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 But the traditional blogging options were hampered by clunky interfaces and an outdated look; I knew that the posts weren’t reaching many patrons, let alone teens.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.

Send your pictures of the week to sdiaz@mediasourceinc.com

An SLJ reader’s daughter peruses our Early Learning-focused July issue, which featured the iconic Sesame Street character, Big Bird, on the cover.

From the librarian: “Thank you so much for the article on Sesame Street and mobile devices in SLJ’s July 2013 issue. My two-year-old was just as excited about receiving SLJ this month as her mommy was! We’ll make her a librarian yet!”

The Institute of Museum and Library Services

“Over the past half century, video games have transformed our society. Museums and libraries struggle with the challenges of ever-changing technology to preserve that cultural legacy,” says ICHEG’s director Jon-Paul Dyson. The grant has enabled the Center “to test the functionality of approximately 7,000 games in the collection and ensure that we have all the necessary hardware and software to run the programs,” Dyson says.

“When we test the games we also capture 10–20 minutes of video of the game play for each game. This program of video capture has emerged as an important preservation tool.”

Dyson also notes that the grant is helping the Center pioneer methods that other institutions can use to preserve video games and record their impact on society.

So, what’s the goal of this orientation anyway? First, I’d like all students to learn that the library is a friendly, welcoming place, a safe haven in the storm that is high school. Sometimes all a student needs is a place to hide out. Secondly, I want all students to really know what we have to offer them: fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, audiobooks, magazines, and reference books. I want them to actually log in and access our ebook collection. I want them to use the databases, save articles, and generate citations. All of this is a fairly large hope for a group of kids who’ll undoubtedly ask, “How many points is this worth?”  So knowing my audience fairly well, I’ve decided to resort to outright bribery, and I’m going to convince my staff to be open and prepared for the chaos I’m sure to unleash.

I’m putting together a scavenger hunt. Yes, I know, this is not a terribly new idea.  But I’m planning on throwing a few twists in to make it interesting and keep the students engaged.  Students will travel around the library in groups of no more than three. To begin, each group will receive a clue, in the form of a Call Number, which leads them to a different print location so not all students are converging on the same spot at the same time. I’ll need to develop at least 12 different scavenger paths so students touch on everything fabulous in the library without tripping over each other.  When students locate their book, they’ll find one of those old plastic VHS cases disguised as a book and containing candy (Smarties most likely) and their next clue, which will be one of a variety of things. Several will direct them to specific computer stations with directions to access a specific database. They’ll need to locate an article on a given topic, generate the citation, and email it to me along with their group number so we can keep everyone organized and on individual scavenger paths. I plan to have my assistant back in my office sending out the next clue when she receives correct emails. Other clues will lead to “books” containing QR codes linking to our website. One clue will direct them to check out an ebook. Yet another clue will lead them to iPads loaded with Aurasma videos demonstrating how to download newspapers and periodicals on their laptops and smartphones.

Ultimately, the real goal of this chaotic undertaking is to teach kids that the library is a place where questions are answered, passions are pursued, and where dreams are launched. Obviously, this is a work in progress, but as it takes shape, I’d love to hear what other librarians are doing to spice up their obligatory orientation.

For more ideas on how to spice up your orientation, check out Joyce Valenza‘s Orientation Inspiration post on her Neverending Search blog.

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/2013/09/k-12/a-minecraft-library-scores-big-a-virtual-version-of-the-mattituck-ny-branch-is-a-hit-with-young-patrons/ http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/09/k-12/a-minecraft-library-scores-big-a-virtual-version-of-the-mattituck-ny-branch-is-a-hit-with-young-patrons/#comments Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:19:15 +0000 Lauren Barack http://www.thedigitalshift.com/?p=17616

“Nothing’s impossible in Minecraft,” says Elizabeth Grohoski. She would know. Grohoski recently spent three months using the online game to create a virtual replica of the Mattituck-Laurel Library in Mattituck, NY, complete with a model of the working piano in the library basement (http://ow.ly/nQwCN).

Why? Because Karen Letteriello, comanager of the parents’ and children’s department at Mattituck-Laurel, where Grohoski works as a technical processor, thought the virtual Minecraft library would help attract young patrons. It has.

The project started when Letteriello read a School Library Journal feature story by librarian Sarah Ludwig about a highly successful Minecraft library club at the Connecticut school where she worked. Letteriello wanted a similar program in her library and asked Grohoski, a gamer since the age of six, to create it.

An immensely popular game launched widely in 2011, Minecraft allows users to build in a 3-D virtual world with cubes similar to Legos—but without any of the proscriptive kits and manuals. There are few limits to what a user can create in Minecraft. It’s all about gamers using their imaginations.

After creating a beta version of the project, Letteriello launched the finished site on June 20. The reaction has been a “tornado,” she says, with children clamoring to sign up and play.

Letteriello and Grohoski’s vision of the game features an appealing library-centric scavenger hunt. Each room of the Minecraft library offers a clue inside treasure chests tucked into the virtual shelves. Clues provide students with a summary of the plot, title, author, and call letters—so children can locate the books inside the physical library.

