Final Reflection

In this class, I have learned many new ways to incorporate technology into the library. Through this 10 week course and going through the various assignments, I have mastered the use of technology like never before. Without having to use some of these tools, I would have never attempted to look at or try some of them. I have learned how to engage students more in learning, how to make things easier, and how to use technology to help students learn in many diverse ways. I have learned how to operate many technology tools that will become both lifetime and useful tools in helping my library to run smoothly.

I really enjoyed learning about all the teaching tools and how to implement and use them in the library as well as the classroom. Some I have encountered before and others were totally new to me. Some of my favorites were Screencasts, Vine, Instagram, Animoto, QR Codes, and Comic and Cartoons. I guess podcasts are my least favorite because I am a visual learner. I like to see some action with what I am listening to or learning about. However, the podcast my son did for is one of my favorite podcasts, so I can also see how it could be a beneficial tool.

I think the Instagram, Jing, Vine and Screencast assignment were the most difficult for me, but as it goes: the ones that are the most difficult turn out to be your favorite or greatest strength.

In closing, I believe that the students will benefit from all of these learning tools. I believe that to be a good librarian you need to be open to new ideas in technology. I will need to look at new tools as they become available and see what the positive use would be in the classroom and learn how to use it well so students can get the most out of learning. I have really enjoyed this class. It has been fun and rewarding. Thank you Dr. Gross and classmates.

Media (is) the Message?

After reading the debate summary of Richard Clarke and Robert Kozma, I realized that the technology debate will go on forever. Technology changes everything and we, as educators, need to consider how technology changes thinking. The new tools for communication that have become part of the 21st century no doubt contributes to thinking.

As the debate goes on, we educators continue to implement technology. I have to agree with Kozma that stated, “technology can make a particularly significant contribution when coordinated with the training of teachers to integrate technology into their teaching, with applications that draw on the unique capabilities of technology, and with supportive curricular, assessment, and school contexts that advance complex problem solving, creative thinking, and life-long learning--skills that are needed to support an information society and knowledge economy".

As educators we have to think how and when to incorporate new media into instruction. Kozma said that if we do not strive to understand the potential relationship between media and learning, then one will never be made and we are unlikely to ever understand the prospective for such a relationship (Kozma, 1994)

I believe like Robert Kozma, that technology does influence learning, in the way we learn, when we learn, and what we learn. We must allow our minds to remain open for the possibilities of connections of technology and learning.

In the end, as educators we need to know what the educational need is, problem, or gap for which use of new technology might potentially enhance learning.

 Just as the debate will go on, for every new advantage a new technology has to offer, there is a corresponding disadvantage and thus the cycle continues to go around.

Sources:

Deubel, P. (2007, November 08). The Great Debate: Effectiveness of Technology in Education -- THE Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2016, from https://thejournal.com/articles/2007/11/08/the-great-debate-effectiveness-of-technology-in-education.aspx

Brown, M. J. (n.d.). If Technology is the Medium and Instruction is the Method: Then Do Media Influence Learning? Retrieved July 19, 2016, from http://www.lehigh.edu/~mjbg/portfolio/pdf-pospaper.pdf

Podcasts

This blog is about using Podcasts in the classroom. After exploring and listening to podcasts, I found that there are numerous ideas for using Podcasts in the classroom. Some of the ideas I found that would be fun to use are: book talks, literature circles, meet the author, diaries, science logs, art critiques, and oral histories.

+  Book talks - Are brief overviews of books designed to raise the interest of potential readers. For book talks we as teachers and librarians should model a book talk podcast before we ask students to do one.

+  Literature circles - Teachers or librarians can list several books and let the students sign up for a discussion group. Groups may read different books by the same author and then compare the recordings to find similarities or patterns. Exchanges can also be made with other classes, on the same or different books.

+  "Meet the Author" reports - Recording "Meet the Author" reports as podcasts allows the classroom community of learners to construct a library of peer-produced author biographies that could be used in a variety of extension activities.

+  Diaries - Podcasts could provide reactions and perspectives to historical events and people. Have students record their own perspective about a particular event, expedition or period in history.  The podcast could even help illustrate  the changes that took place during the course of events, period or expedition. 

+  Science logs - Gathering data during an investigation is an important part of learning in the science classroom. The recorded investigation notes in a podcast can be used to facilitate a peer review of data for an added level of reflection and review.

