Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Digital Learning Day



Menasha Joint School District is participating in the Digital Learning Day, February 1st!!!




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2011
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jason Amos
(202) 828-0828
jamos@all4ed.org



Twenty-seven States Committed to Celebrate Digital Learning Day
States Pledge Support for National Awareness Campaign Highlighting Technology’s Role in School Reform and Strengthening Instructional Practices



Currently, the following states are signed up as partners for Digital Learning Day: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.



The celebration of Digital Learning Day will be tailored within each participating state. Some activities these states are planning include a proclamation from the state governor, a showcase of student work through digital learning, lesson plan contests for teachers, announcements of digital learning projects, and highlights of promising practices within and among states.



All are welcome to participate in this celebration of innovation. Act now! Join the important national and local discussions by signing up to learn more about Digital Learning Day at http://www.digitallearningday.org.



The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC-based national policy and advocacy organization that works to improve national and federal policy so that all students can achieve at high academic levels and graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century. For more information about the Alliance for Excellent Education, please visit http://www.all4ed.org.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Soundzabound

Did you know that if you are using copyrighted music in a project, under Fair Use you can only use 10 seconds of that music? If you have your students download music from anywhere on the Internet that is not royality/copyright free they are infringing on copyright policy.

Here is a simple solution to finding royality/copyright free music! Check out Soundzabound. 

Soundzabound is a site that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Division for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning has purchased a subscription for Wisconsin to use. Soundzabound Music Library offers a wide variety of music, audio themes and sound effects for grades K -12 and universities that ensures your copyright safety. Perfect for podcasts, PowerPoint™, videos, news shows, video yearbooks, digital storytelling, presentations, TV broadcasts, web design and more! This site is one of the more frequently visited sites that the DPI offers through Badgerlink.


To access Soundzabound you need to first go to www.badgerlink.net and click on the link for Soundzabound. By entering the site this way, you enter through the subscription that the DPI has purchased. Watch the video below to learn how to locate music and download a song for use in a project.




The music from Soundzabound can also be used in Windows Movie Maker and Animoto.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

District Library Resources Page

Have you ever wondered if our district had a subscription to a particular site?  Do you need resources for a research paper?  How about just some great sites to use with your students?  Well then, if you are in the Menasha Joint School District, you are in luck!  The District Library Resources Page has all of that information and more.  Want to know who to contact to get a book from another school?  It's there!  Forgot the username and password to access Brainpop or Big Universe?  It's there!  Need primary sources for student's to use in their research?  It's there!  Students and staff can access the page, but need to be logged into their district provided email accounts.  This helps protect our usernames and passwords from the outside world.  Take a look, I'll think you'll find something on the page you didn't even know you had access to as a district employee.