Useful links – Weekly

• 26 incredibly useful Google Calendar tips

• Teens ‘not damaged by screen time’, new Oxford study finds / Boing Boing “Research by Oxford University scientists finds “little evidence of a relationship between screen time and wellbeing in adolescents.” Based on data from over 17,000 teenagers, the study “casts doubt on the widely accepted notion that spending time online, gaming or watching TV, especially before bedtime, can damage young people’s mental health.”

• Absolutely spectacular first-ever air-to-air images of supersonic jets’ shockwaves interacting / Boing Boing NASA scientists have been working on an air-to-air photographic technology that will be used to collect data for the agency’s next-generation supersonic airplane project. They recently released some absolutely amazing “first air-to-air images of supersonic shockwave interaction in flight.”

• On Getting Boys to Read Many school libraries work hard to try to keep all students but especially boys coming to the Library, reading books and engaging with what they are reading. Many of the strategies work for girls as well as boys and, although an aversion to reading isn’t gender specific, every time you investigate some research it always shows that boys read less.
  This article explains some strategies one library has tried in order to combat boys disengaging from reading. She is not saying these will work for your school, but she has noticed a big uptake in the number of boys in the Library and of course the number of books they are borrowing.

• The voyages of Captain James Cook – The British Library  “The expeditions of James Cook shaped Europe’s knowledge of the world, and had far-reaching consequences for the people of the lands they touched. Explore the stories, art and maps of the artists and scientists who were on board the ships. Our digital collection items include drawings by the Polynesian high priest and navigator Tupaia, who accompanied Cook to New Zealand and Australia.
  You’ll also find modern-day responses to the expeditions from people of the communities Cook encountered, documented and learned from. These reflect the different perspectives that exist on the legacy of the voyages and their impact.”

• Maps – The British Library “Explore the evolution of maps and the key figures behind them through expert articles and curious collection items. See how maps have influenced war, popular culture and movement.”

• Russian Revolution – The British Library “From the fall of Russia’s last Tsar to the rise of the first communist state, discover how the seismic revolution of 1917 changed both a country and a world through expert articles and collection items.”

• World War One – The British Library “Supported by over 500 historical sources from across Europe, this resource examines key themes in the history of World War One. Explore a wealth of original source material, over 50 newly-commissioned articles written by historians, teachers’ notes and more to discover how war affected people on different sides of the conflict.
  Collection items featured on this site have been contributed by Europeana 1914-1918 institutions.”

• Leonardo da Vinci – Turn the Pages of Leonardo’s Notebook The British Library’s brief series on da Vinci’s life and work, including explanations of his diving apparatus, parachute, and glider.

• The British Library MS Viewer A compilation of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks – Codex Arundel – was digitized by the British Library and made available to the public. Whilst Leonardo never published his notes, you can look through 570 digitized pages of Codex Arundel here. For hundreds of years, the huge collection of manuscripts remained mostly unseen. After Leonardo’s death in France, writes the British Library, his student Francesco Melzi “brought many of his manuscripts and drawings back to Italy. Melzi’s heirs, who had no idea of the importance of the manuscripts, gradually disposed of them.” Nonetheless, over 5,000 pages of notes “still exist in Leonardo’s ‘mirror writing’, from right to left.” These notebooks contain da Vinci’s “visions of the aeroplane, the helicopter, the parachute, the submarine and the car. It was more than 300 years before many of his ideas were improved upon.”

• Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Types of Notes You Can Add to Padlet Walls There are a variety of ways that you can add notes to a Padlet wall. It is good to be reminded why you might use them.Also useful here is a video featuring nine of them. The tenth is the new Catscan option. Useful to as a quick how-to for you to direct anyone who has not used them before”

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Convert a PDF Into a Google Document Fortunately, you can do that without having to use any third-party tools. PDF to Google Docs conversion is built right into Google Drive. To convert a PDF into Google Docs format just upload it to your Google Drive. Once the file is uploaded click on it to open it. It will initially display as a PDF. To then convert to Google Docs select “open with” at the top of the page and you’ll have Google Docs as an option. Selecting that option converts the PDF into a Google Doc.”

