Technology, Diversity, and the Media Center.

Everyone should be able to find a home in a media center. A place of intellectual freedom involves encompassing the world--supporting opposing viewpoints, multiple theories, and controversial issues--all while respecting the culture of our school home and the community we serve.  Our responsibility is to serve EVERYONE, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, or ability. 

The world is available to our patrons with technology--having electronic resources like Facts on File or Opposing Viewpoints, as well as the SIRS Issues Researcher Pro vs. Con  helps us to have current information that allows students to get the BIG picture.  So often, we only read or listen to programs that support the views we already have; the media center needs to encourage getting a broader view.

To achieve diversity in the media center, we need to evaluate our collection to see how it reflects our school culture as well as that of the world. This year, I was so discouraged to see that, in a knee-jerk response to pressure from the high school's principal,  the middle school media specialist yanked a book on the history of gay pride in America because he saw a high school kid walking around with it.  Statistics say that 10% of the population is gay.  We need a collection that meets the needs of those students as well, in nonfiction as well as fiction.

We need to support boys in our media center.  The perception of media center as a estrogen-rich environment needs to change, and we need to do this by promoting our media centers as boy-friendly.  I want to do a "Real Men of Genius" ad for our media center, a play on the Budweiser commercials, that profiles some of the kids themselves and promotes the books they've checked out.  Technology can be a powerful promotional tool for reaching out to all sorts of groups. 

Technology meets the needs of special needs students beautifully as well.  Adaptive technologies are almost mainstream today, with laptops taking the place of AlphaSmarts and speech-to-text software becoming less expensive.

I think strong record-keeping/data management will help keep us honest in terms of who we're attracting to the media center as well.  A media specialist at Etowah talked about buying a $500 Accutracker that can give statistics on media center use.  Because students use their student ID to check in to the media center, she can readily get a breakdown by gender or other demographic.

We need to be sure, not just in our heads, but on paper, with hard data, that we're serving our population.  At our CHAMPS meeting today, our curriculum director talked about the harsh realities of the next 5 years, and we'll have to prove our worth every day.  By maximizing who we serve and who we reach in as many ways as we can, we can truly be that hub of democracy that media centers aspire to be.

Digital Storytelling and eBooks

For me this course has been like going to live in a foreign country. I am definitely a digital immigrant in a increasingly digitally driven world and I fear not being able to keep up. I found the readings this week to be mind boggling and fascinating at the same time. Since it was a lot for me to digest please bear with me as I share my humble reflections on these topics.

The University of Houston's Digital Storytelling website was an amazing resource for those who are not at all familiar with digital storytelling. Though the information in our text was informative this site really gave me greater insight into the possibilities available through digital storytelling. There is no need for me as a teacher or future media specialist to reinvent the wheel and brainstorm possible uses for digital storytelling because they gave great suggestions in their power point. When we dabbled in digital storytelling during our last face to face I immediately thought about how it could be used to teach content or have students present research findings. I never thought about how digital storytelling could be used as a lesson hook or a way to facilitate classroom discussion. These are very simple things that could really transform a lesson. One digital story I viewed on this site was for ESL students and was basically a vocabulary lesson. Quick, simple and to the point. It was a great way to make information accessible to students. Since we have alot of ESL students in my school I can see the positive implications of using digital storytelling in this way. Another digital story I viewed was about a teachers' favorite books. A media specialist could do something similiar to promote a part of the collection or as a booktalk. I think digital stories can make a huge difference with in teaching and learning. They are totally within reach for someone like me and I look forward to trying out their use with my students.

I was first introduced to ebooks in another West GA course and am personally not a huge fan of them. In my school the only access we have to ebooks is Tumblebooks. This is largely due to the fact that my media specialist is not all that technologically savvy. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and she is totally smitten with print materials. When we first got Tumblebooks teachers and students were all aflutter with excitement that has since waned. Lack of computers in classroom for widespread use is one of the biggest complaints. I think that in schools with a plethora of computers or ereading devices ebooks might have a definite appeal. At a school such as mine with such a diverse student population the International Children's Digital Library could definitely be put to good use. For example, I currently teach a little boy from Nepal and the rest of the class is totally enamored with him and all things Nepali. Getting children to connect with literature from around the world is something I think they would find interesting but also beneficial. Too bad there are little objectives at the elementary level that deal with world views or culture but a good teacher or media specialist could find a way to make a connection.

Now this last part of this assignment really threw me for a loop. I don't think that ereaders such as the iPad or Kindle will have serious implications on reading at its core. But boy oh boy are they going to impact how reading is done. Like many of my classmates have already noted I do love to curl up with a good book and can't imagine doing it any other way. However, Mr. Lankes really opened my eyes to the possibilites of what an ereader could or in his opinion should be able to do. I am a very visual learner and have personally never experienced or even seen an ereading device in person so I am a little reluctant to share my thoughts. I do have an iPhone at the insistance of my husband and honestly don't see what the hype is all about. I mean I'm not going to run to the store but honestly I could live without it. So in my humble opinion right now at this moment in time if an ereader never made it to my media center I think I could manage. That doesn't mean that I'm totally closed to the possiblity of their use. I think that as teachers of digital natives we're going to have to learn to teach in their language so this is something that is probably inevitable. I can envision using ereaders in Literature Circles or with reluctant readers. I can also envision schools balking at the cost and security of using ereaders. To sum it all up. I'm not currently a fan but am open to learning more about how they could be used in schools.

Digital Storytelling and eBooks

Okay, if you have not taken a detailed look at University of Houston's Digital Storytelling website…you should do it and spend some time looking. This was a great site! Education is a great arena to use digital storytelling. I was just thinking as I started to look at this site how great it would be more history. I feel like we are so rushed sometimes I say and so the “Boxer Rebellion happened.” Some of those quick topics can be shown in 2 minutes time and really give the students a more valuable learning experience. The nice thing about digital storytelling is that it can be short, sweet and to the point but still have a lot of impact and range from personal topics to more historical themes. Teachers can use to hook students at the start of a unit, enhance units or assign student’s to research topics while students can learn how to deeply research the internet, synthesize large amounts of material into a smaller product with statements with great impact. Also students can practice communication and narratives as well increase computer skills. The benefits include the fact that viewing or making digital stories appeal to diverse learning styles, tapping into creative sides of students, create interest and enthusiasm, grabs attention of learners as audience or creators and finally blends cross curriculum standards. If you are stumped on how can you apply this to what you teach, check out the examples link that include samples for topics such as music, art, health, social studies, ESL, religion, pop culture, language arts or even math! Digital story could use to teach any topic, promote club activities, gather support for a community/global effort (ex: promote school wide drive aiding in the recovery of Haiti), and end of the year sum up of years activities. Media Specialists can play a huge role in digital storytelling beyond just teaching how to use it to teachers and students but also keeping an archive of them. As students and teachers creating, linking them to a wiki or media webpage would be a great asset to teacher…rather than reinventing the wheel, teachers can see what is already created so they can use. Also, an important element of a media specialist job is to promote what they do and the media program…what better way to do it than though a digital story showing what they do, how they teach, collaborate, and reflections of teachers and students on the role of the media specialists.
My media center does not have/circulate ebooks and in fact I had not even heard of them until I took the Selections class at West Georgia and we had to include them in one of our orders. I think that ebooks/fiction may need a little bit more time to diffuse…I am not sure how receptive students would be with them. I think as items like the iPad and Kindle become more popular, students will “accept” and join the band wagon on this trend too. I did not realize that some ebooks are free and the Gutenburg website is great to look a t what is available free and it is really easy to use! You can search by author or title. I just randomly typed in a few books and most did bot come up so I thought it was easy to search under “Top 100” or “Recent Books.” The International Children’s Literature site is about the same but I thought it was more user friendly. This would be important for student use I think. I think that both of these tools could be really useful…especially since they are easy to use and free. Though we don’t have fiction ebooks, we still have online sources that are used but I am surprised how little they are used. I think this goes back to poor promotion of library resources. Students are introduced again to Cobb Virtual Library only at freshmen orientation. I just did a project the other day and I told the kids not to just google items but go to better sources and I suggested CVL and they were dumbfounded. I asked them how often they use these online sources and many said I didn’t know we could…then I was dumbfounded! The basic ebooks that we have are through Cobb Virtual Library and include mostly online encyclopedias such as World Book, World Book Advanced, Grolier Passport (3 encyclopedias combined), Britannica, and History Reference Center.
The last few things that I reviewed dealt with very recent trends such as the Kindle and iPad, both of which will change libraries to a point but I still think that many people (myself included) like to curl up on the couch with a book not a piece of “equipment. I like the spell, the hold, turning the pages…the book. This for me won’t change it seems to be too impersonal! I want to cuddle with my book. : ) After saying that, kids/students are experiencing books differently. If I did not grow up “turning the pages” maybe it would not be such a big deal. So, if kids in elementary schools are exposed to them and this is the “norm” what will happen to MY books?!?!? I don’t want riddles (sorry Mr. Green) just my nice story but this I can see being really interactive for younger students. It can engage them in a way that a traditional book engages me…because the bottom line is that students learn differently and technology is here to stay.

