Blogs

“If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them” is an article in The Journal (Transforming Education Through Technology). The magazine was shared with me recently as there was an article about librarians becoming the technology experts in their school much like many have in our district. I referenced that article in my last post.

This article also caught my eye. It says that educators who recognize how much social networking engages and informs kids are creating their own sites designed as learning tools to foster collaboration among students, teacher, and parents. I believe we need to stay on top of the methods of doing this safely and move in this direction as a part of our five year plan. The article talks about launching a school-oriented social network. I believe it is worth thinking about, discussing and planning for the future now. “One of the roles of education is to help student learn to socialize” says Karen Greenwood Henke, Chair of the Emerging Technologies Committee at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). A recent study said in using these collaboration tools, part of the role of the school would be to help students understand how to use them effectively, with security in mind, to advance themselves instead of using the tools in negative ways. A secure school social network would enable students to make mistakes and learn what is acceptable online behavior. Check out “A Guide to four student-friendly social networking destinations” also on the link.

What are your thoughts for planning for this? How do we get principals to promote this and teacher to do this with only marketing from Instructional Technology and no added load on DTS?

Part of the Plan

"IT personnel need to make teachers aware of district policies and bandwidth limitations, which may affect how well the sites perform. 'It makes sense for a school district to have an overall strategy for this,' Karen says. "It's also important to have dialogue between IT and the teachers regarding district policies, bandwidth, and potential problems with blocked sites."

What do you think? I look forward to your comments.

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Charlene O'Hanlon, "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em," T.H.E. Journal, 8/1/2007, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21082

I read "The New Librarians" online in The Journal with excitement. Jack Strawn, school librarian at Sandra Day O'Conner High School in Helotes, TX, is using his strengths to "help usher in the technological changes that schools must address". Joyce Valenza, one of our industry's leading library information specialists of Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, PA, says working with technology engages students and models how the tools can be used in your real life. Are you expanding the way people think about the service that we provide from not only checking out books and reading stories but to also what we are additionally doing today to help kids learn: we are the "portal" for our students to information. As Linda Miller put it, "we're information brokers". And I believe as she does that our kids are "never too young to learn how to do things the right way."

Are we teaching students and teachers about the resources we discover? Are you working with your school technology teachers to infuse technology into the curricula? How can you "not" use technology for technology's sake? What even low tech technology do you have in your school that you can use to help students learn in their core content and electives classes as well as in life? How do you work to meld the classroom and the library?

We have new tools in our tool box, but our job is still to help teachers teach and student's learn. Are you passionate about what you are doing?

Neal Starkman, "The New Librarians," T.H.E. Journal, 8/1/2007, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21080

Project Name: On the Trail of the First People

URL: http://eev.liu.edu/KK/na/index.htm

Description: On the Trail of the First People is an online, collaborative standards-based social studies unit that seeks to incorporate information literacy skills with communicative technologies for 4th and 5th grades researching Native Americans. Classrooms located inthe Northeast, Southeast, Plains, Southwest, California, Far PacificNorthwest, and the Far North are invited to research tribes indigenousto their area and then share their knowledge with all through the useof Wikis, Blogs and Social Mapping. Register soon - project begins in soon! Contact project coordinator, Karen Kliegman kkliegman@gmail.com, to register.

I registered for two grad classes today.... am I crazy to take two and work full time?!?! The courses are curriculum and assessment. I am actually looking forward to these courses as I am hoping to learn more. Maybe I can take an existing core curriculum and embed info media skills and create the "perfect" curriculum balance!

I am currently attending a SW Wyoming Tech / ELL conference in Jackson, Wyoming. The key-note speakers, Doug Johnson and Dr. Francisco Rios have been excellent. And, the workshops have been SO fun and informative! Today, I attended Jennifer Gingerich's Creating Digital Kits and Barb Sanchez' Using Camtasia Studio and document cameras for teaching and re-teaching.

More tomorrow!

What a wonderful, poignant story about a Haitian family whose father, Papa, now lives in New York, toiling for years to bring his family to live with him. Told in first person by Celiane in entries to her notebook, we meet her family who has remained in Haiti, Celiane's mother, Manman, her older, artistic brother, Moy and the many relatives who provide support as they wait for approval to make the move. There is government turmoil and Celiane and her mother are injured in a pipe bomb attack in Haiti. It is a wonderful Christmas present to move to New York to finally be with their father. Once there, Moy and Celiane go to school, which is difficult because of the language barrier, strange surroundings and no friends. We see through Celiane's eyes the joy, sorrow and harshness of being in a new land. We see the beauty of Celiane's house on a mountain and New York through a child's eyes. This is a great multicultural story of how families remain close during separation and make a new life in a new land.

