Net Generation Education Project and Book Club
VERY excited to share with you the latest monstrosity to come from the Davis/Lindsay labs. As you’ll see, they’ve come up with a fantastic collaborative project, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. Read, soak it in, and then apply to become a part of it…. and join the book club!!
Net Generation Education Project
Written by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
As announced at the Flat Classroom conference this past Monday, the Net Generation Education Project is the replacement for the Horizon Project and will include approximately 10 schools with 300 students. The application process is now open for schools who wish to participate in the project.
Last year, Don Tapscott keynoted the Horizon Project 2008 which focused on having students envision the future of education via web collaboration and video. The reading documents include the Horizon Report 2009 from the New Media Consortium and Educause. Don Tapscott went on to include this project in his new Book, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World
So, the next level of “flattening” is to not only have classrooms connect but to have the classrooms connect in new and more far-reaching ways with the authors of their books. Recent examples of connected classrooms and authors include Karl Fisch’s Whole New Mind Project as they work with Dan Pink and such as Will Richardson and Anne Davis did with Sue Monk Kidd, author of the Secret Life of Bees.
In the same genre students in this project will interact on a Ning jointly created with Don Tapscott. Don will post weekly questions to the Discussion forum and leave video messages to the students. It will be a read/write project. He will also interact LIVE via a webinar. Don has a vision for improved educational outcomes and is reaching out to interact directly with students through his challenge and this project.
Additionally, the Discovery Educators Network is going to be providing and sharing tips and information on effective video presentations and how-to’s and a book club group for educators. Don Tapscott will keynote and the student keynotes are award winning virtual worlds educator Peggy Sheehy and her middle School students from Suffern Middle School using machinima from their Island in Second Life.
We will be studying this year’s Horizon Report (released January 2009) but adding to it the intro and Chapter 5 from Don’s book, Grown Up Digital: (Rethinking Education) to the reading assignments for students. Students will be divided into groups to analyze some of the key trends in reworking education to create collaborative report written with other students from around the world. Each team will have a project manager and assistant project manager to help facilitate the work on the team. These “managers” will be students with teachers working as facilitators.
Each student will cast their vision for the future of education with a video to be uploaded on our project ning. All videos will be automatically entered into Don Tapscott’s Net Generation Education Challenge competition and could win scholarship money for future educational pursuits.
You do not HAVE to be a part of the project with Julie and I to join the Ning and participate in Don’s challenge competition – so go ahead and do that. But if you are ready to have your students collaborate globally and follow the best practices as used in the award winning Flat Classroom, Horizon, and Digiteen projects fill out this form before February 9th and applynow!.
Our tentative timeline:
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2/1- 2/9 – Application process for classrooms
- 2/1 – 3 pm EST – Information Meeting
- 2/2 – 2/7 – Selection Process (classes will be notified as soon as they are selected)
- 2/6 – Ning, wiki, and google group are “live” by this date
- 2/10 – Final announcements of Classrooms
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2/11 – Greeting from Don posted to the Ning via video – this may be his “author keynote” or he may choose to have a challenge each week and have it be small pieces.
- Weekly- discussions posted to the forum (can we pick a day and a time for this to happen?) Will Don have a blog on the site as well?
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2/11-2/18 – “Handshake process” – Students join Ning – post introductions
- 2/18 – Teams announced
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2/18 – 3/2 – Research phase of project
- 3/2 – Wikis complete
- 3/1 – Suffern Middle School Student Keynote
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Some time in March, there will be a live session with Don Tapscott
- 3/3 – 3/31 – Movie Artifact phase of project (note that there will be some overlap between Research and Movie Artifact)
- *Storyboarding 3/3 – 3/8
- *Outsourced video requests posted to the Ning by 3/10 (we would like students to be able to do this with a blog post on the Ning and tag it outsourced – we can then add a menu item for everything tagged outsource_request and students can sign up with a reply and post a link in the comments, this is a change from the last project but will work better)
- 3/31 – Final Deadline for All Movies to be posted
- 4/1 – 4/8 – Post project reflections, student summits
Net Generation Education Challenge
Written by Kasi Bruno
A crisis is emerging in our schools and universities.
Traditional, one-way broadcast models of education are out-dated. Schools have not evolved as quickly as other institutions, and students are becoming disengaged as a result. Why are connected students at home suddenly disconnected at school?
How can we reinvent education for relevance and effectiveness for the 21st century?
