Pennsylvania

If you attended but did not get the chance to complete our survey, here it is for you to finish at your convenience.  To the 30+ dedicated people who spent Saturday with us, we thank you for attending and hope your day with Discovery was a rich and rewarding experience.  Let us know.

What a great way to begin Tech or Treat–making your own name tags. I must admit when we discussed it via one of our LC phone conferences, I wasn’t sold. It just did not begin to sound as neat as it really was.  Thanks to Patti Duncan for the idea–and the recipe.  I see more making name tags in our future.  What fun!

Tech or Treat Name Tags Recipe

If you spent the day with the DEN Virtual Conference Live Event or participated virtually, you were definitely a winner.  You cannot leave any Discovery event without reaping huge benefits.  Sometimes you win prizes, as so many of our participants did, but even for those who did not walk away with a giveaway, they were still winners in a huge way.  If you have been to a DEN event, you know exactly what I mean, and if you haven’t, why not join us next time.  Maybe you’ll get to do the “happy dance.”  My favorite moment: the lad who selected all the tickets got to award his mother a prize.  Priceless!

Compiled by Jennifer Brinson, these links were culled from the chat feature from the DEN Virtual Conference.  Enjoy the wealth of resources.

DEN Tech or Treat

Resource List

I came to Justin Karkow’s presentation late from blogging our live event with Patti Duncan, so I missed the intro.  But his message soon became apparent: we often ask students to check how they learn best when they enter our classrooms.  He showed us the old job wheel, contrasted by the 21st century job wheel.  His first new job that he would add is a scribe.  Blogs, glogs, gloggles, wikis, podcasts, are among the tools that Justin suggests we employ in our classroom.  We also can create non-linear PowerPoints/Keynotes like Mike Bryant showed us earlier today in his presentation, Thinking Outside the Slide.

Second on Justin’s new job list is the fact checker.  We used to say,”Ask 3, then me.” Now we say, “Google it.” Another resource is Wikipedia, a global social comunity site, not as strict as Discovery Education, but we have begun to embrace the collaborative nature of the site.  Students now need to submit original resources to the site, or verify/debunk articles in the fact checker job list.  Best of all, however, is Discovery Education’s Student Center.  This job is about verification, of using resources wisely to authenticate texts.

Another job Justin would implement “In Buddy’s Terms.”  Restatement of something in simple terms, reteach Buddy by simplifying what you just said.  This job creates a buddy system, study with a buddy, and in a sense, teaches collaboration, especially to those students who travel, by preference or not, as loners.  This job category creates team players.  The power of the voiceover with editable clips is another way to do “in Buddy’s terms” using DEs clips.  Another great resource is the flip camera or a digital camera.  Have students redo pictures they took by drawing what they captured digitally.  Another resource from Kentucky is GreatSummary.  Put information into this site and get bullet points that encapsules the content into a more digestible form.

Next job: Timeliner.  Justin notes that these jobs are the jobs in a future classroom, but in reality, we can all implement these 6 new jobs now.  Great tools to use: xtimeline has a csv file that can be downloaded to populate a spreadsheet to populate resources.  Timetoast offers image uploads but no csv file.  Discoverystreaming offers a Calendar that lists daily historical celebrations.

Next job: Rear View Mirror: look at where we have been.  Map on the wall, Google Earth.  To show us where we have been, academically.  Try DE Streaming with Google Earth or Google Maps, or make a Glogster to share out where we’ve been.  Try Discovery Atlas, a great tool that has been around for a while but not often used.  Have you ever said if only I had a map…if only I were a history teacher I’d have a map… well, now you can give your students a geographical context.

Next job: Bring It Home: make a connection back to somewhere.  What was the impact of WWII on North Canton, Ohio time frame and how the Hoover factory played a large role.  Voicethread is a great collaborative tool.  One teacher did a triangle Voicethread–what a clever use outside the box that is global and interdisciplinary.  Phone.io gives you a digital drop box for audio files. You get a minute to create an mp3 file about a subject that can be added to a community project.

Despite the number of computers in a classroom, Justin claims that we can pull all this together and put it into our classroom today, our new classroom job wheel.  And he is absolutely right.  What he’s just created by putting tools back into students’ hands is student engagement.

Justin suggests that we start small, begin with one tool and see successful completion.  They need to see what each of these jobs look like by the end of the year.  Work collaboratively; make lists; be consistent with your expectations.  Use the same rubric and have the students help create the rubric.  Let them determine what they need to be successful.  And have a lot of fun.  Gotcha, Justin.

