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

Organization is Key

My Portfolio provides a place to collect links from netTrekker d.i., links from your other subscriptions and sources. You may add templates, a timeline, famous person search criteria with results, and images.

However, once you put everything together in one folder, you get a mess. And right now, my folder is a big mess!

Think of your file cabinet. More than likely everything is in a folder and organized, not just thrown together. That’s our next step, to create folders for organization.

First, open the folder you want to organize. On the left hand side there is a button that says “NEW FOLDER”. Click on that and you can create a new folder. You will have an opportunity to name the folder and give it a description as well. I created several folders for this project, including Famous Scientists, Images, and then two Website folders, one for Science Fair Project Ideas and one for the Scientific Method.

The next step is to move the items from the main folder to their respective sub-folder. On the left side of the websites are check boxes. Check off the ones need to moved to a specific folder, then click on move (right hand corner). When you click on move, your entire portfolio will open with the structure viewable. I selected scientific method websites to be moved into the

“Websites: Scientific Method” folder. I didn’t see the folder at first, but next to the Science Fair folder there is a plus sign. By clicking on the plus sign, I can expand the Science Fair Folder to see the sub-folders. I then click on Websites: Scientific Method and then move.

By doing this, you can easily organize a project with all your resources right there at your fingertips. Some quick tips:

• Folders will line up alphabetically and they will also line up numerically.
• If you need to order your materials, consider numbering the folders
• This process can also be used in the school or district sharing area.

Hop to it! If we don’t organize now, we’ll be a mess later! (Take it from someone who knows!)

Tags: Folder, My Portfolio, Project Based Learning, Save Search

Template Test Drive

How’s the folder coming along? Shaping up pretty nicely? Which websites did you add to your portfolio?

Today’s tip is how to use the Templates in the My Portfolio. Next to the ADD WEBSITE button is another button that says ADD TEMPLATE. netTrekker d.i. has two templates available. These templates allow you to add details to your portfolio which comes in handy when dealing with research or project based learning.

The first one is a Digital Literacy Template. This template has five questions a student should ask themselves before they decide to use a website for research. What a great practice for 21^st Century Literacy! Now with each template, you must add a title. The description is optional, but is a great place to add directions. With the Digital Literacy Template the five questions are already in place, but there is space for you to add more details. For example, the first piece of information a student should question is the author or creator’s level of authority. What does this mean? The space below gives you a place to put prompts or more details for the students, such as “what level of educational degree do they hold? Are they an enthusiast, hobbyist, or do they work in the field?” Or you could tell the students to look for a biography of the creator and tips on what to investigate.

The second template is a USER DEFINED TEMPLATE. This is a blank page for you to add your own content. You must add the title, but the rest of the information is up to you. I like to use this page to write the project directions, to create a Web Hunt or WebQuest, or to list the printed material you want students to use in the project. The possibilities are endless! Here is a PDF of the template I used for the science fair project. Another possibility for the blank template is for students to collect and save their research notes. They don’t have to keep track of the paper and pen or remember where they put their file. All of the details they need for that project are contained in one space.

The template is not a worksheet, but rather a digital reference or guide for the students. It can be printed off if needed.

Share with us how you use the templates by leaving a comment below. If have one that is extraordinary, send it to Danielle at dabernethy@nettrekker.com. She’ll share them on the blog for others to use.

Tags: 21st Century, Digital Literacy, My Portfolio, netTrekker, netTrekker d.i., template

Linking outside of netTrekker d.i.

Did you get your folder started? I hope so, because today we’re going to look at how to add websites not found in netTrekker d.i.

netTrekker d.i.has over 300,000 digital resources that are relevant and aligned to your state standards, but there are bound to be websites not in netTrekker d.i. that you would like to add to your Portfolio. You may wish to add the link to an online quiz, your personal website, an online document or a link to another subscription provided to your students. Any of these links may be easily added to your netTrekker d.i. portfolio.

First, click on My Portfolio and open up the folder you want to add the link to. You will see several buttons running across the top of that folder, including a button that says “ADD WEBSITE”. Click on that button and a new window will pop up. This is where you will add the URL (I recommend copying and pasting the URL so there’s no mistake), the Name of the website you are adding and then a description of the website.

Please note that Read Aloud, Dictionary and Readability will not work with links originating outside of netTrekker d.i.

