I am a big GoodReads fan! Before my website wouldn't allow it I had a very cool bookshelf on my webpage showing the covers of lots of books I had in the lib. It was neat because it looked just like a book shelf and you could click on the titles to go to the GoodReads page for more information. Alas, it is to be no more since technology intervened!
I actually have my students do a folder project in 10th grade where they take a manila folder and do a modified version of a book report (this idea stolen from Kathleen O'Dean). The outside of the folder is their original artwork depicting the book through their eyes - it's usually a collage of pics and words but is very cool. The inside includes a summary of the book in their own words and a collection of 5-6 quotes pasted on. The back of the folder is the book review - both their own and reviews from a reputable site like School Library Journal, Mackin, or Horn Book. It's amazing how creative students have been with their folders and then I put them with the books after the project has been graded as great 'advertising' to entice readers to chose those books. I think it's really important that students are exposed to vetted reviews from sources instead of relying solely on reviews from Barnes and Noble or Amazon. It's not that these aren't good it's just that they should know there is more out there to explore from professionals in the field.
I have had some serious issues with ebooks so I just am not thrilled about using them. Sometimes kids can't access them, sometimes if you check the book out you have to sit at the same exact computer to get it again, sometimes they don't port to their devices, and sometimes they don't come up because of compatibility issues with the network. We don't do Apple products at my school so we live in PC world only and that requires certain compatibility with the ebooks that I think is often better addressed with iPads, however, I guess you don't miss what you don't have :)
I have expanded the library offerings to include several Nooks. Since you can still share books over six devices on the Nook (not the Kindle - sorry Amazon!) I selected these. They are older but kids seem to like them - not love them. It's difficult because they want to download their choice of content and they don't quite grasp that there isn't money to do that. Funding with the Nooks has been an issue too. Our BOCES will not approve any co-ser monies that are used to purchase ebooks so, again, I haven't been all gung-ho to go out and get these because I can't use my co-ser monies to do so. I did get the Nook titles in the OPAC and that is helpful but still I think there are ways I could be marketing Nook titles more effectively. My kids still are definitely see it, touch it, want to read it type of book borrowers - they haven't really made the leap into the digital book age quite yet.
Some have and read on their phone or device but many of my kids really like to have the actual book in hand (me too actually) even to pick it. I did add a feature to my OPAC that gives summaries, sections of the first chapter, the cover of book, and reviews and my kids really seem to like that and use it to help them find books they love. It's Syndetics and it's relatively cheap - well worth it for me at least.
We have tried a couple of ways to share what we are reading by tweeting, with a Wiki, and with a blog but the kids really haven't loved any of these. Actually we post info on a white board and they seem to really like that! Sometimes digital isn't always the answer. We are working on more ways to share our reading ... all ideas are appreciated!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thing 6: Curation Tools
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I was lucky enough to be able to hear Joyce Valenza speak in person at the NYLA Conference in Buffalo about curation a couple of years ago. It was a wonderful presentation and provided much thought-provoking information for me for sure.
I use both Delicious and Diigo. At school, I really like Diigo because it is extremely school-friendly and allows students to share with each other and me, as well as allowing them to highlight, archive, and sticky note articles. I have used Delicious since my days in online library school at MU so I guess I'm just old school there!
At my school we have been using NoodleTools for our citations for several years now and they have recently added some really great new features for archiving and curation, including allowing students to start a citation from a webpage, archive webpages, highlight information on web articles, and allowing students to easily share notes, cites, and articles with faculty and each other. If you haven't looked at this great and extremely cost-effective resource you should.
I reviewed paper.li and Scoopit as part of my exploration. I really liked both but can honestly say that I could not use paper.li at my school because of the restrictions on access to social networking sites. It would definitely defeat the purpose for sure! Scoopit was easy to use and really kid friendly in terms of graphics and access. I liked it better than Pinterest although I can see a way to use both effectively in a school setting. I think we will try to use Scoopit as part of our Freshmen Common Core research unit to share what articles we are selecting to answer our guiding question.
For curation at TAE we also have used www.only2clicks.com. In fact, one of our social studies teachers uses it on his website and found it to be extremely efficient and effective for him and the kids.
Keeping up with curation seems to be my issue! I tend to use a tool and then not have time to stick with the updates or add new topics. Time is never our friend in today's world so if anyone has a trick that helps them stay on top of staying on top of things I'd love to hear it!
I use both Delicious and Diigo. At school, I really like Diigo because it is extremely school-friendly and allows students to share with each other and me, as well as allowing them to highlight, archive, and sticky note articles. I have used Delicious since my days in online library school at MU so I guess I'm just old school there!
