netTrekker Blog

Earn a Scholarship to NECC ’09

We want to help you get to NECC ’09 in Washington, D.C., June 28-July 1!

A few months ago, I was calling customers who have attended NECC for years to ask about co-presenting with netTrekker. I was getting the same response, “I’m sorry to say that I won’t be attending because our out-of-state travel has been eliminated due to funding issues.”

NECC is such a wonderful conference where you can learn new technologies, connect with friends, share what you’ve learned, and diligently seek out the latest classroom tool in the exhibit hall. If that’s what you love about NECC, we want to help you continue that experience.

netTrekker is offering two $1500 scholarships to educators to apply toward NECC travel expenses and registration. Earning one of the scholarships is simple. Create a project-based assignment for your students within netTrekker’s My Portfolio and submit the URL by April 15. You may submit up to 5 entries. Be creative! Encourage your students to use 21^st century skills by building in collaboration; have your students to create a podcast or post a blog comment; add external resources like a link to a BrainPop video.

Not familiar with My Portfolio? We make it easy for you to learn.

• Review our free tutorials. Scroll past Atomic Learning videos.
• Register and attend a free 30-minute webinar to learn how to build your project in My Portfolio.
• See examples on the NECC Scholarship website.
• Follow the discussion on netTrekker Village.
• Check out the Blog Series dedicated to the My Portfolio

If you’re selected as one of the winners, we ask that you spend 30 minutes in the netTrekker d.i. booth at NECC sharing your project with others.

Can’t wait to see you in D.C.!

Tags: My Portfolio, NECC, scholarship

Trek With Us

netTrekker d.i. has some of the BEST customers! Our educators are down to Earth, creative, and a joy to get to know. Yesterday in the booth we met quite a few of these great users and last night we howled with a few as well.

I would like to introduce you to a few of our customers from Henrico County, VA. These guys stopped by the presentation side of our booth and we played tag with teaching each other a few things. Jill and I taught them about the admin tools and the teacher code, and they taught us about Virginia. These guys are really dedicated to their state and have started their own curriculum building for teaching everyone about Virginia.

They call themselves the VirginiaTrekkers and you can find their website by visiting VirginiaTrekkers.com. There you will find podcasts, activities, SOL Correlation, and more links to learn about their great state.

Three of them were available for a quick interview, and you can find that interview on our new netTrekker Village.

Tags: FETC, netTrekker d.i., netTrekker Village, VirginiaTrekkers

FETC: Feed Me!

I personally think of conferences as a time to feed your mind and soul. I just enjoyed meeting up with a lot of old friends (and making new ones). That fed my soul. I also attended two great sessions, which fed my mind.My dinner wasn’t so great, so we won’t comment on feeding my tummy.

If you are attending FETC in Orlando, FL this year, stop by the netTrekker d.i. booth. It’s located at the near the middle of the 500 aisle on the left. If you remember our booth from past conferences, you’ll see a little bit of a change. This year we decided to try a small presentation side where we will be able to demo netTrekker d.i. and give presentations on some of the key features for our current and future customers.

Here’s the schedule for the booth presentations:

THURSDAY

10 AM: “The Collections….What You Need, When You Need It!” by Tom Turner of Polk County Schools, FL.

1 PM: “Now for Your Feature Presentation. Enjoy the Search!” by Jill Allen of netTrekker d.i.

2 PM: “What’s in Your Portfolio? How to Create Projects, Add Links, and More!” by Danielle Abernethy of netTrekker d.i.

4:30 PM: “I’m 21C. R U? Explore 21st Century Skills with netTrekker d.i.” by Danielle Abernethy of netTrekker d.i.

FRIDAY

10 AM: “Searching for ‘Martian Luther King’: netTrekker d.i. and Digital Literacy” by Kim Cavanaugh of The School District of Palm Beach County

12:30: “What’s in Your Portfolio? How to Create Projects, Add Links, and More!” by Danielle Abernethy of netTrekker d.i.

There’s also a few important announcements. I can’t give you any hints here, but one will be made on Friday and one on Friday night.

Come by the booth to learn more!

Getting the Message Out

Your project folder is complete, and now it’s time to share it with your students. You can share your folder either in a class folder (that you create) or the existing school or district folder.

The District folder and the “Create a Class” feature were introduced in December of 2007. The District folder makes it possible to share your project folders with any other teacher or student within your district. The class feature allows you to create a class that your students can join by entering the secret word (that you assign). You can learn more about creating a class with this video tutorial.

In order to get your folder into one of those areas, you have three choices. You can move, copy or bookmark. Everyone has their preference of which one, but I personally prefer the bookmark method. Here are my reasons:

· If you move your folder to the district or school, the admin has the right to delete it. It wouldn’t be done on purpose, I’m sure, but accidents happen. There’s no way to retrieve a deleted folder.

· If you copy a folder to the district or school, and then update your original folder later, you’ll need to make sure you update the copied folder as well. I know I would forget to do this.

· If you bookmark a folder, you are actually creating a shortcut to your project folder. If you update the folder, then everyone will be able to see the update. If the bookmark gets deleted, you still have your main folder. Your work would not be lost.

Here are the steps to bookmarking a folder:

1. Open the folder you want to share.

2. Click on Edit

3. Click on Advanced Options (in the Edit Window)

4. Select who you want to view and who you want to have the rights to change the folder. (I usually select everyone in the district to view, but I don’t change the rights to the change the folder unless it’s a collaboration project.)

5. Save the changes (that window will go away)

6. Click on Bookmark (middle of the folder window)

7. A new window will appear asking if you’re sure this is what you want to do. Click Save.

8. The bookmark will appear in your main portfolio. Go back there and put a checkmark next to the BOOKMARK.

9. Click on MOVE and select the destination.

One quick important note, you will need do the advanced options for each subfolder of the main folder you are bookmarking. You will not need to bookmark the subfolders.

For the videos on netTrekker d.i.’s My Portfolio, check out our HELP section.

Tags: bookmarking, My Portfolio, netTrekker, netTrekker d.i., sharing