Final Reflection

First this by far, has been my most favorite class of all the courses I have taken. Shhhhh....don't tell the other professors!  I am truly grateful to have so many useful apps and programs that I can use personally and with my students and staff.  This summer was a fast and furious session.  I am taking 9 hours this summer and that was the most overwhelming thing: fitting all the coursework in, in addition to family this summer.  Thank goodness I wasn't working this summer.  

Second, I come from a technology background and was a computer teacher for the first 15 of my 20 years so that might be another reason why this came a little more naturally to me.  I have been out of it the last 5 years so seeing all of this new technology was great!  I needed this class more than you know.  Can't wait to implement much of this this coming year. 

Which ones excited you most?

Screencasting excited me the most.  Coming from the Campus Technologist/Computer Teacher position it has always been in my nature to teach the teachers technology too.  However, my schedule doesn't really allow for the extra time needed to "show" each teacher individually like I used to.  Screencasting will allow me to be in every teacher's classroom showing them new things all the time...but I'll only have to make the recording once! They will think I am so smart.

I also really like the Cartoon/Comic sites.  I dabbled a little in that last year but now I think I can take it to another level this next year.  I also like the blog reader.  It puts the things that I am interested in, all in one place where I can easily read.

Which ones were most difficult for you? 

I don't think that any of them were difficult for me, mainly because of my background.  The only thing that was difficult for me was the amount of time.  I think that sometimes I would get lost in the assignments because of my love for technology and then I'd run short on time.  Like I said, it is a fast and furious summer session.

Which one (in your opinion) will most benefit students?

This is hard. I think they will all benefit my students. I'm glad that we did this in a blog so that I can always easily refer back to it and all the things that I learned. Considering that I am in elementary and some of the apps or programs are not for children my students age that eliminates a few that way, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube but truly I love ALL of the others and plan to share them with my 5th grade students and most likely will share with students all the way down to kindergarten and 1st.  I can't wait to show them Flipagram and more of the cartoon and comics sites.  They will love them and there's so many things that I can do and the teachers will be able to do.  I love when student have a choice about how they show their learning.  Most, if not all apps and programs will allow my students the opportunity to show their learning in multiple ways.

Media (is) the message?

One would think that in this age of technology that the content is the message.  Marshall McLuhan started a very philosophical discussion about whether media is the message or is the content the message?  I can see both points of view. McLuhan, the originator of the phrase "medium is the message" argued back in 1964 "that technologies — from clothing to the wheel to the book, and beyond — are the messages themselves, not the content of the communication." I believe that we take a lot of the technology for granted, especially our students who will never know a life without the technology of a computer/smart phone in their back pocket.

It reminds me of a comedy skit I heard a few years ago... "Everything is Amazing and no one is Happy."

Twenty years ago when I first started teaching, I was the "Computer Teacher."  I always told my students that "technology is a tool, not a toy."  Back then, technology in the classroom and the computer lab was sometimes the only time our students got to put their hands on it. I believe that things have come along way in the past 20 years. According to National Center for Education Statistics, "In 2013, 71 percent of the U.S. population age 3 and over used the Internet."  That is amazing.  Imagine what that statistic might be now, in 2017?  I believe that our students can learn the content with or without the technology but their motivation or love of technology may be in favor of learning with the technology, so why not meet them where they are?

• How you see your role as a school librarian to support student and teacher learning

My role is at my school is as a Media Specialist/Librarian. I am the only place in the school with a full class set of computers. It is my job introduce new programs and apps to my students using small snippets of curriculum that the teachers are teaching in their classrooms.  Most teachers allow their students to run with it and ask for more time with me in the library (I'm flattered). While other teachers continue doing what they've always been doing. Either way is fine, but often times students will go above and beyond and seek out additional information, taking charge of their own learning and incorporate it in their presentations, videos, etc.

I am very fortunate that my principal believes so strongly in the Library Program that she requires the teachers to attend Library lessons with their students.  I am not in the "rotation." This is not only for the teachers to help the students in book selection but also they can learn the same things that I am teaching the students.  Of course, you always have the teachers who are on their phones the whole time, not listening.  But then I have the others who want to know what their students are learning.  Pick it up and take it back to their classroom for implementation.  I'll admit that I only have a handful of those types of teachers but I'm hoping that it's contagious.

