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.