*This is cross-posted from my personal blog, Infactory.blogspot.com.

When we woke up this morning, there was a goat on our front porch. That’s right—a goat. Now, a goat is not something you see every day, particularly when he’s camped out all night at your door.

Not knowing what else to do, we befriended him and named him Billy Boy. He ate dog treats and lots of leaves, we discovered. And he wasn’t exactly shy.

Pretty soon, we were the main topic of the local rumor mill. Neighbors greeted us, “Hey, I heard you adopted a goat.” And within a few hours, some of our friends called, “Can we bring the kids by to see the goat?”

People were full of suggestions. “Did you call Animal Control?” or “I have a friend who raises goats. I can call him to catch him for you.” Finally someone suggested that Billy Boy had been “let go” on purpose and should be “taken down.” But Billy had become a sort of pet for us by now. I hated the thought of “taking him down” and wondered what other alternatives there were. He did, after all, eat leaves and grass. Perhaps he could be trained to keep the grass cut.

As I reflected on this event later, I realized that I could learn a few things from the experience. Some people I know are like Billy Boy. They have camped out where they don’t belong. It is time for them to move on. Or they are just “Old goats” who aggravate folks around them. People around them think they should be “taken down.” Perhaps their usefulness is questionable to some. Perhaps others think they should move on, or that someone else should take them in.

Maybe you know some folks like that. Perhaps they are neighbors, or, worse, co-workers. In this age of productivity and data collection, Billy goats are no better than weeds or dead wood, even if their main function is as weed-eaters and hoppers.

If you are like me, considering retirement in the not so distant future, you have probably given your productivity an occasional thought. You have tried to keep the pace. You would cringe if someone considered you to be an “old goat.”

I challenge you to consider a rebirth of sorts. Take on a new skill and teach others. Dive in headfirst into the vast ocean of Web 2.0 tools and master at least one. Toot your horn a bit. What have you go to lose?

Thank you for welcoming me to TeacherLibrarian Ning. I found you by taking an online summer class called School Library Learning2.0 sponsored by the California School Library Association. What I have learned in the course will dramatically change my teaching next year. It is embarrassing to admit, but no one in our district uses blogs, wikis, tagging, or RSS. I have heard these terms at conferences and read about them in periodicals, but had no idea how powerful they could be and how easy to use until I experienced them for myself.

I would love to hear from others who have used any of these tools with teachers and students. How was the research process improved? Were there any challenges I should know about before I begin? Which tool would you suggest I try first?

There is always so much new to learn! How exciting and how overwhelming at the same time. At least I have accepted the fact that I will never catch up and I am learning to be adept at "treading water" :) And we are all "in the same boat".

What at time we live in today and how wonderful are the opportunities to communicate on whatever level of depth we choose and/or can handle.

The world is ours for the taking. I feel powerful and weak all at the same time.

Having attended the Building Learning Communities conference two weeks ago, I've determined that, while I'm nominally in charge of technology at my school, I am terribly naive about social networking and what it means to my students. My experience with MySpace has been mostly attempts to see what our students are doing/saying on their pages. At the same time, our school blocks MySpace. I'm beginning to see a disconnect between what we (the school) teach, allow, and encourage and what our kids are experiencing every day.

MySpace provides a community for our kids that offers something we just haven't tried to understand. Well, my school is in for a surprise. We are going to try to understand the value of MySpace to our students and, perhaps, harness their enthusiasm for online communities by creating our own. Wish me luck!

I'm going to spend my first blog talking about two tools I like. The first is Bloglines.com. If you are new to RSS, this is a great place to start. I follow about ten different blogs from this site. It makes it easy for me to keep up with my favority topics without having to look in different places.

Another tool that I'm really starting to like is Moodle. Moodle is an open-source classroom management system that allows you to offer classes online. I'm still developing some information literacy courses for my school using this tool. If anyone has used it, please let me know.

