Greenville County Media Services

Listen to Me Learn

I hope everyone is enjoying the 2011 Upstate Technology Conference! One of my sessions this year was on audio enchanced projects and podcasting. Rather than my usual handouts,everything is on a Prezi this year –enjoy! http://prezi.com/fmpjcn77mvgi/listen-to-me-learn/

To Audiobooks with Love

I truly,deeply,madly love a good audiobook. I constantly have one going (it doesn’t hurt that I have a long commute) in the car and on my MP3 player while I walk/exercise. Earlier this month I led a session at GCS Summer Academy on audiobooks and had great conversations about using audiobooks in the classroom. I promised the folks in my session that I’d post the websites we talked about during the class – so here we go! Thanks for attending – and thank you for the great conversations!

Overdrive:http://greenville.lib.overdrive.com
This is a service that Greenville County Schools provides to all of our students,teachers and parents. The login is the same as your Greenville County Schools email login. It has free downloadable eAudiobooks and eBooks – many are classics aligned with classroom novel sets,but we’ve also purchased new high interest titles for all grade levels. You’ll need Windows Media Player and Adobe Digital Editions as well as the free downloadable Overdrive Media Console to listen to books. Don’t forget you can check out MP3 players from the district’s instructional materials center!

Guys Listen:http://library.booksontape.com/guyslisten.cfm
A site from Books on Tape and Jon Scieszka (of True Story of the Three Little Pigs) –this site is an expansion on Scieszka’s site – Guys Read – and focuses on “encouraging boys to appreciate books and reading of all kinds.” I love what he has to say about audiobooks,“One of the best things we can do to help boys read is to expand the definition of ‘reading’. Audiobooks are an exciting way to do just that…[they] can fit boys’wide range of subject interests and their love of different technologies.”

Plugged into Reading:http://www.pluggedintoreading.com/
This site provides information about Janet Allen’s balanced literacy programming,which features audiobooks as part of the reading initiative. There are several whitepapers and research available on the site about how to use audiobooks and their impact on literacy.

Librivox:http://www.librivox.com
This project is like the audiobook equivalent of Project Gutenburg. Librivox and a veritable army of volunteers are attempting to get all of the book/poems/short stories in the public domain in audiobook format. The library is extensive,although not the friendliest to browse for students. Some narrators are better than others,but you can’t beat the collection.

Books Should Be Free:http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/
This site provides user friendly browsing of free audiobooks that are available on the web. Many of the books are from Librivox – the last site mentioned,but the interface is much more user friendly.

There are a few “for fee” sites that are worth mentioning – I really like Audible (http://www.audible.com/) and SimplyAudioBooks (http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com/). Both work kind of like Netflix for audiobooks with users paying a monthly subscription for downloads.

Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes

Just finished Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes

Main characters Bo and Gari are each dealing with life in a military family in different ways –Bo is living on an air force base in North Carolina,the son of the base commander, trying not to get into trouble the way he always has in the past. Bo and the students of Room 208 are in for a shock with their new wildly creative xteacher who’s the size of a 4th grader. Bo learns to love school and learning under her creative methods (and Miss Candy the librarian isn’t bad either!) –but is angry knowing that he won’t be at the base long enough to join the new theater group. Gari is living with her Mom in Seattle when she gets the news that her mother has been deployed to Iraq as a military nurse. Gari is sent to live with her cousin Bo despite all of her protests and immediately starts to plot ways to bring her mother back so she can go home to Seattle. The two characters’plans collide when Ms. Loupe is in need,and a new plan, Operation Yes,is born. A solid school story that reminds us what students (and all people!) can do when they are moved by a greater cause. As a side note,most of us teachers dream of inspiring the type of class environment we see in Room 208. Wouldn’t we all want to be Ms. Loupe? Favorite quote from the book:“Be kind,for everyone you know is fighting a great battle.” –Yes,its quoted from someone else –but its put to such use in this book that I loved it all over again. Happy reading!

Podcasting Session at GCS Summer Academy

Welcome! This is the post for the Podcasting sessions for the Greenville County Schools 2010 Summer Academy. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone at Monday’s sessions –both sessions are full –but feel free to share the handout with other educators!

Podcasting2010

Creating a New Post in a Word Press Blog

This is one of those weird writing about yourself writing things…but here we go…creating a post to your new blog!

Go to http://blog.greenville.k12.sc.us and log in. You will be taken to the “dashboard”of your blog(s). Using the light blue icon menu on the left side,hover on the thumbtack to get the Post menu. Click on “Add New”to get to the screen where you can enter the information for your blog post.