There are other activities as well—a maze, mini-games in which children can locate objects like sheep wool in multiple colors, and eventually a racetrack, which Grohoski hopes to build. Children can play a few notes on the virtual piano or ride up and down the virtual elevator—just like the one inside the real branch. And for those looking to explore outside the building, Grohoski shifted existing Minecraft destinations closer to the virtual library. These include a desert temple, village, ravine, and stronghold.

Students with their own Minecraft accounts can log on from home, or they can play at the library free of charge. The library offers five laptops with video cards, which play the full version of the online game, plus six iPads loaded with Minecraft’s pocket edition.

Letteriello is planning future educational projects using Minecraft and other digital tools. One possibility: a virtual opportunity to explore Ancient Greece and Rome. Her goal is that students will find their library experience as seamless as exercising their curiosity.

“I want them to use [the library presence in Minecraft] the same as they would the actual library, take a book home and teleport into another world,” she says. “I want them to feel the gaming world is just another part of the library.”

Mattituck resident Pam Kaminsky’s 13-year-old son, Collin, is “obsessed” with the Minecraft library, she says. He and his 16-year-old brother, Owen, are also impressed with Grohoski’s expertise with the game. “[Collin] says, ‘The librarian is talking to me about my program? Wow,’” says Kaminsky. “It’s like he has a new connection with the librarians.”

“Now the kids walk in and ask if Elizabeth is here,” says Letteriello. “She has a cult following.”

Children sign up to play on Fridays, when they can interact with others in the virtual branch. “We have waiting lists that you can’t imagine,” says Letteriello. “And Elizabeth continues to build. It’s taking on a life of its own.”

Teen Tech Camp: Raspberry Pi

Photo credit: Rebecca Murphey

Our library partnered with local tech professionals Julia Elman and Sarah Kahn (UNC-SILS MLS 2008) to host a daylong event focused on programming Raspberry Pi using the Python programming language. Thanks to a generous donation from the Python Software Foundation (PSF), we were able to provide each attendee with a Raspberry Pi, power supply, an SD card, and two books on programming in Python to take home.

The event was open to students ages 12 to 18, regardless of previous computer programming experience. Sign up was first-come, first-served, and teens who attended a similar event in Fall 2012 were given a bit of advance notice. Only twenty spots were available due to the limited amount of equipment we received from our PSF grant. Volunteers from the tech community set up the network and provided instruction. Noted Python educator Kurt Grandis developed the curriculum outline for the day, but when Kurt had a family emergency, Clinton Dreisbach stepped in at short notice to provide the actual instruction.

Seventeen students spent from 10 am to 5 pm learning the basics of programming in Python as well as the ins and outs of using a Raspberry Pi. We were able to send them home with the materials provided by the grant, as well as a free monitor, keyboard, and mouse. In other words, a free computer. How much did this cost my library? About $30, spent on name badges and painter’s tape.

Powerful Partnerships

Photo credit: Rebecca Murphey

How was it possible to provide such high quality STEM programming to the teens in Durham for almost no cost to the library? We were able to benefit from powerful partnerships. When the PSF grant came through (in a mere six weeks), Sarah and Julia began canvassing for volunteers and materials.

They gathered gently used peripherals from individual donors as well as from Triangle Ecycling, a local ewaste recycling organization. Julia’s company, Caktus Consulting Group, provided funding for a healthy breakfast and lunch for campers and volunteers. Splatspace, a local hackerspace, donated nifty 3D printed Raspberry Pi cases. The City of Wilson (home of North Carolina’s first community owned gigabit broadband network) provided the campers with goody bags and cool promo sunglasses. Providing these extras was a great way to show teens and their parents that they are valued members of the library community.

Lasting Results

Teen Tech Camp attendees ranged from 12 year-olds with no programming experience to 18-year-old veteran hackers. Teaching complex concepts to a diverse audience was not easy. Some of our attendees were definitely more motivated by the copy of Minecraft we preloaded on to their Pi than anything else.

Photo credit: Rebecca Murphey

But to quote organizer Julia Elman, our “goal for the 2013 Teen Tech Camp was not to have the students walk out of the library, ready to take on complex computer programming challenges. It was to spark interest in the students and get them excited… By using varying techniques and providing a safe space for learning, we were able to engage every student at an individual pace. They will take away the motivation, energy and drive to keep on learning, because someone believes in them.”

During the 2013-2014 school year, we plan to support the young coding community created at Teen Tech Camp by hosting library sponsored hackerthons and providing further resources online. By providing high quality materials and technology instruction to young people, we hope to empower the next generation, increase diversity in the technology field, and encourage teens to be digital content creators as well as consumers. You can do it too!

Autumn Winters, Teen Services Manager at Southwest Regional Library, a regional branch of the Durham County Library system in Durham, North Carolina

Blockbuster books = blockbuster movies

Saoirse Ronan in How I Live Now. Photo by Magnolia Pictures.

