Ms.berning

There are those times when a student wants to use and cite an image, but the original creator of the image and other important details are not exactly easy to identify.

Google’s reverse image search is a wonderful tool, but it’s a two-step process, requiring you to open Google and drag the image, or copy its URL into th

e search box with the little camera. (You could use the browser extension.)

Now, Google’s reverse image search feature is a bit more convenient.  

Since early October, in Chrome, you can simply right-click an image (or hold down Control on the Mac side), and click “search Google for this image” when the little box pops up.

The results page displays similar images, as well as websites where it appears.

Handy access to the reverse image search makes it easy for researchers to identify details relating to an image, for artists to discover sites that may have used their images without permission, to find larger versions of images.

Google Earth is a great tool for students to use to explore the world. Building tours in Google Earth and Google Maps is one of my favorite activities for students to do to tell a story. It can take a while to understand all of the nuances of creating tours in Google Earth. Fortunately, Google recently introduced Tour Builder which makes it easier than ever to create tours in Google Earth.

To create a tour with Tour Builder you need to install the Google Earth Browser Plug-in and you need to have a Google Account. Once you have those two things and you're signed into Tour Builder just follow the clear Tour Builder directions to build your tour. The first step is naming your tour and adding a cover image. Next you will search for your first location then click "add to tour" to add the location to your tour. You'll then be prompted to add images, videos, and text to your placemark. Each placemark can have up to 25 images and videos. The images and videos will be displayed as a gallery rather than as a linear stack of images as is the case if you edit placemarks in Google Maps or Earth. Repeat the process of adding locations and placemarks until you finish telling your story.



Tours created through Tour Builder are private until you decide to share them. You can see my sample tour here.

Applications for Education
Tour Builder could prove to be a great tool for students to use to create geo-located book reviews, to tell stories from their own lives, or to develop geo-located research projects. One of the US History projects that I've done with Google Earth is to have students create a series of placemarks about battles of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

About six months ago Google unveiled a new version of Google Maps and made it the default for people visiting maps.google.com. The new version has some neat features like built-in Street View tours. However, the new version of Google Maps doesn’t include the measurement tools found in the old version or what Google is calling “Classic Maps.” The measurement tools are great to use in math lessons as well as to simply help students understand the scale of distance. Furthermore, while the new Google Maps Engine Lite is an excellent tool for building custom Google Maps it can take quite a bit more time for students to understand.

If you want to return to Classic Maps, you can do so after signing into your Google Account. Google recently changed the location of this option. The screenshot below shows you where to find the option to return to Classic Maps.

Click image to view full size.

Keep this in mind if you do decide to return to Classic Maps, Google is not known for reversing course on product design changes. There is a real possibility that Classic Maps will disappear for good without warning at some point.

Applications for Education
To see how mathematics can be taught with Google Maps and Google Earth see Tom Barrett’s Maths Maps or Real World Math.

Unlike the new version of Google Maps, Google Earth still has measurement tools built into it. If you have access to Google Earth that’s another option to consider using in place of the new Google Maps.

We also watched a few of the videos included in the "Learn & Support" section included within Prezi.
I loved walking around to see how different every one of the Prezi's were.
               
A couple of days ago I also included Prezi in the My Teacher Librarian Gave To Me....20 Days Of Awesome Library and Technology Tools and Resources Smore.

For Day 5, I highlighted Prezi with the little Tellagami video below and short tips on how to use Prezi.
              

FreeDigitalPhotos.net is a new-to-me place to find digital images to re-use for free. FreeDigitalPhotos.net allows you download and re-use low-resolution images without restriction. To download and re-use high-resolution images you need to publish a credit to the creator of the image. That's not a hard requirement to meet. To help you meet the requirement of crediting the photographer, FreeDigitalPhots.net offers a simple chart that outlines how to credit the creator of an image. The left side of the chart lists the ways the images can be used and how to credit the photographer for each use case.

