Pennsylvania

When I reflect on the year in review and Discovery Education’s impact on our lives, one word comes to mind: firsts. Discovery does it first. And better. Doesn’t matter what it is; Discovery is out there pioneering the cutting edge before the edge is cut. That’s what I love about Discovery Education. Dream it and they do it. I know I’m starting to sound like a commercial, but I remember asking our national team if they could bring us webinars for students and teachers. They delivered the goods, and they never rest on their laurels. They pilot, pioneer, and challenge us to rethink what a communications network can and should be.

So, I was really excited that 13 DEN STARS will join yet another Discovery cutting edge event at Nationals Park on June 6 when, at 6 PM, the Discovery Network launches Planet Green, the first-ever 24-hour eco-lifestyle entertainment network. And at 6:59, the opening pitch of the game begins. Talk about a great launch!

At 11:45 PM, great segues don’t come easily, so I’ll just jump into my next point (I promise there’s a connection). I live on a farm in the middle of an it’s-not-on-the-map place with sprawling green and I love every (backbreaking, sometimes) minute of it. And for the last 6 years of being in the heart of a place-time-forgot, I went green. We have real (well) water, tested, pure, chemical-free. But to keep it that way, I am totally conscious of how every choice I make impacts the (aka my immediate) environment. Before the move to the farm, I never gave a second thought to laundry detergents, bleach, sprays, or things organic–it just wasn’t how I lived. When, however, your choices could (translate will) impact your water supply, your stamp orchard, your animals–you get eco-conscious. You go green.

So, in catching up with my life after IP, I’m reading Body and Soul, June issue, and on page 24 a title catches my eye: “The Emerald City.” A short paragraph in the Whole Living section, The Emerald City is Greensburg, Kansas, a town decimated by a 1.7 mile-wide tornado. The town, however, is making eco-history “by rebuilding with LEED Platinum rating standards for all city buildings and reducing its energy use by 42 percent over the current requirements. It even plans for a biodiesel plant nearby.” And the film–Greensburg–documenting every step of the initiative–here’s the aha moment–premiers on Discovery Communications’ new channel, Planet Green. Connecting the world to its most valuable resources–sustainable living.

What a way to end the year, teaching and learning with our students in a national virtual premiere from Discovery Education.  And what a year it has been, with Discovery’s history making Virtual Conference in February.  Continuing to shape the future in the communications industry, Discovery Education launches the Virtual Premiere, a must-attend end-of-year-event.  Copied from the DEN National Blog.

We’ve got one final Discovery Connect for the 08-09 school year in us and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring it to you as only Discovery Education can!

WHEN WE LEFT EARTH: THE NASA MISSIONS presents the dramatic story of the space agency’s pioneering, awe-inspiring missions, to commemorate the first 50 years of space exploration. The story of NASA is the story of man’s greatest adventure, of man’s great ambition, and of man’s endeavors to go – quite literally – where no man had gone before. The series blends astonishing re-mastered archive – 100 hours of original NASA footage, much of it never seen before -with first hand testimony from the men and women who embarked on the greatest action adventure mankind has ever undertaken.

Discovery Education would like to invite you and your students to participate in our first ever “Virtual Premiere”, followed by an exclusive Q&A session with When We Left Earth Executive Producer Bill Howard.

Click here to register

On Wednesday June 11th, share this exclusive video with your students the very day that it premieres in Discovery Education Streaming. Then at 1pm EST, gather your students together to chat directly with the executive producer of the series. He’ll share the stories behind the stories as well as answer your students’ questions.

What a fantastic way to wrap up the school year!

In order to attend, all you need to do is register here and then follow the link that will be sent to you via email a few minutes before 1pm EST. Sound will be broadcast through your computer speakers. However, if your students want to be able to ask questions verbally, you will need to have a phone handy and join the teleconference as well.

We look forward to seeing you and your students there!

