3 Grand Travel Apps That Took Us Through The Desert

In my last post, I talked about the importance of disconnecting during vacations and breaks. I did a fairly good job of staying off social media during my recent spring break. My wife Cindy and I decided to hit the open road to visit the southwest region of the United States. We have always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, and the sights of Sedona, Arizona. While visiting these areas, we used three cool apps to make decisions on where to stay, where to eat, and how to get there! Since this blog is about library media and technology, I thought I would share these tech tools with you. In fact, I'll share how some of these apps might make a cool series of library lunch programs to share with your learning community!

Maps App for iOS 9

I love the updated Maps App for iOS 9! This app will give you spoken directions to your destination and provides great interactive 2D and 3D maps. We looked at the Grand Canyon on the app after we actually visited the national park. The interactive 3D map has amazing detail.

A view of the Grand Canyon from the app

You can see in the photos how accurate the maps are compared to real life!

The Grand Canyon is truly breathtaking in real life!

The Grand Canyon in 3D

What I like about this app is that it allows users to virtually visit nearly any place in the world. Many students may have never left their own home state. This app gives them the opportunity to "visit" new places in 3D. When students have these experiences, it helps them better understand the world. It also allows them to have reference points. For instance, I had heard of mesas my whole life, but I had never seen one. After traveling through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona during spring break, I had the opportunity to see these land forms. The experience changed me and my thinking.

Library Program Potential

I even used the app to locate a few other National Parks I hope to visit in the future. Viewing such places on the app made me imagine a Skype session with someone knowledgeable about these areas (perhaps even a park ranger at one of the locations) for a real guide! This would be a great library program for students and teachers! Pass out iPads to those in attendance, or put this on your big projector screen; and you have instant awesome! Take it a step further by putting out print resources on the places you show off on the Maps app!

Look at the detail on Devil's Tower National Monument (remember this from Close Encounters of the Third Kind?)

Mount Rushmore in 3D courtesy of the Maps app

TripAdvisor App

This is a cool app that allows you to check out hotels, restaurants, attractions, flight searches, and vacation rentals. Cindy used it to find restaurants several times during our trip. We decided to go for yogurt after leaving Sedona (a city we recommend visiting if you ever go to Arizona).

Cindy found a soft serve yogurt restaurant in Flagstaff using this app. We were able to get reviews and a description of the place. She punched the address into her phone, and we were on our way!

I liked the photos that the app provided of both restaurants and hotels. It is very user friendly. I'll be using this one from now on when we are on the road in both familiar and unfamiliar places!

I really like the reviews portion of TripAdvisor

AAA Mobile App

I discovered the AAA travel club about 7 years ago and decided to join for the towing and roadside assistance benefits. I have used the towing benefit a few times (luckily close to home). If you travel a lot, you might want to consider a roadside assistance benefit through AAA or your auto insurance provider for peace of mind! When traveling, I use the AAA app to find the cheapest gas near me and to book hotels. It will also allow the user to rent a car, book flights, find auto repair shops, and it provides parking locator assistance. It works much like the TripAdvisor app. I just type in the city/ town we want to book a room and the app gives me a listing of available hotels with a variety of price ranges. It also reveals reviews and reservation information.

I really like the comments portion of the AAA app

Final Thoughts

I can't help but wonder how many students and parents know about these apps. With summer vacations coming soon, these and other apps could come in very useful for our learning community. I think I may present these and MapQuest (directions app), Yelp (I've used this for restaurant recommendations), and GasBuddy (for cheap gas prices). It might also be good to give students an opportunity to come up to show their favorite travel themed apps during lunch sessions in the library. There are so many possibilities to share these tools and show off library materials at the same time. My thought "wheels" are turning... are yours?

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Have you tried the Morfo app? You can make any photo of a person's face talk! 

Why you should take breaks and disconnect (especially during spring break!)

This is how we held our first Mystery Skype in the library!

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Email: stony_evans@lakesidesd.org

           misti_bell@lakesidesd.org

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A Break For Spring Break

Our spring break begins this weekend. Recently, my co-workers were challenging me to disconnect from school during my days off. They actually dared me to not send Tweets or blog during my down time. The more I think about it, they are right. They see how active I am at work and in my off hours (connecting with other educators on social media on my own time). I suspect many of you are guilty of the same things.

