The School Media Center: Technology and Diversity

The American Library Association’s (ALA) publication, Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (1998), outlined the mission of the school media program. This mission is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of information and related ideas. Additionally, in 2007, the organization introduced Standards for the 21st Century Learner, the replacement for the Information Power guidelines for media programs. Despite the update, the roles of the school media specialist remain a solid focal point for media specialist serving as instructional consultant, information specialist, teacher, and technological coordinator within school settings. Therefore, media specialists are charged with setting the standards for integrating technology and diversification through the school media program.

In addition to the aforementioned mission of ensuring effective users of information, ALA also emphasizes another key goal involving media programs’ responsibility to emphasize intellectual freedoms and access to various forms of information sources, including technological resources. Media specialists provide learning activities and related resources for students on a daily basis, but must be cognizant that these resources and actives are representative of their school community’s demographic, social and cultural perspectives. The media center activities and resources must also provide diverse experiences for all learners within the school setting with the goals of producing technology literate students and increased student achievement. This is a major challenge for school media specialists and teachers serving schools with a range of socioeconomic, ethnic, and learning needs, including gifted, general, and special education, ESOL, as well as remediation programs.

As school media specialist serve in various roles, the utilization of various strategies and resources is equally important in order to address technology integration and diversity needs in and through the media center. Accordingly, Learning Points & Associates (2007), provided suggestions for relevant 21st century technology integration, including:


Student Learning:

• Social networking technology
• Web-based resources for research
• Online portfolios
• Synthesizing and presenting information through creative graphic presentations
• Use of audio and video files
• E-learning project based collaboration, such as ePals Classroom Exchange
• Virtual Fieldtrips


Teachers/Staff:

• Ongoing professional development
• Curriculum integration of technology to meet state academic standards
• Use to increase parental involvement and communication in schools
• To college, manage, and analyze data for school improvement, teaching and learning


Resources for Technology Integration:

• ePals Global Community – a free K-12 social learning network - http://www.epals.com/join/

• Website for information on technology and learning - http://www.techlearning.com/

• Integrating via video vignettes @ Integrating New Technologies Into the Methods of Education or IN TIME - http://www.intime.uni.edu/

• TimeMe's free and fee based software products time tests, classes, meetings, projects, and presentations - http://www.timeme.com/

• Free blog for kids designed for elementary and middle school teachers and allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community - http://kidblog.org/home.php

• Free online note taker, organizer, spreadsheets, presentation and word application tools - https://www.zoho.com/


Resources for Diversity in Media Services:

• A website of bilingual translation of common media center phrases/signage - https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/projects/bilingualsign/main.html

• An introduction to the resources on the Web concerning multicultural education and diversity - http://library.csustan.edu/lboyer/multicultural/main.htm

• Article on strategies for reaching out to diverse populations - www.sedl.org/connections/resources/rb/rb5-diverse.pdf

• Information Literacy and Differentiation - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Information_Literacy_in_the_K12_Classroom/Chapter
• Research and best practices for technology integration - http://www.pbs.org/teachers/librarymedia/tech-integration/

• This National Education Association online toolkit introduces the multiple facets of diversity - http://www.nea.org/tools/diversity-toolkit.html


References:

American Association of School Librarians and Association. 1998.Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. Chicago: American Library Association and Washington, DC: Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

Learning Point Associates. (2007). Understanding No Child Left Behind: Technology integration. Retrieved from http://www.learningpt.org/pdfs/qkey3.pdf

Crabby Fried Chicken: A Digital Story

Crabby Fried Chicken

Imagine you are trying to teach your 7^th grade students about myths and fables. You have students copy notes from the interactiveboard and read through a couple of myths and fables. Then you have them make a venn diagram comparing/contrasting myths/fables, and even make them write their own myth or fable. However, when the students go to share their stories, you find out several things:

1) They didn’t incorporate the elements of a myth that they were supposed to

2) Their writing doesn’t make much sense

3) Your students are bored.

You're then left wondering how much your students actually retained from the lesson. In case you haven't figured it out yet, this is a true story. Even when students read stories aloud, I’ve found that their thoughts tend to be very scattered. Yet when pictures are involved (such as in digital storytelling), students are able to see their thought pattern and are forced to make what they have written make sense to others in a visual context. Therefore, I decided to create a sample digital story for students to use as a guide for creating their own myth or fable (which you can view here...)

My Encounter with Digital Stories

After using digital storytelling, I can honestly say that it is a way for students to teach themselves about the content of a unit and allows them to have a personal sense of achievement (as well as a final product that is much harder to destroy than posterboard).

