DEN Blog Network

Enjoy the DEN Weekly Update for November 6, 2009.

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!

The voting was fierce, as the ranks shifted several times over the last few days.  But when the dust settled, three winners emerged!  Congrats to all the winners, a brand new HD Flip Cam is going to be in the mail to you.  And many thanks to everybody who participated, it truly put the ‘treat’ in Tech or Treat!

Best Discovery themed costume:

Christie Berrier, as the MythBusters!

Bekka Stasny as The Deadliest Catch!

Vasantha Rayman as the DEN STAR!

Over 1600 educators attended the DEN Virtual Conference last Saturday and I think about 1300 of them emailed me to ask when the archives will be available!  Well, thanks for waiting patiently, and now your patience is being rewarded!

The entire Virtual Conference, all seven hours of it, has now been posted online!  If you go to the Virtual Conference page, you’ll be able to view any of the presentations online, or if you like you can click on the title link to download them and watch them full screen in all their hi-rez glory.

Don’t forget, you’ll always be able to find them within the DEN Educator Resources section as well, if you’d like to embed them in your own blog or website.

Did you attend the Virtual Conference?  If so, share your favorite memory of the day with us!  We’d love to hear some stories from around the country.

Tech and Learning Magazine released their annual Awards of Excellence this week and guess who made the list?  Discovery Education Science for Elementary!  Every year, T&L has a panel of 30 educators review nearly one hundred different sites and tools.  We’re absolutely honored to have DE Science for Elementary earn an Award of Excellence in the New Products category.  You can check out the release here, but keep an eye out for detail in the December awards issue.

Where are all the STARs?  Presenting at state and national conferences near you, that’s where!  We’ve put together an ever-growing list of presentations by STAR Discovery Educators at state and national conferences around the country.  If you are attending a conference listed below, please stop by and show your support for your fellow STARs.

And don’t forget, if YOU are going to be presenting at a state or national conference, if you include Discovery Education in the title or description then you really ought to let us know.  We’d love to add you to the list, and we also have a little something to send you!  If you’d like to learn more, visit this page.  

Unexpectedly, we had some highly creative submissions of people dressed as members of the DEN team!  So, we’ve set aside one HD Flip Cam for the person who gets the most votes in the Best DEN Impersonation category.  Cast your vote, polls close on Friday!

#1 Judy Uhrig as Jen Dorman

#2 Lori Abrahams as Joe Brennan complete with cameras, cables and DEN Jacket

#3 Andrea Earl as Hall Davidson, complete with black blazer over black shirt over black shirt.

#4 Susan Tompkins as Steve Dembo, with CD, Memory, Flashdrive, Webcam, Microphone, Hydroclock, Cellphone, Remote, DEN Passport

#5 Mary Davis as Jannita Demian, with ice scraper!

#6 Vasantha Rayman as… the DEN STAR!

The competition was fierce.  We had some incredible costumes submitted as part of our first ever Tech or Treat costume contest.  In fact they were so good that we just can’t make a decision ourselves!  So we’ve decided to split the contest into two parts.  The first part is best costume of a Discovery personality.  We’ve narrowed it down to ten contestants.  We’ll have voting open all week and give away HD Flip Cams to the two people with the most votes!

We also received some amazing submissions from people dressed as some of our favorite DEN personalities!  So the final Flip Cam will be given away to the top vote getter in that category as well.  Those pics will be posted in the next blog post.

So vote away!  And thanks to everyone that submitted a photo!

#1 Lisa Wickman as  Jamie Hyneman

 #2 Bekka Stasny as Deadliest Catch

 #3 Christie Berrier, as the MythBusters

#4 Cassie Poor as the Cash Cab

#5 Jason Cochrane as Jamie Hyneman

#6  Nina Lopez as Survivor Man

#7 Genny Kahlweiss as Jamie Hyneman

#8 Shari Rogers as woMAN vs. Wild

#9 Jason Kirchmer as Mike Rowe

#10 Heather Bruce as a Lobsterman

We are very excited to welcome our newest DEN Leadership Council from the great state of Connecticut! 

Chair - Joe Fromme

Blog Coordinator - Jane Cook
Events Coordinator - Pam Skelly

Blog and Events Team
Ann Barney
Barbara Haeffner
Lynn Reedy
Howard Gunther
Steve Sokoloski
Gary Webster

Stop by the CT LC blog and say hello!

Enjoy the DEN Weekly Update for October 23, 2009.