Several weeks ago I attended a the ILA Region 5 & 6 Conference at Snake River Community Library. Here are some notes that I took at one of my favorite sessions.
Tech Talk: Integrating 21st Century Tools into School
Libraries with Gena Marker, current
president of ILA. She is a school
librarian at Centennial High School in Meridian, ID.
This
session was rather exciting for me, because it talked about how technology can
be used to enhance learning and the educational experience. She began by mentioning how many teachers get
in a technology rut, using software adopted a decade ago. Gena encouraged librarians to put new tools
in students’ hands. I believe one of the
educational goals for Idaho is to increase student fluency with technology;
someone made reference to this in the session.
Gena
has bought flip or pocket cameras (Sony Bloggie models I believe) into the
students’ hands. Students need to learn
new information and how to present it.
They should navigate the future and can do this with the use of new
tools and technology.
Animoto: it’s great and it’s free. As an
educator you can upgrade when you login.
This will give more access.
Create a video with a few clicks.
The free version allows for a 30-second video, but educators can do
more. Embed photos and video clips. It is quick to use once you have tried it
out, as with other sites in the Cloud.
With the flip cameras, it is necessary to be close to people to hear
them. Animoto lets you choose music from
(set of options) music library.
Photo Story 3: this is good.
Zamzar: third party that converts almost any file type,
such as avi, flv, wav, mov, etc. It has
an easy three-step process:
1. Upload file
2. Specify the new file
type you desire
3. Enter email address, so
they can send you the new file with the new extension
Let
students create videos. It forces
creativity.
AnyVideo Converter: another third party
file converter. This may cost money, but
it also does more in the way of screen captures, ripping DVDs, and so forth.
Prezi: it’s an interactive
whiteboard that zooms, flips, and embeds photos. Create an educator account. It’s possible to download it to a USB device. Check out flip cameras from the library. Learn by trial and error.
Glogster: she recommends that
teachers and librarians use the Glogster EDU as it may be safer and can be
managed in a private setting just for class.
Use Glogster to show things. It
is an alternative to PowerPoint. Poster
yourself. It’s a digital poster, but it
allows you to embed audio and video into the poster. Thumbnail photos can be enlarged. It’s more about content than design creation. Or maybe she said to encourage students to
focus on the content than on design creation.
Some students in an honors class created one that looked at McBeth(?)
from a feminist perspective. They
created a video that could be viewed, and they could show the poster while they
explained it to the class during a presentation.
Extranormal: student love this the
most and can waste a lot of time here.
Type in the text, and a mechanical voice will come out of the cartoon
character you have chosen. Type in stage
directions, like walk forward three steps, and point to the left.
Audacity: free podcasting. It’s a free download. Use a microphone with a USB connector to
attach it to the computer. Record a book
review and share it in your online catalog.
With Follett’s Destiny (opac vendor), she can do this.
Windows
Live Movie Maker: it is good for making movies with photographs, recorded
digital movies, and music.
VoiceThread: collaborate to change
a presentation or comment on it.
Wordle: create word
clouds. This is a fun design thing.
Overall, this presentation
interested me because of the way she tied the technology to student learning
and creativity. It gave me some ideas
and made me want to try some of these things.
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