Why not make the unit more meaningful and memorable by having students create presentations that include sound, written words, and pictures? Such presentations can not only integrate everything they have learned about the unit, but will entertain the class. Not to mention it will fulfill those pesky standards of integrating technology in the classroom, participating in group interaction, and mastering different styles of writing.

Movie Maker In the Classroom

Digital Storytelling can be used to perform a variety of actions in the classroom. Below are just a few ideas, although I’m sure you can come up with a plethora of your own.

• Present a biography or autobiography
• Perform a booktalk or book review
• Create a fictional story
• Create a documentary of a historical or contemporary event
• Demonstrate ho w to do something (i.e. – a math problem, a writing tutorial, etc.)
• Stage a debate
• Create a public service announcement or advertisement
• Showcase a portfolio

Getting Started

The book suggests using lots of fancy equipment (i.e. – photoediting software, sound recording software, microphone stand, microphone, and scanner). These items are nice to have, but are not at all necessary. To create a digital story, you really only need a computer (preferably a laptop since most come with a built in microphone), and windows movie maker or imovie (where you can record both audio and video), or powerpoint (where you can take images and record audio over them). If you plan on inserting images and recording audio, you need to find copyright friendly images (either taken personally on a digital camera or borrowed from a copyright friendly website such as those listed below).

In fact, most schools have laptop carts available for check out (though if they don’t, the school may have to bite the bullet on purchasing microphones). Once, you have checked out the laptops, make sure the proper programs are downloaded (or find out the protocol for getting them added), and experiment with recording audio/video and using specific program features before turning students loose. There are tons of tutorials on the web for using moviemaker which can help as well!

Movie Maker Resource Kit

Check out the following website: http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/nisa/moviemaker.htm to find out how to use MovieMaker (there are multiple tutorials), follow copyright laws, burn/share movies, and get ideas digital storytelling for the classroom. Also find out about extra equipment you can use with MovieMaker including FlipCameras and free software (file conversion, video editing, image editing, etc.).

Copyright Friendly Images and Music

Copyright Tutorial for Students

http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf

This is a wonderful interactive website on copyright made just for students. It features a group of students asking common copyright questions generated by students.

FreePlay Music

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

Free AudioClips

http://www.freeaudioclips.com/

Pics4learning

http://www.pics4learning.com/

Publishing Your Digital Story

Once a digital story is created, the question becomes how is it to be stored and shared? Well, there are lots of places you can publish your work. The media center website is a great place to showcase student work! Also, check out these websites for sharing as well!

VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/

Using this interactive website, you can upload your digital story and take comments on it from other viewers.

KidBlog

http://kidblog.org/home.php

This is a kidfriendly blog where photos, podcasts, movies, digital stories, images, (and pretty much anything else you can think of) can be shared using a educationally secure network.

TeacherTube and Youtube

I won’t actually give the links because I’m going to assume we all know how to access these links. Be very careful about posting student work to these websites as we all know the risks of sharing too much student information.

ThinkQuest

http://www.thinkquest.org/en/

This is an educationally friendly website where students create their own “ThinkQuest” website. It pretty much goes a step further than just sharing one digital story. However, if you have a class and there are multiple stories to share, I would suggest creating a website to showcase them with other classes and schools from around the world!

Copyright-Fair Use

            As teachers, we are constantly trying to find creative ideas to incorporate into our lessons and classrooms, but many times we are in violation of copyright laws.  I do not think that educators violate these laws intentionally; but many do it without knowing they are doing anything wrong.

             What are copyright laws?  Copyright laws are in place to grant and protect the rights of the original work.  It gives the authors the rights to reproduce, distribute, perform and display their work. However, educators may use copyright materials under Fair Use. Fair Use allows limited copying of copyrighted materials without the author’s permission. These materials must be used in certain conditions, such as teaching.

              There is a lot of gray area when looking and thinking about Fair Use in the classroom. The myths discussed in The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education are those that need to be addressed and discussed with teachers to assure that we as educators are following the guidelines.

One of the myths that I found interesting was “EDUCATORS CAN RELY ON “RULES OF THUMB” FOR FAIR USE GUIDANCE”. I have always learned that there are certain guidelines for using material, and as long as you followed those guidelines, you were ok. It took me a while to understand why this was a myth, and I think I figured it out......this is why I think this is a myth.

              There are guidelines for usage of materials, such as percentage of songs or videos, and number of words or number of pages from literary works. However, this is not enough. There are other factors that you must consider BEFORE you follow the “rules of thumb” guidelines.

