New Google Docs Presentation Features

Many people don't use the presentation software in GoogleDocs, because, frankly, it doesn't have a lot of cool features. Well, guess what? Google has listened to us and added some clamored after features in this latest update.

First of all - more themes to choose from:

Second, you can now LINK to other slides in your presentation. (yay!) I was wishing for this feature myself. The workaround was cumbersome, at best.

What I like best about Google Presentations is that I can embed a slideshow in a LibGuide or other website. Then I can make changes as needed in GoogleDocs and the embed updates smoothly. There's no need to re-upload each time, which is super cool.

There are many more changes in Google Docs, so check it out:

Google Docs - What's new? via kwout

Inspiration for Fierceness!

I am just busting with inspiration right now! I have three big projects to complete in this three day weekend. I'm collaborating with several teachers, and I have some projects of my own to grow my new library program. At first I was going to post about a few great articles I've read this week that have inspired me, but I came across this post from a year ago, that I just re-read. It's required re-reading for all Teacher Librarians, IMHO:

2011: The year to be FIERCE « NeverEndingSearch via kwout

My favorite parts are
        "It's okay to be BETA, Train Thyself, and You Can't Punch this Clock"

2011: The year to be FIERCE « NeverEndingSearch via kwout

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have always told librarians who were struggling with learning the enormous amount of new tools out there to just start. Start learning on your own - one at a time. If you want to be indispensable to your school, do it. Begin with tools and technology that your students can use on current projects they already do to make them better. Then move on to learning tools that you can see will help with newer more authentic, creative projects. Pick things that make your teacher's lives easier AND that make student learning better - that's always a great way to help.

Sometimes when you read something great, you're not in the position to act on it. I wasn't in a position to act as fierce as my insides wanted to at this time last year. But now, I am. I will go forth and be fierce!
You should too! Thanks Joyce for articulating in detail how I felt but couldn't put into words.

 (and Fierce)

Project Gutenberg

We live in amazing times. A person could be stuck waiting at the doctor's office or the DMV and realize that they didn't bring anything to read (the horror!). That sticky old People magazine on the waiting room table isn't appealing at all. Well, it only takes a few clicks and that person could be reading Shakespeare, Ayn Rand or Dracula. For free! 

Project Gutenberg - free ebooks via kwout

Have you heard about the free eBooks on Project Gutenberg?  Well, guess what? They also have a mobile site. Scan the QR code to check it out. 

What I really love about Project Gutenberg is the wide variety of file formats. They include files for PC, Android, Kindle, ePub, HTML (which works on mobile devices), and simple text format. 

Obviously, we won't be able to get brand newly published books this way. They are able to provide about 36,000 books that have expired copyrights. Plus they link to many other sources that include about 100,000 more free eBooks. You'd be surprised at how many you'll find that you'd like to read. 

I really love the layout of the mobile site. It's really nice and easy to navigate. 

Have fun searching for free eBooks! 

Edublog Awards Voting

Voting is open for the annual Edublog Awards! Click below to check out the ballots or to vote. I love finding colleagues on the ballot! I also enjoy going through the ballots every year to discover new bloggers and people to follow on Twitter. Have fun!

Check out the Complete 2011 Edublog Awards Nominations shortlist | The Edublog Awards via kwout

Vote Here | The Edublog Awards via kwout

The Petition Tornado

Photo Courtesy of wwarby

Wow! Who knew librarians could be so controversial?

If you haven’t followed this petition dialogue, let me give you a little background. Check out this post by Buffy Hamilton and this post by Doug Johnson. The hubbub is in regards to a White House petition. The petition was located here, but has now expired. According to the website, if a petition secures the required number of signatures, the president will consider the issue. Here’s the nugget from the petition that has everyone talking:

“Any school receiving Federal funds should be required to have a credentialed School Librarian on staff full time with a library that contains a minimum of 18 books per student. Failure to have a school library open to all students and/or failure to have a credentialed School Librarian to run that library should be punishable by a immediate withdrawal of all Federal monies.”

