Tea for [Web] 2.0

Professional Development - and Muppet Grumps 2.0

2009-04-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

As a beginning teacher I entered each Professional Development opportunity with enthusiasm and a willingness to change and become enlightened about best practices in education. I imagined that time spent in PD was like a trip to the service station - I could recharge my batteries, get a tuneup, and if I was lucky, all the kinks would be worked out. I would return to the classroom a better, more fuel-efficient teacher. Yes, I was a PD nerd - and I openly admit that.

Imagine my shock and dismay when I realized that not everyone shared my vision! At one of our PD events a small group of teachers were chosen to lead the School Division in it's literacy initiative, a couple of teachers sat at the back and openly ignored our colleagues' presentation. One of the reluctant teachers read the paper, while another marked assignments, and occasionally they whispered loudly to one another about the hockey game. It was obvious that they thought this PD event was a waste of their time, and they made not bones about it. I could not believe they wouldn't give their colleagues the courtesy to at least pretend to listen. They reminded me of the two old grumpy Muppets who sat in the balcony interjecting their negative comments about the performance. I was really disheartened about it, and I quickly learned that teachers have to be willing to develop - they have to "buy-in" - or PD is useless.

Photo courtesy: Alex Watson

While this Professional Development event was about literacy, it could easily have been about technology. It got me wondering - what was wrong with this whole PD experience? Why were there dissidents amongst our ranks? I now believe there were two main problems:

1. This PD session was delivered as a performance to teachers who had to buy-in to the change that was expected to take place. Teachers were told what they needed, rather than asked what they felt they needed. Participation wasn't optional, and there was no customization in play. We were all treated equally - regardless of our subject areas, our teaching experience and our grade levels. As Judi Harris so eloquently put it, when it comes to educational professional development, "One size doesn't fit all."

2. PD should no longer be broadcast through a manual or a CD Rom - Professional Development - especially in technology - should match the very interactive, constructivist and social nature that parallels the very web 2.0 technologies it seeks to support.

Creating a Buzz

How would the two old Muppet grumps at the back of the room responded had this professional development occurred through a different medium than the old standard intructor-led presentation? Consider what would have happened had the "buy-in" premeditated the workshop. Imagine if the Director and School Administrators had followed Camilla Gagliolo's advice in Help Teachers Mentor One Another. Gagliolo's steps for creating a mentoring environment include:

• Identify early adopters and risk-takers who are ready to explore emergent
technology integration ideas
• Plan collaboratively with a focus on student learning
• Create a network of support by holding regular meetings and short training sessions
• Provide extra training and learning opportunities outside the regular network (e.g., attend a conference together)
• Co-teach in the classroom (e.g., provide the extra support when implementing new ideas in the classroom setting)
• Provide personal, ongoing, technical, and pedagogical support
• Observe classroom learning with constructive feedback
• Celebrate success (e.g., share at staff meetings, post on a Web site,
co-present at a local conference, co-author an article)
• Create professional development

I think if even a few of these suggestions were followed, the School Division would have experienced much more success in their PD initiative. Of all the points, I feel "celebrating success" is one of the easiest to institute, but it's also vitally important because it helps to create a buzz in the school, and the ripple effect may actually lead reluctant teachers to become curious about new methods. In One Size Doesn't Fit All, Judi Harris remarks:

"[o]ne of the most popular forms of collaborative learning ETPD [educational
technology professional development] is sharing best practices. This can be done
face-to-face or online, and in multiple formats, such as study groups,
conference SIG (special interest group) or birds-of-a-feather meetings, and
online communities of teachers."

This sharing of success at a grass roots level (such as at your staff meeting), helps to invite bigger professional development opportunities such as mentorship and collaboration; or could lead to an acknowledgment that an expert speaker is needed to facilitate a preferably hands-on workshop experience that teachers are eager to attend and learn from.

Muppet Grumps 2.0

Imagine a 2.0 version of The Muppet Show - the two old grumps would have their i-pods on while texting their comments to Kermit the Frog on their cell phones. They would be blogging their critical reviews of the performances on their laptops even before the fat piggy sings.

Enter from stage left a critical thinker like Judy O'Connell. In Learning Is a Multimodal Conversation she makes a very valid point, that in today's web 2.0 world - the on-line community is already engaging in professional development.

"Bloggers regularly write about Web 2.0 online applications for students,
sharing ideas, tips, and tricks for engaging our digital natives in learning. . . .
As we pour our own words, tags, sounds, images, and multimedia into the
ever-increasing global knowledge and information pool, we have to become adept
at patterns of connectivity in these learning contexts."

With this in mind, I would be very tempted to follow PD activities with an on-line access point to continue to share/think/create. Blogs, nings, podcasts, video and wikis have made it easy for teachers to participate in the "global multimodal conversation" that O'Connell calls "[l]earning."
If we ourselves are using the Web 2.0 tools to further our own education, then it is only a matter of time for reluctant teachers (or grumpy Muppets) to see how useful these tools can be in our student's learning.

How do you Eat an Elephant? Integrating Technology One Byte at a Time

2009-03-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

When I was an Education student in 1996, I had a professor who was incredibly dynamic and had a genuine passion for teaching. At exam time our class was feeling pretty fatigued and overwhelmed by the mountain of work we felt we had to climb before the end of term. I'll always remember our professor's pep talk because it was so simple: How do you eat an elephant? (one bite at a time.)

Dining Together - Munching on Collaboration

The process of integrating technology into our libraries and classroom spaces seems daunting at first, much like climbing a mountain or eating an elephant - but if we simplify the process, start small and work our way up and out, great things can and will happen.

When David Loertscher was invited to speak to teacher librarians in Winnipeg last year his big push was to have teacher librarians collaborating more with classroom teachers. His mantra seemed to be: two heads are better than one. Loertscher suggested we revamp the way library time is scheduled - stating that teacher librarians should make extra room for those who wish to collaborate, so that higher-level activities could take place. He was quite practical in saying that not everyone wants to collaborate at first, but once they see the quality of learning that can take place, that collaborative style of teaching will become more valued and valuable. The main point I want to make is that Loertscher had the wisdom to see that a collaborative approach to integrating technologies like wikis and blogs could be done in smaller steps. Teacher librarians need not approach all staff at once, we can start small - with those classroom teachers that are most willing. Then, over time, we can invite the more reluctant teachers to join us (by then, hopefully, they will understand the benefits of collaboration by witnessing it in classrooms around them).

In Avoiding the Digital Abyss, by Rebecca Mullen and Linda Wedwick, we are also presented with a simple approach - they shared 3 practical and relatively easy ways to integrate technology into our schools:

Use YouTube to share meaningful - just in time - clips with students.
Create Digital Stories - I appreciated their suggestion to focus on storytelling first and technology second - warning that stories tend to become watered down if emphasis is too heavily weighted on technology.
Blog - setting up a classroom blog provides an excellent place for homework reminders, book suggestions, podcasts, etc. What I like about the blog platform is the various other Web 2.0 tools that can be used within that space.

Mullen and Wedwick's approach for integrating technology into our classrooms could easily be achieved by many teachers as advanced technological skill to use these tools is not required.

Glimpsing - a Fly on the Wall

My first teaching position was at Davison Elementary School in Melville, Saskatchewan. I would like to spend a little bit of time highlighting this K-6 school because it has, in my opinion, been extremely successful in their integration of technology.

Back in 2000, the grade 4 teacher was interested in documenting her students school year by creating a video which she shared at our year-end assemblies. A couple of years later, the school was designated a Community Access Program (CAP) Site in which the school received a digital video camera and a computer to be used in the school and community (with the intention that the community could access these tools as well). Around this time, a grade 6 teacher pursued her Master's in Education and brought a knowledge and interest in new technologies back to the classroom using SMARTboards and blogs. In 2005, Davison School received the Saskatchewan Public Access Network Award for Excellence and Innovation in Technology, and they received a research grant from the Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation. Today, if you view their website and classroom blogs (such as the Grade 1 class blog) you will see students engaging with technology as part of their daily learning.

Why has this small-town school been so successful at integrating technology into their classrooms? I believe there are several contributing factors:

A willingness by administration to explore new technologies without an over-protective use of filters.
A foreword-thinking Principal that encouraged her staff to learn about emerging technologies.
Acquiring funding by applying for technology grants and participating in research studies.
Two highly motivated teachers who went on to do their Master's degrees and shared what they were learning about new technologies (such as SMARTboards) with staff. One teacher took on a mentoring role and supported her colleagues in learning and integrating these new technologies. (Incidentally, this teacher is now the Principal and recently won the Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Teaching; the previous Principal has gone on to be a Superintendent of Schools).
A willingness by staff to be mentored.
A staff that frequently collaborated on school-wide initiatives such as First Steps with morning breakfast meetings. The collaborative climate was already in place as new technologies emerged.

What I hope I have shown through this glimpse at Davison Elementary School is the idea that small steps can have a tremendous impact on our integration of technology. A couple of highly motivated teachers can pave the way for others to incorporate technology into their classrooms.

Like David and Margaret Carpenter say in their article, All Aboard: "The ripple effect for introducing 21st century learning opportunities can become an unstoppable force in your school’s learning community."

A Mantra (or 2)

I have 2 mantras that move me through those times when work seems overwhelming. One, I've already shared - that is to eat the elephant one bite at a time. The other came to me as I sat in the taxi after my 5 month old son had heart surgery. We were on our way to the airport and were quite rushed for time. The taxi wouldn't start. The driver was apologizing and trying everything. Normally, getting to an airport on time would stress me out. Not anymore. I was calm. I had just handled the hardest situation of my entire life. I was peaceful, and I was certain we could handle any mountain we had to climb. My 2nd mantra is, it's not heart surgery; we'll be okay.

So, while integrating technology into an already crammed curriculum may seem like an overwhelming task, it isn't. It's just technology. It's just another tool to add to the stew. It's not heart surgery. And like eating the elephant, we don't have to wolf it down all at once. Small bites/small steps can be a highly effective way to go. With each step, our comfort level will increase. If we just realize that we're not alone in this - we can experience the strength of collaborating and facing the journey together. We can learn with/alongside/from our students. As Don Knezek (ISTE CEO, 2008) has remarked:

"Teachers must become comfortable as co-learners with their students and with colleagues around the world. Today it is less about staying ahead and more about moving ahead as members of dynamic learning communities. The digital-age teaching professional must demonstrate a vision of technology infusion and develop the technology skills of others. These are the hallmarks of the new education leader."

If we accept the challenge to collaborate in the digital-age, we'll all benefit from the ripple effects.

Privately at odds with Privacy Issues

2009-03-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

I gave my privacy away the day I became a mother. No matter where I am in the house, one of my 3 boys finds me. I never imagined washing my hair with a 5 year old on the other side of the shower curtain telling me all the details of his Star Wars Transformer. But, it has happened, and it seems like I'm never alone. And yes, someone is always watching me or listening to what I say.
This week's topic about Privacy has made me realize that I am also being watched on-line. Everything I do on-line is being recorded somewhere. But in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter?

After watching the video Does what happens in the Facebook stay in the Facebook? I was a little shocked that Facebook wants all rights to anything I post there. It doesn't seem very socially polite of them, if you catch my drift (I'm a firm believer in social netiquette). I was also extremely interested in the negative comments regarding this video. One of the cleanest comments (there were several with profanities that I came across) reads as follows:

. . . what exactly does this person put on their facebook that they don't want
other companies to see? For that matter, what does ANYONE put on their facebook
that they don't want others to see? God forbid that they give away the pictures
of her at her college reunion! The only thing anybody would want with your
information is surveys. Do you care that people you don't know know you read
Harry Potter? (Comment posted by nommayomnom 2 weeks ago)

This got me thinking:

Do I care if my information is used in surveys? No. It's a little creepy to think my information is being shared without my knowledge, but I don't post information that I want to keep private anyway, so why does it matter?

Do I care if people know what I read? No. If I post a book on Shelfari that I've read, I'm aware that it's out there for people to see. If I did care, I wouldn't mention it.

Would I care if they gave my photos of my children away? This is where I do care. I believe it's common courtesy to be asked before photos are used elsewhere. I would probably get a little upset if I saw pictures of my children published without my consent. I have to weigh the possibilities of this happening with the joy of sharing with friends and family.