The no-so-spooky hour of 2 has just passed, and we’re live again with Patti Duncan, who admits that earlier presentations, both live and virtual, stole most of her tools.  According to her, however, she has many tools in her pockets, so she is good to go.  Her goal: despite whatever your level of use, she will have something new for you.  Here we go.

1. Step by Step WebMath (under Parents Corner).
2. Parents Corner.
3. Worksheets.
4. Enter.Win.Wow!.
5. My DE Page: all your folders show on your home page.
6. Bottom Right of My DE: PA 4 recent blog posts; webinars; additional resources.
7. At #7, we come to Patti’s 1/10: State Academic Standards are a great way to do an easy topic search (better than the conventional search, which will only show a result if you hit the exact title, or a word in your subject search); curriculum standards search by subject gives you a wider search net.
8. Different media types: if you have not gone to the drop-down Content menu, you are missing dozens of media types.  Why? Because Discovery is your online vetted textbook and there’s just nothing better; you can take any media and add it to “My Content,” but you can also send it directly to a Builder or classroom students.
9. Share tab (my absolute favorite) mimics Firefox Sharaholic and other sites which embed social networking sharing.
10. Discoverystreaming songs: can use them as classroom warm-ups, ESL learners, vocabulary building (words in song tunes; can voice over).
11. Sound effects: write a story based on what they heard or to set a mood; can dress to the mood being created–Patti does that–ask them what they hear, build to content-specific vocabulary; visualize Patti in waders with a net with a nature audio collage–and then build your lesson.
12. Images: download in 3 sizes; preview in large and do a “diving into the picture” (similar to “diving into the sound”) by magnifying aspects of a large image in “preview large.”
13. Clip Art: safe, educational; Patti uses an image of a dog eating homework as an assignment reminder.
14. Keyword search: narrowed by left navigational sidebar, filtered by media type, editable, ESL, black-line masters, CC for differentiated classrooms where increasing fluency matters, and much more.
15. Closed Captioning: you need to enable CC button; download the video and the CC file as well; then you can go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, Word Pad, File, Open, and open the .smi file for CC; now you can go in and change the font size to 20 and change the font type, and you can make it bold and you can also change the color.
16. Media Share in the Teacher Center, Discovery Educator Network, Educator Resources–>search for “How To Guides”

Like all things DEN, Patti exceeded our expectations with more than the promised 10.  My favorite–and new to me–was #15.

These dedicated teachers truly embody 24/7 transparent learning and teaching.

If anyone can keep me from eating lunch, it would be Steve Dembo, who can hold a virtual or real audience word by word.  Trying to capture any of Steve’s presentations is an exercise in rapid writing and fast screen shots.  Steve was number four on the Top Ten Reasons To Attend the Fall Virtual Conference on October 24:

4.  Any time Steve Dembo uses the word “bling” in a presentation, watch out!
Putting the Bling in Your Builders (12 PM ET) 

So, here goes no lunch, and I can tell you in advance, it will be worth foregoing.  Although the Builders are wonderful, an untapped resource in Discoverystreaming, there are untapped resources in the Builders, and this presentation aims to mine that untapped gold.

Writing Builder lets you use your own prompts or ones already embedded.  Several Steps: Create a folder to organize your work, add subject level and grade, select media, use keyword search in all services, and explore your results, which include audio, video, and images.  You click “add” to your writing prompt, customize the text, choose font, color, border.  This is the place where Steve says “the magic comes in.” The Assign page, as well as everything else in the builders, was upgraded this summer, so now you can include your classes and assign prompts and quizzes directly to your students by url or code.  If you manually enter your students (as opposed to Discovery batch entering them for you), you can get individual aggregate data.

If students are too young to read text, teachers can speak the directions by integrating different Web 2.0 tools.  Steve’s go-to tool is Blabberize, because of its universal appeal, especially to primary school students.  Find your Discoverystreaming image, save it to desktop, and then add your voice by clicking “make” (very intuitive and super simple for first-time users with embeddable code–love it!). Check out Blabberize from Dembo’s Web 2.0 Tuesday Webinar two weeks ago.  Bottom line here: the Builders are accessible to students of all ages if you think outside-the-box with Web 2.0 tools.  The net result is a wonderful product for learners of all ages.  Steve reminds us that Blabberize will not raise test scores, but it will engage our digital natives in learning the way they like it: Student 2.0.

Yet another tool is Slideshare where you can upload your PowerPoint presentations and let you share them online. Steve reminds us that Slideshare works on simple linear presentations, not the multimedia Keynotes that Mike Bryant made in the last session.  These non-linear slide shows will not upload to Slideshare.  The beauty of Slideshare: embeddable code (and url too, plus typical sharing potential to social networks with ease of one-click).

