Virginia

Congratulations to Sally Norton-Darr and Chris Bugaj two Virginia STARs from Loudon County who recently made the headlines of the October 27, 2009, edition of eSchool News. Check out the article “How to be a Leader with Assistive Technology: Two AT trainers recommend easy in-class solutions — and share their strategies for success ” to read about their successful Assistive Technology  ideas.  http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=61425

Saturday, October 24, 2009
9 AM to 4 PM ET
Click here to register for the virtual sessions.

Click here to register for our in person event in Silver Spring at 1DP

The top 10 Reasons to attend the Fall Virtual Conference from the National Blog

10.  College football is overrated.

9.  The digital treats you’ll take away won’t cause cavities.

8.   You can attend in your pajamas (virtually or in-person, we’re flexible).

7.  Two full hours of the soothing sounds of Justin Karkow
Can I Help You With That?  The Student as Collaborator, Creator and Director (9 AM and 3 PM ET)

6.  A chance to win a HD Flip Cam for dressing up as your favorite Discovery personality

5.  Brand new interstitials

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

3.  The archived sessions just don’t have the same pizazz.

2.  Amazing professional development for the very reasonable price of…FREE.

1. Networking, networking, networking!

For the schedule and more information, visit: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/virtcon09.

The VA and MD LCs are joining forces at the virtual conference on Oct 24th.  Sessions will run all day at 1DP in Silver Spring and 2DP in Second Life. Both leadership councils have been working hard to provide you with a spooktacular day. Want to join in Second Life but aren’t sure? The experts in the SL LC will be at 2DP on October 24th to help you get your avatar in order and even help you find a costume for Halloween!

In addition to the webinars hosted by DE personnel, we will be presenting 3 live seminars for groups of attendees to rotate through:

Renee Henderson and Selena Ward will present on Podcasting (with a
Ghost Story theme)

Laura Pilker will present on Second Life To register for the in person event click here

To register for the virtual event click here

Click here to download the 1DP Conference Flyer.

As part of the day’s festivities the DEN is offering up three HD flip cameras for the best costumes that day.  Whether you are attending in-person or online, get dressed up as your favorite Discovery personality and you could win a flip cam for your classroom.

We hope to see you there.

Just when you think the DEN can’t get any better. We are proven wrong. I know you all probably received this information, but the information is so exciting I had to post again. DEN Gurus are here! Check out the post below.

In the past four years the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) has grown in many different ways including the variety of ways educators may participate in the community.  You can be a Discovery Educator and participate in the online community.  You can apply to become a STAR Discovery Educator and engage in both online and in-person activities.  And STARs who want to shape the direction of the community can apply to become part of the DEN Leadership Councils.  So, what is next?

It goes without saying that within the DEN community we have an overabundance of talent.  Every STAR has his/her own special talents, skills and passion for utilizing digital content across the curriculum.  We want to continue to provide opportunities for STARs to share their knowledge with the community so we are pleased to announce another membership level – DEN Gurus.

DEN Gurus are STAR Discovery Educators who possess expertise of one or more pedagogical topics (e.g., Differentiated Instruction, Project Based Learning, etc.), have demonstrated their expertise through a variety of professional experiences, and advocate for the meaningful integration of Discovery Education digital content across their area(s) of expertise.

DEN Gurus will be promoted throughout the community as thought leaders in the educational field and have the opportunity to share their expertise in a variety of ways.

DEN Gurus will:

• be featured as regular contributors to the National DEN blog
• present their own featured DEN webinar
• represent the DEN at a major educational conference during the year (registration and travel expenses covered by the DEN)

How do I apply?

Through a competitive application process we will accept up to five DEN Gurus in the inaugural year.  Applicants must be STAR Discovery Educators and agree to fulfill all requirements associated with formal recognition as a DEN Guru.

All application materials must be submitted by November 15, 2009 (5 PM ET).

The application includes:

• Online form
  • Complete the form at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/denguruform
• Resume and/or Curriculum Vitae
  • Submit at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/denguruapp
  • Make sure to include your first and last name as part of the file name.
• At least two of the following artifacts that demonstrate your mastery of the topic for which you are applying to be a DEN Guru:
  • PowerPoint/Keynote/Slideshare presentation
  • Handout(s)
  • Website
  • Blog
  • Wiki
  • Webquest
  • Articles in which you have been featured
  • Submit at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/denguruapp
  • Make sure to include your first and last name as part of the file names.

