Illustration by Regan Dunnick

In his video “Tumblr: The Musical,” Youtube celebrity Hank Green mocks how Tumblr aficionados get lost in a loop of scrolling, liking, and reblogging to the point of neglecting everything else in their lives, including sleep. The addictive Tumblr scroll has indeed become the preferred Internet rabbit hole, as Green, brother of the author John Green, hilariously shows.

Should libraries and librarians use Tumblr? Is it wise to wade into this alluring sea of wacky photos, pop-culture commentary, and gifs—snippets of moving images—in order to virtually chat about best book lists, library events, title recommendations, and our favorite quotes?

Yes, and here’s why. The key to a useful social network is to strategically use communication tools, understand each network’s reach, and guarantee ease of use for all involved. Tumblr can be a successful way to connect to new and diverse audiences, provided you understand who you’ll be attracting to your site and how to use Tumblr to your advantage.

Why Tumblr works

In my job as a teen librarian, I’ve been running social networks since 2006. As anyone using social media knows, it’s vital to meet your patrons where they are, rather than try to get them to visit a new, unknown site. My colleagues in the reference section maintain lively accounts representing the library as a whole on both Facebook and Twitter. But the Twitter account I maintained for my teens fell dormant, since none of them seemed to be using that platform. So I decided to concentrate my efforts on where I thought my teens were: Facebook.

In the past year, though, it became clear that my teens were no longer on Facebook—or if they were, they weren’t using it to connect with the library. During that time, I searched for ways to invigorate the teen section of our library’s website—to post more content daily and engage more readers. I sought a streamlined, visually exciting site. But the traditional blogging options were hampered by clunky interfaces and an outdated look; I knew that the posts weren’t reaching many patrons, let alone teens.

Enter Tumblr. I had been using a personal Tumblr account for a few months and found its mix of art, photos, gifs, quotes, and videos to be far more engaging than my library’s traditional text-dominated website. Hank Green was on to something.

Tumblr’s interface is easy to use, and each post looks professional the instant it uploads. There’s no need to know code, wrangle with images, or get complicated with fonts. The site can easily take the place of a traditional website or blog.

Depending on the theme you choose for your Tumblr, you can include static information—like phone numbers or hours of operation—in a sidebar, while keeping the main part of your page fresh and visually exciting with an ever-changing stream of posts. Updating is incredibly easy, and you can save drafts and schedule posts to appear at future dates and times—useful for event reminders and time-sensitive content.

As with Twitter, your goals while using Tumblr are to engage with your public and gather followers. The more you post, the more users will find you through your content, especially by searching your tags. As on Facebook, people can “like” your posts. They can also reblog them on their own Tumblrs—similar to retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook. Liking and reblogging are how your Tumblr audience shows its appreciation and where they may add their own notes. While the flow of information is mostly one-way, you can track your followers as well as the number of times an individual post has been liked and reblogged to gauge your impact.

Most important for youth librarians, though, is that young people are active on Tumblr. When I checked with my teens, many said they were Tumblr users and were excited by the idea of connecting to the library this way. That’s why I made the leap to Tumblr for our teen site.

Eight tips for successful tumbling

If you’re considering starting a Tumblr, either as a supplement to your established Web presence or as a replacement for a blog, it’s important to think through your needs and those of your patrons before making the switch. Below, some pointers.

1. Think visually. The most popular Tumblr posts tend to be images, photos, or gifs. In the past, there was no easy way to quote a TV show, film, or video game without posting a video. But with Tumblr’s magic combination of gifs and blogging, media quotes are now everywhere. Take advantage of this. If you’re recommending books, don’t just post a list: Include images of all of the covers. Promoting an event? “Tumbl” your poster and a selection of photos.

2. Tag your posts. Tagging is incredibly important on Tumblr because searching tags is how users discover content and people to follow. Remember, though, that only the first five tags on any post are searchable, so choose your tags wisely. After those five, people use tags to add commentary to their posts in the same way that savvy Twitter users deploy hashtags as asides or jokes. So these additional tags can be humorous reading.

3. Be professional but playful. Be mindful of what you post. It should be in keeping with what you would highlight on any part of your library website. At the same time, be aware that your Tumblr should be fun to follow. Share favorite quotes; topical, pop culture images; and favorite artists.

4. And…be mindful of mature language. One of the truths of Tumblr is that there is no oversight regarding mature content or language. When you first sign up, your Tumblr will be automatically set in safe mode, meaning that you will not see any content deemed “not safe for work” (NSFW) on your dashboard. The Tumblr community counts on users to flag their own blogs and posts as NSFW in order to keep safe mode working properly. There’s definitely 18+ material out there, and you won’t necessarily be forewarned by tagging or a user’s customary posting habits. Many Tumblr names are variations on the appreciative phrase f**kyeah___ (example: “f**kyeahbooks”). While you may be inclined to like or reblog those items, you should consider the profanity in the source site before doing so.

5. Schedule your posts. It’s especially enjoyable to schedule themed posts, perhaps once a week, that highlight a particular topic or service. For example, the New York Public Library celebrates “Caturday” every week on their Tumblr by posting cat-related images and items from their collections. School Library Journal runs a regular feature, “Where I Work?” with photos, sharing a glimpse or two of authors’ writing spaces. Who doesn’t want to see where their favorite novels are created?

6. Check your sources. A lot of unsourced images gets passed around Tumblr, especially when it comes to art and photography. If you’re not certain of a work’s provenance, use Google’s image source search by clicking on the camera icon that allows you to search via an image URL and see if you can locate the source reliably. Artists and image makers will thank you, and you’ll set a strong example of giving creators credit for their work.

7. Remember, it’s (basically) one-way. Tumblr is not the place to gather comments, start discussions, or debate favorite books. People can send in questions, or “asks,” through the Tumblr interface. You can also pose a question and invite your followers to answer it. That’s about it for the platform’s capacity for discussion.

Tumblr is built to be used through its dashboard, the main control panel where you scroll through posts and investigate whatever keyword searches you like. On your dashboard, there’s no easy way to comment. You can reblog a post and add a comment, but replying gets increasingly cumbersome. Unless Tumblr revamps its question system, at this point you’ll be announcing or sharing information, but only occasionally responding to a question.

8. Make it easy and fun to maintain. Check in daily and take advantage of Tumblr’s tools. Use the J, K, and L keys to navigate your dashboard quickly. Hitting the L key “likes” a post, and typing shift+R (on a PC) reblogs that post instantly. Remember the current limits: You can send 10 “asks” an hour and “friend” up to 250 people per day. For more Tumblr tricks and tips, check out this helpful list over at the Daily Dot: http://ow.ly/nVTvc.

Checking in on my Tumblr account has become the most relaxing and enjoyable part of my daily routine, keeping me abreast of new books, targeted book lists, library news, and the grand world of art and images from various media. One of my teens recently proclaimed how much she enjoyed my Tumblr—a gratifying signal that I’m heading in the right direction. As long as that enjoyment continues, and my own messages are getting out, I’ll keep on tumbling.

