2018 AASL Social Media Superstars: Tech Troubadour

By Cathy Jo Nelson, Social Media Recognition Chair on 04/02/2018

Review all of the 2018 AASL Social Media Superstar Finalists here.

James Allen

James Allen is a technology innovator and leader in the field of school librarianship. As the Director of the EDHub at Eminence Schools, James Allen provides a space for the students K-12 to come and learn through many different technologies! He is a Google Certified Innovator and helps many other educators with Google Suite products and Google certifications. He is one of the organizers of EdCamp Kentucky and an organizer and regular moderator of #KyLChat which gives librarians across Kentucky a place to share and collaborate through Twitter. As the founder of the #KyGoPlay movement, he encourages educators to change the way people think about libraries, makerspaces, and play in school. He is an early adopter of technology, and he is always looking for new and innovative ways to help teachers leverage technology to improve learning experiences for students.

Katie McNamara

Katie McNamara is a leader in effective technology integration and online PLN leadership in the school library field. Katie is very active participant in both school library and education Twitter chats across the country, and co-founded #CALIBChat, a California-based Twitter chat, with the goal of getting CSLA members more connected with PLNs through Twitter participation. Katie is an organizer for EdChange Global, a free digital global conference. She has presented both nationally and regionally, including the 2017 AASL Conference, CSLA conferences, EdTechTeam Google Summits, CUE workshops, and online global education conferences. She empowers students to lead their own learning through flipped instruction, and developed many resources for use in her instructional practice via Google Classroom, Google Sites, HyperDocs for library research, a Digital Breakout library orientation, AR and VR with Cospace, Canva, and more. She often shares her tech infused programming ideas and activities via social media – including Twitter, Snapchat, and more – both amplifying students’ voices and modeling effective uses of tech tools with other educators and librarians.

@KatieJMcNamara | @NHSStarsLib

Heather Moorefield-Lang

Dr. Moorefield-Lang is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. She has had a tremendous influence on tech leadership and integration in school librarianship and ed tech. As a founding member of AASL’s Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, as active creator and producer of two YouTube channels, and as a foundational member of the maker movement, Heather has built a lengthy and important list of professional contributions on the evaluation and selection of high quality tech resources that help teachers and school librarians create rich learning opportunities for their students. Through her Twitter profile @actinginthelib, her website Tech Fifteen, and her YouTube channels for Tech Fifteen and Research Xpress, she exposes librarians and educators everywhere to new, innovative, and emerging technologies and library programming trends, most notably, technology and makerspaces. Her reputation and expertise make her a known “go-to” in the field of school librarianship.

@actinginthelib | Tech Fifteen | Youtube Tech Fifteen | Youtube Research Xpress