Library: The Perfect FIT

 Here's the show:

RSS Logo

 Here's some branding possibilities that expand on the notion of library:

With thanks to Michael Bierut for the '!' design idea.

Global Projects

 I looked at some of the online cartoon makers, but I will always choose a local solution if possible.

Much to my surprise, I found a great template (Manga comic) in PowerPoint, and I used it to create my comic:

Skype in the Classroom

Video Conferencing

It's not always possible to have an author visit in person, or bring in specialists in a given curricular area, especially schools in remote or isolated areas.  With the ease and efficiency of video conferencing, it is now possible to connect with people from around the globe and share experiences.  The classroom ceases to be confined to "four walls...because [students] can now reach out to anybody" (Loewus).

Skype in the Classroom is a Microsoft program that brings educational programming to the student where they live and learn.

There are a range of opportunities available to students and teachers.  One that caught my eye was a session called Warning: Signs of Volcanic Hazards Ahead.  This session, offered on Teams, has three elements: a virtual tour of Mt. Rainier, historical facts about this region, and the importance of monitoring volcanic activity.  This session might be useful for Science 8 or perhaps an Earth Science class focusing on volcanic activity.

Another session provided by Microsoft is Cyber Security for Teens.  This would effective in the classroom because it is nice to have another 'voice' deliver a message as the parents and teachers in a student's vicinity might be easier to ignore.  The lesson provides an overview of some of the cyber threats that students should be aware of, and there are online quizzes for students to complete to test their understanding.

Cyber Security Awareness Quiz

Works Cited

Loewus, Liana. "Virtual Class Visits Link Book Authors to Students; Skype visits keep writers close to young readers." Education Week, vol. 36, no. 25, 22 Mar. 2017, p. 6. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A488209660/AONE?u=queensulaw&sid=AONE&xid=aeff3fa1. Accessed 24 Nov. 2020.

Learning Commons Apps

 Here's a list of some of the apps that we use at RSS.

Communicating the Redesign

 Here's the link to my video:

Media Arts in the Library

 Here's a new section of my Linoit board:

And here's the link to the online board.

Video Techniques

 For this video, I placed the tips at the end because I thought this was a more natural sequence.

Viewable for students at Queen's University only (I think):

Now available on YouTube!

Audio Editing: The Play's the Thing

Check one.  Check two.

For this post, I thought I would share a project I completed as an example for an English 12 class that has all of the elements of a good podcast: music, voice, and sound effects. It's not a podcast though, it's a scene from a play.

The assignment asked students to use audio recording equipment and software to recreate a scene from Hamlet with one, two, or three classmates.  When I was preparing this assignment, I stumbled on the audio effects for voices within the program, and I realized that I could play Polonius, Gertrude, and Hamlet myself.  Once I had those tracks in place, I could layer in the music and the sound effects.

This assignment works well for English, drama, and even media classes.  Do you see opportunities for recorded scenes or skits in other subject areas?  

Getting back to the recording, if you have an attentive ear, you might find it funny that Polonius is 'stabbed' through a curtain with a bullwhip.  "Oh, I am slain!"  :)  

I hope you enjoy the show!  Play on.

PS.  One problem that I encountered while creating this post is that video streaming services (and this blog) generally do not allow the uploading of mp3 files.  I could have put an mp3 file into Google Drive and share a link to the file with public access.  However, I chose to create an image in Microsoft Word, screenshot it, and then use a video editing program (Adobe Premiere Elements on my laptop, but iMovie would do the exact same thing) to create and export a movie file to my desktop.

It takes a few steps, but students usually need help with this stage of a project.  Students often ask how they can 'get this to my teacher' and I show them how to share/export a file, upload to our online server (OneDrive), and then share it with their teacher.  

Podcasting

 And then there's satire as an instructive art form:

The Magic of Making Sound

 Here's a super cool video on sound...

The Magic of Making Sound speaks to the importance of a separate sound track with our projects.  

