Dog-eared & Overdue

Author: Kate Gukeisen

  • Advocate, Don’t Whine

    Dear School Librarians and Fellow Future School Librarians, We are better than this. We are educators and information specialists, and we need to stop comparing ourselves to Internet search engines. I agree with everything this constantly circulated graphic says about what librarians do. However, I hate that the focus of the message shifts in one…

  • CyberHeroes & Anti-Cyberbullying

    In my last post, Intellectual Freedom & Internet Filtering, I shared a few ideas about how school librarians can help schools create and implement policies that both keep students safe online and provide them opportunities to develop the 21st Century Skills they need to successfully navigate our increasingly participatory culture. In that post, I referred to…

  • Intellectual Freedom & Internet Filtering

  • Technology in Schools

    “We do everything we can to get tech into the hands of our kids, and then we do everything we can to prevent them from using it.” -Scott McLeod at TEDx Des Moines What do you think? Look for my thoughts on this topic throughout the week.

  • Podcast for an Elementary School Library Program

    Comets in the Spotlight This is my first attempt at creating a podcast–and it was fun! I created this for my Information Technology in Educational Organization class, where we were asked to investigate the technical aspects of creating a podcast and then to reflect on that and think further about opportunities for utilizing podcasting in…

  • QR Codes? Really? Yes, Really.

    QR Codes often get a bad rap, and often for good reason. When I first encountered QR Codes, I downloaded a QR Code Reader app with some excitement and began to scan. I was immediately, and then repeatedly, underwhelmed. It seemed every QR Code I scanned led me to an online page with the exact…

  • Why a Wiki? Content Collaboration in the Middle School

    A wiki is a content collaboration tool that enables people to work together remotely to share ideas, develop new understandings, plan and negotiate processes, make decisions, and solve problems. A wiki can serve as a sandbox for collaboration and working together, and it also  can serve as a presentation medium for finished work. Students can…

  • Cool Tool: Glogster

    Glogster is a Web 2.0 Tool that makes it easy for librarians, teachers, and students to present media-rich information and links for further exploration about…well, about anything, really. Glogster features a palette of text boxes, frames, and upload and embed options that offer a balance between customization and ease of use in creating interactive online…

  • Children’s Stories & Resources: Afghanistan

    The first time my Vagabond Soldier deployed to Afghanistan, resources about the country were hard to find, out of date, and seemed to reveal little about the true spirit and culture of the Afghan people. Even though my son was a baby at the time, I wanted to find stories to share with him that…

  • The Digital Divide & the School Library

    Interested in learning more about the Second Level Digital Divide and what a school librarian can do about it? Click the link and read on! Umland_Gukeisen_IST668_DigitalDivide