A helpful tool or a way to cheat?

There has been some discussion on LM_Net recently about this website: http://www.ozline.com/electraguide/thesis.html. It calls itself a Thesis Builder and Online Outliner and promises it will help students draft a clear thesis statement for your persuasive essay. It then give students a set of directions to use the site.

I currently have 4th and 5th grade students who need to write persuasive essays. So, I took a look at Thesis Builder Online Outliner to see if it would be a useful organization tool to help them with their essays. First, I am not sure it is a good thing for elementary students that cannot type. But, when I worked at the high school I did have students who could have benefited from using this website to organize their essays. Keep in mind that I am not 100% convinced that it is a useful tool yet. I have used it two or three times using various arguments and it seems to give me nonsense back. I tried to put in an argument regarding episode 82 of Cranky Geeks. The geeks argued about bloggers being considered journalists and therefore entitled to protection under shield laws. The guest was Josh Wolf, a blogger who according to the blurb on the website “received the Longest Content-Related Jail Term of any Journalist in U.S. History--For Not Turning Over a Video” to police. I would love to use this podcast to spur a first amendment discussion in a high school government class. But I digress; when I put in the information into Thesis Builder, I got some nonsense back. They took the information I put into the blanks, and jumbled it around. There were double periods in some sentences and in one spot there was a comma at the beginning of a sentence. If students are looking for correct punctuation, and a way to cheat this site will not give it to them. But, if students are stuck for a thesis statement and want to organize and re-organize their thoughts, I think this is a great site. It is no different than giving students graphic organizers to help them plan out their papers. I think it is neat that it is online, it may appeal to those reluctant to use paper graphic organizers. It could be another tool for teachers to introduce to students. I don’t agree with those who think it is cheating because the students have to plug their own ideas into the blanks on the website. At most it helps them organize their thoughts. Oh, now that I am thinking of it, I wonder if the website wants students to put to leave out punctuation in the blank boxes and then it will put the punctuation in itself. I will have to try that next.
Anyway, if you have not listened to the John Dvorak Cranky Geek episode above, listen and then let me know if you think bloggers should be considered journalists… and if Sebastian is correct that journalism schools are a waste of time. It was a very lively discussion and I found myself talking back to my computer!

Apple Tip I just Love...

I am trying to update the Arrowhead Library website and wiki and add pictures. Usually it takes me a long time to open the pictures in PhotoShop or some other program, not to edit the pictures but just to make them smaller for the web and save them on my flash drive to transport to school. A recent Apple Quick Tip of the Week is now saving me a lot of time. All I have to do now is open the picture in Preview and drag the little icon at the top of the Preview bar into an e-mail. The Apple e-mail application then gives me the choice to resize the picture in the e-mail. It does not change the size of the original picture on your hard drive. I can then e-mail the pictures to myself. And, when I am sitting at my school computer updating my website, I can open my e-mail and ta-da… the pictures are there! I can then upload them to the school website. Of course my school district could make it easier for me if they allowed me to update my website from an Apple but that is another story! The pictures in this post are some of the pictures I e-mailed to myself using this tip.

A How to Video-cast on Creating a Book Citation for a Bibliography or Works Cited Page

School Reporter... oops I mean Librarian!

How cool is it that being a librarian is more thrilling than being a reporter? Of course it helps that a lot of the skills I acquired as a reporter now fit very well into information literacy standards. I am thrilled that I can pass on my love of creating a broadcast quality piece onto students. It is amazing that making a video or audio package is now something being done at the elementary school level! Things I did professionally in radio are now in the mainstream. Reel to reel tape editing is now a push of a computer button. Recording does not need a studio, only a microphone and a computer. The mechanics may be different but there is still an art to creating good radio and television. Telling a good story is still good storytelling even if that tale is put on the computer and not on a broadcast network. Storytelling is powerful and seeing your story on the Internet is powerful. What will that mean for literacy and more importantly information literacy? Stay tuned as we explore this new medium. And here is hoping the students will be as excited as I am, as we wonder together if Marshall McCluhan's words, "The medium is the message," are still true.

I remain constantly amazed that being an elementary school librarian is more fun and challenging than being a street-reporter on assignment! :-)

Blogging in the School Library!

Blogging. It is a new concept for elementary students at Arrowhead. But, we will be blogging for the first time this year. How cool is that? I am excited. I can’t wait to see how my students react to blogging. Students are going to blog on books they are reading and voting on for the Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Awards. To see the blog go to: http://arrowheadstudents.learnerblogs.org. Only students who know the password will be able to blog! They have to ask me for the password and logon. I am hoping this will be as much fun for them as it is for me to do this blog. I am also hoping we will be able to post some podcasts and videocasts on this blog. Stay tuned!

