Last night I went to my last class of the spring semester.  For the past three weeks I have had a magnificent stress-induced eye twitch and a good case of the "I can't brain, I has the dumbs."  I think that I have just enough brain power left to write and reflect on my last project for my #LIS724 Integrating Technology into Programming, Services, and Instruction course. 

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to try different platforms and sharing what I loved, learned, and (sometimes) loathed about them (I'm looking at you, Prezi).  I hope that I can continue to set aside some time to learn and experiment with new technological platforms and integrate them into my programming and reference services at my library.

Our final project tasked my group members and me with developing an inquiry based lesson to teach to our classmates.  After four years of not wearing my "teacher hat", I had to dust it off and put it back on.

Choosing a Topic

At first, I thought that it would be great fun for us to use some of the robotics that my library owns.  I looked at our Ozobots and Makey Makey, but due to special programming my group would not have been able to get enough materials for our classmates to use the robotic equipment effectively.

One of my group members suggested using GeoGuessr.  GeoGuessr is an online platform that utilizes Google Maps Street View.  Users select a region of the world and GeoGuessr places them in an unknown location within that region.   Users must use physical clues (mountains, trees, water, etc.) and human clues (signs, cars, people, clothes, etc.) to figure out where they are.  The user will make a guess about where they are and GeoGuessr will tell them how close or far away they are from their guess.

Designing a Lesson

I had to reach into The Archives (a.k.a my 2009 Toshiba Satellite Laptop that is still alive) to dig out my lesson plan outline.  It has been a while since I have had to wear my "Teacher Hat" but I feel like it is a bit like riding a bicycle - you remember what to do once you start going. 

I wanted to think of an activity that would get everyone interested in what we were about to do so I created the"Where in the United States" activity.  I downloaded pictures from Pixabay of four landmarks in the United States.  I wanted my classmates to guess the function of the landmark and where it is located.  

After the "Where in the United States Activity", my group decided that it would be a good idea to show our classmates how to use GeoGuessr and to try guessing a location together.  We also thought it would be helpful to provide Chicago Guidebooks to our classmates so that they could utilize a paper map and the index to help them pin-point their location.

My group and I met before class to talk through our lesson plan.  We also wanted to figure out how much time we wanted to spend on each component of our lesson. We were allotted twenty minutes to present our inquiry based lesson and we wanted to stick to the time frame.

Presenting our GeoGuessr Adventure

Our lesson was developed for seventh grade students.  I had some classmates that decided to act like they were in seventh grade.  I must admit, that while it was done in jest, I found it to be slightly distracting. 

Do distractions happen in the classroom?  Absolutely.  Distractions happen in library programming too, but when I am presenting a program or lesson to children I am mentally prepared for the possibility of a distraction to occur.  Was I mentally prepared for it in that very moment?  Nope.  

I thought that this was an engaging activity for everyone. It was interesting to see how each group used different strategies to figure out where they were on GeoGuessr.  Some people scrolled until they found a street sign or address, other people used familiar buildings or landmarks, and some used the guidebooks and maps. 

Some of the landmarks for the "Where in the US" activity were a bit difficult.  I would have liked to tie the physical and human factors to the introductory activity, but I was worried about the time and did not include that part.

Overall, I enjoyed putting together this lesson with my group.  I felt that the tools we used for this lesson were effective at making inquiry based learning hands-on and engaging.

Lesson Plan * Presentation Slides *  Where in the US Handout * GeoGuessr Handout

And Now...I Celebrate

Now that I am officially finished with my spring semester, I can celebrate that I have reached the half-way point of attaining my MLIS.  One year from now, I will be an official librarian!

