Discovery Education Speakers Bureau
Supporting the most effective use of technology in classrooms and schools
Supporting the most effective use of technology in classrooms and schools
If you use technology with students, and you have Discovery Educationstreaming (the majority of US schools do), there is a level you haven’t explored. Matt Monjan, the acknowledged Master of the Builders (Assignment, Quiz, and Writing Prompt Builder), will show you ways to use the Web, video, the computer, and your own imagination to take curriculum assessments to the next technology level.Master the tools your school provides with the master builder! If you don’t have DE streaming, leave with a passcode that will let you explore a new realm of instruction.
Nothing moves from simple to complex better than video. Learn a classroom asset management process that allows students to build video (or multimedia) subject-area projects using "kits" ---web-based and preassembled with graphics, music, and video. Begin with sheltered, curriculum-based resources, both free and fee. Use free, dead-simple software to engage students through content creation. Not only does this build necessary skills like collaboration, mastery, and innovation, it taps deeper learning. This is a great strategy for technology reluctant teachers. No camcorders required! From this "scaffold", depth will follow.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the backbone of many of the most popular new web technologies, such as blogs and podcasts. However, that's just the very tip of the iceberg. Learn what RSS is and then learn how RSS can be used to create individualized professional development and learning communities. Explore built in browser tools and aggregators and gain an understanding of how you can take control of your blog's RSS feed as well as how to use other feeds to drive dynamic content throughout your site. You'll be amazed by the diverse ways RSS can be used.
Storytelling and media making come together with tools for planning, executing, and evaluating your project. Free and simple tools build projects and magical effects combine with traditional planning to engage students as never before. Adapt to any curriculum or grade level. Let them build it and they will come.
Students were born into in an age where information on nearly every topic was only a few keystrokes away. Consumers across the globe and students in classrooms now interact with content in a fundamentally different way than five years ago. Academic success can no longer be defined as the recitation of facts and figures. Instead, the degree to which our students access global expertise, engage with content, and create meaning becomes important as the criteria of a new age. Explore the steps for education to move beyond the Information Age.
Closed captioning is a powerful, underused tool for improving reading skills from pre-school students through high school. Tying words and letters to the full context of images and sound provides a critical link for comprehension. It is especially effective for second language learners. With impact far beyond the original target of the hearing impaired, English language captions improve comprehension and fluency. During the session will explore the many ways in which you can use Close Captioning in the classroom. Captions can be simply turned on--or manipulated with technology for imaginative uses that will surprise you. We’ll even create our own CC template so that we can make any video close captioned!
In an era when student missteps can linger on the internet for years, and stories of predators and cyberbullies dominate the news, there are plenty of reasons for schools to tighten their firewalls. But is banning really a viable response? How do we help students learn to leverage the powerful new tools that are available to them? What policies do we set that ensure that learning and safety go hand in hand? See how some districts have embraced new technologies while still maintaining high standards and keeping their students safe.
Presentation with sample policies and articles
Presentation and resources from MACUL 2009
Whether you teach in a one-to-one setting or a one-computer classroom, explore the many ways to engage your students through digital content. Construct learning centers and online assignments. Facilitate team digital storytelling projects. The possibilities are endless. Come discover for yourself. Director's Cut: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom Allow your students to make real-life connections to their learning...literally. Have them become part of the show. This session will focus on ways to use digital storytelling as an important instructional tool in any content area. Teachers can capitalize on all the digital assets available to them through the web to create powerful stories in accessible programs like Google Earth, PhotoStory, MovieMaker and iMovie.
Web 2.0 sites, webcams, easy editors and media libraries mean you can make and remix meaningful media for the classroom. Avatars wink, Mt. Rushmore speaks, markers circle, long videos shrink. Add captioning, chromakey, and more to help curriculum stick for the media-minded students you teach. A fast-paced tour of tools and techniques. Most are free, the rest reasonable. Examples from primary through high school.
There are some mysteries worth demystifying. HTML code is the backbone behind more than just the Internet. Yet few teachers spent time on it. Basic knowledge can create new awareness and power for students. Media players like iPods can be changed. Projects can dazzle inside Google Earth. Videos can be inserted onto the websites, and much more. Learn simple cut-and-pastes for beginners or experts that will pullback the curtain and create wizards in your classroom.
The rapidly changing needs of the business world demand rapid changes in the way we teach students. Restructuring of teacher workdays and budget cuts reduce professional development time to a minimum. The answer: Enhanced use of forums, blogs, wikis, podcasts, twits, and educational communities for teachers to learn new skills with support from peer experts throughout the world. The model for professional development has changed without many of us realizing it or taking advantage of it. The advancement of Web 2.0 makes the opportunities for professional development easily accessible to even the most basic computer users.
Teachers used to threaten that if students didn't behave, it would go down on their permanent record. While there was no such record in the past, there is now. Students are leaving a trail of their online activities behind them that will last far longer than they ever might expect. This presentation delves into specific actions that students are engaging in now that have long term consequences for them and how we, as educators, can guide them to the right path..
What veteran teachers suspected the research has proved: 21st Century students are different. With different attention spans, higher IQ test scores, and social networks, their sophistication comes earlier—with a different skill set. There is a silver lining: We can teach this “New Brain” more effectively, more efficiently, more engagingly. We have the technology! Media has evolved and education must evolve to match.
The cameras in their cell phones make them citizen journalists. The web is their personal library and media center. Social networks give them enormous group expertise. They communicate in real time with the ends of the earth. But can they convince their teachers to let them learn at school with help from such powerful tools? Beyond the "wow," technology provides nearly limitless potential for connectivity and education. See examples of how today's technologies can (and should) engage and teach a new generation of students.
Technology serves supremely the needs of gifted students. Bottomless depth and complexity, great for identifying themes, and skills in context. Learn strategies using Google Earth and digital media curriculum content creation. Basic tools can make the gifted thrive. They need not be pulled out if they're pulled in with technology
You’ve heard the term in the media, trade publications, at staff developments. Even Congress is talking about it. But what is a “21st Century Student” and what makes him different from the student of a decade ago? Their brains are developing in a different way. They are processing information differently than any students before them. They learn new skills in entirely new manners. They have skills that many adults cannot conceptualize or are not comfortable with, so we limit their use in the classroom. By understanding the students we are teaching, as well as what preparations they need to be successful in the future, educational institutions can adjust their methods of instruction to better meet the needs of these students.
Widgets, Gizmos and Gadgets! OSX has them, Vista has them, blogs have them, and now you can bring them into Discovery Educationstreaming! Learn how to bring incredible Web 2.0 resources into Quiz Builder and Assignment Builder. Concept maps, chat boxes, Google Maps, YouTube videos, charts, graphs and PowerPoints can all be integrated into the largest source of educational digital media on the internet! A great model of how the Internet and Web 2.0 extend existing curriculum resources.