HackCollege

Happy New Year!!

We hope everyone had a great holiday season.  Hopefully you had some down time to relax.  I know that we are back to work even though the students aren't back yet.  This is a great time to reorganize, streamline, and set new goals for the new year/semester. 

I normally post tools that can help you with your students and/or the function of the library but today I'm going to share a website that your students might find useful and it can give you some insight into what they are dealing with and what they are trying to accomplish.

HackCollege.com gives tips and tricks for almost anything.  There are articles and videos ranging anywhere from How to Pack for Freshman Week to How to Improve Your Crappy Car to How to be Successful with Online Classes. 

One of my favorite things on this site is an infographic about searching better with Google. I think I heard some grumbling but hear me out.

 I know that we want our students to only use the library when completing assignments but, to be realistic, that's not going to happen.  And what happens with our seniors at the end of every semester? They graduate and no long have access to all the awesomeness that is THE LIBRARY...what then?

We have to prepare our students for the inevitability of Google searching.  They already know what it is and they are comfortable navigating though it but we need to show them how to be efficient searchers. 

This infographic gives great tips about searching Google better but that can help students understand our databases a little better too.  Even though a search engine operates differently than a database, knowing that you can tell the system what you want will make our lives as librarians easier because it builds a foundation of knowledge about defining perimeters to get better results.  It even gives a plug about using the campus library!!

Like I said, HackCollege is full of all kinds of information for students and even includes "Study Breaks" which might give you a chuckle or two.  Even if you aren't a fan of searching in Google, give this infographic a look and if you choose not to share it with your students maybe it can help you in your personal searches.

Please leave us some comments below about the site, the narrative, or the inforgraphic.  We would love to hear your thoughts.

Piktochart

Happy Turkey Week!!

We at DELRT hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We are very thankful for each and every one of you.

Today I'd like to share with you a site called Piktochart.com.  It is a great way to make quick little infographics that can be shown in presentation form as well as an image.

There are several templates to choose from or you can create your own from scratch.  My college is currently working on creating a new QEP.  I've used these piktocharts to provide visual representations for our initiatives and goals.

Here is a ready-made Thanksgiving graphic that is available from the site.  Leave a comment to let us know your thoughts and how you can see this implemented.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

DocsTeach

DocsTeach.org is a website from the National Archives.  Some of you may be very familiar with it but for those who aren’t, I’d like to take a minute to share a great educational resource.

The National Archives has digitized quite a few items and made them available online.  There are written letters, newspaper clippings, videos, photographs, charts, etc. from different points in American history.  They have sectioned the documents by time period and you can see the main page for that here.



Drawing for a Washing Machine

7/9/1844

Records of the Patent and Trademark Office

National Archives Identifier: 595451

This is the printed patent drawing for a washing machine invented by Oliver B. Wright.

But they haven’t stopped there.  They have also created a program that will help you develop lessons to teach using the documents and provide you with tips to teaching students about primary sources and how to use them.  You can find that are here.  There is also a section where you can browse through lessons to use with your students.  Those are located here.

This is a fantastic source, not only for history lessons, but for any research lesson.  One of the hardest things for students to do with regards to research is understand the difference between primary and secondary sources and then find primary sources.  This site helps tackle both of those problems.   

Go check it out and let us know how you or your coworkers were able to implement this treasure.

First Report of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, From Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Montana, to Assistant Adjutant General R.C. Drum, Chicago

6/27/1876

Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands

National Archives Identifier: 301976

ComicMaster

ComicMaster can help you create visually attractive, comic style flyers that can help you spread the news about upcoming programming or introduce new lesson.  Super heroes are huge right now so why not use that to the library’s advantage.  

The navigation is quite tricky and it does take a minute to get familiar with how to set it up.  It isn’t the best user interface but once you get the hang of how it works it's actually fun!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow you to save it to a program outside of ComicMaster, meaning you can’t save it to your computer or a flash drive.  Your only option is to print it which is fine if you are making a physical flyer to post somewhere.  I was looking for something I can post digitally.  So, I clicked “Print to PDF” and was then able to save the PDF to my computer.  I was then able to save it as a JPEG image which is what you see here.

I’m sure that you creative folks out there can make some of these that are much more interesting than this one.  When you do, we would love to see it.  Please share it in our comments section.  I hope you can find some great ways to use this tool and show the world how “SUPER” your library is.

Jing

We are beginning the fall semester and that may mean some budget cuts for your library.  In case you had to cut your screen capturing software from this year’s budget, you can still make awesome videos for your library. 

Jing is a free screen capturing software that is very easy to use.  You can create videos up to 5 minutes long and save them to your computer or share them with social media.  These videos upload very easily into LibGuides.

