"Top 20 Websites No Teacher Should Start the Year Without"
This is a MUST visit blog from "Making Teachers Nerdy." I love it. Click to see the top technology tools for the school year! Scroll through the list and choose ONE to try this semester!
From "Making Teachers Nerdy" Blog at http://mrssmoke.onsugar.com/Top-20-Websites-Teacher-Should-Start-2010-2011-Year-Without-9213932
ALA Top 25 websites
ALA.org
"Best Websites for Teaching and Learning
"Best Websites for Teaching and Learning
Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning "
I browsed the "Top 25" websites for 2010 and could not select just one to recommend. This is an amazing, innovative collection of cutting-edge sites that help bring technology immediately into the classroom in easy-to use ways that both teacher and student will love. According to the ALA website, "The 'Top 25' Websites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover."
- Media Sharing
- Digital Storytelling
- Manage and Organize
- Social Networking and Communication
- Curriculum Sharing
- Content Resources: Lesson Plans and More
Click on any of the above topics to access the top websites in these areas.
I really enjoyed the "media sharing" tools and "manage and organize" sites such as MuseumBox which is fabulous at allowing students to use technology to organize, present, and share their knowledge in various formats. No more boring powerpoint projects. "So what does museumbox do? Museumbox provides the tools (that) allow you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view the museum boxes submitted by other people and comment on the contents" (from museumbox.com). Trust me. This is really worth seeing and using. (Easy to assess with a good rubric, too.) And this is just ONE site of the 25.
I really enjoyed the "media sharing" tools and "manage and organize" sites such as MuseumBox which is fabulous at allowing students to use technology to organize, present, and share their knowledge in various formats. No more boring powerpoint projects. "So what does museumbox do? Museumbox provides the tools (that) allow you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view the museum boxes submitted by other people and comment on the contents" (from museumbox.com). Trust me. This is really worth seeing and using. (Easy to assess with a good rubric, too.) And this is just ONE site of the 25.
All information, images, and links taken from ALA Website http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25.cfm
A Vision of 21st Century Teachers
Today's Digital Age students speak the language of technology. To help our students achieve information literacy and be competitive in the 21st century, we must intentionally connect multi-media use and technology with classroom learning.
This short video featuring eighteen 21st Century teachers was created to compliment the short video "A Vision of K-12 Students Today" which offered a look at the technology needs of our 21st Century learners. This video is an encouraging look at what some teachers are doing practically with technology in the classroom.
A Vision of 21st Century Teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4g5M06YyVw
Social Media Revolution 2
Social Media Revolution 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=related
For those of us who are tempted to think that social networking is just a fad, here's a look at the concept of "Socialnomics," what some are calling the greatest shift since the industrial revolution. If this is how our students and the world now communicate, what must we do as teachers to help connect our content with this form of communication? Check out the statistics.
For serious researchers: Four ways to search databases!
http://support.ebsco.com/training/flash_videos/KidsSearchInterface.html
Click here Kids Search tutorial on EBSCOhost to take a look at KidsSearch database on EBSCOhost.
Learning to use databases is an invaluable and critical research tool for students and teachers. Students need to be turning in research obtained from databases frequently. Databases are designed for the youngest age users (Ex: KidsSearch and Searchasaurus on EBSCOhost) up through the highest levels of academia. They are growing increasingly user-friendly and usually have excellent tutorials. The school librarian can collaborate with teachers on units to teach and reinforce database searching skills. Students adapt to these quickly when asked to use them!
In order to try out a few academic databases and different search strategies, I decided to conduct 4 different type searches on 4 different databases. Some of these databases are available through your school district or local public library.
MY TOPIC: As a school librarian, I desire to find useful Web 2.0 technology for teachers to utilize to enhance student achievement in meeting content area standards.