A few of my favorite Tumblrs:

General Tumblrs 

Book Riot
LIFE
National Public Radio
The New York Times’s The Lively Morgue 
PBS’s This Day in History
WYNC’s Radiolab

Library Tumblrs

Public Library of Brookline (MA) Teen Services (my Tumblr)
Cape May County (NJ) Library Teen Zone
Grand Rapids (MI) Public Library Tumblr for Teens
Library Advocates
Library Journal
The Lifeguard Librarian
Librarian Wardrobe
New York Public Library
School Library Journal
Teenlandia: Lewis & Clark (Helena, MT) Library Teen Services Department

Tumblarians list from

The Lifeguard Librarian
Young Adults and Teens at Oak Lawn (IL) Public Library

Teen Lit Tumblrs

Public Library of Brookline teen title recommendations (mine again)
Diversity in YA
The YA Cover
YA! Flash
YA Highway

Teen Authors who Tumble

Cassandra Clare
John Green
Shannon Hale
Karen Healey
Malinda Lo
Maureen Johnson
Rainbow Rowell

Robin Brenner is the reference and teen librarian at the Public Library of Brookline (MA). She is also the editor-in-chief of the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights and know all too well the allure of the late-night Tumblr scroll.

Ebook providers offer different selections of titles with varying terms. Which ones will best meet your school’s needs and budget? School Library Journal’s snapshot of 19 ebook vendors outlines the suppliers’ range of offerings, terms of use, and pricing options.

Do you want to buy your ebooks outright, or lease them? What kinds of discounts are available? Can students download e-content onto their personal devices or read offline?

This guide is intended to help librarians choose the vendors that are right for their schools. [This guide was updated on September 6 to correct an error in the entry for Rosen Publishing, and again on September 9 to add an entry from EBSCO.]

]]> http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/09/ebooks/e-its-complicated-how-two-schools-are-riding-the-transition-to-ebooks/feed/ 0 http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/08/k-12/life-with-raspberry-pi-this-slim-25-computer-is-hot-and-showing-no-signs-of-cooling-off-it-may-just-spark-a-coding-revolution-in-schools/ http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/08/k-12/life-with-raspberry-pi-this-slim-25-computer-is-hot-and-showing-no-signs-of-cooling-off-it-may-just-spark-a-coding-revolution-in-schools/#comments Mon, 19 Aug 2013 19:24:06 +0000 The Digital Shift http://www.thedigitalshift.com/?p=17448

Illustration by Harry Campbell

By Chad Sansing

Our classroom glows with activity. One kid drafts a how-to article in which he explains the steps involved in wiring a cardboard Minecraft controller. Another writes a branching-path, choose-your-own-adventure story in Twine, a free, downloadable interactive fiction app. A student who’s claimed throughout his middle-school career that he isn’t a writer leans close to his laptop screen, finding and fixing coding errors. He composes, compiles, and debugs more than 100 lines of code to light up a three-by-three-light LED display plugged into his laptop.

A pair of especially curious students sits huddled around our newest computer, an exposed-faced circuit board smaller than a paperback book. It’s called a Raspberry Pi. They’re watching how the code they write in one window changes the course of a game in another. They may not know it yet, but these kids are playing with an open-source computing platform that just might change the way we teach young people how to interact with computers.

What is Raspberry Pi, and how do I get started?

It’s a $25 computer that fits in the palm of your hand. While you supply the mouse, monitor, and keyboard connection, your “RPi” supplies the rest. It comes with a Linux-based operating system (an open-source alternative to Windows and Mac OSX) called Raspbian. The operating system is on a Micro SD card.

With its astounding price and flexible capabilities, the Raspberry Pi has the potential to challenge the digital divide and make coding in schools as commonplace as textbooks. Computing could truly become about what kids can make rather than what schools can buy. And making coding affordable for all students could foster creative, independent computing in a way that downloading the latest app does not.

The RPi was developed at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory under the leadership of Eben Upton, trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Concerned about the lack of programming in schools and the reluctance of parents to let kids hack expensive computers at home, the Foundation members set out to put the Raspberry Pi into kids’ hands so they could experiment with code and physical computing in a simple, cheap way. After alpha and beta phases in 2011, the Raspberry Pi went on sale in 2012, selling more than 500,000 devices by September of that year.

To get the little device up and going, a new user can either download Raspbian on a Micro SD card to boot the RPi or purchase a card preinstalled. A good way to start is with a card already loaded with Scratch (a popular plug-n-play visual programming language developed for kids at MIT) and IDLE (which allows for the use of Python, another programming language).

Scratch, used widely in schools and clubs, lets kids program animations and games through a visual interface. IDLE helps kids author text-based code to control circuits or actions on screens. It’s amazing to insert these tools into the RPi and watch a computer come to life from a tiny hard drive the size of a fingernail.

What if I don’t understand coding technology?

Don’t worry. There are many ways to get up to speed on the RPi. Among a host of online resources (see sidebar below), David S. Whale’s visual guide to starting a club helps educators and technical support staff get the RPi ready for classroom use. Fortunately for librarians, Whale, a school science ambassador in the UK, and other early RPi adopters have shared many strategies for purchasing, configuring, and using these diminutive computers with kids.

In addition to searching for online help, consider asking your IT person—or better, some tinkering-inclined students—to walk you through RPi, as my colleague Melissa Techman, a K–5 librarian in Albemarle County, Virginia, did, with great results.

Techman asked some sixth- and eighth- grade students at a local student-led professional development session to teach her how to use the RPi. “I was hiding a fear of anything electrical, but I wanted to get past that,” Techman says. She was motivated in part because she wanted to work with Teen Tech Girls, a local organization dedicated to helping girls find pathways to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers and projects.

“My student mentors patiently showed how the connections worked and got me started reading circuit schematics,” says Techman. They showed her how to write simple code in Arduino, an open-source software for physical computing, in order to make lights blink in a pattern.

Within a week of that first learning session, Techman started Scratch and Minecraft lunch groups at her school. Another great outcome: The tutorial “gave me the confidence to learn alongside my own inventive young students and to try new things with several programs,” she says.

For novices like Techman, learning to program with Scratch on a computer you assemble yourself is one of those experiences that shows how fulfilling it is to become a coder and maker. Once we know that feeling, it becomes a happy task to imagine how reading, writing, and math relate to planning physical computing projects and composing code.

Techman also came away from her student session inspired with ideas for physical computing and writing projects to use with upper elementary grades. In addition to starting multiage Scratch, Minecraft, and physical computing mentoring groups in her school, she plans to partner with a local high school to find mentors for her young students. The high schoolers could help the younger kids write their own Web pages using Mozilla Webmaker’s Thimble platform, among other exercises.

