Thing 20: Tools for creating websites, pathfinders, portfolios and more

      I started Thing 20, like I did the others, (but in that it is a crazy time of year, maybe with a little less enthusiasm) and read through and checked out the links. I kept thinking about what I could do. I would read, look at the examples, work on my own projects and just couldn't come up with an idea. I had a teacher who wanted to start a project and I just wanted to get this done. Then, I thought just try combining the two - use the project and get Thing 20 done. 

     That is what I did. I decided to give Smore another look. I clicked around and figured I could use it as a sort of pathfinder. It took me more hours than I originally thought it would, but I like the end product and so does the teacher. Monday, I will email it to the kids and we will be off. 

    Here it is. It doesn't look quite the same as it does on the web page; but you can get the idea. It was actually fun to do. I used a few resources I hadn't before.  I like the look better than the Weebly look, I think.  I could not figure out how to format my works cited, but at least I included it. 
     I will be happy to get opinions. So, let me hear what you think, please.  I am happy to say I am now DONE!!!  :)

     

Thing 19: Online Learning & DIY PD

      After reading through the material that is posted, I have decided to do a couple of things. The first is to participate in an edWeb seminar. I selected one that is happening next Wednesday, April 23rd at 5:00. It is from the Emerging Tech: Using Technology to Advance Your School Library Program Community and is simply called eContent: Round 4.

      The other item I am going to work on is getting to know Schoology in more depth. After I completed Thing 12, I had thought that I would focus on all that Google can do for me and I have been. But, at my last School Library System meeting, I found out that our BOCES is going to use Schoology to connect people via networking. As librarians, we have been trying to connect online. Some schools have social media avenues blocked, some are Google schools, some are not. So, Schoology are kind of come out as a way to do this and have it usable in all schools. I need to get back to it and see what is up and how it might work for networking with my local school librarians.  I am excited about that.   
     I did do the edWeb seminar on Wednesday, April 23rd from 5-6 p.m.. It was through the Emerging Tech community and was called "eContent, Round 4".  Although it was not what I thought it would be, it was really informative. Michelle Luhtala from Connecticut led it.  She has a good handle on how to deal with all the books that are now available in e-book format.
     I am just going to list some of the points I took away from my hour webinar.  The issue seems to be with vendors/publishers and authentication.  There is also a lot of issues with all the different devices and ways econtent can be accessed. Librarians are encouraged by some who are well into this already to buy materials at the consortia level, if at all possible.  As always, we need to think about integration and not just "owning" econtent. We need to know our needs, as with anything we add to our collections.  :)  At the end, people asked questions and all that was exciting to see, too. I picked up an idea or two to try. Since the webinar, I have changed my opacs' looks to reflect more keenly our ebook collections. I added icons to take people directly to them, even in our Owl Beginner OPAC. 

Colton-Pierrepont Elementary OPAC (Owl Beginner)

Colton-Pierrepont 7-12 OPAC

Here is my certificate (I used PicMonkey to add my name and school :) ):

    It was a very beneficial hour, leaving me with lots of ideas and lots of issues to consider and plans to put into action. I realize that I need to spend some time getting the e-book collections out there but in a way that makes it easy for my students and teachers to access the information, without having to use several logins, etc. 

     The other thing I did for Thing 19 is to set up my Schoology account. I did that and then I let my SLS Director know that I did so when she is ready to create a librarians' group, I will be set to be her guinea pig, so to speak. I can see already that Schoology has great possibility for the school librarians in our School Library System.  

Thing 18: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship

     Digital Citizenship has been a big interest of mine and of our school for some time. It is always a work in progress and something on which we can't let up. Our district has adopted the Common Sense Digital Literacy and Citizenship Classroom Curriculum as a guideline for our teachers and students. I work with several teachers on a variety of  lessons for the different age groups. So far, we are pretty pleased with what they offer. And, it is a lot!
     I started this lesson by watching Common Sense Media: Digital Footprint Intro Vimeo and then by searching for myself using the suggested search engines. Nothing horrible appeared. I am thinking that is a good thing.  ;-) I decided to have eighth graders Google themselves next week in a lesson we are doing on Google tips, etc.  I read the articles:

• Skills We Can’t Teach: Facilitating Authentic Experiences with Digital Citizenship
• Digital Footprints — How big and do they stink? 
• Is your school’s “digital citizenship” practice a pass or fail?
• It’s Complicated: the Social Lives of Networked Teens.

These articles and blog posts were good and reaffirmed what I believe and try to practice. I decided I needed to share the one called "Skills We Can't Teach" (and, maybe a couple others, too) with my superintendent, who is a huge Digital Citizenship promoter because he believes in teaching social media, not blocking it.   
     I went through the Digital Citizenship Education curriculum that was linked and found a lot of useful information, including the video clip below and the fact that BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. both have a lot of great resources related to this topic.  

Living in the Digital World video clip

(from Cable Impacts, part of Cable in the Classroom, looked good for use with students in grades 4 -6)

      I am going to start using the Digital Passport from Common Sense with my fourth grade students.  I have set up a group and added most of the names. I will begin after break, I hope.
      As I read through the variety of material you provided, I found another great edtech information source to follow on Twitter.  I found several other hashtags to watch: #EdTech, #satchat, #pypchat, #satchatoc, #teacherwellbeingchat. 