At my school we have been using NoodleTools for our citations for several years now and they have recently added some really great new features for archiving and curation, including allowing students to start a citation from a webpage, archive webpages, highlight information on web articles, and allowing students to easily share notes, cites, and articles with faculty and each other. If you haven't looked at this great and extremely cost-effective resource you should.
I reviewed paper.li and Scoopit as part of my exploration. I really liked both but can honestly say that I could not use paper.li at my school because of the restrictions on access to social networking sites. It would definitely defeat the purpose for sure! Scoopit was easy to use and really kid friendly in terms of graphics and access. I liked it better than Pinterest although I can see a way to use both effectively in a school setting. I think we will try to use Scoopit as part of our Freshmen Common Core research unit to share what articles we are selecting to answer our guiding question.
For curation at TAE we also have used www.only2clicks.com. In fact, one of our social studies teachers uses it on his website and found it to be extremely efficient and effective for him and the kids.
Keeping up with curation seems to be my issue! I tend to use a tool and then not have time to stick with the updates or add new topics. Time is never our friend in today's world so if anyone has a trick that helps them stay on top of staying on top of things I'd love to hear it!
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Thing 5: Digital Storytelling & Presentation Tools
For me, the Digital Storytelling tools were a chance to revisit many of the tools we already use at TAE. My kids love using 'cool' technology for their presentations and so we try and shy away from the traditional PowerPoint and use a variety of web tools to tell our tales!
We recently used Animoto for science videos, Prezi to create poetry in motion, and Toondo for Spanish cartoons. We also use MovieMaker quite a bit to do some of our larger and longer projects. I find that my students are much more engaged when using these Web 2.0 tools than when they use PowerPoint. I've also used Animoto to create a presentation about our library for the Board of Education. It was very well received and went a long way to showing folks who aren't present in our schools on an every day basis what really happens 'in the lib' as we say! I also have a Prezi embedded on my library website.
Check out some of our projects and links:
www.heightsschools.com/taelibrary (Prezi)
http://animoto.com/play/A1V0AXVTRxEoOcwmtp1chQ (Animoto TAE Library promotion)
http://animoto.com/play/mVNfcegztwLpA656OufxWg (Animoto Sources of Strength video for students)
http://animoto.com/play/mK03E4kZxzPli1YCkYR9EQ Animoto Integrated Science video)
We recently used Animoto for science videos, Prezi to create poetry in motion, and Toondo for Spanish cartoons. We also use MovieMaker quite a bit to do some of our larger and longer projects. I find that my students are much more engaged when using these Web 2.0 tools than when they use PowerPoint. I've also used Animoto to create a presentation about our library for the Board of Education. It was very well received and went a long way to showing folks who aren't present in our schools on an every day basis what really happens 'in the lib' as we say! I also have a Prezi embedded on my library website.
Check out some of our projects and links:
www.heightsschools.com/taelibrary (Prezi)
http://animoto.com/play/A1V0AXVTRxEoOcwmtp1chQ (Animoto TAE Library promotion)
http://animoto.com/play/mVNfcegztwLpA656OufxWg (Animoto Sources of Strength video for students)
http://animoto.com/play/mK03E4kZxzPli1YCkYR9EQ Animoto Integrated Science video)
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Thing 4: RSS, Personal Home Pages and Feed Readers
In the past I have used Diigo and Delicious for my RSS feeds. I really like Diigo because it is extremely school-friendly and allows students to share with each other and me, as well as allowing them to highlight, archive, and sticky note articles.
I tried out both NetVibes and Feedly and found that I much prefer NetVibes. I like that it creates the dashboard along with an identifying picture (OK - not very scholarly I know but I like that part) and it allows you to view the feeds in an alternative they call "Reader" mode which is more list-like for my kids who are not into the more graphic view. Feedly seemed 'old' compared to NetVibes. I don't know why - to me at least it just seemed to not be quite as flashy and have the bells and whistles that the kids and I like (those pictures and a nice graphic organization).
I can see that teachers would find NetVibes fairly straight-forward and easy to use too. I thought about the social studies classes using the 'news' dashboard for exploring current events across a variety of sources or the 'sports' dashboard for Sports Marketing class to explore current topics. I didn't like that the pre-made dashboards only gave 4 or 5 main news sources. I would have liked to see PBS and perhaps London and NY Times included there as well, but that's just a personal preference. It's easy to go in the categories section and select personal choices.
