Congratulations to Kerri Detsch and Joanne Perry of Kane Area High School for winning the resource upload contest! Both Kerri and Joanne earned a trip to NECC in San Diego as a result of all their hard work. Thanks for representing PA in the promotion! Eight other DEN members from eight different states also won the trip. And yes, I make mention of that because PA is the only state to have more than one winner!
From Brad Fountain (Field Manager, NC/SC)
Well this seems to be an appropriate follow-up to Rachel’s wonderful post about the image collection in unitedstreaming. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Adobe Photoshop Elements is a software program that allows you to edit, organize, and add special effects to photos/images. With schools continuing to use digital cameras with greater frequency it may be time to look into software that allows you to take advantage of the flexibility that the digital format provides.
The highest priority for me is to find a means of organizing photos. With everything I do with Discovery plus my own 2 year old daughter I have a ton of photos. In the past this would mean boxes of photographs with dates and labels on the boxes. With Photoshop Elements you can tag photos with any or multiple tags. For example I can tag a photo from a Discovery event with the tag Event and then tag it again with NC so that when I want to find Photos from events in NC it will come up. I can create virtually any tagging system I desire. This is really helpful if you a re familiar with the labels given to digital photos by various cameras. Typically it is just the date at most. Check out this screen shot of photos tagged with NSTA (National Science Teacher Association). 
You also have the ability to edit photos. This includes everything from simple red eye fixes and basic auto fix features to advanced tools for adjusting for color correction and photos that have sections that appear dark. There are countless websites out there with tutorials and walk-throughs on the features of Photoshop Elements, but I would start with http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elements/index.html and http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/ for beginners. I would also recommend a copy of The Photoshop Elements 4 book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. It is a VERY easy read and walk through on many of the neat tricks you can do with photos in Photoshop Elements. A sample of what can be done with a simple 4 step trick using images from the unitedstreaming web site is this one I did in about 1-2 minutes using three images from our library. 
This technique is called creating a montage and is VERY simple and easy to do. So if you are interested in learning to Discover what you can do to enhance your photos or images from our library. Check out Adobe Photoshop Elements with a free trial at http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jsp#product=40.
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document your event on the report form! Maybe you will win this week!
From Rachel Amtsutz (Field Manager, MD/DC/International)
It’s been said that "A picture is worth a thousand words." No matter how you do the math 1,000 words x 20,000 images = A LOT of Images waiting for you! Check out the more than 20,000 images available in the Image Library on unitedstreaming.
Housed in the Learning Tools section, the Image Library is fully searchable just like the video library. A variety of photographs are available ranging from black and white historical photos 
, to action shots of animals
, and diagrams 
.
To access the images, head to the Learning Tools section, click on the Image Library, and search for a topic. Similar to videos, you can preview pictures in the player. Underneath the player you can select to view your picture in one of three sizes. Once you select the size that best fits your needs, it will open in a new window. From there, right click on the photo and select Save Picture As. Now you can use the photo in any way you’d like.
Need a few ideas:
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document your event on the report form! Maybe you will win this week!
From Danielle Abernethy (Field Manager, Northern FL)
TimeLiner software and unitedstreaming make a great team. As in Inspiration, the videos must be saved as Quick Time, but from there the possibilities are only limited to your imagination!
One popular topic in Social Studies is the Civil War. To create a timeline, download the video clips from Civil War and then insert them into TimeLiner. From your lessons, students can add in other events in between the States Seccession and Emancipation Proclamation. Go into the image library and find images that also go along with these events.
Here’s another tip: In TimeLiner you can insert images and video while in the list view. When you go into slideshow mode, the images are there. However, if you go into the mode where you view it as an actual timeline for printing purposes, your images are gone. You can click on the plus sign by each entry to see the notes, videos and images - but they disappear when you go to the next event. If you want to print the timeline, you’ll need to insert the images over the events.
Don’t forget, you can also use TimeLiner to create a timeline of a science fair project, inserting video clips from How to Prepare a Science Fair Project. Try a timeline on how to solve a mathematical equation or events in a book. Use unitedstreaming to find the video and images. The possibilities are endless! And don’t forget to upload any of the resources you make into the resource library of the Discovery Educator Network’s website.
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document your event on the report form! Get points for discovering, delivering and documenting! Maybe you will win this week! And don’t forget to get the final events in by Wednesday. We’ll be drawing for our big prize on June 1st!
Thanks to Tom Medved for the great shot of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. A few brave DEN members stuck it out through the rain and enjoyed the Pirates victory over the Reds.
Join Us for the STREAMATHON
Join us June 5 for a full day of webinars on the new unitedstreaming. From 8 AM to 8 PM, there will be non-stop webinars that highlight the new features and content of the new unitedstreaming. Stop in for an hour or pitch a tent and stay for the whole day.
Here is the link: <https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed/j.php?ED=87012307&UID=32353627>
Password: webinar
More details to come next week!
What is the New unitedstreaming?
Besides an enhanced site design, the new unitedstreaming will include improved search functionality for more accurate results, faster. A dynamic drill-down navigation menu will drive targeted search results. In addition, you will continue to have the ability to search by keyword, subject, grade or curriculum standard.
New Video Content
More than 1,000 new titles will be added over the course of the Summer and
2006, including: Foreign Language, Secondary Math, Science and Language Arts Current events videos. High-quality videos from leading educational publishers will include: Discovery Channel, Channel 4, BBC, and Math Mastery.
New Media
The new unitedstreaming will appeal to different learning styles with our expansive audio library of sound effects, songs and animations, searchable by keyword. Animated textbook diagrams will help add dimension and intrigue to key concepts. A new library of primary images of shapes, colors and objects will appeal to elementary teachers. New images of historical events and cultural figures will also add value to the collection.
New Teacher Preferences
The new unitedstreaming will allow select content to be personalized to grade and subject. Create a customized homepage to view weekly updates of new and most viewed videos. Archive created assignments, quizzes and writing prompts in personal folders.
To learn more, go to http://www5.unitedstreaming.com/comingsoon/
Discovery Educators and the PA Computer Fairs
Congrats to Jim Natale’s students who claimed top honors in the Middle School Computer Fair.
Check out the article.
Also, I was at the PA High School Computer Fair this week and bumped into a ton of DEN members. Great seeing all of you. The projects were really impressive, and I even got to make a cameo in two of the videos produced that day. I think the students saw the Discovery logo, my unshaven face and assumed I was one of the fishermen from Deadliest Catch.
This Week’s Discover, Deliver, Document Winner!
Congrats to Dave Solon for winning the weekly ticket game drawing. Dave just won a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble.
Another Walden Sighting at Delta-Peach Bottom
On the path to learning…
…hanging out with new friends…
…and earning his keep.
Looking for Philadelphia Area DEN Members
Our sponsorship team is working with Clorox to develop school kits that emphasize the importance of cleanliness, etc. They are looking for some K-3 teachers (don’t have to be DEN members) for a focus group the week of July 10. There is a stipend involved for 2 hours of focusing. If you have a handful of teachers who are interested, let me know.
Digital Documentaries Workshop
On July 27th, Jennifer Dorman is presenting a full-day workshop at IU12 on digital documentaries.
Stimulate students to become directors of their own learning. Learn how to implement digital documentaries to energize instruction and assessment while engaging students to think critically, increase organizational proficiency, hone interpersonal skills, and achieve truly authentic learning through multi-media rich authoring. Focus on the full documentary authoring process from research and organization to directing and producing.
Workshop flyer: Download Dig_Doc_flyer.pdf
Act 48 info: Download Register_Act48.pdf
Discovery Logos for Your Presentations
If you are presenting during the summer and want to include some Discovery graphics in your PowerPoint or handouts, feel free to visit our site and download the logos.
https://www.virtuallibrary.discovery.com
Password and username is “logos.”
From Brad Fountain (Field Manager, NC/SC)
What is it and why do I want it?
Audacity is a free, easy to use audio editor and recorder that educators and students should find very useful in producing content for use in presentations. Audacity can used to: record live audio, covert tapes into digital recordings, edit MP3 and WAV files, cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together…plus a lot more.
For the download go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
It can be used for projects such as students recording narrations over unitedstreaming editable video clips, students creating their own digital stories, or for creating your own classroom podcast. Once you start using it for student projects you will be asking yourself "How did I live with this application?"
Don’t let the screen shot scare you. Audacity is a very easy program to use, plus it has plenty of features for to advance to as you become ready.
However, if you like to have a walkthrough you can go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/tutorials to watch tutorials on how to use Audacity. If you are a person who likes a manual go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/documentation for a printable version.
If you have been using Audacity you may not be aware that Audacity cannot encode MP3s so you need to install an encoder that can be linked. A trusted encoder can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3.
So if you are looking to add some spice to audio of your student’s presentations give Audacity a try.
