This year marks the DEN's 5th birthday and we are celebrating BIG TIME! As a STAR you are invited to attend the PETE & C DEN Preconference Event. Details about the day are still in the works but anyone who has attended in the past will tell you that you don't want to miss this event!
When? Sunday, February 21, 2010 Where? Hershey Lodge and Convention Center 9AM to 4PM
DEN Pre-conference Event at PETE&C 2010 Overview
The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is pleased to present a special full-day preconference event – A Day in the Life: Moving Beyond the Textbook. The day will provide STAR Discovery Educators and welcomed guests an exciting and enriching day of professional development focused on creative ways to use digital media in the classroom.
Participants will have the opportunity to customize their schedules as the choose from sessions such as:
•The Student as Collaborator and Creator•21st Century Assessment•Homework Gone Digital•Multimedia Einsteins•Web 2.010 – The Top Ten Web 2.0 Tools for 2010 •And more!
Lunch will be provided and the day’s festivities will come to a close with fun, prizes and special announcements from the Discovery Educator Network.
Registration for this full-day pre-conference event is limited.
Registration FOR STARS ONLY is open now! Click the link below and make plans to join the DEN at PETE & C for our 5th Birthday Bash!
In partnership with Comcast from Discovery Education, this newest partnership is geared to students, teachers, and parents in Indiana, to provide great resources for this state. Available for Comcast subscribers, this service provides a web-based, online, on-demand library of DE resources of local, national, and global issues with high quality content we have come to expect from DE. Absolutely fantastic idea, meeting students where they are already. Commercial concluded, what this webinar is exploring is the need to create an appropriate and safe trail of information as students use Web 2.0 tools, social networking sites, and the Internet.
The information trail that students leave behind as they explore Web 2.0 and the Internet at large is significantly different than most adults, largely because of the technology gap between then and now, or us and them. How students apply for college or a job today is so much different. Years ago, you had tighter control for marketing yourself. People saw what you wanted them to see. But today, your social media profile represents you, and what you may think is private to friends, family, and groups actually represents public information to several millions of people.
Steve says that this presentation came out of getting into an altercation that landed him in the principal's office with a message that his next infraction would land on his permanent record. While this kind of record does not really exist today, what does exist is the trail we leave. Everything you search becomes a part of your history, your permanent record of websites visited. Social sites are not bad per se; what is bad is when someone does something questionable and does not realize how bad or permanent it can be. And as deliberate as your control of your flow of information may be, things can escape you. If you put something out there, it will likely pop up where you do not expect to see it. People can be expelled from college, fired from the workplace, or removed from office for their digital dossier.
We are on disconnect with the notion of knowing what is private and what is public. Parents are often most vulnerable; they think they are not a subset of the real world. Sharing with a specific group does not mean that information is truly private. Be careful of your images and your captions; you may not be employable at a job of your choice. Your online work needs to remain professional, and you need to understand whatever you post online is truly public to the determined searcher.
Steve reminds us that blocking access to websites does not teach acceptable use. Our students are used to instant gratification, on-demand access to information. After all, they are our grown digital natives who begin creating Facebooks and websites in elementary school. The solution: Discovery Education resources with vetted content that is not blocked. Multitaskers here you go with the vast variety of DE content with out-of-the-box content. What we need is to meet our students where they are, and teach appropriate use.
Profiles are not anonymous; neither are emails. Just when students think their content is safe and private, they find out it really isn't. Once something is online, privacy is just a matter of determination. Anything is accessible, and delete does not mean gone. And another difference we encounter, even with digital technology is between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Creating content interactively and collaboratively is the essence of Web 2.0; it's how students play and want to learn. Schools need to create policies and protocols and help students take steps to understand what appropriate use really is. Filters exist because the laws has changed from "appropriate use" to "internet safety," making anything objectionable or harmful to local school districts to interpret what is not appropriate. Be proactive. Learn how social networking sites work. You can choose to add students or not. Model appropriate use and show them how to represent themselves professionally. Show students their work is not that private. Deleted does not mean gone.
The big question: where will students be in 10 years? The job market to a middle school students will still be there; will their questionable YouTube video hurt them? You need to change the content at their source; blanket it with newer more relevant content. If you know colleges and businesses are searching, you need to provide positive and relevant content, and it doesn't take much to provide good content for them to find. Demonstrate your passion, the things you are into, but do it positively. If you feel that you cannot share what you are doing with your parents, superintendent, then don't put it on the net. Clean house regularly; you will forget 2 years from now what you wrote back then.
There are definitely safe classroom alternatives. We need to trailblaze with our students, not trail behind them. Students are doing things now, so we need to act now, and find ways to make the shift work for teachers. Have students create their social resume. The real world begins right now, but if not sooner, it certainly begins in middle school. Choose the pieces you want to use to represent yourself; most colleges and employers do a 3 page Google search. Employers today draw from their own; people who are passionate about the same things--online. Work deliberately and maintain tight control over your content. Steve reminds us that parents and/or teachers discussing things with their students is not an invasion of privacy; what's out there is about as public as it gets. Take control of your permanent record.
Here are some ways to help students create a great first 3 pages on a Google name search:
For most of the world, Oprah's breaking news is just that, news indeed. But for those of us who know and love Discovery, it just seems fitting that the world's most respected woman is joining the Discovery Network.
Here's the deal... Oprah Winfrey has been on TV for coming up on 25 years. For an hour a day, she's been bringing "live your best life" television right into your living room. It's been great, hasn't it? Well now it's time for what's next. Not just what's next for Oprah but what's next for you.
OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network will be a 24/7 cable network devoted to self-discovery, to connecting you to your best self and to the world.
That's right. 24/7. All day and all night. Whenever you want. TV designed to bring more better into your life.
It's about time.
In January 2011 you will be part of a new network, a network of people who are all interested in reaching their greatest potential.
Oprah will be with us every day. She's the life force of OWN and will get a chance to explore all of her passions on the air.
OWN will explore the issues that matter to you and the moments that move you. We'll look at your health, your home and your relationships. We'll show you stories of strength and transformation. And we will engage you in your own transformation. It's your life. OWN it.
How can you watch? Discovery Health channel will become OWN, so if you have Discovery Health, you're in. If you do not receive Discovery Health, speak up. Your local cable operator or satellite provider can hook you up. And what happens between now and January 2011? We are going to build this thing together, on television and online. To get in on the creation, sign up for OWN TV Insider. We'll be in touch with answers, questions and maybe a few sneak peeks. Let's Go!
If you are not overwhelmed from the holiday that was and the ones to come, mark your calendar for the DENs first-ever science-themed virtual conference - SCIcon 2010 - on January 9, 2010.
The sessions will begin at 9 AM (ET) and conclude at 4 PM (ET). Your PA LC is working hard to bring you a live event in a different part of the state, so stay tuned for more information on this great DEN first.
In support of STEM initiatives, Discovery Education presents a unique collection of career video clips, learning activities, and related content for grades 6-8 and 9-12. Organized by discipline, the resources found here highlight the connections among science, technology, engineering, and math. STEM Connect is designed to help educators take their first steps toward blending STEM disciplines in their instructional approach.
To help educators keep learning going in the event of student absence or school closure, Discovery Education has gathered a special collection of resources across grades K-12 in the areas of English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The collection features videos, teacher's guides, blackline masters, and quizzes that can serve as easily accessible emergency lesson plans.
Thanksgiving and Black Friday, either virtual or real, are behind us and Discovery Education's December is packed with some pre-holiday goodies with a series of great webinars. If you ever created a wish list of favorite webinars you wished Discovery would reprise, update, or just run again, at the top of my holiday list is the first webinar out the gate. Our tech guru and Elfster, Steve Dembo welcomes in the December series with my all-time favorite, and you can bet I'll be giving my students extra credit for attending.
December 1 (7 PM ET) The New Permanent Record with Steve Dembo
And the list just keeps getting better, followed by our own inimical Hall Davidson.
December 2 (7 PM ET) Reaching 21st Century Learners with 21st Century Teaching with Hall Davidson
December 9 (1 PM ET) Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge Bring your students to learn about the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge from the winner's of last year's middle school challenge - Team Dead Weight. Check the video about the winning team, Dead Weight.
December 16 (7 PM ET) EdTechConnect with Gail Lovely In this session we will explore online tools and the powerful ways they can be used to engage young students in learning environments and activities. The emphasis will be on collaboration and curriculum integration. Web 2.0 tools, more traditional Internet sites and a little classroom and lab management will be added to the mix. Come with questions, curiosity and a thirst for learning - leave with excitement, ideas, links, tools and more!
Discovery Education has so many excellent programs that it is hard to select just one to promote, but its partnership with Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is hard to top. When you combine DE and Siemens and NSTA with our nations' students and teachers working collaboratively, you get a real definition of change agents working in a 21st century authentic assessment. What can be better than changing the world, making it a better place.
Take a look at this short video on the 2009 winners, and then gear up for the next challenge--and let me tell you, there is a LOT in it for you!
The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is open to K-8 this year and next year it will be K-12. Since this is a program that the vast majority (and next year everyone) of the community can participate in, we are encouraging everyone to participate, especially the Leadership Councils and the entire DEN membership. Here's why, and you are going to love the two-part opportunity.
1. Any STAR Discovery Educator who enters the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge by January 31, 2010 will have his/her name put into a drawing to win a trip to the NSTA National Conference in Philadelphia, PA (March 18-21, 2010). Airfare, hotel and conference registration will be covered by the DEN. You must be a STAR Discovery Educator and you must let us know that you and your students have entered the We Can Change the World Challenge by completing this form.
2. The state (where there is a DEN Leadership Council) with the highest number of entries to the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will earn a Day of Discovery in conjunction with the DEN’s Spring Virtual Conference. The day will be planned, managed and executed by the DEN team giving the state LC a break. Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo and other members of the DEN team will be there in person to present.
Any LC that has planned an event will tell you how much work is involved in generating a successful event. Our recent PA DEN Virtual Conference Live Event entailed countless hours of preparation, but just how many I could not really say, because that was the province of the Events Team. I just blogged the event, but I could see the behind-the-scenes energy that made our event so successful.
So here's the sales pitch: let's get our PA DEN members to participate in this challenge. You could win a trip to NSTA, our state could win a day with the DEN team (no planning here, folks), and let's face it, we are all winners for accepting the challenge to make our world a better place.
This year marks the DEN's 5th birthday and we are celebrating BIG TIME! As a STAR you are invited to attend the PETE & C DEN Preconference Event. Details about the day are still in the works but anyone who has attended in the past will tell you that you don't want to miss this event!
DEN Pre-conference Event at PETE&C 2010 Overview
Participants will have the opportunity to customize their schedules as the choose from sessions such as:
Registration for this full-day pre-conference event is limited. 
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