Should I share this knowledge about privacy with staff and students? Probably. I think that it is good to help others be aware of what rights they are giving up while using social networking sites like Facebook, but I think we have to realize that a lot of them simply don't care.

So, why is it a non-issue for some, while others feel so strongly against the lack of privacy that they refuse to use Facebook and such? I realized earlier today while muddling through this issue that there is a lack of urgency for many youth regarding on-line privacy. Look at their privacy role models - Paris Hilton is the one star who comes to mind with regards to their privacy being violated on-line. And look what happened to her - fame. Ms. Hilton has not been jumping on the privacy bandwagon as a result of this experience. As far as I can tell, she hasn't been asked to do school visits to spread the word about protecting your privacy on-line.

Deeper Reasons for Protecting our Privacy Rights

I think we can all agree that there are more serious issues on-line than simple marketing surveys.

In the video clip, Facebook Killed the Private Life, Clay Shirky (author of Here Comes Everybody) asks us to comtemplate: "what are we going to say as a society about looking into other people's lives?" Is it right for employers and schools to search out information about you on Facebook and Myspace?

The most relevant piece of information about privacy that stood out for me from this interview was Shirky's comment about the effects of technology on ones private life:

"What the technology makes possible is colliding with our social sense of this
kind of semi public, semi-private sphere - that's what is being contested,that's
what being fought over. The most serious negative consequence of this is: if we
don't carve out some space for documented personal action that's okay, then we
will really have robbed young people of something they won't even know they're
missing because they never leave the web of surrveillance. "

When it comes right down to the bottom line - there is no bottom line. We have never experienced such a blurring of private and public life before - so we don't know all the answers.
For me, I've been witnessing 2 types of response:

1. Engage in a knee-jerk reaction saying to avoid Facebook and Myspace - such as the recent warning from B.C. College of Teachers (see, Warning for teachers: Facebook can kill career).

2. A proceed with caution approach- and with an awareness that whatever you post can be viewed by anyone, and possibly misunderstood or misinterpreted.

As an educator, I definitely think we should be engaging in these conversations with our staff and students. I also believe this is just the beginning. As a parent I will continue to educate my own children as they grow up with this "web of surveillance" (Shirky) using Doug Johnson's sage advice as presented in Lighting Lamps:

Write assuming your boss is reading
Gripe Globally; praise locally
Write for edited publications.
Write out of goodness.

I appreciate Johnson's straight-forward manner, and his words are quite wise. These guiding principals to on-line writing could easily be shared with staff, students, and probably pre-service teachers as well.

If we traverse the web of surveillance with knowledge and awareness, and follow guiding principles like Johnson's, I believe many of us can enjoy the benefits of on-line writing and sharing, while at the same time model the public/private balancing act for our students and children.

Book Blog Tour - how Exciting!

2009-02-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to read about a Book Blog Tour on a colleague's blog, that I just had to advertise it here. Carol from Edmonton was in the first half of this on-line class with me - but when that class ended - her blog, Teching Around with Web 2.0 kept going! She's hosting the Book Blog Tour for:

Engaging the Eye Generation: Visual Literacy Strategies for the K-5 Classroom by Johanna Riddle

Carol (the other Carol) invites you to "post questions about 21st century literacies and technology integration to the comment section prior to March 6th and [she] will post her responses."

I thought this idea of a book tour on a blog was too good not to share - and also a marvelous truth that even when the class stops, the learning keeps on going.

Teaching - a Slippery Slope to Criminal Activity - Intellectual Property and Copyright

2009-02-22T00:40:00.000-08:00

When I first became an elementary teacher I wondered how I was ever going to have enough "stuff" to fill a year of teaching. I felt I had to have thousands of engaging lessons and resources to compliment and guide my students through the curriculum. I had no idea how I was going to build up my resources at hand, but I learned quickly. . . I begged, I borrowed, I stole (just like the teacher before me).

What I discovered is that teachers are like magpies - we steal whatever shiny object we can get our greedy little beaks on - but our thieving ways are totally justified because we're motivated by the needs of our sweet, innocent students. That is our trump card - our students needs.

Do you think I'm exaggerating? I should add that in my 2nd year of teaching I attended a workshop called "All the Good Things I Know I Stole" - by a highly respected educator in the International Reading Association. She modeled stealing intellectual property very well!

Teaching Magpies like Me

Last year I attended a presentation about Copyright in Winnipeg. The speaker provided wonderfully frightening anecdotes about teachers being charged hundreds of dollars for showing movies they didn't have the rights to show. He told us that copying an illustration/character from a book and using it in a bulletin board display was indeed breaking the law. Posting the jackets from picture books around the library, also illegal. Altering a story from it's original format, against the law as well. I'm not entirely sure if the speaker discussed alternatives because I was too busy going through the list of numerous offences I had participated in during that week alone.

Something I learned from this experience is that teaching awareness of copyright is not enough to effectively persuade teachers/students to respect intellectual property. Awareness without providing alternatives is disempowering, and creates a culture of fear. What I needed - and probably what a lot of educators need - is an empowering method of unlearning how we've previously used (stolen) intellectual property so that we can navigate our way legally through the waters of intellectual property.

Luckily, this notion of providing alternatives to stealing is also noted in Mike Ribble's document Passport for Digital Citizenship. Ribble recommends a four-stage cycle of technology integration which "helps the user begin to internalize those issues. It is a cycle because there is no real end to learning. We are constantly learning, relearning, and unlearning information about technology" (p.16). The four stages include: awareness, guided practice, modeling and demonstration, and feedback and analysis.

I believe working through such a learning model with our students will make them more confident with their digital endeavors and make our job as copyright leaders more rewarding. We will be moving away from the thou shalt not.... stance on copyright to the here's what we can do instead stance - that alone is a more powerful and more fulfilling place to locate ourselves.

Free Culturalists & Creative Commons

Doug Johnson discusses intellectual property much more eloquently than I ever could in Changing how we teach copyright Pt 3. In his post, he mentions a growing movement of individuals called "free culturalists" who

"argue that everyone in a society benefits when creative work is placed in the
public domain where everyone is allowed to use and build upon it, that current
copyright laws give the owner too much control and for too long a time."

I feel this all-is-fair-because-it's-out-there approach is somewhat unfair and disrespectful to creators (ironic considering I confessed my thieving ways here). Artists should still have rights over their work, while at the same time, they shouldn't be afraid to display their work for fear that it will be stolen. Like Ms. Janesko in Do Students Respect Intellectual Property, who required her students to gain written permission to use copyrighted materials, I feel it is important to teach students that we have an ethical responsibility to acquire permission to use intellectual property. It may seem like a hassle, or a waste of time to require students to do this, but if we truly value intellectual property, then it is simply something that must be done.

That is why I feel Creative Commons came along just in the nick of time. Creative Commons Licences make it so much easier for students to use images ethically. The following video not only explains very well why Creative Commons was developed, but also illustrates, through it's images, the breadth and depth of the creative artistry we have access to through the Creative Commons:

In this video - two statements stood out for me:

"Creative Commons is designed to save the world from failed sharing. For people who actually want to share. . . "
"We have all these new technologies that allow people to express themselves, take control of their own creative impulses but the law is getting in the way."

Providing space for artists who want their work to be used is a brilliant idea. I am astounded by the quality of works - one might have assumed that it was a dumping ground for poorly constructed art, since many were providing free access - but there is actually everything from the amazing to the absurd. The very nature of Creative Commons is exciting - I would enthusiastically share this video with staff and higher grade students when discussing copyrights. As I said before, it is not enough for us as Teacher Librarians to say what we can't do -we need to provide an alternative for staff and students that fills their need - and Creative Commons came along at the right time to fill that need.

A Note from the Magpie Gallery

While Situating myself with the other magpies, I've come to realize that what I've actually been doing is modeling bad behaviour. If I expect my students to act responsibly, then I too must act responsibly, and stop stealing. A few years ago, I wasn't ready to make this shift in my thinking - because it seemed too difficult to follow the good life. I turned a blind eye to copyright because I was worried about where I was going to get all my teacher stuff. After I attended the workshop about copyright, I started asking permission from the photographers on Flickr to use their images for my bulletin board displays. I was really excited by their openness to share, and their interest in my use of their photos. It was a positive experience for me.

Now, with the creation of places like Creative Commons, and the feeling that the world is shrinking, and that permission is often just an e-mail away - I have hope of finding it easier to walk the straight and narrow copyright road with a clean conscience.

A Web 2.0 Tool for Families

2009-02-07T11:19:00.001-08:00

The boys and I created a smilebox postcard for Valentine's Day. I thought I would share it here as many of you have young children, and those who work in Elementary Grades might like to create a scrapbook for your classes. You can post photos, add text - and your friends/family can comment back to you via the Smilebox page. Lots of fun and easy to set up in the home environment. I wonder if it is as easy at school, or if filters block this too? Anyway, I thought I would post it for you.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Random Thoughts from the Dark Side - Filtering Digital Education

2009-01-31T22:43:00.000-08:00

For a while I was on the fence again. I couldn't decide which side of the filters debate I stood on. Are filters really bad, evil, horrible things that spell out "censorship" if played backwards? Or, are they a common-sense safety issue, much like asking your child to put their helmet on before they go for a bike ride? After much thought I've decided I'm against the over-use of filters. I feel that a little filtering should be in place, especially for very young learners, but that no filter is ever going to replace sound teaching. And any filter that stands in the way of teaching and learning, is a dangerous thing.

The Dark Side of Filtering - Enter Darth Filterer

I have moments of concern about the false sense of security that filters create. I am suspicious of the fear-mongering that educators are forced to endure when it comes to their
student's safety. And, I shake my head at the notion of protecting adolescents from themselves (as if MySpace and Facebook were some sort of Lord of the Flies scenario waiting to happen.)
If I were artistic, I might ink out a little cartoon of a line-up of kids leaving a school, covered from head to toe in bubble wrap. Their eyes have blinders on, and their ears are stuffed with cotton. The heading might read, "Since the filters couldn't go with them...."

In this weeks readings, one statement stood out above the rest (most likely because I had never heard anyone approach filtering in this way before). Stephen Abram's suggests, in his article,
Justifying the Social Tools: Improving the Conversation (2007), that we should really question what is being blocked and why:

"Those folks who choose to block social networking sites for good reasons should be required to make those reasons explicit and to prove how their approach encourages good learning results and doesn't over-reach. I've seen too many
instant messaging sites banned for vague or unsupportable reasons such as viruses or stalkers."

I agree that it is important to question what learning opportunities are being compromised by the sites that are blocked. But, I wonder who will argue against excuses such as virus prevention and threat of stalkers? It is like a trump card held by the powers that be, and it seems the only counter-argument strong enough to challenge over-zealous blocking is to argue that filtering itself is unsafe.

Mary Ann Bell argues this exact point in I'm Mad and I'm Not Gonna Take it Anymore (2008). Bell says, "[n]ot allowing access can be dangerous, as it keeps us from teaching kids to be safe and smart online when they are on their own" (p.3). Also, educators seldom state that the real dangers on the Net happen to kids outside of school. Filtering in school, then, seems more about educators wearing the blinders instead of the students. If the issues don't come up in the classroom, then maybe they don't exist - or, if they don't come up, then we won't have to deal with them. To me this approach screams of negligence at the highest level.

Students worlds are different then when we were in school, but the big scary issues have always been there (sexual predators, bullies, etc.). We can't hide our heads in the sand when it comes to these issues, and blocking them out is like closing the door to the skeletons in our societal closet and denying they exist. To me, it is imperative that we are open and honest with students, that we discuss safe on-line behaviour frequently. That we invite students into the discussions about their own on-line safety, instead of having the fight for them with regards to safe or unsafe filtering.

The Annoying Side of Filtering - My Light Saber Won't Work!

The school division I worked for last year had very strict filtering levels in place. I felt like I was constantly running up against roadblocks in my teaching. I was told that if I wanted a site unblocked, I had to apply for a tech request to lift the block. This seems easy enough to do, but when you are juggling all that has to be juggled in the ordinary day to day of teaching in a school library, that extra step becomes a nuisance. Needing to send a tech request in for a 3 minute video to be unblocked seemed ludicrous and a waste of everyone's time.

