Four #GR8Finds #ThisWeek -- GAFE Guide, School Libraries, Social Media Usage Update, and Canva Design School

January 16

Notice that my finds may spill over from the previous week. Sometimes it takes a while for the news to get to me and these finds are just too good to ignore. Just so you know. ☺ 

1. Google releases new guide for educators, based on feedback it received from schools across the world.

One of the coolest things about Google is that it listens to its users.

2. School libraries shelve tradition to create new learning spaces, from The Guardian.

"What happens to school libraries when students find it more natural to turn to a computer screen than a book?"

IC: flickr

It's an extraordinary time to be a librarian!

3. Social Media Usage Update 2014

From Pew Research, via +Joyce Valenza. 
"The results in this report are based on the 81% of American adults who use the internet."


When Pew Research reports findings, I listen.


4. Canva Design School. Lesson plans for Canva, written by +Paul Hamilton, +Steven Anderson, +Theresa Eichholz, and +Vicki Davis.

You know how I feel about Canva ☺and now they're providing teaching materials!


Have fun exploring these terrific resources, and I hope you enjoy your weekend!

                                          

(◕‿◕✿)
about.me
[Subscribe]

For Teachers: Harnessing Twitter with Paper.li -- an Interactive Newspaper

Many educators are sharing their Twitter content daily (twice-daily, or weekly) using paper.li, an interactive newspaper. SmallRivers is the Swiss-based company that created paper.li.

Anyone can easily create (and delete) a paper, which could make for a transient experience. However, there are some Tweeters you can count on being there. And papers created from solid educational hashtags like #edchat and #edtechchat will always be around.

Paper.li content can come from a variety of sources:

The possibilities and purposes are endless.

Could paper.li be used in the classroom? Of course! Think a student newspaper, a compilation of student writing/multi-media projects, for starters ...

Here are some education-related dailies already on paper.li that I recommend:

Hashtag-based:

paper.li/tag/artsed The #artsed Daily (Arts Education)

paper.li/tag/cpchat The #cpchat Daily (Connected Principals)

paper.li/tag/edapp The #edapp Daily (Educational Apps)

paper.li/tag/edchat The #edchat Daily

paper.li/tag/edtech The #edtech Daily

paper.li/tag/education The #education Daily

paper.li/tag/elearning The #elearning Daily

paper.li/tag/elemchat (Elementary Ed)

paper.li/tag/engchat The #engchat Daily

paper.li/tag/globaled The #globaled Daily

paper.li/tag/gtchat The #gtchat Daily (Gifted and Talented Children)

paper.li/tag/lrnchat The #lrnchat Daily (similar to #edchat)

paper.li/tag/mathchat The #mathchat Daily

paper.li/tag/midleved The #midleved Daily (Middle School)

paper.li/tag/mlearning The #mlearning Daily (mobile)

paper.li/tag/musedchat The #musedchat Daily (music education)

paper.li/tag/ntchat The #ntchat Daily (New Teachers)

paper.li/tag/parenting The #parenting Daily

paper.li/tag/ptchat The #ptchat Daily (Parent-Teacher)

paper.li/tag/science The #science Daily

paper.li/tag/socialmedia The #socialmedia Daily

paper.li/tag/sschat The #sschat Daily (Social Science)

paper.li/tag/scichat  The #scichat Daily (Science)

paper.li/tag/tlchat The #tlchat Daily (Teacher-Librarians)

Created by influential individuals/organizations:

The classroom-teachers Daily (Free Technology for Teachers author Richard Byrne's classroom-teachers Twitter list)

The Cool Cat Teacher Daily Tweetpaper Vicki Davis

The Creative Education Daily

The Education Week Daily

The Lit Chat Daily from litchat.net

The Steven W. Anderson Daily (Web20classroom author)

Want more? Find more papers or people at the paper.li newsstand.

I recommend that you subscribe to paper.li newspapers, for most efficient use of your time. Receive a daily email containing the updated issue, and peruse the paper at your convenience. So convenient!


