Hall Davidson can really “rock it”. At Sunday’s DEN Pre-con before PETE&C he shared some cool ways to go digital with some very non-digital items. In his first session, Build a Digital Classroom from a Cardboard Box, Hall demonstrated how a Rock-It portable vibrating speaker can amplify the audio on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad
Mush!
The 2012 Iditarod began yesterday at the starting point of Anchorage, Alaska. This yearly event, known as the “Last Great Race on Earth” is an amazing test of endurance that always begins on the first Saturday of March. There is a wealth of learning opportunities for students in following this event. Note: As I post
An Interactive Starry Night
You may have already seen this awesome interactive version of The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, but it’s beautiful and worth a re-run. This was created by Petros Vrellis, who credits the software openFrameworks for allowing this to be possible. According to their website openFrameworks is an open source C++ tookit for creative coding. Be sure to have
It’s a Wrap: Reed Timmer and Prize Time
None other than Discovery Channel’s head storm chaser Reed Timmer was the celebrity prize drawer for the closing session of a fabulous day of all things DEN! After being treated to a series of awesome sessions and a wealth of fabulous new ideas, DEN Stars took home Discovery messenger bags and balloons, and had a
Mash It Up for Deeper Learning and Understanding
Common Core standards expect that “students will use digital media to…”. Mashup tools will help them to meet those 21st century core standards. Carmella Doty and Renee Henderson kicked off their mash up session at the DEN PETEnC pre-conference by talking about Notaland where you can ” mash your ideas and media together with friends in a
Using Primary Sources to Reach Reluctant Readers and Teach Reading Skills
In the first breakout session at the DEN Pre-con in Hershey, presenter Elizabeth Shotwell readily admitted hating social studies in high school because it was just memorizing facts. It was a History of Civilization class in college and a professor who said that history was just the “juiciest gossip” that got passed down through the
Are You Ready to “Trek the Planet”?
Darren and Sandy Van Soye are ready to embark on a 424-day around-the-world journey to raise geo-literacy in K-12 students. They are calling this adventure “Trekking the Planet” and they want your students to come along with them. In less than two weeks this “incredible journey” will begin and it is not too late for
Playing With Media Session by Wes Fryer
Attendees at the Tech or Treat virtual conference were treated to Wes Fryer’s session on Playing with Media. Just as children learn through play, Wes urged educators to “play” with digital text, images, audio, and video as a way to become comfortable with these technologies. His book, Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing,
Monstrously Good Mash-ups
DEN Guru Traci Blazosky kicked off the Tech or Treat DEN Virtual Conference on Saturday by stirring up a cauldron of tools to create mashups…not the “Monster Mash”-up she shared at the beginning of her session, but a concoction of monstrously great tools to engage students in the learning process and help them create their
Create Your PLE with SymbalooEDU
It was tough to have to only choose three sessions from all the great ones offered at the DEN 6th Birthday Bash in Philadelphia on June 25. One of the ones I decided to attend was Symbaloo, since I had created an account a while back as part of a DEN special promotion but had