Blog #10 - If You Could Only Pick One

"If you could only pick one, what idea, tip, recommendation, resource, or technology will you take with you from this module and from this course into the field of librarianship?"

I was recently asked this question, and to be honest, how could I really just choose one when this semester I have been presented with many great ideas, tips, recommendations, resources, and new technology. 

However, if I really must choose one, then it would have to be:

MAKERSPACE  

I have come to this conclusion based on the information I researched on my own, reading about makerspaces from my classmates, and the first-hand experiences I have been able to have thanks to the Tinker Tub CCSD cohort I was able to join.

The Backstory

I was first introduced to makerspaces last year by my school librarian. And while I thought it was fun and engaging for my students, I didn't really see the purpose of it in the library. I felt that my students needed more instruction on books, genres, etc. Fast forward to the springtime when I was accepted into the CCSD/USC MLIS cohort. I was able to attend a CCSD Librarians workday. There I was able to speak to many librarians and ask them about makerspaces. While I gained more understanding, I still felt like, "mmm I don't think so..."  

While there are many reasons that I have now come to love the makerspace movement, these are the two main reasons I support it:

1. Versatility

Makerspaces work from the low technology spectrum to the high tech spectrum. Makerspaces have the ability to reach all students at all levels. The librarian has the ability to truly shape the program so that it will truly fit the needs and interest of their students. 

2. Engagement

I work in a school that has many challenges. At the beginning of the year, I struggled hard to find ways to have my students become engaged. Then enter Tinker Tubs (my district's rotating makerspaces).  All of the sudden my students were engaged and they wanted to learn and know more. They have particularly been interested in the Dot and Dash robots. Their excitement and enjoyment has inspired me to find more ways to bring in makerspace ideas and to create ways to tie their curriculum to makerspace activities.


Since makerspaces are still so new to me I fully intend on utilizing the resources I have gained (blogs and idea boards), but I also plan to continue to search for new inspiration through other social media platforms, connect with more librarians, and pay attention to new technology that is released that I can bring to my students. 

Blog #9 - Alive Studios

Through augmented reality, Alive Studio is making reading (and math) come to life!

You might be thinking, "What does augmented reality mean?" Well, rather than entering a computer-generated environment, as in virtual reality, augmented reality adds to the reality you would already see rather than replacing it (Emspak, 2018). Think 3D without the need of glasses. 

Cynthia B. Kaye, an elementary teacher & CEO of a company that provided educational products,  noticed that her sons were struggling with learning to read. When she was unable to find the resources needed to help them, Alive Studios was created. The program is designed for on-level PreK-Kindergarten instruction but could also be used as an intervention for students in first through third grade as well as ESL, RTI, at risk, and special needs students up to third grade.

Here are two short informational videos about Alive Studio:

 

As you can tell from these videos, the augmented reality paired with animals really created an engaging, fun, and memorable way to teach letter sounds, phonics, and reading. This product could be utilized as part of a whole group instruction to introduce new concepts. For example, in my school, the CD teachers focus on one letter per week. Using Alive Studios would be a wonderful instruction tool that would really leave a lasting impression on the students. The great thing is that this program isn't just for the classroom. Check out Gwinnett County Public Library who is the first public library to roll out Learning Alive. 

Alive Studios offers the following products: Letters Alive Plus, Math Alive, Learning Alive Plus, and Storybooks Alive.  Here is a link to their 2018 Summer/Fall Product Guide.

 

Click here for case studies and video testimonials. They have a great blog that is full of great information as well. Below is a news segment from ABC World News.

Here is a great song produced by Alive Studios to help the kids learn more about the Zoo Crew Alphabet Animals. This upbeat song allows the kids to clear their minds, have fun, sing, and dance. It could be used during a class transition, clean up time, or just when a brain break is needed.

