Infographic 101

Infographics can be seen in lots of places. I have noticed them a lot in my Twitter feed, and other social media platforms. I wanted to learn more, so I listened to a podcast interview by Connie Malamed. She interviewed Alberto Cairo who is a professor at the University of Miami. Their talk was very informative. I learned basic information to try my hand at creating an infographic myself. 

The background information: An infographic is a visual story telling tool. It tells a story using data and graphics. By using information to display data in pictures, charts, and graphs helps save the reader cognitive resources. I can see how this way of presenting information is becoming very widely used. I for one do not have lots of time to read long lengthy explanations, but looking at an infographic is fast and very informative. The infographic is eye catching and my brain scans the picture and makes sense out of the data/information on display. If you would like to explore different infographics visit the Daily Infographic. The site is full of cool picture representations of information in 9 different categories. Some categories are animals, education, food, health, entertainment, etc. 

Where to begin? I explored three different web apps that are designed to help create infographics. All three apps can produce wonderful visuals. My favorite was Piktochart. All three were very easy to create an account with by using my Google+. 

Easel.ly - This site has great templates and one can go to fresh start to create one from scratch. The tool bar has lots of great accessories to use in your infographic. I was a little disappointed that some of the tools had a limited selection, unless you upgrade to the Go Pro package. The site was very user friendly - pull, drag, drop. One can upload files and pictures to use. The template has grid lines to help you plot it, which reminded me of Prezi. The charts and graphs were a little complicated to make using the information I wanted. It is very easy to get a shareable link to your finished product. Easel.ly was my #2 out choice out of the three I explored.

Infogr.am - This site was my least favorite. The templates all look the same to me. Limited icons are available unless you upgrade. A user is able to upload from Google drive files, Drop box, One drive and JSON feed. I attempted to create a graph and was very overwhelmed. I could not figure out how to change the scale in the graph. After playing around with this site I gave up and moved on to the next one to explore. This site seemed way to technical for me.

Piktochart - Well, this site was my favorite. I loved all the templates that could be chosen to get one started. I picked one and got started right away. I was able to upload a graph that I saved as a jpeg. I did not end up using it, but now I know how to do it. When working with the template all the formatted information was easy to move and rearrange. I like how easy it was to make the document longer by stretching it out to create more space. The charts/graphs were easy to make and adjust to my information. I did have a little confusion at the end on how to share my infographic. I downloaded it as a jpeg and uploaded it here as you can see below. Also I love how at the very bottom one is reminded and given space to cite their sources used to create their document. My infographic can be seen like a slide show, which is a neat way of sharing your information in small parts. It would be great for using your infographic in the classroom to teach a new concept.

Reference: 

Lenhart, A., Smith, A.., Anderson, M., Duggan, M., Perrin, A., “Teens, Technology and Friendships.” Pew Research Center, August, 2015. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/06/teens-technology-and-friendships/

Pew Research Center, January, 2016, “Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring” http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/01/07/parents-teens-and-digital-monitoring/

How to Design Real (Not Fake) Information Graphics. Retrieved from http://theelearningcoach.com/podcasts/10/

Scarlett Bernard Series by Melissa F. Olson

Book 1 - Dead Spots

Book 2 - Trail of Dead

Book 3 - Hunter's Trail

Melissa F. Olson writes a wonderful Urban Fantasy trilogy about Scarlett Bernard. Scarlett Bernard is a Null. She can take magic away from any magical being that enters her radius. In this series she begins to discover who she is and what it means to be a null. She works for the head vampire, head werewolf and head witch of the Los Angeles area. She is responsible to cover-up crime scene caused by the Old World. Even though these books are written for adults, mature teens who enjoy urban fantasy about a strong lead female character could appreciate this series.

Book 1 - She is in charge of finding out who is killing vampires and werewolves. A police detective from the LAPD becomes aware of the Old World. Scarlet must work with Jesse in order to solve the mystery to the crime. Jesse struggles with the reality that justice may not be served for the individuals responsible because if information got out about the Old World LA would never be the same. Eli is a werewolf that Scarlet has been getting to know after the death of her mentor. He becomes her assistant. She struggles to define what she wants their relationship to be.

Book 2 - Scarlet has to help the witches solve the most recent wave of killings of some low level witches. She comes to realize her mentor Olivia is still alive as a Vampire not a Null. Scarlet has to work through the reality that Olivia is psycho and obsessed with her. Jesse and Scarlett are paired again in order to solve the crimes and mystery of where Olivia is before information gets out. Jesse struggles with his honor and why he became a cop. Scarlet is having feelings for both Eli and Jesse and does not know what to do about either. 