Take A Break

Most every job in education is demanding. I think about the classroom teachers who are performing in front of students each day and the principals who are constantly problem solving even in their "off" hours. (People don't bring them their celebrations; most of the time they are brought issues to solve.) I also consider the bus drivers who get the kids to and from school and the counselors who are preparing to set up schedules for the upcoming school year. The list goes on and on. All of these school workers need to get away to rest and re-energize.

Do Things You Enjoy And Rest

It is important for all of us to disconnect from the daily grind and relax. This is vital for our personal health and well being. For me, relaxing helps the renewal of creativity. It is good to clear my mind of stressful dates and tasks. While on vacation, I love taking photos, playing music, and sleeping late for a change of pace. I hope you can choose some of your favorite distractions for your spring break and the upcoming weekends. 

For The Brave

If you are a brave 21st century connected educator, try turning off your devices when you have vacation time. Find those things you love to do and truly take a "break" for spring break. If you have already had spring break, make some time to disconnect each weekend!

I'm not sure I can totally shut off social media for my spring break, but I am going to disconnect for a large part of it. I'm choosing to do this not only for myself, but so that I can experience a renewal for those I serve. I'm glad my co-workers challenged me so that I can spread it to you.

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Go here to read about our several student connections for Teen Tech Week!

Go here to read about our recent library renovation!

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Student Led Connections For Teen Tech Week

Mr. Brian Johnson and I have been friends for many years. He is a library media specialist at Lakeside Jr. High in Springdale, Arkansas. Our schools are more than 200 miles apart! One of the things we enjoy doing is connecting our students via Google Hangouts several times each year. A few weeks ago, Brian contacted me to discuss bringing our students together for the upcoming Teen Tech Week event. We are always for promoting great student led presentations. The potential to add a Google Hangout with our friends at Springdale's Lakeside was icing on the cake!

Google Hangouts works great for distant planning visits

How We Planned The Events

We met on a Friday afternoon via Google Hangouts to discuss our plans. Misti, Ray, Peggy, and I discussed the possibilities with Brian for about 20 minutes. We proposed 3 different sessions on the Wednesday of Teen Tech Week. The next step was to begin recruiting student presenters.

We decided to ask our EAST facilitator, Coach Leighton Hardin, about some of his students presenting some current technology projects. He had 3 young ladies who had created a hologram video and were willing to present. Another two students wanted to share some of their wax special effects. (They were very good at making the wax look like various injuries.) The special effects students hope to work with our Sports Medicine program to help create educational injury scenarios using this cool makeup technology.

I also asked our robotics facilitator, Mr. Matthew Balcom, if he had any students who wanted to present. He had two presenters that were working on a windmill project. Misti and I also approached two female library regulars, Kristina and Jordan, to see if they would share some cool tech. They both agreed to demonstrate robots for us.

The Big Day

The day of the event went great. During the first session, three EAST students presented the hologram video followed by Brian's student who had coded a "pong" style game using a Finch robot as a controller. Our other two EAST students presented the special effects.

The second session consisted of Brian's student who had coded a different game. (She was very knowledgeable about coding.) Following this, our two robotics students presented about their windmill project.

The third session featured Brian's students showing how they programmed a Finch robot to negotiate a maze. They did a great job! After this, our students demonstrated a Sphero, Mip robot, and a Meccano robot.

The hologram video

The "Pong" style game from Springdale Lakeside

Special effects Makerspace

Robotics windmill project discussion

Springdale Lakeside demonstrates their "maze runner" Finch

Jordan shows the Sphero to Springdale Lakeside

Kristina demonstrates her Mip and Meccano robots

Next Steps

We discussed the possibility of connecting again this semester. Brian and I thought it would be great if our learners could share coding programs for their Finch robots and our library Sphero. We even discussed trying to replicate the mazes that the Springdale Lakeside students had created. There are many possibilities for the future!

The Hoverboard was a hit the following day!

Our students were so excited about this event, they wanted to continue playing with technology the next day! One of our presenters, Jordan, brought her Hoverboard to demonstrate it for the library lunch crowd. Kristina brought her Mip and Meccano robots to demonstrate them again. Other students built with Legos and Jenga while another disassembled old broken computers at the deconstruction station. Teen Tech Week was a great success at both Lakeside schools this year! I wonder what our "Lakeside Squared" connections will produce next time?

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How we connected four Spanish classes together during a "Lakeside Squared" Google Hangout!

