New Jersey

Connect with DEN members from all over the country during this unique professional development experience where you can attend in-person, online or both!  The DEN Virtual Conference provides a unique opportunity to learn powerful ways to integrate digital media and Web 2.0 tools into your instruction as well as discover an abundance of resources to expand your own personal learning network.
You have the flexibility to attend the DEN Virtual Conference online or in-person at one of many regional events hosted by the DEN Leadership Councils.The day will feature presentations from the DEN team and a special spotlight session from STAR Discovery Educator Jennifer Dorman.
Registration opens on Friday, October 10, 2008.  Check the Fall Virtual Conference blog page for updated information.

• Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free | Open Culture

  tags: edtech

  • Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

The DEN fleet has left the harbor and is looking for a bountiful fall harvest of STARs from all around the country.  It’s a short season and the six DEN captains need your help catching new STARs.

If you recruit a new STAR by December 1, 2008 and report your catch, you can pick from the following:

• Deadliest Catch Season 4 DVD set
• Planet Earth: The Filmmaker’s Story
• Mythbusters Season 4 DVD set

In addition the crew that recruits the most STARs will walk away with bragging rights and a very special DENliest Catch chicklet to post on their blogs, websites and email signatures.

Meet your captains:

Kim Randall guides the Wild and Wacky Western
AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR and WA

Justin Karkow commands the Center of Attention
AZ, KS, MO, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, UT and WY

Mike Bryant skippers the Dawn Treader
IA, IL, IN, MI, MN and WI

Dennis Swain leads the Northeastern
CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI and VT

Matt Monjan navigates the high seas with MPEG: Queen of the Mid-Atlantic
DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA and VA

Brad Fountain captains the Southern STARs
AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN and WV

OK Folks- time to help out our NJ DEN LC leader! One of the video classes in Bev Plein’s school is doing a project about people’s thoughts on the upcoming Presidential Election and they are trying to gather some data. That’s where we come in They have created a short survey that should take just a few minutes to complete. So please give in to your sense of civic responsibility and help them out. The students are hoping to get at least 100 responses, so lets see if we can’t help them out & give them some good data to work with!

FYI: The survey is in 2 parts (that’s what they had to do with the free version of Survey Monkey):

Election Survey Part 1

Election Survey Part 2

• Top News - Tech giants invest in global ed reform

  tags: edtech

  • Initiatives focus on communication, collaboration, and technology integration
  • Looking to produce their next generation of employees (and customers), technology giants such as Cisco Systems, Intel, and Microsoft are setting their sights beyond just the United States and are investing heavily in global education reform initiatives.
  • Developing nations such as India, Jordan, and Kenya are among the beneficiaries of these efforts, which underscore the need for U.S. schools to prepare their students for an increasingly global, information-based workforce.

• Free SMS Voting | Text Message Audience Polling : SMS Poll

  tags: edtech, polling

  • LIVE AUDIENCE POLLING IN FOUR SIMPLE STEPS

• Zoho Creator -

  The Peer to Peer Directory contains the names and contact information for New Jersey teachers who are interested in doing collaborative projects through videoconferencing. This edition will include desktop videoconferencing so if you have a webcam and would like to participate, be sure to sign up. If you are not presently listed in the directory, click here ( http://cmsce.rutgers.edu/resources/vc/vc-peertopeer.php) to send the information for inclusion in this updated catalog.

  tags: edtech

• Start your 2008-2009 classroom digital scrapbook *RIGHT NOW* on Voicethread.com! | Welcome to NCS-Tech!

  tags: edtech

  • Start your 2008-2009 classroom digital scrapbook *RIGHT NOW* on Voicethread.com!
  • Let’s face it, the school year is a BLUR of lessons, projects, activities, assemblies, inspirational moments, heads-down hard work, triumphs and celebrations. Why not capture it all for posterity by creating a class Voicethread that you AND YOUR STUDENTS add to all year long?

• Presentation Zen: From design to meaning: a whole new way of presenting?

  tags: edtech

  • “Story” is not just about storytelling but about listening to stories and being a part of stories. We were all born storytellers (and “storylisteners”). As kids we looked forward to “show and tell” and we gathered with our friends at recess and at lunchtime and told stories about real things and real events that mattered, at least they mattered to us. But somewhere along the line, “Story” became synonymous with “fiction” or even “lie.” “Oh, he’s just telling you a big fat story,” they’d say. So “Story” and storytelling have been marginalized in business and academia as something serious people do not engage in. But gathering from what college students tell me, the best and most effective professors, for example, are the ones who tell true stories. My students tell me that the best professors (from their point of view) don’t just go through the material in a book but put their own personality, character, and experience into the material in the form of a narrative which is illuminating, engaging, and memorable. My hardest course in graduate school was an advanced research methods class. Sounds dry — and the textbook was dry — yet the professor told stories, gave example after example, and engaged the class in conversations which covered a great amount of important material.

