Airtable: A Spreadsheet on Steroids!!!

Thanks to Debra Holberg, doc student in Special Education, I've fallen in love with a new app that will help organize my life on and off campus. For years now I have been trying to find a relational database that to easy to use, visually attractive, sharable and most of all inexpensive. Well, thanks to Debra, I have found it! The price couldn't be better - free (but as always you can upgrade to a pro version).

Airtable looks like a  spreadsheet but it is sooo much more. It certainly puts Google's spreadsheets to shame. Here's their promo:

Don't take my word for it here's what Debra has to say about it - "Seriously, it's pretty amazing... Ilove it because it's very flexible... it has simplified things for me immensely - and the fact that there's an app for my iPhone is a big plus as well!"

Welcome Back!

So much happened here in the library while you all were away!

We've added a Technology Help Desk. Staff at the tech desk will assist faculty, staff, and students with equipment lending, work space design, program support, and much more.

We've acquired quite a lot of lendable equipment to support your creative endeavors. Check out the list of what is available to students, staff, and faculty here.

WE HAVE 3D PRINTERS! And LARGE FORMAT PRINTING!

If you haven't guessed, we're accumulating cool technology & equipment for our future Maker Space. The Maker Space will be located on the 2nd floor near the CIMC. A Lego wall is already there!

Speaking of the CIMC, we've moved our Juvenile collection into our CIMC so it's now a one-stop-shop for curriculum and instruction materials. Take a few minutes to browse the collection and be sure to send me titles that need to be added to our CIMC. I love to hear from you all!

And if I haven't said it already, Welcome back!  

Google Slides Q&A

Hey all, 
My last post before you all go away from summer (lucky!) is about an enhancement to already well-known presentation tool. 

It's a pretty cool tool: students can use their smartphones to enter questions while you are presenting, and you can answer them when you are ready. Students can up-vote others' questions, too. Check out Google Slides Q&A:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3065370/software-productivity/google-slides-makes-it-easier-to-talk-back-to-presenters.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFMFXSvlXZY&feature=youtu.be

I hope you all have a great summer vacation. See you in the fall.

New from the New York Times

Check out the email I just received from The New York Times about new resources added to their education section. And if you haven't registered for your free account, do it! Also register for The New York Times in Education section (instructions below). 

Dear Abby, We are pleased to announce the addition of three new areas of study to The New York Times in Education - Biology, Campaigns & Elections, and Religious Studies.   NYTimes.com/edu is a complimentary benefit to Academic Site License subscribers.  This site is designed to help both educators and students make the most of The New York Times.  And accessing these teaching resources is easy – simply visit NYTimes.com/edu, and click link “Register Now” at the upper right hand corner. From there, follow the instructions to create an account. Please feel free to share this exciting news with faculty and staff. Thank you.

Many Ways to Flip a Classroom with One App - Aurasma

I have been working with the elementary science methods classes this past week or so. A good portion of the session was devoted to various apps and gadgets. One in particular generated a lot of interest and excitement - Aurasma. It can be used in a variety of ways to enhance and extend instruction beyond the class. The problem with Aurasma, though, is it's very difficult to understand without seeing it in action. So I will try to briefly explain how it works and then you can take a look the resources I have collected.

Simply put Aurasma is an augmented reality (AR) tool. It's been around for a couple of years but has only recently found its way into the class room. It is both a mobile (iOS, Android) and desktop  (called Aurasma studio) application and can be described as a QR code on steroids. Instead of creating a black and white patterned square (QR code) one can use just about any picture. When the app scans the picture (also referred to as a target or marker in the AR world) it might take you to a website, play a video or music, display a map, just about anything you can do digitally. Download the app, its free, and point it at the back of a $1 or $20 bill and you will be amazed at what happens. 

So how can it be used to extend &/or enhance classroom instruction, let me count the ways. Oh, the number seems to be limited only by your imagination. Here's a video of how one teacher is using  Aurasma.

Here are a few more links to some other videos that demonstrate how it can be used.

• Book reviews
• Displaying authentic work
• Creating handouts
• Yearbooks
• Physical education

These are specific examples but you can easily see how the tool can transform student work and classroom instruction. My favorite example I share with folks (but haven't be able to find the video) is a mother's day project. The teacher took pictures of each student in front of a specific background, then took a video of each one reading a poem they wrote for their mother in front of the same background. They uploaded both the pictures & videos to Aurasma and created their auras, which only takes a few minutes. Finally, they printed out the pictures and put them on magnets. The magnets went home and when the mother pointed the app at the magnet the video of the child reading the poem appeared, just like in the Hogwart's Daily Prophet. 

