Over the past several weeks I have been able to learn about
a ton of new and fun technology Apps, programs and software. I have been able
to create and explore and test out these programs and have gained a ton of very
useful information and ideas that I will take into the library with me. I have created
a Facebook page for my library that has now connected over 20 families to the
library. I have also created a Twitter, Instagram and vine account to help me
follow other librarians and share pictures and videos with families and colleagues.
Along with the social media sites that I have created for the library I also
learned how to make screencasts, Cartoon and comic strips that will help me
connect to my students and make the library technology friendly and a leader in
the school. Over the past several weeks I have also joined and created online
book communities where I can collect and rate the books that I have read and
where I can make reading list for students. I have also created a podcast, QR reader and
YouTube videos to connect and showcase all the fun things that are happening in
the library. I also had a blast creating an Animoto video for books talks! I
have taken everything I have learned over the past several weeks and tried to
incorporate it in the library and have great success!
I feel that my
Facebook account has been the best social media account that I created and has
been the most used. I also have created other Animoto videos and have planned
with the fourth grade teachers an Animoto project for later in the year so I
will be using that often. I have also shared and partnered with the technology
teacher for a project using ToonDoo that I am very excited about! I have also
shared and have a few teachers now using Biblionasium with their classes to
create books list and create class book shelf. I also have a QR code on the
library door to help connect families. With all the great things there are very
few things that I did not enjoy or find useful for my grade levels. One of them
was the Infographics. While they are great and an awesome way to display
information they are very time consuming to make and I just don’t see myself
using them as much. That doesn’t mean I won’t, just not as much as the other
tools. The comic websites were a lot of fun also but the Pixton site I think
will be a little too complicated for my grade levels. Overall it has been a
great few weeks full of great new tools that will be used in the library, along
with the tools and websites I have also been able to make connections with
other librarians who I can learn from and share ideas with.
Purcell, K., Heaps, A., Buchanan,
J., & Friedrich, L. (2013, February 23). How Teachers Are Using Technology
at Home and in Their Classrooms. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from
http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/02/28/how-teachers-are-using-technology-at-home-and-in-their-classrooms/?beta=true&utm_expid=53098246-2.Lly4CFSVQG2lphsg-KopIg.1&utm_referrer=http://www.pewinternet.org/search/how+teachers+are+using+techno
How Teachers are
Using Technology at Home and in Their Classrooms
By: Kristen Purcell, Alan Heaps, Judy Buchanan, and Linda Friedrich
In the report “How Teachers are Using Technology at Home and
in Their Classrooms”, a group of four professionals conducted a survey of 2,462
Advanced Placement and Nation Writing Project teachers of middle school and
high school students to find out how technology is affecting their teaching and
how they are using in to the classroom. I found the result to be exactly what I
expected. It was a very interesting read with a lot of great statistics. When I
think of technology and how is has affect and changed how I taught in the
classroom and now how it is such a huge part of my job as a librarian I can’t
imagine a day without using technology. As much as it hurts to say it I feel
like today’s children have to have technology to keep them engaged in learning.
It is also the best way I see to challenge them and to prepare them for their
future. I heard someone say once that when today’s children grow up the jobs
they will have, have not even been created yet because the technology will
change so much that there will be a need for different types of jobs. In the report the authors state that 92% of
the teachers surveyed said that the internet has a “major impact” on their
ability to access content, resources, and materials for their teaching. I would
also agree with that even on the Elementary level because our online database
is growing each year because of the need for more online resources for
students. Programs like Capstone and PebbleGo are used every day by students as
a way to read eBooks or conduct research on a topic. The report also talked about how 73% of the
teachers say that cell phones are a common part of their teaching practice now.
I know from personal experience that I have used my cell phone and the remind
me app to communicate with parents and this past few months as a librarian I have
used my cell phone in many ways to show case the fun events and happenings in the
library.
In this report it also talked a lot about how the amount of
technology use and access differs from school to home and from low income
schools to affluent schools. I know that in my Title One district we do not
have access to as much technology as we would like. It would be amazing to be
able to provide students with a tablet to use on a daily basis or smart board to
use in the classroom but we just don’t have to means to provide that at this
time. I am currently teaching in a school that was built to hold 750 students
and this year we have over 950 students so our budget has to go towards making
room for the students. I agree with the report’s finding when they say that 56%
of teachers in low income schools say that the lack of resources and technology
is a “major challenge”. Not only is technology access limited at school for
these students but home access is not much better. Some of our students do not even
have a computer at home to help with homework or research and that creates a challenge
as well.
