Copyright for Educators I, Mon. 11/3/08 at 6pm MST

Dear Educator:

RETA would like to invite you to our next professional development Webinar.

RETA Webinar Series: eLearning with Emerging Technologies
The RETA team has prepared another great series of
professional development webinars! Join us to learn practical and
effective technology skills to engage your 21st century learners. We are
committed to providing you with "free", innovative webinars that fit into
your busy schedule. Let us support you as you begin implementing
technology tools and techniques in your 21st century classroom. Have a cup
of coffee, invite a colleague, and raise your eQ with us.

Webinar Event: Copyright for Educators I

Date: Monday, November 3, 2008

Time: 6:00-7:00 pm MST

Description:
Emerging technologies bring new challenges for today's teachers. This
webinar will help educators understand fair use and copyright in the
digital age.

TO ATTEND:
Please use the following link to attend the webinar:
http://nmsu.na3.acrobat.com/copyed1fa08/

*Plan to join us 15-20 minutes prior to the start time to configure your
computer. To participate, speakers are required. A simple computer
microphone and/or a headset is ideal for interaction. A webcam is
optional.

*If you have never used Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, please test
your connection at: Adobe Acrobat Pro Support Center
https://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

For complete information on this and all of our webinars visit us at:
http://webinars.nmsu.edu <http://webinars.nmsu.edu/> or contact us at
Webinars at nmsu.edu or call
575.646.6143.

Have a cup of coffee, invite a colleague and raise your eQ (eLearning
Quotient) with us!

RETA (Regional Educational Technology Assistance)
College of Extended Learning
New Mexico State University
MSC 3WEC, P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
(575) 646-6143, fax: (575) 646-2004

Socorro Tech Blog

Check out the Socorro Tech Blog!
:)
~julia

Can Technology Make High School Graduation a Reality for Everyone?

In this week's edition of the Socorro Tech Blog, there is a review some of the upcoming changes at Socorro Consolidated Schools. We also talk about the role of technology in helping to reduce the dropout rate and improve the graduation rate in New Mexico.

Please visit http://socorrotech.wordpress.com

The Decline of Men

Just saw a presentation by Guy Garcia about the concepts in his book The Decline of Men. It's about "How the American Male is Tuning Out, Giving Up, and Flipping Off His Future." I started reading on this concept in 2001 when the book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls was really popular. I bought the book Real Boys' Voices because I have a son and I was concerned about what the consequence of female empowerment would be to males. I recommend reading up on this because, as with everything else, balance is necessary for our children and our society.

Have a GREAT day friends on the InterWebs!
:)
~julia

Yay TeacherTube!

The below is from TeacherTube - http://www.teachertube.com/

TeacherTube At Peak PerformanceIf you have not visited  TeacherTube  in the past two weeks, you need to check us out. We are extremely excited to share with all of our community members that  TeacherTube  is performing at our fastest speeds even though our visits have doubled in the past two months. Our tech team is constantly working to provide the most efficient software and hardware solutions to keep the site performing at a high level. Our community continues to grow by the hundreds everyday. We have over 900,000 visits per month, over 170,000 members and have over 35,000 public videos that you can use in your classroom with students or for professional development with staff. You have made  TeacherTube  one of the most sought after free resources for teachers all over the world. We at  TeacherTube  say thank you. You are making a difference in over 220 countries.

There have been discussions among educators for  TeacherTube  to expand our resources and allow teachers to upload more than just video. I am formally announcing  TeacherTube  is currently working on new features that will allow teachers to upload photos, audio, and docs. Docs will be documents such as PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, word documents, rich text files, etc. We have held off on offering more resources for two reasons. First, we needed to have our software function more efficiently so that you would have a better experience while using  TeacherTube . We have resolved the vast majority of our software inefficiencies. Secondly, we needed to design and implement a database structure that could handle scalable growth. Our tech team has designed a solution and it is scheduled to be implemented before January 1, 2009.

It is an exciting time to be an educator!

Jason Smith
CEO / Co-founder
TeacherTube, LLC

IMG00223.jpg

image/jpeg
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

View from outside Bar Louies

Dr. Demers (Gadget Loon) mentioned in RezEd Update Vol. 14. October 21, 2008

Thanks to Bethany for the following update :)

RezEd http://www.rezed.org/  is a great site for education and Second Life.  Our very own Dr. Mike Demers, aka Gadget Loon, was cited for an AHA Moment of the Week.  Check it out at:
http://www.rezed.org/forum/topic/show?id=2047896%3ATopic%3A17524

Screen Cast-O-Matic, 10/27/087 at 6:00pm MST

Dear Educator:

RETA would like to invite you to our next professional development Webinar.

RETA Webinar Series: eLearning with Emerging Technologies
The RETA team has spent the summer preparing another great series of
professional development webinars! Join us to learn practical and
effective technology skills to engage your 21st century learners. We are
committed to providing you with "free", innovative webinars that fit into
your busy schedule. Let us support you as you begin implementing
technology tools and techniques in your 21st century classroom. Have a cup
of coffee, invite a colleague, and raise your eQ with us.

Webinar Event: Screen Cast-O-Matic
Date: Monday, October 27, 2008

Time: 6:00-7:00 pm MST

Description:
Screen capture tools are very helpful for creating how-to videos.
Unfortunately, most of those tools are either a bit difficult to use or
they cost a lot of money. Come join us for this webinar and learn about
this free screen capture tool that requires no software download and is so
easy to use you'll be creating a how-to video in minutes.

