"Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by YALSA and is aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults. The purpose of Teen Tech Week is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of digital media, especially the nonprint resources offered through libraries, such as e-books, e-readers, databases, audiobooks, and social media. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries' nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology. Teen Tech Week began in 2007 and has a general theme of Get Connected @ your library. Millions of teens do not have access to a home computer and, were it not for libraries, would miss opportunities to gain important digital literacy skills. Libraries offer a bridge across the digital divide.Libraries also recognize that digital media plays an important part in a teens’ life. That is why more libraries than ever are helping teens build critical digital literacy skills, which they will use to obtain scholarships, secure jobs, effectively manage their online identity and more." - From http://teentechweek.ning.com Several DCS high schools are participating. Here is Lorie Steed, Library Media Coordinator at Central Davidson about #TTW16 in her library: This is our school’s first time celebrating Teen Tech Week, and I wanted to share what we’re doing because looking at what other librarians have done really helped me when I was trying to come up with ideas. We decided to come up with a different theme each day: Augmented Reality & Quiver: I wanted to start with something quick and easy that also incorporated the “Create It at Your Library” theme, and the Quiver app fit the bill. After printing off free sheets from the Quiver website, I loaded the app onto a few iPads so students could scan their colored pages once they completed them. I then partnered up with Wendy Lewis, who had her students color their sheets ahead of time so that when they visited the library between class changes as they usually do, other students could watch them bring their creations to life. I really like this activity because even if students don’t have time to complete it at school, they can pick up the sheets and download the app onto their phones to use at home. It’s also a fun way to take the popular coloring trend to the next level, and to illustrate how technology can be used to create something rather than just consume what others have created. Book Trailers: One of the suggestions from 50 More Ways to Celebrate Teen Tech Week that I really liked was to have students make their own book trailers and post them online, and since Junior Library Guild is currently sponsoring a book trailer contest, I decided to get the word out about this contest and invite students to participate. Students can come to the library during our 30-minute activity period on Tuesday to view examples of movie and book trailers, learn what makes a good book trailer, and get introduced to Animoto and WeVideo, two free web-based video-creation tools. This is also a great digital citizenship lesson since students must use royalty-free images, which they can do by taking their own pictures or video, or by finding royalty-free content through Creative Commons or limiting Usage Rights under Search Tools when performing a Google search. Learning to create an effective book trailer is not only fun, but also an opportunity to develop a skill that could turn into a business opportunity as more and more authors are hiring freelancers to create book trailers to help them promote their books. The Rest: The rest of the week’s activities are more low-key, and that was intentional. As I understand it, part of Teen Tech Week is to inspire students to create with technology, but it’s also about highlighting resources and getting kids into the library. The retro video games on Wednesday and the Google Cardboard demo on Friday, as well as Thursday’s bottle-cap necklace kits, are meant to help us make connections with students we might not have made connections with yet. We’re also including quick technology tips on the daily announcements to remind students of resources they have access to here at school, including World Book Online and Ancestry K12, as well as free online resources available to them through the Davidson County Public Library system, including five free song downloads a week through Freegal, and ebooks through North Carolina Digital Library. We want to help students build a lifelong relationship with the library and one way to do this is through our partnership with our wonderful public library system. You can find detailed information about the multitude of digital resources available through the Davidson County Public Library system here. Lexington Library and Makey Makeys: We actually kicked off Teen Tech Week a couple of days early, on Friday, March 4, as Joanna from the Lexington Public Library brought a Makey Makey for students to try out when they visited the Bookmobile, which comes to our school the first Friday of every month. Students learned about how electricity works while also having fun playing Mario using bananas as a game controller! This activity was a great success and resulted in the highest number of Bookmobile visitors we’ve ever had; a couple of business and science teachers even brought their classes in to try out the device. You can find out more about Makey Makeys at the Lexington Public Library in this article from Lexington Dispatch, and about a special program going on this Saturday at the Lexington Public Library from 12 - 2, in which students can experiment with the Makey Makey devices and create mosaics that will utilize conductive inks to make their art interactive. What activities have you have planned for your students during Teen Tech Week? Please share them here!
2 Comments
Kate Lewis
3/9/2016 08:38:22 am
Hey Lorie! I love all of your ideas, especially the ones that "are meant to help us make connections with students we might not have made connections with yet." You have hit the nail on the head....that's a key ingredient for a successful library program. You go, girl!
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Lorie Steed
3/14/2016 08:19:04 pm
Thanks Kate! I've enjoyed hearing about all the cool things you having going on in the Denton Elementary library this year as well. They are lucky to have you!
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