Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Conclusion
Following the conclusion of 5720 at UNT I would like to incorporate wikis and blogs in to my classroom activities. I have learned and seen so many possibilities for these two pieces of technology. My students have always had such incredible voice. I feel using wikis and blogs gives them the opportunity to express themselves more often and more freely. Students are comfortable with technology and enjoying using it as a way to express themselves. It is important to tap in to whatever will work for students to enhance learning and encourage interaction and discussion. Hopefully when I am in a library I can quickly put wikis and blogs in to play on my own website. The best advertisement for a library is one that is created by its patrons. Wikis and blogs lay the foundation for that advertisement.
The Job of Organizing
Now no longer only the domain of professionally trained catalogers and indexers, organizing books and materials has become more of a public domain with Web 2.0. While one might assume this is a threat to the job security of librarians, it actually broadens the options available to the patron and gives the librarian more of an opportunity to be a guide in the search for information. The subject headings offered by publishers and included in the catalog can be limiting. With input from the actual users of the information, items can be tagged more specifically for patrons. As a librarian, it is not likely that I will be reading EVERYTHING that comes in to my library. I will need to rely on the publisher’s suggestions for cataloging purposes. Involving the patrons that have chosen to partake in a particular resource allows for expansion of the possible audience for the item. The more specific a tag, the more likely a patron is to use the item.
While most of the aspects of public involvement in organizing materials are positive, there are some negative aspects as well. In the “hands of everyday folk”, this organization can get out of control and random. As a patron who has read a book or used a resource, I could have focused on an idea that received only 1 sentence worth of space in the material. If I then tag this resource for the minutia I am skewing the true value of the resource for other patrons. You may also have users that tag or organize based only on titles and not on actual use and value of a resource. This can be very confusing in a search for valuable content.
When tagging resources with Delicious, the tags are far from traditional subject headings. The tags I used, some of which were suggested and others were not, are quite a bit more specific. Traditional subject headings are very broad. A random site that I bookmarked at the suggestion of a friend was only tagged with the suggested tag: health. The site focuses on preparing to run a 5k. I could have given this site so many other tags: 5k, running training, fitness, big butt, etc. Being able to tag sites myself is way more helpful that being bound to a basic traditional tag. I will remember my own tags and their meanings more than a broad traditional tag.
While most of the aspects of public involvement in organizing materials are positive, there are some negative aspects as well. In the “hands of everyday folk”, this organization can get out of control and random. As a patron who has read a book or used a resource, I could have focused on an idea that received only 1 sentence worth of space in the material. If I then tag this resource for the minutia I am skewing the true value of the resource for other patrons. You may also have users that tag or organize based only on titles and not on actual use and value of a resource. This can be very confusing in a search for valuable content.
When tagging resources with Delicious, the tags are far from traditional subject headings. The tags I used, some of which were suggested and others were not, are quite a bit more specific. Traditional subject headings are very broad. A random site that I bookmarked at the suggestion of a friend was only tagged with the suggested tag: health. The site focuses on preparing to run a 5k. I could have given this site so many other tags: 5k, running training, fitness, big butt, etc. Being able to tag sites myself is way more helpful that being bound to a basic traditional tag. I will remember my own tags and their meanings more than a broad traditional tag.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us
Professor Wesch’s video "Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us" is a powerful visual representation of the ideas put forth in the Cortney text. While the original creation of the Web was based on input only from programmers, as it has developed, the Web has become more collaborative. The Web is now more grounded in user content. The “machine is us” because of this collaboration and user content focus. However, the “machine is using us” because without the user, it is unable to grow and expand. I struggle with this because the machine does not exist beyond the users. The Web does not have an independent mind of its own so it is really incapable of using anyone. Without the user, there is no Web or machine!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
$10,000 technology budget
Given the opportunity to spend $10,000 on hand-held technology for the library, I would try to provide resources for the entire faculty and student body to use.
My first priority would be to put a student response system on campus. This system is compatible with all curriculum areas. At approximately $2600, according to their website, the Classroom Performance System from eInstruction provides “small, handheld devices that allow students to respond to questions asked verbally, on paper, or on screen and enables you to instantly assess their comprehension of your lessons.” This provides faculty an easy formative assessment tool with immediate feedback as well as an interactive opportunity for students participate in classroom activities. Students enjoy taking a test using the system and being able to immediately review the statistics provided for each answer. This also enables the teacher to give instant feedback and reteaching when necessary. In the library, I could use this system to check understanding after any library lesson. The process of learning research skills is often overwhelming for students so the student response system would be especially helpful in checking for understanding in the library.
