD resources. You'll love it.

Some of the resources require a DEN login, so they are not curated. I've added a few older blog posts and video archives for sessions I did not attend that day but blogged earlier. If you missed Hall Davidson's Mashed Media, you can go to the Day of Discovery resources and find Hall's PETE&C keynote in text, audio, and digital formats. Similarly, a post about PA DEN Guru Patti Duncan and the 5 E's is more detailed than the presentation that I covered at DOD. Do enjoy the wealth of wonderful DEN resources, and if you are not a DEN STAR--what are you waiting for. Just do it.

The Many Faces at the Day of Discovery #SSDOD 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:09:00 +0000

A special Thank You to CYNTHIA BROWN, #SSDOD2011 Organizer

Resource Links for Science

Conference Resources

Thank You for attending. You MADE this day GREAT!

Discovery Education SCIENCE and the 5E Model: Whitney Mihoulides #SSDOD2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 07 May 2011 19:14:00 +0000

A DEN Account Manager for Discovery Education, Whitney Mihoulides focuses her presentation on digital media in the Science classroom. Students are engaging with technology and digital media outside the classroom, so why not bring it inside the classroom. Digital media lets students see at the micro and sub-micro levels something you could not otherwise see. While digital media will not replace hands-on lab work, Discovery Science is designed to enhance your classroom inquiry.

Today we are approaching the 5 E's in a linear progression.

Engagement is about getting students involved, generating interest. As an educator, you need to know your scope and sequence, students' prior knowledge, and common misconceptions. Done in Flash, 5 Minute Preps are a part of the lesson design in Discovery Science, both at the middle and high school level. 5 Minute Preps give the key ideas in a digital format. To use Discovery Science, your school district needs to add it as part of their subscription service.

Depending on your platform, Science Elementary and Science Middle, your platform will look different, but each has the 5 Minute Preps. Examples of things Discovery Science has to Engage include: images/clip art, animations, simulations, scientific demonstrations, DE "fundamentals" and interactive videos, short video segments, sound effects and songs. Videos are a powerful engagement tool because students can change their schema by dispelling myths about a concept.

Exploration is an interactive introductory tool about a concept. It allows students to drag and drop and learn different processes and how the results occur. It constructs and connects patterns for determining an outcome or result. In this stage, students extend their understanding and move toward major conceptual pieces you are beginning to explore.

The beauty of Discovery Science is that everything you need for robust lesson plans are embedded in the program. What a science teacher can love about Discovery Science is the virtual exploration. You do not release a thousand fruit flies in your classroom or torture gekkos hands on, but rather explore digitally the advance learning experience.

Explain activities are created to meet all levels of learning modalities and enable students to learn in multi-media formats. In this phase, students begin to demonstrate their level of understanding with and without formative and summative assessments.

A teacher's role is defined in relation to the student's ability to proceed with a level of conceptual understanding. Science has an Assessment Manager that lets the teacher customize standards and benchmarks based on your state's standards that drive state assessments.

Elaborate is the next step and involves the student as a creator of content s/he has consumed. It gives students an opportunity to take what they have learned and extend beyond the classroom walls and create content that extends beyond the classroom walls. An example might be to create an Animoto to explain why a particular job might become a career pathway. Or a VoiceThread to explore the scientific method is another possibility.

Evaluate is the final E and gives students the opportunity to expand and solidify their understanding of the concept and/or apply it to a real world situation. Students can take a self-assessment on their own, and the tools are embedded within Discovery Science. You can assign a self-assessment that you may or may not see, as well as assessment that you do view.

A very special thank you to Whitney for sharing a great Discovery resource. If you have any questions, please contact Whitney Mihoulides at whitney_mihoulides@discovery.com.

Project-Based Learning ~ A Menu of Ideas: Jennifer Brinson #SSDOD2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 07 May 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Jen Brinson graciously shared her resources.

Pbl a menu of ideas

View more presentations from jbrinson

Learning and Teaching Pyramid: 21st Century Style

Jen began by debunking a few myths about Project-Based Learning, including that whether you call it Project, Problem, or Challenge-Based Learning, it's all the same thing. How you design and craft your project--local or global--short task or save the world--it's all the same thing. It's the application of learning and teaching that creates engagement, relevance and meaning that matters.

Product, process, challenge met in a community is challenge based learning, but each of the 3 share many commonalities.

Begin with the end in mind with a driving question that is provocative, open ended, goes to the heart of the discipline, and can be tied to the real world. If you don't tie into the real world, you lose your students. Connect to students. Get a business in a city/township to plan a fireworks show and ask the kids to explore what goes into a fireworks display. How are they made? How do you know when they will go off. Math is in our daily lives, so we need to couple with the math departments to get math in real life into our curricula. Make what you do real. Make kids see the real world and what affects other people, not just them. A driving question should be short, catchy, and a go-to quickly.

