Tech Tools

As you all know, the advancement of technology is not slowing down, so we simply have to keep up. I marched on in this pursuit by attending Vicki Selznick's Top Ten Tech Tools for Librarians at Region 10 this past Tuesday. There turned out to be many more than ten tools presented, but that was not a bad thing. Some, I had used or heard of before and some were brand new. Vicki packed a Symbaloo to the brim with a variety of resources. One of them was Symbaloo, a great tool that divides a page into fifty-two blocks to which images and links can be added. The concept is simple, and that is exactly what makes it so wonderful. Though, I'm still a fan of LiveBinders when it comes to compiling resources for class research projects, since it is possible to upload text and documents, Symbaloo is perfect for quick links for presentations or web pages. 

One tool that I was especially excited about is StatCounter. Vicki has put this on her own school library website to track how many people have visited and, in turn, uses it to justify the need for databases or other resources. Though, numbers aren't all that matter, that's all some people are interested in. 

Another awesome tool was ImageChef. This site has a range of graphics, some of which are animated, that can be used to highlight events or patrons on one's library page. It is available for free, though, there is a fee if you don't want the company name at the bottom and a few more options. While I will use it sparingly, since it could become overwhelming and tacky quickly, I am thinking of using it for various library announcements that I really want noticed!

Google Lit Trips

I attended an all day session at Region 10 on Google Lit Trips last week. I came away loving the idea of lit trips, though, I'm not sure I'll be having the kids make one any time soon. The basic concept is to take a book and plot various locations mentioned throughout the story. Google Earth makes it possible to have a 360 degree view of many, if not most, places in the world. This allows one to better understand the area being discussed and hopefully have an improved knowledge of geography, distance, and various cultures without ever standing up. The idea came from Jerome Burg, a former educator who's "retirement" is now consumed by creating new lit trips and maintaining the site. A number of the lit trips have been created by other educators and I highly recommend using them in your class. They range from mainstays like Esperanza Rising to historical locations like the Anne Frank annex.

In terms of making one or having students make their own, I may give Google a bit more time to work out the kinks. First, Google Earth must be downloaded to your computer. I ran into some issues with my own 2009 Macbook, since it uses "old" software. I can only imagine trying to install this on all of the computers in our lab, which are older and block most installations. Also, there were only 9 in the class I was taking and it was running slow due to the large amount of bandwidth necessary for operation. Imagine an entire class. Secondly, while it was easy to find the various locations, the process of linking one to the next proved to be more difficult. You have to make sure a certain box doesn't close and then when you click on a location it doesn't automatically line up, leading to a lot of zooming in and out and shifting side to side. I was dizzy by the end of the day.

In short, I came away with a lot of ideas for English, History, and Science classes, though I'm going to wait before jumping in feet first and having students create their own.