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Podcasts, tips for lesson ideas, and current examples from present day educators.

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Class Tech Tips is an EdTech Blog that helps teachers and schools discover new an innovate ways to use technology in their classrooms. Read the latest.

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Amazing resource with a community of Makers to consult, and see their posts about trouble-shooting and ideas on how to make it all work!

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The value of this community is drawn from the members who join. We are all about mutual support and open sharing of ideas. We have had a Facebook Group for a while, but we know that now everyone wants to be on social media, so this is a place that is just ours. We are not here to sell you anything, and we are care about your privacy. We are library people and makers, simply here to connect with other library people and makers.

This site is our community hub, and it gives you a place to ask each other questions, share resources, attend online programs, find collaboration partners, and more. We are holding space for you to engage in this platform and meet other maker people who work in public libraries, academic libraries, school libraries, tribal libraries...any kind of library!

Start out by attending one of our events, like the monthly Happy Hour on Zoom or one of our learning experiences, ask a question in one of our online conversation threads or create a profile to tell us more about your work as a maker in libraries! We can't wait to get to know you!

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Library Makers is a community that: * Connects and supports library maker staff of all levels of experience. * Recognizes the experience and strengths that library maker staff bring to the collective. * Creates a safe welcoming space for library maker staff to ask questions, share knowledge, find a mentor, develop skills, and/or exchange ideas with a diverse group of other professionals.

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Digital Literacies PD and resource to explore digital tools, planning and lesson integration.

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Creating a culture of environmental learning in the LLC.

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Librarians as Eco-Literacy Leaders: Creating a Culture of Environmental Learning in the Library – Canadian School Libraries Journal

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Resource Library

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The Maker Education Initiative is a 501c3 non-profit organization. EIN# 83-4594261

Unless otherwise noted, all the materials on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 license.

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The Maker Education Initiative is a 501c3 non-profit organization. EIN# 83-4594261 Unless otherwise noted, all the materials on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 license.

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K-12 Evaluated resource collection, includes information on cyber security and digital literacy

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Focused ED evaluates print and digital learning resources, to support teachers with decision-making when selecting resources for classroom instruction. This is an evaluation process, and not an approval process.

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Computational thinking and coding workshops for teachers!

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Teachers to take part in Code Class, a free workshop introducing coding & computational thinking for K-12 educators. - Lighthouse Labs

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Teachers to take part in Code Class, a free workshop introducing coding & computational thinking

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Educator Resources, VL supports and French section are worth checking out.

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Wilkinson Junior Public School > Virtual Library

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Wilkinson Junior Public School Virtual Library

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LLC Resources-even grade level designated and parent specific ones.

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Surrey Centre Library Learning Commons - Parent Resources

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Series of podcasts of educators sharing whats working for them, strategies, tools for further exploration and other discussion topics.

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Caroline Fell-Kurban | Thomas Mennella & Co

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AI Cafe: This Week With AI in the Classroom Archives | BAM! Radio Network

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It’s the first back-to-school season in the age of generative artificial intelligence – that’s historic. How are we preparing to engage students as this wave of new technologies washes into our classrooms with enormous possibilities and perils? Grab a cup of coffee with a middle school teacher, a un…

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Internet search platform for students

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Curated search optimized for students and knowledge professionals. Thousands of the web's most reliable informational sources in one place.

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Check out this definition: "Digital Literacy is the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to use digital technology and communication tools appropriately to access, manage, integrate, analyze and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and create and communicate with others."

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Offers a checklist to help you recognize high quality and inclusive digital media.

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Click here to download a printable version of the DIG Checklist.

High-quality digital content for children supports learning and literacy, reflects diverse experiences, feeds curiosity, develops empathy, and provides accurate information in a creative way.

All Content

Who is the narrator? What is the point of view?

Can kids select or customize the point of view?

Is the content, including the setting and characters, free of stereotypical representations?

Does the content include atypical settings and/or underrepresented life experiences which both allow more kids to see themselves in the media?

Can kids explore an unfamiliar location, region, or situation?

Does the content introduce experiences in ways that entertain and teach about a topic in a creative way?

Does the media include links to additional content or opportunities within the media itself for curious families to learn more about a topic, setting, culture, or experience which is new to them?

Are characters diverse in their culture, ethnicity, language, gender, age, social classes, physical features, sexual orientation, and ability, reflecting today's diverse families?

Are diverse characters meaningfully integrated as individuals?

Stories and Tales

Is the story original or is the story a retelling of a traditional tale?

If the story is a retelling of a traditional, indigenous tale, is a member(s) of the team an authority on the subject?

Do the creators have permission to retell the story, if applicable?

Does the story diversify the media offerings for children? Or is it similar in its setting, plot, characters, activities, and information to what is already widely available?

Does the media offer historical, cultural, or social context for the story that is different from the traditional offerings?

Non-fiction/Informational Media

Is the content accurate?

Is a member(s) of the team an authority on the subject?

Are references included and easily accessible?

Does the content provide a different perspective on a topic or share information in a new way?

Is the content updated to reflect current research?

Does the content support critical thinking skills?

Is the content searchable?

Activity/Game

Does the activity's setting(s) include multiple living situations, playspaces, or other meeting places? Or does the media acknowledge in some way that the one setting is one of many alternatives in a creative way?

Is the activity unique to a particular audience? Are there appropriate instructions for those unfamiliar with the activity?

Does the activity encourage creativity, making, and self-expression?

Does the activity encourage multi-generational coviewing, coplay, and joint media engagement?

Does the activity inspire connection with family and/or community members?

Are there recommended resources, books for example, included with the media that extend the activity's learning experience?

High-quality images, illustrations, video, and animations help create a richer experience for the user.

Does the media include authentic visual representation of culturally and ethnically diverse characters, environments, and experiences?

Do the artwork and images provide historical, social, or cultural context for the story, information, or activity?

Do kids see themselves, their families, and/or their communities authentically depicted in the artwork and images?

Are characters with different body types and abilities featured in various roles?

Can kids customize characters' appearance?

Can they create their own avatar or choose from multiple characters?

Can they choose ethnicity, physical features, clothing, and accessories?

Can they choose gender or create a gender-neutral character?

High-quality digital media features music, narration, and sound that enrich the media experience.

Does the media include multiple language options which are written and spoken by native speakers?

Can children easily select and change languages while using the media?

Does the narration align with the text and illustrations?

Does the app feature a voice record option to support family participation in a variety of home languages?

Does the media include music or sound effects culturally appropriate for the content?

Does the music have any historical, social, cultural context?

Can the music and sound effects be turned on/off to modify the experience for individual children?

High-quality digital media provides age-appropriate experiences for the intended audience. Some media addresses the specific needs of a particular, underserved audience while other media aims to include a wider audience in a common experience.

Who is the intended audience?

Are diverse families authentically represented in the media?

Does the audience have opportunities to see themselves reflected in the content of the media?

Does the audience have the opportunity to learn about and experience another culture, region, language, or ability in the content of the media?

Does the media address the specific needs of a particular, underserved audience?

Does the media include a wider audience in a common experience?

Are the experiences age-appropriate for the intended audience?

Are diverse families used in advertising/marketing images and messaging?

Are the media's descriptions and ads available in multiple languages?

High-quality media aims to inform, entertain, teach, connect, and inspire all kids from all backgrounds.

What is the media's purpose?

Is authentic representation of diverse backgrounds, traditions, abilities, and rituals a part of the purpose?

Is accessibility addressed in the media's purpose?

Is the purpose, at least in part, to encourage multiple kids or multiple people to explore, learn, share, and create together?

High-quality digital media for kids includes technical features that support accessibility, successful learning, privacy, customization, and joint media engagement.

Is the media glitch-free?

Are in app-purchases, sharing features, and external links locked behind a "parental gate"?

Is the media free of advertising?

Is the media easy for kids and their grown ups with diverse abilities to use? Can they access all of the content?

Was Universal Design for Learning a part of the overall design process?

Does the media integrate age-appropriate cues for meaningful interactivity?

Is the functionality connected to any representation of backgrounds, traditions, rituals and if so, is that representation authentic?

Does the media allow the user to change settings or other elements, allowing the user to customize the experience?

Do the technical features encourage coviewing and shared play?

Can kids navigate to specific parts of the media, for example the home screen, favorite page or scene, specific part of a puzzle?

High-quality digital media for children includes tips, instructions, or a guide for grown-ups with suggested activities that make the media more accessible to more kids and potentially increase the educational value.

Does the media offer grown-up tips, instructions, extension activities, or a guide?

Are the tips, instructions, extension activities, or guide available in multiple languages?

Do the supporting materials provide tips for encouraging bilingual development?

Do the instructions and support materials feature a range of diverse characters?

Does the guide offer suggestions on how to use the media to teach kids about diversity of all kinds?

Do the instructions and support materials provide any historical, social, or cultural context for the content?

Does the media protect kids' privacy?

A diverse team of creators, designers and developers with an array life experiences may design and develop a broader assortment of content that feature a variety of perspectives, characters, and settings.

Who are the members of the creative team? Who is the author, illustrator, developer, educational or cultural consultant?

Is information about the creators easily accessible?

Is the artwork, story, music, and functionality created by a diverse team?

Is a member of the team trained in Universal Design for Learning standards?

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Diverse and Inclusive Growth (DIG) Checklist - KIDMAP

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Click here to download a printable version of the DIG Checklist. High-quality digital content for children supports learning and literacy, reflects diverse experiences, feeds curiosity, develops empathy, and provides accurate information in a creative way. Who is the narrator? What is the point of view? Can kids select or customize the point of view?

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CAT: Collection Analysis Tool on Diverse Book Finder

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CAT: Collection Analysis Tool on Diverse Book Finder

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Helps us analyze collections for strengths and gaps in racial and cultural representations to help you diversify your collection.

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Diverse BookFinder | Identify & Explore Multicultural Picture Books

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Are you looking for multicultural children’s books? We’ve got you covered! You can search our circulating collection of picture books (2002-present), explore our quick lists, then borrow our books from your own library through interlibrary loan. We believe that too many children are left out of main…

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Media Literacy lessons, book trailers, Canadian content, trends in youth literature.

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Bibliovideo is a YouTube channel all about Canadian children's books. New videos are added to the channel twice weekly. With funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Bibliovideo is the first step in a long-range digital strategy being developed by a consortium of organizations led by the Canadian Children's Book Centre that includes the Association of Canadian Publishers/49thKids, Canadian School Libraries, CANSCAIP, Communication-Jeunesse and IBBY Canada.

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Sreejit's talks, AI curricular document, links to trending platforms.

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Insights into layout, what to include, resource lists.

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Use this guide to access the library catalogue, databases and support for any research project.

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The best part of this Libguide is you can click on any grade and find a curated list of resources connected to units of inquiry.

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LibGuides: ES Library Home Page: Reading

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Welcome to the YIS Elementary School Library Home Page! This is the launching point for your research and for your reading for pleasure. Take a look around, explore, and enjoy!

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This is a bank of links to everything and anything!

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THE DIGITAL LIBRARIAN’S SURVIVAL TOOLKIT IS A FREE 200+ PAGE GUIDE CROWDSOURCED BY 35+ LIBRARIANS FOR LIBRARIANS.

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This page is an exemplar from the Leading Learning framework embedded in the subtopic on ways to Advance The Learning Community.

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Surrey Centre Library Learning Commons - ADST Resources

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The ability to design and make, acquire skills as needed, and apply technologies is important in the world today and a key aspect of educating citizens for the future.
The new Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) curriculum is an experiential, hands-on program of learning through design

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To support documentation and process leading up to digital creation.

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The CSL Research Toolkit supports school library practitioners as they explore their own practice through research.

Why Research?
We encourage school library practitioners across Canada to engage in research because:

Research provides evidence to help understand the outcomes and impacts of school library practice;

There is a compelling need for research specific to Canadian school libraries;

We need to increase understanding by assessing specific practices, moving beyond what we have learned through large-scale correlational studies;

Practitioner research will inform future practices;

Sharing what we have learned will deepen understanding across our constituent communities.

What typically happens when a new idea is implemented in the school library is that there is no real plan to assess its success or for reporting and sharing what was learned. We are great at collecting anecdotes and informal observations, but rarely take the next step of organizing the collection of this data.

There are many reasons for this, including lack of knowledge about the research process. That is where the CSL Research Toolkit can help!

But is it research?

Assessment is at the core of teaching practice. Following Wiggins & McTighe's Understanding by Design Framework, we first identify the desired results and what students should know and be able to do to demonstrate their learning. We then determine what will constitute the evidence for assessing learning, and only when we've reached that point do we make decisions about instructional strategies that will be most effective to help students reach their learning goals. In other words, we plan like an assessor.

Teachers and librarians are already data masters. Applying the same kind of framework to exploring and assessing our own practices IS research - we just need to do it!

From student assessment to program assessment

We gather information to assess student learning in order to report on their individual progress. We gather information to assess the impact of the library program on student learning as well as many other aspects that contribute to student success, such as social and emotional growth and cultural awareness. Student assessment data that is gathered for reporting purposes can be analyzed as part of overall program assessment. There are many other ways to gather evidence of program success, as explored in this toolkit.

Yes, it is research, as long as:

It is conducted properly, using appropriate methodology and following ethical guidelines,

We understand its scope and application, and

We share our learning.

Assessing Outcomes and Impacts

Do we really matter? Do our actions improve student outcomes and have an impact on their learning and their lives? Do the strategies that we use in the library program have a positive influence on how well the school reaches is goals? These questions should guide what data we gather, how we analyze that data, and how we share the results of our research.

Output Measures: Outputs are tangible, quantitative measures, usually related to library operations. We measure outputs - collection and circulation statistics, attendance, etc., but what do these data tell us? Output measures like these have meaning only when put into the larger context of outcomes and impact.