As I mentioned earlier, this tool is very difficult explain in writing. Obviously there is much more to be said and explain, but hopefully this will inspire you to investigate this amazing tool. If you have any questions or want to learn more, let me know. 

In closing here's a quick aura I created. Nothing spectacular but it will give you an idea of how basic it is. Download the app and point it at this target and see a simple science demo about Bernoulli's principle of lift.

Learn more about augmented reality.

Primary Resource Database Trials

Hi Everyone!

We have two new trials from Gale currently running.

Smithsonian Collections Online Evolution of Flight 1784-1991

 
"Drawing from the treasure trove of images, diaries, correspondence, scrapbooks, government documents, and other primary source materials available within the National Air and Space Museum Archives, the National Air and Space Museum Library, the Smithsonian Archives, and Smithsonian Libraries, this newest collection in the Smithsonian Collections Online series offers unparalleled insight into the era of aviation and its lasting impact on today’s society with content that spans more than two centuries, 1784-1991." 

Link: http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/char69915?id=atkins&db=SMIT

Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity, Part 1: LGBTQ History and Culture

 

"With Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity, students, educators, and researchers can now engage with a vast resource that connects them to the rich history of sexuality and identity, enabling them to delve deeper and make new connections in subjects such as queer history and activism, cultural studies, psychology, sociology, health, political science, policy studies, human rights, gender studies and more. Selection of materials for this milestone digital program is guided by an advisory board consisting of leading scholars and librarians in sexuality and gender studies."

Link: http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/char69915?id=atkins&db=AHSI

These trials will run until 4/29/2016.  Per library policy, they will not be available to access off campus.

Infographics

I’m presenting at a conference on Saturday - to school librarians around the region - and instead of using a simple Google Slide or PowerPoint presentation, I decided to explore other presentation tools. As you all know, there are some excellent free presentation tools on the web: Prezi, Emaze, Animoto, and PowToon are really cool examples that I’ve used for instruction, presentations, and in my own classes. But these tools just weren’t what I was looking for.

I’ve been curious for a while about infographics. I love the way an infographic often (and should) require visual literacy skills to interpret the information included in the final product. Since visual literacy is a 21st Century Skill that all students and teachers should possess, I decided to incorporate an infographic into my presentation. There are many free infographic tools on the web; I’d heard of both Piktochart and Canva, but there are many more. After short tutorials on both Piktochart and Canva, I decided to use Canva.

I’m not going to lie. Starting out was the hardest part, but I got the hang of it. Using Canva to create an infographic was very intuitive. Instead of creating my own right from the get-go, I used a template. There are all sorts of graphics and templates provided once you create a Canva account, even logos, which I needed to use.

I’m really happy with my final product. Soon I’ll try to create my own infographic, but it might take a few tries before I’m comfortable sharing them with the public. For now, I’ll continue to create infographics using Canva’s templates. And I intend to master Piktochart so I have options because options are important, don’t you think?

I’d love to hear about all of your experiences using infographics. Share some examples that you’re proud of! Here is mine: 

Resources for Teaching Civic Engagement

I know you are probably as sick of this topic as I am, but as I was catching up on my professional reading today I came across a review for the site GovTrack.us. Although not specifically designed for teachers it could certainly infuse some energy and excitement into a social studies classroom. The site tracks U. S. federal legislation, voting records, congressional district maps, and more. It also provides access to historical information on the workings of Congress. It was created in 2004 by Joshua Tauberer originally as a hobby but has grown into a full fledge 'open government' project. It is not affiliated with the government and is supported through crowdfunding and some advertising. The site is a gold mine for teachers in the social sciences. For those teachers who are tech savvy, there are data sets and GIS maps that can be downloaded and manipulated.

Although not specifically about the current election cycle, looking at the site got me wondering what other sites are available for integration into the curriculum by teachers.  So I did a little poking around as librarians like to do, and found the sites listed below could support lessons related to government and specifically the current election cycle. Most would be useful in middle and/or high school classrooms but there are a couple for the elementary level as well.

Congress.gov - https://www.congress.gov/
This is the official government site. It's pretty dry, but there are a number of good videos hidden in the site discussing various aspects of how the government works, including the election process.

Kids.gov - https://kids.usa.gov/
Geared for student K-8 this covers all aspects of the government not just congress. It has specific resources for teachers.

