DEN Blog Network

Thanks to our good friends over at Tech4Learning, there are STARs aplenty who received free copies of Frames to use in the classroom.  However, what good is a piece of software if you don’t know how to use it?  They have graciously offered to host a webinar to help show you tips and tricks for using Frames with your students!

Creating animated movies and digital stories is a fantastic way to engage students in the curriculum. Learn how students can use the integrated drawing tools in Frames to illustrate their own stories, tell digital stories, and create animated Flash® movies.

The webinar will be May 29th at 4:30EST.  To register, click here.

While I know many of you are counting down the days until summer break, the scientists at NOAA are counting down the days until hurricane season. On Monday, we’ll be doing a very special webinar featuring scientists from NOAA as they share the science of predictions with you and your students!

To attend this webinar, all you need to do is click on the link to register, and then attend using a computer with speakers attached.   Your students will be able to ask questions directly of the scientists and discover first hand how science is allowing them to predict when and where hurricanes are going to form.   Click here to register.

Want to learn more about how to be prepared for every type of emergency?  Visit the Ready Classroom website and click your state on the National Preparedness map!

On Monday evening, as the final meeting of the first DEN Book Club, we will be joined by the author of Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott himself!  He will be sharing his own perspective on the NetGeneration and the impact they will be having on the world of education.

This webinar will be open to all members of the Discovery Education community, whether you participated in the book club or not.  If you would like to attend, please visit here to register.

About Grown Up Digital: Poised to transform every social institution, the Net Generation is reshaping the form and functions of school, work, and even democracy. Simply put, the wave of youth, aged 12-30, the first truly global generation, is impacting all institutions.
Particularly, employers, instructors, parents, marketers and political leaders are finding it necessary to adapt to the changing social fabric due to this generation’s unique characteristics. Within its comprehensive examination of the Net Generation, and based on a 4.5 million dollar study, Don Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital offers valuable insight and concrete takeaways for leaders across all social institutions.

I’m very excited to announce that the DEN will be participating in the next global collaborative project that Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay are creating!  You can read the entire announcement below, but here’s a quick summary:

1) Don Tapscott, the author of Grown Up Digital, is  hosting a video challenge right now with the first prize being a college scholarship (or the equivalent for further education).  The challenge is open to all teachers and students.

2) Julie and Vicki are organizing the Net Generation Education Project, a global collaborative project for hundreds of students worldwide that will involve both the book and the video challenge.  STAR Discovery Educators are encouraged to apply to participate!

3) The DEN is hosting a Book Club for Grown Up  Digital, and the author himself will be in attendance for the final discussion!

4) Hall and Joe will be hosting four webinars to help teachers and students create their video submissions for the challenge.

That’s it in a nutshell, but fare more details are below.  Read on, and then apply for the challenge and join the book club!

Net Generation Education Project
Written by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay

As announced at the Flat Classroom conference this past Monday, the Net Generation Education Project is the replacement for the Horizon Project and will include approximately 10 schools with 300 students.  The application process is now open for schools who wish to participate in the project.

Last year, Don Tapscott keynoted the Horizon Project 2008 which focused on having students envision the future of education via web collaboration and video.  The reading documents include the Horizon Report 2009 from the New Media Consortium and Educause.  Don Tapscott went on to include this project in his new Book, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World.

So, the next level of “flattening” is to not only have classrooms connect but to have the classrooms connect in new and more far-reaching ways with the authors of their books. Recent examples of connected classrooms and authors include Karl Fisch’s Whole New Mind Project as they work with  Dan Pink and such as Will Richardson and Anne Davis did with Sue Monk Kidd, author of the Secret Life of Bees.

In the same genre students in this project will interact on a Ning jointly created with Don Tapscott. Don will post weekly questions to the Discussion forum and leave video messages to the students.  It will be a read/write project.  He will also interact LIVE via a webinar.  Don has a vision for improved educational outcomes and is reaching out to interact directly with students through his challenge and this project.

Additionally, the Discovery Educator Network is going to be providing and sharing tips and information on effective video presentations and how-to’s and a book club group for educators.  Don Tapscott will keynote and the student keynotes are award winning virtual worlds educator Peggy Sheehy and her middle School students from Suffern Middle School using machinima from their Island in Second Life.

