Pennsylvania

In the continuing spirit of Thanksgiving, why don’t you consider giving up some time to volunteer to help out at our state technology conference, PETE&C . . .

Jim Gates posted the following call for help on his blog today and I thought that I’d pass it along to all of you.

Ever since last year’s PETE&C conference and word that I was going to be involved with the conference this year, many people have said, “If you need any help, let me know.” Well, if that offer still stands, I’m letting you know. We’re looking for “Ambassadors” (aka volunteers) to help out with a variety of simple tasks from helping the presenters to helping with the many odd jobs that come up throughout the conference.

There are two goals for us and for those who take on those roles. First, we want to make sure that the volunteers can still get to see and hear the sessions that interest them. Second, we want to make sure those tasks are done.

And so, if you ARE interested in donating a bit of your time, please send me an email to jgates513@gmail.com to let me know. And thank you for even considering to help!

By the way, don’t forget that registration is now open for PETE&C 2008.

And, the PA DEN is hosting a terrific pre-conference.

Education Educational+Technology EdTech Pennsylvania PETE&C Pennsylvania+Educational+Technology+Expo+and+Conference

As has been a ritual in my family for as long as I can remember, I would like to share some of the things for which I am thankful . . .

Traditional Response:

I am thankful for my wonderful husband - we just celebrated eight fabulous years of marriage on Nov. 20th.

I am thankful for my loving family and supportive friends. I am thankful for my health and for a career that I love. I am also thankful for having had the opportunity to travel and to return to a home that I love.

Techie Response:

I am thankful for Google Docs - this synchronously editable online document suite has made professional collaboration and personal organization a breeze.

I am thankful for Discovery Education streaming - the media library has enlivened my classroom instruction and the builders (quiz builder, writing prompt builder, and assignment builder) have made differentiating instruction and increasing student motivation easy.

I am thankful for Wikispaces and Ning - these two online applications have taken my teaching into the 21st century. Both are also school-friendly (eliminating advertisements and allowing for customized levels of security). These applications have allowed my students to connect with their peers who are half-way around the globe.

Lastly, I am thankful for all the Web 2.0 applications that have allowed me to connect with other educators from all over the world, construct my own professional learning community, and be inspired every day by the amazing work that all of you do and are willing to share.

Disclaimer - My husband has already stated that he thinks this post is horrendously geeky and he is officially embarrassed on my behalf . . . When I published on my Cliotech blog earlier this morning, he was laughing.

I wish all of you in the PA DEN a Happy Thanksgiving!

“How can the United States continue to compete in a global economy if the entering workforce is made up of high school graduates who lack the skills they need, and of college graduate who are mostly ‘adequate’ rather than ‘excellent’?’ — Are They Really Ready to Work?

Scott McLeod blogged about some pretty startling statistics contained in a recent poll by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

The poll, Beyond the Three Rs Voter Attitudes Towards 21st Century Skills, reinforces much of what we have been discussing in the ed-tech community for the past few years. Quite honestly, I was surprised at just how much the poll respondents supported the argument for greater inclusion of educational technology and recognized the growing gap between U.S. graduates and their global counterparts. Of course, the study was conducted by an organization whose purpose is to advance the implementation of 21st century skills . . .

Yet, I still find the data significant. Here are some of the items that caught my attention:

At the same time, voter attitudes clearly have shifted away from the “back to basics” movement that was a strong theme for school improvement during the 1990s. Today, the majority of voters (74 percent) say they believe schools should place at least an equal emphasis on 21st century skills and basic skills. About one-fifth of this majority (21 percent) believe schools should place a total emphasis on 21st century skills.

I am intrigued by the Framework for 21st Century Learning advocated by the Partnership 21st Century Skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has developed a unified, collective vision for 21st century learning that can be used to strengthen American education. The key elements of 21st century learning are represented in the graphic and descriptions below. The graphic represents both 21st century skills student outcomes (as represented by the arches of the rainbow) and 21st century skills support systems (as represented by the pools at the bottom).

The Framework is incorporated into a larger policy tool called Route 21. On Route 21, users can create a free account to access information a wealth of resources about 21st century literacies and skills, support systems, exemplar programs, and much more.

I think that The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Route 21 would be an excellent resource for district leaders and policy makers to investigate and chart their paths to continuous school improvement.

Are you looking for some timely, holiday-themed resources and activities to engage your students while reinforcing global learning? If you are, Discovery School may have just what you are seeking.

