100 Most Educational iPhone Apps for Students

100 Most Educational iPhone Apps | AccreditedOnlineColleges.org via kwout

Do you  have an iPhone?  Check out these awesome educational apps to enhance your learning anytime, anywhere learning!  Categories include:  brain exercises, flashcards/quizzes, science, math, geography/history, languages, art, productivity, reference materials,  and English.

Live Today at Noon: Web 2.0 Start Pages as RSS Readers and other Ramblings

Classroom 2.0 LIVE! via kwout

Here is a topic of special interest from Classroom 2.0; if you can’t attend live, the session will be recorded, and you can watch at a time that works for you!

Date: Sat., August 22, 2009
Time: 9:00am Pacific/10:00am Mountain/11:00am Central/12:00pm Eastern
Location: In ElluminateI at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live (Links to other time zones and meeting room can be found at http://live.classroom20.com/.)

This Saturday, August 22nd, Kim Caise, Lorna Costantini and Peggy George will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE show. As an extension to the Classroom 2.0 community, Classroom 2.0 “LIVE” shows are opportunities to gather with other educators in real-time events, complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing, and sometimes even video.  A Google calendar of upcoming shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html. If you haven’t used Elluminate before, we encourage you to view this tutorial to prepare for the Elluminate session: Elluminate tutorial video.

The topic this Saturday will be “Web 2.0 Start Pages as RSS Readers and other Ramblings” with special guest Shamblesguru aka Chris Smith. Please join us as Shamblesguru shares examples of start pages, how to create and ways to use them as RSS readers. More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’ve never participated in a live webinar, don’t be afraid to come and observe. ‘Dip your toes in’ the conversations until you feel comfortable enough to “jump into the conversations with both feet”! We want to encourage “experienced Web 2.0 users” to join us by contributing and extending the conversation by sharing real-life examples and tips/suggestions.

On the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! site (http://live.classroom20.com) you’ll find the recordings for our recent “Exploring AllaboutExplorers.com” show with special guests Gerald Aungst and Lauren Zucker. Click on the “Archive” tab to view recordings.

Special thanks to our sponsor, Elluminate, for providing the forum that allows us to do this!

Visit Classroom 2.0 at: http://www.classroom20.comLive Today at Noon: Web 2.0 Start Pages as RSS Readers and other Ramblings

Spotlight Assignment of the Week: Wikis with Jason Hubbard

The Assignment

This week’s featured assignment is Jason Hubbard’s Amendments assignment.   In this assignment, Mr. Hubbard’s “Law, Community, Response, and Policing” students worked in pairs and small groups to research an assigned amendment to learn how that amendment protects citizens and restricts law enforcement”.  Using the research pathfinder created in conjunction with the library, Mr. Hubbard’s students created a scavenger hunt about their amendment using Glogster or PowerPoint.

What We Did

With assistance from Ms. Hamilton and Mr. Hubbard, students learned how to:

1.  Join the class wiki

2.  Create/add a wiki page to the wiki.

3. Embed Content:

For students who were using PowerPoint or Google Docs, the skill of creating a free SlideShare account was introduced.  Students were able to upload their presentations to SlideShare and to get an “embed” code for embedding their PowerPoint into the Wiki; students then learned how to use the embed widget and embed their SlideShare into their group wiki page.

Students who created a Glogster learned how to find the embed code and embed into their wiki page.

Once the multimedia scavenger hunt was completed, students composed a reflection paragraph their learning process.  Students then worked to complete the other scavenger hunts created by their classmates to enhance their understanding of the other assigned amendments.

Reflections

Here is what Mr. Hubbard has to say about this project:

It was great to see and hear many of the students express their enthusiasm about trying something “outside the box”. Most found that using the available technology to “get out of the books” made their learning of the material come more easily and without the usual effort. As with all technology, we ran into some little snags here and there but in the end, that just added to the overall lesson by throwing in a little mini lesson on patience.   The media center staff made the use of the technology extremely easy.  I think we will be using the SlideShare and Glogsters for many of my classes future projects.

Are you interested in doing a similar assignment or using a wiki to host student created content?  Come by the library, and we will collaborate with you to make your wiki dreams come true!

Resources

Do you want to know more about wikis?  Check out these resources to learn more!

• Everything You Wanted to Know About Wikis but Were Afraid to Ask
• Why Wiki?
• Wesley Fryer’s Way to Use a Wiki
• Using Wikis to Make the Research and Learning Process Transparent

Library of Congress Now on iTunes!

Now you can access podcasts and resources from the Library of Congress at iTunes!  Here is what Matt Raymond of the Library of Congress blog has to say about this exciting new Web 2.0 addition for LOC:

Blog. Twitter. YouTube.  iTunes.  Yeah, we speak Web 2.0.

