Monthly Archives: November 2008
25/11/08 METC Advisory Committee
Multitasking: Midwest Education Technology Conference Advisory Committee
Tags: Cooperating School Districts, METC, METC2009, Midwest Education Technology Conference, Web 2.0
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- Posted under Conferences, VLC Programs
25/11/08 bring the past to the present with Promethean
Yesterday, in Nancy’s Promethean class, she showed the teachers how to layer photos on top of one another and then have them blend into one another- a cool trick, especially if you have a photo of a place in the past and a current picture of the same location. Look closely… what are some of the differences in the photos above (they have been taken about 100 years apart from each other)?
Tags: Cooperating School Districts, Promethean Activboard, Tech PD, tele, Virtual Learning Center
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- Posted under Classroom Technology, Links, Promethean Activboard, Tech PD, VLC Programs
24/11/08 don’t forget the ACT registration deadline…
Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis has a partnership with The Princeton Review to bring inexpensive, quality ACT prep to students through distance learning. For just $140, a student gets three practice tests, 20 hours of interactive instruction and access to online resources from The Princeton Review.
The registration deadline for the February test prep videoconference course is Friday, December 12, 2008. This is an interactive H323 videoconference where students meet in a classroom with the technology and connect to the instructor with the help of a v/c facilitator. For more info, click here.
Tags: ACT, ACT prep, The Princeton Review
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- Posted under Classroom Technology, Distance Learning, Links, Videoconferencing, VLC Programs
24/11/08 Recap
Over the last week or so we’ve had a lot going on here in the VLC! Scott Caulfield led MPUG in the tele; Vicki Cobb connected to Independence Elementary over videoconference; Nancy has been teaching Promethean applications to educators from the Riverview Gardens School District. We had two iTEAs, ITNA, and several more videoconferences. Up this (shorted week): more Promethean training, a Patricia McKissack videoconference, and an METC Advisory Committee meeting.
24/11/08 Super Early Bird Registration Ends November 30!
Midwest Education Technology Conference‘s Super Early Bird registration, which is the same price as if you were a Cooperating School Districts member, ends November 30. Early Bird registration, still a discount off the registration price, ends December 31. For a complete list of registration deadlines and prices, click here.
Remember, send a group of five (or more) from your school (district) and you can get a discounted rate, too.
We want to see you at METC this January!
Tags: Cooperating School Districts, METC, Midwest Education Technology Conference
24/11/08 The Bad Plus Equals One Good Videoconference
The Bad Plus performs
What does it mean to be a professional musician? How do you put a music group together and stay together? What are the struggles, the excitements, the ups, the downs? What’s the process used to compose your own music and to create unique cover versions of other musicians’ work? How do you determine what techniques and instrumentation work best? Join The Bad Plus on January 9, 2009 at 1 PM CST as they perform samples of their unique style of jazz music live from St. Louis, Missouri! Explore the creative process of composition and performance. Consider the concepts of technique, theme and improvisation. Ask about training, instrumentation and building a career as a professional musician. Learn about the cultural significance of jazz and enjoy the music! Cost for this RoundTrips videoconference is free. Register by January 2 at roundtrips@clayton.k12.mo.us.
Learning objectives for this videoconference from RoundTrips are:
1. The participant will explore the nature of the creative process and how to apply that process to their interests in music and other aspects of their life.
2. The participant will learn about techniques and instrumentation used in jazz music and hear and see examples of those techniques and instrumentations in practice.
3. The participant will gain a greater understanding of the impact and influence of jazz music in American culture and what it means to be a professional jazz musician.
Tags: American culture, creative process, improvisation, jazz, Jazz At The Bistro, professional musician, RoundTrips, technique, The Bad Plus, theme, videoconference
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- Posted under Classroom Technology, Collaboration, Distance Learning, Links, Videoconferencing
24/11/08 Glasgow Bridge is falling down…
Join RoundTrips live on Monday, December 8 from Rolla, Missouri, and Macon, Missouri. Be part of the action as explosives expert Dr. Paul Worsey (Professor of Mining Engineering, Missouri S&T) and engineers Dennis Brucks and Brian Haeffner from Missouri Department of Transportation walk us through the process of bringing down the Glasgow Bridge (click here to see photos).