How we had a book club meeting with our friends at Lakeside Jr. High in Springdale, Arkansas (over 200 miles north of us!)

This is how one of our seniors read to young student friends at Titan Hill Intermediate School in Iowa via Skype!

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Read Across America 2016

We are always looking for ways to connect with new friends using Skype and Google Hangouts. It is great to model practices for connecting and sharing ideas by using these two tools (in addition to social media!) Recently, my friend Lynn Kleinmeyer, a teacher librarian at Titan Hill Intermediate in Council Bluffs, Iowa, had asked us to connect with her classes for the Read Across America event. We planned the event over a webcam conference the week prior. We were excited to have an opportunity to do this!

Anna had previously  read The Dot during World Read Aloud Day

A Student Led Opportunity

Lynn had asked for one of our senior high school assistants, Anna, to read to her students during two separate sessions. Anna had previously read to a class in Texas via webcam as part of World Read Aloud Day, and we were excited to provide the opportunity for her to do this again! Anytime we can get out of the way and allow students to lead, everyone wins! Lynn had requested Anna to read a Dr. Seuss book on the day of the event. Anna was able to locate a copy of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham!

What Happened

Since the selected day also happened to be Dr. Seuss' birthday, Titan Hill Intermediate School was celebrating by having the students wear green. They also had the famous breakfast menu selections of green eggs and ham! Anna and I decided to recognize this celebration by wearing green for her Skype reading session.

We were able to connect using Skype with no problems. The first session was held in our library gaming/ coding room. It has a nice layout for webcam sessions. I connected a Blockrocker amplifier to the computer audio out to improve the sound quality on our end.

Mrs. Kleinmeyer did a great job introducing us to her young students. During the first session, Anna presented to 4 classes of 2nd graders! They greeted Anna and took turns waving back and forth at each other. Anna then told them what grade she was in and where our high school was located in Arkansas.

Anna would read a page, then bring the pages close to the webcam so that the Titan Hill students could view on their screen. It was priceless to hear the reactions and comments from our new friends in Iowa each time there was a break from the reading.




As I watched, I remember thinking that we are only just beginning to use these technologies in the classroom. What a wonderful way to connect with far away places to learn and share with each other! I also remember wondering how connecting with other states and countries have impacted our learners through Mystery Skype sessions. Now the learners in Titan Hill know a little more about Arkansas. It is not just a place on a map, but a place with people just like them!

Since the second session was during lunch, we decided to move the computer and webcam to my office so we wouldn't interfere with gaming room activities. It worked just as well during the second session. My laptop sounded great using the desktop speakers in the office. At the end of the session, we waved our goodbyes; and school life returned to a normal Wednesday afternoon. 

A short "commercial" style video clip of the events!

 Anna's Reflection

Our library team is always curious to get feedback from our learners following any event such as this. It is always useful to know the impact a library program or connection might make on a learner. We asked Anna to share a reflection with us. These are her thoughts from the event:

Reading to the 2nd & 3rd graders on Wednesday was the best feeling ever. Seeing those smiling faces made my day. It's amazing how we can connect with different states especially the ones that are 600 miles away like Iowa. The little kids at Titan Hill Intermediate were so awesome and really sweet. I love the way I got to engage with them and love the way they interacted with me. This opportunity was the best thing ever. I'm happy I got to participate in Read Across America Day. 

Final Thoughts

It was a great day to be a connected school librarian. The more we do activities like this, the more connections we make. Compared to a year ago, we get many more requests from new friends on Twitter for Mystery Skype events. It is wonderful to have a growing personal learning network so that we can continue to have new experiences for our learning community! This phenomenon has changed us forever. There is so much to learn in this very big world. The adventure has only just begun.

I have an email newsletter for the subscribers of the Library Media Tech Talk blog. If you are interested in exclusive content not appearing on the blog, be sure to subscribe by submitting your email address! Subscribe here!

Read about our first Mystery Skype here (this article will help you understand how to set up for the event).

Read about the student inventor we connected with on Twitter and then Skype!

This is how we had a book club with friends in Springdale, Arkansas at Lakeside Jr. High via webcam!

Please Subscribe if you are enjoying this blog. Please, put your email address in the box on the right side of the page. You will receive notifications when I post new blog entries!

Contact Me/ Follow Me

Email: stony_evans@lakesidesd.org

Are you on Twitter?

Follow me : @stony12270

Follow our library (LHS_Library): @LHS_Library1