• At least one of the following that demonstrates your ability to communicate your mastery of the topic for which you are applying to be a DEN Guru:
  • Video of you presenting about your topic
  • Podcast of your presentation
  • Screencast of your presentation
  • Archive of live broadcast
  • Submit at: http://links.discoveryeducation.com/denguruapp
  • Make sure to include your first and last name as part of the file name

Timeline

Application window opens - September 30, 2009
Application deadline - November 15, 2009 (5 PM ET)
DEN Gurus Announced - December 1, 2009

Questions

If you have any questions about the DEN Gurus program please refer to the DEN Gurus FAQ document and/or contact Lance Rougeux at Lance_Rougeux@discovery.com.

I found Font Capture through Kathy Shrock’s Site of the Day email. The site looked interesting so I thought I would give it a try. All I can say is “Way Cool!” Font Caputre’s description is:

At fontcapture.com you can create a font from your very own handwriting. There’s no software to download and install, all you need is a printer and a scanner. Simply fill in the font template, scan and upload it to our website, and download your completed font. The fonts you create using fontcapture.com can be used on both Windows and Mac computers.

It was super easy and will be a great way to experiment with fun and different fonts. Below is an example of “Heather’s Font”

It’s that time of year again. DEN Streamathon is here. Register and learn how Discovery Content can take your teaching to the next level.

Click here to register for the DEN’s Annual streamathon.

Schedule All times Eastern

9 AM
Back to School Changes in DE streaming         
10 AM
A Day in the Life with DE streaming        
11 AM
Streaming the Solution: DE streaming in the Math Classroom
12 PM
Supporting 21st Century Literacy with DE streaming    
1 PM
Back to School Changes in DE streaming       
2 PM
Dialing in the Digital Compass: DE streaming with Social Studies
3 PM
Multimedia Einsteins: DE streaming with Science
4 PM
Homework Gone Digital
5 PM
A Day in the Life with DE streaming
6 PM
Back to School Changes in DE streaming        
7 PM
Crunching the Numbers - Using the DE Admin Tools to Show Your Success
8 PM
The Discovery Educator Network 2009-2010

Welcome Back to School! The DEN Events calendar page has been updated. Click the DEN Events Calendar tab at the top of the page to view upcoming Discovery Webinars, Second Life Events and VA DEN events. The great thing about the calendar is it is done using Google Calendar so you can add it to your current Google calendar.

Welcome to the Maryland Leadership Council

Please join me in welcoming the Maryland Leadership Council. Maryland DEN members have always great supporters  of  Virginia events. I am so glad that they now have their own council and can’t wait to collaborate with our newest LC. Stop by their LC Blog and welcome them Maryland DEN Blog.

The Maryland LC

Chair
Laura Pilker

Events Coordinator
Renee Henderson

Blog Coordinator
Mary Del Bianco

Blog/Events Team
Melissa Jacobsen
Aaron Smith
Doug Spicher
Selena Ward

Wow…what a wonderful day was had by all at the Virginia DEN’s Day of Discovery! The event, held on Friday, July 17th at Best Buy in Newport News, had a packed agenda of cool digital photography sessions led by STAR DEN members and Best Buy personnel.. If you were not there, you missed some really cool tips and tricks on digital photography and technology integration.

We were hosted by David, a Best Buy supervisor in the photography department. He started our great day giving us photography pointers. He shared the new wi-fi SD card, Eye-Fi, which sends your photos from your camera through wi-fi to your home computer or to an online photo sharing site. After this awesome opener, we walked around Best Buy taking photographs to use in our next session on importing digital photos and creating a digital story using MovieMaker. To close out the morning sessions, the participants enjoyed a session on the new Discovery Education streaming site and learned how to set up student accounts. The afternoon sessions included a look at Animoto and VoiceThread. David, from Best Buy, closed out our event by sharing ways to create a home network. This session included an extensive discussion on blu-ray players, SlingBox, and other “convergence” equipment.

Special thanks goes out to…
* Kristi Hingerty, VA DEN Events Coordinator and CRS from Virginia Beach, for setting up the event and for presenting the new DEstreaming site
* Denise Thomas, ITRT from Norfolk, for showing everyone the basics of MovieMaker and the fun site, Gizmoz
* Katie Knapp, VA DEN Chair and CRS from Virginia Beach, for sharing the cool music video site, Animoto
* Sheila Teri, CRS from Virginia Beach, for presenting VoiceThread.
* the Tennessee DEN for suggesting this fabulous event!

An extra big thank you to Norm and Rob at Best Buy for allowing us early access to their store and use of their training room and laptops!

Best Buy Day of Discovery on PhotoPeach

Links for related information:
Eye-Fi
Best Buy
Animoto
VoiceThread
Gizmoz
VA DEN
PhotoPeach

I hope you all are having a relaxing summer. If you want to do some learning while you are laying on the beach, check out the updated calendar of summer webinars. There are some great webinars that will feature DE Streaming/Web 2.0 integration. To see the calendar and register for an event, click here.

Enjoy your summer.