Library at BINcA

Our library will receive our Opening Day Collection on Thursday. How long will it take before we are open for business? Who knows? I was able to learn and use a bunch of fun tools to prepare. Below are some tools/apps recommended by my Emerging Technologies professor along with my thoughts on where they might come in handy. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

BigHugeLabs– I can see a lot of uses for this, especially to create fun collages and maps. I would not use this to teach because even I was having trouble distinguishing what was an ad and what was part of the app.

Flickr – I used to use Flickr to archive school photos but somehow stopped 10 years ago. This site looks like it would be great for teaching students how to find photos that are available under the Creative Commons. It would be easy to teach students what to look for and how to use/cite responsibly. I am planning to co-teach a Virtual Vacation unit in the spring with the Tech Literacy team and I think we will direct students here to gather photos for their final presentation and use the license filters as part of the lesson.

IMGFlip -I had never made a meme before – so fun! I know these will come in handy all the time for flyers and Kahoots!  

Doodle – As we are a new library, we are looking for ways to make our calendar dynamic and public facing. There are two public spaces in the library that we want teachers to reserve if they want to use the space for a meeting. Sometimes a few people thought that they could plan for the space but didn’t let me know. We need this kind of help. In addition we have a librarian – me – and the Writers Room team which includes a coordinator and several interns. We need a way to keep us all on the same page. I tried to sign up with this site but it did not connect to my Google calendar. I don’t know if this Calendar app is the right one but I will keep looking. Definitely taking suggestions!

SurveyMonkey I have used SurveyMonkey before but Google Forms usually works best for me. We have two up and running all the time for the library – one asking students about their previous experience with libraries in their country and here, and one for anyone to tell me what they are reading so I can make a poster outside their classroom – “BINcA Reads…” I stole this from Bonnie McBride at Fenway.

Zamzar – Totally get how this one will be useful one day, particularly for converting pdfs and csvs.  – file conversion

Bitmoji -This is obviously so cute and lets you personalize lots of kinds of communication. I like Bitmoji for my phone but I personally would not use it overmuch in the library. I can imagine others using bitmoji to create avatars for themselves to include on infographics and other posters but that is not my style. 

Flip -I have heard a lot about this app but never used it before. When I first opened it, there were suggestions including Current Events. I could imagine assigning students to record one video a week of micro current events – what’s happening on your block? Near your locker? – as a way to start conversations in Advisory, for example.

Timeline  – I have signed up for this site now. I am not good at making infographics and flyers but I often need to do so for library events or to post around explaining library procedures. This looks much easier to navigate than Canva which I use now. We’ll see how it goes but I am up for something new.