ETL 503 Weeding

I love weeding, both literally and metaphorically. There is nothing so satisfying as seeing clear space between beloved items. But weeding in the library is fraught with problems, the likes of which a garden bed never encounters. For instance people walking past your garden don't rifle through the wheelbarrow and grab a weed and lament its passing, or replant it in a 'just in case it's needed' garden bed. They don't abuse you for pulling weeds, in fact they can see the need for it. Gardeners don't normally sell the weeds or put them in a box to send overseas.
   Weeding the collection makes the shelves more attractive, rids the library of misleading/outdated information and keeps the collection relevant to patrons.
   Our local Primary school library hasn't been weeded in years and it shows. Books overflow from the shelves; many books are bent or pushed behind others, damaging them. Many books are dusty, shabby-looking tomes with fraying spines or torn pages. Lots in the picture story book section are so well worn that the front covers are wrinkled and soiled like soft leather.
   Many of the books date back to the 1960s or beyond. I recently found two published in the 1950s. That means they are approximately 60 years old. Relevant? I doubt it. Cutting edge, up-to-date info? Definately not.
   I have hinted many times that the shelves need weeding. I've even had a go myself and been chastised for it.It's not seen as a priority. 'Getting kids to read' is the priority. As the library stands now it is a cob-webbed old tomb of obsolete knowledge. I wonder how many more kids would explore the library shelves willingly if they were filled with clean, shiny, new books filled with contemporary information.
 

Grappling with Goodreads

I've just spent a week reading Teens, Libraries , and Social Networks: What librarians Need to Know edited by Agosto and Abbas (2011). In it were two seperate chapters on engaging students in Social networking around Young Adult Literature. Over and over the book-sharing social networks Goodreads, Shelfari and LibraryThing were mentioned. I decided to check out Goodreads as it was meant to have added extras for authors.
   Well, what a blast! I've never had so much nerdy fun. It was easy to login through Facebook and to start rating the books I'd read. (Now how often as librarians do we consciously get to go through hundreds of books and rate them, as if anyone cared?) Well this site asks you to do it so that it can generate an idea of what type of books to recommend for you. I really don't think the program has this down pat though. A lot of the books they recommended to me was stuff I'd never go near because it was too trashy for my tastes. This brings me back to the topic of tagging items. How can a computer program plug into the aesthetic whims of the reader and provide similar titles? Neal Wyatt touched on this issue in one of the readings we had to do for Module 4.
   This problem was amplified when I created my own shelf called 'Island books'. The program had obviously never considered sorting books in such a way and it threw all sorts of riciculous options at me when recommending new Island Book titles.
   I joined a few groups so that I could see what sort of threads generate the best discussions. This was quite easy to do, just by clicking on the groups tab and following the prompts. However other aspects of the site weren't so intuitive. For instance it stated that I could follow different authors. OK, so how was I to do this? It took me over an hour of fiddling around to discover that I needed to highlight the author's name, whereby I would be sent to the author's profile page and that's where I could become a fan, or indeed a friend.
   I then decided to sign up for the special tool for authors. It took me a while to find the tab for this in small print at the bottom of the home page. Once there I had to apply to be accepted to the program. I did this and received notification the next morning. I had to then fill out my author profile which is always an irritatingly self-centred activity. Soon I will be able to add widgets to my blog and other helpful links. It's all a matter of continuing to play around with the platform. And guess what? I love it. I think I've found the almost perfect social networking platform for bibliophiles/authors combined.


Burns, E. (2011). Fandom as a form of social networking. Teens, Libraries and Social Networking: What Librarians Need to Know. Libraries Unlimited.

Hilburn, J. (2011). Using social networking sites to connect teens with young adult literature. Teens, Libraries , and Social Networking: What Librarians Need to Know. Libraries Unlimited.

Wyatt, N (2009). Large-scale tagging projects outside libraries put users at the center and offer a model for readers' advisory. Library Journal, 10/15/2009

ETL503 Funding the library program

It is sad to see the demise of audio books at the school I work at but as there is no demand for them, they have become an obsolete technology. Where once funds were allocated for them they can be redirected into more DVDs or perhaps into purchasing e-books for the library.
   Every year the TL needs to evaluate the collection and see where there is high demand and high use, and where other items are neglected and dusty. Items need evaluating to see where the collection is over-represented or deficient. If this information can be shown to the funding body it gives clout to the TL's budgetary claims.
   I like the idea Robyn Young (2008) has of using charts and graphs to visually represent the budget and to represent such relationships as the price of an average book versus the amount spent on books per student for the year.  Also the number of resources per topic per student in each curriculum area is an important evaluation tool.
   Clearly, the TL needs to know his/her collection. They need to make funding decisions based on balancing the collection and providing a range of resources for the curriculum. The TL must keep a close eye on incoming items, checking them off against invoices and making sure she is aware of how much of the budget is available at any time of year. It's not easy and there will be mistakes, so keeping a good record system helps and some computing systems are available to manage this. I don't know how it all works at the local secondary school, but the TL assures me she has a generous budget and I often see her ticking things off a list when they come in. Hopefully one day I will be privy to the budgeting process.

Reference:  Young, R.R. (2008). Eight Easy Steps to Maintain and Increase the Library Media Centre Budget. Library Media Connection. Jan

ETL 503 Copyright and other musings

   School has finished for the year but study marches on. One thing I had the pleasure of reading last week was information from Smartcopying: The Official Guide to Copyright Issues for Australian Schools and TAFE. As an author I was already aware of the fact that anything I create is automatically covered by copyright in Australia. However I didn't know the nitty-gritty of viewing films/DVDs with regard to copyright. I was especially interested to see the emphasis on how using a film for the purpose of parody/satire is considered OK. I think there is room to expand on this as a teaching resource.

