Final Reflection

This has been an exciting class as I have been exposed to many different technology websites, apps, and other programs that I was not aware of prior to this class.

These are the ones I will definitely be using in my classroom:

Instagram can be a fun and educational tool in any classroom. You can use it to communicate classroom happenings with the parents. You, or the students, can take pictures of favorite activities and post.

 The Vine app is also great for showing parents what is going on in the classroom. You can also give the students a task and they can video themselves completing that task.

Pixton was my favorite comic creator. The features are so much more friendly than the others. Students can create a comic based on information learned in class.

Biblionasium is a great way to communicate reading lists to parents and students. Parents are always asking what level or type of books to read at home. It would be awesome to send parents to this website where all that information is already there.

These are the ones I won't be using again:

Screenr was not a website that worked for me. I think it is important to use websites that are consistent in how they work. I do not want to use a site that may, or may not, work when my students try to use it.

ToonDoo was another unpredictable website for me. I created my comic just fine, but it took days for my comic to appear on my profile page. That just won't work for a classroom teacher. Students will want the instant gratification of seeing and printing their comic.

If you are not already familiar with my favorites, I hope you will give them a try.

Mining Pew: Digital Tools & Student Writing

Purcell, K., Buchanan, J., & Friedrich, L. (2013, July 13). The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools. Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/07/16/the-impact-of-digital-tools-on-student-writing-and-how-writing-is-taught-in-schools/

This article had some surprising finds to me. The survey consisted of over 2400 middle and high school teachers. The majority felt that mobile technology and the internet has actually shaped the student writing in a good way! Social media and digital technology has made the students more creative. It has broadened their audience and motivated the students to write in more formats than students in the past.

At the same time, the biggest challenge of these new technologies is educating the students more than ever in plagiarism. Also, the use of "informal" language in tweets, Facebook posts and texts has created a problem with the writing.

Benefits of digital technology in writing:

• 96% feel students can share with a wider variety of audience
• 79% agree it allows greater collaboration
• 78% agree it encourages creativity and personal expression

Undesirable effects of digital technology in writing:

• wide use of "informal" language in their writing
• 68% feel digital tools allow students to take short cuts in their writing
• 46% feel these tools cause students to write too fast and be careless
• 40% feel they are more likely to use poor grammar

I have seen first hand how students abbreviate, use slang, and other short cuts in their messaging. This would obviously translate into their writing.

Ultimately, the use of digital technology lies not in the tool itself, but how the tool is used. They are only as valuable as the knowledge behind the user. These tools do not make for better writers. These tools have just given the students more knowledge of what writing should look like. It is our job to teach them how to use these tools to the best of their ability. Do not take these tools for granted, but value what they provide.

Pages read: 114

Mining Pew: Teens, Technology, & Online Privacy

Lenhart, A. (2013, November 7). 9 Things You Need To Know About Teens, Technology & Online Privacy. Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. Retrieved July 30, 2014, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/11/07/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-teens-technology-online-privacy/

1. Teens internet usage is rising and is becoming more mobile.

• 95% of teens use the internet.
• 74% of those teens use mobile technology to access the internet. 
• 37% use smartphones.
• 1 in 4 use cell phones only as a form of accessing the internet

2. Twitter use has increased drastically.

3. What teens post on their profile has increased.

• 91% post a photo
• 71% post school or city name
• 53% post email address
• 20% post cell phone number

4.  60% have their Facebook profile set to private. 64% have their Twitter posts set to public.

5. The average Facebook user has 300 friends. Those with a large group of friends (600+) tend to be friends with teachers, coaches and people they have never met.

6. Lots of time is dedicated to their reputation and maintaing their profiles.

7. Very few pay any attention to advertising on these social media sites.

8. Many parents express concern over safety of social media.

• 81% are concerned about advertisers
• 72% are concerned about strangers
• 70% are concerned their child's behavior will hinder future job and school opportunities
• 69% are concerned about child's reputation

9. 70% of teens are asking others for advice regarding social media privacy.

This study doesn't really tell me anything I didn't already know. We all know that social media and the internet played a huge part in the lives of our teens. It is so important to many to stay connected to friends and family.

Some of the statistics are encouraging. I am glad teens are aware that their privacy settings are very important. They set Facebook profile to private because of the personal information they share. Strangers do not need to know personal details. On the other hand, Twitter profiles are typically public. Twitter is more able conversations than sharing private information like Facebook. Their profiles are public so others can read what they have to say.

Teens don't pay attention to advertising because that is not why they are on those sites. Facebook and Twitter isn't about shopping.

It is comforting to know that our teens are paying attention to privacy and trying to stay safe while relying on social media websites.

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Screencasts

Screencasts is something I was not very familiar with until this class. I've taken screenshots of my computer screen, but never a video demonstration of something online.

