April 2013
2 posts
5 tags
Minecraft club: the first meeting
A productive half hour. Five sophomores showed up and were surprised more people weren’t there. The kids’ main concern is getting a critical mass of 15-20 people to play which would make a fun game.
Most of our potential members are in the Anime Club which meets during activity blocks like us. We can’t move to after school because kids’ schedules are too busy.
Also, no freshmen showed up...
6 tags
Minecraft Club part 1: "I want to teach everyone...
I’m starting a Minecraft in my school. I’ve been anxious about the idea because I feel like I don’t know enough about the game. Why did I feel I had to do it? Because I’ve been reading Minecraft posts by Sarah Ludwig and I admire her practice. And, most important, there is a Minecraft club at our middle school—and I’ve got to keep up with them!
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I...
March 2013
1 post
1 tag
Digital Humanities and School Libraries
I went to the Digital Humanities: The Next Generation conference at Simmons this weekend thinking that I was reaching. After all, digital humanities happens in universities, requires super coding skills, and, really, I’m not even completely sure what digital humanities is—something to do with infographics? After two days of listening to presenters from universities and archives...
February 2013
1 post
6 tags
Can We Talk: How school librarians discuss social...
by Alida Hanson
By now you should know that I’m interested in new media and how we can use it in schools. I researched and wrote an article about school librarians and social media which was published in the winter 2013 issue of Young Adult Library Services. YALS is the journal of the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.
The main things...
September 2012
3 posts
6 tags
Google Power Search Class 2
Notes from class #2.[[MORE]]
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Google Power Search Course 1
I signed up for this free online Google course and took the first lesson last night. I’m sharing my notes here with you. There are five more lessons coming, I think. If I pass the midterm and final I will earn some kind of certificate. Wish me luck. Notes follow after the jump.[[MORE]]
4 tags
Haiku Deck
I played around with the free iPad app Haiku Deck tonight and think it’s an excellent way to present a short lesson. It’s also a nice summarizing tool for students. You must create presentations on the iPad but you can view them in any web based browser.
The presentations have a fresh design, and great pictures to choose from. It’s not completely intuitive, but after a few...
August 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Back to school library bulletin board?
Too girly?
Download or customize.
5 tags
Article Query: School Librarians and Social Media
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July 2012
1 post
8 tags
My New BFFs: PDFs, Adobe Reader and Genius Scan
Sounds boring. It is hard for me to believe that these mundane tools have the most impact on my daily life—with big implications for the school library.
Genius Scan for iPhone
[[MORE]]I downloaded Genius Scan free from iTunes to use on my iPhone. Now scanning signed papers is simple: sign, hold your iPhone over it, take a picture, adjust the frame, wait for auto-optimization, save to...
May 2012
2 posts
3 tags
7 tags
Kamishibai
Kamishibai, a traditional, low-tech form of Japanese storytelling, has magical effects on your audience. I fell in love with it last month thanks to Deborah Abner, my friend and wonderful librarian at Lincoln School in Brookline, which has an ELL program for its large Japanese student population. She asked me to use it for library lessons during Sakura Week when I subbed for her. It’s...
February 2012
1 post
9 tags
How do I eread? Let me count the ways.
I’ve had a Kindle for almost two years and have used it once or twice for a total of one hour. Does that mean I’m not “ereading?”
No.
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I don’t use my Kindle often. But I do use GoogleReader, GoogleBooks, iBooks, Zite, Flipboard and various free content rich apps like the British Library 19th Century Collection and NYPL Biblion. And I’ve also...
January 2012
3 posts
5 tags
7 tags
eBook production with Vook
I’m always signing up for new platforms online. Sometimes it’s like shouting into the void ( Visual.ly?) but usually I learn something exciting that has applications to education.
I signed up for Vook a few months ago and heard back from them earlier this week about getting a beta tester account and taking training. I just finished the training and am impressed with the ease and...
1 tag
December 2011
5 posts
5 tags
5 tags
What inspires you?
Marissa Mayer, a top executive at Google, asks job candidates the following questions during interviews to see what inspires and influences them.
“What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen in the past six months?”
“What do you own that you love?”
What a great self-assessment tool to uncover treasures often buried beneath a pile of tasks!
Read the entire...
5 tags
November 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Great Google search infographic from...
Created by: HackCollege
katherine asked: Alida, so, I'm working on a series of interviews of blogging librarians over at my library tumblr (TheCardiganLibrarian). The point is to provide a sort of cross-pollination of library tumblrs and to give prospective librarians (of which there seem to be a lot on Tumblr) the skinny on what being a librarian is like. I was wondering if you might be interested in doing an interview; the...
4 tags
Common Core
Check out the Common Core app I added to my blog. Look on the right hand side of the page, click on the tab, and you’ll get handy pull out directory of English and Math Common Core standards for grades K-12.
It’s easy to grab the code and it to your blog.
October 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Come on, really, why do we cite?
Image courtesy Flickr user Photos by Stan
As librarians and graduate students, we know that citations are the basis of scholarship. Academic careers are made and broken on the strength of citations (academics track citations of their own work, which increases their influence and value).
But what about high school students? Yes, they need to know how to cite and make bibliographies for papers,...
4 tags
Thinking about Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs showed us what someone can achieve while being treated for cancer. He did some of his most important work after his diagnosis. I don’t offer him as an example for people with cancer to “think positive,” but for employers, friends, family and community to recognize that a cancer diagnosis does not mean it’s time to avert your eyes and start saying goodbye.
...
