Tag Archives: recommended

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

Five Books Recommended by Bill Gates!

Some rights reserved by gizmodo
Some rights reserved by gizmodo

Would you be surprised to know that Bill Gates, the American investor, inventor and philanthropist is also an avid reader?

According to GeekWire, there are five books he thinks should be on the top of your list for 2013!  Click here to find out more=>

If you would like to continue to follow Bill Gates’ previously preferred picks, you can go his website, Gates Notes. It offers a glimpse of his favorite reads and invites comments from book lovers alike. You might want to peruse the section on education!

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

Recommended App: Vine, Sharing Videos on Twitter!

VineIconAre you interested in sharing video tweets?

Here is a simple App you can use traveling anywhere with your phone!

Jenna Wortham writes: “Vine, a new video application for the iPhone introduced by Twitter on January 24, lets users create and share miniature videos that are six seconds long and set to loop automatically, similar to an animated GIF. The app is brilliantly simple: Users just aim their cameras at what they want to capture, tap the screen once to start filming, and tap it once more to stop. They can film a single shot for the maximum time allotted or quickly cut together a series of scenes using the tap-to-edit feature.” Here are some examples.

Send us a comment to let us know how this App could be used in your library!

 

Check this out:

Recommended App: GoodNotes

GoodNotes is an app that comes highly recommended by many — especially those in the education field. GoodNotes allows users to take handwritten notes, draw/diagram,Goodnotes mark-up PDFs, and then save it all on a nicely organized “bookshelf”. In addition, GoodNotes allows for easy sharing, page turning, and highlighting. It also automatically saves your work and provides full backup to prevent data loss.

GoodNotes is compatible with iPad and requires iOS 5.0 or later, and is priced at $4.99. Find out more about GoodNotes on its iTunes Preview or at www.goodnotesapp.com

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Recommended App: Browzine

Recently released by Minnesota-based company, Third Iron, Browzine is an app created by librarian, John Seguin. According to the Browzine press release “With BrowZine, users can easily find journals made available by their library, browse titles of interest, and read individual articles or the complete journal.” It also syncs with Dropbox and box.com for easy distribution Browzineand citation of articles.

There are two different versions of the app; one version gives the user access to open-access journals, and another requires a sync to occur between their library (whether public, school, or academic) and the app — authentication gains them access to most of their library’s online database collection. In other words, the library needs to have subscribed to the Browzine service for the sync to occur. If a library is interested in subscribing to Browzine they should consider reviewing this video, and visiting the Browzine website for additional information.

The app is free to the user, and is currently specific to the iPad (though plans are in the works for an Android app). It requires iOS 5.1 or later.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Recommended Resource: ClassBadges

Have you checked out ClassBadges yet? ClassBadges is a free online resource that allows educators to connect with their students and present them with awards, in the form of digital badges, badgesfor their successful work or completion of a project. The digital badges can be customized to your school, class, or the project your students are working on. For example, on their About Us page, they provide an example of badges utilized to track the progress of a research paper. If the student chooses, they can also share the badges they’ve received with friends or family – truly showing off their accomplishments! I love this idea, because it gives students a visual aid and provides a free extrinsic reward system – which definitely has impact on some students. Visit www.classbadges.com to learn more and get your class account set-up.