The last session I want to post about was that of the AWESOME Naomi Bates. Naomi and I actually met through the virtual world of the YALSA Book listserv. She would post some pretty awesome booktrailers, and I wanted to use them. I also wanted the advice of a great, seasoned high school librarian. So I called her. (God I love google and its ability to easily allow cyber-stalking). She graciously talked to me for quite a while offering great advice and tons of support. When she told me she was presenting at the conference, I rearranged my plans so I could stay an extra day and attend. I'm so glad I did.
Naomi talked about many different resources available for building book trailers. She has compiled a really great livebinder found here http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=13228. So, the first new thing I want to talk about is, well, livebinders. This is a pretty cool way to organize your information. It's basically a virtual three-ring binder. The possible applications in the classroom are vast.
I actually have already used all of the video editing tools Naomi mentioned for other projects, so I didn't learn anything new there. Note - check out the livebinder if you what to know more about video editing. What I was interested in was where she got her video/images/music. Copyright violation is, of course, a HUGE issue in schools. Students and teachers alike blatantly violate copyright particularly with regard to music. So, I will be using many of the sites listed in Naomi's livebinder for student use for multi-media projects. There are quite a few there, but she recommends http://www.purple-planet.com/ for free music and http://www.morguefile.com/ and http://www.creativecommons.org/ for pictures. I'm also going to encourage our creative student musicians to volunteer their work for use in other student productions.
I think I'll attempt creating booktrailers next year only if I cannot locate them already made. Naomi's are great (http://www.nisdtx.org/Page/3590). She also recommended signingupagain's youtube channel which are even better production wise (http://www.youtube.com/user/signingupagain) and http://www.booktrailersforall.com/ which is very searchable.
Here are two other great ideas from Naomi - 1. Genere organized fiction. She started this with her sci-fi collection and is going to organize her entire collection this way. And I like it. I've gotten mixed reaction to this idea, but I really think it is the way to go, and I'm going to work to get there. Step one for me is to get spine labels on the fiction books. I think that will make the process of reorganization easier. 2. After school tech classes for students, not teachers - or maybe in addition to teachers. We wrongly assume that our digital-age students know all there is to know about technology. After school sessions on how to email an attachment or how to rename and save a file could really be helpful.
Showing posts with label ALA conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ALA conference. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Teen Services Mash Up
This was a pretty unique session. Something like 16 librarians presented poster sessions. You picked four to attend and sat at their table until the organizers said to switch.
Of the four I sat through I found two particularly interesting. The first was from a young public librarian in California who is the only Spanish speaker in her library. The community she serves has a high Latino population, so she - and her Spanish speaking skills - are in high demand. She developed a system of cards with attached QR Codes that would help guide the patrons to the resources they needed when she is not available. For example, one card says embarazado (Spanish for pregnant) on the front and has a QR Code on the back. If a patron scans the QR Code the link will go to the resources in the library for pregnancy. Very clever, I think, but it doesn't end there. She also downloaded an app that will map your library (I will be emailing her for the name of this) and this app will take the patron directly to (or at least pretty close to) the book. This got me thinking about augmented reality. Note - augmented reality is where you have something real, like the library shelves, integrated with something in the Internet world, like a video explaining what's in the 300 section of the library when you reach that area in the library. I'm still brainstorming on this, but this maybe another use of the iPods.
The other session I found particularly interesting was about a collaboration between a public library system and a school library system. This was actually the second session that mentioned this. Basically both initiatives were big and expensive, but very successful. They involved adding the school libraries as an ILL (Inter Library Loan) site for the public library thus allowing students to request books from the public library and check them out at school. I think this type of program has great benefits for both the school and public library. It is a way of getting more books without spending more money (for the school) and a way to recruit new customers with little outreach (for the public library). However, it is really expensive to do this to the extent discussed at the conference. So, I was thinking about talking to the wonderful staff at the DeQuincy Public Library and seeing what we could work out. Maybe allowing my students to place public library holds from school and then I would pick them up once a week? If my students request permission for me to check things out on their cards this may be a way to go. We'll see how this one plays out. It's, honestly, not at the top of my list, but it is interesting.
Of the four I sat through I found two particularly interesting. The first was from a young public librarian in California who is the only Spanish speaker in her library. The community she serves has a high Latino population, so she - and her Spanish speaking skills - are in high demand. She developed a system of cards with attached QR Codes that would help guide the patrons to the resources they needed when she is not available. For example, one card says embarazado (Spanish for pregnant) on the front and has a QR Code on the back. If a patron scans the QR Code the link will go to the resources in the library for pregnancy. Very clever, I think, but it doesn't end there. She also downloaded an app that will map your library (I will be emailing her for the name of this) and this app will take the patron directly to (or at least pretty close to) the book. This got me thinking about augmented reality. Note - augmented reality is where you have something real, like the library shelves, integrated with something in the Internet world, like a video explaining what's in the 300 section of the library when you reach that area in the library. I'm still brainstorming on this, but this maybe another use of the iPods.
