AASL Best Websites/Apps and Staying Current

Today I am visiting the AASL Best Websites 2015 website.  I have found three web sites that are very interesting.

1. BooktrackClassroom: Booktrack Classroom allows users to read online novels while listening to built-in soundtracks.  The music actually changes to fit the mood of the story.  For example, at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, the music sounds very relaxing and farm-like.  As I continued to read and the tornado approached, the music sounded ominous.  How does this work? There is a cursor that tracks the number of words read per minute, and students can adjust this reading rate to actually match their own personal rates.  The website has a built-in classroom management feature where teachers can set up classes to to monitor how many pages, frequency, and reading rates of students. Currently, the website does not have a wide variety of books, and most of their titles are part of the public domain.  Librarians could use this website on an computer terminal in the library with headphones where students could read quietly.  Teachers could use this website during sustained silent reading time.

2. StoryboardThat.com: StoryboardThat is a fun website where users create their own storyboards with existing templates for characters, settings, and objects.  Teacher accounts allow teachers to create a classroom and add students; however, I was only able to create one classroom, and as a middle school teacher, this could become problematic since I teach five classes. Users can try the website without creating a login, but they are restricted to a three frame storyboard and the save function is disabled.  This tool can be used in any number of ways in the library and classroom.  Students can use the storyboard as intended, as a planning tool, to organize existing stories or poems or use it to help them brainstorm their own ideas for original films, etc.  Students can then create their digital story in another medium.  This website can also be used as a comic book creator or to create pictures/graphics to use in other products, such as a presentation tool.

3.  Tackk: Create digital, interactive posters with Tackk, which also has a streaming feature where users can comment on each other's work.  Users can easily create online websites, newsletters, and projects.  Embeddable objects include pictures, text, sounds, and videos.  Tackk can be used to create online portfolios.  Students can also use Tackk as a collaboration tool by sharing a page.

It is very important for teachers and librarians to stay current with the latest technologies and instructional materials.  I found the Daring Librarian very interesting.  Author/Librarian Gwyneth A. Jones advertises her blog as shameless sharing, and she has so much information on her blog that I could spend hours browsing it.  Her fun and funky writing style is engaging with such titles as Tweet Like a Ninja.  I especially liked her piece on the Amazon Echo and how she was using in her library. This is one blog I will definitely follow in the future and shamelessly share with my friends.

Other blogs included in this week's assignments:

• The UnQuiet Librarian
• Adventures of Library Girl
• The Daring Librarian
• Van Meter Library Voice
• Will Richardson: Read Write Connect Learn
• Two Cents
• Dangerously Irrelevant

Presentation Tools

Thinglink.com: Thinglink allows users to create interactive posters by placing hotspots on an image. Hotspots consist of pictures, sounds, videos, and plain text links.   I created a board game for my students to help them review punctuation. The website was fun and very easy to use.  Students of all ages should be able to create and share their own Thinklinks very easily. Two thumbs up from me!

Blendspace: Blendspace allows teachers to easily create interactive lessons using available resources as well as an option to add your original content.  I selected a broad category (figurative language), and I was able to compile a lesson that uses pictures, sounds, videos, and practice activities very quickly and efficiently. Blendspace also has an option for teachers to create classes and interactive quizzes for students.  I hesitate using this for secure testing, but it seems like a great resource for exit tickets, etc.  Another two thumbs up from me!





For my future reference, these are the tools we explored this week.

• Slidely: http://slidely.com
• Haiku Deck: https://www.haikudeck.com/
• Blendspace: https://www.blendspace.com/
• Prezi: http://prezi.com/
• SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/
• ThingLink: https://www.thinglink.com/
• Pixton: http://www.pixton.com/
• Buncee: https://www.edu.buncee.com/home
• Emaze: https://www.emaze.com/

3-D Objects

For my project, I began using Sketchup.  What a mistake! I spent hours experimenting and Googling help videos on Youtube.  My final product was blah, and I am still not convinced I created it correctly.

After a lengthy break that involved reorganizing my storage room and a handful of M&M's, I was ready to try it again.  This time I switched to Tinkercad.  What a difference!  I loved the tutorials in the beginning.  I found them very helpful and right at my level.  After a few tutorials, I was ready to begin working on my project.  But I had no idea what I was creating.

I began playing around with shapes and letters, and my design ultimately became a miniature reading trophy suitable as a prize for a reading Olympics.  I thought that would be a fun library tie-in during Olympic years.  On the front, I created the letters R-E-A-D with a backdrop of a globe.  On the reverse side are the Olympic rings and the word champion.  After all, readers are champions in my book!  

Citation

Charlotte Cooper. Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain). Retrieved July 13, 2015.

