Mining PEW - How Teens Do Research in the Digital World

Buchanan, J., Chen, C., Friedrick, L., Heaps, A., Jacklin, A., Purcell, K., Rainie, L., & Zickuhr, K. (2012, November 1). How Teens Do Research in the Digital World. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Student-Research 

In the articles, I have learned that students are "self-sufficient researchers" when in comes to surfing the internet. I also found interesting that a large percentages of teachers felt their student could access the information that they need quickly. The study also found that a majority of teacher felt the internet and technology, in general, made it hard for students to find credible resources and that a class should be offered that focuses on digital literacy. 

One statement made an impression on me, it say 87% of technology is created for users with a short attention span.  It is so true! I think of all of the social media website and Google. My student want the information now and they do not want to wait. I have also noticed they want everything to be given to them without putting any afford into the work. They rather copy off of another student than looking for the information themselves. When I have done research projects, I also tell my students to find website that cannot be edited my a random person, like Wikipedia.  

I thought it was interesting that the research was on teachers who teacher AP and NWP.  I wish they would have compared that number to students who are taking regular education classes. At my campus, we have about 25% of the taking advanced classes and it would have been interested to see if the numbers would compare. 

115 pages out of 150

Mining PEW - Cell Internet Use

Duggan, M. & Smith, A. (2013, September 16). Cell Internet Use 2013. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Cell-Internet.aspx

In the article, I have learned that a large percentage, 63%, of cell phone owners are using their phones to access the internet.  I also learned that education and income play a factor in the cell phone internet usage.  Individuals with a high school diploma and that make less than 35, 00, tend to use their phones more to access the internet.  I wondered why that was the case.  I find myself using my phone to Google something. Then I thought, maybe this population cannot afford a computer or a internet provider.

I feel like the study was incorrect in say that individuals with higher education do not access the internet on their phone as much then individuals with a high school diploma. I feel the number is much higher because they study states that 91% of American own a cell phone. I do not feel the numbers match.


15 pages out of 150

Mining PEW - Teens, Smartphones and Texting

Lenhart, Amanda. (2012, March 19). Teens, Smartphones & Texting. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.  http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Teens-and-smartphones.aspx

In the article, I have learned that teens are using their smartphones to communicate with others, through text messages, more than making phone calls. Males and African - Americans are leading the way. There is a correlation between teens that send text messages and those who talk on the phone. In the survey, about one fourth of teens who have smartphones also have parents who hold a higher education degree. 

It was interesting to see that one of out twenty teens are "checking in" through social media outlets like Twitter. I thought the number would be higher especially at a younger age than 17 years old. I feel teens are unable to have real conversations because they are used to texting.  I have noticed a lot of my students are "text writing" and are unable to spell simple words like are.  



34 pages out of 150

Final Reflection

In my final reflection, I can truly say that I have enjoyed this class and learned so much. I have learned that technology can be a teacher's best friend!

Some of my favorite assignments were Word Clouds, Mind Mapping, and Playing with Words. I enjoyed these websites because it was a creative outlet yet I felt like I learned something. Also, I could see myself incorporating the websites into my lesson. I found Screencast a difficult and frustrating assignment because Screenr did not want to download onto my laptop and computer.

As a science teacher, I try to integrate concept maps into my lessons because I feel it helps the students organize their thoughts and make connections. I felt the Mind Mapping websites were beneficial to my students because they can make their own connections to the concepts and it helps them communicate their thoughts. I also liked Playing with Words websites because it allows the students to summarized their thoughts and displays them creativity. I thought about having the students print out their work and displaying them.

Thank you Dr. Perry for your guidance and allowing me to be creative!

Instagram and Vine

Instagram and Vine are great photo and video apps that be a classroom resource.  Last year, I had my students do a science project at home and I had them use Instagram to show me their experimental set up, materials, and results. I told them to take "selfies" of their project.

In 8 ways you can use vine, Betsie Jonas has some great ideas like teaching phonics to children because the Vine video loop. She also mentions reenacting a favorite book scene. I would use Vine as an EOC review. I would give my students a vocabulary word and they would have to act it out and tape a Vine video (similar to charades). Then the other students would need to guess the term.


Vine 
These vines are of my crazy pups!

Instagram  Follow me!!
This photo is of my husband and brother kayaking
 This is my sweet nephew and he loves ranch!
I'm enjoying a cup of coffee!

Information Curation

Happy Easter!

This week's assignment was to look into information curation, which is a site where new articles are a collected and sorted. I did not know about what information curations, but it is very interesting. One can look through topics and save articles to a your personal curation.

When searching through the sites, I liked Flipboard the most. The layout is very similar to reading an actual magazine because it feel like you're flipping the pages.  I also liked that saving an article is easy because the buttons are located at the bottom of the page. Google Currents is easy to use as well. You can look for magazines and save them to your lifestyle section. When looking through Paper.li, I felt it fell short in comparison to the curation Apps. Once you have created a paper, you cannot add another topic to it or follow on twitter. I found that I wanted to have all the articles on one page instead of creating different newspapers for each topic. I do not think I could see myself using this website.

Screencast

Hello.

Using screen shots are very useful when someone is presenting a tutorial or a how to. ScreenCast-o-matic was a very simple program.  I did not have to download any new software.  It was basically point, record, and finish! I really liked the different options to download the file, embed or share the link.  I would use this website repeatedly, because it is so easy!




I could not use Screenr for the life of me.  I downloaded Java fifty time on the computer, my laptop and even my husband's work laptop.  It did not work! So, I gave up and downloaded Jing.  Jing is very similar to ScreenCast except it is an program.  I did not like the save or send to ScreenCast options.  I had to redo my tutorial several times because I save the recording and I could not open it.  When I uploaded the recording to ScreenCast, it took a long time.  This is my link to my video and a photo of the Tagxedo I've made.  http://screencast.com/t/MTWwuTVe 

My favorite would obviously be ScreenCast-o-matic hands down!  It was easy, free, and user friendly.

Playing with Words

Hello again.  This week's activity is displaying words with different web sites.

Word Clouds

Word clouds are a tools to assess your students' understanding on a topic or reading.  According to the article from Teaching Tactics, Scott Hamm states students can use word clouds to reflect on the reading and organize their thoughts. With the revision of the TEKS and CCRS, rigor and higher order thinking is stressed.  

I liked that the student can type in their own thoughts and see them in a different way.  I preferred using Tagxedo and Tagul because there were a variety of  font style and color options.  I also liked that you could save, share and print the image.  I felt Wordle was limited on the font color.  When I was trying to save the image I could only embed or print the image out. I didn't like that. 

Quipio & ReciteThis

These two sites are so cool! I love creating these images! It was simple and fast. My students would love to create these images.



As a STAAR EOC teacher, I am constantly looking for new ways for students to understand a topic.  I would use any of these websites to enhance their understanding.  In my district we have a TLI Grant (Texas Literacy Initiative) and one of the objectives is to increase understanding of text or stories. The TLI specialist gave me a short story of small poxes and Word Clouds would be an excellent way of showing student understanding.  In Tagxedo, they could type in key terms or write a summary about the reading. Once they are finished, they could email me the image.

Cartoons & Comics

Hi there!

When creating the comics and cartoons, I immediately remembered a training I recently had.  The presenter suggested we incorporate create ways for teaching curriculum. Cartoons and comics are the prefect outlet for students to express their creativity and understanding of a topic. I can implement comics to check for understanding.  I've created three cartoons that have content that most students have difficulty on.  

Pixton

http://Pixton.com/ic:vss2mr3i

The site was relatively easy to use, but on the free version you could only make two cartoon characters.  I liked that you could edit the size of the character and edit the facial expression.  Pixton cartoons were easy to save; in one click the site gave me options to share my cartoon.  I was having difficulty embedding the image. 

ToonDoo

By jmt047 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

I felt ToonDoo was a bit more complicated to use.  There were too many choices in characters and backgrounds.  It took a while to navigate through the images. The site was user friendly but the save button wasn't clearly displayed. It took me a while to find the button. 

MakeBeliefComix!

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=12240655C1259103 

First of all, I felt the website was the easiest out of the three.  I liked that this site did not need a log in. The students could create a comic and email it to themselves.  I've noticed a lot of the time my students do not have email addresses.  I thought the images of the characters and backgrounds were a bit limiting. I feel students would like this site because it's so easy to create and save a comic. 

Online Book Communities

Hello, hello!

Online book communities are great sites that keep track of the books that you have read or to see what your friends have read.