Overall this was a very interesting report. There was not
anything that really jumped out as shocking because most of it was what I would
expect with such a technology driven world that we live in today. They discussed
the difference between ages, genders, and income. I would recommend reading it
and looking closely at the charts that are provided in the report. They
provided a lot of data support their findings.
I am curious to see how other are using technology in the
library, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know.
Social media is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. This week I took a look at how a librarian can incorporate Instagram and Vine (Instagram’s video sharing partner) into the library.
Instagram:
Instagram is a picture sharing site that can be used in many ways. It is well know for the hashtag as well. You can take a photo and then post it to your Instagram and share for the world to see. If you attach a # (hashtag) to the picture it will allow you to see other people's pictures that have the same hashtag. I would most likely use Instagram in the same way as Facebook, as a way to share information and show students, teachers and parents different things that are happening around the library. It would be a great way to show different displays that have been created or student projects. I also used Instagram as a way to congratulate the students who have earned 100 A.R. Points! I think that is is another way that librarians can connect and exchange ideas. I plan to keep up with it and use it more often for the library. I will most likely create an Instagram for the library as well as a personal one. Below is the link to my Instagram page!
I was not familiar with Vine until I started looking into Instagram. I discovered that it is a partner of Instagram. Vine was created for video sharing, while Instagram is for pictures. After looking into all the possibilities that this could be used for I found a ton of great ways to use it in the library or classroom. You could have the students create videos over anything that you are covering class. They can make videos about anything with only time limiting them, which I also discovered that it makes them think outside the box and be creative. I was talking about Vine with my fourth grade class today and was blown away by how many knew what it was and how many had an account. So I told them that I wanted them to create some Vine videos about genres and the library and they had a blast. You can watch what they created on my Vine account by clicking on the link below. I also used Vine today to capture one of my Kinder classes leaving the library dressed as Indians and signing their chant. Like Instagram and Facebook it is also a great way to share information with teachers, students, and parents.
There are so many different projects that can be done with either site/app and they are both very easy to use. They are both right at your finger tips since everyone normally has their phone on them at all times. I really enjoyed both and plan to use them in the future.
This week I took a look into screencasts and how to use them in the library and what site was the most user friendly. Screencasts can be used in a variety of ways. I think their best use in the library is to use them to teach students how to use the resources and the online catalog. I find myself saying the same thing over and over again to explain how to use the different resources that are provided for the students. I think that the way I would use screencasts in the library is to create a different screencast for each resource that they will need assistance with and post them on my website. That way if they need help and I am not around or they are home they will be able to watch the screencast and know what to do. I also have a colleague that helps me when I am not sure about how to find a report on Renaissance Place or Destiny by sending me a screencast because she says that it is easier to watch over and over again then for her to explain it over and over again on the phone because we are at different schools. So screencasts can be used to show someone how to do something on the computer without you having to be there. They are very useful for many things an can help you from saying the same thing over and over again. To make screencasts I looked into Screencast-o-matic, Screenr, Jing, and Explain a Website.
This is a free site that just requires you to set up an account. It is very quick and easy to do. You can also purchase the Pro version for only $15 a year if you would like to ability to edit your screencasts. I chose not to upgrade yet but might consider it in the future. There are also tutorial videos to help answer questions or tell you how to get started. I found it to be very easy. When you are ready to record it guides you through. I did have to upgrade my Java settings but that didn't take very long and I am not really sure that I really had to do that, it was just recommended and so I did. I really enjoyed making this screencasts on this site and was so relieved at easy it was to do. I really had no trouble and was very pleased with this site and highly recommend it. Below is the screencast that I created to show my students how to access and search for books using the online catalog. Please ignore the part about my home screen. I am still working on that page, sorry.
When I went to look into the site Screenr I was unfortunately given the news that the website was no longer in service because their recording capability is based on Java which is becoming very outdated. A lot of browsers are no longer running Java so the screencasts that are created on Screenr will not be able to be played anywhere so they are shutting down. This is a picture of the screen you will see when searching for Screenr.
This is another great site that I think would be very user friendly. They offer great step by step tutorial videos that you can watch before you start. There are a lot of really neat features to this site as well. The only downside to this is that you have to download their program on to your computer and I can not do that at the moment so I was unable to really dig deeper and try one for my self. The videos though make it look very easy to use and something that I plan on looking into when I am able to download their program.