Of course this sounds like a no-brainer at first, right? But after giving it some thought....

Here are my two issues with the petition:

First, I have a problem with the knee jerk reaction to call on the federal government to solve local problems. We’ve seen time and time again that a federal mandate doesn’t solve problems, but create many more (NCLB). How can someone in Washington DC really have any idea what works best for a school hundreds of miles away. Each state, each city, heck even each county has its own set of issues related to schools. Shouldn’t the school districts and towns decide what’s best for them, not the bureaucrats in DC?

Okay, so maybe your local districts have issues. You can solve those by means that are appropriate for your students. But some districts are doing just fine. Perhaps they don’t require federal intervention, thank you very much. And if you can’t do what you need to in your own district. Go somewhere else. That’s the great thing about having 50 different states. We have such a variety of places to live our lives.

Second, mandates are too closely related to tenure for me. I know this will make a lot of people mad. But teacher tenure isn’t always a good thing. I’ve heard teachers say, “What can they do, fire me? I’m tenured.” Yes, I’ve heard that exact phrase. That phrase does not inspire confidence in me that a person like that will continue to learn, grow, and make learning better for their students.

In regards to librarians, I’m going to say something that you don’t hear spoken aloud too often in library circles. Librarians have a lot of freedom in the sense that they can choose to create a vibrant exciting program or they can do the bare minimum to get by. (or anywhere in between)

Each library program is a direct reflection of the librarian. Libraries vary widely in schools. Librarians have a huge spectrum of services they can offer. Teachers and administrators base their opinions of the position of librarian based solely on what their librarian is doing.  It’s every single librarian's job to advocate for themselves by showing their administrators, teachers, and communities what they can offer and why they should keep their jobs.

Doug said it perfectly here:
“I have absolutely no doubt that most librarians who figure out how their programs can support their schools' goals and develop a strong communication and advocacy program will not just survive, but thrive. Might some good librarians' positions be cut? Of course. But over all, those who remain will be great. And students will be the beneficiary.”

Finally, If you are advocating and you do all you can to create a thriving program and yet your school or organization still decides to cut you. Don’t talk it personally. There are many other schools or organizations where you will be appreciated. Maybe that’s harsh. But I would suggest you read Linchpin by Seth Godin. Be creative and make yourself indispensable.

Our Nook Adventure: Part 2 - Set up

Famous last words: ”I think I’ve figured it out...”

Now that I’ve configured the Nooks, I realize that my original plan of listing by the book title, rather than the Nook was misguided. Although, to be fair, all of my questions weren’t yet answered when I made that plan. I didn’t realize how the un-managed account would work. Since I have less than the 25 required for a Barnes & Noble managed account, I am managing the Nooks myself.

It’s all about how you register the Nooks. I had planned to only have 1 copy of each title. I had a bright idea of having genre Nooks. We’d have the science fiction Nook, the fantasy Nook, the realistic fiction Nook - you get the idea.

Then I began registering the Nooks. I realized I had two choices. This was explained to me by the very helpful digital rep at Barnes & Noble. You can register up to 6 Nooks at a time per email account set up on BN.com. So, he told me, you can group 5 of your Nooks with 2 different emails. Or, you can open up 10 different BN accounts. He said it was my choice. Um, well, obviously 10 BN accounts would be cumbersome, to say the least, so I went with 2.

I opened up the BN accounts to began registering the 2 groups of 5 Nooks. By the way, I had purchased a BN gift card to attach to the accounts to buy eBooks. Even with a gift card, you must also have a backup credit card. This is causing some concern for some schools. If your school has a school credit card, that works great. But my BN customer service rep had a great idea and suggested I purchase one of those VISA gift cards for a small amount and that will register as a credit card. There’s always the option of using your personal credit card as a back up. Most people don’t want to do that. Don’t worry, though, because you can password protect the Nooks, so no one can purchase from the store on the Nooks. We did password protect our Nooks. They can't even download samples, which is great!