Assessment must be on-going, formative and summative. Students need a rubric first to guide them. Have them grade themselves and each other; determine how well they know their content. Reflection is critical. You need to have them take academic risks, collaborate? Give students benchmarks; they need goals and chunking or they will lose focus and direction. Have them give you feedback, use GoogleForms.

What holds teachers back? Confidence. Support. Team with teachers. Understand that the kids will know more than the teachers in technology. Get beyond being a control freak. Think differently about control. Let the kids fly. It's a challenge, but the reality is the relevance of how the students learn and teach. Get beyond being the deer in the headlights.

Discovery to the Rescue! Use Discovery Atlas, or STEM resources.What's the plan for next year? Brinson is flipping her classroom. She's giving content delivery outside the classroom and when they come to class, they work in your room, with you. You move from student-teacher ratio with larger classes to working with students-to-teachers in flexible smaller groups in valuable time. Individual or small group instruction lets us sit down with students and class time becomes valuable teacher time. It's that simple. QuickTime and Jing become favorite tools. Personal devices will be our students' friends. Learning becomes flexible, dynamic, and differentiated.

The last thing students need is us as helicopter teachers. Flipping lets students get what they need, when they need it, on their timeline.

Working the Social Studies PBL Flipped Classroom. Jen's overriding question is "How do I move the world forward?" Her approach will consist of appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Appetizers are snippets that go with something bigger. They are too small as stand alones. Each tool works as a great starting point as a piece inside of a larger project, becoming a valuable component but the the real deal, the whole PBL. Brinson went through each app, describing what the tool's affordances are and how they could be used in different disciplines. One of her favorites is Jeopardy Labs, which comes with thousands of preloaded challenges, and it keeps score. Students create avatars, put them in Jeopardy Labs, and let me tell you, engagement abounds.

While everything on the appetizer page plays into entrees, the entrees lead into the desserts. When the menu is completed, on conclusion they will present and determine which 2-3 projects are the best and deserve to be housed in a LiveBinders for the class. Then at the end of the year, students present and teach to a panel of government officials (economics and government classes), historians. Jen plans to Skype Jennifer Dorman and add her to the presentation panel. You get your friends in and then switch with them and offer a reciprocal service.

That's Brinson's menu for flipping her classroom, and I can tell you, I'll be at the same restaurant, same time, dining from her menu.

A Virtual Field Trip with Google Earth and DE Streaming: Dawn Berkeley #SSDOD2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:27:00 +0000

Dawn Berkeley, DEN MD Leadership Council Blog Member, has graciously shared her resources.

Dod2011

View more presentations from Prince George's County Public Schools

#1 - Discovery Education Media & Google Earth on Prezi

Dawn's Symbaloo aggregating Google Earth resources can be found here.

Dawn's Google Earth Tour can be accessed here.

An educator in the Prince George's County Public Schools, Dawn Berkeley engages her students in many eco-green preservation projects. Teach, lead, and inspire drive educational planning, and Dawn began with images of who she serves: her children. Her students love working with Google Earth because it is a powerful application and great engagement tool for environmental science. It inspires communication, problem-solving skills, critical thinking, team building, and analysis and synthesis.

Beginning with building out a Google Earth field trip, Dawn begins with an introduction in GE for the project description. Then she takes them on a real field trip, returns to the classroom, and begins the analysis and synthesis of the collected data with debriefing, defining, reviewing, and viewing historical footage. What happened on the terra firma they just explored. These clips are embedded in GE. Then they answer a series of questions. Dawn likes everything in one place, so she doesn't link out. After using GPS devices to get to a location, students photograph locations and then upload them to GE. Since their topic was a local watershed, they also had to explore how this place moves from local to global impact.

To build your project, you use the bookmark tool, but Dawn recommends that you use the historical imagery tool, an often ignored tool. From working in a local area, she moves on GE to Redonia, Brazil, where you find a fishbone effect from felling trees. Students can choose the time feature and rewind to 1975 and play GE to view how Redonia looked before fishboning. A great compare/contrast tool.

Location, location, location is everything. To create a folder, right click on your location and click Add, and the folder to create a new folder. Then you create placemarks with the push pin or right click and insert a placemark. A dialog box then pops up, and you use some html code in the box either to hyperlink or provide other features in the discussion box. Anything you can embed goes in this box for any placemark you create and you can customize your placemark.

When you use the code, copy it, and then if, for example, you want an image, remove the "imageurl" language from the code and then insert the url link between the quotation marks. The image appears. Working from DE Streaming is wonderful.