I found it very frustrating to work in this overly-filtered environment where many Web 2.0 tools could not be used or viewed. I resented the fact that the "higher ups" didn't have enough faith in my own professional judgment to either:

Unblock sites myself that I needed for educational purposes.
Have someone at my school remove the block.
Be trusted to direct students to safe, educational, curriculum-related sites.

Further Random Thoughts

Internet filters, are like coffee filters. You want the grit taken out, but the flavour to remain.
Filters "protect" our children only so far. Parents need to be taught practical tips for raising Internet safe kids. I think teacher librarians can play a vital role in educating parents about the risks of on-line interactions (it takes a global village...)
Acceptable Use Policies are like field trip forms saying you give permission for your child to be taken out into the world for educational purposes - but a signed piece of paper doesn't ensure that your child won't sprain an ankle in the real world, or come across questionable content in the virtual one.
Acceptable Use Policies need to be written in an accessible manner. I wonder what would happen if students were asked to write them? We need to make sure that teachers, parents, and children understand what they are signing, so it doesn't just become another piece of paper.
There are a lot of gatekeepers doing what's supposedly best for kids. . . .but I have to question: is someone getting rich off of this? Have we been manipulated to believe our kids are in danger on the Net? Have school boards been manipulated by filter software companies to believe filters will protect them from irate parents ready to sue them for exposing their child to the evils of the net? Where are these irate parents?
Why bother to invest in new technology if all we're really comfortable with is word processing? Why not bring back the typewriter?
The safety issue shouldn't be about exposure - but lack of experience in dealing with exposure.

Final Thoughts, and One Anecdote - Trust in the Force

I truly believe students can rise to the occassion of social responsibility as they grow and learn with Web 2.0 technologies. Reactionary blocking based on fear of the darker side of the web must be questioned. I recently observed a Facebook group directing hatred towards a student by other students. It would do little good for educators to swoop in and block access to such a site (after all, educators can't block home computers, and it is unlikely that the group was started within the school walls). What actually happened was that another student from the same town (now away at university) stepped in and said the site was very uncool and wrong. I don't know if the students who started the site were humbled or not, but hopefully they will think twice before doing it again. I think in such a situation we can not act alone as educators - this is a community issue (on-line and off). Parents, teachers, and students themselves need to find their way in this new world. We need moral codes of conduct that transcend the walls of the school, and filters simply can't do that.

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants .... Sticky Labels for Uncertain Times

2009-01-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

I first heard about Prensky's argument about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants from a teacher in Winnipeg who heard about it from a vice principal who heard about it in an administrator's meeting at the Board Office. I thought the notion of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants was interesting - and tried to look at my students in this new light. Yes, they had grown up with the technology - many couldn't imagine a world without google, texting, or social networks. Without having read the article, I thought Prensky was likely onto something good.

Then I read the article.

Like Kathy Schrock in Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, and Digital Pioneers, I "bristled" to be called a "Digital Immigrant." I found Prensky`s portrayal of immigrants (digital and otherwise) to be offensive. He completely disregarded the prior knowledge and experience that immigrants bring to their new worlds. My distaste for Prensky's article goes beyond simple semantics, however, as I found the entire tone of the article was demeaning to educators. Prensky wrote:

"It's just dumb (and lazy) of educators - not to mention ineffective -to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Immigrant way is the only way to
teach..."(p.6)

My response, I'll admit, was to do something unscholarly... I googled: "against Prensky's digital natives," and found a very interesting response: an article called Digital Nativism, Digital Delusions, and Digital Deprivation by Jamie McKenzie. He sums up Prensky's work in the following manner:

"In a rather shallow piece lacking in evidence or data, Prensky offers the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" to set up a generational divide. His proposition is simple-minded. He paints digital experience as wonderful and old ways as worthless. He lumps people together by nothing more than age and exposure, spending little time on differentiating or understanding. He offers
learning with video games as a digital Nirvana that should replace forms of learning that he claims are now outmoded."

Mckenzie also provides a different point of view that I think educators must contemplate:

"Being born into a culture saturated with things digital is not a complete blessing despite the eager claims of digital drum majors and pied pipers.
Neither is such immersion an automatic state of grace."

I'm reminded not to generalize, and not to expect students to know innately how to manage their learning in a digital world....teachers still have an important role to play, even if that role is evolving.

Still, though, I concede that their world is different (not better, not worse), and that the way they are learning is different. I want to be able to understand what it means to be a student growing up in the digital age. . . I want to know if I really need to adapt drastically how I do things in the classroom, or the library, or even how I work with my own children at home.

Born Digital - A Glance at Learners

I found the direction I was looking for in Palfrey and Gasser's portrayal of digital learners in their book, Born Digital. This text is thought provoking and much more sensible than Prensky's article. Palfrey and Gasser do an excellent job of explaining the concerns that adults feel for their digitally saturated children....while at the same time, they explain the digitally born student's perspective. Thankfully, the authors walk the line between both worlds with a certain grace that does not resonate of Prensky's fear mongering. They write:

"There are no hard data to suggest that Digital Natives are smarter than anyone who came before them. Neither is their any sign that kids are dumber, or in any way less promising, than previous generations of kids. Digital Natives are doing the same things their parents did with information, just in different ways. While they may not be learning the same things through the same processes, it's not the case that Digital Natives are interacting less with information. They are simply coping with more information, and that information comes to their attention in new ways -offering new possibilities for engagement." (p. 244)

So, how are Digital Natives learning? According to Palfrey and Gasser, they "graze" (skim the headlines and read brief summaries, etc.) , "deep-dive" (examine longer articles, watch video-clips, listen to podcasts, etc.),and "feedback loop" (add comments, respond via blogging, create own podcasts, etc.) (p.242-243).

This cycle reminds me of the Guided Reading approach. Students look at the title and pictures, and make predictions about what the book will be about and teachers provide necessary background information that will help to spark an interest in the book (grazing). Then the students read the text (deep dive), and finally they will discuss the book to check for comprehension (feedback loop). This may seem too simplistic a comparison, and perhaps I have misunderstood the learning cycle that Digital Natives undergo. But maybe Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants are not so unalike after all?

Still, the book, Born Digital provides a realistic, practical, and perhaps conservative approach to technology that I found very interesting. The good news is that they feel,

"[w]e don't need to overhaul education to teach kids who are born digital. . . . [l]earning will always have certain enduring qualities that have little or nothing to do with technology." (p. 246)

The authors go on to suggest that we do not need to use technology because it's cool and it's what the students are using outside of school. They remind us that we need to "figure out...how technologies can support our pedagogical goals," (p.246), and I believe that a time will come when the flow between technology and curriculum will become seamless.

Manifestos and Mash-Ups

2009-01-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

"Welcome to my Libratory . . ."

I imagine posting this picture of Einstein on my school library door, with a speech balloon stating “Welcome to my Libratory.” From now on, thanks to Joyce Valenza’s Manifesto for the 21st Century Librarian– that is exactly how I will view my library space –“a physical space that is about way more than books.” I think I've always felt that way - that the library could be more than an encyclopaedia repository. It had the potential to be a place for students and staff to centre themselves, to unwind, to lose themselves in a narrative similar to, or completely unlike their own. A place to think, read, get inspired, breath, and cry if they needed too. Now, with the web 2.0 thoughts engaging my senses, I realize school libraries also have the potential to connect students with the world in ways unimagined even 10 years ago.

I began this weeks readings with Joyce Valenza’s Manifesto – and I must say There’s nothing like a well written, and well contemplated manifesto to make a person hold their head up high – "this is what I do - I AM a school librarian!" While I write this, I could flip the same coin, there’s nothing like a well written, and well contemplated manifesto to make a person want to put their head in the sand, and forget they ever saw it - "there's too much, I don't know where to start". What am I – a 21st century, forward-thinking, innovative librarian, or an ostrich?

A manifesto has power – and thankfully Joyce Valenza uses that power for good instead of evil! The fact that she welcomed changes to her manifesto via her wiki, made it clear that this was a vision for all of us to hold onto. A dream we all could share. I actually took a moment to look up the word "manifesto" (as I’ve previously associated it with Hitler, and other extremist views) on Dictionary.com, and found two meanings:

1. “a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.”
2. “A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature.”

So, Joyce Valenza created a public declaration of objectives for teacher librarians and presented them in a political format. Why? Perhaps because many of us feel our positions are tenuous - we are trying to convince school boards and school administrators that teacher-librarians are relevant and necessary in a digital world. With such a manifesto, we can show them a vision of what a school library can be, provided we have open access to Web 2.0 tools, and forward –thinking staff willing to take the leap into the digital landscape.

A few ideas that struck me from the manifesto include:

"You welcome media production—podcasting, video editing. You welcome
telecommunications events and group gathering for planning and research and
social networking.”

While the technologies are important, the simple words "you welcome" stand out for me. You welcome the changing needs of your staff and students. People are welcome to use the space for a myriad of needs.

"You “[k]now that one-to-one laptop classrooms will change your teaching
logistics. You realize you will often have to teach in a partner teacher’s
classroom. You will teach virtually. You will be available across the school
via email and chat."

While I think we could reach the needs of our students and classrooms quite simply by using e-mail, I have to wonder how many librarians share their e-mail with students, or chat with them on-line? I think this is a grey area for many of us - facebook friending is frowned upon, but e-mail is okay? I found myself asking - what is right? I have to think of the greater good - the educational needs of the students - and not fall into the trap of being afraid to use the technology the students are comfortable with.

"Don’t stop at “no.” . . . You fight for the rights of students to
have and use the tools they need. This is an equity issue. This is an
intellectual freedom issue."

I know last year I did stop at no. I was able to collaborate and create projects that I hoped were engaging and meaningful for students, staff, and myself. But, everything I did, I wondered, how would this look on-line? What if we could blog this? Wouldn't it be wonderful to get feedback from the world?

Stepping away from the manifesto, I find my thoughts reverting back mostly to Kathy Sanford's article Videogames in the Library? What is the World Coming To? Sanford's use of a 2003 quotation from Gunther Kress is quite interesting to me.

"dominance of writing [is] being replaced by the dominance of the
image; the dominance of the medium of the book [is shifting] to the
dominance of the medium of the screen" (p.2)

Some might argue that by today's information standards, what was written about digital technology in 2003 is already ancient history. I might argue that these shifts have already been replaced in my own world. Almost all of my non-fiction reading is done on-line. I read the world through images on Flickr, and likewise represent my family to the world in images. (Whether or not the world is watching remains to be seen!)

Sanford's notion that videogames belong in libraries goes against traditional notions of a library collection, yet when I look back at my own experience as an educator, computer games were embraced almost immediately for young learners. We had CD Rom games for Magic School bus, Franklin, and Math Blasters, etc. Most of the games had some element to support the curriculum. All of them were geared toward young learners in Kindergarten to Grade 3. As long as the games were educational, and engaged young children in learning the basics of reading, writing, math and science, video games were promoted. Once children grew up, games on computers were pushed aside for more academic pursuits. Funny how we can easily accept that young children learn through play, yet we don't make that claim so easily for older elementary students, and almost never for teens.

"As educators and educational researchers look more closely at new
technologies, we recognize that learning has become different; engagement
with videogames supports new types of learning, learning that is
multi-faceted, complex, non-linear, and fast paced. " (p.5)

While I understand that learning occurs while playing video games, it remains a platform I am not completely comfortable with (for myself). Gaming is something I am not likely to do on my own, so, how do I engage with my students learning when I haven't the foggiest notion what they are doing? What would Professor Sanford say? She mentions that:

"it is critical to ensure that appropriate funds are directed to library
services and up-to-date resources in order to best support student (and teacher)
learning about new technologies, new literacies, and new learning." (p5)

But the question remains, do I have to learn how to be a gamer, in order to fully appreciate student learning? I wonder if my own reticence in this area mirrors the concern of other educators. . . and even as I wonder this, I know the answer. It's been in the back of my mind all along, and the video Did You Know 4, created by Howie DiBlasi reminded me:

"We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist. . .
Using technologies that haven't been invented. . .
In order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

I know that if I am to do my job properly, I have to have an open mind. I have to be able to think critically, and engage in the discourse. I have to mash-up my own manifesto, and make sure that I don't put my head in the sand.

