Pennsylvania

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.

Here’s the video that NJ, NY, ME, and PA LCs put together on the first day of the DEN LC National Institute.

A special thanks to Heather Sullivan for posting the video on the New Jersey blog. Having some “free” time on my hands, I decided to troll the state blogs and aggregate some resources and comments shared by other states who attended either the LC or STAR institutes. Arkansas Mary Frazier and Tanya Gray brainstormed 25 more ways to use Discoverystreaming. Posted by Brett Harvey, CA–home of DENs youngest STAR, Jannita and Laurian’s son, David–is taking a time out from the busy day’s agenda.

Florida’s post by Cheryl Woolwine shows how the South East Region created with Tennessee their own version of the Discovery Channel commercial, Boom-De-Ya-Da, Here’s “Find Your Match at D-Harmony”:

Posted on the Iowa blog by Jason Cochrane, the Midwest LCs made this video along with Mike Bryant, their DEN Midwest Manager. Get ready for their deconstruction of DC commercial:

Louisiana LC is Green With Envy. You’ll remember this team from their D-Harmony commercial. Michigan’s LC were busy posters during the Institute. Here’s their BDY commercial:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c1b7f60a2b741bbf0de4

Working with teachers from Illinois, here’s their DEN-De-Ya-Da video from the second week DEN Institute:

And their slide show from the second week STAR Institute:

From the NY blog, here’s Steve Dembo’s Learning to Speak Native presentation, Ustreamed from the DEN National Institute:

From my new LC Institute friend, Conni Mulligan shares an update on their LC membership. I really applaud all the states’ efforts in maintaining a vibrant LC, but since I had the good fortune to get to know Conni, I know how hard she has worked with her Council to get the NC blog launched as well, so a special shout out to you and your state. Great progress.

NC had 3 DEN STARS at the National Institute: Judy, Nicole, and Deb.

Guest blogger Debbie Wrobel represented the Northwest at the National Institute. Check out her post here.

If you still haven’t jumped into (teleported, flown, or swum with the sharks) yet, then you are definitely missing out on your Second Life experience. On July 16, the DEN SL inducted newbies (I was one of them) into their SL, and I can tell you it is an experience of any/either lifetimes. Just do it.

I love reading Elaine Plybon on the Texas blog. Her Reflections on Day 2 of the LC Institute and her sense of overload strike a resonant chord with me at any DEN function. We always learn and teach at rapid speed, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And just in case you thought VA wasn’t at the LC Institute, Ruth Okoye has the photos to prove it. Check out their Institute blogs here.

I’ll end on 3 “I hope’s”:
1. that I didn’t forget anyone
2. that I didn’t make too many typos
3. that all the embedded code works…because this is the first time I worked in code mode all the way, and I’m not even going to entertain an edit on this post. Thanks to all the super DEN STAR power out there, for what you do every day to make learning and teaching THE 21st century experience. A super thank you to our Discovery leaders for making our growth possible.

(Image from Nancy White’s ZAAZ Social Media Event, July 2008)

It is very hard to believe that a week has passed since the Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council National Institute at Discovery Headquarters in Silver Springs, MD. Like all Discovery events, this one was a blockbuster with so much learning, so much fun.
What really impacted me so much was not only what we learned, but how we communicated as we learned. Live blogging on Day 2, Part 1 and Part 2 redefined the use of social media for me with nearly 60 participants blogging live with presenters. Then add to that mix that presentations were broadcast live with UStream.tv and Mogulus, (broadcast platforms that integrate into CoverItLive), with Nokia phones transmitting live multiple/simultaneous feeds into Mogulus, while we Tweeted and Purked, then updated our social networks simultaneously with Ping.fm. Sending links and images as well, I learned that participating in live blogging redefined the concept of multi-tasking at rapid speed. Whether geocaching with Bridget Belardi, teleporting in Second Life with the DEN SL LC, or just absorbing anything from Jennifer Dorman, I was almost overwhelmed when on the last day I viewed the projects that 60 Leadership Council members created. Creative, cutting edge, and all classroom ready for integration. Wow, what a powerhouse of learning opportunities.