Kids Voting (USA) - https://www.kidsvotingusa.org/
This group was created in 1988 and basically helps teachers and schools conduct voting simulations in the classroom. It is geared more towards elementary and middle school students and includes resources for teachers. The North Carolina affiliate is Kids Voting NC - http://www.kidsvotingnc.org/

The following links are more appropriate for high school students:

ProCon 2016 Presidential Election - http://2016election.procon.org/
Their mission reads as follows - "Promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, and primarily pro-con format.” They present both sides of an issue plus addition research. They have a great Teacher's Corner.

FactCheck.org - http://www.factcheck.org/
Smart Vote - http://votesmart.org/
Both of these sites are similar to ProCon in they discuss issues being debated by those running for office.

PBS Election Central: Education Guide
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/election-central-2016/
This site includes background information about elections as well as lesson plans for teachers.

PBS NewsHour Extra: News for Students & Teacher Resources 7-12
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/tag/election-2016/
A news site created for students and teachers includes videos, articles, lesson plans, and more.

Citizens, Not Spectators - http://www.civiced.org/resources/curriculum/voting
A Center for Civic Education program provides engaging voter education for students in grades 4-12.

Election assistance commission - http://www.eac.gov/default.aspx
This site provides a different prespective on the election process. It discusses issues faced by election officials. It's a behind the scenes look at the process.

Gilder Lehman Institute of American History
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/topics/government-and-civics/teaching-resources
Teaching resources for Government and Civics classes.

Although I focused on integrating these resources into the curriculum, many of the sites are also tools for us to become more a more informed electorate. So take a look a the sites for your own edification and pass the information to your students and teaching colleagues.

Free Resources for Teachers, Librarians, and Students

Free Resources for Teachers, Librarians, and Students

Last week the White House launched its newest program to ramp up literacy: the Open eBooks App. The app will provide access to thousands of popular and award-winning books to teachers, librarians, and students in Title I schools, special education teachers and students, and military base schools. To sign up for Open eBooks or to acquire the app visit Openebooks.net. For more information about the program, take a look at the official announcement from the White House.

I subscribe to a lot of Education Blogs and I especially like the Edutopia blog. Last week the blog post was all about filmmaking resources in the classroom. I know many of our College of Education students have to create videos and I thought you all might want to pass on these resources to your students. Read the entire blog post, 5 Minute Film Festival: Resources for Filmmaking in the Classroom and sign up for their newsletter at the same time. What education blogs and newsletters do you subscribe to?

Research Tools You Can Use

Recently I discovered several new (at least to me) research tools that can make searching and organizing your articles a lot easier. The first is the Google Scholar extension for Chrome and Firefox. Some of you may already be using it, but for those who aren't, here's a quick (unprofessional) demo of how it works. Pretty slick. It shouldn't take the place of in-depth searching in a database but for basic searching it's great.

Many of you know I have been an advocate for the citation management tool Zotero for years. I hate to say it but I think I have found an even better tool in ReadCube. It has most of the Zotero features I love except the drag and drop reference list creation. But then it has a whole bunch of new features that will make life easier for any researcher. Here's a quick overview of the product.

You can easily import .pdfs including entire libraries from Zotero or Endnote. In fact if you set up a folder, ReadCube will monitor that folder and anything you add to the folder will be automatically added to ReadCube. It will automatically search Google Scholar and PubMed for additional articles by an author or for references. If you read the document within ReadCube you can annotate the article and the annotations can be searched. There is a Word plug in for citation or you can export to Zotero or Endnote, although I'm not sure why that would be easier. Finally, the Pro version ($5/month, $45/yr.) you get unlimited cloud storage, syncing across all platforms/devices, plus advanced citation metrics for an article. Free apps are available for both iOS and Android.

There is one caveat, the program is designed to work with enhanced .pdfs so some of the features may not work on older .pdfs and other formats. But it is a relatively new product, I suspect there will be further enhancements. 

Try it, I think you will like it. And don't forget to tell your doc students about it.

Video's the way YOU want them

Have you ever watched a video from say TED or YouTube and thought - "Wow I could use that in the classroom"? But it's too long or there's really only one small section that you want to use. Plus you would like to add your comments and ask the students questions during the clip. How would you do that?

Well there's WeVideo which lets you create video mash-ups using a variety of media content from the web. It's great for doing professional looking videos but there is a bit of a learning curve. And then there are the commercial products like Camtasia and Capitvate. But they too, take some time to learn and a lot of time to develop.

EDpuzzle on the other hand is a quick and easy to use free web-based application that produces professional looking videos tailored specifically to your curriculum. You can even track your students understanding of the content. Here's a quick overview of how it works.

