The Bookmark

There has been a lot of new EduTech portrayed on here this semester and I used Storybird to create a cute little book to reflect on the value of some of the apps I talked about. I was resistant of its charms at first, but I really like it actually! I did mess up though. I signed up as a student and because of that, I can't embed the link on my blog, but I do have a handy link below that will take you to it! Just click HERE !

So I love memes, (like a large part of society) and I try to use them whenever possible, but sometimes you have more information to share than what a mere meme will allow. For that, we have... comic strips! I test drove 3 websites that allow users to make their own cartoons and I have thoughts and opinions about them all. This first one was made using Pixton. Pros and cons, people. Pro: Pixton would be great for having students create a digital comic strip to represent something or summarize something. Con: The free version comes with next to nothing to work with. My comic person (who I THOROUGHLY enjoyed making and was fully customizable) is stuck in a dorm-like room because that was one of the 4 options available. If you are willing to buy the packs with more options, they run about $15 each. BUT, you can set up class groups on there and have students log into your Pixton account and create toons, so that's a big plus (especially if you can get your department to pay for some ...

Podasts are really popular now and it’s easy to see why! In a world where people have earbuds in most of their multi-tasking lives, it makes sense to listen to something that is informative or funny. Enter: Podcasts! As a librarian, you can use a weekly podcast to do book teasers, give a local school news cast, inform teachers about new edu-tech (I don’t know if that’s a word, but I like it) or literally anything else that strikes your fancy! There are quite a few podcast-creating apps out there, so you want to check out your options thoroughly. A couple friends and I (Shout-out to Christy Ta and Heather Cowham) did some research into what a library should look and feel like recently and here is our visually aided podcast sharing our findings.   Enjoy! This one was made with a combo of WeVideo and Podbean .  P odbean was used to create the original vocal track. It is SUPER easy to use and has a handy phone app that makes podcasting-on-the-go easy peasy lizard...

Hey there bloggers (and blogettes…bloggerettes?), The YouTube! So today I’m going to join the modern world and talk about YouTube in the library! I know lots of y’all out there (like me) think YouTube is a dangerous territory, which it can be, but it is also a valuable too. Who uses YouTube constantly? STUDENTS! What better way to share info with them than by using their own beloved communicative vehicle? I looked at a few neat videos posted by librarians and they’re sharing some really great stuff with a really wide audience! Here are some I thought would be a really valuable learning tool for the kids! This helps kids build a bibliography using GALE articles and easybib.  “How to Pay for College” walkthrough (Fearless FAFSA).  How to do research using Ebsco Host, (A skill I didn’t learn until halfway through college).  A graphic US Constitution review, since we know government can be…complicated. Here are some I really think the kid...

I don't know about you, but no matter how many times I see a screencast and think it's super-dandy, I still feel daunted by the idea of making my own. Why not? Well, aside from the fact that I tend to have a chipmunk digital voice, I don't even know where to start in regards to software! How much does it cost? How much digital space does it take up? Can I share it with literally every person I know (or is that excessive)? Well, here is a start. I checked out two screencasting options: Screencast-O-Matic (sounds like something from the Jetsons) and Screencastify (recommended by a techie co-worker). These can be used to show student how to do things for themselves in the library (tutorials that get requested a lot!), to help kids with homework even when you're not around! I definitely could have used a few of these videos in High School Calculus! Also, if you have a homebound student, the ability to send videos of what you're doing could be very beneficial! Here is ...

I used Piktochart (and Easel.ly for the chart) to create this infographic about an article you can find here . I started with a blank page and not a template so it was a struggle at first, but exploring it was fun.

This is 2019, the year of "anything is possible" right? Well I have found the light readers! I don't know about you but I use infographics in my class from time to time to help the kiddos understand various processes or concepts. I do it the "old fashioned" way: Microsoft Word! I used word to create syllabi, Greek god charts, storyboards, character maps etc. and it took HOURS to get everything to line up and layer correctly and then one piece would always end up on another page and make me cry. Those days are over y'all. OVER. I played around with 3 different websites that help users build infographics to use all willy nilly. The first is Infogram ! This site was very simple to work with and manipulate but didn't allow as much freedom with the templates as I wanted.  It did, however, have a lot of options as what what type of graphics you want to create. Reports, slides, facebook posts etc. allow this to be used for a lot of purposes. It is limited to...

Today we are going to be checking out how some libraries are using social media! Don’t be scared, social media isn’t all bad! The Facebook! I stalked, ahem, followed a few libraries on Facebook an was mostly really excited about what I found. Librarians are using their library pages to high light student achievement, enlighten patrons about month themes and new literature, show school spirit and pride and showcase literary stars of the campus and community! What a great tool for sharing! I can’t tell you how many times I have been scrolling through facebook hoping for some great, positive posts and here they are! Just follow a few libraries! My particular favorite was Liberty Junior High School’s page. They had everything! Kids, staff, community, PSAs and memes. What more could you need?   Twitter I ventured into the Twitterverse to follow the ideas of a few educational gurus. I struggle with Twitter, but I am slowly warming up to it!   A lot of the professionals I t...

So this post will not directly address a book like all the others have! In this post, I will be sharing a little bit of information about a thing called a "Feed Reader." If you are the type of person who enjoys following various blogs but does not always enjoy surfing forever to find them, a feed reader is definitely something you need! They compile the posts on as many blogs as you would like to follow and present them to you as a feed. Its almost like Facebook, but with blogs instead of friends. There are a lot to choose from so navigate them carefully and decide which suits you better. Is it IOS friendly? Can I rate certain articles to better narrow down new blog choices? Is it free?! Will there be ads if I don't pay? Is the cost worth the convenience? As you can tell, I ask a lot of questions. The feed reader I chose to try out was Feedly, largely because it is free but also because it reminds me of Google's email server which is easy for me to navigate. S...