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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Evaluating Websites: Using pneumonics to remember C.R.A.P. AND R.E.A.L.

Working with students in year 7 (and after some research sessions with parents) I created this slideshow to help students (and parents) remember the things we spoke about and investigated. The students used in in conjunction with someweb research they were doing in respone to a variety of English tasks where they were to recommend several websites that would be useful to the characters they chose to work on. The students had to find and evaluate the sites then explain why they were sites their characters would have used.

Useful links

“Reflection” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by shareski

Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Tools to Organize and Cite Research Sources Richard Byrne offers a description of some of the tools (with links) that may help students organize and cite their research sources.

Online Tools and Resources That Support Academic Honesty | Getting Smart “This post offer an annotated list of 10 edtech tools that can help promote academic honesty. They offer an easy way to fit doing the right into daily routines and improving the quality of educational efforts especially with research.”

Writing guide – EasyBib Blog Whilst there is no single, ‘correct’ way to write a research paper, there are certain guidelines that can assist the writer. This is a writing guide that cna be used as a framework depending on what the task is..

Blog Basics: Copyright and Fair Use – Full Page

The essential elements of digital literacies: Doug Belshaw at TEDxWarwick – YouTube

Favorite Portals for Pedagogical Planning (and a new curation tool) — @joycevalenza NeverEndingSearch  Joyce Valenza examines some interesting pedagogical portals that educators should have a look at if they are seeking some inspiration for engaging learners in meaningful conversations and a few new activities.

Libraries of the future are going to change in some unexpected ways | Business Insider An article that discusses some fascinating ideas about what libraries might become – their services and whatresources they curate

The growing need for developing (the right) STEM skills – Skills and Work An interesting discussion around what STEM skills and abilities are important and should be taught to students.

School Libraries: Are They Relevant in the Age of Google? “There are some great opportunities for the new school library. The idea of libraries as learning commons has gotten considerable national traction, and some successful models have been born”

Leverage Library Orientations to Reach Students AND Teachers “As a teacher librarian you are always learning about new ideas, skills, and ways of doing things that can enhance learning, engagement, and/or efficiency for students and teachers alike. But, it’s frequently a challenge finding the opportunities to share all we want to with either group. One way to expose both students and teachers to new concepts and skills simultaneously, thus getting double mileage from the time, is to introduce them during library orientations.

Study Skills Handbook by ELES Assisting my students develop good study techniques including improving memory, revision techniques, active reading and listening.

Free Fonts for Designers – 22 New Typefaces | Fonts | Graphic Design Junction

Free Clip Art and Public Domain Images Incredible art department. Many links to aide range of resources

Coding, Literacy and the 21st Century – Read Write RespondAn interesting discussion about the place of coding in education. “In the end, maybe coding is the 21st writing firm of writing? Like poetry, maybe every student should write code. One thing that is certain, coding as a topic of discussion provides more questions than answers. So what about you? “

How to Organize a Paper: Ten Ways to Write the Perfect Document – The Visual Communication Guy: Design, Writing, and Teaching Resources All in One Place! Whatever your purpose for writing, the way you organize your paper is critical to the way in which it will be received. To organize a paper, you much be conscious of what your goal is, what your audience will interpret your message to be, how you’ll build to your main point, and how you’ll leave the appropriate lasting impression.

This graphic doesn’t cover all the ways to organize a paper, but it covers ten of the most common.”

Is Listening to an Audio book “Cheating?” – Daniel Willingham “Learning to read is certainly important, no one is saying that it isn’t, but in some cases, listening to the story can encourage students to read more, something high school English teacher Michael Godsey discovered using podcast audio with transcripts. “

Digital Licence This the site of the eSmart Digital Licence. It is a comprehensive online cyber safety resources. It teaches school aged children critical digital skills and promotes discussion about online safety between young people and their parents, carers and teachers.

Google now lets you explore U.S. National Parks via 360-degree virtual tours | TechCrunch This offers a wonderful to gain some understanding of these amazing places.

The 7 C’s of Minecraft: Education Edition – LearningBlocksEdu One educator discusses “How would I do Minecraft Education Edition?” He takes a look at what might happen if there was “a blank canvas to work on and a bottomless pit of resources”. The ideas are laid out under 7 headings: “The 7 C’s” that are at the very core of his vision of Minecraft in Education. These are: Curriculum; Curriculum; Collaboration; Community; Communication; Control; Coding. There are ideas here that could lead to some interesting discussions.

Useful links

   by  Scott McLeod 

• The e-Learning Roadmap – PDST-Technology in Education There have been a few e-Learning frameworks and roadmaps. They can be useful guides and have gained some popularity. The one here is from The National Centre for Technology in Education (@ncteireland) in 2011. it is a good example, although it is contextualised to the UK and Ireland. Offers a few downloadable versions.

• Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2015 | American Association of School Librarians (AASL) “The 2015 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. “

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create a Picture Book Online With Jellybean Writer First up is a tutorial on Jellybean Writer. The video is embedded below. Jellybean Writer is a free tool for creating picture books. Students can import pictures from their computers then write captions for each image. All stories can be saved online or downloaded and printed. If picture books are too simple for your students, they can skip using pictures and select one of the text only templates for the pages in their books. As you will see in the video below, teacher can create and manage student accounts in Jellybean Scoop.

• Free Technology for Teachers: Three Helpful Gmail Settings for Students and Teachers “A post about the new (to some users) Gmail setting called “Undo Send” prompted a few questions to appear in Richard Byrne’s email. To address those questions he recorded the following video containing an overview of three helpful Gmail settings for students and teachers. The video covers using Gmail offline, setting the “undo send” grace period, and setting the “reply v. reply all” default function.”

• Welcome to Open Library (Open Library) The Open Library is a part of the Internet Archive. It is a collection of more than one million free e-book titles. The collection is cataloged by a community of volunteer online librarians. The ebooks in the Open Library can be read online, downloaded to a computer, read on a Kindle or other e-readers and embedded into other sites. Some of the ebooks, like Treasure Island, can also be listened to through the Open Library.

• Free Technology for Teachers: 118 Practical Ed Tech Tips Videos

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Use PicCollage – And Five Ideas for Using It In Your Classroom “PicCollage is one of my favorite Android and iPad apps. It is a free that allows you to quickly arrange pictures, video, text, and stickers into collages. From the app you can share your collage to Google Drive, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox, and many other file sharing services. In the video below I demonstrate how to use it without creating a PicCollage account.”

• Cut to the Core: Education Reform and Libraries “Education reform must include support for school libraries” The skills of the teacher librarians offer a range of essential tasks, including teaching information literacy, delivering captivating book talks, finding and introducing new technology and cultivating technology skills, reinforcing solid research skills, supervising and engaging students during non-instructional periods, and, of course, developing and maintaining a collection of materials to meet student needs. We disseminate knowledge and offer the support necessary to make student learning experiences successful, and positive. For example, beyond our teaching tasks, we also deliver a careful form of book selection called bibliotherapy, a type of assistance that puts appropriate books into the hands of children and adolescents struggling to navigate the complex pressures and problems that complicate their diverse lives.

• World’s favourite bookstores ranking shows enduring market

• Why Minecraft Rewrites the Playbook for Learning – Boing Boing “One of the world’s leading experts in online education sings the praises of Minecraft as a tool for helping kids find and realize a passion for learning.”

• Google Forms: Submitting Drawings | Teacher Tech Useful how-to.

• An Update to the Upgraded KWL for the 21st Century | Langwitches Blog From the old KWL it has developed into the KWHLAQ chart. It offers one framework to promote Reflection as Part of the Learning Process, Not as an Add-on. In the visual in this post Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (langwitches) shares ideas of how to embed the KWHLAQ framework in analog and digital activities.

• How to get teenagers to read “Children are heartily encouraged to read in their early years of school. However, once students have mastered this skill and they move from learning to read, to reading to learn, the role of pleasure in the activity can be forgotten. If reading is just seen as a tool for learning, the will to read may not be fostered in young people. Recreational book reading involves voluntary reading for pleasure, and research suggests that students in Australia and internationally are reading less over time.”

• Inspired By Serial, Teens Create Podcasts As A Final Exam | MindShift | KQED News A great article about using podcasts for assessment of yr 10 students to demonstrate their understanding of literary concepts.

• 4 Tips to Develop Great Teacher Leaders @coolcatteacher “Teachers who are leaders change the world one student at a time. Leaders are readers. Leaders are learners.  But where do we start? What do we read? What do we learn?”

• How To Get Started With Sketchnotes – Smashing Magazine “Making your notes more interesting doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. If sketchnoting looks like it might be fun, there are some tips in this post to get you started.”

• 25 Ways to Develop 21st Century Thinkers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning “An infographic created by Mentoring Minds in which they featured 25 ways to develop 21st century critical thinkers”

• Throw out your reading program & get psyched about reading “No trinkets. No prizes. No book levels. One school led by Principal Todd Nesloney got rid of it all. Every teacher and every student set a simple goal: read twenty books in one semester. Any book. Any kind. If you hate the book — STOP READING IT.”

• Artwork: Nicholas Jones – book sculptor Some amazing works here re-using old books to create some amazing works of art.

• Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: Chrome extensions Some useful tools for educators discussed here.

• Pets caught reading photography contest  Guidelines for “Pets caught reading photography contest” This looked like fun and was created for National Library Week.

• Lovereading Updates from the world of books » Authors who have written under a pseudonym “Top 20 from Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling) through Paul French (a.k.a. Isaac Asimov) to Eric Blair (a.k.a George Orwell). LoveReading.co.uk hope you enjoy the infographic.”

• Rainbow Window Shades – Easy Way to Display Art | Carle Museum A creative way to use windows for displays of art.

• Makerspace Reflections | Renovated Learning “a thoughtful reflection from one teacher librarian about what she had done with undertaking makerspaces or making activities in your library/classroom. What worked and what didn’t and what might be done better next year.

