netTrekker Blog

SIIA Webcast July 22nd, 2009 “Digital Rights and Wrongs: Working Within the Law in the 21st Century Classroom”

Steve Nordmark, VP Product Development for netTrekker

This should be a good one to listen in on… netTrekker’s Steve Nordmark (VP Product Development) will be co-moderating!  Register now and put it on your calendar.

“Digital Rights and Wrongs: Working Within the Law in the 21st Century Classroom”

Tune into this important webcast on Wednesday July 22nd at 2:00pm Eastern Time for a review and discussion of the challenges and opportunities associated with new digital learning resources. This panel will have a mix of representation from the state and district level, as well as from content authors and solution platform vendors. Panelists will discuss Digital Rights Management (DRM) from their perspective, providing insights into the challenges associated with respecting copyright while addressing the needs of a broad spectrum of learners. Be sure to pass this on to your company CTO, Product Managers or other interested colleagues.

Co-Moderators:
Michael Jay, President, Educational Systemics
Steve Nordmark, Vice President, Product Development, netTrekker

Panelists:
Kate Kemker, Director, Technology Learning & Innovation, Florida Department of Education
D. Midian Kurland, Vice President, Technology & Development, Scholastic Education
Ann Reed, K-12 District-level Technology and Instructional Leader

You must be registered to participate. Register online by clicking here. Contact Tasiyiwa Mapondera with questions or concerns at 202.789.4467.

Tags: 21st century classroom, digital rights, netTrekker

netTrekker Hits the Hill

This week was an exciting one for the future of educational technology.  “The Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools,” the first in a series of Congressional hearings, was held on Capitol Hill to showcase the role that technology plays in improving education and student achievement.  Those of you who work with students every day are well aware, I’m sure, of the powerful impact technology has – especially when it comes to engaging students in the learning process.  And when they’re engaged – they learn, right?  Aren’t we all more active participants in whatever we’re doing or learning when we truly feel connected and engaged.  Technology is that key to making a connection with today’s digital students – and this was a great opportunity to get these points across loud and clear (we hope!) to policymakers and education leaders.

The hearing was followed by the “Bringing the Future of Learning to Schools Today” showcase where the policymakers and education leaders were able to see first hand how technology is transforming education.  They heard from educators and students about how technology is helping them in their classrooms every day.  And, companies who are dedicated to the mission of helping every student achieve with technology were also able to demonstrate what their solutions are doing to support students. netTrekker was honored to be invited to participate in this event and to share how we’re working to use technology and digital resources to support differentiated instruction to help every student learn.

This video from the hearing explains what Delaware is doing with technology and why it’s so important to keep educational technology as a top priority in improving education.

If you had the chance to speak with these important decision makers on Capitol Hill, what would you tell them about why technology in education is so important?

Tags: Capitol Hill, congress, educational technology, netTrekker

Connect with Us

Connections are made when two or more people have a common thread that ties them together, and are often made at an event of some sort.

netTrekker Village has several events listed on the calendar, including both online and onsite events. At NECC this summer, we are proud to feature six special guest speakers who each will be presenting a 15- minute session in the netTrekker booth #931 on how they use netTrekker or on a special feature in netTrekker. Marci Campbell, Jill Allen and I (Danielle Abernethy) will also be presenting in the booth at NECC, so there are plenty of opportunities to make a connection and learn from other educators about how you can get more from your netTrekker subscription. We are also pleased to announce that our two scholarship winners, Ryan Evans and Teresa Diaz, along with Teryl Magee, Chad Lehman, Jill Hobson, and Tom Turner will also be presenting in our booth, sharing insights about netTrekker from an educator’s point of view.

Check out our NECC Booth schedule to find a time to connect with us while in Washington DC.our booth, sharing insights about netTrekker from an educator’s point of view.

Our Sunday Night event at NECC, which was announced on the Village, is already full. We announced this one through the Village Message System and were pleasantly surprised by the quick number of people that signed up. But don’t fret, we have more events planned! If you’re in the Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky areas, there’s a netTrekker Fest happening on August 13th that is definitely worth checking out. Check the calendar for details.

Other events are online, including free webinars. Currently we have free webinars for how to make the most of netTrekker Village and the new Customer Resoruces section of netTrekker.  More of these events will be announced, and through mid June. We will also have many other free webinars on how to use netTrekker’s My Portfolio, special guests sharing how they use netTrekker, and more!

It is important that you RSVP for any of the events you are interested in. The RSVP feature is found on the right side of the event.

So join us at an event, and connect with us!

Tags: connect, NECC, netTrekker, netTrekker Fest, netTrekker Village, village, webinar

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.

VirginiaTrekkers love netTrekker d.i.

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

Register for NT101 Today!