We will be studying this year’s Horizon Report (released January 2009) but adding to it the intro and Chapter 5 from Don’s book, Grown Up Digital:  (Rethinking Education) to the reading assignments for students.    Students will be divided into groups to analyze some of the key trends in reworking education to create collaborative report written with other students from around the world.  Each team will have a project manager and assistant project manager to help facilitate the work on the team.  These “managers” will be students with teachers working as facilitators.

Each student will cast their vision for the future of education with a video to be uploaded on our project ning.  All videos will be automatically entered into Don Tapscott’s Net Generation Education Challenge competition and could win scholarship money for future educational pursuits.
You do not HAVE to be a part of the project with Julie and I to join the Ning and participate in Don’s challenge competition - so go ahead and do that.  But if you are ready to have your students collaborate globally and follow the best practices as used in the award winning Flat Classroom, Horizon, and Digiteen projects fill out this form before February 9th and applynow!.

  Our tentative timeline: 

•     2/1- 2/9 - Application process for classrooms
  •   2/1 - 3 pm EST - Information Meeting
•   2/2 - 2/7 - Selection Process (classes will be notified as soon as they are selected)
•   2/6 - Ning, wiki, and google group are “live” by this date
•   2/10 - Final announcements of Classrooms
•   2/11 - Greeting from Don posted to the Ning via video - this may be his “author keynote” or he may choose to have a challenge each week and have it be small pieces.
  •   Weekly- discussions posted to the forum (can we pick a day and a time for this to happen?)  Will Don have a blog on the site as well?
• 2/11-2/18 - “Handshake process” - Students join Ning - post introductions
  •   2/18 - Teams announced
•   2/18 - 3/2 - Research phase of project
  •   3/2 - Wikis complete
•   3/1 - Suffern Middle School Student Keynote
• Some time in March, there will be a live session with Don Tapscott
•   3/3 - 3/31 - Movie Artifact phase of project (note that there will be some overlap between Research and Movie Artifact)
•      *Storyboarding 3/3 - 3/8
•      *Outsourced video requests posted to the Ning by 3/10 (we would like students to be able to do this with a blog post on the Ning and tag it outsourced - we can then add a menu item for everything tagged outsource_request and students can sign up with a reply and post a link in the comments, this is a change from the last project but will work better)
•   3/31 - Final Deadline for All Movies to be posted
•   4/1 - 4/8 - Post project reflections, student summits

Net Generation Education Challenge

Written by Kasi Bruno

A crisis is emerging in our schools and universities.

Traditional, one-way broadcast models of education are out-dated. Schools have not evolved as quickly as other institutions, and students are becoming disengaged as a result. Why are connected students at home suddenly disconnected at school?

How can we reinvent education for relevance and effectiveness for the 21st century?

Inspired by the work of Don Tapscott and Grown Up Digital, the Net Gen Education Challenge offers everyone an outlet through which to express their ideas and opinions about their ideal model of education. The challenge community will connect engaged participants all around the world, bringing educators, students, parents and professionals together in a global dialogue on learning. In partnership with the CBC, Flat Classroom Project, the Discovery Channel’s Educator Network and Classroom 2.0, Don Tapscott invites you to share your ideas and help make education engaging, inspiring and relevant.

Discovery Educator Network/Net Generation Book Club

by Steve Dembo

In conjunction with the Net Generation Education (NGE) project, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) will be hosting a weekly book club for Tapscott’s work, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World.  While the NGE project will be focusing just on the Intro and Chapter 5, we will gather together weekly to discuss the ideas within the book and their implications for education.  Best of all, the author himself, Don Tapscott, will sit in on the final week to share his thoughts in a candid conversation with everyone who participates in the book club.

There will be both live and web based discussion options for participants.  The live component will take place Monday evenings, 2/9 through 3/23 at 7pm EST. We will be looking for people to lead the weekly discussions as well.  If you would be interested in volunteering to lead the discussion for one of the weekly meetings, please mark it on the registration form.

If you are a DEN member and would like to be a part of the book club, please register here.  If you are not currently a DEN member and would like to learn more, please contact me !

Don’s publisher has been gracious enough to offer the book for only $18.45, a generous discount, to everybody who participates in the Book Club.

There are three ways to order:

Order directly from website http://www.800CEORead.com

Email Aaron at and let him know you are participating in the DEN / Net Gen Book Club Aaron@800ceoread.com

Call Aaron at 1.414.274.6406, ext. 204 and do the same.