Source: Beth Montgomery

   One of the other students wrote in the forum that notices can be posted near the photocopiers at school to educate staff regarding copyright. This is a good idea, as is presenting a few PD sessions on copyright issues.
   The whole issue of artistic ownership interests me as I can see it from the creator's side. When you spend hundreds of hours creating a text you don't want people using it for free. You want them to pay for it. Are teachers aware that authors only recieve a small payment of the total price of each book sold? For instance, one of my books sells for $17.95. I receive about $1.60 from each sale. It's easy to see why most authors keep their day jobs. If you sit down and do the maths for how much work the average author puts into a book and the financial reward they receive at the end of it all, it would equate to something as ludicrous as 15 cents an hour. Don't they at least deserve that, over and above nothing, which is what they currently receive when you rip off their work by indiscriminate photocopying.
   Enough of my rant. As I look forward to 2013 I wonder if this will be the year when the school library purchases a few e-books.  Will the school library embrace social networking? Will it find new ways to improve the Internet connection at the school? Change may be slow but change is inevitable. Let's hope our school can be bold and embrace the digital age at last.

An Inkling of Linkedin

Setting up a Linkedin account was the easy part. I typed in my name and a password, then I went on to fill out a professional profile. Editing the profile is simple and the buttons are easy to find and use. OK, I get all that, but there's so much more to this platform that eludes me. For instance it says at the top of the home page that you can "grow" your professional network by using your email information.
   I hate the word grow in an economic context. Don't people understand that it doesn't collocate; only living things grow. (Stuff like bacteria and bananas and people and pimples) But I digress. The email set-up didn't work for me. It seems none of my email contacts are with Linkedin, which is strange because when I look for contacts manually using the search bar, there they are, a handful of my friends. Weird!
   The platform also seems to assume that because I have a science degree in horticulture I may be interested in a lecturing job in astronomy. I don't think so. Or that because I'm a qualified teacher a professorship in Music education is advertised for me to consider. Hey, I'm tone deaf, I have no rythym, I'm a science and ESL major, for heaven's sake!
   It also has this weird quirk of assuming that because I'm an author and teacher that I don't know anyone who is a Sales and Marketing Executive and I can't connect with a certain individual because I am outside of her network. This is even though I say hello to her most days and our kids are best friends. I have to get her email address from her daughter in order to send her a request. Whereas someone I know as a friend who happens to work in Higher education was easy to connect with. I just sent them a request and ticked the friend button. I'm obviously missing some vital instruction somewhere, because I keep going from page to page looking at other people's connections and tripping up when it comes to making my own. I guess I am just a dud to connect with.
   The other issue that really bugged me was the group function. I enthusiastically joined a couple of groups and very soon regretted it. Why? Because I was bombarded with emails everyday from two of these groups, who seemed to delight in clogging my inbox with trivial discussions. Isn't that the function of Facebook, not a profesional site like Linkedin? However I made friends with the help button and succeeded in following the steps to 'leaving a group'.
   Despite the teething problems I quite enjoy coming back to this platform every few days. I don't know what purpose it will serve in the long run, but I am willing to play around with it and experiment.

INF 506 Implementing Library 2.0

Implementing Library 2.0

The school I sometimes work at is a split campus. Unlike the junior campus, the senior school has a reliable Internet connection and all students have a laptop. The library at the senior campus is therefore better positioned to attempt library 2.0.

Meredith Farkas’ keynote speech on Building Academic Library 2.0 mentioned the dangers of ‘technolust’. This is when librarians take on a new technology whether patrons need it, want it or will ever use it. The library must examine which Web 2.0 platform connects best with the students: a blog, a fiki, a webpage or a facebook page?

Students currently get told off for accessing facebook in the library. The TL sees it as a distraction or worse still, a foray into cyberbullying. The library needs to develop a risk-tolerant culture where social networking and information sharing are encouraged. Obviously a policy needs to be developed to cater for this.

Adopting a library 2.0 ethos would be done in small steps. If the library collaborates with IT staff and other interested teachers useful partnerships are created. Pathfinders can be established on wikis, which staff can add to over time. Students could use Web 2.0 platforms to comment on issues, compare experiment results, share photographs for assignments and so on. Having some staff members on board builds support and slowly changes the school culture.

Another simple step would be the marketing approach where the TL can use the Web 2.0 platform to highlight collections. This doesn’t just refer to new print resources. Often students are unaware of digital resources in the library. For example our school has ECHO online, an online database of newspaper articles. Most students don’t know what it is, let alone how to use it.

Maintaining the Web 2.0 platform must be made a priority. If we make it a rule that two hours each week are devoted to Web 2.0 maintenance then surely benefits will begin to appear. If not, then we need to adapt to the next technology that is capturing our student’s time and attention.

 

 

ETL 503 Acquisitions

Our school library is a long way from the nearest quality bookshop. If we wanted to access a Collins Bookstore for instance, we'd need to travel for an hour and a quarter to get there. Selection and acquisiton for us will never be an exercise in browsing vendor's shelves. There is however a small independant bookshop that now operates 40 minutes drive away. It specialises in a range of cheap non-fiction titles and a smattering of local history. For the Social Science curriculum this kind of material is golden.
   What about satisfying the rest of the curriculum? There is always the ubiquitous Big W which stocks celebrity best sellers, pulp fiction, memoirs and fad cookbooks. As a fan of Young Adult Fiction I am always disappointed in this store. Vampire romances bore me and I have had enough of the Wimpy Kid and Rangers Apprentice. Where is all that brilliant top grade teen fiction?
   Well some of it magically appears each motnth when the standing orders come through from Lamont Books. Otherwise we have to search for it, peruse Magpies and Viewpoint and order more titles (usually from Lamont) or occassionally we are gifted with a suitable tome.
   As for electronic acquisitions, much of it is still new to us and the library staff are scratching their heads over what to do about ebooks. No doubt it will all become clearer once our TL quizes more TLs in the region about what they are doing. So far the policy appears to be 'wait and see', but the major obstacle to e-resources is making sure we have reliable internet access. Over the recent five week block that I worked at the school the internet was down for two weeks out of the five. Why buy resources that you can't access, is the TL's view. She's sticking with print for now.
   The TL has a policy of supporting the local independant bookstore as much as she can, picking up super cheap copies of popular titles at big W and acquiring the rest of the collection via Lamont. Of course I haven't touched on the Audio visual content of the library. I'm afraid I don't know what the system is to do with these items.

INF506 Delicious commentary

Dealing with Delicious

After registering and a brief struggle of setting up the Delicious save button on my browser, I was set. I saved a few websites of interest. But what next? There wasn’t a help button or an instructional video that I could find easily. The help button was at the bottom of the page and the information wasn’t very comprehensive.

After experimenting for a while I found I could import my links from Facebook. Most of these links were rubbish and I didn’t want to keep them so I learnt how to delete them with the edit icon in the top right hand side of each box.

Tagging wasn’t intuitive. The important ingredient is to use the “Enter” button before pressing “save”. Multiple tagging and then using the “bundle” option in the side bar were obvious next steps.

Connecting with others was a nightmare. Putting people’s names into the search bar revealed nothing. I had to put the complete URL in. This makes searching for like-minded colleagues problematic. The help button says:

·        When you come across a user on Delicious who's collecting great stuff, click on their profile pic or user name to go to their profile page. Then, click the green "Follow" button.

Well, excuse my ignorance, but just how do we come across other users when I can’t find them through the search bar? How do I know when I save a site on ‘discus throwing’ that there are other people collecting the same thing? No red light flashes. To me it seems that I am bookmarking in a vacuum. I see the value of Delicious in keeping favourite sites but the connectivity with others eludes me.

ETL503 Selection Woes

Selection is undoubtedly a fun activity. You have the right to choose large quantities of books, DVDs and other resources. It's not your money that pays for these items either, it's the school's. But there is a downside. What to choose? The TL has to cater for the school it serves. This includes all patrons: staff, students, parents and the community. Students of all reading abilities need to be catered for. teaching resources also need to be considered and staff can help to guide selection here. But ultimately it is the TL who is the last word on selection.
   The TL therefore needs a strong policy on selection to help guide their choices. They can also refer to reviews, existing bibliograpies and publisher/vendor websites and catalogues to aid selection.
TLs need to be mindful of the authority of the material, the physical quality and design, the appropriateness, currency and cost. This leads to the TL having to do a lot of decision-making, and being able to justify her selctions through policy alignment.Then there is the ever-present spectre of censorship.
   Omission is in itself a form of censorship. Items could be omitted because they are from small independant publishers who don't have distribution rights that give them the exposure of the larger publishers. Items may also be omitted due to controversial content. Libraries support the democratic notion that information is for all, regardless of the bias/disturbing content/extreme views that may be presented.
   It's all a lot to contend with; selection is more than just grabbing a few books off the vendor's shelf and signing a blank cheque. It is complex decision making, a task suited for a professional.

INF 506 Assessment item 1

I am naturally reticent. I hate talking on the phone or addressing the class for prolonged periods. I dread public speaking events and as an author this makes me a marketing liability for my publisher. But with Social Networking I can connect with the world without having to speak.

Websites where people with common interests or shared histories can publish their own content and connect with others are called Social Networks (De Rosa, Cantwell, Havens, Hawk and Jenkins, 2007). Those in vogue currently, and they are rather transient beasts, include Facebook, Twitter, Google+1, Flickr, YouTube and Linked In. There are countless others.

A few years ago, on the advice of my publicist, I started up a blog and an author’s page on Facebook. I enjoy blogging. I can surround myself in book reviews and thoughtful comments and feel as if I’m closeted. I have neglected the author site and aside from linking it to my blog I rarely use it. However I post to my personal page weekly and check statuses every day. I try to keep my author self and my personal self separate as many in the writing world do (Woodhead, 2011a). I also find I waste a lot of time when I could be writing (Baverstock, 2011).

I’ve tried Twitter and hate it. It’s like a crowd shouting different messages with no-one listening. Twitter connects strangers, not old friends (Woodhead, 2011b). As a retiring type this makes me nervous. I am concerned about privacy and making an idiot of myself. But in the writing world Twitter is an ideal way to build your profile and connect with readers as its medium is concise text (Woodhead, 2011b).

I am keen to master Twitter and use it as a marketing tool.  It would help if I bought a mobile phone, I guess, and learnt to use it. As a budding T/L and blogger I see merit in Linked In, Delicious and Flickr. All I ask for is the time to master these tools. Then hopefully I could be a connected professional librarian and a marketing success.

References

Baverstock, A.(2011). Using Facebook to Promote Yourself as a Writer. Writers’ Forum #115, June

De Rosa, C., Cantrell, J., Havens, A., Hawk, J. & Jenkins, L. (2007). Sharing privacy and trust in our networked world: A report to the OCLC membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC. [ebook] Available http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/sharing.pdf

Woodhead, R. (2011a). Facebook: Share but Beware. Writing Magazine, May

Woodhead, R. (2011b). Build Your Profile on Twitter. Writing Magazine, Feb

 

ETL503 Collection Management

Collection Development or Collection Management? The latter term is the more traditional and is coming back in vogue. Collection Development has its roots in American Library lingo and is sometimes meant to mean the buiding of the collection, not so much its maintenance.
So what is collection development? It is selecting, aquiring, evaluating, preserving and ultimately disposing of items in the collection. In short it's the library side of the work the teacher librarian does.



What to select? A perennial question for a TL.

How to e-book?

The big question at the moment at the Junior High School library is what to do with e-books. Should they be part of the library or not? If yes, how do we present them? Does the library buy kindles or some other device? Should they lend out the e-reader or just let students use them in the library? How do we go about buying content? Is a subscription the way to go? And how do you catalogue an item that has no tangible quality?
   I can't help thinking that there must be a way to do it. Perhaps we need to really think 'outside the square' to develop a suitable borrowing model. But more and more questions pop up.
   I have a Kobo at home and it uses a USB cable to download content. Is this better than wireless because you can regulate what gets downloaded? The school techy is adamant that strict regulation is needed. What about licencing? Does the library have the e-book for just one user or for multiple users? Is the cost for multiple users prohibitive?
   I have been reading No Shelf Required  by S. Polanka (2011) and I'm afraid I'm more confused than ever by all the problems e-books pose. But the future of e-books is expanding. E-books are so popular now that we can't afford students to miss out on them at school. So I hope our school library finds a way.

Just for a laugh...

For those of you who haven't guessed, I love Discworld novels. I found this quote the other day and thought this audience may appreciate it.

   'But we're a university! We have to have a library!' said Ridcully. 'It adds tone. What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the Library?'
   'Students,' said the Senior Wrangler morosely.

Pratchett, Terry. (1998). The Last Continent. Corgi Books. p31

ETL401 Part B: Critical Reflection

The Role of the Teacher Librarian

I was interviewed for a Teacher/Librarian (TL) position in March. Some of the questions the panel asked were: what are the features of a good library, can you tell us of any occasions where you worked well with others, how can you help students with their research? I made universal statements about access and organisation, about sharing ideas and helping people, about evaluating websites and avoiding plagiarism, but I had limited notions of the role of a teacher librarian.

I didn’t get the job; they wanted someone who was qualified. But with my enthusiasm sparked I began this course. Since doing some CRT work in a school library and wading through the subject readings my perceptions have evolved. What I once thought would be a stress free job shelving books and helping students use the catalogue has transformed into a super-charged position full of creative potential.

Working in a school library is busier than I ever imagined. New books need scanning and summarising for upcoming power point presentations. A monthly report needs drafting. Letters for overdue books need to be collated. Tasks are never completed in one sitting because interruptions are inevitable. Teachers want tubs of books made up for next week’s classes. Students want staplers or sticky tape, or help with the printer or photocopier. Class sets go out and come in again and there are always students and staff who can’t find something on the shelves or the Internet.

In such an environment TLs need to plan and prioritise. Wilson (2009) suggests taking time to plan the day into manageable chunks. TLs need to know what to give their full attention to as there is little free time (Wilson, 2009). Even lunch hours are pared back because TLs are supervising students. Purcell’s (2010) time study exercise is one method of recording what a librarian achieves each week. It can also inform where productivity measures can be introduced.

TLs can’t afford to be recluses. I know of one TL who only leaves the library to use the toilet, which I would suggest is not the best way to get to know the staff and their curriculum needs. Sharing ideas is important but a librarian must do more than offer a few resource suggestions to colleagues in the rest-room. Yucht (n.d) suggests TLs should have lunch with different staff members each day to make sure you are on good terms with everyone. She stresses the importance of observing faculty interactions and school culture carefully. TLs can’t afford to exclude people just because they have little in common. Libraries are for all. 

TLs need to be good listeners to cater for both student and staff needs and to deal with conflict situations (Gilman, 2007; Sanders, 2004, p127). Conflict between staff creates a climate of negativity in which librarians shouldn’t indulge. Good professional relationships should also be cultivated with the principal. Haycock (2004) states that this is vital to foster support for the library program. Likewise, joining curriculum panels or management committees further shows the school community that the TL is a leader, a team player and a committed professional. This engagement also advertises to staff that you are willing to engage in collaboration (Ashworth, 2006).

Collaboration is one of the key skills of the TL. If TLs are actively engaged with the teaching process they will be held in better regard by staff and if good results ensue, staff will return for further collaboration. As a CRT I’ve had little opportunity for this but I make sure I’m hovering nearby to guide staff and students to relevant resources whenever a class researches a topic.

Another way of generating collaboration is through using Web 2.0 tools like wikis and blogs with staff members (Gilman, 2007). Being a ‘techno savvy’ individual is another vital skill of the modern TL (Ashworth, 2006) and TLs need to encourage staff and students to become more information literate. 

There are many Information Literacy (IL) models that provide a framework for helping students to understand their learning journey and give cues for TLs to step in and help. I see a lot of merit in Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) however my local school is over-represented by ‘macho’ Outdoor Education type teachers who would sooner kick a football than articulate feelings about looking for information.  Despite this, Kuhlthau’s (2012) ISP is a great theory for TLs to identify the steps students go through in the library. Every day students are muddled about what an assignment means. We see students eager to find a book on their topic, or downcast when bombarded with 200,000 hits on Google. Students are unsure of how to take notes when they do find relevant information. This is where TLs can guide students on their research journey.

I’m still in the exploration phase of my journey. Let’s hope I can focus on the task ahead as the TL position at the local school remains unfilled.

 References

Ashworth, Justin. (2006). Letter to a First Year Librarian.  School Library Journal.  Retrieved 27 Sept from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6367047.html

Gilman, Todd. (2007). ‘The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians.’ Do Your Job Better. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 21 July from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Four-Habits-ofHighly-E/46544/

Haycock, K. (2004). Priority-setting: the Tough Work.’ Teacher Librarian, Apr, Vol.31 Issue 4, p6

Kuhlthau, Carol Collier. (2012). Information Search process. Retrieved Sept 3 from http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/information_search_process.htm

Purcell, M. (2010). All Librarians do is Check out Books, Right? A Look at the Roles of a School Library Media Specialist. Library Media Connection, v. 29 n.3 p30-33 Nov-Dec

Sanders, R. (2004). Conflict Resolution.  Australia Library Supervision and Management (2^nd ed.) (pp. 127-132). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Wilson, Tim. (2009). Effective Time Management for Teachers-How to Manage Your Workload. Retrieved 21 July from http://www.time-management-success.com/time-management-for-teachers.html

Yucht, Alice. (n.d.). Alice in InfoLand. Y’s Guide to Starting a New School/Library/Job. Retrieved 27 Sept from http://www.aliceinfo.org/ysgd-new-job/

After ETL 501

Before ETL 501

·        I was a luddite. (I still am. I can’t use a mobile phone without remedial instruction from my teenage daughter, I broke my other daughter’s tape recorder and I can’t program the DVD recorder.)

·        I Googled 100% of the time.

·        I thought Wikipedia wasn’t too dodgy.

·        I thought a domain was a tunnel.

·        I had never heard of a pathfinder.

·        I thought tweets were noises birds made.

·        I thought Delicious was a reference to Black Forest Cake.

·        I took notes in an exercise book.

·        I used a print dictionary

After ETL 501

·        I regularly use Bing and Dogpile, and I encourage my children to do likewise. I think of keywords before I search and I use AND or OR or maybe NOT.

·        I avoid Wikipedia, and if I do use it, I triangulate for confirmation of facts.

·        I check domain names before I click on a hit and when looking at a website I search around for dates and author's names and copy down URLs exactly.

·        I have made my first pathfinder and guess what? It’s a wiki. It was so much fun I look forward to making hundreds more.

·        I muddle around with Twitter every day. I have learnt to tweet and how to respond to someone else’s tweet. I only have a handful of followers, but hey, it’s early days yet for this luddite.

·        I have saved a bunch of interesting things from the Web onto my Delicious site. I have an Information Technology tag, a Pasifika tag, a Maths tag etc...

·        I have learnt to take e-notes which made doing assignments kind of detached but workable.

·        I have a list of more things to conquer, chiefly Informit, Weebly, Animoto, Flickr, Wylio and Scootle.

·        As for my other life as an author, ETL501 has made me determined to make a few book trailers and to self-publish some short stories as ebooks using Smashwords.

Thanks Barbara for pushing me into the deep end. I may be spluttering and gasping for air but I think I’ll be able to tread water soon.

Oh, I still use a print dictionary. The spine’s broken and the pages are dog-eared, but it smells familiar and holds memories of scrabble games long gone. It’s one thing technology can never replace.

Is this Pratchett's librarian?

Ook! Source: B Montgomery

I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent where the poor librarian is very ill. For those of you who have never read a Discworld novel you may enjoy Pratchett's unique view on the image of a librarian. I wish I could reshelve books with my toes.

ETL 501 Teacher Librarian Collaboration Commentary

Activity  1.    

·        I have no idea about what the school is doing regarding a learning website as I am only a CRT. There is a school website and there is a link to the library. I am aware that they use Moodle but I know nothing about it.

·        A story board helps to visualise steps and sticky notes are easy to move around and change the sequence. This is harder to do in the finished product. If you can organise the structure first you ultimately save time.

·        I’ve looked at website design a lot lately. I am a huge fan of white space as I know how intimidating huge chunks of writing can be. They turn me off no end. That’s why I could never engage with Isobelle Allande’s House of the Spirits...but I digress. Tree maps show how to navigate around a site, and show structure. Contrast is important too. No dark on dark colours.

·        I started off looking at Weebly some time ago and ditched it because I was too impatient with downloading photos. I really had trouble with it and found the directions confusing. I’ll get back to it once all these assignments are completed. I found Wikispaces a lot easier. No frills here. Prezi is on my to do list.

Activity 2.

·        Subject content is the main criteria. If it doesn’t fit the curriculum and isn’t pitched at students, then what is the point?

·        I agree in principle that learning websites developed at the school are more likely to engage kids. The sense of ownership will be strong.

·        You can put a few points in the annotations referring back to whatever Info Lit model the school uses. I’m ashamed to say I don’t even know what the school uses because I am so rarely there and there doesn’t appear to be any reinforcement of policy around. I have seen a poster in the staff room about Bloom’s Taxonomy so I’ll draw a long bow here and suggest they may be fond of the Big6 model. But I’m only inferring here. I have no proof.

·        Annotations can give directions about how to use the resource. That’s helpful. Don’t be didactic or patronising as it turns readers off.

·        If students find a good resource we can encourage them to add it to the learning website-with a wiki this should be easy.

·        I read bits of Lynch and Horton (2008). Web Style Guide: Basic design principles for designing websites on line, at www.webstyleguide.com/wsg3/index.html. It goes on for pages and pages about interface design and is rather technical for the most part, so I was rather confused. Animoto looks really cool. The kids would love this. This is also on my to do list.

ETL 401 Blog Task #3

Information Literacy is more than a set of skills.

Information literacy (IL) is a slippery term to define. Academic and Teacher Librarian (T/L) Linda Langford (1998) wrote a lengthy article trying to clarify a definition and admitted that the whole process could bamboozle or alienate an audience. I admit to being one of those perplexed and bored readers. Greenblatt (2005) is more succinct, taking only a sentence to proclaim IL as ‘the ability to find and use information’. Academic Michael Eisenburg (2008) states that it is the ‘basic skills set of the 21^st century.’
   Perhaps a middle ground, borrowing heavily from Abilock (2004), would be to describe IL as an illuminating process where the learner locates, understands, evaluates and uses a range of information.
   What the person does with this information is up to himself/herself. Whereas Abilock states the learner should use the information to create something, I would argue that information literacy could end with the learner using it for decision making purposes only.
   So is I/L just a set of skills? Certainly today’s students are ‘digital natives’ already highly skilled in technology use. They can download music and videos, use a keyboard, mouse or touch pad, Google for unlimited information, post photos, link platforms, text friends, and so on. The list continues to grow. But most self-taught digital natives aren’t using the technology to exploit its potential to the fullest. They are simply skimming the surface. The new technology may be the tool to finding information but these self-taught craftsman can learn a lot from someone who knows the trade. In short, the teacher librarian.
   Information literacy goes further than a set of skills. It involves critical thinking, application and transfer. Students need to critically evaluate the information they find, particularly on websites. They need to look for bias and be alert to scams.
   Students must apply their I/L skills in a responsible way. They must be upstanding cyber citizens who obey copyright laws, are sensitive to privacy issues, avoid plagiarism and communicate on the Web using the appropriate etiquette.
   I/L is also about the transfer of these skills to other areas of life. Academic James Herring (2011a) showed that Scottish students on work placement found that work places sourced their information differently to how it was done in schools. A heavy reliance on databases, email and mobile phones contrasted with the schools’ emphasis on the Web to source information. Research into this topic is limited but Herring suggests that both groups can learn from each other. As Kuhlthau (2004) states, ‘Transference is the ultimate objective of education.’ Imagine if students could transfer I/L skills into adult life. What a switched on workforce we would have.
   Furthermore I/L is also about dealing with Web2.0 technology without fear. Kuhlthau’s theory of the Information Search Process (ISP) shows that emotions play a large role in how we all search for information and understanding this relationship helps T/Ls to guide students sympathetically.
   Teachers can also model the fact that we are learners too. We need to continually demonstrate to students that we use the new technology responsibly and efficiently. T/Ls can run professional development course to introduce various aspects of I/L in small chunks (Herring, 2011b, p72). For example, avoiding plagiarism or using creative commons or Google Advanced Search etc.
   We can be better prepared for visual learners too. Posters or laminated cards reinforcing a learning method such as Herring’s PLUS method can be placed prominently around the library. T/Ls need to shamelessly ‘bang on’ about this chosen method at every staff meeting and every time a class comes into the library to research. Eventually we will create lifelong learners.

 References

Abilock, Debbie. (2007). Information Literacy Building Blocks of Research: Overview of Design, Process and Outcomes. Retrieved 27 August 2012 from

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/1over/infolit1.html

 

Eisenberg, Michael B. (2008). ‘Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age’ DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, Vol.28, No.2, March, pp39-47

Greenblatt, Melinda. (2005). ‘Library Connections: Creating Lifelong learners’ Catholic Library World,
             Sept Vol 76 No.1

Herring, James, E. (2011a). ‘From School to Work and From Work to School: Information Environments and Transferring Information Literacy Practices’ Information Research. Vol.16 No.2, June

Herring, James, E. (2011b). Improving Students’ Web Use and Information Literacy: A Guide for
            Teachers and Teacher Librarians, Facet Publishing, London

Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004). ‘Learning as a Process’. Seeking meaning: a Process Approach to Library and Information Services (2^nd Ed.) pp13-27). Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.

Langford, Linda. (1998). Information Literacy: a Clarification, from Now On: The Educational
             Technology Journal. Retrieved 27 August 2012 from
http://www.fno.org/sept98/clarify.html

 

ETL 501 Commentary #7

Providing information for staff and students.

Librarians need to think about how they offer their services to staff - as emails, on blogs, staff memos, noticeboards, informal staff encounters, straight to wikis...          An then when they find something to share how will they share it. My guess is more often than not in the future it will be electronically. Librarians need to be aware of staff's curriculum and PD needs.

I am really warming to wikis. I still consider myself an infant in using this technology but I can understand Joyce Valenza's enthusiasm for it. I can’t see the importance in rolling around on the floor laughing about wikis though, but  I do agree with her other points, especially the ease of links, uploading ability and how you don’t need html knowledge to build one. The fact that they are collaborative and organic is super stuff. I think the potential is probably endless.

The reference interview

Discover from the client what information they want, how much and pitched at what level.

Information Services and Resource creation

 As T/Ls we ne need to 

·        Provide access to information (traditional and online)

·        Provide an inviting space to be (comfortable/clean/no nasty dragon lady types)

·        Provide friendly, non judgemental hands-on help when students can’t find stuff

·        Provide reading materials for enjoyment (mags/fiction/graphic novels etc

·        Provide for people with special needs (quiet nooks/ earphones/ visual aids or whatever...

I really like the School Community Profile Template set up by the national library of New Zealand. It takes into consideration everyone who uses the school library. It makes me think how can we cater more for our population of ESL students from refugee backgrounds. Should we be looking at more African literature, more books on African and Asian nations in the non fiction shelves? The junior school library caters for reluctant readers really well. The librarian seems to have made this one of her key concerns and surfing and football books proliferate.  As for digital devices, this point is not really addressed locally. I think we need to catch up with the digital natives.

Posters in the library are good but often become as unseen as wallpaper. Mnemonics are helpful though and something like the PLUS model as a poster could have prime position on a display board. At the junior school library the staff have put laminated cards directing students on how to use the online encyclopaedia. But most kids ignore this too. I think it needs constant reinforcing. Maybe a small template card with “Keywords”, steps to use the catalogue and steps to use the on line encyclopaedia could be useful...

