Pennsylvania

In this very special edition of Shining STARs, tonight at 7 PM we are featuring students from the Wilkes/Discovery Education Instructional Media program, who will be sharing some of the best projects that they’ve created during their coursework. Be prepared to be dazzled! You still have time to register.

Vince Hill is the Director of Credenda, an eSchool in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Two additional presenters, Sue Hellerman, a math/science teacher from Vancouver and Ruth Abatzoglou, a science teacher from CA will share their work. The fourth and final presenter, Jennifer Brinson, our own PA DEN STAR and PA Leadership Council Events Team Member, will present her Google Earth project on the 10 richest v. 10 poorest countries on the planet, her digital story on therapy dogs, and frustration-free technology, some of the work she did for differentiation, lesson plans for World War II, Model UN, and Person of the Century. Brinson is the Instructional Coach at Salisbury High School in Allentown, PA (and loves llamas too).

Cross-posted from DEN Blog

Presenting at state and national conferences near you, that’s where! We’ve put together an ever-growing list of presentations by STAR Discovery Educators at state and national conferences around the country. If you are attending a conference listed below, please stop by and show your support for your fellow STARs.

And don’t forget, if YOU are going to be presenting at a state or national conference, if you include Discovery Education in the title or description then you really ought to let us know. We’d love to add you to the list, and we also have a little something to send you! If you’d like to learn more, visit this page.

We’re live and virtual in Pennsylvania at IU 21 in Schnecksville. Our LC, DEN STARS, and future STARS and GURUs are with us and we are ready for a great day of Discovery.

From Patti Duncan, PA LCs Event Chair

Are you excited? Your Leadership Council is and we can almost not wait until our DEN Virtual Conference Live Event this Saturday October 24th! Tech or Treat is shaping up to be an awesome event! Your Leadership Council has been working very hard to provide you with some excellent professional development this weekend and get you psyched for using technology in the classroom!

Just a few reminders:
1) We will start at 8:30am… We will end at 4:00pm. Try to plan to stay to the end… THAT is when we will be giving out the door prizes
2) Bring your laptop, power strip, and a flash drive
3) If you can not bring your laptop… don’t worry.. there will be computers in the lab for you to use. (But not a laptop)
4) Bring your appetite! We will be serving continental breakfast AND an awesome lunch!
5) Dress like your favorite Discovery Personality to be eligible for the Flip HD Camera
6) If you have any examples of class projects that you wish to share with others… bring them along!
We have added a session to our agenda… “The Star Showcase”… If you are a DEN Star and wish to share a project idea, Discovery integration idea, or even a special Web 2.0 tool… bring along anything that you might need to do that. From 2:00 - 3:00 PM we will have those Stars interested in sharing set up in stations that people can visit to discover the great things that you do with your students. There will be a sign up sheet at the door when you arrive for you to let us know that you plan on sharing…

Here’s the day’s schedule you’ve been waiting for:

Hope to see you there! Tech or Treat! Woot!!

One of the more recent features of Animoto’s full-length video version (what you and your students get when you apply) is short video footage insertion. I tried this new feature and it works best when you select half-time for your video, another reason why you want Animoto in Education. It gives you speed features you do not have access to in the 30-second version. Their toolbox is new as well, making it much easier to share your work.

So, if you happened to hear that Animoto in Education no longer exists, consider the rumor squelched, and get busy applying for your free student accounts.  The code creates a 6-month renewable-for-free account.

If you check out the Case Studies, you will find our very own JPeg (Jim Hopton & Peggy Barger) Animoto example, as well as a Discovery Education Science Podcast posted as exemplars of academic work.

Animoto in Education
Web 2.0
Video
Online tag generator

It seems like months since we saw new DEN STARS from PA, but on this last weekly update, we welcomed:

Timothy Boyle

Heather Butchy

as our newest STARS! So glad to have you in the network.

Coming Soon!  Media Share at the DiscoveryEducation will be found through the Educator Resources tab. MediaShare is a digital media management server;  a place to organize internal documents, files, forms, a publishing platform, internal memos, and/or presentations.

This would be nice for presentations and workshops so that all pieces are bundled together on one page and you don’t have to have  10 tabs open. In the description field, you can place embed code, such as VoiceThreads or Glogsters. In addition, you can publish Blabberize, Glogster or other documents here, to keep students from getting lost viewing things on a site that may not be educational (Blabberize as an example). DES has uploaded many presentations from over the years, such as the virtual conference in April. It also includes the chat window that matches the presentation.

There is a direct link to these files from outside the DEN. You can create a complete lesson and give the URL to your students and they can create a user name (anyone can get into the education resources by creating an account), and view what you wan them to see.

When searching for lessons that have already been uploaded by other DEN members,  search the DES MediaShare to find information for you such as:  8th grade/images/world languages.

Subscribe by RSS feeds as well.  Especially if you like one person’s resources and want to know when they post something new.

Whenever DEN STARS meet, you know you are learning with some of the best in the educational technology business. At our DEN LC Symposium at Discovery Headquarters, and the Pre-NECC DEN Birthday Party, Lisa Parisi was part of the the Leadership Council buzz. A super STAR, a team player, and NY DEN’s LC member, Lisa Parisi just added another award and our DEN community is so proud of her. Join us as we send virtual kudos to our very own Lisa Parisi, ISTE’s Third Place winner of the 2009 SIGTel Online Learning Award with Christine Southard.

THIRD PLACE: Lisa Parisi, Denton Avenue Elementary School, New Hyde Park, NY, USA, with Christine Southard, Denton Avenue Elementary New Hyde Park, NY, USA. Project Title: Poetry Collaboration.

We’re sending out virtual WHOO-HOOs with DEN LC fingers (you’re either in or out on this one) Lisa and Christine’s way. We are so proud of you! You rock!

ISTE
SIGTel Online Learning Award
Lisa Parisi
Christine Southard
NECC 2009
DEN STARS
Turbo Tagger

Retooling the STAR DEN application process makes it easier to become a STAR as an opt-in member. In the past, the process was designed to be open but do things, so the prospective member knows this is a service organization. Enter a retool to be a STAR DISCOERY EDUCATOR. You can find a DEN STAR toolbox that wil guide you through a simpler process, done the Discovery way–videos.  As Steve would say, “Easy breezy.”  So, now we can get new members to join the way we love to learn, a great series of short videos.  In the application process, you also have access to great classroom resources, special STAR events, promos and contests, personal blogs, and access to field managers.  With all the benefits, you really want to join now, get involved, and stay active.  Discovery Education is a great sharing place, so if you want to collaborate with the best in the business and get tomorrow’s tools today, become a STAR!