July 2011
2 posts
krbiles asked: Alida,
Currently have two blogs using iWeb, one for our school staff and one for our parents. Am looking to expand to another blog for an expanded audience. I'm hearing some very positive things about Tumblr. I have looked at your blog, Vicki "Cool Cat's", Will Richardson and numerous others. Why did you choose Tumblr over say Blogger? How did you come upon...
Currently have two blogs using iWeb, one for our school staff and one for our parents. Am looking to expand to another blog for an expanded audience. I'm hearing some very positive things about Tumblr. I have looked at your blog, Vicki "Cool Cat's", Will Richardson and numerous others. Why did you choose Tumblr over say Blogger? How did you come upon...
8 tags
Scoop.it
Everyone’s talking about curation these days, and who better to talk curation than librarians? We’re all about sorting through information avalanches.
Enter Scoop.it, an easy way to build attractive, annotated, librarian-approved webpages of online resources for your students.
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Scoop.it lets you
choose and edit Scoop.it search streams, focusing on the social web...
June 2011
8 posts
3 tags
Twitter Lists
Another piece of my efficiency plan: using Twitter lists. When I make lists according to topic, social circle, or importance, I can follow all the streams that are important to me instead of having them all mixed together in my feed.
Simmons
Magazines/Newpapers/Blogs
Library
Teaching
TLchat
Books
Information Literacy
Fun
Makes twitter less random. I follow almost 500 people and I...
Next up: Organizing my Google Reader
The more blogs I subscribe to, the fewer I actually read. It’s time to take a hard look at my Google Reader and organize it for efficiency. Categories are key: they need to reflect content and importance. Thinking of using something like:
Must Read
Should Read
Topics (Education, Libraries, Educational Technology, Shopping, Books, etc.)
Procrastination/Reward
How do you organize...
7 tags
Ipad app of "On the Road"
Enhanced versions of novels and nonfiction are coming out in ebooks and ipad apps. Penguin calls their ipad app of On the Road an “amplified edition.” These apps can be preloaded in library ipads, and librarians can keep their students informed about free apps (like this one from the British Library) to download on personal devices.
On the Road app costs about $16.00.
4 tags
77 Web Resources for Teachers to Try This Summer
Richard Byrne writes a great blog called Free Technology for Teachers, and also writes a column for School Library Journal. Byrne has put together a handy book of technologies that I’ll be taking a look at this summer. I’ll be familiar with some of them, but there’s always something new to learn. Thank you, Richard Byrne.
77 Web Resources for Teachers to Try This Summer
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2 tags
You Otter Know: But Graphic Novels ARE Reading!:... →
kawaiilibrarian:
School Library Journal and Brodart are sponsoring a free online panel on using graphic novels in libraries.
The library seminar is on June 21 (Tuesday) from 2:00-3:00 PM EDT BUT if you can’t attend you can still register to hear the panel playback.
Panelists:
Katharine “Kat” Kan,…
7 tags
Flickr
I’ve been exploring Flickr lately, mainly by posting pictures of recent travels and my garden. Thinking about privacy, content and permissions when opening the account, I chose a pseudonym. I decided to post images that are viewable by everyone, with an attribution/non-commercial/share-alike Creative Commons license . I often use CC Flickr photos for projects and think it’s time I...
3 tags
Storify
Tried out Storify a while back and posted it to the wrong tumblr! Storify lets you search social media and aggregates posts in an attractive format that you can embed in websites, share in Twitter, post to FB. It’s a new perspective on current events, culture, and media. I made two and here they are:
May 2011
3 posts
3 tags
DAR.fm
David Pogue wrote an article about DAR.fm today in the Times. I allowed myself 20 minutes to explore it, and found that it allows access, storage and search for radio shows, and has a nice API that gives you a record button for your own radio shows. There is discussion about copyright violations and whether this is this really any better than podcasts.
I tried to record talk radio from Joplin,...
4 tags
Qwiki
I looked up Graham Greene, one of my favorite authors, on Qwiki and am really impressed with the results. The result is a slideshow of photos and spoken text, with related Qwikis handily listed nearby. This is a fun way to get a quick overview of a topic or subject that might otherwise be difficult to penetrate.
View Graham Greene and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.
3 tags
April 2011
1 post
3 tags
December 2010
14 posts
3 tags
3 tags
Watch
VoiceThread
Images, voice and print spark discussion about bullying on VoiceThread. A great equalizer, Voice Thread gives every voice, from the shyest to the loudest, equal weight.
This technology offers options that aren’t available in a live classroom: participation from remote locations, choice of print or voice response, the option of identified or anonymous participation, with the...
This VoiceThread supports Massachusetts Health and Language Arts Frameworks around mental health and visual literacy.
5 tags
Screencast
Using an RSS reader to keep up with blogs is a big part of literacy in the 21st century. A screencast is perfect for teaching users technology because it presents information in short bites and can be viewed repeatedly until the material is mastered.
This would be part of a group of screencasts housed on the library website, where students can get instruction from a familiar teacher, on demand. ...
WatchView my screencast about subscribing to RSS feeds in Google Reader.
After watching this screencast, students and staff in middle and high school will know enough to start subscribing to publications with Google Reader. They will understand RSS feeds and the different types of material being published on the web.
2 tags
Google Search Story
Middle school is a search for identity, especially through friendship. This Search Story addresses students’ anxieties around entering middle school in an offbeat, reassuring way. Google Search Stories are an interesting mixture of sprightliness and cutting edge, perfect for the middle school audience.
Not only does this story offer social/emotional support, it gives middle schoolers an example of how research applies to every day life and shows how to select key words and narrow down a search process.