If you have an iPad and don't mind spending a $1 there is also an app called Explain a Website that you can download to make screencasts. I was unable to explore this app at the moment because I do not have access to my Wi-Fi due to moving and Comcast issues. I did just want to mention it though and let people be aware that there is an "app for that"!
Overall I feel screencasts will be used in the future in my library to help not only my students but me as well. It will save time and allow students to be able to understand how to use resources while they are at home or when a teacher is not available to help them. I feel that students can also make some really neat projects using screencasts and can teach their peers about different websites and resources. There are many ways to use screencasts!
This week I took at a look at a few different websites that
allow you to make comic strips. Comic strips are a great way to connect with
your students is a fun way. They are also a great way to get the students involved
with technology. Students can create a comic strip to help them show their
understanding of several different TEKS across all subjects. They can make a
comic to represent a story summary, meaning of vocabulary, sequence of events,
or just to write their own story. You could have them use a comic strip in
social studies and science to show a timeline or the sequence of important events in
history or a science experiment. With math the students could make a comic
explaining how to complete a math problem. There are several ways to use comics
in the classroom. They are not just for the classroom though anyone can make a
comic as a way to give students information. In the three examples I created I used
one to talk about the Bluebonnet books, and two just about reading in general. You
can make a comic to represent library or class rules or procedures. I encourage
everyone to explore to possibiliites they can have with comic strips!
I have explored four different comic creating websites this
week, ToonDoo.com, Pixton.com, MakeBeliefsComix.com, an on my iPad Tellagami.
All of the sites that I explored had positives and negatives.
I really enjoyed this site. I found it to be easy to use and
work with and the most Elementary kid friendly. I really like how they offered
a variety of characters to choose from and the backgrounds were really nice and
colorful. My main flaw with this site was that it took a really time to load
everything. I thought that it was just my computer at home but I also tried the
computer at school and ran into the same problem. I also wished that they would
offer more layout options. The largest number of frames that I found was only
four. That is great for most of the project ideas but I wish that there was at
least an option for five frames because we teacher our students the, Somebody/someone
wanted but so then, strategy for summarizing and that would need five frames.
It is not a big problem because they can combine two frames and it will work
but just something I was thinking about. Overall great site for kids!
<a href='http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/9404590'><img src='http://static.toondoo.com/public/h/k/i/hkirk84//toons/cool-cartoon-9404590.png' border='0' width='450' alt='Reading can...' title='Click to View Full Size Image' ></a><br><div style='font-size: 11px; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; width: 100%;'>By <a href='http://www.toondoo.com/user/hkirk84'>hkirk84</a> | <a href='http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/9404590'>View this Toon at ToonDoo</a> | <a href='http://www.toondoo.com/'>Create your own Toon</a></div>
This site was really cool once I figured it all out. The possibilities
are endless with this. I do recommend taking the time to watch the How To
videos. It will save you time! I would recommend this site to older students
and teachers but I think that it might be a little too much for my Pre-K
through 4th graders. I really like how you can change all the
backgrounds and the facial expressions and everything about the characters and
their movements but wished that they had some younger kid characters that I could
have used. For this site you also have to create an account and then wait for
approval if you ae creating a school account which is what I did. It did not
take long but it was an extra step that the others did not require. Overall
once you get the hang of it making the comics will be easy and very useful on
this site.
I found this site to be very similar to ToonDoo without as
many options. It was very kid friendly and colorful and had some fun characters
choices but still was very limited with the backgrounds, and props. It also
only allowed you to have three frames. All of the tools were easy to use and I
was able to create a comic in no time. I feel like this could be a good site to
use for a quick and easy assessment of a lesson for a quick check for understanding.
There is not a lot of room to really dig deep and tell a story without each
frame being text only. I was also disappointed that you could not create an
account because you cannot save your comic after you are finished creating
them. Your only option is to print or email them. Overall, this site will be
good for short and quick comic strips.
Tellagami: Available through the App Store
This was a fun app you can play with if you have an iPad. It
is similar to making an avatar where you can choose what the person looks like.
You are able to choose the background and record your voice to be able to make
the person talk. It was a lot of fun to play with. I have not yet created one
to be published yet but I plan on spending more time with it because it was a
lot of fun. To be able to fully explore the app you do have to pay to unlock
the other options. I hope you explore it and I highly recommend it!
