Discovery Institute: An Awesome Week of Learning and Fun!
I was fortunate to be able to go to the Discovery Educator Network National Institute last week. It was fantastic to be able to network and learn with like-minded technology enthusiasts! Highlights of the week included:
- 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!
