Useful links (Weekly)

  by  Jeannine St. Amand 

• The Harvard Library Innovation Laboratory at Harvard Law School LibraryCloud aggregates collection and usage metadata from a number of different libraries and feed them into Shelflife, a sample front end for how this kind of information might be viewed and used by library patrons. Main features of the interface include: *use of the visual metaphor of a book shelf (Stackview) to help people browse popular titles trending at libraries across America. *all books appear in context and have their own page with recommendations and tags. At this stage Shelflife is a testing environment which is best introduced by taking the online tutorial, although you can also explore the site independently

• Kno – Save 30-50% Off On Over 150,000 eTextbook Titles That You Can Read On the Web & iPad Ebooks downloaded through Kno offer capabilities like 3D diagrams and a “Quiz Me” button that tests readers on portions in the textbook. By utilizing its search mechanism, readers will be able to find certain words and sections with a simple click. Other than its interactive elements, ebooks are up to 50% off their market price.

• Zinio – The World’s Largest Newsstand Keeping up with its “Read Anywhere, Anytime” slogan, this site offers digitized magazines, which are offered interchangeably on iPad, iPhone, Android and computer devices. By either subscribing for a year or purchasing a single month’s copy, Zinio makes it easy to access the thousands of titles in its database.

• Infographics & Data Visualizations | Visual.ly You can earch through Visual.ly’s infographic database to see examples and data galore. What is an infographic? It is a visual way to show data and content using engaging photos and images

• Source for Learning, Inc: Home page A collection of learning resources. Compiled and reviewed by education professionals, the resources cover countless subjects and support diverse learning styles.

• Springpad: a free app that helps you remember This is a collaborative/cross platform tool that can accommodate all of the sources you are trying to utilize. projects can either be private (by invitation) or public

• Design & Make A Book With Our Simple Free Guide | Bookemon.com Check the edcenter area at Bookemon. Makes nice looking interactive “books” –and you do NOT need to pay or print them. (Here is a review: http://www.teachersfirst.com/single.cfm?id=10404). I think multiple students can collaborate. I don’t like the commercial “look” of the site, but the tool itself is easy and free.

• HOWTO fight cheating by promoting authentic learning – Boing Boing Cory Doctorow discusses cheating in education. “Jonathan Martin offers up a thoughtful response to the “plague of cheating” in secondary and postsecondary education. The right way to reduce cheating is to make education about more than test-scores and extrinsic measures, he argues. Cheating will only go down when students are told that they are in education to accomplish the satisfaction of mastery, and when they trust their teachers to be fair and honest”

• Beating the Cheating: Five Ways to Combat the Plague « 21k12

• thedaringlibrarian – QR_Code_Quest A lesson plan for a library scavenger hunt using QR codes

• The Underground Railroad – National Geographic Education (beta) One part of the amazing National Geographic website, this offers some great resources about the underground railroad, including an interactive journey through the eyes of a slave.

• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941.This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress and includes more than 200 photographs. Born in Slavery was made possible by a major gift from the Citigroup Foundation.

• Digital History List many facts about slavery worldwide as well as US

• The 11 Best Science Books of 2011 | Brain Pickings A look at 2011′s most compelling science books, spanning everything from medicine to physics to quantum mechanics

• The Why and How of Using Facebook For Educators – No Need to be Friends At All! | The Edublogger A thorough guide to using Facebook in education, with different tips and hints for using a secure Facebook site in the classroom

• How iBooks Author Stacks Up to the Competition [CHART] An iBook converter comparison

• Policies for Staff use of Social Media and Social Networks – eLearning Blog Dont Waste Your Time  Does your employer / Institution have a policy for the accepted use, by staff, for how they can use Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, YouTube, WordPress, etc)? Is it limited to how you can use it for work, or in work, or does it cover your usage outside of work and how you talk/post about what you do at work? Are you allowed to use images/logo of your employer/Institution in your work?

• The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons | The Edublogger The legal jargon with respect to digital copyrights can be confusing – especially since different countries have their own laws and regulations. With this post, Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt hope to dispel a few myths and pull together a complete list of resources for teachers and students to use when blogging and working with content online.

• iPad, therefore I am, and keeping a wired open mind At Albert Park College (Melbourne) students submit assignments and tests by email, and each subject has a web portal with homework, lesson plans.