The other session I found particularly interesting was about a collaboration between a public library system and a school library system. This was actually the second session that mentioned this. Basically both initiatives were big and expensive, but very successful. They involved adding the school libraries as an ILL (Inter Library Loan) site for the public library thus allowing students to request books from the public library and check them out at school. I think this type of program has great benefits for both the school and public library. It is a way of getting more books without spending more money (for the school) and a way to recruit new customers with little outreach (for the public library). However, it is really expensive to do this to the extent discussed at the conference. So, I was thinking about talking to the wonderful staff at the DeQuincy Public Library and seeing what we could work out. Maybe allowing my students to place public library holds from school and then I would pick them up once a week? If my students request permission for me to check things out on their cards this may be a way to go. We'll see how this one plays out. It's, honestly, not at the top of my list, but it is interesting.
Pecha Kucha - Teens and Technology
Pecha Kucha is pretty cool. What it is, basically, is a 20 slide powerpoint that advances automatically every 20 seconds. Each slide is one image, and the speaker advances his or her speech based on the image. Now, for this session there were many speakers, but only three stood out in my mind as relevant to me.
The first Adri-relevant presentation discussed libraries and social media. Now, because we are not allowed to friend students on facebook and other social media sites (for good reason) most of the presentation was irrelevant, except for this: paper.li. This is a social media aggregater that will create a newspaper type webpage your students can view without being your friend. I haven't played with it yet, but I think it could be useful. I'm thinking maybe a page of YA Author tweets?? I don't really know yet, but it's an idea. This presentation also wins the award for the best quote of the conference and that is "Avoid the creepy treehouse." This means do not force you students to be your friends on social media sites because, let's face it, that's just creepy.
The second presentation I found useful was about digital identity. A few presenters at this conference talked about the importance of students developing a google-able digital identity. In other words, post their good stuff. Their digital footprint can be a good resume just as much as it can be a bad one. We should teach them what's appropriate, but we shouldn't be so overpretective that they reach adulthood without a searchable digital profile - preferably a GOOD searchable digital profile. That being said, our district has a postable policy - no full names, secured site if possible, pictures of groups not individuals, etc. It's a good policy, but I think I will encourage our students (remember High School here) to start blogging and creating their own school-work sites outside of school. That way if they have a really great project, they can share it and begin building their good searchable digital profile.
The last one was about QR Codes. These are Quick Response Codes that can be printed out and attached to things - like posters, signs, books, etc. When the code is scanned by a WiFi connected device (cell phone, laptop, iPod, etc) it will take the user to a webpage. Note - you need to download a free app to do this. I found this particularly interesting because I plan to use these in the library this year. My friend Elizabeth mentioned using QR Codes to link books to booktrailers, and I immediately stole that idea giving her very little credit for it. :) After digesting everything at the conference regarding QR Codes this is what I decided to do this year. I, along with my student (we'll call her K.), will be affixing QR Codes to the cover page of new popular fiction books. The codes will link to the catalog record of the book. This will give the students information about the book including student reviews, AR information, and, once I or K. link them all, booktrailers for the books.
So, in order to do this I will be ordering as many iPod Touch devices as I can afford. I think these would be a good investment because the students can also use them to video things for our many projects. They can also use them to download and check out audio books. And now the search is on for a good deal on the iPod Touch. :)
The first Adri-relevant presentation discussed libraries and social media. Now, because we are not allowed to friend students on facebook and other social media sites (for good reason) most of the presentation was irrelevant, except for this: paper.li. This is a social media aggregater that will create a newspaper type webpage your students can view without being your friend. I haven't played with it yet, but I think it could be useful. I'm thinking maybe a page of YA Author tweets?? I don't really know yet, but it's an idea. This presentation also wins the award for the best quote of the conference and that is "Avoid the creepy treehouse." This means do not force you students to be your friends on social media sites because, let's face it, that's just creepy.
The second presentation I found useful was about digital identity. A few presenters at this conference talked about the importance of students developing a google-able digital identity. In other words, post their good stuff. Their digital footprint can be a good resume just as much as it can be a bad one. We should teach them what's appropriate, but we shouldn't be so overpretective that they reach adulthood without a searchable digital profile - preferably a GOOD searchable digital profile. That being said, our district has a postable policy - no full names, secured site if possible, pictures of groups not individuals, etc. It's a good policy, but I think I will encourage our students (remember High School here) to start blogging and creating their own school-work sites outside of school. That way if they have a really great project, they can share it and begin building their good searchable digital profile.
The last one was about QR Codes. These are Quick Response Codes that can be printed out and attached to things - like posters, signs, books, etc. When the code is scanned by a WiFi connected device (cell phone, laptop, iPod, etc) it will take the user to a webpage. Note - you need to download a free app to do this. I found this particularly interesting because I plan to use these in the library this year. My friend Elizabeth mentioned using QR Codes to link books to booktrailers, and I immediately stole that idea giving her very little credit for it. :) After digesting everything at the conference regarding QR Codes this is what I decided to do this year. I, along with my student (we'll call her K.), will be affixing QR Codes to the cover page of new popular fiction books. The codes will link to the catalog record of the book. This will give the students information about the book including student reviews, AR information, and, once I or K. link them all, booktrailers for the books.