Overall these websites were all great it just depends on how
you plan to use the comics and with what age group. If is it for the younger
kids I would go with Toon Doo but if it is for middle schoolers or high
schoolers I would go with Pixton. If you are looking for something to be done
quickly and for a “ticket out the door” type comics then I would go with Make
Belief Comix. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.
This week I explored a few different online book communities
trying to discover the one that I felt the most comfortable with and could use
with students and teachers. Online book communities are online sites were you
can create an account and then add books to different lists or shelves. For example you
can create a “book shelf” for books you have read and would recommend to
students or others, or your shelf could be for books you would like to read.
When I was creating shelves on different sites I created a book shelf for the
new Bluebonnet books that were just released so I could keep track of them and
I also created a shelf for books that are great for read alouds and are helpful
to teachers who are looking for a book to read aloud to help teach a skill. I
explored Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, Booklikes, and Biblionasium. All of them can store books on a shelf but as you read below, I preferred some more than others. I will most definitely be using Biblionasium in my library with all the classes!
This was a very user friendly site. I was able to easily add
two new book shelves easily and then put books on the shelf I wanted. This site
also offered great recommendations. Once you start putting books on the shelves
it will give you recommendations for similar books you might like. This site
was one of the easiest to put books on the shelf. Goodreads also proved the
reader with great book summaries and reviews along with sites where you can
purchase the book or even Libraries that have the book. Another nice feature
that Goodreads provides is if the book is part of a book list it will provide
you with the list. For example one of the books I selected to put on one of my
shelves was “The Lion and the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney which is a Caldecott
Medal Winner so it provided me with the list of other winners. I think that is
a great feature to have. While I think this site is very useful for adults and
I will personally use it I feel that it is not student friendly as some of the
others and will probably not use it in the library.
Out of all five sites that I was exploring I feel that this
one was my least favorite. It was not very visually appealing as the others.
There were still a lot of positives with this site. It was easy to add books to
my shelf although on this site they do not call them shelves, they are called
collections. I did enjoy their tag feature. You can click on a book and if
there are others books that have the same tag you can find books that are
similar. For example one of the books I added to a collection was the wordless
book “Chalk” and it had a tag wordless book and so when I clicked on it the
site provided me with a list of other wordless books. This feature is very
similar to adding a hash tag to a post or picture. It was very helpful when I
was searching for books to add to my collection. Overall it was a useful site
and not hard to manage but just not as appealing tome as the others.
Shelfari is a book community that is established through
amazon.com. I found this site to also be very user friendly and very visually
appealing. I like the shelf view and how they display the book covers. They
give you several choices about how to display the books. Once you have books on
your shelf, it is easy to edit them and I liked that feature. You can make the
book as planning to read, reading now, or read it. You can also mark a book as
your favorite and add to a wish list. The books are also easy to rate once you
have read them. Once you click on a title you can read the description and read
reviews from other readers. Being a product of amazon you can also purchase the
book easily. I think that I will use this site for personal use but still not
quite right to use with my students in the library.
This site to me is very similar to Library Thing. I found it
to be very user friendly but just not as much as the other sites. I was able to
add books to my shelf but when I wanted to know more about a certain book it
did not provide me with a lot of information except for reviews from other
readers. I was also a little annoyed that when I did a search for a book and
would find what I was looking for but also saw another book I was interested in
I could only add one book at a time and each time I would have to type the
search criteria in the search bar. It also opens a new window each time you
click on a book. I did like the way that the books were displayed with the book
covers. I feel that is was not as user frieldy as the rest and will most likely
choose another online book community to “shelf” my books.
I am so excited about this site and cannot wait to share it
with all my teachers and the students! This is a wonderful site and perfect for
the classroom or the library! Biblionasium is very visually appealing and kid
friendly. I found it to be very easy to use and something that my teachers can
easily jump in and start using right away. There are so many interesting parts
to this site. You are able to build reading lists, the kids can log their
reading time and it offers reading challenges that you can have your class work
on. It also provides a really fun and kid friendly home page with book talks,
did you know section and fun and interesting articles. This site also provides
parents with a way to view what their child is reading and check on how many
minutes they have logged. There are also news articles and other resources for
parents and teachers. They provide book lists and activities for children.