 This screencast is using the website Screencast-o-matic. It is a very friendly website. You click "record" and then start your demonstration. Easy peasy!


The other website you can use for screencasts is Screenr. I wasn't able to successfully use this site because of Java issues. I heard it is a great site, so give it a try!

There are also a couple of apps that allow you to create screencasts from your mobile device. I chose the app Explain Everything because it allowed you to showcase apps along with websites, videos or images.

I enjoyed this app because you could assemble your video and then add the narration after. Each slide in your presentation had its own audio. So, if you made a mistake you did not have to start over. You could erase just that portion of the audio and record it again. The video below is one I created using Explain Everything for another class.

I believe either of these that I highlighted would be great to use in a classroom. Screencast-o-matic is great for use in a computer lab and Explain Everything is perfect if you have iPads in your classroom.

Instagram and Vine

This next blog post is about some of the most popular apps among young adults. Instagram allows you to take and share pictures with your friends. You can add comments and tag people, but its main focus is just pictures.

Here is a Pic Collage of some pictures when we went to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center this summer. My kids are both in college now, but we never outgrow this place. Who can resist hand feeding giraffes?

  Here is another one from our recent vacation to Red River, NM. All but 4 members of my family were able to go. So much fun!
Vine is all about videos. The best part of Vine is the videos are all short. You can browse so quickly through videos because they are only a few seconds long. In my opinion, you have to be pretty creative to be funny in just a few seconds.

Vine is new to me so here is one I created this morning. This is where I wish I was right now! :)

Now when it comes to using these in the classroom I think it will depend on the grade level. Instagram would be a great way to spotlight student work or students making great choices. The parents can follow our classroom Instagram and see the great things going on in the classroom. As for Vine, spotlighting a student would be fine. Videos are quick, but the student can say a couple of things about themselves. You can have the students make a video about their favorite book. They can show the book and talk about their favorite part. These apps are a great resource to have in a classroom!

Cartoons and Comics

Cartoons and comics are a super fun way to mix some old school fun with some modern fun! This post is about some of the most popular comic creation websites. I've also included samples of the comics I created using these websites.

Pixton was easy to use. This was my favorite out of the 3 I tried. There were lots of choices of backgrounds, people and clip art. This would be a great option for the students to use. 

Make Believe Comix was a little more simpler in form than the others. There were not a ton of choices, but it was still fun to create. Each character had different positions you could place them in. 

ToonDoo was a fun website to use. I liked many of the features provided. It had the most features as any of the websites I tried out. My biggest complaint was the website was extremely slow when it came to finalizing the final comic. It took many attempts, and a wait of days, to finally see the finished product and be able to take a screenshot.

Overall, all three are great resources for teachers and students. There are so many great ways to use these in your classroom. With the younger grades, you can get student input as you create the comic whole group. Upper grades would have no problem creating these on their own. This also is great to use across any subject. The ones I created were for Science and Literacy. You can give the students a topic and let them go at it.

Online Book Communities

This blog post focuses on some of the more popular online book communities. There are a lot of different ways your can keep track of what books you have read, want to read, and even what friends are reading. Clicking on any of the website logos below will take you to my profile

The most widely used is Goodreads. As with all of these sites, you can create shelves of books. Normally you have a "read" shelf, "want to read" shelf and "currently reading" shelf. You can rate the books as you read them. As you read and rate more books, the website will give you recommendations of similar books. I like that this website is easy to use compared to some of the others. I liked that you could see what others were currently reading and search by genre.

 LibraryThing was the hardest website to navigate. You are able to create the same shelves as listed above, but adding to these was a challenge. You really needed to know what title you were looking for to find it. I wish the search options were more user friendly. I would like to see what others are reading.

Shelfari is a very user friendly website with wonderful graphics. It was easy to navigate and add books to the shelves. I found it simple to see what others were reading. You can view what is trending by genre, series, author and many more options. Great website!

If you like to blog, then Booklikes is for you. This website is similar to the others, but with the added bonus of being able to blog about what you are reading. The search feature generated blog results more than book results. You can search by book attributes (author, title, etc), but when you explore you just get blogs. I found it hard to just look for books to read. 

Biblionasium is a great website for classroom teachers and librarians. You can customize the classes and books that those classes can see. There are great categories such as favorites, recommended, required and classroom wish list. This is a great way for teachers to communicate with the parents. Teachers of older students can use this to communicate reading lists with the students.