The 4 factors that need to be considered when deciding whether or not the use of a material is fair:

 1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

2. The nature of the copyrighted work

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

            Basically what this means is that before you use any material, you need to make sure that you are using it for educational purposes and that it has value to what your students are learning. (In my opinion, this is the gray area. I think that we as educators can twist and turn just about anything and deem it educational!) If you select a material and feel like it has an educational place in your classroom, then there are guidelines for what is acceptable for you to use according to Fair Use. I created a newsletter for one of my previous classes about Fair Use and Copyright. I created it to use as a training tool for teachers. If you would like more information about Fair Use and a list of websites, check out my newsletter at the link below.

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/72558622?access_key=key-13b3x1wr9yogyph70hnz

The Media Specialist: A Teacher’s best Friend

Blake Turner

Technology is here and it is here to stay.  It has become an integral part of the educational system.  Grades are kept on databases, streaming video is used in lessons, and student scheduling is performed, all on electronic formats; class projects have moved from the age-old piece of poster board and the realm of dioramas to the electronic arena.  I would imagine that most educators would be hard pressed to imagine a school day going by without utilizing a piece of technology in some fashion or another. 

It seems that most schools do not necessarily suffer from a lack of technology, but rather a competence in its use and support.  As many of us have experienced, receiving a new piece of equipment can be a blessing and a curse.  The excitement of having a new tool to use in the education of our students is obvious; however, sometimes the daunting task of learning how to use the new piece of wonder technology is paralyzing.   Teachers have barely enough time to teach, plan, and grade; facing the task of learning a new electronic format can be a bit hard  It seems although there is more and more technology entering schools, the irony prevails that there is little training that accompanies it.

I have also noticed that technology specialist at schools have little time to give lessons on using technology; in fact I have observed that quite a bit of their time is employed with hardware issues and attending to basic computer issues.

It struck me that these observances offer an excellent opportunity for the astute media specialist.  In essence, a motivated media specialist could help solve the issue of technology training and address the issue of the plethora of trivial issues that the resident technology specialist deals with, thus, freeing him or her to help with more instruction based assistance.

As we all know, it is our job as media specialists to make the breadth of the services that we offer and the wonderful resource that a media center represents apparent to all of our peers.  Becoming a learning leader in the arena of technology assistance is one such way to make our positive impacts on education felt. 

            The first step to providing any form of meaningful assistance or education is to find out the level of knowledge from the intended audience.  This can be easily accomplished be sending out e-mails that request feedback.  These can be done in simple response e-mails that request areas of interest or needs from the staff.  An excellent resource for tailored response style survey e-mails is doodle.com; check it out and you will be amazed!

As great as e-mails are, do not be afraid to hit the rubber to the road and go drop in on a few teachers and meet with them face to face with them.  Of course, make sure that it is convenient for them, but I have found that often times the plethora of e-mails that teachers receive on a daily basis induces many to delete them… importance be damned... without much consideration.  I can understand this myself.  It is amazing what meeting personally with an individual can do towards opening future lines of communication.  You will also open a chance to address some timely needs that the teacher may be facing with his or her classes.

The next step is for the media specialist to come up with some in-service seminars and or training modules to help faculty members in their technological challenges.  Remember, that quite a bit of training can be provided to teachers in the forms of interactive PowerPoints.  In fact, many of the questions that plague technology specialist like: how do you scan a document, turn a document into a PDF, access school calendars, utilize grading software, etc. can be addressed in simple how to documents that can be sent to teachers through a school efficiently.

I also feel that in person seminars should be sweetened with the promise of in service or PLU hours.  In fact, I would imagine that any type of training in technology could be tied to just about any school’s school wide improvement plan.  These seminars could also be tied to technology standards that most states have, thus bridging the impact on student achievement divide that media specialist are often challenge to overcome.

School TV News- Cougar Cub News

           I knew that my school was not savvy when it came to School TV News, but after looking at Pleasant Grove Elementary and The Tiger News, I am a bit embarrassed, but realize what potential our newscast can have.

Our newscast is “The Cougar Cub Morning News”. It is taped throughout the week and broadcasted on Friday morning. Each week two 5^th graders are picked to be the anchors of the news. The broadcast follows the same format each week. It includes the pledge, our mission statement for the school and county, lunch menu, weather, students with birthdays for the week and any other important news for the week. If there are any special events happening in the classroom, these events are spotlighted too.

Our media specialist is in charge of the program. She does all the filming and editing. We do not have an elaborate set, or props. There is a small room off of the media center that is used for filming. It consists of a table with a tablecloth with our school name, an American flag and a few fake trees in the background.