• How you see technology being used to teach and learn

I see technology being incorporated widespread across the curriculum now.  Our district is a District of Innovation (see TEA website) which allows us some affordances with scheduling but they expect innovative curriculum and instructional methods.  Our district has chosen to use It's Learning as our Learning Management System with the expectation that our students will begin to have personalized learning over the next year.  According to Kozma, "A lot of people do more or less randomly choose a tool (e.g. a LMS) and will be driven by its affordances and that certainly does have an effect on learning." From what I understand, we have not randomly chosen this LMS but chosen this tool after lots of research into the future of education.  Personalized learning is a trend that is changing education.  "Technology has made personalized learning both more approachable and more challenging, forcing schools to draw a clear line about where to separate good pedagogy from tools that facilitate it." This argument goes right back to McLuhan's...media is the message.

• Where we need to go in terms of how librarians support this vision

I appreciate that my principal, district and most of our teachers embrace me as a librarian and the role I play in our school.  I am afforded flexible scheduling, a tremendous PTA support system and administration that recognizes “The most important thing a strong library program can have is a full-time certified librarian with support staff.”  

• What blocks you see that will hinder the adoption of technology in education

The blocks that I see in the adoption of technology in education are the teachers themselves.  According to Marc Prensky, "Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet."  However, we as teachers are not quite there.  We are digital immigrants.  It is sometimes hard for us for lack of training, not always for lack of want to.  I think that one thing that we need to remember is that we don't always need to know much about an app or program.  Our students, being the digital natives that they are can usually jump right in and figure it out because apps and programs these days are so much more user friendly than when we started out.


References

The media debate.  (2012).  EduTech Wiki: A resource kit for educational technology, teaching, practice and research.  Retrieved from http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/index.php?title=The_media_debate&oldid=40213.

http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf

The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National Center for Education Statistics). (n.d.). Retrieved July 26, 2017, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=46

(n.d.). Retrieved July 26, 2017, from http://tea.texas.gov/Texas_Schools/District_Initiatives/Districts_of_Innovation/

Mathewson, T. G. (2017, February 06). These 7 trends are shaping personalized learning. Retrieved July 26, 2017, from http://www.educationdive.com/news/these-7-trends-are-shaping-personalized-learning/434575/

http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/advocacy/AASL_infographic.pdf

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Podcasts

Podcasts in the Library

Podcasts are a great way for students to show their learning, share book talks, reenactments, reporting current events, etc.  It's also a great way to share information with my teachers and staff.  I found out just how easy podcasting is.  Here are some options, all free to use.  

SoundCloud

SoundCloud was super easy to use, very intuitive. I liked that I could use my Google log in to sign in so I don't have another username and password to remember.  I asked a student to tell me about one of her favorite books A Little Bit of Oomph! by Barney Saltzberg.





Podomatic

I didn't think that Podomatic was as easy to use as SoundCloud. I could have signed up using my facebook login but chose to just use my email address. I wanted to embed it but I could find a way to get a permalink. I had a student tell about her favorite book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg.

Here's the link to my Podomatic Podcast.

PodBean

I used PodBean instead of audioBoom. PodBean was easy to use and easy to sign up for. I liked that you could easily get the embed code. I tried the embed code first and it was only a code to download and listen to my podcast. I went back and figured out to embed it here I needed to use the widget code. I am learning lots, a lot by trial and error but it's going to be great to be able to share this with students and staff alike.




Of these three, SoundCloud, Podomatic and PodBean, SoundCloud was my favorite.  I liked that I was able to log in using my google login in.  It was easy to navigate.  All of the buttons were easy to see and everything seemed self-explanatory.  I also liked that I was able to easily get an embed code to put it into this blog post.

Cartoons and Comics

I got into comic strips with my students last year but found it pretty limiting with the apps or programs that I was using so I am excited that there are some other options out there to try this lesson again this year.  The students loved creating them and it was a fun way for them to present their learning.

ToonDoo

ToonDoo had a lot of options.  I almost felt that it was too many and that my students would not finish in a timely manner because on some of the choices you have 22 pages of material to view.  I like that it had a lot of different layouts to choose from but again it is limiting in the fact that you can only have a total of 4 panels.  Maybe I'm just thinking that students would need more in order to be able to tell a story but if they are just using it for presenting knowledge on a concept 4 panels is probably plenty.  I did feel like the clipart and images were a little dated.

Pixton

I liked Pixton.  It was fairly easy to use for the most part and had lots and lots of choices.  It was a little more advanced with more features than I'm ready for. I think that when I show it to my students, I will let them choose between the platforms when making their own comics. I liked that it had templates you could choose from too.  You can use a basic account but there are a few restrictions but I didn't find very many restrictions in what I was trying to do. To unlock all the features you have to upgrade to the Pro version which is $8/month.

