Free
netTrekker d.i trial for Missouri schools
Across the
nation, education, business, and government leaders are requiring
that students master a new set of skills to meet the challenges of
the 21st century and compete on a global level.
In
response to this trend and to meet the changing needs of our
customers, a new 21st Century Skills Channel was recently
added to netTrekker d.i., the award-winning search engine designed
specifically for school use. netTrekker d.i. is helping districts
all across the country just like yours integrate technology and
state standards into their daily curricula and now does even more to
support the development of the 21st century skills
necessary for success!
Here are just a few ways that netTrekker d.i. helps teachers and
school librarians as they differentiate their instruction to help
every child achieve:
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Voted America’s #1 educational
search engine!
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Access more than 180,000
educator-selected K-12 online resources organized by readability
and grade level and matched to the Missouri standards.
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Quickly and easily find safe,
educationally relevant resources, so you spend less time
searching and more time teaching, learning and achieving!
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Exciting features include:
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Search
for Resources by Readability Level
o
Customized ELL Content
o
Dictionary/Translation Hot Key
o
Safe,
School-Friendly Image Search
o
Read
Aloud Feature that Reads Text to Students
o
21st
Century Learning Content
netTrekker d.i.’s new dedicated 21st
Century Skills Channel helps educators and students:
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Learn
what 21st century skills are all about.
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Find
resources that reinforce core content and facilitate the
development of 21st century skills.
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Access
three separate pathways: Life Skills, Learning and Innovation
Skills, and ICT Literacy, with customized topics and resources
for each path.
To explore how netTrekker d.i.
delivers the right resources for every teacher, every student, every
time, please visit
http://school.netTrekker.com and log in with the following
username and password. Feel free to share this account with others
in your district who would be interested in exploring netTrekker
d.i.!
Username: mostate Password: guest
(Username and password are
case sensitive.)
Free trial account active until
8/31/07. To learn more about netTrekker d.i., please visit
www.netTrekker.com or call 877-517-1125.
World Wide Technologies offers Bulk
Buy Program Pricing
World
Wide Technology, the State of Missouri's Prime Vendor for technology
hardware and software, is pleased to offer these specials on
computer equipment to education customers through our "Bulk
Buy Program." WWT is leveraging the buying power of the state to
bring you excellent pricing with no quantity requirements. Some of
the specials include:
Printers:
* HP Laser Jet P2015 -
Monochrome 27 ppm - Base Price = $309.68
* Lexmark Laser T640 - Monochrome 35 ppm - Base Price =
$396.54
* HP Color Laser Jet 2605dn - 10 ppm color, 12 ppm B&W - Base Price
= $446.26
Desktops:
* HP DC5700 Business PC -
Base Price = $480.00
-Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8 GHz Processor
-80GB HD
-Windows Vista
*HP
Compaq 6510b Notebook – Base Price = $839.00
-Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8 GHz Processor
-80GB HD
-Windows Vista
The Bulk Buy Program is not limited to the above models & pricing.
For complete details on all Bulk Buy products, the Prime Vendor
Contract and to receive a price quote, please contact either Linda
Rice, 888-234-8898 option 1, option 4 (linda.rice@wwt.com)
or Matt Ortbals 314-919-1472 (matt.ortbals@wwt.com).
NComputing maximizes computing potential
Whether you are
part of a large school system with tens of thousands of students or
a small private school with just a few hundred students, you face
some daunting challenges with managing PCs in computer labs or
classrooms for students and teachers:
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Tight budgets
result in outdated PCs or fewer PCs. Either way, the students
and teachers suffer.
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PC management
is a nightmare. Managing dozens of PCs per school is a daunting
challenge for schools with limited IT personnel.
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Limited PC lab space and
electrical wiring limit
computing access to more students.
NComputing's X series
http://www.ncomputing.com/ncomputing/index.php can address all
of these challenges using a lesson we all learned in the first day
of school -- sharing. By sharing the untapped processing power of a
PC, up to seven students can simultaneously use that PC. So a 35
seat PC lab only requires 5 PCs.
How does it work?
The X series consists of an X300
PCI card that plugs into the PCI slot of a regular PC. The PCI card
has three RJ45 ports that each link to an X300 access terminal. The
access terminal is connected to standard peripherals like the
keyboard, monitor and mouse. A second X300 can be added to the same
PC, so that up to 7 students (1 on the host PC, 3 on each of the two
X300 PCI cards) can share a PC. Like all NComputing products, the
X300 works with existing PC applications and delivers full PC
performance.
The X300 has the option of including NControl, which allows teachers
and administrators to monitor what students are doing on their
terminals. Teachers can also send warning messages and even take
control of students computing environments if they use improper
applications like instant messaging.
Media strategies from the PTA
Making Media Literacy Hands-On
With today's technologies, children can easily be media creators,
and that's one of the best ways they can learn to be media smart.
Whenever your children are working on digital photographs, building
websites, or shooting and editing videos, they are learning about
the choices professional producers make and how those choices
influence our understanding of the message.
For some wonderful examples of
student-created media, see the 2006-2007
PTA Reflections
http://pta.browsermedia.com/ award-winning projects. As you and
your students explore these works, ask how the choices of music,
words, imagery, color, and design were used to evoke an emotional
response, convey information, and enhance your understanding of the
topic, "my favorite place." These kinds of questions are a great way
to enhance a child's creativity and critical thinking about media.