Outcome Measures: Outcomes measure change from the perspective of the student, teacher or other library customer or stakeholder. For example, the outcome for students who participated in an information literacy lesson may be increased capacity to make critical decisions about the information they use.

Impact Measures: Impact measures larger and longer term effects - transferable skills, changes in attitude, and success with larger goals. Impacts are reported as higher-level changes. For example, the longer term impact of information literacy instruction may be that students understand their research topics more deeply and achieve better marks. Another impact might be that they are able to apply what they have learned in other contexts, at school and in life.

Measuring and communicating outcomes and impacts provide insight into the success of programs and initiatives. Understanding outcomes and impacts inform practice and deepen professional knowledge. Communicating outcomes and impacts strengthens understanding and support from decision-makers and stakeholders, and demonstrates the value of the school library learning commons program.

But how do we go about measuring outcomes and impacts? The CSL Research Toolkit introduces you to methods for school library practitioners to tell their story effectively through research. A particular focus on using qualitative measures helps us to support our success stories with solid data.

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Canadian School Libraries Research Toolkit

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The CSL Research Toolkit supports school library practitioners as they explore their own practice through research.

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Practical steps for planning a podcast.

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By Mira Campbell

This was a library partnership project with Nori Miwa's Grade 4 class at FH Miller Jr PS in Toronto, Ontario. It culminated with the library being transformed into the Miller Podcast Café where students were able to relax and enjoy their hard work and celebrate their peers.

The Forest of Reading® is a well known Canadian program which highlights Canadian books and encourages a love of reading. According to their website, more than 270,000 readers participate annually either through their school or public library. Our school signed up to participate for the first time and we were trying to think of an innovative way to promote the nominated books to all the students in the school. We knew we would do read-alouds for all the classes as well as have the whole school participate in the official voting day that takes place in April, but how could we engage all the students and have them connect in a meaningful way with these books?

Nori Miwa is the Grade 4 teacher at FH Miller Jr. PS. We have collaborated on several projects together. We decided this would be a great leadership opportunity for her class and a perfect fit because several of her students are Library Helpers, not to mention avid readers!

Why a Podcast?

Creating media texts not only allows for students to express their creativity, but it allows them to communicate their ideas through a different format while also removing barriers many students face such as writing and/or reluctance to present in front of a class. Podcasts have different styles and formats. We focused on the interview style which fit our project the best.

When we introduced the idea of creating a podcast to the class, they were ecstatic! Later, in their reflection, we learned that some felt like a podcast could only be made by professionals and some were a little nervous because it was new and "we did a lot of things in one day." They also had no idea the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes to create a podcast. This was a complex project with many components. We will share how we broke it down into manageable sections and supported their learning through Universal Design for Learning Framework and the use of digital tools (e.g., Book Creator and WeVideo).

Listening to podcasts is a great way to reach all students by providing an alternative format to access information. We chose the Blue Spruce nominated books as the topic for our podcast because of how they tapped into our students' interests, identities and lived experiences. Students were given a brief description of each book and then had an opportunity to look through all the nominated books and choose two that captivated them. This was also how we formed the podcast groups. From that initial preview day, they each connected deeply with their chosen book.

The four chosen books from the Blue Spruce 2023 nominated books were the following: Are you a Cheeseburger? written and illustrated by Monica Arnaldo, Abuelita & Me by Leonarda Carranza and illustrated by Rafael Mayani, Friends are Friends, Forever written by Dane Liu and illustrated by Lynn Scurfield and Be a Good Ancestor co-written by Leona Prince and Gabrielle Prince and illustrated by Carla Joseph.

As a teacher-librarian, when I am selecting resources for our students, I always try to keep in mind choosing ones that are equitable and culturally relevant. The above Blue Spruce nominated books exemplify all the traits that we look for. We knew with such rich texts, that students would connect and be able to dive deep into the stories.

TIP: The Equity, Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression department of the Toronto District School Board created a toolkit to support our resource selection of Equitable and Culturally Relevant and Responsive Resources. It provides some excellent questions to consider.

Step 2 - Listening to Mentor Podcasts

We started by listening to three different podcasts. We wanted students to hear a variety of different interview style podcasts about books and identify elements that they liked, but also what they did not want in their podcast. While they were listening, they completed the Book Creator template below with their observations. Students were able to record their voice, type their responses or use speech to text to type directly in Book Creator. Those built-in features support students and allow them to be independent. We gave feedback both in audio (written and/or audio) to guide them.

Example podcasts we listened to: Book Club for Kids, Off the Shelf, A Book Club for Kids by Kids

After the first podcast, we introduced another page in the Book Creator template to document good questions that they heard and they might want to use or adapt in their own podcast. We also discussed open ended versus yes/no questions and which would be more effective.

After listening to all the examples, we compiled a list of the important components that we would want to include in our Podcast and co-created our Success Criteria with the class. We did not share this document with the students due to the large number of items. Instead we took the ideas and broke the success criteria down into checklists for each section of the podcast planning (e.g, intro; segment 1) which we will discuss further in the next section.

Step 3 Planning the Podcast

We knew this project needed to be scaffolded carefully in order for all students to be successful. We created a template in Book Creator that would support students' research and planning. We were able to embed links to videos we wanted them to watch right in the template. Students watched videos of the authors reading their books (available through the Forest of Reading program), as well as any interviews they had done.

The students were all able to work in one book collaboratively with Book Creator's real-time collaboration feature and both teachers were able to access and give feedback. Please see the plus (+) symbol in the bottom right corner of the image below. Some students put point form notes, while others started writing out their script.

The students' podcast planning book was broken down into different sections which would follow the segments in their podcast. You can read a sample planning book here. We broke our success criteria up, including only the relevant criteria to that section. We had it on the side of each page. Students could move the checkmarks as they completed them. When you are in edit mode of Book Creator, you can use the sides of the pages as we did below. You will not see the information on the sides when you are in read mode. We have never used checklists in Book Creator before, but they worked great!

We also found this was an effective way for students to compile information for their podcast all in one place and work collaboratively. While we were researching podcasts, we found that many ended with a "call to action." This fit in perfectly with our goal of having students vote for their favourite Blue Spruce nominated book. We also wanted to incorporate some media literacy into the project so we gave them the option to include a sponsor ad for their podcast.

Below is the breakdown of all the different sections included in the planning book:
Learning Goals (co-created as a class)
Ideas for the Name of our Podcast (copy of our class brainstorming page with all the options)
Introduction
Segment 1 - Excerpt from the Book
Segment 2 - Story behind the book/author
Segment 3 - Questions for the podcast (that group members would answer)
Segment 4 - Call to Action
Conclusion
Extra Credit: Sponsor Ad

During the planning stage of the project, we reached out to the authors of each book. We didn't know if it would be possible, but hoped that they might answer our students' questions. We were thrilled when all 4 authors and even one illustrator, instantly agreed to record their responses and send us the audio files so that we could include them in the podcast. Some even went above and beyond and recorded an intro and a thank-you message to use. It was beyond our wildest dreams! We couldn't wait to share the news with our students. We then added an extra segment into each book where they would put the questions for the author & Illustrator. We used the same page to insert the author's responses as they came in so that the groups could listen to the audio recordings.

We noticed in this part of the project that several students took advantage of the option to record their ideas in Book Creator (see image below). Digital tools like Book Creator remove barriers that may exist, allowing students to fully demonstrate their knowledge and share ideas. One student who struggles with getting his ideas down on paper, chose to share all his ideas by recording his voice directly in Book Creator. Other groups recorded excerpts they would read on their podcast. Ultimately we are interested in their ideas, so it is efficient to capture them without getting stuck on spelling.

Script Writing

This was a new writing format for some of our students. We found some examples by other students online that we shared with them to help them get started. We created a graphic organizer with the different segments to support their writing. Some used speech to text, while others wrote on paper first and then typed into the script.

Instinctively, they all colour coded their lines to make it easier during recording. The groups were fairly independent during this portion of the project. We gave feedback as needed and some revisions were made. Overall, we were quite impressed with how they understood the conversation format of the podcast. Listening to many examples at the start of the project clearly paid off!

Rehearsing the Podcast

Students had a period to practise their scripts while they were waiting for their turn to record. Some students even did extra practice at home (specifically those who require repetition before their reading becomes fluent). Providing that extra time relieved the anxiety for many of our students. When we co-created the success criteria with the students, they noted that there should be rehearsal time so that it sounds fluent and not choppy. One student said you should engage your audience with a friendly voice that has lots of expression, like you are "dancing with your voice."

Recording the Podcast

Through our school board, all students have access to the web version of WeVideo. We had never used the program before so we all learned together. There are great videos from WeVideo Academy online. We used the Classroom version of WeVideo (instead of the Classic) so that we could create an assignment and have all the group members join the same project and work collaboratively. It also saves automatically which students are used to from the Google Workplace

We bought a mini podcast microphone for this project which plugged right into our Chromebooks using the USB port and worked without needing to download anything. There was a big difference in sound quality. I would highly recommend using one. It filtered out the background noise. You could even take an additional step and put the Chromebook and microphone in a portable recording booth. We had one gifted to us by a former art teacher at the school who made it with students. It works really well. We wanted to capture the students as they were recording so we didn't use a sound box on this project. However, they are easy to make if you don't have one.

Teacher tips: Sound Tiles / DIY Sound Box

Considerations

We found that WeVideo is not as intuitive as iMovie and we needed to watch some tutorials to figure out some features. We also encountered some issues while using the program. At times the media was slow to import and we had difficulty saving one project file, although it eventually saved. One project file mysteriously disappeared and we had to redo it. These do not seem to be common issues. Overall, we would use the program again for many of the features outlined below.

Editing Podcast with WeVideo

Below is a screenshot of the teacher dashboard. you can see the status of student projects (e.g., who has turned in and who is still working). You are also able to go into all the projects and leave feedback, which we discuss below.

Project file for a group: When you are in the project file, you can see who is collaborating on the project, all the media and the timeline below where you put your podcast together. You can preview the project as you are editing. For more information, we recommend watching the videos on WeVideo Academy.

What we loved about using WeVideo was that we could record directly into the project file. Our microphone just plugged into the Chromebooks and was ready to go. Another advantage is there is an Essentials Library of royalty-free stock music built into the program that students can choose from and no attribution is required. Furthermore, the students didn't get sidetracked searching too long for music. They were able to quickly pick a clip to use in their project. It imports directly into the project file which is convenient.

TIP: WeVideo Podcast Instructions

Feedback

Another great feature of the classroom version is the ability to leave feedback. You can select the exact place in the timeline where you want to leave a comment. We do wish the feedback icon was larger. One thing to also consider is that if you leave a comment and then clips get shifted around, it wouldn't be in the correct place.

Once the groups turn in their project, they are given the option to download it and save it to the computer or Google Drive. Teachers also have this option. That MP3 file is what we used to share the podcast.

Authentic Audience: Sharing with Authors

One aspect that made this project so successful was the students knew they had an authentic audience beyond the school. Even more unbelievable was the fact that the authors of the books not only were guests on their podcast, but also listened to their podcasts and sent messages to each group. This is a key part of all our projects. Students are motivated to do their best work when it is being shared. We also instil in them that they will need to work hard and produce their best work. We have high expectations for all students and make sure that they are ALL successful through careful planning using the Universal Design for Learning Framework. With high standards and meticulous work, the students also get a great sense of accomplishment.

Unexpectedly the authors thanked us for the experience and all really loved being part of the podcast. We were truly grateful that they donated their time and made a real impact on our students.

School Leadership: Voting Day

Once the podcasts were completed, we shared them with the entire school. The intent of it was to promote the Blue Spruce nominated books ahead of the school-wide vote for the favourite.

Two of the Grade 4 students in the class created a Google Form with photos of the books. Classes from K-6 came to the library at scheduled times to vote. Involving the whole school was great at building excitement and also provided a leadership opportunity for our Grade 4 class.

Our students demonstrated incredible leadership interacting with all the classes and running the voting process which was incredibly smooth and efficient.

In addition to voting, the classes also had an opportunity to ask the Grade 4s about making a podcast and they discussed their favourite books. During the discussion with the Grade 5/6 class, there were some meaningful moments.

One of our Grade 5 students Dominic, who had moved from Mexico made an emotional connection to a book and shared his experience. While Ida, one of our Grade 4 students led the discussion and shared her own personal experience as it related to the book.

Other students found the books relatable and mirrored issues that are currently going on in the world. "The reason I chose Abuelita & Me is because it's relatable in many ways and it also matches some of the real problems in the world like stereotypes." ~ Deshawn, Grade 5

You can watch the highlights from the Voting Day in this reel

Parent Engagement

What I love about Book Creator is how easily we can share the projects that we do with our parent community and other educators. I often use it as a chance to document the project in addition to sharing the student work. You can publish books and then share the link. We email to our parents and also share on social media. I created an Instagram account for the library ( m.campbell.library) and it has been a great way to engage our parent community.

If you have used Book Creator before, a podcast might not be the first thing you think of. We had never tried this before, but it actually worked really well. In Book Creator, you can upload audio clips (there is no maximum length) and then make the icon invisible. We designed our podcast page to look like Spotify and then hid the audio in the play button so when readers click on it, the podcast plays! You can read Book Creator books on any device, even a phone. I was even able to listen to the podcast on the drive home.

Our parents often tell us how much they enjoy seeing their children in their school environment. It's like a window into the classroom. We have included some quotes from our parent community where they share their perspective on this project.

What's Next? Our Celebration

We have previously done a modern book tasting in the Library as a way to engage students and expose them to a variety of different genres. We wanted to update this event, so we created the Miller Podcast Café. When students come to the café, they will be able to choose which of the four different podcast episodes they want to listen to and they will provide feedback to their peers through a Book Creator book.

It will also give them a chance to look through the Book Creator digital book we created about this project which has many behind the scenes photos and videos. There will be a scheduled time for all classes (Grade 1-6) to come visit the café. In the same visit, we will also be showing the Blue Spruce awards ceremony where students will find out which nominated book won.

