Final Reflection

            Digital Technology for School Librarians: that alone made me terrified.  The use of technology was never my strongest area and to think that I had to complete an entire course scared me to the point that I almost gave up.  I mentioned before in my previous blogs that I would have to take every assignment one step at a time.  I had to remind myself that as long as I could follow directions, I would be okay.  Throughout the course, there were various assignments using different methods that I’d never even heard of.  I took the leap and decided to work one assignment at a time and one step at a time.  I had to convince myself that I could do it. 

            What I found tedious was creating social media accounts.  I didn’t see the need for them until I actually decided to pay attention to those people I was following.  I found useful articles, great pictures, and exciting news that was coming our way as librarians.  I already had a Facebook account, so following others was easy enough.  Twitter and Instagram was more foreign to me, but easy enough to find my way. 

            What I actually enjoyed working on were Infographics.  This opened a new world to me for working on presentations for work and school.  I was fairly familiar with them, but didn’t really create them frequently.  I had more time to explore the different formats and use what I liked. 

            I also enjoyed creating accounts for the online book communities which I had no idea existed.  My eyes were opened to a whole new world of possibilities and although I felt a bit exposed, I was glad I had that experience.  My absolute favorite assignment to complete was using Animoto.  I was able to play around with that for my class and for my students.  My students loved it!  They became so interested that they asked if they could start using it.  Of course I said yes.  We're in the process of creating some fun reading activities for the holidays.  

            Another fun technology based site we enjoyed as a class was creating comics and cartoons.  I was able to use this for lessons regarding behavior and discipline and had great success with it.  The students became excited and worked in groups to create a group project which they had to present for the class.  This was very successful and I will continue to use this in the future for my upcoming classes and sessions.

            What I found most difficult at times was embedding videos into the blog.  So, basically blogging!  I'm not a blogger, by any means, so writing out what I thought and putting in information was more of a challenge than I expected.  I did a bit of research before starting my own blog and found a bunch of nonsense that people write about.  I found a blog of people pretending to be cats and speaking as a cat, go figure.  Plus, I found blogs that were very helpful and well written.  It took some getting used to, but I was able to muster up enough of an opinion to blog about it.  

            I've had several people ask me what this class was about and if it was difficult.  My response was yes and no.  Yes because I spooked myself into believing that it would be hard and no because I learned to go with the flow.  We often fear what we don't understand and at the end of the day, I can say that I understood a lot more of this new world we live in.  Technology, although intimidating, is actually meant to make things easier.  It takes some getting used to, but it's quite exciting to use.

Teaching Writing with Technology-PEW

                                                                               

Purcell, K., Buchanan, J., Friedrich, L., "The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools." Pew Research Center, July, 2013. 

      http://pewinternet.org//Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing

As a veteran teacher of 14 years, I am always looking to find new and innovative ideas to teach critical content.  Teaching 1^st grade is obviously not as rigorous as teaching writing in 4^th grade, but it is a true foundation for what is to come.  In reading the article, The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools, I asked myself a multitude of questions and kept an open mind.  I found myself interested in finding out what other teachers thought about integrating technology into the writing process. 

            Advanced Placement middle and high school teachers were surveyed to find out if using digital technology was looked upon as favorable or troublesome.  A total of 2,462 teachers were surveyed as part of the National Writing Project and the majority favored the use of digital technology for instructional purposes.  Teachers were able to see a growth in student performance when it came to Writing.  They agreed that students were doing more and using various formats including social media outlets. 

            There were a variety of pros and cons when using digital technology for writing purposes.  One major con was that teachers now had to find new and interesting ways for better educating students against plagiarism and fair use.  On the other hand, a major pro is being able to share written formats in a variety of ways with a greater audience and more participants and engagement. 

            96% of teachers surveyed agreed that a broader audience is beneficial and 78% agreed that digital technology encourages creativity and personal expression.  Some teachers stated that the quality of written work is suffering due to the various use of digital technology that tends to auto correct misspellings, etc.  They reported seeing fair or poor ratings when using a more traditional written format. 