Some of the items that I like to add to folders include Quizzes from Quia, a book list from Scholastic’s Book Wizard, a link to my blog or wiki, or BrainPop videos. What websites will you be adding to your portfolio?

On a side note, if you have a great link that should be added to netTrekker d.i.’s database, you can send it to us via the CONTACT US TOOL. The CONTACT US TOOL is located on the right hand side in the yellow MY TOOLS box.

Tags: blog, My Portfolio, netTrekker d.i., quiz, Save Search, video, website, wiki

My Portfolio: Start Sharing Now!

We have a tool in netTrekker d.i. called My Portfolio which is useful in creating Project Based Units. For the next week, we are going to explore the My Portfolio features and all of the uses. We are going to showcase how to save searches, add links outside of netTrekker d.i., how to add a template, how to organize your project folder and then how to share your folder with your school or district.
Let’s start at the beginning.

When you are logged into netTrekker d.i., you have the ability to save websites that you discover during your search. Start by doing a keyword search. I chose to use the keyword “scientific method” and will be creating a folder to prepare for the spring science fairs. In the middle school tab, this keyword brings me 136 results that I can easily customize using the refinement menu.
Next to each result you will see a checkbox. If after reviewing the website you decide it is one that you want to save, just put a check mark next to it. Go ahead and view the results on the next pages and check the ones you want to save on those pages as well. Once you have your results checked off, scroll to the top of the page. Under the refinement menu you will see a button that says “Save Search”.
(If you are IP Authenticated, you will need to log in at the top right hand corner in order to see the save search feature.)
When you click on Save Search, a new window will come up. This is where you start your organization of

your saved search and name your folder for the results. Your keyword and the date of your search will

automatically fill in the title field. You are welcome to change the title if you choose. Next, you’ll see a place to add a description. This is not mandatory, and you can leave it blank if you want. You can see the changes I made to the Title Field and the description I added in the photo
Since this folder will be about science fair projects, I did another search on science fair experiments. After selecting the search results I thought would be most helpful to my students, I clicked on “Save Search” again. Instead of creating a new folder of results though, I checked “Add to Existing Folder” and then selected my Science Fair Project folder to add these results to.
You can also save Famous Person Search Results, Dynamic Timelines, and images to your folders as well.
It’s your turn now. I want you to decide on a topic and create a folder of a project of your choice. Tomorrow will add more detail to your folder.

Tags: 21st Century, My Portfolio, netTrekker, netTrekker d.i., Project Based Learning, Units

Podcast: Get the word out – netTrekker d.i.

We receive many requests from our customers for suggestions on how best to communicate the features of netTrekker d.i. to students, teachers and parents.   Traditionally, schools and districts have used print and electronic media to get this information out.  netTrekker d.i. provides an online tour and training videos, customizable parent letters and school newsletter articles, instructions on establishing netTrekker d.i.  browser, desktop, and website links, and access to printable Quick Reference Guides, and Bookmarks.

One customer took this a step further and created a podcast to explain netTrekker d.i. and its benefits to its community of users.  GrantWood Area Education Agency is one of 10 agencies established by the state of Iowa to work with the public and private schools districts to ensure all students reach their potential by providing resources, services, and educational programs.  In the fall of 2008, Grant Wood AEA purchased a netTrekker d.i. subscription for the schools in its service area.  This large subscription provided netTrekker d.i. access to over 180 schools and over 75,000 students and teachers.  The implementation began with emails sent to the netTrekker administrators in each building to bring awareness and instructions on accessing netTrekker d.i.  This was followed up by an onsite netTrekker d.i. Train the Trainer workshop attended by Grant Wood AEA staff and some district administrators.  Finally, to help these individuals get the word out about netTrekker d.i. to this large community – a podcast was created.

The podcast was facilitated by Kay Rewarts, Grant Wood AEA consultant, as she asked the following questions of Marci Campbell, netTrekker d.i. Customer Support & Training Specialist.

• Explain what netTrekker d.i. is and it’s benefits to teachers
• How can netTrekker d.i. help teachers align their curriculum with 21st century learning skills?
• What are some of the advantages of netTrekker d.i. compared to some of your competitors?
• Can netTrekker d.i. be used by students and parents?  How can parents use it effectively to reinforce learning at home?

TO HEAR MARCI’S ANSWERS … check out the netTrekker d.i. podcast!

Tags: 21c, 21st century learning skills, netTrekker d.i., podcast