In this new age of the Internet, school libraries are no longer a place where the media specialist can spend her day browsing quietly among her books. The media center has now become so intergrated with supporting school curriculm that it is considered an extension of the classroom. The Internet contains a plethora of information waiting at the researcher's fingertips to be accessed and utilized. A media center web site is the logical location for providing access to this information.
Media center web sites should contain information about the school such as mission statements, names of personnel, e-mail addresses, and hours of operation. Yet, it should also go beyond that to include links to informational web sites for research, book reviews, homework helpers, library and community news as well as other useful and important information. Like the hub of a wheel, the media center web site is the center of the information spiral that radiates throughout the school. This web site should be available to teachers, students, parents, and adminstration.
Good ideas, but where does a media specialist find the time to design, write, research and publish such a site? The idea can at times seem daunting and fearsome. Researching the internet to find research resources is time consuming and tedious. Designing a web site that is functional and useful is challenging and downright scary. Yet, many media specialist meet this challenge each day with fortitude and skill.
In addition to basic information about the school and the media center, the web site should provide links to web site resources for teachers and students. Student need web sites that will provide factual information for research. These sites need to be updated regularly and be user friendly. Informational web sites also need to be appropriate for the grade levels within the school. Teachers could benefit from having links to web sites that contain ideas for lesson plans, projects, and professional articles.
However, media center web sites should not promote entirely promote research over reading for pleasure. Links should also be included that present sites for book reviews, ebooks, interactive games, and book lists. The list is endless.
While doing some reading on the subject of media center web sites, I came across some information about some web sites that centralize resources for librarians, teachers and students. Some of these web sites are:
School Library Web Directory (www.sldirectory.com) This site contains a lot for teachers and librarians by providing links to many other sites. A subcategory of this site www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/wpages.html provides links to media center web sites all over the world and is very interesting to browse through.
Librarians Index to the Internet (Ill.org) also provides many resources for librarians to link to.
For students there are also a number of interesting and informative sites such as :
Kids Click
Yahooligans
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Utilizing and linking through these sources, might make seemingly overwhelming task of reseach a little easier for the busy media specialist.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Wiki's are a technology that have been around for a while. Until I enrolled in this class, I never realized how wiki's are used all the time on the internet. I've often wondered why our internet filter blocks them and once I realized that a wiki could be changed by anyone I have a better understanding.
I can see why the internet filters would prevent students doing research from being able to access information that could be inaccurate based on who posted it and who changed it.
Wiki's have many benefits as well. I think that today teacher meeting time is limited and that the use of wiki's would allow teachers from all over a school, district, state, or country the ability to vent, discuss, and collaborate together with other teachers dealing with the same problems, curriculum, and mandates. Teachers often have common issues and new fresh ideas could be shared on wiki's to help alleviate their stress.
The use of wiki's in a school among students is not necessarily the best idea. It would have benefits but if students have the ability to change the postings of others it could lead to a great deal of problems.
I can see why the internet filters would prevent students doing research from being able to access information that could be inaccurate based on who posted it and who changed it.
Wiki's have many benefits as well. I think that today teacher meeting time is limited and that the use of wiki's would allow teachers from all over a school, district, state, or country the ability to vent, discuss, and collaborate together with other teachers dealing with the same problems, curriculum, and mandates. Teachers often have common issues and new fresh ideas could be shared on wiki's to help alleviate their stress.
The use of wiki's in a school among students is not necessarily the best idea. It would have benefits but if students have the ability to change the postings of others it could lead to a great deal of problems.
Wikis
I like the benefits that Wikis have to offer students in the 21st century. Students can complete their work and integrate it with technology at the same time. I love the flexibility that it offers. Students can access it at school or at home, assuming they have a computer at home. Parents can oversee the project and perhaps learn something new about technology at the same time. This will make the parents better able to help their child or children in the future. Teachers could even post a "How to use a Wiki" tutorial on their page. This will assist students and parents with technical problems. It will help them in completing a project instead of getting stranded in the middle of an assignment because they forgot how to use the Wiki.
As a media specialist, I would hold a "Get to Know Wikis" session for teachers. I would work with the teachers, help them set up their class Wikis, and discuss how and why to use them in their classroom. I would hold this in the computer lab so that all teachers would have a computer to work on. These sessions could be held during team planning meetings. Each grade level may have a slightly different purpose for their Wikis depending on what curriculum area they wish to focus on.
I also think that Wikis could be used for weekly team planning. "Collaboration" is a huge buzz word in my county. We write lesson plans together and have the same daily schedule. Wikis could prove to be a big asset for teachers who collaborate in this manner. Since one of the benefits of Wikis is that they are accessible from any computer, team members could add information to it at their leisure instead of limiting their contribution to school hours.
Since one of the goals of collaboration is to improve instruction Wikis have a multitude of different ways to achieve this at each grade level. I see great potential for Wikis in the school system in the future.
As a media specialist, I would hold a "Get to Know Wikis" session for teachers. I would work with the teachers, help them set up their class Wikis, and discuss how and why to use them in their classroom. I would hold this in the computer lab so that all teachers would have a computer to work on. These sessions could be held during team planning meetings. Each grade level may have a slightly different purpose for their Wikis depending on what curriculum area they wish to focus on.
I also think that Wikis could be used for weekly team planning. "Collaboration" is a huge buzz word in my county. We write lesson plans together and have the same daily schedule. Wikis could prove to be a big asset for teachers who collaborate in this manner. Since one of the benefits of Wikis is that they are accessible from any computer, team members could add information to it at their leisure instead of limiting their contribution to school hours.
Since one of the goals of collaboration is to improve instruction Wikis have a multitude of different ways to achieve this at each grade level. I see great potential for Wikis in the school system in the future.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Podcasting
I would love to have the opportunity to share podcasting with other faculty members. Podcasting can be a tremendous asset to teachers if they play with it and learn the many potential benefits it has to offer. Another advantage to instructing teachers about podcasting is that it can be shared with students. Students could use this in many ways. One major benefit directly related to the media specialists in my county would be helping students to use this to compete in the media festival. In my county the media specialists are highly encouraged to promote this at our individual schools. Students who are often more likely to be comfortable with new technology than most of us adults would most likely find podcasting highly engaging and find many new and clever ways to utilize the benefits. I think that the more faculty that you share podcasting with the more students who will learn about it. This will open up unlimited possibilities using podcasting within your school community.
Podcasting October 25, 2008
If a teacher were to come to me and ask for help setting up a podcast I would discuss with him/her what they had in mind for their project. I would explain that although I have limited experience is podcasting, I would be happy to explore it with them. I think it would be a terrific project and one where we could learn together. The first thing I would do with the teacher would be to give them an article on podcasting to acquaint them with the topic and also refer them to WilloWeb so they might see how others have used podcasting . That might help them define exactly what they wanted to do when we got together.
The article in Library 2.0 gave many terrific ideas about how to use podcasting. I love the idea of a weekly podcast explaining all the thing happening in the media center. I could talk about new book and material arrivals, special events, and exhibits such as science projects on display. Podcasts are a great way to deliver Book Talks, media center tours, book reviews, and lectures on a specific topic. Podcasts could also be made of speakers which could be shown to students who were absent or who wanted to review the information. Students could make podcasts on a wide variety of topics. There are an almost unlimited number of ways podcasts could be used to make education more fun and technically challenging for students.
The article in Library 2.0 gave many terrific ideas about how to use podcasting. I love the idea of a weekly podcast explaining all the thing happening in the media center. I could talk about new book and material arrivals, special events, and exhibits such as science projects on display. Podcasts are a great way to deliver Book Talks, media center tours, book reviews, and lectures on a specific topic. Podcasts could also be made of speakers which could be shown to students who were absent or who wanted to review the information. Students could make podcasts on a wide variety of topics. There are an almost unlimited number of ways podcasts could be used to make education more fun and technically challenging for students.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and risks of Wikis?
Before this class I had never participated or even thought about wikis. I knew of Wikipedia, and that was the extent of my knowledge. I have learned a lot about what wikis are intended for after reading the class text, Library 2.0, and looking at examples online. I am a little surprised to see that these collaborative tools are not as extensively being used as I expected to find. There are some great things going on, but Wikis hold much more potential for the classroom, for the media center, and in instructional design. However, without commitment from participants, wikis cannot be anything more than an empty online filing cabinet.
Wikis offer a plethora of opportunities for collaboration and shared knowledge exploration. Classrooms can use them for student portfolios and assignments. Media centers can have students add information on book talks and reviews as well as participate in Literature Circles and other forms of shared inquiry. Teachers and the media specialist can collaborate on instructional design and the planning of lessons. Wikis also offer a common ground for teachers, students, administration, and the media specialist to lend support and novel ideas to the school’s education community.
One of the greatest benefits that I can see ion a wiki is that it offers students and teachers asynchronous communication. This may sound like a bad thing, but for many people asynchronous communication allows them time to think about their ideas and refine what they have to say. Students and teachers are often forced to work quickly with little time for thoughts and reflections. A wiki allows users more time to compose themselves. This could lead to deeper, more abstract thinking and truly novel ideas. Wikis would only be limited by the imaginations of the monitors and community of users.