Video/GPB Resources (Blog #6..3rd attempt...uuughhh)

I am starting to feel like Negative Nellie because week by week I get more and more frustrated with my media specialist because they just manage the media center rather than promote tools for teachers. Promotion is limited. I feel like so many people in my school reinvent the wheel rather than having one centralized place of communication for technology, video resources, research assistance and citations…you name it. There is no collaboration and more importantly no communication. The things listed above would be a great asset to teachers but teachers have so much to do, it would be nice to have a central place of information.
We do have a closed circuit cable system that continuously run announcements. This is managed by a teacher outside the Media Center that also does our student announcements called the “Toilet Paper”( it is hung in all the bathroom stalls/doors) and runs the student government, the Wall. The Wall also is responsible for doing Hoya Vision, our weekly (Fridays) announcements which come in on the closed circuit on Fridays. Teachers do not have any input directly, if we have announcements/videos we can sent them to the student government group and if deemed important/urgent they will include them in the Friday announcements, otherwise they are put on the school TV announcements that continuously run on monitors in the hall/lunchroom and/or the Toilet Paper. Communication can hard. The Media Center has no affiliation with any of the broadcasts or school videos. I am not sure if I like the fact that one teacher has the stronghold over this. Each classroom in my school is equipped with a TV and access to basic cable stations. My school does not have any access to Channel One, in fact I have only been at one school that does (10 years ago at a middle school).
After reviewing the site, I thought that the GBP was a great site for teachers. This is not something that is used or promoted at my school. I reviewed the site and it great links to programs such as understanding Chemistry and Physics, the Georgia World War II Project and exploring Georgia. It had links to education news that could be used for both teacher in-services as well as current events for students. There seemed to be a lot of free information/resources for teachers such as interactive games and literacy promotion. This is not a resources that is promoted nor is United video streaming. I would love to see a blog or wiki at our school that as teachers find these resources that it is communicated to the staff as a whole. I think that a SLMS could create a wiki space and divide by content areas, as teachers find resources shoot an email to the SLMS and they can post to wiki. Then when teachers are unit planning, they can access new resources rather than having to start from scratch…it is all about promotion and creating a active public relations program, as well as supporting teachers and student learning! The digital resources are enormous from links to music/radio, Georgia TV shows, high school sports, Capital Arts exhibits, Georgia General Assembly links, books, Carter Center, link to videos for education instruction (ex: how a bill becomes a law). You should check out this site – it has a lot and shame on us if we do not promote this to our teachers!

Tech Training Today

The tech training in our system is uneven, dependent upon the school and the instructional tech person serving it.  I've been at two schools in the county (a middle and a high school), and have had 4 trainers, each of whom serve 2 or 3 schools.  The level of service depends on the trainer and, of course, the faculty member requiring the training.
Two kinds of training exist:  the ones required each year by the county, such as information about our electronic gradebook and maintenance of our websites; and ones specific to the teacher, such as use of a specific program or piece of equipment.  Other instructional training needs include getting teacher-specific passwords for programs like TurnItIn.com. 

