Spotlight

Where to you find good apps?

How do you integrate apps with DE Resources?

1. Carolyn Stanley's blog post - http://bit.ly/ZgMi7X
2. Mark Hammon's YouTube video tutorial - http://bit.ly/ZgMmor

Turn that lesson into engaging and meaningful activities.

1. Give students the assignment to find photos in the Discovery library, import them into Educreations. Students can narrate the slide show.
2. Students create a conversation between the four gentlemen in the painting with Blabberize.com or Bubblesnaps.com
3. Use photos from DiscoveryEducation image library to create a poster of the water cycle using Popplet Lite mind mapping app.
4. Try Pic Collage to create a poster of information about China. Finding photos and information in DE photos.
5. Download images from DE to create a digital, but not multimedia poster using Text on Foto. Use this app to label a photo before using it in a slideshow.
6. For a different style of writing, have students find images in the DE library and create a postcard using PhotoCard app.There is an option to actually mail it for$1.99 or send to photo library so you can print and post around your room.
7. Create a slideshow with Lodge McCammon music - first download his songs on a computer then put on iPad -  (as ipad is connected to computer, don’t sync, just select View->Show Sidebar and drag Lodge songs to the iPad device). It will put Lodge in iTunes and make it available to other apps on your iPad that use music. But first use Text on Foto to label the photos before importing to ProShow to make a musical slideshow.
8. Tech Smith has come out with a new app called Ask3. The concept "Ask 3 before me". So when a student has questions in class they should ask 3 others first. This app allows teachers to create an assignment by video/audio from within the app and describe what students will complete. This gets posted to a "bulletin boaard". Students do their assignment an then come back to Ask3 to record their images and message for the assignment which also gets posted to the bulletin board. The collaboration begins when others in the class make comments to their peer about the work submitted. The product is in beta, so your comments to TechSmith are appreciated. You can have an influence on how an app develops.

Here are the resources mentioned in my DEN GURU Webinar.

Excellent Starting points for finding apps for education

1. Great Apps by category - http://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/great-apps/
2. Interesting Ways(to use ipad in classroom) by Tom Barrett - http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/
3. Review of apps by Apple Distinguished Educators - http://www.appitic.com/
4. Robin Martin’s iPad links - https://www.diigo.com/user/rmom352/iPad
5. Tony Vincent’s iPad links - http://bit.ly/YNHQBt
6. Robert Byrne’s - http://ipadapps4school.com/
7. ADE reviewed apps - http://appitic.com/
8. Teachers with apps - http://bit.ly/12SwX5A
9. TCEA matrix of apps - http://www.tcea.org/ipad
10. Real Teachers recommend apps - http://bit.ly/12SyQzd
    AppoLearning - https://www.appolearning.com/

1. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning - http://bit.ly/11UCZOO
2. 9 iPad Tutorials teachers should not miss - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/12/9-ipad-tutorials-teachers-should-not.html
3. 10 iPad apps to enhance critical thinking - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/10-ipad-apps-to-enhance-critical.html
4. 15 iPad skills every teacher and student should have - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/15-ipad-skills-students-must-have.html
5. 20 Random iPad Math Apps - http://bit.ly/YApXl7
6. 22 Alternatives to Book Reports - http://ipadders.eu/22-ipad-alternatives-to-the-book-report/
7. 26 categories for teachers using iPads in class, from math to notetaking apps - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/p/blog-page_9.html
8. 40 Apps for SAMR model - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/40-ipad-apps-for-samrl-model.html
9. 50 Things to do on an iPad - http://www.teachthought.com/ipad-2/50-things-to-do-on-the-ipad/
10. 50 of the Best Resources for iPads - http://bit.ly/12SwX5A
11. 62 Ways to use the iPad with your students - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/10/62-ways-to-use-ipad-with-your-students.html
12. 100+ Tips on how to integrate iPad into your classroom - http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/09/tips-on-ipad-use-in-education.html
13. 1000 apps organized by subject and price by Texas Computer Education Assoc.- http://edudemic.com/2012/02/1000-apps/
    Appo Learning - https://www.appolearning.com/

iPad blogs:

1. TechChef4u - http://www.techchef4u.com/?p=3891
2. Palm Beach SchoolTalk (wiki) - http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/wiki/projects/ipadineducation/
3. Edudemic.com - http://edudemic.com/
4. iPad ideas - http://ipadideas.edu.sg/ipad-apps/
5. iPad AppStorm: http://ipad.appstorm.net/
6. Kathy Schrock’s - Bloomin’ Apps - http://bit.ly/1447Kpz
7. Linda Nitche’s Scoop.it - http://www.scoop.it/t/ipad-resources

Sites that review apps

1. iEar.org - http://www.iear.org/ Consume the information here or help to create a library of reviews
2. Robert Byrne - http://ipadapps4school.com/
3. Kathy Schrock’s - iPads in the Classroom - http://bit.ly/1447PJU

eBooks by Robin Martin available on iTunes bookstore.