Dawn downloads videos from DE Streaming to her computer desktop and then uploads it to Media Share. Then, you grab the embeddable code from Media Share and insert it into Google Earth by pasting the code into the description box. Dawn recommends that we always use code not links because linking adds an unnecessary layer students do not need. With code, students can view in real time.

The final piece and the most important is assessment. Using your Builder Tools, you can use preloaded assessments, add a writing prompt, and create a quiz. The culminating project for Dawn's GE Tour (which takes several days) is to use President Obama's sustainability speech, added to the builder, and then she grabs the code and puts it into GE. Again, everything is one place. She puts the speech back in "home" and then links out (the only link she uses) back to her DE Builder. So, students read the speech in GE but link out to the DE Builder for the final assessment, a writing piece, in the Builder. Dawn encourages and allows redrafting but the finished product is shared out to her in the Builder.

Dawn noted that creating an artifact like this GE Tour takes time but you have it for re-use, and it is easily modified. She ended her presentation by asking us to text her with our assessment of what we learned. I think it's safe to say that this presentation was engaging, impressive, and enabling. You could leave this session knowing that you and your students could begin a GE Tour using Discovery Streaming resources.

Teaching Humanitites in the Digital Age: Porter Palmer #DOD2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 07 May 2011 15:24:00 +0000

L2R: Porter Palmer & Kyle Schutt, DEN Managers

Porter Palmer, DEN Manager, is a wonderful friend and a great addition to the DE team. I met her years ago at a Summer Institute and have been following her ever since.

Did you know that Discovery Education has hundreds of speeches with speech guides and transcripts or that we have the ENTIRE Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia series? That’s not all! If you’re looking for engaging resources on history, literature, music, art, theater, culture, or even primary sources DE is the place to look. In this session, not only will we discover how to find humanities resources in DE, but we’ll also explore how to incorporate them into free web 2.0 tools. Join us as we take the humanities into the digital age.

Teaching Humanities in the Digital Age

View more presentations from Porter Palmer

Porter's resources on Scoop.it

Porter has graciously shared her resources on Scoop.it, including her presentation. Porter wishes to thank Jennifer Dorman for much of the content of today's session. Porter used Scoop.it to aggregate her resources. Scoop.it allow you to become a curator of information by using the bookmarklet in the upper right on Scoop.it to add information. If you are a DEN STAR, then you received an invitation for the beta version of Scoop.it. If you are not a DEN STAR, use today's opportunity to network and become a STAR.

Porter showed us how to navigate Scoop.it where she curated her resources, including her SlideShare.net presentation which plays inside of Scoop.it. What Scoop.it enables is widgetizing your content as well as providing digital works cited.

The classrom application is easy beesy. If you want your students to curate worthy information, they create a library of information, much like you would diigo it, except that Scoop.it is interactive and displays content in the format you scoop--video, images, websites, images. Whatever is worthy.

When you are in your account, you get to drag and drop the bookmarklet to your toolbar. To use the Scoop.it bookmarklet, you Google or Bing your topic, find your url, and open it. Tell your students when their url is open, they just click the bookmarklet to scoop important and relevant detailsbookmarklet. Your content appears in Scoop.it.

You can search for Discovery content by Curriculum Standards searches. When you select your selected standard or benchmark, you get all of Discovery's rich resources for that standard. You can also search by subject and get mixed media resources. Video, images, songs, text, websites, quotations, speeches, encycolpedia articles, integrated simulations, video segments, editable video segments, games--all forms of academic exploration are housed among DiscoveryStreaming's content. Porter recommends that you do not search by grade level because it is too limiting; you can use an upper grade level video and mute the volume and talk over while the video plays. In this way, you expand your resources and their applicability to your classroom.

You can continue to drill down and narrow your search. But when questioned by her audience, Porter recommended to search broadly in the drill down limited search. For example, search for "dustbowl" rather than "dustbowl and a year." You can also do an advanced search where you can search "dustbowl and To Kill a Mockingbird." But the audience said that in the humanities, it is really better to broaden the topic since DE is not GE or Bing. Head up a layer if you can't find the resource you seek. You can also search by genre: do you want audio or video or image content or text? You mouse over your content and you see additional resources connected to the subject searched. A bonus is that audio files are mp3, so you can add them to your iTunes library and even use these audio files as an introduction as students enter your classroom. Talk about creating an inviting and engaging environment.

When using the speech tools, you also get 3 versions of citations (MLA, Chicago Style, APA), saving your students (and you) from using citation generators. Porter takes speeches from Discoverystreaming and puts the speech into Wordle to create a visual speech. Did you know DE Streaming includes the entire Funk & Wagnells encyclopedia. Anything you can copy/paste from DE Streaming speeches, texts...you can put into put into Wordle or WordSift.