Photograph courtesy of Raspberry Pi Foundation

What kind of physical computing can I do with the Raspberry Pi?

Using the RPi, kids can connect Scratch with Microsoft Kinect to write programs controlled by a player’s body. Or they can plug an Arduino circuit board into a laptop to light up or move attached objects by writing small “sketches”—short programs—of code.

Working with Python and IDLE to run a circuit or to modify a game like Minecraft makes it clear to kids how computers control the devices around us. Programming a blinking LED light or a Minecraft building helps them see how what we do with code translates into what happens virtually, on screen, as well as in the physical world of electricity.

They can use a MaKey MaKey board—a small, cheap ($50) circuit board built on the Arduino platform—to wire up anything from bananas to books. MaKey MaKey boards act as bridges between computers and other objects that can “talk” to Scratch like hand-held video game controllers. Anything conductive can become a part of a kid’s controller with MaKey MaKey. For example, in one well-known MaKey MaKey project, bananas can and do act as keys of an on-screen piano (demonstration). A wire from the MaKey MaKey connects to each banana. Another wire—the “earth contact”—goes from the board to the user. When the user touches the banana, the board registers the completed circuit and tells the computer to play a note.

Another idea: Make a digital book project with MaKey MaKey. It’s possible for a kid to animate a story in Scratch and then to “turn” its pages using a MaKey MaKey connected to her computer and a physical book decorated with conductive material like graphite or tin foil. The author can wire a decorated page of her book to a MaKey MaKey, hold the earth contact, and then tap her book to complete a circuit. The MaKey MaKey then tells the computer to advance her story on-screen.

Another very useful Raspberry Pi extension for physical computing, called Cobbler, connects the computer to a breadboard (a kind of pegboard for circuits) so users can write short programs that control physical parts like lights, motors, sensors.

Arduino is another great open-source software for physical computing. The Arduino sketch pad, a free download, provides embedded help as the learner writes programming commands.

Photograph by flickr.com/skokiepl

What else can kids make with Raspberry Pi?

Brad Jones, a youth technology librarian for the Skokie (IL) Public Library, runs a “Codebots” club for elementary school students, with the help of two staffers. Recently, kids in the club used Raspberry Pi computers to run Scratch and write programs for LEGO WeDo kits, another example of physical computing for kids.

“Try! Fail! Fix!” the kids were chanting. I was impressed by how patient these LEGO natives were. Things would break, and they’d shrug. “That’s OK. That’s how it goes with LEGOs,” says Jones.

Projects like this serve as ready pathways to increasingly sophisticated endeavors using the same open technology—like the recently Kickstarted “Brick Pi” project that uses Raspberry Pis to run robots built from Lego Mindstorm/NXT kits.

In my own middle school classroom, one eighth grader has learned how to run Minecraft: Pi Edition. He’s started using IDLE and programming tutorials to change the way he plays the game. For example, he created a never-ending bridge right under his avatar’s feet. A stone appears in front of his character wherever he walks so that he can never fall into water or lava—or fall from a great height while exploring the sky. By altering the materials that make up his “bridge,” my student can actually leave multihued trails that make his avatar into a kind of paintbrush walking the land. When feeling silly, we also make the LEDs on the breadboard blink as we play.

As the student puts it, “You can customize the technology to do whatever you want. You feel like you’ve accomplished something that’s actually useful and really cool.”

The bigger picture

Using tools like the RPi to bring the Maker movement into libraries and schools is a powerful way to combat academic passivity. Kim Wilkens, the founder of Teen Tech Girls, sees other benefits from learning to code and physical computing.

“Being able to code opens new avenues to create and explore,” says Wilkens. It “helps everyone build an understanding of the role of hardware and software in the technology we use and take for granted every day.”

Wilkens has found that by late elementary school, many girls lose sight of imagining themselves in computer or engineering careers. For such girls, engaging in coding, making, and physical computing with women mentors in formal and informal learning spaces helps them see that technology overlaps many fields. It’s not just for those who study “serious math” in high school or college.

Several major organizations allied with kids and educators, such as the MacArthur-supported Digital Media & Learning Hub, the Mozilla Foundation (webmaker.org /en-US), and the National Writing Project, are investing heavily in connected learning around code, making, and physical computing. This kind of support should encourage us to set our young male and female students loose on code. Where there is room for code—which encompasses art, creation, and inquiry—there is room for curiosity and empowerment. With a tool like Raspberry Pi, it takes just a small investment and a willingness to learn for us all to code, make, and connect with other people who are doing the same.

Photograph by flickr.com/skokiepl

1. Visit a site like Adafruit to find a starter kit that’s right for you. I suggest a kit that has all the cords you’ll need, a Cobbler extension kit, and a Micro SD card preinstalled with the Raspbian Wheezy operating system.

2. Gather old and unsupported mice, keyboards, and monitors from around your school, library, or community.

3. Once your kit arrives, assemble your Raspberry Pi! Check online tutorials for any help you need.

4. Follow the on-screen start-up prompts to get everything running.

5. Pick a project—for starters, try to make a single LED blink using your RPi. Document your progress and publish it online for others to see.

6. Keep your RPi and LED on display and invite kids and community members to change little bits of the code—like how long the light stays on—to dip their feet into physical computing. As interest grows, invite kids to create a club with you.

7. Keep documenting what folks make with the RPi and curate a display of their work in your learning space. You can encourage kids to do the same and publish their learning.

8. Pick a next step: Start learning how to install and program software like Minecraft: Pi Edition on your RPi or perhaps set up another computer or two around the first.

Raspberry Pi Quick Start guide

Raspberry Pi project ideas from MAKE magazine

An Adafruit Raspberry Pi starter kit for purchase

Great Raspberry Pi Projects Created by Kids Winners at the Cambridge Computing Centre 

Minecraft Pi Edition

David S. Whale (@whaleygeek) on setting up a Raspberry Pi club

An 11 year old’s blog on Raspberry Pi Projects

Chad Sansing (csansing@gmail.com) teaches middle school language arts in Staunton, VA. He works with the National Writing Project and Mozilla’s Webmaker project to champion kids’ connected learning.

“The inclusion of HBG’s titles adds a significant boost to the quality and quantity of titles MackinVIA serves,” says Randal Heise, Mackin’s president and co-owner. “With more and more publishers of HBG’s caliber coming on board, we have become the clear choice in a school’s decision on where they acquire their digital and printed content.”

Mackin’s proprietary digital resource management system, MackinVIA, aims to provide students and educators with simple and convenient access to the entire collection of eBooks, databases, audio books and video content a school has acquired.

All of the eBooks and digital content within the MackinVIA platform can be accessed through a variety of exclusive apps made for all devices including the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android phones and tablets, Nook, Kindle, and Mac and PC desktop computers.

Teachers love ClassDojo, according to SLJ Cool Tools columnist Richard Byrne, who’s says the tool enables educators to easily track class attendance, take notes on student behavior, and offer real-time positive reinforcement for good behavior in the classroom.