Under the tab “My Books” is where you will find your book shelf. You can create
different book shelves for different lists. The book shelves are very visually
appealing and fun to look at because they look like real book shelves and the
book covers look great. When you click on each book it will give you the book
summary, a place for reviews, you can send recommendations, a link to
amazon.com where you can purchase the book and the book’s reading level. When
you are searching for books to add to your shelf the search will display the
book you are looking for and others by the same author or subject. The only
down side is that it won’t let you add more than one book at a time. You have
to click on each book to then add to your shelf and then go back to your search
results. This one flaw doesn’t have me bothered though because of all the other
awesome things that this site can do and provide. I highly recommend it to all
reading teachers and librarians.
This week I took a look into podcasts and how they can be
used in the library. After reading some other blogs about podcasting I
discovered that there are an endless amount of ways that a simple podcast can
be used in the library. A podcast is a voice recording that can be about
anything. The way I explained it to my students was that it is very similar to
a radio show where you can hear them but can’t see them and it is different in
the way that you can listen to it anytime and over and over again if you wish. A
librarian could use a podcast to record herself or students reading a story to
be shared with parents, The students can create their own podcast of them “interviewing”
a historical person after reading a biography, the list can go on and on. This week
as my classes came to the library I was promoting the book fair that will be
opening on Monday so I decided to play with podcasting and record a few of my
fourth grade students discussing some books that will be in the book fair.
To make a podcast I tried out four different apps to find
the one that worked for me. I tried Soundcloud, Audioboom, Podomatic, and
Opinion. After trying all these out I decided to use the Opinion app because it
was very user friendly and easy to email to myself so I could them save it on
my computer. The other apps I experimented with were to me more focused on
different podcasts that have already been made and were ready to be listened
too. I found the app Opinion by searching the IPhone app store for “record your
own podcast”. It was a free app so I downloaded it and when I opened the app it
was ready to record. I could also add music to the podcast if I wanted to. I
could also cut and edit the podcast as well. I recorded a few samples and then
tested them out to make sure that they could be emailed easily. After I felt
confident and comfortable with the app I recruited my fourth grade library
helpers to help me record a podcast about the book fair. They had a blast and
recorded it several times because they wanted to make it perfect. I then
emailed it to my principal and she played it on the morning announcements. Overall
I had a great experience with podcasts and play to use them often.
What is Information Ethics? Well, after reading the article “K.I.S.S.
and Information Ethics” by Mary Ann Bell and looking up the definition in the
dictionary, Information ethics has been defined as "the branch of ethics
that focuses on the relationship between the creation, organization,
dissemination, and use of information, and the ethical standards and moral
codes governing human conduct in society". How does this have to do with
the library? When a problem comes up it is about how you as a professional deal
with it. This also comes in play when a book is being challenged in your
library or a parent, student, or staff member has a concern about a book or
resource.
According to the book written by Richard W. Severson’s titled
“The Principles of Information Ethics” there are four principles. They are,
Respect for Intellectual property, Respect for privacy, Fair Representation,
and Non maleficence (or “doing no harm”).
I have decided to focus on the second principle, Respect for
Privacy. This principle has to do with privacy and the nature and dangers of
email. I have been working as an Elementary Librarian since August and have not
encountered a problem to be able to personally discuss. However when I was
working as a classroom teacher my librarian had an incident involving parent
teacher email communication. She would send out weekly emails to all of our
parents about updates and important info that they needed to know about. She
would send the email to our self and put all of the parents email contacts in
the blind copy part of the email to keep the emails and parents contact private.
Well one day she was trying to send the weekly email and accidentally forgot to
BC the parents and sent the email exposing all the contact information for the
parents in that class. This then allowed for the parents to hit the reply all
button. Well it was not a big deal at the moment but a few days later a parent
had a complaint about something and instead of dealing with just the librarian
she sent it to the whole class list because of this mistake which then created a
heated argument between some parents. My librarian then had to involve our principal
and forward all messages to her. She then called the parents that were arguing
into the office for a sit down meeting to discuss both their concerns at once. The
parents were then able to work out their problems and everything was fine after
that. Since this issue I have been extremely careful when sending an email.
I feel that my librarian made one simple mistake and learned
a very valuable lesson. It was also a great learning experience for all the
teachers in the school because at the next school wide staff meeting we
discussed the situation and were all able to learn about the dangers of email
and keeping contact information private. I feel while it was a mistake on her
part the teacher dealt with the problem with a high level of ethical conduct.