My recommendations:

For Teachers: Biblionasium

For Students: Booklikes (if they love to blog) or Shelfari

Podcasting

Podcasting is creating a digital media file. It is similar to listening to the radio except with podcasting you can pick the topic you want to listen to. Most podcasters produce their pieces on a regular basis. Now, if you are wondering how to use podcasts in your classroom, you have come to the right place. Below are some ideas for classroom use and library use:

Classroom ideas:
1. Teacher read aloud of a favorite book. You can read a book and the students will follow along while listening.
2. Student read aloud. This would be great for a center or small group activity. The student(s) can read their favorite book aloud. This gives great practice and is fun!

Library ideas:
1. Create a podcast to let students know of upcoming library events. This can be created by the librarian or a group of students.
2. Create a podcast introducing students to new books in the library.

The ideas are endless, but these can get you started. Give it a try-your students will love it!

Below is a podcast I created using SoundCloud. It is a read aloud of a book I purchased this summer called "making a friend".

Infographics: Mining Pew

Infographics are a creative way to organize data. In the library this could be used to make a presentation on book themes or authors. This was a new thing for me this week, but I enjoyed creating the one I will show you below. I found the website www.easel.ly to be the most user friendly.

So, I created the Infographic on the article "10 Things to Know About How Teens Use Technology".

#1

I wasn't really surprised by most of the information provided in the article. We know teens love Facebook and that Twitter is becoming more and more popular. Maybe that is just because I have teens in my household.

#2 but gaining ground

I am glad to hear that more parents are aware of what the teens are doing on the Internet. I am also surprised, and happy, that teens are very aware of their privacy settings. It is so important that they stay safe while using these resources.

I believe we have all changed by the creation of the Internet. Who doesn't "google" the answer to a question? Who doesn't pull out their phone to check a sports score or movie times? It has changed us all.

Click on the picture below to download.

Purcell, K. (2013, July 10). 10 Things to Know About How Teens Use Technology. . Retrieved July 10, 2014, from http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Presentations/2013/KPurcell%20ACT%202013_PDF.pdf

Pages read: 46

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

This blog post focuses on the importance of various technology in the library. YouTube is a very important aspect of schools these days. I visited several different library YouTube channels and below are some of the most helpful and enjoyable.

Calypso Gilstrap

Most helpful to students: there are 3 video tutorials on Google Docs. Here is #1



Most enjoyable to watch: great tutorial on poetry research

The Unquiet Library

Most helpful to students: this channel has many helpful video tutorials. This one demonstrates how to embed a Prezi into Wikispaces.



Most enjoyable to watch: video of "Rocky Top" being performed by the Roots Music Club

Pikesville HS Library

Most helpful to students: this video highlights graduation requirements and helps students with advisement procedures for 2014-2015



Most enjoyable to watch: students will love this video of hip hop dancing in the library.

BBMSMEDIA

Most helpful to students: this video focuses on MLA citation



Most enjoyable to watch: there are a ton of funny parodies for overdue books. This one as a Frozen theme. All are great!

This is the most popular book in my Kindergarten classroom! We love Pete the Cat. Not familiar with Pete? From Amazon: Pete the Cat goes walking down the street wearing his brand new white shoes. Along the way, his shoes change from white to red to blue to brown to WET as he steps in piles of strawberries, blueberries, and other big messes! But no matter what color his shoes are, Pete keeps movin' and groovin' and singing his song...because it's all good. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes asks the reader questions about the colors of different foods and objects.

Scan the QR code below to watch my book trailer for Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

QR codes are so much fun. It's kinda like a secret code and the kids love it. Here are some ideas on how to integrate this form of technology in your library:

1. Kick off the year by having a QR hunt introducing the students to new books. They scan a code, it sends them to a location in the library and they find the book and see what it is all about.

2. Create a book trailer, like the one above, introducing students to unfamiliar books.

3. Have a group of students make a video about up and coming activities in the school or library. The QR code can be used to show them these activities.

Do you use QR codes in the library? Comment and tell me how you use them!

Bloglovin'

This blog post focuses on my Top 5 Librarian blogs. Each one brings different information to the reader. I love how different they all are. I use Bloglovin' to create a list of favorite blogs. I picked this because it has a larger selection of librarian blogs than the others. I will say my preference is to create a blog list on my own blog that will update every time a favorite blog updated their site.

Librarian in Cute Shoes

This is one of my favorite blogs because she focuses on book reviews. She writes very comprehensive blog posts reviewing many new books in children's literature.

A Librarian Moonlights as a Librarian

The focus of this blog is Young Adult literature. She has some great posts about her struggle to add quality literature to her young adult section. She also highlights some of her favorites and new books she has added to her library.

Curtis Elementary Library
Wow! This blog has a wealth of information ranging from what she is reading this summer to where she has been going. She added a lengthy post about traveling to Indianapolis and taking part in a "conversation" about technology. I love that her focus is not just on books, but technology as well.