            The major areas of concern included fair use, copyright, plagiarism, and citation.  Teachers mentioned that despite the challenges, digital tools make teaching writing easier.  Students were avid users in whiteboards, wikis, websites, or blogs.  They use these formats to share their work with other students and teachers.  Of those surveyed, 94% said they still encourage students to write by hand. 

            In reading the article, I wanted my own views to not cloud the findings.  As an elementary teacher, I feel that the foundation needs to be strong in order to fully scaffold the learning throughout the years that come ahead.  I partially agree that the technology is vital in communication and definitely aids in the sharing of information, however, I also feel that if students cannot write an essay by hand then we have not done our students any justice.  First, build the foundation and teach the proper use of grammar and spelling.  Only then can we feel comfortable enough to allow students to venture onto using digital technology to share information. 

            As educators, we look for different ways of approaching content in a way that is enjoyable and engaging to students.  We’re not necessarily looking for easier ways or shortcuts, but a smarter way of teaching content.  As students leave our classrooms, we are hopeful that they have learned the necessary tools to succeed in their upcoming journey.  That journey now includes ways to communicate via digital technology and social media.  It’s fascinating to know that they will venture into blogs and websites to voice their opinions regarding something they’ve read or written.  Let’s get them ready for that.

114 pages

Total PEW pages-189

Instagram and Vine

Instagram is a photo sharing app that can connect to other social media outlets.  You can snap a picture and instantly share the photo using Instagram.  At first I thought this was an app especially made for celebrities since this is all the rage with the celebrity community.  Why would we use something like this in a school setting?  I thought about that and then had my famous a-ha moment.  I asked administration if we could incorporate Instagram to promote our school's celebration of Mickey Mouse's birthday on November 18th.  This idea was instantly approved and we began posting pictures of Mickey Mouse asking the question:  How old am I today?  This, of course, meant that students would have to visit our library to find out.  Instant success using Instagram...get it?  So clever.

How old am I today? Visit the library to find out!

A photo posted by Melisa Lopez (@mlopez473) on Nov 19, 2015 at 3:29pm PST

Vine is a video sharing app that you can share using social media outlets such as Twitter.  There is a continuous loop effect that is constantly playing.  There is a serious disadvantage to using Vine and that is that it's a very short loop.  It totals 6 seconds and it's hard to say that the full effect can be absorbed in 6 seconds.  It serves as a teaser and everyone knows that curiosity brings in the kids to find out more.  As we continued our celebration for Mickey Mouse's birthday, students were encouraged to enter their guess for Mickey's age.  As students wrote down their guesses, they gave their submission to the librarian and if the age was correct, they were instructed to press play on the library counter computer.  Students were then give a prize for their correct answer.  All the prizes were Mickey Mouse related and students enjoyed the research.




https://vine.co/v/iupm6jnlXdV

You never know with these blog posts, so I included the link as well.


Students were encouraged to wear their favorite Mickey Mouse attire and were given Mickey gifts including folders, pencils, and pencil sharpeners.  Overall, it was a fun day using new picture memories and making kids smile along the way.  Happy Birthday, Mickey!!

Enjoying her new folder for knowing that Mickey Mouse turned 87 on November 18th.

A photo posted by Melisa Lopez (@mlopez473) on Nov 19, 2015 at 4:17pm PST

I think what I enjoyed using most was Instagram.  It was very new to me and as I mentioned before, I'm not a celebrity.  However, we were able to get the word out quickly and we were able to flash the photo throughout the campus using the classroom computers.  We service very low income families, so asking them to create an Instagram account seems a bit out of the norm.  What I thought would be fun to do with Instagram and Vine would be a monthly scavenger hunt and have contests using different graphic ideas through Instagram and Vine.  We would need to use our school computers in order for our students to completely get the idea.  

