The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
Rosen Digital has introduced a free, interactive ebook platform that customers can populate, à la carte, with unlimited, simultaneous access licensed, nonfiction titles for $34.95 each or $209.70 for a set of six.Sixty titles are currently available and an additional 60 will be released in January 2013. The ebooks feature colorful designs, eye-popping photographs, plenty [...]
Carolyn Foote brought six iPads into her school library in a modest pilot program that evolved into a school-wide 1:1 rollout. Librarians are well-positioned to play a critical role, says Carl Hooker, director of instructional technology for Eanes ISD, “They are the conduit to the ed-tech department as well as being a ‘just in time’ trainer.”
“A school year with a presidential election is like a perfect storm for a social studies teacher,” writes Eric Langhorst, an eighth-grade history teacher in Liberty, MO, and 2007 state Teacher of the Year. Here are his picks for the best online resources to engage kids in the political process.
Librarians are masters of information. Finding it, storing it, organizing it, retrieving it—you name it. We excel at a wide range of skills. And in today’s world, that’s the name of the game. Case in point: my team and I were recently asked to choose passages of text for a regional K–8 English language-arts exam. [...]
The post We Could Be Heroes: Research plus tech skills are a hot commodity appeared first on The Digital Shift.
Wikipedia users can now create ebooks using articles from the English edition of the crowd-sourced reference. Library consultant Linda Braun shows how it’s done.
While the vast majority of parents who own an iPad use it to read ebooks with their children, moms and dads like some aspects of the digital reading experience more than others, according to a new study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.
The post On Reading with Kids on the iPad, Mixed Feelings Persist Among Parents appeared first on The Digital Shift.
Pat Scales, chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and SLJ columnist, regularly fields questions on banned library materials. But “this is the first I’ve encountered in which a book’s format has been censored,” she writes.
New storytelling application Meograph helps users create uniquely dynamic, interactive projects, incorporating Google Maps and Google Earth to generate a story time line, which can be enhanced with images, video, text, audio, and links for more information. SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings walks us through the platform in his video review.
All the tech programming in the world means nothing without the adequate infrastructure to support it. Now anyone—from teachers, administrators and librarians to students—can log on to the site Education Superhighway and have their school’s connection speed analyzed within minutes.
Elementary school librarian Amy Blaine did a little online window-shopping and picked a few practical—and not so practical—items to take her throughout the day.
The post A Geek’s Back-to-School Wish List appeared first on The Digital Shift.
Who needs coffee? If this bit of inspiration from teacher Colby Sharp doesn’t jump-start your day, nothing will. This among a mix of resources and links to mark the start of a new school year.
The post The Best Back-to-School Video Ever | Links of the Week appeared first on The Digital Shift.
Social learning platform Edmodo is debuting some new features, just in time for the start of school. Responding to user feedback, the company has streamlined the ability for teachers to connect and access content and revised some existing tools, including centralizing group functionality.
The post Edmodo Gets an Upgrade appeared first on The Digital Shift.
Seeing is believing. Pages of a picture book literally come to life in this demo of the augmented reality app “Imag.N.O.Tron,” a companion to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, the Oscar-winning film, app, and book by William Joyce.
The post Video: Playing with the Augmented Reality App IMAG-N-O-TRON appeared first on The Digital Shift.
Apps involving monsters, both real and imagined, are among the digital publications examined in School Library Journal’s app review column Touch and Go.
In this month’s cover story for School Library Journal, Jonker, an elementary school librarian, documents the launch of an ereader lending program in words and pictures. This article is adapted from a series of posts at Jonker’s blog 100 Scope Notes, which is moving to SLJ.com.
Learnist, a new curation tool that’s been gaining traction among educators, including librarians, has expanded its social learning platform to mobile, with apps for the iPhone and iPad released today.
From Vialogues and SynchTube to TED-Ed, free tools for hosting conversation around videos.
So many fun Tumblrs out there, not the least of which—dare we say—are our own. House Tumblrs-in-chief, Chelsey Philpot, associate editor, SLJ Book Review, and Molly McArdle, assistant editor, LJ Book Review, share a few of their favorite sites.
SLJ columnist Jeff Hastings test drives Aerbook Maker, a new platform for creating your very own tablet-ready graphical ebooks.
Pay-as-you-go ebook service BrainHive is now available to schools. Titles offered include a range of fiction and nonfiction from publishers including Random House, Charlesbridge, Lee & Low, and Lerner. Carolyn Foote, district librarian, Eanes ISD in Austin, TX, calls it an “out-of-the box and creative pricing model that sets a new standard.”