To view notes on the DiscoveryEducation Pre-Conference in Silver Spring, visit my DEN Blog: Center Stage at the DEN. All I can say about DiscoveryEducation is WOW. If you have not joined the DEN, then stop now and visit the site to sign up. You can have your own online professional development anytime anywhere just by reading the blogs! There are great ideas from model teachers and the discovery team of trainers. If you are from Pennsylvania, then you have FREE unlimited access to DiscoveryStreaming. Run to the phone and call you IU and get the access code to check out all of the great resources here. Summer is a good time to see what is available. By the way, August is back to school month and DES will be having FREE webinars.

Today I begin to blog on my DiscoveryEduction teacher blog. Most of the information will be cross posted to both locations. It is too hard to come up with different information for both places. I do come across a lot of great resources, so they will be listed on each site. I do this because I have been invited to help RJ Stangherlin with the PA DEN blog. Last year it was run by Jen Dorman who pushed it right to the top with the first DENny Award for a state blog. There is a log of pressure (self inflicted of course) to continue this as a source of good information for everyone. So stop by and see what is new on the PA DEN blog. If you have a suggestion, pass it along.

I just seems like last week when I went to HyperStudio Fest in SanDiego. What a fun time it was. Hyperstudio was on top of the world and was THE multimedia program to use in schools K-12. We loved it, the kids loved it and it was priced just right for the education environment. A few years later, much to my dismay, it slowly dissolved as it was purchased by another group. Out of the dust, David Wagner, Melinda Kolk and Dallas Jones started another company: tech4Learning and a new era of educational connections began.

This morning I received an email announcing the 10 year anniversary of tech4Learning. Their devotion of educational computing is unmatched. The monthly newsletter/magazine is filled with fantastic ideas for using their products. The pics4learning website is an excellent source of free images and they provide some of the best "at show" product demonstrations at NECC.

My school district has not bought in to their software at site license program, so we do not use their product on a full scale implementation. However, as a DiscoveryEducation STAR, I have received complimentary copies of some of their products. I must say that they are intuitive to use and blend well with other programs. I use their site, pics4learning all the time with my multimedia classes. The photos on the site are taken by ordinary people and freely shared. Anyone can submit photos to this excellent resource.

So send them a note of encouragement for continued success and thank them for their dedication to providing services and products to the educational community. Congratulations tech4Learning, I wish you 10 more years of prosperity.

Image via Wikipedia

Matt Monjan is our guide to using green screen today with Adobe Premiere Elements (PC) and PhotoBooth (Mac side).

• shoot
• edit
• create menus
• share

Instructions are on Matt's blog GeekyBird.com. Using PhotoBooth, make any DiscoveryStreaming video the background, then you can be in the front. PB does not use sound, so you would need to do this, then do voice in iMovie. Soon you will be able to upload this to DiscoveryMediaShare and get an embedded code to put it on your web pages or blog.

DiscoveryEdcation has so much to offer teachers from newbies to long range veterans. I just discovered this new site while skipping around the blogs I read. This site from DiscoveryEdcation is devoted to new teachers: The New Teacher Survival Central. I learned some great ideas from this site. There are blogs, lesson ideas, classroom management, classroom design and organization ideas too. Enter a contest, find some links from Kathy Schrock or just click everywhere! This is a must site for any new teacher regardless of subject, age, or time of year they begin teaching. No registration is necessary for this site, but you must have a user code to access the array of DiscoveryEdcation tools and videos. Once again DiscoveryEdcation does not fail education and supporting teachers! Most likely I will re-post this in September when most new teachers will be reporting for duty.

Image by krossbow via FlickrOur ESL teacher stopped by to talk about DiscoveryStreaming and showed me some wonderful ESL video sites. He uses these to teach teachers how to prepare lessons for their ESL students. There are videos on many topics, so bookmark the ones you can use with your students!

1. Colorín Colorado - webcasts that have been recorded
2. Learner.org - this link takes you to some Spanish podcasts - It is a FREE account

Don't forget that you can turn on the closed caption option in the DiscoveryEducation videos for any ESL students to practice reading English, or to find some Spanish voice over in many movies. Check the description of each video. You need to have a log in code to access these resources. Check with your media specialist or district technology director to see if your district is enrolled.

Discovery Education workshop and co sponsored by AFI (American Film Institute) was held at Bucks County IU for two days in February.

Day One: Joe Brennan from Discovery has given us a lot of information to digest about film making. There is a LARGE (88 page) document you can download from AFI website and it is a comprehensive guide to helping your students create digital video stories.

Day Two: The title link takes you to Jennifer Dorman's wiki with all of the links for digital storytelling. Suggested programs you can use just for storyboarding:


You can download and edit every DiscoveryStreaming videos, except for those which are labeled for non-editing only. You cannot talk over it, chop it up and you can see a comment that says "non-editable content" in the Media Settings window. To search for this option, go to the ADVANCED SEARCH and put a check in the category editable titles.

This is a good format to use with learning support students. You can put the video together and have them write the narration! Actually why not do that for ALL students.
You can not upload DStreaming material for pubic use on your web. Students can not upload material from DStreaming and enter it into a contest with a monetary reward.