Screencasts

Screencasts are a fun and easy way to allow people to actually "see" what you're talking about.  I am a notorious visual learner and need to see something in order for it to completely process into my brain.  When asking for directions, don't tell me to travel North or South, please just tell me where to turn once I reach the corner McDonald's.  Because of this fact, I was excited to learn a little more about Screencasts and how to use them.  I started off by using Screencast-o-matic.  I'm not thrilled about the name, but it was by far, my favorite.  I was able to quickly record myself and get my message across and it gave me a good 15 minutes to explain what we were going to do using Animoto.  I truly believe my students can navigate Animoto and create book reviews or book reports.  It would take some time, but with Screencast-o-matic, we can do anything.

Now, for some reason which befuddles me, I cannot use the embed option when inserting into Blogger sometimes.  I have tried over and over again and finally just uploaded my videos onto YouTube and embed from there.  I've become aware that I'm not the only one with this problem, but it is what it is.  I included the link when I created the second Screencast using Jing.  While using Jing seemed liked a good idea, I was a bit concerned that I needed to create another account using Screencast.com in order to share the video.  First, I had to upload the video and then try to share it via link or embed.  The dreaded embed option.  Jing is constantly reminding me that it's there...staring at me with its big yellow eye in the middle of the screen, very Sauron-esque like.  That's a major difference between Screencast-o-matic and Jing.  Screencast-o-matic is that faithful friend that hangs out when you want it to, it's not lurking around watching what you're doing every second of the day.  It's kind of a creepy stalker.  Either way, Jing gave me 5 minutes to record my website explanation and I felt a bit rushed and definitely needing to do more.  I realize that in explaining the website, Biblionasium, I was going to require more screencasts or perhaps use Screencast-o-matic since it will give me more time to explain it thoroughly.  After 3 hours trying to upload my Screencast using Jing, I finally had to insert the link.  There were countless ways I tried to embed the video on the blog, but no can do.  This was terribly frustrating.

Jing through Screencast.com

http://www.screencast.com/t/A67DH3QRYKj

Sadly, I did not get to use Screenr.  It seems I got to it a little too late and received this message upon opening the site.

I think I might have liked Screenr. 

Regardless, I prefer Screencast-o-matic.  The name could be better, but it was easy and convenient and maybe a bit simple, but it definitely does the job. 

Cartoons and Comics

Creating a cartoon or comic strip for teaching purposes sounds like a pretty good idea.  However, no one tells you how much work actually goes into creating such cartoons or comic strips.  Luckily, we have a couple of options these days.  I was able to create three comic strips using cartoons to tackle a very important and meaningful theme, bullying.  I am currently dealing with this type of behavior as it entails my daughter being picked on and I've tried to use these strips to help her get through this time.  In doing so, I thought about the countless others that have to deal with this type of bullying behavior in schools.  Maybe if we can create these types of cartoons and comic strips, students will feel more at ease in talking about the severity of the subject.  I would personally like to use this type of format and help students create comic strips to bring to light subjects that may be hard for them to talk about.  On the other hand, these strips can be used for humor and can be used as a writing center where students can create for the sake of creating.

 

The first comic strip I created was using ToonDoo.  ToonDoo gave me an option to create my own "toon" and have it express emotions and fill in either a dialogue or thought bubble.  This was very helpful, but I had trouble loading images as I would see gears turning as it generated and took a while to do so.  There were backgrounds that could be adapted to the situation, but again, it was hard to get all of them to load.  Overall, I would say it was easy to use, it is easy enough for students to use as well.  ToonDoo also allowed me to save the strip as a download, i.e. JPEG and was exceptionally easy to upload to this post.  There was plenty to choose from, just make sure you have time to wait or have an amazingly fast Internet provider.  I would definitely allow students to use this site as it easy to save and share with the rest of the class or even share with our school's Facebook page.