Register for the webinar

Lance just posted an awesome opportunity available to the first THREE STARs who comment on his posting.  Click here to read Lance’s invitation to join Jeff Corwin tomorrow night (May 30) in Philadelphia for a special kick off reception to the Animal Planet Expo tour.  So, if you are interested, be one of the first three STARs to comment on Lance’s posting.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but for me, May, not April, is the cruelest month. It’s wind up, wind down, show time with a gazillion (is that a word?) things coming and going. So, just in case, like me, you missed Jennifer Dorman’s post on Virginia’s Virtual Conference, here’s the cut-to-the-chase reminder (thank you, Matt Monjan).

The VA DEN is going to host a Virginia Day of Discovery on June 7, 2008! The really cool thing is that you can participate from the comfort of your house as many of the sessions, including the keynotes, will be delivered via Webex. And, drum role please, we are pleased to announce that The Hall Davidson, will be delivering the afternoon’s keynote session.

The cost of this program is the best kind of cost - it’s free to attend!

To see the agenda and program check out this link: Virginia Day of Discovery agenda/program

To register make sure you go to the on-line registration form and register today!

Any questions, email Katie Knapp, VA DEN Leadership Chair at va.den.leaders@gmail.com or Matt_Monjan@discovery.com.

Can’t get enough of the DEN’s amazing professional development events?  Good!  Today we are thrilled to announce a series of two-day conferences designed to enhance your use of Discovery Education’s digital media resources.  The DEN Regional Conferences (August through October) are spread out all over the country so that we can reach as many STARs as possible.

Here are the details for the regional conference in our area.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference
August 1-2
West Long Branch, NJ

Details:
Attendees must RSVP for a regional conference, be accepted, and attend both days.  There is no registration cost associated with attending these two-day conferences. Additionally, DEN will provide your meals during conference hours.  Travel costs are up to you.

Just like any other DEN experience, attendees will leave tired and energized at the same time.  But most importantly during your two days you’ll be sharing and learning with other educators who are passionate about using technology in their classrooms. And, when it is all over, you’ll return with new skills that are guaranteed to help you reach your 21st century students.

You need to open the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference PDF in order to get the full details and register for the event.

You can visit the National Blog to learn about the other regional conferences.

Thanks to Bridget Belardi, PA Leadership Council Events Coordinator, for blogging about her experience at the DEN Fallingwater Event this past weekend.  This following post is copied from her Cybrary Cite blog.

The DEN spring training continued yesterday in PA at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house. Almost 40 educators gathered to learn and network in a really cool venue! The morning began with Discovery updates from Lance (click here to read his take of the day on the national DEN blog) and sessions on Animoto, SketchUp and Geocaching.

Despite a little poison ivy, everyone found at least one cache and learned about the joys of SketchUp! The best parts of the day were the student presentations. Three students helped out in the sessions to share their work and teach the teachers the power of these tools. David, Morgan and Jeff did a great job! The day commenced with tours of the Fallingwater house and we even dodged the rain by about 30 minutes. It was the perfect end to a fantastic day.

A huge thank you goes to Jim Hopton, Peggy Barger and Lance Rouguex for all of their help and for making the day so memorable! We already started to plan the next event in the fall! Click here to see more pictures from the day.

Discovery’s newest show, When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, details 50 historic years in space with 100 hours of original NASA footage, much of it never seen before. The great news is that you can join an exclusive premier in New York, so get ready to soar.

DEN has a limited amount of seats for a private reception and screening on Tuesday evening, May 20. Premiere information and program description are provided below, compliments of Jannita Demian.

If you are interested in attending, YOU MUST RSVP BY CLICKING HERE. You are allowed to bring up to one guest…please no children allowed.If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Jannita_Demian@Discovery.com.
Event: WHEN WE LEFT EARTH: THE NASA MISSIONS
New York Reception and Screening

Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Venue: American Museum of Natural History
New York, NY

Time: 6:30 PM Reception begins
7:15 PM Screening: Episode 2: Gemini Program
8:30 PM Reception resumes
9:30 Evening concludes

Attire: Business attire

Program Description:

WHEN WE LEFT EARTH: THE NASA MISSIONS present the story of man’s greatest adventure, of man’s great ambition, and of man’s endeavors to go–quite literally–where no man had gone before. The series blends astonishing re-mastered archive–100 hours of original NASA footage–much of it never seen before, converted to HD. First hand testimony from the men and women who embarked on the greatest action adventure mankind has ever undertaken makes this series come alive with new meaning.SERIES PREMIERE: Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 9:00 PM (ET/PT)

Note: Cross-posted on Cliotech.

eSchoolNews reported that NBC News has launched an edutainment-based social network for teenagers.