If you would like to be part of the journey and see how this celebration turns out, please follow the FH Miller Library instagram ( m.campbell.library) on Instagram.

Collaboration in the Library Learning Commons

As a teacher-librarian, it can be challenging to create meaningful learning experiences in short library periods. In addition, while I know all the students in the school, building a relationship can be more challenging as I spend less time each week with students. The classroom community created by the teacher helps bridge the gap because students are more willing to participate in activities in the library.
This project exceeded our expectations and turned out better than we could have hoped for. We believe this is due to the careful planning of the project keeping the UDL framework in mind. The planning stage took a long time, but investment paid off with the professional podcasts students made. The format of a podcast amplified student voices that we do not typically hear from. Initially, we had hoped for each group to make two episodes, but we did not have enough time.

In addition, involving the whole school in the Voting Day built excitement and made the project more meaningful. We did not anticipate the emotional responses and deep connections several students made to the nominated books. It went well beyond what a traditional Read Aloud and discussion might elicit as it was their peers leading the discussions. As a result, the whole school was invested in the outcome of the final Blue Spruce winner! It also created more leadership opportunities for the Grade 4 class than initially planned.
From a Teacher-Librarian's Point of View:
I really respect and admire the classroom community that Nori has created. They are an empathetic group of future leaders. She weaves important discussions into their classroom routine on a daily basis including topics of social justice, Indigenous perspectives, environmental issues, stereotypes, racism and more. As a result, they had a lot of prior knowledge which they could apply to this project. The success of this project is directly due to our collaboration as colleagues.
From a Classroom Teacher's Point of View:
Working with Mira has truly been an amazing experience for both myself and the students. She has so many great ideas that help to inspire many of our projects together and it helps to be able to work together on them, since we are able to get so much more done and make them bigger and better than even we imagine. I have learned so much from her, especially her knowledge of technology that has helped me become a better teacher in this area. The success of colleagues working together is shown in this project.

We hope you learn from our experience and embark on a collaborative journey of your own. Consider what can be achieved beyond the curriculum and traditional classroom lessons.

Mira Campbell has 17 years of experience as a Teacher-Librarian and Special Education Teacher. She is a Digital Lead Learner Mentor with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and a Book Creator Ambassador. She enjoys collaborating with teachers during Library Partnership projects and loves to celebrate students' hard work with big reveals!

Nori Miwa is a Junior Teacher at F. H. Miller. She has been teaching in the TDSB for 11 years and at Miller for 4. She enjoys creating a classroom community where students' voices are heard and their interests celebrated. She believes in social justice and the importance of extracurricular activities. She is often seen happily coaching throughout the year!

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Share on the Air: Creating a Podcast in the LLC

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By Mira Campbell This was a library partnership project with Nori Miwa's Grade 4 class at FH Miller Jr PS in Toronto, Ontario. It culminated with the library being transformed into the Miller Podcast Café where students were able to relax and enjoy their hard work and celebrate their peers.

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Discusses digital citizenship as a way to prepare students for a tech future.

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The Experience of Being a Digital Citizen and the Stories That Connect Us – Canadian School Libraries Journal

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masinahikan iskwêwak/Book Women podcast 

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masinahikan iskwêwak/Book Women podcast 

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Metis women created a podcast bookclub available on spotify, and on this site there are online workshops and resources related to Indigenous resource creation.

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Book Women — Indigenous Literary Studies Association

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A Bioblitz is a snapshot of nature in a specific area at a specific time. People search for, catalogue, and photograph plant and animal species in a given area. The data collected is uploaded online and added to a larger database of documented local species. Shared by Lauren!

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Infographic and Powerpoint presentation templates

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4,500+ PowerPoint Infographic Templates - Infograpia

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All infographics you’ll ever need are now at your disposal. The World’s Largest Selection of Infographics in One Package. Infographic templates for Powerpoint

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Curated resource of tech and web based tools.

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HyperDoc Web Tools (tsgivets) - Profile | Pinterest

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See what HyperDoc Web Tools (tsgivets) has discovered on Pinterest, the world’s biggest collection of ideas.

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Jennifer LaGarde, creator of the blog: Adventures of Library Girl shares professional stories, a love of literature, and suggestions on her podcast for new TL's.

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Books Podcast · Updated Weekly · Rooted in the belief that our world needs the magic of children's literature now more than ever, the Reader's Heart podcast captures conversations with authors and illustrators about children's litera...

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A series of guest speakers talk about all kinds of books and dive into a variety of topics from read alouds, indigenous texts, and multilingual learners.

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A podcast sponsored by Canadian School Libraries and voiceEd Radio

Your Hosts: Beth Lyons, Lisa Noble, and Alanna King

Read Into This is about books, articles, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, media texts, cookbooks, and everything in between. We will explore how we read and how what we read makes us who we are and helps us learn about those around us. Can't wait for you to join in and talk wordy with us.

Listen to the Podcast

About Your Hosts

Alanna King is an agent of change in Ontario's Upper Grand District School Board. A shameless promoter of her own professional development, she tirelessly spends her time learning and tracking its impact. Alanna was a recipient of the Canadian School Libraries 2020 Angela Thacker Memorial Award for her outstanding contribution to teacher-librarianship and the development of the school library learning commons. She can best be reached on Twitter @banana29.

Beth Lyons has taught in the Primary, Junior and Intermediate divisions and she is currently the teacher-librarian at Larkspur Public School in the Peel District School Board. She believes in being open about her own learning journey as an educator and a teacher-librarian and reflects on her time in the Library Learning Commons on her blog The Librarian's Journey and on Twitter @MrsLyonsLibrary. She is passionate about helping others find what they love to read and embracing their inquiry mindset. She has been actively involved in the transition of the Library Learning Commons at Larkspur Public School and sees the role of the teacher-librarian as a curator, an advocate, a risk taker and an ally. Beth believes in encouraging students and educators to bring their voice and ideas into the LLC as the space continues to evolve. Whether through loose parts, photography, art, STEAM and other mediums, she loves to connect and share ideas on social media.

Lisa Noble has taught in the Primary, Junior and Intermediate divisions, including Core French and music, and is currently teaching Grade 7 with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. She is passionate about building community in the classroom and school space, and can often be found lingering at the intersection of technology, pedagogy and equity. Creating opportunities for students and teachers to engage in mindful making, and reflect on their own self -and co- regulating strategies is an ongoing focus for Lisa. She is a reader, knitter, spinner, baker and fitness enthusiast, and can be found exploring all of her lifelong learning interests on Twitter at @nobleknits2.

At voicEd Radio we believe that if we want to change the way we do education, we have to change the way we talk about education. Learn more about voicEd Radio.

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Read Into This is about books, articles, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, media texts, cookbooks, and everything in between. We will explore how we read and how what we read makes us who we are and helps us learn about those around us. Can't wait for you to join in and talk wordy with us.

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From Canva and beyond, step by step tutorials, events and other fun ideas for the library such as hiding a few free giveaway books with a little sticky note inside saying they can keep it or re-shelve it.

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Desktop Browsers

View full details

Chrome 90 and 91

Firefox 89 and 90

Edge 90 and 91

Respondus Lockdown Browser

Safari 13 and 14

Mobile Browsers

View limited support guidelines

Latest version of Safari (iOS) and Chrome (Android)

Mobile Apps

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Desktop Browsers View full details Chrome 90 and 91 Firefox 89 and 90 Edge 90 and 91 Respondus Lockdown Browser Safari 13 and 14 Mobile Browsers View limited support guidelines Latest version of Safari (iOS) and Chrome (Android) Mobile Apps

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Includes tech integration podcast collection from change management to AI integration.

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Rethinking Learning - Define Your WHY Through Stories

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Conversations on Learning. Let’s go deeper into real conversations about their WHY. Barbara invites educators to talk on how their passion impacted their life.

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Scholastic book fairs...I wonder what they offer for a digital selection? Time to investigate!

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It starts with a choice: What do I want to read? And since being empowered to choose their own books is a milestone opportunity to identify and express their own voice, kids also leave the Book Fair as bolder, prouder, and stronger individuals.

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Scholastic Book Fairs empower kids to find the stories that speak to them. Learn how you can participate in a school book fair!

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Using tech tools in the Makerlab to save family recipes! Fun intergenerational way to use the space.

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Part of our family lore is this: When my oldest was like 7th and in Sunday School, the teacher decided they were going to surprise the parents with a class cookbook which she helped put together and print and distribute. The only problem is this: I don't cook. So when Riley enthusiastically gave me my copy there was her recipe for Hamburger Helper Strogonaff. Which, to be fair, was her favorite food, in part because it was the only food I really cooked at home. The recipe was simple: buy some hamburger, buy a box of Hamburger Helper, and follow the instructions on the back of the box. Three sentences in a cookbook that was supposed to share family recipes and, well, there we were.

Fast forward to recent events. There is one family recipe that I do care about, for no bake cookies. We usually buy them at the store and recently I learned that I had never made them from scratch with my youngest child. Which, isn't super surprising, but did hurt my heart a little. So we recently went to the store and made the cookies. And then I got the idea for a program that I wanted to do.

You see, that Sunday school teacher wasn't wrong. Family recipes are sometimes sacred. Even the simplest of ones, like no bake cookies. So I started designing a program that would allow tweens and teens to learn tech skills while writing down and preserving family recipes. I started with my own and made a template.

Before we discuss the template, I want to point out that the one I share above is a generic template that I made after making one of my Dad and my favorite Dad recipes. When teens add their own pictures and recipes, it is very personal. I made some for several members of my family.

The background: Is a picture of the item itself. You can upload a picture of your cooked item and replace it.

The chef: To make this part, I uploaded a picture of my Dad and removed the background. For this image, I used a stock image of a Chef.

The circle pics: Here, I inserted 3 pictures I had of my girls making the item with my Dad. These are frames so you can easily upload pics and drag them into the frame. I did the same with the picture of the cookies on the white square.

The recipe itself: The next part is just typing in the ingredients and steps. If you need to you can add instructions on page 2 and print on front and back.

To print: To make this recipe card size, I used my Canon Selphy printer. You can also just print through a regular printer and cut it down to recipe card size. You can buy small, personal laminators to laminate as well.

If you wanted to add a step to your program, you could buy Index Card boxes and provide a variety of stickers and Sharpies for tweens and teens to make their own recipe card holders.

This isn't the typical type of program I put together for tweens and teens, it has a lot of nostalgia built into it. But I have often found that our tweens and teens are yearning for connections and traditions in ways that we often overlook, and this is an unique way to meet that need. September is actually Family Meals Month, so it can be a great way to tie into a national movement that celebrates families eating together and home cooked meals.

If you would like to take the emphasis off of families, and well know that family can be a complicated topic for a lot of people, March is National Nutrition Month and it can be a great program to add in a series of programs on nutritional literacy. They don't have to be family recipes but basic recipes for things like homemade mac & cheese and other staple meals that teens on the verge of adulting might want to add to their knowledge base. It's great for those Adulting 101 classes a lot of people host.

It's very important that you know that I do cook a few more things now (when I have to). But Riley broke the curse and is an excellent cook and baker. A win for me!

Filed under: Library Programming, Programming, Tech Talk, Technology, Teen Programming, Tween programming

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MakerSpace: Preserving Family Recipes in the Library

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Teen librarian Karen Jensen shares an outline for a tween and teen program that teaches tech skills and encourages participants to create their own recipe cards for posterity

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Template for displays

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Novels in Verse Teens and Tweens- Book List

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Amazingly Simple Graphic Design Software - Canva

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Interactive slides and lesson curation. Requires great wifi and updated devices!

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Nearpod: Foster a love of learning in every student

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Create active learning experiences students can’t wait to be a part of.

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Added interactive sound and image posters, connects with sensors, Scratch, Guitar Hero etc.

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Makey Makey: An Invention Kit for Everyone. Ever played Mario on Play-Doh or Piano on Bananas? Alligator clip to start inventing the future.

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Enhance, Engage, Extend...thoughtful tech planning and assessment tool

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What is the Triple E?
The Triple E is a practical framework that measures the degree to which the technology in a lesson is helping students meet the learning goals. Unlike other technology frameworks, the Triple E Framework focus is on the learning goals, and not specific technology tools. The framework draws on educational research concerning effective and ineffective practices with technology tools from the past two decades. The Triple E measurement tool was developed specially for K-12 teachers and administrators to use in lesson plan development, evaluation of the potential effectiveness of educational apps in learning, and evaluation of the potential effectiveness of tech tools in lesson plans. The framework is based on three components: Engagement in learning goals, Enhancement of learning goals, and Extension of learning goals. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they are distinct and different. The Triple E Framework defines each component shares what makes each piece unique. While not a perfect science, the Triple E measurement tool provides a benchmark for what educators should be thinking about when considering a technology tool for learning.

The Triple E Framework draws on a considerable amount of research about what works and does not work when it comes to technology in learning. In particular it emphasizes the following as its theoretical foundation...

Pragmatism: Active, social, creative, and authentic learning (Dewey, 1897)

Focus on the learning goals (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003)

Meaningful use of technology in the classroom requires teachers to integrate technological affordances with pedagogical approaches for the specific subject matter to be taught (Mishra & Khoeler, 2006).