I think the RSS feeds, for me at least, are a great way to track things easily and quickly. I can go and scan updates and often I might not need something right then but I remember I read it and can go back and track it down. I always look for info from Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton, and EngageNY. I also like seeing what other states are doing with their Common Core lessons especially in states like Utah and others that have had the Common Core for a bit.
I like to show my kids my RSS feeds so they can see how to organize themselves and move away from the Twitter and FaceBook syndrome of looking OTHER places for information on the world in multiple perspectives. Having kids develop a list of their top 10 RSS feeds also helps me get to know them better and helps me tailor lessons that fit their interests.
A great lesson to remind us to always keep exploring new resources even though we all have our own old favorites!
I tried out both NetVibes and Feedly and found that I much prefer NetVibes. I like that it creates the dashboard along with an identifying picture (OK - not very scholarly I know but I like that part) and it allows you to view the feeds in an alternative they call "Reader" mode which is more list-like for my kids who are not into the more graphic view. Feedly seemed 'old' compared to NetVibes. I don't know why - to me at least it just seemed to not be quite as flashy and have the bells and whistles that the kids and I like (those pictures and a nice graphic organization).
I can see that teachers would find NetVibes fairly straight-forward and easy to use too. I thought about the social studies classes using the 'news' dashboard for exploring current events across a variety of sources or the 'sports' dashboard for Sports Marketing class to explore current topics. I didn't like that the pre-made dashboards only gave 4 or 5 main news sources. I would have liked to see PBS and perhaps London and NY Times included there as well, but that's just a personal preference. It's easy to go in the categories section and select personal choices.
I think the RSS feeds, for me at least, are a great way to track things easily and quickly. I can go and scan updates and often I might not need something right then but I remember I read it and can go back and track it down. I always look for info from Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton, and EngageNY. I also like seeing what other states are doing with their Common Core lessons especially in states like Utah and others that have had the Common Core for a bit.
I like to show my kids my RSS feeds so they can see how to organize themselves and move away from the Twitter and FaceBook syndrome of looking OTHER places for information on the world in multiple perspectives. Having kids develop a list of their top 10 RSS feeds also helps me get to know them better and helps me tailor lessons that fit their interests.
A great lesson to remind us to always keep exploring new resources even though we all have our own old favorites!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Thing 13: Media Skills
Did I mention how much fun this lesson was? I had a great time exploring some sites that I had previously not used including Ribbet.com. It was super easy and I can see that my students would be easily able to use it to modify their own photos. One drawback is the ton of ads on the site, but honestly, I didn't even create an account. I just uploaded a photo and worked away and could save it easily to my computer. It took me about 5 minutes to fix up this lovely picture of my best friend Bella.
I cropped, added the border, embellished the color, added the text, and faded the edges. I really loved the simplicity of Ribbet and will definitely have my students use it ... I'm just not sure how yet!
I cropped, added the border, embellished the color, added the text, and faded the edges. I really loved the simplicity of Ribbet and will definitely have my students use it ... I'm just not sure how yet!
Thing 12: Social Learning & Learning Management Systems
At TAE we have used a variety of LMS including Collaborize the Classroom, Edmodo, and ToolBoxPro (a system developed by our local BOCES), and Quizlet. I have teachers using all of these in one form or another.
Our 12th grade social studies teacher really loves Collaborize and uses it weekly with his students for them to respond to a social, government, or DBQ type of question. The kids love it and since they can access it from their phones it makes it even more fun for them. Needing an email to sign up was not an issue for the older students, HOWEVER, it certainly was for our Freshmen. In fact, the 9th grade social studies teacher switched to Edmodo this year because he had such a struggle getting students signed up through Collaborize. He really likes the interface that Edmodo provides and finds that the younger crowd at least seem to utilize it more because it's more "Facebook-like" feel.
Many of our teachers have switched from using CastleLearning (which can be WAY expensive) to Quizlet for assessments and practice. Quizlet is a great and FREE way to create learning modules like flashcards, matching, memory games, etc. You can even upload Regents exams and many teachers have a lot of good stuff already out there. My language, science, and social studies teachers use this with great frequency and it does allow the teacher to access individual student progress and assessment grades. ToolBoxPro has been developed by our local GST BOCES and includes many of the features of Quizlet and Collaborize and allows the teacher to upload documents, create assessments, get grades and communicate. ToolBox also has an interface with the teachers' websites and since we are required to use this to create our websites in the District some teachers find that beneficial. My high school students and teachers really don't love ToolBox at all. It's another sign in which often puts them off (although they have no trouble signing in twice to get to Facebook!) and more geared toward the lower grades. It's been upgraded lately and I'm still exploring some of the new features. It does have the added advantage that if we want something added or changed we can simply email the programmer and poof, it's fixed!