At this point, I was still planning to put the books I wanted on each Nook. (according to the genre groups). I had already purchased a few free books to experiment with. As I registered the first group of 5, I realized that those free books were popping up on all the Nooks in that group. I went online to investigate in my BN account. There is no way to send specific books to specific Nooks. There is a way to do this with Kindles, but that’s another story. When I noticed this, I called my BN digital rep again to double check. Nope, there is no way to do that unless you have the managed account. Well, we’re aren’t planning to buy 15 more Nooks anytime soon, so not an option. Although, for other schools, you may want to note that they will count all of the Nooks in your building to add up to the 25. And it can be several months later. If you only have 10 now, but buy up to 25 later, then you can move to the managed account,

Anyway, I verified with my BN rep that I could not send books to specific Nooks, and that it was okay to have the books I purchased go to all 5 Nooks in a group. Basically, I have no choice but to do it that way. Note that my original plan was to have 1 copy of a book on a Nook, not 1 copy of a book on 5 Nooks.

Here’s where the “I think I have it figured out part...” was jinxed.
I could not catalog the eBooks by titles as originally planned, nor could I group by genre. Here’s what I ended up doing, which I think worked out just great in the end.

I have group 1 (Nooks 1-5) and group 2 (Nooks 6-10). In our catalog, I created two different titles in our library catalog; we use Destiny. In the first title record, I included all of the titles and authors of the books in that group in the “contents” Marc tag. I did the same with the second title. Then I added copies to each title. I used Nook 1, Nook 2, Nook 2, etc. as call numbers, rather than FIC or Equipment. This makes it clean and easy to know which Nooks are checked out and which Nooks are available. Plus, a patron can request a hold on a Nook and they’ll know which group of titles they’re requesting.

I love all the aspects of how the cataloging worked out, except for one thing. Since I only put the titles and authors in the contents, patrons can only find them in the catalog by doing an “everything” or keyword search. If you look Hunger Games up by title, the Nooks won’t come up. I suppose I could add the titles and authors under that section in the record, but it was going to get pretty cumbersome with 20 titles. Right now, it’s pretty simple to add new titles in the contents section, as I buy more titles. So, we’ll see in time. Since I also have an annotated listing of titles at the circulation desk, as well as on my eBook LibGuide, I’m not too worried about it.

Back to the BN account and how to load the books. I have our gift card attached to both BN accounts. I go into one account and purchase the titles I want and they’re sent automatically to all 5 Nooks in that group. Even if the Nooks are in patron hands, the books will appear, so you don’t have to tell it to fetch it or anything. They’ll just pop up.

What I like about having the same titles on all Nooks in a group: It’s easy for circulation. Right now several people want the new Steve Jobs book, so up to 5 people can be reading that.

What I don’t like about having the same titles on all Nooks in a group: Bookmarking. If one person makes a bookmark, all people in that group see the bookmark. Yep. That was interesting to figure out. I think it could actually be fun. Students can “race” each other to finish a book. I see possibilities there.

For now, it’s working great. I love handing someone they Nook and having them realize that they can read any of the 15 or 20 books on the it. If they begin one and don’t like it, they can choose another. Or maybe they’re a fast reader, so having a little library over the Thanksgiving break is awesome! My goal in the beginning was to increase reading for pleasure, since we have such busy students, who don’t read as much when they get into the upper school. I’m hoping to hook in students who wouldn’t otherwise pick up a fiction book.

We’ll see. I’ll know more as I conduct post reading surveys and get feedback from students and faculty. If the groupings don’t work as well as we’d like, then we’ll revise.

Please feel free to ask me more questions, if you’re interested in setting up eReaders in your school or library. I have research on Kindles too. Also, I'd be happy to show you our agreement forms and other documents I created. Or you can visit our LibGuide here. And if you'd like to know more about the BN Managed Account program, Buffy spells it out nicely here.

What to do with those ole' Kindle books lying around...

