Online professional development that meets your needs!

Earth Day Resources from Thinkfinity

Teach and Think Green with STEM Classroom Resources

Energize students about preserving the environment with eco-friendly classroom lessons and interactive games from Thinkfinity.org. Elementary students will love to see how using refillable water bottles, in comparison to disposable plastic bottles, can help save energy and our animals. Show middle school students how solar energy panels work, and then have them research how to make the panels more efficient. Ask high school students to develop and present plans for energy-saving solutions.

Thinkfinty Professional Development
Think Green!
Join us for a 30-minute webinar on April 11 at 4:00 Eastern Time. During this session, we will showcase environmentally conscious resources from Thinkfinity.org. We’ll examine activities on pollution, recycling and how kids can become more involved by writing letters or making video public service announcements about the environment.

Special Collection of Eco-Friendly and STEM-related Resources

Thinkfinity Community
Join the discussions:
What resources do you use to “go green” and “save the earth”? and What are some innovative ways your school encourages environmentalism and sustainability?


Next Generation Learning Challenges Webinar Series

iNACOL logo

iNACOL announces a new webinar series in September-October for the Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative this fall.

Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) is a new effort to identify and scale technology-enabled approaches that dramatically improve college readiness and completion. With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the initiative will be led by EDUCAUSE, in partnership with the League for Innovation in the Community Colleges, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), and the Council of Chief State School Officers. NGLC will provide grant funding, build evidence, and develop an active community committed to addressing how learning technologies can scale to overcome these persistent educational challenges.

To prepare for the launch of the grant program this fall, iNACOL invites you to participate in a “Back to Campus” series of webinars focusing on the underlying challenges in college readiness and completion and the role of technology as an enabler of change.

The Webinar Series will provide background discussions on topics relevant to the upcoming Next Generation Learning Challenges grant program, so interested parties may get different perspectives framing these important issues in learning technologies that span across K-20.

Topic: Benefitting From Scale in Education Innovation
Speaker: Bror Saxberg, Chief Learning Officer, Kaplan

Date: September 10, 2010
Time: 12:00 noon ET

Topic: Scaling Blended Learning
Speakers: Joel Hartman, Vice Provost and CIO, and Charles Dzuiban, Director, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida

Date: September 14, 2010
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET

Topic: Deeper Learning and Engagement
Speakers: Bryan Alexander, Director of Research, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE)

Date: September 21, 2010
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET

Topic: Open Educational Resources
Speakers: David Wiley, Associate Professor, Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University

Date: October 6, 2010
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET

Topic: The Future of Assessment and Learning

Speaker: Valerie Shute, Associate Professor, Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, Florida State University

Date: October 1, 2010

Time: 3:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. CT, 1:00 p.m. MT, 12:00 noon PT)

How to Join the Webinars

Each webcast will be hosted by Educause inside an Adobe Connect webconferencing room at http://educause.acrobat.com/nglc. To join, simply enter the URL and select “Enter as a Guest,” type in your name and affiliation (e.g., John Doe, University of Idaho), and click “Enter Room.”

Once inside the room, audio will be provided through your computer speakers and presentation slides will advance on your screen. You can interact with fellow attendees and presenters using the chat feature inside the room.

Each web seminar is free and open to all, but virtual seats are limited. Attendance is first come, first served. Each session will be recorded and archived for later viewing.

Technical Requirements

Whether you’ve participated in an NGLC online event before or you’re joining us for the first time, please run the Adobe Acrobat Connect Connection Test before the event. View the Adobe Connect technical requirements.

Note: If you experience difficulties during the web seminar, you can listen to the audio via a toll-free conference call line at 877-944-2300, access code 99269#.

For more information, please visit: http://nextgenlearning.com/news/upcoming-events/articles/upcoming-events.

New Thinkfinity Site and Resources Come Online

Think Big, Think Fast, Thinkfinity!

It already has tens of thousands of free educational resources for use in and out of the classroom, but now Verizon Thinkfinity has a whole lot more.
On Monday, Verizon Thinkfinity unveiled an updated an expanded website that contains:

  • A new online Thinkfinity Community where teachers, parents and administrators can share ideas, ask for
  • assistance or discuss the topics of the day
  • Virtual online filing cabinets where teachers can save their favorite online lesson plans, interactives and resources so they are always just a click
    away
  • Newsfeeds on the latest educational resources
  • New social media tools, widgets and blogs

These and many more exciting changes will be coming to Verizon Thinkfinity over coming months.
Take a few minutes and explore the new Thinkfinity. And, of course, spread the word!

To help you navigate your way through the exciting Verizon Thinkfinity Web site changes and to find out how to make the most out of your Thinkfinity Community experience, the Thinkfinity Professional Development team is offering a special Webinar through May 20.

