News, Features and best practices in technology for the k-12 classroom and media center from wikis and podcasts to the latest gadgets from School Library Journal
Social Networking Guru danah boyd By Debra Lau Whelan - 03/25/2009
When danah boyd talks, people listen. The academic, blogger, and rock star of social networking research has just completed her PhD dissertation, “Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics." SLJ caught up with her to talk about the way American teens socialize on sites like MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, Xanga, and YouTube. More
Web 2.0 in Hardcover: A recommended reading list on 2.0 and education By Steve Hargadon - 02/01/2010
I love books, especially the actual physical ones. I madly scribble notes in the margins, and stuff them with related articles as if they were file folders. I can think of no better afternoon than one spent indulging in the discovery of ideas within a library or bookstore. Here are some titles that I think significantly inform the conversation about Web 2.
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Fight Content Filters By Lauren Barack - 02/01/2010
Buffy Hamilton thinks one shouldn’t take online content filters lying down, but instead build a well-supported case to get them removed. “I think out of an effort to be proactive, keep children safe, and avoid litigation, schools may err on the safe side,” says Hamilton, school librarian at Creekview High School in Canton, GA.
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People Who Need People: How 11 intrepid users get the most out of social media By Kathy Ishizuka - 02/01/2010
Barbra Streisand had it right. We do need one another, as much online as off. At its heart, social media has less to do with technology or a particular application than forging connections with others. How one creates those connections is the question we posed to some insightful social media users.
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Indianapolis Trades Textbooks for Digital Content By Lauren Barack - 01/20/2010
Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) are tossing textbooks for digital tracts—at least for 11 area elementary, middle, and high schools in their system.
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A How-To for Fighting Content Filters Lauren Barack - 01/19/2010
Buffy Hamilton believes school librarians should never take online content filters at face value. When presented with a digital roadblock, media specialists should instead devise reasoned, well-resourced arguments with which to open these doors.
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Props for Twitter: Library professor supports use of short messaging in the classroom 01/01/2010
Educators looking to integrate Twitter into their classrooms (bit.ly/7JmQRl) have support from Carol L. Tilley, a professor of library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who believes the character constraint of Twitter could actually benefit students. “In terms of strategies for creative or critical writing, having a limited number of characters to ...
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Choose Privacy: It's 2010. Do you know where your personal information is? By Christopher Harris - 01/01/2010
It’s 2010. Do you know where your personal information is? Unless you rang in the New Year from some off-the-grid cave, much of your digital identity is out there floating freely around the Net. Going online requires a careful balancing act, in which users must weigh both privacy and participation, caution and convenience.
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2009 National Book Awards On the red carpet with nominees in the Young People's Literature category.
Photos by Rocco Staino.
SLJ Covers 2009 A bigger and better view of SLJ's covers from 2009
BookExpo America 2009: SLJ's Day of Dialog School Library Journal held a Day of Dialog in conjunction with the annual BookExpo America on May 28, 2009 at the Brooklyn Public Library. Full story: bit.ly/1a0G7o
Rockin’, Rollin’ and Ridin’ with Rebecca Frezza & Big Truck. CD. 23 min. Prod. by Big Truck Music. Dist. by CDBaby.com. 2009. $8.99.
Gr 1-5–A veteran of Noggin Channel and PBS Kids, Frezza created these eight exceptional rock ‘n roll songs for elementary grade children who are too old for Raffi, but not old enough for adult pop music.
Friends and colleagues of the late Effie Lee Morris may enjoy this photo of the children's librarian, which Nicholas Glass, founder and executive director of Teachingbooks.net, recently found on his computer. It was taken at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, and features (from left) Ashley Bryan, Christopher Myers, and Morris, also an advocate for children's literature and library service to youngsters with impaired vision, who died of cancer on November 10, 2009.
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Rockin’, Rollin’ and Ridin’ with Rebecca Frezza & Big Truck. CD. 23 min. Prod. by Big Truck Music. Dist. by CDBaby.com. 2009. $8.99. 
