Take Teaching to the Next Level
Where Microscope and Mouse Meet
Connecting to a Global Community of Educators
Matt’s Media Tips 8-27 Welcome back to school! I am very excited to get back in the swing of things with you and hope to provide you with lots of tips and tricks that you can use throughout the 2012-2013 school year. As you may know the Discovery Education team refreshes and enhances the Discovery Education experience every year so that it is bigger and better for you when you return back to school. This year they have really outdone themselves...I mean have you seen it yet? If not you have to log in and see the updates for yourself! I’ve created a few videos for you that describe these changes. All of these videos can be found inside Discovery Education but I’m including links to them here so that you don’t have to go searching for them. To access all of the links as a bundle click here: http:// bitly.com/bundles/mmonjan/4 Or you can check out and savor each one by reading their descriptions below:
The Brand New MY DE Page (pictured on page one) A new take on MY DE. I like its simplicity and ease of use. You can easily customize your profile and see all that is interesting to you right on one page. In addition, the new MY DE page remembers your clicks. Therefore, if your last click before leaving this page was on the Teacher Tools tab, then that tab will be open and waiting for you when you return to the MY DE page. Direct Link: To learn more about all of the new features and functionality within the new MY DE page, click on this video download link: http://bit.ly/ newmyde. Streaming more your thing? Try this link: http://bit.ly/streammyde Keywords: Once you’ve logged into Discovery Education you can use these keywords to find this video: Back to School, My DE, Enhancements
The Brand New DE STREAMING Landing Page Ok, how beautiful is this? You now can visually browse for anything, see an indexed list of all content, and quickly access things like the Builder Tools, your Classroom Manager and more. Direct Link: To learn more about all of the new features and functionality within the new DE STREAMING Landing page, click on this video download link: http://bit.ly/delanding Streaming more your thing? Try this link: http://bit.ly/streamlanding Keywords: Once you’ve logged into Discovery Education you can use these keywords to find this video: Back to School, What’s New, Enhancements, DE STREAMING
The Brand New DE STREAMING Search Results Page If you loved the new landing page you have to love the search results page. The new streamlined look adds lots of new functionality too. For example: 1. We’ve removed the detailed pop-up screens (this is good news for iPad or interactive screen users). 2. We’ve added new search filters - Check out the way we break out media in the Narrow My Results section. It’s like that old coffee commercial - “We’ve secretly replaced Johnny User’s old filters with new terms like “View, Listen, Read, Interact, Teach, and Assess.” Direct Link: To learn more about all of the new features and functionality within the new DE STREAMING search page, click on this video download link: http://bit.ly/denewsearch Streaming more your thing? Try this link: http://bit.ly/streamsearch Keywords: Once you’ve logged into Discovery Education you can use these keywords to find this video:
Check out the new media types. The Monjan Index
Discovery Education is built around differentiation!
Back to School, New Search, What’s New, DE STREAMING
Every once and a while our VP of product Development checks in with me to get a sense of how educators from around the country are reacting to the features and functionality within Discovery Education. He calls this the survey “The Monjan Index.” I feel like I have a pretty good pulse on our community but I’d love to have some real data to provide Bob the next time he asks. And for that I need your help. Here’s a link to a five question survey to see how you really feel about the new enhancements to the site. I’ll share the “index” with you all as the data comes in.
The Brand New DE Media Player This might not have happened to you but on my side the heavens opened up, a light shone down, and an angelic choir started singing when I opened up this brand new media player. I love this new player! You can edit the color and size of the closed-captioning right on the screen and you can easily download the content. But where this player becomes too cool for school is when you start to play with the transcripts. That’s right each closed captioned video has a transcript that goes along with it. When you play the video each spoken word is highlighted. But here’s the kicker. If you click on any of the words...anywhere in the transcript...you will jump to that part of the video! Words don’t do this justice - you have to watch the video below or play with it yourself...or both! Direct Link: To learn more about all of the new features and functionality within the new DE STREAMING Media Player, click on this video to download link: http://bit.ly/newmediaplayer. Streaming more your thing? Try this link: http://bit.ly/streammedia Keywords: Once you’ve logged into Discovery Education you can use these keywords to find this video: Back to School, Media Player, Enhancements, DE STREAMING Back-to-School Webinar Series! That’s right - we’ve got a whole bunch of webinars lined up for you when you return to school. Case in point, we’ve created a Back-toSchool webinar series just for you! Click on this link to register for one or all of the sessions http://bit.ly/bts12-13. The series runs from August 8, 2012 to September 27, 2012. The series will explore the exciting enhancements to Discovery Education, showcase how to engage your students with Discovery Education, and provide tools for Discovery Education administrators. We’ve made sure to give you lots of opportunities to join and each topic will be repeated multiple times so if you miss one webinar you can catch it again later. And, once you register for your session(s), we’ll send you reminder emails before your session starts because we know how hectic the beginning of the school year can be!