ETL 501 Commentary # 6

Students and the Web

·        Why do we have computer tools for brainstorming exercises? (I am a big one for pencils and paper myself).

·        Topic development: sizing, finding an angle, introducing complexity, the iterative process. This seems to be suitable for older kids.

·        Think- what do you think you already know; puzzle -what questions or puzzles do you have about this topic; explore- how would you explore this topic? A good groundwork for brainstorming.

·        I used the Ultimate Research Assistant and typed in ‘cannibals’. It looked through 10 documents and highlighted where a paragraph of each where the key word came up. Some were about fish, some about murderers, some about tribes in the Congo... What is a kid to do with all this disparate information? This is where students need to skim and scan and really get rid of all the dross.

·        Questioning- dozens of visual representations of Bloom’s taxonomy. Interesting geometric patterns. A graphic artist would love this section. Obviously many apps/tools can be used on different levels. I like the spin tool at the end. This could generate some interesting questions for yr 7 kids.

·        I like the concept mapping of how to be a good web searcher and also the brainstorming of the phrase ‘search strategy’. I think they could both work well with groups providing results to be shared with the class.

·        Hoax sites are worth drawing kids’ attention to...

·        I like the little study bugs videos on You Tube. I can imagine using these for High school students as handy guides before they start an assignment or as links on the library blog. There are heaps more to choose from.

ETL 401 Blog Task #2

Constructivist Learning and the Australian Curriculum

This week Victorian Teachers go on strike. The stop work is principally a dispute over pay and conditions but teachers have put a moratorium on developing the national curriculum as part of upping the pressure on government to listen to their grievances. The national curriculum is due to be implemented in 2013 (ACARA, 2011) and already the science, maths, English and history components have been formulated. There is still much work to do however.

The national curriculum sets out the content of each subject in detail but how does it propose that students in the 21^st century should be taught? What learning theories does it favour?

Learning theories can generally be grouped into either behaviourism or constructivism models (Herring, 2011). Behaviourism theories focus on learning basic skills and views learners as receivers of knowledge. Examples of behavioural models are learning the first 20 elements of the periodic table or remembering Dewey decimal classification numbers. Herring even lists writing down explanations of information literacy models as an example of behaviourism.

Constructivism is based on the premise that learners construct their own knowledge. Learning is active as students make connections to their own existing knowledge and pursue what interests them, thus enhancing understanding and boosting motivation (Herring, 2011).

There are many models of constructivism, two examples being Project Based Learning and Inquiry Based Learning. Project Based Learning directs students to generate questions, work collaboratively and generate a presentation to communicate findings back to the class. Such an approach takes advantage of information technology to seek information and synthesise it. Boss and Krauss (2007) have written extensively on how Web 2.0 tools can be used to present student findings and how the whole PBL approach motivates students.

My only concern with PBL is how appropriate its use is for children who prefer to learn individually. I am thinking here of students on the autism spectrum, many of whom have massive problems collaborating and communicating.

Another popular method of constructivism is Inquiry Based Learning which is a cyclical approach whereby students generate questions on a topic, investigate the topic, create a solution or response then evaluate the process. In the current Victorian Curriculum (VCAA, 2007) provision has been made to encourage teachers to use Inquiry Based Learning. Their website states, ‘The VELS supports an inquiry learning approach encouraging students to ask key questions for investigation throughout the domains’.

So if constructivism is encouraged in the Victorian Curriculum, how does it fare in the proposed Australian Curriculum? There is no neat category where it fits, but this may be due to the broad way the document has been drafted. There is a section entitled “General Capabilities” where items such as ICT capability, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability are housed. These capabilities all fit neatly into constructivist learning models but the document doesn’t make reference to such pedagogy specifically.

The curriculum claims that students ‘require literacy skills and ICT capability to communicate effectively across all learning areas’ and that the capabilities are meant to be ‘general and operate across the whole curriculum (ACARA, 2012).’

Mitchell and Spence (2009) detail that the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) have introduced a policy entitled ‘Statement on Guided Inquiry and the Curriculum’ which encourages teacher librarians to use constructivism pedagogies. As completion of the national curriculum nears, teachers appear to have a lot of freedom to implement constructivist learning theories into their teaching. Teacher librarians armed with their new policy paper ought to be ready for the challenge. Whether or not classroom teachers  follow suit is another question.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2011) ‘Timeline Phase 1 Curriculum’ retrieved Sept 4 2012 from www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/timeline_phase_1_curriculum.html

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2012) ‘General Capabilities’ retrieved Sept 3 2012 from www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/Nature-of-general-capabilities.html

Boss, Suzie and Krauss, J (2007) Reinventing Project Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real World Projects in the Digital Age. Retrieved 26 August 2012 from www.iste.org

Herring, James. E. (2011) Improving Students’ Web Use and Information Literacy: A Guide for Teachers and Teacher Librarians. Facet Publishing, London

Mitchell, Pru and Spence, Sue (2009) Inquiry into Guided Inquiry. Access (10300155) Nov, Vol.23 Issue4, pp5-8.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) (2007) What is Inquiry Learning?  Retrieved 11 August 2012 from http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/wholeschool/program/inquiry.html

 

 

ELT501 #5 Commentary Web 2.0

What's Web 1.0? Web 1.0 - developed in 1996 as read only, had approximately 250 thou sites and 45 million users globally.

What's Web 2.0? Web 2.0 - developed around 2006 as a read/write dynamic, has 80 million + sites, 1 billion + users and a large proportion of user generated content.

Syndication is a hallmark of Web 2.0 technologies. Whereas taxonomy is a term used for classification of resources, “folksonomy” is the way information is organised on the Web 2.0: an open and democratic organisation. Tags are used for labelling. More popular tags are larger. Tags bridge structure and meaning, and therefore reflect social connections.

Examples of Web2.0 technologies are Blogs (blogger, wordpress), Images (Flickr), Wikis (wikispace), Podcasting (odeo), Bookmarks (delicious, Furl), Reading (bloglines, feedburner, googlereader). The possibilities for students using Web 2.0 technologies are fabulous. Students, teacher/librarians and teachers can create a class or individual blogs, collaborate on wikis, create an intranet using wikis, share teaching resources, collect data, record information, assignments or photos...

I watched a few You Tube clips showing what is now possible for the teaching profession, if only we embrace what the kids are already doing. The best of these was “Pay Attention”. The speaker suggested using Podcasts (as there are thousands available in every subject) to reach students on their iPods. We need to “transform teaching through technology”. The other example he used was to use mobile phones to send text messages for gathering data for graphs. My teenage daughter said this would be such a cool thing to do in Maths. Maybe she’s right?

But a T/L I know was horrified to think Students could use phones at school. Issues of privacy, cyberbullying and sexting are her concerns. My concerns are that the legal world is miles behind what’s happening in the cyber-world. What are the impacts for copyright/authorship/plagiarism etc? The teacher librarian needs to be a knowledgeable guide for kids in this remix culture.

There is some interest from the T/Ls at our school for making book trailers, using YouTube etc. This could really be ramped up as a book review option. However the use of blogs and wikis isn’t even being considered, mainly due to the Dept encouraging staff to use the Ultranet, not anything else. Now the unions have blackbanned staff working on the Ultranet so where do keen Victorian Teacher librarians go from here? There is so much more to be done.

The future of reading to tiny tots

To celebrate the end of Book Week in this National Year of Reading our local library opened its doors at 6 pm last night to read to the public. I went up the far end of the building where the children assembled and listened to the story time which has vastly evolved from when I was a tiny tot. The librarian presented an 'active' book first where he had all the kids jumping and jiggling and laughing along to the story line.

  
Next he whipped out the ipad and read three very differeent books to the audience which they could all see on the screen beside him. The first was a make your own story which had simple plot elements to choose from. Once the kids had selected what they wanted then the librarian played the story on the screen. Lots of movement, lots of laughter: the kids were really engaged.

   Then finally the librarian read two more stories from the ipad which were displayed on the screen. The first had many gadgets he could tweak to make the illustrations come alive. Words could fly off the page or buildings tumble or pages could turn all by themselves. It was engaging and somehow suggestive of Harry Potter-type wizardry of the printed word. (I'm thinking here of The Daily Prophet) There was even background music. The effect was pleasing and the quality of the illustrations carried the whole performance well. The last book he read from the ipad didn't have the added gadgetry and it was up to the librarian's skill as a story-teller to bring life to the pages, which he did admirably.

   I walked away thinking that this was the future of reading to tiny tots. Librarians would need ipads and screens and connecting cords.

   Was it a pleasurable experience? Yes, the kids enjoyed it. Was it intimate and cuddly the way story time can be? (I'm trying here to translate a group experience to a one on one reading) Well no. I can't imagine putting my children to bed and reading to them from an ipad with a nearby large screen. Maybe I'm old-fashioned.

ETL 501 #4 Searching commentary

I really struggled with this week's activities. I guess it's evident that life-long learning includes persistant learning of how to search the web. I found all the activities frustrating and I know I will just have to keep plugging away at this skill.



Thermal pool at Rotorua, NZ.
Source: B Montgomery

Search Engines I tried searching for volcanoes and teaching on some "other" search engines. The WorldFact Book was the first one, run by the CIA no less, so I got out of there quickly. Intute was the second one I tried, which closed down last year. It only revealed one video resource. Next I chose Bing and selected only Australian  sources. It came up with a range of sites featuring facts and lesson plans, handy stuff for a teacher.

Google Advanced Search The first problem I encountered was how to get to Google Advanced, there was no direct click that I could find. I had to type in "advanced search". Once there, I put in Ysabel, an island in the Solomon Islands and found when I added Solomon Islands I came up with lots of sites. Similarly when I looked at Google Images. Google Maps was disappointing. It only showed the USA or Philippines. I found Google News really useful. So many relevant and interesting 'local' news items. Similarly Google Books just blew my mind. So many books... a relevant page just a click away. I couldn’t find Google scholar.

I liked the file type option to find powerpoint files. This is all really new to me and will be very useful in future. I’ve downloaded Google Earth to play with when I get some spare time.

Knowledge 2.0 I checked out Twurdy and put in the topic of 'stick insects'. It didn't seem to have what it professed in terms of suitable reading ages. The basic sites listed didn't seem very basic to me. Ask Kids was good. I like this search engine as the sites are more suited to middle-grade kids.

I had trouble using KidsClick, the links kept breaking. At this stage I was starting to go a bit demented.

The 7 habits of effective Web Searching I like these habits. I’m already onto the time limit thing and now I’m exploring more search engines. This will take more baby-steps though. I do find all this a bit challenging.

Search engines activity table

Search engine	Keywords	Hits	How useful?	Comments
Bing	Causes and effects of drought in Victoria	69,200	Not sure	Don’t get it
Google Advanced	Causes and effects of drought in Victoria	14,300,000	Chose intermediate reading level and limited it to 220 Thous.	Don’t get it.
Dogpile Metasearch	Causes and effects of drought in Vic	I got sent to Ask! and couldn't locate how many hits. Am I blind?	Too vast obviously.	Still don’t get it.
Yahoo!	Drought in Victoria	530,000	This was probably as good as Google advanced	Going mental!