Conferencia Bibliotecas Públicas 2018

Today a group of our student makers and librarians had the great honour of presenting at the Public Library Conference, which is taking place at the National Theatre in downtown San Salvador this week.

This conference runs over several days and brings together librarians from all over the country to engage in important discussions and share ideas.

Our presentation was a bit longer than we anticipated, but we were able to pack in everything we had planned on sharing.  We spoke first to the group about free,  innovation tools that everyone can access and use to document, promote and engage in creative, innovative design work in their libraries. We spoke about the various projects that run through LRC, including support of school activities and events, theme weeks and department liaisons.  We also took the opportunity to offer useful tips, and a resource bank for those interested in building creative initiatives in their institutions.

The highlight of the presentation however, for much of the audience and for us as members of staff, came about halfway through when  our students stood up to speak about their social impact projects. The audience was blown away by the thought and initiative that students employed in designing and implementing their projects. They were decidedly impressed, just as we are, by the dedication and passion they demonstrated about their work supporting the  UN SDGs.   This is the second time the students have presented this work, the first being the recent Library 2.0 Social Crisis online conference.


It is truly inspiring to work with these students as they actively search out opportunities, invest heavily of their time and effort, and engage themselves both emotionally and academically in the practical implementation of their school values, in their quests to think globally and act locally.

Here is the link to the photos on Flickr including a short tutorial for attendees on how to build plastic bag sleeping mats for the homeless. 

CrazyTalk Rappers

This is our 4th year running the A Better World Project, and it is ageing very well. We have come a long way from that first year. When we first started out we were using Blabberize to produce rapping images, then we introduced student performances. Eventually with the arrival of our first set of iPads, we began creating characters with even more movement using Morfo.

This year the project has taken yet another turn. We have pretty much removed student performances. We thought in retrospect,  that while some were very good, others really took away from the focus of the rap video. We also worried that some may have been misconstrued as being insensitive to the topic.We have left performance work as an extension option this year, meaning that only the high fliers will be doing this.

We had intended to run the project exclusively on iPads this year, working with Google Drive for collaborative lyric writing, Garageband for music production, Morfo for digital rappers and iMovie for the final video production, however that too has changed.

We purchased Crazy Talk this school year for 13 of our computers and it has really revolutionised the project. Using Crazy Talk our kids are able to creating digitalised rappers from almost any digital image. These rappers are capable of a great deal and really come alive for the students.

So we are back on the Macs, using Google Drive, Garageband, iMovie, Crazy Talk and Wikispaces.  The kids are loving it and so are we.

I have included a video example from one of our recent projects below. You can access all the projects from this year as they are posted and from prior years on the project wiki.

Peace One Day at the LRC

One person can make a huge difference and Peace One Day's founder, Jeremy Gilley is living proof of that. Every September 21st, since it's foundation in 1999, Peace One Day has promoted peace around the world, through campaigns in the arts, sports, online and in Education.

The idea that "No matter how small, everyday acts of kindness can help make peace a reality..." (http://peaceoneday.org/)  is a power concept. If each of us can make a difference through our daily interactions with others, just imagine the change that can be brought about through slightly grander initiatives.

This year, the LRC did it's part for peace, on the educational front. Our ICT team, the LRC staff members and a member of the English team continued our work with a very special group of teachers from certain public schools in the San Vicente area. This work is strictly voluntary and run in conjunction with a small group of Canadian fundraisers who have made it their goal to do make a difference in the lives of young people, their families and education in El Salvador.

A year ago we embarked on a journey, in which we targeted a talented group of ICT teachers from the San Vicente area. The project involves working with the group on a wide variety of learning activities, exemplifying current methodology in teaching and learning with technology. The sessions are intense, packed with fun, exploration and reflection. The hub for this learning is the LRC's ABC Inset page in which resources are accessible to participants 24/7.

Today's session was the 5th of 6 in total, which will be held at the LRC. The focus was online gaming in education and online learning projects. Two special guest speakers, from our 8th and 9th grades , gave the teachers a first hand look at the potential that Minecraft and World of Warcraft offer for learning. The teachers, all of whom were excited by these ideas, ended up spending over an hour busily building and working together on our school Minecraft server.

During the second half of the day, the focus moved to planning an online project. In doing so, participants had to reflect on the different learning experiences they had been involved in over the past year. There were no limits imposed. The projects could have been large, small, done individually or in groups.  The teachers were responsible for identifying the age levels and skills, they wanted to target. Their choice of tools reflected each individual teacher's  situation, teaching groups and school settings.The planning was done using a shared template in Google Docs.

The range of projects that they came up with are varied and interesting: social networking using a Facebook page, an arts and culture blog for the community, using social networks to focus on reading, production and editing of videos, audio and images and  Geography and tourism through images and videos.

This phase of the project is coming to a close. It will end on December 7th of this year. This doesn't mean it is over however. The journey will continue. The learning will continue, through the collaborative efforts of those involved. The learning will happen at their schools, online, and as part of the learning community they have become.

Happy Peace One Day 2013!
Who will you make peace with today and every day?

A Better World Project

The first creative carrousel has just ended and along with it 6A's work on the A Better World Project. This is the second year we run this ABC Global initiative, which involves students collaborating on rap lyrics, creating and performing music tracks and planning and producing a video which includes both computer generated animation in the form of talking avatars as well as student performances.

This year we have again opened up the project to the world and will be involved in collaboration not only within the ABC Walls but with students in other countries. Do check out the first round of projects on the A Better World Website, to get a better idea of how the project works.

The Puppet Project

Mr. Alfaro began running the LRC Puppet Project during as the LRC's contribution to Theatre Week. This project involved students creating Muppet type puppets from foam for use in school projects. The project proved so popular that it was extended for a total of 3 weeks. Puppet making is now well under way and the first puppet (Space Toad) who was featured in the video advertisement has now debuted as the main character in a student production. The Project will wrap up next Friday, with a few small puppet plays.

Theatre Week

This Week is Theatre Week in the Secondary School. Plenty of theatre related activities are taking place in the different subjects, whilst at the LRC a special set of workshops have begun.

The LRC Coordinator and Digital Media Artist have prepared 6 after school sessions, over the course of 2 weeks, aimed at teaching students how to make foam puppets. This activity will end with a series of short puppet shows performed by the students on the last day.

Sessions take place from 2:00-3:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Students can sign up using the Google Form in their email inbox.

Take a minute to view our Theatre Week Puppet Project Video.