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Tag: Artificial intelligence

Professional Learning: December 2023

November 30, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Professional Learning Opportunities December 2023

I think most of us are on holiday breaks, about to be on a holiday break or seriously counting down the days until a holiday break. December can be a crazy busy time in someways and a quieter one in others. It’s certainly a little quiet in the professional learning area. So, here’s your reminder to check out the past 11 editions of this newsletter.  There are plenty of articles to return to, webinar recordings to rewatch and podcasts to play when you need something to distract you from the festive chaos (or is that just me?). What ever you are doing this December, take care and we’ll see you again for more professional learning in 2024. 

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Professional Learning: November 2023

October 31, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Professional Learning Opportunities November 2023

Just as things are starting to head towards the end of the school year in the Southern Hemisphere, things are just kicking into high year in the northern parts of the world. The pace seems to be the same, either way – full speed ahead. Looking for some PD to help keep you up-to-date and inspired to face each day? Here is your list of professional learning opportunities for school library staff for November 2023. Highlights this month include lots of shared slides, resources and notes from the AASL23 conference. Happy learning. 

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Professional Learning: October 2023

September 30, 2023 / / 2 Comments

Professional Learning Opportunities October 2023

Happy International School Library Month!! What a month to celebrate everything we love about school libraries. Here’s your October list of professional learning. There’s something for all school library staff and in any format that you want to learn. Highlights this month are some awesome book lists, including graphic novel audiobooks, a few research papers from some of our favourite researchers and the Softlink School Library survey. Happy learning. 

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Professional Learning: September 2023

August 31, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Professional Learning Opportunities September 2023

Welcome to September. If you are in Australia, most of us have celebrated (and survived) the CBCA Book Week. It’s always a massive week, month and term and such a fantastic opportunity to celebrate children’s literature and school libraries. For those overseas heading into the start of the school year, we wish you luck for the start of the year. Looking to start the school year well? Looking to continue to promote literature and reading? I’ve have some webinars, podcasts, articles and more for you. Here is your list of professional learning for September, 2023. Happy learning. 

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Ramblings: Everyone’s talking about AI, chatbots and ChatGPT

January 9, 2023 / / 2 Comments

Everyone’s Talking about AI, chatbots and ChatGPT. What does it mean for school libraries?

It’s everywhere on my socials and in my inbox at the moment – Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPD. We’ve been told for years that technology is changing and will have big impacts on the world, jobs and education. We’ve gone from fearing AI to encountering it on a daily basis (and possibly still fearing it). These past few weeks seemed to have reignited a focus on what AI and chatbots can do and how they are set to impact our lives. As a teacher librarian, I know I need to up-skill and learn about this area, as it is set to impact how student search, research, write, edit and submit their work. It will change how teachers prepare lessons, mark, how we check for plagiarism and how we teach students about AI. 

If you, like me, need to read up in this area, I’ve collated a few of my favourite articles and courses that I’ve found in the past few days. Most come from a teacher or library perspective.

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Book Review: Wildcard

August 11, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Wildcard – Marie Lu – Warcross #2 – G.P Putnam’s Sons – Published 18 September

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Synopsis

Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.

Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.

Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?

My thoughts

In Wildcard, Marie Lu once again plunges readers into the neon-coloured sci-fi world of Warcross, where computer gaming is taken to the next level and where the tech that enables a fully immersive experience is now a threat to the freedom of humanity.

After her accidental and startling exposure to the Warcross Championships that led to a fight that put her life on the line, Emika Chen is still reeling from her discovery about tech genius and love-interest Hideo Tanaka’s intentions for his NeuroLink technology. Torn between the boy she has always admired and recently fell in love with and her gut that tells her what he is doing is wrong, Emika is forced to join with the shady Blackcoats. But has she put her trust in the wrong people?

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Book Review: Autonomous

March 31, 2018 / / 3 Comments

Autonomous – Andy Marino – Disney-Hyperion – Published 3 April 2018

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Synopsis

William Mackler is about to go on a road trip of a lifetime. After winning a contest—and nearly dying in the process—he becomes the proud owner of Autonomous, a driverless car that knows where you want to go before you do. #Worthit! To sweeten the deal he gets to pick three friends to go with him on a cross-country trip to see their favorite band. For William, a reckless adrenaline junkie, this is the perfect last hurrah before he and his friends go their separate ways after graduation. But Autonomous is more than just a car without a steering wheel. It’s capable of downloading all of the passengers’ digital history—from the good, to the bad, to the humiliating. The information is customized into an itinerary that will expose a few well-kept secrets, but it will also force William to face some inner demons of his own. Think you know Autonomous? The real question is, how much does Autonomous know about you?

My thoughts

Please note this is a review of the original book that was to be published in November 2017, and some things may have changed in the April 2018 release.

Picture a road trip – sunny days, hair blowing in the wind, happy times of solid friendship and sing-a-longs to feel-good music. Autonomous is not that road trip. Instead, Autonomous is an examination of the true nature of humanity, where buried secrets are laid bare and the harsh truths of reality are posed against the speculation of how technology might evolve and how it might reflect those truths.

When William wins a state-of-the-art car in a competition, he plans to take his three best friends on an epic road trip. But while discovering the extent of the car’s abilities, from being completely self driving to apparent mind reading, everything William had planed for the road trip begins to fall apart. Instead of making fantastic memories with his friends, their relationships are tested and things get far more dangerous then they could have imagined.

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Book Review: Defy The Stars

May 5, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Defy the Stars – Claudia Gray – Constellation #1 – Little, Brown Books – Published 4 April 2017

♥♥♥♥♥

 

Synopsis

She’s a soldier. Noemi Vidal is seventeen years old and sworn to protect her planet, Genesis. She’s willing to risk anything—including her own life. To their enemies on Earth, she’s a rebel.

He’s a machine. Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel has advanced programming that’s begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he’s an abomination.

Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’d been taught was true.

My thoughts

Don’t you just love it when a book surprises you? I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Defy The Stars. It just seemed to get better and better. It was clever. It was original. It had so much packed into it. It made me want to desperately read the next book in the series and yet, at the same time, I was totally content with the story just as it was. It made me fall in love with science fiction all over again and reminded me just how good it can be.

Noemi is a solider from Genesis, sworn to sacrifice her life to protect her planet from Earth’s forces who want to destroy Genesis just like they have Earth. Abel is a machine. One of the most advanced robots ever created. But 30 years stuck on an abandoned spaceship has left his wiring a little crossed and he longs for freedom. When Noemi discovers Abel while on a rescue mission, she also discovers that Abel holds the key to protecting her planet from Earth forever. She commands his help and together they explore the galaxy, putting into place her plan. But Abel is growing ever more human, and Noemi is running out of time.

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