Applications for Education
It is easy to simply right-click on images on the web and save them your computer. Just because it can be done, doesn't mean it should be done or that it is even safe (are you sure that you're only downloading an image and not something else along with it?) and legal to do so. Unfortunately, I frequently meet teachers who allow their students to engage in this practice. Fortunately, there is an easy way to stop that practice. The solution is to use images found on sites like FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

For more free images that your students can use, see this list of sources of Public Domain images.

This evening I received an email from a teacher that was looking for a survey / poll creation tool that her students can use without having to create an account. Here are two options that fit that bill.

Yarp allows you to create a simple one question survey or a simple event invitation. To create a Yarp survey select "survey" on the homepage, type a question, then select your answer format. All answer formats present only two options along the lines of "true or false" or "yes or no." Each Yarp survey is assigned its own unique URL for you to distribute to the people that you want to complete your survey. Yarp invitations use the same format styles as Yarp surveys.

Flisti is a free and easy-to-use polling tool. Registration is not required in order to create a poll with Flisti. In fact, registering doesn't seem to be an option at all. To create a poll using Flisti just enter your question, specify some answer choices, then click "create new poll." Your poll(s) can be embedded into your blog, website, or wiki.

Applications for Education
Both of these tools could be good for students to use to quickly collect data about their classmates' opinions on any number of topics from politics to pop-culture to taste in food. An economics lesson from the Buck Institute for Education that I used for a few years required students to develop cafeteria menus and order supplies for the cafeteria based on the ordering patterns of their classmates. In that situation a simple survey tool like Yarp or Flisti could help students develop and recognize ordering patterns.

As I mentioned last month in my post about creating Google Scholar alerts, Google Scholar is one of the research tools that high school students often overlook. Last week Google added a new Google Scholar option that can help students organize their research. You can now create libraries of articles that you find through Google Scholar.

To create a Google Scholar Library sign into your Google account before searching on Scholar.Google.com then just click "save" when you find an article you want save for future reference. Your saved items appear in your Google Scholar Library where you can apply labels to them and sort them.

Click image to view full size.

Applications for Education
Google Scholar indexes scholarly, peer-reviewed academic papers, journals, theses, books, and court opinions. These are materials that students usually won't find through Google.com, Bing, or Yahoo search.

Earlier this week I shared some information about new content added to ReadWorks. In that post I included a video that tour of the website. Unfortunately, that video was of the old ReadWorks interface. The new ReadWorks interface is featured in the video below.

ReadWorks is a free service that has cataloged hundreds of lesson plans and more than one thousand non-fiction reading passages aligned to Common Core standards. With a free ReadWorks account you can search for lessons and reading passages by grade and skill. In your account you can create digital binders of the lesson plans and reading passages that you want to use.


ReadWorks Site Tour from ReadWorks on Vimeo.

Wideo is a service that allows anyone to create animated videos and Common Craft-style videos online. On December 3rd Wideo is hosting two free webinars on how to create animated videos using the Wideo video editor. There is a beginner session and an advanced session. You can register for the beginner session here and register for the advanced session here.

You can create an animated videos on Wideo by dragging and dropping elements into place in the Wideo editor then setting the sequence of animations. Each element can be re-used as many times as you like and the timing of the animation of each image can individually adjusted. Wideo's stock elements include text, cartoons, and drawings. You can also upload your own images to use in your videos.

Untamed Science and Pearson OLE recently published an extensive blog post about how dinosaurs are discovered and named. The full post includes links to free lesson plans about dinosaurs. The lesson plans are suitable to use with elementary school and middle school students.

The part of the Untamed Science and Pearson OLE dinosaur post that I found most interesting is the following video about how dinosaur fossils are un-earthed and examined. It's not at all like we see in movies.

I’ve just discovered the ridiculously useful Remix-t and I cannot wait to share it with our teachers and students.