              Polly, I am wondering one thing that I might have missed

              in a lesson last year. Is there a way to save hashtags that

              interest you so that when you want to check in you don't

              have to try to remember them?  

    Last year, when we learned about Pinterest and ScoopIt, I set up a board in Pinterest and made a topic in ScoopIt on Digital Citizenship.  Both of which I use all the time to save materials and use items in my instruction.  You can see the resources I have collected by clicking the links below:

• ScoopIt topic:  Digital citizenship for a K-12 School
• Pinterest Board: Education/Digital Citizenship

     I have an image that has been posted and pinned all over, but I really like it for our students. I have printed it and used it. It is brief and to the point. There are a couple of versions of it, but I am particular about mixing upper and lower case and this one is less messy that way.  :)

      Last, Edutopia has a nice collection of resources. I don't think you had that as part of the lesson.  

Digital Citizenship: Resource Roundup | Edutopia

     This was fun and interesting to read about a topic I really enjoy. I gathered several resources I hadn't stumbled up on and learned about some great things that I have right at my fingertips. I am excited to try some new lessons and to use Digital Passport.  I linked so many articles and resources here so that they are in one quick spot when I want to re-read them.  Thanks, Polly - this is great stuff!!  :)

     4/18/14 I found a new list of resources "Scooped" this morning:

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning: Part One: Digital Citizenship Education...Over 20 Essential Resources 

Track 2 Thing 17 Coding

     This is one of the first lessons that has been pretty difficult for me. One thing was finding the quiet time I needed to get something accomplished was very tricky; and, the second thing  was that the concepts were a bit puzzling. I certainly could tell characters to follow directions and I could follow directions, but the problems were what to do with what I did. 
     Anyway, here is what I did: 
     I started by watching the videos on the Cool Tools site. I watched and completed "An Hour of Code".    I worked with Blockly.  At code.org I completed "One Hour of Code" and got my certificate (see below).

     My hope is to continue with more of this during the summer and to get some kids to try this, too.  After code.org, I moved on to Khan Academy and began their "hour". I onlu got through the first two parts and will get back to that at a later point. I got these items accomplished during some staff development time where my administration was kind enough to let me work on this.  :) Because I wanted to see several different organizations offerings, I moved on to CodeAcademy and did the "Animate Your Name" lesson. That was fun and I got it done. I still have not figured out what I can do with the code I used. It doesn't seem to embed here or at my library's Weebly site. But, I will provide the link so you can see Melinda in all its colorful glory.  :)

Melinda

 By doing this, I could better understand the importance of commands and the order they are used.  I also realize that punctuation for coding is also important.  
     Next, I downloaded several apps for my iPad: Kodable, Hopscotch and Daisy the Dino. My next mission was to  find some apps for my Nexus 7s and let the 5th and 6th graders play around with them. Although, I have found many fun and educational apps for the iPads, I have learned there are not nearly so many for androids. I did find a great article at Common Sense, which I am posting.

Cool Coding Apps and Websites for Kids

     From this article, I decided to download Light-bot, the free version (an hour of code) and then purchase the Light-bot Programming and the Light-bot Coding Puzzles.  Next week I plan to set the Nexus 7s out for the kids to try.  Here is the review from Apps Playground, a British site:

Light-bot is the latest app teaching kids to code by Stuart Dredge.

     While I was searching for apps for androids, I found other articles about apps that I liked:

Five iPad apps trying to teach programming skills to kids

How and Why to Teach Your Kids to Code

Teach Kids how to Code, Make Apps and 3-D Models With These Tools

Teach kids programming A collection of resources

Tynker is the latest iPad app aiming to teach kids to code

     I also discovered a couple more great tweeters to follow. That was a big plus!  :) 

     What I learned from all of this is that we need to be teaching coding to our kids. At first, I thought it would be for older students, but now I realize that it is another item that works with young students. For our school 4th-6th graders might be a good group to target.  I hope it is something we will see more of soon.  I shared some coding articles with others and hope to share a few more.  All in all, this lesson turned out to be very informative, interesting, and one that I (we) will need to re-visit here at Colton-Pierrepont.  Thanks!

Thing 16 Do Your Own Thing

Tools for Staff

     I have been bouncing back and forth from the list of articles on apps to the tools that I have learned about and like. It is my hope to have created a document that is useful to the teaching staff here at Colton-Pierrepont.  
     I read several of the articles on the tools I like. I have found and/or created descriptions of most of them.  My hope is to use this is as a part of my annual Board of Education presentation. Although I hope to add a few more tools to the tool list and to give a bit more description to those items which need it, I am basically done. It is now time to share it with you.  :)

Independent Project ~ Tools for the Staff

Thing 15: App-palooza!