+  Art critiques - An art instructor could use podcasting to model and engage students in art critiques. Have students record art critiques in small groups and to compare different personal reactions.

+  Oral Histories - Teach your students to be recorders of their own history.

After exploring the four different podcast tools: Soundcloud, Audioboo, Podomatic, and Garage Band, I realized that students can access the information made on podcasts anytime they want to. This type of media will encourage students to develop their own podcasts with their own personal interest in mind. After exploring these ways to create podcasts and having a Mac I decided to use GarageBand for my podcast.

Clink on the Finding Dory link below to hear my podcast over a movie review my son did for me on Finding Dory:

Finding Dory

Source:

Ideas for Podcasting in the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved July 12, 2016, from http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/index.html

Cartoons and Comics

This lesson was a lot of fun! I think students will be engaged in lessons more if we incorporate using comic and cartoon applications in teaching and learning. Comics have the ability to meet the needs of students in a variety of learning styles. These short comics can represent paragraphs worth of written material in a manner that is enjoyable and effective for the early reader or challenged reader. 

Below is my link for my ToonDoo!
http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=10275972

This ToonDoo application was a lot of fun and the most enjoyable for me. I loved the freedom and choices of characters and backgrounds offered in this one. It was easy to save and embed the link for viewing in my Blog. It offers ample library of clip art and the ability to doodle your own pictures. Teens can use the format to express complex emotions, while younger students are reinforcing basic reading skills. It is also a great way to pair pictures with the plot and can help students learn how the elements of a story work.  


Pixton had limited characters and backgrounds to work with. It was my second favorite of the three to make comics with. I loved the way you could move the characters into different positions to get the mood across. This cartoon was easy to save and embed the image right into my Blog. I think students would find this a great way to express themselves and not have to have any technical skills to produce the comic. When students see the finished comic they will be at awe because they were the writer, creator and producer. Below is my Pixton comic!





MakeBeliefsComix was my least favorite. It was very limited and you didn't have much freedom to create with. With this application students can't use own original work. But the animated characters would be very easy to use with very young elementary students.You can however select the panel you want to use before or during creation. You do not have to create an account on this application and so you can not save your work and work on it another day. You can e-mail the link of your comic to a friend, where they can view your comic by clicking on the link that is e-mailed to them.

Below is link to my MakeBeliefsComix!
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=13569419C1984067

As librarians and teachers, by using cartoons and comics in lessons, we can get the attention of students who might be bored by offering them an outlet to express themselves in a creative way. It enriches reading, writing and thinking. It presents what is essential. There are many different ways to use these applications. Some might be to promote sequencing of events, create book reports, timelines, storytelling, to show easy to follow instructions, pre-writing tools, character analysis, and many more ideas. By using comics and cartoons in the classroom we can help students to analyze, synthesize, and absorb content that may be more difficult when presented in only one way.

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

By creating YouTube videos, you can help teach and promote library services in a great way to allow parents and students to become involved. Students could be able to create videos and parents could be able to visit the library channel and watch the videos. While looking through the channels provided I found some that I thought would be helpful to children and also ones they would like best.


Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeUhXLvFAi4
Tiger Visits the Norman High School Library 
I thought kids would love seeing their school mascot go to the library to read. Great way to promote reading!
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BezObVKkqOo
How to Use EBSCOHost
This would be a very helpful video for students to know how to use one of their databases.
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q7RjsFNFRs
New Arrivals, April 2012
This YouTube is great way to promote new arrivals in the library and will be helpful for students to find the new books.
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XtB77pHRs
Mini Lesson for Ms. Salas and Students: Finding Creative Commons Images
This video would be very helpful to students when looking for images for different projects that are copy- write friendly.
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XtB77pHRs
Wii Like to Party @ The Panther Library
This video shows that other fun learning can take place in the library.
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqltFH1GQDo
The Panthers Library in Action-Fall 2013
This video shows students using many different learning styles in the library. Makes you want to go to the library! 
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHp-fXywAE
Return Them, Maybe
Great video for getting students to remember to bring their library books back.
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjMRHfYmaO0
AllIDOIsRead
Fun video for promoting reading.
Channel-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYS7t4vYsQw
Overdue Games
Very creative way to get books back on time. Great video! 

Animoto- is another activity to use in classroom and library. This is an amazing way to promote books students have read or teacher favorites. It is something teachers can use that allows students to create a more interesting book report. The book I decided to create a book trailer on is Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney.