Created by the Learning Technology Lab at the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Notre Dame, the site presents a full-blown kit for inspiring media-rich, project-based instruction and suggestions for hours of engaging professional development.

Designed for the typical faculty member in higher education, who has had little experience designing or evaluating student work that depends on images, video, or sound, Remix-t also has serious value for K12 teachers (and teacher librarians) who want to help classroom teachers integrate media-rich student projects.

The portal is divided into three main sections.

1. Explore: Wander through the ideas in our project gallery and browse the tool collection. Use the dropdown menu to explore media resources, learn about media design, and consider the amount of time and skill required for you and the students.

The section includes:

• Requirements
• Skills & Time
• Video (one of my favorite resources, with a list of solid tools and video tips and tricks)
• Sound
• Image
• Design

Don’t miss the quality selection of tips, tutorials and tools in these sections!

2. Build: Start by articulating learning goals for content and mechanics. Next, decide how to assess the students’ work. We recommend using a rubric. Finally, outline your strategy by creating a list of deliverables. Create a full description, including the amount of time needed for each step.  

The section includes 

• Goals
• Rubric (a wonderful selection of thoughtful assessments!)
• Deliverables

3. Learn: Create a project yourself before assigning it to students. Next, if yours is a complex project, try a simplified version with students. Formulate a plan to assess how well the assignment met your goals.

The section includes:

• Pilot
• Evaluate
• Literacy
• Pedagogy

Filled with rationale for use, tutorials, solid assessment models, project exemplars, and Creative Commons-licensed for non-commercial remixing itself, Remix-t offers so much I can use in my library and with my grad students tomorrow.

With more than 3.8 million English language articles, Wikipedia is a tough resource to fully understand. As educators, how do you help your students understand what Wikipedia offers and how to correctly use the resource? Our Wikipedia e-book was created just for you and your students to have a go-to guide for understanding the ins and outs of Wikipedia.

Use this e-Book to teach your students:

• what Wikipedia is
• how Wikipedia articles are created and how to evaluate them
• how to navigate through articles to find the important information
• how to figure out if an article is reliable

You can even share it with your friends and colleagues! Pair the e-book with our new Teaching Wikipedia Series and you and your students will be Wikipedia evaluation experts in no time!

Download the Wikipedia e-Book

Jenny Kessman is the Marketing Associate here at EasyBib, and will provide a behind-the-scenes look into our company. When she’s not at work, Jenny likes to spend time with friends and family, shop, and test out new Pinterest recipes! You can contact her via email at Jennifer[at]imagineeasy.com.

 

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past.  Original post November 15, 2008. In the past week or so, I've had two questions related to Fair Use of copyrighted materials - and I find myself as confused and coflicted as ever....

 

Image source (by Jennifer LaGuarde aka Library Girl)

At an Apple event last Thursday, the Spring Lake Park (MN) school superintendent stated that part of the success of his district's 1:1 initiative was replacing the school librarians with technology integration specialists. I didn't see too many eyebrows go up or hear any audible gasps when he said it. But anymore, I don't really expect such reactions.

I can't deny that schools need technology integration specialists to help teachers learn to use new tools in powerful ways. But what I don't get is why more schools don't add "tech integration" specialist to the job description of the school librarian.

Here's the deal:

If you hire a tech integration specialist, you hopefully get an experienced teacher who is knowledgeable about technology and how it can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom, can do a little tech trouble-shooting, and can offer professional development experiences on the use of technology.

If you hire a professionally trained librarian and give them tech integration responsibilities, you get an experienced teacher who is knowledgeable about technology and how it can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom, can do a little trouble-shooting, and can offer professional development experiences on the use of technology. And you get...