Turning a New Page

2009-01-15T10:00:00.001-08:00

The direction of this blog will be following a slightly different path in the following weeks, as I work through my new course, EDES 545 Information Technologies for Learning - a follow up to EDES 501 I took last term. In this class we will look at the issues surrounding Web 2.0 technology in Education - rather than testing each web tool. So, we are turning a new page, but it's the same book. I'm thinking the blog posts that follow are the epilogue, the afterward, or perhaps even the sequel? At any rate, the page is turning....

By the way, this is Aidan, he plays a starring role in my life story (one he shares with his big brothers, of course)!

The time has come, the blogger said. . .

2008-12-03T13:33:00.001-08:00

"The time has come",
the blogger said,
"to reflect on many things...
On Podcasts, Wikis, Voicethreads,
the Blogosphere and Nings."

(my attempt at reworking Lewis Carroll)

Oh, yes, it's time to wrap up and reflect on my learning in EDES 501, but where did the term go? I can't believe our family is already decorating Rudolph cookies (or as Liam used to say, Rude Elf Cookies) and counting down the sleeps to Christmas. In a time of looking forward, it's hard to stop and glance back. But it does help to provide closure, so here goes...

Back in September, I was very excited to start a blog with a purpose - and to see some web tools that I was familiar with like Flickr and Facebook. I was equally excited that we would be learning some tools I'd been curious about, but had not tried, such as Podcasts, RSS feeds and Wikis. At the beginning of the course I had no idea about Nings, Voicethreads, or Social Bookmarks, so I was a little worried about entering uncharted territory. Overall, I think my comfort level with the course was quite good because I felt a balance between what I already knew, what I wanted to know, and the unknown.

Like Jan, there were times I wished I was in a classroom/library so that I could use the tools immediately for educational purposes. Instead, I used my children, my husband, and my friends as participants (for Podcasts, Voicethreads, Nings and Wikis). This was very rewarding for me as I got to witness the tools from different perspectives. My children were completely comfortable with the technology, and excited by it. My husband was interested in it as a fellow educator with a particular expertise in New Literacies. My friends, however, were much less comfortable with it. I invited several of them to join me in co-writing stories on my Wiki (Storybutter), but the process of signing up and navigating the site was daunting to them, and most did not even try. These 3 different perspectives gave me an insight into what I will most likely experience from staff and students at school: feelings of excitement and curiosity merging with, or struggling against feelings of wariness and apprehension. It is good to be prepared for diversity, and I look forward to rising to that challenge.

The hands-on requirement that we explore and blog about a different tool each week was definitely the highlight of the course for me. I enjoyed being able to create Podcasts and Voicethreads with my kids, and often looked forward to reading classmates blogs to see how they approached each Web 2.0 tool. It was interesting to see that we all had the same topics to work with, but our approaches were unique. One drawback of learning a new tool each week, however, was the fact that I felt I didn't have enough time to explore my classmates blogs the way I wanted to. I had to race through the blogs, and leave them behind so I could gear up for the next topic. I was able to comment here and there, but rarely got to check for follow-up. I was also aware that my classmates and instructor were in the same rushed boat, so I tried to be as brief as possible in my writing.

While I could see schools benefiting greatly from most of the tools we worked with, there were a couple that I did not connect with entirely. RSS Feeds and Social Bookmarks were my least favourite. That is not to say that they are not important or useful - in fact they will likely become more meaningful to me when I am in a teaching or library position and can use them in a more professional manner - I just didn't get as excited about them as the other tools.

The good news is that I feel like a path into Web 2.0 has been created for me and my future students and staff. I know that technology changes quickly, and by the time I am in a position again, there will be another fountain of great tools to dip into. With all of this exploration in Web 2.0 behind me, I feel certain I can explore any new tools with confidence. I now know where to go for guidance - I am familiar with leading voices in Web 2.0 like Will Richardson and Doug Johnson - and will likely continue to follow their blogs so that I keep as current as possible.

In closing, I would like to thank my fellow EDES 501 classmates, and my instructor, Joanne de Groot - it was a pleasure learning with all of you this term, and I wish you the best! Now, if we were in a real classroom, instead of this virtual one we've created, I would pass around a tin of "Rude Elf" cookies and wish you all a "Happy Holiday!" In the spirit of Web 2.0, I'll share the photo with you instead.

"Tea for [Web] 2.0," said the blogger,

"You've had a pleasant run!

Shall we visit you again?"

But answer came there none--

And this was scarcely odd, because

They'd explored every one.

My Little Dream - Sharing a Ning

2008-11-29T22:50:00.001-08:00

I have a little dream, and it goes like this: the K - 9 school I taught at last year in Winnipeg would be transported to Vancouver Island, and I would continue on as Teacher-Librarian with the most amazing staff and the most incredible and diverse kids on the planet. In that same dream, the blockade (restricted internet access) on several of the Web 2.0 tools we've learned about this term would be lifted, so I could proceed with a plan to integrate these powerful tools into the school. I would begin by setting up a school Ning where each class would be a member (note, not each student, but each class) and have their own page on which to post various learning activities. I envision teachers modeling reading, writing and participating in the Ning. I imagine class-to-class discussions and inquiries, and students becoming excited about sharing what they are learning with other classes. It's a nice dream.

Why I chose Nings instead of Blogs as my First Tool to Share

This weeks blog assignment was to pick only one Web 2.0 tool to share with our staff and create a plan for keeping the momentum going with that technology. It wasn't easy to choose just one tool, but I narrowed it down to either Blogs or Nings. I like both as a platform to teach/learn the other Web 2.0 tools (they are both great vehicles for podcasts, voicethreads, photos and videos to ride in). In the end, Nings won out because the social networking atmosphere fit best with my dream.

I discovered a thoughtful comparison of Nings and Blogs on Steve Hargadon's blog:

The threaded discussion forum is really the key, more than anything else, and it's part of what makes Ning and other social networking platforms in eduation so significant. While blogging, it can be argued, is very much a "look at me" medium, a threaded discussion is much more egalitarian and more conducive to "good" (tempered? thoughtful?) conversations. On a blog, the main author is on a pedestal, and blogs tend to favor posts which reflect the self-importance of the blogger or comments which tend toward extremism--likely because these are often the ways to get attention in a mass of information. The threaded discussion allows the asking of questions without the need to appear authoritative, the giving of responses that can be part of the answer, and where the contributions
of many will ultimately produce a more nuanced, and thoughtful, outcome.

Well said! The idea of creating a space for our school to come together as a community engaged in a thoughtful conversation about their own education is exactly what I want to create. The blog could work too, but there would definitely be a sense that someone is more in charge than the others. Ideally, the Ning would invite participation and ownership in a way that the blog could not.

Bringing the Ning to School

I would start the process by getting a Ning committee together to work out the logistics of how we would use the Ning in our school. The committee could consist of teachers/administration/support staff/students/parent volunteers. I would approach individuals whom I knew were eager to develop and use Web 2.0 tools in their teaching. Now, why would I start a committee to do something I could do myself? Because, I think it's important to invite participation even at the start-up level. Staff and students will be more likely to make use of this tool if they play a part in its creation.

The Ning Committee would:

Name the Ning - this seems trivial, but is it? What the staff and students call this space may just be as important as the space itself. After all, people won't go to a space they can't pronounce, or visit one that doesn't sound inviting. The name of the Ning is the first impression of the ning itself.
Create a team vision of what the Ning can become. I imagine each classroom could write a weekly entry on their page about their week of learning. It would be exciting to create classroom challenges such as: Name that Picturebook, Riddle Me This, If our Class took a Magic Schoolbus Fieldtrip, What is your Class Reading? Does your Class have a Dream?
Decide how the ning will be introduced to the rest of the staff. I would suggest sharing the vision at a staff meeting first. Then, have students on the committee create posters: "The Ning is Coming!", or something along those lines. Over the morning announcements, I would have someone ask: "the question of the day is what's a Ning, and why do we need to know?"
Come up with a plan to encourage reluctant teachers. This might include offering to model posting on the Ning, or asking student volunteers to assist the teacher during posting.
Work out the logistics. How often will classes be expected to Ning? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? My suggestion would be to start out weekly with some school-wide Ning challenges to encourage participation immediately, trying to make it a healthy habit. Perhaps every Friday could be "Ning Day," where the classes check the Ning Discussion Threads.

To [N]in[g]finity and Beyond!

I hope I have clearly shared my dream of a school-wide Ning with you. I think this plan would be a very good starting point for many of the teachers, as the Ning would allow them to get as creative with the technology as they are comfortable. It would be an excellent tool at promoting community-building. Furthermore, by using Nings as a whole class, teachers may then become inspired to create their own Nings where each student would be a member. The possibilities seem endless. To Ningfinity and Beyond!

Developing Professionally through Blogs and Blogging

2008-11-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

Would Socrates be proud of us as we blog about education and Web 2.0 technology, carrying conversations across the blogosphere . . . asking, thinking, contemplating, sharing, rethinking, asking more questions, and finally posting? I like to think he's smiling down on my little blog right now. I also like to think the day will come when the powers that be (aka principals, directors, school board officials) will smile upon blogging as a professional development activity worth it's weight in gold.

From my limited teaching experience, I have learned that there is a prejudice against blogging (or perhaps a fear of it) that does not embrace it as a professional development tool. We see it used at the university level, and witness many professors turning to blogs to reach their audience, but a trickle-down effect is less evident at the school level. Have you ever heard of a "blog prep?" Has a substitute teacher ever covered your class while you blogged? Certainly I've never experienced that type of support, and I have a few ideas about why that is, and what we should do about it. I think a shift is definitely happening, but I believe schools have a long way to go before promoting blogs and blogging as a viable means of professional development.

Why Participating in the Blogosphere Promotes Professional Development
Whether we are simply reading blogs written by enthusiastic educators, commenting on said blogs, or blogging ourselves, we are entering into the discourse of reflection and practice. We build a community with other educators that is priceless in the grand scheme of things. Collegial conversations begin to bloom and a marvelous garden prospers. The process is organic, and the compost is rich!

In my own experience as a blogger this term, I have come to truly appreciate the process as professional development. The experience was two-fold. First, I had to use the Web 2.0 tools (I blogged, podcasted, used Voicethreads, RSS Feeds, and created Nings and Social Bookmarks, etc), then I had to reflect on the process and how these tools could be used in schools. If I used the tools in isolation, without the reflection and feedback from readers that the blog allowed, then my progress would have been limited. Through blogging I feel better prepared to integrate the tools into my teaching.

From an economic standpoint, blog-reading and blog-creating should be promoted by school officials - we can converse (usually for free) with world-class educators around the globe. We have an opportunity to access relevant, meaningful, usable information any time of the day. This is so unlike previous professional development experiences which often have high costs for travel, accomodation, meals, etc.

Why the Reticence?

I believe there is a scholarly bias at play here - blogs are simply not considered professional enough in some peoples minds - after all, any amateur can blog! Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur "claims that the professional knowledge of experts is being eroded by self-publishing amateurs and citizen journalists. And he scoffs at bloggers!" (as read on Guy Merchant's blog at: http://myvedana.blogspot.com/). Jinkies! What's a blogger to do?

The other problem is that some people may confuse blogging with social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Certainly some blogs are for fun and folly, but the growing list of educational blogs should be enough to convince sceptics that Blogs are useful! (Incidentally, the school district I worked in last year had such strong restrictions that we could not access blogs at all).

While blogs and blogging are economical - it is difficult to track their use and value. How does administration account for professional development? That said, I've sat through many a conference where teachers did anything but listen to the guest speaker. At one conference, people walked out and went shopping!

What we Should do About it!

We need to convince leaders in our educational community about the value of blogs and blogging for professional development purposes. So, how do we alter old-school perceptions about professional development and blogging? We need to invite them to participate in the conversation, that way they can see for themselves the value blogs have for PD in our schools.