The update reflects educators’ response to the app, its developers say. Many teachers know students individually, and “Class Sharing” now allows them to pool observations, offer consistent feedback across classrooms, and support students together.

ClassDojo provides students with “visual and audio feedback triggered using a smartphone, tablet, or computer,” the developers note. “It engages parents and students to effect changes in behavior outside of the classroom as well.”

The updated Dojo has two settings, “full access” and “read only.” With “full access,” different teachers can work together on their feedback to students. Teachers can use “read only” to share behavioral progress in their class with administrators and other teachers.

“Real-time reinforcement of positive behavior, especially when provided consistently by all the people who care about a student, influences future behavior and makes a lasting impact on a child’s development,” adds Sam Chaudhary, co-founder of ClassDojo and a former teacher.

The company is offering a limited number of updated ClassDojo ’early access’  slots to teachers.

“The Teen Book Finder is a great resource for library workers, educators, parents, and teens to utilize to find award-winning books and recommended reading,” says Shannon Peterson, YALSA president. “We’re really happy it has received such a great response since our members work so hard and enthusiastically to identify the best in young adult literature.”

The app, available as a free download through iTunes, is currently compatible on the iPhone, iPod, or iPad, with an Android version in the works for 2014, according to YALSA, the young adult division of the American Library Association. It has already been downloaded approximately 6,000 times in 2013. The organization plans to update the app again in January, 2014, following ALA’s Midwinter Meeting and Youth Media Awards.

The Teen Book Finder enables users to search for books by title, author, award or list, award or list year, or genre, and its “Find It!” button, powered by the OCLC WorldCat Search API, shows users where to locate a book in a nearby library. Each day, “Three Hot Picks” are featured from the database. The “Favorites” button allows users to create individualized reading lists; users are also able to share titles found via Twitter and Facebook.

The development and launch of YALSA’s Teen Book Finder was made possible through a grant funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

Longtime SLJ reviewer and contributor John Peters co-chaired the 2013 GWS committee. Peters shares, “The committee sifted through dozens and dozens of recommended sites, looking for that elusive combination of reliable content and inspired presentation that Great Web Sites for Children have to display. We have some real ‘finds’ here, and I think that children (and their teachers and parents) who spend even a few minutes exploring them will be surprised and delighted.”

Co-chair Kimberly Probert Grad, library information supervisor at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library adds, “The newest additions to Great Web Sites for Kids feature a blend of fact and fun, including sites offering solid homework resources, current news for tweens in Spanish or English, STEM activities, engineering for girls, and the delightfully zany Captain Underpants. Two additional sites offer resources on Common Core Standards and Learning Disabilities.”

Newly evaluated and accepted sites are added by the committee three times a year. It also reviews all sites twice a year to guarantee that they are still relevant, appropriate, and accessible.

The newly added sites are:

B.J. Pinchbeck’s Homework Helper
Common Core – State Standards Initiative
Dav Pilkey’s Extra Crunchy Website-O-Fun
Engineer Girl
Howtosmile.org
National Center for Learning Disabilities
Start with a Book
Tween Tribune
Tween Tribune en Español
Wonderopolis

See also:
Joyce Valenza’s Picks from the Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning

Kiera Parrott’s Picks from the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning

The site—which is a collaboration with Mackin Educational Resources and School Library Journal—aims to provides a comprehensive “summer reading style” program where registered school librarians will read and review books. The site will remain open to all visitors to help even more schools and libraries with book selection using a wishlist feature. Here Be Fiction will also allow librarians to access books for free during future school vacation times.

The site was built by GVEP’s school library system to help bring affordable ebooks to the 22 small, rural districts and 23,000 students of the Genesee Valley region of western New York. Christopher Harris, coordinator of the system, initially developed the idea to help member librarians explore fiction ebooks to add to an existing digital library of reference and informational books.

“Our libraries may be rural,” Harris notes, “but by working together the incredible school librarians of the Genesee Valley are providing a wealth of digital resources to their students. As the librarians continued to ask for fiction, we needed to find a way to discover ebooks with terms that could work for us.”

The books are being delivered using the secure MackinVIA platform. Readers can access the books in Here Be Fiction online or by using one of the free iOS or Android phone/tablet MackinVIA apps. School Library Journal is supporting the project with editorial content on best practices for using ebooks in classrooms and school libraries.

Participating publishers have agreed to license these ebooks with terms supporting classroom and school library use. The terms include a discount for multiple reader purchases to support class novels or book clubs, allowing offline access to the books to support home use in areas with limited broadband, and enabling text-to-speech reading of the book when possible to support readers with special needs.

“These are established, well-respected publishers who we have worked with for years,” says Kitty Heise, co-owner of Mackin Educational Resources. “It is wonderful to see the publishers enthusiastically support Here be Fiction, and we are excited about the opportunity to give these great fiction ebooks the attention they deserve.”

Anyone who visits www.StarWalkKids.com/popup can immediately read any ebook in the collection, which is about 60 percent highly illustrated nonfiction.

“We celebrated our first year of existence at the American Library Association national conference in Chicago,” says StarWalk founder and author Seymour Simon. “We all felt that it was time to give back. Opening our streaming collection for everyone to sample and share with kids via summer reading programs felt like the right way to say ‘thanks’ for a great year.”

Liz Nealon, StarWalk Kids Media’s publisher, says that the company hopes educators, administrators and librarians will also take this opportunity to sample the library prior to the start of the new school year. “More schools and libraries are acquiring the latest educational technologies, supported by broadband Internet connectivity,” she says. “But…the hardware is only as relevant as the software available to use with it. There has been a severe shortage of quality literature, both fiction and nonfiction, that is available and affordable in digital form. We formed StarWalk Kids Media to fill that void.”

Open access to all eBooks in the StarWalk Kids collection will continue throughout the month of July.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced its inaugural list of the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. Revealed Jun 30 at the American Library Association annual conference, the 25 selected apps cover a broad range of subjects, inspire curriculum connections, and can be used with multiple grades. While chosen with school librarians and classroom instruction in mind, these apps can also be adapted for use in public library programming.

The Best Apps for Teaching and Learning Taskforce, chaired by Melissa Jacobs-Israel, developed a set of criteria based on the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and selected apps in five distinct categories: books, STEM, organization and management, social sciences, and content creation.

The committee considered whether the apps were well designed, user-friendly, and filled with pop-up ads or other unnecessary distractions. According to the committee, the winning apps encourage deep inquiry, critical thinking skills, and engaging learning experiences. The result is a well-rounded list that will be very useful for teachers and librarians, particularly those new to the world of integrating apps into classrooms and programs.