To assist our English Language Learners and the teachers that work with those students, I would like to purchase digital voice recorders. It is beneficial for these students to hear a lesson multiple times and to be able to pace the instruction themselves. Digital voice recorders would allow students to move forward with the lesson after hearing it as many times as necessary to ensure understanding. This would free up the teacher to work with small group instruction. In the library I could use a digital voice recorder to record lessons for students who are absent. Since the Yamaha Pocketrak 2G has excellent battery life, I would spend $750 for five. There are less expensive models available, but battery life and battery replacement are major concerns on my campus.
To update the art department, I would like to purchase digital cameras and drawing tablets. The digital cameras would be used not only to learn about photography—balance, contrast and composition, etc., but also would be used to document work that has been created in class (this incidentally would flow over in to other content areas.) Currently the few cameras on my campus belong to the journalism class. With digital cameras, my student aides and I can “sell” the books in the library with bulletin boards and Animoto videos for morning announcements. The language arts teachers can also have students create pictorial story boards of books to address curriculum standards regarding non-linguistic representations. I would like to purchase ten Nikon Coolpix L20 Digital Cameras at $100 per camera.
The drawing tablets for the art department are “a computer input devices that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper.” With the added responsibility in every department including art to teach technology these tablets would allow art classes to experiment with a new medium AND computer applications. Therefore, I would purchase ten Digipro Graphics Tablets at $30 a piece for another $300. I am not completely sure how I would use these tablets in the library beyond the student opportunity for exploration, imagination, and expression. Because I am not familiar with this technology, I would have to adjust to the learning curve.
There are two hand-held devices I would like to purchase to benefit the entire campus. be beneficial to everyone. One is the Pure Digital Flip Mino—which is an IPod sized camcorder. Often students do incredible presentations that are never recorded. This small, easy to use camera would be great to be able to share presentations and events with parents, other students, and to store as examples for showing students what quality work looks like. This would encourage the collaboration that is being give a high priority on my campus. These devices could also be used to tape lessons for absent students and training purposes. By digitally recording lessons and classroom management techniques, the campus can utilize the recordings for self evaluation and inservices. In the library setting, I would like to supplement the library website with “visual dos and don’ts” of the library using recorded clips of students following and not following the rules. I would also like to give students the opportunity to record book advertisements to air on the morning announcements and to be placed on the library website. Along these same lines, I would like to use this device to record book talks for language arts classrooms and morning announcements. I would purchase one Pure Digital Flip Mino per grade level with an additional three units to be available as needed. This would be a total of six Pure Digital Flip Minos $130 a piece which totals $780.
The second device I think would be beneficial is the Nintendo DS pocket-sized game system. It is important to disguise education with fun. With game categories such as Life Training, Puzzles, Strategy, and Simulation, these games allow the brain to stretch and grow while having fun. I would like to allow use of these hand-held systems during the mornings and lunch time when the library is busy with student patrons. I would like to purchase fifteen systems and thirty educationally based games costing a total of $2550.
To round out spending the $10,000 in budget funds, I would begin an audiobook collection for the library. I would start with the purchase of various Playaway titles. As per the Playaway website, “Playaway is the simplest way to listen to audio on the go. Each Playaway comes with the digital content already pre-loaded on it and a battery to make it play. Simply plug in earbuds and enjoy.” Each Playaway comes with its own earbuds but is also compatible with any other type of headphone set. Interaction with audiobooks is beneficial to English Language Learners as well as students with learning differences. With a Playaway, students can also feel cool on the bus, earbuds in, and listening to an audiobook. As the librarian I can work with teachers to encourage reading by suggesting titles that are duplicated in text as well as audio. At approximately $45 per title, I would like to purchase fifty titles for a total of $2,250.
Surprisingly, $10,000 is fairly easy to spend. With constant changes in technology, there will always be easy ways to spend any money that can be allocated for improving technology use in the library and on campus.
My first priority would be to put a student response system on campus. This system is compatible with all curriculum areas. At approximately $2600, according to their website, the Classroom Performance System from eInstruction provides “small, handheld devices that allow students to respond to questions asked verbally, on paper, or on screen and enables you to instantly assess their comprehension of your lessons.” This provides faculty an easy formative assessment tool with immediate feedback as well as an interactive opportunity for students participate in classroom activities. Students enjoy taking a test using the system and being able to immediately review the statistics provided for each answer. This also enables the teacher to give instant feedback and reteaching when necessary. In the library, I could use this system to check understanding after any library lesson. The process of learning research skills is often overwhelming for students so the student response system would be especially helpful in checking for understanding in the library.
