Library Media Tech Talk

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 pa...

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-energ...

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 ...

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 rea...