Book 3 - Scarlet and Jesse are responsible to find the Nova Wolf that is killing females in LA. He is dumping the bodies at the alpha werewolves house. Jesse struggles with the fact that the bodies of victims need to be destroyed with out informing the victims families. He starts to make Scarlett question the morality of what she is doing when she covers up the crimes of the Old World. Old fashioned police work helps solve the mystery of where the Nova is and Old World magic helps put a stop to his murders.

Learn more about Melissa F. Olson and her many books at her website.

Blogs and Blog Readers

I have been on Pinterest and Facebook for quiet some time. My twitter experience is expanding slowly. I like to see what other people in the world of education and some foodies have to say; so I do follow some blogs. The extent of my following is me signing up for notifications of their new blog posts that then get sent to my email account. I then take a quick peek and move it over to a folder in my email account to come back to later. Well the later never seems to happen and I have quite the large folder of blog emails that I most likely will never go back to. I have recently been introduced to feed reader. I had no idea what this was. Well, let me give you a little background in case you are like me and need some schooling. A feed reader is a RSS app, that curates your content from blogs and other sources automatically. RSS means really simple syndication. I visited an article that discussed several different variations on the feed readers. I choose to go with Feedly. I liked the layout of this reader the best. It reminded me a little bit of Pinterest because I can make boards to store articles that I want to return to at a later date. I like how I can organize my content by labeling the feeds. I have four feeds currently - edtech, library, prek, and education. I moved all the educational blogs I follow into Feedly and added a few new ones. I will discuss five of my favorites for you to check out.

• Educational Technology and Mobile Learning - A resource of educational web tools and mobile apps for teachers and educators. The blog has an endless amount of great resources for educational technology. I love the infographics that are shared with some of the posts. The site has information for google drive, chrome, ipads, books to read for teachers on edtech, and has an endless assortment of categories. Basically I think this site could almost answer any question about education technology with students.
• The Daring Librarian - Gwyneth Jones facilitates this blog. On her blog she has links to presentations that she does, her twitter, her library Edublog, Flickr, and Scoopit. I like how she posts information for students (summer reading list) and information for other educators/librarians. She critiques apps she uses and writes posts about Makerspaces that she creates to use in her library. She shares programming that she does in her Middle School Library. I really like her post on Social Media tips. 
• Watch. Connect. Read. - Mr. Schu creates this blog. He shares great books through his blog. He writes a books review with information from the author, like an interview. He also shares book trailers. His blog is entertaining. 
• School Library Journal - I choose this blog to share because it has so much information on libraries. Plus it has bonus blogs that are part of the SLJ Network. Since I do not subscribe to the journal the blog gives me access to great current happenings in the library world through SLJ. I like the recent blog post about teaching science through comics. I think kids especially reluctant readers and boys would be all over this idea. They also have an interesting post about including the fidget spinner craze into your classroom/library.
• The Measured Mom - Is a blog that shares tools for teaching Language Arts and Math to Prek-2nd grade as her focus. I love that she has free downloads to lots of her teaching supplements. I am so glad to add this blog to my Feedly. I probably have 100+ emails in my email blog folder that I can now move away from by using Feedly.

Tumblr is another new platform for me to experience. I did not know very much about it. I have heard about it, but was not sure really what its purpose was. So I did a little research. I found out simply that it is a microblog where bloggers can post text, links, quotes, audio clips, videos and network. I created an account this past spring so I could upload some programming lessons that I created to a Tumblr account for Sam Houston University Programming class LSSL 5368; so of course I follow this page. I searched "school library" to see how librarians are using the site. I found that they post lots of different information. Some post book reviews, some post programming, some post pictures of what is happening in their library and fun library quotes. I must warn you that some inappropriate content did appear when I searched "school library," a porn site was one of the possible blogs that popped up. So use caution with all social media and web-based sites in and out of your library. One never knows when the wrong information may pop-up even with what one might think is safe search terms. If you would like to visit my Tumblr please do. I am known as its-sarah-jones-love. My account is very limited on the content. I have posted only a few things, but I do like how tumbler is a cross between Twitter and Blogger.

Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olimpics

Grabenstein, Chris. 2016. Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics. NewYork: Random House.

Chris Grabenstein hit another home run with his second book in the Lemoncello series. Kyle Keeley has to collaborate with his team in order to hold their title as the library champions. In this book the whole country wants a chance to show what they know about libraries. Mr. Lemoncello creates the Olympic games and every region of the US is invited to have try outs and create a team of youth to compete. Charles Chiltington who was kicked out of the first games for not being a team player and his mother try to kick Mr. Lemoncello out of the library. Ms. Chiltington tries to lobby that a group of citizens need to be on a board to monitor the library. Mr. Lemoncello is always three steps ahead which creates the action and plot. Kyle becomes very concerned when Mr. Lemoncello becomes very frustrated with books being stolen and the games being sabotaged. He comes together with the other players to finish the games even after Lemoncello calls an end to the games. Kyle and the other players are set out to find the missing books. Which in the end solves the mystery and all is revealed. I really like all the wacky games and riddles Chris Grabenstein writes into the story. He even adds a riddle at the end for the reader to solve and encourages them to send their answers to him through email.

