Michael Hakkarinen’s DEN Blog

Cable in the Classroom, the national education foundation of the U.S. cable industry, supported an exhibit at the 2009 Cable Show in Washington, D.C. 

“Broadband Nation” demonstrated how high-speed internet connections through our country’s cable providers has changed the way we live our lives.  From the Doctor’s Office to the local Coffee shop, we have become a wired society living and working online.

One key feature of this exhibit was the mock school entitled “Broadband Horizons Middle School” where we demonstrated how online content, available through a high-speed broadband connection, could change the way teachers engage their students.

C-SPAN’s Pedro Echiendia visited the “Broadband Horizons Middle School” with his camera crew.  Watch the video below to see how Discovery Education Streaming, Google Earth, and a Promethean ActivClassroom can work together to create a 21st Century learning experience.

Click here to watch the video, then open the flash player to watch.

Thanks to the hard work and preparation of Matt Monjan and the whole group at Discovery Communications, a group of 17 FCPS teachers were all treated to a great day of presentations, keynotes, and breakout sessions from Scott Kinney, Hall Davidson, and Dennis Swain.  75+ teachers from the DC area attended the day long training which also included a pretty nice breakfast spread and lunch (there’s always good food to be had at Discovery!)

 The day started with a keynote presenation by Scott Kinney about the Media Evolution.  In the afternoon Hall Davidson shared his exploration of how cell phones will be used in the classroom of the future in his presenation Cell Phones in Education.  The three breakout sessions we attended were PhotoStory & MovieMaker, 50 Ways to Integrate Discovery Education, and PowerPoints that Pop!

Great stuff that was shared with perfect timing - now I’m all jazzed up and ready to go back to school with a refreshed bag of tricks to share with teachers and students to make learning fun with Discovery Education Streaming.

Hall Davidson just did an amazing review of the advanced tools in Google Earth from creating tours, using layers, and pasting your own multimedia onto Google Earth.
 
To see the PowerPoint with instructions, visit the Streaming A to Z blog at: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/streaming_a_to_z/de-training-academy/ or open Brad Fountain’s PowerPoint file here:  Google Earth

This is way too cool - a great way to help kids “launch” their summers!
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2008/05/29/discovery-connect-when-we-left-earth-the-nasa-missions/

Check out the new series “When We Left Earth” the day it’s released with your students in the classroom, then join the webinar with the shows producer at 1 PM.

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/manvswild.html

Should you let your children or students watch the show “Man vs. Wild”?  Absolutely, it’s  the greatest show on TV, but a little supervision can’t hurt.  For example, when it was time for my 8 year old son to come inside for dinner last night he replied, “No thank you, I’ve already eaten.”  My wife and I were curious as to what he had eaten since he was playing outback near the woods all afternoon.  His response - “I had three bugs and a handful of grass, just like Bear Grylls on the show last night.” 

Moral of the story, don’t assume your kids are reading the disclaimer at the start of the show.  Next time I’ll be sure to remind them that these are skills you’ll need when in a dire situation, not just when you’re playing with your friends and feeling a little hungry. 

On the other hand, what a great opportunity for an elementary math lesson.  What is the ratio of protein to weight with an insect compared to a cow?  Don’t be surprised if the school lunch menu includes “Cricket Nuggets” next week.  I nominate Bear Grylls to chair a committee on reinventing our National public school lunch system.