No Shhing Here

We arrived at this session late after ditching another we weren't feeling (decided with budget constraints we would do better with free products rather than paid products). We raced around and ended up on the floor of a ballroom, listening to Tammy's Top 20 Favorite Web Tools . Below is a sampling - obviously not all twenty, as we weren't on time.  Plurk : Like Twitter, but the conversations are threaded. Need to join, and wait around to get friends, and hang in there a while to see the value in it.  BibMe : Free bibliography maker that plugs in the information for you . So search for a book by title or author, and then BibMe pulls in the information on publisher, publishing city, date, author, etc. from Amazon. You pick the format - MLA, APA, etc. Can then download into MicrosoftOffice. Random Name Picker - Allows you to select a student at random. Enter your class list into the machine, pull the handle, and watch the "fruit picker" select a student name at ra...

I'm blogging from ISTE this morning in one of the BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) sessions and I'm excited to learn about a tool called "MixedInk." You can check it out for yourself here . It's being presented by teachers from Fort Worth Country Day School in Fort Worth, Texas. My initial impression was, "Oh, a fancy wiki tool," but I'm quickly learning that it's a lot more than a wiki. MixedInk allows teachers to create virtual "classrooms" of students. Within a classroom students can collaboratively author texts in realtime (no stealing the lock, etc as multiple students can edit the SAME text simultaneously - unlike those pesky wikis). MixedInk provides authorship tracking, color coding each person's contributions so students can see who is responsible for different portions of the text. MixedInk lets students rate different versions of a text. The version with the highest rating is known as the "top version," but it ...

I'm sitting in the convention center waiting for my iPhone to charge and the first keynote to begin. And I'm overwhelmed. Initial impressions: * Unlike library conferences, there are actually men here. Gosh, that's different. * More specifically, there are also lots of teenage boys.  Which, oddly, makes this place feel even hipper. * This place is cool. And huge. * There's a battle for outlet space - everyone needs to recharge. * The keynote feels like a rock conference.  * Wow!! And now I've been here for an hour and I'm still overwhelmed. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This week I'm headed to ISTE - the International Society for Technology in Education conference. (Thanks, OCM BOCES SLS, for the scholarship!) I can't wait! This is one conference I've never been to, but I think every single session sounds intriguing! Here are some of the sessions I'm looking forward to: * The Art of the Remix: Incorporating Collaborative Writing in the Classroom "Discover how to craft a collective essay by writing, remixing, and voting on submissions with MixedInk's free collaborative writing tool. Requires MixedInk account." I'm pumped for this session because our 8th grade English classes are held in a writing workshop format. I've never heard of MixedInk, but I'm loving the little description and hoping it's something I can utilize in the fall!   * The iPad Revolution: Innovative Learning in the Classroom "The iPad brings interactive learning and amazing resources to the fingertips of all learners. Disco...

We're saying "Adios" to Dewey. Our non-fiction collection doesn't see a lot of use other than for research projects. We've got some great stuff in there, and I want kids to pick up and explore these books for FUN! (Especially with the informational text emphasis in the new Common Core Standards.) To help stimulate increased interest in the area, we're eliminating the Dewey Decimal System and moving to genre classification -- a more "Barnes and Noble" style approach. Our kids still haven't mastered the Dewey by the time they reach 8th grade and I don't have time to reteach it. So, to make our collection more accessible, we're just going to get rid of it. Our fiction books are already shelved by genre, so doing the same in non-fiction makes sense (for us). This isn't exactly a new idea. Libraries around the country have started to move towards a Dewey-Free system. Here's a few places with this set-up already in action: Frankfort...

I'm in the begining stages of overhauling our library's web site. My reason for doing so is twofold: We're slowly making the transition from a "library" to a "learning commons." I need the new site to reflect the new name, and our slightly different mission. My current site, although visually appealing, lacks opportunities for student to interact. The new site MUST be interactive. Have I figured out how I'm going to do this yet? NOPE! But we're working on it. My current site is also difficult to keep updated. There's no easy place to post news items or links that is "obvious." Here's a screenshot of the old site. Click here to check it out in person . (Ignore the nagivation on the left hand side of the screen -- that's part of the NEW site and doesn't really exist under the current site). And here's a picture of the new site. Click here to check it out in person (though there's not much else to see right n...