For more information, see PTA's
Parent Resources for Media and Technology
http://www.pta.org/pr_category_details_1117232399312.html or
Cable in the Classroom's
Media Smart for Parents.
http://www.ciconline.org/mediasmartparents
From
YouthLearn
http://www.youthlearn.org
A
project of the nonprofit
Education Development Center, Inc.
http://main.edc.org/ Designed for youth development
professionals, teachers, educators, and other caring adults,
YouthLearn provides resources and tools for developing effective
learning programs enhanced with technology, particularly in
out-of-school settings. To subscribe visit
http://www.youthlearn.org/join/subscribe.html
Seven
Steps for Digital Storytelling
There have never been more
forums for shooting and sharing video with others - the YouTube
Presidential debate being the newest example. To support youth
and the educators who work with them on media-making activities,
the Adobe Digital Kids Club website offers this useful guide to
digital storytelling, with detailed descriptions of the seven
process steps. This guide divides the steps into four
phases—pre-production, production, post-production, and
distribution—and identifies the length of time, processes, and
technology associated with each step. "The technology tools,
resources, and skills needed vary with each phase, but following
these process steps will help your students translate their
imagination and talents into exemplar digital stories worth the
time and energy spent creating them."
http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/storytelling/sevensteps.html
Technology & Learning's Digital Photo
Contest for Kids Sponsored by
Adobe Digital
Kids Club
Technology & Learning
invites K-12 students to participate in the sixth annual digital
photography contest. The competition, open to all K-12 students,
challenges you to capture - and share - your unique vision of the
world in a "Digital Diary - Through My Lens." If you have an
artistic side, you also have the option to digitally enhance your
photos with your favorite imaging software. The best digitally
enhanced photo wins a special prize from Adobe. Other prizes include
a digital camera, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and more!
For more information, such as rules, guidelines, tips and to view
last year's winners visit: Portraits of Learning
http://www.techlearning.com/portraits/index.php
Deadline is
Oct. 19
VideoHelp: The Guide, How To, Tutorial
and Article List
This site offers extensive
help to assist those dealing with recalcitrant video files. Users
who may have thrown in the towel when confronted with a seemingly
impossible video format, may find just the tutorial they need to
walk them through a conversion process.
"This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs, DVDs,
DivX, XviD, HD, etc., that can be played on your standalone DVD
Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, DV, Cam or downloaded
movie clips like AVI, DivX, XviD, WMV, Flash, etc." - from the
website
The site's strength lies in its huge list of more than 700 submitted
guides, many associated with various freeware applications used in
the conversion process from one video format to another. The search
feature provides a convenient facility to deal with a host of
formats coupled with a range of applications. Visitors can select a
particular program, author and format in their search criteria for a
specific guide. Each tutorial usually includes its submission date,
along with comments, some more useful than others, from those who
have used it. The guide lists are also browsable by category.
Zoom over to the site for a comprehensive database listing of video
conversion tutorials online at:
http://www.videohelp.com/guides
NASA Explorer Schools
This "pipeline"
strategic initiative promotes and supports the incorporation of NASA
content and programs into science, technology and mathematics
curricula in classroom grades 4-9 across the United States.
Targeting underserved populations in diverse geographic locations,
NASA Explorer Schools will bring together educators, administrators,
students and families in sustained involvement with NASA's education
programs.
Teams composed of full-time teachers
and a school administrator develop and implement a three-year action
plan to address local challenges in science, technology and
mathematics education. This customized professional development plan
will be available based on needs assessments and delivered through
on-site school services and via distance-learning networks. Program
elements for the NASA Explorer Schools include:
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Summer professional development
workshops for teams of teachers and school administrators at the
nine NASA Field Centers and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; one
week of intensive training provides opportunities to begin
integration of NASA content into existing school curricula and
culminates in the development and implementation of action plans
to meet local education challenges.
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Ongoing research-based
professional development during the school year, in
collaboration with organizational partners and other federal
agencies; this activity, coordinated by a network of teacher
leaders and trainers, includes NASA aerospace education
specialists, Space Grant consortia, educator resource centers
and NASA Education networks.
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Student programs that provide
opportunities for active participation in research, problem
solving and design challenges relating to NASA's missions and
involve students in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics explorations to encourage the use of scientific
tools and methods; challenges will be grade-specific, supporting
national and state standards. In addition, in-flight
opportunities and competitions will provide access to unique
NASA resources and personnel.
The NASA Explorer Schools website
includes NASA resources; science, technology and mathematics
investigations; collaborative tools; and opportunities to share
student and school program results.
A grant to each school will support
the purchase of technology tools, online services and in-service
support for the integration of technology applications to engage
students in science and mathematics investigations.
Family involvement in student
educational growth, achievement and career exploration is the
responsibility of the NES teams locally for school and home
experiences developed in cooperation with NASA assets; online
opportunities will be available through the NASA Explorer Schools
website.
Competitive applications and selection
of the NES teams occur each spring. Up to 50 teams will be added
each year, for a maximum total of 150 teams.
Over the three-year partnership,
school teams (grades 4-9) work with NASA personnel and other
partners to develop and implement improvement plans for staff and
students that promote and support the use of NASA content and
programs to address the school teams' local needs in mathematics,
science and technology education. Schools in the project are
eligible to receive up to $17,500 (pending budget approval) over the
three-year period to support the integration of technology tools
that support student engagement in science and mathematics. The
project is intended for underserved schools. It is providing
comprehensive support, including access to educational resources and
professional development assistance.
http://explorerschools.nasa.gov/portal/site/nes/menuitem.d601ef1f9fdc2c2d7010ea1051008a0c/
