Streaming A to Z

Soon after Planet Earth aired on the Discovery Channel, requests from educators around the country started to pour in.  We received questions like, "How soon will DVDs be available?" "Can I use the DVDs in schools?" And, of course the inevitable, "How much?"

Well, my friends, here is the good news. Discovery Education has procured a number of Planet Earth DVD Box sets.  Every school that subscribes by June 15th to Discovery Education unitedstreaming™ or unitedstreaming Plus will receive a Planet Earth DVD Box Set - a $650 value!

Now here is the deal.  In order to receive the Planet Earth DVD Box Set with your subscription, your school must either be renewing their license by upgrading to unitedstreaming Plus or be a brand new unitedstreaming school and purchase Discovery Education unitedstreaming at its list price. 

Basically it breaks down like this-

Current unitedstreaming users:
Upgrade to unitedstreaming Plus for an additional $995 per building and receive one Planet Earth DVD set per school*
K-8 building Current unitedstreaming license + $995
9-12 building Current unitedstreaming license + $995

New unitedstreaming users:
Subscribe to unitedstreaming and receive one Planet Earth DVD set per school*

unitedtreaming price:
K-8 building - $1,495
9-12 building - $1,995

unitedstreaming Plus price:
K-8 building - $2,495
9-12 building - $2,995

*It goes without saying that this offer is available as long as supplies last.

To learn more about this offer simply click on this link unitedstreamingsales@discovery.com and send your request.

Talk to you soon,
Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, unitedstreaming

First let off let me begin this posting by stating it is good to be back and blogging again. After a short hiatus the Implementation Blog is alive and kicking!

Now onto some even more fun stuff.

Last week the DEN hosted a Planet Earth Webinar and over 1000 students from 68 schools across the country attended.

During the session, Planet Earth Producer Dr. Penny Allen, issued a caption challenge.
She asked participants to come up with a caption for the following image:

And boy did you guys respond!  At the end of the session, all of the captions were sent to Penny.  Penny and her team then voted on the winning captions.

Without further ado, here is how it all breaks down (the following is from Penny’s e-mail):

Just a quick note to let you know that the Planet Earth team votes have all now been cast!  The results for the caption competition are as follows:

THE WINNER
Elaine Plybon - DEN Texas: "I don’t know, Vern, it was here when I woke up this morning" 

EQUAL SECOND PLACE
Debbie Bohanan - DEN Florida:  "Who laid that egg?"
Tracy Selock - DEN Illinois: "Hurry up, my mom made me wear this tux.  Take the picture!!" 
Carrie Strasburger - DEN Virgina: "I heard him say we were going to be on Sunday night."

EQUAL THIRD PLACE
Elaine Plybon - DEN Texas "No, YOU pick it up!"
Paula Rovnak - DEN Florida::  "courage my penguin friends, courage"
Sara Simmons - DEN Texas: "That’s what happens when you drop the egg!" 
Cindy Hills - DEN California:  "The Paparazzi are on to us!"

For her winning entry, Elaine will receive a Planet Earth ‘Making Of’ book signed by Penny and her team!

Elaine please e-mail me your address so that I can have the book sent to your class.

Planet Earth Photos
During the webinar many of you asked for the photos that were shown during the Webinar.
I have attached the presentation to this posting.  Click on the this link Download planet_earth_ppt2.ppt to download the PowerPoint.

A Thousand Thank You(s) for Penny.
Since Penny shared her behind-the-scenes pictures with us, I’d like to share a picture of your class, and/or thank you message from your students to Penny.

I have attached a Photo Release to this posting - Download den_photo_release.doc. Please have it signed by your student’s parents and returned back to your classroom.  After you have the forms shoot me over your picture(s).  I’ll take all of the pictures and put them into a thank you collage!

So let’s do this:

1. Either send me a picture of your class, Planet Earth drawing (digital of course), and/or thank you message for me to put into a collage and send to Penny
2. Leave a thank you message for Penny to hear
   To leave a message:
   Call 1-888-65-GCAST (888-654-2278)
   Type in 800-323-9084 pin code 1234
   Record message and hit #
   Press the number 2 to save it.
   Hang up

Once I receive your messages I will send the message to Penny and post it on the Implementation Blog - I’d like to complete this project by Wednesday, May 2, 2007.

UPDATE:

I have received a few requests for a few more days.  So that we give everyone a chance to submit their thank yous we’ll move the deadline to Friday, May 4, 2007.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted your material so far.  And thanks to all that will be soon

Talk to you soon,
Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, unitedstreaming

A couple of weeks ago Debbie Bohanan, Paula Rovnak, (FL DEN Star Educators), their fourth grade class, and I got to go behind the scenes with one of the Planet Earth’s producers, Dr. Penny Allen (see Implementation Blog Posting - "5 Years In The Making")

What we learned and experienced was amazing.  So amazing that it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t open up this amazing opportunity to educators from accross the country.  Now you and your class can experience Planet Earth from the Producer’s point of view!