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document your event on the report form! Get points for discovering, delivering and documenting! Maybe you will win this week!
From Brad Fountain and his wife Laura (Field Manager, NC/SC)
Have you ever heard of Rube Goldberg? Rube Goldberg was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist whose cartoons, by his own description "were symbols of man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results". As your students create Rube Goldberg inventions, machines designed to complete everyday tasks the hard way, understanding simple machines will become just that…simple.
Using this link you will find a fun activity for you and your students to complete during those last couple of weeks of school.
http://www.unitedstreaming.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=T63AA-BF5C
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document your event on the report form! Get points for discovering, delivering and documenting! Maybe you will win this week!
As a Discovery Educator and leader in digital media, you are one of the first to learn about the new unitedstreaming. Discovery Education unitedstreaming—the largest and most up-to-date library of video content and teacher resources—is getting even better. Coming early this summer, the new unitedstreaming will deliver new and enhanced features, as well as additional content titles and tools, through a redesigned, even easier-to-use website.
Why change it?
Because you asked and we listened. As educators become more savvy and innovative in using multimedia in their lessons, unitedstreaming continues to grow and support your efforts. We did extensive research and incorporated feedback from focus groups, surveys, school visits, usability testing and more, to ensure the new unitedstreaming is exactly what you need.
How will it affect me?
The new unitedstreaming will put the power of classroom multimedia in your hands by giving you more tools and more control. It will be customized to you and your preferences, saving you even more time and making you more effective. Additionally, the ever-expanding content library will ensure you can get the most relevant and up-to-date content to support all of your lessons and initiatives.
Stay tuned for more details on the new unitedstreaming.
from Dawn Strunk (Field Manager, New England)
Do you know what happened on July 28th? Well Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Beatrix Potter were born, Fingerprints were first used for identification, Potatoes were first introduced in Europe, and oh yeah, it’s my birthday! Can you guess which of these events are on the unitedstreaming Calendar?
Have you been to the Learning Tools in unitedstreaming and clicked on the Calendar?
The Calendar provides you with video programs, video clips, a summary for that event in history. There is a historical event tied to each day of the calendar year, specific to seven subject areas, including commemorative holidays and nationally recognized weeks and months (i.e. May is Mental Health Awareness Month). The Calendar will always default to the current date, but you can choose any day of the year. Check out what happened in history on your birthday!
How should you use the Calendar feature with your students? Here are only a few ways to utilize unitedstreaming’s Calendar of Events:
• Start your day with a historical event in your class or with the morning announcements for the entire school.
• Research important events in history and why we celebrate that holiday.
• Getting to know you activity for the beginning of the school year. See PA/DE blog post to learn more.
Post a comment and share how you creatively use the Calendar in the Learning Tools.
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document your event on the report form! Get points for discovering, delivering and documenting! Maybe you will win this week!
From Rachel Amstutz (Field Manager, MD/DC/International)
This is my favorite icon on unitedstreaming! Have you noticed it before and wondered what it meant? This icon means that the video is editable. (No you can’t eat it!) Basically, the producers of this video have given permission for you and your students to download this clip and edit it. Sounds great, right?! But isn’t that for the professionals? Well, it certainly used to be. However, several user friendly software programs have entered the market in the past few years that make video editing and movie making very easy.
We need to begin with finding the software. If you are a Mac user, you are probably very aware of iMovie. Similarly, all XP machines come with Windows Movie Maker preinstalled. Personally, I had an XP machine well over a year before I became aware of it. Go ahead and check for it! (Sometimes it is buried in the computer… try this path Start> All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Movie Maker).
The best way to learn Movie Maker is to download the pieces necessary to make a movie. I recommend creating a folder and filling it with one or two movie clips, two or three images, and one song. Use the Advanced Search feature in unitedstreaming and do a search for editable topics by clicking next to the clapboard icon. Don’t forget about the Image Library for still pictures.
Once you have everything in one place, open Movie Maker and start creating! The Movie Tasks Pane (if you lose it at any point in the process go to the View Toolbar and check on Task Pane) will guide you through the movie making process beginning with importing all your media, then editing (adding titles, transitions, effects, etc), and finally with putting it all together and saving it.
You may be asking, "How does making movies relate to teaching?" Well,… here are a few ideas of ways you can use Movie Maker in the classroom.
Did you discover something new? Deliver the discovery to at least three more colleagues and show them the benefits of what you discovered. Then document on the event on your report form! Get points for discovering, delivering and documenting! Maybe you will win this week!
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