School Library Websites

Website tools, such as Wix and Weebly, allow school libraries to have a web presence and for students, parents, and other educators to utilize the information and services your library offers. Many schools have their own website and include subpages for the school library, but in doing a Google search of “school library weebly sites,” I found some examples of independent school library website that did an excellent job of showcasing that particular library really well.

1.   Seekonk High School Library
This school library website was very user-friendly, with many important pieces of information on the home page, such as hours, the librarians’ contact information, and the library calendar. For teachers, having the library calendar so easily accessible is truly a helpful thing, as it would be very easy to check if the library is closed for SOL testing or being used for something that would make class visits impossible.

By clicking on the “Find a Book” tab, a new webpage opens and users are able to access the school’s e-catalog directly. The “Research” tab houses all research databases available to the school, which would allow students to use the databases at home in order to complete assignments.

There were also links to helpful sites, such as SAT and ACT practice tests and information about the AP test, for students, and pair-passage suggestions for teachers, making the library website helpful for anyone who might venture there.

2.   SIS Elementary Library

This school library website utilized many interactive web tools to allow the user to experience what their school library has to offer. The website highlighted student achievements, such as a third place finish for the Battle of the Book team, as well as world news from the fifth graders’ reports.

I really liked that there was a focus on learning, which is highlighted under the “Library Class” tab, where users can access the objectives for each grade level (Kindergarten through 5^th grade), books they will read during the school year, and additional activities.

Some of the web tools utilized in the SIS Elementary website would be great to use in my own library website. I liked how there were integrated slideshows and embedded videos, which show the library in “action.” I also really liked that there were infographics that showed the importance of reading for 20 minutes each day, which is something I think all parents and guardians would benefit from seeing.

Presentation Tools

When doing presentations, many people rely on PowerPoint or GoogleSlides, but in exploring the presentation tools in this week’s sandbox, I realized there were numerous other options out there that would be wonderful alternatives to those typical (and boring!) standbys.

Blendspace: Blendspace allows the user to combine all types of digital content, as well as their own files, to create an interactive, engaging, and multimedia presentation. Getting started with Blendspace is fairly easy. You simply need to type in your topic and the presentation tool will search Google, YouTube, and TES resources to help you find information you may want to include in your presentation. You also can add your own content files such as PDFs, Word Docs, links, images, videos, etc. Some content requires payment, but there is still a good variety of free content available to use in your Blendspace presentation. 

Emaze: Emaze is a web-based tool, and Chrome app, that allows users to create, save, and share presentations online. You can create a free account and access a bunch of animated templates and design options. The tool can give teachers the opportunity to take their presentations beyond what a standard PowerPoint can do with dynamic images, media, and charts and graphs. I liked that you can connect Emaze to your Instagram and/or Facebook accounts, so with the click of a button, all your personal photos are available to use in your presentations. 

Haiku Deck: Haiku Deck is a presentation-creating app that uses images and words to make more exciting presentations with "decks" of slides. Users are able to choose from pre-loaded themes, Creative Commons stock photographs, personal images, charts, graphs, and colors, and then add text to present information slide by slide, making it a more fun alternative to PowerPoint. In playing around on Haiku Deck, one thing I noticed is that there is very limited filtering of the Creative Commons images, so if you were using this in an educational setting with younger students, the teacher would need to be very careful in monitoring keyword searches.

Prezi: Prezi is an online presentation tool that, rather than being slide-based like PowerPoint, exists on a canvas. It uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to help bring a presentation to life. I am not super tech-savvy, but I like Prezi because it seems more user-friendly than other presentation platforms, and it adds more "pizzazz" than PowerPoint. Below is a Prezi that I created to use to supplement my syllabus at the beginning of the next school year. I will admit that it is boring and mainly text-based, but I am hoping the students like it and it makes things more interactive than me reading off a piece of paper.

Video Creation & Editing Tools

For this week, we were asked to look at video creation tools and then try our hand at making a short video of our own. Below are some examples of different video tools and how they can be used in an educational setting: 

PixiClip: PixiClip allows users to record an animated whiteboard. Educators can use this tool to provide animation to their lectures rather than solely using PowerPoint, GoogleSlides, or Prezi, which become slightly monotonous with overuse. Students could use this tool to create their presentations for class in a fun, interactive way.

