Wisconsin

For Earth Day, listen to our podcast with Bill Nye—comic, engineer, and science guy—and learn his thoughts on global warming and sustainable living. He even tells us about his new show—Stuff Happens—that will air on Discovery’s new channel: Planet Green (which debuts in June).

You can play the interview, view the show notes and subscribe to the podcast by visiting the sites below:

• Lab Out Loud on nsta.org: http://www.nsta.org/publications/laboutloud.aspx
• Lab Out Loud Host (with show notes) http://nsta.libsyn.com

Lab Out Loud is a Podcast sponsored by the National Science Teachers’ Association. Science teachers Brian Bartel and Dale Basler discuss science news and science education with leading scientists, researchers, science writers, and other important figures in the field. A selection of links and notes accompanies each episode, enabling the listener to dig deeper into the topics discussed.

DEN Podcast Show #3 – Bernajean Porter on  Digital Storytelling (updated)

Important Update: As a side note, if you have been subscribing via iTunes, you need to re-subscribe as we have changed our link location to make the previous shows visible through iTunes.  Without re-subscribing you will not automatically download the latest podcast.

We received wonderful feedback from our second podcast! Yea!!!

Brad received over twice as many answers this week and the winner will be revealed toward the end of this week’s podcast. 

This week we have a very informative interview with Bernajean Porter the author of Digitales: The Art of Digital Storytelling and the creator of the website Digitales. 

To access the latest podcast see this National DEN page and the posting titled: DEN Podcast Show #3 - Interview with Bernajean Porter
http://community.discoveryeducation.com/discovery_educator_networ/

You can download the podcast via iTunes by searching for Discovery Educator Network but you must RESUBSCRIBE to the DEN podcasts as our link has recently been changed.

Midwest Team Manager, Brad Fountain, also wants to thank everyone who submitted an answer to the question from Show #2.

NASA 21st Century Explorer Podcasting Competition

Are you scouring the Internet for every web site relating to educational podcasting? 

You may have missed this creative, cool NASA podcasting student competition but you can still tap the winning examples on November 17 when the competition winners are announced.   There are some very useful links about HOW TO PODCAST as well which will benefit any podcasting "newbies."

The competition invited students to create an audio recording or video short to answer the question:  "How will Space Exploration benefit your life in the future?"

You can then vote for your favorite via the People’s Choice voting opportunity.

And don’t miss Periodicity by our own Dale Basler and Brian Bartel, Appleton School District HS science educators and Wisconsin STAR DEN members.  Their 17th episode and it is an fantastic interview with NASA Principal Investigator, Steve Squyers, called "Roving Mars."    WAY COOL!  Dale and Brian are really rocking with their science educator podcasting efforts! 

A great example for all educators into podcasting! You can subscribe to Periodicty via iTunes which is freely downloadable via www.itunes.com

1) Go to the Music Store
2) Search for Periodicity
3) Click on subscribe to this podcast

Other of my favorite DEN-related podcasts that you can find via iTunes by searching on the name of the podcasts (in blue):

1) Discovery Educator Network Podcasts by Brad Fountain, DEN Midwest Team Manager

2) Steve Dembo, our DEN Online Community Manager, TEACH 42, podcast (see http://www.teach42.com/_)

3) A School in the Coulee by Wisconsin DEN Member, Jeanne Halderson and her Longfellow MS, La Crosse, Wisconsin 7th Graders (see http://www.sdlax.net/longfellow/sc/ck/index.htm)

4) Open Source Classroom by DEN member Chris Craft (see Chris’ blog at http://opensourceclassroom.com/)

5) Speaking of History by Missouri DEN member, Eric Langhorst (Speaking of History is a podcast and blog maintained by an 8th grade American History teacher in Missouri who attempts to use technology to enhance the curriculum. Teaching about George, Thomas and Abe using the latest technology) (see http://speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/)

Do YOU have a podcast of interest to educators?   PLEASE POST here so we all can tap yours! 

Rumor has it that there will be many other Wisconsin DEN educators producing podcasts after the DEN event at The Abbey in Fontana.  Steve Dembo inspired many attending his breakout sessions! Patty Hawkenson, Eau Claire School District, has already begun sharing her efforts via her DEN blog. 

Discovery Education would like to thank everyone who made the first Discovery Education Network Podcast a big success. 

We received a lot of VERY positive feedback from the first show on Character Education and know that as word spreads even more people will be downloading this new resource. 

We also had a number of correct answers to the Podcast Question and the winner is going to be announced via this week’s Podcast as well as their VERY special prize. 

This week we are focusing on many new events going on within Discovery Education and the Discovery Educator Network as well as a wonderful interview with Lisa O’Brien a Lead Professional Development Representative that is going to talk about how to effectively utilize the resources available in the Professional Development section of the unitedstreaming site. 

You can listen to the Podcast either by subscribing to it via iTunes (the fastest method) or by downloading from the DEN National Blog Site (right click and choose save target as…). 

What a great way to explore the Professional Development support resources of unitedstreaming.  Lisa and the Discovery Education corporate training team provide amazing support for all educators integrating unitedstreaming in the classroom and library media center!

Are you confused by podcasting, podfeeds, iPods, and everything pod? A new weekly feature begins today, Guest Blogger of the Week. Brian Bartel kicks-off this series of informative posts by sharing his insights on RSS Feeders.

GUEST BLOGGER of the WEEK: Meet Brian Bartel - Appleton West High School Science Teacher

Want to keep up with current news in your subject area?  Try Google Reader (or other RSS readers) to get constant, up-to-date RSS feeds from various news sources and blogs.