YES, I did create two papers myself: 

The #GTANY Daily, which looks like a hashtag-created newspaper, but is really a newspaper created from Danny Silva's public list of Google Teacher Academy New York attendees. I must keep up with the doings of my cohort!

And I just created The Teacher-Librarians Daily, from my public Twitter list of 435+ teacher-librarians that I continue to grow. "Checking the Twitter pulse of school librarians, daily" is of utmost importance to me.

Paper.li is one of my favorite ways of harnessing Twitter. I highly recommend it!

What about you? How do you tame Twitter?

(◕‿◕✿)
@mauilibrarian2
G+

P. S. We talked story about Twitter on our 49th episode of Google Rocks! Hawaii tonight. You might enjoy watching it!

Great Tip! How to Find Private Content in Google+

What a find!

Thanks to +Ana Hoffman by way of  +Mary Ann Davis then +Luiz Fernando then +John Elstone (love the RIPPLES on Ana's original post!) for sharing this tip.

To find private messages in Google plus, simply:

1. Do a regular Google search in your Omnibox, either for a person or a keyword or a combination.
2. Under Search Tools, select Private.
3. Ouila!

Here's Ana's post. Feel free to leave positive comments for her!

Happy G+ing!

(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

Find of the Day: Tweet Directly from Chrome's Omnibox with Chromnitweet

I'm a BIG FAN of Chrome's Omnibox for doing searches, as this slideshare attests.
:

Create a custom search engine (and shortcut) in Chrome's omnibox from Linda Lindsay

So I had to try Chromnitweet.

I'm loving it!

(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

5 Top Resource Blog Posts of My 2013-14 School Year -- YouTube Safety, Libraries as Maker Spaces, Plussers that Pin, Sharing Passwords, & Olympics Resources

Summer's here!

I'm reposting my top resource blog posts of the past school year, for summer learners who might have missed them the first time around. 


1. 3 Ways to Reduce Your Chances of Accidentally Bringing Up Explicit YouTube Content In Your Classroom

2. School Libraries as Maker Spaces -- A Few Resources to √ out

3. Plussers That Pin and Vice-Versa, Shared by Peg Fitzpatrick

4. Dear Students: Word to the Wise about Sharing Passwords -- a G+ Post from Google

5. 12 16 Resource Sites for Teaching and Learning With the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi

Enjoy!

(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

Our First #edchatHI Twitter Chat was a success, with a little help from G+ Hangouts

Our inaugural #edchatHI Twitter chat on January 6 was a success!

We wanted to be sure everything went smoothly, so we decided to do a private Google+ hangout as we moderated. We highly recommend doing this. It makes moderating easy and fun.

Our behind-the-scenes team? Michelle Carlson Colte, Ellen Cordeiro, Megan Cummings, JoAnn Jacobs, Michael Fricano II, and myself.

These were the questions we asked in the chat:

Q1: Introduce yourself. Name, school, grade level, subject. (Please respond with A1)

Q2: Why are you here tonight? What brought you to our Twitter Chat?

Q3: What are your edu related interests, questions, and/or challenges?

Q4: What is your New Year’s Resolution as an educator?

Q5: What are some future #edchatHI topics you’d like to discuss? We need your help and we want you to own this.

Q6: Do you have anything interesting to share? (Upcoming events, a project you're working on, etc.)

This tweet is one of my favorites:

@stmbaker @8rinaldi would you like to Mystery Skype with one of my sixth grade classes? #edchatHI
— JoAnn Jacobs (@JoAnnJacobs68) January 7, 2014

Check out the archive for yourself.

Most of the team tracked the chat with TweetChat, to test out its capabilities. Generally, we gave it a thumbs up. The one drawback we saw was that the app didn't make suggestions for Twitter handles as we started to type.

The #edchatHI Monthly Twitter Chat is off to an auspicious start!