Schedule

Part One: Meet the Net Gen

    Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 – 2/9

    Chapter 3 & Chapter 4 – 2/16

Part Two: Transforming Institutions

    Chapter 5 – 2/23 (chapter on Education)

    Chapter 6 & Chapter 7 – 3/2

    Chapter 8– 3/9

Part Three: Transforming Society

    Chapter 9 & Chapter 10 – 3/16

   Chapter 11 – 3/23 

Click here to register for the book club

Net Generation Education Webinars

by Steve Dembo

To support teachers and students who are participating in the Net Generation Education Project, the Discovery Educator Network will be hosting four webinars with two of the country’s foremost experts on digital storytelling; Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan.  These webinars will be intended for teachers to attend WITH their students so that they may learn ways to create digital stories from the very best.  To learn more about Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan, visit the Discovery Education Speakers Bureau.

Webinar 1 with Joe Brennan: Wed, March 4, 1pm EST

Webinar 2 with Hall Davidson: Wed, March 11, 1pm EST

Webinar 3 with Hall Davidson: Wed, March 18, 1pm EST

Webinar 4 with Joe Brennen: Wed, March 25, 1pm EST

There’s quite a few exiting webinars in the next few weeks that I’m sure you won’t want to miss!  First of all, as our next EdTechConnect presenter we have Dr. Tim Tyson.  While I had known of him for years, the first time I saw him speak was when he was the closing keynote at NECC.  He made quite an impression on me and had been on my radar to try to get to present for us ever since.  As a former principal and digital storytelling guru, he has a unique perspective on technology and how to empower “you to make learning even more irresistible for the students in your classroom and school.”

Register here to attend EdTechConnect with Dr. Tim Tyson.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg though.  We also have a brand new series of webinars to help you start off the new year “Digitally Fit.”   On January 13th, 27th, and February 10th, the DEN team will be sharing a few one hour workouts that’ll get you working up a sweat!  Join the DEN team and flex your digital muscles!   Just click on the dates and times that fit into your own workout schedule.

Workout # 1: Checking Your Digital Pulse
January 13 at 4 PM  and 7 PM EST

Workout # 2: Muscle Up with Media
January 27 at 4 PM and 7 PM EST

Workout # 3: Weigh In & Share
February 10 at 4 PM and 7 PM EST

Lastly, as many of you know we’ve performed a major upgrade to the DEN website!  From a snazzed up front page, to live chat, to full integration of the Educator Resources into Discovery Education Media Share, I think you’ll be amazed by all the new features we’ve packed into the site!  If you’d like a personal tour, stop by any of the following webinars and see what the new DEN site can do for you.

• Monday, January 12, 5 PM EST
• Wednesday, January 14, 1 PM EST
• Thursday, January 15, 7 PM EST
• Tuesday, January 20, 12 PM EST
• Monday, January 26, 5 PM EST
• Wednesday, January 28, In Second Life at 8 PM EST
• Thursday, January 29, 2 PM EST

December 17th is going to be a phenomenal day for webinars here at Discovery Education.  We’ll be closing the calendar year off with two holiday treats, one for you and one for your students.  In the morning, the Science Channel’s Michio Kaku will do a special webinar for you to share with students in your district, and in the evening we will be connecting you with digital storytelling guru extraordinaire, Jason Ohler!

Michio Kaku  is a best selling author, host of two national weekly science radio programs, and frequent guest on television shows including Larry King, 60 Minutes, 20/20 and many more.  He has hosted numerous series for the Science Channel and is currently increasing people’s Science IQ every Sunday night in the series “SciQ“.  If you’ve ever seen Michio speak before, you know that he has a brilliant ability to break down incredibly complex theories and explain them in ways that anybody can understand. On on December 17th, he’ll be sharing his ideas directly with you and your students!  This is your chance to connect your students to one of the most dynamic scientists on the planet, and even have him address their questions directly!  It’s an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

Register for Discovery Connect with Michio Kaku, host of Science Channel’s SciQ

But that’s just the morning!  In the evening, we have a holiday treat just for you.  The featured speaker for December’s EdTechConnect is none other than Jason Ohler.   The author of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity Jason is one of the nation’s premier digital storytellers and an incredibly popular presenter.  By combining passion, humor and intelligence with 25 years worth of experience, his presentations do more than simply inspire and engage you, they demonstrate practical ideas for transforming your classroom.  Register today and join educators from around the world in learning from this dynamic educator.