In the past, I've heard complaints about each of the trainers--either that they go too fast or two slow, that they assume we're experts or haven't ever turned on a computer.  Either way, the complaints come because the trainer doesn't know his/her faculty well enough to gauge what kind of delivery mode the faculty needs.  Just like a classroom teacher, the instructional tech needs some differentiation strategies.  One thing I love about our tech this year is that she allows us to demonstrate our proficiency in the system, then lets us leave with the same time credit as someone who needs more instruction. That respects our time as teachers. 
For those of us who are proficient, she'll check what we've already set up, hit the new applications for the program, then lets us go.  Of course, we're a small school (one grade level only this year), so that saves the proficient time.

If she has to do whole group instruction, however (for example, if it's a captive audience dealing with a big topic such as SMARTboards), she's disdainful and sarcastic about the lack of knowledge.  Perhaps it's because the teachers have had multiple opportunities to make themselves proficient with programs like Teach 21, she feels teachers should know this stuff.  She doesn't have patience with those who are slower to learn, and as a consequence, can make them feel inadequate.  One of my friends who, although she's my age, barely uses the computer for email, came out in tears because of the sharp comments the tech made to her.  Talk about leaving a bad taste for an amazing piece of technology--she feels inadequate every time she uses the SMARTboard, and hasn't learned the more fun applications associated with it; for her, it's a glorified projector.

The other problem with our tech is that she isn't available.  We have a tech database for everything, and it took me four months to get a clicker system set up (because I didn't remember one component of the setup, argh) and three to get a password for TurnItIn.com.  For a high school English teacher who has gone through 200 hours of the county Teach21 program, that's inexcusable and frustrating.  I have since developed a tech tip "cheat sheet" for myself so that next year, I won't need her.  And that's sad--she has lost out on some job security because I won't have a tech request for her to meet.


As I've hinted previously, the key components to tech training are expedient service, differentiation,  and patience.  Even if the tech can't get to the problem immediately, some communication needs to happen with the classroom teacher so that they know they're not just left hanging.  During a "whole class" setting, where teachers come in on their planning period,  tips sheet can be sent out ahead of time, and teachers can come with a finished project or with questions, then be sent on their way or assisted in small groups dependent upon their needs.  Respect for teachers' time must be paramount in a trainer's mind.

For those who need more instruction, the tech must predict the breakdown in skills and be ready for those problems, rather than get frustrated with students being unsuccessful.  She should also provide some fun and meaningful activities to give students an opportunity to "play" with the technology without fear of breaking something--always the fear in adult students, who remember when IBMs used to crash at will.
 
Overall, tech trainers must first remember their audience, their needs and potential obstacles, then develop teaching methods that meet those needs expediently and respectfully.

Extra, Extra Read all about School News

School news programs in today's school can range from highly sophisticated productions which employ the use advanced broadcasting technology to simple productions that use a video camera. My school uses the latter. Our media specialist is responsible for producing the school news. This has been the case for several other elementary schools I've visited. My media specialist is not very technologically savvy and actually detests this chore. Since it is not one of her favorite tasks our school news reflects her ability and interest. Our news program is presented daily and must be no longer than 10 minutes. It is one of the privileges of being a fifth grader. The pledge, weather, lunch menu, calendar math information, teacher announcements, and school events are the basic content of each program. At the beginning of each school year she makes a presentation to the fifth graders about the school news. Those interested complete an application and indicate which position they would like to take on. She reviews applications and divides the students into different teams. Each team has two sessions to share the news. Sessions last 2-3 weeks. There are 5 student jobs: anchor, announcer, menu/weather person, props, and camera. The props person sets up the new back drop, anchor desk, flag, and computer. They set up the power point and handle the music that plays during the opening of the new program. The camera person simply turns on the camera and make sure it stays on the tripod. The media specialist types the script each week for the anchor and announcer to read. The media clerk prints out the lunch menu for the menu/weather person. This student must use the newspaper to find the daily weather. There is one other teacher who assists the media specialist with the morning news. Either the media specialist or teacher will handle the switch box. This box allows the media specialist to switch from the Power Point to digital camera images and things of that sort.