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Please be sure to add the second #edchatHI Twitter chat to your Google Calendar!

The more conversations and connections the merrier!

P. S. Private hangouts add a delightful twist to Twitter chats. We met and cheered for +Michael Fricano II's new puppy, oohed and ahhed when familiar name David Wee appeared in the chat, and marvelled at how quickly the hour went.

(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

My Year in Social Media and What My Omnibox Autofill Says About Me (What about you?)

Jennifer Magiera always has something interesting in her Teaching Like It's 2999 blog!

Her article Reflecting on 2013 Through Social Media inspired me to reflect too.

It's kind of interesting to look back!

Google Plus automatically made this movie for me from my G+ photos. I love that there are so many of my students in it! (I'm the librarian, so I consider everyone my student :D) I'm sad that my beloved Shadow who I lost in April isn't in there, but instead a random (gorgeous) dog I happened to take a photo of is.




My Top Tweets of 2013

2013 Twitter video

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

On another note, this little exercise below was fun for me to do! (Again, inspired by Jenny's article.)

Type in a letter of the alphabet in your Chrome OMNIBOX, and your recent searches will AUTOFILL (the results are virtually the same across devices -- I tested this). 

My autofill gives a pretty accurate picture of what engages me. The ones in bold were, are, and will likely always be in my Omnibox autofill. :)

a - Amazon
b - Blogger
c - code.org
d - dltk-teach.org
e - easybib
f - freerice
g - Google
h - hi.gafesummit.com
i - ifttt.com
j - Junior library guild
k - kendama
l - libguides. seaburyhall.org
m - mauilibrarian2.com
n - northpole.com
o -
p - paper.li
q - QandA App FAQs
r - read write think
s - sotfconf.org
t - tweetchat
u - Uploads - YouTube
v - Vitamix
w - wechat
x - Xbox
y - YouTube
z - Zamzar

What about you? What did your year look like in social media, and what does your Omnibox autofill say about you?

(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

A Monthly Twitter Chat for Hawaii Educators! Hashtag: #edchatHI

A monthly Twitter chat for Hawaii educators!

Anyone who lives in or is from Hawaii and is involved in education is invited to join the conversation!

I'm happy to be a member of the organizing team, with Ellen Cordeiro, Michelle Colte, and Michael Fricano.

We have a website (thanks for setting it up, Michael) and we expect it to grow with resources for Hawaii educators!

Please start using the hashtag! No reason to wait until the monthly chat starts. I see our friend JoAnn Jacobs has already started.

The Most Important Skill I Wish I Had Learned In School http://t.co/2q2LnDyqMq #tlelem #midleved #mschat #mpimiddle #elemchat #edchatHI
— JoAnn Jacobs (@JoAnnJacobs68) December 8, 2013

Chats will be held on every first Monday of the month. If it's a holiday, the chat will be held on the following Monday. (Time converter)

First #edchatHI chat: January 6, 2014 at 6pm HST.

Want to let us know that you're interested in participating? Please fill out our #edchatHIsurvey.

We hope you'll join us!

(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

13 Must-Haves in My Social Media Curation Tool Kit

I'm getting ready for the EdTech Mixed Plate Show tonight, pondering one of the questions that will be asked of me: 

"How do you curate what you find online so you will remember to use and to share with others?" 

Great time to do an inventory of the social media tools I use regularly to curate links and share ideas!

[You need to know that I manage everything in the Chrome Bookmark Manager.]

This is my SocMedia folder on my bookmark bar, with Twitter selected

Must-have for COLLECTING:

(1) Chrome Bookmarks Bar

(2) Google+ Circles posts, especially MVP circle

(3) Twitter lists, e.g., teacher-librarian list, and private MVP list 

(4) Feedly - news aggregator app

(5) Paper.li - create a newspaper (e.g. #GTANY Daily) and subscribe via email, e.g.,

Must-have for ORGANIZING:

Chrome Bookmarks Bar

(6) Favorite Posts for Google+™

(7) Archived tweets form and spreadsheet

Must-Have for SHARING:

Google+ Circles

(8) Hootsuite

(9) Screencast-o-Matic

(10) YouTube channel

(11) Blogger - maulibrarian2 in Olinda

Must-Have for KEEPING TRACK OF INTEREST:

(12) bit.ly

(13) Google Analytics

I'll be talking about how these social media tools fit into my curation work flow.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Here's the show:

It was great sharing!