Make Beliefs Comix

I liked Make Beliefs Comixs but it was a little limiting again with only being able to use 4 panels max. This won't usually be a problem but if the students had more to "say" they wouldn't be able to.  They would have to create a bunch of additional comic strips to tell their whole story if they couldn't do it in 4 panels.  I felt there were plenty of options.  If you have an overwhelming number of options then students can get bogged down in picking the exact right one, which takes away from what they are supposed to be doing: showing their learning.

Tellagami

Tellagami is a great app.  I decided to pay for the EDU version which was $4.99 which I think is very worth it to not have ads pop up for my students.  I have used Chatterpix with my students which they loved but it you can only create a 30 second video.  With Tellagami you can create a 90 video, which I found was plenty of time to do a book talk or book trailer.

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

I'm looking at YouTube, Animoto and QR Codes today and how students can benefit.  I went to four different Library Channels and found some videos that I feel would be helpful to students.

YouTube

Norman High School Library YouTube Channel
This video is How to Use EBSCO Host

Getting Started with the NHS Library Website

The Unquiet Library YouTube Channel

Creative Commons Licensing: What Is It & Why Should I Care

PowerPoint "How To" Basics

Pikesville High School Library YouTube Channel

Hashtag Awesome School Counselor

Wii like to party

BB Middle School Media YouTube Channel

Beauty and the Beast Overdue Book Parody

I'm The One by DJ Khaled Overdue Library Book Parody

I believe that the "How To" videos will be the most helpful for students.  I think that the students will like the parody videos the best.  I think that both types of videos have educational value.  The "How To" videos show the students how to do things, access apps, research, etc. but the Parody videos made by students can show understanding of the project, product or concept.  It's a new way to think about teaching concepts.

Animoto
I have never used Animoto before but I love it and can't wait to show it to my students. With the educator's account I am able to create 50 student accounts.  I can have my 5th grade students work in groups since I have about 110 5th graders to create Animotos.  I'll be able to give them another resource to use to present their learning.  

I created a book trailer on a book that I'd like to get my 4th and 5th graders interested in. Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley.   My children read these books years ago and I just got them for our school library.  I really think that my students will love them but this trailer will hopefully help spark their interest further plus it will be a teaser in teaching them how to use Animoto.

QR Codes

This is the QR code to my book trailer on Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley. 

EbscoHost Article on QR Codes in the Library

I never realized how easy it was to create QR codes.  After reading several articles online about how QR codes are being used in the library, I thought it would be cool to create a library scavenger hunt to find different areas of the library using QR codes and scanning them in the right order as they find them.  I think that this is something that all my students could participate in using the library iPads.

I also love the idea of creating QR codes for links to book talks or book trailers all around the library to pique student's interest.  Kids love technology and they are curious.  We can use these two things to our advantage to connect them to new books, new ideas and new information.

Screencasts, Instagram, and Flipagram

First of all, I LOVE ALL of these apps and programs.  I had a really hard time deciding which one was my favorite.

Instagram:
I have had a personal Instagram for a few years so that's kind of old hat for me but I had never really thought about it for school/library use.  A lot of teachers have it for their classes.  They post things that are going on in their classrooms and it is a private Instagram so only the parents in the class can see.  I created a library Instagram, followed some fellow libraries, public libraries, book publishers and authors, posted a few things, figured out how to add text, borders and stickers to my photos using an app called LiPix. It was a lot of fun. Here's a link to my library Instagram.   

Flipagram: 
Next, I created a Flipagram.  My own personal children have used this a bunch but I never had before.  I have a Summer Reading Scavenger Hunt Facebook group set up for the school.  This is my first year to do it and it has taken off like gang busters.  It is a private group so only the parents of students in our school can see it.  I made a Flipagram of a few of the photos that the students have been taking since school let out of them reading.  There are 25 different photos or videos that they are supposed to capture over the summer.  I included just a few of our photos.  I had so much fun creating this.  I do the Morning Announcements Broadcast for our school so I think I will share it with the whole school the first week, just to give them a little taste of what some of our students did while reading this summer.  Hopefully it will generate even more interest for participates each year.  In order to protect the privacy of my students I did not make my flipagram account public but I uploaded my flipagram to youtube as an unlisted video.

Here's the link to my Flipagram as a youtube video.

