Good Bye 776, Hello Teaching with Tech!

Good Bye 776, Hello Teaching with Tech!

Okay, a whole semester focusing on integrating tech with teaching is done! Do I feel more prepared that when the semester started? Yes! The best part of this course has been seeing how others use tech with students. Those others could be classmates or examples I found out on the web. Very inspirational to see the creative, effective use of technology.

What tool will I use? I can see myself using the infographics. I never imagined it would be so easy. I will go back to using QR codes. I had tried them a bit in the past, but have renewed interest now that I see how everyone else is using them and is so excited about using them.

More comfortable - yes and no. I am more confident in my ability to learn new techniques. I am especially happy to learn that I have actually been very competent and comfortable for a long time. I just didn’t know it! What caused me to lack confidence? For example, I now realize that I have been creating WebQuests (or something close to it ) for years! I just didn’t know it and I just didn’t call them WebQuests! But I am pleased that I now can create an official WebQuest.

Also, seeing all of these tools in action led me to another conclusion — I do not have to use everything!!! Just because a colleague or a presenter or article promotes a tool like it is the greatest thing ever, I don’t have to use it! There are other choices — and those choices might make more sense for me and my students.

Infographs

At the end of each school year I create an easy to view Key Note recapping the year in the LLC.

Included are pictures, summaries of activities and lessons and statistics. It is time consuming and rewarding! I always feel a sense of aw at how much went on in the library during past year!

I also convert the presentation to the easy to read PDF format. Then I send copies off to administrators and any interested parties.  My goal is to be ready. Ready to share what we do. Ready to justify expenditures. Ready to show how we are meeting our standards. 

In attempting to make an accessible document, I realize I have been trying to create a series of Infographs! In addition to collecting the information, it is the creation that takes so much time. So I was thrilled to discover easy to use Infograph creators such as easel.ly.

Now the hard part really is collecting the data and images. Creating the pages is easy. Actually, I found easel.ly the simplest of all of the new tech tools I have used this semester.

My Step by Step:  1.  outline what the info you want on your info graph

                              2.  gather your statistics 

                              3.  gather your images

                              4.  select a template

                              5.  drop in your information

                              6.  save periodically while creating!

                                 7.  DO NOT stress about the appearance. easel.ly cannot not look good!

Students will enjoy using easel.ly and should find it fairly simple to manipulate. Perhaps the greatest difficult for them will be in planning -- deciding exactly what to include. Planning is a huge part of the success with easel.ly.

This You Tube video was very helpful and only had to be viewed once!

All the news that's fit to send!

I have been wanting to develop a quick, attractive, to the point newsletter to send from the LLC for years. The audience is intended to be the staff at Roosevelt. How great is it to be forced to finally work on this idea! Thanks Nicole!

I chose Smore — because I had heard of it. “Smore makes it easy to design beautiful and effective online flyers and newsletters. Smore has over 1 Million users creating over 100,000 flyers and newsletters each month.” (from their website). By the way, Smore is headquartered in Tel Aviv. See, not all tech is in Northern California. Why did I check on the headquarters? Well, I actually checked on the Jobs link of the Smore website. Only another mother of four young adult children would understand — that compulsion to check on job opportunities on EVERY SINGLE WEB SITE she ever visits! Anyway, back to newsletter creating.

Smore was simple to find, simple to sign up for and simple to use. It is attractive. I love using templates and they have plenty to choose from. Embedding was easy — something other tools could learn from.

Students could easily create the newsletters they desire from this product. I can see Smore replacing the “create a brochure” assignments in many classes.

But . . . yes, for me there is a but. My main desire is to share new materials — books, magazines, suggested websites — with the teaching staff. I envisioned a slide show of new books, maybe 6 - 8 titles, featured in each edition of the newsletter. But the slideshow will only show images horizontally. Books tend to layout vertically. I could try to create my own montage and upload as a single vertical image (available layout on Smore) but that defeats my ease of use desire.

I am going to explore other newsletter products for my use, but here is my attempt on Smore.

Library Learning Center - Roosevelt Middle School Newsletter

Blah, blah, blah, BLABBERIZE

Blabberize is an easy (for the most part) to use web tool. It can be fun and funny but the main benefit is the ease of use. It is simply talking through a picture. Students can manipulate a picture to get it to say what they want. Retelling a story, reviewing a book or summarizing a person’s biography — all are terrific  educational uses. 

My first use of Blabberize was to book talk the fantastic novel in verse, The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. This Newbery winner is uniquely told, incredibly relatable, and an emotional story. 

The Blabberize tool was easy to sign up for. The site itself is simple and uncluttered. Instruction was basic and easy to follow. The tools and icons in the site were intuitive. 

