Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Reflection, Appendix C Web 2.0: new schools, new tools

I wanted to try to use a web 2.0 tool to create a reflection of the chapter I choose. I found Wordle and thought it would be the perfect tool to visually sum up my reading. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. I was not able to scan a chapter and copy it to Worldle, so I choose David Warlick's essay titled "A day in the life of web 2.0" (Appendix C) because I could also find it online. I edited out all the Mr. and Mrs. because I liked the word cloud better without them. So here it is.



Click here for larger image.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Chapter 7 - Chapter 7 – Online Safety and Security

Now that our schools are incorporating technology, I think that every district should ensure that the all educators receive professional development regarding online safety /security and copyright /intellectual property issues. Students should also receive implicit instruction and consumer education in these areas. Our school has an acceptable use policy that students fill out during registration, but I do not know if teachers review the policy with their students. I appreciated the list of administrative restrictions regarding blogs, wikis, and other content sharing sites like YouTube. (Page 149) This shows that the decision made to use or not use these tools has been well thought out and planned by those accountable.
*The Web 2.0 tool alternatives listed on page 156 are a great resource. Teachers are the moderators so content is checked before posting.

Chapter 9 - New Schools

“Times, they are a changin’…” This chapter is about ideas to ponder and strategies to try that may make a difference in the future. I am a list person, so here are my thoughts… listfully .
Ideas and Strategies:
•Harness the collective intelligence of ed. data to provide students immediate feedback.
•Educational materials (content and Web 2.0 tools) that address real learning needs.
•Open source software and /or subscriptions based on usage.
•Wiki based textbooks.
•Professional development = online conferences based on educators needs.
•Policies/politics: Broadband access for all, net neutrality and open access, classrooms equipped as needed.

Chapter 1 – New World, New Web, New Skills

Chapter 1 starts with, “Think back to when you were in school; consider how different everything was then”. Just today, I had a conversation with a colleague about writing college term papers. I reminisced about using the electric typewriter and eraser cartridges. He had never seen an electric typewriter, luckily I have one on hand (for emergencies) to show him. “How do you delete?” was one concern of his. I would venture that the question, “how do you gather information, analyze, prioritize, adapt, communicate, collaborate with, create and share this information?” is our present concern.
Web 2.0 tools promote creativity, communication, and collaboration. They also allow students to choose tools that mesh with their learning style.
One thing that caught my eye was the statement from The Partnership for 21st Century Skills that states: “Students cannot master 21st-Century skills [which they will need in their future endeavors] unless their teachers are well trained and supported in this type of instruction.” It is my hope to try to integrate more of these skills into what I teach in the library and support other educators in their efforts also.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Week 9, Thing #23

I have used and recommended creative commons often this year. I found a great video from their site that illustrates how objects/ideas can be used, changed, altered, and re-mixed to create something new. You will find Sheryl Seibert’s video about found art and remix culture below.



I also liked the License page. It explains the six different licenses available with Creative Commons, and what creative options are available with the work one is "remixing".

I have enjoyed AND learned so much from this program. Thanks to Ann and Katie for their instruction and insights, and to the folks at the Alaska State Library for the grant funding for this program.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Week 9, Thing #22

I looked through the world book fair site and at first glance did not get excited about it. Then I looked at the collections list and was fairly impressed. Then... I found out you have to be a member (small $) to use the collections section and was not so impressed. Here are some examples of the variety of the collections:
BuddhaNet , BuddhaNet™ is the result of a vision to link up with the growing worldwide culture of people committed to the Buddha's teachings and lifestyle, as an on-line cyber sangha.
The Public Domain Music Score Library attempts to create a virtual library containing all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge. Since its launch on in 2006, more than 17,000 scores by over 1,000 composers have been uploaded, making it one of the largest public domain music score collections on the web.
Children's Literature Collection is compiled from scans of original image rich children's books. The World Public Library Children's Literature Collection is a selected list of the most popular children's books of all times.

LibriVox is a great resource for those looking for audiobooks. The reading is done by volunteers, so I do not know about the audio quality. I know I will be showing this resource to students when they are doing literature units.

There are a couple of advantages to ebooks like text searching, the ability to change font size and they maybe more environmentally sound. But... I personally would rather have a paper book. They don't need power, they are better on my eyes, and... they just smell right.

Week 9, Thing #21

After looking around for awhile, I came upon the Marian High School (Omaha, Nebraska) Student Journalism Weekly Podcast(videocast)Program. What a wonderful way to integrate technology into the journalism class and provide a service to the school. I will make note to share this with our new Journalism teacher next year.

As our students here work on their BookLooks (trailers), I have shared Nancy Keane's Booktalks Quick and Simple. Most of them wanted VISUALS along with the audio.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Week 9, Thing #20

The following links to one of my favorite "education speeches". From TeacherTube: "A must-see for every parent and teacher. Education guru Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it."
I will not embedd this as it takes "a while" to download.
I also looked at vimeo - another social video site, but did not find anything that I really liked.

Week 8, Thing #19.1



One feature I have used before is the "folder". I created an Ebsco account a while ago and had information in my folder, but did not know you could make multiple folders. This screen shot shows the content of my new "MultiMedia & Internet@Schools" folder. This magazine is new to me, but I will be following it with the RSS feed I first sent to my bloglines account, then to this site.
Another good feature of the ebsco databases is the Subjects list that shows to the left of the results list. This gives related subjects to search if the information needed wasn't found in the first search.
After a visit to Alaska's Digital Archives (SLED), I tried to save a page of photos I had selected as "my favorites" and save as a web page then download it to this blog. This attempt failed. Any suggestions? Here is a photo that shows the location of Juneau's Thunder Mountain High School. I added the "X-marks-the-spot" using Windows Paint.

Mendenhall Valley and Glacier, accessed April 5, 2009, from http://vilda.alaska.edu/u?/cdmg21,2515.

A new Digital Pipeline feature coming soon is Notetaking. "Write notes associated with the articles you are viewing. Notes will be stored in your folder for future reference, with links back to the original context." This will really help with student research. They could have "virtual note cards" instead of 3x5s falling out of their binders!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Week 8, Thing #19

I used LibraryThing to make a widget showing the 2010 High School BOTB books. If you click on the book cover, you can see all the tags attributed to each book and there is a link to amazon if you want more information, (or to purchase!).

Week 8, Thing #18

I looked at both Zoho and Google docs and found them to be quite similar. I played around with Google docs because I thought it would be better to use since I already have a Google account. This would be a great way to write those "group documents" that sometimes come up during the year, like letters to the school board, new district-wide library policies, etc. There were templates for almost every conceivable use. I would back up all my documents on my school server, but Google docs is another safety net.

Week 7, Thing #17



This is the cartoon I added to the Image Generators and Web Award Winners section of the ravenaboutweb20 wiki. I made this to show on a library web site to generate interest in looking at the "best of" lists and our BookLooks (what our freshmen have decided to call their digital booktalks) that our freshmen groups are currently producing.
Click on the toon to enlarge.

Week 7, Thing #16

I have had a couple of experiences using wikis before. While I was completing my library endorsement through the University of Montana (online), we had a couple of group projects that were successful because we could collaborate using our wiki. In my group, we had two folks from Montana, one from Arizona and me, from Alaska! What a great tool for our students for their group projects also. The AP History wiki example was an excellent use of a wiki for an entire class because the instructions, tasks, resources and finished products were all gathered in one place.
One wiki I have read occaisionally is Joyce Valenza's teacherlibrarianwiki. Once and a while I find a very useful idea/resource there. I especially like the booklists sections.