Discovery Education Webinar Schedule
Over the summer I got to speak with quite a bit of educators from all over the country. When I asked them what technology trends were they most excited about one answer seemed to rise above the rest.
nearpod By Panarea
Most of the educators were excited about the using some sort of tablet device in their classroom. Many were part of bring your own devices and/or iPad roll-outs. All were seeking and sharing different types of apps that could be used in the classroom and at home. And that’s when I found out about nearpod. From their site: Nearpod enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students' devices. It combines presentation, engagement and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution. Nearpod is a synchronous solution for the use of iPad and other iOS devices in education.
Dates
Help Me Make Matt’s Tips and Tricks Even Better I am always looking for ways to improve Matt’s Tips and Tricks and your feed back is invaluable to me. With that in mind I’ve created a short 15 question survey. I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts. If you can take a moment to fill out this super fast survey it will go a long way to making each edition better than the next!
Here is a link to their iTunes download
What is a DEN Star Member? The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and inperson. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!
ALL DEN STARS GET ACCESS TO THE DISCOVERY EDUCATION TECH BOOK FOR FREE FOR THE ENTIRE 2012-2013 SCHOOL YEAR!!!
Time (EST)
Link
8/27
4pm 4:30pm
Science Techbook Boot Camp: Episode 6 - Building Writing Prompts
8/27
4pm 5pm
Preparing for Back to School with the Techbook for Tech Departments
8/27
5pm 6pm
Techbook 2.0 Preview
8/27
7pm 8pm
Discovery Education Builders 101
8/27
4pm 4:30pm
Science Techbook Boot Camp: Episode 7 - Building Assignments
8/28
5pm 6pm
Getting Started with Discovery Education Assessment
8/28
7pm 8pm
The Collective Brain: Connected Educator Month
8/29
2pm 3pm
Preparing for Back to School with the Techbook for Tech Departments
8/29
3pm 4pm
Techbook 2.0 Preview
8/29
4pm 4:30pm
Science Techbook Boot Camp: Episode 8 - Building Assessments
8/29
7pm 8pm
Tools for Discovery Education Administrators
8/30
4pm 4:30pm
Science Techbook Boot Camp: Episode 9 - Process Skills Library
8/30
4pm 5pm
Tools for Discovery Education Administrators
8/30
5pm 6pm
Getting Started with Discovery Education Assessment
8/31
4pm 4:30pm
Science Techbook Boot Camp: Episode 10- Scientific Explanation
Miss a week? Catch back up here! 7/19/2012 6/11/2012
Sneak peek at the back to school enhancements. Roadshow app. Fun things to do over the summer with technology and media. Mustacheme app is featured.
5/21/2012
The ins and outs of Digital Storytelling. Digital Storytelling Web 2.0 presentation and apps
5/14/2012
Who Knew We Had News? Find an additional set of free Discovery News videos, the Video Yearbook, video almanac, and great webinar information. Roadshow App for playing back videos on-demand is reviewed.
5/7/2012
4/30/2012
4/23/2012
4/16/2012
4/9/2012
4/2/2012
My Five Favorite Summer Resources. We explore five free interactive sites that parents, students, and teachers can use over the summer. We’ll also explore a free translation app for mobile devices. Getting Your Game On. Finding great games, simulations and more within Discovery Education. Back-toSchool Sneak Peek Webinars announced. Futaba Classroom Games for Kids iPad app explored. Getting the Point with PowerPoint and Keynote. Learn how to trim audio & video in PPT and save both PPT & Keynote presentations as images to embed in Web 2.0 sites. 2 Screens and Joinme mobile presentation apps explored. It’s all about the Theme. We’ll explore several different ways to find unique thematic content. Three most voted upon stories revealed. Studyblue mobile flashcard app highlighted Scratch and Pop. Six-Word Story finalists revealed. Links between Discovery Education and Scratch.mit.edu, Popplet.com and EduTechr mobile app explored.
3/26/2012
3/19/2012
3/12/2012
2/27/2012
2/13/2012
2/6/2012
1/30/2012
Mi Content es Su Content. Bookmarking and sharing your Discovery Education content across your school and district, two great contests, and two text-to-sign mobile apps Can You Picture it? Learn how to create a six-word story using iPiccy.com and Discovery Education. Digital Story Challenge! MeeGenius Audiobook app for mobile devices. Audio Book ‘em Dano. Eight simple steps for creating an audiobook using iTunes and any computer (Mac/PC). Molecules mobile apps. It’s All About The Sharing. Uploading, sharing and accessing your own content within Discovery Discovery Education. Cel.Ly app polling device via any device. Teacher Center Treasure Trove of Resources. Interactive Calendar Atlas, STEM Connect explored. Socrative App (student response). Special Valentines Issue - Things I love about Discovery Education. Five Minute Preps, Images,Coaches Eye App What did you say? Closed Captioning on an iPad? Getting Closed Captions to play on your iPad, GreenScreens on iPhone/iPad with GreenScreen FX app Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations whiteboard apps
1/23/2012
Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app
1/18/2012
In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education
Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App. 1/9/2012
Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students
12/19/2011
Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App
12/12/2011
50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter - Flash for iPads
11/28/2011
What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps
11/14/2011
Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool tips you can do with Google. TED and Animoto apps
11/7/2011
First Six Weeks Aggregated
11/4/2011
Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge
10/24/2011
Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps
10/17/2011
Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps
10/3/2011
Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives
9/26/2011
Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!
9/13/2011
Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE