There is still time to win great prizes!

Challenge. I’m calling all readers to submit their own six-worded story to Matt’s Tips and Tricks. I’ll select six. Then I’ll put them back out to you for your vote on April 9, 2012. The three with the most votes by April 15, 2012 will each receive one Flip Cam. I have made it even easier to submit your entry - you can Tweet me your 6-Word Story to @monjan or your can email me at matt_monjan@discovery.com. Here is a link to last week’s edition that outlines the who, what, where, and how of a six-word story.

And if you haven’t participated in our DEN and Dr. Lodge Video Challenge don’t worry - there’s still time!

• (1) Grand Prize: a school assembly with Lodge McCammon: Lodge will perform the song live while the winning class gets to act out their video and the performance will be streamed live to other classrooms around the country. (1) Flipcam and thirty (30) backpacks for the students in the Grand Prize winner’s classroom.

• (10) Finalists: one (1) Flipcam, one (1) DEN polo shirt and thirty (30) backpacks for the students in the Second Prize winner’s classroom.

Timeline1/30-5/4: Classrooms Create & Upload Videos 5/4 – 5/8: Judging & Uploading top Videos to Contest Website5/9 – 5/13: Public Voting for best videos (on this site) 5/17: Winners announced at the DENny Awards

And speaking of stories. Do you have an iPad/tablet story to share? Around the country more and more schools are implementing iPads and other tablets into their classrooms. As you know Discovery Education will operate on any mobile device. And we’re reformatting our videos into H.264 and HTML 5 so that you are able to watch our videos and interact our flash content on all types of tablets..including iPads. If you are currently in a school that has begun rolling out tablets please let me know. We’d love to know more about your process and how we can continue to improve Discovery Education to make things easier for you! Email at matt_monjan@discovery.com.

Matt’s Media Tips 4-2

Take Teaching to the Next Level Where Microscope and Mouse MeetConnecting to a

Global Community of Educators

Now onto this week’s tips and tricks. The Content Folders.

Every Discovery Education user (including students) has the ability to bookmark anything that they find and/or create within Discovery Education. This comes in pretty handy when you think of the thousands of pieces of media that you can access with a click of your mouse or swipe of your finger.

We call our bookmarking folders the My Content, School Content and District Content folders. They are called “My Favorites” when logged in as a student. One of the great advantages of putting something into your My Content folder is that you don’t have to go searching for it again. Once you place a piece of media within your My Content folder it is there for you - accessible from any computer or mobile device that can access the internet.

That in itself is pretty cool. But what a lot of people don’t know is that you can also share your content with other educators within your school or district. I know, I know, that’s awesome! The School and District Content folders make it super easy to share with one another. Think about it. If you’re team-teaching or working with another educator in your school you could be finding stuff together and bookmarking it within your My School content folder, saving each other time - you know that thing that you don’t really have that much of most days. Media Specialists and Librarians, how many times have you been asked to find something for another teacher? Guess what? Now you can create whole units, research folders, and more for your peers through your My School content folder. Department and Curriculum Heads - building out folders for your teachers, again, is a great way to save time as well as provide additional resources that map to your pacing guides, frameworks, etc.

The same holds true at the District level. In fact, I know of a few school districts (Howard County, MD I’m looking in your direction) who populate their My District folder every summer so that their educators have loads of supplemental resources to check out when they come back to school in the fall.

To access these folders all you have to do is log into www.discoveryeducation.com and then click on the My Content tab (right-handish part of your screen). If the School or District Content folder tabs don’t appear on your screen give us a buzz at 1-800-323-9084 #1 and let us know. We can turn them on in a jiffy.

Best practice tip #1 - Remember I said that you could bookmark ANYTHING within Discovery Education? Well if you have access to MediaShare than you have the ability to upload your own resources. And when your resource is uploaded it then can be bookmarked and shared across your school and district. Are you picking up what I’m laying down? That’s right now we can share exemplary work, lesson plans and more across your school and district! I wrote about MediaShare on March 12. Here’s a link to that edition.

Ok, Matt, I’m sold. Show me how to do it. Well I’m so glad you asked. There are several ways to add something to your My Content folder. I will show you the steps to add a video into your My Content folder. But once you know how to do this you’ll know how to put anything into your folder. After you place something into your My Content folder you can then share it within your My School or My District folders.

Frequently Asked Question #1 - If I share my content will somebody else be able to change it?

Frequently Answered Response - No. Anything shared to the My School or My District is a copy of your shared item and can’t be changed.

The only way it can altered is if it is then copied back into someone’s My Content folder, edited, and then shared back to the My School or My District folder with a different name.

The How To’s.

To place something in your My Content folder you have to find that something first. In this case we’re looking at a video about multiplication. As you know each of our videos is broken into little segments. You can bookmark the entire video by clicking inside the first box or any of its segments by clicking in their corresponding boxes.

Once you’ve placed a checkmark inside one of these boxes then simply click on the blue Add button next to the My Content drop down box.

You will then be prompted to add it to a folder that you’ve already created or create a new folder.

Best practice tip #2 Make a folder when applicable. This will:

1. Keep your bookmarks organized

2. Make sharing easier

3. Give you the ability to assign multiple things at the same time. You can assign and share your folders with students and teachers!

Now once you have stuff in your My Content area you can share it with your school and district. To share all you have to do is go to your My Content area and then click on something to turn it blue. Then either drag a folder/asset to your My School or My District folder or choose the drop down box next to your folder and choose to share it with the My School or My District folders.

Discovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar ScheduleDiscovery Education Webinar Schedule

Dates Time (EST)

Link

4/3 6pm - 7pm

Connecting to the World Featuring DEN Guru Cheryl LykowskiPractical ideas from authentic classroom practices will show educators how to connect their classrooms to classrooms from all over the world.

4/3 7pm - 8pm

Process this! Analyze that! Process Skills Strategies for Science. In this session we'll explore a variety of strategies for developing students' scientific process skills.

4/4 5pm - 5:45pm

Getting Into the Interactive Item Summary - Discovery Education Assessment. Take an advanced look at possibilities through the Interactive Item Summary including sorting by difficulty level, standard, subskill, and connecting to digital resources.

4/5 7:00 - 8:00pm

Who is in the Driver’s Seat (Parent’s Edition) Learn what it’s really like to be a teen driver today, how to create Mutual Driving Agreements, and how to challenge your students to revolutionize driving in their community and earn money along the way.

4/5 7:00 - 8:00pm

The Discovery Education 3M Scientist Challenge. Join us for a special webinar with insider tips and video ideas from previous Young Scientist Challenge finalists! Learn about the entry guidelines and great prizes at stake. There?s $25,000 on the line and the deadline for entries is April 19. Don’t miss out!

The ASL Translator App. New for for iPhone®, iPad®, iPod Touch® and Android®. This app translates over 30,000 English words into Seamless Sign Language video right on your phone or tablet. $2.99 ASL Translator Buy Now at iTunes®ASL Translator Buy Now at Android Market®

ASL Dictionary app. Over 4,800 English words and their translation into American Sign Language video. Translate English into ASL, from A-Z, plus the entire numerical system, common English phrases, symbols and much more. $2.99

ASL Dictionary Buy Now at iTunes®ASL Dictionary Buy Now at Android

Market®

What is a DEN Star Member? can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students

12/19/2011 Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App

12/12/2011 50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter - Flash for iPads

11/28/2011 What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps

11/14/2011 Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool you can do with Google. TED and Animoto apps

11/7/2011 First Six Weeks Aggregated

11/4/2011 Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge

10/24/2011 Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps

10/17/2011 Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps

10/3/2011 Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives

9/26/2011 Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!

9/13/2011 Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE

Miss a week? Catch back up here!3/26/2012 Can You Picture it? Learn how to create a six-word story using iPiccy.com and Discovery Education. Digital Story Challenge! MeeGenius Audiobook app for mobile devices.

3/19/2012 Audio Book ‘em Dano. Eight simple steps for creating an audiobook using iTunes and any computer (Mac/PC). Molecules mobile apps.

3/12/2012 It’s All About The Sharing. Uploading, sharing and accessing your own content within Discovery Discovery Education. Cel.Ly app polling device via any device.

2/27/2012 Teacher Center Treasure Trove of Resources. Interactive Calendar Atlas, STEM Connect explored. Socrative App (student response).

2/13/2012 Special Valentines Issue - Things I love about Discovery Education. Five Minute Preps, Images,Coaches Eye App

2/6/2012 What did you say? Closed Captioning on an iPad? Getting Closed Captions to play on your iPad, GreenScreens on iPhone/iPad with GreenScreen FX app

1/30/2012 Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations whiteboard apps

1/23/2012 Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app

1/18/2012 In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App.

1/9/2012 Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you

The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!

Help Me Make Matt’s Tips and Tricks Even Better

I am always looking for ways to improve Matt’s Tips and Tricks and your feed back is invaluable to me. With that in mind I’ve created a short 15 question survey. I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts. If you can take a moment to fill out this super fast survey it will go a long way to making each edition better than the next!