Session One: Technology to Support Literacy and UOIs in Pre-School, Denis Jackson and Robyn Press, AISS

The highlight of this workshop for me was using iPads and Aurasma. There are several things you can do with it. One is to record student book reviews. Then, when the iPad points at the book, the iPad plays the book review. It can also be used to create animation in the book cover. This could be a good way to entice reluctant readers. It might also be an interesting Exhibition project.

The workshop leaders also mentioned two story apps, Bartleby's Buttons and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
Other interesting points..

LibGuides are used at AISS but only internally for teachers and librarians to share info. Interesting.An alternative is Popplet.

Also using OneNote for collaborative planning.

iMindMap is another tool they are using in the iPad. We currently use Kidspiration among Primary and Pre-Primary students moving on to Inspiration in Secondary school. It would be nice to stay with one product whether it be desktop, laptop, or tablet.

Finally, Symbaloo was mentioned as a way to simplify getting students to selected web sites.
 
Curation with Joyce Valenza

This workshop focused on the idea of curating, or collecting, sites, videos and other online resources in one place. She feels that curation is the new search and it makes it easier to collect together various formats.

In the midst of looking at her ideas, I came across a Ning (http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/) which has interesting resources and discussions. A link there announced an Open Mic Library World Smackdown. Last year's slides have good ideas (http://tlvirtualcafe.wikispaces.com/Open_Mic).

As a follow up to the workshop, I decided to try some curation of my own. I think one challenge is to find a topic that is not covered or not covered well. I am using paper.li to currate news about educational robotics. Link is on the first page of my PLN.
 
Designing for Learning with Susan LaMarca, Head of Library Services at Genazzano College and author of books on library design.

Key ideas for designing spaces:

Flexibility.
See http://www.robinhood.org/initiatives/library
movable furniture - makes library able to do different things

Collaboration
* group spaces
* TV news broadcast around school

Learning Driven
* what do students want/need and when?

Creativity
* bright colours, patterns
* Make a statement with the entrance
* combine student art gallery with library - but good set up of art
* giant chess board mat - I know there are plans for a painted giant chess board. I wonder whether a mat would be better?

Efficiency
* impact on learning outcomes

Inclusiveness
* including various cultural views, attitudes, beliefs and values

Human-centred
* feeling welcomed, home-like

We are building a new campus, so some of these ideas will be useful. I hope to use a couple in our current campus.

    Author

    Wayne Burnett is a technology teacher and coach and a doctoral student in educational technology focussing on educational robotics. This blog is an experimental one, to see if it works as a way to document and share PD.

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