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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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 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.
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.