@hand - mobile technologies in academia and medicine

On April 21, I attended a symposium held by the University of Maryland HS/HSL library on the use of handheld devices in academia and medicine. While this conference was geared towards academia and medicine, I kept thinking of how this could be applicable to school library media specialists.

Students are using more devices and at younger ages. They are creating and receiving information in ways that most adults couldn't even dream of. If medical schools and universities are using handheld devices as a way to read students, maybe middle and high schools could be trying to do this as well. While I am not sure *how* this would be done exactly, I am envisioning this as more of a one more point of contact for students. There may be some inexpensive and relatively easy ways to incorporate the hand-held technologies that students are already using.

One way that was suggested was to create a mobile library website. Another, was to create resources designed specifically for viewing on a mobile device. School libraries could also use previously created content. Medline Plus has a mobile web/health information that could be easily used by students (or the general population) for consumer medical research. Showing students how to access reputable information with their phones would be a great way to incorporate information literacy into life long learning (AASL Standard 1.1.8 Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information and pursuing inquiry and AASL Standard 4 - Pursue personal and aesthetic growth ).

Windows Movie Maker

I'll have to agree with my classmates in saying that I enjoyed using Windows Movie Maker. It was easy and intuitive to use and I liked the way that you could toggle between the storyboard and timeline views. It was easy to import video and sound and to add captions to the photos. Another student commented that it lacks advanced editing features. While this may be a drawback, I didn't think it would have a huge impact on the tool, depending, of course, on how one was going to use MovieMaker.

One of the best features of this program for school librarians is its ubiquity - almost all, if not all, Windows PC's come loaded with it. So there is no extra cost involved in procuring it. I think students would like using it to create videos and presentations. It would appear to a variety of learners - experiential, visual, intrapersonal, interpersonal,logical, kinesthetic, logical, etc.

Megan D's audacity on Voicethread

I really liked experimenting with Audacity. However, I found it much less intuitive and harder to use than Captivate, but it's free so... My fading in doesn't work very well and I could not figure out how to start the voice AFTER the music started. (I loaded the music last).

I could see this being useful for kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal, as well as musical, and of course, audio learners. I'm not sure how much a visual learner would get out of this, in terms of having to use one, but they might enjoy creating one.

Personally, as a student I'd prefer a tool where I had both audio and video available to me.

Our Trip to Ireland

My simple site

Here is the link to my very simple site created with Google Sites. I think that I would like to try experimenting with Wix, too. Google sites just seems to be too simple - there does not seem to be alot of ability to work outside of the frames.
I really liked seeing examples of "good" school library media sites. There are a lot of free programs out there with the potential to create a very interesting and interactive site that would appeal to students, teachers and parents.

FotoFlexer

I really liked this photo editing software -it looks like it has enough functionality to do basic and some mid-level editing. Best of all - it's free. The one on the left is the original and the one on the right is the edited version.

My pixie on the Three Furies.