If you want to add students to Discoverystreaming, go to Classroom Manager, and My Classes.  You set up your class by setting up your class with a name and and start and end date (make it for whole year).  Select and add your students to your class. If you district has imported in your students, you just select them from the roster by name and grade level.  If your students are not listed there, add them on the fly by typing in their information in the “Create/Edit a New Student.”  You can assign individual or group passwords, and then students can personalize them. However, Steve warns that this particular add feature will disappear in a week or two.  You cannot overall remove a student, but you can delete one from your class (almost the same thing). You can also duplicate classes.  Assigning is simple; you can do this by individual student or a group, a great feature for differentiated instruction.

When students complete an assignment, they move from “My Assignments” to “Completed Assignments.”  You get a date/time stamp, so as teachers you can access when work was begun and completed. As a teacher, you create accounts for your students, assignments, and then students login to the Student Center, where they see what resources their teachers have uploaded, as well as assignments and assessments. Students can bookmark content and download videos, 24/7.  For districts that want more filtering, the administrator for the account can choose what students view.

How else can we add bling?  Try meebo.com which allows you to create your own chat room.  You can have students view something and then run a back channel (similar to adults using CoverItLive) but it will be private, embedded to an Assignment Builder.   Love this feature, because you have created a private chat room for participation within your classroom.  Yet another bling to Builders if Voicethread, and again you keep it private within the Builders and grab embeddable code for the instructional stream. What you get is a live stream with event journals and authentic assessment on how students learn best, showing us what they really know.

MyPlick (already discussed by Mike and Steve in his 50 Ways to Do Digital Storytelling webinar) and VoiceMeMe.  Both create embeddable code for widgetizing an assigment within a Builder.  VoiceMeMe (What’s the most horrifying technology story you have?) creates an audio file, 100% free, reminding me of Gcast, before it went to a paid version only.

Finally, a teacher can log out as a teacher and log in as a student so you can check your work.  Steve’s mantra: Baby steps–build on your successes.

Tech or Treat continues, live in the Learners Lab, but for this time slot, we turn our blogging to Mike Bryant’s multimedia presentation.

When you begin thinking about slides, think outside the slide, from a flat still image to what goes beyond the image. So, using Shakespeare’s birthplace and highlighting the window, you can push out to an image of the Bard himself, dissecting him to see what made him tick.  Not sure what Mike’s using to make the cuts, but you open the brain to a Romeo and Juliet viewers guide with plot points and viewing questions, along with a character analysis.  Moving into the eyes, the windows to the soul, we dissect Shakespeare’s vision. What we find is a series of videos that move beyond the screen.  I was certain Mike was going to Blabberize Will, but this goes way beyond the capacities of that tool.

Moving to the speech of the period, we dissect Shakespeare’s language and hear iambic pentameter in the vernacular.  Still wondering, however, how you actually create this type of beyond-the-box-presentation.  Going back to Shakespeare’s home, we integrate sound, image, and video in a non-linear fashion.  Imagine the possibilities with MyPlick, a tool Dembo previewed two weeks ago on Web 2.0 Tuesday’s webinar.  MyPlick allows you to sync slides to audio.  Easy to use, fast, fun, and free, this tools allows students (and teachers) to integrate sound and video seamlessly. Mike’s mantra: if you do not know how to do something, you have a DEN family, live, virtual, and professional development that is awesome.

Dissecting the process, you create most of what you use by hyperlinking. Dafont is one website to use.  Then Mike goes to his Discoverystreaming, and he uses the resources by searching the drill-down Content feature.  He grabs two images of Shakespeare’s home in 3 format sizes from which to choose and then downloads.  In a Mac or Firefox, it will download to desktop, but a PC will allow you options for end point (Firefox allows you to select download destination).  Using Discoverystreaming, you can pull audio, speech, songs, charts, maps, graphs, virtually (pardon the pun) anything you want to build your out-of-the-box slide show, including your choice of MLA, Chicago Style, or APA citations for your selected media.  A best practice for sure, the citations are dynamic within Keynote properties as well.

Just discovered that the tools Mike used early in the presentation to “dissect” Shakespeare are in the toolkit within PowerPoint or Keynote’s toolbox.  You actually cutout the areas using the shapes in the formatting toolkit.  Once you select the area you will highlight, you allow for the media to open by hyperlinking to those selected areas.

Clearly, Mike’s presentation is a lot to digest, even with slow dissection, and I see in our future offerings, a back-to-basics-version of Mike’s presentation offfered, maybe spring?