 

The second comic strip was created with Pixton.  Pixton made it easy to choose the characters, but they seem to lack "personality."  I wanted to express the same theme and create a dialogue between two characters and I was a bit limited with space and could hardly manage to get the scene to change.  It appeared that the only thing I was able to control was moving the standing character closer or further away from the character that was sitting.  This was easy to use and I would allow students to use Pixton, but it's for very basic usage.  I would see the benefit being for a writing center and having students create what they've read and bring it "to life" in comic strip form.  I did not like that it was limited and had very little variety.  The other concern I had was the inability to save the strip in JPEG format, which seems to be the quickest way to upload into my posts.  I was being asked to pay in order to save the download.   But, I had an a-ha moment and realized that my new favorite toy, SKITCH, could help me out once again.  I was able to use SKITCH to "copy" the screen and save it in JPEG format.  Pretty nifty, if I do say so myself.  I would have to show students how to use SKITCH and/or use the traditional Windows Print Screen option.

 

My final comic strip was created using MakeBeliefsComix.  This was probably my favorite.  I was able to definitely apply the background of a school setting, which was what I was going for to tackle the theme.  I also liked that there was a variety of "students" that could be inserted into the strip easily.  I had a bit of an issue with the dialogue boxes since they took up a great deal of space.  Space is definitely an issue when writing a comic strip.  I wanted to convey the look of a "bully" and I wanted the dialogue to be quick and easy, but substantial for the amount of boxes I chose.  Like the other two, I would allow students to use this site to create and this was also able to saved via download into a JPEG format.  I would incorporate MakeBeliefsComix into a lesson because I found that it was easier to create, save, and share.  I also think students will like the graphics and not have to put too much into the characters.  If they prefer to create from scratch, then ToonDoo is the site for them.  I like the idea of using writing centers with these and tackling touch subject matter.

 

 

https://tellagami.com/gami/WSHRQ2/

 

Finally, I created a gami!  I said this at school today and people thought I was strange, but I was actually pretty excited about this process.  I was intimidated by the idea, but realized it took less than 5 minutes to create.  I had already been reading this book to my students, so it was easy to access.  I liked that I was able to upload a photo of the book and review it.  It was quick, easy, and I used the voice recording instead of the text writing.  It was a quick recording option and gave me a few seconds to complete, but that was all I needed.  I loved it!   I will definitely keep using this and put it into a lesson where students have to create their own gamis. 

Online Book Communities

How do you rate sites which you’ve never visited before?  You do it with lots and lots of time and patience.  I began working on one site at a time and tried my best to navigate every aspect of the site.  I began thinking about two things while navigating the sites. One being how I could use it as a teacher and the other was how could my second grade daughter use these sites?  Basically, I approached this assignment as an adult and what I think a child would like.  Both drove me a bit crazy because of the amount of information that was so readily accessible, but it was interesting to break the sites down.  

Goodreads

*Place to discuss favorite books with other readers online. 

*Adult users with no kids section so people connect with all age groups.

*Communication is primarily about reviews. 

*When you first log in, the site walks you through how to create a library and rate books.

Goodreads
Likes	FAQ is extensive and well organized
Dislikes	People connect with all age groups
Advantages	Open discussions on favorite books
Disadvantages	No kids section
Ease of Use	Easy to navigate with Tips section
Pleasing to the eye	Very simple design, somewhat bland
Thoughts	Allows for constant updates, but somewhat hard to access on tablets

LibraryThing

*Puts you in touch with people of similar taste and browse their collections.

*See reviews and author information.

*Simple way of using Tags.

*Simple way to create username and password.

*Simple creation of collection.

*The site generates book recommendations.

*Can be made private or public.

*Post for free up to 200 books, but requires payment for yearly or lifetime membership.