We often struggle to get good sound with our in class videos, and this shows the fun and excitement that can be had creating a project element that is often overlooked or secondary.  It also shows that it takes a lot of work to ensure that the audience doesn't notice all the work that you did.  :)  

Video Examples

Similar to the Visual Grammar video we viewed in class, there are many ways to illustrate some of the filmmaking techniques that students can use when filming.  With senior media classes, we usually have a discussion about film angles and shots.  Part of their work has been to recreate a video with a series of Filmmaking Techniques similar to the video below:

Basic Camera Shots for Filmmaking from Martin Curley Visuals on Vimeo.

I found this video using Vimeo and a Creative Commons search term.  Curley's video uses his original footage along with music with a Creative Commons license.

This video could be used with New Media or ADST class, really any class that will use a camera to frame a subject and tell a story.  Even with stop animation projects, students often forget to intersperse close up shots of their characters with the wider shots they take with a fixed camera.  To ensure that this 'skill/tool set' is not overlooked, it is useful to have a few examples like Martin Curley's video. 

I would share a video like this before the storyboarding process so they have a mixture of shots included in their project before they make their shot list.

Screencasting - Coding Decoded

Kristin, one of my TL colleagues, wondered about screencast uses for students, and I thought screencasts might be a great way to have students discuss/explain their coding to the teacher or fellow students.

As an example, here is a 90 second explanation of the code behind DinoClick. This link uses 'Stream', Microsoft's video streaming application.  You will need to use your Queen's Office 365 account (same credentials as your Outlook email login) to view the video:

If the video doesn't play in your browser, use this link:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/03d72d42-393b-4b21-8bfb-9c0f85d0d871

'Stream' lets you share with people, groups, or an entire organization, and it has been a useful tool in our district for sharing video files and tutorials without stepping out into the 'world wide' web.  Stream also has a screen recording option built in, although I used the Windows 10 'Game Bar' to create the video above.  Has anyone else used these Microsoft products?  Is there a screen recording option inside the Google universe?

If you want to play a round of DinoClick, here it is again:

Updating the Plan

 My search of the Creative Commons left me short on inspiration, so a general search led me to a blog post by Lindsay Own.  In her tour of their makerspace at the Evergreen School in Shoreline, WA, I was most impressed by their 'Wall of Joy'.  Here is some of what she said:

We recently reorganized and color-coded the Wall Of Joy. When students were looking for or putting away items, we used to need to say things like “the scissors belong over there on the left, near the sewing machine. No, not that far. Down a little bit.” Now, we can simply say “yellow section!” Even only a few days into this reorganization, searching is easier. There’s also now no question of which items students may not access without asking.

In the redesign of our library, my intention was to make STEAM resources readily available to students by placing this in reach and using bins to create resource kits that would entice students to explore.  Here is the link to my original plan, and the image is below:

Own's 'Wall of Joy' wouldn't fit into our library, but the concept does apply to the areas I've highlighted in yellow.  Resources could be set up and located in zones within the library, and colour-coded bins could be used to organize resources and make them easy to find, access and put away.

This isn't a significant transformation of the space, but it does address efficiency and promote curiousity. It also builds on the image of an organized library that makes it easy to find and use stuff.

Update: With organization and thanks to my colleagues in mind, I have a few ideas to consider as I work on the display of the resources in my library.  Visually, the display matters because it makes it easier to find things and it communicates to patrons.  Showing what is inside, whether through a clear bin or presenting the contents visually, makes resources more accessible.  For some items, it would be great to have a work table with tools on permanent display for quick use.  

As I move forward, I am trying to fix the old adage 'Out of sight; out of mind' and my approach to engaging students in these STEAM activities will be 'In sight, in mind, and in hands'.

STEAM in the Library

 When thinking about Makerspaces, I created the following chart.  These activities are STEAM related and I've added a few more items.  One added item was a 'Plant Centre'.  This is an activity that we offer in our library and students can take plant cuttings, root them, plant them and take them home.  The other item that I added was Lego, plain and simple.  Whether it is used for stop motion filming or to build a structure, it is a fun thing to for students to use and for TL's to display.

