Pennsylvania

I am sad to report that the DEN virtual conference in-person event scheduled for PA has been canceled due to low enrollment.   While we will no longer be offering in-person trainings to accompany the streaming session, PA Discovery Educators can still participate in the online streaming sessions presented by the national DEN team.  Be sure to visit the PA blog and the National blog for details later this week about joining the online sessions. 

Join us for the 1st ever Discovery Educator Network Virtual Conference on Saturday, February 2nd!

Connect with educators from all over the country during this unique professional development experience where you can attend, in-person, online or both!

The DEN Virtual Conference is a national event that provides educators a unique opportunity to experience Discovery Education’s high quality professional development. Participants 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 keynote presentations from Discovery’s own Hall Davidson and Lance Rougeux that will be broadcast to each of the regional gatherings. In between the keynote presentations, participants will attend breakout sessions presented by local STAR Discovery Educators.

Educators who cannot attend an in-person regional event still have the opportunity to participate virtually in the full-day conference. Special breakout sessions presented by Matt Monjan, Mike Bryant and Steve Dembo will be broadcast throughout the day.

The PA Leadership Council is pleased to announce a LIVE in-person venue for this historic day.

Location: Bucks County IU
705 N. Shady Retreat Road
Doylestown, PA  18901 

Event Contact: Jennifer Dorman

jdorman@cbsd.org or 267-893-5743

Click here to register for the in-person conference in Doylestown, PA.

Click here to register for to participate in the online virtual sessions.

* You must register through the IU to ensure your seat at the in-person sessions. 

Participants should bring their own laptops.  Wireless Internet will be provided.  A small number of loaner laptops will be available on a first-come first-serve basis.

Steaming Keynotes:

• Get In With DEN Becoming a STAR
• It’s Elementary Integrating Web 2.0 Technologies into the Elementary Classroom  
• 10 Best Free Websites  
• Professional Development 2.0  
•  Media Building Blocks Discovery streaming Builders  
• Syndicate Learning RSS for Educators
• Director’s Cut Digital Storytelling in the Classroom  
• Google Tools for Educators 
•  50 Ways to Integrate Discovery streaming

Click here to register for the in-person conference in Doylestown, PA.

Click here to register to attend the virtual conference virtually (online).

A year ago fellow Star Discovery Educator Jennifer Brinson and I joined Jennifer Dorman in a “Making History Come Alive” issue of the Discovery Educators Resource Guide. Our article’s focus was What If You Could Change History? This time I have a different sales pitch: Want to Make History? That’s right. Join the Discovery Educator Network’s inaugural foray into Second Life with the webinar Get a Life, A Second Life, That Is.

WHEN? Tuesday, January 15th at 4 p.m. SLT (that would be 7 p.m. EST). I apologize for the last minute posting, but it is never too late to get a Second Life.

WHAT? A webinar aimed at educators who would like to learn more about Second Life and how this virtual world can contribute to your PLN (Personal/Professional Learning Network). The webinar will cover the basics of Second Life (how to create an account) and opportunities that abound for educators in-world.

WHY? Because SL is just the most amazing in-world 3-D virtual reality experience out there. Because it has unlimited educational applications.

WHO? Veteran SLers are definitely welcome, but this webinar will cover the basics.

We hope to see many of you in-world after the webinar, so I STRONGLY suggest that IF you THINK you MIGHT want to see what Second Life is all about, please download the client (FREE) and sign up (also FREE) PRIOR to January 15th. (By my math, you have 23 hours left before life as you know it changes forever). You’ll find all the information for this venture in the Google Groups in the ^Files^ section. The document is called ‘Creating an Account in SL’. And of course, if you have ANY questions about downloading the client and signing up, please let us know and we’ll guide you along.

You can register for the WebEx HERE.

Cross-posted on Cliotech. 

The Post-Gazette in Pittsburgh reported yesterday (January 3, 2008) that the state of Pennsylvania may join 22 other states that have mandatory competency assessments required to graduate from high school.

If the plan goes through, next year’s sixth graders would be the first graduating class required to take the state competency exams.

The graduation exams would join the PSSA assessments as mandatory standardized high school exams.

Here are the proposed testing requirements:

Rather than a single graduation test, the state is mulling a series of exams that could be used in place of traditional course finals. The program would consist of 10 exams — three in math, two in language arts, three in social studies and two in science. A district could use state-created tests or its own, with state approval.

The math exams would include material covered in algebra 1, algebra 2 and geometry; the language arts exams would cover English 11 and English 12; the social studies exams would cover American history, world history and civics; and the science exams would cover biology and chemistry.

