Kindle Nation Winter 2011 Citizen Survey Results

LibrarianbyDay shared this on Twitter today: Results of the Kindle Nation Winter 2011 Citizen Survey

Some items worth noting:
93% of respondents were from the U.S.; only 3% a resident of a country other than the U.S., Canada, or the U.K.

70% of respondents are earlier adopters of new technologies, so there is much potential for growth

Reading on Kindles: A superior experience 4.9/5 rating

A majority of users are interested in free books

Shared at ICE Conference by Dr. Henry Thiele

View the tutorial on how to use Google Forms to update events/announcements in a Google Calendar while sharing reminders automatically to Facebook and Twitter Accounts. Something to think about as we envision updates to our library web presence:

Librarians all a Twitter about Overdrive

Librarian in Black is outraged over recent developments with ebook aggregators:

"Consumer market eBook vendors like Barnes & Noble and Amazon don’t let publishers get away with the amount of nonsense that we get stuck with through library eBook vendors. I fault the publishers for not realizing what a huge mistake they are making by not realizing that new formats are opportunities–not threats to be quashed. I fault the library eBook vendors for not standing firm and saying “no” to asinine demands. And I fault the library profession for, to date, not standing up for the rights of our users. Our job is to fight for the user, and we have done a poor job of doing that during the digital content surge."

Read the entire post responding to publisher HarperCollins, and their demanded limit is 26 lifetime uses per copy:

Library eBook Revolution, Begin

More ideas on how to use QR Codes in the library

Read the ideas recently shared on Twitter by librarian Heather Braum who posted this list of ideas from a brainstorming session.

Diane Ravitch: How can we improve schools while cutting funding and demoralizing teachers?

Protest at Wisconsin State Capitol on February 16

The uprising in Madison is symptomatic of a simmering rage among the nation's teachers.
--Diane Ravitch
Read Ravitch's opinions on the Madison Wisconsin protests.  Ravitch basically thinks thatit is not just about unions trying to protect their members' hard-won rights.... It is about teachers who are fed up with attacks on their profession.  CNN ReportIn a recent SLATE post, Egyptian solidarity with the Wisconsin protest puts a real "one world" feel on this.  

Egyptians Order Pizza for Wisconsin Protesters:

"In an act of intercontinental solidarity, an Egyptian has ordered a pizza for Wisconsin protesters, reports Politico. The call from Africa is just one of many streaming into the Madison, Wisc., pizza parlor Ian's from all over the world. So far, people from 12 countries and 38 states have rung up looking to help get free pizza to the Wisconsin protesters clustered in the Capitol. On Saturday, Ian's distributed more than 1,000 free slices and sent 300 pizzas to the Capitol."

Without social media this would never happen. There is strength in numbers. However, the unions have a definite public relations problem.  Read 

"Who is winning the public relations fight in Wisconsin?" to understand how things in Wisconsin are likely to get nastier.

More on QR codes

These QR codes are getting really big and I think we can have fun in the library with them because many of our students/staff have smart phones.  We can partner students up for a library scavenger hunt during orientation!

Here are the ideas of Barbara Schroeder, Clinical Associate Professor with the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University:

10 Ways to Use QR Codes in Your Classroom

I love the interactivity piece...sending people to further information.  To keep students awake during our own presentations in the library we can even put QR codes into our LibGuides and they can scan them when they are projected on the screen.  I did that with my recent PREZI presentation and participants could get the direct URL for the PREZI sent to their phones.  

So easy to do:  just enter a URL into a QR code generator (many on the web) and then embed the image on your blog, web page, or simply copy & paste it into a word doc.  The mobile phone user just needs a bar code scanner app on their phone.

View the New Trier LibGuide on Ipads in the Classroom

Created by MaryAnn Apple and Jacqui Pritchard this valuable resource contains many useful apps and resources.  Check it out!

YouTube Statistics for those at New Trier Awaiting the Unblocking of YouTube

Today, Mashable reports: 

"As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices."

Social media statistics are equally impressive:

YouTube reports: "there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link. Meanwhile, over on Facebook over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched every single day."

 Not surprising, 20-to-35-year-old bloggers embed most of the videos (57%), followed by teenagers (20%) and bloggers over 35 (20%).” See ReadWrite Web.