STEAM Resources in Place	STEAM Wishes
Lego Mindstorms	3D Printer
Sewing Machines	Minecraft for Education
Micro:Bits	A Dedicated Makerspace Work Zone
Raspberry Pi
Old Desktop Computer running Ubuntu and Windows XP (easy to take apart and re-assemble)
Microphones and Headphones
Digital Pianos (2)
Cameras
Green Screen
Tripods
iPads
Laptops
Excel Spreadsheets
Scratch
Swift Playgrounds (Mac/iPad)
GarageBand and Audacity
Lego Blocks
A plant station

AR in the Classroom

 Augmented Reality (AR) is useful tool for layering information, but I'm not sure that I'm convinced that this is the best tool to create with in classrooms because it seems to limit the amount of information that students engage with during a tech-heavy process.  Does a student need to show information about an image pop up on an iPad if it could be visible on paper in a well designed display?  Could a student learn from a guided walk with a paper map and legend, or do they need a Pokemon Go-style character to pop out from behind a tree?

Layering information has proven to be incredible useful in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) because the user has the ability to access levels of information, toggle them on and off, and see relationships that exist between them.  GIS is a sophisticated tool for in-depth analysis and worth the input effort because of the output.  However, the AR examples discussed in the article seem limited in their output, especially when you consider how much potential tech, time, and trouble were involved.

There would be, I imagine, benefits not mentioned in the article: language options for ELL students or audio/video cues that would provide more accessibility come to mind.  However, I was concerned about the cost to use some of these applications (up to $19/month!) and I wondered if this was an application better suited to entertainment than education.   As if to confirm this suspicion, Green concluded with the following 'selling feature': The popularity of augmented reality will most likely continue to increase as companies like Apple and Disney invest resources into augmented reality to engage consumers.  I'd say that it sounds like fun, but I'm not buying it.

Post-it Notes don't require batteries. :)
(Image: Pixabay)

Works Cited:

Green, Jody, et al. “Augmented Reality in the K-12 Classroom.” TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, vol. 61, no. 6, Nov. 2017, pp. 603–605. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s11528-017-0223-z.

Five Year Horizon for Our Library Learning Commons

 Reading through the NMC Horizon Report for Libraries, it was good to see the approach they took to some of the challenges facing libraries.  Geared to a wider audience, they tackled a variety of challenges facing libraries, and many of them were applicable to our smaller library.

I've used their format to identify some of the challenges facing our LLC at a secondary school:

	1 Year
Solvable - Those that we understand and know how to solve	Information Literacy: Continued integration of Research/Citation practices in all curricular areas.   Creating aware, informed, and empowered students who navigate information well.  The Horizon report cited 'mindful media consumption' as way to combat the prevalence and prominence of 'fake news'.  Increased use for online subscription services.
Difficult - Those that we understand but for which solutions are elusive	Staffing in the library remaining at 1.0 TL Secured funding for subscription services
Wicked - Those that are complex to even define, much less address	Achieving consensus on cell phone use in class.  While this may seem like a classroom issue, at its heart, it is about the ways that students access information (or distract themselves from it.)

 

	2-3 Years
Solvable	Effective curation of teacher resources. Project redesigns and collaboration that deliver curriculum in engaging ways. Increased awareness of copyright law for students and teachers
Difficult	Adherence to copyright law for teachers More services online
Wicked	Changing contract language to increase TL time in our library. Equitable access to technology for all students

 

	5 Years
Solvable	Weeding out old/decrepit/unnecessary resources
Difficult
Wicked	Physical space redesign to remove unnecessary bookshelves to create more makerspaces.

Works Cited:

Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Giesinger

Hall, C., Ananthanarayanan, V., Langley, K., and Wolfson, N.

(2017). NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Library Edition. Austin, Texas:

The New Media Consortium.

