My final post for LIBE 477

Wow! The middle of April is quickly approaching and that means the end of LIBE 477. Mixed feelings welcomed me to this course, and now that it is ending the same feeling are reappearing, but for different reasons: Fear, nervousness and excitement are all intertwined.

My fear can be explained in all the unanswered questions that I have. Will I remember how to use all the new tools that I have learned? Who will answer my endless questions now that Joanne will not be an email address away? Will I really be able to teach others how to do this? What do you mean the course is already over? I haven’t learned everything yet! At the beginning of the course I was worried that I would not be able to keep up with all the readings, discussions and new information in the lessons. Now, I am worried that I may not be able to remember how to use all the tools that I have been working with, or maybe I won’t be able to explain them clearly to others.

Fear is accompanied by nervousness. What happens if during one of my lessons or workshops, someone asks a question that I cannot answer? Who will help me? Joanne won’t be at the other end of my email account patiently answering all of my inquiries. There is also the fear of how I will keep up with all the new tools that are doming into our lives. As is, I haven’t had the chance to try out all of the tools mentioned in this course. Will I ever be able to get to all of then?

When starting the course, I was excited about all the new tools that I would be learning about. Now, although I am afraid, I am excited to implement my new found knowledge and modernize some of my old, boring lessons. I am excited to share the knowledge with my students while implementing the new lessons. Won’t I be the “cool” teacher?!

Pride is a new emotion added to the mixture that was not present when I wrote my first post. However, I must admit that pride is what I am feeling as I write this last post. Considering the fact that I do not own my own cell phone, not even to mention that I have never sent a text message, I have travelled a long distance to be able to tweet, blog , create animotos, wikis and other tools. Last week, the district techie commented on how much I have learned throughout the course. Boy it felt good to hear those words come form his mouth. That was when I had to take a step back and look at what I have accomplished throughout the last four months. Way more than I ever thought I would.

The journey was not always easy and frustration was definitely an emotion that was dealt with often. For example, when working on my Vision of the Future wiki the other day, my patience was running thin and anger was boiling because I could not link my screen cast address to my wiki page. This continued for over an hour. However, when explaining to my husband what I was trying to do, I recalled that I had a similar problem when working on my screen cast blog post. The problem was solved when I hit the preview button, Why not try that? I did and all was fun. “What a dummy I am!” were the next words out of my mouth. A simple concept for most, took me what seemed like forever to complete. However, once the wiki was completed the angry and frustration were replaced by pride.



I must admit that the journey has not always been pleasant, and defiantly was not always easy for me, but it was absolutely rewarding and I would defiantly do it again without questions or hesitation. What will the future bring for the library catalog? The point is that the library catalog has a long way to go...must integrate Web 2.0 toolsTherefore, as this course ends my sentiments are “I am woman, hear me roar” and “Nothing can stop me now”.

Lesson 13 Reading Response

The Future… Web 3.0


“People joke about an Internet-enabled toaster, or an Internet-enabled chair,” Lai says. “But it's evolving to the point where the sorts of things we used to joke about are actually more practical.”

Wow! I have just started to grasp Web 2.0 and people are talking about Web 3.0 I think that when it arrives it will have an impact on education, but it will be a slow impact. After all, many of my colleagues are oblivious to Web 2.0 applications in their classrooms now. Surprise, is their reaction when I inform them that I am taking a course and learning new ways to teach. They think it is great, but admit that they are not ready to try it yet. If they are not ready for Web 2.0, they definitely are not ready for Web 3.0

What will the future bring for the library catalog? The point is that the library catalog has a long way to go...must integrate Web 2.0 tools. These are great questions, however, when it comes to my school and the library, we need to update the entire library, not just the catalog. My school doesn’t even have its own webpage. Oh, they are working on one, but they have been creating it for over a year now.

If I can create a library blog or wiki, and then have our collection available on line to students, I would be happy. Once I tackle the “little” things, then I will think about the catalog

Lesson 12: Evidence of Learning

This week I learned how to use two new tools: Slideshare and screencast. I used these tools to share my power point presentations on my Vision for the Future wiki. I actually ended up using only my slideshare account because I had problems embedding my screencast into my wiki. Since I could not embed the presentation onto the wiki, I decided to provide a link to the power point. However, I ran into problems with that as well. When I linked the presentation to the screencast, people were able to make changes to the power point. I am not sure what I did wrong, but I did not want to chance someone changing the presentation and therefore attached the Web 2.0 workshop using slideshare.

The following are the slideshare links:

http://www.slideshare.net/KathyChmelyk/web-2-0-3693425

http://www.slideshare.net/KathyChmelyk/vision-of-the-future-3692792

Lesson 12 Evidence of Learning

While doing some research for my Vision assignment, I found a website called Blabberize. It is a fun way to send a message. Check out this test message. You will need to copy and paste the address. http://blabberize.com/view/id/202900
I tried to embedd the video, but ran into problems. The blabberize code given is incorrect,and the video would not embed.

I hope you enjoy this!!!

Week 12 Reading Response

Open Access and the Open Journal Systems: Making Sense All Over. Rick Kopak


Like the University of British Columbia professor in this article, I to like to check for evidence on how well students are understanding my lessons. Now it is true, that his students are older and have perhaps chosen to take the course he is offering, and my students do not always have the chose of taking the class that I am teaching. For example, English 10 is a mandatory class for high school graduation. However, it might still be an interesting experiment to see if experiment to see what website students would search during a lesson on Romeo and Juliet.

This could be possible with Open Access. With Open Access, resources are “free of charge” and “ easily obtainable, usually in digital form and transmitted by electronic means”. I agree with the author that this would allow libraries to increase the number of journal and make up-to date information more accessible. However, the concept of Open Access is new to me and I am not 100% sure I fully understand the concept. Does it simply mean that students are provided with free wireless in the classrooms? If this is so, at this time of huge budget cuts within School Boards, we must keep in mind that not all schools are fortunate enough to have class sets of lap tops computers. My school being one of the unfortunate ones. The Romeo and Juliet experiment, would also show me what “searching” skills my students possess. Do they know how to search successfully, evaluate the information provided, use quality information found? My first guess is no. When I observe students in my school working with the internet, they generally tend to go to Wikipedia first and then choose what ever source first comes up in Google. Before Open Access is used in my classes, I think that some of the above mentioned skills will need to be taught.

Kopak also writes about Open Journal Systems. “The purpose of OJS is to facilitate greater access to scholarly research by providing an open platform for the production and distribution of the main currency of the academic research process, the scholarly journal article”. OJS is free and locally installed and controlled. The system hopes to provide critical engagement as well. This engagement would include a basis for judgment as well. Students can de-code reading, but have problems with some of the higher thinking skills that are associated with reading. If OJS, can truly help them improve their judgment skills, teachers at my school would be easily convinced to implement it into their lesson plans. It is claimed that this is achieved because the reader can keep focus on the article while searching for related materials. This sounds easy, but once again, the skill will need to not only be taught to students, but will need to be practiced often.

OJS comes with its own set of Reading Tools. The Reading Tools are situated on the right hand side of the document. Some of the Tools that are available are “Abstract” and “Review Policy”, “ How to cite then”, “Indexing metadata” and others. All the terms and definitions were confusing. After two readings, they still seemed to be written in a foreign language. Perhaps, working through an actual OJS document, may solve this problem. This would have to be done before introducing the system to students, staff or parents.

The idea of being able to access free Journal Articles, is extremely appealing. However, like any new technology, one will not be able to simply open up a program and automatically now how to use it. Time will play a large factor in being able to introduce and use OJS in a school setting.

Lesson 11 Reading Reaction

One-Stop Shopping With Learning Management Systems
The idea of teachers sharing resources across the district is fabulous. If this can be done without having to travel from one town to another to meet is even better. School District 91 encompasses the towns of Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, Fort Fraser, Burns Lake, Topley and Grassy Plaines. It takes approximately 2 hours to drive from one end of the district to the other. That is off course if the weather is good. Therefore the idea of creating online pro.d. videos as well as opportunties to exchange resourses would be a blessing to many of the teachers in this northern B.C. school district.

