Lauren's 761 Chronicles

Wonderscope Logo - Courtesy of Wonderscope Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to integrate VR / AR into your media center or classroom but felt that it was out of reach due to the startup cost?  Maybe you felt intimidated by the technology requirements?  These are big hurdles for anyone that is interested in VR/AR integration but don’t worry, there are levels of tech and cost that can fit every school.   I believe that the media center is a great place for items such as headsets and AR/VR stations because it allows for different classes to use the technology but these items could be purchased / integrated by department or individual teachers.   Before you begin your AR/VR journey there are some things you need to consider.  First, you will need to assess what your needs are and determine if AR/VR is going to meet those needs (Young, 2020).  Sometimes in schools there is a big push to use technology for technology’s sake.  As media specialists, w...

  Hello Everyone! Our topic this week is makerspaces.  I love this concept and wish this had been a thing when I was in school!  As we have seen in the readings and lectures, makerspaces can exist in many different ways.  Many schools may be intimidated by the cost, but makerspaces don’t have to be expensive.  One of my favorite parts of this week was Dr. Moorefield-Lang’s lecture where she talked about how makerspaces involve research and that research and information literacy go hand in hand.  Students are going to be naturally pulled into researching because they have to figure out how to create their ideas in the makerspace.  Anything that can get our students engaged with their learning is worth exploring!  There are so many different ways to create a makerspace, but today I want to share a post with you from Touro College Libraries’ Blog called Math Adds Up To Sewing Success .   I think that this blog is worth sharing because it connect...

The content this week focused on a very sad reality of the digital age: Cyberbullying.  The Cyberbullying Research Center defines Cyberbullying as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices” (The Cyberbullying Research Center, n.d.).  Cyberbullying can be even more devastating than traditional face to face bullying because the victim never gets a break since the harassment is occurring online it is not confined to the location where the bully and victim see each other.   The most surprising part to me, although perhaps it shouldn’t be, is the amount of bullying taking place in higher education and the workplace.  The article From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education and the workplace.   Although bullying is NEVER EVER okay at any time period in your life, you would expect it to be a K-12 issue. I don’t really have much of a “c...

Hello everyone! Today’s post focuses on creating a social media account for the school library media center and how I plan to use this account for collaboration / instruction, communication, and advocacy in the future.  Since I am not a working school librarian, I chose to create an account for a hypothetical school library media center.  My hypothetical school is Pleasantville Elementary School which serves kindergarten through 5th grade.  The mascot is the Wise Owl.   Creating the Account I was on the fence about Facebook vs. Instagram.  After reading through Dr. Green’s presentation, my first thought was to use Facebook since it is widely used by grandparents and parents.  I ended up changing my mind simply due to Facebook’s requirements to link a business page with a personal account.  I had gone through the process of creating a “Fakebook” by using a combination of my hypothetical school’s name as my first and last name, but then after resear...