Meg Rosoff’s acclaimed How I Live Now (Random, 2004) is about a NYC girl who spends an idyllic summer with her cousins in England right before an unnamed aggressor invades the UK and threatens the world’s existence. Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald is at the helm and Saoirse Ronan and George MacKay star. The film debuts this fall.

The movie adaptation of 2006 bestseller The Book Thief (Random) by Markus Zusak is already building Oscar buzz and will be in theaters on November 15. This World War II drama is directed by Brian Percival, and stars Sophie Nelisse as the titular heroine Liesel, and Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson as her adoptive parents.

Seventh Son is based on the first installment in Joseph Delaney’s “The Last Apprentice” series (HarperCollins). In this dark fantasy, 14-year-old Tom Ward, a seventh son of a seventh son, goes on adventures as the Spook’s apprentice. Sergei Bodrov directs and Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, and Julianne Moore star. It features music composed by Tuomas Kantelinen. Originally scheduled to release on October 18, 2013, it will be out in theaters in 3-D and IMAX 3D on January 17, 2014.

Richelle Mead’s NYT-bestselling Vampire Academy (Penguin, 2007) is getting the film treatment in time for Valentine’s Day, 2014. Written by Daniel Waters of Heathers fame, and directed by his brother Mark Waters of Mean Girls fame, the story of best friends Rose, half-human/half-vampire, and Lissa, a mortal vampire princess who wreak havoc and fall in love at St. Vladimir’s Academy, is in capable hands. Starring Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, and Danila Kozlovsky, the movie is due out on February 14, 2014.

Positioned to be the next “Hunger Games” franchise, the movie adaptation of Veronica Roth’s Divergent (HarperCollins, 2011), featuring Hollywood’s latest sweetheart, Shailene Woodley, will be in theaters on March 21, 2014.

John Green’s chair on the set of In the Fault of Our Stars

One of the most celebrated YA novels of 2012, John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton), also starring Shailene Woodley (Hazel), began filming last week in Pittsburgh, and the acclaimed author has been excitedly tweeting and Tumbling from the set with updates. He will be making a cameo appearance in the book-to-film about two teen cancer patients who fall in love. Ansel Elgort plays the male lead, Auggie, Nat Wolff is cast as Isaac, his best friend, and it was recently revealed that Laura Dern will play Hazel’s mother. No film release date yet.

Fans of Gayle Forman’s If I Stay (Dutton, 2009) can breathe a sigh of relief. The film, starring Chloë Moretz, was dropped by Summit earlier this year, but it has since been picked up by MGM. The tearjerker—about a girl who has an out-of-body experience following a car accident that puts her in a coma and kills the rest of her family—will be produced by Denise DiNovi and Alison Greenspan of DiNovi Pictures. No release date yet.

And while Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season, just published this month, the first in a projected seven-book fantasy series by 21-year-old recent college graduate, is already building buzz for adult and teen audiences. It was recently chosen as the first Today Show book club selection, and the film rights have been acquired by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish, founders of The Imaginarium production company.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Sequels and more sequels
There’s been lots of casting news for Lionsgate’s final “Hunger Games” installments, based on Suzanne Collins’s books (Scholastic). The studio is currently eyeing Julianne Moore to play President Coin in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Natalie Dormer has been cast in the role of Cressida, while Evan Ross is set to play Messalla, Cressida’s cameraman, and Stef Dawson will step in as Finnick Odair’s love interest, Annie Cresta. In the meantime, fans still have Catching Fire to look forward to, in theaters on November 22, 2013.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes is slated to begin production in the fall with Harald Zwart returning to direct, along with stars Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell. A taste of the sequel was to premiere in Cannes, but general consensus on The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones is still pending.

Already banking on Divergent’s future success as a film, Brian Duffield been commissioned to begin working on the sequel, Insurgent (HarperCollins, 2012).

A dystopian horizon

Directed by Wes Ball, the movie version of James Dashner’s NYT-bestselling The Maze Runner (Delacorte, 2009), about a group of teens trying to survive in an enclosed environment called “The Glade,” is set to premiere in theaters on February 14, 2014. Patricia Clarkson has joined Dylan O’Brien (Thomas) and Kaya Scodelario (Teresa) in the cast as Chancellor Ava Paige.

A film based on Andy Mulligan’s Trash (Random, 2010), seems to be on its way to theaters soon. Rooney Mara (NGO worker named Olivia), Martin Sheen (Father Julliard), and Wagner Moura are now on board. Three street kids—Raphael (Rickson Tevez), Gardo (Eduardo Luis), and Rat (Gabriel Weinstein) live in an unnamed third-world country picking trash, and discover a mysterious bag that triggers a life-changing chain of events. Stephen Daldry is attached as director and Richard Curtis will write the script. Production starts in Rio de Janeiro and it’s already slated for a May 2014 release from Universal.