The significance of instructional strategies in cooperation with using technology tools (Pane et al., 2017; Montrieux et al., 2015; Okojie et al., 2006)

The importance of time-on-task active engagement (Wartella, 2015)

Co-use and Joint-Media Engagement with technology devices and software (The American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013; Darling-Hammond et al., 2014; Zack & Barr, 2016)

Social aspect of learning through technology tools (Vaala et al., 2015; Guernsey, 2012)

Value-added strategies such as promoting student self-reflection, self-assessment, and self-explanation (Means et al. 2009)

The type of use--avoiding "drill and practice" which can have negative effects on learning outcomes and integrating more real world problem-solving and creating (Vaala et al., 2015)

The quality of technology use rather than quantity (Wenglinsky, 2006; Wenglinsky, 2008)

Technology itself does not lead to positive effects in student learning but can be an 'intellectual and social amplifier' which can help make good schools better but also can increase problems at less successful schools when not implemented strategically. (Warschauer, 2006)

Helping students connect existing knowledge with new knowledge (Wartella, 2015)

Knowledge needs to be situated in authentic contexts (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1990)

Read more about the research and links here

The Development of the Triple E
The Triple E Framework, developed in 2011 by Professor Liz Kolb at the University of Michigan, School of Education, was created to address the desire for K-12 educators to bridge research on education technologies and teaching practice in the classroom. There are decades of reliable and useful research that provides guidelines on effective practices when using technology tools for eliciting learning growth. The research clearly points out that effective technology integration begins with good instructional strategies and not fancy tools. The Triple E Framework was designed for educators to easily evaluate how to select tools to meet their learning goals, and ultimate design learning experiences so the tools have a positive impact on student achievement and learning outcomes. The Triple E Framework is meant to be used as a coaching tool to support teachers in their instructional choices around and with technology tools.

is the Triple E Valid and Reliable?
​Yes! A recent independent mix-methods study conducted in 2018, published in 2019 by Dr. Shelia Schatzke at the University of North Texas. found the Triple E to be both valid and reliable.
​
WHY Triple E?
The research on technology and learning over the past decade is fairly clear, technology should be integrated based on what we already know about good teaching and pedagogical practices. Dating back to the late 19th century, the foundation of current teaching practices is based on the work of pragmatism. Pragmatists like John Dewey (1897) pushed for learning to be embedded in the student's authentic everyday lives, socially constructed knowledge, active/hands-on learning and full of choice. Since the early 1990s Research has found that educational technology with a "drill and practice" approach often has no effects on learning or cognition. Yet, most technology tools created for education are still drill and practice and in the lower-order of Blooms Taxonomy.

Despite media often claiming a new piece of technology will "revolutionize" learning, that is almost never the case. The Triple E framework takes this fallacy of technology as the magic bullet learning into account, and allows teachers to become critical consumers of making mindful choices around technology tools in their teaching. It is a simple framework, based on research around teaching and learning practices with technology tools. The framework is intended to help educators create lessons that allow students to use technology to meet and add value to learning goals as active, social, creative learners, in authentic ways. The framework also helps K-12 administrators evaluate the connection between potential learning outcomes and the technology they are seeing in their teacher's classrooms.

How Triple E is Different than other Tech Integration Models
Some educators tend to be haphazard with technology tools, often trying new hardware or software because it's shiny or new, dismissing older technologies with an assumption that older=poor technology use. Today, few educators would argue that technology is a TOOL to help students reach learning goals. How do educators measure a tools ability to help students reach learning goals? There are a number of frameworks that teachers use for integrating technology (SAMR, ADDIE, TIM, TPACK, RAT), while all of them have benefits, none directly focus on how technology helps students achieve learning goals. While TPACK, developed by Mishra & Khoeler (2006)--technology knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge is the heart of integration, it is a conceptual framework and just needs a practical tool to help teachers envision what it may look like in practice. The Triple E is that practical tool that brings together instructional strategies, learning goals and purposeful tool selection. Most frameworks focus on how technology substitutes for traditional tools or if the technology use is creative, but not if the tools were able to actually leverage the learning goals. As the U.S. has become focused on standardizing learning and outcomes, making sure that students are using their time to meet learning goals is even more vital when integrating technology. This is where the Triple E Framework can help to extend the current models.

Significance of Instructional Strategies
No digital tool is a magic bullet for learning. While some tools have effective learning strategies built into them (eg...collaboration, differentiated instruction...etc), many do not. Even when a tool includes good pedagogical practices, teachers supports and instructional strategies around the tool are still a vital component to the lesson plan (Okojie et al., 2006). The type of tool selected is not nearly as significant as the instructional strategies a teacher creates when using the tools. Instead of tossing out effective teaching strategies when using technology tools, teachers who use technology effectively are able to integrate instructional moves to leverage better learning with the digital tools. The Triple E Framework makes certain to consider that while a tool may be "drill and practice", the teacher can create structures around the tool to help meet the three different components of the framework. For example, a teacher could pair students up while working on a piece of software (co-use), or students could participate in reflective thinking practices such as making predictions while they are using the technology tools, so they can reflect upon their learning. This is one reason why the framework is not built around using a certain type of tool for learning, rather it is built around making sure students are on-task and meeting their learning goals through the technology tools. ​
See examples of instructional strategies here

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Making digital mind maps with the ability to embed youtube and other visuals.

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Important — Popplet.com service is ending July 1, 2026. Please read the official announcement here,and visit our new site Superstructures.io.

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This video provides an example of the app, but it is a card sorting app. It can be used to build sentences, for team building to sort ideas and as a brainstorm tool while delving further into exploring concepts related to U of I's.

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iCard Sort App for iPad in small group work

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Ambient Sounds

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Mix ambient sounds together to wash away distraction and help you focus or relax

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Creating and recording podcasts

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Cool Tools

Explore these digital tools to record digital audio and create and share a podcast

Connect knowledge to emotion using digital audio and podcasting to tell stories that engage and inspire:

Share personal narratives that have relevance to contemporary social and political issues

Inform and persuade by connecting to people's deepest values

Learn the 10 Commandments of Public Speaking and the art of asking questions

Express larger truths by connecting people across time and space through the skillful use of voices and music

Examples

Some examples of student-created digital audio to inspire your creativity

Propaganda Lab

Participants created a podcast summary of key insights from the Propaganda Lab, a pre-conference event held at the Media Meets Literacy in Sarajevo event on September 19 - 20, 2017.

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Explore these digital tools to record digital audio and create and share a podcast Connect knowledge to emotion using digital audio and podcasting to tell stories that engage and inspire: Share personal narratives that have relevance to contemporary social and political issues Inform and persuade by connecting to people's deepest

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Virtual Field Trips are particularly compelling, great digital literacy resources as well.

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School District 75 Elementary Virtual Learning Commons

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K-6 families, check back often for updated resources and new featured blog posts.

Mission Teacher Librarians have created this virtual space to provide opportunities for students, educators and parents to access high quality digital learning resources and experiences. The resources support different ways of learning and connect to the redesigned British Columbia curriculum.

(Quotation Source: Canadian Library Association, 2014, 4)

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Home Learning Resources Available here! K-6 families, check back often for updated resources and new featured blog posts. Mission Teacher Librarians have created this virtual space to provide opportunities for students, educators and parents to access high quality digital learning resources and experiences. The resources support different ways of learning and connect to the redesigned...

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Simple coding platform for integration with classes.

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mBlock - One-Stop Coding Platform for Teaching and Learning

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Makeblock's coding platform for beginners. Scratch 3.0 based. Supports coding for robots like Makeblock, Arduino with blocks or Python, learning AI & IoT

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Tool for digital storytelling

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Pixton | Multimodal Writing Platform for Grades 4–8

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Pixton is a multimodal writing platform for Grades 4–8 that helps students write and demonstrate understanding using comics, graphic novels, storyboards, and books.

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Typing club lessons

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The highest quality free courses through the most awesome learning platform.

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Grade level collections for PYP

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LibGuides: Grade 1: Sharing the Planet (STP): Home

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Understanding living things helps us share our environment and resources.

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Christian School Libguide

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HCOS + Flex | Learning Commons – Encouraging Christian community through discipleship, literacy and innovation.

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Lot's of professional learning links related to tech and pedagogy.

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Alice Keeler is a teacher, mom of 5, expert in EdTech integration and virtual learning, speaker and author. Alice is passionate about student centered teaching and using tech to build relationships, empower and equip students, and make learning better. Paperless is not a pedagogy. Digital is different, Alice leads the way in developing efficient, engaging, and effective digital learning environments that go beyond worksheets and PDFs.

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Alice Keeler is a teacher, mom of 5, expert in EdTech integration and virtual learning, speaker and author. Alice is passionate about student centered teaching and using tech to build relationships, empower and equip students, and make learning better. Paperless is not a pedagogy.

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Article and links to many coding sites to explore.

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Illustration by T. M. Detwiler

When children in Homer, AK, come to storytime at the public library, they might hear Ezra Jack Keats's classic The Snowy Day or Lois Ehlert's Snowballs. As in such programs across the country, the kids are learning the building blocks of basic literacy. But at Homer storytime, they gain exposure to another critical skill. Librarian Claudia Haines doesn't just read the well-loved books, she uses them to teach computational thinking.

"Robot Claudia," as Haines calls herself during these sessions, asks young patrons to give her step-by-step instructions to build a snowperson. Haines explains to the parents that this is preparation for becoming fluent in the languages of computers.

In an effort to prepare the next generation for the future, school and public librarians, as well as teachers and educators at community-run and for-profit camps, have answered the call to teach kids code. But many now recognize it's not enough for students simply to know how to write code. The capacity to build a product or solve a problem requires an entirely different literacy.

With this in mind, the focus of coding education is shifting from teaching the specific skill of coding to teaching computational thinking-or the ability to follow a step-by-step process to solve a problem. Technology education programs from CSforAll to Code.org to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), as well as employers such as Google, all embrace this new context and focus.

The future workforce will require a solid grounding in the discipline of thinking computationally, says Chris Stephenson, Google's head of computer science education strategy. She compares this moment to the epistemological shift that happened before the Enlightenment, when scribes guarded reading as a skill only for the chosen few.

"We think of coding not as a skill but as a literacy. We don't teach reading because we believe everyone will write War and Peace," she says. "And we don't teach computer science with the belief that everyone will be a computer scientist. We teach it because it is increasingly a skill we need to operate in and understand the world around us."

Libraries have always been a place to find resources, whether print or digital, to answer questions and solve problems. This shows in the popularity of maker spaces and hackathons that are right at home in libraries across the country. Libraries also come without the academic stress of a traditional classroom, making them a perfect place for students to experiment with coding.

"Libraries can be used to experience this wide range of tools that apply to computer science without the pressure of failing," says Mega Subramaniam, an associate professor at University of Maryland's iSchool and the director of the Youth Experience certificate program. "Failing is attachment wp-att-247163">completely fine in a library setting. You are not being graded in any way, so it is a safe environment for young adults to experiment. We're not teaching people to be coders, but teaching people to have this mental tool to solve problems."

Coding or computational thinking?

Much like students learn to read and then read to learn, coding and computational thinking are intertwined. Computational thinking will be fundamental to many of today's students' careers and interests in the same way that knowing how to read is fundamental to everything they do in school.

ISTE, which refreshed its Standards for Students in 2016, doesn't mention coding specifically as an essential skill. Instead, computational thinking, defined as the ability to "develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions," is listed as one of the seven standards students should master.

According to Code.org, there are more than 503,000 open computing jobs nationwide, but only 35 states allow students to count computer science courses toward high school graduation, and fewer than half of U.S. schools teach computer science.

With each state implementing computer science differently, many organizations are stepping in to fill the gap. Code.org offers teacher training and student courses, such as Hour of Code. The National Science Foundation, in partnership with Computer Science for All, has pledged $120 million to train teachers to help kids "learn computer science and be equipped with the computational thinking skills they need to be creators in the digital economy, not just consumers, and to be active citizens in our technology-driven world."

Much like reading, it's important for students to learn the basics of computational thinking early, by the third grade ideally, especially for girls. As computer science increasingly becomes integrated across the disciplines and grades, access will become more equitable. For now, it is often left to nonprofits or one-off programs, or for individual teachers or librarians to integrate into their work with students.

With all of the options available and the shift to coding in the context of computational thinking, educators may not know which are best or where to begin. Is Scratch or Blockly worth using now? Is Hour of Code effective in this new context?

The good news is that many of the major coding programs and activities are still useful and it's relatively easy to integrate these higher-level skills into lessons across disciplines.

Resources

Here are some of the many professional development resources available to teachers and librarians who wish to share coding and computational thinking with their students.

BBC Bitesize: Variety of resources on teaching computational thinking.

Code.org: Several beginners' lessons on computational thinking are available on the website, as well as free or low-cost training for educators with no background in computer science.

CSforAll: A consortium offering specific information based on age group and setting.

ISTE: Offers standards for students that include computational thinking. Website is also a source of articles and professional learning networks on all things edtech.

The K-12 Computer Science Framework: Detailed overview and resources on correlations between computer science and other subjects.

Coding to solve a problem

To make coding a useful skill, students have to put it to use. Students who identify a problem and create a computer-based solution are more likely to pursue coding, even those who don't consider themselves "good" at math or science, says Jan Cuny, program director for computing education at the National Science Foundation, which has funded research into the teaching of and development of instructional materials for computer science. "There are tons of problems kids can think of to solve in their world," she says. "That connects it to the things they really care about and brings a level of excitement."

For example, Stephan Green grew up in a New York City immigrant community where residents spoke many different languages. As a high school student, Green watched his neighbors struggle with language barriers during doctor's visits or teacher conferences. Professional translators were too expensive and online translators didn't work well in those kinds of conversations, so he wanted to build an app that would connect his neighbors with a local bilingual person who could provide translating services while earning a little money, too. While at a Code Interactive Hackathon in 2015, Green and his team did just that.

"A project gives coding a reason to be done, a context," says Tom O'Connell, Code Interactive 's interim executive director. "While coding is one tool that helps solve problems using computers, if you're hoping to introduce computer science in an equitable and impactful way, it can't be the only ingredient."

To lay the groundwork for future problem solvers, no computer needed, Subramaniam recommends starting with pattern recognition for the youngest ages. Paula Langsam, a librarian in the District of Columbia Public Library system, asks kids to create a pattern from cards that have different shapes and different colors, for instance, finding all blue squares. This pattern recognition activity can add layers of difficulty such as combining shapes and colors that have two or more differences.