Now for the hard part: creating the mouth. I still do not understand why I could not create a mouth that appeared the way the mouths do on other Blabberize creations I have viewed. I spent WAY too much time trying to get it just right and never succeeded. Actually, I spent four times longer trying to get the mouth right compared to how much time I spent writing my book talk. I hate that! I would be crushed if I discovered my students in that situation. So I finally accepted that my mouth would not meet my standards and moved on. The creation is still effective — I shared my book recommendation. 

Blabbarize Book Talk of The Crossover

Image from kwamealexander.com

Different Tasks = Different Tools

I am a reader and can get my information from some fairly dense text. But sometimes coming straight to the point is effective — as long as I can determine where to get more! I have little respect for “opinions” based on lists or quickly info graphs. That being said, I still LOVE info graphs and love the way they summarize the important points. 

Here is a point that stood out to me from Speak Up linked here 

http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/10-things-students-speak-up-2015-national.pdf.

According to their website, The Speak Up National Research Project provides participating schools, districts and non-profit organizations with a suite of online surveys and reports to collect authentic feedback from students, educators and parents. In addition, we summarize and share the national findings with education and policy leaders in Washington DC and your state.

Goodbye 1:1 really hits home for me. We are so fortunate to have 1:1 iPads for the students of our school. Students benefit so much from this tool (isn’t that what edu776 is all about?). 

There are some vital tasks that IPads are not effectively hitting for our students. In the library, we need to search for materials. Generally, once students have Defined Their Topic, they Identify and Search for resources. Books are first. Students are taught to bring their IPads with them whenever they come to the library for print materials. Generally effective searching can take place with a few students. But when a sizable number are searching, the IPads will not load. Last year we tried the app with not improvement. 

Time is tight and frustration runs high. Laptops keep going away! I try to grab a dozen when I am having a class in for research. Resistance is high to make those available to the LLC for research. Who’s the expert when it comes to effective searching for resources? The librarian.

Let’s listen to the students! It seems that Speak Up already did that. Different tasks = different tools. And all those tasks do not involve watching videos and playing games. 

Actually, I prefer my personal reading on a tablet. But take a look at this article on Pew Internet.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/

Different Tasks = Different Tools

Data Mining and Digital Literacy

Data Mining and Digital Literacy

Data Mining is an important topic. We all need to become aware of what is out there about ourselves and others. The amount of information out that always amazes me — and usually seems unnecessary and actually boring to me. I mostly come across information about others when I am innocently searching for a mailing address for someone. It is a distraction to come across other information and actually makes me feel like an intruder.

Juan Enriquez: Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo

https://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_how_to_think_about_digital_tattoos?language=en

I think that teaching the impact of your digital tattoo to students is vital — our students have the tools, but they don’t really know how to use them. They may be cutting edge with the technology -  the devices, the apps — but they really do not understand the impact.

I saw a speaker last Friday, Kristina Weber, at the ISLMA conference. Her presentation was called “Are They Really Digital Natives? Leading with Multiple Literacies”. Digital natives vs digital immigrants is not about the tools, it is about the skills! Teachers have the skills - by virtue of our education and experience. 

Here is another take on the “natives vs immigrants” gap.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-degraff/digital-natives-vs-digita_b_5499606.html

I need to read/think more on this one — there are those that say that these terms are irrelevant but I think they are valid.

Here is another view on closing that gap.

http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future/trends/digitalnatives

Digital Storytelling and Me

Filming? Storytelling! Lessons --

Digital Storytelling is such a natural for the students. They seem to crank those things off so easily. I wonder if it helps that they tend to work in small groups. Is digital story telling a collaborative activity? Even when they don’t, however, they do such an incredible job. Look at these student book reviews from last year.

Collaboration did not appear to be necessary for the beautiful stories told by my classmates. Each story was strong and entertaining, informative and fun, all at the same time. 

Being a natural — that is not the case for Mrs. Rogers!

I used iMovie this time.I felt awkward getting back on board and did not truly figure out how to use all the features. I also think that I did too much at a time. Conceiving an idea, photographing, screen shots, music, film clips, arghhh! Too much!

I love the format, love the idea, love what you can share. Perhaps my plan was too  complicated. I may need to scale it back a bit. I think that if I use digital storytelling myself more frequently I will become stronger at the medium.

There was a time a few years ago when I made several in a short space of time. My patience was tested but my skills were stronger back then! This one was on the Flip Camera with Flip Share - technology that has already come and gone!

Baby steps!

In the library, students can continue to use Digital Storytelling to share their books. Book trailers are incredibly popular with students — especially when they are good! Sorry to say, it can be more effective that the old fashioned book talk!

Digital storytelling can be valuable for teaching research skills. That has been something I have thought about for a few years now, actually. Research that is specific to Roosevelt. Making the movies will need to become a priority — slow but steady may be the case.