This week I was asked to explore the world of YouTube, QR codes and animoto and how these tools can be helpful in the library. I know that I use YouTube in my library all the time! The most common use for YouTube for me right now is book trailers. I always try to encourage my third and fourth graders to read all the Bluebonnet books each year and to get them interested I show the 20 book trailers and by the end of that class period all my books are checked out! It is a great way to show students about books in a format they really pay attention to. When watching the book trailers I noticed that most of them were created using the web tool Animoto. When I was asked to create an animoto this week I was worried at first because the ones I have seen always look professionally done and I didn't think that I had that ability, but after I started it was one of the easiest web tools to put together. Animoto is very user friendly and a tool that students can use with ease. I have already shared it with my fourth grade teachers and we are planning a project using it. With both YouTube and Animoto the amount of way you could use them in the library is endless. With YouTube you can watch videos of authors reading their books, interviews with author and illustrators, book publishing, or you could have your classes/students record themselves reading or performing a readers theater. There are is so much that a librarian could use YouTube for. The same with Animoto. You could assign all kind of projects the kids could work on. Even the really young students could put together an Animoto using pictures and sequence the story of the three little pigs.
YouTube
Here are a few examples of great YouTube videos from different Libraries.
1)Norman High School
This is a great YouTube video that tells the viewers all about the library, from when it is open to what the library's purpose is. I think that this video is very helpful to students. If I was a new student and didn't know about the library, after watching this video I would know a lot more and be more likely to walk into the library and feel comfortable. I really like this idea of a welcome to the library video.
This is another cute video that Norman High school created to show viewers all the different things that you can do in the library. I liked how they used the school mascot to create this video. I think that by using the mascot it will entertain the students and keep them engaged in the video. I think that they probably enjoyed this video about the library the most.
2) The Unquiet Library
This library has created a lot of tutorial videos that show how to do/create something. It was hard to pick just one video to share. I chose one example showing how the librarian is teaching the students how to embed voice into a prezi. While watching you an tell that she was collaborating with the teacher on a project and I really like that collaboration was shown.
This next video shows how a librarian can use YouTube for a student project. You an tell by watching the video that the students really enjoyed creating this video.
3) Pikesville High School
This library uses their YouTube channel to share projects and to post video of all the fun things that happen in the library. I think the most useful videos for the students are about the ones made by teachers explaining why the students should or should not take their class. If I was a high school student I would think that was helpful. You also get to see and hear from the teacher so you already know a little about who teaches what. The video that I think the students would enjoy the most you be the videos that were posted that show the "library in action".
4) BBMS School Media
This school has some of the best videos! I watched several and it was hard to pick just two to share. The parodies they have made are awesome! The librarian has also posted a few video of himself talking about some good reads for students. Its a great way to get the students interested in some books that they might know about if he hadn't posted on YouTube.
I think that the students had to love this video about brining back books!
These four YouTube channels show just a few of the many ways a librarian can use YouTube to promote the library.
Animoto
I created an Animoto video to use as a book trailer for the book "Max the Brave". It was super user friendly as I said before! I really enjoyed working with this web tool and will be making several in the near future
Max is a fearless kitten. Max is a brave kitten. Max is a kitten who chases mice. There's only one problem-Max doesn't know what a mouse looks like! With a little bit of bad advice, Max finds himself facing a much bigger challenge. Maybe Max doesn't have to be Max the Brave all the time...
Join this adventurous black cat as he very politely asks a variety of animals for help in finding a mouse. Young readers will delight in Max's mistakes, while adults will love the subtle, tongue-in-cheek humor of this new children's classic.
-Amazon
QR Codes
When I think of QR codes, the library is not the first place I think of. I have used them in the store and while I am grocery shopping but didn't really connect QR codes and all the possibilities that they offered in the library. I was actually sitting down in a meeting today with a book rep and she started telling me how if I buy enough eBooks then they will provide me with a certain amount of printed books with the QR code on the back so the students can scan it and be able to read the book on an electronic device. I was blown away. While I was researching about how QR codes could work in the library I discovered that there are so many uses. You can make a QR code link to songs, videos, Web sites that you think the students or parent would like. I also liked the idea of creating a code and placing it on audio book cases for author interviews or books for reviews.You can make a code for just about anything and the students just have to have an electronic devise to scan it. While there are so many ways to use them in the library I am finding it hard to imagine exactly how I can work them into an elementary school library where the students are not allowed to walk around with an electronic devise and a campus that does not have a lot of technology (iPad, laptops). They would be very helpful to the teachers and parents though and that is great. When I created the one below, that will take you to my animoto video, it was a lot easier than I thought it was. I entered the URL of my animoto that I posted to YouTube and then downloaded the QR code and I just had to save the image. You are also given the option to email or print the code so it is easy to share with others. I am planning on creating a QR code to post on the front door of my library for our up coming open house night so the parents will be able to scan it and it will take them to our school library page. I am also going to try and make another for the Facebook page I created for the library!