• Inkling Habitat – Scalable digital publishing for professionals

• The 100 ‘Greatest Books for Kids’ – USATODAY.com The 100 “Greatest Books for Kids,” ranked by Scholastic Parent & Child magazine:

• Amazon.com: Kindle Direct Publishing: Help From Amazon: “In order to provide the best possible user experience, we’ve designed Kindle Direct Publishing to work with industry-standard Internet browsers that support Javascript.To publish with Kindle Direct Publishing, please enable Javascript in your browser options:”

• Craig Watkins: What Schools Are Really Blocking When They Block Social Media

• How to Judge if Research is Trustworthy | MindShift PBS article on how to examine if research is valid and reliable with some rules set out to aid in deciding if research is trustworthy. It offers some specific examples to illustrate the points.

• 8 Unexpected Downsides of the Switch to E-books | Cracked.com Humourous look at e-books andf e-book readers

• Inquiring About Teacher Inquiry | Powerful Learning Practice An article that tries to answer why more teachers aren’t eager to inquire into the impact of their practice.

• E-readers decline – is lack of features the problem? Should Amazon worry?

• My 10 books to help boost young peoples reading – Bev Humphrey The post by Bev Humphrey, a Literacy, School Libraries and Technology Consultant, to the Guardian’s children’s books pages article by a former librarian, Ellen Ainsworth, entitled 10 books to help boost young boys’ reading. They are good suggestions, (Harry Potter, Alex Rider etc.) but Bev considers them somewhat obvious and has countered with her own post My 10 books to help boost young people’s reading.(NB She also took issue with the restriction to just boys.)

• Internet Archive : The Net’s Digital Library | Media Tapper A good explanation about the Internet Archive from a post on the Media Tapper blog

• Welcome to Random House’s Teen Book Community: Random Buzzers This website offers forums and advance copies of books from the publisher, Random House

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful Links (Weekly)

by heyjudegallery

• Do students understand their ‘digital footprint’ and how it can affect their employability? – eLearning Blog Dont Waste Your Time    A good presentation that is given to tertiary students that end with… ” let us be sensible when we use any online service (Facebook, Twitter, eBay, LinkedIn, etc), think about how we want to be viewed by whoever may find the content (whenever they find it) as it may just come back to bite you”

• Recommended Resources: Digital Citizenship, New Media Literacies, Games and Learning | DMLcentral   ”Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World is nearly 500 pages of workshops and lessons plans dedicated to teaching youth ethics for a digital age. Produced through a unique collaboration of Harvard’s GoodPlay Project and Project New Media Literacies, it is all free online, as one giant download or as separate files”

• Survey Says Library Users Are Your Best Customers From Publishers Weekly “Library Journal released the first issue of a quarterly publication called Patron Profiles. Based on surveys and data collected from library users across the country, the first issue—on libraries and e-book usage—indicates that libraries are a powerful economic engine for the book business.”

• Voices for the Library» Blog Archive » More than just fiction? It’s unbelievable!   ”The web, online reference works and e-books anticipate reflect the library of today. Now amazing stuff can be had virtually as well as in every walk-in library. As ever, the library seeks and provides. E-resources are too unaffordable for most; a library’s info service is without compare; knowledge collections critical and free computers crucial. “

• Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Search Tools and Tactics Teachers and Students Need to Know Richard Byrne has compiled a list of search tools and tactics that every teacher and student should know  

• 2011 ITL Research Findings and Implications This report provides the findings from the 2011 analysis across 7 participating countries. From Innovative Teaching and Learning research site (sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning)    

• Buttersafe – Updated Tuesdays and Thursdays » Archive » Traps A simple little cartoon showing how easily some (all?) of us can get caught by scams on the Web. 

• Instant Wild – Live Wildlife Photographs ”Images of wild animals are sent to you directly from small automatic cameras placed in remote locations. When you identify the wild animal by matching the photo with the relevant image in the Field Guide you save conservationist thousands of hours by helping to sort the images by species group. This enables scientists to analyze the data much faster and assess whether the threatened animals are increasing or decreasing.”   

• Cybils: 2011 Nominations: Fiction Picture Books   

• Search by colour This is a demonstration of searching by colour across approximately 18,500 images from the National Library of Australia’s photographic collection. You can pick a colour from the colour chart or fine tune your selection using the colour sliders. As so much of the collection is made up of black and white images, not all colours will bring back results.    

