The Bard's Books

For this course, I was required to interact and evaluate a plethora of technology tools for use in the library. Some technology was geared toward student use, other pieces were used for faculty or staff use or for connecting with parents or other library patrons. I think this may have been one of the most useful courses I've had thus far in my LibSci grad program. On top of absolutely loving the way assignments have been handled through blog posts, the hands on experience and ability to look at how other students are using the same tools was so incredibly useful. The list of blogs for other students also gives me a future resource when I am looking for ways to use these tools. My favorite tools were definitely the web 2.0 tools that I can use with students to create. Whether using them for lesson plans, makerspaces or with clubs, these creative ways to use technology to further understanding will likely be a core piece of instruction as a librarian. I imagine I will be using

I can't help but compare TLA to TMEA. They are similar types of conferences. Both seem well run, with a variety of speakers but TLA has the ritz factor. The small touches that probably help explain the extreme differences in price go to TLA. There are Ozarka water dispensers every few feet in the halls (maybe that's just this convention center?), amazing free snacks/dinner thingies. I know I'm a bit everywhere - maybe sleep deprivation? But here's another observation. Diversity is a huge issue with librarians. Since I'm doing my degree online, I had no idea how...same...the majority of librarians seem. Not that we aren't all different people with different experiences, but I walked into a session with ~500 people and only 3 were men, and maybe a dozen were people of color. I hope this is changing institutionally. I need to do some research about this stuff. I have more thoughts on TLA, it was a really positive experience for me and I can't wait to see what

In the 1980s and 1990s, as educational technology was first becoming a budding field, Richard Clark published an analysis of data where he determined that the media that delivers instruction is no more than a delivery tool. He used an analogy of a truck carrying the information to the learner. He concluded that the media chosen has no effect on the learning taking place - that the instruction in the only thing that influences the learning.  In 1994, Kozma responded and prompted the current debate. Kozma states that some media have specific characteristics that do effect learning as more than a vehicle. While there is little research to support Kozma's claim, he suggests that the way the media helps shape the learning does have impact and that evaluating this impact requires more than raw data as the media and the way we use it has become more complex and nuanced. Clark has stood by his original conclusions and has even subsequently released articles further supporting his stanc

I'm pretty lucky when it comes to podcasting. My husband, the Chainmail Ninja, is a hobbyist podcaster and professional book narrator so we have quite a recording setup in our home office. He worked in radio for 10+ years so he does the production side of things as well as the recording. I've tossed around the idea of contributing on his podcasts, which are mostly about geek culture and hobbies, but haven't had time to put this plan in action. But for today's blog post, I went ahead and made some time to create a podcast using our equipment. There are three main steps to creating a podcast. First, is the planning stage. Some podcasters prepare using various methods. Some research their topics, but don't do any other prep and speak mostly off the cuff. Many podcasters create a notes page to make sure they hit all the points they want to. Others create detailed scripts for their podcasts. The second step is recording the podcast. This can be done using the inter

Let's look at cartoons and how they can be used in the library with students. I tried three different cartoon generating tools. First, I created a little comic about reserving library books using ToonDoo. ToonDo was fairly easy to use, but inserting text and changing the size was a little tricky. Saving was really easy. There was quite a bit of variety, but the quality of the pictures and backgrounds wasn't fantastic. My second comic was created using Pixton. What I liked about Pixton was that the graphic choices were really vibrant. The backgrounds were more fun than at ToonDoo. I made a cute little easy comic of a library joke. It was easy to save, but difficult to place the characters where I wanted. Lastly, I used MakeBeliefsComix to make a 3rd comic strip. I think MakeBeliefsComix was my favorite generator. I found the creation process to be the most intuitive using this tool. I would use comics with my classes in several way. Many of the generators had w