LibraryThing
Likes	“What’s good” section allows for site help and navigation
Dislikes	Fee for a year or lifetime
Advantages	Tracks recent activity and “On this day” section
Disadvantages	Takes time to learn how to navigate
Ease of Use	Easy to sign up and create
Pleasing to the eye	Enjoy seeing my collection upon signing in
Thoughts	Easy to read member recommendations

Shelfari

*3 tabs including Profile, Books, and Community

*Tabs for Readers and Reviews, Discussions, and Editions

*Books can be purchased through Amazon and shared on social media

*More scholarly design

Shelfari
Likes	Various tabs including a Community tab
Dislikes	Takes a while to get your profile 100% complete
Advantages	Join groups to discuss books
Disadvantages	Connecting through Facebook or Twitter for friends
Ease of Use	Reading timeline is great to have
Pleasing to the eye	Brown overload of color
Thoughts	Didn’t’ like some stranger adding content to my wall, need to set up privacy

Booklikes

*Had to update Java just to answer that I’m not a robot.

*Verification code is crazy long.

*Paid theme backgrounds are super cute.

*Geared towards book blogging and reviews.

*Dashboard page has an abundance of Tumblr style posts.

*100% free-no limit to the number of books on the bookshelf.

*Connects with social media.

Booklikes
Likes	100% free with lots of Tumblr type posts
Dislikes	Verification code was extremely long
Advantages	Geared towards book reviews
Disadvantages	Blogging format
Ease of Use	Had to update Java, somewhat tedious
Pleasing to the eye	Lots of brown looks, have to pay for nicer theme backgrounds
Thoughts	Accessible to all but more for older teens and adults

Biblionasium

*Social networking site that lets younger readers log and share their books.

*COPPA compliant

*Kids talk to other kids and teachers.

*Simple to use.

*Provides reading challenges.

*Coach Chip Manzee supports children.

*Design is colorful and kid friendly.

*Kids can share their opinions.

*Signed in as a parent and was constantly asked to create a username for my daughter.

*There were limited books-not all books from a series.

Biblionasium
Likes	Very kid friendly
Dislikes	Connects with all age groups
Advantages	COPPA compliant (Child Online Privacy Protection Act)
Disadvantages	Felt I had to create user access for my daughter with Parent sign in
Ease of Use	Lacks more books
Pleasing to the eye	Extremely kid friendly
Thoughts	Easy and a good starter for books reviews and discussions

I would definitely have to say that Biblionasium is the way to go for younger children and students.  I would recommend the site to parents to create with their children and I would definitely take advantage of the reading challenges that are presented on the site for kids.  The site is extremely kid friendly and is easy to navigate.  It is a good starter site for reading books reviews, creating bookshelves, and having discussions with either younger children or teachers.  This site was by far my favorite to use with my students and my own child.  


**On another note, I used SKITCH for the first time and thought it was easy to use.  I used both the Microsoft Print Screen option and SKITCH.  Both ways were easy to use, so I can use either one with ease and comfort.  Obviously, SKITCH is more advanced and it will take me more time to feel comfortable using it with more mastery.

Pouncing on Podcasts

          As I prepared for this assignment, I took a look back at a previous podcast I created using Soundcloud.  It was a quiet Saturday morning and I pretended to be an author as I “interviewed” myself.  That was the extent of my experience.  It took less than 5 minutes to create and I was more nervous about listening to myself on audio.

          This type of podcast sparked an interest in me and I often thought about what I could do with podcasts in my first grade classroom.  Needless to say, I did not pursue it since our campus was hit pretty hard with budget cuts this year.  I currently have one laptop in my classroom that I only use to take attendance.  So, basically our school is going back to the Stone Age and some of us have talked about sending smoke signals as our new method for email.  But, I digress.

          Through my 14 years of teaching elementary students, I would often communicate with parents and students by creating class newsletters and I always wondered what would be my next step when informing students of upcoming events.

          I thought about creating a news channel where students would read the daily news, but this wasn’t available to us.  So, on to the next big thing.  What if I could have students read the daily news via podcasts?  It was fairly easy to use Soundcloud, so why not?  I would designate a different student on a weekly basis to read our school’s daily news to our classroom.  Perfect!

