JanTech: July 2015

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Trending and Remaining Current

Today I am visiting the AASL Best Websites 2015 website. I have found three web sites that are very interesting.

1. BooktrackClassroom: Booktrack Classroom allows users to read online novels while listening to built-in soundtracks. The music actually changes to fit the mood of the story. For example, at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, the music sounds very relaxing and farm-like. As I continued to read and the tornado approached, the music sounded ominous. How does this work? There is a cursor that tracks the number of words read per minute, and students can adjust this reading rate to actually match their own personal rates. The website has a built-in classroom management feature where teachers can set up classes to to monitor how many pages, frequency, and reading rates of students. Currently, the website does not have a wide variety of books, and most of their titles are part of the public domain. Librarians could use this website on an computer terminal in the library with headphones where students could read quietly. Teachers could use this website during sustained silent reading time.

2. StoryboardThat.com: StoryboardThat is a fun website where users create their own storyboards with existing templates for characters, settings, and objects. Teacher accounts allow teachers to create a classroom and add students; however, I was only able to create one classroom, and as a middle school teacher, this could become problematic since I teach five classes. Users can try the website without creating a login, but they are restricted to a three frame storyboard and the save function is disabled. This tool can be used in any number of ways in the library and classroom. Students can use the storyboard as intended, as a planning tool, to organize existing stories or poems or use it to help them brainstorm their own ideas for original films, etc. Students can then create their digital story in another medium. This website can also be used as a comic book creator or to create pictures/graphics to use in other products, such as a presentation tool.

3. Tackk: Create digital, interactive posters with Tackk, which also has a streaming feature where users can comment on each other's work. Users can easily create online websites, newsletters, and projects. Embeddable objects include pictures, text, sounds, and videos. Tackk can be used to create online portfolios. Students can also use Tackk as a collaboration tool by sharing a page.

It is very important for teachers and librarians to stay current with the latest technologies and instructional materials. I found the Daring Librarian very interesting. Author/Librarian Gwyneth A. Jones advertises her blog as shameless sharing, and she has so much information on her blog that I could spend hours browsing it. Her fun and funky writing style is engaging with such titles as Tweet Like a Ninja. I especially liked her piece on the Amazon Echo and how she was using in her library. This is one blog I will definitely follow in the future and shamelessly share with my friends.

Blogs

Twitter

Keeping Track

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Makerspace: Paper Circuitry

This week we attended a library science conference at ODU and explored the concept of Makerspace to create paper circuits. I am not going to lie; this collaborative project scared me! Before this, I knew nothing about circuitry, but I was really surprised by what we accomplished in such a short amount of time. In the ThingLink above, you can read and trace our group's progress as we created a model of the Sagittarius constellation.

Paper Circuits
Simple circuit
Parallel Circuits
Paper Circuit Greeting Card
Jie Qi
Pop Up Card
Light Up Robot
LED Name Tag

Monday, July 20, 2015

Presentation Tools of Plenty!

As we wrap up LIBS602, we are submitting presentation proposals for a library conference in Williamsburg in November. This week we are exploring alternatives to Powerpoints and Keynotes.

Thinglink.com: Thinglink allows users to create interactive posters by placing hotspots on an image. Hotspots consist of pictures, sounds, videos, and plain text links. I created a board game for my students to help them review punctuation. The website was fun and very easy to use. Students of all ages should be able to create and share their own Thinklinks very easily. Two thumbs up from me!

Blendspace: Blendspace allows teachers to easily create interactive lessons using available resources as well as an option to add your original content. I selected a broad category (figurative language), and I was able to compile a lesson that uses pictures, sounds, videos, and practice activities very quickly and efficiently. Blendspace also has an option for teachers to create classes and interactive quizzes for students. I hesitate using this for secure testing, but it seems like a great resource for exit tickets, etc. Another two thumbs up from me!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Three Cheers for 3D Printing!

I am a little embarrassed to admit that until this week, I didn't have a clear idea of what 3d printing was all about. In my mind, I was picturing an origami Cricut-type cutting machine because I had only seen pictures of objects with cut out shapes. After watching the videos and reading the articles, I believe the hype is justified.

With the opportunity to create and print practically any object, students in schools and libraries can study first hand the things they would typically only explore through two dimensional photos. I was most interested in reading about how museums were scanning their collections. One of my favorite sculptures is Degas's Little Dancer, To display this statue alongside books about ballet and art, the Degas might inspire students in new ways.

Last year, I brought coding into my English classroom. My students created narrative video games from original stories using Scratch and Gamestar Mechanic. Many of my girls who showed no interest in gaming actually enjoyed the construction and design process of building games. It was a fun experience, and one I will gladly improve upon this school year.

I would love to have a robot in our school! While watching the videos this week, I couldn't help but think of having a book recommendation robot in the library. Students could talk about topics that interested them, and the robot could list several book recommendations based upon criteria such as subject, length, and reading level. Students would love to interact with a book buddy.

For my project, I began using Sketchup. What a mistake! I spent hours experimenting and Googling help videos on Youtube. My final product was blah, and I am still not convinced I created it correctly.

After a lengthy break that involved reorganizing my storage room and a handful of M&M's, I was ready to try it again. This time I switched to Tinkercad. What a difference! I loved the tutorials in the beginning. I found them very helpful and right at my level. After a few tutorials, I was ready to begin working on my project. But I had no idea what I was creating.

I began playing around with shapes and letters, and my design ultimately became a miniature reading trophy suitable as a prize for a reading Olympics. I thought that would be a fun library tie-in during Olympic years. On the front, I created the letters R-E-A-D with a backdrop of a globe. On the reverse side are the Olympic rings and the word champion. After all, readers are champions in my book!

Citation

Charlotte Cooper. Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain). Retrieved July 13, 2015.

3D Printing: Worth the hype?

Cool Products for Teaching Kids to Code

Coding Skills Empower Us All

Hour of Code

Musio

Medi-Robot

Tools for 3D Printing

Tinkercad

Sketchup

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Layered Reality and QR Codes

For this week's blog entry, I explored different ways to use QR codes in the classroom. I used I-nigma to create a series of QR codes linking ten book titles from the Virginia Readers' Choice list with Youtube book trailers. My graphic is bookmark teachers or librarians can share with students. Using a mobile device, students can then watch the trailers in the library and check-out the books if interested. I also experimented with QR Voice and created a qr code for famous first book sentences. I thought this would make an interesting interactive bulletin board. The QR Treasure Hunt generator seems very promising. I'd like to use this with my students on a Fountain of Youth treasure hunt activity.