And Now...I Remember Summer Classes Start Monday

I curated my Potty Training Resources on Kapsul.  Visually, Kapsul is very clean and uncluttered. Images are presented at the top of the page and links to websites are at the bottom right corner of the page.  This particular pathfinder focuses on library materials, and I liked that I could place the parent guides, picture books, and DVDs in our collection front and center.  I was able to provide bibliographic information for each item in my Kapsul as well as a direct link to its entry in our online catalog. This is a particularly useful tool because patrons can access the Pathfinder and put the books that interest them on hold from the comfort of their home.  I also included two electronic parent guides that can be downloaded at anytime on any electronic device.

I look forward to sharing this curated list with our patrons because they can access this information 24/7 and there are a variety of materials that introduce different approaches to potty training.

What a perfect opportunity to create a tutorial on accessing, searching, and borrowing a book on Overdrive!  Overdrive is one of several digital library catalogs that our library offers to our patrons. Patrons can borrow e-books and e-audiobooks using their computer or tablet.  

One of the requirements of this week’s assignment was a 4-minute time limit, ensuring that our tutorials would be quick but easy to follow.  I have a tendency to get overly excited and provide too much information, so I wrote a script to help me present an effective, basic overview of Overdrive.  I wanted my instructions to be very clear and concise for my target audience (anyone over the age of 9).

Next, I looked at screencasting software.  I decided to use Screencast O'Matic because it was free and had a simple layout.  I was really happy with my choice. Screencast O'Matic’s intuitive user interface made it very easy to use.  A screen popped up that showed an outline of the parts of my computer screen that would be captured and recorded.  There was a simple toolbox that allowed me to adjust my microphone settings and record my tutorial. The developers made Screencast O’Matic accessible through downloadable software or an application you could run on your web browser via their website.  My favorite function was the ability to upload my video directly to YouTube.  For a free platform, I felt that it was accessible, well thought out, and functional.

I hope to use Screencast O’Matic to create more tutorials for our other e-resources and databases. I think that this would be a very helpful tool for our library patrons!  It’s practically like having your own #PocketLibrarian.

This week’s assignment in my Technology class focused on Digital Storytelling, which is a video created by a library or librarian for marketing or advocacy purposes.  We were placed into groups and tasked with creating a 3-4 minute long video that incorporated images, narration, and music.

My Technology class is a hybrid course, which means we meet in person once a month.  During last night’s April meet-up, we were given time to create our videos. My group members and I traded a few emails over the past week because we wanted to be able to hit the ground running when we met face-to-face.  We also did some brainstorming via Google Docs, specifically about what age groups we work with, programs we have done, and ideas we had for our video. We ultimately decided on a video that promoted diverse books for young children, elementary students, and teens.  Each of us selected two books and wrote a book talk for each book.

When it was time for us to get into our groups, my group retreated to a little techno nook that is the Secret Garden of the School of Information Science (SOIS) program at Dominican University.  I had no idea that this room of technological goodness existed until one of my group members suggested that we go in there to work on our project. One of my group members hooked up her Macbook to the two large monitors in the SOIS computer lab to screencast her computer, which enabled us all to see our project and offer suggestions.  This assignment also provided me with an introduction to iMovie. I liked how iMovie allowed us to record our narration and adjusted the volume of our narrator when we added background music. It was like techno magic!

I really enjoyed putting together this project and felt that my group collaborated well.  We each contributed to the final product: one of my group members is a total whiz at iMovie and made our video look slick, the other group member had great suggestions for edits to the video, and I was able to come up with an introduction and conclusion for our video using some pieces from my Social Justice In the Stacks webpage.  I am pretty proud of what we created.

I think that Digital Storytelling can be a really fantastic marketing tool for libraries.  I am on the planning committees for two of my library’s biggest annual celebrations - Harry Potter Day and Star Wars Day.  I think that highlighting some of the incredible photos taken at last year’s events would be a really great marketing tool for promoting both celebrations this year.  I also think that this could be used to create videos on our library webpage to promote new books, our kid favorites section, and even share some early literacy tips! As a digital consumer, I know that I gravitate toward videos and images and I am certain that the customers my library serves function similarly.  Short videos are a great way to promote library programming and materials.