Useful Links – Weekly

• It Will Be Awesome if They Don’t Screw it Up: 3D Printing | Public Knowledge An article that looks at the intellectual property implications of 3D printing (written with quite some detail).

• My Top 10 Web Curation Tools as A Teacher ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning A good list of some curation web tools that are easy to use and that versions that can be used with most computers

• 16 e-textbook providers: Who’s publishing and who’s selling? | Education Dive ”16 names in e-textbooks that you should know about, as well as what each of them are doing to set themselves apart in a competitive new area of education:”

• Ebook Friendly – ebooks made simple and cool  ”The Ebook Friendly is a site for e-book geeks. You can find here simple tips and fun stuff about ebooks, digital publishing and the future of books!”

• Guest post: Steve Saville of Alfriston College, Auckland, on comics in the classroom | Books and Adventures  “Post by Steve Saville, deputy principal at Alfriston College in South Auckland. For four years, Steve has championed the use of comics in the classroom through a series of innovative workshops which have allowed students to develop and publish their own high quality comic books. In the first of a two-part guest post, Steve tells the story of Alfriston’s unique comic book education project.”

• Learning Ratings | Common Sense Media Ratings are given for a variety of digital media products based on core academic content. There is an assessment of the learning potential. Alternative games and sites that achieve the same goals as the product being reviewed as also given.

• The Difference Between Content Curation and Link Spraying | Social Media Today

• Caitlin Barry: Educators, Please Stop Confusing Media Literacy with Ed Tech

• Great Critical Thinking Map for your Classroom ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ”You ask any teacher today about the skills they want their students to develop and you will get critical thinking skills as an obvious answer; of course together with other skills. With the advance of technology and the educational paradigmatic shift that ensued , critical thinking skills have occupied a central part in the literature of teaching and learning pedagogy, not that these skills were not important before but I would say they came to the foreground now more than in any time before”

• A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age The broad aim is to inspire an open, learner-centered dialogue around the rights, responsibilities, and possibilities for education in the globally-connected world of the present and beyond

• 11 Facebook Updates to Privacy and Timeline You Should Know | Social Media Today  ”It’s common for Facebook to undergo drastic (or silent) changes whether the users like it or not. The real question is, how ready are you when Facebook is determined to ‘make the world more open and connected’? Have you made full use of the privacy and account settings to your advantage? Also, if you’ve been observant enough you should’ve discovered several improvements on the existing features to make them more visible and user friendly. Why not give this list a run-through and see if you missed any.”

• A Must Have Check List Poster for Innovative Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

• Maybe ‘What do you want your students to do?’ is the wrong question | Dangerously Irrelevant  ”Laptops. iPads (or other tablet devices). Chromebooks. Maybe even netbooks or ultrabooks… As more schools and districts move toward 1:1 computing, one of the most common questions is ‘What device should we get for our students?’ The typical response is another question: ‘Well, what do you want your students to do?’ I wonder, though, if that’s the wrong question…”

• How Teachers are Using Tumblr in the Classroom | Emerging Education Technology Some of the different ways teachers are using tumblr in their classrooms

• 10 Secrets To Unlocking The Learning Potential Of The iPad The ideas and concepts apply to tablets (or mobile devices) not just the ipad

• ML: Macaulay Library The Mcaulay Library is the world’s largest and oldest scientific archive of biodiversity audio and video recordings

• Library Services in the Digital Age | Pew Internet Libraries

• ‘Bill of Rights’ Seeks to Protect Students’ Interests as Online Learning Expands – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education ”12 educators, many of them well known in online-education circles, did manage to draft a document that they hope will serve as a philosophical framework for protecting the interests of students as online education. Called “A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age,” the document proposes a set of “inalienable rights” that the authors say students and their advocates should demand from institutions and companies that offer online courses and technology tools.”