• Want people to share your content? Use these words in your headlines.… 180+ words to grab a readers attention

• The Book Chook: Children’s Book Week 2015 – Ideas for Display A good list of display ideas from the “Book Chook”. Many could be adapted for specific libraries/schools.

• The Book Chook: Activities for Children’s Book Week, 2015 A good list of activities from the “Book Chook”. Many could be adapted for specific libraries/schools.

• Pinterest: Discover and save creative ideas Pinterest board with examples of Book faces and related photographs.

• Book Faces!! | Baraboo Public Library Examples of book faces

• 3 Great Special Needs Digital Tools | Ask a Tech Teacher “Three that stand above the rest and will quickly become staples in your teaching toolkit: Sonocent–for note-taking and study skills; Babakus–for mathematical functions; Signed Stories–for reading”

• 10 Ways to use the YouTube Creative Studio with your Students  Some good ideas worth exploring here. Includes video and many links .

• The Book Chook: Recommended Books for Older Readers, June 2015 A list of some interesting books for lower secondary level readers from the Book Chook. “Although I tend to review books for younger children, I read MG and YA as part of my reading for pleasure. So below we have some books for kids 10 – 12. “

• Free Technology for Teachers: How to Eliminate Choices as They’re Used on Google Forms “There is a way to have choices eliminated from a Google Form as they get used up. For example, if you want to offer meeting times without the possibility of people double-booking you. Yes, you can do this in Google Forms with the help of the Google Forms Add-on called Choice Eliminator.”

• Using Games for Assessment | Edutopia “Game-based learning is more than just picking the right game for your classroom. It’s about designing a meaningful learning experience for your students.”

• How Student Centered Is Your Classroom? | Edutopia “Are you creating a learning space where your students have ample voice, engage frequently with each other, and are given opportunities to make choices.Some guiding Questions to help you reflect on the learning environment you design for students:”

• ProWritingAid – Writing Improvement & Editing Software “This is an editing and grammar checking tool. It checks dozens of areas including:Passive verbs; Overused phrases; Vague phrasing; Cliches; Punctuation; Hyphens. It also checks for plagiarism and is great for teaching students about plagiarism, how to avoid it and how easily it’s detected nowadays. In addition to correcting grammatical errors, it also provides tips and explanations for students to improve their writing.”

• The Maker Issue | SLJ 2015 | School Library Journal A reflection on the maker scene as it was in the last 12 months in schools and libraries. Wide-ranging and inspiring.

• 3 ways to be a better digital citizen, online and IRL | eSchool News | eSchool News Post discussing elements of digital citizenship. “Practicing empathy, offering assistance, and staying safe are good behaviors online and off”

• 6 Collaborative Social Tools and Platforms for Better Writing and Collaboration — Emerging Education Technologies “Collaborative, socially-enabled tools can provide excellent opportunities for practice, assessment, better writing, and better communication. In this post are some good collaborative web apps and resources, with social functionality, that can play a valuable role in classroom lessons and assignments:”

• WTO | World Trade Organization: WTO / GATT The web design of this spoof is very similar to the official World trade Organization site, and the URL is believable but the content quickly gives it away – especially the main news headline: “”WTO Announces Formalized Slavery Market For Africa”

• Internet Detective | Home     “A free internet tutorial that offers advice about learning to discern the good, the bad and the ugly for online research.”

• IRIS: Choose a Topic “IRIS is a collection of Information Literacy tutorials to help you learn about finding and using information effectively. You can use the links on the left bar to pick and choose the modules you need. The IRIS tutorials have been updated to a new look and format, indicated with NEW next to the tutorial name. For a while, expect this site to be a mish-mash of old and new formats! “

• Bibliography and Citation Home – Bibliography and citation – LibGuides at Melbourne High School Some good explanations about plagiarism – wat it is, how to avoid it

• Introduction – Beginning Research – Subject Research Guides at University of Melbourne From The University of Melbourne. “Beginning Research: This guide will help you through the beginning stages of researching, what every the purpose for the research.”

• Teach Digital Literacy—Make the Internet a Better Place | TakePart

• Evaluation Criteria from “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources

• Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools | olinuris.library.cornell.edu

• Vaughan Memorial Library : Tutorials : Credible Sources Count! Elementary level tutorial for evaluating web sites.

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

How do You Choose Good Online Sources?

This is a great visual to back up my teaching. We had a session last week where I was explaining this information to a year 8 science class as they embarked on a major research project. You know some” get it” but others are still struggle with evaluating a source even if they agree to the reason why. This is clean and concise.

An Ethical Island

Students often ask how to determine which websites and articles are good sources to cite. My answer is always, “Well, what do you think?” Students need to be able to think on their own. So, if your student offers some questionable sources, ask, “Why did you choose that one?” Try to get the student to think about the who, what, why, and when of the article and website. Let the student use critical thinking to come to a valid conclusion. They might just have a good reason for using the source.

How to chose a good online source…. some questions to ask yourself.

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