Blogs blessed internet users with their presence in the late 1990's, but didn't really take the internet world by storm until the mid 2000's when users acknowledged just how useful blogs could be. Today there are blogs about just about anything from Cheetos who have lost their way (lonelycheetos.tumblr.com) to helpful housekeeping advice (drhousecleaning.blogspot.com). Some have a more specific focus in mind such as the library world. Here are five blogs that really captured my attention.
Library Blogs
David Lee King
http://www.davidleeking.com/2015/09/22/why-do-you-love-your-library-advocacy-video/
David Lee King is a true advocate for all things library and technology-based. He tells it like it is in his blogs. This one particular blog was cute and featured a video with several people explaining why
they loved their library.
The Daring Librarian
http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2015/04/you-dont-have-to-marry-it.html
These blogs posts were comical and insightful. Her posts range from opinions on certain topics to memes (graphics with quotes). She also offers advice. My favorite post was titled "You Don't Have to Marry It." Here she explained how we don't necessarily have to stress out over the new and different types of technology that can be incorporated in a library. She offers suggestions on different alternatives to these technologies that won't completely break the budget. It's funny, down-to-earth, and above all, REAL. You need to check this one out!
NeverEndingSearch
http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/
This is one of the blogs that the School Library Journal hosts. It is incredibly informative for library science students as well as experienced librarians.
The Adventures of Library Girl
http://www.librarygirl.net/
Library Girl is a huge advocate of "reading champions." In other words, students cannot become better readers without someone to guide them. The pressure cannot be placed on the students without our help. We must model and encourage reading if we expect students to succeed.
What's @ the Library
http://rhs.romaisd.com/blogs/lgonzalez
I chose this blog because our high school librarian started working on this last year in order to inform students of what is available at the library as well as what is happening at the library. This is an excellent resources for my students.
Blog Readers
With the wealth of information a person can get from the internet and blogs, in particular, it makes sense for there to be one place to go to and store all the useful information that we find. That's were blog readers come in. There are sites such as Bloglovin', Feedly, Bloglines, NewBlur, Digg Reader, and Newsvibe.Unfortunately, both Bloglines and Newsvibe were down during my research on these sites, so I did not get to see what they offered. Bloglovin' did not blow my mind at all. It seemed too simplistic. NewBlur did not appear to be user friendly; instead, it seemed complicated and like it offered too many steps.
My two favorites were Digg Reader and Feedly.
Digg Reader has a fairly easy to manipulate user interface. Users can search for different blogs straight from the homepage. Each of the articles is separated by title, a few lines from the text, and the date. Users can read the full article straight from this site, and "digg" it (give it a thumbs up similar to a Facebook like) or they can save the page (or both!). From the menu options on the left side of the page, users can access "Diggs" and "Saved" blog posts.
My first instinct was to use Feedly. It is similar to Digg Reader. People can search different blogs from the main page. They can use a keyword such as "libraries", or they can type in the name of a specific blog. Articles are displayed a little bit differently here which is what initially caught my attention I suppose. Each article provides readers with the opportunity to save the blog or share it either through Facebook or Twitter. The downside to Feedly is that users cannot read a full blog post in the site. Instead, there is a link to the full blog where readers can check out its entirety. This prompted me to switch to Digg Reader.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Hello everyone! Twitter has hit the social media scene with such intensity. Everyone's on Twitter from teachers to organizations. Twitter provides a fast-paced way to communicate with others on specific topics such as educational technology or even small quips geared to make people laugh. Follow me on Twitter to see what all #hashtag craze is about.
Follow @crystalleecantu
Follow @crystalleecantu
Friday, September 18, 2015
Teens and Technology
As a person deeply involved in the educational field, it is always interesting to see what occupies students' minds and how that affects their learning. Director Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet Project had some great insight on the technological affects on students. Here is a little overview:
Source:
Rainie, L. (2014). 13 things to know about teens and technology. Pew Internet Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/07/10/10-things-to-know-about-how-teens-use-technology/
(52 slides)
Source:
Rainie, L. (2014). 13 things to know about teens and technology. Pew Internet Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/07/10/10-things-to-know-about-how-teens-use-technology/
(52 slides)
Friday, September 4, 2015
A Piece From Various Technological Minds
In my years of teaching I have discovered that it is always best to keep an open mind, and a person can really learn a lot from others; even the most minuscule piece of information can have a big impact on students. Recently, I turned to Twitter for help. I have followed the biggest names in educational technology to see what I could learn.I was pleasantly surprised.
Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock
Kathy Schrock tweets about several different types of technology such as Google, coding for Mozilla, links to infographics, information on how to create infographics, and the list goes on. I especially enjoyed the following link which she marked as "what every teacher opening day faculty meeting should be like!" (Spoiler Alert: Flash Mob Ahead!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMlPDlY094&feature=youtu.be
Linda Braun @lbraun2000
Braun appears to tweet about anything that is educationally related; what are people doing in order to reach out to students. There are several interesting articles on her Twitter feed such as why secondary school librarians should pay close attention to YALSA core professional values and how middle school students created "smart cities of the future." I was most excited to read an article about ways that college tuition could be free for high school graduates. I love how the promise to provide free college tuition to students motivated them to work harder in high school. One city even saw an increase in the percentage of graduates who obtained a post-secondary degree; from 36 to 48 percent! That's awesome! Click on the following link to get the full details.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/educators-share-lesson-plans-on-making-college-free/?utm_content=buffere0aac&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_buffer
Tony Vincent @tonyvincent
Vincent tweets about Chromebook and promotes his seminars. This was one of my favorite links. It was an infographic on why it is important to raise happy kids; their brains are larger, and they are smarter; they mimic your habits; happy parents equal happy kids. As the mother of two young boys (a preschooler and a toddler), this was definitely insightful for me.
http://www.happify.com/hd/the-science-of-raising-happy-kids/?s=52c94206
Buffy Hamilton @buffyjhamilton
Hamilton is quirky to say the least. I absolutely love when she tweeted, "I need a remote control for my coffee machine." This reminded me of my husband. He says he is too lazy to get up and start the machine in the morning or set it up to auto start at night. I liked her Twitter feed as a whole because she seems so real and not forced or mechanical. I can't quite put my finger on it, but her feed flows smoothly. She engages in conversation with some other Twitter friends. She provides insight. She makes comments and calls it advice. She asks for advice or recommendations.
The Daring Librarian @GwynethJones
Jones' references to authors and quotes from books is absolutely delightful. She as gutsy enough to say she liked Jon Scieszka better than Dr. Seuss. She is a fan of Doctor Who, and my students absolutely love that for some reason - well, last year's students to say the least. The best thing, errr, funniest thing that I looked at off of Jones' Twitter feed was an article titled, "Deez Nuts More Popular Than Hillary? Google Search Volume Says 'Yes'". It spiked my curiosity immediately, and I mentally commented on how her Twitter name is definitely worth of her tweets. Please read this. You will be surprised.
www.socialmediatoday.com/technology-date/adhutchinson/2015-08-22/deez-nuts-more-popular-hillary-google-search-volume-says-yes
Jim Lerman @jimlerman
Lerman appears to be pure business as the vast majority of his tweets are links to articles on different pieces of technology that one can incorporate into the classroom such as Google Classroom, comments on Google Docs, and Mediabreaker. I thought Mediabreaker was interesting enough to try to mess with. Students love technology. This can definitely be a pleasant change in the classroom.
Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock
Kathy Schrock tweets about several different types of technology such as Google, coding for Mozilla, links to infographics, information on how to create infographics, and the list goes on. I especially enjoyed the following link which she marked as "what every teacher opening day faculty meeting should be like!" (Spoiler Alert: Flash Mob Ahead!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMlPDlY094&feature=youtu.be
Linda Braun @lbraun2000
Braun appears to tweet about anything that is educationally related; what are people doing in order to reach out to students. There are several interesting articles on her Twitter feed such as why secondary school librarians should pay close attention to YALSA core professional values and how middle school students created "smart cities of the future." I was most excited to read an article about ways that college tuition could be free for high school graduates. I love how the promise to provide free college tuition to students motivated them to work harder in high school. One city even saw an increase in the percentage of graduates who obtained a post-secondary degree; from 36 to 48 percent! That's awesome! Click on the following link to get the full details.
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/educators-share-lesson-plans-on-making-college-free/?utm_content=buffere0aac&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_buffer
Tony Vincent @tonyvincent
Vincent tweets about Chromebook and promotes his seminars. This was one of my favorite links. It was an infographic on why it is important to raise happy kids; their brains are larger, and they are smarter; they mimic your habits; happy parents equal happy kids. As the mother of two young boys (a preschooler and a toddler), this was definitely insightful for me.
http://www.happify.com/hd/the-science-of-raising-happy-kids/?s=52c94206
Buffy Hamilton @buffyjhamilton
Hamilton is quirky to say the least. I absolutely love when she tweeted, "I need a remote control for my coffee machine." This reminded me of my husband. He says he is too lazy to get up and start the machine in the morning or set it up to auto start at night. I liked her Twitter feed as a whole because she seems so real and not forced or mechanical. I can't quite put my finger on it, but her feed flows smoothly. She engages in conversation with some other Twitter friends. She provides insight. She makes comments and calls it advice. She asks for advice or recommendations.
The Daring Librarian @GwynethJones
Jones' references to authors and quotes from books is absolutely delightful. She as gutsy enough to say she liked Jon Scieszka better than Dr. Seuss. She is a fan of Doctor Who, and my students absolutely love that for some reason - well, last year's students to say the least. The best thing, errr, funniest thing that I looked at off of Jones' Twitter feed was an article titled, "Deez Nuts More Popular Than Hillary? Google Search Volume Says 'Yes'". It spiked my curiosity immediately, and I mentally commented on how her Twitter name is definitely worth of her tweets. Please read this. You will be surprised.
www.socialmediatoday.com/technology-date/adhutchinson/2015-08-22/deez-nuts-more-popular-hillary-google-search-volume-says-yes
Jim Lerman @jimlerman
Lerman appears to be pure business as the vast majority of his tweets are links to articles on different pieces of technology that one can incorporate into the classroom such as Google Classroom, comments on Google Docs, and Mediabreaker. I thought Mediabreaker was interesting enough to try to mess with. Students love technology. This can definitely be a pleasant change in the classroom.
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