Top Shelf » technology

Cool updates to Voicethread

Mary Woodard — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:07:21 +0000

Voicethread is one of the favorite tools that we introduce in our version of the 23 Things class. Joyce Valenza’s recent post in the Neverending Search blog describes Voicethread’s new relationships with New York Public Library and Flickr Creative Commons that give their users access to over 700,000 digitized images. Read the entire post for more details.

Invite them and they will come!

Mary Woodard — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:15:49 +0000

Every year, when we evaluate our library programs according to the Standards and Guidelines for Texas School Libraries, one of our lowest areas is typically Standard V – Connections to the Community. It takes a lot of planning and effort to reach out and bring the community into the school library, but if you invite them, they will come!

Case in point: Right before Spring Break, Margaret Beasley, librarian at Cannaday Elementary hosted a Library Expo. This evening event featuring the library attracted over 200 students, parents and siblings! Attendees were treated to demonstrations of technology that is used in the library, including a Promethean interactive white board lesson

and podcasts created by 3rd and 6th graders.

They were also given a hands-on lesson in the computer lab on how to access the library’s online resources from home.

This year’s event was so successful that Margaret is already making plans to do it again next year!

The benefits of a program like this are many. Not only does it make stakeholders aware of what their kids are doing when they come to the library and of the resources that are available, it increases the likelihood that those stakeholders will advocate to keep the library program, if there should ever be a possibility of letting it go.

What are you doing to get parents into your library?

Attend a conference in your pajamas!

Mary Woodard — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:23:05 +0000

The K-12 Online Conference is a conference by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape.

This free virtual annual professional development event spans the next three weeks. Presentations appear in the form of streamable or downloadable audio or video clips, with each workshop lasting about 20 minutes. Presentations are archived so that you may return to them later or visit sessions from previous conferences. Scheduled live chats allow participants to also connect real time.

Read more about it on Joyce Valenza’s blog then give it a try!

Technology competencies

Mary Woodard — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:49:36 +0000

In working with teachers and librarians, I have noticed that there seems to be an ever-growing divide between the so-called “techies” and the technology illiterate. As technology and the web become increasingly important in our day to day lives, I’m afraid that people who don’t have these skills will cease to be effective in their jobs.

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin listed several basic technology competencies. Take his little quiz. Here are a few of the questions:

Can you capture something you see on your screen and paste it into Word or PowerPoint?
Can you open a link you get in an email message?
Do you have a signature in your outbound email?
Do you fall for internet hoaxes and forward stuff to friends and then regret it?

These are really basic skills that we all need to have. If there is something on the quiz that you don’t know how to do, I encourage you to find someone to teach you. And if you know how to do these things, teach someone else who doesn’t.

Who knows? You may help someone (or yourself) remain employed!

Photo citation: Collage, uploaded on July 14, 2008 by Editor B.