In this sixth installment, young adult novel by Jeff Kinney, "Cabin Fever" follows the misadventures of Greg Heffley as his attempt to earn money for Christmas gifts gets him into trouble at school just as a massive blizzard sets in. Greg Heffley is in big trouble. School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect. But the crazy thing is, he's innocent, or at least sort of. The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts, he's going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside a cabin with your family for the holidays?

Scan the following QR code to view the trailer.

By using QR codes in the library students are using, thinking, creating, and exploring techie tools. In the library you could have students create book trailers and put the QR codes on business cards and stick them above the bookcase to get students interested in reading the book. Other ideas I found mentioned in my exploration about QR codes are to use for scavenger hunts, use to guide students to author information and websites, and use them to promote your school library. Lastly, use them to guide students on how to use library equipment and services.

Instagram, Vine and Screencasts

Instagram, Vine and Screencasts

By stepping out of our comfort zone and using different teaching tools such as Instagram, Vine and Screencasts we can create a teaching environment that  is fun and engaging for students. Using social media in the classroom and library can help keep parents informed as well as highlight events or even post completed assignments that students have turned in. By using these 21st learning skills and promoting them in the classroom and library we can keep our students up-to-date on the newest trends in technology.

The first tool I explored was Instagram. Instagram will be great for sharing students work and keeping parents in the loop about what is going on in the classroom and library. I had heard about Instagram from my own children, but had never explored it or had an account before. First, I created an account and learned to use pictures from my photos already on my phone from the 4th of July celebration we had in our town.

Here is an example of my first Instagram using a photo of my family watching fireworks at John Stiff Park in Amarillo, Texas.

Vine is a six-second video showing creativity in a continuous vine. It could be used in the classroom or library to model how students should execute a task, announce homework to students and parents, market a school's upcoming events to followers, "tease" new units for kids and families and many more ideas.

Here is a video using Vine that I created and posted on Vine.

Screencast-o-matic is a fun and easy to use software that creates a video from your screen. You simply create an account, download it to your computer, open it up and begin recording. I did buy the Pro for $15.00 a year to have the drawing tools. I really liked the 3 second count down feature, because I knew right when to start recording. I can see using this for student tutorials or even recording a lesson and posting it so patents can watch the video with their child at home or for students who have missed school can watch a lesson that was missed.

I created a simple Screencast on how to access our school's library catalog. 

Jing

I explored Jing as the second screencast. It was a bit more confusing to use. I watched the tutorial and learned about the little yellow sun icon you had to click on and it gives you 3 rays to use for creating your screencast. To create my screencast I clicked on the first ray with the plus sign to create my screencast. With Jing you have the option to capture an image or a video. Jing also provides you with a 3 second count down before you begin recording. After creating one of each I prefer Screen-o-matic. It is more user friendly and I think students could pick up on using it faster.

I created a screencast on Jing on how to explore a Website called Teen Ink that students will love to use. Please click on the link labeled "Jing" below:

Jing

Message Design and Infographics

This blog is about exploring infographics and creating one. An infographic is a graphic representation of information that helps users visualize the “big picture” of an idea that might otherwise be difficult to understand. After looking into several different sites, I decided I liked Piktochart.

Piktochart is a one- stop shop for building, designing and customizing visually attractive infographics. It is an easy app that requires very little effort to produce beautiful, high quality graphics. By using infographics you can create, build an infographic collection, connect infographics with standards and market you school or school library. 

The infographic I decided to do with information by PewResearchCenter is from a survey they conducted March 17-April 12, 2015, and Smartphone data based on Pew Research survey conducted on June 10- July 12, 2015. The information represented is about Technology Device Ownership:2015. It shows that cellphones and computers are the most commonly owned devices.

It also shows the percentages of U.S. adults who own each of the following devices: cellphones, smartphones, desktop/laptop computers, tablet computer, MP3 player, game console, e-book reader, and portable gaming device.

Here is the link to my infographic:

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/14755046-technology-device-ownership

Blogs and Blog Readers

In this post I will be sharing about a Blog Reader that I haven chosen to use and the reason I chose this particular Blog Reader. I will highlight 5 Blogs from Tumblr I chose to follow and why, and I will share my link to my new Tumblr account.

The Blog Reader I chose to join is Feedly. It allows you to manage all your interests in one easy to read format and it is FREE to join. When joining Feedly I was able to connect with my Google Account and in a few seconds I had my subscription imported and ready to be consumed.