The network, iCue, stands for Immerse. Connect. Understand. Excel.

The FAQs page contains a ton of information. Much of the content is dedicated to user privacy and security - which is understandable considering the intended audience of this network.

Here are some highlights:

What is iCue?
iCue is a free, online, collaborative learning environment for students and lifelong learners ages 13 and up. It includes discussion forums, fun games and activities, and hundreds of current and historic videos from NBC News. Whether you are joining to improve your grades, connect with friends, or just learn new things, iCue gives you a safe, fun environment for discussion and learning.

What makes iCue different from other educational websites?
iCue is designed to support natural learning in a fun, safe environment based on gaming and peer discussion. iCue gives you access to hundreds of historic video resources that have never been made available to students, along with games, activities, and a network of friends for discussion and support. It is not a “test prep” program full of boring study drills, and it is not an “edutainment” site full of flashy games but little actual learning. In iCue, YOU — the learner — are in control of how you want to learn, how much time you want to spend, and the activities in which you want to participate.

Who is iCue for?
iCue is for students ages 13 and up, and anyone else interested in learning new things in a supportive, collaborative environment.

What makes the iCue Friends Network safer than other websites?
Because a large percentage of our community will include minors ages 13-17, NBC News has made every effort to ensure the safety and privacy of all of our members. iCue is primarily a learning environment, not a social networking website. We encourage interaction between our members on the public discussion boards and through our voluntary Friends Network. However, members do not share personally identifiable information about themselves on the site such as real names, photos and hometowns. We also monitor our Discussion Forums to make sure that we are maintaining a safe, secure environment for all of our members.
Privacy Policy

The What is iCue? page contains a short Flash video that overviews the site. A more extensive guided overview is provided on the Take the Tour page. I am quite impressed with the 3D interactive multimedia Cue Cards. The Cue Cards are less like a flash card than like an interactive video player. Users can customize existing cards, add them to their content by “snagging,” and share them with other users in their Friends Network.

iCue has some terrific resources for the 2008 Presidential election as well as for past elections. As a former social studies teacher, I would have LOVED to use this site with my 9th graders. The site offers writing prompts and game challenges. Users can review media and respond through the challenges, polls, and/or forums. It is highly engaging and interactive.

iCue also offers moderated forums that range in topic from the online games to the daily news to other topical issues. The fact that the forums are moderated make it a terrific option for teachers looking for online extensions. The forums pages also publishes an RSS feed. This would be a great feed to use to model subscribing to RSS feeds.

Overall, I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with iCue. I would be very interested to hear from teachers who have used it with their students.

Technorati Tags: NBC news teenagers social_network learning games election politics edutainment

The social networking bug appears to have found a place in just about every niche on the Internet. Shelfari is one such network that has been receiving a fair amount of positive press over the past few months. As a former user of GoodReads and an explorer of services such as LibraryThing and Delicious Monster, I am very impressed with Shelfari’s capabilities.

PC Magazine featured Shelfari as one of its Sites of the Week in December 2007.

If you’re the type who haunts the library, spends all day browsing bookstores, or frequently checks out what other people are reading on the train, plane, or bus (and talks to them about it), then Shelfari is the social-networking site for you. It’s like joining one giant book club where you can interact with thousands of other people who share your love of reading—a place you can discuss and dissect every book you’ve ever read, if you want.

Shelfari is free no matter how many books you add or how much you use the site. Goodreads is also free, but LibraryThing limits you to 200 books for free (although the fee for more than 200 is nominal: just $10 yearly or $25 for a lifetime membership).