The list included a few of my own tried and true favorites like Toontastic (a fun and funny content creation app for elementary students) and Evernote (as one committee member noted, “I run my life on Evernote”). There were a few surprises as well. The following are apps that looked so exciting that I downloaded them as they were announced by the selection committee:

Shakespeare in Bits—Hamlet: Where was this when I was in ninth grade? Full-cast narration, animated scenes and character webs help students visualize and further explore the Bard’s famous creation. The original play can also be purchased in-app.

Tinkerbox: This is what great STEM apps can be. Combining engineering, puzzles, and design, children are encouraged to problem solve, apply new skills, and use their imaginations. They can invent crazy machines and share them with friends or with the app developer.

Videolicious: There are a ton of video creation apps, but very few are simple enough for most kids to use successfully and powerful enough to produce high-quality creations. This one hits both marks. Kids can choose photo or video content already saved on their device, record a narration, and select a copyright-free song from the in-app library.

Kiera Parrott is head of children’s services at Darien Library, CT, and a blogger for ALSC.

Michelle Cordy presenting “Hack the Classroom,” an Ignite session at.
Photo by Scott McLeod http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcleod

By Carolyn Foote

A busy, hectic, and lively ISTE conference concluded Wednesday June 26 with a rousing keynote by educator Adam Bellow, who rallied the crowd with a hopeful message. Echoing a theme that came up throughout the conference in both library and technology sessions, he reminded the more than 18,000 attendees to take away limits that hinder their students, and let students build something that matters.

Bellow’s focus on students as real-world contributors was a theme that ran through a variety of conference and pre-conference presentations.

In his session, “The Creative Learning Revolution You Can’t Afford to Miss,” Gary Stager explored the  growing influence of maker fairs on education, noting that, “Making things is better than being passive.  Making good things is even better.” Stager shared inspiring videos of children engaged in creating, like the inspiring Super Awesome Sylvia’s and Joey Hudy’s YouTube shows. The motto of Joey’s show?  “Don’t be bored—make something!”  Stager encouraged educators to bring their best to students, to ask themselves, “How can I make this [school day] the best seven hours of a kid’s life?”

Stager’s comments echoed those of consultant David Warlick, who said at a HackEd Education session, “Maybe we should ask what our children look like and build a classroom that looks like that.”  Warlick was one of about 300 attendees at the HackEd Education 2013 Unconference, a day of conversations organized by consultant Steven Hargadon, that takes place the Saturday prior to ISTE.  HackEd conversations are self-selected by participants who brainstorm the topics for the day. Many of the threads at HackEd centered around the notion of empowering our students and creating more flexible and meaningful learning experiences.

Even the exhibit hall furniture vendors reflected this theme of flexible learning—with both Steelcase and Bretford displaying their increasingly flexible furniture designed so that students can help create the classroom they need instead of a fixed space with immobile furniture. A new start-up area included entrepreneurs like text annotation app Gobstopper, whose new release is going to allow schools to “rent” e-book titles for class sets, and Hummingbird, who is designing simple kits for students to create robots out of cardboard and found objects.

Gamification was another trending theme during the conference—again focused on engaging and empowering students. Kicking off ISTE with this challenge, Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken, inspired attendees to help students experience the joy, awe, happiness and amazement they feel when playing games, and that  “the best thing we as educators can do for kids is to empower them to change the world today.” Her recent focus is designing real world games where students are finding solutions for real world problems.

While there were still sessions on tools and apps like Aurasma or Subtext, even many of those focused on moving away from focusing on the tool itself to focusing on the learning experience involved. In Heidi Beezley’s very helpful session, “The Creation Myth: Creating a Tech-Based Project is Not Enough”, she emphasized that any tool can be used for creative thinking—it is the prompt and assignment that count. She shared a variety of lesson prompts that can elicit more creative thoughts from students, including asking them to predict the future of something or create their own analogies.

The poster and table sessions were abuzz with examples of how teachers and librarians are doing just that. The SIGMS library playground was filled with examples of librarians sharing tools like Mentor Mob, LibGuides, and apps for visual design. Poster sessions like Rachel Wooten’s “Podcasting in the Elementary Classroom,” teacher Ann Kozma’s (Fullerton School District) Brain Power Book Reviews created by elementary students using SoundCloud, and a Bellevue Schools Public Schools project where students teach iPads to senior citizens in their communities were highlights. Stephanie Cerda (University of Texas) and consultant Janice Friesen demonstrated how they have worked with second graders to distinguish between Google-able and non-Google-able questions, a concept originated by Ewan McIntosh of NoTosh.com.

Beyond the sessions, what’s best about the conference, though, is the conversations. A walk by the Blogger’s Cafe or the Newbie’s lounge at any time of day revealed people making new acquaintances and engrossed in conversations, or playing their gadgets or iPad instruments (like Kevin Honeycutt). The informal conversations in hallways, in the Blogger’s lounge, at dinner with educators from all parts of the country (and globe) is invigorating, and is a reminder, as Adam Bellow emphasized in his closing keynote, that “Whatever we do, we must know that it matters.  We are not “just teachers.”

Carolyn Foote is a “technolibrarian” at Westlake High School in Austin, TX. Fascinated by the intersection of libraries, technology, students, and creativity, she blogs at “Not So Distant Future.” 

Gwyneth Jones, Shannon Miller, and Michelle Luhtala at the SIGMS Forum,.

 By Tiffany Whitehead

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference in San Antonio from June 23-26 offered unique opportunities for educators to interact, learn about the latest ed tech resources, and hear new ideas from education leaders. At a conference this size, it is impossible to see and do it all, but here are the highlights that librarians can take back to their schools in the fall.

Opening Keynote

Jane McGonigal, gaming expert and author of Reality is Broken, delivered the opening speech for the conference, “Learning is an Epic Win.” Gamification is a hot topic in education.  With over a billion gamers around the world, gaming is becoming a great way for educators to capture and engage their students in learning.

The New York Times best-selling author identified ten positive emotions that gamers tend to seek through play. They are: creativity, contentment, awe and  wonder, excitement, curiosity, pride, surprise, love, relief, and joy. McGonigal also shared research showing how gaming affects the brain and increases engagement of active players. As educators, we are looking to tap into the same emotions as we work with our students to create meaningful learning experiences.

SIGMS Digital Age Media Center Playground

The ever-popular Digital Age Media Center Playground gave attendees the opportunity to discover lots of new sources in a short amount of time. Visitors browsed various stations where presenters gave demonstrations and shared ideas about using their favorite tech tools with students.

Popular station topics included:

Resources from this session are available on the SIGMS wiki.

Your School Library: Flipped, Mobile, and Curated

Presented by five teacher librarians, this panel drew a large crowd looking to learn more about how to do just what the panel name describes: flip, mobilize, and curate their library resources. The panelists were Dr. Joyce Valenza, teacher librarian at the Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, PA; Shannon Miller, district teacher librarian and technology specialist at the Van Meter (IA) Community Schools; Michelle Luhtala, library department chair, New Canaan (CT) High School; and Brenda Boyer, teacher librarian for the Kutztown (PA) School District.