Feedly has nice features such as being able to share content on Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Evernote, and seems they integrating more services all the time. You can save articles for later and view them at any time. You can organize your content and Feedly continuously suggests new sites to follow based on your settings.

5 Blogs I chose to follow to help me keep up with the latest library news, keep up with the latest tech trends, and find fantastic book reviews are as follows:

The Unquiet Librarian-  https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

This blog is sure to educate and delight. Author Buffy Hamilton offers some of the best school media specialist advice and shares her experiences in working with students in clever ways.  

YA Book Blog Directory - http://yabookblogdirectory.blogspot.com/

YA Book Blog Directory keeps you apprised of the latest book releases. It gives many book reviews for one-stop shopping for those who want to delve into book reviews blogs. You can spend days exploring this site!

Teen Librarian Toolbox - http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/

At this blog post there are bibliographies, programming suggestions, book reviews, author interviews, and so much more. This blog will inspire you, whether you are a Young Adult Services librarian or School Media Specialist on the secondary level, there are so many great aspects to explore. 

Library Journal - http://lj.libraryjournal.com/#_

This wonderfully professional site with blog postings covers topics like the evolution of librarianship, top skills for librarians, and brand-new jobs for today’s librarians. Checking this site frequently is the best way to stay on top of emerging trends in the library world – even ones you wouldn’t learn in school.

The Daring Librarian - http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/

The Daring Librarian offers tips on everything from creating a Makerspace cart to creating an extraordinary Twitter profile, blogger Gwyneth A Jones uses lots of colorful infographics and photos. Her fun, visual way of relaying information makes her blog fun to read and enlightening.


My link to my Tumblr is : http://bcs027.tumblr.com/

Facebook Pages and Twiter

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 1 billion users. It is used to keep in touch with friends, post photos, share links and exchange other information. The following comments will provide my observations I see on school library Facebook pages. I will share what they post, the advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook to promote the library as well as if any comments have been made.

After visiting several of the school libraries on Facebook, I found that they use Facebook in several different ways including: school and community photos from the past, class reunion information, senior class photos from the past, summer reading lists, summer reading programs and times available, current events taking place at school, what students are currently involved in doing at school like building new bookshelves for the library, ideas for sprucing up the library, challenged books, how a boy’s read section was put into a school library by receiving a grant, summer reading hours, when parent teacher club meetings are held, how a school library had a competition on designing a mini graphic novel, book fair times, advertising supplies needed for a makerspace station, display winners of a bookmark contest, and the list goes on.

There are many advantages of a school library using Facebook.  One, it keeps everyone up-to-date on current events taking place at school and at the library. Two, it is a way to get ideas from other school libraries to use in your own library. Three, it is a great way to keep up with friends, and four, a great way to get useful information. Facebook is one of the many tools the school library can use to achieve more communication with the community.

Some disadvantages of Facebook use in the library might be overwhelming to look at because of the extras like advertisements. Another disadvantage would be people who are not Facebook members would not get the information that is posted there and would need another way to get the information.

I found that there were not many comments on these Facebook posts. Some of the ones I saw were thanking them for posting upcoming events and just liking the post in general.

Twitter is an online social network service that enables users to send and read short messages called “tweets”. The following comments are what I found when exploring some of the educational technology leaders on Twitter:

Kathy Schrock        @kathyschrock

Kathy is an Educatioanl Technologist and Speaker. Her tweets consist of keeping us up-to-date on any computer updates that are new and any new equipment that might be worth getting for technology like TechArmor. Her updated Copywrite and Fair Use for school project posters is very useful and I really like the sketchnote presentation that was tweeted by Daena Scheuber @DScheuber of Kathy’s presentation at EduTechAU. I love sketchnoting so I thought those of you who are not familiar with sketchnoting might like to take a look, it is a  fun tool.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DScheuber/status/737434577380073473

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Buffy Hamilton    @buffyjhamilton

Buffy is a librarian/teacher who loves critical literacy, stories, poetry and participatory learning. Buffy tweets uplifting quotes, she keep you updated on goodreads like “Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space” and “Lily and the Octopus”, she also keeps you up-to-date on what is going on with EasyBIb, and Buffy retweets interesting tweets that you can learn from like how brainstorming questions, not ideas, sparks creativity by Adam Strom @afstrom.

https://twitter.com/afstrom/status/740186303388647425

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Jim Lerman        @jimlerman