If you have spent any amount of time reading blogs you can understand how hard it is to remember to check on each blog you enjoy, to make sure that you don't miss a new post. There are an endless amount of great blogs to follow and it can be very time consuming to find each one to look for new posts. Well I have good news! I have recently discovered blog readers. There are several different ones that you can chose from as well. The best way for me to explain what a blog reader is, is to compare them to Facebook. You add a blog similar to adding friends and then their information and posts shows up on the news feed. You can set up a blog reader and find all the blogs you enjoy to read and then they will set up a page similar to Facebook's "news feed" where you can scroll down the screen and see what your favorite bloggers have posted. A few options for you are Bloglovin’, Feedly, Bloglines, NewsBlur, Digg Reader, and Newsvibe. After digging deeper into each one of these and playing around with what each one has to offer I prefer the blog reader Bloglovin'. I felt that this one was the most user friendly for me. It was very easy for me to search for blogs and add blogs that I knew I wanted to add. When scrolling through "my feed" I found the format to be the most pleasing to me. It was very similar to Facebook and Pinterest which are sites I am use to. You are able to sort from the newest posts to older or you can click on just one blog you want to explore more of. Of course like just about anything on the web you do have to scroll past the advertisements but I found that on all the blog reader sites. I suggest that if you read a lot of blogs, to save yourself time and set up a blog reader with all your favorite sites and enjoy!
While I was exploring blog readers I came across some amazing blogs about a variety of things that could be helpful for my job as a librarian. There is so much out there when you start looking and that is the key, to look. I enjoy reading blogs about first time teachers or librarians because you can relate to what they are saying and you can learn from their experiences. It is very comforting to hear other stores from other librarians. You can also discover the latest news and happenings along with great ideas to use in the library. Technology blogs are also great blogs to follow. Here are a few of my favorite blogs...
1) Library Displays ( http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com/ ) This blog has a ton of great idea for book display in the library to generate interest and excitement about reading. I spent a lot of time looking at all the posts on this bog and was able to get a lot of great ideas for the future in my library. One of my favorite posts was the "poet-tree"! I cant wait to make that!
2) Great Kid Books ( http://greatkidbooks.blogspot.com/) This is another one of my favorite posts because it gives great reviews of books for children. I was able to find a great read aloud book from this blog. I love blogs that post about books they have just read and then review them. It is a way to save me time and still b able to find great books.
3) The Busy Librarian (http://www.busylibrarian.com/) This blog offers a ton of podcasts and interviews with authors and illustrators. I had just recently read the book "Max the Brave" to some of my classes and found a podcast with the author on this blog that I will then be able to use along with the read aloud! There are a lot of links to other extremely useful sites and podcasts. I love this blog!
4) Library as Makerspace ( http://librarymakerspace.blogspot.com/ ) This is a great site that I am following because I know that this is the way of the future and how my school district would like to go in. I am still learning about makerspace and what exactly it is and all that it entails so this blog will be extremely helpful to me in the near future. There are a lot of project ideas and technology tools posted on this blog. Its is more defiantly one to keep an eye on so I am glad that I have it on my blog reader!
5) Mrs. Lodge's Library ( http://www.mrs-lodges-library.com/ ) I am also a huge fan of this blog that Mrs. Lodges created about her library. She posts a wide range of things on her blog, read alouds, center ideas, classroom management ideas, and much more. This is the perfect blog to follow if you a new librarian like myself.
Along with my Bloglovin' blog reader I also set up a Tumblr account to be able to share ideas and posts and follow more librarians. If you are interested in my Tumblr then you can click on the link below. Just remember it has just been started and is a work in progress :)
Rainie, L. (2013, January 23). Teens and Libraries. Presentation presented at YALSA Teens and Libraries Summit.
