Did I see into the future?

At the beginning of the semester, I figured I had a pretty good list of technology tips for teachers. These were based off of reading I had done, experiences I've had, and pure conjecture. I'm interested to see how these have held up a couple months later, after I've done more reading and discussion with classmates. I am going to annotate my initial points in red:
1. Start by reading studies and books and attending seminars about using technology in classrooms so that you have a clear idea of what is needed to implement technology based lessons, as well as what sorts of programs and technology-based lessons work best for learning.
Honestly, I think this point holds up really well. You don't want to use technology for the sake of using technology. It works best if you truly understand the technology and how it can support your lessons. You aren't using it to replace your teaching. You need it to supplement what you are already teaching.
2. Think about why you want to use technology. Your students will learn best if you have a clear objective that benefits from technology.
This relates to the point above. Have a clear idea of why you want to use it. Are you using it just so you look flashy to the principal and parents? Or is it actually a good use of your students' time?
3. Ask your students how they use technology. eg. What do they prefer to use? Laptops? Tablets? Cell phones? How are your students spending their time on these devices? Use that information to create your lessons.
Yeah, because you really don't want to have to teach them how to use the device as well as the program on it, unless you are on the technology faculty and that's part of your job description OR if you are teaching young students without much experience with technology.
4. You will definitely need to learn how to fully use the technologies you plan on using before introducing them to the class. You want to feel in control.
There are few things as uncomfortable as watching someone fiddle with misbehaving technology when they're teaching. You may run into problems, but you want to prepare as much as possible to avoid that.
5. However, you probably won't be able to anticipate all of the issues you and your students might encounter. Work with your students to figure it out.
See above...
6. Make sure you talk with the technology instructors and IT professionals at your school or district to see what they have already developed and to see how (or if) they can support your plans.
Please do this so you aren't doing work someone else has already done.
7. Consider your students before making any big decisions. eg. Do they have devices from home they can use? If not, can they procure them? Is your class easily distracted? What devices or programs can you use that will lessen the distraction? Do they have a strong technology background or will you need to teach them from the ground up?
You may a year with students who are going to excel at using technology in class but the next the students just can't handle the responsibility. Be prepared for that. You may need to change the technology for certain years or your lesson altogether.
8. Consider the parents. Make sure you can sell your technology decisions to skeptical parents who may not want their children on screens at school.
I also worry about this now from the perspective of job security. You want to have the parents behind you, and if you are pushing them to accept technology that they don't want their kids using, is it worth it? This is something to decide probably school by school, but be prepared for what you want to do to not match what actually is possible.
9. Using technology may take more time (both in class and for you as teacher) than a more traditional lesson. Plan accordingly.
Maybe don't do a huge technology lesson for each unit...
10. Have fun with it! Your students will be more likely to enjoy a new way of learning or experiencing the material you're presenting if they can tell that you're excited about teaching it this way.

via Gfycat

Is it bad if I think that these held up pretty well? I honestly think they did. I now have a better idea of what technology will work in various situations, but overall, I think my theories have held up pretty well. We'll see when I actually get into the real world...

Cataloging Part Deux

First, I just want to say how much I appreciate Catalog It! It's succinct and addresses most of the problems I feel like you'll encounter as a school librarian without getting too heavy. The summaries at the end of each field description will be very useful in the workplace.

A couple observations:

1. 041 - Kaplan says it's the field of the future in libraries and that it'll be nice when we can search that field and get just Spanish language works and translations. Why can't we do that now? Public libraries' OPACs are able to filter by language. On this record, for example, you can see that in 041, it's noted that the book is in Spanish. I would think it's what makes their filters work. Have school library OPACs just not incorporated that filter? Why not? Seems like it would be a simple enough addition. Or is the public library OPAC pulling it from the 546 field?

2. I finished reading this at the BSO on Saturday night, and the man next to me seemed to be reading over my shoulder. I almost suggested he become a cataloger if he felt the book was that interesting...

3. My maiden name was Verso and no matter how many times I read "verso," it still throws me. (Shouldn't have changed my name...)

4. The push in RDA to record things as you see them is very interesting. On the one hand, it seems great because you don't seem to need to spend so much time looking things up to make sure they're what everyone else is using. On the other hand, if you aren't incredibly precise and others aren't as well, I wonder if you could run into problems of items not being cataloged the same. But if they're at different institutions, I suppose this may not be a problem, especially for school libraries.

5. I appreciated the guidelines on cataloging equipment since that's not as obvious as a book would be. Kaplan's push to catalog the items and put them in the OPAC was appreciated.

Having said all that, I am happy to be done with reading about cataloging. It does get tiring after a while.

Cataloging PTSD

This was a weirdly emotional week for one that focused on cataloging, perhaps the driest of all library science topics. (I think that there's some astrological justification for the emotions - moon is in Cancer or something - I don't know what that means but let's run with it.)