We need to continue blogging intelligently on a professional level, and continue to support educational bloggers by engaging in their discussions on their blogs. We need to share the joy and send the links! Recommend blogs of note on our school web-sites, school newsletters, or e-mail teachers/administration directly with links to blogs we believe will be of interest to them (there is power in personalizing the process). With certain teachers who are resistant to change, I would share blogs on a need-to-know basis; non-bloggers/blog readers can get overwhelmed by too much information (especially if they think they don't have time to blog).

If we continue to blog for the purposes of our own professional development the shift will continue to happen. If we blog, they will come. We can also highlight the blogs we intend to follow, and the blogs we intend to publish in our Professional Developmeant Year Plan. It may not get credit, but if we treat blogs and blogging seriously, others may follow. We can lead by example and invitation, and by doing so, one day you might just get a "blog prep". Wouldn't that be nice?

Educational Blogs I would Recommend

Weblogg-ed (http://weblogg-ed.com/) - Will Richardson's blog celebrates "learning with the read/write web."
My Vedana (http://myvedana.blogspot.com/) - Guy Merchant explores "literacy...new media...education...life."
http://www.classroom20.com/
School Libraries (http://davidloertscher.wordpress.com/) - David Loertscher engages us with "book reviews, research and issues."
Everyday Literacies (http://www.everydayliteracies.blogspot.com/) Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel's blog "[e]xplores and comments on everyday practices of producing and consuming texts of whatever kind in meatspace and cyberspace."

Blogs about Books

A Year of Reading ( http://readingyear.blogspot.com/ - written by "two teachers who read. A lot." These teachers are acclaimed authors on matters of reading (their byline is very modest)
Likely Stories (http://blog.booklistonline.com/) - this is a Booklist Blog by Keir Graff, he writes candidly about books, book reviewing, and the publishing industry"
Librarian Moms Blog (http://parentsblog.scholastic.com/librarian_mom/) - Els Kushner "share[s] her tales from the school library and the world of kid lit."
Read Roger (http://www.hbook.com/blog/) is "the Horn Book Editor's Rants and Raves."

RSS - Take Out or Delivery?

2008-11-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

I like an analogy to get me started - that's just the way my mind works. So when I was researching for this weeks blog on RSS (Real Simple Sindication), I came up with an analogy to explain RSS to myself. Gaining information these days is like ordering a pizza - will that be pick it up, or delivery? Random browsing of your favourite webspaces is like getting in your car and driving across town to pick up your pizza. Using an RSS Feed is like having the delivery person come to your door with your meal (information) hot and ready - all you have to do is open the box (or in this case, click on the text) and your meal is served. The orange RSS button is the speed dial to your favourite restaurant. It's so simple (Real Simple, actually), a monkey could do it. So, why aren't more people using it? After all, Will Richardson called RSS "the new killer App for educators" and he urged teachers to start using it "this minute."

I googled "I don't use RSS" (I know I'm not being very academic here, but I just wanted a quick inkling) and I came up with 2400 hits. Now, isn't that interesting? A quick browse came up with the following reasons:

Don't know what it is, or how to use it.

Don't want to use another web-tool, or add more stuff to their computer.

Don't like the experience, or feel a need.

Don't want to change, using their bookmarks is working for them.

On closer examination, I found a thoughtful response to the question: Stephen Brooks wrote a Blog entry entitled Why I Don't Use RSS. Brooks explains, "I might not WANT to know that there’s a new post at YesButNoButYes (like there is every couple of hours) right when it happens - I want to drift by and soak up a couple of days’ worth when I feel like it. And second, there’s a bit of a treasure-hunter style thrill when I check blogs that are updated less frequently . . . and find a new post - it would have been less “exciting” to have it pop up in my Google Reader."

Hmm, a treasure-hunter. I'm thinking this blogger is the 'pick-up' sort of person. He appreciates the journey as much as getting to the destination. As a teacher-librarian, I have to respect that, and I appreciate seeing a different point of view. Not everyone needs or wants their information 'hot and ready'. Not all of my colleagues will be familiar with RSS Feeds/Readers, and not all of them will care to use them. Same with my students. I can't assume RSS will be important to all of them. That being said, I think it is our job to inform people about the benefits of RSS so they can decide for themselves.

Informing Teachers ('the Oprah way')

How to explain RSS the Oprah way by Stephanie Quilao (found at http://www.backinskinnyjeans.com/backinskinnyjeans/2006/09/how_to_explain_.html.) describes what RSS is, how to get it, and why you need it. Quilao has used excellent graphics and describes RSS in a warm-fuzzy, make-your-life-better sort of way. Her entry would appeal to many of the women I taught with last year (mostly fans of Oprah, not technology).

RSS Feeds for Elementary Students (found at http://anotsodifferentplace.blogspot.com/2007/01/rss-feed-for-elementary-students.html) lists several sites appropriate for Feeds for younger students. My favourites from this list include:

CBBC Newsround -Frontpage

Science Buzz--science

Why Files--science

Cybils --literature/books

Discovery Channel Headlines--science news

Nova Science Now --science news

Wands and Worlds--fantasy book reviews

This blogger's advice is to be selective, "you can have too many feeds, [and] ...you don't want adult news feeds coming in from CNN, ABC, CBS, etc..." This is a good reminder to pass on to our staff. RSS Feeds should help students control the flow of information, not create an overwhelming flood of it. After all, we don't want to order too many pizzas, just a healthy amount.

RSS: Bringing What's New to You, by Traci Gardner (found at http://ncteinbox.blogspot.com/2008/06/rss-bringing-whats-new-to-you.html) provides excellent examples of how teachers can use RSS with students. This is one of the most professional pages for teachers that I discovered - use this with teachers who are more comfortable with technology (it goes beyond an Oprah-like explanation). Gardner's suggestion for having students subscribe to a homework blog is one that might just meet with parent-approval!

My Personal Experience with RSS

When David Loertscher was presenting in Winnipeg last year, he wanted to make sure that we left the workshop with a practical skill; something that we could take back and use in our daily lives. He had us create i-google pages, a blog for our school library, and taught us how to subscribe to the blog using the RSS Feed. I found the experience interesting. It was easy to set everything up, but less easy to use it. At that time, I didn't read enough blogs to make use of the Feed, so I didn't have an authentic purpose for using RSS. Since taking this course, however, I tried again. I revisited my i-google page, but found it was one extra site to log into, and I discovered it was more time-consuming than time-saving. What did work for me was using the Bloglines right on my blog. I was checking my blog daily anyway, so I didn't feel a need to go elsewhere for the same information. I must say, I do love the ease of following everyone's blogs from my page. I suppose you could say my choice of RSS Reader is purely economical.

Final Thoughts

If we introduce RSS to our staff and students, we are providing them with a tool that will help them to have their information delivered to their door. I know of several excited little information-seekers that I taught last year who would love this Web tool. They would be over the moon to see information arriving on their doorstep, and would quickly set about subscribing to every site available. They would likely have a competition to see who could get the most Feeds. For students/staff on the other side of the spectrum, who are reluctant to use RSS, I would suggest that you challenge them to a two-week RSS trial - if they connect to sites that are truly meaningful to them, then they will see the benefits of RSS right away. Perhaps we could get the excited students on-board and have them create commercials highlighting the benefits of using this amazing little technology. Perhaps they could lead the 'RSS Two Week Challenge' - go team!

Social Networking Sites

2008-11-08T20:53:00.001-08:00

Facebooking

I joined Facebook last year after watching a little blurb on the news about it. The report talked about how people were "addicted" to Facebook, and how they spent hours on it. I had not heard of it before that, but thought I should check it out. What I've discovered is that spending a little time browsing through friend lists is like a walk down my old highschool hallway. I can't believe how many people I've lost touch with, but there they are going on living and representing a portion of their life on-line for all their friends to see. I wouldn't say I'm addicted to Facebook, I don't feel a need to check in daily, or weekly even. But on the occasions when I do go on, I find it almost meditative to check what my friends and family are doing by glancing through their status updates. It is a rather strange phenonmenon, isn't it? I feel like I'm peeking in windows, but with the bizarre notion that I've been invited to do so. I wonder what the effect of this social window peeking is doing for the digital natives out there? Do they feel less inhibited? Do they have the same sense of personal virtual space as we digital immigrants do?

Facebook Can of Worms - Student "Friends"

Shortly after I joined Facebook I had a friend request from one of my old kindergarten students. I was glad to hear from her, but somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I needed to proceed with caution. I wrote back saying "Great to hear from you, hope you're well. Say hello to your parents for me." I accepted the friend request, not realizing what was involved. I didn't know that every comment/photo, etc they post comes on my page, and mine on theirs. Had I known more about how Facebook works, I likely would have done differently. Since then, two other ex-kindergarteners contacted me. I sent out the same message. For me, it was an awkward situation, I didn't want to say "no" to their friend request, and yet I didn't want to share the Facebook space with them. I'm not worried about them seeing what I am doing on-line (I'm really not that exciting), but I was uncomfortable with having access to their world. I was hoping to remember them as sweet little kindergarteners and not young teens trying to represent themselves as party girls, older than their years (their profile pictures alone show this). The teacher/parent in me is nervous for them (are they aware of the dangers?). I also wonder if I have a moral/legal responsibility if I see something like cyber-bullying going on? The whole situation is a Facebook can of worms, and I'm not sure what to do. I've thought about de-friending them, but that just seems cruel (I was their first teacher!). Perhaps they'll see that I'm a rather boring friend, and they'll de-friend me first. One can only hope. My advice for teachers in this situation, don't go down that road unless you are braver than me.

A Social Network I'm not Afraid of - Nings

I'm quite excited about the possibilities of Nings, both in my professional life, and my family life. I decided to begin a Ning that was meaningful to me, so I created a sister site to my Flickr Group Down Syndrome in the Family. I named the Ning Down Syndrome Around the World, and posted an invite to the current members of the Flickr group. You can see it at http://dsaroundtheworld.ning.com/. In my invitation I explained that a Ning is a social networking site where we can each create a page that is unique to our families; post photos, videos, blogs, have discussions, etc. I also made the site public, but said that we can make it private if we want. I'm not sure how it will go, to be honest; such a site has the potential to either flop, or take off. It is rather exciting, though, to watch and see what happens. Many of the Flickr members already partake in discussions on our site, and have their own personal blogs, so I'm not sure that a Ning will fill a need for them, but like I said, I had to try it!

Nings to Schools

Esther Rosenfield, in an article available through Proquest called Expanding Your Professional Network with Nings, believes that "Ning has great potential value as an educational tool, especially for professional development and building professional connections". Many of us studying Web 2.0 have already witnessed this on Nings like TeacherLibrarianNing ( http://teacher%20librarian.ning.com/), and Classroom 2.0 ((http://classroom20.ning.com/. I think they are wonderful platforms for professional development, but I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the vastness of it. For myself, I would be tempted to create a Ning closer to home - with teachers from my school division, for instance. While the global perspective on educational topics is appealing, I would also be interested in seeing the amazing teaching strategies being used in my own neighbourhood.

Within my library, I would definitely want to use Nings for book clubs and literature circles, inquiry projects, etc. as well as encourage teachers to set them up for their class. I think that it would be an exciting opportunity for students to showcase their learning in an on-line social network.

Why Students Should Learn about Social Networking in School

Tim Discipio, in Adapting Social Networking: TO ADDRESS 21ST-CENTURY SKILLS, writes:
"As educators, it is our responsibility to take students from what they already know to the next level of critical thinking. In other words, today's students are using these tools to connect, but are they creating enough, collaborating on projects, or inventing new ideas? Students need guidance, and here is where we can best use practiced methodologies of teaching to our advantage. What needs to be incorporated across the curriculum is a social learning network - if we focus only on the "social" and "network," we are missing the mark. A true social learning network incorporates innovative pedagogy through internet-connected communities, digital resources, and a series of Web 2.0 tools that empower students to master the curriculum and to learn issues beyond the classroom." This is inspiring! Why wouldn't we want our students to be critical, creative, and collaborative thinkers? Who wouldn't want our students to feel empowered?

Ah, therein lies the problem, I think.

