QR Code Fun!!!

The Library Goddess forwarded an email to me about QR Codes in the Library so I decided to play around with it and brainstormed with one of my students about what we could create QR Codes for.

If you don't know what a QR code is read "What is a QR Code and Why Do You Need One?" or also, this article in FastCompany from last year is great (and also a reason why you should go to SXSW Education or Interactive this year) "What Business Card? Just scan my QR Code." And of course, you can always go to Wikipedia.

Here is a tiny glimpse of what our front page looks like. I am restricted in what I can do since this is only part of a bigger site but you get the picture. If not, check it out here. LibGuides actually has a nice mobile version so students can use their phones. I just discovered this when I created the QR code. A lot of our kids have smartphones and tend to work on the bus to games or what not. A lot of our students have iPads as well. I hope that when the new iPads come out with the camera feature, students can also scan these QR codes.

If you want to read more about how libraries are using QR codes, check out LibSuccess.org's QR page. If we had historical buildings we could actually put QR codes with the history of our campus around for when people are walking around campus waiting for their tours. But we are middle school so that might be a bit too much. I also was thinking it would be a great way to familiarize our kids about the library by using it for a scavenger hunt. Most of the libraries featured on that wiki page are universities but I don't see why it wouldn't be great to use it for a school.

Are you doing anything with QR codes at your school? I know one school is using it to promote books on their newsletter to parents.

School Librarian Check Out

I haven't written a list of the things I've been checking out so here it is:

Reading:
Ally Condie Matched. There was an article on this book and on Ally Condie in SLJ and I had to pick it up. I loved Hunger Games so I thought I have some high expectations. On the back of the jacket it also mentions Twilight (cringe) so hopefully it's better written.

Graham Bowley No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - I love these kinds of books. Also, this came highly recommended from students and Ambookgeek.

Clay Shirky Cognitive Surplus

Survey of EBook Penetration and Use in the US School (K-12) Libraries - you can download it for your appropriate library. If our school is any indicator, ebooks are where it's at (FINALLY)

Listening:
Jeff Lindsey Dexter By Design. This is making me want to watch the show.

Highly Recommend:
You check out the Midwinter 2011 Tech Trends wrap-up presentation archived at ALA Techsource - so worth watching. Lots of interesting things - the Library in the Cloud is one of the things I'm interested in. Plus, @griffey 's gadget report. That alone makes it worth watching. I love gadgets even though I can't afford them! But at least I can drool over them :)

Also, read about this Librarian game on the Speak Quietly blog. What a great way to teach kids about how to shelve books. Actually, and parent volunteers. I want to use it next year for our call numbers lesson. I played it on Library Goddess' iphone. It was so fun! Except you need a bigger screen because some of the call numbers are hard to see. I say we get iPads for our library lessons. Wouldn't it be great to also have them using Noodle tools or some similar tool as well especially since after we started using LibGuides our database and ebook use is up pretty much 2 fold!

Cool Tools from School Library Journal

I'm taking some time to read the December 2010 issue of School Library Journal. These are some of the things they highlighted that I plan on checking out or have my students checkout during one of our units.

Richard Byrne, over at Free Technology for Teachers blog, wrote a bit about Twiducate. Social network created by the teacher and similar to Twitter. What a great way to teach kids about online behavior and how to utilize SNS for education. Our students are still at the age where their SN is really more social than educational. You also have a lot of control over the site so I think this might make certain lessons more entertaining as well as educational.

There is also EduPad, which isn't even live yet but I thought would be great to look at. During the virtual ebooks conference a few months ago, one of the speakers mentioned how teachers and librarians need to be the creators as well as the consumers. This might be a great place to start - by creating apps related to our lessons.

On a personal note, I really want the Edifier Soundbar. My old iBook is now my giant iTunes player. (seriously, it cannot handle more than 2 applications at time and those 2 apps are iTunes and Last.fm) So, it would be great if I could have an amplifier.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I did write a lesson on how to use Google Docs - document for my 7th graders so I will have to post about that later after I see how it goes. It might be disaster but I'm hopeful.

Tools at the Library: Atomic Learning

Dave, who's now blogging library stuff over at Big Building, Lots of Books, was cool enough to check out Atomic Learning. Atomic Learning provided training movies (screencasts) that teach you how to use different applications, from the practical Microsoft Office programs to things like PowerTeacher Gradebook. The tutorials are short, step-by-step videos that teach you how to use the program you are interested in. I have been using it to get a better grasp of how to use Excel and also to learn DreamWeaver. It also provides a whole list of other resources, like their Lesson Accelerators, which are basically project-based lesson plans, that you can use with your students.

As a school, you can get a subscription for teachers and students, which is another added bonus. We have students who love just opening up Photoshop or Publisher and just go in and try to figure things out by clicking away. Since we do not really offer classes in using these tools, this is another way to let students learn on their own.

So far I am pretty excited about it and have shared it with students who are interested in programming. I think, it might be a great way to get more girls interested in technology. This way they can learn on their own time, at home and not feel so self-conscious about being a girl who likes programming.

Is anyone else out there using this in their schools? And if so, how are you using?

IL 2007 - "Next Generation Research Tools"

Saturday 1:30 - 4:30 - Preconference Workshop - "Next Generation Research Tools"

Here is a link to the Internet Librarian 2007 blog.

Pam Howard & Mira Foster hosted the workshop. They talked about different Web 2.0 tools, such as Flickr, YouTube, Furl, Zotero, del.icio.us, and Clipmarks, and how these tools have been incorporated into the librarians/researchers repetoire.

They focused on how relationship between the librarian and the user. Librarians need to foster and nurture relationships with users using the tools that their communities are using outside the "library" environment. We also need to take the time to utilize new tools that are transforming how individuals conduct research. There are practices that we are teaching, for example, note taking techniques, that are now being transformed by online tools or new software. Also, multimedia projects are being incorporated into school curricula and we need to be aware and knowledgable on how to use these different tools.

What I really liked about this workshop was the fact that they had practical examples on how students can use RSS aggregators, online note-taking & bibliographic applications, flickr or google maps, in real world assignments.

Tools I am interested in are Zotero, Clipmarks, Noodle and Furl (you can archive webpages). I will post a list of cool links later.

Looking at some of these tools, like Zotero, makes me want to go back to school. It's made creating bibliographies and taking notes from online sources and even collaborating with peers so much easier.

SNS & Education - Thoughts?

I am currently researching the use of social networking sites in the classroom. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on the topic.

I am reading about Ning, Elgg, and Imbee. I think it is best to stay away from MySpace and Facebook.

It would be good if I got some feed back from people out there.

Thanks!