• A children's/YA literature expert who can help increase Free Voluntary Reading (and reading scores) by getting kids reading.
• An expert in information literacy (research skills) who can teach students how to find, evaluate, use and communicate information in multiple formats.
• A building expert in intellectual freedom, copyright, and digital citizenship.
• A building resource for helping teachers find good analog and digital materials that support their curricula.
• An evaluator, selector and promoter of both analog and digital materials - materials that will actually support the curriculum and get used.
• A manager of a space (the library) that offers students a place for social learning, a place of safety and welcome, a place where personal interests can be explored, and the services of an information and literature expert.
• An experienced team-teacher, collaborator and leader.

Call the position what you want - librarian, tech integration specialist, media specialist, whatever - but get the most bang from your staffing dollars by getting someone who swings both ways - tech and libraries.

See also The Why, What, How and WHO of Staff Development in Technology

iPad Tips: Browser History

Imagine this—you found an awesome website in your research, but skipped past it and can’t find your way back. Use your browser history to save the day.  Here’s how to access your browser history on the iPad.

Safari:
>Tap the bookmark icon next to the search box (the icon is a book)
>Select “History” (the icon is a clock)

Chrome:
>Tap the settings menu in the top right (three horizontal lines)
>Select “History”

Puffin:
>Tap the settings menu in the top right (three horizontal dots)
>Select “More”
>Select “History”

For more research tips, take a look at our Search Smarter page!

The release of the new iOS7 operating system upgrade has people talking!

The discussion revolves around the large file size and time it takes to run an upgrade.  For schools that support multiple devices, it may create a surge in demand, adding stress to the network. Other concerns have been voiced about interference during mandatory online testing, eliminating student permissions to complete an upgrade, and the influences it might have on the usability of an older device.

Therefore this week, CMLE’s Recommended Ed Tech Tool is for librarians that have and/or support Apple based device(s). Click here for Your Guide To iOS7 by MakeUseOf.

•  Getting Started With iOS 7
•  New Features
• Updates & Overhauls
• Odds & Ends
• Q & A
• Topics
• Guides
• PodCasts

Many librarians teach formally and informally patrons/students how to conduct research.  Dawn Casey-Rowe, a high school teacher and prominent writer for Edudemic, targets best practices for educators. This October, Casey-Rowe published an article titled, 10 Web Resources to Help Teach About Primary Sources. In this post, she talks about her experience with students after assigning a research paper pertaining to current events. She stated, “There is such an overload of information. Students need to be able to identify and decode sources, then make a decision as to what they mean in terms of causes and consequences.” Sound familiar? Casey-Rowe goes on to list resources that you might also find helpful, regardless of the researcher’s age.

One of the most common stumbling blocks in research is not understanding the best practices to conduct a search. In a related article, Holly Clark talks about the new “digital divide”as it relates to students’ ability to effectively find and process information while conducting searches. Here is a link to Clark’s full article, “Do Your Students Know How to Search?” also posted on Edudemic’s site (October 2013.)

               
Keyboarding is part of our Digital Citizenship, Technology, Library Science Curriculum in kindergarten through 8th grade.  We learn and practice within the library and classrooms.  As school gets into full swing, we have been working on new resources to support this part of the curriculum at school and home.

In the Keyboarding at Van Meter Smore newsletter we have outlined the curriculum and shared several resources to support our students, teachers, and families.

You can view the newsletter by scrolling down in the window at the top of this post or by clicking on the link.
These resources, along with several others, are included in the new Keyboarding Symbaloo.

Within the Symbaloo, there are different areas for our young people.  There are two different programs that work through levels of keyboarding skills.  These are found at the top.

In the right hand corner there are websites that are going to be very helpful to all learners, especially our youngest, as they learn how to use the mouse; find and use different buttons such as back space, delete, and arrows; and also other awesome websites, including Big Brown Bear Learn To Type and Keyboard Zoo from abcYA!.

In the bottom left hand corner there are several typing game websites.  NitroType is definitely a favorite of the students at Van Meter.   Last year, one of our 2nd grade teachers had this set up as a center in her classroom.  When they finished other daily work, the students would go to NitroType to practice their keyboarding skills while racing others.

