netTrekker Blog

And We Have Winners!

One of the hot topics in education is personalizing education. Of course, being a former classroom teacher, technology coach, and now a netTrekker Trainer, I could tell you many ways to use netTrekker to meet the individual needs of your students. However,  we wanted to know how YOU use netTrekker to personalize learning and put it into action, so we made this year’s ISTE Scholarship Contest a video contest where teachers share their story.

It was tough, and the judges spent a lot of time watching each video entry more than once. In the end, we could only choose two for the scholarships. The others will receive nice gifts from our friends at BrainPOP.

Join me in congratulating Jackie Shanti from Clara Barton School, Milwaukee, WI and Andy Losik from Hamilton Schools, Fennville, MI. They will be attending ISTE2010 as our scholarship winners. You can check out their videos, and the other entries, on our scholarship info page.

They will also be sharing their story in the netTrekker Booth at ISTE2010. Come by and say hi, and learn something new from a netTrekker Educator.

Thank you to all who entered and shared your story. They were all fascinating and edutaining!

Tags: BrainPOP, NECC, netTrekker, scholarship

iCan Create an iCon

I splurged yesterday and took the day off to spend with my son and a friend of his at SeaWorld. I let the kids play for a bit in the Happy Harbour, letting the kids get wet and run off their extra energy. While there, I met another teacher from Georgia and we started talking about netTrekker. It happened innocently enough. Her child asked a question about whales, she didn’t know the answer, and I said, “Hey, I can help you look it up.” So there we were, with kids running around splashing and screaming all around us, looking up information about whales on netTrekker using the iPhone and eventually her Droid. (Yep, netTrekker works on the Droid as well!)

I mentioned in another post that I have netTrekker as a shortcut on my home screen on my iPhone, and I was asked how to do that.  I made a quick set of instructions, including screen shots of how to do this on the iPhone and turned it into an animation. Did you know that you can take a screen shot of your iPhone by holding the sleep button on top and the round home button on the front, bottom of the screen and then let go. It’s pretty easy to do, and great for making tutorials.

To create the animation, I used an online program called Imator. Pretty easy to use for beginners like myself.  Does someone want to create one for the Droid?

I hope the teacher submits a video entry for the ISTE 2010 scholarship.  I told her she could use the example of her son wanting to learn more about whales at SeaWorld.  She seemed pretty excited when I left her filming her video with his flip camera and him on the Droid explaining how he uses netTrekker at school and now on vacation.

Have you submitted your video yet for the ISTE 2010 Scholarship? Deadline is April 16, and ISTE2010 promises to be fantastic, with plenty of opportunities to learn, connect with your PLN and explore the excellence of technology in education!

Tags: Droid, iPhone, ISTE2010, netTrekker, scholarship

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