So Many Apps, So Little Time

         After reading several articles from Edutopia and the blog assignment post, I think that I will try setting up a "pocket library" for CPCS. I have not decided on the age level yet, but I may go with PK and K because we have iPads in those grades plus I have a personal interest in apps for the very youngest children.  :) I will be working on that for the next few days. Then, I may try one for our high school students because that would be fun. I will report more when I have collected some apps.  Because we are a "mostly" Google school, I will explore Google apps that our students can use with their Chromebooks, too.  I am starting with Kathy Schrock's lists:

Bloom' Apps and iPads in the Classroom

     After reading a lot of articles related to apps, I have decided to hold off on the "pocket library" for now because many of our resources could only be placed in the library via a QR code because there is no app, as such. I might work on that for my independent project. Instead, I am creating a Google doc that is a database of articles and lists of good apps for different grade levels and subject areas. That way I can share it with my staff. They can pick and choose what they want.  Link will be forthcoming. 

Here is the link to what I put on my list:
Articles that Review Apps for Education

     After all the reading and searching I have done, I now realize there is a huge number of apps out there available to educators on all kinds of subjects and to do all kinds of things. It seems that the end user needs to pick and choose the apps with which he/she is most comfortable and not what someone says should be used. The variety is huge and the quality of the apps very varied.  I think that there is a lot of opportunity for designers to come up with apps for kids because there are great ones in some fields, like science. But, other subjects could use work.

     Last, I am including a link to an article about handheld devices and children that recently appeared in The Huffington Post, just a sort of aside, but something about which we need to think and of which we need to be aware.

10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12

Thing 14 Social Reading and Book Stuff

Thing 14 Social Reading and Book Stuff should be fun...can't wait!    

     Here I am running way behind, again.
     I started by going down through all the information that was presented. I have been a part of Goodreads for a long while. I am going to try to use the widget on my library page. I looked over LibrayThing. It looked fun and interesting but, I am learning from past experience not to get involved with too much.
     I did register for accounts with Riffle, BookBub, and BookGorilla. I decided to try all three and see which I liked best ( more to come on that later). I have had a membership to WeGiveBooks for several years and love it just as a change of pace to use with my K-2 classes.
     Several days later:
      I decided to see if I can get a Goodreads widget to work here first. So here we go:

Melinda's bookshelf: currently-reading

The Storyteller

by Jodi Picoult

tagged: currently-reading

Enchanted

by Alethea Kontis

tagged: currently-reading

Tampered

by Michele Martin Bossley

tagged: currently-reading

     Hurray! It worked. So, I will try putting it on my library page next.  :) Hurray! That worked fine, too. I just need to decide where I really want the widget.  :) CPCS Library: Your Information Place Right now it is underneath the slide show of new books. Any suggestions on a better placement are appreciated.  :)      Sometimes I just can't believe what I miss. That is how I feel about LibraryReads. I signed up for thier monthly newsletter and can't wait for the next one already. I love reading about what others are loving.         In the past few days I have gotten information from both BookGorilla and BookBub. So far, I am feeling that what comes from BookGorilla is more the kind of stuff I would try.  I even downloaded a couple of the freebies to see. However, I know some students who would like some of the suggestions from both. That is positive.  :) I haven't done much with Riffle and will probably let that one slide.       WeGiveBooks has been a organization I have used and supported a lot with our library program. They always have several titles to use at different holidays and for seasonal themes.  Our students enjoy listening to me read but watching the story via a projector. This works especially well with a large group of young students.         I am still working on ways to deal with the few ebooks I have added to our OPACs. I have to spend some serious time trying to make them easily accessible to our students without a ton of logins.  Hopefully, that will happen sooner than later.  But, for now, I am loving Goodreads, WeGiveBooks and BookGorilla and LibraryThing ~ some new to me, some old friends. I am excited to share new tools with my older students and staff, making this lesson another one that helps out here in the day to day business of school librarianship. That's success!

Thing 13 Media Skills

    Well, here I go...Media Skills ~ I  am running about two or three weeks behind, but chiseling away at this topic. I have finally come up with an idea for a (very) short video. Coming up with an idea was the hardest part of this topic's assignment, I think.  :)
     
     Okay, here is what I did and what I learned.

• I looked over the two links under Photography in Education.
• I used Quozio and made a couple of quote posters.
• I watched "How to Make an Animated Gif". 
• I made a silly little Dr. Seuss gif using book covers and a couple of my Quozio posters.

• I "transformed" a photo to use, too. First I used Pixlr Editor and layers to add The Cat in the Hat to my circ desk. Then I added the text to the saved image using Picmonkey, because I just love Picmonkey! I went back into the Pixlr Editor and put my little cat's conversation balloon around the text.  

• Then, using Animoto, I worked on a little video that is PR for Read Across America Day. It has my transformed photo and some other little pieces. I could not get my little gif slideshow to run within Animoto. But, the video clip was not too hard to do. Here it is embedded (I believe) below:

RAA Day PR

     I did try using Wordle but could not figure out how to save it. I seemed to be able only to print it.  That was frustrating because I wanted it in my slideshow.
     There are so many interesting tools to still look over and great articles to read. But, for now I am wrapping up my work with Thing 13. Added to my list of tools I will continue to use  and get my students to use are Pixlr Editor and Animoto. Picmonkey was already #1 on my list.  :)