I explored Schoology and will be asking a couple of my peers to test it out. We aren't heavy into the world of Apple products at TAE so the iPad interface is really not an issue. Being able to add the video and rubric are awesome features for sure! I am a product of the online learning age. My Masters was earned online so things like Angel/Blackboard for second nature for me. I love that my students can mimic that experience with the new (FREE) and very good tools out there. I think that many students could benefit from a blended learning environment where they get the basics in class and then go online to explore and learn more on their own bringing back all those ideas into the classroom through both electronic discussion threads and in-person communication.
I will post more as our exploration of Schoology and other learning management systems continues!
Our 12th grade social studies teacher really loves Collaborize and uses it weekly with his students for them to respond to a social, government, or DBQ type of question. The kids love it and since they can access it from their phones it makes it even more fun for them. Needing an email to sign up was not an issue for the older students, HOWEVER, it certainly was for our Freshmen. In fact, the 9th grade social studies teacher switched to Edmodo this year because he had such a struggle getting students signed up through Collaborize. He really likes the interface that Edmodo provides and finds that the younger crowd at least seem to utilize it more because it's more "Facebook-like" feel.
Many of our teachers have switched from using CastleLearning (which can be WAY expensive) to Quizlet for assessments and practice. Quizlet is a great and FREE way to create learning modules like flashcards, matching, memory games, etc. You can even upload Regents exams and many teachers have a lot of good stuff already out there. My language, science, and social studies teachers use this with great frequency and it does allow the teacher to access individual student progress and assessment grades. ToolBoxPro has been developed by our local GST BOCES and includes many of the features of Quizlet and Collaborize and allows the teacher to upload documents, create assessments, get grades and communicate. ToolBox also has an interface with the teachers' websites and since we are required to use this to create our websites in the District some teachers find that beneficial. My high school students and teachers really don't love ToolBox at all. It's another sign in which often puts them off (although they have no trouble signing in twice to get to Facebook!) and more geared toward the lower grades. It's been upgraded lately and I'm still exploring some of the new features. It does have the added advantage that if we want something added or changed we can simply email the programmer and poof, it's fixed!
I explored Schoology and will be asking a couple of my peers to test it out. We aren't heavy into the world of Apple products at TAE so the iPad interface is really not an issue. Being able to add the video and rubric are awesome features for sure! I am a product of the online learning age. My Masters was earned online so things like Angel/Blackboard for second nature for me. I love that my students can mimic that experience with the new (FREE) and very good tools out there. I think that many students could benefit from a blended learning environment where they get the basics in class and then go online to explore and learn more on their own bringing back all those ideas into the classroom through both electronic discussion threads and in-person communication.
I will post more as our exploration of Schoology and other learning management systems continues!
Thing 3: Photo Sharing
Ok - I admit that I'm a Flickr junkie (love the art aspect of the photos) but thought I'd try my hand at a new experience with Historypin.com. VERY COOL I have to say. All kinds of ideas are spinning in my head including doing a pin tour of the historical markers in our area. Now wouldn't that be a great learning experience for the students - take a pic of the marker, do a little historical research, visit the historical society and get an old pic beside a new pic and create a nifty little tour. I also thought it could be a great tool to map something like the Sullivan-Clinton campaign which had a great local impact.
I also explored a bit under Google (I know - the 'g' word) for photos. I used the Advanced Search features and found out how to show my students how they can search for pics that are available for reuse, find pictures based on a color scheme, and drop and drag a photo into Google so they can search to find where the original photo came from.
Students (and teachers) all love great pics ... I am considering having my students do a little project where we give a book talk but instead of the traditional PowerPoint or poster type of presentation they have to explain the characters and main ideas/themes, etc., of their books in three photos or less! No words, no music, no flying text!! Just how the photo represents the meaning of their text. Now there's something they won't be able to use SparkNotes to do!
Great exploration of some fun and beautiful images. I loved this lesson!
I also explored a bit under Google (I know - the 'g' word) for photos. I used the Advanced Search features and found out how to show my students how they can search for pics that are available for reuse, find pictures based on a color scheme, and drop and drag a photo into Google so they can search to find where the original photo came from.
Students (and teachers) all love great pics ... I am considering having my students do a little project where we give a book talk but instead of the traditional PowerPoint or poster type of presentation they have to explain the characters and main ideas/themes, etc., of their books in three photos or less! No words, no music, no flying text!! Just how the photo represents the meaning of their text. Now there's something they won't be able to use SparkNotes to do!
Great exploration of some fun and beautiful images. I loved this lesson!
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