Users can add books to their shelf with an easy search feature using author, book title, keyword, and/or ISBN number. Once the book is located (and, I should mention, the search is very fast), users can add it to their shelf with the categories “I’ve Read,” “I Plan to Read,” “I’m Reading,” “Wish List,” “Favorites,” and “Own.” Those who have lists created on GoodReads or LibraryThing (whose lists have the ISBN numbers embedded) can be imported directly into Shelfari.

When the book appears on the shelf, it was appear with the image of the book jacket. Since their are often multiple publications of a book, users can select from among all the book covers and can even upload their own artwork if desired.

Users can customize their content by adding tags, personal reviews, and comments and can add the book to their reader timeline (i.e. When did you read this book?) Users can also recommend the book to others in their network, access the comments that other users have posted about the book, and see the shelves of users who have also added the book to their shelf.

In the Shelf View, the bookshelf display can be customized. Books can be moved around, viewed as large or small icons, sorted by books you’ve read, plan to read, are reading, are favorited, own, or are on your wish list. The books can be organized by date added, date read, rating, review author, or title. Books can also be displayed as a list by clicking on List View. The List View allows for quick bulk editing.

Since users can “befriend” other users through invitations and can share resources with their friend network, Shelfar is also social networking application. Members can send private messages to other members and can post comments to the user’s profile page. Shelfari offers several customized widgets to add your shelf to a blog, wiki, or social networking site. Shelfari also offers a Facebook application.

The networking aspects of Shelfari are enhanced through groups. Users can add books to the reading list of a group, see which groups have already added the book to their shelf, join groups, and create their own group.

When creating a group, users have privacy options that make it a terrific option for educational use. The group administrator can restrict membership to everyone or only to invitees. The visibility of the group, including the member list, book shelf, and discussions, can be open to all Shelfari members or restrict just to group members. The administrator can also retain control of who receives invitations.

Once the group has been created, the administrator can edit the group settings and manage group members. Users can post books to the group shelf and can engage in conversation through the discussion board.

Shelfari recently launched an Author’s Page feature that allows users (including the authors, themselves) to publish information about the authors.

To learn more about Shelfari, check out the extensive resources on their FAQs page.

To get started with Shelfari groups, I invite you to join the Discovery Educator Network Shelfari group.

Technorati Tags: Shelfari Education Technology Books Social_Networking Discovery_Educator_Network

I am copying most of the text below from an e-mail from Cheryl Capozzoli, the local organizer working with Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0.

I wanted to invite you to apply to be a presenter for the FREE East Coast PA Classroom 2.0 Conference. Classroom 2.0 is an open educational social network comprised of about 8,000 educators worldwide. CR2.0 membership is free so join to get connected. Please apply to present if you wish to share your expertise and/or experiences in Best Educational Technology Practices. As cutting edge educational leaders, you could provide valuable ed. tech. information and direction across the globe. Just think of the impact and connections that you would make as presenter! All of you are already doing so in PA, so why not extend your audience?

My plan in working with Steve Hargadon was to provide an East Coast CR2.0 experience for all educators looking to enhance their instructional skills as well as build global connections. The conference has now come to fruition and will be coming to locations near you!!  Currently the CAIU and the CLIU are booked for the live face-to-face, and video conf. events. We are working with other Intermediate Units to provide more open access to the event. Hopefully, we will have approximately 5 IU’s booked for September 19th and 20th. With Magpi’s help, we hope to open up a VC bridge for multiple video conference connections. If this works as planned, we will have FREE global event that continues to support our ongoing Ed. Tech. initiatives and visions.

Visit the PACR2.0 for tentative presentation topics and agendas. This page will be updated regularly so check in often. I hope that you can join us as a presenter
or attendee. Event page address - http://www.classroom20wiki.com/CR+20+LIVE+Philadelphia+08

Please feel free to forward the conference link on to teachers, administrators, tech and tech. directors in your school districts. They can register online at any time. This event will also be broadcasted live via Ustream.tv. and Elluminate. There is NO COST for participation. I hope that you can join us. Contact me with any further questions.

Technorati Tags: classroom20 education technology teaching learning school professionaldevelopment