That’s right, on April 24 at 1 PM EST; the DEN will be hosting a webinar with Dr. Penny Allen.  Penny was one of the BBC producers in the field during the filming of Planet Earth.  Dr. Allen joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1996 as a researcher on The Blue Planet, a landmark series on the natural history of the world’s oceans. After completing the Blue Planet series, Dr. Allen worked as an Assistant Producer on ‘The Abyss - Live’, which allowed millions of people in Europe and England to watch a live broadcast of an ROV dive in Monterey Bay.  Now she shares her experience in her latest adventure, the making of Planet Earth.

This webinar is intended to be shared with your students, so find a projection unit, a set of speakers, click here to register and prepare (and post to this blog as a comment) questions you would like to ask this record setting filmmaker. 

I look forward to sharing this unique behind-the-scences opportunity with you.  Spots are going to fill fast so make sure that you submit your questions and register soon!

Talk to you soon,

Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, unitedstreaming

Last night I tuned into the Discovery Channel to watch the first three of eleven episodes of Discovery Channel/BBC’s Planet Earth documentary.

The series took four years to shoot and another year to edit.  All of that time and effort produced a masterpiece of sight and sound - especially for those with high definition sets. The entire series was filmed in high definition!

It took me a long time to fall asleep (many apologies to my wife) because I was so excited by what I saw last night. 

And although last night’s experience was the cat’s pajamas, this morning’s experience eclipsed it.

What could have possibly eclipsed last night’s viewing experience you ask? Great Question!

This morning, Debbie Bohanan, Paula Rovnak, (FL DEN Star Educators), their fourth grade class, and I got to go behind the scenes with one of the Planet Earth’s producers, Dr. Penny Allen!

That’s Dr. Allen as she hangs 100 feet above the ground on her way up to the top of a 300 foot tall Redwood Tree in California.

Dr. Allen joined us from Bristol, England to answer the Florida student’s questions and provide us an insider’s view into the filming of Planet Earth.

One of the questions asked was "What was the longest period of filming?  Penny told us that cameramen spent an entire year on the Antarctic ice filming the Emperor penguins! The penguins became so accustomed to the film crew that they came right up to them as they were taping.  While filming the episode, Pole to Pole the crew spent four months in total darkness, observed the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis),and shared the same land as the Polar Bears.

The students wanted to know how close the camera crews got to the animals?

In some cases it was very close.  Crews got only feet away from Walrus, White-Tip Sharks, and African Elephants as they frolicked in flood waters (Episodes: Ice Worlds, Deep Ocean, and Pole to Pole respectively). 

Were they nervous?  Sometimes, especially when they filmed a pride of 30 lions in the dead of night as they were hunting elephants!

In some cases, however, the crew filmed animals as far away as a mile!  Using special high-definition cameras the crew captured the first-ever footage of a Snow Leopard as it leaped from rock-to-rock in the Planet Earth episode, "Mountains."

The class was really interested in the production crew’s use of a helicopter.  Penny told them that the helicopter was used on every habitat and that it used a special gyroscopic camera mount.  This device helped stabilize the camera so that it would not be affected by the vibration and movement of the helicopter.

My favorite story; however, had to do to with the Capercaillie bird.  While Penny was on location in Finland shooting the episode, "Forests," the crew wanted to film a male Capercaillie bird.  The male birds are extremely territorial and every time the camera crew approached the bird it did everything to protect its turf.  The bird strutted and showed its stuff in an all out effort to say, "This patch of forest belongs to me buddy." I just love the picture that Penny took and shared with us as she told us the story.

All in all, The BBC team traveled to 200 locations to film the most beautiful and amazing animals in their natural habitats.

The Discovery Channel, the BBC, and the Nature Conservancy hope that viewers will gain a better appreciation of our planet and seek out ways to protect and preserve all of its occupants - big and small.

A special thank you to Jennifer Henry, Shannon Malone, Maureen Lemire at the Discovery Channel, Dr. Penny Allen at the BBC Natural History Unit, and Debbie Bohanan, Paula Rovnak, and their fourth grade class, for making this behind-the-scenes adventure possible.

Talk to you soon,

Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, unitedstreaming

Yes, it is true, I was a nerdy teenager who once watched the movie Weird Science, grooved to Thomas Dolby’s "Blinding Me With Science" and may have tried to bring Kelly LeBrock into my room with my Apple II computer (1 Mhz 4KB)

Computers, science, and technology has grown leaps and bounds since I first booted up my family’s Apple II and inserted its 8 1/4 floppy disks. 

But that was then.  Let’s flash to 2007 and talk about the Discovery Education Science Connection.

What is this Science Connection?

Discovery Education Science Connection is the groundbreaking new middle school supplemental science resource, tied to state standards, that blends interactive, inquiry-based content together with formative assessment.

Perhaps the one of the most valued Science Connection assets are its formative assessment tools.  With these tools, educators can quickly determine each student’s baseline understanding so that targeted remediation can occur in the specific areas of need.

My two favorite Science Connection functions; however, are the Interactive Labs and Mythbuster videos.

You can get the low down on all the new Science Connection, its tips and tricks, and more by checking out the Science Connection in Action Blog authored by our very own Lance Rougeux.