Alaska's Haines uses monkeys to teach about algorithms in the " Happy Maps " coding exercise. She tapes out a grid on the floor and puts some bananas in one square. Then, children take turns giving instructions to help the "monkey," usually her or a child, find the bananas. "Forward," "right," "repeat" are all important vocabulary concepts in coding. Finally, the kids draw out the instructions using arrows on the wall.

Another quick and easy algorithm exercise for young kids is to ask them to tell a partner, step-by-step, how to tie a shoelace without showing them. An added bonus in this exercise is that it includes making a loop, which is a coding principle.

To get children started using programming languages, Cuny recommends beginning with visual programming language such as Scratch and Blockly, because they are specifically intended to be accessible to engage students with quick results. "Starting with a relatively easy drag-and-drop programming language that lets kids create something that aligns with their own personal interests is empowering," she says.

Once they start with robots, things get fun. Using RoboLab or VEX Robotics, they can really get creative. At a Seattle library, a Finch Robot and block-based coding are used to create a robot that can make art on paper by attaching pens perpendicular to the Finch tail.

Kids can also practice on Arduino boards-relatively low-cost electronic circuit boards that utilize open-source software-to learn how code and interact with physical components. For example, students write a line of code and watch a light on the board light up or flip a switch on the board and see their code change. Begin with the tutorials, recommends Jorge Valenzuela, an educational coach who writes about how to develop computational thinkers; this will allow students to see patterns in the code and how it manipulates hardware, reinforcing the decomposition aspect of computational thinking.

By middle or high school, students are typically ready to start using programming languages such as JavaScript and Python. They may find that they have trouble moving from one to the other, but this is where a good grounding in computational thinking really pays off. They will recognize the concepts that translate across platforms, making an unfamiliar language more accessible. There are limitations within any language and learning to think computationally will help students work around those limitations.

Kids can solve a lot of problems when they understand the language and process of computing. Letting those problems be real, and identified by the children themselves, keeps students engaged and trying. Technovation and the Verizon App Challenge are two initiatives that ask students to identify a problem in their community, research existing technology, and design an innovative app to solve the problem.

"If we want kids to be comfortable learners and creators, for their own interest or as part of the workforce, they need a basic understanding of how computational thinking works," says Haines.

"If a child is able to talk about how something is made or built, then when something doesn't work right, they can debug it or tweak it. Our job as librarians has always been to support young kids as they start exploring bigger ideas and provide the tools they need to be able to do that."

Jennifer Snelling writes about the way technology is changing education.

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international society for technology in education

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Educators look at coding in a new context, with computational thinking and basic computer literacy as the goal.

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Discusses trend on coding integration in libraries today.

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Ready to Code | American Libraries Magazine

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As more youth services librarians integrate coding into their makerspaces and fab labs, Linda W. Braun takes a look at an ALA–Google initiative.

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Girl focused STEAM links and sites

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Connected Girls is a free, curated directory of girl-serving STEAM opportunities. NGCP manages Connected Girls in partnership with Science Near Me, an NSF-funded resource with the goal of helping anyone - anywhere in the U.S. - participate in engaging science, technology, engineering, and math that matters.

Sign up or log in below to add your STEAM opportunities and events that are designed for girls or other groups that have been historically excluded. Additionally, we are now including professional development opportunities for adults related to gender equity and STEM

General Out-of-School Time (OST) opportunities should now be added to Science Near Me.

Check out the Quick Start Guide.
Associated Partners

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Connected Girls is a free, curated directory of STEAM opportunities and events that are designed for K-12 girls or other groups that have been historically excluded.

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Ensuring gender equity in coding

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Held on January 26, 2024, the Girls Who Code Hiring Summit: Early Career Edition is a one-day event designed to connect the Girls Who Code and wider communities with full-time job opportunities in the technical workforce and to connect hiring managers looking to meet a diverse slate of candidates for jobs. This event welcomes recent college and bootcamp graduates and young professionals to network with companies looking to connect with a talented, ambitious, diverse group of computer science students and professionals.

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coding for girls coding club summer coding girls code reshma saujani coding nonprofit brave not perfect

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Learn to code! Free summer programs and after-school clubs for teen girls. Explore coding in a fun and friendly environment. Find a program near you!

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Books about tech and coding integration. Available in Japanese.

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Hello Ruby for homeschoolers - Computer Science in One Minute! Watch now "

Hello Ruby is the world's most whimsical way to learn about computers, technology and programming. The story started with a book, and now Ruby continues her adventures in exercises, activities and videos. It's suited for kids age 5 years and older (but even adults might learn something new).

"Hello Ruby is way more than a children's book"
Fast Company

"The heroine of Liukas' book is a girl, but it's not a book for girls."
Guardian

"Hello Ruby has obviously struck a chord. "
Wired

"Getting girls into programming, one children's book at a time "
TechCrunch

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Welcome to the whimsical world of computing. Hello Ruby is a children's book and an app that teaches programming fundamentals through stories and kid-friendly activities. It's suited for kids between 5 and 8 (but even adults might learn something new).

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A digital platform that teaches basic coding. Microbits tutorials also available!

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Teaching computer science

Whether at home or in the classroom, MakeCode provides captivating experiences for students to learn computing concepts at their own pace through personally meaningful projects.

Explore some of the lessons, tutorials and curriculum available with MakeCode.

Learn more

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Microsoft MakeCode Computer Science Education

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MakeCode brings computer science to life for all students with fun projects, immediate results, and both block and text editors for learners at different levels.

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Famous school wide coding competitions and tools for learning to code.

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1,715,202,087

Hours of Code Served

A global movement in 180+ countries.

13,943 events registered so far in 2023, 351 in Canada.

Your class or group can join millions around the world doing the Hour of Code! Registration for the annual Computer Science Education Week celebration begins in October. Though, Hour of Code is available year-round.

Register your Hour of Code

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Use computer science to explore and learn about AI!

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New music lab feature to code songs!

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Learn computer science. Change the world.

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Every student in every school deserves the opportunity to study computer science.

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Host a Coding Class in the LLC-tips and tricks!

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Host a Coding Class at Your Library: Resources and Tools

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Putting together a coding class or event might seem daunting. Read more and find out some ideas and tutorials to help you get started.

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Article that includes aspects of entrepreneurial maker-labs

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A makerspace may be something that has been on your radar lately. These innovative and collaborative environments are being incorporated into a variety of spaces. A makerspace can be big or small and hold any number of tools and materials for users to investigate and learn. The purpose of having a makerspace is to present people with an opportunity to explore their interests through hands-on, creative projects. Makerspaces create a culture of curiosity and creativity, encouraging its users to learn about a variety of technology as well as craft making.

Creating a makerspace in a school library is especially beneficial for students. A makerspace placed in a library setting opens a whole new world of resources and exploration in students and can do plenty when it comes to their learning process. Because projects done in the makerspace are focused on student centered inquiry, this makes them ideal to implement in school environments.

School libraries have always been at the hub of student activity. This is one area of the school that students will no doubt visit at some point during their education regardless of the classes they taking or the subjects they are interested in. This is because school libraries offer their students resources to develop important skills that will be used as they progress throughout their education and transition into adult lives. Teachers will usually bring students by the library to learn useful research skills that help them evaluate sources, work on projects using a variety of technologies and programs, or for a simple introduction to the references and materials that the school library holds. Because libraries are at the center of student activity, incorporating a makerspace into the library helps connect curriculum, improve student achievement, and invest in a student's creative journey.

Makerspace environments cover a range of topics in technology, science, etc. and have equipment that help people make videos, games, music, etc. Makerspace setups at elementary and middle schools have endless craft supplies and materials to help them conduct investigations and study different topics. At higher levels of education, they may hold 3D printers, circuit boards, and many types of computer programs. These spaces are designed with students in mind and materials are geared towards the interests and benefits of the young learners. On top of the academic benefits that a makerspace provides, students are also trained to build a mindset that revolves around teamwork, problem-solving and innovation.

While schools usually have computer labs, science labs, etc. in place for students to learn a variety of STEM skills, creating an additional makerspace in the library allows all students to have access to science and technology resources, especially as students get older. Middle and high school students have options of designing their schedules around their interests. This means one student may have plenty of classes in the music department and none in technology labs or lots of computer-related classes lined up but no time spent in art studios. The library is one stop in the school where all students feel free to come and go. Implementing a makerspace into the school library bridges and opens up the gap for students to access creative resources that may otherwise not have been available.

People may criticize the purpose of a makerspace and wonder if it ends up serving as a "playground" for students. Looks can be deceiving. Many school libraries have done a fantastic job of creating a makerspace that really excites students and sometimes, these thoughtful setups can be mistaken for play areas. One example of this is a Lego wall that was installed at the entrance of a library. What most adults aren't seeing, is that these building blocks end up serving as building blocks for discovery, expression, development of social skills, etc. Students working together to build and design are not only practicing collaboration and teamwork skills but also honing their skills for innovation and critical thinking. These Lego pieces were also used to engage students with their reading. One class was invited to build Lego murals that reflected the book they were reading. This was paired with a writing project and included QR codes that linked their Lego creations to their writing. This type of project is a unique way for students to connect with their curriculum in a new way and helps fuel that desire for discovery from a young age.

Makerspace environments create different learning spaces for students to inquire and discover. While students are able to explore new ideas through building using 3D printers, construction tools, and other materials, they are also able to discover through deconstructing and "un-making" things. Cyndi Felton helped create a makerspace at an elementary school in Broward County, Florida. This makerspace included a "Deconstruction Zone" where plenty of electronics, toys, and other household items are laid out for kids to take apart. This has been popular among the students at the elementary. They are able to pull apart various layers of an object, ask questions, and experiment with the technology behind each object. These types of activities and environments are perfect for stimulating curious minds and teaching kids how to learn.

A makerspace can also serve as a launching point to develop entrepreneurship in students. Schools serving college and high school students have blended makerspaces to serve as not only innovation centers but also develop entrepreneurship skills.

Entrepreneurship encompasses many of the competencies that students are expected to develop. The American Association of School Librarians' highlights the importance to inquire, include, collaborate, and explore in their National School Library Standards. What many have found is that these shared goals can be achieved through entrepreneurship. Students these days are faced with a changing world and will find themselves in different jobs and settings as they progress through their working lives. Putting entrepreneurship at the center of the makerspace helps students connect their learning with future payoffs.

A school librarian in Ohio specifically took her high school students' input to help develop a makerspace that would contribute to entrepreneurship. She surveyed students and asked them about their interests and hobbies outside of school as well as the activities that school made time and space for. The results were not surprising. Students wanted to spend more time with friends as well as have additional time with music, food, art, and technology. This helped guide the librarian's purchases and plan out what the space would look like. In addition, an advisory board of students and teachers would be created to give input on decisions and also find ways for students to take these activities and interests and put them into action through business ventures.

There are plenty of resources out there that can help libraries jumpstart their makerspace. A few books to reference include Educated by Design: Designing the Space to Experiment, Explore and Extract Your Creative Potential by Michael Cohen and Making Space for New Library Learning by Michelle R. Davis. Laura Fleming also has books written on the topic- The Kickstart Guide to Making Great Makerspaces and Worlds of Marking: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School. Blogs are another place to head to find inspiration and guidance for creating a makerspace. Renovated Learning created by Diana Rendina and create+collaborate created by Colleen Graves house many articles and blog topics on creating and maintaining a makerspace.

Lots of libraries have been incorporating creative spaces into their buildings. The key takeaway is to stay creative yourself and to look into spaces and materials that students can benefit from. A makerspace can be constructed using the simplest objects like construction paper and cardboard. To visualize what this might look like, check out how this school organizes their makerspace and grab a few tips from their experience.

An important tip to keep in mind is to break up the creation of your makerspace into multiple small projects. It is easy to want to jump all in and get a makerspace up and running as soon as possible. But successful projects take lots of time, effort, and thought. It's okay to start off small and grow the space as you're able or to prioritize sections of your makerspace project.

For schools that are looking for some funding to help jumpstart or grow their makerspace, there are a few organizations you can look into. Service League, Kiwanis Club, or Rotary Club may offer funding opportunities to those who need it. EBSCO is also a great resource to look into for grants and awards for libraries.

EveryLibrary helps libraries create a better future for their communities by ensuring that they have the funding they need. Join us at facebook.com/everylibrary today.

A makerspace helps engage and connect students with technology and interests in a completely different way than they are used to. Rather than just learning how to consume everything around them, students are taught to create. This mindset sets students up for success because it takes them outside of passive thinking patterns and guides them in turning knowledge into action. Libraries hold an important role in providing students with this type of space. Implementing this type of learning environment promotes critical thinking skills and creativity. Housing these learning opportunities in an accessible and central area of the school is what will help students develop and apply these important skills.

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A makerspace may be something that has been on your radar lately. These innovative and collaborative environments are being incorporated into a variety of spaces. A makerspace can be big or small and...

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Secure a space, put stuff in it, invite kids to play!

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Create a School Makerspace in 3 Simple Steps | ISTE

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Makerspaces can be elaborate learning spaces equipped with sophisticated tools and supplies, but they don't have to be.

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16 resources

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"There were more than 135 million adult makers, more than half of the total adult population in America, in 2015."

What is a makerspace? You've no doubt been hearing that word more than a few times over the past several years. Makerspaces, also called hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs, are collaborative spaces where people gather to get creative with DIY projects, invent new ones, and share ideas. Since the first official makerspace convened six years ago in a library in upstate New York, libraries have remained an ideal setting for makerspace events across the country. Many offer community resources like 3D printers, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies, and more. The idea of a communal creative space has only gained momentum and become increasingly popular over the years, and the makers' movement shows no signs of slowing down.

There were more than 135 million adult makers, more than half of the total adult population in America, in 2015. The White House even held its own inaugural Maker Faire in 2014, inspiring President Obama to declare an official National Week of Making the following year. Read on to learn more about library makerspaces and how one might benefit your community.

