Thing 23: Makerspaces

     I have been interested in Makerspaces for quite a while now. My library isn't perfect as far as layout, but I want to give it a try. Hopefully, working on this lesson will help me to get it going.

     The first thing I did was to read through the blog post and watch the video:

What is a Maker or Innovation Space?

Next, I read the article: 

Stop, hey, what’s that sound… Maker Spaces are Going Round

I liked several of the points in the article because I realized a space doesn't have to be too tech-heavy. I can start simply and feel out what students and staff would like.  :) That sounds good.

     I have picked my space - the study room off the library and have had one wall painted with Idea Paint so that it is one large whiteboard. See the picture below which is its first creative use.  :)

Drawing by Alyssa Sta. Ageuda, CPCS student

   

  I participated in the edWeb webinar, February 17th by Leslie Preddy called:

 Makerspaces: The Now Revolution in School Libraries!

I enjoyed that hour and spent a lot of time jotting down ideas as she presented.  Again, it made me feel like I can handle this by starting small-ish and working my way along. 

     I have decided to email teachers about the supplies I am getting together so they know. I will also ask about ideas they have for using the space and what I can help with to get their ideas into actions. I will also email the same information to my middle school and high school students. My plan is to also ask for donations of certain items for upcycling and recycling purposes. But, I am waiting on that until I better understand how much use the space may get.  I am also working on developing a Google form to get information about what the school would like as far as guided  offerings in the space.  That I will send out as soon as our mid-winter break ends. 

     I pulled out an old large metal cart that will serve as our storage unit and bought 12 plastic bins that will sit nicely on the shelves. As far as materials, I have gotten lots of art supplies, markers galore for the whitewall, wikki stix, a 3D pen and filament, small spirographs, a makey makey kit, several units of littleBits kits, and lots of legos.

      Next week, I am starting (I know, whack me on the head, another online course when I can't even keep up with this one...) a free online course in littleBits use and creation (http://littlebits.cc/invent-anything ) called "Learn How to #Inventanything" so that I can show my kids how to do this. I am very excited about learning enough to get the kids going.  

    I have purchased several books on Makerspaces and Tinkering and will have those as references when needed.  I also hope to create several pathfinders on topics that our students are interested in once I send out my Google form to them. last, I will add to my whitewall a "wish list/what I want to do" corner so the kids can make suggestions and give feedback as they work.  There will also be a supplies used area.  That is it for now!  :)

           Thing 22: Create a Resource Guide

    After reading the material on the Cool Tools post, I decided that I would try to do this using a tool that I had not worked much with before ~ that eliminated ScoopIt and Pinterest where I already have curated lots of materials and continue to gather great stuff for my teachers (the links go to my boards). Both of those collections are very general and for any and all teachers. 

Here is how things went.

Step 1: Audience

     It took me a while to decide for whom I should create a resource guide. I thought my ELA people, who are good library users and quite open-minded about trying new things, would be a good choice. I am focusing on the middle school/high school teachers for now (that is grades 5-12). 

Step 2: Tool for sharing

     I ended up deciding to set up a Google+ Community. We are a Google school; and even within my small ELA group there is a wide range of comfort levels as far as technology. I decided to go with what they know (or know better). Another factor is that it is easier to find information that we read.. First, there are not as many posts to deal with and to try to recall. Second, the community's posts are searchable. That little tidbit I didn't even know about until Polly mentioned it to me ~ thanks for that!!  :)  And, third,with Google+ it is easy for us to comment on each others posts, if the members choose to do that. The members of the group can also share,too. It does not all have to come from me.  Right now, the community is a private one, but I am planning to change it to public community just to see what the difference is.  

Step 3: Resource Gathering

     I am constantly watching Facebook and Twitter posts for educational resources for all of my staff. I have professional accounts for both to make it easier to find and follow what I want.   For the past few weeks, I have been more conscientious about keeping an eye out for ELA materials. Although I found some, I ended up going to Edutopia and Educational Technology and Mobile Learning and even Googling some resources to start.  Once you find some, then BOOM - off you go and there are lots! 

Step 4: Share, Promote, Maintain!

     Once I made my decision about the tool to use, I emailed the people and asked them if they would be willing to do this. With Google Communities, people are invited to be members. Next, I set up the community called Engaging ELA and invited the participants to join. All have done so. Twice, I have sent out an email with a message about adding some new resources. We are now on a mid-winter break and I may not hear much.  With most of the blogs and other such things I follow, there are "share" buttons to quickly and easily share information to Google (or Facebook or Twitter). Once there, I just click the Community that I want to share it with (as opposed to sharing it with one of my Circles) and the resource is posted.  I am trying to remember to add hashtags to the posts so they are even more easily searchable.  That takes practice!  :) I will invite you, Polly, to the group so that you can see what I have shared so far.  

     Hooray, I am done with this blog post and now will just be maintaining my Engaging ELA guide!  

     

Thing 21: Productivity Tools

     Things have just been hopping! It is January and I am just getting start with the first item, #21, in Track 3.
     As I have been reading over the material for productivity tools, I thought I would make a list of those I really want to use to start. Then I will trim the list to two.

• Tweetdeck ~ Very similar tool, helps you see your social media streams all in one place. Tweetdeck is desktop-based rather than web-based. Recently purchased by Twitter.
• Workflowy ~ Keep Workflowy open in a browser tab – add, delete, organize ‘to-do’ items very easily.
• Evernote ~ Not specifically a bookmarking tool, but it can serve that purpose. If you’re already using Evernote as a note-taking tool, make sure you add the WebClipper to your browser so you can save web pages too.
• Clearly ~ This tool is a one of my personal favorites. I hate pages with tons of ads. Clearly strips out all the advertising clutter so you can view pages without distraction. It installs a handy button on your toolbar and all you do is click the button to reformat the page. Highlight text on the page and Clearly sends the document and your highlights to your Evernote account. This tool is amazing!
• OneTab ~ Too many open tabs? Add this Chrome extension and save all your open tabs into a simple list. It will speed up your browser!

Article to read:

18 Productivity Apps

(Hooray!  I am glad to get started!!)

     Evernote

     I read the above article and decided to focus on Evernote to start. I set up several folders and then began to experiment with Evernote's Web Clipper and Evernote's Clearly. I am loving using them both. Because of this, my folders in Evernote have been tweeked and changed. That will probably happen more often. I have added the Web Clipper and Clearly tools to all my browsers so that can read, clip, and save whatever I need to and I can do it faster than before. What a find! 

     Today as I was getting set to start my day, I found that Knowledge Quest's "Technology Tuesday" tip features these tools. This article focuses on using these tools (plus a couple of other tools, too) with students for close reading. I can't wait to share this idea with some teachers whom I think will be really excited about the idea.  I am including a link to that article below:

Technology Tuesday – Tools for Close Reading

   


      I also have read about and started using Tweetdeck. I love Twitter and I use it most to share resources, ideas and professional education articles with my administration and teaching staff, who are also big on Twitter. Twitter seems easier to pick out and see the good stuff with Tweetdeck. I am hoping to see if others use this tool and if there are any tips for this tool, too.  So far I like the layout and design, but I had thought I could add things like my Google + and my Facebook accounts to it, kind of like Hootsuite. That does not seem to be the case. At least, I can't figure it out if there is a way.

     Those are the two tools for this session that are working well for me.  At last, I have finished my first session!! Not too bad, it is only February 10th.  :(

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!