Tag Archives: App

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Free Website & App – Tracking the Change in Seasons

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Have you heard complaints from your students about the change in the weather and the decrease in daylight hours? Use this conversation to your advantage on show off a few great resources that help users to track and understand the change in seasons… Check it out!

Journey North is a free Internet-based program that engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K–12 students in North American can track the coming of fall and spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles, and other birds and mammals. They also observe the budding of plants, changing sunlight and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context.
Click Here to Visit Website

Plus: Students can take Journey North outside with the new citizen science app for their mobile device. They can report their sightings from the field, and they can view maps, take pictures and leave comments. The free app is available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. An Android version of the app will soon be available.
Click Here to Access Free App

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Evaluating Educational Apps

By billsoPHOTO
http://tinyurl.com/c5ar6dd

Have you ever wondered if you should be evaluating apps before you begin using them with your students? The question is certainly valid, and one that others in the field have been pondering as well. Independent Consultant, Tony Vincent, author of the Learning in Hand blog and former teacher, recently wrote a blog post on this very topic http://tinyurl.com/72gnytk. Here, Vincent provides an app evaluation rubric and explains that others before him asked the same question – he provides a bibliography of sorts for app evaluation. Vincent credits Harry Walker, Doctoral student from Johns Hopkins University, for first developing an app evaluation rubric and Media Specialist, Kathy Schrock (a MEMO Conference Keynote Speaker!), for later adapting and editing the rubric.

So, what are some key pieces of information to keep in mind when evaluating apps? First, is the app relevant and does it instill or reinforce what your students need to know? Is the content appropriate for the age group? Are there advertisements – and how easy is it to accidently click on an advertisement? Can the app’s settings by customized to vary according to the individual’s or learning cohort’s needs? Has the app been updated recently? Does it promote collaboration and critical thinking? These are just a few questions to consider asking when evaluating an app.

What are some things you and your teachers consider while evaluating apps? Do you evaluate them, or do you tend to choose what is used based upon recommendations, what you can find through a basic search through the iTunes store, by price, or by teacher requests?

This topic is one CMLE staff is currently stewing on, and hopes to possibly explore further in the future. Media specialists and librarians are masters at evaluation and at creating and utilizing rubrics effectively. As such, this could be an important new role for media specialists working with teachers, as well as for librarians in a number of other settings. It is our role to inform others on how to ask the important questions about the resources we’re using – why should apps be any different? Be on the lookout for more on this topic from CMLE in the near future! Hopefully you’re excited to explore it with us too!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Google Cloud Print in Beta!

Printing… from your phone?! If you’re a Windows user and are lucky enough to have an iPhone or an Android smartphone, you can try out this new beta service now! Currently, your options for what to print are limited to select Google services. Additionally, it requires a special beta version of Google Chrome and will only send print jobs to printers that you’ve connected to your Google account. Review PCWorld’s article on this service, and follow the helpful steps they’ve provided to give it a whirl! Or you can bypass the PCWorld article and start directly with Google.

 Let us know how it goes in the comments area!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Staying App-licable with Apps!

An increasing number of libraries are developing applications (apps) for use on mobile smartphones. With a smartphone comes the ability to access a great deal of information and entertainment directly over the phone. More often than not, this information and entertainment comes to the user in the form of an app. Everything from games, to reference resources, to calorie counters, to ebook readers are available.  It’s really amazing what’s out there!

As patrons become increasingly comfortable and dependent upon their mobile phones and apps, it’s up to libraries to respond to this trend and develop apps of their own.

Recently, ALA recognized the Orange County Library System (OCLS) as a cutting edge library system due to their new app called “OCLS Shake It”.  “OCLS Shake It” is a downloadable app for the iPhone and iPad. It allows users to shake or scroll on their iPhone or iPad to have books, videos and other materials “suggested” to them by the library catalog. The app even allows the user to filter their results by genre, audience, and format. How fun is that?! The OCLS currently has five apps to share with patrons. Most of the apps were developed through partnerships with vendors.

Looking for more library apps? Check out this three part article on the top 30 iPhone apps from Ellyssa Kroski’s iLibrarian blog. Ellyssa also just shared Mashable’s  top apps to watch in 2011!

Locally, some of our Minnesota public library systems have an app available for the Overdrive Media Console. The Overdrive Media Console app allows users to read ebooks, listen to audiobooks, and find libraries… all on their smartphone!

What are your thoughts on apps? What are some of your favorites? What types of library apps would you like to see in the future? What types of apps would our patrons LOVE…if only we had them?

Image: ‘apps’ from  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ehecatzin/3287079932/

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Things 63 and 64 are here!

Check out the most recent Things on a Stick Newsletter at http://thingsonasticknews.blogspot.com/. Thing 64, written by Dayle Zelenka from Traverse des Souix Regional Library System/SMILE and Gina Zelenka from Blue Earth County Public Library, is titled Face-to-Face Social Networking for Libraries: Let’s Get Back to Basics. Thing 63, written by Dayle Zelenka as well, focuses on the new Droid X. Check it out now, and be sure to review some of the older posts in the archive – the multitypes were busy this summer bringing you the latest and greatest in technology via the Things on a Stick News Archive!