Category Archives: Tech

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2021: Pixton EDU

AASL released its list of Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning 2021! This year’s list took into special consideration how well these tools work for remote/distance students. The resources enhance learning and encourage the following qualities:

  • Innovation/Creativity
  • Active Participation
  • Collaboration
  • User-Friendly
  • Encourages Exploration
  • Information/Reference

We share these resources every year and you can explore our archive of past recommendations here.

This week we’re exploring the digital comic creation resource Pixton EDU! Pixton EDU “is a web-app that gives educators and students a unique way to create stories, demonstrate learning, and enhance writing assignments – in any subject – through digital comics.”

Grades: 3-12

Common Sense Education reviews Pixton EDU here. Ed Tech Impact gives more info about the app in this article which also includes reviews from teachers who have used the app in their classrooms. This article from The Learning Counsel gets into detail about the ways Pixton is useful for educators and includes user reviews as well. And this series from What Binder Education has instructions for using Pixton plus links to downloadable resources!

Watch this one minute video preview of the Pixton resource!

https://youtu.be/nu0-VkR9ra0
Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2021: Bites Media

AASL released its list of Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning 2021! This year’s list took into special consideration how well these tools work for remote/distance students. The resources enhance learning and encourage the following qualities:

  • Innovation/Creativity
  • Active Participation
  • Collaboration
  • User-Friendly
  • Encourages Exploration
  • Information/Reference

We share these resources every year and you can explore our archive of past recommendations here.

This week we’re exploring the resource Bites Media!
“Bites Media is a news and information platform for middle and high school students that connects current events to civic and social principles. Librarians often use the platform as a research supplement for students, as each article contains 10-12 primary sources in one place. “

Grades: Middle-High School

The founders of Bites Media believe: “news is an educational tool and it is our civic duty to be informed and engaged citizens.” Their website has evaluated this entire page of news sources based on several factors including published ethics, history of journalistic integrity, consistent commitment to the truth, and more.

This page has several strategies and stories that link to tons of examples of how to include teaching about current events into the classroom.

And Bites Media has partnered with ADL to provide this free curriculum for high school students with 80 lesson plans that . You can see the standards the curriculum fulfills and download the curriculum and support materials here!

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

From Common Sense Education: FREE Digital Citizenship Curriculum for Grades K-2 (and up!)

CMLE and many of our member school libraries are big fans of the site Common Sense Education. And we also recognize the importance of learning good digital citizenship and literacy! One of our fantastic school library members shared that the FREE digital citizenship curriculum provided by Common Sense Education has been very well-received at her school. So we wanted to make sure you know about this resource in case it may be useful to you!

Today we’ll focus on the lessons available for grades K-2. Our world is increasingly online so it’s important for young kids to have digital citizenship skills, too! We love that each of these grade levels includes an introductory song, and also lets educators know up front the time length of each lesson.

Kindergarteners get to learn about balancing media activities with their real-life surroundings. Students learn about the importance of taking breaks when using devices. (This can be a challenge even for grown-ups!) There is also a lesson about transitions from an online activity to one that is offline, as students learn self-regulation and how to be respectful to those around them. And finally, through a virtual field trip, students learn about staying safe while traveling online, just like we stay safe while traveling in the real world.
All of these lessons include slides, a video, handout or coloring sheet, and a take-home family activity.

First-graders get a lesson in learning to pause and think before acting online, another essential skill! Just like in real life, students get to learn to be responsible and respectful when interacting online. There is also a lesson on learning to recognize the way technology makes you feel. Students get to play a game that develops strategies for managing feelings while online. Finally, through a traffic light activity, students get to learn about safety and privacy online, and when to ask for help when they are unsure about a website.

Second-graders start to get more in-depth with a variety of lesson topics. Students learn what information is ok to share online and what is not safe to share, and they also research and compare digital footprints while considering their own online identity. There are also lessons about the importance of enjoying time without devices, behavior when encountering cyberbullying, and learning to credit online sources.

We’ll look at more grades in the weeks ahead. Happy learning!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2020: Zoom

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  has announced their top choices for “electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators.” These resources were formerly separated into the Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning and are now combined into the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

You can check out our archive of past recommended apps here.

“Zoom is an easy-to-use tool that provides video and/or voice meetings, conference rooms, webinars, and chats with file sharing abilities using desktops, mobile devices, and phones.”

Shared foundations: Collaborate

We’ve been using Zoom so much this year so there are tons of articles out there about how to make the app more useful for your students or for teaching! The University of Nevada Reno has this article about best practices when teaching with Zoom, and Hooked on Innovation shares this article full of ideas for engaging your students while teaching via Zoom. We Are Teachers shares the basics Zoom 101 to help you get started and Santa Rosa City Schools provides Zoom etiquette for students which is always a smart idea.

This ten minute video shows how Zoom can be used successfully for online learning:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2020: Masters of Tradition

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  has announced their top choices for “electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators.” These resources were formerly separated into the Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning and are now combined into the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

“This interactive story map allows students to explore the great diversity of cultures, communities, and artistic traditions that enrich the United States. Through abundant photographs, audio, video, short text, and first-person quotes, the story map addresses a variety of key themes, including immigration, migration, identity, heritage, and community.”

Shared foundations: Inquire, Include, Explore, Curate

A screenshot of the map that shows all the options across the country for learning more about a specific cultural heritage


This article from the Smithsonian site gives a brief overview of the tool and this page includes downloadable lesson plans and ideas for activities.

Check out the Masters of Tradition Video Gallery for a great variety of quick videos that feature music and interviews from the project.