Monday, March 18, 2013

Tech Tips: Discovery Education

Tech Tips
Issue 15

This Tech Tip will look into Discovery Education.  This is one of the most complete resources available.  Discovery Education is an amazing collection of videos, lesson plans, activities, resources, teacher tools, class assignments, and much more!




What Is Discovery Education?
We have been fortunate at Gull Lake to have a subscription to Discovery Education for years, but many teachers did not know what they were missing.  We have referred to it as “United Streaming” for a while, and many teachers use the videos often.  There is so much more available to staff and kids.

Of Course…Videos
The most common use is the thousands of videos available to stream in your classroom.  There are so many math, science, and social studies videos that any teacher can find just what they are looking for.  In addition teacher guides, student resources, and quizzes are available for these videos.  Students can also view these videos at home if you set up a classroom and give students accounts. 

Teacher Resources
There are so many teacher resources available I can’t list them all.  Here are just a few:
§         Teaching resources: lesson plans, black-line master, teacher guides, quizzes, activities
§         Student activities, quizzes, writing prompts, virtual trips, and games
§         Ability to download videos and resources or save them in “My Content” to be saved
§         Connections with teachers thorough DEN (Discovery Educator Network)




Classroom Set Up
This is my favorite feature.  Teachers can build “Classrooms” and allow students accounts to access assignments, quizzes, video links, and projects.  This is the tool that makes Discovery Education the powerful tool it is!  After creating a Classroom teachers can assign students work to progress through.  These can be videos, writing prompts, quizzes, etc.  These are tracked and scored and easily turn your classroom into a virtual classroom! 

Become a STAR Educator

Discovery Education is here to help teachers make the best out of their teaching.  They offer a program called STAR Educator that is easy to achieve and offers great rewards.  To be come a STAR Educator go to: http://bit.ly/UY6AXw.  Once you are a STAR Educator you will have access to even more resources and tools.
Log In and get started:  http://www.discoveryeducation.com

Here is a great intro video: http://bit.ly/UY6JdB