• Meeting new people and forming friendships that can be maintained on-line with social networking tools.
• Going to the Discovery Studio to be videotaped in front of the green screen used by Discovery Channel stars.  We made a video to help teachers understand what the DEN is all about and to learn about the benefits of becoming a DEN STAR educator.
• Learning how easy it is to use Adobe Premier’s chromakey feature.
• Creating my own Mobulus Station that I can use to live broadcast professional developement when needed. 
• Learning about the benefits of cell phone technology for the classroom from Hall Davidson.
• Discovering the benefits of geocaching.  Now I want a hand-held GPS to try it myself!
• Becoming aware of many cool web-based tools such as Poll Everywhere, Jott, and Riffly.
• Signing up for a Plurk account, a Twitter-like social networking tool.  I lOVE IT! 
• Creating a video modeled after the Boom-de-Ya-Da commercial.  This was the opening activity.  I worked with teachers from Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas.  So fun!
• Spending time in a “green building.”  Water is saved by moving the toilet handle up for liquid waste, and down for solid waste.  Maybe Discovery can be highlighted during Earthcast 09! 
• Strolling the National Mall with friends before catching our flight home.
• Creating/sharing lessons & projects that use DiscoveryStreaming. 

My advice is to become a DEN STAR and apply to attend next year! 

Next week I am fortunate enough to be going to the Discovery Educator Network’s Leadership Institute in Silver Springs, Maryland.  I cannot wait!  I hear the networking and professional development is tops. 

Mozilla Firefox became available for download today. I found a wonderful write-up about the new features that is worth taking a peek at from dria.org, “the intrepid girl reporter.”  The malware and phishing protection are among the best new features.

HEY, THIS IS MY 100th POST!

Why would you want to do this?  How cool would it be to be able to add yourself or your students to  an existing DiscoveryStreaming Video?  You can swim with sharks, interact with past Presidents, and explore the rain forest! 

These three countries have vastly different philosophies from the USA.  They do NOT have standardized testing, competitive grading, and top-down accountability.  They also have pre-school programs between ages 4 and 7 that stress self-reflection and social behavior, not academic content.  The pre-school programs help students take responsibility for their own learning.  Additionally, the countries have social programs that provide families with support; poverty and extreme wealth do not exist. 

Interesting, isn’t it? 

I have been using Camtasia, a TechSmith product, for several years now. I love it…it is easy to use and there are many rendering options. Creating video tutorials does the trick when I am not able to meet with folks face-to-face. Jing is a free screen capture program, also made by TechSmith. It lacks some of the slick editing features of Camtasia, but its simplicity and sharing options make it worth it. A few days ago, a teacher asked for help with grading collaborative projects using the Moodle gradebook. I was unable to meet with the teacher, and writing out the steps would have taken 30 minutes or more. I fired up Jing and created a short video within five minutes. I was able to send a link to the video to this teachers and all the other 8th grade social studies teachers who might also want to know more about the Moodle gradebook.

Jing even offers free server space to upload videos. I highly recommend that all teachers and administrators download and try out Jing this summer!

What an awesome day! To celebrate Earth Day, a group of 10 or so of us from all over the world worked together to pull off 24 hours of non-stop programming over the entire GMT day. The webcasting team came from Canada, Germany, Australia, the UK, Portugal, and the USA. Conversations centered around preserving the Earth. Guests included scientists, environmentalists, business leaders, educators, community members, and students! We recorded the day’s events, which will be available soon for those to listen to later.

Participants filled the chat room to ask questions of the hosts and special guests - the live conversations were fun and informative. I was actively involved with about 18 of the hours either by hosting or providing behind-the-scenes support to the person hosting. This was true of the entire Earthcast team. It was the best teamwork I’ve ever been a part of!

The day was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. The pass-offs at the hour mark when webcasters passed the streaming to someone else in another part of the world were times when everyone came together - checking the sound, offering suggestions, and encouraging each other.

Student voices were heard from all over the world about important environmental matters. They were poised and proud to be broadcasting to a worldwide audience and they were invested in the subject. Their teachers report that they want to know when they can do something like this again.

I felt a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. I streamed both audio and video from my laptop for the first time and I didn’t mess it up. I enjoyed sharing the 6th grade blogging project done by April Warren and her students, and talking with Sue Hellman and her students about a video they created for Earth Day. I also interviewed Chris Clonen, the Project Manager of General Motors’ Education website and loved the conversation and learning about hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, no waste manufacturing plants, and more.  Click here for archived audio of the interview.

This one one of the highlights of my entire career and I look forward to future similar experiences. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks to the entire Earthcast team and everyone who participated! This event would not have been possible without the support of WorldBridges and EdTechTalk.

This is a cool story:  A teacher from my district (the wonderful John Shaw) presented about a blogging project he did with 4th graders using Blogmeister, see handout.  He showed how easy it is to embed Flickr slideshows and audio recordings.  His student teacher was there, too.  She did not have an active role in the presentation, but she chimed in with a few thoughts here and there.  After the session, a curriculum director from a local district approached her and told her that they had two teaching positions available and told her to apply, telling her that she wanted to hire teachers that did these kinds of projects.  Hooray!

I presented in teh afternoon about an 8th grade Social Studies unit that is taught using Moodle.  All of our 8th graders will be involved, as this is used as a performance assessment for technology literacy.  It was fun to share about the development of the curriculum and the teacher professional development. 

At the end of the day, Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow shared the results from the nation-wide Speak Up data, as well as specific results for Oakland County.  The results are included in her PowerPoint presentation.  “The students want to be productive in school, and want to have access to their devices… their laptop, mp3 player, Smartphones, and PDAs!”

Bruce Umpstead gave an overview of the state of Michigan’s use of technology.  He did a great job of highlighting the key points and his philosophy matches mine!  He will be the keynoter for Walled Lake’s Spice it Up Conference on August 26, and his message would be perfect for our administrators and teachers.

Meetings I attend outside of my school district tend to be with people like me - people who work on instructional uses of technology.  Our ideas and beliefs are shared for the most part.  The meeting today was with a group of administrators (superintendents, principals, curriculum directors, etc) who come from diverse backgrounds .  I enjoyed hearing their perspectives and ideas -  it was fun to discuss educational technology with people who have such different job responsibilities from mine.  The lingo was a bit different from what I am used to, but we all are interested in changing the learning culture of schools and are striving for the same goals.

The discussion was rich as we talked about the “formula” for the development of the kind of administrative leadership that fosters student use of technology as a true learning tool.  What makes some administrators passionate about the topic?  How can students be added to this discussion?  How can we encourage the natural learning that takes place informally in homes to continue at school?   Should teacher evaluation have a technology component?  How can we best share ideas and network with others about this topic?  What are the routines and practices of our best technology-using schools?  Of course, there are many more questions than answers, but I am pleased to be a part of the discussion and planning process.

Also, a phrase I heard for the first time was “generative leadership.”  …I plan to learn more about what that means.