And, if you want to kick the virtual tires, sign up for a 30-day Free Trial!  Have fun and let us know what you think about the site.

In the mean time, I’m going to press repeat on my Weird Science soundtrack.

Talk to you soon,
Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, unitedstreaming

Welcome to Discovery Education Health Connection v. 2.0!

Earlier this week, we launched the ‘new and improved’ DEHC site!  We value your feedback on our products and services, and you told us what would make Discovery Education Health Connection even better—so we made the changes! 

Improvements include:

• New and improved site interface, including easier navigation.
• New multimedia resources including e-games and e-books focused on key health issues such as tobacco use.
• New Teacher Center that serves as a one-stop shop for curriculum and health-program resources.
• New professional development, training, and health integration resources.

Worried about the changes?  Don’t be!  DEHC is still:

• Your comprehensive, effective solution for K-12 health and prevention education with 16 full-curriculum programs, 500+ chaptered videos, hundreds of lessons plans, worksheets and teacher’s guides, interactive games, and literacy strategies proven to increase reading comprehension!
• Available online anywhere, anytime, on demand!
• Easy to use…
  – Friendly design allows users to access content by keyword, grade, media type and state or national standards.
• Proven, comprehensive content…
  – Topics contain research-based, teacher-reviewed curricula.

All of these new enhancements are included in your school’s subscription to Discovery Education Health Connection. 

Be sure to take a look at the new site!  Visit www.discoveryhealthconnection.com today!  And as always…if you have questions, comments or need anything at all, don’t hesitate to contact us! 

Until Next Time—

Christy Rogers

If Descartes were alive today, and teaching in our school system, he might have been impressed with ThinkLink Assessment, a new tool from Discovery Education.

ThinkLink Learning is a revolutionary formative assessment product that helps teachers improve student learning and predicts how students will perform on high-stake tests.  Its model for measuring student progress toward meeting state standards has been proven to predict student performance with 80%–90% accuracy.  It enables teachers to run reports and focus on each individual. And most important of all - it’s easy to use!

To dive into ThinkLink a little more deeply, let me introduce Betsy Drennan, our Outside Sales Manager for ThinkLink Learning.

Matt: Betsy, can you give us a brief history of ThinkLink Learning?  Where did it come from?  Where is it going?

Betsy: ThinkLink was established in 2000 by Vanderbilt University, and it remains closely tied to both Vanderbilt and  Peabody College.  ThinkLink’s Predictive Assessment Series is a revolutionary approach to formative assessment, it’s proven to be up to 90% accurate in predicting student proficiency, and best of all…it’s extremely easy to use, so teachers love it. Teachers administer the tests up to three times per year. The tests require less than one class period per subject, and they are available either on paper or online. Teachers will receive the test results within days. The reports are color-coded and very easy to understand, so teachers can pinpoint exactly which students need help with which skill. Teachers can also create practice quizzes as desired throughout the year using our bank of pre-configured items.

You asked where ThinkLink is headed, and that’s a great question. Here’s why: we are very close to having Discovery video clips linked directly to the test reports. In other words, when the teacher is looking at her test results, and she’s looking at a specific skill that calls for remediation, there will be a link to a Discovery video clip that will address that specific skill. It’s something that our unitedstreaming customers have been asking for for a long time, and we are really excited about it.

Before you get too excited about all this, I should mention that since ThinkLink tests are so tightly aligned with state standards, ThinkLink is not yet available in all states. Right now, it’s available in AL, AR, CA, CO, DC, FL, KY, IL, IN, MI, MO, MS, NM, NC, NY, OH, OK, SC, TN, VA, WI, and WV.

Matt: Ok I think that we have a feel for what ThinkLink is and where it came from, but is there any way we can touch and interact with this tool, in other words, take it out for a test drive?

Betsy: I think the best answer is to visit our website: http://www.thinklinklearning.com to learn more. Our sales reps will work with you to try it out, just give us a call at 866-814-6685 or InfoRequest@thinklinklearning.com and we’ll set something up for you.

Matt: I know Florida Educational Technology Conference is fast approaching.  Will you be attending the show? If so how can participants find you?

Betsy: I’ll be there! Discovery Education’s booth number is 102, and we’ll have several in-booth presentations on ThinkLink: Wed 6pm, Thurs: 12pm, 1:30pm, 3:30pm, and Fri: 11:30 and 1pm.

Matt: Previewing with the ThinkLink is great, but would you be able to meet with interested school districts one-on-one?  If so what’s the best way to get in touch with you?

Betsy: I am available for face-to-face appointments. You can call me at 800-323-9084 x2545 or email me at betsy_drennan@discovery.com.  If I’m out of the office visiting districts and you want to speak with someone right away, you can always call our other Florida rep, Jon McPeters, at 866-814-6685 or jonathan_mcpeters@discovery.com.

Matt:  Thanks for sharing your thoughts, time and information with us Betsy.  What a great way for teachers to see what their students know and teach what they need!

Matt Monjan
Discovery Education, unitedstreaming
Implementation