Register for EdTechConnect with Jason Ohler, Wed. December 17th, 7pm EDT

 ”The best way to predict the future is to invent it.“  - Alan Kay

Next week we’ll be having a very special EdTechConnect presentation, featuring one of the father’s of modern programming.  Alan Kay is a technology pioneer who has consistently been at the forefront of the computer age.  He was one of the first researchers to realize the significance of mobile computing in education, and his ideas have been a major influence in the OLPC project.

On Wednesday, November 19th, Alan Kay will be our featured speaker on EdTechConnect, a free webinar series from Discovery Education.  While this is open to all educators, I strongly recommend you only share the link with colleagues of your that have an open mind.  Alan will most certainly stretch the way you think about education.  Register yourself and then pass the link along.  I know I say this often, but this is one webinar you will NOT want to miss!

Click here to register!

 ”The important thing here is that the music is not in the piano. And knowledge and edification is not in the computer. The computer is simply an instrument whose music is ideas.”  - Alan Kay

If you want a sneak preview of Alan as a presenter, check out his recent presentation on Ted Talks.

How good was the Virtual Conference?  So good that you need to share it.  So good you need to watch it again.  So good that you need to add each presentation to your iTunes library so you have it on demand whenever somebody asks you what the best professional development you’ve attended this year was.

Ok, maybe I’m exagerating just slightly, but in all seriousness, the presentations were phenomenal.  One after another just blew attendees away.  And as many of you know, often the most valuable part of the presentation isn’t just what the presenter has to say, it’s what the audience shares in the chat room!  That’s why when we posted the archives, we included the chat windows as well, which shows up in real time!

So visit the Virtual Conference landing page and you can enjoy all 5 presentations again and again.   Share them with your colleagues.  Share them with your administrators.  Share them with your family!  And don’t forge,t if you enjoyed the presentations, let the presenters know you did by leaving a comment on the page for them.

BTW, due to the fact that they are all archived in hi-rez with audio, video and chat, they’re big files.  About 100MB or so.  Keep that in mind when downloading!

Enjoy!

To attend this webinar, with or without your students, simply follow this link and register! 

Tomorrow is going to be our first Discovery Connect of the year.  I really think both you and your students will enjoy it and learn quite a bit, so I hope to see you there!  U.S. Air Force Major Paul Moga of the Air Combat Command’s 1st Fighter Wing is going to be sharing his experiences as a pilot, a television series host, and an American hero!  Paul “Max” Moga is the host of Showdown: Air Combat, a Military Channel series which offers amazing insight into the aircraft’s,the weaponry and ground-breaking tactics employed in some of the most compelling historical dogfights. During this one hour webinar, he will be sharing his knowledge and expertise of all forms of aircraft from throughout history all the way up to today’s cutting-edge F-22 Raptor. Max has logged over 250 combat flying hours and currently serves as an operational F-22a instructor pilot and the air Combat Command F-22a demonstration pilot assigned to the 1st Operations Group, 1st Fighter Wing out of Langley Air Force Base.

During this webinar, students will have the opportunity to hear directly from Max live and in real time. They’ll be able to ask him questions about his experiences and learn what it’s really like to be both a U.S. Air Force Major as well as host of a TV series.

The only hardware required to participate is a computer and speakers. Or connect a projector and sound system, and share it with other classes in the school auditorium! Previous Discovery Connect webinars have been attended by thousands of students form around the world.

To attend this webinar, with or without your students, simply follow this link and register!

As promised, here is Bernie Dodge’s EdTechConnect webinar, entitled Webquests and Web 2.0.

Description:

The WebQuest model has been around since ancient times: 1995. The web has fundamentally changed since then with the invention of blogs, wikis, podcasts and social tools of every stripe. Has the model kept up, or are WebQuests a relic of the 20th century? In this webinar Bernie Dodge will describe how WebQuests and Web 2.0 go together like chocolate and peanut butter. He’ll show examples of how the latest web-based tools can be embedded in a solid pedagogical structure to make a good lesson great.

Download the presentation in high-resolution (99mb)

Flash Version coming soon.

If you enjoyed this webinar,  don’t forget to join us for both the Fall Virtual Conference and our first Discovery Connect of the year, featuring Major Max Moga from the Military Channel!  Discovery Connect is designed for you to enjoy WITH your students, to connect them with the very same people they see on television at home.