Creative Commons
Allows you to use music, images that have been listed here. If you want to use commercial music or artwork, you need WRITTEN permission from the author to use it within the boundaries of copyright. See Jen Dorman's copyright page for specifics. Using Creative Commons teaches kids about digital ethics.

PHOTOS online

1. flickr - your accept a CC license for others to use your images as long as they are cited. Be sure to model good copyright practice when posing or downloading images. You can set up a user group and put images in that group for student's to use. Do not allow them to freely search, but put the content YOU want kids to use.
2. everystockphoto.com - there are a lot of organizations such as museums etc, that place their content online. This is licensed for you to use. You can create you own collection after you set up an account. They can collect photos and later put them into their project.
3. Library of Congress, American Memory Collection - Now located on flickr and has fallen into the public of domain. In addition to the image, the information has more information for the citation.
4. flickrstorm - you can do the search and collect the images with citations and you can download in html.
5. GoogleMaps - what ever you do, be sure to check out ALL of the Goolge Tools, enough said!
6. FotoFlfexer - photos must be imported from flickr first.
7. Use some of these image manipulation tools to create your avatar.

Chroma Key with Windows MovieMaker. There is a simple video "ChromaKey with Colin" that is a short tutorial to show how to do this process. You can use blue butcher paper or green. For a fun effect, put some of the green in front of the person. Later you can insert a ocean liner and make it appear as if they are on the deck of the ship, thus putting them actually INTO the image.

Discovery Educator Sessions - Sunday

1. DIGITAL STORYTELLING - with Jen Dorman I will put the link here later to her presentation. There are many sites available for FREE to use with your students to create digital stories. This is a chance to get away form the side show, PowerPoint, type of presentations. It doesn't mean you will be spending less time preparing, but you will engage your students into learning at their level. Be sure to check out Google Presentations. You can have many students using the same presentation, AND view a live conversation on the sidebar. Good for including students who may be homebound, or in different classrooms across the hall or across the ocean! To embed data information in charts visit swivel.com. If you want students to create with some of these online tools, be aware that you will need an email account. Some suggestions are to use Gaggle.net or Gmail.com accounts. If you want to use FREE background music, try eyespot.com, BUT check out the content of the lyrics. Some contemporaray artists put their music on there so people can "mashup" their video/audio content.
2. 50 WAYS TO USE DISCOVERY ED. STREAMING- Log in to the site and go to professional development/trainers tool kit.. There are 400 elementary songs, in addition to sound effects to download for ause in a presentation. If you decide to use the writing prompt builder use Firefox not Safari. Using the calender daily can offere some great writing prompts or class discussion points. For example, if you enter all of your student’s birthdays, then when their birthday comes up, you can talk about all of the important events that appear on that day. In the Assignment Builder you can film yourself with a green screen background and put your video over a shark video or walking on the Great Wall of China. This might be a fun way to introduce your students to their assignment! Or have them make a green screen movie about their topic! Another feature of Discovery US is the Interactive Atlas Map. From the Teacher Center, look for the Discovery Atlas Interactive Map. Click on the map and click on Launch Atlas. When you click on any site in the world, a list of videos will pop up for you to play. To see Matt Monjan’s presentation, you must have a Discovery Educator Account to log in HERE. With the new version of Inspiration (8), you can embed UStreaming videos. There are some excellent training videos on the American Film Institute web site.
3. GOOGLE EARTH WITH KIDS - Julia Tebbets. Students create online tours of the world using United Streaming videos and GoogleEarth GE with links to the historical sites. Have students crete their tour ON PAPER FIRST! For example students can make a tour of the 7 modern wonders of the world, 7 natural wonders of the world. Historical events study are a natural choice such as the Revolutionary War or Civil War Battles. Some novels talk about different world locations, so their book report could be done this way. Students studying habitat or biomes could create a tour with photos, citations, and links. THey can create an overlay with a polygon. For example, they could outline the states in New England, or time zones. Use the line tool to trace the route of an explorer, a migration route of the Monarch Butterfly, or timeline of a president of the US. Using GoogleSky, you can view the stars from France, Africa, Antartica, or your own backyard. You can also view other locations such as the Crab Nebula. You could also see the motion of the planets as they revolve around the Sun. When you scroll back in to Earth, you can select several layers to view, including weather. Students could include a weather report in their tour too! The weather information is updated every 15 minutes, whereas the GoogleEarth photos are often a few years old. You can also search for landforms such as volcanoes or mountain range. Students could pretend to be one of the delegates in the US to the Continental Congress. Trace their life route. Students send a photo back to the school from a vacation spot and their postcard is scanned and linked to the world location. Be sure you create a folder at the start of class and close it at the end of class. For image citations, from UStreaming, when the image comes up, there is a tab which has the credit information. Copy it and you can past the image credit in the image description. As of today, you can only embed Flash player videos into GoogleEarth, but you can convert other formats with free programs.
4. MORE WAYS TO USE US AND DEN - Matt Monjan. My hands are tired of typing, so here is the link to his presentations: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/streaming_a_to_z/