The fact that wikis are only limited by the users can also be a drawback. What if users do not commit to adding information or trying to keep the wiki updated. Students can be required to make posts and add information, but requiring teachers to do anything often leads to resentment, which may hurt the integrity of the wiki and its information. Questions pop up like: How do you get a commitment from the school community? Also, how does one show the teachers and staff that a wiki is useful and can be beneficial? These are difficult problems, but realistic ones if a media specialist plans to truly integrate the use of wikis in his or her school.
Wikis offer a plethora of opportunities for collaboration and shared knowledge exploration. Classrooms can use them for student portfolios and assignments. Media centers can have students add information on book talks and reviews as well as participate in Literature Circles and other forms of shared inquiry. Teachers and the media specialist can collaborate on instructional design and the planning of lessons. Wikis also offer a common ground for teachers, students, administration, and the media specialist to lend support and novel ideas to the school’s education community.
One of the greatest benefits that I can see ion a wiki is that it offers students and teachers asynchronous communication. This may sound like a bad thing, but for many people asynchronous communication allows them time to think about their ideas and refine what they have to say. Students and teachers are often forced to work quickly with little time for thoughts and reflections. A wiki allows users more time to compose themselves. This could lead to deeper, more abstract thinking and truly novel ideas. Wikis would only be limited by the imaginations of the monitors and community of users.
The fact that wikis are only limited by the users can also be a drawback. What if users do not commit to adding information or trying to keep the wiki updated. Students can be required to make posts and add information, but requiring teachers to do anything often leads to resentment, which may hurt the integrity of the wiki and its information. Questions pop up like: How do you get a commitment from the school community? Also, how does one show the teachers and staff that a wiki is useful and can be beneficial? These are difficult problems, but realistic ones if a media specialist plans to truly integrate the use of wikis in his or her school.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wikis and the Media Specialist by Sharon H.
Wikis are interactive web pages that can be shared by many people. As a result, new ideas and thoughts can be added to the information posted on a Wiki so that the page(s) become an ever evolving resource. In addition to script, Wikis can include videos, pictures, music, and links. Any subject can be explored and written about thereby increasing a person's base of knowledge in many categories. However, the same strengths I just mentioned about Wikis can also be their weaknesses. Wikis can be edited or revised by anyone leading to articles with inaccurate information. Important or vital text could also be deleted. Wikis also need to be constantly monitored to protect against inappropriate language or obscene materials. Therefore, in my hypotheical school, I believe I would limit the editing of the Wiki page to the personnel of the school only. The Wiki would be available to parents or the public as a read only document. Having said that, the Wiki would be a great instrument to share with parents information about the school and its activities. For instance, if the school I previously worked in had a Wiki page, I could have gone to it on the web and found out that the media center is having a book fair this week. Wikis would also be great for teachers to share lesson plans. Groups of teachers from different schools in the same county and grade level could be paired to create lesson plans based on their grade level's standards. For example: Group A ,a group of 4th grade teachers from School A, could be paired with Group B, a group of 4th grade teachers from School B. The lesson plans could be written, revised, edited, updated, and evaluated each year as new ideas and resources are added. Links could be added to videos, music, or informational articles. Editing privledges could be restricted to this group of teachers only to prevent unwanted additions or deletions. In order to prevent duplication of a task, teachers could also make these plans available to the principal for review. Believe me, no teacher wants to write the same lesson plans twice. This would be a very effective tool for collaboration between teachers.
As a media specialist, I would need to be comfortable working with Wikis myself in order to publish a Wiki about the media center. I would also need to be able to provide information to teachers about Wikis as well as trouble shoot problems that may be having. Wikis are an exciting and innovative tool that really has the potential to bring educators together in a collaborative effort.
As a media specialist, I would need to be comfortable working with Wikis myself in order to publish a Wiki about the media center. I would also need to be able to provide information to teachers about Wikis as well as trouble shoot problems that may be having. Wikis are an exciting and innovative tool that really has the potential to bring educators together in a collaborative effort.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Media Specialist and Podcasting by Sharon H.
When I become a media specialist, I would sincerely hope that at least one teacher would approach me about podcasting. In that way, I could be honest with this person and explain that though I am no expert in this area, I would certainly be willing to learn as much about it as possible. Having someone with you when you naviagating uncharted waters is always a great help. First, the teacher and I would sit down together and discuss how we would like to approach the possiblity of creating podcasts. How do we learn the information we need to know to be successful? What technical personnel is available to answer any questions we may have?