TO ATTEND:
Please use the following link to attend the webinar:
http://nmsu.na3.acrobat.com/screencastfa08

*Plan to join us 15-20 minutes prior to the start time to configure your
computer. To participate, speakers are required. A simple computer
microphone and/or a headset is ideal for interaction. A webcam is
optional.

*If you have never used Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, please test
your connection at: Adobe Acrobat Pro Support Center
https://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

For complete information on this and all of our webinars visit us at:
http://webinars.nmsu.edu <http://webinars.nmsu.edu/> or contact us at
Webinars at nmsu.edu or call
575.646.6143.

Have a cup of coffee, invite a colleague and raise your eQ (eLearning
Quotient) with us!

RETA (Regional Educational Technology Assistance)
College of Extended Learning
New Mexico State University
MSC 3WEC, P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
(575) 646-6143, fax: (575) 646-2004

K12 Online Conference 2008 in Progress!

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning.

This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2008 conference theme is “Amplifying Possibilities”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 13, 2008.

The following two weeks, October 20-24 and October 27-31, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations. More information about podcast channels and conference web feeds is available!

Go to http://k12onlineconference.org/

FW: [NMSUWebinars] Wikis in the Classroom II, 10/20/08 at 6pm MST

Dear Educators:

RETA would like to remind you of our upcoming Webinar.

Webinar Event: Wikis in the Classroom II

Date: Monday, October 20, 2008

Time: 6:00-7:00 pm MST

Description:
You've selected a wiki and you've even attempted creating a few wiki
pages. Now you want to start thinking about what type of activities work
well using wikis and what strategies will help make the wiki activities
successful. If so, then this is the webinar for you! So, come join us in
this webinar and learn about some of the wonderful activities and
strategies other educators have used to create an effective wiki
experience.

TO ATTEND:
Please use the following link to attend the webinar:
http://nmsu.na3.acrobat.com/wikis2fa08

*Plan to join us 15-20 minutes prior to the start time to configure your
computer. To participate, speakers are required. A simple computer
microphone and/or a headset is ideal for interaction. A webcam is
optional.

*If you have never used Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, please test
your connection at: Adobe Acrobat Pro Support Center
https://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

For complete information on this and all of our webinars visit us at:
http://webinars.nmsu.edu <http://webinars.nmsu.edu/> or contact us at
webinars at nmsu.edu or call
575.646.6143.

Have a cup of coffee, invite a colleague and raise your eQ (eLearning
Quotient) with us!

RETA (Regional Educational Technology Assistance)
College of Extended Learning
New Mexico State University
MSC 3WEC, P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
(575) 646-6143, fax: (575) 646-2004

NM TIE

NM TIE presentation

Having a Web Presence with Google Sites & Notebook, 10/13/08 at 6pm MST

Dear Educator:

RETA would like to remind you of our upcoming Webinar.

Webinar Event: Having a Web Presence with Google Sites & Google Notebook

Date: Monday, October 13, 2008

Time: 6:00-7:00 pm MST

Description:
Google Sites is an online tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and
publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes. As our 21st Century
learners easily navigate the web, educators can capitalize on the ease of
having a web presence. Google Notebook is a collaborative tool used to
help organize, communicate about, and coordinate on-going projects.

TO ATTEND:
Please use the following link to attend the webinar:
http://nmsu.na3.acrobat.com/googledufa08

*Plan to join us 15-20 minutes prior to the start time to configure your
computer. To participate, speakers are required. A simple computer
microphone and/or a headset is ideal for interaction. A webcam is
optional.

*If you have never used Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, please test
your connection at: Adobe Acrobat Pro Support Center
https://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

For complete information on this and all of our webinars visit us at:
http://webinars.nmsu.edu <http://webinars.nmsu.edu/> or contact us at
Webinars at nmsu.edu or call
575.646.6143.

Have a cup of coffee, invite a colleague and raise your eQ (eLearning
Quotient) with us!

RETA (Regional Educational Technology Assistance)
College of Extended Learning
New Mexico State University
MSC 3WEC, P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
(575) 646-6143, fax: (575) 646-2004

The Santa Fe New Mexican -- Think New Mexico to push legislation limiting enrollment in new public schools

What? Are they crazy? What a good idea! What do you think? Larry

"Building smaller schools will help lower New Mexico's dropout rate and
raise academic achievement, according to a Santa Fe-based think tank. Think
New Mexico will be championing legislation in the 2009 session of the
Legislature to limit enrollment in all new high schools in the state to no
more than...

Click here for the rest of this interesting story:
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTY1MTUzOQ==

The Tale of a Whale and Why It Can Be Told - Smithsonian Education

In this issue’s lesson, students exercise their observation skills to do some of the actual work of marine biologists who study the endangered North Atlantic right whale. They examine photographs taken in the field to identify an individual whale, and then examine a record of sighting of the whale in order to track its movements.

The whale in question is Phoenix, a 45-foot female that is represented as a life-sized model in the new Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian worked with right whale researchers from the New England Aquarium to reproduce details of Phoenix’s individuality, the same details that students look for in the lesson.

The New England Aquarium maintains a database called the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog, which contains nearly half a million photographs and vital information on some of the remaining members of the species. The online version of the catalog can serve to deepen the lesson. Go to www.neaq.org <http://www.neaq.org> and click on “Animals and Exhibits” and then “North Atlantic Right Whale.”
 
The online version of the Sant Ocean Hall exhibits is at www.ocean.si.edu <http://www.ocean.si.edu> .

Download "Tale of a Whale (and Why It Can Be Told)" <http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/whale/smithsonian_siyc_fall08.pdf> (PDF).

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/whale/index.html