• Steve Hargadon: The Kindle Fire – So Close… A Review with Education in Mind   A very well written review of many of the aspects of the Kindle Fire. He looks at what works well, what is available, what is limited and what is not there.

• Citation Wizard – Bibliography and works cited page generator The Citation Wizard is a free online utility that automatically generates citations according to MLA style speficiations. The site is simple to use: select the medium that best describes the work you would like to cite, type in the requested information, and click on the “view citation” button. Your citation will appear instantly, saving you time and eliminating the hassle of consulting style manuals. In addition to instant citation generation, the latest edition of the Wizard allows you to create an entire bibliography document from scratch! You will be able to begin a document, add entries to it, and save the document to your computer.    

• Children’s Books Forever Free children’s books that have become classics/favourites and you can use with interactive whiteboards, projectors, etc. Permission granted for non-commercial use.  

• SlimeKids – School Library Media Kids Free website for elementary/middle school-age kids with book trailers, educational games and literacy-related resources.    

• Citing Websites: APA Style A very simple but effective tool. Site also affers same type of tool for AMA, APA, Turabian, Chicago and MLA   

• Free Audio Books – Download an audio book in mp3 or iPod format today! Site offers free audiobooks to download tags:   

• This Week In Education Offers overview of news from mainstream sources and social medis and analysis of education policy issues     

• CorkboardMe Even simpler to use than Wallwisher. Paste virtual sticky notes on the virtual corkboard. One useful feature allows you to paste a url address for a link to an image and the image will then show up on the sticky note. You do not need to register    

• Monkey Machine – online drum machine Monkey Machine is a free web-based program that allows students to experiment with drum set sounds and rhythms. Using Monkey Machine students can customize the selection of drums and cymbals in their virtual drum set. Monkey Machine also allows students to customize the tempo in their drum tracks and the frequency with which each drum or cymbal is played. All tracks created using Monkey Machine can be downloaded as MIDI files.  

• WolframTones: An Experiment in a New Kind of Music  This tool is from the same people that brought us the great computational search engine Wolfram Alpha comes Wolfram Tones. Wolfram Tones uses algorithms, music theory, and sound samples to generate new collections of sounds. Visitors to Wolfram Tones can experiment with sounds and rhythms to make their own sounds. Wolfram Tones allows visitors to choose samples from fifteen different genres of music on which to build their own sounds. Once a genre is selected visitors can then alter the rhythms, instrumentation, and pitch mapping of their sounds. When satisfied with their creations, users can download their sounds or have them sent directly to their cell phones.   

• UJAM – Make your music. Be heard. This site is easy o use and helps make your singing sound better. You sing or play an instrument while recording to UJAM. When you’re done recording, use UJAM to alter the sound quality of your voice, turn your voice into other sounds, adjust the tempo of your song, and or remix a song to include your recording. UJAM is essentially an online, light weight version, of Garage Band. Watch the video below to learn more and see UJAM in action.    

• beatlab – make music together Beat Lab is a free service through which you can experiment with thousands of sound and rhythm combinations. Using Beat Lab is easy. Beat Lab provides a grid on which you select the sounds you want to have played. You can specify how often you want each sound played and how quickly you want the sounds played. There are twelve default sounds provided in the Beat Lab grid. You can add more sounds by selecting “add more sounds” and choosing from the huge catalog of sounds. If the sound you want isn’t available in the Beat Lab catalog you can upload your own sounds.  

• Free online Music Creator – Aviary.com’s Roc Using Aviary’s Roc service you can create your own music loops or samples. After you’ve created your music samples you can download them, reuse them in Myna, or embed them into your blog. Below you will find a brief tutorial on how to create sound loops using Aviary Roc.   

• Historic Map Works, Residential Genealogy ™ Historic Map Works is an online gallery of hundreds of historical maps. On Historic Map Works you can browse for maps by continent, country, state, and province. Note: Downloading the map images is not free. But, you can view more than half of the maps as Google Maps overlays using Historic Map Works’s free Historic Earth Basic.   

