Technology Apps With Cattau

      Universal Design for learning includes 3 different aspects which are providing multiple means of Engagement, Representation, and Action and Expression. These represent the Why, What, and How of learning. These guidelines can help both teachers and librarians as they figure out how to create the best possible educational experience for students and helping the students create a framework for becoming lifelong learners. The end goal of UDL is to create learners who are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal directed. There are many steps in the process to help create those end results for our students.      As I look through the principles and guidelines I can see that there are some areas that I am doing a pretty good job in as a classroom teacher which I know will need to continue as I move into a librarian role. I do a good job on providing various means of expression and communic...

  Podcasting is all the rage these days as it seems like everyone starts a podcast when they try to promote their newest, latest, and greatest item or service that they are in charge of. Podcasting really is talk radio when you think about it but the nice thing about it is that it is totally customizable to your interests and needs. Listening to podcasts for learning is something that many people are doing nowadays as well as entertainment with the proliferation of true crime podcasts.  The 3 podcasting sites that I chose to try out were Anchor which is owned by Spotify, Buzzsprout, and Red Circle.  Anchor was the most user friendly and while it didn't have as many options as the other two it was also free and gave a lot of features that were super helpful for a beginner like I am when it comes to figuring out podcasting. It was pretty self explanatory and it helped me through the whole process of getting my podcast episode out there in a rather quick turn around. The fea...

  The first website that I used was Pixton to create a narrative comic.  https://edu.pixton.com/educators This website was by far the most advanced with all the capabilities that it had in order to create a full panel of comics and is for the power users. I found that the process took some getting used to as things were well laid out on the menu but with so many options it was not user friendly for someone who was trying it out for the first time. I really liked the selection of characters and all the backgrounds and animations and effects you could do. The whole creation of the comic was easy once I figured out where everything was. I can't recommend this website though as there was no way to download, share, or print without paying first. I ended up having to take screenshots which is why the pictures are small and blurry. It was really frustrating to spend that much time learning only to not get a good final product. Students would enjoy learning all the ins and outs but un...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sI4g2qitQ   Youtube is the biggest video sharing site in the world. On average, more than 150,0000 new videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, adding up to around 330,000 hours of video content based on an average video length of 4.4 minutes. ( https://www.wyzowl.com/youtube-stats/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20more%20than%20150,video%20length%20of%204.4%20minutes. ) This is a great resource for anyone as Youtube has become the de facto search engine for K-12 students even before google. I actually jumped on the Youtube bandwagon and created my own channel that I did during COVID which served as my school's way of reaching out to families with a devotion since I was at a private school.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnG7TZlozkBcF1j6Rn-vpiQ Libraries can make use of this resource and there are many clever ways that librarians have used Youtube to get useful information to their students.  The first channel that I looked at is Th...

  Easel.ly is a very simple website to use with not a lot of features for the power user but for the basic designs that most people will need it will be perfectly acceptable to create simple images that get the point across. I did like the fact that once I clicked away all the ads they went away for as long as I was working on the review.  I worked my way through the options on the left and it does have everything that one needs but it is lacking the extensive database and flair that Canva gives you. Their templates leave a lot to be desired as every one that I clicked on gave me a jumbled mess. Attached is a screenshot of what I kept getting even after going through the resize process on 4 different ones. This would not be a website that I would recommend for creating infographics or much of anything else.  PIKTOCHART started off much better with its interface and how many templates there are in order to get you started. I was able to select my role which I chose librari...

Social media has changed how we interact with the world around us and being in the library is no different! The 3 main avenues that people use to create content are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In order to reach students, Tiktok and Youtube are their go to social media accounts but as someone who spent several months trying to get a youtube channel going (Barn Briefings with Catdaddy ) I know the time and effort that it takes to create well curated videos on both of those platforms so sticking with Facebook to reach the Millennials and Older, Instagram for those who like graphic interpretations, and Twitter for those who like to share information or their stream of consciousness works great as well for reaching the next generation of people who are going to be taking their students to the library.  Facebook has the greatest reach of any social media platform and it shows with the wealth of content that is available. I took a look at 2 different libraries pages to see what they...