Booklikes.com
The images show my blog shelf pages. Booklikes is a site that book lovers can make a page or blog to share their thoughts about books. I thought the pages was easy to maneuver. Also, finding and adding books to the shelf easy as well. I thought it was interesting that when you're adding a book, a button can connect you to the Amazon website.  Booklikes is neat because there are blogs people write about books that they have read and it is interesting to get another person's perspective on a book.  I felt the site offered more features than what I needed.

 LibraryThing.com
I felt LibraryThing's appearance was very basic. The color and font style was plain and boring.  To be honest, I did not like this website. I found the site to be difficult to search for books and to find reader comments.  One of the things that bothered me was the location of the search site bar. The link was on the upper right hand corner and not in the center. I did not like the 'Add books' tab. If you searched for a book and clicked on the title, it automatically added that book your shelf.

Shelfari.com
Shelfari is sponsored by Amazon.com and I feel that student would be comfortable using this site. I liked to format of the pages and how the tabs were set up.  It was easy to find books and read their summaries. For example, a student can search for a book, click on the cover, and read the summary with  a synopsis.
When I was creating my shelf, I found it time consuming to add books because it prompted you to comment on the book and add tags to it.  Overall, I liked the site because you can connect to what other people are saying out the books.

Goodreads.com

Goodreads reminds me of a social networking site because the home screen has updates your friends have posted.  The site is easy to use and searching for a book it easy as well.  When searching for books, I found adding them to shelves is in one click.  I liked that it recommends books based on my searches and shelves. It is just easy to use!   

Each online book community site is unique and can fit the needs of any teachers and students.  For me, I want a website that is easy to use, where I can add my books with a couple of clicks, and find new books to read.  Throughout this assignment, I was thinking about my students and how they want things right now.  With that in mind, I feel Goodreads.com is convenient when searching for books and familiar to my students. I actually have a Kindle and my Goodreaders account is synchronized, so it makes it easy to post my thoughts on books. 

Podcast

Hello. 

To be honest, I did not know what podcasts were until this assignment.  I had heard of them but never really bother to use them.  Podcasts are a series of audio recordings.  They are a great tool to use when discussing a topic or commenting on a current event.  Their uses in the classroom are copious. For example, students or teachers can create a podcast to explain a difficult topic or create verbal presentations. 

When creating my podcast, I thought of my homebound student.  He is missing both the lecture and lab sections of my class and podcasts are great way of me communicating that missing information.  So I decided to create a podcast in hopes to post to my classroom's weebly page. The podcast is a review on how to set up and solve a dihybrid cross problem.  

Podcast Link: https://soundcloud.com/jmt047/sets/dihybrid-crosses-review
 

Webbing/Mind Mapping

Hello!

In this week's assignment we had to create a mind map using three websites.  A mind map is a visual representation of mapping out the reader's thoughts.  It is an effective tool when reading or studying.

When creating the mind maps, I noticed SpicyNodes and Popplet are the easiest to use.  When I was adding nodes and sub-nodes, I just clicked and it appeared.  Also, embedding or sharing the mind map was easy as well.  Wisemapping was very difficult to use.  I had so much trouble trying to add sub-nodes.  I had to watch tutorial videos to figure out how to use the website.  I noticed myself getting frustrated with Wisemapping, that I had to step away for a moment.

I liked the way Popplet looked, it was simple and pleasing to the eye. I would encourage my students would Popplet because with one click you can add nodes and it is easy to move them around.

These are the following Mind Maps that I have created about Dr. Bell's article on Information Ethics.

Bell, M. (1998). Kiss and Information Ethics. TAET Journal. Spring, 1998.

SpicyNodes



Popplet

Wisemapping

Videos and QR Codes in the Library

Hello Again!  This week's assignment is covering QR codes and video use in a library. 


Library YouTube Videos

As a librarian, it is important to inform your student and staff of new books and/or events that are being held in the library.  When I become I librarian, I would create a media club and have those students create videos of upcoming events, new books, and day to day life in the library.  I would like to get the teachers and administration involved as well.  I would like to ask a teacher to create a video on a difficult topic in their subject area and air it around testing time.  For example, the Biology End of Course exam in May 7th and I would create a video on solving Punnett Squares and Dihybrid Crosses.  I would also like the counselors to present informative on college deadlines.  

I enjoyed Bbmsmedia’s Channel because the videos are creative and entertaining.  These are some of the videos I enjoyed from the following libraries.

Calypso Gilstrap, Norman High School Library  - https://www.youtube.com/user/TheNHSLibrary/videos

·       
  NHS Library Orientation

The orientation video helps new students the resources that the library provides.

