Ashley Walker's SLIS 761 Blog

For your final blog post, please discuss your biggest takeaway from this semester. My biggest takeaway this semester is that a school librarian can provide SO much support to SO many aspects of a school! Here are some examples of topics that a school librarian can be a go-to resource on for students, parents, and faculty: Information literacy Website creation Tech tools for the classroom (hardware and software) Technology and accessibility Copyright and fair use Censorship Cyberbullying Makerspaces Not to mention other topics like literacy, reluctant readers, cultural events, and even more! It can be overwhelming to consider the vast amount of knowledge and resources that a school library should have in order to support his or her school community.  My personal takeaway from this semester in relation to this overwhelming realization is that it will be important for me to choose a few things to focus on at first before trying to tackle everything else! It is okay...

VR Tool : Oculus headsets For this blog post, I decided to focus on learning more about the Oculus line of headsets for virtual reality (VR) experiences. Besides Pokemon Go, this was the only tech tool I had heard of before, but I've never learned anything about it. Here's what I found out! The Basics : Oculus is the brand of VR headsets and gaming/experience programs. There are three headsets in the current line . There appears to be one each of high-end, mid-range, and lower-end options: High: the Oculus Rift, which is powered by a PC;  Mid: the Oculus Quest, which works without a PC but can access Rift games and software if connected to a PC;  Low: and the Oculus Go, which is an all-in-one headset with no other technology required. Each headset from Go to Quest to Rift increases in quality in terms of Hz (how fast the image "refreshes") and how well it tracks the user's movement. (For example, users are recommended to sit down when using the Go be...

MakerSpace Tool: IDEO Method Cards The Tool : I first learned about IDEO Method Cards from this post  on the Worlds of Learning blog about the "Top Ten Makerspace Favorites of 2018." Here is the description from that blog post about IDEO Method Cards that first got me hooked: "These cards are low-tech and offer 51 ways to inspire design, while keeping human at the center of the process, the whole time. Each card describes one method and includes a brief story about how and when to use it. These cards are not a 'how to' guide. They are a design tool meant to help you explore new approaches and develop your own."  More information about Method Cards can be found here on IDEO's website. I wanted to see more examples of the Method Cards in action, so I began looking for more images and stories about their uses. Here are some examples: From a Twitter post by Siddhartha Banerjee From Betsy Freeman's Pinterest What I love about Metho...