Then there's WordSift, and that takes words into a new level in the cloud and visualizes it as a word cloud. Very cool alternative and for learners who need differentiation, this tool appeals to a visual learner for whom Wordle is too cluttered. You can open a work space and drag words from the WordSift cloud tagged to key words to the cloud. You can shift, drag, and use these words in your workspace and gives you an advanced way to visualize learning in the humanities. You can use the embedded thesaurus in WordSift to develop vocabulary concepts. If the word appeals to the student, it can be added, and learning continues to grow.

Yet another cool tool is Tagyedo which lets you convert an image to text. Pedagogical point is this is a great way to summarize text, find main ideas and an excellent way to teach toward the state testing that is so ubiquitous. Not that I/we are suggesting to teach to the test, but rather that we have so many engaging tools in DE Streaming that make learning testable concepts more fun, more engaging, more relevant to the students. What an amazing way to begin to flip your classroom than with using DE Streaming resources, make a video for your students, assign it as homework, and then begin your day with students in a block schedule starting with what they watched that integrated DE Streaming resources.

GreatSummary is a wonderful tool that does just what it says. It summarizes, and you can control how many sentences you want. I've used this tool in the classroom, working from DE Streaming speeches, and it is a great tool, with wide flexibility. If you haven't tried this tool, you really want to explore it in your classroom. Great tool for main idea and compare/contrast.

Porter mentioned that Lodge McCammon's songs in DE Streaming are mostly math, but there are a few humanities songs under "social studies" that Lodge has created. This was a wonderful find. Thanks, Porter. It's also more than just listening to the song; he includes the lyrics you can project to discuss meaning. You can sing along, and Lodge adds study guides for classroom use. You can have your students act out the song and then film it. It's an easy fast insert to your curriculum, doesn't have to be perfect, but is a wonderful culminating activity. Your student knowledge should be deep before they begin these activities. The purpose of these videos is to see if students understand the learned concepts.

Did you know that Discovery has a Great Books series? Forget Google Books--DEs Great Books are vetted, safe, and here for your reading, learning and teaching. Each book has an author's profile with a re-enactment of the author's life. Search for Great Books, but then you can narrow the search to quizzes and can administer the quizzes as is or copy/edit them, add questions, change DEs version of the question, and copy the quiz into your folder. You can change the response the student sees when the question is answered. This is a great and frequently undiscovered tool in Discovery Streaming.

Then there's the Discovery Atlas, found in the Teacher Center. When you click on Discovery Atlas, you will find so many things: teacher guides, related videos, and a wealth of options in the pull-down menu. If you haven't discovered the Discovery Atlas, you know about it now.

A special thanks to Porter for an amazing presentation for those of us in the humanities. You rock.

Consumer to Creator ~ The Student as Both the Learner & the Teacher: Matt Monjan Keynote #SSODOD2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 07 May 2011 14:06:00 +0000

Director of Account Management for the Discover Educator Network

The Educators' Day of Discovery, Beyond the Textbook, began with Homeroom, Morning Announcements and a DiscoverySTREAMING overview, and then officially began with Matt Monjan's keynote address.

Here's the thumbnail sketch of Matt's keynote:

Not only does today’s student want to be engaged through technology, media, and conversations at the same time, they also want to be able to instantly share their own content, ideas, and creativity with their peers and, in fact, the world. Our students have progressed beyond consumers of content to become producers and publishers. How do we, as educators, teach to someone who is technically proficient, and social media-minded? During this session we’ll explore different avenues in which the traditional model of learning is replaced with a challenge that requires students to draw on prior learning, acquire new knowledge, and tap their creativity to fashion solutions.

Matt opened his keynote by reminding us his presentation is available on Discovery Education. Industry, things you can use tomorrow, and something inspiring is the presentation flow today. Yesterday, technology was static; today's age moves us from yesterday's consumers to creators. Case in point: Matt's son Ben at 2 years is adept at iPad. It's his world and how he consumes and creates information; he makes his own content. A movie maker at 2, imagine teaching Ben in first grade. That seriously amps up how we as teachers learn and teach.

How much content is out there? Years ago we were amazed at finding a fact; today we have 1 trillion unique urls in 2008. Census data in 2009, 7 billion people exist; we are creating content. YouTube said 20 hours of video content was uploaded every minute in 2009. E-kids today spend 1:29 hours on computers but 1:51 on their portable computer cell phones. From the Pew Institute, we learn that an amazing number of people use their cell phones. We are "learning to change and changing to learn from our students creations.