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful sites

  by  Colette Cassinelli 

• From the Library of Congress: “Finding E-books: A Guide” « INFOdocket

• 
  http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/databases/ict-in-education-database/item/article/unesco-ict-competency-framework-for-teachers-version-20
   An updated publication designed to help training teachers on ways to optimize the use of information and communication technologies in the classroom has been launched early November 2011 by UNESCO in cooperation with the Commonwealth of Learning, Intel and Microsoft. The ICT Competency Framework for Teachers aims at helping countries to develop comprehensive national teacher ICT competency policies and standards, and should be seen as an important component of an overall ICT in Education Master Plan.

• Wix.com fairytalenews created by ICTmagic based on blank-website An English resource designed to be act as stimulus for writing news reports about fairy tales for english lessons.   

• Jo Fool or Jo Cool | For Kids This interactive online game takes students through a series of mock sites that test their savvy surfing skills.     

• Safe Online Surfing Internet Challenge – USA-SOS.ORG Teaches about internet safety using some a fun activities. For various year levels   

• Web Wise Kids ”The site is concerned about empowering today’s youth to make wise choices online. Through state-of–the-art Internet Safety computer games (that are based on real-life scenarios) as well as Internet Safety tips for kids, teens and parents, Web Wise Kids creates a safer, friendlier internet experience. These, coupled with involvement of community, youth leaders and parents, provides an environment where your child’s Internet Safety becomes their first line of defense while navigating through cyberspace.”   

• 10 ways schools are teaching internet safety | eSchool News Article by Meris Stansbury “Using third-party resources and having students act as investigators are some of the many ways educators are teaching about online safety and responsibility”   

• Read Beyond the Lines: Transmedia has changed the very notion of books and reading — The Digital Shift An article by Patrick Carman where he discusses how to get kids reading again - we should be creating books for every kind of reader—traditional, ultra-wired, and everything in between. “I’ve heard the same statement in one form or another from hundreds of different teachers and librarians when they talk about the emergence of multimedia books: kids who weren’t reading are reading again. They’re coming back.”    

• Why Aren’t Students Using E-Books? | MindShift Article discussing the research: “The library e-book provider eBrary released some of the preliminary results from its 2011 Global Student E-Book Survey last week. Among its findings: that students’ e-book usage has not increased significantly in the past 3 years.”   

• 10 reasons the shift may happen faster than you think | Getting Smart While it’s no secret that there seems to be more use and reliance on digital and blended learning with each passing semester, a transition may be happening faster than you think writes Tom Vander Ark. At a conference he talked about a dozen of the factors accelerating the shift to digital learning:  

• 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging This blog post explains, in easy steps, how to teach students to be successful bloggers in the classroom.    

• The Myth of the Tech-Savvy Student – Online Learning – The Chronicle of Higher Education Op-ed by writing professor Ron Tanner: “Why wouldn’t we educate students in sophisticated uses of the Internet, which is commanding an increasing amount of the world’s time and attention? I’m not talking about a course on “How to Understand the Internet” or an introduction to searching for legitimate research-paper sources online (although that is useful, obviously). I’m talking about the need for students to understand and produce texts online—essential skills for life beyond college.”    

• Free Puzzlemaker | Discovery Education Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more-using your own word lists.  

• Protecting Your Online Reputation: 4 Things You Need to Know This infographic was shared on Mashable on e-reputation management.   

• How to Get Started with Google+ Pages and WordPress   

• Amazon Launching E-Book Lending Library – WSJ.com  

• Amazon Starts Lending Ebooks, but Head of ALA Says Libraries Still Offer Best Value — The Digital Shift   

• Is Gaming the New Essential Literacy? | MindShift “When people learn to play video games,” said James Paul Gee, “they are learning a new literacy.” This is one of the reason kids love playing them: They are learning a new interactive language that grants them access to virtual worlds that are filled with intrigue, engagement and meaningful challenges. And one that feels more congruent with the nature and trajectory of today’s world. As our commerce and culture migrates further into this emerging digital ecosystem it becomes more critical that we develop digital literacy, of which video games inhabit a large portion.   

• Google kills its other Plus, and how to bring it back (Wired UK)  Google+ is the fastest-growing social network in history. To help them focus, Google’s shuttered a number of products, and in doing so killed off one of its oldest, most useful tools Google and the AND or the OR or the Plus Search changes were useful and impt to me but I must be in a minority as Google has gone with a majority who did not think this option was impt.   

