My LIS 568 Blog

Scratch is an app/website that teaches students the basics of coding by coaching them through creating Vine-style videos. Users can join for free and then share their videos publicly for others to view.  I think this app could be a really fun way to not only teach students to code but also to create promotional materials for various items in the library collection. I would have students create videos about a book they have read and why they liked it and then post these for other students to view.

This app costs 5.99 and is geared towards younger users (I would say grades K-4). Using this app, students can learn how to create and use blogs, including how to add pictures and create video content. The app also teaches students how to create tags for posts and use these tags to find content later. It has an accompanying website easyblog.com that is an internet version of the app which is free. I think creating and maintaining a blog using the website would be a good group project for fourth grade students to work on in groups. I would have each group select a topic to blog about related current curriculum content in one of their classes. They would be required to make a number of videos, add pictures, and create easy to follow/use tags for their blog. I might also use this project as an opportunity to introduce students to the basics of coding. Students would be asked to post questions and comments on other groups blogs in order to help them navigate communication on such platfor

I learned a lot about OverDrive while shadowing a librarian out in Williamsville last spring. His school district had invested in the program in order to encourage students to continue to read over the summer. Each student is given a free account through the school that they can then access on any device using their school ID and password. It works best on a phone or tablet. Depending on the grade that the student is in, they are allowed to check out a particular number of the digital version of books at a time. In the case of the students I was observing, they were in grades K-4 so the number was 3-5. The app has filters that only allow access to age appropriate materials. There are settings where parents can go in and allow their child access to more advanced materials. I think this app would work wonders if encorporated into the summer reading program or used to hold a schoolwide contest to see which student could read the most books over break. The app has built in text to speech