We’ve had a great response to our last week’s December Did You Know? e-mail.  19 people have already pre-registered for our NT101 online course.  We hope you will make plans now to join us for our first netTrekker d.i. online course on January 21st.  Please read the information below.

…pre-registration is now open for the new NT101 online course that begins Jan 21st. Be sure to take advantage of $99 introductory pricing; regular price is $125.

• NT101 is a 20-hour online professional development course for educators. The format is designed for educators who are dedicated to understanding and incorporating netTrekker d.i.’s key features and functions into the context of teaching and learning. Participants will be guided to gain experience and build expertise using a variety of 21st Century learning resources, including Moodle, interactive tutorials, educational blogs, podcasts, electronic surveys, and other web tools. The course provides a collaborative online learning community promoting opportunities for interaction among participants and instructors as they explore netTrekker d.i. content and functionality.
• Upon completion, participants will receive a certificate for 20 contact hours.
• Pre-register now or contact your Customer Relationship Specialist at 877-517-1125 with questions.

Tags: 21st, 21st Century Learning, Moodle, netTrekker d.i., online course

Layering Time

High School Globalization netTrekker d.i. Timeline

I just got off the phone with a teacher in Georgia. She’s a science teacher that attended GAETC last week, and when she stopped by the booth, we played around with the Timeline Feature in netTrekker d.i. She didn’t realize that the timeline feature could do layers and was simply amazed. So at 7:30 this morning she called to go through the steps again and make sure she had all the facts.

She’s a high school teacher, so we started by going to the high school tab and clicking on the Timeline link found in the Features box on the right. We decided to use the World History timeline as our base and then selected the Globalization Era (eras are found in the black section) by clicking on the timeline icon next to the era. This pulled up the major general events, art related events, discoveries and innovations, and famous people who lived during this time period.

Next we went to the layering option, found in the right hand corner. You can add up to five layers to a timeline, and the topics range from science to art to literature. Each layer will have a different icon, as identified in the legend. You can collapse or expand sections by clicking on the up and down triangles and save the timeline for students to use in projects. Students love making connections on how one event or discovery might have influenced another.

I can learn more about Seaborgium, a discovery during this time frame for chemistry, by clicking on the

Innovations and Discoveries during the Globalization Era

link in this Timeline. And trust me, I know nothing of Seabogium, so those eleven resources have a lot to teach me!

How do you use the Timeline Feature in your classroom? Share your ideas in the comment box below.

Tags: Conferences, Features and Tools

Look Who’s Talking

Georgia is one of three states that earned an A on their technology report card, and after attending some of the great sessions here at GAETC, I can see why! The last session I attended yesterday was by Tony Vincent (who’s not from GA, but definitely an “A” presenter). His “Ten Tools For Teachers” was fun and engaging. I was itching to get back to the hotel to play with one of the tools he showcased, Gizmoz.

I finally got to it this morning. Gizmoz is a tool that lets you animate yourself, or other images. I decided to do a Famous Person Search in netTrekker d.i. for famous males from the 18th Century, that were politicians and American. My results had 127 people and so I selected the most famous, George Washington. I used a Weekly Reader resource to learn more about our first president and then wrote a simple “who am I” type script. I found an image that used as much of Washington’s face in our image search and then headed over to Gizmoz. I loaded the image, added my text, selected a background, and then rendered the video by clicking save. Click here to see my example.

Give Gizmoz a try and let us know how you’re using it!

Danielle Abernethy
Customer Relationship and Training Specialist

Tags: tools

Hello World!

This past year netTrekker d.i. Training Specialists have conducted nearly 400 customer trainings. At each of those trainings we see participants experiencing an “a-ha” moments or we gain an insightful tip from them. At a recent training, I shared one of those tips and was asked, “Do you have a place where we can go read other great tips and ideas about how to use netTrekker d.i.?”Our team thought about that question. We have communication mediums, such as our newsletter and “Did You Know” emails, but we did not have a platform to share these tips as they come to us in a timely manner.

Until now.

I’d like to introduce to you the netTrekker d.i. Blog! We hope that our blog will bring you tips and ideas to meet your classroom needs with entries about differentiated learning, inspiration with lesson ideas from some of our great users, and funtastic ideas from our training classes. From our survey of the Opinion Group, we learned that our users are interested in best practices, how to integrate netTrekker d.i. with our partner’s products, technology trends, and 21st Century Skills, along with training and implementation tips and strategies. We plan on sharing what we’ve learned on those topics with you. We want to inspire you in your use of netTrekker d.i.

So help me in welcoming netTrekker d.i. to the blogosphere by leaving a comment telling us what you’re looking forward to most and introducing yourself to the netTrekker d.i. community!

Danielle Abernethy
Customer Relationship and Training Specialist

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Tags: Training