It is hard to believe June has come and gone already! Here is some of what we have coming up this month in the Virtual Learning Center:

+ Moodle classes (click here for a full tele schedule)
+ Google Academy
+ Podcasting workshop
+ SMART Board and Promethean Activboard trainings
+ Videoconferences with Bill Dallas Lewis in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, Kansas
+ We are accepting Midwest Education Technology Conference proposals: http://metcconference.org.

Today was the final day of our week of MS Office classes. Ellinder had a full class of K-12 educators interested in learning more about PowerPoint and implementing it into their classrooms. This afternoon, they’ll learn how to design student PowerPoint assignments that require higher order thinking skills  and then examine assessment methods that will help them grade these student assignments!

All this week Ruth, Nancy and Martha have been in Washington, DC, at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). For those of us who were not able to attend, there are plenty of ways to keep up! Here are just a few:

Twitter: go to Twitter.com and use the hashtag #NECC09 to see what people are saying (up to the minute!) about the conference.

ISTEVision Network: get daily and nightly news from all over the conference, feature stories, interviews, session and event simulcasts, 2009 video-on-demand sessions, ISTE Webinars, Second Life™ machinima clips, contest winners, and user-uploaded videos at the onsite communications network.

Flickr: see a photo pool at the NECC group with more than 1,000 picture uploaded already!

These blog posts on The Wired Classroom had the most traffic during the last 30 days:

• SMART Board Classes
• June 09 Global Nomads Group Videoconferences
• Motivate Students with Activboard Lessons
• Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills in Elementary Classrooms with Spreadsheets
• iPhone and iPod Touch in classrooms

Today Ellinder Murray is teaching Using MS Word in the Classroom in CSD’s tele. This week, she also shows participants Using MS Excel in the Classroom and Using MS PowerPoint in the Classroom.

On Tuesday, participants will learn the basics of creating a spreadsheet, making a chart from data, formatting a spreadsheet and printing all or parts of it. They will also learn how to design spreadsheet assignments for students that require them to enter data, apply formulas, and graph and chart their data, such as graphing probability from coin tosses. On Wednesday, class attendees will understand the basics of PowerPoint then learn how to design student PowerPoint assignments that require higher order thinking skills, such as a poetry analysis presentation, and examine assessment methods that will help teachers’ grade these student assignments.

Camden Children’s Garden has three new programs in their videoconference catalog. My schools enjoy their distance learning sessions a great deal, so I’m excited to share with them these new offerings!

A Leaf of a Different Color
Why do leaves change color in the fall? Follow a leaf from beneath the bud in winter to a much pile the following fall. For grades 1-4; available by request.

Air Pollution: Inside My House
When we think of air pollution, we usually think of the air outside our homes or buildings, but experts claim that indoor air pollution can be 5 times greater than outdoor air pollution. Explore the many sources of indoor air pollution, their health consequences, plus more. For grades 3-6 as well as library patrons; available by request.

DNA typing
How can the police discover which suspect is guilty of the crime committed with just a sample of saliva? Learn about DNA and how it can be used in forensic science. For grades 7-12 as well as library patrons; available by request.

Today class attendees learned how the SMART Board combines the look and feel of a whiteboard with the power and applications of a computer, so users can save and print notes, collaborate on electronic documents, share information and run multimedia materials. Stacey had a full class- 16 people- who learned SMART Board basics.

The next Transforming Learning with a SMARTBoard class is July 10 at Cooperating School Districts. For more information, including times, cost, and registration, please visit the tele website, www.csd.org/tele.

If your travel plans this summer sadly are not taking you to The Great Wall of China or Machu Picchu, you’ll want to check out this website: www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/.

The New 7 Wonders of the World were announced at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on July 7, 2007. They were elected by more than 100 million votes to represent global heritage throughout history.

At this website, you can view all New  7 Wonders in 360 degree interactive panoramas from internationally known photographers! The images are pretty amazing. I enjoyed taking a brief trip around the globe- hope you do, too.

METC 2010 will be held February 8-10 at the St. Charles Convention Center in St. Charles, MO. Call for presenters is currently up until August 20. Online registration begins October 1! Cooperating School Districts recently announced 2010 keynotes: Wesley Fryer and Deneen Frazier Bowen.

Wesley Fryer is a digital learning consultant, author, digital storyteller, educator and change agent. With respect to school change, he describes himself as a “catalyst for creative engagement and collaborative learning.” Wesley serves as a co-convener for the annual K-12 Online Conference and is the co-director of the statewide Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital storytelling project. His blog, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” was selected as the 2006 “Best Learning Theory Blog” by eSchoolnews and Discovery Education. He was named an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2005. He was an elementary classroom teacher for six years in Texas public schools before serving as a college director of distance learning for five years. Wesley is completing his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University, studying the impact of podcasting and coursecasting on student learning in higher education.

Wesley will conduct a preconference workshop on Monday, February 8. On Tuesday, February 9, he is keynote speaker and presents two additional breakout sessions.

For more than a decade, Deneen Frazier Bowen has been applying her acting, teaching and technology experience to help teachers and schools expand students’ learning opportunities through harnessing new technologies. She has traveled the country consulting with and speaking to schools, school districts, foundations and organizations.

Deneen spent several years working first as an elementary and then as a high school academic technology coordinator. In 2000, she designed and directed the Catalyst Communities program to explore how online communities can strengthen local schools. In 2001, she moved to Austin where she directed the online learning community for Teachscape, a developer of online professional development courseware for teachers. Since 1992, Deneen’s consulting business has provided technology-based professional development consulting services to educators nationwide. She holds a bachelor’s in communication from the University of California-San Diego and master’s in secondary education from George Mason University.

In her ‘spare’ time, Deneen is an accomplished and versatile actress who loves to bring life to the characters she portrays. With ActWith, Deneen masterfully weaves together her insights as an educator, talent for engaging audiences and technology expertise.