Three-D Printing, Coding, and Robots

I am a little embarrassed to admit that until this week, I didn't have a clear idea of what 3d printing was all about.  In my mind, I was picturing an origami Cricut-type cutting machine because I had only seen pictures of objects with cut out shapes.  After watching the videos and reading the articles, I believe the hype is justified.

With the opportunity to create and print practically any object, students in schools and libraries can study first hand the things they would typically only explore through two dimensional photos.  I was most interested in reading about how museums were scanning their collections.  One of my favorite sculptures is Degas's Little Dancer, To display this statue alongside books about ballet and art, the Degas might inspire students in new ways.

Last year, I brought coding into my English classroom.  My students created narrative video games from original stories using Scratch and Gamestar Mechanic.  Many of my girls who showed no interest in gaming actually enjoyed the construction and design process of building games.  It was a fun experience, and one I will gladly improve upon this school year.

I would love to have a robot in our school! While watching the videos this week, I couldn't help but think of having a book recommendation robot in the library.  Students could talk about topics that interested them, and the robot could list several book recommendations based upon criteria such as subject, length, and reading level.  Students would love to interact with a book buddy.

QR Codes

For this week's blog entry, I explored different ways to use QR codes in the classroom. I used I-nigma to create a series of QR codes linking ten book titles from the Virginia Readers' Choice list with Youtube book trailers.  My graphic is bookmark teachers or librarians can share with students.  Using a mobile device, students can then watch the trailers in the library and check-out the books if interested.  I also experimented with QR Voice and created a qr code for famous first book sentences.  I thought this would make can interesting interactive bulletin board.  The QR Treasure Hunt generator seems very promising.  I'd like to use this with my students on a Fountain of Youth treasure hunt activity.

Videos

Animoto

In the spring, I usually complete a Titanic unit with my 6th grade English students.  I created an Animoto video for my class website that showcases some of my favorite Titanic fiction books.  To tell the story, I selected a navy blue theme to create a cool feeling.  Paired with "Moonlight Sonata," the mood of my movie matches the somberness of the disaster.  Overall, I found the website very easy to use, and I was able to create a movie rather quickly.  There were many themes to choose from as well as background songs. If you are the type of person who likes to create everything from scratch, you may become frustrated with this site along with it's 30 second time limit for free accounts. I'd like to create more book recommendation Animotos similar to this for each of the units I teach.

Powtoon
Powtoon was my favorite of all of the websites I explored this week.  However, I found it very time consuming.  I am the type of person who obsesses over details in multimedia projects, and after an hour, I only had about 15 seconds.  Most of this time was spent learning how to use the program. Animoto was much easier for me to use, but I liked the special features of Powtoon better, especially the trendy hands; however, I became frustrated when some of the the special effects I was trying to create were not falling into place as they should.  I would give students the opportunity to use Powtoon for a class project, such as creating an advertisement.  I have a class website, and I could also use Powtoon for my set induction as a way to introduce a concept or essential question.  

Pixiclip
I was fascinated with Pixiclip for about five minutes.  My biggest complaint with Pixiclip is not being able to go forwards and backwards through a video.  There is also no preview available, so you can't see your video until after you've published it.  And once published, you can't go back and edit.  That being said, I can see this as easy way for students to create a podcast/vodcast.  I like the idea of using Pixiclip to introduce a writing prompt.  I watched a video of a person using Pixiclip to give directions by using a map.  I thought I could build an activity such as that into a lesson on prepositions.

Websites: Wix, Weebly, and Google Sites! Oh My!

I love building websites! I have prior experience using Wix, Weebly, Smore, Google Sites, and even my own website designed from scratch in Photoshop and assembled in Dreamweaver.  Right now, I am leaning towards using Weebly because although I know how to design a web page from scratch, I have time constraints that, as a professional, I have to deal with.  My free time is limited, so I need to be efficient with my choices.

Lord Selkirk School Library
This library connects a school-wide adventure theme into the library as well as the library's website.  The greenery in the header matches the library photo, which is a display of African safari animals and books. I thought the background of this website was particularly effective at matching a theme without being over-the-top.  This website is designed for both parents and students, so while the elements are fun, there is enough white space to make the site clear and useful. The font colors match the other colors used in the website.  The fonts, however, are from different families, which seems to be an oversight rather than a design choice.  I am not a huge fan of the two columns underneath the picture.  I don't know if there is enough information that necessitates two columns of equal size.  I wonder how this would look with a big/small combination.

Lamoille Union Middle and High School
While I don't care for the overall "look" of this website, I have to applaud the librarians' creative ideas and social media integration.  Many of the websites I've looked at today are very static and boring, but this one is dynamic and full of life.  When I read this Wix website, I wanted to visit this library and  meet these librarians.  For me, this is a great place to let my creativity explode, and for my website, I would like to use similar ideas but different visual techniques.