Gabbi Pace's SLIS 761 Blog

This semester has been one filled with ups and downs. There have been so many changes going on in my life, and so many awesome things we have covered throughout the semester. As I went back through my past blog posts this week, and as I flipped through prior readings, I took some time to think about what my biggest takeaway of the semester was. When I think about my biggest takeaway, it is honestly a little hard to not feel a bit silly. It feels like what I learned should have been common sense to begin with. But honestly it hit me particularly hard as we went through the course, and especially now as I am reflecting on all we have learned. My takeaway is simply that technical services and youth (and here specifically) school librarianship are inextricably linked. I know that this seems obvious, and honestly, it is. But I have worked in a large public library for 2 years now, where "technical services" is all its own department, and "youth services", where I wor

I should begin this post with an all-important disclaimer: I'm a huge Pokemon nerd. I have about 9,000 cards in my collection (and counting!) and I've played every game. The anime was a huge part of my life as a kid, and it's always been a dream to have these awesome, mystical creatures come to life. So imagine my excitement when Pokemon Go burst onto the scene. I was actually one of the players selected for the beta testing stage, so I got in on the action very early on, when bugs were plentiful (and I'm not talking about caterpie here). Pokemon Go is a fun, interactive mobile app that utilizes GPS and AR technology to bring Pokemon into the real world. The premise is simple: the player is a Pokemon trainer that must go around catching various types of Pokemon. Different types of Pokemon appear in different areas (oftentimes, water type Pokemon appear by bodies of water, and some Pokemon like Mr. Mime are region-locked). The more the player explores their community,

I love makerspaces. In my undergrad, my final paper revolved around the creation and implementation of makerspaces, and as my library system expands, I've loved seeing our new makerspaces be developed from the ground up. Access to creative pursuit and development makes me geek out, and I love to work with patrons of all ages to create and/or learn something new. STEM tools and programming is especially interesting to me, particularly with younger patrons. Developing an interest in STEM at an early age is important, and can set kids moving towards skills and abilities they continue to develop as they learn and grow. When selecting a makerspace tool for review, I was particularly interested in finding something that could be made into a "kit" in my own library. CCPL, like many libraries, does not have a makerspace in every branch, but that doesn't mean that the makerspace can't come to the library anyway. Our library ( and the state library too, for all interested

Bullying has unfortunately been a part of human society and culture since the dawn of time. Up until recently, bullying was seen as a largely physical act; one that involved pushing, shoving, and other violent tactics (often repeated) used to intimidate or gain something from someone else. As time went on, the term expanded to mean verbal attacks as well, like name calling and rumor spreading. But as technology advanced, and communication became easier than ever, what is now known as "cyberbullying" became a new way to manipulate, push around, and even directly harm others. This form of bullying, which is a huge umbrella term that can be used to refer to any number of bullying tactics using electronic communication devices, is present all around us. We as future librarians need to be prepared to handle this threat in our libraries (and, if applicable, in our schools), because the repercussions of inaction can be deadly. Students who experience cyberbullying undergo any number

Today, our focus will be on the excellent learning and review resource, Kahoot ! Gone are the days of boring powerpoint style Jeopardy, and long hours spent painstakingly crafting review worksheets that bore students and leave you with extra work. Kahoot! is a learning and review tool for the classroom that is fun, memorable, and engaging for all students. I chose to focus on this tool because I have experience with it both as a student and a teacher, and can vouch for its ease of use on both sides of things. Kahoot! is an excellent tool that everyone should know about, and leaves students eager for activities in the classroom. Locating Kahoot! is easy: simply navigate to Kahoot's website (linked above) and click the button that says "Sign Up- it's free!" From there, the site guides you through the process. After you have created your Kahoot! account, all there is to do is get creating. The tutorial video below outlines how to create your own Kahoot! in minutes.

Schools are becoming increasingly tech-centric. Many schools are switching to a 1:1 classroom format, a form of teaching best defined here , but what in essence marks a shift in education towards some sort of internet-accessible device for every student. In many school systems that can afford it, this device is a Chromebook. When I taught briefly in Lexington 3, and when I myself attended school in Richland 2, every student was given a Chromebook. Now that I work in Charleston County, I see the same pattern reflected here. As a result, educators are using Chromebooks to do awesome things with their students as varied, interactive information is more accessible than ever before. In my own classroom, I used the computers to my advantage, asking students to locate news articles often for analysis and presentation as a weekly "news of the week" activity that aimed to improve literacy, comprehension, analysis skills, and general global awareness. But in this activity and others

This week I sought out a tech tool that would be useful in my work as a future High School Librarian. Since I come from a High School English education background, I decided to use this content area as my focus. However, the tool I found could be used in any classroom, and also in the library. Edtech VISION , a blog run by Colette Cassinelli, a library and instructional technology teacher, focuses on valuable tech tools that she has found useful. It was almost difficult to decide on a tool to share! I ended up choosing to focus on the topic of screen casting because I have often wanted to know how to use a screen casting program, both as a teacher and a librarian. I think that screen casting has universal appeal as a teaching tool. Cassinelli discusses screen casting software in her post Screencasting for Everyone , made on June 14, 2019. The software Cassinelli uses is called Screencastify, a Google Chrome extension that lets you record your screen directly from your browser. As y

Media literacy has always been a topic of interest and passion for me. In my brief stint as a high school English teacher, the first lesson I taught to all of my classes was on how to evaluate news sources, and yes, how to identify "fake news." Needless to say, I wish I'd had the Liturgists podcast under my hat then; "Science Mike" and his "phat beat" would have been a hit, I feel sure. In all sincerity though, it was great to have such a clear and concise set of points that one could use to evaluate a news source (author, publisher, editorial review board, date of publication, cited references, and how well it is written). ALA's Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education was similarly helpful, providing readers with both a method for evaluating information, background on the need to do so, and then steps for implementation.  "Fake News" is a pervasive and insidious concept in our society that has become increasingly warped

This week, I looked at two different sets of library standards: the new AASL National School Library standards and the ISTE standards. Coming from an education background myself, I am definitely familiar with standards and their use, as well as how often they are liable to shift and change. As I read, explored, and learned more, I was able to see all the awesome ways that these standards have evolved into something more comprehensive and wide reaching than they had been previously. I was unfamiliar with both AASL and ISTE standards, so I was excited to learn about both, compare the two, and apply that to my future work as a high school librarian. The linked crosswalk HERE does wonders to assist in the understanding of how these two standards sets compare. Furthermore, the structure of the AASL Standards is outlined clearly in the video below: For the purposes of this blog post, I have chosen to compare and contrast these standards using the context and perspective found in Engagin