Matt segued into using DE Streaming content to address different levels of learners, beginning with music created by Lodge McCammon, DEs Fizz Man, and then moved moved to dance video. It's about creating content with audio and imagery. You can use an image and then add a sound to tell a story. We used PollDaddy to poll our audience using our cell phones, another powerful way to engage students using the tools in their pocket.

This past week was DEN Teacher Appreciation Week and what a week it was. One of our gifts was Photo Peach, and Matt showed us a really wonderful easy beesy way to build out digital storytelling in an instant. You can also add a quiz for the end of your movie. A very cool tool and if you are not a DEN STAR, you really want to join our organization to stay just a tad beyond the cutting edge. PhotoPeach is a flexible tool that really lets your students create awesome videos.

JayCut is an online video editor; you can cut/paste, add video, use chromakey, and make amazing videos with a built-in green screen. We went really interactive with the audience with this tool. Two set designers, actors, green screen holders--all to make a shark movie. If you haven't tried JayCut, just do it--very intuitive tool.

But it's not enough for students to be creators. We need to connect to the world. Rock Our World from Carolyn McGuire is an amazing example of a flat classroom. But we need to create an ethical conscience in our students, and Siemens We Can Change the World is a great place to begin.

Matt left us with a new way for students to apply to colleges; Tufts now requests a one-minute video on why they should accept you. Talk about putting your life concentrated into a one-minute film. Amazing. It's about Engage, Transform, Achieve.

Live from the White House - A Discussion on Osama bin Laden

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Thu, 05 May 2011 17:25:00 +0000

Steve Dembo from DE streaming live

Discovery Education and Ben Rhodes, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor aired live yesterday from the White House to host a discussion on Osama bin Laden. Discovery's man at the White House was none other than Steve Dembo, streaming on discoveryedu's livestream channel.

Thank You for Joining this Historic Event

Over 1,600 classrooms, and tens of thousands of students across the globe, tuned in to the live webcast to hear Ben Rhodes, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, to discuss Osama bin Laden.

In addition, we received over 1,700 questions from students. Watch the three-part archive of this historic event.

Ben Rhodes, Deputy Assistant to the President

Due to the sensitive nature of this webinar, we recommend that only middle school and high school classrooms watch the archive. The discussion within this webinar may include details and concepts not suitable for all ages.

* Presentation (10 minutes) Ben will provide context and perspective

* Q&A with Students (20 minutes) Students' questions answered by Ben

If you missed this historic event, you can view the archive. Click this link.

Images from the webinar appear below.

Educator Day of Discovery Sneak Peek: 7 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:11:00 +0000

My favorite place to be on May 7, 2011? 1 Discovery Place, Silver Spring, MD for the annual Day of Discovery for Educators. Catch a Sneak Peek, compliments of our point person for PA and this DOD, organizer Cynthia Brown, DEN Account Manager, Discovery Education.

Educator Day of Discovery: Sneak Peek Agenda

Project-Based Learning with Tim Childers, DEN Guru #svc2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Tim Childers is the first generation DEN GURU, and his specialty is project-based learning. I met him at the first DEN National Institute (not saying how many years ago), and even then I was blown away by his knowledge and his calm way of delivering professional development.

Tim began by addressing what PBL is not, and then moved to what it is. Begin with a problem, an overriding essential question that guides students as they move through the learning process. That's the starting process. Then they explore the project and form a collaborative strategy for an intelligent design. Each project will look different and that's the beauty of the PBL process.

The final piece of PBL is assessment, and that can and will vary. Will problems occur in PBL? Absolutely. But with time and planning, you get beyond it.

Tim shared a slightly edited (with permission) Dean Shareski video on PBL.

Another video Tim shared about PBL is this exciting video.

Tim says that it's critical for the classroom teacher to understand the technology. He reminds us to expect problems and just go with the flow. It is really about changing the paradigm and if you want to make a change, you need to move your sense of instruction. What I continue to be reminded in Tim's presentation is the value and need for an Instructional Coach because they make things possible, for students and teachers as well.

One of the easiest ways to begin PBL is digital storytelling. It's just the low-tech piece that you can create in Photo Story or iMovie. If you are not a tech-savvy teacher, your students are and if you are without a coach, go to the students. Tim suggests that you search for your students on YouTube, because they ARE there, creating and producing.

To begin digital storytelling, you need only a limited investment in resources to make the project work. Just a word to the wise: FLIP cameras are wonderful, easy to use, but Cisco bought the company and FLIPs are disappearing from the landscape to reappear in your iPads, cameras, and the like. For the project, Tim bought a green shower curtain to create a green screen opportunity.


Look how DS changes learning (& teaching) roles.

Another way to do PBL is gaming. Tim suggests several he likes several games and even set up one for us. If you view the image to your left, you will find the link and login information to join the DEN game Tim created.Among the games Tim previewed are Spent, Evoke, and simCEO.

You can check out additional PBL resources at this link.

If you want a certificate to indicate your hours of professional development, you can download it here:

from Porter Palmer to All Attendees:
http://links.discoveryeducation.com/svc2011certificate.

If you missed Tim's presentation, you can view the archive below.

Time, Differentiation and Online Publishing: Dr. Lodge McCammon #svc2011

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Dr. Lodge McCammon is no stranger to Discovery; he has created special presentations for many of our special events. Today, he joins us with Katie, a teacher and co-presenter from NC. Lodge works with the Friday Institute and has created the FIZZ Learning Framework.

Lodge says that the new generation of learning is publishing, a rigorous and high order thinking level of activities. The learning framework actively involves students in creating classroom learning environments at the high end of Bloom's Taxonomy by creating music videos, paperslide videos, and other engagement strategies. This kind of learning truly represents 21st century learning. From the chat room, a teacher's endorsement:

from Joli Brock to All Participants:
paperslide is extremely user-friendly and exciting for strivers o show their thinking...then they can go back and reeval their own work....great op for small group discussion. Paperslide link: http://sites.google.com/site/denbostonfizz2010/math-lesson/step-3-paperslide-project.

In his travels as a consultant, Lodge notices that in many classrooms, lecture, remember, hope you understand it, tomorrow we'll test, and then tomorrow we begin the school day cycle again. But there is a better way. Watch this video: FIZZ - No Lecture in the Classroom for an excellent example of a "flipped classroom." Lodge's broadcast channel is onfizz.

The reality of professional development needs to provide the means for teachers to engage students beyond a knowledge-based level. But the downside is time. Kathy flipped her classroom by creating a series of lecture videos.

Now that you understand a flipped classroom, take a look at differentiated instruction in a flipped classroom.

So how do you address access for students without at-home access? Kathy says you get very creative about before and after school time, as well as lunch. You can also use class time to watch the video while other students in the class are working. A benefit: students are more prepared for class. More peer tutoring from the students. Administrator engage in the school transformation and support teachers for the application time. Teachers get school-wide time to create a flipped classroom.

Students post online to each other and work online with more online discussions. Kathy shares the first lecture video she created for her class.

The benefit of flipping your classroom with lecture videos is exponential. You make one video and all your classes get to watch it, on demand. No need to repeat the lecture cycle in each class. Students can re-/watch the video as needed and respond by creating yet another video they post to their class's website. Learning is transparent at a new level of student-constructed learning.

Kathy asks why it has to be her on the video. The answer: she is putting herself out there. It engages her students because they want to see her; she's their teacher. Sending them to someone else by outsourcing put dependence on other people to learn. Kathy says it's like having a substitute teacher to construct an entire lesson. It's not the same. You students begin to want you, their teacher, the individual teacher on the video. Kids bond with their teacher. They want you to deliver the instruction before you move forward with the application piece.

Flipping your classroom has an added benefit: it engages family. But more is accomplished. Take a look at the student comments. Students can "pause" the teacher. More application and collaboration occurs in class. Grades improve, more classroom time. Kathy says the overall benefits are a total "win win."

Lodge says that in NC, they are transforming schools and classroom efficiency with hybrid school transformation. Differentiated instruction is about diagnosing and treating students. This approach to teaching goes beyond transmitting information and actually teaches students what each one of them needs. Consequently, we carve out more time more efficiently in class. But as we shift the paradigm, we need to carve out time for teachers to innovate, create, publish.

We want our students to re-evaluate and analyze their learning every day. It's what our students want and need. At the Friday Institute, you will find step-by-step instructions on how to flip your classroom.

For the details, details, details, check Lodge's website. If you missed this presentation, you can view the archive below.

Our Children's Future?

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:58:00 +0000

If you are concerned about the future of education in Pennsylvania with the billion dollar cut pending, you might want to make an investment in your future, your children's futures, our futures by taking a close look at the following websites. Each site offers you information, and some include petitions you can sign to speak to your legislators and your governor.

Stop the Billion Dollar Cut provides a factsheet, pertinent information, and a petition. If you care about the future of public education, please consider signing the petition.

Cover Story on Vouchers

Senate Bill 1 (SB1), according to PSEA Voice (April 2011 issue) claims that proposed cuts to education would impact public schools negatively to the tune of $1 billion in funding. If you receive the PSEA voice, there's a detachable postcard you can send to your representative. Already addressed with postage paid, this postcard only need your signature to send. Take the Niki approach: Just Do It.

Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign has a Facebook page you can join, as well as visiting their website. The website has an action list of things you can opt to do to register your voice, your vote against proposed educational cuts.

Pennsylvania State Education Association has an active website with articles that show the impact of proposed legislation. If you want to see how the governor's proposed cuts affect schools, use the drop down menu to find your school district. If you want to voice your opinion, click here to take action.

DiscoveryStreaming

There are clearly many consequences that will result if the governor's funding cuts which give preferential treatment to vouchers, charter schools, and private education are voted into law. One outcome that will have serious impact in public schools in PA is the possible demise of DiscoveryStreaming and the Discovery Education package. I mention this because our Intermediate Units throughout Pennsylvania are increasingly looking at Safari Montage as their video-on-demand provider. For many of us, this move will significantly impact our students' education and change the way we deliver instruction with safe array of vetted resources, not to mention units created in our Builders.

For all the reasons that make you care about the future of public education in Pennsylvania, I urge you to take action.

A Shelfari Success Story

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:19:00 +0000

l. to r. Tam, Ann, Kathy

Nothing beats a success story, and this is one if ever there was. What follows is that story, told by the person who created the climate for it to occur. She is a Technology Integration Specialist, K-12 in a neighboring district. She posted her story to the CFF Listserv where our SHS Instructional Coach, Jennifer Brinson, forwarded it to me to share.

GUEST BLOGGER: KATHY FIELDER

Hello, everyone:

I have been thinking a lot about an experience I had this past week with one HS librarian, a 10th grade English teacher, and some 10th grade students.

For the most part, they are not very motivated readers. The librarian was trying to convince the teacher that bringing the students to the library on a regular basis would be a good experience for her students. While the teacher agreed in principle, she was worried that the kids would not take it seriously and wouldn't make good use of the class time.

The two came to me for ideas. (I am currently mentoring the librarian because it is her first year as a librarian, and I was one for 27 years prior to becoming a coach.) Together, we discussed what the teacher would like to see her students learn as a result of regular library visits. She promptly answered, "a love of reading." The librarian agreed that this would be the ultimate goal. As we talked about what we could do that might engage the students, the teacher mentioned that she has tried literature circles, but that the book discussions never developed into the rich conversations she'd envisioned; students didn't seem to care about sharing their thoughts with others. Book reports were dreaded by the students and were CLEARLY not desired, thank goodness.

Image courtesy of Discovery Education

I left this meeting with Edmodo in mind. I have used this tool successfully with other teachers and students to get everyone engaged in a discussion topic. It is the Facebook-like interface that allows this tool to transcend other web 2.0 tools. The teacher must structure the conversation for the students, but little time is wasted in teaching students how to sign up or use the tool. This works great when the students are all on one topic or are reading the same book (either whole-class, or in lit circle groups).

What continued to stump me was what to do to engage the students as a community of readers who might all be reading different books. Furthermore, I wanted the experience to be one that students might learn a skill that could continue beyond the requirements of their 10th grade English class.

Create a Shelfari account

I went home and Googled around a bit. The answer came to me in a nifty social book sharing site called Shelfari. At our next meeting, the three of us signed up for accounts (you need to create an Amazon account, but no personal information is required for Shelfari) and played around a bit with the interface to see if it would suit the teacher's and the librarian's requirements. The sign up is a bit tricky, so I made a step-by-step cheat sheet with screen shots for the students to follow. We set some parameters on what the students would be required to do:

Sign up for an account using first name and last initial only.
Create and post an avatar as the profile photo.
Set their location as Our Town, PA (Trying to protect identity here.)
Start by adding five books they've already read to their shelf. Also, they would add three books they wanted to read, and any books they are currently reading.
"Friend" all of the other members of the class, their teacher, and the librarian.

Talk about transformation! The signup was a breeze. The avatar creation was simple; we used MyAvatarEditor. Then the fun began. Instead of wandering around aimlessly finding a book (or not) which might be read (or not), the students began discussing (quite animatedly) books they'd already read, recommending books to their neighbors, searching the library's catalog to see whether the library had the latest book of interest, writing reviews and rating books they'd read, etc. etc. etc. Two boys who I know to be reluctant readers (they were my students in middle school) excitedly discussed the Pendragon series as they tried to convince their English teacher to read it.

Poof! Instant community of readers!

The librarian required the students to "friend" her on Shelfari. As she explained to them, she'd be looking at their "Books I Plan to Read" shelves for ideas of books to purchase for the HS library collection. Because this site is directly linked to amazon.com, she can quickly access professional reviews, bindings, and prices.

We had a difficult time getting the kids to return the laptops and leave at the end of the period. I was just on my Shelfari account a few moments ago and many of the students have friend requested me. Once I approve them, they will be able to see what I am reading and will receive a news feed about all of the latest updates I and their friends have made to our accounts. There's even a feature that suggests books you might like based on your reading history, which becomes more refined as you add more books to your shelves.

The teacher has a rubric that she will use to rate the students' use of Shelfari. She is currently teaching them how to write an informative book review, and she will evaluate their reviews by looking at what they've written on Shelfari. Talk about an authentic learning experience...with an authentic audience for their work.

I bet they're even on this site today...on their day off!!!

Just had to share. This is an example of 21st teaching and learning at its finest. I hope you can find a way to try it with your teachers.

Kathy

P.S. I liked this so much, I decided to try it out on my 183 teachers. I asked them if they wanted to read The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner as a book discussion group. I told them there would be no deadlines, no meetings, etc. The group "meets" asynchronously on Shelfari. I had SEVEN takers, which I think is pretty good at PSSA time. Sneaky way to get a PLC started, don't you think?

Kathy graciously shared her Shelfari Signup Tutorial and Shelfari Rubric.

Kathy Fiedler's Shelfari Signup Tutorial

Kathy Fielder's Shelfari Rubric

For more project information, please contact:

Kathy L. Fiedler
Technology Integration Specialist, K-12
Northwestern Lehigh School District
6493 Route 309
New Tripoli, PA 18066
610-298-8661 x. 2222
fiedlerk@nwlehighsd.org

JB + JC + FB + GE3D = A Better Mousetrap for Teaching Julius Caesar

noreply@blogger.com (Changing Connections) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Jen Brinson in AM Class

"So, your teaching Julius Caesar and that means you're in Rome. What do you eat in Rome -- Italian Ice, right?" So Jennifer Brinson began her Google Earth Tour with 8 varieties of Italian Ice for my tenth grade students who are currently working on putting the characters from the play on their Fakebooks. So let's begin with the Fakebook project.

PM Class avidly participating

I live to see an email in my inbox from Brinson because I know it likely has another great idea for Project-Based Learning. The template replicates Facebook but is actually a PowerPoint with total flexibility for editing. As we are using it, this project is an exemplar for characterization and point of view, as our Assistant Principal and former English teacher Bill Dovico noted as he viewed student work in progress. You could, however, use this template for any academic discipline and diverse content objectives. What I love most about this project is the level of my students' engagement and the depth of their research and learning (for more engagement strategies, see Brinson's Prezi).

Here's the original template from Brinson via the CFF Coaches Listserv; to use the template, your students replace JF Kennedy information to reflect your project design.
Facebook Sample Page - JFK (from Jen Brinson via CFF Listserv)

Two student samples of Act 1 follow. As we build this project, each Act will add an additional requirement. For example, in Act II, characters will have to deliver status updates in iambic pentameter.

First Example from Brandon L.

Second Example from Abby S.

Brinson created a generic Fakebook Rubric and it worked perfectly for my objectives, so I merely added the project synthesis (in red) and point values for ease of student reference. Based on student feedback, we are using Fakebook for the entire play but assessing each act separately. As we add a new component to each Act, the rubric's flexibility allows for a new objective.

Jennifer Brinson's Fakebook Rubric

Troy Miller, SHS '07 returns for PM visit

Part of the Fakebook template was creating a profile. To help students accomplish this task with authenticity beyond their research, Brinson created a Google Earth 3-D virtual field trip to Ancient Rome. The goal was to give students a window into the world their characters inhabited, to let them walk virtually through the same streets, to see Google's re-creations of ancient structures. A former Social Studies teacher before accepting her position as Salisbury High School's Instructional Coach for the past 2 years, Brinson's depth of knowledge and first-hand travel experience enriched the commentary of the sites we visited. For those who have not traveled to Italy, GE includes a short synopsis of the site visited.

The trip began at our high school, and then we flew over the ocean to Ancient Rome. Brinson's Field Trip of Julius Caesar's Rome is followed by a list of the places we toured.

Colosseum of Rome
The Pantheon
Roman Forum
Arch of Septimus Severus
Capitoline Hill
Piazza Navono
Palatine Hill
Roman Baths of Diocletian
Baths of Caracalla
Trajan's Market
Via Appia Antica
Ostia Antica
Piazza di Spagna
Arch of Titus
Piazza del Popolo
Campidoglio
Mausoleum of Augustus
Appian Way
Spanish Steps
(Hadrian's Wall--Great Britain wall/fortification; not in Italy--my error)

For more Google Tools, see Brinson's wiki.

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