Many kidlit fans can attest that Lois Lowry’s Newbery-winning The Giver (Houghton, 1993) is the precursor to many of today’s dystopian YAs. Finally, the wheels for a film adaption have been set in motion. Brenton Thwaites will play an aged-up Jonas (the Receiver of memories) and Jeff Bridges is cast as the title character. Meryl Streep is in talks to play the society’s Chief Elder, tasked with assigning roles to the young denizens of a seemingly perfect world. Philip Noyce is attached as director and no release date has been yet announced.

Another pre-Hunger Games may be coming to a theater near you. Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies” series (S & S) is possibly in the pipeline again. The Australian author revealed via Twitter in July that Davis Entertainment and Lola VFX are in talks to team up and produce his NYT-best-selling trilogy, which chronicles the adventures of Tally Youngblood, a teen who unravels her “pretty” world’s ugly secrets.

SLJ Best Adult Book for Teens The Age of Miracles (Random, 2012) by Karen Thompson Walker, finally has a director lined up for its highly anticipated movie adaptation: Catherine Hardwicke, of Twilight-fame. River Road Entertainment’s Bill Pohlad will produce and Seth Lochhead is writing the screenplay based on the novel about a teen’s coming of age while the Earth’s rotation has begun to slow down.

Rick Yancey’s The 5^th Wave (Putnam, 2013) is inching closer to the big screen. Tobey Maguire’s production company has acquired the rights, and Oscar-nominated Susannah Grant is adapting the dark novel about Cassie’s struggle to survive on an Earth that is slowly being destroyed by aliens.

Paramount Pictures has acquired rights to Joelle Charbonneau’s The Testing (Houghton Harcourt 2013), a YA novel in which a teen is selected for a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization. Very few survive The Testing.

Classic kidlit on screen

Photo by Disney.

Maleficent, the Robert Stromberg-directed Disney film that stars Angelina Jolie as the title character, Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora, and Brenton Thwaites as the prince, will tell the story of Sleeping Beauty from the Queen’s point of view. It is set to release on July 2, 2014.

Jennifer Garner, Steve Carell, Ed Oxenbould, and Bella Thorne have been filming Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, based on the award-winning picture book by Judith Viorst that follows young Alexander through the trials of one very bad day. Coming to theaters on October 10, 2014, the live-action movie is directed Miguel Arteta, and was adapted by Rob Lieber.

The Cinderella fairy tale is also getting another treatment in a film directed by Kenneth Branagh. The star-studded cast includes Lily James as the title character, Richard Madden as Prince Charming, Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother Lady Tremaine, Helena Bonham Carter as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, Hayley Atwell as Cinderella’s biological mother, and Stellan Skarsgard as the Grand Duke. It’s due in theaters on March 13, 2015.

The classic French novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery will get a star-studded cast for its future film animated adaptation.  Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Rachel McAdams, Jeff Bridges, Benicio Del Toro, Mackenzie Foy and Paul Giamatti are already on board to voice characters in sweet story about a pilot who crash-lands in the desert and meets a boy who claims to have fallen to Earth from his home on an asteroid. Bridges will voice the pilot and Cotillard is in talks to take on the part of a rose. Mark Osborne is attached to direct.

Warner Bros. is making a movie based on the Archie comics series. The long-running comic about a teen and his friends set in the fictional Riverdale will be adapted by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and directed by Jason Moore. It will feature the comics’ first openly gay character, Kevin Keller, and rivals for Archie’s heart, Betty and Veronica, among other Riverdale residents.

Warner Bros. is also in final negotiations to pick up the movie rights to the iconic “Encyclopedia Brown” (Penguin) children’s book series for an adaptation to be produced by Roy Lee and Howard David Deutsch. Donald J. Sobol wrote 28 books, from 1963 until his death in 2012, about the intrepid young detective and his friends.

For middle grade moviegoers

Laika Entertainment has scheduled a release date for The Boxtrolls on September 26, 2014, a stop-motion animated film based on Alan Snow’s graphic novel series “The Ratbridge Chronicles” (S & S). Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi have teamed up to direct this project about a boy who allies himself with boxtrolls, cabbageheads, pirates, rats, a retired lawyer, and other silly characters to save the town of Ratbridge from villainous kidnappers. The cast of voice actors includes Elle Fanning, Simon Pegg, Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette, Nick Frost, and Jared Harris.

Disney has teamed up with the Weinstein Co. to develop a book-to-film adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl (Disney, 2001). The movie will be based on the first two books in the “Artemis Fowl” series, which chronicles the adventures of a 12-year-old criminal millionaire mastermind. Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg will handle the script for the live-action film, while Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will producer alongside Weinstein.

In development

Addison Timlin and Jeremy Irvine are set to star in Fallen, an adaptation of Lauren Kate’s best-selling YA series about fallen angels. Produced by Lotus Entertainment and Mayhem Pictures, the film will be directed by Scott Hicks and has been adapted by Kathryn Price, Nicole Millard, and Michael Ross.

