Technology! What a Difference it Can Make in K-3rd

Conference presentation K-3rd from StrawberryIce


 My slideshow Powerpoint Presentation on how technology can really make a different in the lower elementary classrooms K-3rd. These 4 tools makes visual and auditory learners become more involved within the classroom.

AASL 2013 Best! 3 of my Favorite

LitPick
http://litpick.com/

Great website for 4th - 12th grade students. This student friendly website is a worldwide network of preteen and teen book reviewers offering book reviews written by young adults on young adult books. To sign up each student is required to have an adult sponsor, whether is be teacher, parent, or librarian. When students sign up they receive an E-Book to read and they have 4 to 6 weeks to do so. Then they are able to submit a review of the book.The site even stresses that you don't have to be the "perfect" reader to join in. You can even sign up students in a group under a certain teacher or librarian's name. This could be used in a 6th grade library class. Students could read a book of their choice and then submit a review and then discuss each student's book and review in a library class or book talk. Loved this site!



Wonderopolis
http://wonderopolis.org/ 


Who can resist titled Wonderopolis? I couldn't, the site reminds me of one of my favorite movies "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory."  You can follow this site on just about every social networking site, from Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube. They even have a widgit! A very colorful and fun website. Wonderopolis offers a question of the day, word of the day, and what are you wondering questions. Teachers can customize a lesson around the "Daily Wonder." Also it allows collaboration in reading/writing based on the Core Standards using related images and videos. This would be a fun way for a 3rd grade classroom to research and explore their "own" wonder and then present a essay or a Science project.


 easelly beta 
http://www.easel.ly/

This website offers students to make, post, share, and create infographics. You can add favorite infographics, friends, or like an infographic. This would be a great for the upper elementary, middle, or high school students. They could create an infographic based on a review of an SOL or even with certain vocabulary. This is a way to take the next level with creativity and make classroom discussions more entertaining. 

Infographic of Infographics - My Fav!

QR codes and Augmented Reality Makes Learning "Not Boring"

I downloaded i-nigma onto my smart phone and had the best time running around my house looking for QR codes. They definitely have a impact on learning and the imagination. I found i-nigma easy to use and very user friendly. I found a website using google search and made my very on QR code using www.waspbarcode.com, this QR code sends you directly to a youtube video on a book review of  the Hunger Games. A student could easily be able to use there on device whether it be a smartphone or Ipad to  go up to a book with a QR code on the cover and scan for a quick book review of a certain title.

I also made a QR code using QR Voice. This was extremely simple and fun. Both ways of making QR codes were simple and easy to follow directions.

Although upon reading about QR codes and Augmented Reality, it is talked about Augmented Reality will be far exceed QR codes. So if you are going to start using QR codes you better do is soon because the way it sounds they will eventually become obsolete!

Websites, Wikis, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter....

New Providence Elementary Library Facebook

I visited New Providence Elementary School's library Facebook. I found this quite interesting. Not only does it give you up-to-date information right at the moment the librarian also recommended websites, books, and magazines to sign up for or read. I truly enjoyed looking at this Facebook Page. I find this a great way to keep students and parents updated on information quickly and effectively. Facebook is updated in real-time so the effectiveness is there. Also, the realm of possibilities with Facebook is out of this world. You could use video and audio to keep parents in the know. Maybe a parent could not be at school for some reason and needs the information they will be able to go straight to the Facebook page in get information. One could use YouTube to post a video on anything from how to research a topic to a summary of a book. Just about every student/parent has a Facebook so reaching the students would be much easier to do rather than the "paper home from school" method.

I noticed on this particular website that she listed all the bookfairs and dates, pictures of students reading inside a "reading fort," and how to sign up for a free Lego Magazine (which I found fun and registered myself)  http://club.lego.com/en-us/join/    I could also tell that the librarian is probably the one to update and put information on this Facebook page. You could also tell by viewing student pictures and books that this is differently a elementary school library. We might as well face it Facebook is here to stay!