• An outdated approach to school accountability – The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)   

• The case for piracy – Blog – ABC Technology and Games (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) ”When it comes to copyright theft and piracy, many people assume there’s just one side – the side of truth, justice and copyright owners. Beyond that there are parasitical thieves. When most governments come to legislate on the matter, their response is usually one of listening to what big corporations and lobby groups say and nodding in agreement. For the general public, years of being bombarded by cross platform marketing campaigns have ingrained people with various “Piracy bad. Copyright good” slogans”   

• Eric Scott Pfeiffer: When we let images be images. ”Do we read images in the same way we read words on a page? While they can both easily transcribe the same idea onto paper I do not believe we follow the same rules while viewing them. This is something that has bothered me for some time when applied to the traditional rules of how we are meant to read comics.”  

• ALA | Graphic novels for youth – core collection ”In 2011, the ALSC BofD directed the Quicklists Consulting Committee to create a list of core titles than can be used when starting or maintaining a children’s graphic novel collection. The intended audience is librarians selecting books for inclusion in public libraries serving elementary school-age children. We attempted to create a list of core titles that can be used when starting or maintaining a children’s graphic novel collection. The c’tee defined graphic novel as a full-length story told in paneled, sequential, graphic format. The Ctee identified the best books that are currently available, and will update the list at least annually”   

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful sites

  by  César Poyatos 

• Curation, the musical! « NeverEndingSearch Joyce Valenza has done it again. “To explain our very new efforts in teaching curation. Usually game for anything Glee-ish, our singer/actors brilliantly and generously created an introduction I can use for instruction and in upcoming workshops”

• Using QR codes to create educational posters | Teacher Tech  

• List of Microsoft Office Online File Converters and Document Viewers | The Windows Club ”With the help of these converters and viewers from Office Online, you can share your Microsoft Office files with people who have different versions of Office programs, or even with people who don’t have Office installed.”  

• Down For Everyone Or Just Me -> Check if your website is down or up? A tool that allows you to check whether a website is down for everyone or just your computer.  

• How to load ebooks on the Kindle 4 e-reader | Good E-Reader – ebook Reader and Tablet PC News   

• Glassboard. Private group sharing done right. Glassboard is an app for Android, Windows, and iOS phones that enables you to create and participate in private groups. Using the app you can create and participate in as many groups as you like. You can specify which groups can see the content you share and you can share notes, links, pictures, and videos. The content you share and the content others share with you is displayed in a news feed on your mobile device.

• SoapBox – Transform your lecture in real-time Soap Box is a service that enables teachers to gather instant feedback from students through their cell phones, tablets, or laptops. Soap Box offers nine useful functions for teachers and students.   

• Oops. This latest Google development provides the opportunity to explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.     

• commonsExplorer A new way of exploring the Flickr collections is commonsExplorer, from Creative Canberra. It is an experimental interactive browser for the Flickr Commons. It provides a “big picture” view of these collections – a rich, single screen interface that reveals structures and patterns and encourages exploration. It’s a quickly downloaded browsing interface that gives you, and students, a more visual view of the collections and the images. You can scroll through the list of all the participating institutions, then either search through the tag cloud or window shop through the pop-ups for images.  

• BurningWell.Org – Free Public Domain Images and Photos Allows you to browse or search a large collection (how large is not stated on the site) of images donated by photographers from around the world. All images are in the public domain, so you are allowed to use them freely for any purpose, commercial or private   

• Curation is the new search tool « NeverEndingSearch ”The new curation tools present an exciting new genre of search tool, a tool for scanning the real-time environment, as well as opportunities for evaluating quality and relevance in emerging information landscapes.” . Students and teachers can also exploit the curation efforts already out there   

• Using Tech to Engage Library Users Sparks ITHAKA Conference  

• Welcome to The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick 

• Amazon’s Kindle to Make Library E-Books Available – NYTimes.com  

• Survey shows division over reform agenda – Education Review  “Principals would be more positive towards the national professional standard if it was managed and accredited by the profession, a new survey shows. Ruth Callaghan reports”  

• Which is the best format for ebooks? | Ask Jack | Technology | guardian.co.uk ”An ebook format should offer a good reading experience, be an open standard format (or at least openly licensed), have the support of both publishers and hardware vendors, and be guaranteed to work for the foreseeable future, if not forever. Unfortunately, there isn’t one. Buying ebooks requires compromises and an act of faith. Always assume your ebooks will not last very long, so you won’t be disappointed if they don’t.” 

