Author Archive
23 Dec 2016
Turning Individuals into Leaders
As I brainstormed different topics for my blog post today, I had a hard time landing on something. I first thought about doing something Christmas and holiday related. But, I figured that most librarians and educators have already closed the books on their holiday programs, events, and displays for this year, so I scratched that
29 Nov 2016
Bloxels and Other Ways to Create Video Games
Floors Recently, I hosted a Classic Video Game Extravaganza for our middle and high school students (we spent the majority of our time on Free80sArcade, Atari, and TankTrouble). While looking around for other video games to play, I was reminded of Floors, which a colleague on SPLAT had mentioned to me. Basically, you draw a video game
22 Jul 2016
Rube Goldberg Machines: Low-Tech Making at its Best
And now, for something completely different (which isn’t quite accurate, as we will still be dealing with STEAM principles, and libraries, so it would probably be more accurate to say, something somewhat different). Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist, engineer, and inventor, who is best known for his illustrations of simple actions being carried out
05 May 2016
5 Programmable Robots by Price
Different types of robots were a large part of our last quarterly SPLAT meeting, and have also been a focus of many of my outreach programs this Spring semester. Robots have a unique ability to grab people’s attention, provide an opportunity to use 21st-century skills, and also give them a fantastic amount of coding experience. With
20 Nov 2015
Kibo Robot: Coding in the Real World
Coding is a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) topic that is getting a lot of press right now, and rightfully so. Moving into the future, students and employees with coding skills will have an advantage moving into school and into the workforce. Luckily, there are a lot of free resources that can get you
24 Aug 2015
Getting Started with 3D Design
For the past three summers, SPLAT members have roadtripped their way through the rural parts of Idaho (which means we have a lot of places to choose from), showing off innovative technology, and starting conversations about the future of libraries. We just finished our 2015 Roadtrip through Eastern Idaho, and it was a bunch of
08 May 2015
Ingress: Location Based Sci-Fi Scavenger Game
A young adult who used to come to my Teen programs stopped by the library yesterday. He’s been playing an augmented reality, location-based game called Ingress, and he was excited to share it with me. While the game began on the Google Play store, the app now has a version available on the App store
19 Dec 2014
3D Printing with the Cloud
3D printing seems to be blowing up the internet and the world right now. From owners printing prosthetic legs for their dogs, to a Sonic Screwdriver for our Teen Doctor Who Christmas Party, the applications and uses of this technology continue to excite and amaze us. My library was dropped into this new world when
13 Oct 2014
PowToon: Superpowered Presentations!
With the concepts of “Show, Don’t Tell,” and “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words,” firmly imprinted on my brain, I decided to make a presentation about this website, using this website, instead of talking about this website. But, before I do that I should mention three things: 1) This website is called PowToon, and
09 Aug 2014
YPULSE: Youth and Millennial Marketing
I’m all about stealing other people’s great ideas (which is why Creative Commons is such a great idea for me hehe). Now my boss (the awesome Karen Yother) likes to refer to it as “not reinventing the wheel,” and others comment, “that everyone remixes used ideas.” Either way, this week’s post is thanks to (the
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