Introducing the Arrowhead Library Wiki

I know now that the link to the MCIU wiki is password protected and you need to be invited to see it. So, if you tried to go and see the page I created, I apologize. But, here is a new link to the Arrowhead Library Wiki.  I am told everyone can see it.  It is very new, so there is not much there yet but I like what I've done so far, if have some suggestions I am open to them.  Check out the wiki at: http://arrowheadlibrary.wikispaces.com/.

Grandma Helen Likes to Fish... again

Ok, so I took a lot of flack because the last video did not have pictures of Grandma Helen actually fishing... I did not have the fishing pictures downloaded or with me in my podcasting class. So, here is my next humble offering... with fishing pictures included. If I can do this on my own, maybe I will be able to use the program with students this year... :-)

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Grandma Helen likes to Fish...

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Learning to Podcast

Please don't laugh... this is my first attempt at making a podcast. It is my hope that I will be able to do Reader's Theatre with my students and make this podcast the first of many. I found the Alphabet Rap Reader's Theatre online. I thought it was very cute and recorded myself. It is not perfect but it is my hope that my elementary students listening will be able to create audio better than their school librarian... here is my first humble effort... now to download it to my iPod! BTW... the picture is of a class pet... Munchy.
:-)

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MCIU Wiki

Have I mentioned how much I love the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (MCIU)?
Today I am at the IU learning about Podcasting. We are making a Wiki. Check out my page... https://mciupodcasting.wikispaces.com/Janice.

The Ning I love...

SKILLS Act

A blog Woo-Hoo to Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Representatives Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) who on June 26th introduced the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act. As a librarian, I applaud their actions and as a citizen, I will be contacting my own Senators and Representative in Washington asking them to add their name to the Senate Bill (S. 1699) and the House Bill (H.R. 2864). Please contact your Representative and Senators and do the same. Among other things the SKILLS Act believes every school library should have at least one highly qualified librarian/library media specialist and it provides funds so those highly qualified librarians can purchase appropriate books and other materials for their libraries. What a novel idea, providing funding for libraries! My tongue is in my cheek because studies prove that libraries work. It was Walter Cronkite who once said, "Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation. "

If you want more information on the SKILLS Act, check out The American Library Association’s Issues and Advocacy Page: http://www.capwiz.com/ala/issues/alert/?alertid=9951101.
Don’t forget to contact your Senators and Congressmen!

Say hello to Apple iPhone...

I tried out the iPhone at the Apple Store in the mall yesterday. The ATandT store in the mall was sold out of them.

All I can say is… I want one. Do I need one? No, need is not the issue. Want is the issue, wanting to be at the forefront of innovative technology. I love the way the phone senses your wireless network and uses your wireless when it can and only accesses ATandT’s mobile Internet when it has to. The Apple iPhone is also a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It is about a half inch longer than my Razr when it’s folded. And it’s only slightly thicker than a video iPod. The finger scrolling is amazing. Though I did feel like my fingers were too big for the keys. In his developer’s conference keynote Steve Jobs did recognize that the keys on the iPhone do take some getting used to. The pinching the screen to magnify things on the screen is great too but a double tap on a webpage does the same thing. It would be very easy to get used to an iPhone. I like it and I want one… someday.

Be Careful What You Put on the Internet...

There are some videos out on you-tube that I wish everyone could see before they post something on the Internet. Remember, whatever you post on the Internet is out there in cyberspace forever even if you take it down or delete the website, it is still there somewhere, wither archived by Google or downloaded by someone. It is never really gone. So, think before you post. Check out this You Tube video called "Think Before You Post." I think every student in America should see this...



Here is another...



The Internet gives us a sense of familiarity with others that we really don’t have. Think before you post. A warning and a message to the wise.

Hollywood Librarian

The image of librarians has not often been kind, flattering, or pretty. One person, Ann Seidl, is trying to change that… she wrote and directed "Hollywood Librarian," a look at librarians through film.



"Hollywood Librarian" made it's debut in front of 5,000 librarians at the American Library Association's meeting in Washington, DC this week. Check out this article from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301378.html.

I must admit that one of my favorite movies is mentioned in the article. But in the movie, "Desk Set," I guess I never thought of Katharine Hepburn as a librarian. Of course she and the other women in the department, including a young Joan Blondell, were gathers of information, they were the researchers with the background information. But librarians? There was no “shushing” in “Desk Set,” no one going around telling others to be quiet. It was a new look for librarians, a Hollywood glamorization!

Either they knew the answer when someone called for information or they could find the information, using books, in a jiffy. They were heroes! Yet, the women feared they were going to become obsolete because of the new computer system being installed in the department. Hey, that sounds familiar. How long have librarians been concerned that they were becoming obsolete? Well, since “Desk Set” came out in 1957, it looks like librarians have been becoming a thing of the past for about 50 years. Since I just became a librarian 2 years ago, after working as a journalist and then raising a family, here's hoping that I can continue to teach children the joys of the library both physically and virtually for a long time to come.
:-)