Additional Resources:
Emspak, J. (2018, May 31). What is augmented reality? Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/34843-augmented-reality.html

Blog #8 - Code Club

Makerspace is a big movement right now in schools and school libraries. In my research on finding out more about what different librarians are added into their makerspaces, I found a blog posting from Jessica Snow on the Young Adult Library Services (YALS), a division of the American Library Association. The blog was titled “Looking to create a makerspace in your library? Here are some ideas” and listed several great suggestions for various tools, but I was mostly drawn to her suggestion of Code Club.

Code Club is a worldwide network of coding clubs for children ages 9-13 and they have a great mission statement, “We think all children should have the opportunity to learn to code, no matter who they are or where they come from”. Through the site, a librarian is able to connect with Code Club volunteers in their area to start a club at their school. Code Club provides easy to follow project directions to make games, animations, and websites. The coding projects are based on Scratch, HTML & CSS, and Python. A smart and helpful feature is that the projects gradually introduce coding concepts. This allows for the students to develop and grow their understanding of digital making, but it also means that the adult running the club doesn’t need to be a computing expert. 

We are living in an age where technology is growing at a rapid pace and for our students to be able to compete in the job market they have to have knowledge of various different digital tools, techniques, and platforms. Coding is a great place to start because it requires tools that most schools already have, computers and internet access. By learning to code students have the possibility to improve academic performances, build soft skills, and pave a path to the future. The blog post from Tynker, Ten reasons why kids should learn to code, explains this in more detail and I have to say that I fully agree with the post.

Working in the world of education, our job is to help prepare our students for the future and we cannot ignore the fact that this also includes the understanding of technology. Part of the purpose of a library is to help meet the needs of our patrons, and sometimes that means making predictions on what we think will be the most helpful. I only see benefits to teaching students coding. R. David Lankes, a professor at Syracuse University, said it best when he stated, “Librarianship is not about artifacts, it is about knowledge and facilitating knowledge creation. So what should we be spending our precious resources on? Knowledge creation tools, not the results of knowledge creation.”

Blog #7 - Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying in simplistic terms is someone who bullies others through various online forums such as, chat rooms, emails, text messages, online gaming, and Facebook and other social media platforms. Within these forums, the perpetrator, or bully, is singling out a person with less power to defend themselves and inflicts repeated aggressive behaviors in order to cause harm to the victim (Faucher, Cassidy, & Jackson, 2015).  

Top Ten Forms of Cyberbullying

In reading the article From Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace, it was shocking to read that, within the K-12 world, 36% of students reported to being victims of cyberbullying, but it was even more shocking to read that 32% admitted to cyberbullying others. 

The impacts from cyberbullying are very real and overwhelming. Depression, lack of self-esteem, anxiety, stress, suicidal ideation, and psychosomatic problems (headaches or sleep disturbances) are all possible impacts. This impacts also outreach to other areas of the victims' life, such as school, because other impacts can include school avoidance, concentration problems, and academic problems.

Librarians have a special role in doing their part to help stop cyberbullying. They can first start by bringing awareness to the issue and encourage students to talk about their experiences. Students need to clearly understand what constitutes cyberbullying and why it is wrong. Students need to know that not reporting knowing or seeing someone else being bullied is also being part of the problem. Explain to them their options if they find themselves in this position. Likewise, how to report if they themselves are the victim. Community High School District 99 has come up with a really interesting way to combat cyberbullying by establishing a program, Digital Citizenship Project, that focuses on digital citizenship rather than just cyberbullying. One aspect of the program that I found really interesting was that high school students were partnered with middle school students to act as mentors and guide the younger students on anti-bullying best practices. For more information about the project, please click here.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month - Here are some resources that might be helpful:

• StopBullying.gov
• Standing Up, Not Standing By: An Anti-Bullying Toolkit for Educators (CommenSense)
• Books about bullying (broken up by age groups)
• Bullying Statistics
• More Than Just Books: Librarians as a Source of Support for Cyberbullied Young Adults
• Shaping Digital Citizens

References:

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in K-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal of Education and Training Studies. 3(6), 111-125.