Mr. Library Dude
This blog caught my attention because, DUH!, it is written by a man. How rare is that? He has a great post about the popular show "Orange is the new Black" and he weighs in on the prison library system. Great post! Even though he is a university librarian, most of his posts apply to any level librarians and even those with just a love of books.

The Daring Librarian
How can I write a post of librarian blogs and not include this gem? She has a great post about video book trailers (which I love) and the ever-popular Vine. Lots and lots of technology on her blog! Definitely one of my favorites!

Have you tried tumblr yet? In my opinion it is a cross between Twitter and a blog. I'm new to it, but liking it so far. Click on the tumblr image below to go to my page and follow me.

Twitter

Todays post focuses on some of my favorite Tweets from some of the biggest names in educational technology.

Linda Braun @lbraun2000
Google and Maker have teamed up to provide a 6 week long DIY event to get kids excited about technology and science.

Keep your kids busy with science at Google and Maker’s 3rd annual online DIY Maker Camp http://t.co/E2RKMcJPNU
— Linda W Braun (@lbraun2000) July 6, 2014

Tony Vincent @tonyvincent
This has great information on a fun app called Stick Around. It has a YouTube video and lots of ideas on how to integrate this into a classroom.

I tried to give a good overview and demo of Stick Around in this video: http://t.co/4nV4mVrgtj #1to1ipadchat #slide2learn
— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) July 4, 2014

Buffy Hamilton @buffyjhamilton
 Love this list of the most unique libraries. Some are unique based on the facade and some based on their location.

America's 10 Most Unique Libraries (PHOTOS) http://t.co/Zp7HILuQCr
— Buffy Hamilton (@buffyjhamilton) July 1, 2014

The Daring Librarian @GwynethJones
This is a great website about stepping outside your comfort zone and reaching out to a stranger. "Seeing people rather than passing people." Very inspiring!

While you're at #ISTE2014 or on VaCa consider this: The Stranger Project http://t.co/6Wlzhs7JTT via http://t.co/MdhL8hpsSH
— The Daring Librarian (@GwynethJones) June 29, 2014

Jim Lerman @jimlerman
Great list of professional books to add to your reading list.

My Ideal Teacher Bookshelf ~ Teaching Channel http://t.co/biMQIvDqQY
— Jim Lerman (@jimlerman) July 5, 2014

Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock
Comprehensive list of web tools and their function. Save this link!

Updated my online tools page with lots of new things! Added links to those with Chrome apps. http://t.co/YYx35fYQdd
— Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) July 4, 2014

Libraries on Facebook

My focus with this post is using Facebook in the library.  I researched and found 3 different Facebook pages. I wanted to see what a library page could look like on the different school levels.

The first library page I selected was from Curry Elementary School.  The main content on this Facebook page is pictures. Many are funny and some have reflective sayings with them. There were a few posts about turning in the library books for the summer break. The librarian refers to the books as her babies and she is their momma. I had to scroll quite a bit to find some content other than pictures. My favorite part was when students had to decorate a pumpkin to match a character in a book they read. The pictures of the pumpkins, with accompanying book, was adorable. As a parent, or even teacher, I do not see much value to this website. It would not be one I would save and refer back to at any point. Click on the picture above to take you to this Facebook page.

My next selection came from Luna Middle School. This Facebook page had lots of YouTube links to new book trailers. I think this is a great way to introduce new books to the students. You aren't having to write a review, the publisher has created a video review. Many were very eye catching like watching a trailer for a movie. I think this has great potential for introducing books. After browsing for a while I realized the page has not been updated in a while. Most book trailers were from last summer. The last post was explaining that Edomodo would be used for the book study this summer instead of Facebook. This page has potential to be amazing if the content was updated regularly. Click on the picture above to take you to this Facebook page.

The high school Facebook page I selected was from Pasadena High School. I really enjoyed browsing this Facebook page. There was a wealth of information provided by the librarian. Several posts were dedicated to an event called Teen Book Con. There was some cute pictures with library quotes, but most content was directly related to the library. Reminders about author visits and local book fairs. The information wasn't has plentiful as I would have hoped, but what was provided was valuable. Click on the picture above to take you to this Facebook page.

I think having a Facebook page would be a valuable resource in a school library. This is a great way to reach the parents, students and teachers. I think putting all I saw on the pages above together would make a very great page. It is important to keep the page relevant and up to date. If you visit any page and it hasn't been updated for months, then you are less likely to continue visiting that page. Facebook is different than websites because you can receive the information automatically on your feed rather than voluntarily visiting the websites. The information comes to you instead of you going to search for it.

The only disadvantage I see with using Facebook is that in my district it is blocked. In order to update to a page I created I would always have to do it at home. We do lots of work at home, but having the ability to update and add information at school would be a bonus.