I know that as the calendar approaches major holidays (read - time off from school) it can be a challenge to maintain student engagement and sustain attention. Let’s all be thankful for Kathy Schrock - Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators on Discovery School contains myriad educational resources to accompany most major holidays.

Although it is easy to get lost amid the countless resources that Kathy has compiled for teachers, don’t neglect the other terrific resources on Discovery School:

• Puzzlemaker - Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more using your own word lists.
• Lesson Plan Library - View lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school students. Lesson plans correspond to VHS and DVD titles located in The Store. Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers. Use the pull-down menus below to browse by subject, grade, or both. (Of course, as a member of the Discovery Educator Network, you have access to many more teacher-generated lesson activities and as a STAR Discovery Educator you have full access and download capability to the complete library of thousands of lesson plans, activities, and assessments created by STARs from across the country. Check out the Educator Resources tab the next time you sign into the Discovery Educator Network.)
• Curriculum Center - Here you will find classroom activities supporting core curriculum topics. The correlated Discovery Education videos and CD-ROMs provide a wealth of knowledge.
• Clip Art Gallery - Add graphics to your next project, whether it’s for home or school. Choose from hundreds of original clip art pieces, including animations!
• Brain Boosters
• Learning Adventures
• Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge
• Science Fair Central (co-sponsored by Elmer’s Glue)
• On TV - The Discovery Networks — Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health — provide continuing support to Cable in the Classroom by offering educational programs for grades K-12.

So, if you are looking for some high-quality digital extensions of your classroom instruction, turn to Discovery School for resources and inspiration. If you a STAR Discovery Educator who is willing to share your lesson activities and resources, be sure to upload your ideas to share with other DEs through the Discovery Educator Network.

Technorati Tags: DiscoveryChannel DiscoverySchool KathySchrock DiscoveryEducatorNetwork Education EducationalTechnology

I cross-published this over on my Cliotech blog.  I thought that many of you are SlideShare users and would appreciate the following information. 

In case you didn’t notice the last time you signed into your SlideShare account, the service now offers various privacy settings for your presentations.

Check out the details on the new privacy settings on SlideShare.

The settings include various levels of viewing and accessibility:

You get complete control over who, what, how to share! The privacy feature should address (but not be limited to) the following use cases-

- keeping slideshows private to yourself; this comes with complete freedom to switch back and forth between private & public without any restrictions

- sharing with all your contacts

- sharing with only some of your contacts (we have introduced the ability to make user lists from your contacts and share documents only with that list)

- every private slideshow will now (optionally) have a Secret URL; you can send this URL to anybody by email, IM etc (irrespective of whether that person has an account on slideshare or not) and the slideshow will be viewable by him/her

- you can turn off the embedding (embed code) for private slideshows; this allows you to control the virality and propogation of your slides

- you can send business presentations to your clients, customers, office colleagues for private viewing

- you can embed slideshows on password protected websites, company intranets without apprehension about the documents appearing publicly on slideshare

- you can virtually use your slideshare account like an online repository, uploading presentations for public or private sharing; there is of-course no restriction to how many files you can have in your account or any usage/bandwidth limits.

I LOVE this feature, especially when using SlideShare with students.

So, if you have been shying away from SlideShare because your content wasn’t appropriate for the entire World Wide Web, give SlideShare another look.

Technorati Tags: Education Privacy SlideShare EducationalTechnology Technology Presentations

DEN at PETE&C: Register Today!

It’s that time of the year again!  We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the PA Educational Technology Expo and Conference and have a lot of exciting things planned for STAR Discovery Educators at this year’s conference.

We are sponsoring two amazing keynote speakers: David Pogue and our very own Steve Dembo.  We also have the wheels in motion to host our third annual DEN pre-conference extravaganza (saying event just doesn’t do it justice) on February 10 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center.  The agenda for the day will include sessions on a variety of topics:

• Using Second Life in Education
• Discovery Education streaming and Premiere Elements
• Digital Storytelling with Web 2.0
• Discovery Education streaming and Google Earth
• Podcasting 101
• Top Ten Free Web 2.0 Resources
• The Builders in Discovery Education streaming

As always, participants will be able to customize their schedules throughout the full-day event, I mean EXTRAVAGANZA.  More details will be posted as we approach 2008, but if you are a STAR DE (from any state) who wants to attend the preconference day with us, please send me an email (lance_rougeux@discovery.com) that contains the following:

• Full name
• School
• District
• State
• Email address

STAR Discovery Educators do not have to pay to attend our DEN preconference day.  Please register by sending me an email.  Do not register via the PETE&C website.