North Carolina DEN

Here’s cross-post from the DEN Blog - mark your calendars…it’ll be a special treat!! 

“On Wednesday, November 19th, Alan Kay will be our featured speaker on EdTechConnect, a free webinar series from Discovery Education.  While this is open to all educators, I strongly recommend you only share the link with colleagues of your that have an open mind.  Alan will most certainly stretch the way you think about education.  Register yourself and then pass the link along.  I know I say this often, but this is one webinar you will NOT want to miss!

Click here to register!

 Alan Kay is a technology pioneer who has consistently been at the forefront of the computer age.  He was one of the first researchers to realize the significance of mobile computing in education, and his ideas have been a major influence in the OLPC project.

“The important thing here is that the music is not in the piano. And knowledge and edification is not in the computer. The computer is simply an instrument whose music is ideas.”  - Alan Kay

If you want a sneak preview of Alan as a presenter, check out his recent presentation on Ted Talks.”

Did you miss the Fall DE Virtual Conference or do you wish that you could view some of the sessions again because they were SOOOOO AMAZING?? Well…you’re in luck…the archives from the Virtual Conference are now online. Not only are the archives posted…but the chat window also shows up in real time - how awesome is that!!!!

So visit the Virtual Conference page (http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/fall-virtual-conference) and you can enjoy all 5 presentations again and again. Share them with your colleagues…with your administrators…with the world!!!!

Just a heads up…the archives are hi-rez with audio, video and chat, so they’re pretty big files - about 100MB or so.   Keep that in mind when downloading!

Thanks to all the presenters…fabulous job!!!!

           Thursday evening, I was privileged to attend a screening for Jeff Corwin’s The Vanishing Frog, a new Animal Planet Documentary in Charlotte, NC at the Discovery Place.  Jeff began his presentation by stating “It was hard to get people to see that frogs are sexy things,” and I very much agreed.  He continued saying that there are currently 6,000 species of amphibians and within just a few years, we would lose 3,000 of them (since the 1980’s, 120 of these species have already vanished).  The Vanishing Frog is a documentary about these species in danger.  I found the film to be extremely interesting and intriguing and “Yes, I even thought that the frogs were cute.”
          During the day, Jeff Corwin was able to visit local Charlotte schools and talk with the students.  One of the audience members asked Mr. Corwin about the types of questions that he was asked.  He said that his favorite question from students was always the ones that asked “How can I help?”  His reply was to start by looking in your local town or community for a “species in crisis” or for other ways that you could get involved with any community organization or efforts to help the environment.  He then proceeded to discuss his first encounter with nature.  As an inner city kid, there were no backyard areas to observe nature so his father would take him to the “inner city pond” where he discovered frogs and their world.  He now has a passion for nature that he shares with the entire world through his documentaries on Animal Planet.
          The Vanishing Frog will premier November 20th at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on Animal Planet.  Also on November 20th, subscribers to Discovery Education Science will find the episode available for the classroom.  If you would like more information about The Vanishing Frog, check out the following links:

• Animal Planet:  The Vanishing Frog
• Save the Frog
• Discovery Education’s Save the Frog Lesson Plans

Here’s a cross-post from the National DEN Blog …

DEN Virtual Conference: Registration is Now Open!

Join us in-person, online or both, on Saturday, October 25th for the DEN Virtual Conference.

Registration is now open!

The DEN Virtual Conference features an incredible lineup of online presentations including “Power Up Your Professional Learning Network” by STAR Discovery Educator Jennifer Dorman. Check out all of the sessions here.

You can register to attend virtually or join us at one of 17 in-person events hosted by the DEN Leadership Councils. Either way, you will 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.

Share the news with your colleagues by sending them the DEN Virtual Conference Flyer. For more information, visit: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/fall-virtual-conference

Discovery has posted the vast majority of the 2008 DE streamathon presentations as archives!  If you visit the streamathon page you’ll see that most of the presentations are now hyperlinked.  Click on a hyperlink and you will begin to download a high resolution archive of that presentation.  Each archive is about 100-200 MB so the downloads may take a little while.  DE wanted to make sure they provided the streamathon archives to you in high resolution so you’d be able to see all the live demonstrations just as they happened the day of.

If  you learned something from a session, be sure to share it with your colleagues!  The more people that learn from these presentations, the better – share the knowledge…pay it forward!!!!Don’t forget! 

If you enjoyed the streamathon, you’ll love the other webinars that Discovery has to offer.  Visit DE’s webinar registration page and see what suits your needs.  Hundreds of webinars are listed there, all of which are FREE and open to all educators!

Have you heard? The DEN just announced the DENliest Catch Fall Promotion:  http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2008/09/26/denliest-catch-08/. 

Let’s go SOUTH REGION - we can take it this time.  Last Spring, Kim Randall and her dedicated team of DENners in the West won it.  We can do it South Region.  Let’s get out there…talk to all your fellow teachers, colleagues, anyone who will listen and encourage them to become a STAR. 

It’s easy…have them log-in to their Discovery Education account…click on MY ACCOUNT and under MY PROFILE…select BECOME A STAR DISCOVERY EDUCATOR and presto 1, 2, 3!   You will be asked to update your profile and then be directed to the STAR Application.   We can do it!!!!!! 

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

Let’s make Brad proud!!!!

Awesome Streamathon, Steve Dembo!!!  Hats off to you and to all the session facilitators…phenomenal. 

 If you were able to join a session…post a comment and let us know 1 new tip or trick you learned. 

Just a reminder - today is the AWESOME streamathon…so join in the fun - CLICK HERE!

 Don’t forget to check out the amazing Brad Fountain (our South Region DE Account Manager) at 4pm for his “WOW!  You can do that with DE streaming and PowerPoint?” Session.

Discovery Education will be hosting two-day regional conferences designed to enhance your use of Discovery Education’s digital media resources.

Check out the details for the Southern Regional DEN Conference:

Southern Regional Conference
October 3-4
Huntsville, AL

Below is a cross-post from Lance’s entry on the DEN Blog Network (on 9/8/08)….MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!

On September 23rd, from 9 AM EDT until 9 PM EDT, we’ll be sharing a new presentation every hour on the hour.  Come for 1 hour or spend the entire day with us! Click here to register for the event. 

streamathon 2008 Schedule (all times EDT)

9 AM (Justin Karkow)
DE streaming 101 – New content, new features, same great product!

10 AM (Dennis Swain)
Taking it to the Next Level - Teacher Center Tools

11 AM (Lance Rougeux)
The ABCs (and D) of Free Professional Development from Discovery Education

12 PM (Jannita Demian)
Can You Hear Me Now? Audio files in DE streaming

1 PM (Steve Dembo)
Five Profoundly Spectacular and Amazing Web 2.0 Tools to Use with DE streaming

2 PM (Mike Bryant)
Frame-by-Frame: A Movie Integration Story

3 PM (Jannita Demian)
50 Ways to use DE streaming

4 PM (Brad Fountain)
WOW!  You can do that with DE streaming and PowerPoint?

5 PM (Matt Monjan)
Geekybird Presents: Answers to the Top Five FAQs about DE streaming

6 PM (Joe Brennan)
Digital Storytelling Resources in DE streaming

7 PM (Hall Davidson)
Ten Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Video and Two Things You Did

8 PM (Lance Rougeux)
State of the DEN – News, Updates and Top Secret Announcements for 2008-2009