So, in order to do this I will be ordering as many iPod Touch devices as I can afford. I think these would be a good investment because the students can also use them to video things for our many projects. They can also use them to download and check out audio books. And now the search is on for a good deal on the iPod Touch. :)
2.0 to P21 - Emerging Technology Tools
In this session I was introduced to tons of tech tools that I need to learn more about. One in particular is Easy Bib (http://www.easybib.com/). This site will give you the MLA citations for books if you simply type the ISBN number into the search box. It seems pretty cool. I will be introducing this to our students and teachers.
This session also made me realize the TOTAL AWESOMENESS of google participatory tools (no longer called web 2.0 tools). We immediately have to jump on this band wagon - particularly with google forms.
One of the stand out things the presenter mentioned was that our students need the 5 Cs - (the 21st century skills framework) communication, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and (her addition) curiosity. I think I will post a big banner with this in the library as a reminder and try to make everything I do center on these concepts.
She also showed us some of the cool things she does with Destiney - like uploading booktrailers, which I will do. And setting up student emails so they receive overdue notices, which I will try to do.
She also mentioned the CRAP test for evaluating websites. This was actually just something she mentioned in passing, but I'd never heard of it so I looked it up. It turns out there is a method of evaluating sources known as the CRAP test. This website (http://www.workliteracy.com/the-crap-test) explains it well. We will be using this next year as well - because how cool is it to say, "Okay students, let's see if this source is CRAP." In fact, when I talk to the English teachers at their district wide inservice in August I will be sure to discuss it. Note - I actually thought she said "the crab method" at first and I was thinking, "Students, please check this for CRABs" may not be something all teachers would be willing to say. :)
This session also made me realize the TOTAL AWESOMENESS of google participatory tools (no longer called web 2.0 tools). We immediately have to jump on this band wagon - particularly with google forms.
One of the stand out things the presenter mentioned was that our students need the 5 Cs - (the 21st century skills framework) communication, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and (her addition) curiosity. I think I will post a big banner with this in the library as a reminder and try to make everything I do center on these concepts.
She also showed us some of the cool things she does with Destiney - like uploading booktrailers, which I will do. And setting up student emails so they receive overdue notices, which I will try to do.
She also mentioned the CRAP test for evaluating websites. This was actually just something she mentioned in passing, but I'd never heard of it so I looked it up. It turns out there is a method of evaluating sources known as the CRAP test. This website (http://www.workliteracy.com/the-crap-test) explains it well. We will be using this next year as well - because how cool is it to say, "Okay students, let's see if this source is CRAP." In fact, when I talk to the English teachers at their district wide inservice in August I will be sure to discuss it. Note - I actually thought she said "the crab method" at first and I was thinking, "Students, please check this for CRABs" may not be something all teachers would be willing to say. :)
ALA Highlights
The 2011 ALA Conference in New Orleans was fan-flipping-tastic! My high expectations were exceeded for sure. I had anticipated attending some great sessions and networking with some fabulous people, but I had no idea, really, about the exhibit hall. I mean I knew there would be one and I had heard it was big, but jeez, it was HUGE and publishers set-up shop there with ARC (advanced reading copies) that they just gave away - sometimes signed by the author. Speaking of which, authors were there - tons of them. I met (however briefly) Rick Riordan, Jay Asher, Sarah Dessen, Alex Flinn, and Ruta Sepetys. I, thanks to Simon and Schuster Publishing Company, had dinner with Ellen Hopkins and Cassandra Clare. The whole thing was great.
Note for next time - Sign-up for the YA Author Coffee Klatch. I did not attend this, and I am greatly regretting it!
So, the next few blogs are the sessions I found particularly interesting (meaning I actually took notes).
Note for next time - Sign-up for the YA Author Coffee Klatch. I did not attend this, and I am greatly regretting it!
So, the next few blogs are the sessions I found particularly interesting (meaning I actually took notes).
The Embedded Librarian
This was a session about making yourself an integral part of your school. It was presented by several really great librarians including Buffy Hamilton. After attending I was totally inspired to begin a few new projects at my school. Here are my ideas based on their presentation: I'd like to start a social justice project with the students in English I. I'd like them to pick a topic and do some research then create a Ted x type video (something they presented about). The basic format for the video would be story - facts and data - end story - call to action. I think this would be a good way to get the students to explore local outreach organizations and to form their own opinions about things while conducting VALID research. For this project I need to secure Gale's Points of View database and make use of many google tools. Also, I need to make rubrics and grade things. It's not fair to expect to be a part of a co-teaching team and never grade a thing. I'll also need cameras for the video portion of the project. I was thinking the iPod Touch would be great because it could record video and access our WiFi making it a good tool for reading QR Codes (more on QR Codes to come).
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