REMC XI Discoveries

Get ready for a new school year with the DEN!  The entire month of August is jam-packed with free webinars.  Tell a colleague - join us for Summer School with the DEN.

What’s new? Enroll in Discovery Education streaming Back to School Enhancements - available through October.

Enroll today at: http://community.discoveryeducation.com/webinar.

Now you can participate in a Discovery Education Webinar for a sneak peak of wonderful enhancements to Discovery Education streaming that will be coming your way this summer! July dates for the Back to School Preview 2009 are the 2nd, 14th and the 21st.  And there are more to come.

Just click on the Discovery Education Webinar Series link in the Professional Development box on the lower right of the streaming front page. You can also access the series in the Professional Development section of the site by clicking on the Professional Development tab at the top of the page.

Throughout the year there are dozens of outstanding Webinars on a variety of teaching and learning topics that integrate technology in the Discovery Professional Development section. Jump in and explore the possibilities!

Its that time of year to think about DE streaming renewals for the 2009-2010 school year.

If your district is in the REMC XI service area, please send a purchase order to Berrien RESA REMC XI by August 31, 2009, and include the name(s) of the building(s) and the district’s contact person.

As in the previous three years, the REMC Association of Michigan has negotiated discounted pricing. The REMC agreement includes the AIMS Media Package along with streaming. School Districts send a purchase order to their REMC and then the local REMC submits one purchase order to Discovery Education for all the region’s buildings. Subscriptions are by building not district. A building is defined as having a single street address.

These instructions and additional information can be found on the Berrien RESA streaming Web page at:
http://www.berrienresa.org/destreaming.html

Additionally, Discovery Education streaming Plus is available at additional cost. This adds additional content, including select Discovery Channel programs, bringing the total videos to over 9,000. A flyer regarding streaming Plus is available on the Berrien RESA DE streaming Web page.

The DE streaming subscription expires September 30 of each year. The August 31 deadline gives us time to let Discovery know who is renewing or adding. REMC XI will invoice the districts after September 30 in the fall for the subscriptions.

Join folks in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for an engaging, technology-infused professional development workshop focused on creative ways to use digital media in the classroom. Learn techniques to inspire your students and maximize the resources from Discovery Education streaming.  “50 Ways to Integrate DE Streaming” and “Extreme Makeover: Education Edition” are just a couple of the sessions that will be offered.Educators from all grade levels and all technology skill levels are welcome to attend. 

This Day of Discovery is brought to you by the Kalamazoo RESA, the Michigan Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council and Discovery Education.

Location:  1819 East Milham Ave., Portage, MI
Times:  8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Breakfast & Lunch Provided

Kalamazoo “Day of Discovery”
Please RSVP to Michael Bryant by using the below website:
https://discoveryed.wufoo.com/forms/kalamazoo-day-of-discovery/

This one is fun. We borrowed this idea from another school. When we run videoconferences, we have two Polycom units in the same room that use the same type of remote. One remote can mistakenly make unwanted changes on both Polycoms. Janine Lim found this interesting solution to “focus” the remote:

Yes, it’s a toilet paper roll! We are finding videoconferencing to be a great technology in our schools. Take a look at Janine’s Videoconferencing Web page or visit her blog Videoconferencing Out on a Lim.

Intro to Discovery Education streaming at REMC XI

A free workshop is being offered to REMC XI new users of Discovery Education streaming on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. The hands-on workshop will take place at the Berrien RESA Technical Training Center in Berrien Springs from 4:00 to 5:30 PM. Participants will lean to logon, search for content, and play and download videos.

Register online at http://www.berrienresa.org or call Jo at 269-471-7725 ext. 1149 and register for BC# 09-106.

REMC XI DE streaming News

*Saturday, Feb 2 Virtual Conference!

Connect with educators from all over the country during this unique professional development experience where you can attend in-person, online, or both. The host site is Doherty Elementary School in West Bloomfield and it will run from 8:30am-3:00pm. Register at:
http://Community.DiscoveryEducation.Com/virtualconference

See the Michigan Blog for a flyer: http://community.discoveryeducation.com/michigan/

*REMC XI DE streaming Page

Check out our streaming Web page:

http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/united_streaming.html

*DE streaming server upgrade

REMC XI has upgraded the local host server. Your videos come to you from this server at the BCISD. For those schools connected to the BCISD Wide Area Network, this saves a considerable amount of Internet bandwidth and the multiple jumps associated with connecting on the Internet.

*Discovery Education Network

DE streaming users are encouraged to join the DEN - Discovery Educator Network. The Discovery Educator Network is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 25,000 members providing professional development to over 250,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person.

To join: http://community.discoveryeducation.com/

*Discovery STAR

DEN members can also become STAR educators for access to more resources. This involves registering, sending in a lesson plan that uses digital media and hosting a local event - this can be as simple as getting three people together for an hour to share what you are doing with DE streaming.

For a one-hour training for your building - use the After School Discovery developed by Dennis Lundgren - see the earlier post.

*Michigan Discovery Blog - visit the new Michigan DEN

There is a Michigan DEN Blog at:
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/michigan/

*Discovery Education at MACUL

Finally, if you are attending the 2008 MACUL Annual Conference, look for Discovery Education sessions and speakers:

Hall Davidson - Closing Keynote, Friday, March 7, 2:30 -3:30 PM

• Thinking Big as the World Gets Small

Steve Dembo

• The 10 Best FREE Web 2.0 Sites
• Learning to Speak Native: How Education Can be Transformed in 140 Characters or Less
• The New Permanent Record

Jonathan Buntain - Our Michigan Sales Representative

• Vendor Exhibit Area

Racked and Running!

Host Server Upgrade

Discovery Media Server Upgrade

A new host server coming in January! REMC XI of the Berrien County Intermediate School District in Michigan has operated a Discovery Education streaming host server for the past three years. The purpose of the host server is to save our districts expensive Internet bandwidth and to improve performance. Twenty-two of our local districts are connected to our site via a wide-area network. It also gives us the option of adding our own content.

This first generation server for REMC is a several-year-old Intel based server that was upgraded to 1.5 TB to accommodate Unitedstreaming video content. Several of the hard drives are attached to the case of the server by zip ties!

When this server was installed, Discovery sent out FireWire drives to load the content. The support staff was very helpful and we got our server up and running in no time at all. Each night, content is updated from Discovery.

Since that installation, two concerns have come up. First, this is an old server that is working night and day and reliability will soon become an issue. Secondly, and most important, some of our districts are looking for the large format videos. These larger format videos (700 KB to 1 MB) greatly improve the resolution of the image and look great when projected from a data projector. Several local districts became connected to us by fiber this past summer. These connections make it possible to move large amounts of data.

Recently Discovery changed its approach to host servers by offering the Discovery Media Server in three levels of Dell servers. (To see the announcement click here.) These are shipped with the content preloaded eliminating the need to load data on site from FireWire drives. The level of server is sized based on the needs and demands of each installation.

Our server has arrived and we are anxiously awaiting the rails so we can rack it up and get it running. We expect to switch over early in January. Local districts will need to request by Email or letter that they wish to have the high-resolution videos turned on for their district.

If you are interested in a host server for your district, visit the Discovery Education Web site or contact your sales representative. To view the Discovery Media Server Solution flyer click here.