Film rights to Emmy Laybourne’s Monument 14 (Feiwel & Friends, 2012) have been acquired by Strange Weather Films. The YA novel focuses on a group of 14 kids who survive an apocalyptic event, and must continue to battle the elements from the shelter of a superstore. Director/Screenwriter Brad Peyton is attached.

Universal Pictures has landed the film rights to Lauren Oliver’s next young adult novel, Panic (2014). Marc Platt will produce the project. The realistic novel is described as Oliver’s return to the grittiness of her first book, Before I Fall (2010, both HarperCollins), which was optioned by Fox 2000.

Ally Carter has two series optioned for film. The rights for “Gallagher Girls” have been acquired by Tonik Productions. These best-selling books share the stories of a group of sexy high-school-aged spies. The “Heist Society” series (both published by Disney/Hyperion) is now with Lionsgate with Max Handelman and Elizabeth Banks attached as producers. This series follows a reformed teen thief as she tries to make good and get out of the family con business.

Bryce Clyde Jenkins (from left), Skai Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Wood Harris and Harrison Knight star as the Watson family in the Hallmark Channel movie The Watsons Go to Birmingham. (Photo courtesy of Crown Media)

On the small screen
Christopher Paul Curtis’s 1995 historical fiction novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, has been adapted for the Hallmark Channel by Tonya Lewis Lee. Directed by Kenny Leo, the film centers on an African American family living in the town of Flint, Michigan, who visit their grandmother’s home in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, a turbulent time during the civil rights movement. The cast includes: Anika Noni Rose, David Alan Grier, Skai Jackson, LaTanya Richardson, Wood Harris, Bryce Jenkins, Pauletta Washington and Harrison Knight. It will have its world premiere on Friday, September 20 (8pm ET).

Kass Morgan’s The 100 (Little, Brown, 2013), a postapocalyptic YA novel, will premiere as a television series on The CW in its 2013–14 midseason.

Roald Dahl’s 1990 illustrated children’s book, Esio Trot, about elderly lovebirds and tortoises, will be adapted into a movie for the BBC, starring Dustin Hoffman and Dame Judi Dench as the couple. Dearbhla Walsh will direct the project, which starts filming in England next month.

 See also:

Page to Screen: Summer Reading Blockbusters, Dystopian Teen Lit, and Childhood Classics

Page to Screen: Upcoming Kids’ Books Set for Film Adaptations

The new federal ConnectED initiative should bring fast connections to almost all schools and libraries within five years. The project, a combination of enhanced broadband connectivity and teacher development, aims to leverage private-sector innovations to benefit students. President Obama also highlighted the role of libraries as partners in improving digital citizenship. Now it’s up to us. What experiences could we provide to our students and patrons if we had superior broadband?

I have four personal Cs of connectivity: content, creation, community, and concurrency. The benefits of the first two are predictable. But the real power of ConnectED lies in the potential of the last two.

Content is the gift and curse of greater broadband. As bandwidth increases, content grows to fill network capacity. While we might imagine expanded content to mean more enriched ebooks and multimedia-enhanced databases, a huge portion of many school networks is clogged with security camera footage.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But libraries need to understand how network configurations and technologies like traffic shaping can provide better, consistent connectivity for all broadband traffic by throttling select bandwidth-hogging services. Security cameras, for example, could be capped at 30 percent of bandwidth. So streaming video to classrooms could have a guaranteed consistent level of performance.

There’s also the issue of net neutrality, which seeks a position that doesn’t favor content from certain Internet providers, and makes traffic-shaping technologies especially important to understand. Service providers could use these technologies to slow down access to content from competitors.

On to my next C. Increased bandwidth expands the capability to create. Schools and libraries could use new resources to publish student- and teacher-authored materials. Think flipped classrooms. Teacher lectures are being recorded with interactive whiteboards and/or cameras, and being pushed out for students to view outside of school. Libraries might record presentations to share with a broader audience, too.

This idea is inexorably linked to the third C: community. A school or library with gigabit broadband in a community without high-speed access will struggle. So, institutions must tackle community access issues first, perhaps even by becoming local hubs for Internet service delivery. Once things are running smoothly, schools and libraries could support their larger communities by providing high-tech services, content delivery, and the creation or publication of locally important content.

Finally, the “ConnectEDness” that comes with high-speed connectivity holds great potential. Approaching gigabit speeds, interactions start to feel concurrent. One can truly be present in real time, even from a distance, as opposed to experiencing the molasseslike lag of high latency. Imagine what libraries could do with that.

We could build a support network to create richer virtual author visits by providing a space in the local library with high-speed broadband. If every library had a multimedia studio space for creation, speakers could use the same hardware for high-quality virtual presentations that feel like a live experience.

This just scratches the surface of things to do with high-speed broadband. Now’s the time to dream big—and to talk big. Share ideas. Establish the need for bandwidth in libraries before it arrives. Then, cross your fingers and hope that ConnectED will push through the morass of politics.

Sure, the Web is a key resource for educators, but what’s the best way to share the good stuff you’ve collected with students and teachers and keep it all organized?