Being able to purchase software that allows students and staff to collaborate using blogs, podcasts and wikis brings this application into the Web 2.0 realm.

Mike Smith explains that his students are more motivated during his algebra lessons. He states that in the traditional classroom setting only one or two student would answer his questions, but now using the new system he gets 100 hits within 15 minutes. The students are helping each other learn. I currently have an English class in which there is very little discussion that happens. Would this learning management system solve this problem? I do need to wonder if all student are on task and how the teacher can control this. Is it possible to see all the conversations taking place?

According to Ross, student attendance and the overall feeling of being engaged is improved in the classroom. This is yet another advantage to the Learning Management system.


Is the learning management system the end to all of our motivational problems? I doubt it. I am not against on line courses, after all that is what this blog is about. However, they are not for all students, especially the unmotivated ones. Like any educational program, it works for some, but not all. I think that including this type of system as part of your curriculum is wonderful. After all, variety is the spice of life and this holds very true in the classroom. Adding this type of lessons may encourage some of your unmotivated students to take part in lessons. It is worth a try.

The climate of the classrooms is better," he says, "the attendance of the students and teachers is better, and the overall feeling of being engaged is better."

Lesson 11: Evidence of Learning. Blogging guidelines and rules

Guidelines
When you write anything in the blog, please use the following guidelines. The following guidelines have been established to ensure the safety of our students when blogging.
• Students will only be identified by their first name.
• Never post any personal information
• If possible, use a Google Account as the e-mail contact.
• Posts written by students are checked by Mrs. Chmelyk before they are published on the blog.
• Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know. Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?
• Consider your audience and that you’re representing FLESS.

• . All students must have parental permission to post on the blog and to have their photo published on the blog.
• All students must abide by the blogging rules that we have established as a class.
If you have any other questions or comments about the security of the blog, please contact Mrs. Chmelyk.

When posting comments observe the following protocol:
• Use proper English
• Refrain from using text language and shortcuts
• All comments submitted have to be approved by Mrs. Chmelyk before they are included on the blog.
• Parents who leave comments are asked to use their first name only so as not to identify their child
• Respect other opinions and use sentence starters such as, I respectfully disagree, you make a good point, I support………….
Any profane language or postings that are inappropriate will result in disciplinary action. These blogs are for academic purposes so please respect our intentions.

http://cmiraglia.edublogs.org/posting-comments/
Guidelines

When you write anything in the blog, please use the following guidelines. There are some questions so you may want to reflect on your posts.
1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know.
Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?
2. Do not share personal information.
Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?
3. Think before you post.
Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?
4. Know who you’re communicating with.
Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?
5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing Cervantes School.
Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?
6. Know how to give constructive feedback.
Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this post?
7. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?
8. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling.
Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?
9. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping).
Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?
10. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work.
Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?
Commenting Guidelines
As a blogger, you will be commenting on other people’s work regularly. Good comments:
• are constructive, but not hurtful;
• consider the author and the purpose of the post;
• are always related to the content of the post;
• include personal connections to what the author wrote;
• answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
• follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.
Taken and adapted from: Blog Rules
http://mrjorgensen.edublogs.org/blog-guidelines/
Blog Guidelines
.
1. Treat the “learnerblog/edublog spaces” as “classroom spaces” — use appropriate language and be sure that anything you write you are proud of and are prepared to take responsibility for !! Your blog exists as a public space on the Internet. When you put something on the Internet, odds are really good that it will ALWAYS stay on the Internet. If you are not careful about what you write, what you write now could come back to haunt you in the future.
2. Never EVER EVER give out or record personal information on your blog.
Please – no last names, phone numbers, home addresses, IM screen names etc. (It is probably not wise to give out your personal email address either).
Again, your blog is a public space on the Internet and anyone, anywhere, could be reading it. So….don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. (Check out Blogsafety)
3. Never disrespect anyone or anything in your blog posts. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a person, an organization, or just a general idea. When you write your opinion on a topic, you don’t want someone making a stab at what you are passionate about. So, don’t do it to someone else. Try your best to make sure you’re not going to offend anyone in your posts.
4. Don’t write about other people without permission; if you can’t get their permission, use first names or initials only. Never share someone elses last name.
5. Always check over your post for spelling errors, grammar errors, and your use of words. (HINT: Try pasting your post in a word processor first and using the spell checker or use an internet spellchecker before posting on your blog.)
6. Make sure things you write about are factual. Link to your sources. But never link to something you haven’t read and understood completely. When you link to something, make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be in poor taste or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably warn readers by using a parenthetical note or some other word of caution.
7. If you have a personal blog, please do not link to it from our class blog. Doing so may inadvertently reveal information that you don’t want to reveal.
8. Be aware of copyright — especially with sounds and images. Make sure what you use is copyright free !! (Just because you find it on the internet does not mean you are free to use it without permission !!) Please review Copyright Issues on the Web and be sure to see Copyright 1” and “Copyright 2” for more information.
9. Keep it education-oriented. Stick to tasks set in class. Unless it pertains to the assignment, stay away from discussing plans for the weekend, general rambling, or diary entries about nothing. Chances are your responses to class tasks will usually be far more interesting!!
http://sfsbiology.edublogs.org/how-to-post/
How to Post & Comment
To learn how to use our class blog and website effectively, visit this page. Read through each of the following links on that page (don’t worry, they’re quick reads!):
1b) Logging into your blog
2a) Writing your first post
2b) Inserting links into your post
2h) Adding categories and tags to your post
2k) Why you shouldn’t write your post in Microsoft Word (optional)
Go back and read others as necessary (like if you want to add a picture to your post). This information is especially important so that you know how to complete Science in the News when your turn comes around.
For a quick demo of how to write a new post, please click here. To prevent the loss of any of your writing, please always write and save your posts on your computer (use Notepad, found through Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> Notepad; don’t use Open Office or Word) and then copy and paste them into the website.
In addition, by posting or commenting, you are agreeing to follow these guidelines:
Posts
• Should meet the criteria given in the Science in the News assignment (or any other assignment that includes a post)
• Model good grammar and spelling. Proofread!
• Write with your audience in mind (be clear and concise, include not only facts, but your own reflections and opinions – be clear about which is which)
• Ask questions and be open-ended – inspire the discussion!
• Hyperlink your source (if it was online) as well as anything else that adds to your post
• Post on time
Comments
• Should be 2-5 sentences in length (potentially more, but not less!)
• Write meaningful comments that add to the conversation.
• Show the author that you hear them. “I hear you saying….”
• Respond to others thoughtfully and respectfully.
• Use your comment to show why you think the topic is important/interesting/controversial.
• Read the comments posted after yours.
• Be respectful of other people and their opinions.
• Constructive criticism only, no derogatory or inflammatory remarks, critique the idea, not the person.
• Model good spelling and grammar.
• Support your comments with evidence.
• Only comment on posts after you have read the whole post.
• Suggested response prompts:
o This made me think about…
o I wonder why…
o Your writing made me form an opinion about…
o This post is relevant because…
o Your writing made me think that we should…
o I wish I understood why…
o This is important because…
o Another thing to consider is…
o I can relate to this…
o I don’t understand…
o I was reminded that…
o I found myself wondering…
http://biologyblog.edublogs.org/about/

The members of class will be participating in a class blog for the purposes of:
• Responding to and commenting on curriculum topics as we study them
• Creating written projects/ media projects and commenting on each other’s work
• Reviewing and sharing study strategies before tests and quizzes
• Practicing taking varied points of view on a topic
• Discussing current events
• Making classroom suggestions
• Creating FAQ pages on curriculum topics
To use the blog, you must agree to the following statements.
• I will not use any curse words or inappropriate language.
• I will not use fighting words or provoke anyone.
• I will avoid the use of chat language.
• I will try to spell everything correctly.
• I will only give constructive criticism.
• I will not use my full name, or the name of my classmates.
• I will not plagiarize.
I recognize that breaking any of these rules could lead to any of the following consequences depending on severity and repetition:
• warning
• deletion of some or all of the post
• temporary loss of blogging privileges
• permanent loss of blogging privileges
• referral to the school administration
Please note that all posts and comments are moderated for content before posting to the class blog.
Consequences of violating the Warranty
Any violation of the above terms and conditions shall make the violator subject to both immediate termination from the blog, with all related points toward grades and to discipline through the school code of conduct, where applicable. At the teacher’s discretion, a warning may be given in the case of minor infractions.

Lesson 9 "Cool" Engagments with YouTube: Part 1 and 2

“Cool” Engagments with You Tube: Part 1 and Part 2

Youtube is a useful tube in the classroom. Students and Teachers need to be taught how to use all the tools the website has available to them. The article explains these tools and how to get the most out of them.

Searching may seem to be easy, but one must make sure to search using the correct terms. As the article points out with an example of “Tom Waits” one can yield over 1.000 results if the search is not done efficiently. The article explains the importance of narrowing the topic and examining the video titles for patterns and tags.

My Favourites is another helpful feature of the website. Teachers and students alike can create a My Favourites page. This will help to organize the videos that are useful for certain lessons and that can be used over and over again. The Favourites section also contains a feature called Create Playlist. One can select specific videos from the My Favourites page to create a playlist.

The article also suggests different ways to use YouTube in the classroom. This suggestions are both easy to implement and adapt to various situations. The difficulty will lie in finding the videos and creating the playlist. However, once this is completed, it can be used several times. An English class at my school is currently reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” and I plan to share the lesson suggestion from the article with the teacher. As for posting the You Tube videos, this will have to be done only once parent permission has been granted.


Thanks to the information provided by James Trier in these articles, I have been convinced that You Tube can play a valuable part in the education system.

Lesson 10 Reading Response

There’s Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education


After reading this article, thoughts of the numerous ways in which podcast could be used in the classroom were excitingly, jumping around my brain: Students who were to shy to present in class, could record their podcasts, lessons could be enhanced through the listening of various podcast, assignment instructions could be added to blogs.

At first, the article made it sound like creating a pod cast was not too time consuming or difficult. However, as I read on and the author wrote about bit depths, digital sampling rates etc started to worry me. As the article continues, it talks about the difficulty of producing the podcast. This does not sound like an easy task.

The only way to find out was to try. I decided to record a pod cast about an upcoming project assignment my students needed to complete. With a script in mind, I attempted to record my podcast. After all the creation of the podcast is the easy part- correct? Not for me. I sat down at the computer, ready to record. Things did not go as smoothly as possible. My problems revolved around many different items: mike set up, sound quality, program problems etc. I kept reminding my self, that all it usually takes me hours to complete and “Evidence of Learning” post, but in the end I am triumphant. This help true for the recording of the podcast as well. It did get recorded.

Now that my podcast was recorded, I needed to post it somewhere. I decided to use the website Podomatic for this assignment. I set up my account and then worked on downloading and producing the podcast. Since I do not own an MP3 player, this was all new to me. I have not ever downloaded a song. This was not as painful of a task as I had thought and I was successful!!! After a three day attempt, not only had I created and produced a pod cast, it was also posted on the web.



The article “There’s Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education” was the convincing factor for me to create the podcast. As mentioned above, I see this as a valuable tool in the classroom. It will help to make lessons and student work more engaging. However, I did not agree with the entire article. It begins with a descriptive account of a student getting ready for school and listening to various podcast provided by professors. While this situation may work in a University setting, it is not appropriate for all high school settings. If this was the case, why would we need building that house classrooms and teachers. One of the most rewarding parts of teaching, is the personal connections that are made with students. This connections are created by the face to face and day to day work that is accomplished in the classroom.

This being said, podcast will become apart of the lessons that I teach. Like all aspects of teaching, variety is important and one does not use one type of teaching style. I cannot wait to hear my students reaction when they hear my voice on the blog!!!!

Lesson 10: Evidence of Learning Podcast

I have proudly produced my first podcast. It is a recording of assignment criteria for a French 10-12 assignment. You can hear it at

http://mmechmelyk.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-03-18T22_23_42-07_00


Now that it is completed, it all seems so easy. See you can teach an old dog new tricks, you just need to have lots of patience while doing so.

Lesson 10: Mash ups Reading Response

Horizon Report on Mashups

A mashup is a combination of data that is pulled together from a different resources in a single tool. I looked through twittermap and twittervision. Twitter map shows where people who are tweeting live, while twitter vision is a geographical vision of posts. Both sources are maps which show a picture of the person tweeting, their posts and where they are from. You are able to click on their web address and be linked to their post. However, with twittervision, the map moves around while you are watching it. I found that some times it moved before I even finished reading the entire posts. It was interesting to see where people lived and as a language teacher, I found also found it interesting to see all the different languages being used.


The Horizon Report states that “Data mashups are powerful tools for navigating and visualizing datasets; understanding connections
between different dimensions such as time, distance, and location; juxtaposing data from different sources to reveal new relationships; and other purposes.” Wikipedia provides this definition “In web development, a mashup is a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality from two or many more external sources to create a new service. “

I looked through the Yahoo! Pipes site and found some library mashups that I Teacher- Librarians could use. I will post the screen shot in a separate post.

Mashups would be great to create presentations to classes or for pro.d For example, if I was doing a lesson on Paris, I might be able to combine blogs and pictures to create a lesson. Students to could use mashups for end of unit presentations.

Darlene Fichter has compiled a list of mashups for Teacher Librarian in “Mashups and Libraries: Resources, Article and Links. She also lists sites to help you create a mashup. This article is an excellent starting point for people, like me, who are just beginning their mashup adventure.

Lesson 10: Yahoo! Pipes

Below is a screen shot of a Yahoo! Pipes mashup titled "Library-N-Tech". I searched through the mash ups and found this one that I think would be usefule to Teacher- Librians.



In this pipe you can find information about library technology. This includes information on mashups, digital library software and Web 2.0 You can also set the date for infomration freshness.

Lesson 9 Evidence of Learning.

Here is the link to my You Tube Video. The video is a sample video collage. I made this so that my students could see what I expected from them for their art video collage assignment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B-BJRN3cZQ

Lesson 9 Videos to use in a classroom

For this assignment, I have included some videos that have to do with libraries as well as one that I have used in my classroom.

I hope that you find them useful.

Here is a video on the Stanford Library of the future. This will be a digital library.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMus6tZifGY&feature=related

This is a video featuring Brewster Kahl’s thoughts on building a digital library
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/brewster_kahle_builds_a_free_digital_library.html

This is a video on the importance of foreign languages. I have used this in class when discussing why students should continue their studies of a second language.

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=13054&title=Importance_of_Foreign_Languages

Reading Response for Lesson 8

Taxonomy Directed Folksonomies
Intergrating use tagging and controlled vocabularies for Australian education networks.
by Sarah Hayman and Nick Lothian

This article taught me quite a bit about tagging and folksonomies. Before reading this, I did not understand the term folksonomy and thought tagging was simply naming pictures or articles. After reading the article, I understand folksonomy and have learned about different tagging terms such tag clouds, machine tagging etc. The following is a resume of the what I learned in the article.

Definitions:
Tagging- adding keywords to a digital object such as a website, videoclip etc. to catogorize it.

Folksonomy- a collection of user tags created by an individual for personal use. The word is a combination of the words fold and taxonomy.

Taxonomy-

This paper discusses the challenges faced in using controlled vocabularies in the Web 2.0 world. The question discussed is: “ Can people balance folksonomies and controlled vocabularies to help communities of users find and share information and resources most relevant to them?”

I agree with Education Network Australia recognition that formal thesaurus cannot keep pace with user needs. Technology is for ever changing and therefore vocabulary associated with technology is also always changing.
For this reason the ENA is interested in exploiting the power of folksonomies.

The ENA has created a concept project using Taxonomy-Directed Folksonomy. This would be a taxonomy from the Austraina education sector where terms for taggins can be suggested. The folksonomy will show gaps in coverage and help monitor new terms and usage to improve and develop formal taxonomies.



TAGGING
Although tagging is not a new concept to librarians, it is new to the general public and are now made public and shared. Tagging is done differently at different website. Some examples of internet sites that I use that use tagging are: Delicious, Librarything, and Flikr. When tagging on these sites, users use their own words. Users can also add their own tags to already tagged resources. Then one can use these words as indexes to find their posted items. It is up to the person posting the information to decide if it will be public or private. If the indexes are public, then the tags can be searched by all users and thus a folksonomy is created.

Sometimes tagging is not done by users, but by experts. If this is the case the result will be displayed as a tag cloud. Surf the News.com is an example of a site that uses such an approach. The data is shown for the last 30 days of the story and the most assigned topics are large and read; those least used are small and gray. This, however is not folksonomy.

Developing an application that will take RSS feeds and create tag clouds out of keywords in the feeds is another approach to tagging. RSS feeds from the Washington Post website are built into tag clouds from keywords on NewsCloud. This is revered to as machine tagging.

ZoomColuds allows people to create tag clouds. A website owner can put tags on a website and provide users to figure out what are mentioned in the website more often. These tags can also be made public or private. Some people, like me, make their tags public, but choose private words that only a select few will know them and use them. For me, my tags are designed to be shared by only people that I know. According to this article, this is the same in many cases. This is a folksonomy, but only for a restricted group.


FOLKSONOMY
This is a collection of tags made by the user. Tags may be reused many times. The writers of this study were keen to see what terms users chose, how they are used and organized, as well as what new vocabularies or taxonomies will be invented.

Many benefits to tagging and folksonomies exist:
They are multidimensional, users can use words and concepts that have meanings and importance to them, they can be shared, they are quick and simple to do, social tagging develops communities, they help people stay organized.
I have found all of these advantages to be true, however when one begins to tag, it is not always fast and simple. It does become easier to do the more tagging you do.

Along with advantages, everything has disadvantages. This is the same for folksonomies:
Different words can be used for the same tag, or the same word can be used for different concepts.
Tags with personal meaning are not used often and can be of no use to others.
Tags can change as new trends evolve. For example, weblog, blogging etc.
Tags can be a mixture of forms, formats, etc.
Tags may need to be only a single word and spelling rules do not apply.
Some tagging systems can be spammed.
Tags may represent a dominant view and discourage usage of less popular concepts.
Tagging is not controlled and no formal system exists.


As a Teacher-Librarian, the University of Pennsylvania’s system that allows students to tag catalogue items is intriguing. Teachers and students could benefit from being able to organize books into tags according to units, essay topics, research projects etc. Although a social networking system such as Ann Arbor District Library’s SOPAC sounds useful, it does sound like quite a bit of work and rate, review and comment on collections on a Library Wiki or Blog. At this point in time, that would be what I would do for building a social networking system seems like more than I can handle.

The paper also describes education.au’s myedna, a service where resources can be shared, customized and managed. It will aim to “make the best use of collaborative technologies and philosophies.”

This is a fantastic idea. It is like a place shopping stop for educators. This would be extremely helpful as one will be able to easily find Web 2.0 uses in the educational system.

The program will also have users enter their own tags for resources. While typing a tag, a thesaurus will be available to suggest terms that match the term the person has entered.

Although it is still in the developmental stage, the creators hope to collate the tags and then produce a tag cloud. The collection of tags will be a
“folksonomy that has been directed by a taxonomy.” The creators would also develop a way of giving users information about the tags that they are thinking of choosing so that they can see related tags, notes or guidelines of usage.

The folksonomy created would provide information about the tags, the items tagged and the peopled doing the tagging. This is valuable information because people would like to use useful terms for their tags. What is the use of writing a tag that is not useful? Knowing which items are of value it also an important piece of information. People like to read articles, or search through lesson plans that they find of value to them. Just like people like to read certain authors or watch movies by a particular director, educators like to follow lesson suggestions created by certain people. Thus, providing information about the people doing the tagging will be important.

Web 2.0 concepts are still new to many of the educators on my staff. If there was a website that provided them with information on using new concepts in their classrooms, they may be more willing to try some of the new items. Myedna seems to be trying to fulfill this need, and will be an invaluable resource to them.

Photosynth: Evidence of Learning Lesson 8

Wow!!! This site is amazing. I think that many teachers would love to use the pictures with their classes. As a language teacher I would show the pictures of Europe. My husband is an art teacher and he cannot wait to play with the site.
I have added some Olympic cauldron pictures. I did not take very many, but have 3 on their as an experiment. There are better posts then mine, but I know that I created mine all on my own.

Flikr account; Lesson 8

Here is a screen shot of some of the pictures on my Flickr account. The screen shot only shows the photos from the Mint Building in downtown Vancouver. The building was open during The Winter Olympics. I have sent the link to all of the pictures to our professor. Is anyone else is intersted in viewing the pictures, let me know and I will add you to the site.

Evidence of Learning- Delicious

Here is a screenshot of my Delicious account. At first I wasn't sure if this site would be of any use, but I stand corrected. Delicious is great to have when you use various computers, like I do. Especially if you are on the road and use computers at various hotel.s

Bomomo

I just tried doodling on this site and I love it. I am not very artistic, but can do this. My French 10 students are currently working on an art unit and this site is perfect. I cannot wait to get them into the lab and to doodle. Everyone should be able to do it. If they let me, I will post some of their doodles on my class blog.

Wiki screenshot

Here is a screen shot of the front page of my wiki. As mentioned before, it took a while, but I managed to add two pictures.

Wiki pictures

I did it!!!! I added two pictures to the wiki. As usual, it took me quite a bit of time to figure out how to accomplish this, but I succeeded.
I am currently on the road, as I presented two Langguage Workshops yesterday in Kamloops at their Distict Pro. D. day. The computer that I am on does not have Paint and therefore, I am not able to add a screen shot of the Wiki at this moment. I will be home tomorrow and will try to addd another post of with a screen shot.

Ted Talks- Lesson 7

Ted Talks: Kevin Kelly tells technology's epic story
As part of this week’s assignment I watched a Ted Talks video on Twitter. I watched the one in which Kevin Kelly tell technology’s epic story. Although I would not show the entire clip as part of a pro.d. activity, there are defiantly parts of the video presentation that would be beneficial, to include in a presentation on technology.

First of all I was shocked to find out that the work technology was first used in 1829. Alan Kay’s definition of technology is an appropriate one to use with teachers: “Anything invented after you were born.”
Kelly describes a Precautionary Position in which people believe that one should stop using technology until it leads to no harm. This was interesting to me as this is the exact position that I have adapted when it comes to Face Book. Unfortunately, when it comes to teaching, I am not the only educator who follows this Position. Kelly suggests that we should adapt a Proactive Position instead. We need to engage, try out and constantly asses new technologies. He suggests the following steps:
1. Anticipate
2. External Assessment
3. Prioritize Risks
4. Restitution of harm
5. Relocation
In order to illustrate his point he provides several examples of bad technology than can be used in good ways. For example, nuclear fission is used in a ‘bad” way to create bombs, but a ‘good” use of nuclear fission would be to relocate it as a sustainable nuclear energy to perhaps replace coal. One needs to find a new job for the new technology.

I must constantly remind myself, and perhaps other teachers that “ Technology gives us progress.”

Thus, I signed into Face Book with a new frame of mind. As suggested in this unit I searched for School Libraries and actually looked at two pages: BC Coalition for School Libraries and School Libraries Matter. Although there were not many discussions posted, it did give me a new outlook on Face Book.

I also thought of a Proactive Position of Face Book used by one of my staff members. The Aboriginal Educational Coordinator uses Face Book to keep track of her students and what they are doing. She says that she also stays in contact with parents via Face Book. Although this is not a School Library application, it is a positive way that an Educator uses social networking.

As in my case, I am slowly changing my views and am starting to give Face Book more of an honest attempt.

Social Networking Opinion ( Lesson 7)

Social Networking still scares me a bit. I have been dabbling in Face Book and Twitter as this is a requirement of the course, however I must admit that I can still not 100% convinced that they should be used in a classroom setting and that I would use them with students.
I am one of those exact teachers who “feel(s) very uncomfortable with the idea of joining these networks, concerned that students will locate them in the network and see all of their posts and photos. I do understand that I can set your settings so that only invited people can see my profile, however I still do not trust the system. Living in a small town, I still fear that information will be leaked.
Even though I know that my second fear may be a modern day Urban Legend I am concerned with the stories of companies using people’s pictures etc for advertising purposes etc.
However, I agree with Owen, Grant, Sayers, & Facer (2006), of Futurelab, when they state that education is “ to support young people not only to acquire knowledge and information, but to develop the resources and skills necessary to continue learning throughout the rest of their lives.” In support of this notion I have been creating blogs and Wikis. Currently, I have a blog that students can refer to if they have been absent from my class. I am also searching and developing lessons in which my students will use these technologies to present new information learned. Before the students start using these new concepts, I need to teach familiarize my classes with the technologies. Eventually, I hope to have at least one new activity planned per semester. This way I will slowly build up my collection. Also, once the students are taught how to create Wikis and Blogs, I will be able to include them into more lessons plans.

Lesson 7 Evidence of Learning- sort of

This week I have been working on our research paper Wiki. The article that I found most helpful was Jane Harvey’s “Wiki in Language Teaching”.

The title caught my attention right away as I am a Language Teacher and also an executive member of the BCTAML, the BC Language teachers Proffesional Specialists Association.

I was extremely interested in exploring how wikis can be used in a language classroom.
Suprisingly, the article started with how to construct a wiki, which is exactly where I was beginning and therefore was what I was searching for.
While reading the article, I would jump to my wiki and experiment with the step by step instructions Harvey was providing. I managed to add a picture. It is a picture of a boy reading a book and is found in the sidebar. My hope is to move the picture onto the front page, however I have not been able to figure out how to do this. If you can help me with this problem, please explain.

I was pleased to see that Harvey has included several lesson ideas along with the lesson procedures. The lessons ideas provided are:
Group Cultural Project
Class Dictionary
Class Grammar
Round Robin Summary Wiki: Create a Wiki as you learn
Hometown Wiki Page
Sentence Wiki

The article also has a suggestion that explains traps and tricks of which teachers should be aware. As a person who has yet to create a class wiki, I appreciate the suggestions.

If I do become the Teacher-Librarian in the future, I would be moving from the language Teacher position and therefore think that the language teachers would be one of the first group with whom I would collaborate. Harvey’s article will be an article that I would defiantly share with the Language teachers and will help me to team- teach about wikis.

Creating Connections Wiki

After reading the article TechEssence.info, I decided that I would attempt to set up a conference planning wiki for the British Columbia Association of Teachers of Modern Languages to use to plan and organize their annual conference. I am the Co-Conference chair this year and have been the Conference Chair or Co-Chair of the annual conference for the last 4 years. The committee is made of five people. Although the majority of the people live in the lower mainland, one member lives on the island and I live in northern B.C. Our conference usually takes place in the lower mainland, however the 2010 conference will be held in Kelowna. We are trying to keep our meeting costs down and I thought that a Conference Wiki may help.
In the article, Meridith Farkas writes ”Wikis are an ideal tool for harvesting the collective intelligence. Wiki is web based, easy to set up, and allows people with little tech-savvy to add information.” This quote fits the conference committee to a tea. We want to be able to collect and share information with each other, plus some of our members do not feel comfortable using computers or technology. A Wiki allows people to collaboratively develop a Web site with no Web programming knowledge. Any member of the community can add to or edit the work of others”. This is exactly what we need!!!!

I am one of those technologically challenged members of the community, but I am willing to try to set up a wiki. I have decided to use Wikispaces for my first attempt at a wiki. When I was researching wikis for my discussion topic last week, I noticed that most teachers seemed to use Wikispaces and that one of the reasons I picked this site. Also, Wikispaces.com provides some tutorial which I hope will help me along my journey.

This week I started building the Wiki, but have not gotten very far with it. Thus far I have set the page up and given our group a title. I plan to first show the wiki to my co-chair and the BCATML president to see what they think. I will add them to the wiki and the three of us can hopefully experiment with it by having some discussions about the happenings of the conference.

Eventually, all the members of the Conference Committee will be added. Hopefully, we will arrive at a time when we can do some “…collaborative editing of a document or the creation of a knowledge base.” The people who are on the BCATML executive and the Conference Committee will not be there forever and perhaps this Wiki will be able to help future executives and committees.

Comment Guidelines

This week I managed to keep up with my Mme. Chmelyk blog. Each day I posted what took place in my French 10-12 class. My students have commented that they like that they can easily find out what was missed in class if they were absent. I haven't received any comment yet, but thought I would add some guidelines for people to follow. Here they are:

When posting comments observe the following protocol:
· Use proper English
· Refrain from using text language and shortcuts
· All comments submitted have to be approved by Mrs. Chmelyk before they are included on the blog.
· Parents who leave comments are asked to use their first name only so as not to identify their child
· Respect other opinions and use sentence starters such as, I respectfully disagree, you make a good point, I support………….
Any profane language or postings that are inappropriate will result in disciplinary action. These blogs are for academic purposes so please respect our intentions.

IGOOGLE

I added my list of blogs from Google Reader onto my I Google page. I love it!!! I thought that having my blogs on Google Reader was great, but this is even better. To make life even easier, I have set my IGOOGLE page as my home page on my school and home computers. Now, I can really keep track of everyones blogs posts.

Wikipedia in the classroom?

Some people argue that Wikipedia should not be used as a reference due to the fact that the encyclopedia allows anybody to edit its pages According to what-is-what.com in 2005 the scientific publication Nature compared the accuracy of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. It found that even though the amount of errors per article were the same, the “severity of errors in Wikipedia were worse. Encyclopedia Britannica suffered mostly from fact omission, whereas Wikipedia suffered from inaccurate information.”

However, David Perry writes: “It is irresponsible for educational institutions not to teach new knowledge technologies such as Wikipedia.” He continues this argument by saying.” Students and teachers alike must understand how systems of knowledge creation and archivization are changing. Encyclopedias are no longer static collections of facts and figures; they are living entities, and the new software changes the rules of expertise.”
He also states that Wikipedia is more current then traditional encyclopedias. To support this statement he sites Global Warming as an example of where Wikipedia is current and up to date.

David Perry also talks about the inaccuracies of Wikipedia, he states that “In many of these studies, Wikipedia fared equally as well as its competitors, with the added advantage of being able to correct its own errors and relish the fact that others could not do the same”


I agree with Perry that as Teacher-Librarians ”… we do a fundamental disservice to our students if we continue to propagate old methods of knowledge creation and archivization without also teaching them how these structures are changing, and, more importantly, how they will relate to knowledge creation and dissemination in a fundamentally different way.”

As educators we are to teach students how to use all resources available to them. As part of higher level thinking skills, we teach our students to check and question all resources be it print or electronic. We need to teach them the skills on how to make these judgments. Wikipedia can help us do this. As Badke suggests teachers can have students develop, enhance and expand a Wikipedia entry, and review Wikipedia entries and or compare Wikipedia entries with traditional or old literacy sources.
Last semester I collaborated with a Science teacher on a Land-Form Dictionary assignment that the students were to create. 90% of the students used Wikipedia as their one and only sources. Now that I have completed this lesson, I am going to work with the Science teacher to revamp our lessons. I will begin the assignment with an introduction to Wikipedia. In my introduction, I will have the student look at entry for our town. They can they decide if it is accurate or not. While evaluating the post, students will look at the history and discussion section of the post. Students will also be instructed to check the sources at the bottom of the article. I will instruct them that if an article is not sited, that they will not be able to use it as a source for their dictionaries. They will also be instructed to check the age of the article. Would they use a book that was out of date? If not, then why use a post that is out of date?
My hope would be to have the students edit the post to see how easy it is to do this, however, this is not a possibility in my school. As mentioned in a previous post in my blog, Wikipedia edits are not allowed on our computers. Therefore, I might assign this as a homework assignment. I would first have to make sure that all students have internet access at home. The students could email or print a copy of the original post and the edited post. We could review these as a class. In the case that everyone does not have internet access at home, which is a possibility with my students, non-internet people could be partnered up with internet people to discuss the process. After partner and/or group discussions we would have a group discussion about what students did and then the necessity of evaluating and comparing sources. Another option would be if students have high speed internet at home to have them screenshot the before and after Wikipedia posts, similar to what people have done in this course. This is one example how Wikipedia lessons can be taught in schools.
In reply to Perry’s article Kelly wrote “Asking/telling students they are to not use a source of information does not mean that they don’t, it only means that they will not disclose it in their references.” How true, and what has the students learned? Badke says,” Academia

Wikipedia

I tried to edit my post and school, but couldn't as a message saying that I was not allowed to edit posts popped up. Someone has suggested that I need to sign in as a user. I will try this on Monday. Does anyone else have any other suggestions as to why I was not able to edit the post?

I have since edited the post on my home computer. I will attempt to screen shot the edit. I say attempt, as I have dial up at home and am not sure how the screen shot will work. Wish me luck.

My french class blog

I have created a blog for my French 10-12 class. I thought that since this blog was created using blogster, I would create my new blog using edublog. This way I will learn a new system. My class blog can be found at www.mmechmelyk.edublogs.org

Blogs that I am following

I have spent some time trying to find some lesson plans which include blogging. Second semester I have a Communications 11/12 class. I hope to be able to try the photo sharing lesson with the Communications 11 for sure. I also found some other lessons that I will share with some of the teachers on my staff.


Grade 9-12 Lesson plans involving Blogging.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/blogging-with-photovoice-sharing-1064.html

Blogging with photo voice lesson plan

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/blogtopia-blogging-about-your-942.html

Blogging about Your Own Utopia

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/latino-poetry-blog-blogging-1160.html

Latino poetry blog

Here are two library blogs that I am following:

http://hamlib.edublogs.org/.
missolibrary.blogspot.com

The following is a blog that I will share with the science teachers on my staff.
http://www.stampedescience.blogspot.com

The following are technology blogs that I am following:
http://anitas.edublog.org
http://jamesmcconville.blogspot.com
www.information-literacy.blogspot.com
davidleeking.com

Week 4 Article review

The interview with Christopher Harris was a great change from some of the other reading that we have had to do thus far in this course. Where as Prensky pushed the line and via frustration made me think more about what I am doing with technology in my classroom, Harris’s thoughts were realistic and provided me with viable and useful suggestions.

One of the suggestions that Harris made was “Maybe instead of School Library 2.0, we can call this new idea a Digitally Re-Shifted School Library. That brings in not only this idea, but also the Web 2.0 elements of digital interaction with students and staff to provide them with the information they need in the most appropriate format while recognizing that school libraries have long used digital resources.´
This idea may present itself as less threatening to both Teachers and Teacher-Librarians alike. Someone how it appears to be less threatening.

Whereas Prensky suggests that teaching the “basics” such as reading may no longer be needed due to the fact that students will have text read to them via their cell phones, Harris admits that books are still the most appropriate format many times.” He goes on to say that ” that if school libraries fail to make a digital re-shift, they are going to loose relevancy in the world of digital information.”

I also agree that one of the modern day Teacher-Librarian’s jobs is to help students learn how to decipher and find ones way through the “chaos of information” that one can find on the web. However I also do believe that a second function of a Teacher- Librarian is to collaborate with teachers on lessons. Through collaboration, the Teacher-Librarian can introduce some Web 2.0 concepts into the teacher’s lesson plans.

I look forward to reading more of Chris Harris’s articles.

Web Educational Resources

While reading through Judy O'Connell's blog I found a new search engine entitled Sweet Search. http://www.sweetsearch.com/index.html
Using this site I searched for educational blogs. Wow! What a choice. I spent some time looking through Finding Dulciniea. On the course discussion site I mentioned that teachers need to teach students how to weed through all the information on the web, as well as to decide what information to keep. Well, I am pleased to say that I did find a place inwhich one lists some educational resources from the web for all students. I have included the link in my title. I hope this link will be helpful to you when using the web with students!!!

Animoto.com

I GOOGLE

animato video

As previously mentioned, I have created an animato video. For some reason, my computer will not let me link it to my blog. However, I was able to link it to my Facebook page.
Perhaps, whatever is keeping my computer from linking my video is the same thing that is not allowing me to paste a screen shot. Could it be something that I have not completed on my blog? I have been trying to screen shot all day; I will try any advice anyone has. Thank you for your help.

I am not 100% sure if I am supposed to post the following addresses or not, but have just realized that I had not added this information to my blog.
My twitter address is @Kathyweb20
My face address is http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy-Chmelyk/100000620864959

Paatience is a virtue

Well, I have been working on my computer all day and figue it is time to quit since my children have friends over and their parents may been trying to call. I have dial up at home and have been on the computer for about 5 hours.
In that time though, I have learned a lot. I have learned that I still do not know how to place a screen shot. I tried the hit help button, but when I type in screen shot, title unavailalbe appears. I tires fitting the print screen button, and then to paste the shot. HOwver, I do not know where to paste it. I tried to paste it onto my portfolio as a post, but all that comes up is words. I will not give up though!!! Tomorrow is another day and I plan to be at this again.
I did manage to create both a animato video and a flirk account. For the animato video I just used the pictures that they provided, however I noticed that you could use pictures from FLIKR and thus I set up an account.
I am quite proud of the progress that I am making thus for in this course. I hope to create some sample projects for my French classes.

Horizon Report

2009 Horizon Report: The K12 Edition
Although the Horizon Report was quite long, it is useful as not only did it contain definitions and examples of technology, but also actual lesson plans that Teacher Librarians could search through and share with teachers.
While scimming through the site langwiches I found two lessons that I have shared with collegues: Using Skype to connect students and How to guide for Digital Storytelling. The teachers have just browsed through the lessons, but have agreed to get together to discuss what they plan to do with the information. I also suggested the site access my library: video conferencing to a third staff member, but have yet to hear back from him.
A second part of the report was a Time-to Adoption. Different definitions and forms of technology were discussed in this section. Happily, I recognized some of the technologies being discussed, Electronic Books, Simple Augmented Reality, Gesture- Based Computing and also agreed with some of the statements in this section. The Open Content area states that “ As a result, the role of the teacher is undergoing a slow but definite change, from the guardian and dispenser of knowledge to the guide and coach for learners faced with an overabundance of resources”. I find myself in this situation in the upcoming semester. I will be “teaching” a Communications 11/12 class. In reality, I am teaching the Communication 11 students, while the Communication 12 students take the course via Ebus, an online school.
Challenges were discussed in different parts of the report. In the Preview section of the report one can find Critical Challenges. As an educator, it was refreshing to see that some people acknowledge the challenges that Teacher Librarians face. The following were listed as the challenges:
The role of the academy- and the way we prepare students for their future lives- is changing.

New scholarly forms of authoring, publishing and researching continue to emerge but appropriate metrics for evaluating them increasingly lag behind or fail to appear.
Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key 21st century skill, but here is a widening training gap for faculty and teachers.

Institutions increasingly focus more narrowly on key goals, as a result of shrinking budgets in the present economic climate.

These challenges do exist in today’s school system. Some of them we can attempt to break and others are in the control of others. My goal is to train myself and then to provide some training in digital media literacy skills via my Literacy Coordinator position and hopefully to continue providing guidance as a Teacher Librarian.

The Horizon report also trends and challenges that reflect “
the impact of emerging technologies and practices on our lives.”
Basically the section discusses the impact of the six technologies in the report .
The first challenge states that “ Issues of assessment and integration of new literacies across the curriculum, and of teacher training, are complicated by the overarching need for a fuller understanding of what constitutes new literacy skills. “ The IRP’s need to be revised and reflect these issues of assessment.
The second challenge listed states “ Students are different, but educational practice and the material that supports it is changing only slowly. It is stated that teaching practice and resources must change in order to support such a change. This includes assessment practices that have not kept pace with the new modes. In B.C. grade 10 and 12 students must still write traditional provincial exams. Although it may not be right, many teachers focus their lessons on these exams. Can they prepare students for the exams using new technologies? OF course they can, however many are afraid to change what they are doing because their students perform well on the provincial tests and in the public’s eye excellent results means excellent teaching skills.
The third challenge involves incorporating real life experiences into classrooms. Real life experiences aid students to prepare for the real world. However, technology is not the only means of incorporating real life situations into the classroom. The report itself mentions items such as project based- learning and mentoring from community members.
The next challenge deals with adopting and using new technologies everyday in the classroom. This is difficult for many educators as we do not have the adequate training or preparation time to do this. Time and education are necessary for this shift to take place.
The last challenge mentioned is the structure of the education system. How true this is. I myself have run into teachers reluctant to make the change because of the focus of the current system. I have mentioned this several times before: The Ministry of Education has to catch up to the 21st Century. Once this happens, some teachers will be much more inclined to change their ways.

THINGS THAT KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT

Things That Keep Us Up at Night

Economic concerns
I agree that we are moving from a time of “ information scarcity” to a time of “ information abundance”. The job of a TL will now be to show students where the can find the needed information and how to wad through all the information that is available on the internet. Should students believe everything they read? This is yet another important lesson that needs to be taught.
“Libraries need to change from places just to get stuff to places to make stuff, do stuff and share stuff.” It is my hope that current libraries are not just “places to get stuff”. Libraries should always be a place where you can learn and share information. Now a days, however instead of posting book reviews and requests on bulletin boards this can be done on web pages or blogs.

Intellectual property shifts
I find the discussion on copyright, quite interesting. My first reaction is one of shock. How can we not continue to teach students about copyright and copyright laws. At least once a semester I have a colleague approach me to ask me what should be done if a student handed in an assignment the student did not write. On the other hand, after Copyright and Fair Use link, I can understand the need to be able to use copyrighted material for Media Literacy Lessons or to repurpose in the form of a video etc.
Earlier in this course, I had played a bit on the Creative Comons site, but I had not heard of the Copyright and Fair Use in Teaching Resources. During an upcoming staff meeting, I hope to share some of the video clips found on this site.

The challenge of keeping ahead
This is defiantly a challenge that I am experiencing with this course and technology as a whole. I have waited to long to try and embrace some of these new concepts and find that I have lots of learning to do. Once I have completed this course, I will lead a technology cohort group, during with I will inform teachers how to update their courses a bit. I think I will try to use a catchy title like, how to raise students interest in your classroom. If I am lucky enough to move into a TL position next year, this will be done out of the library. Perhaps I will be lucky enough to be able to team teach a lesson with an eager teacher. If not, I will simply offer my services to those who wish to try. I hope to ask the AO’s for some sub time to provide staff members school time to experiment. We often have subs in the school who have a spare block. With some advance notice, the sub can be used to provide a classroom teacher with some valuable collaboration time.


Failing to embrace networked media
My school is lucky and we do have a PLN, however he is shared with four other schools. Basically, he updates and repairs computers. He is knows of Blogs, Wikis etc, but never teaches us about them. Part of the problem may be that he is quite shy, or perhaps he has never been asked. The next time I see him, I am going to ask him for some help with my blog and see if he would be willing to present something to the staff. It never hurts to ask, does it?

Advocacy by nonlibrarians
“In times of budget cuts, it cannot be only librarians who speak on behalf of libraries. Teachers, administrators, parents, and students must demand the essential services we provide.” This is very true, however as a librarian one must be sure to be providing essential services. This means working for both the teachers and the students.

Our national expectations that ignore critical learning skills
It is my opinion that curriculum often lags behind in the new trends. For example, formative assessment is a buzz word in my school district. However, the government still has students writing provincial exams and teachers still need to write traditional report cards. Much is the same with 21st century technology. The administration often asks how we are updating our courses, yet there are only two computer labs in my school. One lab is generally used for computer, photography or graphic arts courses. The other lab is available only to the elementary students in the afternoon. The struggle to find available lab time is frustrating. I know that is a little off topic, but it is a concern. The library only has four computers therefore, it is hard to do the hands on work with the students.

Missing the potential of reading 2.0
This is one that worries me quite a bit as a Literacy Teacher. New information keeps increasing daily and I never seem to be able to keep up. Many of my students do not like reading, will Web 2.0 make it easier or more interesting for them? I sure hope so. What about writing? Will working on blogs and wikis peak their interest? Time will tell.

Realizing that Internet access is an intellectual freedom issue
What an interesting title. I was not sure what to expect under this subtitle, but this is where I tend to be weak. I would fight for a budget issue that I felt strongly about, I will need to do the same with the Internet. Taking on the fight may come once I am more familiar with the tools and learn how powerful they will be in a classroom?

Recognize that modern practice is directly connected to equity.
The comment that there are students who can “ effectively access, appreciate, understand and create quality information in all media formats; on the other hand, there are those who cannot.” is something that I must keep repeating to myself. When thinking of Web 2.0 and teaching it in the classroom, I am one of those people who sometimes thinks, well students taught themselves how to use Face Book, they will teach themselves the rest. Stereotyping is what causes problems and creates problems. How would I feel to be stereotypes as a 45+ year old teacher who does not care about creating interesting lesson plans. It would make my blood curdle. I must try not to do the same. Taking this course is my first big step to becoming a Tl who is not still in the 1960’s but moving forward toward the 21st century.

Define the brand
Does an administrative officer know what the role of a TL is? Good question, although I must admit that this question does not keep me up at night. Do teachers and students know what I have to offer them? This is the question that I would worry about more.

Plan for one-to-one computing or ubiquitous computing.
Leaving the library is essential to working with teachers and students. Teaching about blogs will not be able to be done in the school library at my school. We would need to move to a computer lab. Perhaps one day we will be fortunate and have lap tops for the students, but today we do not.

Become an online presence.
Currently our school library does not have an online presence. Our school does not even have a functioning web page. However, this does not mean that the situation cannot be changed. A library webpage could be constructed before a school one is. My library webpage has already been planned out in draft form. There will be links to our town library as well as other near by college, university and public libraries. Students would be able to find links that will help them to complete school assignments. Teachers would have access to lesson plans, curriculum, literacy lessons etc. I would also like to make the website useful for parents, but have not figured out how as of yet.

See obstacles rather than opportunities.
I thought that this should have been worded see opportunities rather than obstacles. My dream is for staff, students and parents to see me as irreplaceable once I become a Teacher-Librarian. Hopefully, they will not hearing the words “yeah, but” come from my mouth and if they voice the words, I will be able to help change their opinions.

Google Reader

Wow!!!! I set up a Google Reader account yesterday and am amazed and how much it has simplified my life. I used to try to check each students' blog individually and was getting frustrated at how much time that was taking. Now, I simply sign in to my Google Reader account and read away. Now I just need to try to figure out how to title my list of favourite web sites and get this list plus my Blog list moved to the side of my blog. If you use blogster can you please explain to me how this is done?

Backup Education?

Mark Prensky’s Backup Education was an intriguing read for me. I often think that authors write such articles to get people thinking. By sometimes upsetting readers, readers revolt and this revolt then achieves the goal.

In the article Prensky describes a scenario in which teachers take opposition to his suggesting that we delete certain learning objectives in our IRP’s to make room for topics about the future. He states that the opposition comes forward in questions about technology breaking down. He states that this attitude is a problem because what teachers are saying is that we do not
“trust the world in which you kids are going to live”. He also states that teachers only want to teach the basics.

It is true that technology does break down and it is probably true that some teachers use this as an excuse. However, Mr. Prensky may be better able to understand the fear of some of these teachers if he had ever been put in the situation of experiencing a technological break down while having a group of students waiting for the lesson to begin. It is not an easy position to be in. Just like there are people who will try to ride a bike for the first time, fail and say that it is, there are teachers who feel the same about technology. Is this right? No, but it is a reality. My hope is to slowly change the attitude of these educators one small step at a time.

Prensky uses the notion of telling time using a sundial and then progressing to using a watch. I agree that this change did take place, however it didn’t happen instantly and therefore the teaching methods also did not change instantly. Teachers need to teach things that help students to survive in today’s society as well as the future one.

The article asks the question “What will serve our kids better in 20 years- memorized multiplication tables or fundamental knowledge of programming concepts?” This is a valid question, however we need to think about the time between now and 2030. What do students need today? They still need to know how to read and write. Teachers are not only preparing students for the future, but to be able to function in the present. For example, while talking about communication basics, the author predicts that eventually all books will be recorded and everyone will have a text scanner in their cell phone to read any printed text aloud. I can be wrong, and that may be because still today I am not a person who constantly uses a cell phone, but will kindergarten students be carrying cell phones? My children are in grades 2 and 4 and I still have yet to buy them a calculator, never mind a cell phone. How will these students be able to read if they are not taught this basic concept?

It is stated that by the time today’s elementary students begin working, many of today’s breakdown scenarios will not be occurring. This may be true, however does Mr. Prensky know that cell phone capability only arrived in my town 5 years ago? Today, I have students who do not have cell phone or high speed internet available at their homes. The stores in my town do not have the machines that read the chips on either the credit cards or debit cards. Therefore, the teachers at my school still need to teach to the technology that these students will be dealing with. Am I opposed to bringing new technology into the classroom? Of course not, for if I was, I would not currently be taking this class.

I do agree that the student’s world is diverging at light speed from my own. I have not avoided teaching my students about blogs etc to “protect” them, but simply because I have not always had the time, the technology or the expertise to do so. Has this stopped my students from learning how to send text messages or set up FaceBook accounts? Of course not, the students have been able to figure this out on their own. One must not underestimate the ability of students to master technology if it is in their best interest.

Am I a 21st Century School Librarian?

I found reading Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians extremely interesting. I guess I am not quite a 21st Century TL, but thanks to my UBC Web 2.0 course I am on my way.
The following are things that I do that bring me closer to being a 21st Century School Librarian:

I do market my books using the social networking tool of LibraryThing. I not only use this tool to list book titles, but to find books of similar interest that students, staff and I would enjoy reading.

My students are not blogging or tweeting about what they are reading yet, but I am planning on having them do this once the second semester begins. My guess is that some of the students will be able to tweet and blog better than me, but at least I have started a blog and we will learn together. I have yet to review a book on my blog, but I do plan on doing so soon.

In my Literacy class I have been trying to promote reading by having students listen to books. I started with books on tape and CD, and then progressed to downloading books onto MP3 players. My ebook collection is growing rapidly.

When I have students working on computers, I encourage them to search various parts of the Web. I try of offer them an array of search tools such as AltaVista, Kosmix, Browsys.

As part of my current job of Literacy Teacher, I have helped teachers to find websites, videos, webquests etc. that they have used with their students in their classrooms.

The school library is the place where all podcasting and video conferencing takes place.

I believe that on of the best ways to promote the library is by collaborating with other teachers and “know that one-to-one classrooms will change my (your) teaching logistics.

Other staff members and I are building our own learning networks in which we share are new technology lessons. I have also been able to provide a space and knowledge for other teachers to start their own learning networks. The concept is picking up speed in the building.

Technology is my current pro.d trend. I try to attend as many work shop as possible that talk and teach about how to make my teaching and classroom more tech savy.


It is true that I have not accomplished many of the tasks on Valenza’s list of what a 21st Century Librarian does, but I am slowly improving and do have some tasks that I am going to try to accomplish in the near future. I will begin with incorporating blogs into my classroom lessons. Along with this of course comes teaching students about norms of appropriate behaviour, discussing copyright issues and ethics.

Retooling- and re-learning will be a big concept in my transformation. I hope that eventually I will be able to proudly represent the new brand of TLs and be a 21 century information professional.

After reading the article Say Good-bye to your mother’s school library by Christopher Harris I started thinking of other applications of blogs in the school. I previously mentioned using blogs for students to be able to comment on books. Students could also post book requests or recommend books to peers. Right now in my school library this is done by filling out a piece of paper and putting it on a bulletin board. Wouldn’t be great if students could do this from home!!! Well a blog would allow them to do this. That way, if they just finish a book and are truly excited about it, they could type away right away as opposed to waiting until they get to school.

While reading about the students the students talking about their novel Night with students 700 miles away that I could set up a blog for my French students to talk to students in another high school. This has been done for years, but not it could be done quicker and more efficiently. I used to do this with students via the means of writing letters to pen pals, then updated it by writing via email. Now I can update it once again by having my students create a blog. We could add pictures of our class, school using Flikr or add video using one of the Instant Audio and Video sites that I have been reading about.

Harris confused me when writing about the flex Library schedule with the librarian. Is Mrs. Smith and her class simply going to the library to exchange books? When or how do the weekly lessons take placed? Either it was not explained very well, or I am still not grasping how the library is functioning. Can anyone out there explain this to me?
Since reading the article, I have set up an account on LibraryThing.com It was extremely easy to do. I have some books to my list and now I am able to find other books that they suggest. Are any of you part of this group?

This may be a good site to try to gain some reading excitement for my Communications 11 and 12 classes. Perhaps if I can get them to name some books that they have enjoyed reading, we may be able to find more books for them to read.

I have also tried to download Scuttle to do my own bookmarking of books that my Literacy students can use in their content area classes. Unfortunately, the download was not successful for me. I tried to download a few times, but had no luck. If you were able to do this, please let me know.

Overall, I have to say that this article was very useful for me as I was it gave me a few ideas on how to implement Web 2.0 into my lessons.

The title of this post says it all for me right now. Last week when I set up my blog I felt like I was making great progress. Not only did I set up a blog, but I managed to attach a picture, add posts, and view and comment on some other class mates blogs. Today after reading "Weaving Web 2.0 into Classroom Practive" I feel like I am lost once again. There are tons of suggestions on that page and as I read them I feel like I am trying to speak a foreign langague. I decided that I would try to focus on one specific application: Instant Audio and Video. My French classes are project based ones. It is my thought that if I can learn how to use one of the instant audio and video programs, perhaps 12 seconds.com, or tokbox.com I could get encourage my students to use the website to submit assignments to me. I am sure that some of the students may be more familiar with these sites than I am, but I still would like to be proficient in at least one of my sites for the students who have not worked with an instant audio or video program before. Does anyone out there have any other suggestions on how we could use Instant Audio and Video programs in the school setting?

Since reading Digital Natives, I have been thinking about my classroom instruction. With a new semester starting up soon, I figure this is a good time to maybe "update" my teaching techniques.
I am not surprised by the evidence presented on the amount of time students spend using technology to communicate. All one has to do for evidence of this is spend some time in the halls of a school or in a mall. How many teens do you see texting? Some days, I wonder if they ever spend any time communicating the old fashion way: Face to face talking. In my opinion, some of the break down of family can also be blamed on technology. In the third part of the article, Changing Behavior of 15-24 Year Olds, it is stated that: " In the US" for instance more than two thirds of all 8-18 year olds have a TV in their bedroom, nearly half have a video games console, and more than 30% have a computer." When I was a child, there was one t.v. in the living room and we watch it as a family. This would sometimes lead to arguments as to what was to be watched, but we always managed to find something to enjoy together. We would watch a t.v. show or movie together. We would discuss what was happening in the show together. Now a days, I am not sure how often parents see their children.
The main question for me is how can I keep my students interested in my lessons? According to Buvat, Mehra and Raunschvig, students are " time-saved users, juggling various activities at the same time, always on the lookout for something better to invest their attention in, eventually resulting in attention thinning." What can I do to keep their attention? How can I change my lessons to make them more engaging? My first step of course is in taking this course. I know that although blogging is new to me, it is part of my student's everyday vocabulary. I started a twitter this week, which is my second step. I must admit, that I have not actually twitted yet, but I am slowly making advances. One step at a time, is the way I see it.
One of my hopes for this class is to get a little closer to the technological level of my students. None of the information in the Digital Natives article was very surprising, however it definately enforned my need to update my technological skills.

Excited!!

Wow! While my last post was all about my fear, my emotions have now switched to excitement. I have actually created a blog that contains a couple of posts and my family picture. Now, to successfully add to another person's blog. I thought I had, but instead I had the posts on my blog and not as a response to the other person's. My tech knowledge is slowly improving, I have created a blog, and set up a twitter account all in one week. I cannot imagine what I will be able to create by the end of this course!!

Wow! I cannot believe that we are at the end of the first week already. I must admit that I am feeling quite overwhelmed and lost. In the past few days, I have just figured out more about the workings of the course. For my last course, I had to keep track of assignments and one weekly discussion. I have finally come to the realization that I need to scroll down the discussion page to view all discussion areas and all read through the course content etc. I have had a slow start to the course, but I hope that now that I am on track, I will stay on track.