This free videoconference is the first of an ongoing series of programs that will occur throughout the 2008-2009 school year. During this series of programs entitled Project MO-Bridge: Connecting Students to Their Future your students will be able to learn what it takes to build a new bridge—from dream to design to construction to operation. Students will interact with experts in a wide variety of fields and learn how specific aspects of their science, social studies, and mathematics curriculum come to life in the construction of a new bridge.
Before that new bridge can be built, the old bridge needed to be removed to make way for construction of a new span connecting route 240 across the Missouri River.
Have your students interact with the engineers who will give us technical aspects of the destruction and rebuilding of the bridge. Ask your questions about what it takes to safely destroy one bridge so you can begin to build another. See video excerpts of the bridge coming down, and explosives demonstrations by Dr. Paul Worsey.
To sign up for this videoconference (target audience is grades 4 through 12), contact RoundTrips by December 2 at roundtrips@clayton.k12.mo.us.
Tags: bridge, bridge construction, demolition, engineers, explosives, Glasgow Bridge, Glasgow MO, Missouri Department of Transportation, MODOT, MOREnet, RoundTrips, videoconference
21/11/08 New Links Author Visits Wordle
To learn more about the the text in this Wordle, visit the New Links to New Learning website and read up on our Author Visit programs: www2.csd.org/newlinks/programdesc.html. These interactive videoconferences range in topics from computer animation to creative writing to poetry. You’ll note a lot of the words that come with the program descriptions are research, hands-on, and sharing. To create your own Wordle, visit www.wordle.net.
21/11/08 MPUG @ CSD
snapshot from MPUG yesterday
Promethan’s Scott Caulfield hosted the Midwest Promethean User Group yesterday at Cooperating School Districts. This user group is open to Promethean users. Not in St. Louis? That’s ok- we connect over videoconference, too. Interested? Contact Martha Bogart at mbogart@csd.org.
Tags: Cooperating School Districts, flipchart, Midwest Promethean Users Group, Promethean Activboard, user group
20/11/08 Writing Workshop Series: ‘Monsters’
Barri Bumgarner
A former junior high teacher (now a university instructor and published author), Barri Bumgarner works with older elementary through high school students over distance learning through New Links to New Learning. During this two-part videoconference session, Barri will discuss how she wrote her own novels, what inspired her ideas, and how students can follow the same path. She inspires young writers to create stories brought about from personal fears, experiences, and real-life issues- the monsters in their lives. By opening the door to the imagination, Barri offers insights to getting kids to write, revise, and share! (Barri goes through the full process of revision, explaining that a rough draft is indeed ALWAYS rough, and rather than TELLING the students that, they’ll see it first-hand for themselves.) Students will participate in the first session by listening to readings, thinking about their own ideas, and formulating what they will write. For the second session, students will come prepared with their own writing, work on next exercise assigned by Barri, and hopefully share their products with the group!
The goal of these sessions is to allow students the opportunity to write, learn about revision, tap into ideas for their writing, and understand the process of creativity, publishing, and sharing. The 
first videoconference will take place January 9, and the follow up videoconference will be February 20. The cost is $200 for New Links members and $250 for nonmembers. There are two session times: 8:30 a.m. for high school and 10 a.m. for 7th and 8th grade. There is a three site limit per group. To sign up for this interactive series, contact Rebecca Morrison at rmorrison@csd.org by Monday, January 5, 2009.
Tags: author visit, Barri Bumgarner, New Links to New Learning, writing workshop
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- Posted under Classroom Technology, Distance Learning, Links, Videoconferencing, VLC Programs
mbogart
Rebecca Morrison
smadlinger
staceyfranks