Problems with our morning news program are student focused rather than technical. Occasionally there are problems with cables not being pushed in or issues with the switch box. However, the students themselves pose more problems. The media specialist has found that some students become disinterested and don't show up or come late. She has also had to deal with replacing students due to academic or behavioral concerns. The only other problem she noted was time. She said it's hard to get all of the information in within her allotted ten minutes. Especially when teachers come up at the last minute with something that they are just dying to share.

As a future media specialist, I look forward to presenting a morning news broadcast. I think that it can be an invaluable too for students and teachers. I like how the school in Stockbridge didn't simply use their news to be a place to share announcements. This is similar to what is done at the high school level and gives students in the school a sense of ownership. Although I know nothing about broadcasting and using multiple forms of equipment I look forward to learning on the go to produce an noteworthy school news program.

Social Networking in Schools

Social networking is here to stay. At least it seems that way. We are supposed to meet our students where they are "at" and raise them to a higher level of learning. If a primary source of communication is a social network then we are missing the boat if we fail to utilize one. In a forum about social networking in schools on the Teacher Librarian Ning, Karen Lippencott stated "we are supposed to meet our students where they are "at" and raise them to a higher level of learning. If a primary source of communication is a social network then we are missing the boat if we fail to utilize one." I like Karen believe that we should meet our students where they are "at" and raise them to a higher level of learning. If a primary source of communication is a social network then we are missing the boat if we fail to utilize one. So what does that mean with regard to social networks in schools? I personally think that it is time for us to embrace them. As an elementary school teacher I have several students that love to meet online to chat, play games, or search for information. I find it fascinating that my fourth graders come to school recounting online conversations they've had via Google chat with their classmates. One student was even able to get a homework assignment this way!

This class has opened my eyes in a multitude of ways and using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom has been one of the most inspiring. Since I did Ning for my tech tip I've been tossing around the idea about how to use it with students. I presented an idea to my grade level and we're currently in the process of developing a Ning site for our fourth grade students. Unfortunately social networking sites are blocked at my school so our students will not have access to it on school grounds. That has led us to design a Ning site that will be up and running just before spring break with an emphasis on keeping the wheels in their heads moving before the CRCT. We're designing a test prep Ning. This site will feature blogs or forums about reading and math topics. Reading related blogs can serve as a literature circle or book club discussion. One forum is designed to initiate conversation comparing the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie to the book. Students will be encouraged to post titles of good books they've read. Story starters will be provided for students to finish writing an ending. Students will be asked to do or highlight certain aspects of their writing. For example, highlighting vivid verbs or words that are homophones. Math practice activities will include a computation problem of the day as well as a word problem for students to solve. We've used a lot of photographs in math this year and will feature a Geometry in My World photo album where students can add photos that highlight people, places, or things they find during their break that relate to geometry. The events section will feature events at local neighborhood facilities that students can participate in such as programs at the public library or book signings at the local bookstore. Students who access and contribute to the Ning will receive praise on the site as well as when we return to school after spring break.

Since safety is one of the major concerns of schools considering the implementation of social networks. Our Ning will be a secure site with certain features disabled to ensure the safety of our students. As an extra precautionary measure we will be notifying parents about the site and inviting them to preview it before allowing their child to join. I think it would be awesome if this were something we could have access to at school as well. While I understand wanting to keep students away from things like cyberbullying and online predators I think that schools need to take a good look at their policies regarding social networks. It's a fact of life that there are bad and terrible things in this world. That doesn't mean that we avoid them and hope they'll go away. We celebrate Red Ribbon week each year at school telling students about the dangers of drugs and how they can avoid them. Shouldn't we employ the same type of education with regard to social networks? Since they are very real things that students are likely to encounter and have the ability to enhance learning it's a win win situation in my opinion.