Kansas

In reading through my Google Reader subscriptions I came across a Google Docs blog posting talking about tutorial videos for several of their applications.  The applications include spreadsheets, forms, documents, presentations as well as functionality within each application.  Additionally, I feel there are two great features available on the Google Docs YouTube channel.  The first feature is how the videos address needs for users ranging from new to advanced users. The second feature focuses on how the site has the ability to track the videos you have already viewed.In closing, I encourage everyone to take some time and review a few videos.  While your at it, subscribe to the Google Docs YouTube channel and keep up with all the newly added tutorial videos.

Discovery Education and 3M have joined forces to create ScienceofEverydayLife.com, an exciting new program that stirs imagination and encourages students to explore the science that is all around us.  Launching in September,ScienceofEverydayLife.com will feature standards-aligned lesson plans, an interactive area dedicated to learning more about innovation, a sweepstakes and more!Now is your chance to provide your ideas for what you would like to see onScienceofEverydayLife.com. Visit scienceofeverydaylife.com and take a brief survey that will help us to develop new content and additional free resources.While you’re there, take a peak at our free family activities- there’s something for everyone!

This summer educators from across the U.S. and Canada traveled to Bentley University in Waltham, MA for the Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute. As an attendee I can definitely say that it was an amazing learning and growing experience and that I now have SO MUCH to share with educators “back home.” While we were at Bentley, each DEN STAR created a project highlighting ways to integrate DE content into your classroom. These projects range from teaching students how to cite sources from DE to using DE content in conjunction with a large number of web 2.0 tools. So as my first act of sharing with my teachers “back home,” I wanted to let you all know that all of the projects have been uploaded (by the amazing Porter Palmer) onto the Discovery Education site and are freely searchable by ANYONE with access to DE content.

In order to access this content, simply use DENSI2010 as your search criteria in DE.

Here’s one really fantastic (and funny) example of what you will find when you search for DENSI2010 content. This particular video was created by David Fisher (Florida) and Dennis Grice (California) and will help you teach your students how to cite their sources from Discovery Education. 

As we kick-off the 2010-2011 school year the Kansas Leadership Council will be looking to highlight KS DEN STAR members new and old.  We start of this year asking that you please welcome Tom Angelo to the Kansas Discovery Educators Network “STAR” family.  Keep checking back for new postings as we look to host events each month across the state.

Last May, Steve Dembo (@teach42 on Twitter), from Discovery Education, asked if I would be interested in participating in their Summer School 2010 webinar series.  It did not take me long, maybe 30 seconds, to agree on presenting as part of the PLN Week.  Steve asked if I would discuss Social Bookmarking (Social Bookmarking in Plain English) while focusing on a few web based resources that folks could use to collect their resources.  In preparing for the webinar, I used one of my favorite web 2.0 tools, Livebinders, to collect my resources as well as using it to present from early in the session.  I started off the session by introducing some websites that included Share Tabs, fur.ly, LinkBunch, and others that can compile a collection of website URLs into a single URL that could be shared via website or social network.  If you are interested in learning more about each one of those sites or others covered take a look at the embed Livebinder.

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Who ever said summer school isn’t fun? Get ready for your school year with an amazing series of free professional development sessions from the Discovery Educator Network (DEN)!

DEN Summer School begins August 2. Click on any of the session titles below for more information and to register. All sessions start at 11AM ET.

Week Two: Personal Learning Networks

August 9- Connections, Conversations, and Collaborations: Creating a Personal Learning Network That Works For You

August 10- Microblogs and EDU - Making the Most of 140 Characters

August 11- The Social Side of BookmarkingFree your “Favorites” from your computer. Use Social Bookmarking to be as mobile as you are. See who likes the same sites as you anytime, anywhere, as well as collaboration options to keep in touch with those folks too. We will take a look at Delicious, Diigo (new features too), along with an introduction of 4 new site options for compiling multiple bookmarks into a single site for quick sharing.

August 12- Building a PLN with DEN

Week Three: Project Based LearningProject Based Learning (PBL), sometimes referred to as Challenge Based Learning in high school settings, is a teaching strategy that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions, real world challenges, and carefully designed products and tasks.

August 16- Propel Learning into the Real World with Project Based LearningThis webinar will explore Project Based Learning experiences from exemplars with a local focus to those with a global interdisciplinary reach.

August 17- Dissecting Project Based Learning ExperiencesThis webinar will overview the PBL structure from the articulation of the big idea to the implementation of a solution.

August 18- Supporting Project Based Learning with Web 2.0See how Web 2.0 applications can be harnessed to create collaborative work spaces, foster positive communication, and provide publishing platforms for PBL groups.

August 19- Assessing Project Based LearningInvestigate ways to structure the assessment of both process and solution and learn how PBL supports student success on traditional assessments.

The ladies of LiveBinders, Tina and Barbara, have announced recent updates to enhance the ability of this great web 2.0 tool. The enhancements have improved searching for educational resources (education based binders), the long awaited functionality of managing uploaded files, and providing insight into the

methods used to secure your LiveBinders files. Here are the enhancement details:

• Search for education resources by grade level or topic. To do this access the “Featured LiveBinders” tab and look under “LiveBinders Categories”. Then select “More Education”

• Manage your uploaded files. Click on the “My Binders” tab then select “Uploaded Files.” After making that selection users will select the specific files to remove if no longer in use.

• View the “Credits” of sites added to the LiveBinder. This option is located just below the title on the left hand side and to the right of the binder date.

Finally, I would like to applaud Tina and Barbara for their efforts in developing LiveBinders. Their efforts have been recognized by the AASL. They have received the AASL 2010 “Best Website for Teaching and Learning”.

This week I was privileged to attend the Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute at Bentley University in Waltham, MA. It was an incredible learning experience! I it just such an uplifting experience being among so many amazing educators who share a similar vision for education as I do. To be able to converse and share ideas, gain resources, learn new skills AND have fun all at the same time makes the learning so much more meaningful and impactful for me. We started with some networking (the picture is from the networking trip into Boston), spent a few days in learning sessions and completed a professional development project for something in Discovery Education. We even got to view each others’ projects before we left and I was again blown away by the talent of my fellow STAR educators. The best part about the projects is that Discovery Education is going to upload ALL of them into their Professional Development section so that all Discovery educators can utilize the resources. Thank you DE for such an wonderful and educational experience - it will most definitely have a positive impact on my teaching!

This blog post is in cooperation with the DEN LC from Pennsylvania.  RJ and Meg have shared their recent posting discussing all of the new updates with Diigo.

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Do you like to use 3-ring binders but wish they weren’t so cumbersome? Use LiveBinders to organize the digital resources you want to keep all in the same place. http://livebinders.com/