“Curation is the new search,” said Valenza. She explained that curation is defined not by what a library owns, but by what students need and use. Panelists shared their favorite curation tools, including Scoop.it, MentorMob, Pinterest, Symbaloo, Thinglink, EduClipper, and EdCanvas.

Speakers encouraged attendees to choose one or two of these tools to be a “parking lot” for library resources rather than trying to use all of them. Making resources easily accessible on mobile devices is also essential, they said, as many schools are adopting BYOD policies or implementing 1:1 initiatives.

Participants then described how flipping instruction and curating resources allows librarians to make the most of the time they spend working with students.

A resource from this session is here: curatedflipped.wikispaces.com

SIGMS Forum: School Librarians and Admins: A Powerful Name

Miller and Luhtala were joined via Google+ Hangout by their administrators Deron Durflinger, superintendent and secondary principal of Van Meter Community Schools, Janelle Thompson, a teacher at Van Meter Community Schools, and Dr. Bryan Luizzi, principal of New Canaan High School,  to form a panel for discussing the dynamics of a strong relationship between librarians and administrators.

Moderated by Jones, group members discussed their vision of how a teacher librarian can play a leadership role within a school. Miller and Luhtala are themselves fine examples of this leadership model, as they work closely with their administrators to create a technology-rich learning culture built on trust.

Asked about the best strategy for a teacher librarian to approach administrators with a proposal or new idea, Miller and Luhtala offered a useful tip. They suggested that librarians bring along a classroom teacher who supports the project and would be help initiate it as a smaller scale pilot program.

SIGMS keynote by John T. Spencer

Spencer, a sixth-grade ELL teacher in Phoenix, AZ and author who blogs at Education Rethink, described teacher librarians as “defenders of wisdom.” The heart of this keynote was the idea that people matter most, and that librarians cannot be replaced by technology.

Technology alone does not foster wisdom in students, Spencer maintained. That’s why the role of the teacher librarians is still essential. “When I think of the things that formed me, I don’t think of Google,” he said. “I think of people.”

Spencer also outlined seven skills that teacher librarians should engage in their students: connect, create, collaborate, curate, contextualize, think critically, and communicate strongly. In his concluding comments, he said, “Librarians are defending wisdom in a culture where it is becoming extinct.”

ISTE and SIGMS business

ISTE announced a rebranding campaign and unveiled their new logo.  A video providing an overview and introducing the image can be found here: http://youtu.be/OGXeUzXAGKo. In addition, the SIGMS (Special Interest Group for Media Specialists) annual meeting announced new officers and plans for the coming year. The 2013-2014 the SIGMS Leadership Team will be:

In the coming months, SIGMS will also explore a name change to better reflect the titles and roles of school librarians. SIGMS members will have the opportunity to weigh in on this important event.

Next year’s annual ISTE Conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on June 28-July 1.

]]> http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/06/k-12/flipped-classrooms-librarians-as-defenders-of-wisdom-and-the-hottest-tech-tools-iste-2013/feed/ 0 http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/06/k-12/common-sense-media-unveils-graphite-new-review-site-for-apps-digital-content/ http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/06/k-12/common-sense-media-unveils-graphite-new-review-site-for-apps-digital-content/#comments Mon, 24 Jun 2013 11:00:27 +0000 The Digital Shift http://www.thedigitalshift.com/?p=16648  

June 24 marked the debut of Graphite, a  free, online guide to digital learning products compiled by and for educators. Created by Common Sense Media, a national nonprofit, the new resource reviews and rates digital products, including apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for K–12.

Introduced June 24, during the annual ISTE (International Society for Technology and Education) conference in San Antonio, TX, Graphite supplements Common Sense Media’s existing resources for educators, many devoted to digital literacy.

Graphite’s editorial team evaluates each product using a rating system “developed by a team of experts in education and child development,” according to a press release. Users of the site can search concurrently within four categories: product type (apps, console and PC games, websites); subject (language and reading, math, science, social studies, art, and hobbies); grade (Pre-K to 12); and price (free, free to try, or paid). Products can also be mapped to the Common Core and other standards.

Educators can contribute their own feedback on the site, including field notes about how they use each product and what works best with their students.

What comes up is a mix of product “Reviews,” “Field Notes,” and “Top Picks” for any tailored search.

The reviews include basic product information along with a guide to the skills supported by a particular product (thinking and reasoning; logic; self-direction, etc.). But the main features, and what people may well turn to Graphite for, are the reviews’ rigorous “learning rating” and “teacher rating” for every product.

The learning rating, compiled by Graphite’s team, indicates the overall learning potential of a product as well as three individual ratings for student engagement, pedagogy, and support for those using the product.

The teacher rating is an educators’ evaluation of a product along with descriptive pros and cons. Graphite provides a detailed explanation of its rating and reviewing system here. 

Field Notes, written largely by Graphite-certified educators (“volunteers selected from a highly competitive pool of educator applicants,” according to the site) are user evaluations along with best-practice tips for classroom use.

Top Picks is pretty self explanatory: from a sample perusal, it’s a list of about six to eight top selections within any search combination.

Graphite is geared as a time saver for the 54 percent of tech-invested educators who spend an hour or more each week researching ed tech products, a statistic from a recent Common Sense Media poll conducted by Harris Interactive.

While 89 percent of teachers think educational technology helps students, only 18 percent use subject-specific content tools weekly; 30 percent use reference tools; 25 percent use teacher tools; and 14 percent use digital curricula, the survey found.

Funding for Graphite included support from the Susan Crown Exchange and a personal investment from Bill Gates, according to a press release. “There really is no limit to what teachers can do if they have the right resources,” Gates stated in the release. “A decade from now, finding and using the best content and technology will be as natural as opening a book. Graphite promises to be a big step in this direction.”

Of these parents, 84 percent say a major reason they want their children to have access to libraries is that libraries help inculcate their children’s love of reading and books, while 81 percent say libraries provide their children with information and resources not available at home, and 71 percent say libraries are a safe place for children. Almost every parent (97 percent of those surveyed) says it is important for libraries to offer programs and classes for children and teens.

“From the minute we started talking to library patrons in this research, it was apparent that parents are a special cohort because of their affection for libraries, their deep sense that libraries matter to their children, and their own use of libraries,” says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project. “They do more and they are eager for more library services of every kind—ranging from traditional stuff like books in stacks and comfortable reading spaces to high-tech kiosks and more e-books and mobile apps that would allow them to access library materials while they are on the go.”

The report also found that the ties between parents and libraries start with the importance parents attach to the role of reading in their children’s lives. Half of parents of children under age 12 read to their child every day and another 26 percent do so a few times a week, while 58 percent of parents with children under age 6 read daily with them and 26 percent read multiple times a week with their children.