The only problems that the media specialist has encountered had to do with technology. She used an old camcorder to record the news and then would edit on an old Mac computer. Within the last year, she has purchased a flip camera and now produces the news on a newer PC in the library. Another problem that she has is getting additional news stories from the classrooms. She encourages teachers to let her know if they are doing something in their classroom, but there are some weeks when there is nothing extra to share on the broadcast.

Honestly, our school news is B-O-R-I-N-G. I have been at the school for 9 years, and the format has not changed at all in the time that I have been there.  Same music and script, the only thing different is the 5^th graders each year. The problem is addressing the problem. Does our media specialist know that the program is dull or does she think it is great? Or does she do it because she has to and does not care how it turns out? There are people in the building who are willing and would love to help with the broadcast, but bringing up the subject has been difficult.

I think that sometimes people think that elementary students are not capable of producing a newscast, but Pleasant Grove Elementary proves that theory wrong! Our media specialist is nearing retirement; maybe our next media specialist can revive and revamp our Cougar Cub News!

Round Round Get Around! I Get Around!

Social Networking: A Definition

Whenever I think of Social networking, I think of the Beach Boys song “I get around” because essentially what you’re doing is cruising around the internet and making your people skills visible.

Social networking is defined by about.com as “web-based networking which occurs through a variety of websites that allow users to share content, interact, and develop communities around similar interests.

Social networking sites allow users to do three things:
1) Create a public, semi-public, or private profile
2) Create a list of users to share connections and updates with
3) View and traverse the profiles, connections, and updates of those other users

Social networking in Schools

I believe social networking certainly has a place in the school system, but in order for it to be used effectively, you must follow some of the suggestions in Library 2.0 and Beyond.

1. Explore the website beforehand
2. Set the ground rules
3. Have students add specific content that is decided upon by the teacher/SLMS/and principal if necessary.
4. Update regularly to ensure that the project is successful and being utilized to its fullest potential.

In order to screen out online predators, the SLMS can be in charge of who is added as a user or “friend” and who is not (as opposed to students) and can also control the privacy settings on the account.. You are under no obligation to add users or “friends” to your profile. This is also one instance where a blog is useful because you can block who sees and does not see your content. The teacher and SLMS can also help oversee comments and delete those that are deemed to be derogatory. Maintaining a social networking website profile can mean A LOT of extra work, so be sure you are prepared to undertake this amount of responsibility.

I believe that websites like ThinkQuest are most useful for schools because they are designed to be used in an educational setting only. Online predators are not as much of a concern because privacy settings are strict and controlled. Content is geared for all age groups of students without being inappropriate or harmful. It also hosts contents to see which schools can come up with the best educational webpages and webquests.

Our school filters social networking sites to a great extent. We aren’t allowed to use blogs or any services that require you to sign up with a username and password. This means that sites such as Flickr, Delicious, blogs, glogs, and other userful tools are not available. In order to use social networking websites, we have to get permission. But we have had success stories! There was one teacher in our system who had never used technology before and wanted to talk to her son in Argentina so she could teach her students about Hispanic heritage month. She had alerted the media specialist, who in turn had to alerted the county technology specialist. The county technology specialist came and set up her classroom with a webcam and unblocked Skype. The students had a wonderful time learning about Argentina and were featured in the county newspaper!


Social Networking Sites: Going beyond the Classroom

We know the common social networking sites like blogger, flickr, facebook, and myspace. But here are some lesser known sites you may not know as much about. I’m sure you could come up with a lot of ways to use these in the classroom. Many of the uses are obvious (i.e. using Zoopa for advertising/marketing classes to create and upload their own ads or using DeviantArt for art classes to upload their student work and create a portfolio).

Thinkquest
http://www.thinkquest.org/en/
This is a website where students can create and share their own webpages. A contest is hosted annually for the best one and prizes are awarded to the winning school. Previous entries are not deleted, but rather showcased and hosted in the ThinkQuest library.

Italki
http://www.italki.com/
A place where students learning a foreign language (and the teachers who teach them) can network. Students and teachers can get help with their writing, get feedback on their speaking skills, and make friends with others around the world to practice the language they are learning.

ScienceStage
http://sciencestage.com/
A collection of science multimedia uploaded by scientists from around the world. You don’t have to join to browse the collection of videos, documents, and group discussions about everything from astronomy to engineering.

GoodReads
http://www.goodreads.com/
LibraryThing is a popular website, but there are also other websites out there such as Goodreads. You can create your own booklists, take book quizzes, answer trivia questions, see what your friends are reading, and browse current titles.

Shelfari
http://www.shelfari.com/
Shelfari is run by Amazon.com. It is basically a virtual bookshelf which you can share with your friends. You can write and edit plot summaries, enter quotations, character descriptions, and other fun facts about the books.

