Developing ICT Skills

 LIBE 477- Developing Your Own ICT Skills and Pedagogy

 

    I must admit, I love learning new technology. I remember having to design a website for a university course (way back in the 90s!) and saving all the information onto a floppy disk. I don’t think you can even find those anymore! Since then, I have always tried to keep up with evolving technology, and I really enjoy it. During our home learning months in 2020, I created a website for our school library to consolidate useful links for parents to use. I haven’t been very good at keeping it up to date, but I hope to make it a priority in the future.

 

    The most used technology program for me though is also one of the simplest. I personally love using PowerPoint as a graphic design program to make displays and slideshows for the school, as well as to create labels for book baskets in the library. It’s such a versatile program and I use it almost daily.

    I try to integrate fun technology into my program in as many ways as I can. It really hooks the students and helps to draw them into the library.

 

    Near the end of the last school year, I ran Technology Stations during library time with grades 2-6. I had 5 stations and the groups visited a different one each week. By the time we did our story and book checkout, the students had about 25-30 minutes to work at their station. The 5 stations were:

 

1. Spheros- Students created a maze using popsicle sticks and controlled their Sphero through it. 

 

2. Snap Circuits- Students loved building their circuits and making them light up and music play.

 

3. Ozobots- These are great little robots that follow colour codes to turn, spin, and follow lines.

 

 

4. Code and Go Mice- I had large pages of pictures printed and the students had to code their mouse from the starting block to their chosen picture.

 

5. Coding- Students used iPads and worked on either code.org or the Scratch app to create blocks of code.

 

    These stations were great because they allowed all the students to try out some of the different ‘techy‘ items that we have, and now I can offer them as a choice activity after book checkout because they already know how to use them all.

 

    Another popular activity in my library is Quiver Vision. This app takes a student’s colouring page and brings it to life in 3-D. I have an iPad set up on a stand so that kids can just slide their paper underneath. So much fun! So far I only use the free pages, but it may be worth it to purchase some packs as well.

    In order to keep up with new and evolving educational technology, I try to take as many tech-based Pro-D courses that I can. I recently completed a Minecraft Education Workshop through Logics Academy that was offered through my district. It was really neat to see how this popular game can be used to reinforce so many academic areas and can also be used as an assessment tool.

    A few years ago, I was fortunate to be able to attend the IT4K12 (Information Technology for K-12) conferenceput on by Focused Education Resources. There were many interesting speakers on 3D printers, Digital Citizenship, Make Do kits, and small robots for the classroom. I believe this conference is held every year, although it is currently a virtual one.

 

    The main roadblock that I face with using a lot of the great programs that I am learning about is time and lack of devices. When I was teaching in the classroom, I used programs like Adobe Spark and ChatterPix with my students, but with library classes I haven’t yet figured out how to use a lot of the programs within the time and technology constraints that I have. I hope to be able to book iPad and computer cart time in the schedule for the library next year so that I can teach some of these cool things! I would love to try to make some stop motion videos with my older students as well as green screen projects for everyone. The DoInk app is an easy-to-use program and I’m sure my students would love it!

 

    My personal professional development goals are to make better use of my library’s social media accounts. I have a Twitter account and an Instagram account for the library, but rarely post. This is an area I would like to focus on improving. I would love to show our families what we are up to in the library, it’s just a matter of making the time to post! 

Resources

 

Chatterpix Kids |. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.duckduckmoose.com/educational-iphone-itouch-apps-for-kids/chatterpixkids/ 

Code & GO® Robot Mouse. Learning Resources®. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://www.learningresources.com/stem-robot-mouse 

Cunningham, K. (2022, January 25). Robots to code and create with. Ozobot. Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://ozobot.com/ 

Do ink. Do Ink. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from http://www.doink.com/ 

Home - IT4K12 conference 2021. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://web.cvent.com/event/34ec1325-99c2-4a66-8ca1-dcc6eca83ae2/summary 

Imagine, program, share. Scratch. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://scratch.mit.edu/ 

Learn Computer Science. change the world. Code.org. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://code.org/ 

Minecraft: Education edition: Teacher Academy. Microsoft Educator Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://education.microsoft.com/en-us/learningPath/3eede2ae 

Quivervision. (n.d.). Quivervision. QuiverVision. Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://quivervision.com/ 

Snap circuits®. Shop By Brand. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://shop.elenco.com/consumers/brands/snap-circuits.html 

Steam education for all ages & stages. STEM Kits & Robotics for Kids | Inspire STEM Education with Sphero. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://sphero.com/ 

van der Loos, J. (2020). Ame Library. AME Library. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://sites.google.com/view/ame-library/home?authuser=0