Towards the center at the bottom there are timed typing websites.  This time of year it is especially helpful for students to use these websites so they can get an idea of their accuracy and speed.  With this information they can set goals for themselves.  We will be doing this over the next few weeks.

Lastly, there are two other keyboarding webmixes in the corner created by my friends Sarah Staudt and Mr. Dean.

Another thing I love about Symbaloo....you can search and add Symbaloo webmixes created by others. There is no need for us to always reinvent the wheel.  Please feel free to use this Keyboarding Symbaloo with your students too.
The "Keyboarding At Van Meter" parent letter went home today with all the elementary students and an email was sent to let them know about our curriculum and these resources too.  I posted the Symbaloo and Smore newsletter on the Van Meter Library Voice Facebook and Twitter too.
And just as the newsletter states above, by working together we will support the development of these skills and success of our students in one more way.

Through this work and in talking with others who are very knowledgeable about keyboarding I do have a few questions or thoughts that keep coming up.

Here they are....

I have read and been told that research shows keyboarding should start in 3rd or 4th grade.  But what about our youngest students who are already creating and collaborating online through digital tools and online resources?  Shouldn't we be teaching them the skills such as the ones included in our curriculum?  

And how about this....

Should we also include keyboarding on the iPad or other device a skill we develop and practice as well?  

I would love to know your thoughts....as I am sure many of you wonder these things as well.

Another great thing about MackinVIA is that everyone has their own login.

And with just ONE login, users can view, utilize, and manage all of their eResources.
After logged in, students can add eBooks and other eResources, such as the Britannica or StarWalkKids Media database, to their very own "Backpack."  This is a wonderful way for them to keep the eResources organized and collected the way they want them to be.

You can read more about MackinVIA Backpacks at these two posts from the Van Meter Voice blog last school year....

Getting Our MackinVIA Backpacks Ready To Fill Up On Digital Learning Day!

A Backpack For Their eBooks and Other Resources Within MackinVIA
So Van Meter parents.....Please look for these MackinVIA bookmarks and Backpack cards that are coming home next week with the kids.
Everyone will also get a new card for our AEA username and password for all of our eResources from Heartland AEA too.

Through MackinVIA, our young people are finding one more way to connect with the resources they need.

Please let me know if you ever have any questions too about using MackinVIA and any of the eResources that we have at Van Meter.  I am always happy to help.

The 4th graders are having so much fun working on the pages of their collaborative I Spy eBook.

Over the last few weeks I wrote about this project in the posts,  I Spy Author Jean Marzollo Visiting Our Library To See The "I Spy Van Meter School" eBook and Creating Amazing "I Spy" Compositions To Photograph With Their iPads Today.  

In the last several days we have been working on the compositions, photographs, rhymes and pages.
After they created their I Spy compositions and took photographs of them in the library, they then worked on writing the rhymes within the classroom.  They worked on it as their "Writing Piece" during the "Work on Writing" time in the morning.
One of the students had the idea of putting the pages together using the EduCreations app on their iPad. I loved the idea!
They put the photograph they took on one side and typed in the rhyme they wrote on the other.
They were adding their own touch to the pages too.
 We had so much fun seeing what everyone was creating for their I Spy pages.

iPad Tips: Undo/Redo

Your iPad can be a great research tool. Whether searching online in class, at home, or on the go, it provides an easy way to access tons of information. Unless you have a keyboard, retyping to correct mistakes can take more time than you might like. Thankfully, our friends at Apple have created a simple shortcut to undo/redo your last typing action. Simply give your iPad a quick shake after typing or erasing type and an undo/redo menu will pop up.

For more great tips on both general online research and using your iPad for research, check out our Search Smarter page!

Last week our 3rd graders started to learn about programming from the awesome website Botlogic.us with our new friend Brad Wedell, who is the founder and CEO.  It was so much fun.
You can read about Brad's visit and what he taught the kids about Botlogic on this post, Our First Step Into Learning About Programming With New Friends at BotLogic.us.