SEARCH #1: ERIC/EBSCOhost STRATEGY: Building Block
Search Terms: I narrowed my query down to the following search terms and entered each term or string:
s1=School librarian or school librar* or school media specialist Results: 8477 hits
s2=teacher or educator Results: 405, 032 hits
s3=Web 2.0 Results: 348 hits
Search: When I combined each of these search terms or strings together with the Boolean connecter AND, the end result was 8 hits. s1 AND s2 AND s3 =8 hits
The second article looked particularly useful for my topic: Student Inquiry and Web 2.0 By: Berger, Pam. School Library Monthly, v26 n5 p14-17 Jan 2010. (EJ874143)
Feeling I may need to broaden my search topic a bit, I decided that Web 2.0 may be too specific. I broadened the search by adding “social network*” which expanded the results to 20 hits. Several of these looked like very useful sources.
Database Searching in LibLit
SEARCH #2: LibLit STRATEGY: Citation Pearl Growing (Snowballing)
SEARCH STRATEGY: Find another article like this one: Student Inquiry and Web 2.0 By: Berger, Pam. School Library Monthly, v26 n5 p14-17 Jan 2010. (EJ874143)
In this search, I took an article I liked from the building block search and decided to try “snowballing” a search from something very specific. When I located the article on LibLit database, the following subject terms were attached to the article: Web 2.0 which had 243 articles; Technology and youth which had 24 articles; and Computer-assisted instruction which had 1585 hits.
In the articles under the “technology and youth” subject heading, I found a relevant and interesting article: Teen Tech Takeover: Using Web 2.0's Experts to Create Your Content. By Chris Shoemaker Voice of Youth Advocates v. 32 no. 6 (February 2010) p. 471.
Also, a new subject was attached to the article: Web 2.0/Library Applications which led me to 355 articles that were the best so far for my topic. I was surprised at how pertinent these were. I remember now that LibLit is already oriented to library related articles which certainly was an asset in this snowball search. I could continue to modify this search by adding some limiters now or simply browse and choose the articles I like.
Database Searching in Muse
SEARCH #3: Project Muse STRATEGY: Specific Facet First
SEARCH TERMS: I selected three facets for the search, and tried each in the “Advanced Article Search” on Project Muse.
Librarian resulted in 3178 hits
Instruction resulted in 10, 801 hits
Web 2.0 resulted in 558 hits
None of these returns were useful as they were too broad.
SEARCH: These large returns did not surprise me, and did not help me in my query. I decided to try the search with all three facets librarian AND instruction AND Web 2.0 which resulted in 35 hits that were of marginal relevance one of which is titled Academic Libraries, Facebook and MySpace, and Student Outreach: A Survey of Student Opinion, Ruth Sara Connell portal: Libraries and the Academy, Volume 9, Number 1, January 2009, pp. 25-36 (Article)
Database Searching in Academic Search Complete
SEARCH #4: Academic Search Complete STRATEGY: Successive Fractions
SEARCH TERMS: I decided to stay with the three facets from the last search on this last database. A quick test to find the broadest to narrowest facets resulted in:
Instruction 179, 642 hits
Librarian 45, 711 hits
Web 2.0 2248 hits
SEARCH: Combining the largest facet instruction AND next largest facet librarian results in 2221 hits. Narrowing was needed, so I applied the next facet “Web 2.0” to the above search which resulted in 18 hits one of which is an article titled Web 2.0 Integration in Information Literacy Instruction: An Overview. By: Luo, Lili. Journal of Academic Librarianship, Jan2010, Vol. 36 Issue 1, p32-40, 9p; (AN 48407822)
Conclusion: The success of the query for information seemed to rest primarily on the search terms selected and the type of database utilized for the search. All 4 of these databases were user friendly and had help sections as well. Just to prove to myself that database hits were more relevant, pertinent, and reliable, I plugged these same search terms into a Google search. With over 1,460,000 results, I did a quick scan through the first two pages of hits and found myself having to skip over many unhelpful hits. The databases are certainly the way to find reliable information for study or research questions.
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