Screencast-o-matic:
Then there's Screencast-o-matic!  I am so glad to have this in my bag of tricks now.  I do a lot of technology based lessons.  Sometimes by the time I get to the end of the day, I have done the same lesson SO many times that I forget what I have told one group and think I have already told them and then when they get to their computers, I realize I skipped a step or some other nonsense like that.  With Screencast-o-matic I can present the lesson and then give them access to the tutorial again and again so that if they need to watch it again when they get to their computers or home they can.  What a great tool!  And I truly don't mind the price at all. I can definitely do $15/year.  It would be well worth the price to know that each and every student is getting the best of my tech lessons each time they come to the library. Plus the benefit of having access to the lesson after the fact makes it so worth it!

Here's the link to my Screencast-o-matic.  I did a 5 minute tutorial on how to search for biographies using our school's Destiny Discover link.

Jing:

I tried Screencast with Jing.  I have used Jing in the past simply for screen captures on my PC.  The screen capture on a Mac is super easy but not so much on a PC but  I never realized that Jing also captured video so that is awesome!  I do like Jing but I think I prefer Screencast-o-matic simply because it keeps the student's eyes focused on where your cursor is by placing the yellow circle around where it is on the screen.  I think that will make a huge difference for my Elementary students when watching or following a screencast.  I think with the 5 minute limit it would be fine for a book trailer or simple instruction or something like that.  

I created a Jing screencast for my Summer Reading Scavenger Hunt just so that I could so you all.  I have been trying to figure out a way to truly share this with you guys but can't because it is a private page so this was a great way to share it with you.  I uploaded it as an unlisted youtube video.  Check it out.  Jing.

So after reviewing all of these products, I have to say that my most favorite was Screencast-o-matic.  I see so many uses for this from showing my teachers how to do things to easily presenting lessons to my students.  This will definitely come in handy this next year!  I am truly excited to have added this program to my little bag of tricks.  I like that the annual subscription is only $/15 or $29 for 3 years.  The 15 minute time limit is much more doable than Jing's 5 minute limit.

Infographics: A new kind of language

This post will look at infographics, specifically three different web-based programs that can be used to create infographics.  Infographics are a way to bring words and pictures together to create a very powerful visual, not just for your visual learners but for everyone. Infographics very concisely present a lot of information in a succinct and compact way to help us get more meaning from "just a bunch of numbers."  Infographics are like knowing another language, a visual language, which allows students and adults alike to process vast amounts of data in a pictorial/visual way.

• easel.ly -  Easelly's mission is "to inspire and enable anyone to represent an idea in a visual way."  They have also won awards for being both User-friendly and Intuitive from the American Association of School Libraries (AASL). "The AASL commended Easel.ly for being simple enough that even a child in the 6th grade could successfully navigate the site and design their infographic without adult assistance." It does have quite a few limitations though in the free version. You cannot download a high quality image unless you upgrade. You cannot create PDFs unless you upgrade. The cost of upgrading is minimal ($3/month) but I can see where a teacher would not want to upgrade because we have limited resources.

• Piktochart - is another free infographic creator, however you have to "level up" to get access to the 600+ templates, the ability to create PDFs, etc. you will need the full version, the educator cost is $39.99/year.  I did not find this one as easy to use as Easelly.  I had a hard time finding information about the company itself.  It was easy to set up and use my google account to sign in.  It has an "Inspire Me" button that gives you lots of ideas and templates to use.  It has a great "How To" section in the FAQs area.  A good option.

• Infogr.am - the third infographic creator I signed up for.  It is a very powerful tool, however to access all the options you will need to upgrade to the Pro ($19/month) or Business ($67/month) version. Infogr.am has a vast collection of video tutorials if you need support or get stuck on anything.  As an educator this web-based software was too much tool for me.  I teach elementary school so don't need something with this many bells and whistles.  I do like the ease of use with being able to drag and drop items.  It is a little more like a photoshop with its tools and options.   

I settled on creating an infographic in Easel.ly.  I chose the topic of mobile phone usage and ownership.  I was curious to see the melding of information, like the TED Talk byDavid McCandless presented so I took information from 2 different studies.  We have learned a lot from Marc Prensky about the differences between Digital Natives (the teens of today) vs. Digital Immigrants (people my age) so I wanted to see some of the data on the same sheet.

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/07/parents-teens-and-digital-monitoring/

I simply picked a template and off I went. It was very easy to insert text, graphics, adjust the font size and color. I used a couple of pieces of clip art from their library and the rest of the images I added. This is definitely something I will use again. I also believe that my 5th grade students could easily use this program to create their own infographic demonstrating understanding. When I have more time, I'd like to create another infographic on the Big 6 Research process. I can see a lot of uses for infographic creators and I'm so glad that they are easier to use than I initially thought.