EduClipper may be an answer. The free tool, launched this spring, seeks to provide a one-stop solution for K–12 by giving educators and students a simple, easy-to-use destination for curating and sharing online.

EduClipper was created by Adam Bellow, a former teacher and son of a high-school librarian who also works as a K–12 technology consultant. After hearing from educators who sought a visual content curation platform that was student friendly and school safe, Bellow set out to create a solution.

After last year’s testing period, eduClipper launched to the public in May and is now used in more than 450 classrooms. Brad Currie, middle school vice principal and supervisor of instruction for the Chester (NJ) School District, uses eduClipper with the 150 educators in his district as a professional development resource. Jason Fisher, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Riddells Creek Primary School in Victoria, Australia, shares it with his students as a collaborative research tool. Both sing eduClipper’s praises. “Staff members find eduClipper to be a great one-stop resource with huge potential in terms of their own professional development and promoting student collaboration,” says Currie. Fisher particularly likes that his students can comment on their sources in a description area provided within eduClipper.

EduClipper is tailor-made for K–12. Teachers and administrators can create accounts for students as young as five with varying levels of permissions. Do you want your students to interact only with content from your classroom? No problem. Do you prefer a curation tool that doesn’t allow comments? That’s doable, too. EduClipper offers a walled-garden approach that schools can adjust to fit their needs, instead of simply providing the private-world binary that’s all too familiar in online platforms.

Using eduClipper is simple, especially for those already familiar with online curation tools like Pinterest. Content can be “clipped” either through the eduClipper site or by using the bookmarklet tool in the browser. In addition to making it easy to clip links and images, the site also lets you grab video, documents, and embed code from creation tools on the Web bookmarklet—a great way to integrate student work from Google Drive.

While you can discover other eduClips and reClip them (this is similar to retweeting on Twitter or repinning on Pinterest), the site also offers collaborative clipboards where groups can add items to a shared space. These features are great, but the innovation that educators might appreciate most is one that generates formatted citations for online content. I hope that this will make that ever-helpful student citation, “it came from Google,” a thing of the past.

During our testing period, we ran into a few bugs that made our experience of browsing and clipping content less than seamless. When we brought up these problems with an eduClipper representative, we were told that the organization was aware of these issues and that fixes were currently in the works.

It’s tempting to compare the user experience of eduClipper with Pinterest or Pocket, a popular content-saving application. But those platforms are further along, so it’s an unfair comparison to make at this time. We’re looking forward to seeing eduClipper develop and work out its bugs, since the platform truly addresses a gap for K–12 students and educators.

Bellow says, “I think that teachers will find it a great way to connect to, build, or strengthen a personal learning network where they can curate with like-minded educators and find awesome content that they can use in their classroom or share with their students.”

EduClipper is free, available globally for K–12, and supports IE8+, Safari 3+, Firefox 4+, and Chrome. A mobile app version is in the works, though a launch date has not been set.

Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) tells (Lily Collins) about his childhood in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Photos courtesy of Constantin Film and Unique Features.

The first movie adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s popular urban fantasy series (S & S), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones takes the opposite approach of “The Twilight Saga.” It emphasizes action above all else, keeping the lingering close-ups of its gooey-eyed, mismatched couple, Brooklyn artsy hipster Clarissa “Clary” Fray (Lily Collins) and the pale and petulant Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), to a clipped minimum. The producers, who previously made the “Resident Evil” action films, provide the thrill of the chase and a sprinkling of the romance.

The screenplay prowls right through Clare’s story line, covering the first 120 pages of City of Bones (2007) within a half-hour, shuffling through the chronology of events. Sixteen-year-old Clary witnesses a murder in a nightclub that no other clubbers can see, and the next day, her single mom, Jocelyn (Lena Headey, so youthful she could pass as the lead’s older sister), disappears after two thugs break into their apartment. In this knockabout sequence, Jocelyn strikes the towering men with anything she can get her hands on,

Jocelyn is a former Shadowhunter, an angel-human demon slayer, and has been protecting the Mortal Cup, which renegade Shadowhunter Valentine (the smarmy Jonathan Rhys Meyers) covets. Without it, his race is a dying breed.

Knowing that Clary’s life is in danger, Jace—a swaggering Shadowhunter—promises to protect her from Valentine’s army of shape-shifting demons, and to help her find her mom. True to his word, Jace proves to be super-acrobatic, somersaulting in the air and landing firmly on his feet, weapon in hand.

Robert Sheehan as Simon, Clary’s best friend.

So yes, the movie’s dominated by plot instead of Clary’s discovery of her lineage—she’s part-Shadowhunter, after all—with recognizable snatches of the novel heard between the crash-and-boom special effects. The framework of the author’s romantic triangle remains, with Clary’s lovestruck best friend, the nerdy Simon (Robert Sheehan) lagging behind her and her superpowered love interest. Many of the novel’s subplots have also disappeared: Simon is not turned into a rat, for one example.

