DEN Blog Network

They say that imitation is the purest form of flattery.  Well this posting and the ideas attached in it aren’t so much imitation as much as they are blatant "borrowing" from our very own DEN Manager Extraordinare, Lance Rougeux.

Recently I had the opportunity to present to a group of educators attending WHRO’s Tech Trek 2007 in Norfolk, VA.

Before I traveled to Norfolk, I had the chance to see Lance’s presentation, Summer Streamin’ Great Tips To Get You Ready For The New School Year and asked him if I could borrow it for my presentation.

I made a few modifications so that I could highlight the Discovery Atlas feature as well as a couple other things, and of course not feel so guilty to attach my name to it.

I encourage you to check out the attachment so that you too can borrow, modify, and make these great tips your own.

Download back_to_school1.ppt

Talk to you soon,
Matt Monjan
Discovery Educator Network!

These days with products like unitedstreaming, video integration into the classroom seems like it should be a breeze.  Hyperlinking and embedding videos into PowerPoint should be as easy as 1-2-3!    As we all know, sometimes it’s not as easy as it should be.

Don’t fear, the Discovery Education unitedstreaming Implementation Team is here to help!

Ever get that  annoying white screen when you embed unitedstreaming videos into PowerPoint? We’ve got a simple fix for you.  Change the video’s file name.  I told you it was simple!

When downloading and saving videos, make sure to keep the file and folder names brief.  If the file or folder name exceeds 128 character spaces, the file will not load into PowerPoint properly.

Remember when you "Save Target As" or "Download Link As," you can shorten or rename the file names to whatever you want.  It’s all in the name! 

Need a hard copy of this tip?  Check out page 25 of the Discovery Education unitedstreaming User Guide found in the Trainer’s Tool Kit of the Professional Development section.

Have there been times when you are showing your class a video through PowerPoint and the sound is barley audible or not even there?   You are stumped because you previewed the video before embedding into the presentation and the sound was fine.  Don’t worry, there is a simple solution!

All you have to do is increase the maximum size allowed for linked sound files within PowerPoint.

To do this, go into the Tool menu and then into Options.  In the General tab, you can increase the amount within "Link sounds with file size greater than" to 50,000 KB. Once you make this change, you should see a large difference in sound!

Hope these tips come in handy!

Kristine C. Shih
Discovery Education, Implementation

So now that your teachers are comfortable searching for videos and downloading them onto their computers or streaming them live for their students what is next?

Why incorporating them into the The Builders course!

The Assignment Builder, Quiz Builder and Writing Prompt Builder (The Builders) give teachers the ability to tie images, audio files, videos, clips, and all of the other good stuff within the site together in one place and assign them to students. 

And here’s the really neat part - students can access the assignments in school and/or at home!  Homework made cool.

Click on the links below to download easy to understand instructions for each of The Builders.

Assignment Builder , Quiz Builder , Writing Prompt Buider

If you like that, here’s something that will really knock your socks off. 

unitedstreaming has added a new member to the family albeit a virtual one.  Check out the Interactive Training modules and meet our virtual instructor.  That’s right the interactive training is, well, even more interactive!

Check out module two and learn how to embed and hyperlink videos, images, clip art, and more into Word and PowerPoint documents.

Click on the Professional Development link within your navigation bar and then click on the Interactive Training icon to access the Interactive modules.

And what would an Implementation blog be without a little take-home tip or trick? 

In staying with our PowerPoint/Builder theme, I’ve put together a few slides for you to share with your colleagues and or incorporate into your training. I hope that they help! Download embedding_and_hyperlinking.ppt  Tune in next week for the latest and greatest!

Talk to you soon,

Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, Implementation