Visit Chris Grabenstein's website for resources and more adventures.

Book 3 is coming soon - October 2017

Facebook and Twitter - Social Networking in the Library

As educators of the 21st century learner our goal is to help our students develop skills to be successful in the workforce. The 4Cs as some professionals refer to the skills our students need to use are critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. Using social media in the school setting can help students utilize and develop the 4Cs. Facebook and Twitter are very commonly used social media outlets that can very easily be brought into the library or classroom.

Facebook is a great forum to publish important happenings around the library and school. The use of the social media page allows users to remotely visit the library and see what is happening. The user is able to like and comment on posts that interest them. One disadvantage of using Facebook is getting the followers. Without followers the user will not see the great information being posted and advertised on the Facebook page. I visited multiple school library pages from elementary, middle and high school libraries. Each school only had around 200 followers. Many school have 400 plus students. To be the most beneficial to the users the page must be liked and followed by the school - parents, staff, and students. I know my children's school did a push in the fall to get parents to join their social media counts by posting the grade level my child was in, then at a certain point the grade level with the most posts won an incentive of some kind. I liked that the school libraries I viewed posted pictures of what happens in the library daily. Pictures of kids doing lessons and their products. Parents posted how they appreciated being able to see their child in action. The libraries also posted information about their clubs they offered and the activities the clubs do over the school year. Funny comics and poems were also posted to grab viewers attention to special programs or reminders like end of the year book turn in. One of the high school pages I visited had links that parents and students could visit - articles about community outreach for teens, NFL Safety Role Model video, helpful hints on using shortcuts on the keyboard, summer jobs and internships around the area. All the libraries also posted books using cover pictures for reading advocacy. I think Facebook can be a helpful tool to use in the library. The hard part will be finding creative ways to get the population of the school to follow the page and use the information that is shared. Also the consistency of posts will encourage followers to keep following your page. If you only post every once in awhile the followers/users will forget and not have value for your information. If you post on a frequent basis, information that is important to the follower, then your page will have a higher level of traffic.

Twitter can be used to link to the libraries Facebook page also. I explored some leaders in ed tech on Twitter recently. I learned that their is a lot of information and strategies out their to be used with students to meet the 4Cs of our 21st century learners. Here are the leading Ed Tech people I explored and what I found to be key aspects of them as resources to applying tech with students.

Kathy Schrock @kathyschrock is an Educational Technologist who has been in the field for many years. She has a blog with ideas she shares, she has a website that she links all her resources from presentations she has done, also has a whole webpage for using apple products and how to support them in teaching. She has multiple resources that connects technology/apps to the Digital Blooms Taxonomy.

Linda Braun @lbraun2000 is a librarian and a teen advocate. She retweets lots of articles from YALSA, Connected Learning Alliance and CASEL. I am not familiar with CASEL so I found out that this organization is a Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning. A lot of Linda's posts or tweets were about equitable access for all in learning tech. Check out #ConnectedLearning it is a network of individuals and organization that value equity, access and opportunity for all learners.

David Warlick @dwarlick is an ed teach, explorer and educator among other things in his bio. I did not particularly find much of interest on his twitter page. He seems very political in his tweets. I did like the retweet he did on an article from The Guardian about our education system teaching children to be redundant. My personal belief on using twitter as a professional through your school or library, one needs to be unbiased in their tweets.  Just like in the library we need to provide our users with unbiased materials so they can create their own opinions on subjects.

The Daring Librarian was my favorite ed tech person to explore. Gwyneth Jones @GwynethJones is really big on creativity and empowering her students. She tweets a lot about her students in action. She uses her twitter account to share resources and promote programming. One of her tweets was about 16 apps that support the creative process from The Edvocate. I will be learning more about these apps and how I can use them in the library with students and how teachers can use them in the classroom.

Jim Lerman @jimlerman he is focused on new schools for new learning through cultivating creativity. He tweets about creativity with students through Makerspaces and STEM. He is currently really big on Virtual Reality. I really liked the infographic he shared on questioning tips. I also liked a post he made about the changing role of education. Lots of great resources to look at and think about for changing the way I teach and morphing into a 21st Century educator, the site provides lots of tips and strategies.

Twitter is a great place to go follow people who are masters of the trade. Then that allows me to be able to have great resources at my finger tips with out really having to search. Working smarter not harder in today's world. Time is always an issue and if I can capitalize on who is the best of the best then I can have wonderful information at my finger tips in seconds with out having to decide what to search and explore.