
Library & Digital Resources
Welcome to the Heartland AEA library e-newsletter!
February 7, 2025
- Lots of Reading, VIewing, and Listening Going On!
- What!? -- Gamma
- New Videos in Learn 360 & Accessibility Features
- Iowa's AEAs Portfolio of Services 2025-26
- Reminder: New Digital Resources for a Fee in 2025-26
- Professional Reading
Direct link to the newsletter: https://secure.smore.com/n/qxtvu3
Lots of Reading, Viewing, and Listening Going On!
Teachers borrowed $137,362 worth of Heartland AEA library materials in January alone! If this trend continues, students will have used nearly $1 million in library resources this school year. The Heartland AEA library is designed to supplement school and classroom collections.
Here’s what teachers are checking out:
- PK-12 books (including Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese, and Bosnian)
- Large print books
- Decodable readers
- Digital picture books
- Playaways
- Themed book curation (custom selections by subject, reading level, and interests)
- Book rotations (fresh collections delivered monthly)
- Kits
- Professional books
New Videos in Learn 360 & Accessibility Features
Accessibility features in the videos to meet your learners' needs:
- Closed captioned
- Google Translate
- Embed links
- Downloadable
- Highlights word-for-word text transcript
- Searchable transcript
- Printable transcript
Dynamic Learning, 9-12
Metacognition (4 min)
Better Sleep, Better Grades (5 min)
Context Dependent Memory (4 min)
Procrastination Part 1: Avoidance and Denial (3 min)
Procrastination Part 2: Prevention Strategies (5 min)
Procrastination Part 3: Facing the Fear (5 min)
Spaced Repetition (4 min)
Bingo’s Marvellous Math Adventures, PK-5
Different Kinds of Numbers (5 min)
What Are Ordinal Numbers? (4 min)
What Is a Pattern? (4 min)
What Is Range? (3 min)
Jobs for the Future series, 3-8
Cybersecurity Guardian (2 min)
Robotics Engineer (2 min)
Drone Pilot (3 min)
Holographic Film Designer (3 min)
Bioengineer (2 min)
Gene Therapist (2 min)
Autonomous Vehicle Technician (3 min)
Climate Change Analyst (2 min)
DK—Inventions that Made History, 3-8
Telescope (2 min)
Flushing Toilet (2 min)
Internet (2 min)
Light Bulb (2 min)
DK Timelines, 6-12
Exploring the World: DK Timelines (3 min)
Work It Out Wombats!, Season 1, PK-5
Treeborhood Parranda / Happy New Acorn Year! (25 min)
Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures, PK-5
More More Man! (3 min)
Word Storm! (3 min)
AEIOU, Trouble at the Zoo! (3 min)
Alma’s Way, Season 2, PK-5
A Tale of Two Almas / The Longest Race (23 min)
Howard Brings the Beat / Alma’s Payday (23 min)
Carl the Collector, PK5
A Wiggle Waggle Worries / The Pine Cone Collection (23 min)
Full Videos
First Europeans to Explore North America, 3-8 (5 min)
Formation of Israel, 6-12 (3 min)
Exploring the Music of Civil Rights Movement, 3-12 (3 min)
History of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict, 6-12 (3 min)
Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire, 6-12 (90 min)
Rocket Saves the Day, PK-5 (46 min)
Exploring the World: DK Timelines, 6-12 (3 min)
Image source: https://learn360.infobase.com/titles/295926?aid=282882
What!?-- Gamma
What!? is meant to raise awareness and provide some examples that teacher librarians and teachers can explore on their own. Here is another tool to help us explore the exciting and sometimes puzzling world of artificial intelligence in education.Today's AI topic is Gamma https://gamma.app.
You can upload text or a file or create your own prompts and turn it into a slide presentation. In seconds!
The Gamma presentation can be:
- interactive
- loaded to PowerPoint
- loaded to Google Slides
- shared
- embedded
- stylized
- narrated
For demonstration purposes only, here is a Gamma presentation of this newsletter. It took about five minutes to select the Gamma settings, choose a demo template, and upload the newsletter PDF. Gamma generated this presentation in 30 seconds. This is just meant to be a demo (a couple articles were added to the newsletter after the Gamma was created). No edits were made in this demo.
Goodbye PowerPoint : Meet Gamma AI the Future of Presentations? There are some how-to videos linked in the article.
Iowa's AEAs Portfolio of Services 2025-26
For a big picture look at the services Iowa's AEAs can provide schools in 2025-26, please go to
https://iowaaea.org/school-staff/. Scroll down to the Portfolio of Services section.
Reminder: New Digital Resources Available for a Fee in 2025-26
The digital resources provided by the AEAs that students and teachers have relied on for the last three years will be available for the 2025-26 school year for a fee. HAEA administrators are sharing the service-for-fee model with school and district administrators this month.
Below are the additional digital resources that schools and districts can purchase for a fee. Links are included so you can learn more.
The familiar and new resources are guaranteed to be lower than vendor pricing. The digital resources include accessibility features to support all learners and enhance instruction across subjects and grade levels.
Critical Thinking & the News.
Engage Readers with Interactive eBooks. These unlimited, simultaneous access ebooks let all students read the same book at once and links can be embedded into assignments. They can also be included in MackinVIA. Many districts are using these resources now.
- AV2 Eye Discover
- AV2 World Languages
- AV2 Fiction, K-5
- Comics Plus Library: Elem
- Comics Plus Library: Middle
- Comics Plus Library: HS
- Lightbox Learning, K-2
- Lightbox Learning, 3-5
- Lightbox Learning, 6-12
- Lightbox Learning, K-5 nonfiction
- PebbleGo Next Spanish
- Tumblebooks K-6
EBSCO & Explora. Some schools prefer EBSCO for their content, search tools and features. Explore more!
- Academic Search Ultimate (10-educator)
- Advanced Placement Source (9-12)
- Discovery Service (federated search)
- Education Source (educator)
- Explora Primary Search (K-3)
- Explora Middle (6-8)
- Explora Secondary (9-12)
- FinancialFit (9-12)
- History Reference Source (9-12)
- Literary Reference Center (9-12)
- NoveList K-8
- NoveList Plus K-12
- Poetry & Short Story Reference (9-12)
- Points of View Reference (9-12)
- Science Reference Source (9-12)
- World Politics Review (9-12)
More Great Teaching Tools. A collection of favorite and new resources that don’t fit other categories and are still valuable for teaching and learning. Take a look!
- Create (Capstone) (PK-3)
- Defined Learning
- Pear Deck
- Seesaw
- Wilson Core Collection
Professional Reading
- Deeper Learning, Not Passive Compliance. ASCD SmartBrief, February 1, 2025. Topic: AI
- New Copyright Ruling Just Made AI Skills the Biggest Advantage. Forbes, February 3, 2025.
Past Issues
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