For many students, January brings not only a new year, but also a new teacher and a new school. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how to teach just-moved-in students about our library procedures without interrupting the routine and momentum of the rest of the class. What I came up with is an Orientation Welcome Center that new students complete before choosing other library centers.
The inspiration for this center came from Judy Moreillon‘s presentation at PSLA 2013. She suggested that to “flip” the library in a way that is effective and feasible, librarians should create video tutorials that are available 24/7 for students, parents, and community members on the library website. Of course, video creation and editing is *INCREDIBLY* time-consuming, but once you have a good-quality tutorial, it hopefully won’t need to be updated for a couple of years.
With that idea in mind, I made an orientation video on one of the library Nexus 10 tablets. It took about 10-12 takes, but I finally managed to create a coherent video touring the library, explaining library policies, and demonstrating how to find books and check out. One of my next goals is to make a second video showing how to search Destiny Quest, but that will have to wait.
Once I had the video done, it was pretty simple. I uploaded the video to the library Dropbox account that syncs with the tablets and made the link into a QR code on Kaywa. At this center, students use a library tablet to watch the video on the Dropbox app or scan a QR code to watch it online via Dropbox or YouTube. If you’d like to make your own orientation center, you can download the free Microsoft Word file below and create your own video for students to get acquainted with the library (or your classroom).
Do you have a technique for introducing move-in students to the library? Share it in the comments!
Leave a Reply