Wattpad
http://www.wattpad.com/
Wattpad is a place for up and coming writers to share their stories with each other through video, text, and audio. Others can read the posted fiction and comment. There are many categories including poetry, humor, historical fiction, and even fan fiction (most of which are based on popular book series such as Harry Potter).

Zooppa
http://zooppa.com/
Zoopa hosts contests for advertising and marketing campaigns. All you have to do is sign up, choose the contest you want to participate in, create and upload your video advertisement, view other submissions, and wait to see if you’re chosen as a finalist. Great for advertising and marketing classes!

DeviantArt
http://www.deviantart.com/
Deviant Art allows you to create a profile, post your own artwork onto that profile, and network with other artists. There are several discussion groups, and a shop where you can order prints (with the artist’s permission). Great for art classes!

Disaboom
http://www.disaboom.com/
Disaboom allows people with disabilities to network, learn about their rights, obtain products and services, discuss mobility and job advocacy, discuss recreational activities, and much more! This is an awesome networking site with a lot of resources that will help disabled students (and their parents) not feel so isolated in the community!

Social Networking

20 years ago, the forms of communicating with family and friends were basically the telephone or letters. 10 years ago, emailing started to infiltrate our world. Today, in 2011, people don’t write or use “snail mail” to send letters and some don’t even make phone calls. We rely on text messaging and other social networking sites such as Facebook to communicate with others.

Facebook is the most popular social network, with more than 65 million active users. It is the sixth most visited website in the United States. Why are we not using a tool that is that popular in the classroom? Most school districts have blocked Facebook from school computers and see it as
a negative source, but Facebook and other social networks can have a place within the classroom and be a good asset if used correctly.

Maybe we should evaluate and look at Facebook and other social network sites for what they are…............ a “SOCIAL” network. Goals for incorporating and using social networks should be social in nature. Social Networks could allow students to form bonds with classmates and give them a sense of belonging. It could also increase the bond between the teachers and the students. They could also be a good form of communication between parents and the school. More than likely, many parents are among the 65 million active social network users.

There are many things to consider before a teacher can integrate social media into the classroom. One of the first things that needs to be considered is the filters at your school. Facebook is one of the top blocked websites at schools and workplaces Teachers and students will need access to the websites, if they are going to be used properly. To ensure that social networks are used properly, add internet citizenship training to the curriculum. Adding this to the curriculum can help address concerns such as security and privacy. Finally, a teacher needs to create a profile that is separate from their personal profile. There have been many concerns about the appropriateness of sharing your personal life with your professional life. This could easily be addressed by having two separate accounts.

A media specialist role in a school is more than just checking out books and aiding in research. As technology evolves, so does the role of the SLMS. A SLMS must keep up with all the new technologies. Our main goal is to make sure that students and teachers have access to the best information possible. Social networking is a way to meet these goals. If we properly
utilized social networking for our media center, maybe we could inspire other teachers to try it too! The media specialist could also conduct workshops to help teachers set up accounts and get them using these tools in their classroom.

For ideas and ways to use social media in the classroom check out the following links:

13 Enlightening Case Studies of Social Media in the Classroom:
http://bestonlineuniversities.com/2009/13-enlightening-case-studies-of-social-media-in-the-classroom/
100 Inspiring Ways to Use Social Media in the Classroom
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/05/100-inspiring-ways-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom/
Inspring ways to Use Social Media in Your Classroom
http://blog.nettrekker.com/2011/04/06/inspiring-ways-to-use-social-media-in-your-classroom/

Creating an Amazing Media Center Website!

There are media centers across the nation with and without web pages. However, those that have one are not all created equal. Some have too little information, while others have too much. With this said, a good website is an important networking tool for media programs. As media specialists look to serve their schools efficiently, creating an attractive, relevant website should be on the list of many “to dos”. Creating and maintaining a website is a major step in public relations and marketing. Therefore, these tips will serve as a PR starting point for creating an amazing webpage to market your school media center. For starters, I found this article, which highlights the need for media center public relations by Kathy Schrock, titled The ABCs of marketing: Promoting your Library Media Center is a Necessity viewable at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA332671.html.

