Visual Blooms

I stumbled upon this Web2.0 App digital-visual representation of Blooms Taxonomy through a twitter tweet but it took a while to find the actual wiki it came from. This represents the levels of blooms that are hit with different web apps. If I want my students to work create, evaluate, analyze, and apply their learning. I must offer them some higher-level web apps. Some of these very web apps may be blocked by filters or considered unsafe or unreliable as sources. It is time for those of us in the library to step up and teach Internet Safety, find ways to get student accounts without the need for student e-mail addresses, teach website evaluation, teach how to properly use social networking with proper netiquette so that our students can use these web apps responsibly. Can I get a “woot” from school librarians? I don’t know about you but I want my students using Google Docs and collaborating on wikis. I want my student to blog about their research projects, to make voki books reviews, and put their digital photographs (notice I did not say pictures of themselves) up on web services like Flickr and Picassa. Come join me school librarians and let’s make digital blooms a library initiative in this new school year!

3-D Hamlet targets teens

I am not sure how I feel about this but I guess if it gets more kids and teens to see, hear, read, and/or watch a Shakespeare play than it can't be bad. And if some adults that have never read the classics are drawn in, all the better! The link to this article was first shared with me on Plurk through Skip Z, a member of my Personal Learning Network (PLN), an idea teachers have borrowed from the business sector. I learn a lot on Plurk and Twitter. I think all teachers need a PLN. That is why I do social networking and why I blog. Take a look at this. The 3-D 'Hamlet' targets teens.

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Plurk

I have been trying out Plurk again. I signed up when it first came out but I didn't get it. Then I was told that the whole idea is to get a network of people (thanks to Ginger for connecting me with like Plurkers) and it is much more fun and ideas can really be shared. I have now in the past three or four days networked with a bunch of Instructional Technology Specialists and I like it a lot. Plurk is now yet another cog in the wheel that is my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I also like that I was able to sign up on Plurk and post not only to Plurk but to Twitter and Facebook. Look for me on Plurk: http://plurk.com/congerjan/invite.

Remixers Manifesto

I love the part about Copyright and Copyleft... check this out:

Kathy Schrock is a Digital Pioneer

Yes, I agree with Kathy Schrock's video that I came across today.  She and many of us digital immigrants are not really immigrants but digital pioneers.  Not that I am counting myself among the elite digital librarian pioneers of our day.  I am a follower of those pioneers and love to sit at their feet, or attend their conferences and learn. Watch Kathy's Digital Pioneer Avatar.

Digital Pioneer: The Movie from Kathy Schrock on Vimeo.

#23

Since I had completed the 23Things on my own when I first found out about the program I was amazed at the differences.  The PSLA version of 23 things is not the same as the 23Things I did on my own a couple of years ago.  I love that 23Things is available to use under a Creative Commons license because I am thinking of developing a version for my district to introduce our teachers to what is available on the Web.  It could be completed for Act 48 credit through the district with assistance from those who have completed the 23Things.  Somehow though I wonder how many more things could be explored.  There is so much more out there than can be explored in just 23Things.  But it is a starting place and enough to get teacher’s feet wet.  To improve the 23Things program I would simply enlarge it.  Make 23Things be the starting point and then have teachers go on from there.  23Things is e-learning at it’s best.  23Things is lifelong learning!  Now for the journey to continue!

Week 6, #15

I totally agree with Rick Anderson from the University of Nevada who says we need to be putting more of our limited resources into digital collections.  The students in my elementary school are more motivated to look for information on the Web than to finding that same information in a book.  I want to create lifelong learners and wonder if students will even be using books, as we know them, in the future.  We need to prepare our students for the future.  And I agree that I want my student patrons to be able to access library material from home. And while I also agree we need to become more user-centric and make searching easier, I must disagree with Anderson’s contention that “if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons.”  I am sure he is talking about adult patrons of his university libraries so I will excuse him.  K-12 students on the other hand, need training in using library databases, proper Internet and database search techniques, and using the various digital mediums available to them. It is up to school librarians to give students the paddles they need to navigate digital waters. In Anderson’s analogical terms, it is up to school librarians to make this happen one student-one little oar-at a time.

