Tag Archives: Digital Tool

General, School Media Specialist

AASL Recommended Apps: Organization & Management: Post-it Plus

post_itIn June 2016, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their 25 Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. The apps encourage qualities such as innovation and active participation, and are user-friendly.

This app allows users to take their paper Post-it Notes into the digital world. Users can scan sticky notes and then arrange, organize, and even share their notes across platforms. Notes can be saved in Dropbox, Evernote, or One Drive. They can also be can be shared on social media and exported into PDF format. For classroom use, Post-it Plus can be helpful to use while brainstorming.

Read this blog post about how a high school math teacher used the app in her classroom. Also check out this article from That EdTech Guy’s Blog where he walks you through the steps of using the app

Cost: Free
Level: Elementary, Middle and High School
Platforms: iOS

Watch the video to learn more:

Check this out:, General, Resources, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended App: Content Creation: Spark Page

Adobe-SparkIn June 2016, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their 25 Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. The apps encourage qualities such as innovation and active participation, and are user-friendly.

The app Spark Page is a web publishing tool that allows users to create digital magazines with motion. The app offers a variety of fonts and design templates, and allows users to use their own images from their camera or Dropbox, or choose from Creative Commons licensed images. Users can create newsletters, reports, projects, portfolios, invitations, and more. The app also includes active buttons, which make it a good choice for fundraisers or registration. Sharing is possible through social media, embedding, texting, or emailing. Take a look at their blog for more fun and practical ideas for ways to use the app.

The app has gotten lots of positive feedback online. This article from Free Tech for Teachers includes a video and several specific examples of ways teachers can incorporate the app in the classroom. Class Tech Tips features this article, which describes ways to use Adobe Spark to create “school stories” or share the events happening in classroom and across the school district.

Cost: Free!
Level: Middle and High School
Platforms: iOS

General, Public, Special

Public library creates memory lab

2010_4559410051_card_catalogWashington DC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Library opened their free, interactive Memory Lab this spring. Their goal is to help people digitize their personal media in a way that can stand up to constantly changing technology. Thanks to publicity from a local TV station, the Memory Lab has been a busy place.

Users are able to bring in VHS tapes, floppy discs, audio cassettes and photo negatives (in addition to other inaccessible media) and view the content, then share it through a thumb drive. The lab also has 3-D printing and an on-demand book printer available free of charge.

Sessions are reserved in three-hour segments, and users find instructions on the library website. If they need help processing their media, there is an archivist available to answer questions. However, users are generally left in private due to the personal nature of what they are viewing.

Another goal of the Memory Lab is to help people realize how quickly technologies change. They hope people will pay attention to the ways they document their memories, and how accessible those memories will be in the coming years.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/q63p7pu, licensed under CC BY 2.0

 

 

 

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Minnetonka Fall Institute

Retrieved online 10/15/13.
Retrieved online 10/15/13.

The Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals is co-sponsoring this year’s Minnetonka Institute, Essential Education in a Changing World; Empower educators with specific ways to integrate web 2.0, digital tool, and global portals into each classroom.  Join keynote speaker, Heidi Hayes Jacobs, from Curriculum Designers, Inc., on November 8th, from 8:30- 3:00 pm, at Minnetonka Public Schools.

Conversations will be convened around;

  • The process of upgrading classrooms
  • Integrating new technologies with testing pressures
  • Effectively globalizing curriculum
  • 21st century leadership meeting the needs of learners