          The trick was definitely having them feel comfortable enough to be recorded.  Some would feel okay with it and others would be hesitant.  Either way, it wouldn’t be forced on them and some would benefit from it greatly, especially in building their confidence in public speaking.

          This new venture begins with allowing students to create daily news podcasts.  We will start off small and hope to gain some speed along the way.  Here we go!

https://soundcloud.com/melisa473/lopez-podcast-1






Podcast was read by my beautiful daughter, Erin. 

Information Ethics at its Best: Privacy Matters

As a teacher, I’m faced with tons of issues.  One of the most important is student privacy.  Any information that I gather at the beginning or during the year must be maintained confidential.  Sometimes, this is absolutely impossible.  The best of intentions often backfire when we live in a very close knit community where everyone knows each other.  Often times, we have parents who gather outside their homes and talk about what their child learned in school and sometimes that sparks outrage from the remaining parents.  Why isn’t their child learning the same thing?  Why is their child receiving different assignments?  Why is their homework different?  Believe it or not, we have those same parents coming to our school and demanding to find out the answers to their questions. 

The first stop will always be the office.  Parents will come in demanding to speak to the principal about what their neighbor said the day before.  The principal will then direct the parent to their child’s teacher and the interrogation begins.  As teachers, we must be prepared to answer quickly and accurately.  By the time we’re done explaining our classroom procedures, we have successfully put out the fire.  This is not always the case, though.

In doing my research for this assignment, I sat down with our librarian and asked the very difficult question about the four principles associated with information ethics within the library.  She was kind enough to give me the time to answer my questions and detail an occurrence that she experienced a couple of years back.  She explained to me that the most severe thing that she has seen had to do with respect for privacy.  Two sets of parents came in to speak to her regarding some books their children will checking out.  One set of parents blamed another child for the way their child was behaving and their choice of books.  Apparently, one child was influencing another in checking out questionable reading material.  First off, what was the questionable reading material and did it exist in an elementary library?  The answer to that was yes!  Our library books are labeled “LG” for lower grades and “MG” for middle grades.  We apparently were carrying books that were labeled “MG” in a PK-5 school. 

As the parents came by to speak to the librarian about the reading books that were being checked out by the students, they demanded to know their reading record for the past year and that is where the right to privacy was challenged.  She explained to the parents that she would not be able to share that information with anyone other than the parent of the student in question and that was with the approval of administration.  The issue was resolved by explaining that the book record was confidential and that the books in question were being reviewed and if need be, would be removed.  Because the books were clearly labeled “MG,” the books were immediately sent back to distribution and forwarded to one of the district’s middle schools. 

The books in question were clearly in the wrong school and if the parents had not brought their concerns in, we wouldn’t have known that the books were in the wrong place.  This case was helpful in more ways than one.  First, we were able to see one of the four principles being challenged.  Secondly, we were able to determine that mistakes occur when book are distributed and we were able to fix it with the attention it received. 

This case also brought to light that librarians often have to answer questions, much like teachers.  Plus, everyone involved in a school setting must refer to administration when challenges are made.  The support must be there when addressing school, classroom, or library issues.  I would be very hesitant to share any information with anyone without consulting with administration. 

Dr. Bell made some very important observations when it comes to the challenges we face with information ethics.  First, get the facts straight.  Next, identify the moral dilemma.  Then, evaluate the moral dilemma using the principles of information ethics to decide which side has the most ethical support.  Lastly, test the solution.  Richard Severson calls this principled reflection.  These are some important and valid points to always remember. 

I wanted to briefly touch upon an article I read written by Michael McFarland regarding the right to privacy.  The article stated that information ethics comes into question heavily when we are dealing with technology and the millions bits of data that is available on the Internet.  The article focused on a database that identified AIDS patients and how readily available it is to access.  Are we really able to see patient’s confidential medical records online?  Yes, we are!  Are we really that invasive?  Why would this information need to be available?  Are we taking things too far?  A book list is guarded and kept confidential.  I would imagine that medical records should be as well.  This article was scary and eye opening.  The digital world we live in is truly making things easier, but that alone is crossing the boundary of ethics within the information world.

Bell, M. (1998).  Kiss and Information Ethics.  TAET Journal, Spring 1998.

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/technology/internet/privacy/medical-records-privacy.pdf

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

Youtube is my daughter's favorite app, site...everything!  I'm able to see why when you can literally find everything that has ever existed in video form.  I was able to look at several videos from different school libraries and focused on a couple that I really liked.  I decided to take it one video at a time and truly focus on what I liked about them and what about them appealed to me personally.  Then I thought, why not ask my daughter to sit and watch them with me?  I thought it would be interesting to get the opinion of a student, a girl, and an avid Youtube watcher.  We first watched videos from The NHS Library and decided on these.

The video is a very friendly orientation video that explains hours, staff, and most importantly, what the library is used for.  It goes into detail about what is allowed and not allowed within the library building.  It is a short and informative video and definitely something that I would do myself.

Tiger Visits the Norman High Library was one of my daughter's favorites.  She understood what the video was for and the was able to relate it to her own library at school.  The video demonstrates what can be seen at a school library including magazines and technology equipment for student use.

Scenes from the Unquiet Library was an excellent example of how 4 classes can meet in a library and still maintain a successful learning environment.  There were about 50 to 60 students present and working in small groups and you can tell that these students knew they were using the library for its intended purpose.  I liked watching this video and the interactions amongst the students.

The Unquiet Library on Wheels at the cafeteria!  I'd never seen anything like this before.  The librarian was able to take a mobile library into the cafeteria so that students can check out books using a portable cart.  Amazing!

Snapshot was used when creating this presentation and I really like that it's concise and easy.  It clearly describes what you can do at the library and shows students interacting with the various forms of technology and equipment located at the library.  I would definitely use something like this when presenting for my library.

Pikesville HS definitely got it right with making this a quick and easy presentation to follow.  It demonstrates what can be achieved at the library ranging from research to creating LiveBinders.  Students can definitely get a lot of use out of this library.

Popular singer Taylor Swift's version to convince users to bring back overdue books is pretty clever and I believe students can relate to the message when it's put together this way.  However, mine and my daughter's favorite is clearly the next video from BBMS.

Who doesn't like Elsa singing her little heart out pleading for books to be returned?   

When I began to think about this assignment, I began to think, well...I have no idea what half this stuff is.  I researched what I could since I had never heard about QR Codes and how to use them.  Turns out that QR Codes are pretty nifty and easy to create.  I decided to focus on one thing at a time and created the code to reflect the Animoto for the book I chose.  One thing at a time, one thing at a time.  Once I began and finished the book presentation using Animoto, I was pretty excited to keep going.  Enter QR Codes.  These codes are created and scanned and lead the user to the product that was scanned.  Easy enough.  The book I chose happens to be one of my favorites and it so happens that I am currently reading it to my class.  I usually take a week to read a chapter book and add some activities.  I'm looking forward to showing them my book presentation on The Magic Tree House #13 Vacation Under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne.  

Jack and Annie are ready for their next fantasy adventure in the bestselling middle-grade series—the Magic Tree House!

Who wants to vacation next to a volcano?

Jack and Annie are about to find out when the Magic Tree House whisks them back to the days of the Roman Empire. They arrive in Pompeii and soon discover that it is the very day the city will be destroyed. Now Jack and Annie must race against time to find an ancient library before it is buried in ash!

www.goodreads.com

You can scan the QR Code to access the book presentation via Animoto.  Enjoy!

I would love to use QR Codes in conjunction with the Unquiet's Library video on portable carts where students can check out books.  I would think that it's pretty easy to create the QR Codes and allow students to use them to check out certain books or even put in a request for the books.  I would also use the QR Codes to post videos on our school's Facebook page to get the word out on new books or new equipment that is available for use in our library.  These codes make it easy to be very specific as to what the user is looking for and able to use.