Many people get nervous about "empowered" students. What if they don't use that power for good? Once again, I feel a Spider-Man thought creeping up on me. With great power comes great responsibility, and that is why I think it is imperative that we teach students how to use social network sites appropriately, and we should start at a young age. One approach that I read about in an article called text unto others . . . As You Would Have Them Text Unto You, by Matt Villano (available through Proquest) is to teach students "digital citizenship". His premise is that we need to go beyond teaching students to deal with "on-line hazards", and have them take responsibility in building safe and creative on-line communities, and "inspiring others to do the same." I feel this is going to be essential if we are going to bring social networking into the classroom.

I'd better go now, I have to check my on-line social spaces; I don't want to neglect anybody.

Status: Carol is checking her Ning.

VoiceThreads - Stumbling on Inspiration

2008-11-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I stumble upon interesting sites on the Web, and I have to thank my virtual lucky stars for this one - a Ning about VoiceThread for Educators: http://voicethread.ning.com/. It looks like a great place to begin collaborating with other teachers about using VoiceThread in the classroom.

I also found a great little VoiceThread about a First Grade trip to the beach: http://voicethread.com/#u86913.b184115.i1026128. What a wonderful way to reflect on a fieldtrip!

I was very impressed by the Colour Poems on this VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/#u86913.b184115.i1026128. The photographs are lovely, and the children's voices are just delightful. I would show this to students as a starting point to write our own colour poems, or as an example of what can be done with VoiceThread.

In closing, I thought I was in love with wikis for classroom collaboration, but I'm finding VoiceThread incredibly inspiring. It is definitely my new favourite Web 2.0 tool (no offence, wiki, I still really, really like you!)

First VoiceThread - My Mom Gave Me a Nickel

2008-11-02T20:33:00.001-08:00

This was my first attempt with VoiceThread - I was excited to use it to pin down the song that Liam's preschool teacher taught him 2 years ago, and thrilled to do it using a true mix of multimedia! First, the boys and I created a visual representation using good old paper, crayons and glue. Liam added his own take on the main character (he turned him into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle). Kieran and I drew the store and Kieran added the signage on the store. Next, I took photographs of the picture, uploaded them to my laptop, then we got into the fun stuff of creating the show. We decided to do 3 slides - the first containing the song, the 2nd and 3rd were comments on the pictures. Downloading the photos was not difficult, and my laptop has a built-in microphone, so it made the recording process rather easy.

In the end, it was a great little family project to work on. I know it is very rough around the edges, with lots of pauses and ramblings, but I didn't want the boys to re-do it (they were happy with it the way it was). I wonder, if this had been a classroom project would I have encouraged them to have a re-do? I suppose it would depend on the grade level, the child, the project, the intended audience, etc. We could definitely have a lesson on making our VoiceThread's the best they can be. We could listen to a few and see if we thought the pauses and ramblings detracted from the message. It really comes down to a personal choice, I suppose.

Conversations with My Husband about VoiceThread

2008-11-02T20:24:00.001-08:00

My second attempt at a VoiceThread was meant to be a simple re-telling of our hike to the Goldstream Provincial Park where we went to witness the salmon run. What it turned into was a conversation with my husband about the hike, our life, and about VoiceThreads as a teaching tool.

In creating this multi-media presentation, I felt like all of the Web 2.0 tools were coming together in one place. We were photo-sharing, texting, podcasting, blogging . . . (did I miss any?). Because VoiceThread offers this incredible diversity, it will be a valuable tool in my classroom or library. But, if we think beyond the Web 2.0 tools, what else is going on? What is at the heart of this experience that makes it so relevant in the classroom? Collaboration, discussion, representation, we are exploring voice, public speaking, writing, the list goes on. I think this experience can be celebrated as a true cross-curricular "glue" that can enhance teaching and learning, making it vitally important in our school libraries.

Wikis - I Think I'm in Love

2008-10-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

I'll admit, I was very skeptical. Forgive me, but I did not think I would enjoy having my words, my work, my thoughts, my creation being tinkered with. What if the heart gets taken out of what I've written? What if my words are completely obliterated? What if someone trashes my space? It takes a tremendous leap of faith for people like me to surrender to the ways of the wiki, but that is what I did, what I had to do, and now I'm a believer. I think I'm in love.

I began this weeks study on wikis by viewing three sites: pbwiki, wetpaint, and wikispaces (these were recommended on Wikis in Plain English). I chose wikispaces because it seemed the most intuitive. I found the layout easy to follow, and wanted something that would be practical to use with other collaborators.

The hardest choice I had to make was what I wanted my wiki to be about. After much deliberation and nail-biting, I decided to start a story-sharing site, called StoryButter where people could collaborate on stories for children (http://storybutter.wikispaces.com/About+Story+Butter).

What I discovered was that I needed a community to make the wiki work. I instantly sent out invitations to members of my writing group, members of EDES 501 class, and a few others. I did not have much time for the experiment, given that the inspiration for the wiki hit me today. I quickly wrote a story called The Ungruff Billy Goats. Then, I crossed my fingers and waited. After some more nail-biting, I realized that perhaps I'd already put too much detail into my story (or maybe it just wasn't that good!). I started another story, Funny Pumpkin, this time leaving it unfinished and with a bare minimum of details. When I checked the "recent changes" on my blog around supper time, I was thrilled to see that someone had taken the bait on the second story. The author/collaborator added some great details, finished the story (save for a few jokes), and made me laugh. How thrilling to have someone collaborate on a story with me! If I can share with students the joy of the wiki, then I'll be one very happy teacher-librarian. I finally get what

How I would use Wikis in the Classroom

That's a Good Question! A group of students who love trivia could host the wiki inviting questions from fellow students.
Story starters: Students could post story starters for their literacy buddies to work on.
Wee Poets: Students collaborate to make their poems the best they can be.
Web 2.0 Ideas in our School: Why not a spot where students can collaborate about how to use Web 2.0 tools in the school?
Team Literacy Challenge: A place to routinely challenge groups of students to collaborate on literacy activities such as rewriting the ending of a story.

What to tell the Nay Sayers

Will Richardson makes a very good point when he says that people can argue against wikis because they are not professionally edited, but that "in the era of the Read/Write Web, we are all editors, and we must all become skilled at doing that work (66)." We also need to have faith in our students to participate in the collaborative process in a constructive manner; to take on their role as editors seriously.

We can live in fear that our work will be vandalized, or we can deal with it when and if it happens. Again, it's a leap of faith, but one that seems worth it. As Richardson says: "The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort (74)."

Feel the love, use wikis.

Wandering through Virtual School Libraries

2008-10-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

When I imagined Virtual School Libraries, I instantly thought of something out of a Magic School Bus computer game. I envisioned a virtual tour of a libraries physical space. There, in front of you, would be a cartoonish image of the check-out desk, the computers, the story corner, the bookshelves, and of course the book trucks. If you clicked on the book truck, it could tell you what books your friends had just returned to the library. If you clicked on a computer, you would be taken to a list of teacher-librarian reviewed websites. While this all seemed fun, I was pretty sure there would be more to it than that. I needed help, or sleep, or both. What I did was spend hours viewing virtual school library sites and then backpedaled to see what a virtual school library site is supposed to look like.

According to the Winter 2008 edition of BCTLA Bookmark (http://fcweb.sd36.bc.ca/~guilmant_s/Documents/School%20Libraries%20As%20Classrooms.pdf) "school library websites (virtual school libraries) provide access to licensed databases specifically designed for K-12 students and to curricular learning resources." Access to databases and resources seemed a little vague to me - is it really that simple, or is there more going on here? I did a little more digging, and I'm glad I did, because what I stumbled upon was the LAT Report on Joyce Valenza's Virtual School Libraries and 21st-Century Service (http://lateam.pbwiki.com/VIRTUAL%20SCHOOL%20LIBRARIES). I immediately recognized the homepage of the Springfield Township High School Virtual Library. The LAT Report highlights Joyce Valenza's views about why we should be creating virtual libraries, and what content should be contained within these virtual spaces. Besides creating a 24/7 virtual space that points our students towards "relevant, quality resources," the virtual library "maximizes student use of time to higher-level tasks" and "provides both independence and intervention." According to Valenzas, learning within the virtual library is promoted through: pathfinders, style sheets, websites, webQuests, guides to research, assignments, open source resources, search tools, blogs, wikis, and threaded discussions, and streaming video."

In the BCTLA Bookmark, there was a list of virtual school libraries in British Columbia that were considered exemplary. Unfortunately, I had trouble accessing some of them. I did have luck, however with the first one I wandered into - the one that was touted as having a "nationally award-winning subject guide of websites which is popular world-wide." How could I walk away? The Prince of Wales Secondary School Library (http://pw.vsb.bc.ca/library/) was huge! There were so many links it was almost overwhelming, I had to remind myself that I had just wandered into a high school library, I'm definitely used to an elementary setting . For a secondary school, though, I don't think there was too much content. The site was well organized and easy to navigate through. I particularly liked the Reference Desk (http://pw.vsb.bc.ca/library/refdesk.html,) and believe a lot of students and parents would find this section useful. Another area of particular interest to me was the Research Help Documents such as Notetaking" (http://pw.vsb.bc.ca/library/notetaking.html) in the Library Information area. I would feel confident directing teachers, parents, and students to these pages as they are well organized, and professional. No wonder this virtual school library has a global appeal! But, as I started to revisit Valenza's thoughts on what should be contained within the virtual library, I realized that there was a lot missing. I did not come across blogs, wikis, streamed video, etc. There seemed to be very little student input, and I wondered if this would be a drawback in any way. I had to keep searching. . . .

My next step was to revisit the Springfield Township High School Virtual Library to see if it actually contains everything that Ms Valenza's said it should. According to the elements she listed, I expected it to be more than a "subject guide to websites" (as the Prince of Wales site seemed to be). The Springfield site looked like an elementary school site (somewhat like the Magic School Bus image I initially envisioned), but the content is obviously for high schools. Everything that Valenza's said should be on a virtual school library site, was on it. I found streaming video of book trailers from TeacherTube (see, http://springfieldreading.wikispaces.com/9th+Grade), and this was embedded in a wiki that promoted the Prerequisite Reading List. The Web 2.0 tools were so well integrated in this virtual library that they blend in. I think this site has great appeal for students, it's fun (cartoonish), interactive, easily navigated, professional, and highly relevant to student's curricular needs. Of the two high school virtual school libraries I investigated, this is the one that I think would capture student's attention the most, leading them to higher-levels of thought and independence.

Going Elementary (my dear Watson)

After my high school walkabout, I was eager to see what elementary school libraries looked like. First, I did a search of my son's school library, only to find they don't have a virtual library yet.
Interestingly, there was another school on Vancouver Island with the same name, so I stumbled upon their virtual library. Eagle View Elementary School ( http://www.eves.sd85.bc.ca/library.html) had a visually appealing virtual library that I think elementary students would be drawn to. There were several photos of students at work in the library. (I don't think photographs on virtual library sites should be underestimated. They help to show just what goes on in the library - something a lot of parents don't know). The photos on this site present the library as a classroom space, not just a holding place for books. I was very impressed by the "social feel", this virtual school library site was not just a list of links with a few graphics. Check out the section on Student Reflections: http://www.eves.sd85.bc.ca/studentreflections.html. This space had book recommendations, but I think there are even more possibilities for students to post information about their learning. The site did not appear to be interactive - no presence of blogs, wikis, or podcasts, but still, it was better than nothing, and it did have some very good personal qualities.

The next virtual library I came across in my travels was the Parkcrest School Media Centre (http://library.parkcrest.sd73.bc.ca/). While there seemed to be a lot of good information on the site, I found the design difficult to navigate through. The links were in the bubbles on the far left hand side of the screen, and you needed to click a lot to get to where you want to go. I wondered if students were drawn to this virtual library, or if they prefer the physical school library. The staff looks fun, inviting and creative, but I think this site needs some tweaking to become truly effective.

One noteworthy site was the McLurg Elementary School Virtual Library
I found the layout of this page easy to navigate. I was interested in the “Wonder What to Read” section, and was pleased to find a Wiki with student suggested “Great Reads”. There are 2 grade groups on this site (4-6) and (6-8). It would be interesting to have a picture book wiki as well, because I think younger students would quickly become engaged with the site if they had a space just for them. I noticed that only one book was recommended in the non-fiction section which was presented as a Dewey list of numbers. I wonder why that is? Perhaps if the subject headings were put along with the Dewey numbers it would get more use (for instance “fairy tales”, or “poetry”, or “biography” – you get the picture, you’re all librarians!) I think getting the students involved in revamping that section would be a great lesson for them to work through – it would be a project with an authentic purpose! The more I poked around this virtual Library, the more impressed I became! It is very apparent that this teacher librarian has been well versed in Web 2.0 technology and has an inviting manner towards her students. Besides a wiki, there is a McLurg Book Blog (http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=80898) and McLurg Booktalk podcasts (http://web.rbe.sk.ca/support/podcasting/Booktalks/Podcast/Podcast.html). I think that by posting student work/thoughts/contributions in this way, students are more likely to turn to the Virtual School Library and share it with friends and family members. Student collaboration works wonders in making sites like the McLurg Elementary School Virtual Library a meaningful and relevant place to visit.

Finishing the Tour

After wandering through several virtual school libraries, I've come to realize that creating sites that will lead our students to relevant curricular information, engage them in Valenza's vision of higher-level thinking and foster student independence is no easy task. There was a real craftsmanship at work behind the sites I visited, and it was extremely exciting to consider the possibilities that virtual school libraries hold for our students.

In closing, I felt a little guilty about critiquing virtual school libraries. Why? Because I felt that many of the sites I wandered through were 'works in progress'. We all know that a teacher-librarian's job is never done (remember the zen of the book drop)! Despite that some virtual libraries seemed a little rougher around the edges than others, I can't help but feel great hope that these virtual spaces will evolve and grow into something lovely in the same way that we move out shelves around, or buy a new area rug, or create engaging book displays, and change our bulletin boards in our physical library spaces to make them more functional for our students and ourselves.

Podcasting live from the kitchen table...

2008-10-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

Creating this podcast was not so bad after all! The hardest part was deciding on content. Originally, we were going to do a Thanksgiving presentation about our weekend, but the boys were getting really silly together when we tried to do that. I decided to separate them for this project, and interviewed Kieran about reading chapter books. I always like to hear what children have to say about reading, and hope that you do to!

Podcasting in the Classroom

In the beginning I was wondering how podcasting differs from traditional audiotapes. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to record on a casette tape? (I can imagine teachers I've worked with in the past agreeing with me). But, after reading about podcasts this week, I've come to believe that it's worth the extra effort to learn how to create a podcast. Why? Well, to have the voices "out there" of course! There is a certain level of excitement that comes from the global aspect of podcasting, which just isn't there if you're using a tape recorder. The possibility of connecting with other students or classrooms around the world is indeed very powerful. Having students create their own podcasts is a great way to have them practice multi-literacies with an authentic audience in mind.

Podcasting Possibilities

Eric Langhorst, an 8th grade teacher, found "studycasts" were highly useful for his students. He would record a 20 minute review session and post it on itunes. He found that students and parents often listened to them together, or the students would listen to them on the bus or when exercising. (http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/teacher_feature/teacher_feature124.shtml).
Students can keep a log of the podcasts they listen too, in the same way that we have them keep a reading log. There is an example at: http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson873/diary-format.pdf. Students can then write a review of a podcast of their choice. By examining a number of different podcasts, students could create their own guidelines of what makes a good podcast.
Reading Buddies can read or create podcasts of their favourite stories to be listened to by their buddy. Or, buddies can create an original podcast together (they could interview one another, compose original poetry/jokes/stories then share them via podcasts with the greater community.)
For younger children, teachers/librarians could create "bedtime stories" for their students to listen to at home--a few i-pod shuffles, or similar mp3 players could be sent home on a rotating basis. Add a stuffy and a journal to draw and write in, and students will have a blast!
Older students can create podcast discussions of hot topics such as censorship and freedom to read or, filters on school computers.

In Closing: Final Words from the Kitchen Table...

Podcasts are definitely a Web 2.0 tool that I would make frequent use of in the school library. I believe the students would be very excited about using this technology to express themselves. In the words of a student quoted by Robert Rozema in his article, The Book Report, Version 2.0: Podcasting on Young Adult Novels:

"A podcast would be so much more interesting compared to a boring book report . . . students would most likely enjoy this sort of assignment since it involves creativity and technology. I also think podcasting could reach out to a lot of students who aren't necessarily the good students because it's giving them so many choices. They get to choose what they say about the book, what music to use, the pacing, the tone . . . . The podcast would be my number one alternative to the book report."

Amen to that!

Spider Turkey --this is not part of our assignment!

2008-10-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

The Spider-Turkey that we made...

I just wanted to share this weeks "family homework" assignment with you. We had to decorate a turkey together to display in my son's gym for their Thanksgiving assembly. No Web 2.0 tools were used in the production of this turkey, though there are endless possibilites! We could create a group photo pool for our school families to post their turkeys. Perhaps students could write about the process of completing family homework on a blog. Maybe a podcast could be created interviewing the teacher who came up with this idea along with families who participated in this project.

Or, maybe paper, crayons, scissors and glue is enough for this project. . . ?

At any rate, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

"Everyone Must Know"--Social Bookmarking Services

2008-10-04T19:42:00.001-07:00

Back when I was at the University of Saskatchewan (for my B.Ed), I took my friend's 5 year-old son to see the dinosaurs in the Biology/Geology building. I showed him how even the rocks on the walls had fossils in them. He got very serene for a moment, then whispered "Everyone must know...." He proceeded to approach passing strangers saying, "did you know that there are fossils everywhere? You should really know that." He just had to share the joy of this new and amazing discovery, and that is how I am feeling tonight after exploring the social bookmarking services of Diigo and Delicious. I am holding myself back from approaching total strangers on the street to tell them about the possibilities of social bookmarking.

A Tale of Two Social Bookmarking Services

Being new to social bookmarking services, I really have no instant preference between the two sites I have been working with . Both Diigo and Delicious are relatively easy to navigate through, and offer an easy way to take your bookmarks with you wherever you go (as long as you are wired). Below, I will list a few of my observations about each site.

Glimpsing Diigo

When going through the Diigo Dashboard, you can easily preview your bookmarks without leaving the site. This would be a useful feature if you are browsing student's bookmarks for content/appropriateness; it is a time-saving feature.
On the toolbar (which you can download to your browser for free) you have the option of highlighting information on the website that you are bookmarking. You can also add comments by way of "floating sticky notes"--this seems like an organizational benefit--you can post reminders about why that website was important.
Tagging itself is not as apparent--there is no pop-up screen which asks for tags as there is on Delicious.
There is a feature that allows you "play webslides"--this presents your webpages in a slideshow. I think students would enjoy this feature to give them a visual taste of the websites bookmarked.
Getting social on this site seems easy--there is a section on the dashboard that invites you to "Meet people" the site will recommend other users "with similar interests to you". (I tried it, but did not have luck as I did not have enough bookmarks/tags listed yet).

Glimpsing Delicious

I have not found a preview or a slideshow of bookmarks--I liked this on the Diigo site and think students would too (if there is this ability on Delicious, please let me know!)
Tagging is very easy as a screen pops up as soon as you click on the tag icon. Tags are suggested in this screen which makes it easier to decide upon appropriate language.
There are more users, I don't have to search for a social community--it's already starting as many classmates have chosen Delicious.
On the browser you can "send to OneNote" which I have found useful. In OneNote students can see their webpage and make notes that they do not want to share on the Delicious Network.

Ponderings about Social Bookmarks and Student Learning

Where I think these services would be most beneficial is in collaborative projects. I think many students would take ownership over their own learning if they were tagging sites that they found useful and sharing them with their classroom community. The social aspect of sharing their bookmarks also puts a certain amount of peer pressure to find good sites, perhaps making students be more critical of the sites they are using. It would be an interesting study to see if social bookmarking sites like Diigo, Delicious, Furl, etc. are changing the relationship students have with their resources. Do they read more critically? Do they feel more organized? Do they feel more pressure or less (because they have access to each others bookmarks). These are just a few of my ponderings; I'll be looking for answers in my classroom experiences to come.

Trying out social bookmarking and I`m shy!!

2008-10-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

I played around with Delicious a little more and liked the ease of tagging. I also noticed on the little toolbar that you can send the page right to Onenote, which I might find useful. (I use OneNote when I am doing on-line research for the class, or if I am trying to find clipart.)

Initially I was very self-conscious about what sites I bookmarked--people can see them, right? It's funny that I have no problem having my family photos on Flickr for the world to see, but suddenly I'm thinking twice about what Internet sites I'm choosing to display. Who knew that what we browse on the Net is so personal? It's not like I go to inappropriate sites or anything, but if we stop to think about it, what we do at the computer generally is very personal; it's usually just me and the computer against the world. Aidan is often crawling around my feet somewhere, but he's not reading over my shoulder snickering because I'm watching a re-run of X-Weighted on Slice! Come to think of it, my husband and I use the computer much differently than my students or my kids. Kids will often gather around the screen and give directions to one another, or share the information. They are much more social! My husband and I are never comfortable when someone is reading over our shoulder.

Social Bookmarking--Day One! Phew!

2008-10-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

My 3 lads are in bed, so I'm exploring the Web! I have just spent the past hour figuring out which social bookmarks to sign up for. My first choice was Diigo.com. It was easy to do, fast, straight forward in its initial stages. I kept waiting, though, to see something about the teacher upgrade I read about last week for my discussion topic, but nothing "came at me". I suppose I need to dig a little for that, and I hope it doesn't mean that I have to set another account up. That is the thing I am discovering about Web 2.0 -- I'm spending a lot of time adding "stuff", I'm gaining many user accounts that I didn't even dream of having last month!

The second social bookmarking service I signed up for was del.ico.us. I did this mostly because it is supposedly "the most popular" and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The initial start-up seemed easy and straight forward, but it wasn't. It would not accept the password I tried to use, though it was accepted at Diigo. Then, when I had to put in the secret code (you know, the funny-letters-strung-so-close-together-I-thought-I-was-hallucinating code that is supposed to help fight the war on spam, or some such thing) and apparently I couldn't read them properly because it took me 10 times (I'm not kidding!!!) to get it right. I'm not complaining, the hard work and effort might have been good for me. I'm just wondering if that happens to others on a regular basis. Hopefully my stubborn and persistent nature will lead me to a happily organized future of brilliance and deep insight.

Creating a Personal Montage

2008-09-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Exploring Web 2.0 can lead you down roads you didn't expect. I was on YouTube, just looking at a few montages created by people I got to know through my Flickr group, and I saw the little button on the One True Media sign that said "Create Your Own", and so I just had to try it (I am an impulsive Teacher Librarian after all!). An hour later, and I'm still playing with it, adding photos of the boys and choosing background music. I liked the idea of adding text, but it is a premium feature and costs about $39 a year. I'm not that ready to commit, so I made the basic montage. I'm going to try to add it here, but please keep in mind that I didn't have much luck with embedding my Flickr slideshow. I'm crossing my virtual fingers here!

My Lads

I think this site would be very useful in the classroom. We could create montages of fieldtrips, and if the text did not cost money to add, or if I invested, the students could use it to recount the events of our trip. Hopefully focusing on what was learned, and not just the social side of an outing, though that may have a place in building a classroom community that we can share beyond the walls of said classroom. Hmm, that is more photo food for thought.

I imagine this site could be used across the grades as well--I would have easily used it when I taught Kindergarten to record activities such as show and share, using building blocks, baking, book making, finger-painting, puzzle making, just about anything. In middle years I would have used it to record volunteer endeavours such as working for the food bank, cleaning a green space, visiting a nursing home.

What I think would be really interesting, would be to ask the students how it would be best used in the classroom. Especially for those of us who have worked or are working in school divisions that restrict access to such sites. Having students debate the educational virtues of such sites and writing persuasive letters to the administration and school board might be a very useful activity indeed!

You Tub[ing] in the Family and then at School

2008-09-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

It's funny with new technologies--they become such a part of our lives that we forget just how new they really are. I was amazed to read on Wickipedia that YouTube was created in 2005. Not that long ago--and yet it has become a part of our daily life in much the way that the radio plays in the car when we run our errands, or the TV goes on to relax before bed.

Personal Context

I was first introduced to You Tube last year by my husband who loves to look up clips of 'classic' old TV programs like Get Smart, You Bet Your Life, Ed Sullivan and so forth. Its a pop culture treasure chest. Even tonight before the boys went to bed, they and their dad spent some quality time together looking up performances by the Beatles, Buddy Holly, and Elvis. Together they chat about the people/performers and often connect them to a timeline that involves other family members. For example they'll get a kick out of a TV Batman clip from when their Uncle was their age. They also are making connections to other media, including books, that they come across in the clips. They were especially impressed that the actor who played Grandpa Max in the recent film version of one of their favourite cartoon stories - Ben 10 - played the Six Million Dollar Man when he was much younger. My middle son (5 years old) has bookmarked a couple of videos about Star Wars Transformers, where basically the person putting on the video holds the transformer up and talks about its components. It's like a new-age show-and-tell, and my son is completely hooked. My husband and I are very aware of the inappropriate content that is too easily stumbled upon. Even though our computer is in a space of high traffic in our household - some clips slip through. I'm thinking particularly of a scene from Episode Three of Star Wars where there is a particularly gory scene. We've told both boys that they need to be older to watch it on DVD - but they have caught bit sof it as they surf through Star Wars toy and information sites.

Oh, the Places You Can Go with TeacherTube!!

I was excited to see this simple TeacherTube video called Our Favorite Robert Munsch Books at http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=847c5c211be6ec4b96b0. It is not complicated but very effective: the student's drawings of their favorite books are shown then they explain why that book was their favourite.

Another wonderful example of what students and teachers can view or create on TeacherTube is more complex but replicates the type of quality we can be striving for. It is rather long, but try watching just for a few moments, it's worth it! The Cat and the Hat Meets the Grinch:

Safety Concerning Me

Before watching An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube, by Michael Wesch, I felt YouTube had enormous potential in the classroom. That potential included access to video clips that could be used to enhance teaching and learning. Safety here did not concern me because I would ensure that students did not have "free range" over the site. I imagine that I would be showing them a clip that was previewed for appropriateness.

An exciting aspect of YouTube was the potential to create meaningful videos that could be viewed by other students around the world. But the more I watched Michael Wersch take us through the wonderful world of YouTube, the more wary I became. There are so many "what ifs" with YouTube. What if our innocent video was mashed up and remade and became subject to what Michael Wesch called "context collapse?" What if our little video took off and gained a life of its own that made us uncomfortable? What if an on-line predator was able to identify a student despite our deligent efforts to not use geographically identifying content? And perhaps a common fear for teachers: What if the technology doesn't work when I need it to?

I think the answer for me, and for many of my colleagues, is to take baby steps. Get comfortable with the technology ourselves before bringing it into the classroom. But while we are all about "baby steps" in education, our students, today's generation, is all about leaping in and having a go. They don't read the manual, they learn by trying. The other thing is that the teacher doesn't have to be the authority in the classroom (perhaps something which makes a lot of us uncomfortable); Web 2.0 is all about the social aspect of learning. More than one person takes on the responsibility for understanding and for representation of that understanding. Web 2.0 platforms like YouTube and TeacherTube provide maybe less than ideal platforms, but still real platforms for students and teachers to construct knowledge together and share it with the broad and diverse audience that is the Web.

Last Rant About Filters

As I examined YouTube and TeacherTube I had a little thought at the back of my mind, "none of this really matters because I likely won't be able to access it in the elementary school due to restrictions, just like last year..." Then I came across Will Richardson's blog at: http://weblogg-ed.com/ in which my frustration of filters was presented, and his wisdom and eloquence gave me hope. He says:

"I truly believe that filters make our kids less safe. They step off the bus into unfiltered worlds with no context for making good decisions about the stuff coming at them. It’s a huge problem. But on some levels, the bigger problem is what we are doing to our teachers. It insults the profession to not at the very least provide desktop overrides for teachers when they bump up against a filtered site. Have a policy in place to deal with incidents where teachers make poor choices if that’s what the concern is. Seriously, am I missing something? Why is that so hard to implement? The only way we’re going to get students, or teachers, to master the Web is to let them use it."

I am hopeful to see a future where more administrators and school boards take such words to heart. I can't help but feel that YouTube and TeacherTube are only the beginning...

Arriving or Departing--More thoughts on Photo Sharing Sites

2008-09-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

The educational possibilities brought to us by photo-sharing sites seems immense and perhaps a little daunting. In an attempt to organize my own thoughts on the subject, I have listed and commented on a few of ideas that I hope are meaningful to someone out there in the blogosphere.

Photo Sharing Sites--Random Thoughts

1. A simple introduction might be to have groups of students working on the same photo, then let them experiment with the editing tools to see how they would alter the photo to suit their personal tastes and style.

2. Use photo sharing sites to capture "moments of inquiry", or "love of reading", or whatever else is important to your school. The school I worked at last year incorporated the Aboriginal Seven Teachings. Each month we focused on a different concept such as wisdom, honesty, respect, humility, etc. I created a lift-the-flap bulletin board to represent each of those concepts with titles such as "glimpsing wisdom", or "a representation of courage" (for this one I had a photo of the Wright brother's first flight), or even just "a photo to make you smile" (a picture of a smiley baby). I attempted to replicate the on-line experience of being able to comment on the photos, so I built in the space to leave comments and hung pencils with ribbon from the board. Students of all ages seemed interested and would lift the flaps to see the photos, but it was the sixth graders who really got into leaving comments (our school was K-9).

3. I used photos I borrowed from Flickr as a slideshow backdrop at our Poetry Cafe last year. I searched photos related to poetry readings, and e-mailed the photographers to ask permission to use their photos at the event. Everyone granted permission (they seemed especially pleased to be used educationally). But not everyone wanted their names attached, so we need to remind our students not to assume they do.

4. Teachers can't control the images that other users post on the photo sharing sites. I don't believe there is a way to fully protect students from coming across objectionable images, but I also don't think that is a valid reason why we should avoid such sites in the classroom. David Jakes (author of "Using Flickr in the Classroom" http://www.jakesonline.org/using_flickr.pdf) suggests that "[i]n all cases, caution should be used when searching specific topics and a discussion with students about what should take place when inappropriate imagery is located should be done prior to use." One way of exercising such caution would be to limit internet users to small groups and have an adult supervisor close at hand to assist students working on sites such as Flickr. The presence of an adult could help to control students accessing inappropriate images (whether intentional or not); and if they do unintentionally trip over what we perceive to be objectionable content, then we can discuss appropriate steps to avoid such mishaps in the future.

5. Flickr could be very interesting for schools with a high immigrant and ESL population. Students could revisit their country of origin through photographs and share the images with classmates.

6. Flickr can take "Flat Stanley" to a whole new level. See Flat Stanley's Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/10694366@N00/tags/flatstanley/.

7. Not surprisingly, there is a Flickr site for teachers wanting to use Flickr in the classroom. Go to "FlickrEDU: Using Flickr Images in the Classroom" at http://www.flickr.com/groups/yahoo-teachers-of-merit-2006/discuss/72157594198910732/. This page has many wonderful examples educational Flickr sites.

8. Amy Standon, author of "My Friend Flickr-A Great Photo Opportunity" (http://www.edutopia.org/my-friend-flickr), provides reassurance for teachers wanting to use the resource without the risks. She says that one way to do this is to use the group photo pools, because you have more control over who participates in the site (members in groups can be by invitation only).

Experimenting with Picasa

2008-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am trying out Picasa, since I'm already familiar with Flickr. I'm not nervous, exactly, but I am out of my element. It is rather easy to get started, and sending a photo right to my blog from Picasa was very easy (I liked that). What I think would be a really cool and authentic activity would be to have students do a comparative study of the photo sharing sites (Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket). I'm sure that critical comparisons have been done already (I'll look that up in just a moment), but it would be an interesting project to do with a class. The students could create their own rating scales, and test the sites according to the criteria they have set. They could journal their discoveries in a blog, and invite other photographers to comment on their findings. Perhaps groups could present their findings as if they are trying to convince their school which photo sharing site they should support.

Why I Flickr. . . a love affair of sorts.

2008-09-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

I've been Flickr-ing for almost 2 years now, and I'm completely addicted to it. I first discovered Flickr after my son Aidan was born, and we discovered that he had Down syndrome and three holes in his heart. I was in a bit of shock, and found it very therapeutic to browse through images of happy, lovely children with Down syndrome who looked like they were living wonderful lives. There was something almost meditative about going through the photographs at the end of the day when my boys were in bed. I found three group sites for people with Down syndrome, and joined them. I started posting photographs of Aidan, and felt really incredible when people started leaving comments (mostly about how cute he is!). I didn't realize back then that what I was doing was building up a community of people I could turn to when I needed advice, support or encouragement.

Before I Flickr-ed though, I CarePage-d. We started a CarePage for Aidan through the Stollery Hospital site and I posted comments and photographs of Aidan and his brothers. Friends and family were able to post prayers and hellos to us, and in turn we were able to keep everyone up-to-date on Aidan's health. It became really important to me to be able to post from the hospital when Aidan had his heart surgery, and we could see that friends and family from all over Canada were thinking of him. The CarePage had a way of monitoring who had logged onto our page, and how many times and when. So, even if they did not leave a message, we knew they were thinking of Aidan. It did our hearts good. So good in fact that when Aidan was finished with his surgery and was considered "all fixed up", I felt I needed to continue posting, but no longer felt the CarePage was the venue. That was when I turned to Flickr.

One thing that I've discovered in comparing the two was that the CarePage was great, but not nearly as global as Flickr. The people who viewed the CarePage were invited to do so--the site was not public. In going public with my photos on Flickr I've made connections with families from around the world. I got so inspired I started my own Group site called "Down Syndrome in the Family". It's a spot to share photos of our children, highlighting the whole family and the enormous love that a child with Down syndrome brings to us. My little group now has 45 members. We comment on one anothers pictures, how much the kids are growing and cheer them on when they reach certain milestones.

Where I think Flickr offers the most potential is in the Discussion section of the Group sites. Flickr also has some fun tools where students could make posters, badges, hockey cards, magazine covers, etc. One idea I had was to create a school buzz around reading. Like Canada Reads, only it would be your school name (Victoria School Reads). The discussion site could have book reviews or students commenting about certain genres they like. Students could interview other students and staff and make magazine covers highlighting their information. There are so many possiblities, it is mind boggling (but in a good way).

I'm going to stop there for now, but have plans for another post about Flickr. If you have time to explore our Flickr photo pool--check us out at: http://flickr.com/groups/downsyndromeinthefamily/

Our family is the 3 Little Billy Goats.

About the blogginess of it all

2008-09-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to have a blog dedicated to one area of my life--the Teacher-Librarian side. This blog is required for the EDES 501 class on Web 2.0 in schools and libraries. There is nothing I love more than learning hands on skills while I'm learning the theory behind it all--so I'm looking forward to this class.

I chose the Blogger publishing tool because it seemed like the most intuitive site, and the one that I am most familiar with. While I would love to explore other options, I have 3 small children who are still very demanding, and time to surf and experiment is cut to a minimum. Another reason I chose this blog publisher is because it is the one I've seen used most often, and I suppose I am susceptible to familiarity. If I think of myself as an emergent learner in Web 2.0, then blogger is what has been modeled most for me, and therefore what I can easily slip into.

Using the blog as a vehicle for my own learning makes me all the more aware how powerful blogs can be in the classroom. The potential is enormous! I loved Will Richardson's example of his class using the blog to create a study guide for A Recipe for Bees. The writing involved had purpose, and an authentic audience--reminding me that as educators it is not enough to blog for blogging sake. It's what you put into the blog and the assignment that makes it meaningful to our students and ourselves.

In case anyone is reading this blog from outside of our EDES 501 class, I would highly recommend our class text, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson. It is an engaging text, full of insight for using Web 2.0 tools in our schools.