Is your school a 1:1 Chromebook school? Are you looking for student-centered curriculum ideas? Then look no further than this excellent list by 2014 ITEM conference keynote speaker Naomi Harm. From Digital Storytelling Centers to Flipped Teaching Learning Centers Harm’s list is full of ideas.
The list is broken down by idea, learning outcome, grade level, and additional resources. Check out a sample below:
Do you have English as a second language students? Or do you need some engaging games for all your English language learners? Well Fun English Games for Kids might be just the resource for you!
Fun English Games offers games, activities, worksheets, quizzes, and videos that can be used by English learners of all ages. The Fun Stuff area has a list of English idioms (like “It’s a piece of cake” and “Under the weather”), tongue twisters, and English language jokes. There are also fill-in-the blank quizzes and plenty of activities, such as classroom scrabble or “What will you bring on vacation?”
Check out this example of a video you might find on their site:
Do you struggle to find online training? Do you have a need for just-in-time education? Looking for events to attend? Look no further than CMLE’s set of event/training resources!
CMLE’s Event Listing – Usually local in nature, events that might be of interest.
Minitex’s Webinars and Training – Come get your webinars and training. Always diverse and extensive!
Notable Dates for your Noggin – Fun ideas for your library or media center.
National Online Training – More training than you can shake a stick at! Check back often, constantly being updated.
Should libraries charge fines or shouldn’t they? This seems to be a question that is increasingly being asked by libraries and library administrators. In her recent article on Lit Reactor, Leah Dearborn asks us to think beyond the assumption of library fines’ existence and to think of other solutions to the issue.
The impact of library fines “can be both negative and positive,” says Dearborn. “[I]t’s a more complex problem than it might initially appear. On the one hand, no fees means lost revenue for libraries that may already be struggling to pay their staff and keep up with material costs. But on the other side of the fence, fines risk deterring low-income patrons from a public educational service.”
This seems to be the crux of the debate. Libraries use fines to deter loss, theft, abuse, and gain some much needed revenue. However, on the other side, libraries shouldn’t use fines to deter users or lose readers. Interestingly, the American Library Association (ALA) largely discourages the implementation of fines, fees, and user charges.
Some libraries are getting creative with how they are addressing fines. Some St. Paul Libraries recently offered a “Do Down” where teens could learn, experiment, and produce things with technology to eliminate their fines. Locally, Great River Regional has had several “Read down your fines” events.
How do you help your users reduce fines? How about a Fine Amnesty Program?
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/kr5ka35, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Born digital content is easily shared in the online world, but first off, objects need to be digitized. For large collections this can take years but the Smithsonian recently detailed a new digitization process that changes that to thousands of objects per hour!
“The process uses a conveyor belt and a custom-designed 80 megapixel imaging system, making details available to the world that had only ever been seen by a select few. (By contrast, the new iPhone camera has only eight megapixels.) The conveyor belt resembles the ones used by security at airports. Markings on the belt guide team members in placing the sheets. The belt advances when the sheet at the end has been removed. Such equipment has never before been used in the United States.”
Check out the video below for a peek into the process: