Web 2.0
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Embracing Equity: The Power of Interactive Digital Notebooks
Interactive Digital Notebooks (IDNs) are one of my favorite digital tools that can offer many benefits for educators, students, and school librarians alike. Let’s explore some of the advantages of uses these with students and in my case teachers. They positively impact education in so many ways. Interactive Digital Notebooks are a way to organize information in their essence. “A tool that allows students to learn interact with, reflect on, fill out, all digitally. It empowers students by teaching 21st century skills as well as taking ownership of their study time using digital tools. It is not just a Just a slideshow with links and pictures. It is so much…
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The Art and Necessity of the Signature
When emailing someone it is very easy to forget to include a clear email signature. I cannot tell you how many emails I have received and I am not sure which district a person is from. This is important as a librarian because we resource share. Rather than having to Google or use our library directory please save your receiver a step and include a detailed signature. This could include:
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Flippity for the Win!
On the 8th day of Create-mas I share with thee Flippity. I have had a love affair with Flippity for so many year but we have some new items added. They recently added multimedia flashcards. What a great way to chunk up information into bite size pieces. I find that when you have less information on each slide/flashcard it is easier for students and to be honest anyone absorb it. Like all Flippity items it uses a spreadsheet that you put in your own data/content. Flippity does a wonderful job giving clear and concise directions for the novice and expert spreadsheet user. You make a copy of the spreadsheet then…
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Coolors: Color Perfection
On the 7th day of Create-mas I share with thee……Coolors: Color Perfection!! If you are like me you are constantly trying to color match on presentations or trying to find the perfect color scheme. I would find one color that was perfect but then was not sure which colors were the best complement. When taking a PD with Tony Vincent I was introduced to Coolors. Coolors.co allows you to look at trending color combinations, search for a color via hex code, and create color pallets all without creating an account. By creating a free account you can save your color combos. Check out Coolors.co where you can get the HEX…
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It is beginning to look like CREATE-MAS!!
I love the holidays and I wanted to give a gift to everyone! Welcome to the 14 Days of Create-Mas!! I love educational technology and literacy so I decided to combine them both. It is that time of year again where I take some time to share some of my favorite tools, resources, and creative ways to use technology and literacy. With each reveal of a new website/resource/idea. This concept was first introduced to me in 2019 by Ryan and Brian from the Check this Out Podcast. Quite a few different educators are continuing this tradition and creating their own versions such as the 12 Days of Chrome-mas, 12 Days…
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Canva vs. Piktochart: Infographic Wars
As a visual learner myself, I appreciate being able to see visual representations of text, data, and so much more. As a learner I am better able to digest information. I am a librarian so I love to read for pleasure but I find nonfiction information can be daunting at times for students to comprehend. It appears that an infographic can convey information more quickly and with less space than other means of communication. However, creating the most effective infographic can be difficult. Thankfully there are a couple of tech tools that make the process so much easier. My favorite two tools are Canva and Piktochart. Which is better? That…
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Got Google Slides Game?
I am a Google Slides fangirl. I use it for everything when I am teaching from created hyperdocs (more about them later), posters, stickers, and so much more. Slides is more than it appears to be.
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Bitmoji Virtual Library
If you know me at all you know I love Bitmojis. They are such a fun online sticker for education. During this trying time adding a bitmoji or two to a students assignment or adding them to my own assignments just gives my assignments a bit of flair. So much so that I created a virtual library a couple of weeks ago.
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Student Engagement with FlipGrid
FlipGrid is a tool that many staff are using to connect with students. Flipgrid is a free, simple way to foster short video-based discussions on classroom topics.
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Gamification in the Library
There are so many ways to gamifiy your library and some of my favorite ways to do this include several relatively new tools. I like to use scavenger hunts, QR codes, augmented reality, and classroom management tools to engage my students. “The gamification of learning is an educational approach to motivate students to learn by using video game design and game elements in learning environments. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement through capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning. Gamification, broadly defined, is the process of defining the elements which comprise games that make those games fun and motivate players to continue playing, and…