Portfolio Assignment/ Conference Presentation

Trek to EdgyTech

Proposal- Trek to Edgytech

Conference Theme- Librarians on the Edge

Librarians on the edge, you’re invited to bring you laptops and join us for a session to acquaint you with five user-friendly technology tools.  We’ll be focusing on avatars, audio tools, image editing, creating short videos, and infographics.  This session is designed for people working in the elementary school.

Presentation     http://www.slideshare.net/snewe003/edgytech-51368463

 

Great Blog to Follow

The Adventures of Library Girl http://www.librarygirl.net/

One of my favorite blogs written by a librarian is The Adventures of Library Girl, by Jennifer LaGarde.  Through her relevant, concise posts, it is evident that Ms. LaGarde has a great connection with the needs of the teachers and students that she services.  Her insights are reflective of the time she spent as a classroom teacher and the practical suggestions and ideas she discusses seem like they would be easy to incorporate.  I'd love to take part in her book club!

American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2015

Three Favorite Websites

My Storybook - Digital Storytelling            https://www.mystorybook.com/

This website and app is extremely user-friendly.  Students can create their own books and use a variety of stickers and scenes to enhance their text .  My Storybook also has drawing tools, a variety of color options, and the ability to upload pictures. Students can read others' books, as well as create, print, share, and publish their own books.  In the library, this would be fun to use collaboratively to create a class book as an extension of familiar literature.  Students could use this tool to display their understanding of some content or subject recently studied.

FlipQuiz - Manage & Organize           http://flipquiz.me/

Educators and older students could quickly create a "Jeopardy"- style game board with this tool. Clues/questions are placed under categories with point values assigned to each.  Students choose a category and point value to receive a clue/question to answer.  The number of categories and teams/participants can be adapted as needed.  Librarians can use this fun game to review genres, parts of books, story elements,  practice for Book Bowls, etc...

Gooru - Curriculum Collaboration                http://goorulearning.org/#home 

Gooru is a free website that teachers and students can use to search for online resources and lesson plans to use and create personal collections of various subject matter.  Users can also view and edit existing collections as needed.  This would be an excellent tool to use to create collections that would be readily available for students' reference on typical study topics and how-to tutorials. It would also be an easy, user-friendly way to provide resources to teachers.

Presentation Tools

Emaze        https://www.emaze.com/

Emaze is very user friendly.  This tool can be used in a classroom of young students.  It has a good selection of templates available to create simple presentations and the icons are easy to locate and understand.  Students could take pictures of their class projects, insert them into the template, and add their text.

Slidely       http://slidely.com/?tid=0

Slidely is another presentation tool that can be used with younger students.  It takes only a short time to add photos, music and stickers.  Slidely could be used for students to present pictures of shapes in their environment and label them appropriately with stickers. 

3-D Printing, Coding, and Robotics

This week’s readings were some of the most interesting readings to date.  I’ve heard people mention 3-D printing and now I have some understanding of what it is and how it can be used.  The concept is fascinating! Three of my favorite ideas for utilizing 3-D printing in a school or school library setting are creating props to be used in a stop-motion animation project such as making a digital book report, improving authenticity of learning by producing and using 3 dimensional objects that are related to topics that are being studied, and using 3D printing to create products that represent students’ solutions to contrived problems.

Another great way to promote students’ development of higher level thinking skills is coding. Coding requires the user to develop the skills necessary to think through steps to solve problems, understand cause and effect, and it promotes increased stamina to find solutions to problems. These skills are necessary for good decision making in everyday life and they will help students be more successful in any occupation they pursue. There are numerous resources available to get students engaged in activities that foster understanding and mastery of programming skills.  From utilization of board games for very young children to sophisticated computer games and creation work spaces for older students, opportunities for digital learning can be obtained in schools.

Robots can offer assistance, motivation, and entertainment. In the library, robots could be used to assist students with research or accomplish other tasks that are multi-step processes.  Robots can provide verbal instruction of task steps for students to follow and they can ask questions that would prompt students to verify that the required steps had been followed and all elements for completion of a task had been carried out.

Sources

Powell, B. (2014, November 17). ABC Eyewitness News: 3-D Printing is changing how elementary school students learn. Retrieved July 11, 2015 from http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3622112.shtml

Sansing, C. (2015, May 4). School Library Journal: 3D printing, worth the hype? Retrieved July 11, 2015 from http://www.slj.com/2015/05/technology/3-d-printing-worth-the-hype-the-maker-issue/#_

Tahnk, J. (2015, April 27). Huffington Post: Cool products for teaching kids how to code. Retrieved July 11, 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeana-lee-tahnk/neat-products-for-teachin_b_7138030.html

Yam, K. (2015, April 14). Huffington Post: Cherry robot helps kids with pain during hospital procedures. Retrieved July 13, 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/14/medi-robot_n_7057168.html  

Creating a QR Code

This QR code links to the website of my favorite photographer!    
http://christistandleyphotography.com/index2.php#!/Home   QR code created using QR Code Monkey Retrieved July 5, 2015
                                                                                              http://www.qrcode-monkey.com/

 

 

Video Creation Tools:

Sharalike             https://sharalike.com/

This app would be so useful in my personal life and my professional life.  It took only a few minutes to create an album, name it, change the music, rename the album, and experiment with several styles. I plan on making one of these albums to use for back to school night in the fall.  The students could use Sharalike to create albums documenting their creation of a project, record an experiment, make a class album to document “Signs of Fall”, display types of transportation, animals that hibernate, etc…

 

Animoto              http://animoto

Animoto immediately appealed to me.  The various background styles and numerous songs to choose from enticed me to create a birthday video for a family member before beginning my class project.  Even young students would be able to create videos using this program.  They could use Animoto to introduce themselves with an “All About Me” video, illustrate stories they’ve written, create a “commercial” about something they learned from the morning announcements (a motivator for listening), or make a “how-to” presentation about something they’ve learned.

 

Jing                http://www.techsmith.com/jng.html

I found Jing to be very interesting and something that would be most useful in working with older students or a tool for teachers and librarians to incorporate in their teaching.  Students could record their presentations to present at a later date, document ways to work math problems, record research, or “teach” something they’ve learned. There are numerous tutorials that provide visual, audio, and written assistance, along with practice and several ways to access help using this software.  When I get the opportunity, I would like to devote additional time to learn how to successfully use this tool.