February 17, 2013

Beeclip EDU: scrapbooking for schools

Beeclip EDU: scrapbooking for schools

We’ve used digital scrapbooking tools for creatively exploring the lives of historical events and figures using primary sources, for creating portfolios, and for presenting research projects.
But I’ve been on the lookout for a scrapbooking tool that really works for school. The ones we’ve used the past couple of years have been a little clunky, a little [...]

In PLN news #1: Jennifer’s PLN Starter Kit

Thanks, Jennifer LaGarde, for pulling together a wonderful PLN Starter Kit. Jennifer described the need to crowdsource such a tool in yesterday’s Adventures of Library Girl post.
About a month ago I asked you to help me create a “PLN Starter Kit” – a resource for educators who are ready to [...]

In PLN news 2 . . .Mightybell TLChat

In PLN news 2 . . .Mightybell TLChat

A couple of posts ago I wrote about Mightybell as a new platform for curation and conversation.
Let’s test drive it.
I’ve set up a TLChat space.  Stop in and play.
Add your favorite resources.  Invite friends.  Post questions.  Start …

Infotention and digital citizenship

Infotention and digital citizenship

Confessions:
I used to be smarter. I used to be a better friend. I used to be able to get more done.
I think the same may be true of my students.
Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, describes the research on multitasking–it degrades [...]

A great year for #SWVBC (with Libba and Lauren!)

It’s been a great year for our Somewhat Virtual Book Club.  Actually, it seems easy to forget that it’s also been the first year for the SomeWhat Virtual Book Club.
In the fall I shared that we experimented by joining several schools around the country for monthly book discussions.  Our kids were happy to make new [...]

YALSA’s Teen Book Finder App (love it!)

Quick, before the school year ends, share this app with your teens and maybe their parents.
Quick, before the school year ends, download this app yourself.  You’re going to want to start using the genre search to support readers’ advisory tomorrow!!!
YALSA just introduced its Teen Book Finder for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad.  (An Android [...]

Honoring our filmmakers: If you give a kid a camera . . .

It’s not Hollywood, New York, or Cannes, but for a particular group of students, this red carpet will be unforgettable.
This time of year we traditionally award students who over the year score the highest on their exams, attend class every day, participate the most in school activities, achieve [...]

Be the Change @ TL Virtual Café tomorrow night

It’s been a great year for the TL Café!  Visit our archive to relive the memories or catch up on the active.  But make sure you join us tomorrow night at 8 PM Eastern for the last Café of the school year.
Inspired by the forward-thinking Minnesota MEMO colleagues, it’s going to be pretty fabulous and [...]

New info-infographics from EasyBib & Turnitin

Over the past couple of weeks, two companies released informative information literacy infographics.
1. EasyBib shared You are What You Write which revealed:

Students don’t always outline, they like citation management tools, and they tend to procrastinate when writing research projects.
Plagiarism is on the rise, according to an iParadigms/Turnitin study.
Of the ten most popular websites for student [...]

Aren’t we already the “digital literacy corps”?

I asked Fran Bullington, fabulous blogger and media specialist from South Carolina, if she’d allow me to share the post she wrote yesterday in response to Matt Ricthel’s New York Times piece, Wasting Time is New Divide in Digital Era.
The article pointed to studies pointing to a new divide–that children of poverty spend more time [...]

Join the June 7th #summerreading tweetfest!

New York Times Learning Network editor/blogger, Katherine Schulten, wrote asking me to share news of what promises to be a big day in the bibliotwittersphere.
Mark your calendars. Spread the word. Tell your colleagues.  Tell the kiddos.
Let’s make this a huge international conversation. Let’s create the kind of  feed that even the most Twitter-resistant reader will [...]

About The Watermelon: Can a YA novel change the world?

My old college buddy (SUNY Binghamton ‘75), author Michael Laser recently shared his latest young adult novel with me.
We chatted a bit about the world of YA literature and about what inspires him to write. He shared with me that his latest book was differently motivated. The Watermelon is a loss of innocence story in [...]

Unglue.it: crowdfunding ebooks

unglue (v. t.) 2. To make a digital book free to read and use, worldwide.

unglue (v. t.) 4. For an author or publisher, to accept a fixed amount of money from the public for its unlimited use of an ebook.

The crowdfunding of books is a new type of cause and it may allow us [...]

A letter to my seniors (updated)

A recent conversation on ALA’s  INFOLIT list–By graduation, what should K-12 students know about web search?–inspired me to update a post I did a few years back for eVOYA.  I’ll share this letter with my seniors in the next couple of weeks.
Congratulations, Dear Senior Class,
Secretly, I wish I could go along with you to Penn [...]

Google’s new Knowledge Graph

Look for Google’s Knowledge Graph to roll out across all your (US English-speaking) searches –desktop, mobile, and tablet– in the coming days.
A couple of days ago, Google Blog announced the new Knowledge Graph feature.  It just appeared in my search this morning and it just may be a search game changer.  The Google engineers share [...]