·         Norman High School Library Rocks!

A short, fun video reminding the student about the library.  Students would like it because it is funny.

The Unquiet Library - https://www.youtube.com/user/theunquietlibrary/videos

Video Tutorial How to Embed a Prezi Presentation in Wikispaces

It’s helpful because it shows student how to embed their work onto wikispaces.

 6th Period Lunch Group Starts New Tradition: "Claps for Something

 This video shows student encouraging one another by clapping for good things that have happened to them.

Pikesvillehslibrary - https://www.youtube.com/user/pikesvillehslibrary/videos

2014-15 Course Advisement 

 

 Course catalog for the upcoming school year.  Great for student who need to know what they need to graduate.

Animosity

 A lesson about animosity. A student video how a student become friends.  A great way to display student work.

Bbmsmedia’s channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/bbmsmedia?feature=watch

  MLA Citation Review

         

 

Video of a class and create MLA citation for a research paper.

 

Taylor Swift hates overdue library books

Funny video to remind student to turn in their books on time. 

Animoto Book Trailer

Using Animoto.com was a fun way displaying pictures with a caption.  It is much easier than Microsoft PowerPoint.  I chose the novel Divergent by Veronica Roth.  It is one of my favorite books!  I chose it because the movie adaptation is coming out very soon and all of my students are anxious to see it.  

Here is my QR Code for the book trailer I've created for Divergent.

All images were downloaded from the Creative Common Flixr page. All rights reserved by Ma_Co2013   

Using the QR Reader app on your phone, please scan this image. 

Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth (Goodreads Author)

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote th...more In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

QR Codes

QR Codes are an interesting way to display links to an audience.  I've seen them used at the movie theater. I would use QR codes in a library by introducing students to new books that are coming out.  Also, by adverting events being held at the library.   This is where I would create QR codes with the video links that the media club has created. 

Blog Readers

Hello again!! Happy Valentine's Day!

Prior to the assignment, I did not know that Blog Readers existed.  Needless to say my experience with blogs is very limited.  As I was exploring the links, I noticed the pages kept the followed blogson your home screen or dashboard.  I would image the blogger would want a blog reader that would save them time and would be easy to navigate. I truly enjoyed BlogLovin'.  The format was user-friendly, since it reminded me of Facebook and Pinterest rolled into one! I also liked the drop down menu for popular blogs. It made searching for a type of blog easy.  I'm interested in how school libraries use blogs to connect with their students and the staff.  

I created a Tumblr page and now I'm obsessed! It is so fun to upload images of school and funny pictures. I think I found another social network page that I'm going to be using.  http://jmt047.tumblr.com/

Favorite Library Science Blogs

Library Displays  http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3835629
Library Displays is a blog that post images of libraries' bulletin boards and book displays.  I chose to follow this blog because they showed librarians creative displays.  I figured I would be able to use this as a guide on how to decorate the library.  

Library Journal: http://tumblr.libraryjournal.com/
Library Journal is one of the go to publications that librarians use to stay up to date with technology or reviews.  I initially followed Library Journal's Tumblr because of the cute and funny pictures.  When I started scrolling through their page I saw they had articles on library science news and technology just like their webpage.

Cambridge High School Blog:  http://www.bloglovin.com/feed/blog/4031886
When exploring, BlogLovin' I found the Cambridge High School blog page. This is what I was looking for. I thought it was a great way the library communicated with their students.  The posts mainly consisted of upcoming books and events.  One post in particular really caught my attention, William Shakespeare's Star Wars. I could not stop laughing! It was a such great post!

Chapel Hill High School Tumblr: http://librarytiger-blog.tumblr.com/
Since I found a school library's blog, I wanted to find a Tumblr to see how a school library kept in contact with their students.  Chapel Hill High School's Tumblr had many posts on new books, current events and important events in history.  I found their Tumblr page inviting and informative.  I liked that they included links to their social networking pages.  I was searching their school webpage and it is so cool!  I was inspired to have a page similar to their when I become a librarian.

 

Monteclair High School Tumblr:  http://mhslibrary.tumblr.com/
Monteclair Tumblr is another high school library page that I found.  I was interested to see how other schools used a Tumblr blog. This page includes posts on young adult books, quotes from famous authors, and encouraging pictures. I found the page did not include information on the library or school event.  I would have like the page to have been a bit more personal to the students and staff.

Infographic

Hello!