Explore What’s New with Verizon Thinkfinity!

Verizon Thinkfinity, the program that brings tens of thousands of free standards-based resources to teachers, students, parents and the afterschool community, has just refreshed its Web site,

Thinkfinity.org. In addition to more featured content, the redesigned Web
site now offers Web 2.0 tools in the brand new Verizon Thinkfinity
Community
! Join this one-hour Webinar to get reacquainted with a
trusted friend that has a brand new look and increased functionality!

Webinar is about 60 minutes long. Dates and times vary. 
For information and to register for this and any other FREE Thinkfinity Webinar, go to the Professional Development
section of Thinkfinity.org and navigate to the Webinars page.

Participate in the Webinar Series on New Media Literacies

You are cordially invited to participate in an 8-part webinar series!

WHO
A team of New Hampshire educators, supported by grants from the NH Department of Education, have begun working with staff at the New Media Literacies (NML) Project to facilitate a year-long professional development initiative using new media literacies as a springboard for developing innovative curriculum.


WHY
In a white paper titled Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Jenkins et al (2006) outline the social skills and cultural competencies inherent in new media use. The goal of NML is to help foster a broader perspective of what it means to be media literate in the digital age and provide tools for translating the skills and competencies into meaningful and engaging learning experiences in the classroom and beyond.


You can download the white paper at:
http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

You can download the skills at:
http://newmedialiteracies.org/blog/2008/11/10/NMLskills.pdf

NH educators are exploring the urgent challenges that 21st Century learners face and also expanding their own learning experiences using a participatory, digital model of professional development. Educators are practicing their own skills as teachers by “creating, collaborating, connecting, and circulating” with one another in an interactive, multi-media environment. While the NH team is developing new materials for their own schools and districts, they are also assisting in the development of an 8-part webinar series focused on a comprehensive, practical understanding of the NML skills for the larger educational community.

Join us in the webinars to learn more about the framework of social skills and cultural competencies which shapes the work of NML. You will observe illustrations of the skills by looking more closely at learning through such cultural phenomenon as computer game guilds, YouTube video production, Wikipedia, fan fiction, SecondLife and other virtual worlds, music remixing, social network sites, and cosplay. Each webinar will closely examine new curricular materials which have emerged from New Media Literacies, Global Kids, Harvard’s GoodPlay Project, Common Sense Media, the George Lucas Foundation, and other projects which are seeking to introduce these skills into contemporary educational practices. Participants will leave the webinars with plenty of opportunities to take the materials, information, and methods back into their classrooms.

WHEN
NML and the NH team will host the first webinar on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 7PM EST. The focus of this first session is on the new media literacies of judgment and appropriation and the importance of copyright, fair use, and creative commons.


To join the February 11th session, go to the Elluminate Meeting Room using this link:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=voffice&password=M.0D40B502DA193CDA7C5579F7D8173A


If you have never used Elluminate before, please visit this tutorial page for a quick reference on setting-up your audio and internet connection speed:
http://www.elluminate.com/support/docs/9.5/participant.jsp

WEBINAR SCHEDULE

February 11, 2010 at 7pm EST — Judgment, Appropriation & Copyright Special guests Erin Reilly and Flourish Klink .

UPCOMING WEBINARS

  • March 11, 2010 at 7pm EST – Networking and Negotiation
  • April 8, 2010 at 7pm EST – Transmedia Navigation
  • May 13, 2010 at 7pm EST – Collective Intelligence
  • June 10, 2010 at 7pm EST – Performance and Play
  • July 15, 2010 at 7pm EST – Distributed Cognition
  • August 12, 2010 at 7pm EST – Simulation and Visualization
  • September 9, 2010 at 7pm EST – Multitasking

Thinkfinity Webinar for Administrators

WEBINAR  – School Administrators: Leading with Verizon Thinkfinity

First session scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 10 at 11:00 AM

(registration closes 2 days prior to session)

In this webinar, school, campus and district leaders will learn about Verizon Thinkfinity’s standards-based resources and how they can help enhance teaching and learning in the 21st century classroom. Upon completion of this session, leaders will better understand the variety of resources found on Thinkfinity.org and how they can encourage their educators to become more involved with this FREE resource.   Attendees will receive an electronic Certificate of Completion.

For more information or to register for this Webinar, please go to: http://tims.thinkfinity.org/CourseSessions/coursespecificregistration.aspx?CourseID=104

To see a complete list of Webinars available from the Thinkfinity Professional Development Team, visit the “Free Training” page on Thinkfinity.org at  http://www.thinkfinity.org/pd/national_training.aspx

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