Day+of+Discovery


 * EASTCONN Day of Discovery, May 29, 2009**

Jen Dorman was the Discovery Education presenter. Her blog is http://denblogs.com/jendorman. The PowerPoint she used and Quick Start files are available there.

Jen highlighted the Star Discovery Educator program. 6,600 Star Educators worldwide make a commitment to share the Discovery Education resources and they receive access to more resources.

Discovery Channel program content developed for Streaming, Science and Health is uploaded for Education quickly, sometimes even before the broadcast. Mission: Discovery Education transforms classrooms and inspires teachers with engaging content and services that measure and improve student achievement.
 * Engage students in standards-based learning: Discovery Streaming, Discovery Science and Discovery Health
 * Inspire teachers to collaborate and build community: Discovery Educator Network, Discovery MediaShare
 * Measure progress and identify area for improvement: Discovery Assessment

60 hours of ASCD videos for teachers available!

Discovery Education home will allow you to reach the products through one portal. All products are basically the same in layout. Product links are at the top. Searching is below these links at the top. The links in the gray bar below the search tool are the links within the product. For example, in Discovery Streaming you can link to the product areas, such as My Content, Teacher Center and Professional Development.

July 2nd is a new rollout of the main portal. One benefit is that the "My Content" will be integrated between the products. Bookmarking Content is a huge timesaver.

All of the content is downloadable except for //Planet Earth.// Downloading allows you to integrate the video clips or other resources in a variety of ways, such as added to an iMovie. Also you won't worry about the network connection. Legally, you cannot republish the video files to a public access site, but you can use the other resources such as audio files, images, etc. You can publish the video resources to a password protected wikispace, moodle, intranet, etc. Always include a citation!

Currently Closed Captioning works better through Windows Media Player than Apple Quicktime. Closed Captioning is a separate file.

Some of the videos will have Teacher's Guide, Curriculum resources and Blackline Masters.

Teacher Center has many features to assist teachers in finding information. Some are:
 * The Calendar has links to events at the day. One simple activity is to have them look at the Calendar on their birthday at the beginning of the year. Then the students discuss what they want to do in the future.
 * Lesson plans are downloaded. These are created by lessons that were vetted and approved by experienced educators hired by Discovery Education. Many of these lessons use tech resources beyond Discovery Education.
 * Thematic Focus are interdisciplinary units.
 * Discovery Education Atlas is interactive. The plan is to get this resource available for the student login.

Discovery Ed tech support staff under Christine Shih will upload all your students with a .csv file. When you add items to My Content, you can later assign them to students. You can assign by multiple classes, one class or individual students. You can also create an assessment from standards or create your own. After an assessment, you can have them see the question and correct answer (you can set this in preferences). Based on their assessment, recommendations for relearning will be given to the students. Two ways to view assessment results is by class or individual student. Individual student provides information about the student's answers and remediation materials. Class results allows for item analysis.
 * Discovery Science for Middle Schools**

Action Buttons -- These can be programmed to hyperlink to a web site, video file, etc. in a non-linear fashion. Three Ways to Embed Media into PowerPoint: (screen shots and instructions will be provided by Jen) //**URL for survey: http://sn.im/desurvey and you'll get lots of resources!**//
 * Multimedia Presentations That Pop!**
 * Remember the citation! Also remember to create a folder for not only your presentation, but to keep all the image, audio and video files in one place.**
 * Hyperlink: You can use buttons, images or text to "hyperlink" to Internet or files. If you use images, "Medium" is preferred in PowerPoint. This is a the slowest method.
 * Embed: You use the Insert menu to place the file -- be sure to have the files in one folder. In this way, you can have space on the slide to annotate information. This method is faster than the hyperlink method.
 * (Windows solution only) Really Embed: This method embeds the media player so you get the embedding as well as media controls.
 * Engaging Sites for Educational Activities:**
 * Prezi.com
 * GoAnimate.com
 * xtranormal.com (free version only allows 1-2 characters)
 * My Maps from Google Apps allows students and teachers to collaborate on the same file. You can copy the "large" image URL address from DE and add into Google maps. **Always paste the citation information!**
 * Sites** **for uploading PowerPoints**
 * myplick.com provides a place for you to upload your PowerPoint and add audio. Each myplick has its own URL.
 * VoiceThread takes static PowerPoint slideshow and make it active by having comments. The PowerPoint slide should be complete (no animation). If you use DE images, each has its own URL. You can change your profile to go "Pro" and check off that you are a K-12 teacher. You can use ed.voicethread as private domain for a price. You can access VoiceThread with Google Earth. You can link the URL of VoiceThread to a writing prompt.
 * LiveWeb (only windows) is a free download that will let you embed an interactive website.
 * Widgetized presentations -- Jen's slide has a list of places you can upload presentatons. These are free with ads. Teachers can upload the presentation to create a widget that you can embed.