Jim is a learner, teacher, author, networker, collaborator, and is focused on new schools for new learning. Jim tweets about apps that make life easier like an app for making group work easier and how to make the best videos on YouTube. He gives great tips for delivering amazing webinars and also tweets on the best tools to create and share your PDF files online. This one might be useful down the raod in this class on the 20+ tools to create your own infographics. I really enjoyed reading his article Beyond Productivity: Information, Technology, Innovation, and Creativity. I thought you might like to read this article as well. Here is the site and embedded tweet. sco.It/6pynMV.

http://www.scoop.it/t/the-4th-era/p/4064887474/2016/06/08/beyond-productivity-information-technology-innovation-and-creativity?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Library and 21st Century Learners

The discussion I am writing about is the changing role of Bloom's taxonomy and Marc Prensky's ideas regarding technology in education.

With the world always experiencing change, the rate of change in technology just continues to speed up. Prensky is right about the fundamental difference between students and teachers when it comes to technology. As teachers, we need to be models and show how these emerging technologies can improve and enhance education in ways that take us further than before in learning. Students don’t even think about using technology; it is second nature to them. They are more actively engaged in projects when technology tools are a seamless part of the learning process.

I believe it is necessary to break technology down in a way that learning opportunities through technology can be used in education. By breaking it down into levels like Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, this is a great way to introduce new Web 2.0 tools to teachers, and then to get those teachers to thinking about how to use them to get students thinking too and promote higher order thinking skills in the classroom.

Technology has changed the traditional classroom and we need to continue to update in this ever-changing world. The rate of change means that approximately every two years, our technological computing capabilities doubles. With this rapid change in performance capabilities come both technological and societal changes. By updating Bloom’s Taxonomy to Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, it helps explain technology in the classroom by teaching us to meet the needs of a diverse learner population, better prepare our students for lifelong learning, and prepare our students for the classrooms and workplaces of the future. Prensky is correct when he says cell phones have an enormous capability. I too get very upset with schools and holding kids back when it comes to cell phones. About four years ago, students would get in trouble for having a cell phone at school and would get it taken up and fined for even having the cell phone at school. Today, they can have cell phones, but can’t use them in the classroom. In the next four years, I believe they will be used in the classroom. In the meantime, all we have done is held them back and lost about ten years of teaching with them. I don’t know why we as Americans have a problem with new ways of learning of learning with the tools we have available and continue to let our kids get further behind.

If I were to promote an app in the library, I would promote an iBook app for the library. I would request it terms of Bloom’s in the applying level of the pyramid and use Prensky’s philosophy in simple terms to make connectivity, where technology will have its greatest impact on education. This app would be necessary so students can download best-sellers and classics from the iBookstore, read a free sample of any book, highlight your favorite passages and add notes, share quotes or thoughts about a favorite book with friends, organize books into a personal collections that appear on all devices, and find a word, phrase, or character anywhere in a book with the built-in search features. This app would also promote more reading for students with easy access.

I believe that Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy and Prensky’s Digital Natives go hand in hand. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy is a key organizational and guiding tool used to design standards-based instruction. There are many emerging technological advances, processes, and actions associated with them that help to motivate the Digital Native student and inspire them to meaningfully contribute in several web-based learning opportunities. By using the available Web 2.0 Tools, we can push students’ cognitive domains and improve the quality of student learning, individuality, and creativity in finished products.

I feel technology is a tool for learning. For technology to be integrated in the classroom, the students are not only using technology daily, but have access to a variety of tools to build a deeper understanding of content. The blending of technology into the classroom not only creates new learning environments, but it also provides an opportunity for educators to reassess both the learning theories and instructional design models being used in the classrooms. As these new technologies are integrated in the classroom, previous theories are being applied in new ways and even new theories are being born.

As a librarian, it is important to be aware of the importance of these emerging technologies and the impact they have on student learning. These tools will have a tremendous impact on shaping how students think about learning and even help engage learners that have become disengaged from traditional learning and offer them a new depth and quality of learning. Technology is ever changing, from home life to the classroom. Technology will continue to change everywhere, so too will our classrooms and libraries.



Sources:

Churches, A. (2009, January 04). Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved June 04, 2016, from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

Schrock, K. (2011, July 10). Bloomin' Apps. Retrieved June 04, 2016, from http://www.schrockguide.net/bloomin-apps.html

Prensky, M. (2005/2006, December/January). Listen to the Natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8-13.