Orech, J. (2012). How it's done: Incorporating digital citizenship into your everyday curriculum. Tech & Learning, 33(1), 16-18.

Blog #6 - Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a hoot, and the kids think so too! This is the one tool that was repeatedly asked for when I was a classroom teacher. Now that I am an elementary school librarian, it is still a viable and effective tool to utilize during my library instruction.

Kahoot! is a free online program that can be used in a school or business setting or even for personal use via a computer or app. The Kahoot! platform presents learning in a game-based trivia format. There are premade games or you have the opportunity to create your own game to personalize the experience.

Signing up for Kahoot! is easy and will really add some excitement to your class. So, how exactly would you use Kahoot! in the library? One great thing about Kahoot! is they are thinking about everyone who might use their tool, even librarians! Kahoot! interview Sarah, a librarian from Massachusetts, to see how she used it in her library. In the interview, Sarah stated that she was able to find kahoots created by other librarians about a variety of topics, such as Caldecott Awards and the Dewey Decimal System. You could also use Kahoot! to review library procedures or review authors you have studied. The possibilities are really endless. Click here to be taken to a page where you can play some library specific games on your own. 

Here is a wonderful presentation created by Danielle Apfelbaum who is a librarian:

Blog #5 - Thank you Rewordify!

Have you ever read something and thought, “What did that mean?” So, maybe then you grabbed a dictionary to look up some of the unfamiliar words, only to be further confused. Now imagine being a student going through this. How many students just keep pushing through because they are too embarrassed to ask for assistance to help in understanding what they read? Maybe they have self-esteem issues or maybe they have some type of disability that makes reading and comprehending text hard. The good news is I have found something to help.

Rewordify (www.rewordify.com) is a free website that offers help to students in understanding complex passages of text. In simplistic terms, the students enter the complex passage and Rewordify will rephrase it into simpler terms. I decided to try this out for myself. I picked an excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey and was pleasantly surprised with how Rewordify interpreted the text (see image below). The default setting of Rewordify has the site highlight the words that have been modified. It was nice and helpful to be able to see the two passages above one another and to be able to refer back to the original passage.  

Rewordify proved to me that it could help older students, but what about younger students? I decided to go onto National Geographic for Kids and pull up an article. I found one on Ocras, and again I was so pleased with the results. The younger students might need more assistance using the site, but I think it could be just as helpful for elementary students as it could be for high school and college students.

To use Rewordify all that is needed is a computer and access to the internet. Once you get to the website, you are ready to begin. On the top toolbar there is an option to modify settings, seek help, as well as a demo. The demo will walk you through how to use the site. I think that this would be a great tool in any library because a library’s main goal is to get information to our patrons mostly through reading and “we” lose readers when they can’t comprehend the text. So, it doesn’t matter the reason behind the struggle of comprehension as long as we are finding ways to help.

Everyone in the classroom can use this assistive tool. Not only does it help to make the text more understandable but it also helps in the understanding and learning of new vocabulary as well as better understanding of parts of speech. Click here to read about how Eric W., a classroom teacher, uses Rewordify. This TeachersFirst review offers great ideas about how to use Rewordify in the classroom, such as having the students guess the meaning of context clues and then using Rewordify to test their guesses. iLearnTechnlogy also has some great idea. Blogger, Avi Spector, had a great viewpoint on the limitations of Rewordify when he wrote:

 

Blog #4 - Interactive Whiteboards & R.A.T. Model

An interactive whiteboard is an instructional tool that allows the user to project their computer images on to a large screen via a digital projector. It is also interactive meaning that the user can use their fingers on the screen in a similar way you would use a mouse on a laptop or desktop. On the interactive whiteboard, the user can click and drag items, notes can be written and then transformed into text and saved, and much more. To me, an interactive whiteboard is just like a really big iPad or touchscreen laptop.