The 3rd graders not only loved learning how to play Botlogic, they also really enjoyed learning about how Brad got involved in programming and why he created Botlogic.  They were instantly hooked on the objective of Botlogic and what they were to accomplish.  

I saw every one of the third graders engaged and having fun while learning. 
Also, it was great hearing them talk about Brad and his cool job while they were playing Botlogic after the Skype.  It really opened their eyes to not only what went into creating a game, website, or app, but also how many different things they could do by having these skills.

When the 3rd graders came back to school the next day, I had several come up to tell me they played it at home too!  
Josie, who is a 4th grader at Van Meter and a sister to one of the 3rd graders, told me that Walker went home that night and couldn't stop talking about what he had done in library with Botlogic.  He told his parents and Josie that he was going to learn how to be a programmer and create cool games when he was older that everyone could play. 

I just love that Botlogic is the first step in bringing this excitement about programming to the young people at our school.   

Now it is our turn to keep this excitement going and help Botlogic too!  
Brad and the other amazing people that work at BotLogic, Amber, Kelly, and Alex, have announced their Kickstarter Campaign, "BotLogin.us: A Game That Gets Kids EXCITED to Program!"

I am impressed with their goals and what they want to do to take BotLogic to the next level if their Kickstarter Campaign is successful.
And as the BotLogic team stated on their kickstarter campaign page, Let's Do This! and help this wonderful company make an even bigger impact on education and our young people.

On this episode we've got digital camera picks, the best space apps, the best way to reinstall apps after a wipe, and way more!

THIS IS NOT MY FUSE NEWS

Ok, stay with me here. The other day I noticed that I have a channel called Fuse and that they do a show called Fuse News.

This may be funny (alright, mildly amusing) to librarians because the excellent blog A Fuse #8 Production does a weekly children’s lit link roundup with the same name. I was going to tweet a joke about being disappointed that they didn’t talk at all about children’s literature. But then, I saw that on the latest Fuse News they talked to Weird Al about his books for kids. Way to ruin my joke, Weird Al. It’s a slightly condescending conversation, but it’s hard not to like Mr. Yankovic. Click the image below to visit the Fuse website and watch.

NOMINATE!

Have you nominated a great book for the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (Cybils) yet? You only have a few more days. Click here to get your nomination in.

BEST BOOKS FOR BEGINNERS

School Library Journal has an article this month featuring some great new books for emergent readers. Definitely add these to your ordering plans (and pass the list along to parents/classroom teachers). Click here to read.

READERS ARE LEADERS

Scholastic did something cool. They got a slew of children’s lit luminaries (Kadir Nelson, Erin Stead, Harry Bliss, to name a few) to make a poster and film a short video around the theme of Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. The whole thing turned out great. Definitely share-worthy. Click here to see them.

DRIVE THE BOOK

In unusual news of the day, BMW made a book that you can drive.

(Thanks to Book Patrol for the link)

In honor of Banned Books Week, we have taken a commonly banned book, shredded it to pieces and put it on display for all to see.  How does it make you feel when you see a book torn to pieces?  Our shredded book is a symbolic representation of what it means to ban a book.  It’s also a fantastic contest.  If you can guess what book this is you can enter into a drawing to win a pretty great prize.

Oh and don’t worry– we have extra copies of this book… we would not dare remove it from our shelves– it’s awesome!  We believe in letting you make the choice when it comes to what you read so stop by the library and check out a banned book.

Earlier this year I shared a nice tutorial that Gladys Scott produced about creating CK-12 Flexbooks. This morning I Google+ I saw that Gladys has released two new tutorials on the same topic. Her new tutorials cover how to create and how to edit CK-12 Flexbooks. The videos are embedded below.



Applications for Education
Tools like CK-12 Flexbooks can be very useful for producing reference materials that are tailored specifically to your curriculum and your students' needs.