So, you've had your Kindle a while and you have all those great books organized into collections on your device. You can just leave them there and peruse them once in a while. Or you can lend them...well, only to other people who have Kindles. Maybe you don't have that many friends who have Kindles. What if there was a way to connect you - Kindle Owner, with lots of other Kindle Owners? What if you could have a sort of "swap meet" with them.

Good news! There is. It's called Lendle. (Thanks to Carolyn Foote for the tip) After opening an account (it's free, of course), you give the names of the titles you own. There's a easy way to see which of your books are lendable.

If you go to your Kindle Library on Amazon, hover your mouse over the "actions" bubble. If it gives you an option to "loan this title," then that's a book you want to add to your Lendle account. The more books you add, the more you're able to borrow from others. 

The terms are simple and fair. You're able to loan a book only once. And you can only borrow if you have books available to lend. They don't want the community poached by people who only borrow and never contribute. It makes sense and I really like it so far. 

Also, there is a way to earn credits if you loan a lot of books. If you earn enough,  you can get credit with Amazon, where I supposed you'd buy more books! That's not really why I signed up. I like the idea of yet one more place where I can borrow books. So...between my own school library, my public library, eBooks on Overdrive, Lendle, and Amazon, I should be able to meet all my needs!

I hope you find it helpful!

Wow! Just as I was about to post this, I see that Amazon is also getting into the lending game with Amazon Prime members getting to borrow. Pretty amazing stuff!

Amazon.com: Kindle Owners' Lending Library via kwout

Our Nook Adventure: Part 1

I just picked up a set of 10 Nooks to circulate in my school library. I've read a lot about how other librarians are managing this new, ever-changing endeavor of circulating eBooks & eReaders. So, I've had time to brainstorm and plan.

I think I've figured out how to manage them...

I plan to catalog the Nook eBook and then make the call number designate that the book is on a Nook. My original plan was to catalog the Nook as equipment and add in the record which book or books were on the Nook. But after thinking about how we are using the Nooks, I realized a few things:

~I'm not circulating them as equipment, because that sort of implies that the Nook is a piece of equipment for them to "do things" with, like add & remove books. I compare it to the old days when we circulated VCRs for people to play different media.
~I'm circulating a book, albeit in a new-fangled format. However, it's still a book.

I realize that librarians have different situations that work for them, and some have less (or no) flexibility with their cataloging, especially those in a district. Fortunately, I have the flexibility to catalog the Nooks in the way that I want to work for our students. I think focusing on the book will work for my students.

I will also place "Nook eReader" somewhere in the record, so that if a student wants to search for just for the Nooks, he or she can do that, as well.

In addition, I'm following the suggestion of Buffy Hamilton and keeping a hard copy list of which Nooks have which eBooks on them at any given time. Some students may prefer to just come and ask. But I'd like to make it known to those students who may be perusing the catalog, as well.

As for behind the scenes, I have have a file folder for each Nook (also an idea from Buffy), where I'm listing which book(s) is on each Nook.

This is the blueprint so far, but I still have questions. And I'm sure I'll make changes and adjustments as we go along. But I'm thrilled to finally get started with the eReaders.

I'll update as we go this year. Let the journey begin!

A Flipped Classroom in Action

Photo credit jnpoulos

I love it when I hear about something so exciting that it makes me want to go back in the classroom to try it. I first heard about "flipping classrooms" at the beginning of the school year. However,  since I came to a new school this year, I was inundated with new information and couldn’t pay much attention back then. Fortunately, I heard it described in more detail yesterday by Steve Hegwood, a teacher at our school. The more I heard, the more fascinated I became.

What is a Flipped Classroom?

In the traditional setting, a teacher will lecture/present a lesson during class and assign homework for the student to practice and learn the material at home. Students are passive while in class and active at home doing the practice/homework. Furthermore, while a student is practicing something like math or chemistry at home on their own, they’re more likely to have questions. But no one is there to help. To make matters worse, sometimes a student practices something incorrectly over and over and it becomes “cemented” in their brain wrong.