As it progresses, the movie’s production design doesn’t skimp on the creepiness, and becomes full-on gothic, with scads of skeleton bones . The demonic creatures take after the viscous, multi-jawed creatures of Alien. Yet the movie has a PG-13 intensity with a light touch of camp. Jace delivers his droll putdowns as if it exhausts him, and Clary fights off vampires in a black mini-dress with thigh-high boots, making any Bond girl proud.

However, the logic of Clare’s universe becomes muddled; Valentine simply and bluntly wants to dominate all non-humans. Motivations are abridged to set the scene for the next fight, where a couple of Shadowhunters and a tag-along Clary battle hordes of villains. With the plot pruned down to its essentials, the story’s mixture of myths and legends feels formulaic. In the climactic nocturnal showdown, the editing intercuts three different to-the-death confrontations, each prolonged, with the characters repeating the same moves. The lengthy sequence might prompt viewers to think that only the inevitable daylight will end the battle with rampaging vampires.

Clary and Jace share a lovey-dovey moment.

If this movies does, in fact, launch a franchise, it will be in no small part to the casting of the cool but debonair Campbell Bower as Jace, and for the appeal of Collins as Clary (those lips, those eyes, those eyebrows). In the meantime, it’s a passable late-summer stand-in for its core audience until the new fall CW television season begins.

Directed by Harald Zwart

Rated PG-13

130 min.

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.

During a maker party at the New York Hall of Science, kids used
MaKey MaKey circuit boards and Scratch programming language.
Photo courtesy NYSCI

Tinkerers of all ages are flexing their creative muscles during the Summer of Making and Connecting, a global project geared to empower digital crafters and match people with maker activities, online or on the street.

Running from June to mid-September, the campaign offers dozens of ways for kids, parents, and educators to make stuff digitally during the summer months and beyond. The venture is sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP) Educator Innovator and the Mozilla Foundation.

“People really love to play and make something,” says Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, NWP’s director of national programs and site development. “There’s a piece deep within us that wants to create, and we’re seeing it across so many domains.”

The project kicked off in June with the Maker Party, an online happening linking interested makers with design events, maker camps, coding challenges, and other activities. The idea was for people to bring their do-it-yourself spirit and apply digital tools to remix, collaborate, and share their creations over the open Web. Summertime makers are using the hashtag #clmooc on Twitter and elsewhere to tag their projects. You can also follow activities on the NWP Educator Innovator blog.

Makers can participate in real life, from Brooklyn to Uruguay, at physical events listed on the Maker Party site. Virginia-based educators Chad Sansing (@chadsansing) and Melissa Techman (@mtechman) launched a program called #nerdcamp this spring, and it’s continuing through the summer. On a recent July day at #nerdcamp, a mix of adults and one student were happily huddled together programming Arduinos, open-sourced circuit boards, to work with LED displays.

“The whole point is to tinker and see,” says Sansing, a language arts teacher at Shelburne Middle School in Staunton, VA (and author of the SLJ feature story “Life with Raspberry Pi”). Not all #nerdcamp projects succeed, however. That doesn’t matter to Sansing—and it shouldn’t to participants, either, he says. He especially likes it when grown-ups experience the rewards of “what it’s like to work on something you want to work on, for a long time, where you’re fully engaged.”

Virtual Summer of Making and Connecting participants include Susan Angel (@zsuzsannangel), a sixth- and seventh-grade teacher in Vancouver, BC, who built a short slideshow using Haiku Deck to promote her teaching and learning credo. Valerie Hill (@valibrarian), a teacher librarian at the Lewisville (TX) Independent School District and adjunct instructor at Texas Woman’s University, built a 3-D virtual book about media before and after Gutenberg. Adapting templates that Sansing had made, Techman crafted a page featuring thoughts people encounter while writing.

What happens to this outpouring of activity come September? The Summer of Making and Connecting “is not meant to live in the summer and die,” says Techman, a school librarian at Broadus Wood Elementary School in Earlysville, VA. “We want to bring ideas from the summer into classrooms, public libraries, and to other constituents.”

NWP’s Educator Innovator project is working on strategies to keep the creative connections flowing. And for those who didn’t get a jumpstart on the event this year, NWP and its partners plan to launch another one in the summer of 2014.

“This really is a movement,” says Eidman-Aadahl. “We want every young person to see that they can be a creator and maker of their own life.”

Geared for grades six to twelve, the song teaches students about the role of media specialists, and it exceeds volumes of fiction and nonfiction. To “search better than Google, declare the lyrics, “come and find me.” The production also addresses “a few misconceptions about our profession….” “We don’t read all day, our hair’s not in a bun. We don’t all wear glasses, don’t always say “shush.”

To enter the “We Heart Librarians” Contest, record a video of yourself—solo or with a group—singing or lip-syncing along to the song for a chance to be featured in an “Ode to Librarians” remix video. You don’t have to be a librarian to submit and students are encouraged to participate (with the necessary permissions secured). Lyrics and a downloadable MP3 of the song, along with complete rules, are available via the contest page.

Submissions are due by November 30, 2013, and winners will be announced December 15.

“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.