• 26 Latest Photoshop Tutorials 2013 | Tutorials | Graphic Design Junction Jan 2013 Photoshop Tutorials. These tutorials are created by Photoshop experts. The article gathers professional Photoshop tutorials that may enhance designing skills and improve the quality of digital works.

• The Ultimate List of Pinterest Tips – Blogging with Amy  A good number of tips. Areas covered: Pinterest Basics; How to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic; How to Add the “Pin It” Button to Posts; Pinterest Copyright Issues; Further Reading

• How to Track Traffic From Pinterest in Google Analytics How many referrals does Pinterest generate? How many people use the “pin it” button on a site? Which pictures on a site are the most pinned and repinned? Here are four ways to measure Pinterest using Google Analytics.

• New Pew Internet & American Life Project Report Looks at Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits | LJ INFOdocket A new report (Oct 2012) from Pew Internet focusing on the reading habits and public library habits of younger Americans’ (ages 16-29) is now available online.

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

Print and e-books: both have their place in our library.

Arguments are going on all the time about the print medium disappearing in favour of the e-book. When it come to fiction we have not found that this is happening at our school this year. I am always especially irritated but the statements that say something like “libraries no longer need books”.  (For example the  NY Times article) in 2010. To me this shows little understanding or sloppiness when what they mean is that the printed medium is on the way out. Many of these articles have no evidence to back up their claims except their own personal reading situation. I argue that at present the data shows something quite different.

We announced that we had fiction/stories in e-book format available for all students this year from our library.They were available via kindles but we when we talked to students, about what was available to read, we always stressed the stories. For example: if a student wanted the “Hunger Games” we had three print copies and some e-copies – the boys just took whatever was available. We have put many of the less read “classics” on kindles so they are available, with the quality of the paper and binding not an issue because the book does not deteriorate. If any other classic is requested can be obtained on-line and ready to read within minutes and at a very small cost. They boys have been very appreciative of this and we can give them what they want to read when they want it.

We found that some of our boys loved reading from the kindle format, some much preferred the traditional book and others were happy to have access to the story they wanted and the format was immaterial to them. The staff, when introduced to the kindles, often ended up buying their own. They loved the portability of a device that carried many books especially when they were on holiday. Again many went between the two formats. Some just read via their e-book readers but is seems that mostly they were people who had gone ways from reading but the e-book reader brought them back to reading by its portability and ease of acquiring books.

An analysis (written April 2012 from a Pew study of 2011) found that even as sales of e-readers are growing rapidly, many still visit libraries more frequently than some would have you believe, and print books have remained popular. It did show that readers of  e-book read more books annually, whatever the format. I will be interested in new data next year from Pew to see if any of these trends have changed in 12 months. On what we have seen this year in our school library, for the forseeable future,  books and e-readers will continue to coexist in our library when it comes to reading stories.

The following infographic takes a look at e-readers and books, as well as why they can both remain useful for many years to come.

You can read more about the infographic below, at TeachingDegree.org.

Please Include Attribution to TeachingDegree.org With This Graphic

Useful links

  by  m_edens 

• The League of Extraordinary Librarians: SLJ’s latest tech survey shows that media specialists are leading the way – The Digital Shift ”According to School Library Journal’s 2012 School Technology Survey, media specialists are leading the charge to bring new media, mobile devices, social apps, and web-based technologies into our nation’s classrooms.”

• Life of an Educator by Justin Tarte: The importance of literacy… ”The simplest acquisition of literacy can have a profoundly empowering effect personally, socially and politically.  Literacy gives people tools with which to improve their livelihoods, participate in community decision-making, gain access to information about health care, and above all, it enables individuals to realize their rights as citizens and human beings. Literacy is not just about reading and writing; it is about respect, opportunity and development…”

• SearchReSearch: Presentation on “What does it mean to be literate in the Age of Google?” From Dan Russell. Abstract:  What does it mean to be literate at a time when you can search over billions of texts in less than 300 milliseconds? Although you might think that “literacy” is one of the great constants that transcends the ages, the skills of a literate person have changed substantially over time as texts and technology allow for new kinds of reading and understanding. Knowing how to read is just the beginning of it—knowing how to frame a question, pose a query, how to interpret the texts that you find, how to organize and use the information you discover, how to understand your metacognition—these are all critical parts of being literate as well.

