Monday, November 2, 2009

Movie in the Library - November 12, 3:30 PM

Join us in the library on Thursday, November 12, to relax and watch the movie, Nightmare Before Christmas!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Tips in a Minute: Moodle for Teachers — Organizing by Adding Text

This video shows how faculty members can organize Moodle by adding text fields and summaries directly to their Moodle class pages. The video also shows how to embed Youtube videos in Summaries and Web Page Resources.


Monday, October 5, 2009

Web site of the Week -- Teacher Tools and Templates

This month’s Web site of the month is called Teacher Tools and Templates. It contains a wealth of free links to time-saving templates for your curriculum, bulletin boards, lesson plans, etc. So, before you re-invent the wheel, click on this site and simply download their free, editable templates. If you lose this link or forget to bookmark it in your favorites, you’ll also find it posted on our blog. Happy searching and love from your librarians! http://www.education-world.com/tools_templates.shtml

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Tips in a Minute: Moodle for Teachers — Adding Documents

In this video, teachers can learn how to add and arrange documents on their Moodle class.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Cite It! NCS Plagiarism Prevention Presentation

This is the presentation regarding citation rules, plagiarism prevention and consequences for cheating at NCS. Click on Full Screen at the bottom of the slideshow box for full screen viewing.

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Quest for the Best - Guide to the Internet

Do you want to become an Internet power-user?

Then take a look at this list of recommended web sites and services, and learn about the hottest Web sites:

The Quest for the Best

Web site of the Week—New Yorker Fiction Podcast

Are you having trouble finding the time to read for pleasure? Well why not try the next best thing, with fiction podcasts! It's easy to subscribe to a podcast using iTunes services and upload them to an iPod. Or, you can download audio files and burn them to a CD to listen in the car.

We highly recommend the New Yorker Fiction podcast. In this free podcast, famous authors read their favorite stories from the back catalog of the New Yorker magazine. Afterwards, they discuss the significance of these stories with the New Yorker's fiction editor.
Listen to Joyce Carol Oates read Eudora Welty’s “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” or Mary Gaitskill read Vladimir Nabokov’s “Symbols and Signs.”
These short stories and discussions are the perfect length for a commute!
This podcast includes NPR book reviews, news and author interviews -- for people who love to read.
For other podcasts, check out these podcast repositories online.
  • Librivox —This collection focuses on books from the public domain, including many classics. Many of these podcasts are user-created, so the quality may vary.
  • Audible — If you are looking for contemporary authors, nad are not worried about paying for your content, this is the place to go.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/fiction
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=89697155
http://librivox.org/
http://www.audible.com/

Friday, April 24, 2009

Web site of the Week—Youtube EDU and Youtube LOC

This week we are covering another great source of scholarly collegiate-level lectures. Youtube EDU is a repository of all Youtube accounts associated with Colleges and Universities.

Click on Directory to see a list of all participating institutions.

Here's a sample video on "Bringing Education into the 21st Century" from the University of California's Channel.



Great for:
  • Video Resources
  • Professional Development
Library of Congress Youtube Channel

While you are on Youtube, make sure to check out the Library of Congress's channel to access classic video footage from their digital library, as well as coverage of LOC-sponsored author events and other intersting videos.

Here's a clip from their Journey's and Crossings Playlist: "Rosie the Riveter: Real Women Workers in World War II":



http://www.youtube.com/edu
http://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress

Friday, April 17, 2009

Web site of the Week—Frontline


Many of you might be familiar with the PBS documentary program Frontline, but did you know that you can watch full episodes online, download transcripts, take part in discussions, and access additional materials pertaining to episodes, on Frontline's web site?

Also make sure to check out the Frontline Teacher Center to search videos by subject, and access teaching guides on specific episodes.

For those of you more technology-minded, make sure to check out Frontline's Digital Nationa, a fascinating look at the way we live now. As Frontline's web site describes this program:
Digital Nation a multiplatform project that includes this interactive Web site and a one-hour FRONTLINE documentary to air Winter 2010. The project aims to capture life on the digital frontier and explore how the Web and digital media are changing the way we think, work, learn and interact.
Some sample broadcasts include:

Inside the Meltdown
A fascinating exploration of the causes of the financial meltdown. Watch the full episode, view interviews, access an online timeline, and read what others have to say in the Discussion page.



The Old Man and the Storm
From Frontline's description of the episode "In The Old Man and the Storm, FRONTLINE correspondent and filmmaker June Cross journeys with the Gettridge family of New Orleans for 18 months as they endure devastation, political turmoil and a painstakingly slow bureaucratic process to rebuild their homes and their lives." The site Includes updates on the Gettridge clan, official's views of the recovery process, and a timeline of the recovery process.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Web site of the Week—Academic Earth


Academic Earth is a great resource for videos of scholarly lectures. The videos cover a variety of topics, from Chemistry to Political Science. Renowned professors from major universities give these lectures; some agreed to have an entire class filmed and uploaded to this web site, available for all to enjoy.

As the web site states: "Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world class education."