So why worry about “PR” for the media center? If you build it, they will come, right? Well, maybe, but the right public relations and networking certainly add more value to media programs in times of budget cuts. Therefore, creating and maintaining a website is essential to school media centers for several reasons. First school media centers can use web sites as an introduction to the media center, while highlighting its mission to the school and community. Next, a good website serves as an interface or one-stop-shop for external curriculum relevant resources for staff and students. Additionally, websites can be used as an internal publisher of the good works of students as it relates to information literacy and the curriculum. Last, but certainly not least, a good media center website can be used as a data resource for staff and students. A website would not take the place of the media specialist, however, it can be utilized for direct access to information to engage students in real world problem solving, while providing a vehicle of instructional and learning support for parents and school staff. For more information related to website building and its potential for schools/media centers, visit the following website.
http://eduscapes.com/sessions/brick/index.htm

In closing, websites are not new in this technology age. However, with the many technology tools out there, this is a great time for media specialists to develop or even modify their websites in an effort to be more efficient, while maximizing collaboration and public relations in the media center program. I would recommend glancing at other media program websites to be abreast of trends and ideas. In addition, while developing a website may be easy for most, we must keep in mind, a website is a public domain and care must be taken to ensure goals of accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, one final tidbit for an amazing website involves the evaluation of your and any other website viewed. Please reference Kathy Schrock’s article, “The ABCs of Website Evaluation” downloadable at http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/pdf/weval.pdf.

Additional Resources regarding websites for Media Specialists

http://kathyschrock.net/eval/index.htm

A lesson plan regarding critical evaluation of a web page for: Grades 6-8:

http://kathyschrock.net/abceval/teacherwebeval.pdf

A website evaluation and internet lesson plan guide for teachers and the user can type into and save information on this form!

http://www.wigglebits.com/

A web resource on building a school website!

http://www.ala.org/oif/iftoolkits/internet

An ALA toolkit link to use for the education, information and promotion of the library media program

Websites Can Be a Great Opportunity for Media Specialists

As media specialists, we must always look for ways that we can …shall we say… market ourselves and our services; websites/blogs offer us excellent opportunities to showcase our abilities of collecting, organizing ,and presenting information in a cogent and cohesive way.

Many schools are now requiring their instructional faculty to setup and maintain websites.  I have noticed that while this endeavor is admirable, it often seems that once the decree has been made that there will be websites, there is little in the way of support or training that is allotted to assisting the teachers in their website challenges.

Because of this, many teachers have issues setting up websites that are well functioning. This is where we step in!  I think it would be quite easy to justify the allotting of highly coveted Professional learning Units (PLUs) for in-service seminars on websites, and everybody knows that incentives assure success!  Since the best resource in a school is its faculty, it would be an excellent idea to setup an in-service that utilized the expertise of members of the faculty.  The media center could host the seminar.  I know in our library there are 24 computers at two separate tables and 2 mobile laptop carts that house 24 computers each.  There is also a connected computer lab that has 30 computers.  I would have different areas set up for different issues.  One could be for utilizing different website services.  One could be for technical issues and another could be set up for general use.   Of course, it would be a good idea to send out an email requesting help and asking for issues that need to be covered.  It is also important to note that most centers have LED projection systems that could be of great help in conducting a seminar of this type.

Web sites offer users the ability to communicate information in an easily accessible manner.  Teachers can use them to post assignments for absent students, notes from lessons, links to helpful sites, and maintaining communication.  Media centers can use them for collection listings, event planners scheduling, notices, communication and as compendiums of general information and paths to it.   

There are quite a few website/blogger sites that offer free pages.  Just remember that free pages do not come with all of the bells and whistles of the pay for services.  However, they are more than enough to make an attractive, user friendly site.

Two of the sites that I have found to be the easiest to use are:

Weebly

http://www.weebly.com/

I found the video tutorials for Weebly to be excellent.

Blogger

Offered by Google

https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&passive=1209600&continue=http://www.blogger.com/home&followup=http://www.blogger.com/home&ltmpl=start#s01

Quite an impressive address!

Blogger is very intuitive to use.

The Five Ws of Wikis!

What & Who: Wikis Defined

Even in this day of technological advances, there are probably individuals out there still wondering what is a wiki? In 1994, Ward Cunningham introduced the first wiki-based website, derived from the term “Wiki”, a Hawaiian word meaning fast or quick. According to Boeninger (2006), wikis, in the simplest term, is defined as websites with content that can be created and edited by a community of users. Accordingly, wikis are touted as tools of collaboration among a community of individuals. Therefore, in educational settings, essentially, a wiki is a database for creating, searching and browsing through information for the purposes of teaching and learning. Please visit or share the link below for an introductory to wikis.
http://webtrends.about.com/od/wiki/a/what_is_a_wiki.htm

Where & Why: Use in School Media Centers

According to Information Power (1998), the central concern of a student centered library media program is to help students flourish in the learning community. Accordingly, this is achievable through assisting students become active, creative seekers, evaluators and users of various information sources. Therefore, the use of various sources, including educational wikis, serves as a valuable tool for school media centers. Media specialists can collaborate with teachers throughout the school to create wikis for targeted grade level needs. For instance, where the primary grades may need skill-building resources on a primary grades targeted wiki, the upper elementary grades may need targeted task that incorporate the Georgia Performance Standards of text limited information for a CRCT targeted areas, such as fifth graders and the Civil War. A middle school media specialist may assist with setting up a scavenger hunt wiki teaching the research process, while a high school media specialist may assist in developing a wiki for an Astronomy project. Therefore, wikis are appropriate for use across many settings for educational benefit and it helps with communication and increasing collaboration among educators for common teaching and learning goals. For a list of ideas on how to use wikis across the curriculum, check out the link below, which also provides suggestions for use with younger students.
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas1.cfm

When: To Use Caution with Wikis

Although wikis are beneficial in many ways, from communication, collaboration, research and more, caution must be taken with the use of wikis. According to Courtney (2007), the first thing to decide is whether a wiki is really needed. There are several “best practices” for wikis outlined in Library 2.0, which are:

1.) Determine the need or vision for the wiki (i.e. communication, solve a problem, collaboration, research)
2.) Once the need is established, review other wikis for ideas on how to incorporate content ideas and organizational structures
3.) Next, the media specialist should investigate the available wiki software options
4.) After selecting the software/format and creating the wiki, the real work begins by adding content, structure and documentation advising what it is and how to use

Additionally, care must be taken to determine the validity, reliability and authoritative scope of the information provided as wikis, as with many internet-based websites, are not created equal.

Please visit the websites below for more information regarding wikis’ instructional possibilities in educational setting and use the five Ws as it relates to creating your own wiki!

♦A Comprehensive Guide to Wikis: http://webtrends.about.com/od/wiki/a/guide_to_wikis.htm

This website serves as a comprehensive introductory to wikis.

♦Social Media Tools 101: http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/socialmediabeginnersguide/social-media-tools-101/#Wikis

♦The Moving Forward Wikis: http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline

The website houses a host of resources to help change agents move schools forward into the 21st century.

References:

American Librarian Association. (1998). Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. ALA: Chicago

Courtney, N. (2007). Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative technologies and tomorrow’s user. Libraries Unlimited: Westport, Connecticut

Nations, D. (2011). What is a Wiki? Retrieved from http://webtrends.about.com/

TeachersFirst (2011). A Wiki Walk-Through. Retrieved from http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

The Wonderful World of Wikis

What Is A Wiki?

The article “7 Things You Should Know About Wikis” defines a wiki as “a webpage that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a web browser and access to the internet.” It is basically a collaborative database which takes sharing information to a whole new level. While many teachers are used to uploading files and sharing them via a staff share drive, wikis provide a new avenue of storage. Information can not only be stored and retrieved by other members of a network, but can further be edited by and shared with members outside of the network. This includes sharing information and files from school to school, district to district, community to community, and even country to country! This presents students, as well as teachers, with an excellent opportunity to network, collaborate, and to share information instantly.

Use In the Classroom

Wikis have many uses in the classroom. See the following website for some great ideas!:

50 Says to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom

http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/

This website promises exactly what the title says! It’s an excellent resource for

making wikis an active tool rather than a passive storage system.

Wikis are of particular interest to media specialists. The Article “7 Things…” states that wikis show the evolution of the thought process. If this is true, then wikis can be used to illustrate and add to the research process. If you’ve taken Instructional Design, chances are you’ve come across how many steps can be involved in the evolution of an idea into a final product. Even if the steps are simplified, it is necessary to have a visual representation of the cognitive process. In this way, you can document how a few brainstorming ideas evolve into a finished product.

So when it comes time for a science fair project or a research project, wikis provide an excellent opportunity for collaborative group work where ideas can be shared. This can be done in a variety of ways: interactive notetaking (adding to each other’s notes and instantly adding resources to a group bibliography), posting multimedia resources to share with the group, creating group outlines, storing files for group powerpoints or presentations, and finally using the wiki to create a finished product or to post the finished product on so that it can be shared.

Drawbacks

Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word wiki-wiki which means quick. The problem is that as quickly as information can be uploaded to the wiki, it can be deleted or destroyed in the blink of an eye. With or without the consent of the person who uploaded it. Students may find it frustrating when their work is accidently deleted by another student.

