Jun 03
The Professional Development area holds some very powerful resources for trainers and teachers to use as they learn how to use the DE Streaming site.
Webinars can be found on the right column, a trainer’s toolkit is available, and there are many examples of integrating DE Streaming content into instruction.
For teachers who can’t attend a training, or prefer to work on their own, try the Interactive Training feature in Professional Development. A virtual person will wall the trainee through the Discovery Education Streaming website.
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/professionalDevelopment/InteractiveTraining.cfm
For more information about upcoming training, check out the agendas below.
workshopagenda_onehour.pdf
workshopagenda_twohour.pdf
Jun 02
A fun CPS activity with questions about the DE Site.
Here are some key points to remember when training teachers and staff:
Streaming is for previewing, downloading is for instruction.
To download a photo, click the preview, then right click and save target as.
Use the calendar to find material to support historical events by date, in the main subject areas.
The My Content area allows teachers to share resources and content with their school, or even at the district level.
“Thematic Focus” is a weekly unit that contains lesson plans, discussion guides, videos and activities. Each week a different thematic focus is featured, but you can also click on the folder beneath to search the archive.
Use the “Customized Home Page” to manage the information from DE Streaming to be support your account.
To set this up, click on My Account, then My Homepage, select the customized radio button and then select the checkboxes next to the features available in the list below. At the return to the DE Streaming page click “My Homepage” to see your customized page, or toggle back to see the default (great for training).
The Discovery Education Atlas is now found in the Teacher Center. Video and content is embedded into a world atlas and aggregated by country on the digital map.
To change the media settings for your downloads, go into the “My Account” area and adjust the preferences. It is in here as well that you can change whether or not your streaming video will play in the web browser or a stand along application like Windows Media Player.
Jun 02
Hands-on “Train the Trainer” activity about using the 3 builders in the Teacher Center: Writing Prompt Builder , Quiz Builder, and Assignment Builder. For more information and the powerpoint, visit:
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/streaming_a_to_z/
Click on the “Resources” link on the left to see PowerPoint used by Matt Monjan.
Writing Prompt Example copied from the DE Streaming Library:
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=W498A-8912
Writing Prompt Example created on my own about using iPods in the classrooms:
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=W4993-29A7
Space Shuttle Quiz created in the Quiz Builder that is similar to a Writing Prompt with only one “Essay Question”
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=49A8-D339
Why should I use the Assignment Builder?
- combine all of your writing prompts and quizzes into one place
- share weblinks or create a web quest
- embedd widgets, video, and audio from other internet sources
- use the Discovery Atlas features as well
Jun 01
Greetings from Discovery Headquarters!
This evening I checked in at the headquarters building here in Silver Spring, Maryland. Tonight through Tuesday we’ll be participating in the Discovery Eduation National Training Academy (http://community.discoveryeducation.com/nta). Throughout the workshops I’ll be sharing information on this blog, so be sure to subscribe via RSS or check back from time to time for updates.
Use Photostory3 and MovieMaker with Discovery Education to make your own media!Check out the little movie I just made in a few minutes about Sea Turtles! 
