MackinVIA Readbox Open For Business.....Filled With Augmented Reality, eBooks, Capstone's PebbleGo, Tales2Go!

The MackinVIA Readbox is open for business outside of our library at Van Meter!

You can get your free eBooks and databases here....anytime of the day!

We have it filled with eBooks from our MackinVIA......eBooks from Capstone, Seymour Simon's StarWalk Kids Media, Rosen, Learner, and much more.

You can even check out over 3,000 audio books from Tales2Go.

And of course we had to include Capstone's PebbleGO databases...Animals, Earth and Science, Social Studies, and Biographies!  

                               

 

After seeing my friends, Sherry Gick and Nikki Robertson, who are also teacher librarians, post pictures of the Readboxes they created for their libraries, I wanted to open one up for our school too.  

So, my friend and associate Diana, set off to create one at Van Meter.  

We have a big case right outside of the library.....Perfect for our Readbox.  Cassidy, one of our cadets, covered the inside with red butcher paper and put up a white boarder around the edges.

I made colored copies of 30 eBooks covers from MackinVIA and all of the PebbleGO databases. Diana painted a large piece of cardboard red.

I also used the website BlockPosters to make the MackinVIA logo (which you can get this logo and others from the Mackin Educational Resources website) larger for the sign on top of our Readbox.

We laminated the MackinVIA sign and all of the book covers.

Diana made the Readbox letters and glued them onto the board below the MackinVIA sign.  The sign put together looked so great....We loved how it turned out.

Next, my friend Luke, who is a sophmore at Van Meter, created the Readbox kiosk checkout sign.  We looked up a few images in Google of the Redbox kiosk so we could see what it looked like and what it said on the different buttons. 

Then Luke created our Readbox sign in Google Presentation.  

You can make a copy and change the different buttons for your very own Readbox too.....Please find it at this link.

We used BlockPosters again and made the sign into two pages.

I cut it out, glued it onto a big piece of black paper, and laminated it too. 

It looks awesome outside of the MackinVIA Readbox kiosk. 

                            

We then put the book covers into the Readbox.....I just loved how it was all coming together.      

Now, here comes the fun part.  

I went home after putting it together and started thinking about how I could engage our young people and school community in the Mackin Readbox.....How could I made it interactive and something that could extend their learning?  

I got it!  

I could use Layar Creator and embed augmented reality into each book cover.  Then anyone could use a device with the Layar app to scan the book covers and find what was in each one. 

Back in December, I did our first augmented reality project by adding auras to a fairy tale eBook we were using with the second graders.  You can read all about it at this post from my blog. 

They really enjoyed the AR fairy tale project and I thought it would be wonderful to continue it with them for the Readbox.

For this project, our second graders would record themselves giving little book talks about the different eBooks, PebbleGo, and Tales2Go. We would then upload them to YouTube from iPhoto, and use Layar Creator to put the videos into each book cover.   

When they came to the library that week I explained what we would be creating.  They were super excited!  

The first thing we had to do was split up the eBooks and databases among the second graders. They all picked ones that they either have read or would enjoy reading.  

 They went to MackinVIA to explore the different eBooks, PebbleGo, and Tales2Go.

They had to read and review their items so they would be ready to give a book talk.  

They took this seriously and wanted to be ready for their book review to be recorded.  

This group of girls were responsible for reviewing the four PebbleGo databases.  

They made sure to look at all of the special features PebbleGo includes and the beautiful articles, photographs, videos, and features in each database.  

                            
Bailey reviewed PebbleGo Animals and she was ready for me to record.

She did a fantastic job for her review of this database.  I uploaded it to YouTube right away.  

After I got the link from YouTube I was able to get our new MackinVIA Readbox Campaign started in Layar Creator.  

Here is a little tip......Go back to my blog post that I wrote in December with the fairytale eBook to read and see detailed steps on how to create a campaign.  This will help you a lot as you create your own. 

I first uploaded the images of the PebbleGo databases, eBook covers, and Tales2Go as "Pages" in the new campaign I started.

I went to the page with PebbleGo Animals to add Bailey's YouTube video.  This is very easy to do on the right hand side of the Layar Creator.

I also created two slides using ReciteThis. I wanted these slides to tell the person scanning the book covers a little more about PebbleGo....  

and where to find it.

I added these two images in the "Image Carousel" on the right hand side of Layar Creator....the same place I added the video.  You can add several images in the Image Carousel and then scroll through them while using the Layar app.

You add whatever you would like to each image or page that you upload into the campaign.

After you have your page the way you would like it, you can click on "Test" to test out the AR using the Layar app.  I used my iPhone to make sure everything worked the way I wanted it to before I saved it.  

You can try it out here too!  Just use the Layar app on your device and scan the PebbleGo Animals website that I have included here.  

Bailey did an amazing job reviewing one of her favorite databases.  I can't wait to continue this project and the recording next week in the library with the second graders.  Their reviews are going to be the best!  

My friend Eric Trudo is going to have his advanced computer class help us with the AR and Layar piece of the project.  

I am going to teach them how to use the Layar website next week so they can work on the rest of the campaign.  It will be a great collaborative project between our elementary and secondary at Van Meter. 

My son Hagan and his friend Ben tested out a few of the covers that were added this week.  They can't wait to try out even more.

We hope that everyone stops by our MackinVIA ReadBox.  There is something for everyone.