Wikis are also notorious for misrepresentation of factual information because, for the most part, they are used to support personal opinions. And with opinions come biases. Wikis are rarely used to document scientific or factual evidence because such facts would be subject to modification. This goes to show that there is no guarantee that the person uploading or modifying information on a wiki is a reliable source of information. This is a problem that I have come across with my students, because they like to copy and paste quotations from Wikipedia in their papers. Honestly, I’m beginning to feel like a broken record because I’m constantly having to explain why resources like Wikipedia cannot be trusted (never mind copyright infringement with the copy/paste scenario).

One last major drawback to using wikis in the classroom is that not everyone has access to the internet outside of school, and not all schools have the funding to provide every student in a class with a computer. Some teachers are also slow to embrace new technology and have a fear of it. If you are one of those teachers, I recommend the following website:

Teachers First: Wiki Walkthrough

http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

This website provides an easy to follow tutorial of what a wiki is, how to set one

up, and how to utilize it in the classroom. The short, simple instructions make learning as painless as possible.

Additional Resources

Best Educational Wikis of 2010

http://blog.wikispaces.com/2011/01/best-educational-wikis-of-2010.html

This website provides a sample of how wikis have been used interactively and successfully in the classroom.

WetPaint

http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/?mail=1140&t=anon

This website provides educational hosting for wikis and allows users to create their own wiki for educational purposes.

My Brilliant Failure – Wikis In the Classroom

http://kairosnews.org/my-brilliant-failure-wikis-in-classrooms

This article explores how group interaction and collaborative documentation is needed to make wikis successful in the classroom.

Rubrics for Assessment

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.cfm

This website provides a rubric for grading many types of technology based projects including the use of wikis and blogs.

Blogs and Wikis: Use In Libraries

http://islmablogswikis.wikispaces.com/

This website provides links to wikis that are used in public and school libraries as well as offering information on how Media Specialists can best utilize the tool within their own library.

Tired of casting the same old bait to try to hook students' attentions? ... Try podcasting!

by Blake Turner

Podcasting is a term that has been making its way to the forefront of the English technology lexicon since 2004.  It is now a widely understood term that essentially refers to an electronic means of delivering information via audio streaming or video streaming.  In essence, the term podcast refers to audio or video electronic packets of information that are created by individual users and are posted to various electronic platforms.  Podcasts allow any user of the internet or other electronic delivery systems to view, listen, or download presentations in audio or video formats. 

The extent of its popularity and applications are obvious in The Diffusion Group’s (June 15, 2005) statement that a “study predicted that nearly 60 million listeners by 2010” would by utilizing podcast technology.  Obviously, because of its widespread use, educators can be sure that many of their students are quite familiar with this format and probably have used it more than once.  As educators look for new and innovative ways to deliver instruction and increase understanding, podcasts provide a delivery system that is novel and engaging.

So, the question is posed:  How can media specialists harness this information delivery method in such a way as to assist educators in their endeavors and, in turn, help make media specialists relevant resources for classroom teachers?  Well, in a sense, the possibilities are limitless.

As a media specialist, I would collaborate with teachers on integrating podcasts into their classrooms as an alternative to the tired old poster and diorama projects.  I would show them how podcasts really encourage the students to become actively engaged in the learning process while allowing them to incorporate their own personalities into them.  I could provide a quick mini seminar on how to utilize i-movie and other software to produce the video podcasts.  I could also perform a mini seminar on how to create simple audio podcasts.  The beauty of using podcasts is that the students are gaining understanding in a variety of areas and are satisfying state standards associated with content areas and the use of technology. 

Projects such as book presentations, character comparisons, musical arrangements and more done in video or audio or both would encourage the students to become more involved in the content of their subject and learn relevant technology skills. A great idea for a podcast is to have your class create a weekly review of what the class did that week and what skills were learned.  These reviews could be posted by the students and utilized as review resources by the whole class.  Teachers can also post podcasts in the form of lectures or notes for students that may need help with specific areas.  Like I said, the possibilities are endless.

I found a great site that gives some excellent

ideas for teachers wanting to use podcasts in 

their  classes.   
Check it out:

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11531

References

The Diffusion Group. (June 15, 2005). Podcasting users to approach 60 million US consumers

by 2010.  Retrieved from http://www.tdgresearch.com/press044.htm

Richards, Emily. (2011). 10 podcasts for teachers and kids. Scholastic. Retrieved from

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11531

Gooseberry Mesa: The better Moab

Most have heard that Moab Utah is an unbelievable place to mountain bike, but the word is slowly getting out about an amazing place to bike further south in Utah: Gooesberry Mesa.  The area is adjacent to St. George Utah.  It is situated on a mesa that has a huge undulating granite top on it.  Gooseberry Mesa is an incredible opportunity that should not be missed by any self-respecting biker!