Early learning programs at Brooklyn Public Library.
All photos ©Philip Greenberg/Courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library.

How can we make smarter babies?  These days there seem to be brain building claims on almost every baby product. While many of these claims have been validated by research, what does the research say about educational apps for babies?  Earlier this week, the Campaign for a Commercial Free-Childhood (CCFC) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission stating that there is no rigorous research to support Fisher-Price’s claim that their “Laugh & Learn,” apps  support language development and conceptual learning in babies. Is this Jean Piaget’s “American Question” for the 21st Century?

When Piaget, the renowned Swiss child psychologist, spoke to American audiences, he was often asked the same question: “What can we do to make children develop faster?”  Piaget’s answer: “Why would you want to do that?” He didn’t think that pushing kids to reach milestones before they were ready was possible or desirable. But this inquiry, often called the “American Question,” seems to continue to haunt the shelves of the baby aisle.

Back in 2000, when I first started working with a special early childhood collection at a public library, parents often requested the Your Baby Can Read kit. They seemed to be very excited about these flashcards, DVDs, and books that could “teach their babies to read” and get their child ahead. I was always tempted to respond with Piaget’s reply, but I held my judgment in check and encouraged them to read to their babies instead. The product has since been publicly discredited by the CCFC, but you can still find the kit online.

Fast forward to 2013. In Brooklyn, parents participating in an Every Child Ready to Read workshop asked the librarian leading it for some early literacy app recommendations. Apps for babies abound, such as “Baby Learning Card” or the aforementioned Fisher-Price “Laugh & Learn” apps (with 2.8 million downloads). Interestingly enough, the same watch-dog group that helped discredit the claims of the “Baby Einstein” DVDs and the Your Baby Can Read kit—the CCFC—is now questioning the educational claims of these very popular apps.

Are parents getting apps for their babies because they want their child to get ahead, learn letters, colors, shapes, and numbers? As a parent of a young child, I get it. There is always the feeling that you’re not doing enough as parent. Is my son getting enough breast milk? Do I read to him enough?  Do I play and talk with him enough? Parents use apps to keep track of feeding times and get baby care advice, why not get the hottest new tool to help baby learn? But is this the road we should be taking? Are learning apps right for babies?

Many, particularly the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), would say no. It recommends avoiding screens before the age of two years. The AAP made this suggestion based on the troubling results of research on passive television viewing and background television. While more research needs to be done on interactive screens, there’s no hard evidence that young children can learn much from a screen before the age of two.

I’ve heard parents say they would never let their baby look at TV or use an app. Some parents even baby-proof the house by getting rid of the TV. Avoiding screens completely is not very realistic in our screen-saturated world. If a baby is getting a rich diet of language and play with parents and caregivers, a little screen time distraction so mom can squeeze in a shower is not going to melt a baby’s brain.

Educational apps, videos, and flashcards, however well-meaning, do not take into account how babies learn. Babies learn through interaction, touching, feeling, grabbing, moving, and doing the same thing over and over again. A baby may drop a spoon out of the high chair repeatedly. However annoying this is to mom, he is learning how gravity works, what sound metal makes when it hits the floor, and may even be conducting a social science experiment (is mom going to pick it up again?). Babies learn through interactions with loving and trusted caregivers. When a baby points to a balloon and says “bah!” and dad gets excited because she has said a new word, she is going to repeat this trick again and again to please dad. Very young minds need a thoughtful, feeling person to help them make connections, encourage exploration, and adapt to their needs. These are all things apps and screens just can’t do.

So what is the librarian’s response when parents ask for “Baby Einstein” DVDs or app recommendations for babies?  Should we quote the APA guidelines and give parents the librarian evil eye for putting their little ones in front of screens? My first suggestion is don’t judge. Apps and videos have their place. I know one family that uses YouTube videos of trains to get their son through his nebulizer asthma treatments with fewer tears. Also, I would make sure parents are informed. Let them know that babies learn through play. Encourage them to come to library programs that model fun activities they can try at home. Show them where the board books are located. I think it is fine to recommend a few quality apps or videos, maybe even ones based on picture books, and encourage parents to play with apps and view videos with their babies and talk together about what is on the screen.

It looks like the “American Question” will always be with us, but librarians can be part of the answer. Our programs help parents connect the dots between learning and play. We model simple and free activities that stimulate early literacy development. Learning is a process and it happens for everyone at its own pace. Babies, with the help of parents, caregivers, educators, and librarians, are building learning one block, one book, one word, and one song at a time.
Highly interactive board books that are more fun than apps

• Bizzy Bear: Fire Rescue! illustrated by Benji Davies. Candlewick/Nosy Crow. 2013.
• The Finger Circus Game by Hervé Tullet. illustrated by author. Phaidon Pr. 2013.
• Peekaboo! by Taro Gomi. Chronicle. 2013. 
• Who’s Hiding? by Sebastien Braun. Candlewick. 2013.
• You Are My Baby: Safari by Lorena Siminovich. Chronicle. 2013. 

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.