You are cordially invited to explore the July-December issue of MidLink Magazine http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink the award-winning magazine for students ages 8 - 18. If you're lookingfor ideas for your upcoming year, you’ve come to the right place! Please email the teacher/editors of the projects below you would like to participate in with your students! Youand your students are sure to get inspired by the projects created byMidLink Magazine's teacher-editors:

1. Periodic Table of Podcasts: Have your students add their own scientific podcast to the growing body of information found in thisexciting project!

2. Find a Story… Map a Story… Tell a Story: Use emerging digital mapping tools to explore the connection between story, place andcommunity.

3. Science Through the Camera Lens: Study the science found in pictures and then create a multimedia project

4. Tell Me a Story: Learn how to encourage children to accept and celebrate their differences, using digital storytelling

See detailed descriptions below or visit MidLink Magazine at: http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/

1. Periodic Table of Podcasts

We invite students from any school to participate in the development of the "Periodic Table of Podcasts". To participate, instructions areprovided within this website. There are very easy ways to create audiofiles in the classroom even if you have only a few computers by usingInternet resources such as Podomatic or Odeo. Audio files could behosted on your school's server, various Internet resources, or othermeans. Don't let the technology get in the way- for help and advisecontact the webmaster of this site. All we need is the URL (link) toyour students' audio files, and we can add them to the Periodic Tableof Podcasts! If you wish to collaborate regarding your podcast project,e-mail Joselyn Todd, Ph. D.

Project URL: http://tinyurl.com/2ornnn

Contact Teacher Editor, Dr. Joselyn J. Todd, Cary Academy, Cary, NC

2. Find a Story… Map a Story… Tell a Story

This Place-based Stortelling Project invites students to choose a story that matters to them and using an online mapping tool likeCommunity Walk, Wayfaring or Google Maps, create a StoryMap that willplace their stories within a geographical context. Using one of thesedigital mapping tools, students will locate a geographical map fromtheir story location, and add images, audio and text memories to theplace markers found on the mapping tool. This project will helpstudents recover lost stories and save and share them so other canenjoy and learn from them. You are invited to browse through theproject resources and projects example on this web site and plan tohave your classroom participate:

Project URL: http://www.rebooting.ca/place/

Project Coordinator: Brenda Dyck, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Red Deer College (Middle Years’ Program), Red Deer,Alberta

3. Science Through the Camera Lens

Have you ever seen a view of nature or engineering and wondered about the "awesomeness" of it? Did you take a picture of it so youcould capture it forever? Florida State University School Sciencestudents did just that. They took pictures with a digital camera or acamera phone. Students delivered them to their science teacher viaemail or on a flash drive. Students studied the science in the picturesthen created their multimedia project. Here are their stories.....

Project URL: http://www.fsus.fsu.edu/mcquone/scicam/scicam.html

Teacher Editor, Cathy McQuone, Earth/Space Science Instructor, Florida State University Schools, Tallahassee, Florida

4. Tell Me a Story

Tell Me a Story is a project in which students were asked to contemplate the following essential questions:

How does culture shape the way we see ourselves, others, and the world? How does my culture shape me? Why is it important to understandculture? The purpose of this project is to encourage children to acceptand celebrate their differences. We want to help all children develop apositive self-concept and feel proud of whom they are. If this positivesense of self and others is allowed to flourish, today's children willbecome adults who accept and affirm differences, identify unfairsituations, and strive to eliminate racism of any sort.

Grade levels: K-8

Project URL: http://tinyurl.com/2qnzgr

Teacher Editor: Karen Kliegman, Library Media/Educational Technology Specialist, Searingtown School, Albertson, Adjunct Professor, Long Island University, New York kkliegman@herricks.org

Brenda Dyck, BEd, MET

Senior Editor: MidLink Magazine: http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/

Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Red Deer College MiddleYears’ Program, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

E-mail: dyckba@shaw.ca

The global librarian group is highlighting Global Library 2.0 week next week, so I have started a post on my blog asking for us to share posts and ideas for bringing web 2.0 tools into school libraries specifically.

http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/07/20/joining-the-network/

Feel free to share your ideas either there, on your own blog, or here.

Ideas for:

library design and what it would mean to create a web 2.0 physical space

how to help teachers incorporate web 2.0 tools into research assignments

how to connect yourself more globally

how to help your students connect more globally

or any other ideas this topic brings up for you!