New York DEN

I hope Dalton Sherman inspires you. Have a spectacular school year!

Are you looking for a way to bring new technology equipment to your school or classroom? Having trouble figuring out a way to get the school to pay for it? Try Funding Factory. I have been using them for several years and love them. Here’s the deal. Ask people to donate old cell phones and used ink cartridges. You ship them in on behalf of your class or school. You earn free points for technology. Yes, shop off the CDG website. I got free scanners for my school one year. Yes, 8 for free. Can’t get much better than that.

The reason I’m blogging this is I just got a memory card for the latest Cannon digital camera we earned in June at a sale recently. I realized other DEN members might be interested in this if you haven’t already signed up. So I figured I’d take a minute to share. Maybe you are like me and looking for ideas for September while it is still August and I have “free time”. God, I love that term…

Check out: http://www.fundingfactory.com/fundraiser-2200.aspx for more information.

~Jeannine

On October 29, 2008 Nassau BOCES will be holding the 2008 Technology Summit at SUNY Farmingdale. The 2020 Vision Now! Summit will focus on global connections and showcase global projects from the local school districts of Herricks and Massepequa.

The two keynote speakers for this event will be Microsoft’s Mary Cullinane, Director of U.S. Partners in Learning and Ian Jukes, Director of the InfoSavvy Group.

Nassau and Western Suffolk teachers can register for this event here using the MyLearningPlan interface.

If your school is located elsewhere and you’d like to attend, there are many contact people on the website sidebar that you could either e-mail or phone.

Please let us know if you’ll be attending.

Our tri-state Day of Discovery with Power to Learn this past week was FABULOUS!

Here are some pictures from the day to prove it! I created this 15 second video using Animoto.

Don’t forget to visit the wiki presentation I shared with you on VoiceThread and Animoto. Have fun enjoying these two applications with your students.

For those of you who were able to attend our Day of Discovery, it was very nice meeting you.

For those of you who didn’t attend, perhaps we could meet at the Northeast Regional Conference in Troy, NY on September 27th and 28th.

Happy Teaching and Learning!

 Yahoo!  The Discovery Educator Network in Second Life is celebrating their one year anniversary of the official opening of the DEN in Second Life Headquarters. Just in case you’re new to Second Life, you should know that the Discovery Educator Network has their own building where DEN members can go to socialize and attend professional development events.

Our DEN in SL guides and members are very friendly people and they LOVE to PARTY!

 This anniversary event will take place on August 20, 2008 in the evening.

I’m still not clear on the time, but I’m sure one of our DEN in SL experts will pop in and leave a comment for us.

*If you need help shopping and/or dressing for this event, just give a shout out to any of the DEN SL guides during the week [within Second Life] and they’ll assist you in getting decked out for the party.

Leave a comment if you have any questions about this event or about the DEN in SL.

You can also check out the DEN in Second Life Blog for more information.

Beginning mid-August, PBwiki is hosting a Back to School Challenge. Teachers can earn a free gold wiki, plus great classroom resources like books, legos and more. You can participate in the challenge by signing up here.

This is the “Year of Collaboration,” so consider joining this challenge as one step toward creating a 21st Century classroom and perhaps you’ll even make some global connections. If you’d like to better understand what a wiki is, and how to use one with your students, check out this great resource from Teachers First called a Wiki Walk-Through.

Awesome news! Animoto now has a section just for educators! Visit Animoto for Education to check it out! When I visited the site, I discovered that our own Lance Rougeux, Director of the Discovery Educator Network endorses Animoto as a great web 2.0 tool beneficial to students and teachers alike. He is right! Be sure to visit the site and register for your own educator account.

Just in case you’re new to Animoto, it is a site that turns your uploaded pictures into a video with accompanying music. I included an example I made after I attended my first mono-ski clinic through the the Professional Ski Instructors of America. There are examples of more educationally appropriate Animotos on the front page of the Animoto for Educators site, but I was not able to access the embed codes.

Alright NY DEN, it is time to save the date! TechForumNY is slated to occur October 24th, 2008! While the suggested audience [as listed on the site] does not include NY DEN Star Educators, IT SHOULD!

In a recent e-mail I received a handy dandy discount code that I thought I’d share with you. Sharing is caring after all.

REGISTER TODAY at the EARLY BIRD RATE of $195
That’s a $94 savings off the on-site registration rate!
Input Discount Code: NY8EB

Let us know if you’ll be attending.

Thanks to Ben Hazzard of the SMARTBoard Podcast at pdtogo.com for sharing this WhiteBoard Challenge Wiki with me via a conversation in Plurk. Are you new to using an interactive whiteboard (IWB)? Have you used one for ages but want some other ideas? Are you using an IWB regularly but know you could use it better? Then you are invited to join the WhiteBoard Challenge

As stated on the WhiteBoard Challenge wiki: This Interactive Whiteboard Challenge will run for 7 weeks initially, starting on Monday, August 11th. Each week there will be a new task set by someone who is an experienced whiteboard user. They will present their challenge in whatever way they like - it might be a short video, a screen cast a podcast. You then need to go and use whatever they have presented in your classroom that week. Record your efforts and write a blog post about how it went.  You can also come back here to the NYDEN and post your progress.  Good luck on your IWB mission!

Discovery Educators are always up for a challenge!  So here it is:

Siemens, Discovery Education and NSTA are proud to announce the first of its kind national K-12 student sustainability competition. Launching in Fall 2008 for grades 6-8, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will provide students and teachers with the tools and resources to inspire innovative thinking about sustainability issues, and engage them in developing actionable solutions for a greener world.  So middle school teachers, are you up for the challenge?  Of course you are!  Click here for more information!