EasyBib’s Library Corner: Mobile Technology in the Classroom

Posted by Emily G. on May 31, 2012 in Library Corner | 0 comments

Emily Gover is an information literacy specialist and in-house librarian for EasyBib. Her professional interests lie in web services and design, usability, information literacy, instructional services and reference work. She continues to work part-time at the Hendrick Hudson Free Library, and has previous work experience at Berry College, Reader’s Digest and the University at Albany.

Project Tomorrow came out with a new study this week about how educators and administrators use technology in their personal and professional lives. Turns out, technology use is on the up and up! Check it out: more than half of educators polled own a smartphone, close to half of principals and administrators have tablet computers–and, surprise!–librarians are most likely to own a digital reader.

When asked, educators and administrators who are more likely to use mobile technology agree that some of the best outcomes of using mobile technology in the classroom are:

1. Increasing student engagement
2. Providing access to online textbooks
3. Providing personalized instruction to students
4. Extending learning beyond the school day

Finally, take a look at this chart, it shows important factors to consider when consuming online content compared between librarians who do and do not use digital content. Librarians who do use digital content (such as podcasts, videos, animations and electronic databases) are more likely to recommend consideration of these factors over librarians who do not.

What are some other benefits students can gain from having mobile technology in the classroom?

Sources:
Project Tomorrow report
Personalizing the Classroom Experience summary

EasyBib’s Library Corner: Free Audiobooks this Summer

Posted by Emily G. on May 10, 2012 in Library Corner | 0 comments

Emily Gover is an information literacy specialist and in-house librarian for EasyBib. Her professional interests lie in web services and design, usability, information literacy, instructional services and reference work. She continues to work part-time at the Hendrick Hudson Free Library, and has previous work experience at Berry College, Reader’s Digest and the University at Albany.

With the last days of school quickly approaching–surely within the next month or so!–the topic of summer reading must be on the minds of many. When I was younger, I would make valiant efforts to read on long car rides to various holiday destinations, but typically failed and ended up feeling more nauseated than anything else. Sadly, I did not discover the wonder of audiobooks (which were still books on tape then!) until the days of sitting squished in the back seat among suitcases and sunblock were long behind me.

Fortunately, your students won’t have to worry about reading-related car sickness on family road trips this summer. SYNC, an ongoing partnership between AudioFile Magazine and audiobook publishers, is offering two free audiobook downloads every week for 10 weeks from June through August. The titles are a blend of contemporary publications (published between 2003 and 2012) and correlating classic novels that share a similar theme. Books are in .mp3 format–therefore compatible with many devices–and can be downloaded from Overdrive.

Some of the available titles include:

• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• The Amulet of Samarkand (Book 1 of the Bartimaeus Triology) by Jonathan Stroud
• The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch
• Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter

The audiobooks will be available for download starting the week of June 14. Sadly, we don’t have any solutions for stopping a kooky relative from belting out showtunes while cooped up in the minivan… they’re on their own with that one. (We’d like to think getting lost in a good audiobook is the best way to deal with that situation!)

Sources:
School Library Journal
SYNC

Kindle Fire Giveaway

Posted by Caitlyn Selleck on Mar 5, 2012 in Blog Posts | Comments Off

Hey educators! Could you use a spiffy new tablet/e-reader to add to your arsenal of super teacher tools? You’re in luck, because EasyBib just so happens to be giving one away. One every week for four weeks, to be precise. All you have to do to enter is fill out your info in the form below and you’re that much closer to a Kindle Fire!

Sign ups are now closed. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner!

New Educator and Student Content This Week

Posted by Caitlyn Selleck on Dec 7, 2011 in Lesson plans, Writing Center | Comments Off

There are new materials available in the Educator and Student Portals today on EasyBib. On these pages you’ll find tons of great content that will help both students and educators alike in their roles in 21st Century Education. We’re rolling out new content for each section weekly, so make sure you check back often!

What’s new this week:

In the Student Section this week we have the third part of our Writing Guide – Outline:

“Once you’ve gathered information on your topic, sifted through the good sources, and taken good notes, it’s time to conquer the next step: outlining. Outlining is a helpful step in the writing process. It will force you to think about how separate ideas in your research fit together so that you can write a cohesive paper.”

In the Educator Section this week we have the lesson plan ‘Cross-Subject Research Papers’:

“This lesson plan aims to teach the skills developed in writing a research paper through every text a student might come across in their academic studies or career. By requiring a research paper in every class subject, the library media specialist develops writing skills in every subject.”

Join EasyBib for the #EdReach Chat this Sunday

Posted by Caitlyn Selleck on Aug 23, 2011 in Blog Posts | Comments Off

We love talking with educators on Twitter and participating in hashtag chats. There’s so much great info out there and so many things to be learned by engaging with some of the most forward-thinking and tech savy teachers.

That’s why we’re so honored that this Sunday, August, 28, at 7pm CST/8pm EST EasyBib will be co-hosting the #EdReach hashtag chat with the great people from edreach.us. So feel free to join our conversation by adding #EdReach to your tweets. We’ll be answering questions about our service and showing you new and exciting ways that EasyBib is helping students research smarter. We hope to see you there!