• Free Resources – Andrew Fuller Useful resources to support well-being

• Special education and accessibility resources for remote learning – Microsoft Educator Center “The diversity of learning needs demands school systems provide inclusive, accessible learning environments that inspire confidence and encourage independence differently for each student. Learn about how to create a personalized and engaging remote learning experience for all of your students through the resources provided in the sections below. “

• Creating your virtual library (quickly) using Slides and Bitmojis as Hyperdocs — @joycevalenza NeverEndingSearch “Some strategies for personalizing and enriching the remote learning experience.
  Currently, one very popular strategy is the creation of classroom scenes using Google Slides populated with their flexible Bitmojis.”

• Writer Unboxed – about the craft and business of fiction “There are some simple and handy tips and tricks will help you keep your writing on track rather then becoming sidetracked woth all the things that can happen every single day.”

• Latest Cape Grim greenhouse gas data – CSIRO “The latest greenhouse gas (GHG) data updated monthly from one of the cleanest air sources in the world.”

• How to Reduce Google Chrome’s Memory Usage and Free Up RAM “With just a little bit of effort, there’s a lot you can do limit Chrome’s memory usage. If your browser seems to be always chugging along, this article will help you reduce Chrome’s memory usage and free up RAM.”

• Sovereign Hill Interesting videos that illustrate how history is brought to life. They will add to the experience of anyone who visits Sovereign Hill “How does Sovereign Hill bring Ballarat’s goldfields to life? Go behind the scenes and meet our team of experts who deliver the excitement of the gold rushes.”

• The Fake News Problem – Fake News and Media Literacy – Research Guides at Santa Fe Community College A libguide set up to teach media literacy. Another resource that others may find helpful when trying to teach about challenges that the proliferation of Fake News brings.

• 12 Essential Nonfiction Graphic Novels for Kids and Teens | School Library Journal “A good list here that shoes that these books are inclusive, respectful, accurate, and informative—they meet the highest nonfiction standards.” They are great books to put into the hands of readers (young and old)

• Moving at the Speed of Creativity | My Videoconference Is Not Working. What Can I Do?

  Useful advice for anyone using videoconferencing. WesFryer composed a pretty generic and wide ranging response to the question.”It is difficult to know what these connectivity problems / issues were without more context, but generally issues with video or audio buffering / not playing smoothly in a video conference is an issue with local Internet access at someone’s house, when we’re talking about remote learning / connecting from home.:”

• How at avoid internet hackers and scammers when working from home. Advice about how to keep you and your data safe from hackers.

• Why pick PayPal over Venmo: 11 tips for better online security Everyone needs to know about how to keep themselves safe and their information secure. Here are some tips that explain how.

• National Password Day: Try a password manager and sleep better tonight It is a good time to review your passwords. Timely advice and some useful tips

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Turning the pages : Rare books from the British Library

What amazing opportunities we have now that we can digitize many very old and delicate original sources. The British Library has an Online Gallery called Turning the Pages.  Now pages of some of the world’s most protected, cherished, antiquarian books from the library’s collection are available to be viewed electronically. Once we would not have been able to get any where near these books as they are too valuable or fragile for public display but now we can enjoy a rich interactive experience with these rare resources. There are a number of options for you depending on the operating system your computer uses.  

 Here you can leaf through pages of 15 incredible original texts, from  an original copy of Alice’s Adventures Underground to Jane Austen’s History of England.

When you flip through the pages of Lewis Carrolls original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground  (that would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) you can view Carroll’s handwritten story and see his self-drawn illustrations. You can also view The History of England, which Jane Austen hand wrote when she was only 15 years old.

Also on offer are a variety of texts that include the Lindisfarne Gospels, sketches by Leonardo (1508), the oldest printed book, Diamond Sutra (868 China) and Mozart’s musical diary. 

There are a variety of options you can choose when you are viewing a book page by page. These include:

• the ability to magnify the text
• Listen to a reading of text
• Read commentary about it.

 

These are primary sources from the different eras in history. It is a very rich resource offering unusual and rare content. I can’t stop looking at these books, they are quite addictive and the narrations are a  fabulous addition.