• Format Factory Home Page – Free media file format converter ”Format Factory is a multifunctional media converter”

• The Ten Commandments Of Twitter | Business 2 Community

• Ebooks & Digital Content | Transforming Libraries To help meet a growing need, the ALA’s Digital Content & Libraries Working Group was formed in Fall 2011 to implement the recommendations and to continue the work of ALA’s Task Force on Equitable Access to Digital Content. Working Group members were selected by the ALA President based on their high level of expertise and range of experience regarding libraries and digital content, and are broadly representative of the various constituencies within the Association and library community. This website is meant to be a resource to support libraries in their transformation from print to digital content.

• Create and share electronic books for free with BookType and Booki — freewaregenius.com

• Random House Says Libraries Own Their Ebooks | LJ Insider Random House (one Big Six publishers) is, to its credit, on the record saying it is granting ownership.

• eBooks: Amazon Introduces Whispercast to Manage Fleets of Kindles | LJ INFOdocket  Libraries and schools that lend Kindles to users might be interested in this new service from Amazon that just launched.

• An ePortfolio idea from Scotland | eLearning Island  Offers an example of how e-portfolios could be used. Has some good lists of questions and resources for students working on ePortfolios

• Free Sound Clips | SoundBible.com SoundBible.com offers free sound clips for download in either wav or mp3 format. They offer free and royalty free sound effects and clips for video editors, movie scores, game designers, and weekend sound warriors.

• Teachers and Parents – The new rules of engagement | Generation Next  ”What is ‘parent engagement’ and how does it affect our children’s learning and well-being? Research (and evidenced-based results of effective parent engagement in schools) indicates that we need to move away from the ‘ivory tower’ perception of schools and the ‘locked gate’ mentality to embracing family engagement as policy, as education reform. Weiss, Lopez and Rosenberg (2010) assert that ‘family engagement must be a systemic, integrated and sustained approach, not an add-on or a random act.’”

• Free Music & Sound Loops for PowerPoint Presentations | PowerPoint Presentation  ”Some resources where you can download free music and sound loops for presentations.”

• Teen Read Week: Creating a Text-Rich School | Edutopia Ideas from literature addict Heather Wolpert-Gawron.”As a teacher, my mission is to spread this addiction to my own students. But I have a greater, more sinister, goal than that this year. I want to spread it to my entire school. And to do that, I have to allow literature to leak out of my classroom and into my school at large.”

• Guidelines for working with RDA and non-RDA records prior to implementation of RDA- Program for Cooperative Cataloging (Library of Congress) From the Library of Congress:The following guidelines were recommended by the Task Group on Hybrid Bibliographic Records (Sept. 1, 2011). The recommendations were approved by the PCC Policy Committee. The documents below include guidelines for working with RDA and non-RDA records for monographs, serials, and integrating resources prior to implementation of RDA.

• A Primer on Ebooks for Libraries Just Starting With Downloadable Media – The Digital Shift The Library Journal has been presenting a series of articles, “Exploring Ebook Options”, that take an in-depth look at some of the e-book platforms that are now in the marketplace. Article provides a good summary and explains some of the pros and cons of e-collections; the issues involved with eBooks and downloadable media, and what’s out there right now.

• The library with no rules Manila’s Reading Club 2000 is a library like no other: it lets anyone borrow and then bring back or keep any of its thousands of books.

• Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs (for free!) The site is is maintained by Kate Messner, an author and educator. Listed here are the books for which she offers free Skype chats for schools. She also lists and provides links to other authors who offer free Skype chats. This is a great way for small, rural libraries to connect students with authors.