    In the end, we can all benefit from increasing our appreciation for Story and becoming both better listeners and storytellers. Story can be used for good: for teaching, for sharing, for illuminating, and of course, for honest persuasion.

People do their best when they’re doing something they love. In other words we all thrive most when we are in our “Element”. That’s the main idea behind Sir Ken Robinson’s book of the same name. He believes that most peoples real talents are usually deeply hidden & don’t reveal themselves on a regular basis - especially in the typical K-12 school environment. I hope you can take 20 minutes today to watch his video interview (below) with British reporter Riz Khan.

You can make anything interesting if you use creativity in your teaching!

Part 1

Part 2

• Wikipedia bans Ridgefield High School after profane edits - NewsTimes.com

  tags: edtech

  • Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia, has had a block in effect since last October that makes it impossible for users of Ridgefield High School’s Internet address to edit its entries.
  • Wikipedia allows readers to edit information in articles, but some Ridgefield High students had been abusing the site. Since September 2005, vandalism had occurred on Wikipedia listings from the school ranging from brief obscene comments to obscene and pornographic comments about specific female students.
  • “It looks like the comments were being volleyed back and forth during a class by the dates and times they were posted on Wikipedia.”
  • “The last entries on Oct. 15, 2007, were made during a Social Studies class that consisted of seniors,”
  • “This is disgusting behavior and unfortunately, it goes beyond the days of graffiti on bathroom walls,” Low said. “Now it has a townwide audience, a nationwide and even an international audience. I don’t think kids are aware of that.”

• Top News - eSN recruits student broadcasters

  A VERY cool digital storytelling idea!

  tags: edtech

  • eSN recruits student broadcasters
    ‘Student Video Network’ gives kids the chance to become ed-tech reporters
  • Student broadcasters across the nation are getting a chance to be seen and heard by several thousands of education stakeholders, thanks to a new video news network created by eSchool News.
  • As students gear up for the new school year and learn how to use sophisticated video production equipment, they’ll also be reporting breaking ed-tech news through eSchool News’ new Student Video Network (SVN).
  • Every week, students interested in video production, and schools interested in highlighting their students’ talents, will receive information from eSchool News on the most popular, and relevant, ed-tech stories. From there, the participating schools’ production teams will shoot a script based on those stories and use their creative judgment in integrating graphics and photography into the news report.
  • For more information on how to get involved, please contact Gregg Downey at eSchool News.

• Carbonrally – climate change community focused on fun, social, and competitive challenges

  Interesting…

  tags: edtech

  • Reduce global warming by taking quick & easy challenges.
    
    Compete with others in your area and around the world.
  • Over 490 teams of company colleagues, friends, and school-mates are competing now to lead the community in CO2 reduction!
  • Challenges are simple actions you can take to prevent climate change. A new Featured Challenge is published every few weeks.

• Deadline Grants - Technology in Motion 2: Community of the Future

  tags: edtech

  • $400,000 in video software and hardware
  • This grant program is designed for teachers to use in multimedia courses as a structured curriculum to engage middle and high school students (grades 6-12) in the tools and techniques of professional video and audio production. 
  • Under the Community of the Future theme, students can share their vision of how technology will shape their neighborhoods in the years to come and are encouraged to interact with their local city council, mayor, city employees, community centers, or other groups to create their film.
  • Contestants are required to use the provided Vegas Pro 8 software to produce their videos, but all other creative details are up to the students’ own creativity. 
  • Every school that submits a qualifying “Call for Entries” form by Oct. 15, 2008, will receive film submission guidelines and a Technology in Motion launch kit. The kit will be mailed on December 1, 2008 and will include a free copy of Sony Vegas Pro 8 Promotional Edition video editing software, a free copy of Sony Cinescore Promotional Edition soundtrack creation software, free Sony Vegas Pro and Sony Cinescore video tutorials, 1,001 royalty-free, motion picture sound effects, an assortment of Cinescore themes for royalty-free soundtrack creation, and a free electronic copy of the Vegas Pro 8 Digital Video & Audio Production teaching guide.

• Special Reports - eSN Special Report: Virtual Desktops

  tags: edtech

  • How virtual desktops will revolutionize personal computing
  • As technology becomes an integral part of a school district’s infrastructure, many schools are moving toward personalized instruction, where students get to learn at their own pace within the classroom environment. To accomplish true personalized learning, however,
    “we have to move beyond textbooks,” says Michael King, vice president of IBM’s global education industry. “And the PC, as it stands today, is the wrong model for that.” King points to the complexity of having thousands of computers throughout a school district. Between administering patches and software upgrades . . .