Teen Tech Week Resources

Tech Guides

Afraid of technology, on the bleeding edge of new technologies, or somewhere in between - the Teen Tech Week Tech Guides will help you keep abreast of current technologies and how you can use them in a public or school library program.

Teen Tech Week Registrants will be notified by email when a new Tech Guide is published.

Tech Guide Number 1: Making Music with Teens (and Supplemental Guide) by Joseph Wilk (PDF)

Tech Guide Number 2: Online Surveys (PDF)

Tech Guide Number 3: Virtual Worlds (PDF) Revised January 2008!

Tech Guide Number 4: RSS, Blogs, and Wikis (PDF)

Tech Guide Number 5: Gaming (PDF)

Tech Guide Number 6: Podcasts (PDF)

Sponsored Tech Guide: Dungeons & Dragons @ your library  (PDF)

50 Things to Improve your Tech IQ

Librarians serving teens need to stay abreast of emerging technologies so they can guide teens in using these resources ethically and be a source of help. How many new social networking web sites are you familiar with? How many tech things can you do? Download 50 Things to Improve your Tech IQ  (PDF) to see where you stand in your technology endeavors.

YALSA's Social Networking Guides

Online social networking is a hot topic for those serving teens, with debate about allowing teens to learn how to safely navigate Web 2.0 technology while also keeping them safe. YALSA has created several resources for librarians to use to educate their community members about online social networking technologies and the possibility that federal legislation may require schools and libraries to block Web sites that offer these types of communication tools.

Social Networking Toolkit for Educators and Librarians

Guide to Social Networking for Teens

Learn more at YALSA's online social networking resource page

Software for Tech Programs @ your library

If you are looking for resources to use to start tech programs at your library as a part of Teen Tech Week, these might help:

Wiki Software

There are several sites you can use to create a wiki. These include:

PBWiki and Wikispaces are both web-based wiki resources that you can use to setup a wiki for free. (They each also have pay versions.) When you setup your wiki you’ll want to think about whether or not you want to limit who can edit wiki pages, if ads are on the pages of the free wiki product, what control you have over the design of the site, and so on. To help make your decision you might use WikiMatrix.

Blogging Software

If you want to get a blog up-and-running you might check out one of these free web-based blog hosting sites:

• Blogger.com
• Vox
• Livejournal
• WordPress

Teen Technology Trends

Learn about trends in technology and teen use of technology at:

Inside the Net
In this weekly podcast you’ll learn about some of the interesting things people are developing for the Internet. (Not teen specific but definitely has implications for teen technology use.)

Pew Internet in American Life Project
Check out the Pew’s reports on technology use by teens and by the world-at-large.

Ypulse
Subscribe to the Ypulse email list or RSS feed and find out what the current trends are in teen media.

You can find more resources on the Teen Tech Week wiki  – and don’t forget you can add your own resources to the wiki too.