• Getting teacher evaluation right – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post  Briefing on the right way to evaluate teachers given by Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond and other leading education research experts to US policymakers 

• Which is the best format for ebooks? | Ask Jack | Technology | guardian.co.uk uk 

• The post-reading generation talks about the future of books Article that looks at a study that shows it is not al “doom and gloom” for books    

• Will · “We Prepare Children to Learn How to Learn” Post that discusses learning and standardized testing. Like the US we too are becoming very dependent on “the test” to tell us about our students and their learning. This may lead ti the situation that we know less and less about who they really are as individuals. philosophy  

• Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn: Scientific American New research makes the case for hard tests, and suggests an unusual technique that anyone can use to learn. Trying to figure out the answer to a question and getting it wrong, studying the material, then answering the question again teaches slightly better (about 10%) than just studying and answering. 

• Online Brainstorming and Voting. Amazingly Easy and Free | tricider Very simple to use, but very versatile polling tool. You just create a question and add some options then share it with the people you want answers from. The great thing is that they can add extra options and add various pros and cons of each option as well as voting on the ones they like. This makes the whole process of polling much more open, social and interactive. Here’s a quick video showing how it works  

• SimplyBox – Think Inside the Box This is a simple to use tool which uses boxes in place of folders and enables you to grab an image from the site as a link back to it, rather than a title. The other great advantage of this tool is that you can share boxes and work on them collaboratively and anyone accessing the box can leave notes on each of the tools. I introduced this tool about halfway through the course by putting links to all the tools we had used in one box, and using this as a revision task, I got the teachers to leave teaching suggestions and notes about how to use each tool and what its strengths were on each of the bookmarks.   

• Amazon Digital Content: a Library at Your Fingertips | Search Engine Journal An interesting debate on this topic esp. reading the comments     

• Why the idea of a Netflix for e-books makes sense – Tech News and Analysis A great list of things you can learn from Twitter, and reasons why you should be on Twitter yourself  

• Ebook Search Engine, Free Ebooks, Ebook Price Comparison | Inkmesh Ebook search engine to find free ebooks and compare ebook prices for the Kindle, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader etc. 

• 
  http://learningfundamentals.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Focus-mindmap-for-web.jpg
   A great mindmap that focuses on the age of distraction and shows how to deal with technology overload 

• 9 New Skills You Need To be a 21st Century Educator | Online Universities Some of these skills, are not new but have become more refined or essential as the times have changed. Education professionals still tout them as desirable and/or necessary as components in contemporary classrooms.  

• Teaching Media Literacy through Critical Thinking with “The Help” « Pop Goes the Classroom Two key concepts in media literacy are: that all media construct versions of reality and that media is interpreted through individual lenses. These concepts are at the core of the recent controversy over the new movie “The Help”. To be accurate, the controversy began with the release of the book but has been brought to the forefront with the release of the book. Critics claim the story is so “ahistoric” that is “inaccurate”. Use this to create discussion about the topic; The Civil Rights Movement. 

• 
  http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bloom-iPads-Apps.jpg
   Adapted from Kathy Schrock’s Blooming iPad @Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano    

• Four Ways QR Codes Could Revolutionize Education – Education – GOOD This article, from GOOD, talks about the potential of using Quick Response (QR) codes in the education. It discusses how they would be a great way for teachers to interact with students and with parents. They could also be used to help students get involved with their school.   

• Kidlit Book Trailers – Kids Books… in Action! This is a blog devoted to watching and discussing book trailers in every kidlit genre: picture books, non fiction, middle grades and young adults  

• Book Trailers – Movies for Literacy! This page represents the beginning of a website of short movies (generally 30 to 45 seconds) designed to increase student motivation to READ! Click for Late Elementary Book Trailers and Adolescent Book Trailers to see those listings.books  

• Bookscreening – Book Trailers The site has la lot of trailers, for all ages and interest levels, including children and young adult. They are available for viewing and embedding/sharing.    

• Technology in Schools Faces Questions on Value – NYTimes.com A long article that discusses the benefits of using technology in the classroom. “In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning. Advocates for giving schools a major technological upgrade say digital devices let students learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets. Some backers of this idea say standardized tests, the most widely used measure of student performance, don’t capture the breadth of skills that computers can help develop. But they also concede that for now there is no better way to gauge the educational value of expensive technology investments. “ 

• Kids read 64 million minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. ”Kids read 64,213,141 minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. The summer reading program, which ended last night at midnight, gave kids a chance to read books they want to read, log their reading minutes, complete weekly reading challenges, and win all kinds of prizes like sample book chapters, audio chapters, and even virtual badges of their favorite book series.”  

