Digital Passports

One of the great things about being a member of the Discovery Educator Network is that your fellow STARs are right there with you, exploring new horizons online, pushing the boundaries and surfing on the cutting edge. So when you explore a new site, you’ll often find that there’s a group of people for you to connect with right from the get go. Not only that, in this wild world of social networking, it’s not just WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know. So by networking with your fellow STARs, you increase your circle of contacts dramatically.

SO, with that in mind, let’s do a quick lap around the web and make sure you know a few of the many other places that you can network with your fellow STARs!

Yes, Facebook is the end all, be all of social networking sites right now. Join the DEN in Facebook group and share photos, videos and comments with other DEN members. Click here to join the DEN Facebook group.

LinkedIn is quickly becoming the ‘professional’ social networking site for the corporate world. It’s a fantastic way to find out who knows the people you want to know and get a personal introduction. I know I’ve had several requests over the last month to introduce one friend to another, and even used it a couple of times to get in contact with someone that I didn’t have any other way to connect with. If you’re a little nervous about posting a profile on Facebook or MySpace, this site is a great place to get your feet wet. Build out your profile and represent yourself professionally. The DEN group was just approved, so be among the first to join and proudly display the DEN logo on your profile!

Diigo is a social bookmarking site that is really giving the current champion, del.icio.us, a run for its money. It does everything that del.icio.us does (including simul-posting to your current del.icio.us account!) and so much more. From highlighting on a page, to adding sticky notes, to sharing bookmarks with groups, it really turns websurfing from a passive experience to a highly active one. Jennifer Dorman created the DEN group in Diigo a little over a week ago and there’s already over 50 members!

If you’re looking to jump into a virtual world, but don’t really know how to get started, our Second Life Leadership Council will see that you have a helping hand. They’ve done a phenomenal job of hosting weekly events, organizing volunteer guides and building out a truly amazing DEN presence in the virtual world. I can’t link directly to the group in SL, but if you visit the blog you can find all the information you’d ever need.

That’s all I can think of right now, but I’m sure there are others. So if you know of any I’m missing, add a comment below. See you ’round the web!

Today I feel pretty darn privileged because I get to spend the day networking at TechForum Midwest, which just happens to be local for me No flight required!

Highlight of the day has been the networking taking place. Sheryl Nussbaum Beach set the right tone with her opening keynote, encouraging the attendees to spend time today building out their own personal learning networks. And without a question, people have been taking it to heart. Tweet’s have been flying all over, sessions are being uStreamed and recorded for podcasts, and the networking has truly been exemplary. Of course, there are about half a dozen STAR Discovery Educators or so around, who are leading by example!

As promised, here is a link to my afternoon presentation dealing with AUP’s, Social Networking and Internet Safety. It’s a messy topic to be sure, but we had a great discussion and there seemed to be many lightbulbs switching on above people’s heads.

Great stuff, and I was glad just to be a part of it.

Heard about Twitter but don’t know where to start? Already using Twitter but you’d like to expand your network? Want to find a way to stay connected with other STAR Discovery Educators in between events and conferences? Have I got a solution for you!

This all started with Lee Kolbert. She decided to create a tool that STAR Discovery Educators could use to register themselves along with their Twitter names, and then see the results as an online list. That way, STARs could go through that list and add other STARs that they might not have known were on Twitter.

Brilliant idea and it didn’t take long for the list to grow mightily! However, let’s face it… For a new user, copying and pasting and following 70+ Twitter accounts is a pretty tedious task. I mused on Twitter about how handy it would be for someone to create a way to just import in a list of Twitter names! Wham Bam, there you go. An instant starter set of Twit-friends, just add water. Lo and behold, podcasting legend Tim Wilson read that tweet and said, “Hey, neat idea! I’ll just close my eyes, click my heels together, and poof! Meet the Twitterator!”

Ok, it’s a bit of a dramatization, but it really didn’t take Tim at all to take the idea and run with it. Just supply his tool with your username and password, and then give it a list of names or point it to a URL that has a list of names, and it’ll have Twitter follow all those people for you. Couldn’t be easier!

Well, maybe it could………. By throwing DabbleDB into the mix, I can have it chop up the table that Lee Kolbert created using JottForm and spit out a CSV file that Twitterator can digest easily. That gives us a static URL that will ALWAYS import in all of the STARs registered by Lee’s tool. So if I want to follow all the people who have registered themselves within the last few weeks, I just run that same URL through Twitterator again. Anybody I’m already following it just ignores!

Ok, so how do you get started? Easy as 1-2-3

1) Register a username at Twitter.com (obviously skip this if you’re already registered)

2) Register yourself in the STAR Database that Lee created. That way other people can follow you!

3) Go to Twitterator.org. Put in your username and password and in the “Enter a list of people to follow” box, paste http://tinyurl.com/4a7mnu into the URL field and click submit.’

Voila! You are now following all the STAR Discovery Educators who have registered themselves! Now tell all of us what you’re doing

This week I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Bucks County, PA and do a few presentations. A few? Make that 7 in two days! Between a Day of Discovery for nearly 200 educators, a community night for 80+ parents, and then three high school assemblies, I think I may have met half the county! It was a great time though, and many great conversations arose from it. Jen Dorman was the impetus behind the event, so major thanks go out to her for inviting me into her community and giving me the opportunity to share some of my ideas with the teachers, administrators, parents and students there. OF course, she was more than just a gracious host, she was also one of the presenters on Tuesday as well, along with Matt Monjan and Scott Kinney. The highlight of that day was when an administrator came up to me and said that for the first time, he actually felt empowered to take out his iPhone and use it to explore and make connections during a presentation, WITHOUT feeling like he was being rude or inconsiderate to the presenter. He even signed up for several of the sites we were discussing while we were talking about them!

As promised, here are the presentations that I shared while in Bucks. Very much looking forward to my next visit to the area, whenever that may be.

Learning to Speak Native

The New Permanent Record - Parent version

Policies, Safety, and Social Networking

The World is Just Awesome!!

Lets not trash it, heat it up or waste it. Look around you. Look around class, the school, the community and your own home. How can you make a difference? Get a little info by watching, reading and listening to the media below and other people. Then share your thoughts. The only wrong answer, is no answer.

I created an assignment in Discovery Education streaming for Earth Day, April 22. I also incorporated the use of a great site, voicethread.com. If you haven’t heard of it check out the assignment below by clicking on the link.

Teacher Printable Version: Earth Day streaming and voicethread assignment

Student link to Assignment (must have Discovery Education streaming) Shoot me an email with “Earth Day” in the subject. Include your Discovery Education streaming username and I’ll send you the link.

Direct VoiceThread link.

5 minute Jing: An quick video overview of VoiceThread.

Extension Hands-on: Trash sorting Lab
Never heard of it? It’s simple. Collect trash for a few days. (Important: No animal by-products! Don’t want to send anyone to the emergency room. Plant material perfectly ok, but put that left over pot roast in Fido’s bowl or simply another trash bag) Bring trash bag into school and have students sort it. You can give them sorting categories or even better have them come up with their own. Also throw in some process skills here, how do you measure how much? Let them figure it out.
Main Point: A lot of trash, well just isn’t. How much(grams, volume, other) needs to go to the landfill?
Extension Media:
Got DE Streaming Plus? Have them watch a Planet Earth segment. The world rocks. Any will do, but “The Future” one is on topic. Don’t have DE Streaming PLUS.

Psst!! You can become a STAR Discovery Educator and get it for free through the end of this school year. No really, just another benefit of being a STAR. Find out how here.