Computer Applications in the School Library Media Center

Last week I read on School Library Journals  that educators could get a free account on plotagon. I signed up for it and feel it has great potential for use in the school library environment.  Plotagon is an animation program that allows the user to write a script and use animated characters to act it out. This is a great alternative to a written end product in research projects. I can envision students preferring to create an animated short rather than write an essay on a history topic. They could also use this program to create vignettes that inform their classmates about various facts they learn.  While teachers and educators get a free year long trial, students only get a 30 day free trial. This seems a little silly to me. Why teach students how to use something only to take the tool away from them after 30 days? To ensure student access, a teacher can purchase 30 student accounts and an educator account for $99. For $299, you can have 150 student accounts a...

Since we are using this in class right now to complete the second part of our Data Assessment Assignment, I thought it would be a good idea to think about how I could use this program to teach students information literacy in the library setting. As you are entirely aware, Jing is a screencast tool that allows you to walk others through steps on the computer without them actually being present. I can think of several interesting tutorials I could do on navigating the library webpage and databases for students, as well as a few to encourage teachers to explore and utilize the new NOVELNY databases. To be honest, it would be very useful for me to create those tutorials, since I am not completely familiar with the new sites. Actually, if we are being completely honest, I am not really familiar with any of the databases our school uses. This past year was my first year and I felt entirely too overwhelmed to learn something on top of everything I was learning at UB and in trying to ...

Glogster is a fun way to present information in a visual way.  Glogster offers students the chance to create a virtual poster, with various customization options, including fonts, text color, background images, and with provided clipart, as well as the ability to add video and audio files to the poster.  I really like the multimedia aspect of glogster--how cool to be able to add a video to a poster?  I tried the free version of glogster to create an infographic about learning disabilities.  I enjoyed the options of using clipart for the background or a picture I have taken. One thing I found frustrating was that I couldn't customize the text boxes to be any color. Each text box design came with pre-selected color options, sometimes as few as three per style, which was fairly limiting. I am still not sure if I was missing something or if you really cannot change the color of the text boxes. Coming from programs with complete customization, not being able...

CMAP is a concept map application that I used for one of my classes this spring. Rather than an online tool, CMAP is something you have to download to your computer. Since this is a computer program, it means the end results are only saved to the local computer. At our school, our students have their own personal drive on the school network, which means they can access it on any computer attached to the school's network. Our school is also moving toward a one-to-one program, so each student would have their own computer to save it to anyway. When you open CMAP, you are brought to this screen. It shows you the CMAPs you have made and you can choose to open one. Otherwise you can click on File and choose  New CMAP to start a new one.  Once you have a new CMAP up, you can click anywhere to put a concept. A little box appears with a text box to type in. You have the ability to change the color of the text box, the size of the font, and the font.  The Styles...