But after that amazing week (and two in Europe shortly before LC), last week I was off-line, on a curious kind of self-imposed disconnect, feeling guilty about ignoring my digital devices, my expanding network of friends from DEN LC, requests to follow, join, and connect. I took an online vacation, and strangely it felt good. Jumping back to my social networks today (I always start with Twitter), I found that a whole new thread developed which explained where I had been, and even perhaps why. Will Richardson’s July 25 Tweet led me to his post on Controlled Connectedness, which made me realize that “network separation anxiety” was my ailment. Richardson’s link to “Nancy White’s idea of slow communities” calls into question network participation and how we communicate. Her presentation reminded me of the importance of slowing and controlling our social connections.

Her slides, “Thinking about ‘Slow Community’” are listed below:

So, where does all of this lead me. Simply to a reminder to myself that I sometimes need to slow down, to control my connectedness, to take an occasional “time out.” I know that I cannot learn all that is “out there.” I barely keep up with the 5 bloggers I promise to read every day. Still, reflecting on Richardson and White, I feel better about slowing down enough to lend manageability to my endeavors. I owe my social network a huge indebtedness every day because I continue to learn from them. A very special thank you to the Discovery Educator Network for a perfect week, and to all the participants at the Leadership Council Institute for opening a whole new world of social media and PPLNs.

Here is the CoverItLive blogging from Steve’s keynote on Wednesday.

Just when you begin to feel comfortable with a technology, that you might know a thing or two, doesn’t that fickle finger of fate find you somehow.  So it has been with my Opening Day post about our first project, Boom De Yada, and Jannita’s virtual message to us, officially opening the LC Institute 2008.  Then there’s passing the finger, from Jannita, to Lance and Scott, and ultimately and unanimously to Riptide Furst, aka Fred Deventhal.  I tried more time than worth to get that post back to the PA blog, without disturbing the integrity of the blog.  Nothing worked.  So, if you want to read about Riptide’s finger, you can find it cross-posted on Changing Connections.

As Day 3 of the LC dawns, we look forward to another day of learning, day of fun with the green screen, our leaders and fellow friends.  A special shout out to my new buddies: Tim from Tennesee and Evelyn and Karen from Arkansas LC, later arrivals, but definitely glad we connected last night.  Have a great day!

So Much Learning, So Much Fun: The Perfect Day. No other organization can pack so much learning and so much fun into one day. Leave it to DEN STARS and leaders to create the perfect day. It’s not only that we did some powerhouse learning, but it was HOW we learned. For many of us, it was the first time we blogged live using CoverItLive. During Hall Davidson’s keynote, 75 people joined Jen Dorman’s back channel as we input our comments and questions in real time. DEN STARS are multi-taskers by definition, I think, but today added so many new Web 2.0 tools that simplied and aggregated efforts. What I really appreciated was the collaborative nature of our endeavors; so many Web 2.0 tools embed social networking into their design, and then let you send your work into your PPLNs simultaneously. Think Diigo which lets you aggregate your information, choosing and controlling your content and community.

Then there was that fantastic DEN Carnival that our DEN leaders created. After working our brains on collective overload, we played played DENGO, Wii gaming, and some old-fashioned old-school games like break the ballon, get the tic-tac-toe balls in a straight line (without cheating), and drop coins down a slot, predicting which color you would aim for. And what was the purpose of the carnival (beyond unadulterated fun)–raffle tickets to win some super prizes at the end of the evening. Learn deeply, laugh hard, and thank your lucky stars ( pun intended) that you are a part of this Leadership Council Institute, because, quite honestly, I cannot imagine what could top this one. From the cotton candy, spun live, and DEN leaders, also spun live, living and learning just does not get any better.

Geocaching is the experience where you become the search engine. Bridget used Glogster to create a geocaching image for her wiki. GPS requires you to have the latitude and longitude coordinates in order to search for something somewhere in your world. Garmin and Magellan are the most popular and you can download cache information/coordinates into the receiver if it is properly equipped.

Do all handheld machines have the GPS ability? Yes, if you have the extra cable. If you are not a fellow geocacher, you may not need/want a GPS. You can use iPhone as your GPS navigator, or your Blackberry if you have web access. Generally speaking, the GPS works by identifying 3 satellites to locate your exact position on earth. If you lose connection with one of the three, you lose the option to continue, so atmospheric interference can impact the ability to search.The GPS receiver is only as good as what you paid for it. The ability for the receiver to read the satellites increases with the ability of the equipment, but you still need some geocache sense.