Great for:
  • Video Resources
  • Professional Development
Below are some sample videos:

Politics/Global Ethics:
Thomas Friedman—"The World is Flat 3.0"



Physics:
Walter Lewin—"Measurements of Space and Time"



English:
Amy Hungerford—"Vladamir Nabokov, Lolita"



Mathematics:
Gilbert Strang—"The Geometry of Linear Equations"

Friday, April 3, 2009

Web site of the Week—The Big Picture

Find great image galleries of current events at the Boston Globe's online source, The Big Picture.

Shown here: "A protester faces a line of police in Threadneedle Street in London's financial district on April 2, 2009 in London, England."(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

As the creators of this photo blog describe it:
The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com, entries are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com's Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm's MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.
Whether you are interested in a topic or not, these images are sure to engage you. If you find this site interesting, you may want to check out Life Magazine's newly designed web site, as well as the aforementioned Pictures Stories and MediaStorm sites.

Great For:
  • Current Events
  • Photography

The Big Picture (Boston.com)
Life.com
Media Storm
This Week In Pictures (msnbc.com)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Become a Web Master: File Sharing Services for Larger Documents

Have you had problems with large email attachments? Do you constantly forget your USB drive at home?

Don't email that file, upload it to a file-sharing service so you can access it online from anywhere! Many of the services listed below allow you to create personal accounts and store a variety of files online. This way you can easily work on projects both at home and at school.





  • Create your own password-protected account; runs on your personal desktop, drop files into one "Dropbox" folder on your computer and they automatically sync online; easily share folders with others; Online history allows you to track and restore changes made to the folder.
  • 2GB-Free; 50 GB-$9.99/month or $99.00/year
My thoughts:
This is my personal file-sharing service of choice. The ability to drag and drop files to one Dropbox folder on the computer makes uploading files completely hassle-free. This service also has the most free space. Sharing with others is also incredibly easy.




  • Create your own "Drop" or address, send updates to twitter and Facebook, incorporates chat and easy audio streaming (call a number and it automatically converts your text to an audio file); pretty and customizable interface; create multiple drops; Firefox-add on for easel; teachers can create a Moodle-like account (http://drop.io/mrdavidson)
  • 100 MB file-size limit without purchasing upgrade
  • $19.99 a month for 20GB; $10 a month for additional 1GB per Drop
My thoughts:
This is a great service to consider. The community-aspects have a lot of interesting potential, especially since you can assign various privileges to users you share the Drop with. The main drawbacks: not enough free space (although the purchasing plan isn't that bad, plus you can always create multiple drops), and there is no way to upload files from your desktop, although the email and phone-in options for uploading files are cool.




  • Many interesting ways to upload files; multiple plugins to applications, upload directly from desktop; Easily send links to files to multiple emails; You can create an account or not
  • 100 MB file-size limit without purchasing upgrade
  • Tiered purchasing plan: $9.99 for 2GB
My thoughts: YouSendIt has a lot of great features. You can automatically send files from your desktop, through an Outlook plugin, Office, iPhoto and more. The main drawback is that there is not as much free space as Dropbox, but it has a similar purchasing plan to drop.io. Many of the interesting features are not available on the free account.




  • Completely free, no file size limits!
  • Download program, available on Mac and PC
  • Files are not available online; they only go from peer-to-peer
My thoughts: This downloadable application is perfect if you want to send huge files to single users. It may take you a while to familiarize yourself with the application interface, and you have to manually add "buddies" to send to. This application works best for direct file transfer of very large files (such as video editing projects, etc.)
Other Services
  • box.net - limited file size limit with free account
  • Mediafire - unlimited size limit, files must be smaller than 100MB
  • FolderShare - synchronizes folders on your desktop with the desktops of other users

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Word of Mouse: Yapta


Here’s how to stretch your travel dollars. I wanted to try this site out before I recommended it to you. It’s Yapta.com.
Book your flight with Yapta and they will monitor the fares and alert you if and when they drop. They also arrange for your refund with either an airline credit or voucher. I tried it for a nonstop flight that I needed to book early and within a week I received a $108.00 refund because the fare had dropped. Your refund is in the form of an airline voucher or travel credit. I advise taking the travel credit. The entire $108.00 credit can be applied to a future flight whereas travel vouchers typically don't retain any residual value. For example, if you have an $80 voucher and only use $50 of it, you will lose the remaining $30.

http://yapta.com

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tips in a Minute: Noodle Tools Part 4 - Notecards

Noodle Tools is a web service that creates citations, and helps you create online notecards.

This is the fourth video in the series that explains how to create, edit, and print notecards.

Remember, Middle Schoolers, only include one idea per note card. Also, you don't need to fill out every field in a notecard. You only need to have a title, source and one of the following: a quote, paraphrase, or my idea.


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Tips in a Minute: Noodle Tools Part 3

Noodle Tools is a web service that creates citations, and helps you create online notecards. This is the third video in the series that explains how to create a citation.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Tips in a Minute: Noodle Tools Part 2

Noodle Tools is a web service that creates citations, and helps you create online notecards. This is the first Noodle Tools video, which explains how to create a personal account.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Tips in a Minute: Noodle Tools Part 1

Watch the next video in our blog segment: Tips in a Minute. These quick, one minute Youtube videos will cover a variety of topics, from technology hints to research tips. Feel free to post recommendations for upcoming videos in the comment section!

Noodle Tools is a web service that creates citations, and helps you create online notecards. This is the first Noodle Tools video, which explains how to create a personal account.

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