A student would have to pass at least five exams: one English, two math and one each in social studies and science.

There are some exceptions to those guidelines. Students can opt out of the competency exams if they achieve a certain performance level on national AP and IB exams or proficiency on all sections of the 11th grade PSSA Math and Reading exams.

Exams would be administered at the end of the courses that cover the exam material. The students would be able to take the exams multiple times. The article suggests that the exam scores would be used to pinpoint student weakness for targeted remediation and tutoring.

The state board is holding a a public hearing on Wednesday and may vote on the testing proposal as early as January 16 and 17.

As you might imagine, there is already much discussion about the efficacy of such competency measures. The Pennsylvania Schools Boards Association, the Pennsylvania Sate Education Association, and other educators from across the state are voicing concerns.

In my opinion, a competency measure in and of itself is not necessarily a terrible thing. But, I have little faith that the tests the state creates will be truly authentic measures of student learning. As educators well know, it is very challenging to create a rigorous and relevant assessment that genuinely allows students to demonstrate their learning. Not every student, regardless of their depth of learning, will be able to perform well on a standardized objective assessment. We see that with the SATs - that amazingly talented, creative, and intelligent student who is at the top of her graduating class that simply tanks on the SATs. It is not all that uncommon. Those individuals who process information in random abstract ways tend to struggle on the largely concrete sequential format of most standardized assessments.

I am really concerned about this state proposal.

Please check out the article to learn more.

Technorati Tags: Education Testing Graduation Pennsylvania

I received an e-mail from a teacher in Massachusetts. They are looking to make connections with teachers and students from across the world.

Dear Friend,

Curious George is curious about how your town got it‚s name! Our third graders, in their community lesson, learn about the naming of our town,
originally Jeffrey’s Creek and now Manchester-by-the-Sea.

If you would like to participate in this online project you only need to send us an email with your town’s name, state, how the town got its name and a digital image of an icon of your town.

We are going to pose Curious George at a place called Tuck’s Point. Please feel free to send a picture of any geographical site, monument, memorial, building, etc. that you feel invokes a feeling of pride in your town.

The following website will store all of the feedback we get from across the United States and has information about our town. http://www.memorial.mersd.org/curious/index.html

Please visit and share this information with anyone else. We are really excited about this project and will use the results in a variety of ways.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

We are,
Pat Fleming
Jane Foye
Lynne Stasiak
Paul Clark
Jenna Seymour
From the Manchester Memorial School, Manchester-by-the-Sea
Massachusetts

I think this is a really neat educational outreach. I was excited to send them information about my hometown, Bethlehem, PA.

This sounds like it would be a nice collaboration. It is reminiscent of the Flat Stanley Projects and the Flat Classrooms Project. You could have your students compose a response for these third graders.

So, if you have an opportunity, please respond to their appeal.

Technorati Tags: Education Technology FlatClassroom

I do apologize for the negative connotations of the term steroids, but it seemed very apropos considering the awesome power of the search results visualizations emerging from Google Labs.

Google Labs Experimental is offering some fascinating trials. Users can sign up to join one of the experiments and offer feedback.  Here is the experiment I chose to join.

Alternate Views for Search Results

See results on a timeline, map, or in context of other information types. With these views, Google’s technology extracts key dates, locations, measurements, and more from select search results so you can view the information in a different dimension.

Timeline and map views work best for searches related to people, companies, events and places. Info view shows all the data found for each result, to help you select the best choice.

I joined the experiment and spent some time playing around with the search views. I expected a crowded screen and hard-to-navigate results. That is absolutely NOT what I experienced. I am in love with the timeline and map views.

Here is a screen shot of the timelive view of a search for Labor Strikes USA.

Here is what that same search looks like in map view.

I think that the visualization of the search data can actually be used as a source itself - to track trends and make generalizations. As a former social teacher I can envision limitless uses of this technology.

Consider joining this Google Labs experiment or another of Google’s ongoing experiments. (For totally selfish purposes I want many of you to join the Alternate Views for Search Results experiment, offer feedback, and prove to Google that these search results layers would be a valuable addition to the Google empire. )

If you want to learn more about the awesome resources that Google has to offer, visit and contribute to my wiki.  I know that many of us in the PA DEN make use of Google resources both professionally and with our students.  I’d love for you to join the discussion on my wiki page with ways that you have used some of these Google resources with your students or for professional development.  When I have collected a good number of responses, I’ll post them here as well.

Technorati Tags: Google Search Internet GoogleLabs Education Technology