iPads at NCS: Teaching Tools on Your Time

Next semester, we are going to resume our Teaching Tools on Your Time training series by focusing on iPads!  In addition, we will conduct a brief faculty/staff survey to solicit feedback about what you would like covered in future trainings.

iPads at NCS

Currently we have two iPads in the library that we hope teachers will consider using in the classroom.  We've decided to kick this iPad training session off with a new portion of our library website devoted solely to iPads at NCS:

http://www.ncslibrary.org/ipad

On these pages we have listed useful apps (make sure to check both the "apps for teachers" and "apps for students" sections!) as well as a description about how the library is hoping to expand the iPad program next year.

We thought we would share these pages with you now in case any of you receive an iPad over the holidays.  Make sure to check out this site to get our app recommendations and begin to brainstorm ways you might use your new iPad in the classroom!

"App"-solutely Fabulous

If you follow our NCS Library Blog, you may have noticed that we have a new series of posts where we list our favorite must-have apps.  Make sure to check our blog periodically to see our new recommendations.  Here are our first two "App"-solutely Fabulous posts:

• Dropbox
• Mobile Mouse

Schedule a Training

To set up a time for training, email Chip Chase and list your available times. We are still training users on Glogster, Voicethread, Google Earth, and Jing, so if you'd like to learn how to use those resources, let us know.  We are also still offering our hands-on service if you would like our help to implement a tech tool you just don't have the time for.

Previous Posts

• Teaching Tools on Your Time - Hands on Service
• Jing for Screencapturing - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"
• Google Earth - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"
• Voicethread - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time" 
• Announcing Library Training Series: "Teaching Tools On your Time" - Glogster

Student Survey

Students, please take some time to be a part of our Student Survey regarding technology and library use.

http://www.ncslibrary.org/survey/

Websites of the Week: Note-taking Tools

Study smarter, not harder!

This week we are focusing on great websites for note-taking.  Change the way you keep track of notes by using one of these online resources.  With online notes, you always have a backup, and easy access (as long as you have an Internet connection.)

Noodle Tools

NCS has a school-wide subscription to Noodle Tools, a great note-taking and citation tool.  Anytime you come to the library, you've probably heard about this tool as part of our instruction.  Noodle Tools allows you to easily create MLA and Turabian bibligoraphies.

Over the summer, Noodle Tools was updated to provide more features, making it easier to link notes to sources and class projects.  The NCS librarians look forward to integrating more of these new tools into our instruction.

If you haven't already done so, make sure to create a personal Noodle Tools account by following the instructions in our Tips In a Minute Series on NoodleTools. Updates to these videos will be coming soon!

Evernote

Evernote is Mr. Chase's organization and note-taking application of choice.  Evernote is a web-based service that also has applications for Mac, PC, iPhone and Android.  To get started with Evernote, simply create an account, create folders, and begin taking notes.

In addition to traditional typed notes, Evernote also lets you easily copy entire webpages, upload PDFs and other documents to a note, add images, and even forward email messages to your Evernote account.

Watch this quick video to learn more about how Evernote works.

Diigo

Diigo is a web-based highlighting, screen-capturing, and note-taking tool.  It's a great way to highlight text and add sticky notes directly on web pages in order to save them later.  Like Evernote, in order to use Diigo, you need to create an account, download a bookmarklet to your Internet browser, and then begin research.


To learn more about Diigo, watch the video on the Diigo homepage.

Websites of the Week - Create a Dynamic Homepage

For this week's Websites of the Week, we are focusing on Dynamic Homepages!

What's your Internet Browser Homepage?  Do you use the NCS Website?  Yahoo?  Google?

Consider making one of these dynamic websites your homepage: Symbaloo, iGoogle, Netvibes, or Pageflakes.

These websites were created specifically with the thought of being a personal homepage.  Many offer the ability to add your own websites and widgets.  Getting access to your important websites might become a whole lot easier!

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is a great site that allows you to organize your favorite websites by topic, using iPhone-like icons, which the site calls "tiles" to access links.  You can easily customize tiles by dragging and dropping them around your page, creating new tiles from your favorite bookmarks, color-coordinating tiles by subject, and more. 

Create a free account to set up your own Symbaloo page.  You can easily make this your homepage on home and school computers.

iGoogle

iGoogle allows you to create your own customized "skin" over the Google search page we've all come to know and love.  Instead of just a simple Google search, you can add your own widgets to get more use out of the page.

Choose a background theme, add customized widgets, like the NYT news feed, Gmail and Google Reader feeds.  Or follow your favorite blogs and websites directly on this page. (Subscribe to the NCS Library blog and get all these great tips directly on your Internet Browser Homepage!)

Netvibes

Netvibes lets you create a personal dashboard by choosing varied widgets and content-channels from dropdown menus. You can easily add news feeds that interest you, and even pre-created feeds regarding certain topics.  Netvibes also allows you to add multiple homepages through tabs, and keep track of other user-created sites.

Pageflakes

Pageflakes is very similar to Netvibes.  It allows you to easily create portals of varied content by selecting modules from drop-down menus. You can easily add widgets, and even pre-created feeds regarding certain topics.  Pageflakes also allows you to add multiple homepages through tabs, and keep track of other user-created Pageflakes.

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

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.

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"

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)