netTrekker d.i.
It’s Linda Morrell Day!
At Thinkronize, we value our customers and continue to appreciate their feedback and support towards our mission… ”enhancing the education of youth with highly effective technologies”.
Linda Morrell
Today, we would like to honor one of the first and most prominent advocates for netTrekker d.i. – Linda Morrell – Instructional Technology Director at Cobb County, GA. Linda provided netTrekker d.i. district-wide to Cobb County in the earliest years and with her team have provided us with a wealth of knowledge. We want to honor Linda Morrell by officially making today, February 27, 2009 – Linda Morrell day at Thinkronize!
You can join in on our well wishes at the netTrekker Village.
Joel Petersen
VP Strategic Relations
Thinkronize – Makers of netTrekker d.i
You mean I can add MORE collections?
YES, YOU CAN add to the collections already in netTrekker d.i.! And you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that it’s Weekly Reader Express (WRE). If you’re like me, you have fond memories of getting this great magazine as a child. Now you can provide your students with the same great info through your netTrekker subscription! It simply appears in your Collections Refinement Menu as well as integrated with other resources in Search Results pages once you order it.
And the best part is that you can search their database of articles, teacher’s guide content, and reproducible activities from eleven Weekly Reader classroom magazines from 2000 to the present. —over 7 million words in all!
WRE covers a broad range of academic topics, from social studies and English language arts to science, health, current events, and career development in all eleven of their magazines.
Can you honestly resist a magazine with such great covers? Give me a gorilla any day! “How do I get this?” you ask. You can get a free trial or add it to your subscription by calling 877-517-1125 or emailing sales@netTrekker.com.
For even more details, check this out: Weekly Reader Express.
Be SMART with Interactive Notebooks
Earlier in the week, we featured the Promethean Collection of interactive Flipchart lessons. The SMART Collection in netTrekker d.i. also provides you with over 1,000 interactive whiteboard lessons to use with your students, even if you don’t have a whiteboard.
Check SMART on the Collections menu to browse SMART notebook lessons
Developed in SMART Notebook software, lesson activities are correlated to curriculum standards and you can easily customized each lesson to suit the needs of your classroom. Each one is created in a subject-specific template with an age-appropriate design and works for a range of grades. Many SMART-created lesson activities have interactive multimedia files and dynamic graphics that students will love.
To locate SMART resources, perform a keyword search and then use the Collections refinement menu to quickly browse over 1,000 SMART notebook lessons.
This week to celebrate Valentine’s Day, American Heart Month or during your study of the body systems, have a great hands-on review of the functions of the chambers of the heart by doing a keyword search for the Circulatory System. In the Refinement Menu for collections check SMART on the Collections menu. Once you learn about the heart, there is an interactive piece where you actually put the heart back together and resuscitate a patient.
Simply click on Download Notebook Interactive Viewer to download SMART notebook lessons
Don’t have a SMART Board yet? Follow the link to the smarttech website at the bottom of the screen, select software downloads and simply click on “Download Notebook Interactive Viewer” . You will then be able to view any of the Notebooks found in netTrekker d.i.
It’s that SMART!
Collections: Quia
It’s Monday morning in the computer lab, I was just informed that the 5th graders will be coming to the computer lab to work on their geography projects. I have 5 minutes to prepare some extra activities for those students that finish early – and for me that means it is time to find Quia activities.
Quia has created a concept that provides educators “the ability to create customized educational software online, built around their own course materials and made available to their students over the web.” Over a million educators have registered to use this service and almost 700 of these shared assessments have been catalogued in netTrekker d.i.
The Quia activities found in netTrekker d.i. span over 100 categories from Accounting to Zoology in the form of quizzes and tests including matching games, scavenger hunts, hangman, and much more. These assessments can be accessed by individual students or for whole class instruction.
I login to netTrekker d.i., click on the Middle School tab, enter the keyword geography and click search. From these 1000+ resources, it is very simple to pull out only the Quia activities by using the Quia Collection Refinement menu… I can hear them coming down the hall … I have 1 minute before they arrive in the lab… I quickly select 4 of the Quia activities, Save to My Portfolio in a folder shared in the School Portfolio… the 5th grade class has arrived and I am ready to help them with their geography project and also direct them to some extra activities!
netTrekker d.i. has over 70 Quia resources catalogued in the Elementary section. Some of the more popular include activities to help students practice 
geography and map skills. Jeopardy-like games are utilized to practice reading skills for the emerging reader – by practice alphabetizing, rhyming words, and word families.
netTrekker di has over 130 Quia resources catalogued in the Middle School section. Some of the most popular include activities to help students practice matching up the World Language vocabulary. And to get students off to a good start on a research paper – have them play a challenge board game to review info needed for a research paper.
netTrekker di has over 140 Quia resources catalogued in the High School section. Some of the most popular include activities to help students review economics vocabulary. 
Newton’s 3 Laws of Physics can be confusing – until a student practices matching the terms with the definition.
Quia provides high-interest activities for the student by providing them with an interactive game to practice and learn skills and facts. Even though the students think that they are playing games, they will actually be learning geography!
As an added bonus by using Quia within netTrekker d.i. – you have the assistive tools for your students to use with the Quia activities – Assessments with Assistance! Dictionary HotKey provides definitions and translations for the instructions listed with the Quia activity, and for those students needing auditory support, instructions can be read to the student with the Read Aloud feature.
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.
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.
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 21st 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.
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.
Steps to add a website not found in netTrekker d.i.
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.
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.
netTrekker d.i. offers you the opportunity save specific websites to a folder.
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
The save search window allows you to give the folder a title and a description.
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.
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!
What Are You Searching?
netTrekker d.i. just released the top searches this fall, sharing what our students are searching. Here’s a break down of the top 15 keyword searches:
- Dogs
- Games
- Barack Obama
- Animals
- Halloween
- Football
- Civil War
- Christopher Columbus
- John McCain
- Weather
- Frogs
- Plants
- Native Americans
- Cats
- Cells
I’m curious though, why search for dogs in school? How are you using games in the classroom, and how is netTrekker d.i. helping you find games? Football – does it have an academic search purpose? (I actually had a complete unit for geography and math using hockey, so I’m not knocking sports in the classroom. I just want to hear your responses on how football is used in the classroom.) Cats, those mysterious creatures, are also quite popular for keyword searches. Are they on the list for the same reason dogs are, or is there another reason cats appear on this list.
Please share your comments below on how you or your students are using these key words in their studies.
By the way, there were over 1,087,610 unique search terms for the fall quarter. That’s a lot of key words!
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.
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