Other highlights of the report:

Now anyone can create a beautiful digital zine of customized content, thanks to Flipboard. In a highly touted new feature, version 2.0 of the iconic newsstand app allows users to tap and select articles, photos, and video they find on Flipboard to create magazines on any interest or topic.

In this screencast, educator and library consultant Linda W. Braun demos the feature, showing how to create a magazine in the image-rich format, add articles, and publish to Flipboard, all on the fly. If your intended readers don’t have a device? You can share your creation, with a few simple taps, via Twitter and email.

Librarians and other educators could use the app to create publications on book or movie news for teens, suggests Braun, in one idea. Or how about a publication around a student research topic? Libraries could also assemble articles and images into a slick advocacy tool.

“Start thinking about how you might create magazines—for kids, teens, parents, adults you work with, colleagues, administrators, anyone in the community,” says Braun.

Librarian Pat Semple of Bullis School in Potomac, MD shared her experiences with the flipped library classroom in the session “To Flip or not To Flip: That is the Dilemma!” Semple described how she applies iPads and the flipped classroom model to library instruction. She lays the groundwork for her lessons before class even begins, having students register for online accounts at home and reviewing research guides before they even enter the library. So when Semple does have a class in the space, she can directly address questions without having to spend precious time on sign-ups and initial navigation to resources.

Semple uses iPads to group students based on their learning needs. Some students may need one-on-one help, while others who have a similar question or problem can work to solve it as a group. Students are responsible for identifying what they need to know about the library and the research process before they even walk in the door. In order to provide instruction at home, Semple uses screencasting software (she favors Camtasia) to create tutorials that guide students through various stages of their projects. For example, this screencast shows students how to find studies for a statistics class.

Semple’s new flipped library model has allowed her to change the physical library space. As a result of moving so many student resources online for access anywhere, she’s been able to weed her collection significantly, tightening up shelving and making room for students to meet for group work.

To learn more about Semple’s projects, visit her website. You can find resources from her presentation there as well.

In another dynamic session, Mary Catherine Coleman, Lower School Librarian and Library Department Chair at St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School of Alexandria, VA,  covered apps, primarily ones she’s used with elementary school students, though many could be used with older kids as well. Several apps that she discussed could be used to promote and share books.

Using Sketch Nation, Coleman’s students created a game based on a favorite book. The students used their peers as testers, making sure the gameplay worked, and then Coleman hosted a game day celebration with the completed projects. Comic Life allows students to create comic strips about books they read for pleasure; Facetalk allows students to make their own booktalks by animating a talking mouth over a still image and recording their voices. Scribble Press allows students to create their own ebook either from scratch or from a Mad Libs-style template. Feltboard is a storytelling app that students can use to write stories related to the books they’re reading.

You can see all of Coleman’s slides on SlideShare, or read Carolyn Foote’s complete notes from the session on her blog.

Particularly worthwhile was the session entitled “Build-a-Book Workshop: Starting Ebook Publishing at Your Library.” Presenter Douglas Uhlmann, Head of the John F. Gummere Library at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, covered a huge amount of information. Some members of the faculty at his school have created their own ebooks, such as The Twenty-first Century Beastiary, a picture book organized by an art teacher but created with content generated by students. Uhlmann has also created his own ebooks: bundling student work into anthologies for the social studies department, digitizing local content, and creating manuals for teachers.

We learned about various ebook creation tools: iBook Author, Adobe Master Collection, and Pages—the latter of which Uhlmann chose to use because it outputs both in PDF and EPUB formats. Uhlmann cautioned that there are over a dozen ebook formats; you should choose the one that works best for your users before you get started. Book Creator for the iPad allows students or faculty to draw text from a variety of sources and embed images (but not multimedia at this time). Using this or other tools, students can create ebooks for each other, teachers can aggregate student work, or teachers can create their own textbooks.

Anyone looking to create ebooks have several details to work out before the process begins, says Uhlmann. Librarians must think about access (where will the books be hosted?); privacy policies related to student work; ownership (who owns the content—the school, the district, the teacher, the student?); and timing. No matter who is creating the ebooks—students, teachers, librarians—Uhlmann recommends partnering up. It’s a steep learning curve, he said. You need a teammate and a sounding board to get through it.

“Digital learning resources are playing a huge role in personalizing instruction and empowering students to develop the critical thinking, collaboration, communication and digital citizenship skills needed today and in the rapidly changing world we live in,” says ISTE CEO Brian Lewis. “But for all students to benefit from the promise of this digital transformation, all students need access. We must accelerate our investment in school bandwidth connectivity.”

If ISTE’s petition reaches 100,000 signatures by May 1, 2013, the White House will respond.

Versu looks interesting. Created by Linden Labs, the outfit behind virtual world Second Life, the free app enables users to actively engage stories. “Readers” assume various characters and determine the course of the narrative through a menu of choices. The story is further directed by the interaction between characters, which, through artificial intelligence, are endowed with unique motivations and emotional reactions as you interact with them.  

In her latest screencast, School Library Journal contributor Linda W. Braun test drives Versu in an assessment that considers the potential of interactive platforms that blur the lines between reader and creator—a particularly compelling concept when it comes to kids and teens.

Illustration by David Plunkert.

Lately, there’s been more drama than usual in our library. At the moment, one of my students is swapping some diamonds—yes, diamonds—for a hefty amount of railway ties. Another is secretly plotting to swipe an unsuspecting classmate’s body armor. And a group of friends can’t believe their luck: they’ve just stumbled across a trove of valuable chests in an abandoned mineshaft.

Welcome to our Minecraft club. Every Friday afternoon, 28 middle school and high school kids get together in our library’s computer lab to feast on candy and play one of the world’s hottest video games.

What exactly is Minecraft? It’s a game in which players use three-dimensional blocks to build their own unique world. Minecraft began as the brainchild of Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, and an early version of it was originally released in 2009. Nowadays, the game is available in an iOS, Android, and an Xbox 360 version that’s published by Mojang, a Stockholm-based video game developer. According to the Swedish company, more than nine million people have purchased Minecraft, and as I write this sentence, 9,610 fans have bought it within the past 24 hours. Think of the game, as Wired magazine said, as “a virtual version of Lego” that has “no instructions, no levels, no mission structure, no story, no lives, no points, no clear goal.” So what does Minecraft have to offer? Well, as it turns out, plenty.

For starters, kids can construct whatever they want—anything from an inconspicuous igloo to the starship Enterprise. But more than that, the game lets players exert an enormous amount of control over the worlds they’ve created. For instance, skilled players can get extremely creative with the materials at hand, which commonly include wood, stone, and metal, transforming or (in Minecraft-speak) “crafting” them into tools, weapons, food, supplies, and even magical potions. When you set up a server for Minecraft, you can tweak its settings, but for the most part, the worlds are huge—about eight times larger than Earth—with various biomes, including deserts, snowfields, and jungles. Players create their own shelters and explore the world. They also lug around a variety of objects—including torches, weapons, armor, mining tools, and prepared food—to keep themselves well fed and safe from other players and predators (more on that later). It’s easy to move around in Minecraft: just press the “W,” “A,” “S,” or “D” keys. Need to suddenly leap into the air? No sweat. That’s where the space bar comes in handy, and by simply left- or right-clicking, players can effortlessly interact with their environment.

