The beginning of a new year can be a challenge as student's return from a long break. It is important to continue goals, as well as inject new materials and activities. Eduhero can help you this year by offering new courses on the latest and greatest technology, classroom management tips, and annual requirements.

Our course "Twitter For Educators" can help you get started engaging students very quickly. Interested in having students start their own blog? Check out "Blogger in the Classroom" and "Blogger for Teachers." It's important to push the boundaries by using Web 2.0 strategies as often as possible. If you need tips, check out "Web 2.0 Tools For Everyone." Explore the myriad of courses Eduhero has to offer and learn how to implement new tools in your classroom. We are very excited for what is to come -- using technology in education is full of endless possibilities.

Want to explore a new program or get application specific help? Check out our ever expanding library of webinar courses within the Webinar Series. We have courses on Blogger, Google Drive, Discovery Education, Edmodo, Symbaloo, and more!

One of Eduhero's resolutions is to have thousands more educators join this year. We already have over 10,200 users! Help spread the word about Eduhero.net by liking, sharing, and tweeting Eduhero on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. It is by word of mouth that we are successful, so again we thank you for all your continued support.

Here's to a new year full of learning and wonder!

The holidays are quickly approaching, and 2014 is just around the corner. We, at Eduhero, know how busy educators are before your well-deserved break. Teaching anxious and excited children, shopping for presents, and wrapping up for the holiday season is no easy task. We encourage all of our educators to kick up their feet (when you have time), and enjoy time with friends and family. Eduhero will be available during the break, so feel free to catch up on courses or browse the new webinar series.
Eduhero has grown exponentially each month as new districts and users join. 
We have reached an exciting milestone and reached over 10,000 users. This year has been incredible and momentous for Eduhero. We know that our success is largely measured by the support from all of our districts. Your support and suggestions have been instrumental in molding Eduhero into a comprehensive professional development platform. We will continue to work diligently and listen to our users to provide the best experience for all educators. 

We would like to thank all of our Eduhero districts and users for their profound support and strong desire to educate children. We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Important Dates:
Region 6 Education Service Center and the Eduhero team will be on winter break from December 21, 2013 - January 5, 2014. We will return January 6, 2014.

Eduhero will be unavailable December 26-27, 2013 for maintenance. This time was selected to minimize any inconvenience. Email us at eduhero@esc6.net if you have any questions. 

If you haven't yet discovered a new addition, Eduhero offers a unique social feature that is not found on any other professional development website. This feature is known as the Hero Panel, which displays users as they complete courses and gain Knowledge Points (KP's) on Eduhero. Users gain Knowledge Points by completing a course (+20 KP), scoring 100% on a course test (+10 KP), and sharing the course via social media platforms (+5 KP). The Hero Panel provides casual competition among Texas school districts, as well as campuses within a district, to foster better performance and increased learning for teachers. If you're not part of a district, you can still enjoy competing for a site-wide rank seen by all.

Upon logging into Eduhero, the Hero Panel is minimized and visible at the top of the screen. Click the (+) to open the panel (or anywhere on the panel itself).

This will give the users with a district email the ability to view their Campus, District, Region, and Overall (site-wide) activity on Eduhero by clicking the gray tabs near the top. The blue progress bar indicates the users' progress made on all the courses on the Eduhero website. The green bar indicates progress reached based on the gray tab selected. For example, by clicking the Campus tab, you would see the overall knowledge of your campus, and by then clicking the District tab, you would see the overall knowledge just within your district, etc. This section also allows the user to click and view the Top Districts on Eduhero, as well as the Top Users in Your District, all in ladder format. Not all users will see the same results as in the screenshot above though. Users not tied to any school district within Eduhero will only see the Overall tab, ranked with site-wide activity.
Whenever you have reached a certain amount of Knowledge Points, Eduherowill alert you that you have leveled up, giving you access to new Avatars and Backgrounds for you to choose from.

These choices will affect your appearance box that is now displayed in the Hero Panel activity and your Profile. You can change these settings at any time from My Account in Eduhero.

That's about all there is to it. It's easy to use with a community-centered approach. Please send any feedback you may have about the Hero Panel, as this always directly correlates with important changes made to Eduhero's features.

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to www.eduhero.net to check out the Hero Panel, gain Knowledge Points, customize your profile or appearance, and see the success of your district!

We've got a big surprise... Eduhero is now offering a Webinar Series to all Heroic Subscribers! This gives our educators a chance to take their technology education even further from our talented professionals, Stormy Cullum and Emily Williamson, former and current Technology Integration Specialists at Region 6 Education Service Center. Each session will be close to an hour, crammed full of useful information, and give 1 CPE credit hour upon completion.

To kick start your learning this Webinar Series already has the following 5 courses:

• Chrome Browser in the Classroom
• No Clickers Needed
• Blogger in the Classroom
• The Smore You Know, The Smore You Make
• Introduction to Edmodo

This webisode series includes several courses in a webinar format. Subscribe now and learn many the tricks of the trade for educators needing to learn new technology!

One of the key features that Eduhero offers educators is the new and improved Course Player. The design is user friendly and simple to enhance the user's experience to be even more enjoyable. This player navigates the user through the course as well as updates the user on their course progress. The image below is what the user will see when they enroll in a new course and is designed to help them understand the Course Player interface before beginning.



The player includes many familiar items such as Volume, Play/Pause, a Seekbar, Restart option, and Previous/Next buttons to skip to another slide. The blue bars at the top represent completed sections within the course. To the right of the blue progress bar you will see four icons, an icon to Open/Close the top panel, a Resources icon, the Hero Panel icon, and the Exit Course icon respectively. 

Once a user has completed a section they have accessed the ability to go back and review the section within the Course Menu by clicking the blue progress bar, or the Open/Close icon. When clicked, the activities within the course that have been completed will be accessible on the screen to click and navigate to a previous section.

The Resources icon will open the resources that the user can visit or download to expand their knowledge further on the subject of the course. This tool can be especially useful for users who need to refer to policies in their classroom on a regular basis. Such as Bullying Management practices, Blood Borne Pathogens laws, and OSHA chemical safety policies. 

An additional new feature that has been added to Eduhero is the Hero Panel. This panel brings a whole new social feature within Eduhero. The user receives knowledge points (KP) to level up and unlock more customization options within the site. These can be received by completing the course, making 100% on the course, as well as sharing your progress via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. This is a fun way for districts and campuses to compete against each other and just one more way that Eduhero makes learning FUN!

Lastly, the Exit icon will direct the user to three options: leave Feedback, Restart the Course, or Exit the Course.