DE updates

As Discovery Education has provided much professional development for the new changes for this school year, I thought I'd share a few of the changes mentioned at the IU.

1.  Videos can now be watched in Flash!
The view under the video clip has changed and it is quite easy to choose your streaming type and your download type.  Click on one of those tabs, and you'll be able to choose Flash, QuickTime or Windows Media.  If you do not see flash as an option, then your district will need to request that this option be activated and the best part is that it is free and quick! For the tech folks out there, these are not on our local servers.

2.  Discovery items can be shared!
This tab is right next to the tabs for streaming and downloading.  There are so many options available here: email, social bookmarking (Delicious, Diigo, etc.), social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), as well as the URL.  In order to open the shared item, you still need a valid username and password to view the media.

3. Grid search results!
When you do a general search, you will immediately notice the difference in the view of the results. You will see more information and when you "hover" over a result, you can learn even more about the video or asset. You will even get a ten second preview of the video!

4. New download icon!
Were students/teachers asking you what the download icon was because they had never been exposed to a 3.5" floppy disk?  No worries now, as the icon has been updated to a film reel with a download arrow.  Remember to right-click, "save target/link as" to download any of the videos. 

5. Global Classroom Manager!
The much awaited student feature has arrived! Teachers can now create classes of students and assign videos, assignments, and more to the entire class or individual students.  This new feature will require student usernames and passwords, so please work with your Discovery administrator for the best solution to adding those.

6. DE Admin rolled into Discovery Education streaming!
Discovery Education streaming Administrators no longer need to use the separate admin URL. When logged into Discovery, simply choose the "my DE" tab and click on "My Admin" to gain access to the admin dashboard, where you can download passcodes, find/shuffle users, import teachers/students, create reports, and more.

Read Discovery's overview for all of the new changes at What's New for Fall 2009!