The best place to build an account is www.geocaching.com. Then, you can search by city, zip code, state, driving route…. Bridget usually searches by zip code, but you can also search by state or driving directions (great for a long ride or a vacation drive). Record the latitude and longitude coordinates and save to your receiver. You can also search by your address to see what is in your immediate area.

When you create a geocaching account, you need to pay attention to the difficulty rating (1—5) and the terrain. Bridget has been geocaching, and she said the hardest one she encountered was a 3. Clicking on the link you have found will tell you who hid the cache (it could be absolutely anything, small to large), when it was hidden, and the North and West coordinates. Bridget prints the coordinates so she can add it to her receiver later. Without the coordinates, you have no geocache. Caches are often hidden in off-the-beaten paths, and often when you find the cache, you find something else that is interesting as well. What Bridget likes best is the decryption key to decipher the code, but if you hit “decrypt,” the decoding will be done for you. In adition, you will find a list of all the people who have searched and found (or not) the cache. Bridget suggests that for the good of the sport, you go back to the site and log in your results. If you were using this activity for students, you get a valuable writing activity after the fact.

In geocaching, you always get a Google map, and you can use your GPS to try to find it. When you click on the map, however, you will find if there are any other caches closeby. Tomorrow Bridget will host a geocaching event so we have more hands-on search time. Sometimes you have to answer questions, “The Original,” to prove you had been there, done it. You can email the owner of the cache and s/he will tell you if you were correct. Sometimes you get fake coordinates and you find the cache, which gives you new coordinates to get to the real cache.

How do we know that the people who plant the cache replenish the cache? That’s where responding on the site where you got the coordinates becomes really important. Searchers need to input data so that future geocachers will find the site viable. You can flag any potential problems you encounter online, so that owners can replenish/fix the site or remove the cache (just in case a tree was cut down and your cache was a part of that tree).

So after you choose the cache, then what? After inserting the coordinates into the GPS, you need to follow the compass until it gets to a within 10 feet. Then, you use your geosense to see if something “isn’t right.” Where could something be hidden within a 15 foot range. But it is always helpful to know what you might be looking for. Some examples are a container (they are always labeled; tin, plastic, glass), something waterproof. Ammo cans often have trade able items, trinkets, toys, stuffed animals, something that could/not have a value.

So, rule of thumb: if you find something, leave something. Leave something of equal or greater value, and that is the first rule of geocaching etiquette. Sometimes containers are so camouflaged that find the cache is difficult. The nanocaches are often magnetic and are “evil” because they are nanosized, making them really (almost) impossible to locate. The space to write your name and date are often microscopic, so there is definitely a challenge to geocaching. (I finally know what Michael Chicocki was prepping for one day when he Twittered…)

Here’s the good part. You go through the pain and suffering of finding the cache, trade the items (find something, leave something). Travel bugs and Geocoins are valuable. Travel bugs are often attached to a dogtag with a track able number. That number allows you to track it online. What makes it interesting is that you can repurpose the cache by adding directions. A cache can actually travel a path across the United States and the world (very popular in Germany).

You can buy geocaching coins online (”Queen of Caching”). You can even marathon geocache within a contest to find the most caches and collectibles within a time period. Trillions of designs exist online, and geocache coins make a great trade for the find. Responsible etiquette asks that you leave a message when you find the object of your search, both on site and online. You need to re-camouflage the cache if you are asked to leave the cache after you find it. Jeep even does geocaching, so if you find the Jeep coin, you get to enter into a lottery to win a Jeep.

Geocaching Lingo:

Muggles: those who are not geocachers
TFTC: Thanks for the Cache
TFTF: Thanks for the Find
TNLN: Took Nothing Left Nothing.

Educaching: (a great book about lesson plans and geocaching; has black masters, handouts; $32)

Educational Benefits:
Reading latitude and longitude
Map skills
Using a compass
Can add research to the caching
Cross-curricular connections
Letterboxing Hybrid: done with a compass not a GPS.

Resources:
Geocaching ListServ (check the link on Bridget’s wikispaces)

Check out Bridget’s resources (and other STAR DEN presenters) here.
www.podcacher.com (a family that podcasts geocaching)