Pretty simple? Plus there are apps for iOS and Chrome. Imagine taking a clip of a someone teaching and being able to stop, talk, ask a question and get feedback from you students and then go on critiquing. Definitely more engaging.

Gentle Reminders

Since we're a month into the new semester, I want to take the opportunity to remind you about some fantastic resources we have in the library. Don't forget to check out our Alexander Street Press 60 Minutes collection. The collection spans 2 decades and can be streamed directly into your classroom or uploaded to your Moodle class. And if you do use the collection, let me know what you think! We aim to please here at the Atkins Library and user feedback is super important.

I wonder if any of you have heard of Alexander Street Press's Education in Video series? Click on the link for more information about the collection and if you think this resource would be a valuable addition to our collection, please let me know!

Finally, I'd like to beg and plead with you to send me (and Judy) monograph titles you would like added to the collection. I've received book requests from several of you, thank you! I would be thrilled to get book requests from ALL of you. So don't hesitate to send me a wish list of titles you want me to buy. Don't forget to include instructional materials on your wishlist. Our CIMC needs the newest publications to best serve our pre-service and in-service teachers!

ICPSR Summer Program

Many of you already know about the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) If you don't, you need to check out their website because it's one of the best places to find a variety of data associated with education research.

But this post is more for your grad and doc students since it's about the ICPSR Summer Program. The program is recognized throughout the world as a leading program providing basic and advanced training in a wide range of methodologies and techniques for research across the social, behavioral, and medical sciences. The courses emphasize the integration of quantitative methodological strategies with the theoretical and practical concerns that arise in research on substantive issues. Their unique and supportive social environment facilitates professional networking and encourages the exchange of ideas about research theory and practice. 

The program is designed for students, faculty, researchers & policy-makers. Topics include beginning to advanced levels in statistics, data analysis, methodology, research design and more. Courses range from 3 days to 4 weeks and participants will be engaged in hands-on analysis of actual research datasets. All courses are offered on a noncredit basis. However, program can provide official documentation of classroom performance to assist participants in receiving credit at their home institution. The courses are reasonably priced, and fees are lower for those affiliated with an ICPSR member institution and we are a member. For more information go to www.icpsr.umich.edu/sumprog.

From DNA to Beer Exhibit Comes to Atkins!

The Akins Library is hosting a National Library of Medicine exhibit called, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, from February 8th to March 20th. In addition to the exhibit, we are planning activities such as student and faculty lectures, book displays, a special collections display, a photography exhibit, and hopefully (fingers crossed) a beer tasting event with several local breweries. Literature about the exhibit and complementing activities will be published on our website and on posters and flyers very soon. I encourage you all to consider bringing your students to the library to see the exhibit. You can contact me (amoor164@uncc.edu) for more information or take a look at the exhibit website. 

 
Last year I wrote a brief post about our recently resurrected Popular Reading & DVD collection. The collection, including a New Books section, is located in the library’s atrium near the security offices. Take advantage of the comfortable seating near the shelves and browse our newest and most popular titles. The collection is always changing so stop by regularly to see the newest additions.

New ways to Assess Students

Heading for Tomorrow Land!

Hope everyone had a great winter break. It's hard to believe another semester has begun.

This post is a bit late because I am currently at the Future of Educational Technology Conference (FETC) [formerly the Florida Education Technology Conference] in Orlando. It's a great place to see what teachers are doing with technology in the classroom. I am feeling a bit overloaded from all of the informative and thought provoking sessions.

One of my favorite presenters, Leslie Fisher, talked about two relatively new assessment apps Quizizz and GoFormative.  Quizizz is similar to Kahoot! in that it's an online, multiplayer, timed game, which can be accessed via any device. One major difference is the students can see the question and the answer on their device. The students also see a point total for each question which diminishes as time passes. Leslie had us take a Dr. Seuss quiz to see how it worked. I found it a bit easier than Kahoot since I didn't have to remember the color and/or shape of the answer.

GoFormative is more like a traditional way of assessing students with a few great twists. It's difficult to explain verbally how this app works, so here's a very quick video -

This app appears to be a blank slate for creating a wide variety of assessments, which teachers can easily grade and provide feedback. You aren't limited to multiple choice questions like Quizizz,  Kahoot or Plickers. Students can type responses to open ended question and even draw answers. Hopefully the developers will add the ability to dictate answers. What's really cool is you can actually watch the students as they respond.

I will be discussing other apps and gadgets I learned at about FETC in future posts. I don't want to overwhelm anyone. So take a look at these two promising apps and try them out on your students!