A recent blogpost by librarian blogger extordinare, Joyce Valenza, has prompted me to rethink copyright protection. Here is the post. I am particularly interested in how the J K Rowling trial will be resolved in light of these new, but not yet official guidlines. Understanding copyright for me has become incresngly complicated and difficult to understand and teach. Accountability for work and sources has become blurred at best!
I have been spending my spring break following, reading and learning. A lame personal life has prompted me to explore this online form of “edutainment.”
I have been watching twitter, followed the links, and found many new, innovative websites and teachers. I feel extremely grateful that my job is all about this, thus the title of this post.
I love the idea of a sandbox. Growing up, my family had a sandbox that my Father built and the creativity and products that were produced were self directed and imaginative. I have spent some time this week in online sandboxes, reacted to thoughtful blog and Twitter posts, and feel “connected” like never before.
Today I visited a website from a journalism class that looks and feels so contemporary. Tammy Parks, a teacher in Howe Oklahoma, seems to be a teacher who “walks the talk.” I am impressed with the blog, the links, and the presentation of the content.
I appreciate the willingness and dedication of all of the Web 2.0 community for fostering the Seymour Papert, Constructivist Learning that I have believed for quite some time should prevail in American education.
Image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattwhitlock/871373971/
My friend Anne while sitting in a traffic jam on a spring break trip from Ohio to Florida texted "tks1
I have read about a post recently that is being passed around the blogosphere that is titled 5 Things…. Several prominent connected school librarians have posted their 5 Things I Want you to Know About Your School Library. In the comments I would like you to post the 5 things (or more or less) that you would like the library to know about your job, your students, their use of the library and its resources or anything else that you think is relevant to the conversation. So here goes………….
5 Things I Want you to Know About Your School Library
Concerned about your students thinking skills? The information literacy skills that librarians go on and on about are really skills that support the transferable skills of critical thinking, analysis, reading, writing, and effective communication. Teacher-librarians instruct and support students as they define problems, frame good questions, search for and evaluate information for quality, authority, and relevance
Lonely? We Double-team students. Teachers can get out of the classroom and collaborate to use the library or its technology labs as a classroom. The librarian teaches with the classroom teacher. While the teacher presents the content they know so well, the librarian - teaching partner help deliver such transferable skills as information seeking, evaluation, analysis, synthesis, and communication.
Need a hand with technology? We help integrate educational technology into programs to engage students to help meet curricular and technology standards. Librarians help select software, databases, and online resources to meet curricular needs. We design information systems and create Web sites that lead students to the best resources online. We are expert in the presentation and productivity software that facilitates communication competencies.
Concerned about cut-and-paste plagiarism and ethical use of information? Librarians help teach age-appropriate documentation skills and contribute to developing policies promoting full-school academic integrity.
The librarian doesn’t own the library. You and your students do. You can recommend materials and have a voice in library policy making.
Leave a comment about your 5 things.
Parts of the above have been excerpted from the blogs of Joyce Valenza (Never Ending Search) and Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog)
As I was preparing for a web 2.0 workshop a month ago, I was brought to this video as an antidote to fast paced "The Machine is Us" and other video descriptions of web 2.0 that leave you feeling out of breath or not up to the challenge. The "book" theme is also close to this librarians heart.
Steve Hargadon posted this question on Classroom2.0 Ning site:
If you could offer suggestions for the Design of the most effective School 2.0, what features or options you include. Please comment on as many of the following as you can;
"Big Picture trends in the next 5-25 years that will have the biggest impact on what it means to be an engaged learner.
YOUR definition of School 2.0 and/or Classroom 2.0...and how to help "school design" decision makers use it to inform their thinking, research, leadership, and solutions.
Best way to describe how 'kids' (all ages, really, but I'll use the cute version since most still default to it) are transforming as collaborators, creators, project team members, publishers, etc."
Cartoon from: http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cartoons/google.gif
My response, though short is below. The whole question which can be found here. Other educators have offered their ideas in the commnets.
My hope for high school classrooms everywhere in the future is that fair and equitable access to web 2.0 tools is universal. Bandwidth, individual "computers / cameras / productivity tools" will be in the hands of all students, perhaps in the form of a cell phone. Students and teachers will have access to upload and edit, research and instructional products, throughout the day. Teachers will be notified through a feed, of assignment completion and can respond electronically to students and parents. Time spent on actual school work will be recorded and can be viewed by parents and teachers alike. Students work can be posted and shared through the use of collaborative spaces on the web. A network of teachers around the world will develop around specific curriculum topics so that global perspectives on a topic can be shared. The "hookups" and creative project ideas are unlimited.
So, I found this website through, the google librarian newsletter, that linked to the google edcucators site, that linked to the infinite thinking machine blog, that talked about Ning, that had a post about Toondoo being too much fun. So I tried it. This is a comprehensive cartoon making site, for free on the web. You can select backgrounds, characters, props, text, everything, and after your done, save it to the site or upload it to your blog! The interface and controls are very intuitive and the result, very rewarding! Very cool app for a person on spring break!
It was a seven house walk and through the playground for me to enjoy the cool, tranquil, atmosphere and warm welcome by name, from the school librarian(s) --( I still remember their names -- Mrs. Crenell and Mrs. Anderson ). We regularly had a nice conversation about what I had read and the librarian on duty would lead me once again to the kinds of fiction and other books that I would like as well. This one-on-one with an interested stranger who helped me to feel like I belonged and was even admired for my reading and learning interests, remains one of my fondest childhood memories.
I also remember not being able to wait to get home to throw open the book, often stopping under the shade of a tree and enjoying the warm summer breeze and a freshly started new book. The lack of availability of a librarian to match that special book to a a unique individual is a sad, sad, commentary on the distractions of our plugged-in, electronic oriented society. Life before was simple but soooo rich!