Articles & Blog Posts on Makerspaces

1.) Library as Makerspace
The Library as Makerspace blog, run by the Duxbury Free Library in Massachusetts, shares the experiences of its librarians in the process of transitioning from a content collection-only facility to a content creation-inspired makerspace. Bloggers share ideas for makerspace programs for children, teens, and adults, with a goal of "reimagining our role in a rapidly changing world."

2.) Renovated Learning
Curated by Diana Rendina, media specialist, teacher, and librarian at Stewart Middle Magnet School in Tampa, Florida, this blog documents Diana's journey of starting a STEM-based makerspace at her own school's library from the ground up. Posts include lessons and reflections on her own experience as well as resources for other makerspace hosts, including a "start here" section for beginners.

3.) The Makerspace in the Library: What it Means for Your Classroom
This recent post on a blog titled "The Unquiet Mind" explores the author's first experience attending the National Writing Project Annual Meeting in 2017; this year, the NWP panel discussed growing interest in makerspaces at libraries and their implications for teachers, library staff, and the learning process as a whole.

4.) A Librarian's Guide to OER in the Maker Space
This article, written by library media specialist and author Laura Fleming, introduces librarians and educators to the open educational resources (OER) movement, and focuses on how to integrate STEM-oriented makerspaces and other disciplines into the traditional learning space.

5.) Growing Learning Communities Through School Libraries and Makerspaces-Creating, Constructing, Collaborating, Contributing
Another informative post on "The Unquiet Mind," this article served as one of the site's first comprehensive guides to makerspaces, exploring a variety of possibilities for creating a collaborative learning environment at locations across the U.S. The post accompanies a presentation about makerspaces given by the author to the Independent School Library Exchange of Southern California.

6.) Library Friday: Visiting Fayetteville Free Library
Here on INFOSPACE, the official blog of the Syracuse University iSchool, blogger and master's candidate in library and information science Kayla Del Biondo, explores one of the country's leading university makerspaces at the Fayetteville Free Library as part of her Library Friday Series.

7.) Make it Work! Starting a Makerspace in an Academic Library, Phase 1
Among many authoritative posts on ACRLog.com, a blog site exclusively by and for academic and research librarians, this post outlines a multi-phase process for creating a makerspace at the grassroots level, addressing crucial concerns for working librarians. Hannah Pope, guest author of this article, is the Emerging Technologies Librarian at Appalachian State University.

8.) Biohackerspace, DIYbio, and Libraries
Posted on the ACRL TechConnect Blog, this article explores projects at makerspaces across the country focused on developing science, technology, and engineering programs that can essentially turn any library into a makeshift biology lab.

9.) Making It in the Academic World
This post on American Libraries focuses specifically on makerspaces at university libraries in the U.S. Author Bailey Brewer makes the case that, while makerspaces are known for bringing 3D technology to the masses, the potential for a greater sense of community among college-age participants will likely carry makerspaces into the future.

10. ) It all started with a training offered by the Washington State Libraryâ€¦
Part of the "Between the Lines" series of the Washington State Library Blog, this post describes one library manager's first encounter with STEM-based makerspace programming. Her subsequent initiatives to develop ongoing maker events, especially for children, take place at Winlock Library in Timberland, WA.

11.) 4 San Francisco Projects Highlighted During the National Week of Making
This post outlines four of San Francisco's most innovative makerspace programs, celebrated during the National Week of Making in 2016 in an event co-sponsored by the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

12.) Makerspace Starter Kit
Noted blogger, international Ed Tech keynote speaker, and Google Certified Innovator Gwyneth Jones offers a starter kit to aspiring makerspace hosts through her site, The Daring Librarian. For inspiration, among many resources available on the site is the story of the makerspace at Murray Hill Middle School in Maryland, where Jones helped to launch a collaborative project space more than 18 years ago.

Maker Faire

Touted as the "greatest show and tell on earth," Maker Faire has emerged as the official international celebration of not only creativity, resourcefulness, and innovation but also a mass gathering of the maker movement at large. Each year, Maker Faire hosts multi-day flagship faires in Chicago, New York, and the Bay Area, as well as ongoing regional events, mini faires and school faires around the world. The organization is perhaps the most well-known makerspace networking resource, having established its own "Maker Shed" tools and products, a "Maker Camp" online community and a "Make" magazine for subscribers. The official Maker Faire site also offers aspiring Makers resources and support for bringing a Maker Faire to their local community, starting their own makerspace or becoming a sponsor of the maker movement.

Makerspaces Directories

1.) MakerDirectory.com
This online directory lists national and international maker events, from the Adelaide Mini Maker Faire to the World Maker Faire in New York City.

2.) Hackerspaces
This directory lists national and international events and offers resources specific to hackerspaces, enabling the tech-maker community to make connections both in-person and online.

3.) Maker Faire
Perhaps the most comprehensive of maker directories, Maker Faire offers an interactive map listing upcoming national and international maker faires, mini maker faires, and school faires; aspiring makers can also search past events by region on the site.

4.) Makerspace
This membership site requires registration to connect with other makers; once signed in, members are encouraged to exchange makerspace projects and ideas. The link above to the site's BETA login page is expected to be redirected to a new platform in 2017.

Revitalizing Community Spaces

"Makerspaces have also led to growth in other industries: crowdfunding sites funded more than $5 billion worth of projects in 2014, and the 3D printing industry is expected to be worth $8 billion as early as the year 2020."

One could argue that the phenomenon of makerspaces has led to a revitalization and reimagining of libraries in a digital world. As the means of circulating and accessing digital information outside of libraries continue to grow, this renaissance for the library as a place to gather, create, and collaborate has led to benefits for the host facilities just as much, if not more, than participants. Like book clubs, workshops, and other group meetings, hosting a makerspace alongside traditional offerings in a library is fast becoming the hands-on approach to learning and developing new skills. Many libraries at colleges and universities have incorporated program-specific makerspaces into their campus curriculum, bringing students together around a topic such as robotics or a particular fine art technique.

If increased support and funding for makerspaces are any indication, this trend-turned-movement is here to stay. The University of Texas in Austin is an example of a school that turned a makeshift project into a lucrative institutional endeavor by expanding its makerspace into a program called the Foundry. Hosted by the university's Fine Arts Library, the Foundry was created in 2015 through a $200,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation, which recognized the potential for cross-disciplinary research, art, and invention in a permanent makerspace on campus. Makerspaces have also led to growth in other industries: crowdfunding sites funded more than $5 billion worth of projects in 2014, and the 3D printing industry is expected to be worth $8 billion as early as the year 2020.

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A Librarian's Guide to Makerspaces: 16 Resources | OEDB.org

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What is a makerspace? You've no doubt been hearing that word more than a few times over the past several years. Makerspaces, also called hackerspaces,

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Office of Intellectual Freedom Youtube Videos

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Office of Intellectual Freedom Youtube Videos

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Webinars to educate about book challenges, collection development and intellectual freedom in libraries.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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140 countries where students can share collaborative projects and connect with students in other countries to discuss and ask questions about similar projects.

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iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 140 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies. Over 2,000,000 students each day are engaged in collaborative project work worldwide.

iEARN International is registered as an NGO in Spain and has an international office in Callus, Spain.

Since 1988, iEARN has pioneered on-line school linkages to enable students to engage in meaningful educational projects with peers in their countries and around the world.

iEARN is:

a safe and structured environment in which young people can communicate

an opportunity to apply knowledge in service-learning projects

a community of educators and learners making a difference as part of the educational process

The iEARN Assembly is the decision-making body of iEARN International. The Assembly discusses and makes decisions on issues - both online throughout the year and at an annual meeting held in conjunction with the iEARN International Conference in July.

How can I participate?

There are over 150 projects in iEARN, all designed and facilitated by teachers and students to fit their curriculum and classroom needs and schedules. To join, participants select an online project and look at how they can integrate it into their classroom.

With the project selected teachers and students enter online forum spaces to meet one another and get involved in ongoing projects with classrooms around the world who are working on the same project.

In addition to connecting students' learning with local issues and meeting specific curriculum needs, every project proposed by teachers and students in iEARN has to answer the question, "How will this project improve the quality of life on the planet?" This vision and purpose is the glue that holds iEARN together, enabling participants to become global citizens who make a difference by collaborating with their peers around the world.

To register, or request more information, complete our online registration form and information will be sent to the iEARN Coordinator in your country.

View a list of iEARN Country Coordinators to find contact information for the iEARN program in your country. If no coordinator exists in your country, contact iEARN's Executive Council (elected representatives of iEARN's global Assembly) at: ec @ iearn.org

See iEARN's 25th and 20th Anniversary Videos below to hear from iEARN participants from across the globe.

iEARN 25th Anniversary Video

iEARN 20th Anniversary Video

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About - iEARN Collaboration Centre (en-US)

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iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 140 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies. Over 2,000,000 students each day are engaged in collaborative project work worldwide.

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Meet with experts online! (Free in Canada). 45 min sessions.

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Digital Human Library - North America's Digital Experiential Learning Library

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This is where it all began - with one classroom that wanted to learn with the world, to learn about the world...

Today Digital Human Library (dHL) connects K-12 teachers and students with hundreds of industry leaders, experts, and organizations from around the world who are offering interactive 1:1 video conferences in service of youth and learning. Oh, and it's FREE for Canadian teachers!

What is a Video Conferencing Program?

Video conferencing programs are premium 1:1 interactive experiences for students lasting 30-40 minutes. Registered teachers simply log into dHL and search our library of Experts by keyword, curriculum subject area, grade, or our other advanced search options. Once classes find the right expert, they Request a Program. All programs are scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and time using platforms like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.

Our Programs

Our video conferencing programs are conceived, created, and presented by our hard working network of content partners. We encourage teachers and students to collaborate with our content partners so the video conference meets the inquiry needs of all learners.

Unlimited access to hundreds of experts available to connect with K-12 teachers and students

Experts sourced from recommendations made by K-12 teachers

Educational programs, mentorships, Q&As, and career talks lasting 30-40 minutes

Video conferences scheduled on a mutually agreeable date and time

Resources for Teachers to support classes through every step of the process

Free access to browse 40+ sample Virtual Tours and Virtual Reality experiences

Customer support available via email

Premium Teacher Membership

An annual subscription provides teachers with the ability to curate their own dHL Expert library by choosing from hundreds industry professionals, businesses, and organizations in all K-12 curriculum subject areas. Premium members can leave feedback for Experts, request new Experts, and post project ideas and links to their dHL profiles to connect with other classes.

Our Content Partners

These are just a few of our dHL Experts (content partners) offering educational content and programs in all curriculum subject areas to support student learning:

Video Conferencing Resources

Learn more about how to engage all students during a video conferencing program, or browse the variety of video conferencing platforms available to connect your students with dHL Experts.

Request New dHL Experts

If you aren't able to find the right Expert to connect with your students, we want to now about it! Let our team of talented Provincial Library Curators find the Experts you need to support learning in your classroom.

Ready to Subscribe?

For just $99 per year individual teachers can subscribe to our Premium Teacher Membership and provide their students with access to hundreds of dHL Experts and thousands of Canadian classes. New tours are added every year! The world is yours to discover...
Looking for School or District Pricing? Please contact us!
Questions?

Check out our FAQs page or contact us to learn more!

Be sure to check out our other dHL Services:

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Video Conference with Experts - Digital Human Library

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This is where it all began - with one classroom that wanted to learn with the world, to learn about the world... Today Digital Human Library (dHL) connects K-12 teachers and students with hundreds of industry leaders, experts, and organizations from around the world who are offering interactive 1:1 video conferences in service of youth and learning.

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An archive of films, photos, essays and lesson plans meant to expand perspectives and worldviews, promoting inquiry, empathy, resilience, and a deep, sacred connection with our planet.

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Stories and lessons for growing minds

We are a free multimedia platform for educators and students. Through our immersive storytelling and curricula, we aim to plant seeds of empathy, interconnectedness, and a sacred relationship with our planet. Use our award-winning films, photo essays, and essays to learn about social, cultural, and environmental issues from individuals and communities worldwide. For grades 3-12, our stories and lessons encourage students to broaden their perspectives and worldviews while fostering universal human values and respect for the living world. We aim to bring universal values into the lives of educators and students.

Experience Our Storytelling

Watch this short video to learn more about the stories we tell.

Student Winners and Finalists: The Environment Is in You

In what ways is climate change impacting the place where you live?

In this contest, students documented the fragility, hope, and future of our planet's ecosystem due to climate change. Inspired by four environmental writers-Linda Hogan, Robert Hass, Wendell Berry, and Dara McAnulty-students explored changes to local systems, how the environment shapes our identity, and how our actions and awareness today can impact the future.

View Winners and Finalists

Feature

These five shorts films follows five Native American communities who are restoring their traditional land management practices.

Learn More

Essay

How might stories act as keys allowing us access to challenge, examine, uproot, and illumine our habits and fears?

Learn More

Feature

This feature shares the stories of four Indigenous communities in California who are working to revitalize their languages and cultures in order to pass them on to the next generation.

Learn More

"This film has historic relevancy. I can see myself using it to encourage students to think about the value of the space program and how it speaks to the American Spirit and how we are often looking forward in our progress. This film begs to be used as an exploration of what it means to be a global citizen, how students can learn from people not like themselves, and what actions students can take in their everyday lives to make the world a better place."

Michael Dunn, Director of College Counseling at Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center

Stories Exploring Climate Change

Celebrating Student Artwork: New Student Gallery

Encourage thoughtful and meaningful conversations in the classroom with our student gallery. Use the gallery as a tool to foster curiosity, observation skills, and perspective-taking.