You can also capture images with Jing.  One great use for this would be messaging with patrons.  If your library uses a chat option, you can capture an image, save it to a Jing friendly website (screencast.com), and send the automatically generated link to the patron in the chat box.

There are also video tutorials to walk you through the process of capturing and customizing the features so learning how to navigate the software is very easy.

If you create a lot of video tutorials and need a free way to do it, Jing is a great option.

PowToon

PowToon is a video creation website that has you create short videos to explain your ideas rather than creating slide shows.  It is billed as an alternative to boring slide shows.  You create an account for free or you can “upgrade” to the Business or Pro versions to access more content. 

To get started you choose the type of template you would like to use.  There are some pre-made templates that you can select and then edit the content or you can start from scratch to create your video.     

Then you add people or characters, backgrounds, shapes, items, and transitions.  The editing screen is set up similar to PowerPoint so it has a familiar feel and is easy to navigate.  You can also add music to your video from their collection or you can upload your own.  You also have the option to add a voice over. 

When inserting images, you can choose your own or search the web.   The site will only allow you to search for Creative Commons images when searching the web.  Great for avoiding copyright infringement!

With the free version, your only option for the completed video is to export it to YouTube. If you purchase one of the paid plans then you are able to download the videos so you can present them anyway you like. 

While these short videos aren’t the best way to present all information, they are a great way to give a little more life to dry presentations. 

Give it a try and share your creations with us in the comments!

Socrative

Socrative is a student response system that allows students to use their own devices.  Teachers can create quizzes that the students answer in real time.  On the webpage you can choose to create an account with Socrative 1.0 or 2.0.  They offer the same features but the layout of 2.0 is more compact.
Socrative 1.0                                                                                             Socrative 2.0

 

The teacher begins by creating an account and that will create a “Room Number”.  It’s going to be some dreadful number that you won’t be able to remember but you can edit it by going to “My Profile” using the “Menu” button at the top of the page. 

Once you have created an account, there are four options:

·         Start Quiz
·         Quick Question
·         Space Race
·         Exit Ticket
·         Manage Quizzes

At the end of each of these the teacher is provided a report of the results from each activity including a grade for everyone who participated as well has what their responses were.  These reports can be downloaded into an Excel document, emailed, or (if you linked your Google account with it) sent to your Google Drive.  The reports are also stored in the “Reports” section under “Manage Quizzes”.

Start Quiz

This allows you to administer quizzes that have be created ahead of time.  You can have questions that are multiple choice, true or false, and short answer.  You are not limited to one format when creating your quiz.  If you want 3 true or false questions, 2 multiple choice questions, and one short answer then you can make it so.  You can require that they enter their names before answering and you can randomize questions and/or answers.  You can also have questions progress at the student’s pace or at the teacher’s pace.

Quick Question

You can create quizzes ahead of time to administer during class or you can use the “Quick Question” option to have students respond to a verbal question.  If you just want to find out if your students’ understand what you are talking about but you are worried that some of them are relying on others to answer verbally, then “Quick Question” can help with that.  You can simply have students log-in with your “Room Number” and they can answer your verbal question.  This has the same format as the quizzes, multiple choice, true or false, and short answer.  You can have students respond anonymously or require they enter their name.  You can also limit it so they can only respond once if you want.

Space Race

You can use your premade quizzes to create a “Space Race”.  Students can be set in teams (up to 15) by choosing or being assigned a color and they answer the questions for the quiz as their “spaceship” races across the teacher’s screen.  If a correct answer is given then the ship moves forward, if an incorrect answer is given then the ship does not progress.  When an incorrect answer is given the students receive a message saying it is wrong and telling them the correct answer.  You might wish to project the “race” on the board for the class to see. 

Exit Ticket

The “Exit Ticket” is a set of three questions that are generated by the software to assess how a student perceived the class.  They are asked how well they understood, they must type something they learned, and they answer a question posed by the teacher.

Manage Quizzes

This is where you create new quizzes, import quizzes from others using the provided code, edit, duplicate, or delete your quizzes, and view past reports.

Student Log-In

Student visit the site http://m.socrative.com for Socrative 1.0 or http://b.socrative.com for Socrative 2.0

This tool provides teachers an ability to assess students in a more interactive way so instruction can be tailored when needed rather than after the major test.  It provides data to support the class and grades the quizzes for you.  This is a fantastic idea to see what is happening with students’ learning in a real-time environment.  It could even be used to assess the service or performance of the library, you would simply provide patrons with the “Room Number” and ask they to answer the survey on their device.

Hope you can find create ways to use this at your institution.  Please share your thoughts and ideas below.  We would love to hear from you!