If no teacher approached me first, then I may even choose a teacher to collaborate with that I thought would be open and responsive to new ideas. We would start out slow by learning one particular skill such as recording our voices and playing them back to see how we could improve the quality of the sound. Later, we could add music and/or sound effects. Then, I think we would try podcasting in the teacher's classroom with the students. We could have the students record the morning announcements or a short book report. Once other teachers have seen what podcasting can do, they may enthusiatically join in as well. The more teachers that begin to use podcasting with their students, the more creative ideas will be developed and implemented within the school. Some useful ways to include podcasting in the school could be:
Students recording their own voice while reading and then playing the audio back to check for fluency and pronunciation.
Students becoming an important historical person and recording a narration telling about a significant historical event involving their person. The student could even pretend to be that person by using first person point of view.
Student doing a recording that explains and narrates their science project.
Students reporting on a current news event.
Two students having a debate about a particular topic. One could take the pro side and the other the con side.
There are many valid and varied possibilities for using podcasting in education. This technology is an exciting new tool that can be used to challenge and enrich the student, the teacher, and the media specialist.
If no teacher approached me first, then I may even choose a teacher to collaborate with that I thought would be open and responsive to new ideas. We would start out slow by learning one particular skill such as recording our voices and playing them back to see how we could improve the quality of the sound. Later, we could add music and/or sound effects. Then, I think we would try podcasting in the teacher's classroom with the students. We could have the students record the morning announcements or a short book report. Once other teachers have seen what podcasting can do, they may enthusiatically join in as well. The more teachers that begin to use podcasting with their students, the more creative ideas will be developed and implemented within the school. Some useful ways to include podcasting in the school could be:
Students recording their own voice while reading and then playing the audio back to check for fluency and pronunciation.
Students becoming an important historical person and recording a narration telling about a significant historical event involving their person. The student could even pretend to be that person by using first person point of view.
Student doing a recording that explains and narrates their science project.
Students reporting on a current news event.
Two students having a debate about a particular topic. One could take the pro side and the other the con side.
There are many valid and varied possibilities for using podcasting in education. This technology is an exciting new tool that can be used to challenge and enrich the student, the teacher, and the media specialist.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Podcasting and the Media Specialist
If I were in a media specialist’s position I would be thrilled with this proposition from a teacher. Given that podcasting is a relatively new technology and schools tend to be 10 to 15 years behind technologically, I would be highly impressed that a teacher would want to take the initiative to bring this novel approach into the classroom. I have not had a great deal of experience with podcasting or the technology needed to create such media, but I would want to help bring his classroom to the forefront of this new form of communication.
The best way to describe my role would be as a research assistant. I would be doing some of the footwork to find tutorials and software. I would make this information accessible to the teacher, and I would assist him in using the new software. I also would make suggestions that may help scaffold both of us into the process of podcasting. For instance I might suggest that we start off trying to create podcasts in audio format only. There is free audio editing software available on the web. Audacity, available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ is a great tool that can import or record audio files as well as edit, manipulate, layer, and much more. Its website has a wiki and tutorials for help, and all of the software and information is free. After we became proficient at creating and uploading audio podcasts, then we could move into the visual realm. We could begin to use software such as Camtasia and similar programs.
My entire role in this would be to help find and scaffold information, tools, and techniques that the teacher needed to get this idea off the ground. The teacher and students would provide the content and design choices. Together we could create something that few schools are currently doing. I would also want to provide follow-up and future support. I would want this teacher and others to continue this program into the future. I would also want to design in-services and teacher trainings so that this program could go school wide and for more than just one year. This is a dream situation for me, if I were a media specialist because the teacher is showing initiative and drive in pushing the limits of what he is doing in technology and in giving his students a critically literate understanding of technology.
The best way to describe my role would be as a research assistant. I would be doing some of the footwork to find tutorials and software. I would make this information accessible to the teacher, and I would assist him in using the new software. I also would make suggestions that may help scaffold both of us into the process of podcasting. For instance I might suggest that we start off trying to create podcasts in audio format only. There is free audio editing software available on the web. Audacity, available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ is a great tool that can import or record audio files as well as edit, manipulate, layer, and much more. Its website has a wiki and tutorials for help, and all of the software and information is free. After we became proficient at creating and uploading audio podcasts, then we could move into the visual realm. We could begin to use software such as Camtasia and similar programs.
My entire role in this would be to help find and scaffold information, tools, and techniques that the teacher needed to get this idea off the ground. The teacher and students would provide the content and design choices. Together we could create something that few schools are currently doing. I would also want to provide follow-up and future support. I would want this teacher and others to continue this program into the future. I would also want to design in-services and teacher trainings so that this program could go school wide and for more than just one year. This is a dream situation for me, if I were a media specialist because the teacher is showing initiative and drive in pushing the limits of what he is doing in technology and in giving his students a critically literate understanding of technology.
Monday, October 6, 2008
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