Technology

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Great Websites for Kids (GWS) committee announced the inclusion of 10 additions to its compilation of exemplary websites for children on July 29. These online resources are geared to children from birth to age 14, and range in subjects as diverse as animals and dinosaurs; games and entertainment; history and science; art and music; and resources for teachers and parents.

A screencast tour of four free applications to help kids learn how to code: Daisy the Dinosaur, Hopscotch, Scratch, and Tynker.

Shilpa, Roya, Ahran, and Karan Mission: Club Academia strives to organize existing knowledge in ways that make learning easily accessible while simultaneously inspiring people to discover and innovate. Sometimes you meet a group of kids for whom being college and career ready is simple not enough.   As a high school librarian, I am often honored to work with [...]

The perfect companion on a summer hike? National Geographic's digital guide to North American birds allows nature lovers to identify winged creatures, learn about their habits, and record sightings, all before they can say Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

Hello, my name is Liz, and I’m obsessed with Candy Crush. For those of you who aren’t playing . . . . Candy Crush Saga is a game you can play on your phone or computer. It’s one of those “match 3 objects” games, (in this case candies) with each board having a different set of challenges (get a [...]

Many popular fanfiction stories are based on books that can be found in school libraries: The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, and, of course, Harry Potter. For most fanfiction authors, though, that’s where the connection between fanfiction and school ends: they've never been asked by a teacher or librarian about their out-of-school writing.

When it comes to fanfiction and academics, there is a long history of non-fans writing and doing things that fans don’t particularly like, so you should be extraordinarily careful when you introduce fanfiction-based exercises to wary young fans.

School’s out—and time to enjoy some serious lounging. Summer is also a time to consider your Web presence. If your website could use an upgrade, consider these tools to give it a boost for back-to-school—and save you time this fall.

Do young fanfiction authors seek the kind of feedback that educators would find “useful” in K-12 settings, and are fanfiction communities really the nurturing environments of peer-critique that some make them out to be?