Michael Stephens’s article, “Into a new world of librarianship,” reads like a 21^st Century librarian’s mission statement.  At least it reads like the mission statement of a librarian trying to prepare students for the future.  I agree that school librarians need to embrace Web 2.0 tools and teach their students which tools are worthwhile for education.  Students need to be exposed to Web 2.0 tools in the classroom so that they know how to interact with such tools on their own.  I love that Stephens puts the users needs first and calls for the librarian to nurture “a living, breathing technology plan.”  I love that Stephens gets Librarians who embrace Web 2.0.

In school libraries Web 2.0 means we are blurring the lines between librarianship and technology integration.  Librarians must be technology leaders in their schools.  Library 2.0 means we need to teach our students digital library skills as well the ethical use of located information.  Library 2.0 may mean our print collections become supplementary to out digital collections in the future but instead of being afraid and burying our heads in the sand we need to become informed, educate ourselves in the new technology and lead the way.  Librarians need to be the one building bridges across the digital divide, and modeling what good digital citizenship looks like for our students and colleagues.  

The Cellist of the Library

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2009/01/cellist-of-schoolyard.html

If you are like me some of the stresses of teaching every day, budget freezes, preparing a budget and book order for a new library, and being on 2 strategic planning committees for which you must actually produce something, and learning about RtI so you can support teachers with data and more, can take a toll on what you are doing in the classroom or library. Of maybe it is just your perception of what you are doing in the classroom. For 3 years I had fun, fun, fun! I hated snow-days that took me away from my library and my kids. This year with all the extras on my plate I was loosing my fun, I was loosing my joy; then I read Coolcatteacher Vicki Davis’s blog post about “The Cellist of the Sarajevo.” (Please follow the link to the left and go read it now; it will inspire you as it did me). Vicki dubbed her post “The Cellist of the Schoolyard.” And, it makes a lot of sense. The classroom/library is my first priority, I am in this for the kids, my library may be the last place they can find fun (read hope) in school. Nothing against wonderful teachers but with all the stress of testing on them the library needs to be fun. As I commented on Vicki’s blog, the greatest among us is the servant of all, the one who brings joy, hope, and fulfillment to others. I had almost forgotten why I became a librarian. I needed this reminder to live above the noise and be the music. I need to be the cellist of the library (not literally because they would run away screaming). In order to create lifelong learners, I need to give hope, make learning fun, and be a servant with a smile again. After all, librarians are the ultimate search-engine!

Are Formative Assessments "testing"?

Do you see "formative assessments" as testing? While I do believe that testing (standardized testing as we know it) is not necessarily beneficial for students I don’t see all assessments that way. When I do formative assessments, I tell my classes upfront that they will have a test but that it is not a test that they can pass or fail. I don’t like to use the word test either. I tell them we are doing a survey, we play games where correct information location gets a prize, and we do evaluations of websites (the students do the evaluations themselves, if they can do this they are a step ahead). Every once in a while I switch up the evaluation tools and have the students assess the tools themselves. Sometimes I tell them they are my guinea pigs and that I will be asking them to evaluate themselves and what they learned. During the research process I have them do a daily journal along with a checklist of where they are in the process. The journal part asks 3 things: What went right that day, what they are having problems with, and where do they go from here, their next step. I don’t see these assessments as the same thing as “testing.” Yet, it informs me of their progress. As a librarian I want to create lifelong learners and no standardized test is going to create a lifelong learner. But, a strategically placed “formative assessment” can be the spur that some students need to progress on the road toward lifelong learning.
Just my thoughts.

Week 1& 2 Thing 1,2, &3

Please excuse me as I begin a new adventure into Web 2.0. If you are used to reading this blog you know I am always trying new things. Now my librarian's association is joining me on this new Web 2.0 discovery venture, or am I joining them?

71/2 habits of a lifelong learner.

If you think you can’t or don’t have time to learn something new this tutorial will help you realize that you learn something new every day. The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County put together the tutorial and it reads like it came from an Instructional Design class. The 7 and a half habits are: begin with the end in mind, accept responsibility for your own learning, view problems as challenges, have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner, create your own learning toolbox, use technology to your advantage, teach or mentor others, and play. This tutorial is great for beginning your trip down the road to lifelong learning. Check it out and get in the habit of learning!

Check out my new avatar to the right. I never had an avatar on this blog before and I am happy to now have this avatar as a starting point buy what I really want is a voki. I will learn how to create one and add it to the blog when I do. :-)