Well-reasoned piece giving a good explanation as to why YA books have a general appeal beyond the intended target.

An interesting discussion about the print phenomenon. Different sources from textbook publishers, bookstore owners and college student surveys all say that young people still strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning. This is a bias that surprises reading experts when the same group spend so much of the rest of their time on-line. "A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free."

Ideas for a lesson, complete with handout, about teaching students about critically assessing the credibility of sources they find. It is aimed at secondary school students.

Joyce Valenza discusses Fair use and copyright and how a good understanding of the Fair Use guidelines allows everyone to use the best most appropriate material without sanctions. She also goes into some detail about transformative use and what that entails.

Interesting post that puts forward the idea of using film to make literary criticism stronger.

A collection of good free HD video clips to use in classes.

"By blocking social networking tools in our schools, to whom are we really denying access? All kids or only those who cannot afford home Internet access? Are we marginalizing the already marginalized in our society by preventing them from the only opportunity (in school) they may have to participate in a participatory culture by filtering? "

One teacher librarians account about how she supported a classroom assignment (on stem cells) using Livebinders.

An infographic from OverDrive that gives a visual representation of the amount of titles borrowed and what some of the most popular titles were that people checked out.

"Every Child a Reader (ECAR) and the Children's Book Council (CBC) have announced the finalists in the eighth annual Children's Choice Book Awards (CCBA), the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by kids and teens. Young readers across the country will determine the winners in all 7 categories of the Children's Choice Book Awards by voting online at ccbookawards.com from Tuesday, March 17, 2015 through Sunday, May 3, 2015. In 2014, over 1.2 million votes were cast online by young readers. Winners will be announ"

The School Library as Learning Commons is a paradigm shift that is happening around the world. "We can get hung-up on the money when it comes to learning commons spaces. But it is first about mindsets - we need to embrace new ways of learning and find ways for our space to reflect these changes and be the gathering places for our all our learners.  The thinking around the learning commons is symbolizing the shifts we are seeing with learning throughout our schools."

"A post that offers advice on how to spot a fake website in relatively simple terms. This advice may save a lot of frustration. Everyone needs to be sure that they know what is being clicked on. Some basic advice that will help you from becoming victim of a phisher or an identity thief.

Professors Sameer Hinduja ( and Justin Patchin are the co-directors of the Center for Cyberbullying Research. As researchers, they delve into and provide "up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents." They have released a Cyberbullying Quiz to jump start faculty discussions. The quiz is short (15 true/false questions) and each answer also includes the supporting research. In addition to the quiz, they have also published a comprehensive Cyberbullying Fact Sheet that is written for educators, administrators, and parents.This might be useful as a handout for a teachers or parents.

Great TEDtalk from Ben Halpert on cyberethics for kids.

"A list of the best 4 web tools for creating screenshots. Besides being free, these tools are very simple to use and are also student friendly. They will allow you to  capture your screen, crop and annotate your pictures using  arrows, colours, shapes, text and many more." It is always great to have visuals as part of any explanation to students (or for them to use as well)> These 4 are briefly explained and look easy to use.

"Searching and citing usable images is easy once students learn the basics Teaching students to respect the intellectual property of others is important in this digital "cut and paste" world we live in. One great project to share with students that can better help them understand how and when they may use images created by others is the Creative Commons project. Creative Commons is designed to span the gap between full copyright and the public domain. The Creative Commons project provides content creators the opportunity to state ahead of time how their images may (or may not) be used."

Good infographic on plagiarism. It would be a useful document to use with students to teach them about plagiarism: what constitutes an act of plagiarism and the different types of copyright violations that can occur. The image is not free. You read it online as large version by clicking on the image but you will need to purchase it if you want a copy to put up onto a wall. If you are looking for what web tools are available to help detect plagiarism this list is a good place to start.