Technology & Student Authors

What do you do with student-authored books?

The Problem

I used to cringe when students brought in their treasures to share.  It wasn't that I didn't enjoy reading their creations.  Students write wonderful stories.  I love them!  The problem was that I didn't have a good place to store their books or a system for circulation.

Student authored books are generally thin paperbacks, and they disappear into the stacks if shelved among hard cover editions.

Another problem was that I didn't know whether to actually let them circulate.  How would other students treat these books?  What if a little sibling tore or wrote on it?

At my current school, students LOVE to write.  Many students write books as part of their action for the PYP Exhibition, and our collection is growing.  When I first arrived there were a few titles on the shelves, and by the end of the first year we had nearly a dozen books written by students.  The collection continued to grow, but no one (beyond the author, his/her parents, and teacher) knew they existed.

Our Solution

Seeing the cover is critical for circulating student-authored books, so they now have their own acrylic display stand.  It is located in a prominent location, on a low shelf, just as you enter the Media Centre.  It is at eye level for most primary students.

The Procedure

When a student has a book they would like circulated through the library, they can either bring in a hard copy or email a soft-copy.  Hard copies are first scanned into a PDF version and then the pages are bound with a comb binding and clear cover (to show off the student's artwork); soft-copies are printed and bound. The cover is saved as a jpg.  Then the books are barcoded and added to our catalog.  After changing it several times, we settled on STUDENT AUTHORS as the call number.  This allows us to move the display around.

As part of our processing, most books are uploaded to our library's ISSUU account.

Within the record is a link to the ebook version:

Of the 13 titles on ISSUU, statistics show they have been read 87 times!  That beats the print copy stats fourfold.

One of the things I love best is how the students treat each other's work.  Reverent is the word that comes to mind. Students almost always ask if they may borrow them and take the books home - no assumptions are made - and they all seem to treat this as a special gift.  Thus far, all books have come back intact and on time.

Appy Friday - Hanx Writer

Webby Wednesday - SnipMP3

Appy Friday - Plickers

Webby Wednesday - Instashare

Webby Wednesday - PEGGO

Change Your YouTube Videos into MP3 Files

Appy Friday - Pixel Press - Gaming and Coding Made Simple

Why Educators should have these Apps on Their iPADS

Take a minute and look at each app icon to see how you can benefit using that particular app as an educator.

Appy Friday - FLOWBOARD

Webby Wednesday - School in the Cloud by TEDxer SUGATA MITRA

50 Tech Tools every Teacher-Librarian Should Know

Are you looking for some web tools to investigate this summer?  Take a look at the 50 tech tools listed below to get started. If you click on the button, it will take you to the website or app.  If there is a picture, you can click there to get an example of what some of the tools do.  Please note: not all pictures have an example!

Using Voxer to connect with your PLN

Appy Friday - Titan Downloader

Appy Friday - Revisiting ThingLink

Webby Wednesday EdPuzzle

Appy Friday - ADOBE VOICE

Appy Friday - GLOSSI

Create an interactive online magazine that can be viewed on any device.  Take a look at the Glossi site and Glossi App.

Appy Friday - Remind101

I have my Google Glass, now what?

First of all, let me say that my Google Glass headset is pretty darn awesome. The fact that I can see this little screen that offers me so much information is incredibly amazing.  I can call, text, Google, take pictures and videos all hands free.  This little computer  has an earpiece that records your voice and transmits audio through the skull.  Glass is definitely revolutionary in every way.  The tasks aren't all fun, they are functional too.  I even have Evernote installed so that if I am walking around and don't want to forget an idea, I just say,"Go Glass, note," and it writes what I say and sends it to Evernote.

 I feel very fortunate to be able to test and work with glass, but my first intention has always been, how can I (and others) use it for learning purposes.  I follow Two Guys and Some iPads and  their last blog post mentioned  how some educators are using Google Glass right now.

They quoted Stacey Goodman who wrote a great piece saying "Google Glass provides the educator a means for "making learning visible" (MLV), and can assist with the "observation and documentation in deepening and extending children's and adults' learning" that the Project Zero researches from Harvard and Reggio Emilia, who developed MLV, identified as key to effective teaching. The paradox of MLV is that documenting one's process within the workflow must itself be invisible if it is to be seamless and not "get in the way" of the actual work." (Goodman Dec. 6)

The Guardian had on article talking about how some doctors are using Google Glasses.   "I immediately thought Google Glass can transform how we perform surgery, " Shah said. "One immediate advantage is I can constantly keep my eyes on my patient.  I don't have to constantly have to move my head up and down looking at an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or X-Ray or a 'before and after' in my viewer." He continues, "Another advantage is I can communicate directly from the operating room with a patient's friends or family and tell them what is going on."  Furthermore, Shah says he believes the device will enable surgeons to document critical moments during a procedure.  For example, in surgery, both surgeons and colleagues will be able to see the exact position and size of a patient's tumor.  (Editor Jan. 20)

Ellyssa Kroski had some great ideas on how Google Glass can be used in libraries.  1. Enhance library tours 2. Record author talks and events 3. Enhance Maker Spaces  4. Record hands-on video tutorials 5. Provide real time OCR (optical character recognition speech) and text-to-speech 6. Real time translations of foreign text  and 7. Speak to patrons in their own language.  (Kroski April 18)

T          I absolutely love this infographic loaded with ideas.....

Here are some video examples of how things look through Glass:

STEMbite: Bone Conduction Speakers - First Person Video Explanations

I am not sure how many of you out there have had the opportunity to use Google Glasses, but they are definitely the wave of the future.  We need to discover how this tool can help kids and adults learn and transform lives.  I am excited to be part of a group testing different ways on  how use Google Glasses in a productive way.

Editor, The. N.p.. Web. 20 Jan 2014. <http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php/features/science/143604-google-glass-abilities-excite-surgeons>.

Goodman, Stacey. "Google Glass: Making Learning Visible with Wearable Technology." Edutopia. (2013): Dec. 6. Print.

Kroski, Ellyssa. "7 Things Libraries Can Do with Google Glass." Open Education Database. OEDB, 18 04 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/6-things-libraries-can-do-with-google-glass/>.

Appy Friday - Moxtra