Interactive whiteboards are a wonderful addition to a k-12 classroom because they allow for interactivity and collaboration. They also are a great means of integrating media content into lectures and lessons. Below I have outlined how an interactive whiteboard would benefit a classroom by utilizing the R.A.T assessment model.

Replacement: An interactive whiteboard replaces the need for large chart paper, chalkboards/whiteboards, and various projection and video playing equipment. An interactive whiteboard is an all-in-one instructional tool.

Amplification: An interactive whiteboard increases efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity because the instructor can streamline their lessons into one fluid presentation. Another benefit is that it allows the instructor to meet the needs of students through different learning styles. Tactile learners have the opportunity to touch and move things around on the board or visual learner have a clear view of what is happening due to the large size of the board and the ability to easily magnetize the screen if needed.

Transformation: An interactive whiteboard allows for lessons to become more interactive through group participation. It allows for the instructor to become more of a facilitator of learning and students become more invested in their learning because they are a part of the lessons. The instructor no longer needs to stand in the front of the room, but rather, can now stand to the side and support and guide students as they work together with the assistance of the interactive whiteboard. The utilization of an interactive whiteboard also presents information in a way that is comfortable and relatable to students of the 21^st century and thereby has the potential to have them become more engaged.

If you are interested in having an interactive whiteboard in your classroom, I suggest taking a look at these links:

https://www.eztalks.com/whiteboard/benefits-of-interactive-whiteboards-in-the-classroom.html

https://www.neamb.com/professional-resources/benefits-of-interactive-whiteboards.htm

 

References:

BBC. (n.d.). What is an interactive whiteboard? Retrieved from http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/Whatisaninteractivewhiteboard.aspx

Hughes, J. (2016). R.A.T. model. Retrieved September 30, 2018, from http://techedges.org/r-a-t-model/

Blog #3 - Animoto

Thanks to blogger Shannon McClintock Miller, a k-12 teacher librarian, I was introduced to a new and completely awesome Web 2.0 tech tool, Animoto. Animoto is a cloud-based video creation service that is utilized to produce videos from text slides, photographs, video clips, and music. Miller used Animoto as an element of her digital citizenship lessons. The students were asked to research digital citizenship and then create an Animoto video to “teach the other students in our elementary (school) and globally about staying safe online” (McClinton Miller, 2012).

While Animoto offers different services that require a yearly subscription, it was refreshing to find that they were thinking about teachers. Teachers can apply for a free Animoto account for themselves and up to 50 students. This account allows the use of personal pictures and video clips and includes access to the Animoto music library and video style templates.

As stated by Melissa P. Johnston, “the highly technological environment of 21^st century schools has significantly redefined the role of the teacher librarian” and “technology has become a vital part of the teaching and learning experience, and students have to be taught the skills they need to prepare them to meet the demands of a digital society”. Therefore the addition of this tech tool to a school library program would be extremely beneficial. The format itself is exciting and engaging for students and allows for creativity and individualization, but it also allows for higher-order thinking and collaboration. The applications of how to utilize this service in a school library setting are endless. Students can use the videos to create book reports, book trailers, demonstrate understanding of research, and so much more!  

A student made Animoto video - A book trailer for Out of This World by Amy E. Sklansky

A tutorial for teachers on how to use Animoto

References:

Animoto (2018). Video app for schools – easy video tool for educators. Retrieved from https://animoto.com/business/education

Fairfield, R. (2015, September 1). Animoto for education (tutorial for teachers) [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgqpwUvZniE

Friedland, Z. (2014, March 28). Out of this world (5^th grade book preview) [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PetLq1rYY2k

Johnston, M.P. (2012). Connecting teacher librarians for technology integration leadership. School Librarians Worldwide 18(1), 18-33.

McClintock Miller, S. (2012, October 2). Using CyberSmarts eBooks… our students created Animoto’s to teach others about staying safe online [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2012/10/using-cybersmarts-ebooksour-students.html