Setup
First, you will need to setup a Google account.  Go to: http://reader.google.com.  You will need to follow the instructions to setup an account (see middle right screen shot below):

Once you have Google Reader setup, then you can select source information by searching for new content.  Alternatively, you can use other RSS Readers (listed at the end of this post).

Noteworthy Science Sources

ScienceDaily — the Internet’s premier science news portal — brings you the latest discoveries in science, health & medicine, the environment, space, etc.

·        New Scientist - International News, Ideas, Innovation — Weekly science and technology news magazine, considered by some to be the world’s
best, with diverse subject matter.

·        NASA - Science@NASA — Current space news brought to you by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

·        Science News - New York Times — Find breaking news, science news & multimedia on biology, space, the environment, health, NASA, weather, drugs, heart disease, cancer, AIDS, mental health, and more!

• Welcome to the Science Museum London museum and of science. Exhibitions cover all areas of science and technology. Includes online exhibits and a learning area.

·        Scientific American Magazine: The latest science news and science … — Monthly magazine of science. Website includes articles from past issues.

·        BBC NEWS | Science/Nature — Offers news and feature stories plus audio and video programs and clips about the natural sciences.

·        WSST Lab Table – The Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers has an RSS feed (of which I help moderate) called “The Lab Table” at http://www.wsst.org/labtable.asp

This is an example of what I might see on a daily basis…

You

You You will look through the “lens” for the headline, and a short description will show up in the main viewer.  To read more, simply click “Show Original Item” to take you to the original feed.  You can star noteworthy articles, and come back to them later.  As some sites are blocked by my district, I will star interesting news feeds and then access them later at home (often blogs are blocked – the WI DEN blog is blocked by my district!)   

Uses

This service is extremely useful to science educators trying to stay abreast of current scientific discoveries and news. This is extremely useful for teachers that want to stay informed for their own teaching, but you can also encourage your students to setup RSS readers to discuss current events.

But what about for other subject areas?  RSS readers have obvious applications for history and political science teachers. Try searching for your local paper to see if it has an RSS feed for their top stories. If you are a foreign language teacher, you can get foreign news daily.  But RSS readers can also connect you to blogs that might relate to your teaching.  Entering the search string “teaching math” reveals a “forum for mathematics teaching for students from upper secondary/high school level through university” (http://www.google.com/reader/finder?q=teaching+math).

And most importantly, don’t forget to setup the national DEN blog and the DEN-WI blog in your RSS Reader! 

Other RSS Readers:

• Rocketinfo: http://reader.rocketinfo.com/desktop/
  Collector News is an RSS aggregator with archive.
• Inform http://www.inform.com/inform/inform.htm
• 24eyes Web 2.0 RSS aggregator
• HyperSuper      http://www.hypersuper.com/

MORE at wikipedia.com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_aggregators

Jan’s note:  Try searching for educational blogs using the clustering search engine, Clusty!  This search engine does a great job of searching Blogs!

If you are a Wisconsin DEN member and would like to be a Guest Blogger contact Jan!

Each week or two the WI DEN will feature DEN members willing to "showcase" the exciting instructional strategies being integrated into their classroom, LMC, or learning environment.  Jeanne Halderson, 7th Grade Teacher at Longfellow Middle School (School District of LaCrosse) and Apple Distinguished Educator, is featured this week.

Jeanne became the first Wisconsin DEN member in September of 2005!  We celebrated with cake and balloons!

“Podcasting is motivating, because people all over the globe can tune in and learn what we are doing in school.  It is pretty awesome that I can go to iTunes, click on Podcasts and Boom!  I’m listening to myself online.” – Luke, seventh grade student

This type of student comment is heard over and over again in the School in the Coulee program at Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  Language arts class takes a new twist this year with the addition of podcasting to the classroom.  Podcasting is a term derived from combining the words “iPod” and “broadcasting,” and what it means to the students is that they can share their ideas with the whole world! The Coulee Kids Podcast is a showcase of student work, and just like a monthly magazine delivered to your mailbox, you can subscribe to our weekly podcast and have it automatically downloaded to your computer. 

Podcasting is not just a “fluffy” new way to teach language arts.  Students are still learning the school district language arts curriculum and mastering the state standards, but the added component is that they are being asked to discern the important concepts and vocabulary used in science, math, and social studies class and to teach the content in a way that is understandable and engaging to an authentic web audience.  The process includes writing storyboards, conferencing about the content, editing, performing, analyzing the raw footage, combining the spoken word with photos, working in teams, meeting the class deadlines, and analyzing their work according to the rubric created by the class. Students are challenged to create their podcast using their Six Traits + 1 writing skills which include developing ideas and content, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.  Additionally, students are striving to use their vocal abilities as an effective tool to portray a message.

If you think about it, podcasting is the perfect match considering the developmental characteristics of an adolescent.  Students of this age are egocentric and believe that everyone is watching them.  They are willing to work harder because they have an authentic subscribing audience.  This feeling of “being heard” motivates and challenges the students because their perception is that “everyone” is listening.  I have seen first-hand the drive students have to create meaningful content and to satisfy their real-world audience.

The Coulee Kids podcast has proved to be a motivating, academically challenging, and age appropriate activity to add to the middle school language arts class, and in the words of one of my students “Podcasting reaches out to others across the nation.  I feel our voices are being heard.” –Alyssa, seventh grade student

Jan’s Addendum: You can subscribe to A School in the Coulee Podcast via iTunes or any podcast feed. Check out www.podcast.net and do a search on Coulee Kids Podcast!  Wow… 9 episodes already posted by Jeanne’s class!  Way to go Coulee Kids!   

Please share if you are also integrating podcasting into the classroom or learning environment!  What challenges or successes have you experienced?  If you haven’t tried podcasting, what are your thoughts about use of podcasting in the classroom?