Showing posts with label Web 2.0. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web 2.0. Show all posts

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Summer Learning

  In the past year, I have reviewed and learn to use many  web 2.0 tools and seen many interesting websites . Make if one your goals this summer to learn how to use maybe two of these so that you can use them with your students and staff for the next school year,
   By using a neat web 2.0 tool with your students , they will be more engaged in their learning of the information skills you are imparting. Students in the 21st century need to be able to know about  and use these 'cool' ways of collaborating , interacting, and collecting information.

    Make a presentation ( think power point, prezi) for your student and teacher orientation of the school library.  Teach students about  blogs or pod casts, and have them share what they are reading and learning.  Develop a wiki for students to use for collaboration on a research topic for a certain unit or lesson.

    Don't forget your staff!!  What tool can you teach them to use? Power Point, Prezi, Blogging, or podcasting,wall wisher,? ( Just to mention a few). Do some staff development workshop[s and show them how they can  be used to engage students.

    So make a goal for the  summer , but don't just stop learning at two.  When you have mastered those, make another goal to learn two more, Let me know what you will be doing with your Web 2.0 Tool!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Why should librarians teach technology?

  As librarians, public, academic, and school, we need to be teaching technology. Will that be taking away of our love of books?  No way- it should enhance our love of books, reading, and learning!

  Technology is changing the roles and responsibility's of librarians. Librarians need to be information literate are and then they need to up to speed on the new technology. Why? Because that is the way the world is going and we need to go with it. We need to help patrons know about how to keep up with all of the newest technology and how to get the latest information.  There are a variety of formats that knowledge and information come in.  We want to help all generations be effective users of ideas and information,
 
 Librarians are a place now of not just print materials, they are filled with electronic mediums that give up to date and accurate information.   Students and 20-30 somethings often prefer getting their information and recreation from non- print sources. you can tell by just watching as they walk around with their phones, tablets, and ipads

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Sites for Student Surfing!


Sites for Student Surfing!

 

By helping students to be more critical in their web searchers try to introduce sites that have great content and are reliable.  Put links to them on your library website ( See    ) This will help students to find facts and information quickly and without a lot of needless surfing,  Explain to them that having these sites will save them a lot of time and error.

 

Cable in the Classroom: Digital Ethics


 

This teaches safe, courteous and ethical web behavior. There are also lots of tips and ideas for educators.  See Safety and Security, digital literacy, ethics and community!

 

Kathy Schrock’s Guide For Educators


 

 This will keep both you and your teachers busy for a while. There are tabs with links to articles on internet,  and internet search engines. There is a lot to find here   have so fun !

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Technology Tuesday-Summer Goals

  In the past year, I have reviewed and learn to use many  web 2.0 tools and seen many interesting websites . Make if one your goals this summer to learn how to use maybe tow of these so that you can use them with your students and staff for the next school year,
   By using a neat web 2.0 tool with your students , they will be more engaged in their learning of the information skills you are imparting. Students in the 21st century need to be able to know about  and use these 'cool' ways ot collaborating , interacting, and collecting information.

    Make a presentation ( think power point, prezi) for your student and teacher orientation of the school library.  Teach students about  blogs or pod casts, and have them share what they are reading and learning.  Develop a wiki for students to use for collaboration on a research topic for a certain unit or lesson.

    Don't forget your staff!!  What tool can you teach them to use? Power Point, Prezi, Blogging, or podcasting? ( Just to mention a few). Do some staff development workshop[s and show them how they can  be used to engage students.

    So make a goal for the  summer , but don't just stop learning at two.  When you have mastered those, make another goal to learn two more, Let me know what you will be doing with your Web 2.0 Tool!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Wired Wednesday- Technology Tools

     365 Project is a fun way to record your year in the library and share the experience with other educators, students, and  your community.  365 Project is a photography project , where you take one photo each of the day . The photo can really be on any theme. So what you are doing is a daily photo journal.

     You can use this photo journal to show what you are doing in your library programs. This will also serve as a memory tool of all that you have done and accomplished during the year in the library.

