SLAVConnects

"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.

Newly Discovered Novel by Harper Lee Featuring Characters From "To Kill a Mockingbird" Will Be Published July 2015.

Finland is planning to phase out handwriting classes in favour of keyboard skills, a recognition that this generation will never write a letter, birthday card or love letter. Instead, they'll text, tap and tweet. Is the answer that easy.?

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.

26 August 2014 - South Australia. Focussing on children birth - 3 years.

"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.

"Published on 29 Nov 2014. Part one of a Library Q&A - all about becoming a librarian and MLIS degrees. The list of questions were: 00:45 - What skills do you need to be a librarian? 02:40 - What lead me to become a librarian? 03:57 - Do I have a degree, and are MLIS degrees needed in other countries? 04:34 - What kind of coursework did I do for my degree? 06:05 - Did I do a thesis? 06:36 - Did I go to Dal, and if yes, what did I think of it? Also: What advice would I give to new/aspiring MLIS students? 09:15 - Considering an MLIS degree, but concerned about not being able to find a job afterward - what are my thoughts on this? 10:49 - Do librarians make a lot of money? 12:36 - How should someone go about getting a library job while at university? Do they hire non-MLIS students?"

This visual encyclopedia is created by the publisher DK. It is new, so somewhat limited but they have plans to grow. I see it as useful for younger students, ESL students and special education students. The site is easy to use and has clear categories. It also offers other sections: What's New?. Videos. Quizzes. Fun Facts. Galleries. Another section called My Space will also be added. Teachers may create an account and access a lesson planner. The DK Online World Desk Reference may also be of interest. You need to create an account to use it which takes seconds to do. This site "explores topics in physical and human geography for every country in the world, and practices critical-thinking skills

A useful list with links and small annotations on most.

"A new service for locating and reading newspapers from locations all around the world. Newspaper Map claims to have put placemarks for more 10,000 newspapers on one Google Map. To find a newspaper you can browse the map then click on a placemark to open the link within to read a newspaper."

"PBS LearningMedia now offers more than 100,000 digital resources, including common core-aligned videos, interactive learning games, and tools for teachers. The site is a partnership between PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation and includes tools to help teachers make storyboards, build lessons, and create quizzes using PBS's digital content. There's also a student view, which teachers can set up so that students can access class materials from their own devices. Many resources are also labeled with standards information so that teachers can determine how a potential lesson might line up with the common core. Though some parts of the site are available only to paid users, the majority are free."

The Crash Course videos are created by great YouTube advocates, John and Hank Green. They are intended as an overview of different subjects, from literature and history to chemistry, biology, and psychology.