To Die, Perchance to Dream

 Well, here's the die:

Designing with TinkerCad was surprisingly simple and intuitive.  There were a few tricks to moving objects in the ways that I wanted them to move, but with the use of arrow keys, the mouse, and the handy viewing cube, I was happy with the luck of the die.

The dream would be to have a 3D printer that might be able to render these online designs for use in the real world.  I have been hesitant to invest in 3D printing technology because of the cost and the potential waste.

In my discussions with Kristin, she mentioned that her school will only print objects if they have an identified use or usefulness.  I think that it is important to take an approach like this to avoid waste and to ensure that a 3D printer is always viewed as a tool and not a toy.

Do you have a 3D printer at your school?  Are the benefits worth the cost and upkeep?  If you were a 3D printer sales rep, what would you tell me?  What would you be sure to not tell me?

Computational Participation

"To learn programming for the sake of programming goes nowhere for children unless they can put those skills to use in a meaningful way." -Yasmin B. Kafai

If computational thinking is a tech era term to describe problem solving and logic, then learning computational thinking has long term benefits for every student.

The benefits for learning programming and coding may seem limited to computer science majors, until coding is viewed as a tool to build and enhance a student's ability to think logically and solve problems.

A few years back, I had an ADST Computer course with Grade 9's and I had a curious change in plans that worked our rather nicely.  We were spending some time with business applications in Office and I chose to insert some programming with Scratch before we started our work with spreadsheets.

My motivation was to change the pace a bit and engage students in something more directly related to their interests.  I was also worried that they would not enjoy spreadsheets if this was viewed as just another business application.

What I did not anticipate was that the logic and problem solving work that we did in Scratch was preparing them to appreciate the formulas and functions built into a spreadsheet.  Scratch showed students how lines of code controlled elements in a program to achieve a desired result.  It also showed, by analogy, how a formula in a spreadsheet cell performs tasks and calculations to produce a desired result.

I felt that the students' enthusiasm for spreadsheets was higher than Scratch.  Building a video game or application in Scratch had some value to students, but they quickly realized how spreadsheets could perform all sorts of useful tasks for them once they knew a few simple formulas.

Calculating wages with a simple formula, running budgets and tracking 'money spent', or linking cells from different sheets to 'crunch' data showed students that spreadsheets had a number powerful uses, limited only by their imagination.

Have you ever used spreadsheets as a computational thinking 'tool' with students?  How was it received?

Computational Thinking

Curtis, one of my classmates had posted a working version of a 2-player maze game in his blog post and I wanted to follow his example and post a working version of my game.  So began my troubleshooting to find out the steps to accomplish this seemingly simple feat.

All it took was an online account, building a project, allowing the sharing of the project, and then finding the 'share link' and embed code for the game.  It did take some fiddling, but the 'fiddle and figuring' is computational thinking!  Thanks for the inspiration, Curtis; it's fun to play a game inside a blog post!  You can give my rough draft of DinoClick a try:

 

At our school, we also use Lego Mindstorms robots and Micro:Bits for computational thinking activities in STEM-related classes.  Micro:Bits, like Scratch, has an online coding environment that lets students create and test code before they download it on to the Micro:Bit processor for some real world application.  What I like about Micro:Bits is their simplicity, their inexpensive price tag, and their physical presence.  A student's code now exists on a new device that can provide function (e.g. a moisture sensor for plants) in the palm of a student's hand.  This provides a tangible, physical benefit to the student and it makes coding real.

Lego Mindstorms also has this benefit.  Students can design and program a robot to move about and interact with the world.  If it hits an object, the robot must be programmed to respond.  It is senses a color with its light sensor, it could respond in a variety of ways, all dependent on the imagination of the programmer.

Lego Mindstorms allows block programming and JavaScript.  Micro:Bits provide those two options AND Python.  It also has the ability to program for the Mindstorms robots. This is useful for the students looking who want to start practicing with computer syntax and take on an additional (and fruitful) challenge.