Inspired by the work of Don Tapscott and Grown Up Digital, the Net Gen Education Challenge offers everyone an outlet through which to express their ideas and opinions about their ideal model of education. The challenge community will connect engaged participants all around the world, bringing educators, students, parents and professionals together in a global dialogue on learning. In partnership with the CBC, Flat Classroom Project, the Discovery Channel’s Educator Network and Classroom 2.0, Don Tapscott invites you to share your ideas and help make education engaging, inspiring and relevant.
Discovery Educator Network/Net Generation Book Club
by Steve Dembo
In conjunction with the Net Generation Education (NGE) project, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) will be hosting a weekly book club for Tapscott’s work, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. While the NGE project will be focusing just on the Intro and Chapter 5, we will gather together weekly to discuss the ideas within the book and their implications for education. Best of all, the author himself, Don Tapscott, will sit in on the final week to share his thoughts in a candid conversation with everyone who participates in the book club.
There will be both live and web based discussion options for participants. The live component will take place Monday evenings, 2/9 through 3/23 at 7pm EST. We will be looking for people to lead the weekly discussions as well. If you would be interested in volunteering to lead the discussion for one of the weekly meetings, please mark it on the registration form.
If you are a DEN member and would like to be a part of the book club, please register here. If you are not currently a DEN member and would like to learn more, please contact me !
Don’s publisher has been gracious enough to offer the book for only $18.45, a generous discount, to everybody who participates in the Book Club.
There are three ways to order:
Order directly from website http://www.800CEORead.com
Email Aaron at and let him know you are participating in the DEN / Net Gen Book Club Aaron@800ceoread.com
Call Aaron at 1.414.274.6406, ext. 204 and do the same.
Schedule
Part One: Meet the Net Gen
Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 – 2/9
Chapter 3 & Chapter 4 – 2/16
Part Two: Transforming Institutions
Chapter 5 – 2/23 (chapter on Education)
Chapter 6 & Chapter 7 – 3/2
Chapter 8– 3/9
Part Three: Transforming Society
Chapter 9 & Chapter 10 – 3/16
Chapter 11 – 3/23
Click here to register for the book club
Net Generation Education Webinars
by Steve Dembo
To support teachers and students who are participating in the Net Generation Education Project, the Discovery Educator Network will be hosting four webinars with two of the country’s foremost experts on digital storytelling; Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan. These webinars will be intended for teachers to attend WITH their students so that they may learn ways to create digital stories from the very best. To learn more about Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan, visit the Discovery Education Speakers Bureau.
Webinar 1 with Joe Brennan: Wed, March 4, 1pm EST
Webinar 2 with Hall Davidson: Wed, March 11, 1pm EST
Webinar 3 with Hall Davidson: Wed, March 18, 1pm EST
Webinar 4 with Joe Brennen: Wed, March 25, 1pm EST
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Discovery Education and Wilkes University to offer masters degree
Let’s get the full disclosure part out of the way right up front. Yes, I work for Discovery Education. And no, they didn’t ask me to post this on Teach42. But I think it’s pretty darn cool so I’m going to anyway. This is semi-cross posted on the DEN Blogs.
Discovery Education and Wilke’s University are launching a new online master’s degree program in instructional media! This has been in the works for a quite a while now, so I’m thrilled to finally announce it.
The 30-credit instructional media program will prepare teachers to engage today’s students in learning through digital media. It will educate teachers to become specialists who can effectively blend academic rigor with the latest technology, from video to Web 2.0 to virtual field trips.
Courses will focus on topics such as digital storytelling, using digital media in the classroom, using technology to support creativity, and applying brain-based theories of how students process information to technology integration. Kathy Schrock, a nationally known leader in technology integration in the classroom, will design “Internet Tools for Teaching” scheduled to begin in spring 2009.
Yeah, that’s right. Kathy Schrock is going to be one of our teachers. Too cool for words.
I won’t be teaching initially, but I am working on putting together a curriculum for a Web2.0 oriented class. However, considering how much information is out there already, if I’m going to be doing it I want to make sure that it really embodies the spirit of teaching in the 2.0 world. So while I’m not 100% what it will ‘look’ like, you can be certain that you’ll be reading about the progress of it here.
This isn’t a partnership that was entered into casually. Wilkes University had to ensure that the quality of coursework would meet their incredibly high standards, and the folks here at Discovery Education were just as concerned with creating a program that provides teachers with the superior instruction that they deserve.
