MassCUE Day #1

Technology/Library Integration
Laura D’Elia and Dan Callahan from Pine Glen School in Burlington, MA presented their inspiring integrated tech/library model of teaching. They focus on four main areas of the curriculum including digital citizenship, technology, information and media literacy, and love of reading. They are currently implementing a one-to-one ipad initiative in the fourth and fifth grades.  A few interesting points from their presentation include:

• Burlington caps elementary school classes at 18.
• They highlighted Shannon Miller as a wonderful resource: http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/  
• Laura uses volunteers to cover some of her “fixed” periods so she can work with Dan on tech/library projects in classrooms. Dan has a flexible schedule.
• They work together on project design and implementation with teachers focusing on standards and optimal learning design.
• You can visit their website at http://pineglen.info/
• They encouraged others to use http://www.symbaloo.com/ because it is such an easy platform for student website access, particularly for young children.
• They also recommended this site for student learning http://www.socrative.com/

Copyright Laws
K. Vigil gave a great presentation that can be accessed via her blog: http://kvigil.weebly.com/education-blog.html

Although there is little issue with elementary school use of images, it’s best to teach children to follow copyright laws, and model this ourselves. Copyright laws are protected under the constitution and are meant to promote creativity. She recommended this creative commons video and the cc website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io3BrAQl3so and http://creativecommons.org/

Vigil also introduced a number of tools and sites to help with legal use of images and music.

Sites for altering images:
http://ipiccy.com/
http://pixlr.com/
http://www.picmonkey.com/

Free to Use Image Sites
flkr (look at license - bottom of page): http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
wikimedia commons  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  great for diagrams, sicence
public domain anything before 1923 - but make sure it hasn’t been redone later
works by the u.s. government - public domain:
www.nana.gov - gorgeous photos
national archives http://www.archives.gov/
library of congress - great pics http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
http://www.pics4learning.com/- free for education, careful when using for broadcast
morguefile http://www.morguefile.com/
Advanced Google search (you can choose images that are free to use)

free music for teachers
http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-program/ (have to sign up)
http://freeplaymusic.com/

creating your own images:
take pictures w/cameras, mobile devices, computer
wordle - wordle.net  http://www.wordle.net
bitstrips - cartoon makerhttp://www.bitstrips.com/
create images with Google draw, kidpix, other create programs.

Create your own sound and cartoons:
digital/computer voice recorder
audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
mobile device voice memos: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/audio-memos-voice-recorder/id338550388?mt=8
garage band
voki  http://www.voki.com/  free avatar tool with animation
GoAnimate http://goanimate4schools.com/public_index
abcya. com  great creation tool http://www.abcya.com/


Google Sites
I presented a workshop on how to create your own Google site for your own eportfollio, student ePortfolios and content websites. This is the link the site that explains the process step by step:
https://sites.google.com/a/wayland.k12.ma.us/eportfolio-creation/


Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want any additional information about these presentations.  

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