• Teaching “Search” | Hack Education A researcher asked people about their search strategies, giving them a series of hypothetical scenarios in which they’d need to look something up and asked how they’d proceed with finding the right information. The results show a lack of skills   

• Response: Several Ways To Help Students Become Better Listeners – Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo – Education Week Teacher How to help students develop better listening skills  iLibrarian » 25+ Resources to Create Library Videos  Offers “How To’s”, tools, library videos, branding on YouTube etc.     

• Something to Shout About: New research shows that more librarians means higher reading scores A piece about how librarians and library programs do make an impact on reading scores.   

• The Anatomy Of An Infographic: 5 Steps To Create A Powerful Visual | SpyreStudios A good post about infographics. Information is very powerful but can also be presented in a way that is bland and unimaginative. Infographics impart information in a visually pleasing and sometimes a more understandable manner, making it more powerful. Infographics have now permeated all aspects of the modern information world.   

• 45+ Free Online Tools To Create Charts, Diagrams And Flowcharts | Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers A guide to online tools for helping with data visualization   

• Create unique websites without writing code | Muse (code name) This is an impressive free tool for developing unique websites. It’s quite intuitive to use with a very logical workflow and drag and drop design features. Great for developing your own unique site 

• Bundlr – Bundle and share web content easily A very handy tool for collecting together web content for study or presentations. Create collections of the best media you find on the web and share them with everyone. 

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful Links (Weekly)

  by  shareski 

• Survey shows division over reform agenda – Education Review ”Principals would be more positive towards the national professional standard if it was managed and accredited by the profession, a new survey shows. Ruth Callaghan reports” 

• Which is the best format for ebooks? | Ask Jack | Technology | guardian.co.uk ”An ebook format should offer a good reading experience, be an open standard format (or at least openly licensed), have the support of both publishers and hardware vendors, and be guaranteed to work for the foreseeable future, if not forever. Unfortunately, there isn’t one. Buying ebooks requires compromises and an act of faith. Always assume your ebooks will not last very long, so you won’t be disappointed if they don’t.”     

• Getting teacher evaluation right – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post  Briefing on the right way to evaluate teachers given by Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond and other leading education research experts to US policymakers        

• Which is the best format for ebooks? | Ask Jack | Technology | guardian.co.uk       

• The post-reading generation talks about the future of books  Article that looks at a study that shows it is not al “doom and gloom” for books   

• Will · “We Prepare Children to Learn How to Learn” Post that discusses learning andstandardized testing. Like the US we too are becoming very dependent on “the test” to tell us about our students and their learning. This may lead ti the situation that we know less and less about who they really are as individuals. .  

• Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn: Scientific American New research makes the case for hard tests, and suggests an unusual technique that anyone can use to learn. Trying to figure out the answer to a question and getting it wrong, studying the material, then answering the question again teaches slightly better (about 10%) than just studying and answering.

• Online Brainstorming and Voting. Amazingly Easy and Free | tricider Very simple to use, but very versatile polling tool. You just create a question and add some options then share it with the people you want answers from. The great thing is that they can add extra options and add various pros and cons of each option as well as voting on the ones they like. This makes the whole process of polling much more open, social and interactive. Here’s a quick video showing how it works   

• SimplyBox – Think Inside the Box  This is a simple to use tool which uses boxes in place of folders and enables you to grab an image from the site as a link back to it, rather than a title. The other great advantage of this tool is that you can share boxes and work on them collaboratively and anyone accessing the box can leave notes on each of the tools. I introduced this tool about halfway through the course by putting links to all the tools we had used in one box, and using this as a revision task, I got the teachers to leave teaching suggestions and notes about how to use each tool and what its strengths were on each of the bookmarks. 

• Amazon Digital Content: a Library at Your Fingertips | Search Engine Journal An interesting debate on this topic esp. reading the comments  

• Why the idea of a Netflix for e-books makes sense – Tech News and Analysis  A great list of things you can learn from Twitter, and reasons why you should be on Twitter yourself   

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.