If you asked me what my least favorite class was in library school, I'd probably tell you cataloging. It was a slog. The professor was great, but cataloging is just SO hard. I have to admit that I was thrilled to learn that I wasn't going to have to take another full course in it. When Kaplan mentioned the big red LCSH books, I immediately flashed back to the Simmons cataloging lab with its bookcase full of various taxonomies.

via GIPHY

I already got into my opinions of not using a formal classification system like DDC on the discussion board, so I won't go over that again here. That's one of the things I feel most strongly about, hence a lot of the emotions. I have a hard time controlling my emotions sometimes (shall we go back to astrology and my Scorpio sun AND moon?), and I had to very carefully choose my words on the discussion board because I feel so strongly about not trying to arrange your library in your own way. As Kaplan states on page 11, "Users also benefit from standardized rules by knowing what to expect when walking into any library. A user familiar with the Dewey Decimal classification system can walk into any public library and know precisely where to look for a work on any discipline." Agreed! Kids are adaptable, too. My first grader knows how to use the catalog at the public library alone. I must have taught him how to do that, I don't really remember doing so, and he's not above average intelligence, as far as anyone's told me (other than my mom, but she doesn't count because she's a grandmother). I recognize the problems with the DDC, but --- okay, I said I wasn't going to get into that again.

Here are some other observations from the reading.

Teaching students the difference between keyword and subject searching is so important, as Kaplan points out on pg. 46. In one of my observations for my other class this semester, I worked with the librarian as 4th grade students did an OPAC scavenger hunt. Many of the questions centered around doing a keyword or subject search. When students chose the wrong option, it was very clear, and they immediately grasped that one searches everything while the other just searches the subject. It was a good lesson, and it showed the kids in detail why searching carefully is important. (And it showed them how to use the DDC, which about 80% did with few problems.)

I also like that Kaplan acknowledges using folksonomies in the school library (47). Getting input from users has become increasingly popular across the library science field, and I don't see why school libraries shouldn't get in on it. I could see centering a lesson around students assigning tags to books they've read. It would give students a sense of ownership of their collection, as well as giving them a chance to show off what they've read.

I thought it was interesting how on pg. 62 Kaplan noted that she wouldn't be delving into BISAC too deeply because of copyright restrictions. One of the best things about LCSH is that they are free and relatively easy to search. (Kind of unrelated, but my husband and I giggled over how the authorities homepage hasn't changed at all in the past ten years.) I don't know how I feel about including subject headings that are so protected by copyright, the author of a book on cataloging couldn't get the rights to include them...

I had never considered including curriculum guidelines in the record, but it makes so much sense (75). This isn't a project, as Kaplan notes, where you would want to go back and edit old records (unless your library is really slow, which hopefully it isn't). Can you imagine, though, how wonderful it would be to provide your faculty with a list of resources dealing with a specific objective? I love this idea.

Overall, I was much more interested in cataloging this time around, maybe because it was a review. I'm also guessing that Catalog It! is a better textbook than whatever I used last time.

Professional Development for Peers

The thought of educating others in a professional development setting is daunting. It's hard to feel like the expert in front of your peers. Even if you think you're the expert, what if it turns out that there's a secret technology whiz on your staff who is going to judge your presentation? While unlikely, there are natural fears that come with putting together a professional development presentation.

This week I chose to put together a presentation for my faculty on a couple apps and tools for visual learners. There are certainly students we will encounter who will learn better by watching a video than listening to a lecture and others who may not be great at writing but know a lot on a topic and could better show that knowledge through a video. It's not a particularly groundbreaking concept, but all four of the sites I explore in my presentation were new to me and could very well be new to the faculty at my imaginary school. I feel like the websites are also so user-friendly that they can be easily used by teachers without putting a lot of effort into learning something new with perhaps the exception of WeVideo. Even that looks pretty user-friendly, though. The teachers can dip their toes into using more technology in their classroom with these tools without having to fully dive in.

I did find that Screencast-o-matic did not work quite as well with my computer as I had hoped. I'm not totally sure of the problem, but I'm guessing my cheap Chromebook may not have the processing power to run a bunch of tabs and a recording app at the same time. There's a video I show in the presentation that does a better job of explaining what students can do with WeVideo than I could do, and each time I recorded, it caused a lag. The first recording I did started lagging almost from the start. Not ideal and no idea what happened there. Overall, using Screencast-o-matic was easy, but I do wonder if having a more powerful computer and a paid account would have fixed the rendering problems.

Here's my presentation:

These are a few of my favorite tools

After working on lesson plans this week, I whittled down the tools I've explored to a few favorites. Obviously anything Google related works well and is preferred (Docs, Slides, etc.), so I'm not going to consider those here. I also found that tools I thought would work well, didn't. For example, I was excited by Glogster for creating interactive posters. However, when I actually went to create one this week, I realized how hampered I was by not having a paid account. You can only have six elements, which seems to include the title of your presentation and how many text boxes you have. It was very difficult, and I admittedly gave up, knowing how much more I would be able to do with a paid account.

My favorite apps, though, are:
1. Bubbl.us - I honestly don't know that for me a concept map would work for a research paper. I believe it would for others. I do love the look of a concept map, though, and think it would be useful for anyone for early stage planning.
2. Canva - I love Canva for creating infographics. I could see using this regularly as a librarian when I need to share information with the rest of my school (eg. rules, guides to new resources, etc.).
3. Doodle - I understand other people's points that you can just send invitations via Google Calendar, but what if you need to invite someone to an event who doesn't use Google products? I also really like the layout of Doodle. It's so easy to set up and see responses.
4. Animoto - This is such a simple tool for creating video slideshows. The templates are plentiful, and the free graphics and music are great. I feel like even younger students could use this with minimal assistance
5. Diigo - I have to admit I was really skeptical of Diigo. Why wouldn't you just create a folder for your bookmarks in your browser and add things there? But I really like the highlighting and annotating features, as well as the ability to create groups where you can share resources.

And there you have it! My top five tools I've explored this semester!