Most tech saavy teachers are working to get valuable YouTube content into their schools. View Steve Dembo's impressive presentation on Digital Storytelling with YouTube. It is a compelling argument for reforming our approach to YouTube. Most school blocking is apparently useless and outdated for today's sophisticated teenager who can easily download a software to their flash drive, bring it to school, and get any blocked site they wish.

Social Media Revolution Updated

I think that Malcom Gladwell's October New Yorker article missed the mark. Maybe he will revise his stance in light of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and (hopefully) Iran.

From pbs Newsletter

Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century
On-Air | Sunday, February 13, 10:30pm [note: Our local stations may not carry it, but watch the video HERE after 2/13/2011]
Grade Range: 6-8, 9-12, Educators

While technology isn’t yet pervasive in every classroom, kids interact with digital media constantly, and more educators are trying to meet students where they are to incorporate digital learning into traditional lessons.
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/digitallearners/

Connect Your Students with True Originals for Black History Month
This season PBS celebrates True Originals — innovators, artists, scientists, political leaders and ordinary citizens who dared to advance, challenge, improve, invent, and explore. In honor and celebration of Black History Month, PBS presents new and encore programs continuing throughout the spring season.

Thousands of hours of PBS programming are available on the PBS Video Portal at http://video.pbs.org/. The Video Portal includes a special collection for Black History Month 2011, featuring new and encore programming. Learn more at http://video.pbs.org/feature/118/.

In addition, PBS Teachers offers the activity packs Unsung Heroes in African American History at http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/6929/preview and Civil Rights Movement in American Literature at http://www.pbs.org/teachers/activitypacks/reading/civil-rights-movement-in-american-literature/ for educators to use in the classroom or to post on their classroom, school, or favorite social networking websites. The activity packs are designed for multiple grade levels and contain links to African-American history-themed education resources and activities from PBS.

Why didn't I know this sooner?

Recently read on Twitter shared by Buffy Hamilton: Access two Gmail accounts at once in the same browser!

I am now rushing over to my  Google Account (google.com/accounts) so that I can see and use multiple Google Accounts in the same browser.  It is truly annoying to have to sign in and out to share things across the web.  From the Official Gmail Blog:

Simply click the link next to "Multiple sign-in. "After you sign into your first account, you can sign in with up to two additional accounts from the new accounts menu in the upper right hand corner of Gmail, then easily toggle back and forth between them. You can even open multiple Gmail tabs — one for each of your accounts."

This is currently available only for desktop browsers and not all Google services support multiple account sign in yet.

Habits and Habitats: Introducing the IDEA

View to the video to see what's going on at Glenbrook North High School.  The Idea Room reminds me of my visit to the Google offices in downtown Chicago.  Love the wall sized white board. Shouldn't all of our learning spaces be like this?


Just think about learners, not teacher, not students....just learners.

Northern Illinois Computing Educators (NICE) mini-conference

Last week technology teacher Maureen Magee attended the NICE mini-conference and was kind enough to share her notes and thoughts with us. Enjoy reading her about conference experience.


See also resources from our New Trier presenters on VoiceThread at the ICE Conference in St. Charles later this month. 
ICE Conference 2010: A Learning Odyssey
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Half-Day Workshop 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM


Presenters: Suzy Tauber and MaryAnn Apple, New Trier High School

What is VoiceThread? In simple terms, it is an easily accessible Web 2.0 online program that can be used with any grade level or in any class to create collaborative presentations,digital stories, student portfolios and more. Participants will view exemplary projects,explore the program, and create a VoiceThread to use with their students.

They have developed a wonderful wiki of resources.

E-Learning tools for Schools and Education

Looking for new tools this year?  See this wonderful assortment of tools collected by Jesper Isaksson and shared on the Bright Ideas blog.

Isaksson used the mindmap tool Mindomo. This tool could also be used for organizing a presentation or as a brainstorming tool with students. The free version requires setting up an account and is

Limited to:

• 3 maps
• Basic import and export

Most of the mindmap tools seem to operate on a fee schedule for extensive use.  There is  a video tutorial but you have to sign in to view it.  I also like that the website gives many good examples of these mindmaps and that they have embed codes. Again, to get the embed codes you need an account.

For those of you who have read Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, there is a wonderful mindmap for all the concepts created by Anthony Johnson.  I suppose you could do a book talk from the mindmap!  See below: