Gina's Library Blog

Curriculum Reflection

A recent post in Libraries and Transliteracy on the new Knight Commission report, kind of brought me up short as I read their definition of digital and media literacy.

“In this report, we define digital and media literacy as a constellation of life skills that are necessary for full participation in our media-saturated, information-rich society. These include the ability to do the following:

• Make responsible choices and access information by locating and sharing materials and comprehending information and ideas

• Analyze messages in a variety of forms by identifying the author, purpose and point of view, and evaluating the quality and credibility of the content

• Create content in a variety of forms, making use of language, images, sound, and new digital tools and technologies

• Reflect on one’s own conduct and communication behavior by applying social responsibility and ethical principles

• Take social action by working individually and collaboratively to share knowledge and solve problems in the family, workplace and community, and by participating as a member of a community”

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action

It made me reflect on how much time I spend with students creating content and how much time I teach the remaining skills addressed here. All are necessary to the educational process and need to be balanced within the project design. But I’m feeling the lack of an overarching vision that creates a continuum of learning for my students during the entire 4 years they are with me. While I have bits and pieces in place, it seems rather hit and miss right now.

As a solo librarian I need to look beyond my library walls for feedback. So I am putting together a group of teachers within my building who can help me focus my program. By telling me what they expect their students to be able to do at different levels of study, I will be able to better integrate digital and media literacy into their projects and build on them from year to year. I will know that the skills I need to teach have been addressed and I will be assisting the teachers in meeting their curriculum goals as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the new tech presentation tools I have been learning to use. I think they help to keep the students actively engaged in the learning process. I believe that the teachers feel more confident using these new tools because they know that I am there to teach and assist. But “presentation” is not the meat and potatoes of what I do and I hope this group will help me find a balance between the two.

Petite PLN

What a great conference! Not only were the sessions dynamic, but the chance to renew and deepen friendships made it so much better. Barb, Deb and I had so much time to laugh and share, so we’re creating a Google group for the 3 of us. We’ll be sharing forms we’ve made, conference notes, lessons and new tech successes. By using Google docs and groups we’ll be able to create and adapt and share. I’ll keep you posted on how it works for us.

ISLMA 2010

Every session I attended had a focus on technology. I’ll need a week at least just to go through all of the applications, websites, and documents introduced during the 3 days I was at the conference.
From Google apps to Coolhub to Power Searching to Digital Book projects, I saw the future and it was me! Now how to focus everything, integrate parts into my program and present new ideas to my teachers?!
It was really interesting to see how the things we learned in Project Elite put us on par with many of the presenters. I understood many of the applications they used and how to use them because we were trained with something similar.
It felt good to see myself as equal to librarians who have so much more. Truly, it’s not what you have but how you use it.

Collaborative Colleagues

Brooks teachers are awesome!

How many times during this project have I asked for their cooperation!? And they come through for me every time.

While it is true that I have worked hard and consistently to build collaborative relationships with them, they have been wonderfully supportive as I have worked to complete Projectelite assignments.

I realize everyday how fortunate I am to work with my amazing  teachers.

Take This Ball and Run

It’s so gratifying to see teachers grab a new idea and run with it.

Ms. Wiedner’s class did Voicethreads. Ms. Clark talked Ms. Wiedner and decided to try them for a project of her own.

Ms. Clark and I have worked on many projects together, so she knew that I would give her all the support she needed to get the project done. So I created a recording schedule and for the last three days we have had 4 stations spread around the library. Its a great way to get my exercise

Success feeds on itself. And I’m loving it!

A Private Person

It is safe to say that I have been a little reticent to join some of the social networks. To know that my face is on Facebook and my thoughts on Twitter is not the most comfortable feeling.

I find this odd for a person who has learned, over the years, to speak her mind. It is certainly odd for a poet who puts her life on paper in similes, metaphors, and alliteration. Maybe its the lack of distance in the process. Everything is instantaneous. I can’t scratch out, rearrange, re-think, remove. Its said and done.

Maybe its the global aspect of the forum. “You can find anybody on Facebook.” And maybe, sometimes, I really don’t want to be found. Perhaps this is a reflection of my poetic schizophrenia. I put my life on paper, but I need space, quiet, think-time, a little electronic distance.

Maybe its how “micro” things seem to get. I like knowing whats happening with family and friends, but please I don’t need to know what you had for breakfast or what’s on sale at the local hardware. I really can’t make myself care.

I am learning, often through my children, how to find the balance between public and private (settings, profile page, lists, etc.). I will, I’m sure, stop following people who Tweet their entire lives, even if they are Gurus of the next best thing in school libraries.

In time, I may find that driving issue that pushes me to publish professionally the way poetry pushes me to write personally. Until then, I’ll be online,  listening and learning, but quiet.

Glogs – Down to a Science?

Not quite, but it’s a good start.

For this project I had the gift of a first year biology teacher who was willing to try new technology for her students’ science research project. She wanted the students to complete a research paper and use animation to illustrate and explain DNA and RNA. What I remember about high school biology, you could probably put in one glog, but the collaboration worked well because we respected and relied on each other’s area of expertise.

Most of the kids had a great time with the technology and we all learned a lot. Here is my list of do’s and don’ts for the next project:

• Make two copies of the kids nicknames and passwords.
• Write down the kids names on your sheets and cut theirs into strips and pass them out. (some kids got locked out of their accounts and then created new ones on their own, which made grading a problem.)
• Make the rubric as simple as you can and grade easy. (We used a 50 point scale)
• Be very specific about what you want to see and hear on the glog and include it in the students’ instructions.
• Go through each step of formating and adding things to the glog, but to tell the truth some of my kids were really amazingly creative.

The feedback I got from the kids was very positive. They thought:

• I should add more class time up front to “play around” with the technology and
• an additional session to actually work on the Glog, not just the research component.

I  plan to use the glogs the kids made this year as examples for future projects. I loved the way the students integrated so many technologies (including ones I didn’t teach or require) into their glogs. This was a great project that I am already talking up with teachers for next year.

Voicethreads

I just got the student feedback on the voicethreads and they liked it! They really, really liked it!

On a scale of 1 to 10:

• “10 – it allowed us to express ourselves and show a lot of emotion…”
• “it was so easy and yet still creative”
• “I loved how we were able to express ourselves w/ digital poetry”

Some suggestions for the future were:

• including music (that came up a lot)
• using only student created images and
• spending more hands on time learning the nuances of the program.

I would add to that making sure to create enough scheduled time for recording. I think the technology worked very well with the subject matter. The teacher is already planning for similar projects next year.

I love the smell of success!

It Never Ceases to Amaze Me

Tom Ipri recently blogged about the National Governor’s Association’s new standards on media skills. While they are right on the money regarding the necessity of integrating thses skills across the curriculum, they don’t mention the need for libraries or librarians to teach those skills.

How are students to acquire skills that are not taught? Do they think that classroom teachers, who are caught in a “test scores” bind are going to be able to add search skills and evaluation of resources to the load they carry?

Then as I was writing this blog I read yesterday’s  entry by Buffy Hamilton on “Why Librarians can’t give up”.

“Although we sometimes feel teens may not really be listening to what we say, they most definitely are paying attention to our actions and what we do.  If my modeling of problem-solving skills and perseverance on a regular basis leaves any kind of lasting positive impression on the students with whom I work, then I  feel I will have accomplished something meaningful.”

I agree with her. Whether the “powers that be” understand the impact of my work or not, I will continue to do what I do and challenge students and administrators by my actions: the skills I teach, the ways I collaborate, the resources I make available.

Governors, legislators and administrators may not get it, but I won’t give up.

Getting Going…Going Good

I am feeling much more confident! I completed my voice thread. The wiki finally let me back in. I created an avatar and I am catching up on my documentation. I am even able to keep up with the conversation in the chat room and contribute to the discussion. As my dad says, “not bad for an old dude!”

As I make connections between the technology and the curriculum, its helpful to see how other librarians are doing the same. I am looking forward to the session on Secondlife. It has been on my agenda for a long time now.

I read David Warlick’s article abut Dispute Finder. I’m going to work with it this weekend and see of it might be of use for our debate team and for students writing position papers.

Who knows… might help me win an argument or two!