Creekview High School Library

Creekview's Facebook had its own unique name "The Unquiet Library." I'm thinking its call this for all the collaboration going on with students, teachers, and librarian within. You could definitely tell this was more on a high school level Facebook/Library. There were lots of photos/images on this page ranging from students doing research on speed dating interviews censorship research to knitting and crocheting. This page used flickr to upload images and then put them on their Facebook page as a link. Again this is a great way to reach students especially high school students because they are the ones on Facebook the most! 

CMS Library Homepage

I was quite impressed with this library page. Although it was a very busy page and not as user friendly as I thought the Facebook library pages were, it has a lot of data and other library/school information. It listed the library's mission statement and beliefs that were effectively aligned with AASL  guidelines. The paged listed the library's Twitter feed along side of the page. Twitter is just as popular as Facebook to teenagers and parents. You still have that worry about putting information the internet but if you are smart in the use of technology this can be avoided. With using Twitter the librarian could have a question and answer session. This would be great when asking questions about research projects or even a book talk. Also with using Twitter you can set up tweets for future dates like if you were having a book fair you could put the dates into Twitter and then it will post on the date you want it to.There were also links on the left hand side ranging from school projects, teacher resources, and even mobile apps.You could definitely see that the librarian and teachers collaborate effectively to update and give information to this page. 

As I think about myself becoming a librarian and being very familiar with Facebook I could see myself doing a library Facebook page. With technology these days the possibilities are endless!

My Voki Audio

My Example of Voki Audio

I had lots of fun viewing the audio websites. Voki I found was my favorite. I'm such an animated person that I enjoyed playing with all the little avatars you can choose from. You can add voice by typing what you want your avatar to say and then picking a voice already uploaded on the Voki website. You can also telephone in to the website and put your own voice with the avatar. And of course you can use a speaker that you have on your computer. The use of the avatars on Voki is endless. You can change eye color, size, and background color to your Voki. Students of all ages would get a kid out of using Voki, teachers too! This is the free version to Voki but there is also Voki for classrooms that does cost a fee of either $29.95 for year or $44.95 for two years. Voki for classrooms does say that the teacher can manage student's work and create classroom accounts. This would be better for middle or high school students.

I also tried out AudioPal, which I liked also. It is a basic audio player (looks like a small car radio) where you can add free internet audio mp3 to a blog or personal website. This audio player you can text, phone, or use a microphone to record your voice. I didn't like this one as well as Voki because I liked the "cuteness" of Voki and the avatar characters.

Qwips was another audio website I checked out. It was a lot like AudioPal in recording your voice but you can also add auto to your photos that you already have uploaded on your computer. Qwips encouraged teachers to use it in their classrooms as well (again with older students) for maybe a 30 second quiz. 30 seconds is all you were able to record on Qwips.

Our Tiny Topic Video

What is Goodreads?

View Mine and Megan's video below:

Our Goodreads Video

 

 

Alternate Assignment Article EBooks

I apologize for my absences on campus this week. My mother had major surgery and I needed to be there for her. Surgery went very well and she is doing much better as of today. I love ODU and I'm so sorry for not being able to attend the meetings. 

Here is my summary of the E-books article:

Summary of Ebook Business Models

By Mirela Roncevic 

     This Ebook article basically discussed the Ebook availability within the library environment. It states that to keep up with the current times, technology, and cost, Ebook might be the logical way to go. The article also discusses different formats of Ebooks and their costs; such as the Patron-driven acquisition (PDA) format which is the most talked about version and is just beginning to be used by certain academic libraries. The cost of the PDA version would be limited to the information that patrons uses and need. This would mean the content that gets used, gets purchased saving on wasted money on content/information not needed by the patrons. The other version discussed is the short-term loans (STL). STL is a version that allows libraries a good solution to obtain access to content they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. The STLs are similar to the PDAs models in that the patron;s demands ultimately drive how the library spends its budget. The main different is the ST:Ls are rental agreements not contracts for ongoing access, unlike PDAs which need a contract for a certain period. STLs could save money on an academic library's budget by short term rentals.  There are many factors that are to be considered when purchasing ebooks within the library, the main focus would be to discuss the vendors terms and agreements that would be upheld if the library decides to purchase from the vendor.


Roncevic, M. (2013, June). Ebook Business Models the complete array of factors.
     Dispatches from the Field, Technology, 23. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org

All About Digital Story-Telling

Domo Animate -

Story Telling with Domo Animate

If you click above you will see I used Domo Animate for my first Digital Story-Telling experience. I really enjoyed making this little Christmas story. I love that you can make a short animated story or a longer version. I am thinking that elementary students would enjoy using this digital story making website. For the younger students the teacher can make up a story and then as the students are watching the digital story, the teacher can stop the video and use inferencing tactics or even main idea. She/he as the teacher could also make up comprehension questions to go along with the story.  The only problem you might have with using Domo Animate is if the school has decided to block the site and therefore you can ask for special permission to use the site.

Pic Lit -

I also tried out Pic Lits which reminded me a lot of the word clouds tagxedo and wordle. Pic Lits uses background pictures and allows you to add words they already have available or "Freestyle" which allows you to enter specific words you would like to use. You can actually use this in any level in education. This would especially be great for Science SOLs and Social Studies. You can use the vocabulary words as a word hunt or like in mine I used it as the parts of a flower and my background picture is a flower. I entered  flower words such as seed, bud, flower, or petal. You can also use this on a Smartboard using English vocabulary by identifying the antonym, synonym, or homophone of specific words. Great for 2nd graders!
View the one I made below:

My Pic Lit

Yodio -

Another tool I examined was Yodio. This was so cool. I viewed several Yodio picture/audio other members had made. The ones I viewed was a family photo album, attack on Pearl Harbor, and many how to videos. I think this would be an excellent resource for high school students. The one video I watched on Pearl Harbor was made by a high school student and that was his oral report on facts/pictures on the attach of Pearl Harbor. You add your own voice either by computer or by calling a specific 1-800 (toll free) telephone number. What I liked about it was it was all free and you can sign up for an account and make as many Yodios as you would like.

My FIRST Infographic!

I enjoyed making this infographic. I automatically decided to do it on a book based on a 2nd grade SOL. Using Piktochart was fun but also challenging.  Using the template was hard to manage, especially when putting in graphics and text. If I wasn't doing a book and using more charts and graphs this would have been easier to use. But overall this was an interesting experience doing my first infographic. I'm looking forward to doing more.

My Introduction

Ellen Forsyth. (09, Sept.3). "Library." Retrieved from:http://www.flickr.com/photos/30668772@N02/3910635234 May 25.

**Click on Read More at the bottom of this page to view more of my blog and LIBS assignments.

Hello My name is Leigh Isley! I live in the most southern part of Virginia. We are about 30 minutes from the North Carolina border. I live in a very rural community with my husband and my little Yorkie "Chester."  I am currently a 2nd grade teacher but was recently told I would be moving down a couple of grades to Kindergarten. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it, but sometimes change is necessary. I am excited to work with the little ones and hopefully I can get a better feel on how the younger generation thinks about the library and librarian. I can't wait to finally finish my Master's Degree with ODU and hopefully get to move into my own library one day!  

Oh I forgot to add that I'm a HUGE Mickey Mouse fan :)

I liked using Tagxedo better than Wordle. I found Tagexdo more user friendly than Wordle. Tagexdo.com all you have to do is just click on Create at the top and then load on the left hand side. Clicking on load allows you to key in any words that characterize you. There are many different shapes to pick from also. I chose a cat to show my animal lover side. Tagexdo would also be great using student vocabulary words or keywords from a certain story or book.