The large box at the top of the screen is for the post title –notice as you type the title in it creates the URL where your post will be on the internet. It can be really cumbersome with the spaces,so you have the option of clicking the “Edit”button under the URL to make your own post URL.

You enter the body of your post in the box under the word processing icons. Some people are more comfortable typing it directly in the box,others are more comfortable typing it in a standard word processing program then copy/pasting the text into the box –its your choice! Just remember that your formatting may or may not transfer into the blog. You have the standard word processing options in the tool bar –like Bold, Italics,Strikethrough,Bulleted and Numbered Losts,Alignment,SpellChecker as well as buttons to create hyperlinks. For the tech savvy there is an option to edit in HTML code instead of the visual editor.

As you are working,its a good idea to save your draft periodically. Also in that menu you have options on the visibility of your post –public,private,or public and password protected. You can preview your post before uploading it as well.

Lastly,I recommend adding tags to your post so that readers can track subjects in your posts –like this post is tagged with blogs and technology training.

When you are ready to publish your post just click the “Publish”button.

You can view your post or your blog by clicking on the links near the top of the screen.

10 Cool Things to Try with Destiny Quest

Ranking and Reviewing Books in Destiny Quest

Destiny Quest allows patrons to give starred “rankings”to titles they have read,and provides an option for giving full text reviews of books as well. Librarians and teachers with access rights have control over approving/editing/deleting reviews,so it makes a safe and engaging ways for students to share reflections on reading in very accessible forum. The reviews are attached to the books,so when browsing students can read the reviews from their peers to help make reading selections. The search features also allow for patrons to limit searches by the number of stars a book has receieved.

Give it a try! You have to be logged in Destiny Quest –do a search for a book you’ve read recently and click on the title to pull up the title details. On the review tab,click on the button that says “Add Review.”

Depending on the rights you have set up at your site –you may only see the stars for ratings or the stars AND the review portion for a written comment. Fill in the information and click Save to post your ranking/review. All reviews have to be approved by the Library Administrator/Administrator or designated staff depending on how you’ve set up your access levels. Once approved,they will be public.

Search Suggestions in Destiny Quest

To search in Destiny Quest,you just enter your search term in the box at the top/middle of the screen and press enter or click “GO.”

As you type,you will see samples of recent searches at your location. This can be helpful if you or your student aren’t quite sure how somthing is spelled.

Now…that said,students being students,there is the occasional search for an inappropriate term that you may not want to come up as a search suggestion for others. Unfortunately,there is no way currently to purge the inappropriate search –but you can control how long the search terms are stored as suggestions and you can turn this option off completely if you’d like.

Only the Library Administrator or Administrator can change the settings –once you are logged in,go to Back Office-Site Configuration. The first check box selects how many months the search terms will be stored for report purposes. If you clear this check box and click save,this clears the current search history. If you have it checked,you can UNCHECK the “Enable Search Suggestions in Destiny Quest”button and you will still be able to get reports of the search terms used,but patrons won’t get the search suggestions while using the catalog.

Customizing the Destiny Quest Background

A simple,but very student popular option –your patrons have a choice of three different background screens for Destiny Quest. You can change the screen as a guest –if you are logged in,your choice of background will be the default for the user.

All you have to do is click the “Change Theme”link in the upper right hand corner and the options will appear in a drop down menu. Click on your choice to apply the background and you’re done!

Adding Wish List Items in Destiny Quest

Another easy feature in Destiny Quest is the Wish List,which gives your teachers and students a quick way to request new titles for your library collection.

Make sure you are logged in to Destiny and search for a title. On the title detail screen,you’ll see a link for “Make a Wish”in the upper right hand corner. Click on this link -

In the “Make a Wish…”window you have the option of requesting a copy of the book you were looking at,or ask for another title. You have to put the title,but there are lines for the author and ISBN,as well as a comment field for giving your reasons why a particular book should be purchased. Once you’ve filled out the form,click “Save”and you’ll get a window thanking you for your suggestion.

Where does the librarian find the Wish List items? When the Library Administrator or Administrator logs in to the site,there will be a red flag in the upper right hand corner that says “Processing Needed”–other items will be posted here as well like transfers or Interlibrary loan requests,but your Wish List items will also go here. Click on the flag to see the list. Alternately,you can print a report of your purchase requests by going to Back Office-Reports,and clicking on Wish Lists to create a report.

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