9th Graders Prefer Print Books

I work in a 1:1 iPad environment. All of our 9-12 grade students have iPads. I have slowly been collecting a fiction and pleasure reading e-book library with Baker and Taylor's Axis 360. Currently my Magic Wall has about 120 books.

This semester's 9th grade students in Human Development class  have a reading assignment.  They are going to read a fiction young adult novel of their choice, as long as it has a human development-y theme (identity, sexuality, divorce, family issues, drugs, addiction, cutting, romance, teen pregnancy, etc). In a month or two we are going to have a book party with refreshments, where they will present creative interpretations of the books - slide shows, playlists, collage, painting, monologue - whatever they want to do to celebrate and share the book.

This week I have seen this as an opportunity to teach Axis360. I show them e-books in our collection to read  by Chris Crutcher,  David Levithan, and other important authors. I also have print books for the students to check out. Can you guess how many students decided to use the e-books? Answer: about three out of sixty.

The students use their iPads for so much: e-textbooks, assignments, games, everything. I thought this was a great opportunity to teach how to access our e-books, and the students checked out print books. With e-books nobody can see what you are reading, there are no real scary due dates, you won't lose the book, you can read it in the dark (on the iPad).

The teacher thought maybe they like having a print book because it becomes almost like a transitional object when they are getting really into the book. Was she comparing it to a comfort blanket? I think so, and I love the comparison! The kids are attached to the book. They don't want the book for fun to be attached to their other stressful school work, perhaps. I understand that too. 

Providing e-books for this population isn't really taking off the way I had expected. But I am a bit delighted with their attachment to the print book. 

Coming up next: The Library Overnight - will the 20 students attending want to read the free e-book book on their iPads, or do they want the print book? Find out in the next post! 

Flashcard Wishes

I got stumped by a seemingly easy request this week. One of our Educational Technology teachers and I have been spending time finding a flashcard app that:


1. Allows for large images
2. Allows for lots of text on the other side of the card
3. Can be emailed or shared to small groups or individuals
4. Can be made on computer cloud version
5. Deck can be downloaded to study on an iPad without wifi
6. Can "shuffle" the deck of flashcards, mark ones that are difficult, exclude the learned ones, and other fun learning capabilities like that.

I have tried out a bunch of great tools, but none so far can do all of the above. This is  for an Art History teacher who wants to put ARTstor images on one side and all the notes about the piece on the other (here is my Intro to ARTstor LibGuide). You would think this would be easy to find, but all the ones I have tried so far are missing crucial elements. The best cards are on Gflashcards, but the sharing is limited because of ARTstor's understandable Terms of Use.
Do you know of one that works for all of these criteria? Please share!

iPad Inservice

This week I taught three 90 minutes sessions as part of our faculty iPad inservice week. I taught the Productivity session, where I got to teach QuickOffice, Evernote, and Diigo (using these tools on school laptops and iPads) to groups of 10-20 faculty members. There were 3 other classes being offered by other specialists: iPad Basics, eBook Options, and Classroom Possibilities. I had a lot of fun actually teaching from the iPad as I walked around the room. I could also switch off between projecting from my iPad and laptop.  I would have loved it if the Smartboard worked with the iPad..maybe someday! The teachers had varying skills, but we all helped each other, and I had a great time. They loved it when I took their picture in an Evernote note, which was also very helpful for attendance. The most confusing parts to teach were adding Evernote's web clipper and Diigo's web highlighter to the iPads.
I am attending  an ALA session about Professional Development, because I see a lot more of this in my future (Leading Professional Development that Matters…and Works Friday, June 22, 2012 | 12:30 p.m.–4:00 p.m. Presenters: Debbie Abilock, Kristin Fontichiaro, and Violet H. Harada). I am already planning our August inservice week, where I hope to be teaching Your iPad and the Library: Access, Collaboration, Participation. Or something like that.. Do you have favorite Apps or iPad uses you think I should highlight (or get) for the faculty? Please share!

ipadinservice2

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Great News from NoodleTools!

Friday I attended a webinar about the new version of the citing module of NoodleTools that will be available in late June. I am happy to say, I'm sticking with NoodleTools! After working so hard over the years to make this amazing citing, note taking, and outlining tool a large part of the K-12 Brentwood School research experience, I didn't want to have to change citation platforms. But NoodleTools really needed an upgrade. And an upgrade it is!

The Abilock team understands that we need to teach the students not only how to cite, but what they are citing, and that the tool students use needs to be flexible and not too complicated. Now they give us three citation levels instead of two, breaking the skills down even further so 2nd graders, 7th graders, and 11th graders or college students can all cite the types of resources they use. Engaging slides defining each type of source and how to find the elements needed for citing are available in each level. Teachers and Librarians can use these slides for instruction, or students have the option of seeing them while citing.

My students will especially appreciate  these highlights:
Quick Cite: They can now copy and paste citations from databases, and NoodleTools will offer some prompts to make sure the citation is edited if it needs to be. It will also mark on the bibliography that it is a copy and pasted citation, so students can go back and refine it later if needed.

WorldCat Integration:  Finally! Enter  a title and NoodleTools will offer up matching book covers and information so the student can make sure they are selecting the right one.

Archive and Annotate web pages: Using the iCyte bookmarklet,  students can keep copies of the sites and highlight on the screen.

Switch easily between types of sources: "Oops - I need to switch from citing a magazine to a newspaper, do I have to start all over?" Not anymore!

And like icing on top, all of these citing features work on the iPad, and later this summer the notecards and outlining features should work as well.

Some other  new features might please your students. For instance,  if your school teaches several citation styles, it is easier to switch between styles . Also, the notecard feature has a new layout that looks easier to navigate while writing notecards.

I did nto get to use NoodleTools myself, I only saw the webinar. I am very excited to see how it all looks live, and to share it with my students in the fall. Here is a video from NoodleTools all about the upcoming release. I will be able to write more after I actually use the updated product.

Thanks, NoodleTools!! The upgrade looks great!

Using the Library on your iPad

The faculty all received our iPads to start learning how to use them before the next school year. So far, I have sent out two emails about using the library on the iPad. I am thinking this will be a regular series from the librarians to the faculty and staff, and soon to the students. Next year I am hoping to do some in-person faculty training too, but for now, emails will have to suffice. We are heading into finals next week and everyone is very busy.
My first email highlighted using Gale's Access my Library App and the Britannica Online App which I just subscribed to for my school. Today's email is all about using ARTstor's mobile site and how I can help the teachers put together a collection for their students to use on their mobile devices. I wanted them to play with these databases over the summer to see how they can incorporate them in the fall.
I want the library's resources (including me, by the way!) to become more important, not less, when we go 1:1.

1:1 iPads at the Secondary School Library

Archipelago is undergoing a slight change of focus. The 9th - 12th grades at my school are going 1:1 with iPads in the fall, and today all the teachers got our new iPads, along with iTunes gift cards. I hope to reflect in Archipelago about how using iPads changes the library and our curriculum. Will it change what I teach, what I buy for the collection, and the overall culture in the library? Probably, but what exactly will be different? What will be challenging? What will be better?


My first concerns are:
What is the best Blogger app?
How to serve the middle school equally when it isn't a part of the program?
Will NoodleTools have an iPad app, and if not, will it matter?
Which ebook vendors should I start using?
What can I do this summer to prepare the library resources and curriculum for this new and exciting educational adventure?
Will I ever be able to make a LibGuide on the iPad?

I will blog all about it on the iPad, of course! Right now I am just blogging using Safari on the iPad. Seems basic, but O.K.