• How to Use Pinterest to Improve Your Writing « Grow With Stacy

• Who can we trust? The importance of teaching our students to interpret the news. Today news is available at all times and technology brings us an unending stream of updates that don’t have the opportunity to be fact checked or vetted by experienced editors. It is inevitable that errors make occur, misrepresentations and blatant untruths can be easily promulgated and distortions published. This can happen, not just on websites, but also on TV and radio news and current affairs programs. Educators of young people today need to focus heavily on developing critical thinking skills in reading news and other purported fact based writing.

• Piktochart- Infographic & Presentation Tool. Piktochart offers 5 free templates, but many more options for paid accounts. There is a variety of pre-created shapes and images on Piktochart; you are able to upload a limited amount of customized images with a free account. t

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

More thoughts on book formats.

The holiday are almost over. I have bought books for school, both in print and digital, and have even listened to a couple of audiobooks as I have driven around the state.

I have bought books for my niece and nephews, including the newest Graeme Base picture book. My niece has loved his books since I gave her a signed copy of an earlier book. He has become her favourite  artist so much so that she did her research piece in her art subject on him. She is only in grade 2 but takes all these things very seriously. I love seeing her share her books with her little brothers and her friends. Graeme Base’s books are great for sharing experiences as they have the puzzle element that  just begs for sharing the experience.

I, on the other hand, have only read from my kindle when reading personally. It is just so easy to carry with me and to get a follow-up book in a series when no bookshop is around. I still read paper version books but these holidays it has been e-books. It does not have to be either/or but just what is easiest/convenient at the time.

Below is another infographic that compares the different formats.

Browse more infographics.

Are e-books making the old-style book obsolete?

Will e-books eventually make the hardcopy (old-style) books obsolete?

This is a question that starts some interesting discussions. I work in a school that has a number of kindles. The boys have been borrowing them in much larger numbers this year, and so have the staff.

I have some staff members who refuse to entertain the idea of reading an e-book. They love the feel of the pages, the smell the very tactile eel of a book. Others love the ease with which you can carry an e-book reader and that you can have many books available to you on the small device.

One teacher was not keen for the students to read the e-book on the e-reader. We are a notebook/tablet school and she was worried about the boy staring at a screen for too long. We had to show her that the e-book reader was small and easy to hold, especially with its cover on (this makes it very similar to the way you hold the book). We also showed her how e-ink differs from our tablets. She was reassured and decided that it probably was ok for him to read e-books in their reading sessions.

The boys themselves have differing views. Some just want to read the story and it makes no difference to them as to how it is delivered. Some prefer the e-book and others prefer the traditional. The boys have borrowed a Kindle to read one book and when finished have continued to read other books loaded onto the device. Talking to a few boys this has led them to reading books they would not have read otherwise so it has broadened their reading and perhaps they have read not only more widely but just more books!

So for now I think we are quite a long way from seeing the demise of the traditional form of book. I live reading my own kindle and some of the picture books are great on my ASUS tablet but when I am reading to young children nothing beats sitting together and turning the pages together. I love being able to quickly get things on my kindle without having to drive to the bookshop but I also still enjoy visiting a bookshop on the weekends to browse the books on the shelves. I love browsing and looking at covers and flicking through the books they have in stock.

Things are changing but I believe for the moment the traditional book will still be a strong force. I cannot predict however how long this will be the case.

The infographic below is interesting. It indicates that people who own e-book devices say they read more than people who don’t, at a rate of 24 books per year to 15. The reasons for reading are varied but it also shows that reading itself remains a popular pastime but e-readers are rising in popularity so perhaps in the future there may be a world without the traditional paper books. Worldwide e-reader sales rose by nearly 3 million between 2010 and 2011 and buyers are not limited to one age-group. There are quite a few other predictions made as well.

Courtesy of: Schools.com