     It is easy to create an account and it is free.  Then you can upload your photo's, and do one each day.   The images are easily shared on Facebook, your library page,  your blog, or through the 365 site.

    This is a great tool when it time for your yearly report, or if  your administration wants to know how you have positively impacted student achievement and learning.  It also serves  to keep you and  your students motivated and interested  in the library happenings.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wired Wednesday- Technology Tools

   Quizlet is a site that allows students and teachers to  search  already designed learning sets( Flash card type games). These sets help students ( and adults) learn just about anything. Most  importantly they make learning fun  by using the technology of our computers.
   You can browse by many subject categories: Arts ; Literature, Languages &Vocabulary, Math & Sciences, History & Geography, and Standardized Tests ( AP classes, Sat's, GRE's,  Professional tests for college students )
   There are six different study modes using Quizlet's  flash cards( flash cards, speller,learn, scatters test, space race) to use to help students study in learn many different topics.
  The other option if you can't find your desired topic is to design your own  learning set.   There are also Brain training games that help you train your brain to be better preforming.  This site has a lot to offer to help students become better learners.


 http://quizlet.com/





Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Technology Tools- Wired Wednesday

   Drop Box is not specifically made for teachers, but it is a great tool that they can use both for themselves and with students  if they use a lot of technology.   With drop box you can share documents, homework, videos, and links , , or you can have them available where-ever you are.

In other words , if you start something at school or work, and want to do something at home, you do not need to email it to yourself. Just put it in your drop box and pick up at home ( or where ever you have a computer ) to work on it again.

I have known teachers that have students put their work in the teachers drop box and then the teacher can look at when time arises.

You install  drop box on your computer , and then will have a drop box folder. Any time you want to save something to work on later, save it to your drop box and then you can work on it on your other computers, phones, or the drop box website.

https://www.dropbox.com/

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Technology Tools- Wired Wednesday

      Animoto is a tool that students and teachers will love to use.  We can be very creative with Animoto and provide students with a way to show information  acquired through research or creativity.

     Educators can apply for a free Animoto Plus account for use in the classroom. Its many features can be used to create amazing presentations  which can incorporate images, video clips, music and text. 

     Animoto has a variety  of tools for creating videos in your classroom.  Some of the features : share on Facebook, twitter,  or youtube, embed to your blog, Hugh defination video quality. Add image captions, title card to narrate your video or presentation.

      On the site you can also preview some great examples of how other educators are using Animoto with their and for their students.


http://animoto.com/education/


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Wired Wednesday- Technology Tools

    Having readers make book trailers  is a great motivator for continued reading among all students. Students promoting books provides skill practice in many areas ( reading, writing, organizing, analyzing, just to name a few).  Book trailers for readers can be in many forms,  many of the sites we have mentioned in this blog can be used to make book trailers, or posts  about favorite books,
  
   One site that is wonderful for this is :  http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/

   Michelle Harderode, teacher librarian , has developed this  site. On it you can find  book trailers she has produced, and also student produced book trailers.  There are so many great features to this website.  There is a section on readers theater, authors book trailers and tips for making book trailers with students.  You can find trailers on newly released books.

   Under special features there is information on book trailers and the common core, research on the value of making book trailers, battle of the book information, and literacy lessons for school librarians.

  Since the sub title is "Spotlighting Books for Kids and Teens" , you can just start introducing this site to your students to help them find great books that they want to read!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Technology Tools- Wired Wednesday

        A new tool is  Tagxedo.  This is very similar to Wordle  , users produce word clouds on a specific subject.  However with  Tagxedo , word clouds are formed into a specific shape selected by the creator.  Words are sized according to the frequency of how often they are used.

     This tool is more fun and users can be more creative, but they also need to be more focused in their creation.  One can chose from standard fonts to use custom fonts. Also there is the capability to change fonts, themes, colors and shape.

     On  the site there are  many assists. One  is  101 ways to use Tagxedo which show many ways to use with with students.   Turning words into art work will appeal to many users.

