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Thing 12: Final reflections

This year has been quite a learning curve for me, but I've enjoyed the journey. I went from a K-12 librarian in a small, rural school to a role at my local BOCES where I wear multiple hats as a shared part of School Library Systems and Model Schools. Though I obviously tend to post in spurts, I have to say that Cool Tools has been kept open as one of my tabs on multiple devices throughout the school year, because in addition to learning the tools for the class, I found myself constantly trying out new things in my support role with BOCES. Doing technology integration for my former district was great, because I didn't have the usual awkward learning curve with a district that would usually happen (I had been their librarian for years), and as a result, my former colleagues asked a lot about new tools that they had heard about...or saw...or they asked for suggestions. Through this journey, I learned so much about so many tools, some of which I had seen before, some I had used but
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Thing 44: Social reading and book stuff

I love to read, but historically, I've been a bad social reader. I'm trying to be better about that. I'm great as a social reader in person; after all, I was a K-12 librarian for over 8 years, and even in my new role away from a traditional library, I'm constantly booktalking books to anyone who will listen to me. But using online platforms is an area where I struggle, though I'm trying. I've tried Shelfari. I've tried LibraryThing. I recently got back into GoodReads...a little. I'm dipping my toe in. I do enjoy reading other people's posts on GoodReads. Often, when I'm trying to determine the audience for a book that I recommend, I consult a variety of sources, including GoodReads. I'm just not great at sharing my own posts yet, though I absolutely see the value in that. In the meantime, I do like to explore lots of different ways to look at books. My first master's degree was in special education, so I'm always looking for platfor
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Thing 26: Notetaking Tools

My administrator and I have been struggling with finding a good, shareable, notetaking tool all year. Ideally, we'd like a tool where we can share our notes with each other. I like things simple, whereas she likes to be able to use more detail and drill down into nitty gritty. It might be why we haven't hit upon the ideal notetaking tool for collaborating...yet. The NY Times article on notetaking was interesting, and not surprising. I've been hearing over time that there's a growing body of evidence that people may very well retain information better when they physically scribe notes, rather than type them. I know that I really wished that I could have a little device to type my notes on when I was an undergrad (that was a looong time ago, when Macs were newfangled and Bitnet was this magical way that one of my dorm mates could talk, for free, to his relatives in the Netherlands), but the act of writing everything down that I could was a definite chunk of how I got th
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Thing 3: Twitter and other online communities

It's funny. I tend to be pretty good about embracing technology (after all, one of the hats I wear in my current position at BOCES is Model Schools, which means I have to embrace technology and then turn around and teach it to others), but online communities are one area where I struggle. I'm pretty comfortable with Facebook...at least, as far as posting and reading goes. I'm not a fan of all of the news surrounding Facebook, Google, and Amazon lately with regards to privacy, but I'm not sure how much of that is justifiable, and how much of that is a little bit of curmudgeonly "get off of my lawn" mentality. I have two young adult girls, which means that I'm way old when it comes to my social media foodprint (Facebook is sooo five years ago, Mom)...in their eyes, we older folks have made Facebook old, so they have fled to other media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. (Snapchat appears to be their platform of choice these days. It's ho
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Thing 7: Audio tools

In a previous post I mentioned Flipgrid. I love Flipgrid! Actually, there are two tools I've been plugging lately with teachers and their students. One is Flipgrid, and two others are Seesaw and Screencastify. I've used Seesaw off and on for a couple of years, and recorded myself on tools like Screencast-o-matic and Screencastify for years, but Flipgrid is a tool that I was introduced to in recent months. Both are super easy, have a short learning curve for teachers, and have great benefits. Flipgrid is wonderful for its simplicity. Soon after I was introduced to Flipgrid, the principal in a district where I do technology integration asked me to show Flipgrid to teachers. I did, and the school librarian and a 3rd grade teacher immediately wanted to try it. It was wonderful to see how easily they set up accounts, invited students into Flipgrid through a code, QR code, or link in Google Classroom, and got started. The librarian had 2nd graders try it, and within minutes, they h
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Thing 6: Curation Tools

Or, how I finally had an a-ha moment and am finally embracing a bookmarking system, namely Symbaloo... Okay. So I've dabbled with curation tools on and off for years (which is why I still get emails for Diigo in Education, even though I haven't touched Diigo in years), but I've generally not been very good at them. I have to admit, sometimes I'm a bit SQUIRREL when it comes to finding things and curating them. Part of me worried that if I embraced a personalized bookmarking system, it might go away (I'm looking at you, iGoogle), but then again, some sites are still around (Portaportal, anyone?). A couple of things made me recently start to finally do a mind-shift to, "oh, hey, maybe having some kind of go-to-bookmarking tool that I use consistently, on all devices, might be a good idea"... One, I tend to have folks snicker a little at all of my open tabs at the top of my page. Historically, I've had lots and lots of tabs open. It's generally ne
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Thing 11: DIY...my adventures with Google Expeditions and other related stuff

Over the weekend, I had the chance to play with Google Cardboard and ViewMaster viewers, and go on a couple of Google Expeditions, and it was a lot of fun! It was a little frustrating to get the hang of at first (full disclosure here in a minute), but once I did, my mind began to whir with how I could share this tool with my fellow WSWHE librarians and how they, in turn, could bring some amazing virtual field trips to students. Okay. Full disclosure. When Google Expeditions was first introduced to me, I couldn't get it to work. I tried all kinds of things...I rebooted the phone...uninstalled and reinstalled the app... went online to look for troubleshooting and FAQs to figure out what was going on...and then I asked to peek at a colleague's Expedition so I could see what it looked like. I figured, maybe I'm just fighting too hard with the wifi (my phone was constantly disconnecting from it). No biggie. I figured I'd deal with it when I got home. I brought home a Cardb
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