Many libraries are already doing great things with youtube for their students. I browsed several school library youtube channels and found some gems.  First, here are two videos from BBMSmedia's channel, which can be found here. The video I found most useful for students would be the tutorial on how to use Noodle to create a book citation.    A video I found that I think students would love from this channel is this one that is a parody of Let It Go from Frozen about returning library books.  Norman High School Library has a great library of youtube videos, including this really helpful tutorial for their students on how to access the library webpage and use the resources contained there.  And this hilarious Harry Potter Dark Lord Funk video is definitely going to be a hit with students! The Unquiet Library includes this really useful video of how to embed a Prezi presentation into a wikispaces page.  And the library also includes so

I love screencast programs. I've used screencasts in my music classroom as sub lesson plans, as directions in centers and when I'm having voice problems like strep and I need to be able to teach the same lesson every day of the week without putting strain of my voice. Today, I'm going to show you two different ways to use screencast using two different screencast programs. Screencast-O-Matic Screencast-O-Matic is a web based screen capture program. You can find it here . You will need to download the record launcher, but once you do that, Screencast-O-Matic is really simple to use. A window pops up for you to select settings and once you do that, a small bar appears on your screen with controls while recording. Every time you press record, the recorder gives you a 3 second count down so you can get ready to go. You can pause, which is very useful. In addition, you can back up the recording and record over a previous mistake. I love this feature. There is a 15 minute lim

I've been tasked to create an infographic for one of my grad school classes, so I got to play around with a few infographic editors this week. I chose to make my inforgraphic using www.easel.ly . I used data from a PEW research study conducted on the perceptions of online privacy and security, focusing on the results as they pertained to young adults/teenagers. Here's my first try at this. I really enjoyed working on this project, and hope to make some even cooler/cleaner looking infographics in the future. Easel.ly has some really neat templates.

I'm a huge blog reader. I love learning and reading about others' perspectives and I find blogs to be a great way to be entertained or educated. When you follow a lot of blogs like I do, you are going to need a feed reader, or you're going to spend a lot of time checking for new blog posts that aren't up yet, or missing great reads because you stop checking. Back in the day, I used Google's RSS feed reader, which I loved. But Google did away with it, so it was off to shop for a new one. I now use Feedreader, which you can find here . It's simple. It's been around for a long time and it gets high ratings from other users. I'm not that picky as long as interfaces are generally intuitive, and Feedreader is a simple, barebones, feed reader that works. Now, when I started out reading blogs, it was an extension of reading Live Journals. I'm not sure how many of you remember LJ and it's darker cousin, Dead Journal. I had accounts at both and wrote the

When social media became a "thing", businesses were one of the first entities to jump on board. Many companies realized that social media created an essentially free way to advertise. As social media developed, targeted marketing using social media became an even more effective way to communicate and advertise with specific consumer bases. Educational entities eventually got on board as well. What does this have to do with your library? Plenty. Let's take a look at most popular social media platforms - Facebook and Twitter, and how they are being used by libraries to promote and communicate with their clients as well as help educate and connect library staff members worldwide. Stay tuned for a future post on the social media platform that is ahead of Twitter in teen use, Instagram. Facebook The brain child of Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard classmates, Facebook was created in 2004 as a way for college students to connect online. Myspace, a Facebook predecessor, had al

Bloom's Taxonomy. One of the things we are constantly hearing in our school is the push for increased rigor in our classroom, as a result of the STAAR tests and others like it becoming more rigorous. We are told to push for higher order thinking and questioning from our students. One of the tools we use to look at how we can increase rigor is Bloom's Taxonomy. But some things about Bloom's don't translate exactly when we are talking about the digital age and the classroom or library. For example, remembering is the lowest piece of the triangle for Bloom's, but remembering looks different when you have instant access to a powerful computer that can use essentially limitless online resources to find answers. I've mentioned to my husband just how much more this and future generations will know about the world around them simply because they no longer have to remember everything they're interested in knowing. If I pass a historical marker for a place I haven'

Yup. And I often sit in my big comfy chair with a mug of tea and book.