     Look over the site and see how you might use it with  your students.  Although I have not used it yet I can see using  Tagxedo as a culminating project for research  and  a way to share author studies. another idea would be to have students pair up and do  Dewey clouds  for each of the categories,  and then display each one by each section of the library.


Tagxedo

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Technology tools- What we need for our students

      Another great tool for librarians and teachers is the Bookemon site. Although you can purchase hard cover books that are written at the site - you do not have to.   It is a great site where students can create and make their own books and stories.
       Classmates can also work together on projects.  Books are made in a 'bcloud' so students working in pairs( or more) can add text and photos and edit their work.  There is a special spot for educators ( Edcenter) to have their students do and view their work and other  students work. check out this site to see how use full it would be for  your classes.
     This would be a great place for teachers to promote their student writing.


Bookemon
 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Technology Tools & Websites

       I spent the morning at the dentist with my husband. He had to have two teeth taken out - Ouch!!  Now that's that is done his mouth should feel better.  Check out  my new page- Technology tools/ Websites. I will update it several times a month. Right now I am putting links on  that I discussed in the summer blogs.  I hope this is helpful to the techies - instead of pulling up old blogs you can just go right there and see the  links and  go straight to them.   Let me know what you think.
    Good day to be off- the sun is shining and it is pleasantly warm out. 



Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Technology Tools- What we need for our students

                 So far  most of these tools are interactive sites that we use with our students to provide a e  more engaging , compelling, interesting, and competitive education for our 21st century learners.  Porta Portal is one way to organize them all.  A Porta Portal is a site that you design and organize specific sites for students to use  in their day to day work for you. The sites are already there and ready. The student does not have to search for them and they are easily accessible. There is no cause to get on a questionable site when looking for something else. So this is a safe place for  you to  collect the sites you want  students to use.
  
              Once you design your site and add you desired  addresses, you are pretty much done until you want to add more , change the arrangement , or color.  The one thing I try to do each year is make sure that all the sites are still linking, My example needs to be gone over and fixed / removed becasue there are soem sites that are no longer working,

               If your class does a lot of  web work, always point  the students to your portal portal- for  an easy way  to get students to find out what they need to know.

              Here is the link to the portal portal that I designed many years ago. There are a couple of links that no longer work and need to be removed.
 http://my.portaportal.com/

            Here is the link that will bring you to where you can sign up and design your own porta portal. Follow the prompts on the left hand side to create your own portal.  When  you are logged in you can begin to organize  and add your sites. Create categories that make sense for your students. It is pretty easy to get this up and running.  Have fun!

http://www.portaportal.com/index.php

 

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What we need for our students- Part 6

    Another program to engage and encourage our students is Voice Threads.  This is a subscription based online tool where students can share their voice and their work.
   We have used it  the final part of a project . Students in grades 1-2 were beginning a unit on nonfiction and research. I worked closely with the teachers and students  preparing them for research  and having them do research with books and  a specific database.
     Then students did illustrations ( posters) of their animal and wrote a report on their animal. . I took photos of the illustration . Then the students read/ told about their animal. Both of the these were placed on Voice Thread ( which lives on our website so it can be viewed from home)  A couple of rules we follow, students never mention their last name.  Last names are also NOT put on the web.
     Older students use voice threads to write and illustrate book commercials. They love to do this!

Check out the site on Voice Threads and see if you think it would for your students.

 Free to Help you get started and see if you like!

http://voicethread.com/support/howto/Account_Types/Free/


Educator Voice Thread

http://voicethread.com/products/k12/

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

What Administrators want from their Librarians

      For those of you who have been school librarians for a while can attest that our jobs and responsibilities  have changed quite a bit over the years.   When I first started ,  the emphasis was only on print resources . At the time , that was all there was.
      But over the years, the profession and the collections have changed.  Now we are the keepers and teachers of technology. We are called to help teachers integrate technology into their curriculum.  We need to teach students to use the online card catalog , and data bases. We need to update and teach students and teachers on Web 2.0 tools and integrate these into the curriculum and the common core standards.
    Yes- now we are technology integrators! So we need to keep up to date on the latest  technology- e-books,  book apps, date bases, web 2.0 tools and more.