But a flipped classroom is the exact opposite. A teacher records the lecture/lesson for students to watch on video for homework. Then the students come to class the next day having already heard the lecture/lesson, so they’re ready to practice what they learned. And the teacher is there to help and to discuss their learning. So, the passive portion of learning is at home and the active portion is at school with the expert on hand.

This is makes so much sense that I wonder why we didn’t begin this ages ago!

The idea was pioneered by two teachers in Colorado who began with simply videoing their lessons because so many students were absent. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams say they began for selfish reasons, because of the time it takes to “catch up” students who are absent. After they began posting their lessons online, the feedback was tremendous. Not only were absent students benefiting, but other students who were present for the first lecture began re-watching the lectures on video. Also, students found them helpful in reviewing for tests. Their journey is detailed here at The Flipped Class Blog.

Back to my school where teacher Steve Hegwood began flipping his classroom at the beginning of the school year. I got a summary from Steve at a faculty meeting, but I wanted to learn more about how he and his students were doing with this approach, so I asked him. He graciously agreed to be interviewed.

How did you hear about flipping classrooms?
After attending the November Learning BLC conference in Boston for two consecutive years, I was poking around on the Internet looking for ideas of practical applications of technology to enhance student learning (one thing I despise is the trend in the implementation of technology for technology’s sake – you wouldn’t buy a hammer and then go looking for nails to hit). I stumbled across the vodcasting.ning.com community site last December or January. I attended the conference in June.

Were students intrigued or hesitant at the beginning of the year?
If I could go back and change how I presented the approach to the students I would. Sometimes more information is not better. I was very excited about what I had planned for my classes so I spelled out every detail on the first day of school. For the most part my explanation was met with blank stares and looks of terror. To the students, it was as if I was about to take everything that they had grown accustomed to over the last 10 years of their education and throw it out the window. They all became very defensive and I could no longer convince them that I wasn’t changing anything other than where they would be listening to lectures.

How do they feel about watching videos for homework?
Initially they were not to sure about it – they thought I was crazy. Their biggest apprehensions were centered on the inability to ask questions. Now that they realize that many of the questions they would normally ask early in a traditional lecture are usually answered later in the same lecture, many have developed the patience to wait until the end to see if they still have questions. Even when I take time in class for a traditional lecture I find that I am being interrupted much less frequently than in the past. I also encourage them to write down their questions as they watch and then ask when they return to class. They also love the fact that the videos have “pause” and “rewind” buttons the average teacher doesn’t have.

How are they doing with the in-class work? Do they like having you there for their practice time?
As I was slowly implementing the approach, providing a mix of video and traditional lectures, the early apprehension quickly faded as students began asking me if they could have another “work day” and wanting to know when the next videos would be posted. The students are finding that the homework is much “easier” when they have someone present who can explain how to work through problems instead of relying only on their own class notes.

Overall, how do you think the process benefits student learning? The questions that are being asked in class are much more advanced than what I am used to receiving from my first year students – many of the questions are what I might expect early in the year from my AP Chemistry students. Average test scores have increased by 6 to 10 percentage points. Not only are scores higher than in the past, but the students seem to have a better appreciation for and understanding of the material.

Since I write about technology here, perhaps you can tell us what software you use to record your slideshows?
I am using Camtasia Studio 7.1 to record and produce the videos. I host them on a Moodle site that I maintain myself. So far, my videos have been voiceovers of my working my way through PowerPoint presentations.

And the name of the nifty gadget you use to make your marks on the screen?
While making the recordings of my PowerPoint presentations, I occasionally use a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet to make handwritten annotations throughout the presentation. The Intuos 4 is Wacom’s midrange tablet, but they make a wide range of tablets from the entry level Bamboo to a series of professional grade tablets. As a technophile myself, this is a personal item that I already happened to have, but there are a number of similar products on the market. Interactive whiteboards are also great for this.

If a teacher is interested in learning more, do you have a website to refer them to?
I would strongly recommend that anyone wanting information visit, and consider joining, the vodcasting.ning.com community site and start sifting through the wealth of information and ask questions.

