June 18, 2013

Google Launches Site to Teach Better Searching

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Google’s new Search Education hub offers leveled lesson plans for K-12, search activities from AGoogleADay, and an archive of webinars.

All the News that’s Fit to Tap and Swipe: Comparing news apps Flipboard, Pulse, Zite, and Google Currents

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SLJ reviews the top news apps—including Google Currents—along with tips for using these tools with students.

Ready to set up a Skype session in your classroom or library? Here’s how.

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Step-by-step instructions on setting up Skype for a virtual author visit.

Academics Object to Class Certification in Google Books Case

University of California, Berkeley, law professor Pamela Samuelson, on behalf of more than 80 academics, sent a letter on Monday to Judge Denny Chin asserting that academic authors should not be included as part of a class authorization in the high profile Google Books case, due to fundamental disagreements between the interests of academics and other types of authors.

SOPA Is Top Story for Young People

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Young people under 30 followed protests over SOPA more closely than news about the upcoming presidential election, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.

Keep Good Searches from Going Bad

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When students make a beeline for Google, these tips can improve their experience.

Meet the Chromebook: Is the Samsung Google OS laptop fit for school?

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With school-friendly features, including all-day battery life and a lease-to-own option, the Samsung Series 5 holds potential for 1-1 computing. Jeff Hastings runs down the considerations for deploying Chromebooks in a K-12 setting.

Google Files Motion to Dismiss in Google Books Case

Google yesterday filed a motion to dismiss the Authors Guild as a plaintiff in the long-running Google Books case, arguing that the organization lacks “associational standing” to sue on behalf of individual copyright holders.

Libraries, Chromebooks, and Google Apps

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Whether Chromebooks will catch on in libraries remains to be seen, but Google Apps, the free-to-use cloud-based suite of office tools at the heart of the Chromebook, has been making inroads in libraries for years, due in part to its relatively low cost compared to Microsoft Office.

Webinar Tackles a Conundrum for Kids and Educators Alike: Research Skills

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Librarians shared the best strategies when working with students and research in a recent webinar. The bottom line? The need to push them to think beyond the results—and instead examine how they got there.