Geek Out- Whatcha Reading? Creating Multimedia Presentations by Tamra Orr

Creating Multimedia Presentations by Tamra Orr  YA oo5.58 ORR

“A must-have how-to guide to the vast and vastly complicated world of multimedia research and presentation. This book accessibly guides the young reader through the process of searching for, obtaining, storing, organizing, arranging, and presenting multimedia sources of informationimages, audio, and video for school projects. It also imparts essential understanding about using copyrighted materials and how to safely cite sources. The entire process of synthesizing multimedia materials into a smooth, effective presentation is accessibly explored. Students learn typical teacher expectations and methods of evaluation for such a project. The book includes useful web sites and information about online tutorials and an extensive reading list and collection of resources.“

Teen Tech Tip #6- Reliable Search Engines

Finding reliable search engines for students is an ongoing battle! Having trouble finding the answers your looking for? Try these search engines:

Sweet Search: “SweetSearch is a Search Engine for Students.

It searches only the 35,000 Web sites that our staff of research experts and librarians and teachers have evaluated and approved when creating the content on findingDulcinea. We constantly evaluate our search results and “fine-tune” them, by increasing the ranking of Web sites from organizations such as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, PBS and university Web sites.

SweetSearch helps students find outstanding information, faster. It enables them to determine the most relevant results from a list of credible resources, and makes it much easier for them to find primary sources. We exclude not only the spam sites that many students could spot, but also the marginal sites that read well and authoritatively, but lack academic or journalistic rigor. As importantly, the very best Web sites that appear on the first page of SweetSearch results are often buried on other search engines.”

Ref Seek: “RefSeek is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make
academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than
one billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and
newspapers.”

Wolfram Alpha: “Wolfram|Alpha introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers—
not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods.” Basically if your question involves a number, this is the place to go for an answer.

Google Scholar: “Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.” It searches court records, patent records and scholarly journals. In some cases the results will link to abstracts of books and articles that you will then have to obtain from a library or book retailer. In other cases results will link to fully viewable documents.

Geek Out- Whatcha Reading? Car Trouble by Jeanne Duprau

Car Trouble by Jeanne Duprau

“Duff Pringle has bought his first car. (Used.) He’s got six days to drive 3,000 miles cross-country to California and start a new hi-tech job that will make him wealthy. (Sort of.) Nothing can stop him. (Or can it?) Uh-oh . . . CAR TROUBLE. Duff’s Ford Escort barely makes it a hundred miles from home before breaking down. What’s he supposed to do? He’s promised his new boss he’ll be there by Monday. But he’s also promised himself that he’ll make this journey by car, so he can really see the country. Using his laptop and some quick thinking, he pieces together a way to continue his trip. What he doesn’t plan on are the people he meets along the road. There’s Stu, a hitchhiker with a secret; Bonnie, an aspiring singer with a con artist for a mother; two thugs looking for a trunkful of cash; and Moony, the terrier prone to carsickness.“

Teen Tech Tip #5:Freegal

Did you know that Freegal has a new look? The site features an improved search engine, upgraded capacity and quicker browsing access to the most popular music. New this month, apps for your iphone and android phones.  All you need is your library card and you can download 2 songs per week and they are yours to keep!  Make sure you check out the NEWS tab, for great information on upcoming tours and albums from your favorite artists. Go to www.lpld.lib.in.us and click the Freegal link.

Geek Out -Whatcha Reading? Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

(available on Overdrive in Kindle, EPUB, and PDF formats for your e-reader)

“Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to awaken on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed‘s scheduled landing, Amy’s cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed. Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed‘s passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir. Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed‘s hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.”

Teen Tech Week Tip#4: Privacy

How much information do you share on your Facebook profile? Did you know the privacy settings have changed? If you want to see how much information about you is available online, use sites like http://pipl.com and www.intellius.com to show how readily available your personal information is.

Geek Out- Whatcha Reading? Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline  (available in audio book/cd)
 ”At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut– part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.”

Teen Tech Week Science Fun- Magnetic Silly Putty

 And now its time for some Geeky Science Fun. Who doesn’t like to play with silly putty? Learn how to make Magnetic silly putty with these easy instructions

www.instructables.com/id/magnetic-silly-putty/

Teen Tech Week Tip#3: Pinterest

Wonder what all the hype about Pinterest is about? It’s a cool way to create a digital bulletin board.  Create and show off some Pins reflecting your passions and geek-worthy obsessions.  Go to www.pinterest.com and request an invite, wait to be accepted, and then invite your friends.  Requests for invitations will take a few days, but once you’re in you can invite others and they can accept immediately.

Geek Out-Whatcha Reading? The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

“Josh and Emma are about to discover themselves–fifteen years in the future It’s 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They’ve been best friends almost as long–at least, up until last November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh’s family gets a free AOL CD-ROM in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they’re automatically logged onto Facebook . . . but Facebook hasn’t been invented yet. Josh and Emma are looking at themselves fifteen years in the future. Their spouses, careers, homes, and status updates–it’s all there. And every time they refresh their pages, their futures change. As they grapple with the ups and downs of what their lives hold, they’re forced to confront what they’re doing right–and wrong–in the present.“