I confess: I wasn’t always wild about Minecraft. Like other technology that I’d put off trying, the game intimidated me. It seemed like Minecraft was solely for supergeeks and hardcore gamers. And while it’s true that I’m still a little intimidated by Minecraft, the game is accessible, fun, and, ultimately, an excellent learning tool for both nerds and non-nerds. In January, my colleague Chris Buckley and I launched a Minecraft club at the Hamden Hall Country Day School, a private pre-K–12 school in Connecticut. Chris is our school’s help desk technician, and he’s also a lot of other things, including an ethical hacker, a maker, a sharer, and (lucky me!) a server builder.

Screen Shot of the Minecraft club’s creations.

The world of Minecraft offers some lovely sunrises, but things get really interesting when night falls. That’s when the spiders, zombies, skeletons, and other assorted monsters come out. To avoid being killed by these menaces, players must make fires, create weapons, and construct shelters, which are typically multistory wood or stone structures with storage chests, a crafting table, pets, farms, and farm animals. Sometimes our kids really outdo themselves, and their home bases have also included towers, castles, pyramids, and even a spaceship.

In a multiplayer server like ours, the operator (Chris and I are our server’s ops) can set it to any of the following difficulty levels: peaceful, easy, normal, and hard. In the peaceful setting, players can’t fight with one another and don’t have to eat, and there aren’t any monsters. I’d recommend that librarians start their servers on peaceful. That way new players can get the hang of building things and forming allegiances without having to worry about surviving a hostile attack.

Minecraft also features several game modes. If you’re a newbie like I was, you’ll want to check out the creative and survival modes. The creative mode is a lot like the peaceful setting: it’s perfect for exploring and building, because there are no gnarly creatures, no player-versus-player, or “PVP,” fighting, and no need to consume calories. It’s a perfect starting place for you and your kids, but you probably won’t want to stay there for very long.

Although some of our students prefer this tranquil state, most of them relish the opportunity to fight—and that’s one of the reasons our server is now set on survival. In this more-challenging mode, every time players slay a monster, they accumulate experience points, or xp, which enable them to enchant materials (how about a pickax that breaks rocks faster?) or create magical potions, which can temporarily grant players invisibility, Herculean strength, or lightning-quick reflexes. If you want your kids to be able to set up communities, trade (and fight) with one another, and battle monsters, survival is the way to go.

During my first few weeks with Minecraft, I logged on whenever I could, and my students gave me lessons in building structures and crafting. One of them helped me build my house and another showed me how to plant crops. Sometimes I’d log in and discover that they’d left me gifts of food or gold. Because I’m an op, I can make things a little easier for myself, but I try not to take any shortcuts, because I want to learn how to play the game. Still, it helps to have a partner who’s an experienced Minecrafter, who can advise you on the finer points of administering a server. If I didn’t have Chris, I’d most likely recruit one or two of our most trustworthy students to help me run things.

When we first started our server and began meeting, the students treated it as a virtual society: they claimed land, built cities, appointed a leader for each city, began trading, and took on various societal roles. It was fascinating to watch. Our students completely governed themselves, and they had a strong sense of right and wrong. For example, damaging or stealing materials from other players (a practice known as “griefing”) was firmly discouraged and met with swift punishment.

In addition to society building, one of my favorite things is to develop challenges for our students. It’s a great way to spend our weekly meeting time together. One week we created an obstacle course—complete with lava and water pits—that requires players to clear difficult jumps and walk a tightrope. Some of our kids created a coliseum where players can practice fighting monsters or one another to sharpen their combat skills. I also created a scavenger hunt with clues hidden throughout the server that led to a secret chest of diamonds. Each one of these activities involves a ton of planning, communicating, and delegating, with players jumping in to help one another.

In the few short months that I’ve run our club, I’ve learned some important lessons. One is that middle school and high school kids don’t always get along well. After repeated instances of griefing, stealing, and fighting, we duplicated our original server so that each group would have its own. Now there’s far less bickering. I’ve also learned that one way to avoid inappropriate language, cheating, and poor gamesmanship is to keep an eye on the server logs, which include everything that’s said on the server as well as many of the actions. By monitoring the logs, we can make sure that students are acting appropriately, and we can temporarily ban those who aren’t. We’ve also learned to limit the hours the server is open. Now, it’s off during the school day, and it shuts down again in the late evening. Since we’re a school, we need to make sure that our students aren’t playing Minecraft when they should be studying or sleeping.

One challenge we haven’t found an elegant solution for is in creating student accounts. Players each need their own account to participate, and at $26.95 apiece, they’re expensive. MinecraftEdu, a small group of educators and programmers, offers educational discounts, but even those are almost $20. Many of my students already had their own accounts, but those who didn’t ended up shelling out their own money—even though I offered to purchase accounts for them with my programming budget.

Minecraft is a social activity that’s fun for kids to play with one another (and in many cases, make new friends), but the game also offers a host of learning opportunities. Most strikingly, it requires kids to collaborate. Unlike some of the assignments we educators create to force kids to work together, Minecraft requires an organic type of collaboration that’s managed by the students themselves, not by their teachers. Minecraft also fosters communication skills, as players type, guide their fellow players around, and even create message boards.

Since there’s practically no limit to what players can do with Minecraft, it encourages creativity big-time. As players grapple to solve myriad problems—everything from the complex (how to create a lever system that lifts players into an arena) to the simple (how to get an ocelot to follow you home)—they are developing communication, analytical, and social skills that apply to nearly every area of their lives. Perhaps not surprisingly, Minecraft can also be used to teach everything from science to writing to math. The possibilities are endless. For some great examples of lessons, activities, and tutorials to use in the classroom, visit MinecraftEdu.

Just a few hours before I wrote this, I logged on to Minecraft and noticed that two of our ninth graders were playing it. One of the boys showed me a roller coaster he’d just finished creating. I hopped into one of the carts, pressed a button, and off I went—zipping through glassed-in underground tunnels, up steep hills, and through passageways lined with lava. This student, who struggles in some of his classes, had completed something remarkable, an engineering feat that a vast portion of the population could never equal. As I rode along, he tweaked the track here and there, making sure that everything ran smoothly. “This is amazing!!!!” I typed. I hope he’s proud. Minecraft is a game, but it’s not just a game. It gives students the opportunity not only to dream big, but also to build big. And if, along the way, you get to talk a little smack and be a little silly, then all the better.

Sarah Ludwig is the library department chair and academic technology coordinator at Hamden Hall Country Day School, a pre-K through grade 12 independent school in Hamden, CT.