This week we were assigned to make an infographic about an article from the PEW webpage.  When I was creating the infographic, I was expecting it to be similar to a PowerPoint slide. In the fact that it was easy to manipulate, instead it was a tedious to delete items or to alter the font size.

Here is the infographic for the article titled Teens and Technology 2013.  When reading the article I was shocked to see how many teens use their cellphones as their main source to access the internet, instead of a computer or laptop. 

 APA Citation
Cortesi, S., Duggan, M., Gasser, U., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M.  (March 2013). 
Teens and Technology 2013. Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Tech.aspx

 

Publishing Links

https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/297082/LSSL5391TeenTech/image.jpg

 

<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/297082/LSSL5391TeenTech/image.jpg"/><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/297082/LSSL5391TeenTech/image.jpg" alt="LSSL5391TeenTech title="easel.ly" /></a><br /><a href="http://easel.ly" style="text-align:left;" align="left">easel.ly</a>



Organizers

Organization Tools. 

When registering for these organization tools, I was a bit confused about what they did exactly. Until I started playing with the tabs and started adding items. The organization tool I liked the best is Wunderlist. It was simple to use and you are able to customize the background. I liked that there is an downloadable App. I believe my students would find this website/app very easy to use. They would be able to organize due dates or exam dates for their classes, even their game days. 

Evernote. 

Evernote is a useful website/app to upload notes or files to an online cloud. I would upload notes or assignments onto a notebook. Then provide the link to my students.  That way my students would be able to access any file that they might need. This is a great tool use if students were absent, they would have access to what they missed. 

Pinterest. 

First and foremost, I love Pinterest! There are so many 'pins' that can help students with their homework.  Students are able to access pins to get ideas for science fair projects or help them understand a topic. 

My Pinterest Boards. http://www.pinterest.com/prettyeyes85/

Facebook Assignment

As I was searching for school libraries on Facebook, I noticed there were a limited number of school library pages.  I saw the some schools with the Facebook pages and they used them to promote the school’s activities as well as up and coming book to movie adaptations.   I liked that these school included reminder for Book Fairs and updates to the library’s filing system.  Cheltenham High School’s page included school announcements, like who placed in soccer and field hockey league.  Moreau Catholic High School’s page posted an image of an old check out card from 1982.  I really liked how they involved the students with funny posts. 

One disadvantage I saw on these pages was the mediator of the page did not update regularly.  For example, the Pasadena High School was last updated December 7^th.  A second disadvantage, I also noticed there was not a lot of traffic on the pages; very little people check these pages for updates of posts. 

I think having a Facebook page in beneficial because the students have Facebook accounts and it is readily available using their smart phones.   When I become a librarian, I would like to involve the students as much as possible.  For example, I would like to post a message and whoever read it and comes to the library first wins a prize. 

 

Here are some screenshots of some posts!

Pasadena High School Library

 Cheltenham High School Library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moreau Catholic High School Library

 

 
 

Twitter Assignment

Using Speed Dating for Learning
Linda W. Braun @lbraun2000

Using the “Speed Dating” Model to Enhance Student Learning #lis460 http://t.co/uecKNOhL4A
— Linda W Braun (@lbraun2000) January 21, 2014

Living and Nonliving Stickaround Puzzle
Tony Vincent @tonyvinvent

@cbeyerle I whipped a living/nonliving #stickaroundapp puzzle just for you! https://t.co/Ha44K8d3Du pic.twitter.com/Js7nEW1pqP
— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) January 23, 2014

Using Wikipedia for Information
 Buffy hamilton @buffyhamilton

Using Wikipedia in information literacy instruction http://t.co/tIPLDyT725
— Buffy Hamilton (@buffyjhamilton) January 21, 2014

10 Social Media Skills for Teachers
 The Daring Librarian @GwynethJones

10 Social Media Skills for 21st Century Teachers INFOGRAPHIC Inspired by @BlueSkunkBlog via @21cif http://t.co/tlGqTnWUjQ
— The Daring Librarian (@GwynethJones) January 20, 2014

Teaching with QR Codes
 Jim Lerman @jimlerman

Teaching With QR Codes via @joevans http://t.co/zsHnkDLNhn
— Jim Lerman (@jimlerman) January 14, 2014

Can now find usage rights in Google images
Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock

Thanks, @tchilders Can now find usage rights in Google images under search tools! w00t! pic.twitter.com/kdGHi8jjUe
— Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) January 14, 2014