PowToon: PowToon is similar to PixiClip in that it allows users to create animated videos and presentation. Some of the features require a paid subscription, but the free components allow you to create animated videos with a decent selection of free layouts and graphics. PowToon does a good job of allowing the user to make their own videos and presentations more interesting for their audience by adding music and voice over options. I used PowToon to make a promo video about my school’s summer reading program. I published my video to Vimeo, which is another tool that is frequently used in educational settings (and is free!), and you can click here to access it. 

WeVideo: WeVideo is a video-creation site, and Chrome app, that allows users to create, edit, and share video content in one place. It is cloud-based, which means that multiple people can collaborate and work on the same video from different locations. Fun filters and fancy fonts will allow students to experiment with presentation style as well as putting together information. The two downsides of WeVideo is that it is costly and privacy can get convoluted due to the ability to share with multiple people.

Audio Tools in the Educational Setting

Audio, whether in the form of music collections, audiobooks, or digital recordings, will always be something found in school libraries. The internet and free web tools have created numerous opportunities to expand the use of audio within the library and the classroom. Below are some examples of different audio tools and how they can be used in an educational setting:

AudioPal: AudioPal is a free web tool that helps to make websites more interactive through the addition of audio. Librarians, and teachers, can create an audio message to include on their library (or class!) websites, which would add a personal touch for your users. If you were to highlight a certain book or collection on the library website, you could have students record book talks to include as well. AudioPal also allows unlimited AudioPal messages, so you can add weekly messages or updates about the library or classroom, such as a weekly audio newsletter to keep parents informed of what is going on in the library. An issue with AudioPal is that it runs on Adobe Flash. Google Chrome began blocking Flash in September 2016 and will only allow Flash if that is all a site supports. If cross-browser compatibility is required, than AudioPal may not be the best option. If you are reading this blog on Chrome, you will need to have Flash installed and view this through Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Blabberize: Blabberize is a free tool that allows you to create talking images. One fun way you could use Blabberize in the library or classroom is to have students find character from a novel and record their favorite line(s) from the novel that would best suit them. You could also do this with speeches for historical figures.

Podcasts: A podcast is a digital audio file that is made available for download and typically features installments for users to subscribe to. For educational purposes, podcasts can be very beneficial, as they provide digital and portable means to retrieving and disseminating information. Librarians can use podcasts to promote book talks, book reviews, reading incentive programs, and other information about the library in general.

Educators who implement TED Talks in their classrooms might enjoy utilizing TED Radio Hour, in which each podcast weaves together numerous TED Talks that follow along the same theme or concept. I teach my American Literature classes thematically, rather than chronologically, so I really like that I could use TED Radio Hour to supplement anchor texts for each thematic unit.

And because I am a major nerd, you can also listen to MuggleCast, which is a free Harry Potter podcast.

Voki: Voki is a great website that allows you to create speaking avatars. A fun way librarians could use Voki is to do a “Guess Who”-type activity where students would create a script about a book character, author, historical figure, etc. in a first-person narrative style. Students could then record themselves reading the information with a look-alike avatar and have classmates guess who they are. This could be used as a fun review, and would be more interactive than a worksheet review or lecture. The one downside I found in regards to Voki is that unless you purchase one of the upgraded packages, it is impossible to embed your avatar and audio into websites, so that was kind of disappointing.

Infographics

My principal just held our “End of Year Successes” faculty meeting, where she called attention to the accomplishments of each department, so when I mentioned the infographic assignment to our school librarians, they immediately offered to share their “success” information with me to use in for the infographic…if I let them use it for their county library meeting this summer. Hopefully I did not disappoint them!

I used the infographic tool Canva and chose one of their free templates to create the infographic. Using the information provided by my school’s librarians, I inserted relevant information into the template, adjusting the design and layout as needed.

Canva is a fairly easy tool to use when creating your own infographic, as they provide numerous free templates to get you started, as well as access to their image database. It was a little overwhelming to see the vast number of tools available for use on Canva, but after playing with each of them, I started to feel more comfortable. When having students utilize this tool, it will be important to provide them plenty of time to explore the variety of tools available to them and how they can manipulate the templates to better display their data. For instance, I opted to leave the background and overall design of the infographic as it appeared in the template; however, I did adjust the font and sizing, as well as some of the layout to better fit my needs.

My only issue with Canva’s image database was that the “free” images were all somewhat boring and the ones that caught my eye were all ones you had to pay for. This was a little frustrating and somewhat limiting, as I wanted the infographic to be representative of how awesome our school library is, but I also did not want to have to pay for each and every image I used.