You nation’s Library has millions of stories to tell, so we’re trying to tell them as many places and to as many people as possible–whether on our own website or elsewhere.  And now you can add another biggie to the list: iTunes U.

For those who don’t know, iTunes U is an area of the iTunes Store offering free education audio and video content from many of the world’s top universities and other institutions. (The iTunes application is needed to access iTunes U, and is a free download from www.apple.com/itunes.)

The Library’s iTunes U page launched today with a great deal of content, with much more to come.  (Link here, opens in iTunes.)  A nice bonus, for those in the know, is that the content is downloadable and even includes materials such as PDFs.

As always, it’s also available in the Library’s own corner of the web.

So as long as people keep finding new ways to get information, we’re going to keep finding ways to get it to you!

Social Media as Authoritative Information

Authority is a concept we discuss frequently here in The Unquiet Library.  Check out this interview and video from TED Talks with Clay Shirky, who discusses how social media is changing the way news is reported and how social media is becoming a medium for authoritative information!

TED Blog: Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran via kwout

NYU professor Clay Shirky gave a fantastic talk on new media during our TED@State event earlier this month. He revealed how cellphones, the web, Facebook and Twitter had changed the rules of the game, allowing ordinary citizens extraordinary new powers to impact real-world events. As protests in Iran exploded over the weekend, we decided to rush out his talk, because it could hardly be more relevant. I caught up with Clay this afternoon to get his take on the significance of what is happening. HIs excitement was palpable.

It’s Here: The Official Library of Congress YouTube Channel!

YouTube – LibraryOfCongress’s Channel via kwout

Oh, happy day!  The Library of Congress YouTube Channel is officially open!

Timeless treasures and contemporary presentations from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. As the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, we are the steward of millions of recordings dating from the earliest Edison films to the present. In addition, we sponsor events, lectures and concerts that are free and open to the public. More about the Library: http://www.loc.gov/about

You can visit the channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress .  Here is a sample video:

Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak and Recall Information Portal via Pageflakes

Check out my latest Pageflakes Pagecast on the peanut butter salmonella outbreak and recall! My portal includes:

• The official CDC/FDA Peanut Butter recalled products widget
• Latest news feeds from Google News
• The latest blog entries from the official CDC/FDA blog on the peanut butter salmonella outbreak
• Videos on the outbreak from the FDA YouTube Channel
• Podcasts from the CDC on the outbreak
• One of the official badges with information for citizens to call for more info on the peanut butter products recall
• The RSS feed for the FDA Recall Twitter Twitterstream
• My favorite bookmarks via del.icio.us
• Widgets to two of my GALE databases for students to search

What Do We Want to Teach in 2009?

Dear Creekview High School Learning Community:

Although January marks the beginning of the year on our traditional calendars, this month represents two milestones in the school calendar.  January is the midpoint of the year and a time in which I pause to reflect on how the current school year has gone and where I would like it go.  January is also the month in which I start looking ahead to the upcoming school year and what I hope to accomplish.

Dr. Joyce Valenza, one of the most respected media specialists and leaders in educational and library-information circles, recently tagged me in a meme and blog post that encourages reflection and goal-setting.  While I am proud of the successes and direction of our library program, I know that we have yet to become fully integrated into all areas of our school program and much work remains for our library program to reach you, our patrons, in the way I first envisioned three years ago.

What ideas and concepts do I need to better share with you as students, teachers, and administrators?   What does our library program need to do to help us all see beyond the short term effects of No Child Left Behind and testing to create learning experiences to go with you for a lifetime?  How do I nurture lifelong learning for teens and adults?  How do I infuse the beliefs and learning standards set forth for you as NowGen 21st century learners by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and ISTE NETS for Students? How do I help you as teachers and administrators (2009 version still in draft form at this time)  see how information fluency standards for you affect the way you teach and how your students learn?  How do I make learning playful and joyful for you?

With these questions in mind, here is my list of things I need to share with you with more depth in 2009:

• Literacy:  How do we define literacy?  What does it mean to be literate?  Informationally literate?  What counts as reading?   How do we tap into the power of new media and new literacies to engage in meaningful research experiences that help us think more critically and create learning products that involve genuine synthesis and evaluation?  This is a conversation we have started with several students and teachers, but more voices need to join this dialogue.  Let us as students and teachers take an inquiry stance on literacy and explore how definitions of literacy intersect with our practices as readers, writers, and researchers.
• Digital Citizenship/Fair Use/Copyright/Creative Commons: While we have taken baby steps to educate you as teachers and students about the changing landscape of information and how use it ethically, too many learners lack knowledge about the appropriate ways in which we can use the ideas and creative content of others.   My Media 21 Capstone Project for 2009-10 will focus on how we as a school community (students and teachers) can create information portals and learning opportunities for you to help you access, interpret, and evaluate resources for using information and creative content ethically.
• Collaboration: While I am proud of many of the collaborative research projects and learning experiences the library has enjoyed with you, I am not satisfied.  Too many teachers and students are not taking advantage of the physical, virtual, and human resources our library has to offer you.    Quite frankly, I don’t care how things have always been in high school (the typical English class dominated statistics).   While I firmly believe that quality is more important than quantity, I will never believe that 35–40% of the faculty collaborating with the library is acceptable.Information literacy is everyone’s business, and as educators, we cannot afford to shortchange our students of the learning opportunities and resources our library (which has been richly blessed)has to offer you.   Piecemeal collaboration does not lend itself to making significant strides in creating an information literate student body who is prepared to face the challenges of today’s world.I will be working to share with you as teachers and administrators the importance of information literacy for today’s learners.   I will be focusing on collaboration with departments, our leadership team, and school committees to help create a learning culture that values and integrates information literacy into all areas of teaching and learning.  As Doug Johnson points out, “Without whole school buy-in, we will have amazing successes with the few individual teachers, but not impact the entire learning community” (2008).  Without your support and integration of information literacy into all areas of our curriculum, our students lose.  The reality is that every teacher should be a Teach 21 teacher whether or not he or she is enrolled in our district’s Teach 21 program.  Let me teach you ways to integrate technology into your instruction, to learn about the wonderful tools available to us to make learning more meaningful to our students.  Let me work with you to design research projects that will help engage your students and go beyond the McDonald’s model of fast-food information.  Let us work together as a team to create learning and research experiences for our students that will have real value.  Many of you have cited the pressure to “cover” standards and high stakes tests as reasons for not using the library more, but I would like to collaborate with you to help you address those standards through project based learning that we can facilitate in the library.
• Personal Learning Networks:  How can we as teachers and students take advantage of traditional and emerging technologies to develop meaningful personal learning networks that we can use for immediate research projects and for lifelong learning?  While some classes and teachers have taken advantage of our mini-lessons on iGoogle and use my Pageflakes pagecasts, I would like to work with you to take your use of these tools to the next level.  How can we apply the theory of connectivism to facilitate learning and give students more responsibility and control of their learning?
• Authority: How do we define authoritative sources?  How do we help students evaluate these information sources?  When is it appropriate to use Wikipedia or a database article?  Where do emerging technologies like YouTube fit into research?  As many students and teachers have already seen, a balanced diet of information sources is healthy—I believe our databases, books, Wikipedia, sources found through strategic research, and social media information sources are threads that can all be used to successfully knit effective research.   While we have scratched the surface of these questions about authoritative sources and information evaluation, I feel we need to explore these questions and issues more deeply with students.
• The Library as The Information Commons: I want to help students and teachers see our library as the heart of learning in our school for teens and adults, not a glorified computer lab that you come to when every other resource  is booked.    Whether we are engaging in research on conflicts in the Middle East, hosting an art gallery or poetry reading, sponsoring a study session for the Algebra II exam, or presenting “Lunch and Learn” sessions on how to use a Flip video camera, I want to help students and teachers envision the library as the “go to” place when you have a question or information need, not an afterthought.  Let us help you discover the resources and strategies for finding answers.    I want our library to be the center of cultural and academic learning and to continue to extend ways for you to participate in our library during and outside the school day.

Since this is a meme, I would like to invite these fellow school librarians to add to the dialogue:

• Books, Bytes, and Grocery Store Feet
• Kris Woods
• Andy Plemmons
• Phil Goerner
• Elease Franchini
• Laura Losch
• Dr. Mary Ann Fitzgerald (from a School Library Media professor’s point of view for her SLM candidates-students)

“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly
human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”

~Paulo Freire~

Buffy Hamilton, Teacher-Librarian
Creekview High School

Inauguration 2009: Our Pageflakes Pagecast!

Inauguration 2009 Pageflakes Pagecast by The Unquiet Library

Be sure to surf over to The Unquiet Library’s Inauguration 2009 Pageflakes Pagecast! This screencast is still a work in progress, but you can see the latest feeds from our favorite bookmarks, news outlets, and TWITTER!  Stay tuned as we add more resources in the next few days!

Smithsonian Libraries Goes Web 2.0!

Smithsonian Libraries | Facebook via kwout

Are you fan of Smithsonian Libraries?  If so, check out their Web 2.0 and social networking presence!

• Smithsonian Libraries Fan Page on Facebook  (which is especially good)
  
• Smithsonian Libraries Flickr Photostream
• Smithsonian Libraries Blog
• Smithsonian Libraries on Twitter
• Smithsonian Library Thing (James Smithson Legacy Library)
• Smithsonian Library Thing (Heralds of Science Library)

Smithsonian Libraries via kwout

Flickr: Smithsonian Libraries’ Photostream via kwout