Thanks to the EdTech Mixed Plate group, +Rachel Armstrong, +Michelle Carlson Colte, +Megan Cummings, and +Michael Fricano II, for inviting me on the show!

LJL
(◕‿◕✿)

@mauilibrarian2
G+

Recommended Watch: "How Social Intelligence Influences Your Social Media"

Watched this Google+ hangout with Martin Shervington and TheGoToMom Kimberley Blaine and thought it was too good not to share. 

Solid advice that is helpful in real life as well. :)

Linda
(◕‿◕✿)
@mauilibrarian2
G+

Here's a Neat Infographic on 'The History of the Hashtag'

People ask me about hashtags all the time. "What do they mean?"

I tell them this: 

Just think of hashtags as subjects.

There are the standard, popular subjects (much like the subject categories of the Dewey Decimal System -- but I keep this reference to my librarian self). Also, anyone can create their own hashtag to designate a group, to express emotions, to editorialize -- for anything, really.

Now when people ask, I will have a nice little infographic to show them. It's informative and entertaining and it was created by blur Group, a global technology company that specializes in ecommerce.

According to the infographic, Chris Messina first suggested using hashtags for Twitter groups in 2007. Tumblr followed later that year, Instagram started using hashtags in 2010, Google Plus hopped on the bandwagon in 2011, and Flickr barely beat out Facebook to avoid last place in 2013.

Covered in the infographic are the hashtag's effect on politics, the entertainment industry, and business.

These are my favorite factoids:

•The most popular hashtag on Instagram (2011) 

•The positive effect of the hashtag #40dollars (2011) 

•How #McDStories backfired on the company (2012) 

•The success that the hashtag #Nike has enjoyed (2013)

Click on the image and see for yourself:

courtesy of the blur Group
Original at History of the Hashtag [Infographic]

Happy #hashtagging, and have fun with it!

(◕‿◕✿ ) 

@mauilibrarian2

G+

P.S. These are four of my most favorite hashtags :

#edchat in Google Plus and Twitter
#edtech in Google Plus and Twitter
#GAFE (Google Apps for Education) in Google Plus and Twitter
#TLChat (Teacher-Librarian Chat) in Google Plus and Twitter

Is Social Media Ruining Students? [Infographic]

This cool infographic looks at the effect of social media on students, from a variety of angles.

From OnlineEducation.net, via @Ziteapp and @mluhtala (thanks):

Click to enlarge:

Via: OnlineEducation.net

(◕‿◕✿)

danah boyd, on (1) Privacy on the Internet and (2) Why Teens Like to Hang Out on Social Networking Sites

(1) I always tell my students that privacy is never guaranteed on the Internet.

I still believe that, but cultural anthropologist Dr. danah boyd (yes, her name has no caps), considered by many to be the "high priestess" of social media, says that everyone expects privacy on the Internet and that they are entitled to it. She gives examples of how Facebook, Google, and other developers can work toward insuring that privacy.

Privacy is Not Dead: Danah Boyd Talks about Privacy at SXSW (a ReadWriteWeb.com article)

(2) Here's a fascinating 14-min. video interview on Discover Magazine where danah (I'm hoping that it's okay to refer to her as danah, but she's a Dr. ala UC Berkeley) gives us a historical/sociological view of why teens like to "hang out" on social network sites. She provides excellent insight to educators.

(◕‿◕✿)

P. S. She was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremonies of the 14th National AASL Conference in Charlotte, NC, in November, 2009. What a treat it was to hear her speak!