“The program is designed to help all teachers effectively integrate media-based technologies in helping their students reach new heights of academic success,” Speziale said. “This is one of those special programs that can have an immediate transformative effect in a teacher’s classroom.”
Wilkes University is currently accepting applications for the Fall 2008 semester. Prospective students are encouraged to visit the university’s website at www.wilkes.edu/instructionalmedia, where they can find additional program information and sign up to receive application alerts via email. All Wilkes University Graduate Education Programs are accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
If you’re looking for a way to jump up the pay school, maintain your certification, and get a superior education along the way, you should definitely check into it!
Another contest you should win. Discovery Ed/3M Young Scientist Challenge
As if one contest announcement isn’t enough, there’s another competition going on that you should certainly be entering. Discovery Education and 3M have partnered together for this year’s Young Scientist Challenge. YES, there is a teacher competition too, and it couldn’t be easier to enter.
You can read all the details here, but essentially all you need to do is create a 1-2 minute video that demonstrates one of the following scientific concepts: Newton’s Laws of Motion, Acceleration, Aeronautics, Centrifugal & Centripetal Force, or Scope & Scale. Five finalists will be chosen, and each will be provided an all expenses paid trip to Washington DC where they will compete to become “DEN’s Science Teacher of the Year”.
Time to break out those digital storytelling skills you’ve been honing all year. Have some fun and create your 1-2 minute video and get it submitted by June 15th and we just might see you in DC.
Oh yeah, the main part of the competition is actually for students! So spend some of your last few weeks of the year helping yours students create their entries. Need a little help motivating them? Well, the Mythbusters are here to lend a hand.
Just think, not only could your students win a trip to Washington, DC to compete in the YSC finals, but they also have a chance to win a $50,000 savings bond! There’s a ton of prizes to be won though. In fact, the top entry from each state will win $250, and each of the 10 student finalists will win $1000 in addition to the trip to DC.
Need more resources? Check out the webinars that Hall created, one for the students and one for the teachers. You can also find a ton of links that Hall and Joe have put together by visiting here. Not only that, but they’ve recently added 40 audio files to the YSC sit. Students can use these clips to spice up their entries.
Visit http://youngscientist.discoveryeducation.com/ for all the details and to submit your entry!
2008 Discovery Education/3M Young Scientist Challenge
It’s that time of year again! Time for all middle school students to dust off their lab coats, clean out their test tubes and… grab their camcorders?
That’s right, it’s time for the 2008 Discovery Education/3M Young Scientist Challenge! This is the 10th year of the challenge. In the past 9 years, over 540,000 students have been nominated to enter, with 9 incredible students emerging as America’s Top Young Scientist.
The competition is open to all 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and will revolve around the theme “The Science of Space.” Students are being challenged to create a 1-2 minute video about a specific scientific concept selected from a list of concepts provided by the judges. Entries are not being judged based on production skills, rather the students ability to demonstrate understanding of the scientific concept and his/her comfort level discussing science in general.
Ten lucky finalists will win an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. to participate in the competition finals. After a series of individual and team challenges, an overall winner will be named America’s Top Young Scientist and awarded a $50,000 savings bond.
This is a wonderful opportunity to help cultivate a love of the sciences amongst our middle school students. I hope you will join me in both spreading word about this challenge, as well as encouraging students to enter the competition! Who knows? America’s next Top Young Scientist may be in YOUR school right now!
For more information, view the press release in its entirety or visit www.discoveryeducation.com/youngscientist
EdTechConnect tonight, free webinar!
Later today, at 7:00pm EST, we’ll be hosting the first EdTechConnect of the school year. It’s going to be featuring Darren Kuropatwa and Lani Ritter Hall, two of the conference coordinators from the K12Online 2007 conference. They’ll be sharing tips and tricks for sharing presentations using Web 2.0 tools and providing a sneak peak into the upcoming conference.
The webinar is 100% free to attend and will be a fantastic way to kick off a year’s worth of outstanding EdTechConnects.
Visit here to register for this webinar, as well as any others that look interesting to you. Currently on the schedule to present are: Claudia Linden (from Second Life’s Linden Labs), Steve Burt, Daniel Pink, Tim Lauer, Vicki Davis, Anastasia Goodstein and David Jakes.
Yes, all of them are free. Pretty incredible, ain’t it? Huge kudos to the mother company, Discovery Education, for committing to bringing cutting edge speakers to educational community.