Sources: 

https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/teaching-with-infographics-places-to-start/?_r=0

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization/transcript

https://www.easel.ly/

https://magic.piktochart.com/dashboard

https://infogram.com/page/infographic

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/07/parents-teens-and-digital-monitoring/

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Blogs and Blog Readers

First, I created a Tumblr account and much to my family's dismay spent hours and hours there.  I have never used Tumblr, nor ventured into Tumblr-land until this assignment. I have to say that my first experience was quite educational. I did a search for "school library" and one of the first images that popped up was a pornographic GIF. I have 4 children, 3 of which are younger than 15, so I slammed the lid shut and had to run the computer into another room. I quickly did a search on how to block content which is quite easy. You just click on the image of a person and choose "Block."   Here's an example of what I mean. I did this on several blogs that had curse words in their name. My children love to look over my shoulder while I'm working plus I'm an elementary school librarian so I want to make sure the content that comes up on my page is as appropriate as possible. I made a post of my own. The "Teacher Librarian post below is my favorite meme so I posted it just to see how it works. I also reblogged a few things about summer reading and libraries in general.

Some school libraries use Tumblr as a source to post photos and information about their libraries while others have more of a personal page where they post things they like and pictures of their cat. 

I was mostly searching for elementary school librarians because I teach elementary and wanted to see what they were doing but there were only a handful of pages that came up. It seemed like there were a lot more middle and high school library pages on Tumblr.  I'm guessing it's because the content can be questionable for the under 11 age group so not many elementary school librarians seem to have taken to Tumblr.  

I choose NewsBlur as my Blog reader. I love this thing. First of all, I love FREE and second I love that it learns what you like.  I started by adding our classmate's blogs and I love how it compiles everyone's blog in an easy to read format.  After I added a few, It started asking me if I'd like to "try" or "add" different blogs.  Here's a link to my NewsBlur.

I had a little trouble getting started but they had some nice tutorials that helped when I got stuck. I really like the Intelligence Tracker. You can choose what you like or dislike about a particular blog and it will show you more like that you like or less that you don't like.

All in all, I love this reader.  I liked how it grayed out the posts you had already accessed so you could tell right where you left off.  You can make folders to group blogs that relate to each other. One limitation is that you can only follow 64 sites in the free version. After that you have to pay but it seems pretty reasonable at only $24/year.

The first blog I chose to follow was Watch. Connect. Read. by Mr. Schu Reads.  I also follow him on Twitter but I find Twitter hard to "follow" sometimes because it cuts off longer stories or posts.  For me, most of his posts are relevant and he posts often.  There were several blogs that I looked at that the author hadn't posted in months or even years.  I love the book trailers that he has posted.  I think that this will help me when adding books to my libraries or I can even use as examples as to what my student can do when making their own book trailers. 

Another blog I chose to follow was the library voice by Shannon M. Miller.  Again, I like this blog because it is up to date and she posts often.  It's on current issues like technology, new book reviews and book trailers.  I also like that she is a Future Ready Librarian spokesperson.   I consider myself a Teacher Librarian and I like that's how she refers to herself in her bio, along with a lot other titles but she seems very tech savvy and forward thinking.  I love that!

The next blog that I chose was Librarians Matter by Kathryn Greenhill from Australia.  I decided to follow this one because I'd like to see what they are doing all over the world. She teaches librarians at a university over there.  She has a passion for technology.  She posts about different apps that could be used with students.  I learned a lot of new things just in the 5 or 6 posts that I read.  So excited to share some of those things with my students next year.  Some of the language in her posts can get a little explicit so not for the younger set.

I have followed The Adventures of Library Girl for a few years on Facebook and Twitter but my new Blog Reader has made it that much easier to read her blog.  YAY!  She is one of my favorites. She doesn't post as often as some of the other bloggers. She probably posts a blog once or twice a month but her posts are almost always meaningful and timely to me. She posts more often on her Facebook and Twitter pages. She also posts about apps to use in education, which is something that I LOVE!  Sometimes it's hard to weed through the masses of apps available out there so it's nice to have recommendations of tried and true apps, plus new things to share with my students.

And last but not least, Great Kid Books by Mary Ann Scheuer from Berkeley, CA.  She is an elementary librarian that I can really connect with. She also writes reviews for Kirkus. This site is pretty much a book review site but it is for books that are appropriate for my students. I like the way she reviews them, quick identification about what the book is about or how it can be used in your classroom.  She recommends ebooks, read-alouds, novels, etc.  It will be a great resource for me next year in turning my students on to new books.