Terrific Technology Tuesday

The cooler weather last week inspired me to do a lesson about penguins with kindergarten this week.  So today, a kindergarten class followed along with a nonfiction and fiction pairing of books about penguins that I found on the FREE (for educators) eBook website Epic!  I also found a short but fun FREE  video about penguins on National Geographic Kids. They loved it!  They even walked around like penguins to get to their seats for the next part of our lesson.  At their table, students colored a picture of a penguin that we "magically" made come alive with the FREE augmented reality Quiver app. You can download the penguin picture and many other augmented reality pages for free on the Quiver website.

You can check out their "magical" penguin pictures below.

And best of all, all of this fun learning was FREE!

Are you familiar with the website and app Epic! books?  It is a free resource full of thousands of eBooks.  Educators can get a free account and can add students.  Books can be assigned and students can read those books from mobile devices that have Internet access.  Parents can purchase home access for a subscription fee of $7.99 a month.

I have been using Epic! for around 2 years now and recently became Epic! Certified.  One of my goals this year is to get certified in some of my favorite websites and apps, and this was a quick and easy first step. 

It's super easy to get your certification once you set up your account.  There are only 7 simple steps to go through, all of which are spelled out for you exactly how to complete each step.  If you already have an account, I would encourage you to work on getting that certification.  You'll learn more about how to use Epic!  and you will feel accomplished once you complete it.

Do you use Epic! or other types of technology in your Media Center? What's your favorite website or app?