Teens and Libraries, two words that do not seem to fit together much anymore. After reading the research that Lee Rainie put together for the YALSA Teens and Libraries Summit in January of 2013 I was shocked with the number of teens that actually use the library. To me it feels like it is a struggle to put a book in front of a teen and actually have them read something more than Facebook. I know that in the world we live in there is more of a need for technology and that we need to change with the times, but we cant loose the since of printed books. Lee Rainie and colleagues surveyed online 2,462 teachers with a College Board and National Writing Project and these are these are the seven things that they discovered about Teens and Libraries...
7 takeaways from our research 1)Teens live in a different information ecosystem 2)Teens live in a different learning ecosystem 3)Teens’ reading levels match/exceed adult levels 4)Teens use libraries and librarians more than others, but don’t necessarily love libraries as much 5)Teens have different priorities in library services 6)Teens will behave differently in the world to come 7)The public and teachers recognize this and want libraries to adjust to it
Twitter is a brand new social network to me, and as I started exploring and following people it opened a whole new world to me. Twitter is a great place to get up to date news and learn about the latest and greatest in educational technology along with many other topics. Here are a few of the biggest names in educational technology and what they are talking about.
Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock
Kathy is an Educational Technologist and speaker along with many other things. She is a great person to follow to learn about the newest terminology and things you can do to incorporate into the classroom. One of the posts that I found interesting was one about app-smashing. I had never heard of such a thing but it looks so cool! As I learned after watching the video and reading other posts, an app smash is when you use multiple apps for one project. The book that was used in the youtube video that she shared was great for explaining how to use it and why. I suggest everyone check it out. Follow the link below to take you to the site.
Linda Braun is Learning Consultant, educator, teen advocate, and librarian. Her tweets cover a wide range of topics and I found it to be very informative. I do have to mention that I found it had to read some of her tweets due to the twitter short hand. I guess I am just not use to that yet. There were several post that I saw very interesting and I caught myself clicking on several links and reading about all kinds of things. I really enjoyed her young adult post of the week tweets. It seems that the young adult is her age group that she posts about. I found one post to be very interesting. It was a link to an article about "How Having a Smartphone (or not) Shapes the Way Teens Communicate". It was a great read. If you are interested here is the link to her tweet.
After looking at the tweets that Tony Vincent posts about I can tell he is the go to person if you have an educational technology question. His tip Tuesday tweets are awesome! He tweets about some really cool things and about how to add technology into your classroom. He is also a presenter about the latest and greatest gadgets and apps available. He also tweets when apps go on sale so teachers can afford to download them. He is so knowledgeable about so much! I loved his tweet about how to make Apple TV more classroom friendly.
Buffy is a librarian and a teacher. I discovered from her tweets that she is a fan of art. I also noticed that she is an advocate and feels strongly for funding technology for the library. You can read one of her tweets here by clicking on this link.
The Daring librarian uses her twitter to connect with many people. She is a fan of comic books as well. Through her tweets I was able to find some great technology tips. One of her tweets was about makerspace. I have heard a lot about makerspace recently and when I saw that she was talking about it I became very interested in what she had to say. Come to find out she even has a makerspace starter kit! I spent a lot of time digging into this and was taken down the rabbit hole in a way because it kept leading me to more and more information about it and the more I discovered the more excited I became! I think everyone should check this out.
According to his twitter profile Jim is many things, parent, learner, teacher, leader, author, speaker, collaborator, and networker. After exploring his page I found that he is a fan of google and how a teachers/librarians can incorporate google into the classroom. He also tweets a lot about free technology for teachers and new things in the technology world. Here is a link to one his super cool google tweets. I had no idea we could do so much with google!
Facebook seems to be the most popular form of communication with parents these days. So should the school library create a page? After looking at what other schools have done I think the answer is yes! It is a great way to communicate with parents about what is new and happening in the library. Several pages that I looked at displayed what new books were available for check out along with due dates and special events coming up. Along with information it is also a way to share reading quotes and motivational sayings. This site will also be a great spot to promote the latest research that is published about how important reading to and with your children can be. One school that I looked at also used their Facebook page as a motivation to be the STAR class of the week. I love that idea! A.R. is a big part of our school and by having a public place to reward these great readers will really motivate others to read more. I do not see many disadvantages except for the fact that it is one more thing to add to my to do list but the benefits out way the negative. I have created a page for my library so please feel free to check it out! Bay Colony Elementary Library! I just started it so give me time to build it up!