Wow, so much to think about. Thanks so much! I love to share innovative teaching ideas that enhance students learning. I’ll be interested to see how the year progresses. I'll do a status update at the end of the year.

Here is the link for the first time flippers group at the vodcasting ning that Steve mentioned:
Check it out!

First Time Flippers - Teacher Vodcasting and Flipped Classroom Network via kwout

Need Inspiration?

If you need a big, giant bucket of inspiration, check out the just published Ebook:

SCHOOL LIBRARIES: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come

It's a collection of 100 essays written by respected librarians, teachers, publishers, and library vendors on the subject of School Libraries.  It was edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton. Foreword by R. David Lankes. Photographs by Diane Cordell."

The authors were asked to write about the future of libraries and librarians. Where are we headed? Where should we be headed? The topics range from learning, teaching, multiple literacies, collection development, the digital and the physical library, collaboration and professional learning. Each essay  beings personal experience to the learning happening in school libraries. Each has a different, but inspiring perspective. This is a must read for every school librarian! And, it's FREE. Go for it!

Smashwords - School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come - A book by Kristin Fontichiaro via kwout

Curation and Storytelling

I've been following the curation trend recently. At the same time, I've been pondering the importance of storytelling in every aspect of our culture. So when I came across Storify, which is sort of a combination of the two, I was thrilled at the possibilities! What a cool way to take an event or trend and make your own story. Watch the video below:

                                         Storify demo from Burt Herman on Vimeo.

Now look at an example of a story someone created about Al Davis, who just passed away:

I could embed the whole thing here, but it's really long, so click here to see it.

This is a really cool way to tell a story in your own way using multi-media and social networking. But it's also collaborative storytelling, because it's telling a story with input from everyday people who may be at the event, people who may be involved in some way, or maybe just people who have ideas and opinions and your topic/event. 

You'll see on the dashboard that you can choose which networks to pull information from. You can access Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Google, and RSS feeds, etc. When you find something pertinent, you drag & drop it into your stream. You can add your own text, reorder the items and more to tell the story you want to tell.

In the classroom, this is a great way for students to document an event - whether it's a natural disaster, an election primary, or the hub-bub surrounding the long-anticipated movie opening. 

The ideas are limitless! 

Library Lending for Your Kindle is finally HERE!

When I heard that Amazon was working with Overdrive to allow us to check out Kindle formatted books, I thought it was too good to be true. We could borrow e-books? Awesome!

Well, the day has finally arrived, my friends! If your public library is using Overdrive, and most of them are, you can now check out books for your Kindle!

I did a little test run to see how easy it is. First of all, when you go to your library website, it will tell you to go to your digital media catalog to search for e-books. My advice to make searching easier is to click on "advanced search" and under "format," select Kindle. This will ensure that when you find something you want, it'll be in Kindle format. Not all books are available at this time in e-book format.  

Once you make a selection and put it in your digital cart, then check out. You will be sent to Amazon to download the book. There are two ways to get the book on your Kindle.

~If you have a Wi-Fi Kindle, then it will be delivered wireless when you sync
~If you have 4G, then it will be downloaded to your computer and you just drag it to your Kindle with your USB

Either way - still easier than using Overdrive. You don't have to download and use Overdrive, which may be a little confusing for some people. (I actually gave up on Overdrive for audio books, because the book kept disappearing every time I wanted to add more music to my ipod.) The process when smoothly through Amazon, which is a familiar process, since you already have a Kindle.

Also, it was really easy to return the book. You go to your "Manage Your Kindle" in your Amazon account. You'll see your library book there in your list, and you just click on "actions" and select "return book." The reason this is important is that you can only check out a certain number of e-books at at time. If you finish them all early, then you're stuck waiting for the checkout period to be over, unless you can return them early.

Another part I really like is that you know right away if a book is available. If a library only has only 3 copies of an e-book, then it can only loan out 3 copies at a time. So, it's nice to know if you'll be able to download the book right away or if you will have to hold it.

Yay for library e-books! Now go check out some books.