Lisa Newgard's List: 2014 Technologies for Libraries

Evernote (http://evernote.com) is an Android/iOS free app to aid with organization and management. It would be appropriate for grade 5 and up. Students, teachers, teacher librarians, and parents can benefit from this resource by keeping organized through using notes, to-do lists, and reminders. They can also use it to take pictures and record their own voice. Also, it can be helpful for teachers and students to share resources with parents and others through social media tools such as facebook, Pinterest, Skype, and LinkedIn.

Youngzine is a website for students to learn about the world's current events. This is a safe, non biased site that encourages students to submit comments, articles, short stories, and book reviews as well as catching up on the "news". There are videos, news articles, students' stories and articles, world events, science and tech, our Earth, and even a society and arts section.

Quadblogging is a resource that benefits students, teachers, and librarians. This resource allows four different classes from around the world to join together in one blog. They can learn and communicate with each other within the blog. One class will be the focus class for one week - they can blog and the other classes comment- then it switches, lasting for four weeks.

Picadilo is an online photo editing site that is free and easy to use. High school students LOVE to take pictures of themselves and others, and this resource allows them to do more with their photos. When you go to http://www.picadilo.com/ you can upload photos from Facebook or from your computer. Once you have a photo to work with, there are tools along the left side of the page that allow you to crop, rotate, change the lighting, or change the exposure. Another set of tools allows you to focus on one area of a photo or add color effects.

Powtoon is a free online cartoon maker. Students can choose from a variety of existing templates or create their own. It is prepopulated with characters, music, speech bubbles, objects, and fonts. Students use the tools to create and edit their own cartoon. If students access via Google Drive, they can share the powtoon through their Google account.

Blendspace is an online visual collage of multimedia. Depending on the purpose, videos, websites, text, pictures, illustrations, can be embedded in the Blendspace. Users can also link other accounts such as Dropbox and Google Drive. Blendspace offers a simple quiz program to allow viewers to assess their understanding.

Showbie is a free online assignment management tool for student and teachers to use.

This free online tool is used as a backchannel for people to make comments, ask questions, and have discussions about certain topics. Teachers and students can use this for various topics and subjects. To get started, the teacher names the room and provides a link or QR code for the students to join the chat. The teacher also has the option of deciding how long the chat will remain open- from one hour to one year.

It is a resource where students can make their own posters, magazine covers, custom calendars, etc.

Toontastic (http://launchpadtoys.com/toontastic/) is a free iOS app that helps with content creation. It would be appropriate for children who are kindergarten through fifth grade or ages 5-10. Students can benefit from this app by having the opportunity to record their own stories. They can use their own drawings or other art and then animate them and make them into cartoons. There are drawing tools along with characters and settings provided to help inspire children’s imaginations.

Wordpress is a free open source blogging tool that features a plugin architecture and a template system that makes creating a blog very quick and simple. Wordpress is the most popular blogging system on the web.

BiblioNasium (https://www.biblionasium.com/#tab/all-books) is a free resource for online reading.

Tinkerbox is a free iOS app downloadable in the iTunes store. Tinkerbox uses science and physics to build while teaching students basic engineering concepts.

Imovie is a movie-editing app that is included on all Apple computer software and it is also available as app for tablets and phones. Imovie allows students to upload videos and pictures from their phones and cameras to easily create a clean and professional looking video. Students can add music and voice recording, edit their audio, add titles and transitions and use film effects to improve and develop creativity.