The gallery encourages students to learn from each other's perspectives. How are students witnessing and engaging with the world in new ways since the start of Covid-19? Search by theme, previous Global Oneness Project contests, or from locations around the world. The gallery is accompanied by an image analysis activity, including a Visible Thinking Routine from Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

View Student Gallery

Receive our newsletter to learn about new stories and companion lesson plans.

Who Is Using Our Materials

Our materials provide opportunities for an interdisciplinary approach to learning across disciplines from social sciences and humanities to environmental sciences. Education stakeholders, including K-12 educators, university professors, librarians, tech/media specialists, parents, and students are using our materials in multiple learning environments.

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Youth led projects on topics of biodiversity, climate action and animal conservation, authentic connections to Indigenous community work and projects as well.

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How It Started
Dr. Jane Goodall started Roots & Shoots over 30 years ago when she met with some young people who were eager to fix local problems. She was struck by their energy, their optimism, and their willingness to tackle crises they didn't create. Roots & Shoots helps young people harness this energy and become the community leaders not just of tomorrow, but of today. Watch Jane talk Roots & Shoots with Jimmy Fallon.

Today, Roots & Shoots is a globally-recognized youth leadership program. In Canada, over 12,000 young people are actively involved in projects. Over 80,000 community members are being directly impacted.
How It Works
Roots & Shoots is open to young activists from pre-school to post-secondary. Anyone 18 and older can become a member and start their own project today. Adult champions who work with youth under 18 can start a project for their classroom, youth group, community centre, or anywhere youth gather.

There are 4 steps to every Roots & Shoots project:

1. Get Inspired

2. Map Your Community

3. Take Action

4. Celebrate Your Impact!

Using our online guide, and available support from JGI Canada staff, Roots & Shoots teaches young people how to design projects that tackle the intersection of biodiversity loss (animals), environmental inequity (people), and climate change (the environment). Oh, it's free!
A.P.E Funding applications for Roots & Shoots projects is OPEN for this year! Learn more and apply before November 30th at 11:00 PM EST. Are you an adult champion? Get started here. Young advocates 18+, get started here.

Roots & Shoots offers lots of resources to get you started. Explore some of them today!

What It's All About

Hear from other Roots & Shoots members who changed the world, and were changed in return. That's what it's all about.

Sara Rana, Grade 11 Student, Ontario
"The program provided me with the opportunity to translate my ideas into action. Through Roots & Shoots, I have been able to channel my passion into implementing initiatives that bring Indigenous culture to life."

Jennifer Ward, Teacher, British Columbia
"I am so honoured to be part of this program. Roots and Shoots and the APE grant allows for the students to have a voice, be heard, and allow them to share the knowledge they have received from local elders with our entire community. This program is invaluable. I am so grateful to be associated with such positive steps toward acknowledging the truth of the experiences of others, injustices of people in our community and injustices toward land/animals so we can move ahead to begin to move towards reconciliation within our community."

Robyn Matthews, Teacher, Newfoundland
"Letting students choose what they want to learn about completely changed the goals of this project. Students became invested in beekeeping more than I ever thought possible. They conquered their fears of talking to the public as well as their fear of bees. The project has also created a lot of buzz throughout the community and initiated other families and community members to join the bee community."

Sophie Bordeleau Kent, student, Quebec
I like that it encourages youth to help the environment, animals and people across the globe. I also like the fact that the organization encourages and supports many types of projects, however big or small.

Find Your Path to Get Started

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Roots & Shoots empowers young people to become the next generation of climate leaders, equipping them to design projects that work.

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Youth engagement programs that inspire students to act on local and global challenges.

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Skip to Content

MY CLASSES

TIGed offers a free online classroom platform for use in developing collaborative projects! Register for free membership to create your school's platform

Register

BLOGS & CASE STUDIES

FUTURE FRIENDLY SCHOOLS

Earlier this year, our team at TakingITGlobal was thrilled to launch our fourth professional learning course, Education for Social Innovation, with our partners at the Toronto District School Board. The new course, co-designed with a group of lead educators at the TDSB, brings together elements of our Student Voice and Global Citizenship e-courses with new content infusing topics of social change, entrepreneurship, and technology for pedagogical documentation.

Read more

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Skip to Content MY CLASSES TIGed offers a free online classroom platform for use in developing collaborative projects! Register for free membership to create your school's platform Register BLOGS & CASE STUDIES FUTURE FRIENDLY SCHOOLS Earlier this year, our team at TakingITGlobal was thrilled to launch our fourth professional learning course, Education for Social Innovation, with our partners at the Toronto District School Board.

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Connecting with experts around the world!

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Skype a Scientist matches your classroom, scout troop, or library with scientists for Q&amp;A sessions for free!

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Authors and Illustrators from Canada, some with animation backgrounds, some willing to travel internationally.

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Virtual Author Activities, read alouds, visits, lessons and explaining process in mini videos.

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It's no surprise that authors are incredibly good at bringing their own books to life. Whether through live or pre-recorded visits, read-aloud videos, or other virtual author activities, kids will connect with books like never before! Here are some of our favorite options to try.

Pre-Recorded Virtual Author Visits

Check out these videos of presentations authors have given at schools and libraries. There are authors here that will interest students at any age.

Arree Chung

Hear Chung talk about the process of creating his book Mixed: A Colorful Story. The allegory of one color who thinks it's better than the others is meaningful at any age.

Bao Phi

Bao Phi's lovely book A Different Pond showcases the relationship between a father and his son. As they fish for the food their family needs, the father tells his son about a pond from his own childhood in faraway Vietnam.

Jasmine Warga

Author of the Newbery Honor book Other Words for Home, Jasmine Warga gives an engaging talk about how she writes.

Jennifer L. Holm

From her Babymouse graphic novels to the Sunny series and beyond, Holm writes books that middle grade readers absolutely love.

J.H. Reynolds

Do your students love the thrills and chills of the MonsterStreet series? Then they'll love seeing its author answer kids' questions about reading and writing!

J.K. Rowling

Every kid will recognize the author of the beloved Harry Potter books! See her interview with the Harry Potter Reading Club in this video.

Kate Messner

Kate Messner writes fiction, nonfiction, novels, chapter books, and picture books, so there's a good chance most kids have read at least one of her books.

Katherine Applegate

Lots of kids read The One and Only Ivan in class, and Applegate has plenty of other popular and award-winning books as well. Hear her talk about her books (and even show off her adorable dog!).

Lois Lowry

Here's another name kids will recognize. Whether they love The Giver, the Gooney Bird series, or any of her other numerous works, they'll enjoy listening to her speak and answer audience questions.

Max Brallier

The Last Kids on Earth book series is now a Netflix series too! Listen to author Max Brallier talk about his writing process and give kids a writing challenge of their own.

Live Virtual Author Visits

Want to set up a virtual author visit live for your class or school? If you have a particular author in mind, visit their website (or their publisher's) to contact them and find out if they do virtual visits. Scholastic offers virtual author visits through their catalog, so that's a great place to start.

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators has a terrific roundup of virtual author visits and writing workshops too. Here are some to consider.

Gutman has written all sorts of books for kids, and he's happy to do virtual school visits. Find his offerings and prices at his website.

Nonfiction children's author Kurtz loves to present his books to kids of all ages. His virtual offerings include readings, interviews, and concept-based workshops.

Long does both in-person and virtual author visits based on her popular books, like How I Became a Pirate. Visit her website to see her offerings and book a visit.

Biebow's colorful book about the inventor of Crayola crayons is a delight. She offers free virtual visits, plus interactive in-person workshops.

Known for Dahlia in Bloom, Koehler offers both virtual author visits and writing workshops. She does professional development workshops for teachers too.

Virtual Author Read-Alouds

When you hear authors read their own books, it gives you a whole new perspective on their works. That makes read-alouds some of our favorite virtual author activities.

Hale's YouTube channel includes a playlist called Storytime With Uncle Bruce. Hear him read about Clark the Shark and other hilarious characters.

Gutman has a whole collection of read-alouds on his Facebook page, like Miss Blake Is a Flake. Kids will love his wacky style!

Visit her YouTube channel to see the author read her book Where Are My Books? She's got a few other read-alouds too, along with drawing tips.

Fabien Cousteau is the grandson of famed sea explorer Jacques Cousteau. His book series explores his own experiences under the water, and you can watch his read-aloud on Facebook.

You'll feel inspired when you hear Byers read her heartfelt book I Am Enough.

Lin reads aloud from her picture books as well as chapters from her longer books on her YouTube channel.

Watch Knowles read the first chapter of her middle-grade novel Where the Heart Is, while giving students a fun writing exercise.

Hear Cook read a variety of books from her collection, like Wilma Jean the Worry Machine. Her YouTube channel also includes interviews, advice, and other fun virtual author activities.

Watch Messner read Fergus and Zeke and the 100th Day of School in this YouTube video.

This read-aloud of Fry Bread includes some of the author's thoughts on writing the book and the recipe he included at the end.

Listen to Henderson read the first chapter of her book The Magic in Changing Your Stars on YouTube.

The author regularly shares read-alouds of his books, like I Love You Like a Pig, on his Instagram page.

The author has added a collection of videos of herself reading from her picture books on Instagram. Titles include When We Are Kind and You Hold Me Up.

Hear readings from Shusterman's books on his YouTube channel, including excerpts and complete short stories.

The author created a Stay at Home: Story Time section on his website. Initially made during the 2020 COVID lockdown, these videos are still lots of fun to watch.

Visit Reynolds' Facebook page to see him read from some of his most popular books, like The Dot.

The award-winning author and illustrator reads from her book The Story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in this YouTube video.

The author reads his picture books on his YouTube channel, where he also has lots of drawing videos for inspiration.

Other Virtual Author Activities

So many wonderful authors and publishers have YouTube or Instagram channels! Join them as they teach you how to draw, offer writing tips, and lots more.

Kids will do more than just watch these videos. They'll write, draw, and create on their own, inspired by famous authors and illustrators.

Watch story time, Cressida Cowell's summer camp, author interviews, how-to-draw videos, and a whole lot more.

The prolific author has a robust website full of videos, activities, podcasts, and more virtual author activities to engage kids of a variety of ages.

The Lunch Lady author and illustrator has a series of videos showing kids how to draw some of their favorite characters. His YouTube channel also has cartooning tips, writing tips, pep talks, and shorts.

This YouTube channel is rich with content, including interviews, tour journals, how-to-draw tips, and so much more.

The Kennedy Center sponsored this series of videos with the beloved author of classics like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Author and illustrator of hits like Smile and Drama shares drawings, time-lapse videos, and more on her Instagram page.

Aspiring illustrators will enjoy this series, where any kid can learn to draw creatures of every kind.

These half-hour chats with well-known middle grade authors are the perfect length to share with your classes.

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The Big List of Virtual Author Activities

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Check out live and pre-recorded author visits, read-alouds, and other virtual author activities like drawing sessions to share with students.

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Symposiums, experts, programs, lessons, projects and more related to STEM research.

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Our symposiums connect high school students to leading researchers and volunteers to discuss the impact of their research and pathway to their current careers!

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Connect with classes worldwide to co-research topics, host discussions or form one to one partnerships.

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Collaborating with global classes on SDG Goals projects

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Students choose a climate problem: loss of biodiversity, pollution etc and they code a game in response.

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Free, online

All are welcome! Register for individual students, classes, clubs, or full schools!

Across the curriculum

Gamified experience with activities designed to be added into any subject

Bite sized, action packed

Ready-to-go videos, lessons, and materials set for action for busy-but-eager classrooms

Step 1

Register for Coding for Climate.

You'll be receiving an email with guidelines.

Step 2

Start planning how you will run your project. Choose a problem you want to solve

Find a list of global threats here

Step 3

Run the project with your students starting March 2025.
Your students can choose which technology they prefer to use:

Scratch, Minecraft, micro:bit, Web, AI, Python, LEGO Fortnite, App prototyping, etc.

You can even code without computer devices (unplugged coding. Check your options.

Step4

Submit your work before May.

Check the other participants' solutions.

Celebrate!

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All are welcome! Register for individual students, classes, clubs, or full schools! Gamified experience with activities designed to be added into any subject Ready-to-go videos, lessons, and materials set for action for busy-but-eager classrooms Register for Coding for Climate. You'll be receiving an email with guidelines. Start planning how you will run your project.

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Digital citizenship teacher training

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Our website for families provides reviews and ratings of movies, books, games, apps, and other media to help parents and families make informed decisions about the media their children use.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find our free K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum, reviews of popular edtech apps, tips on teaching responsible AI use, and resources for protecting student privacy and online safety.

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Media and Information Literacy

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Sustainable Development Goals lessons and connections for educators

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To help reach our goal of actively supporting and enhancing the work of the United Nations' efforts within K-12 classrooms, our TeachSDGs organization contributes to the 2030 Agenda in the following...

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Effective Ways to Support Teachers with Tech Integration

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Effective Ways to Support Teachers with Tech Integration

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Strategies for tech integration, PD and supporting teachers as a TL

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The following list includes ten strategies for making professional development at your school inclusive, meaningful, and specific to the needs of your particular teachers and students.

1. Develop a staff development subcommittee as part of the school technology committee with representatives from all departments, grade levels, the district office, and administration, and include outside experts, technicians, and students.

2. Demonstrate some examples of how technology can be used in the classroom. Then ask your staff for input. Use a form that asks them their needs, frustrations, fears, hopes on what they want to learn, and dreams and goals for their students as they relate to technology and their classroom. Brainstorm in small groups where they are now and where they want to be in the future, record results on flip chart paper, and post these results so everyone can refer to them.

3. Use a needs assessment instrument that follows the Teacher Technology Standards (ISTE) and that identifies comfort level and attitude about technology, basic technology use, and level of integration. Use this instrument to determine each teacher's present level of technology use. Have them choose three to five areas where they would like to see improvement by the end of the school year. As part of the needs assessment, you can also ask teachers to include a narrative on their technology use: where they are now, where they want to be, and what they need to learn to get there. Many times teachers do not know what they need to learn, so this step may need to be repeated during the year.

4. Design individual learning plans (ILP) compiled from the data collected from each staff member. As an example, if teachers list themselves as comfortable with technology but new at graphic design, have them create a project or template that can be used in their classroom as part of a workshop on importing graphics. The ILP can be a database with examples of suggested learning opportunities. Each teacher can access the database, add to it, keep a reflection log or journal, and post any projects they may want to share.

5. Identify the leaders at your site who can provide expertise. Offer stipends for planning time and any workshops they provide after school hours. Provide resources such as technology for research and development of workshops they design. Realize that for every hour of a workshop, it takes over two hours of planning. Do not forget to offer advanced workshops for their professional growth. You may even identify some students or business partners to be part of your leadership team. You may never know the areas of expertise available from teachers and students unless you ask.

6. Create a list of on-site learning opportunities with goals, objectives and outcomes. Provide collaborative time at least once a week where the trainers offer workshops and coaching. Also, build in release time for staff development such as peer-coaching, modeling lessons, team teaching, participating in a study group, shadowing other teachers, developing curriculum, "just-in-time" sessions, and previewing curriculum resources.

7. Share a list of off-site learning opportunities. Cover the expenses of conferences and workshops and provide substitutes for off-site school visits. Other opportunities include grant writing and reading, research projects, university classes, subscriptions to journals, access to the Internet and e-mail, distance learning and video conferences, zero-interest loans for computers, and videos, software, and laptop computers for check-out.

8. Build in time for grade-level or department meetings to plan and correlate standards with technology, develop activities, projects and lessons that include technology, classroom management strategies, and assessment instruments that evaluate student achievement and understanding. Include time for brainstorming, sharing, and developing materials. Add paid time in the summer for teams of teachers to collaborate and develop curriculum projects.

9. At staff meetings, share successes as well as expectations not met. Celebrate projects in school newsletters, press releases to local newspapers, faxes to parents, on the school Web site, at parent and board meetings, in a video that can be checked out at the local video store, and even on the local cable station.

10. Continue with ongoing planning and re-evaluating where you are and where you want to be. After you start using technology, needs change. Review and update the ILPs on a regular basis. Have teachers create a portfolio of their work and include examples of student work for dissemination. Ask students what they felt about using technology and how it affected their learning.

This approach takes money and time, but if you design and use these strategies as a team, it will create a feeling of "We can do it!" over and over again.

Barbara Bray is President/CEO of My eCoach, which provides coaching and mentoring programs.

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Ten Steps to Effective Technology Staff Development: Getting Teachers on Board

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The following list includes ten strategies for making professional development at your school inclusive, meaningful, and specific to the needs of your particular teachers and students. 1. Develop a staff development subcommittee as part of the school technology committee with representatives from all departments, grade levels, the district office, and administration, and include outside experts, technicians, and students.

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Virtual book fair, awesome collections from Follett and resources.

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Follett Book eFairs | Online Virtual School Book Fair for Everyone

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Learn about launching an online book fundraiser with a large selection, easy setup, effortless book distribution, generous rewards, and no minimum sales.

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Interesting Infographic showing progressive coding.

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Also connections to AI resources (bottom right).

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Multitype Library Board: K-12 Digital Resources: Library Resources

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Learn about digital resource news and training for Saskatchewan K-12 schools.

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Design thinking stations ready to go with examples and tutorials.

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LibGuides: Design Thinking Stations: Home

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LibGuides: Design Thinking Stations: Home

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Drones, makerlabs, experiments etc. Lessons that bring STEAM to life.

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The 'Graphing Stories' collection is a collaborative project run by Dan Mayer and the 'BuzzMath' team. Each story comprises a video that shows a practical situation where a measure, such as height or weight, varies with time. The situation is then replayed at a slower rate to help enable the...

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STEM Learning Ltd offers the largest collection of learning resources for teachers and educators of science, technology, engineering, computing and mathematics in the UK.

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Engaging VR experience.

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After winning a competitive pitch, Vancouver Community College (VCC) commissioned us to create a VR Culinary Arts Training experience training their cooks on 5 entry level recipes.

An engaging and retentive learning experience that would bridge the gap between information in a text book, and cooking in a real kitchen. It was also important that the focus of the VR training was on the skills and techniques within each recipe, rather than just being a generic cooking game.

Virtual reality is often aligned with the console gaming world, however its uses and value in training students or employees is often overlooked. Although there are benefits to traditional classroom and text book teaching, technology such as VR is an undeniably useful tool in both the workplace and the classroom. What better way to train the chefs of tomorrow than via VR!

What we did
Understanding base recipes is key to being a successful chef. Working with a VCC subject matter expert (also a chef) we defined what the key learning points were for each of the five recipes we created.

Then using point-of-view videos of the chef cooking each recipe, we storyboarded each one to ensure all of those points were captured, and be reflected in the gameplay. This process also meant distilling the VR environment to ensure the user remained focused on how to make the recipe, rather than being distracted by novelty of using VR.

We also implemented steps that can easily go wrong, such as the Hollandaise Sauce breaking if you combine the butter and water too quickly, or even the Choux Pastry becoming too slack if the eggs are added too fast.
The result
The final result was an immersive, fun and educational training experience which guided the user through 5 recipes, and allowed them to test their knowledge with two additional advanced levels. It was a key objective that the VR experience reflected cooking nuances.

Students found the experience great value, and a rewarding learning experience particularly with the ability to repeat the training without needing to purchase ingredients or be concerned about waste.

To aid the learning, we also developed screens within VR that reinforced important steps through images and interactive metres, such as a balance metre for the flavours in ceviche; we made these to be visual aids so that the students could internalise the lessons within each recipe, and remember them when they cook in real life.

We then paired the in-game UI with voice overs that not only explained each step in VR, but we also worked with the chef to ensure the voiceover also contained any other important information that the students needed to learn, therefore mimicking the learning environment at the college.

Our end result was an immersive, fun and educational training experience which guided the user through 5 recipes, then allowed them to test their knowledge with 2 harder difficulties. The chef we worked with was impressed that we captured the important learning points for each recipe, as well as including many of the details and nuances that he'd spoken to us about throughout the development process.

Contact us
Are you looking to create an VR training that uses gamification mechanics for effective learning and engagement? Then feel free to drop us an email at info@sbanimation.com, or give us a call on +44 (0)207 148 0526. We would be happy to help.

If you are unfamiliar with the virtual reality production process, this blog post What to expect when you work with Sliced Bread might serve to help you, it provides a complete guide on how we typically approach our projects, from concept to final delivery. It also provides information on how we structure our fees and plan the production schedule.

We also post industry related content to our LinkedIn company page, why not give us a follow?

We create bespoke explainer animations, virtual reality experiences, and e-learning content for effective and engaging communication campaigns.

If you have a project you would like to discuss, feel free to get in touch via the link below.
Click here to contact us

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

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VR Training For Cooking - An Engaging Experience | SBA

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An engaging and retentive VR cooking experience set in a virtual kitchen. See how we used VR to create immersive recipe training for the cooks of tomorrow.

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Gamified learning opportunity to engage in digital literacies.

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educational technology education technology companies technology and education how important is technology in education educational technology tools learning educational technology educational technology in schools educational games educational games for kids free educational games for kids free educational games educational games online classroom games online classroom games halloween classroom games 5th grade classroom games classroom games for students games to play in the classroom kindergarten classroom games learning games for kids learning games free learning games kindergarten learning games free kids learning games

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Breakout EDU gamifies learning to create an engaging and empowering experience for students of all grade levels.

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Whiteboard style video recordings

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Snorkl | Instant Feedback on Student Thinking

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With Snorkl, students record and share their reasoning then receive instant AI-powered feedback to drive deep and meaningful learning.

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Typing mini lessons

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Learn touch typing online using TypingClub's free typing courses. It includes 650 typing games, typing tests and videos.

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Surrey Centre Library Learning Commons Resources: design thinking, minecraft, roblox etc.

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Surrey Centre Library Learning Commons - ADST Resources

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The ability to design and make, acquire skills as needed, and apply technologies is important in the world today and a key aspect of educating citizens for the future.
The new Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) curriculum is an experiential, hands-on program of learning through design

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Digital Media Literacy Program, resources and activities.

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Resource Sharing

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ISC Research and opportunities for school recognition through initiatives/awards if you are interested in pursuing them.

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Enhancing Your School’s Global Profile Through Authentic Storytelling - ISC Research

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Selina Boyd reveals how three international schools used reviews from The Good Schools Guide to strengthen their global reputation.

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Could be used as an example of how to make an intro video for library space.

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SOGI/SEL/NUMERACY/LITERACY/HOT TOPICS

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PD offered for teachers!

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Free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.

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Online discussion/debate tool that has learners respond to a thesis with pros and cons supported by evidence.

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Kialo Edu is a custom version of Kialo ( kialo.com), the world's largest argument mapping and debate site, specifically designed for classroom use. Its clear, visually compelling format makes it easy to follow the logical structure of a discussion and facilitates thoughtful collaboration. Kialo's mission is to promote well-reasoned discussion online, and to that end, Kialo is free for educators to use.

To put their knowledge into action To sharpen their critical reasoning skills To demonstrate their understanding To engage constructively with each other
Take your classroom discussions online, break down complex subjects for students, and shake it up with new types of assignments.

Try Kialo in Your Classroom

What can you use Kialo for?

Create discussions for your students, where they can put their knowledge into practice, develop their own views on classroom content, and consolidate what they've learned. In a Kialo discussion, every student has a voice - there's no talking over each other, and students have the space to explore arguments at their own pace. Kialo's collaborative platform encourages students to work together to find the best way to express each idea.

Assign students to write a Kialo discussion instead of an essay - or use Kialo discussions to outline larger writing projects. Kialo's argument-tree structure leads students to consider counter-arguments, develop a logical outline of their argument, and visualize how their ideas fit together.

Write a discussion for your students to explore, and set out content in a clear and easy format. Link to additional sources and reading, challenge students to add arguments or question concepts.

How does Kialo work?

With Kialo, discussions and debates are clearly visualized as an interactive tree of pro and con arguments. At the top of every discussion is the thesis, which is supported or challenged by pro and con claims. Each one of these claims can in turn branch into subsequent claims that support or challenge them.

All discussions are private and can only be seen by those you choose to share them with. To start a discussion with your students, simply write a brief description and a thesis (or theses). Share the discussion with your whole class, or divide students into smaller groups.

Each claim has a comment section underneath that allows you to give students feedback, suggest improvements, and ask questions without cluttering the surface of the discussion. Similarly, students can easily collaborate with each other to improve their arguments, examples, and phrasing.

You can set up teams for each of your classes to easily share and organize the content you want your students to see. All content on Kialo-Edu.com is private, accessible only to the people you share it with.

These features are just a small fraction of what you can do with Kialo.
Find the application that works best with your teaching style.

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Kialo Edu - The tool to teach critical thinking and rational debate

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Kialo is a free tool used by educators world-wide to teach critical thinking, facilitate rational classroom debate and explain controversial issues.

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Portfolio option: this site allows them to engage in similar activities to what they already do online (like posting content, liking content, and commenting on others' content), but in a moderated space so that they can practice digital etiquette with support.

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Developed to help teacher librarians and classroom teachers develop greater fluency in their understanding of data and statistical literacy, in order to effectively integrate this foundational knowledge into their instructional activities.

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Fontichiaro, Kristin, Jo Angela Oehrli, and Amy Lennex.

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Ebook of Creating Data Literate Students

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Creating Data Literate Students provides high school librarians and educators with foundational domain knowledge to teach a new subset of information literacy skills — data and statistical literacy, including: statistics and data comprehension; data as argument; and data visualization. Data — both raw and displayed in visualizations — can clarify or confuse, confirm or deny, persuade or deter. Students often learn that numbers are objective, though data in the real world is rarely so. In fact, visualized data — even from authoritative sources — can sometimes be anything but objective. Librarians and classroom educators need to be as fluent with quantitative data as they are with text in order to support high schoolers as they engage with data in formal and informal settings. We asked contributors to this volume — experts in high school curriculum, information literacy and/or data literacy — to explore the intersections between data and curriculum and identify high-impact strategies for demystifying data for educators and students alike.

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Has teacher lessons and resources attached to many films.

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Watch quality Canadian documentary, animation and fiction films online

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Supports Digital Wellness from K-7, with resources for students, teachers, and parents. Their goal is to educate on the 5 elements of digital wellness (Practice Mindfulness, Explore Learning, Think Critically, Connect Positively and Be Safe) and they communicate that digital wellness is about “more than limiting screen time,” (SD23 Learning Technology Department).

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A Guide for Students, Schools and Families

LIVING WELL IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Digital Wellness means more than limiting screen time

To learn more about the 5 digital wellness elements click on the images or download this pdf document

Technology continues to evolve rapidly and it has become intricately woven into the fabric of daily life for all of us. Of course, that comes with a balance of positive and negative implications for our well-being, some of which we don't yet fully understand. As such, we recognize the growing need and shared responsibilities we all hold to support each learner to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions required to lead healthy, happy and productive lives in an increasingly digital world.

The above considerations are suggested practices that support digital health and wellness for students, staff and our extended community. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather, this information reflects a wide array of current readings and research as well as the lived experiences and voices of our students, staff and families.

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Digital Wellness | Learning Technology Department

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A Guide for Students, Schools and Families LIVING WELL IN A DIGITAL WORLD Digital Wellness means more than limiting screen time To learn more about the 5 digital wellness elements click on the images or download this pdf document Technology continues to evolve rapidly and it has become intricately woven into the fabric of daily life for all of us.

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Includes videos of songs based on books. Click through the tabs!

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(Copy of) OLASC18 Makerspace slides by M. Mulcaster from Peel District School Board.

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Copy of OLASC18 Making in the Curriculum: Makerspace your Literacy and Numeracy Program