To assist our English Language Learners and the teachers that work with those students, I would like to purchase digital voice recorders. It is beneficial for these students to hear a lesson multiple times and to be able to pace the instruction themselves. Digital voice recorders would allow students to move forward with the lesson after hearing it as many times as necessary to ensure understanding. This would free up the teacher to work with small group instruction. In the library I could use a digital voice recorder to record lessons for students who are absent. Since the Yamaha Pocketrak 2G has excellent battery life, I would spend $750 for five. There are less expensive models available, but battery life and battery replacement are major concerns on my campus.
To update the art department, I would like to purchase digital cameras and drawing tablets. The digital cameras would be used not only to learn about photography—balance, contrast and composition, etc., but also would be used to document work that has been created in class (this incidentally would flow over in to other content areas.) Currently the few cameras on my campus belong to the journalism class. With digital cameras, my student aides and I can “sell” the books in the library with bulletin boards and Animoto videos for morning announcements. The language arts teachers can also have students create pictorial story boards of books to address curriculum standards regarding non-linguistic representations. I would like to purchase ten Nikon Coolpix L20 Digital Cameras at $100 per camera.
The drawing tablets for the art department are “a computer input devices that allows one to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way one draws images with a pencil and paper.” With the added responsibility in every department including art to teach technology these tablets would allow art classes to experiment with a new medium AND computer applications. Therefore, I would purchase ten Digipro Graphics Tablets at $30 a piece for another $300. I am not completely sure how I would use these tablets in the library beyond the student opportunity for exploration, imagination, and expression. Because I am not familiar with this technology, I would have to adjust to the learning curve.
There are two hand-held devices I would like to purchase to benefit the entire campus. be beneficial to everyone. One is the Pure Digital Flip Mino—which is an IPod sized camcorder. Often students do incredible presentations that are never recorded. This small, easy to use camera would be great to be able to share presentations and events with parents, other students, and to store as examples for showing students what quality work looks like. This would encourage the collaboration that is being give a high priority on my campus. These devices could also be used to tape lessons for absent students and training purposes. By digitally recording lessons and classroom management techniques, the campus can utilize the recordings for self evaluation and inservices. In the library setting, I would like to supplement the library website with “visual dos and don’ts” of the library using recorded clips of students following and not following the rules. I would also like to give students the opportunity to record book advertisements to air on the morning announcements and to be placed on the library website. Along these same lines, I would like to use this device to record book talks for language arts classrooms and morning announcements. I would purchase one Pure Digital Flip Mino per grade level with an additional three units to be available as needed. This would be a total of six Pure Digital Flip Minos $130 a piece which totals $780.
The second device I think would be beneficial is the Nintendo DS pocket-sized game system. It is important to disguise education with fun. With game categories such as Life Training, Puzzles, Strategy, and Simulation, these games allow the brain to stretch and grow while having fun. I would like to allow use of these hand-held systems during the mornings and lunch time when the library is busy with student patrons. I would like to purchase fifteen systems and thirty educationally based games costing a total of $2550.
To round out spending the $10,000 in budget funds, I would begin an audiobook collection for the library. I would start with the purchase of various Playaway titles. As per the Playaway website, “Playaway is the simplest way to listen to audio on the go. Each Playaway comes with the digital content already pre-loaded on it and a battery to make it play. Simply plug in earbuds and enjoy.” Each Playaway comes with its own earbuds but is also compatible with any other type of headphone set. Interaction with audiobooks is beneficial to English Language Learners as well as students with learning differences. With a Playaway, students can also feel cool on the bus, earbuds in, and listening to an audiobook. As the librarian I can work with teachers to encourage reading by suggesting titles that are duplicated in text as well as audio. At approximately $45 per title, I would like to purchase fifty titles for a total of $2,250.
Surprisingly, $10,000 is fairly easy to spend. With constant changes in technology, there will always be easy ways to spend any money that can be allocated for improving technology use in the library and on campus.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Strengths and Weaknesses in Technology
As an educator as well as personally, I use technology on a daily basis. I am not afraid of being exposed to new technologies and in fact, truly enjoy having my students share new technologies with me. I consider it a strength of mine that I encourage my students to use technology to share their knowledge with others. Other strengths of mine are Powerpoint and Word. I became fairly proficient with a Promethean board and document camera on my last campus. I enjoyed exploring the accompanying technology with my students. There are so many sites online for students to explore their own creativity, so I encourage my students to use safe online options when it is appropriate for the task they are given.
As a librarian, I plan to continue to explore online resources for my students and their teachers. I would like to be a resource and a cheerleader for technology on my campus. I am not afraid to “play” online to find something that will help enhance the learning experience.
I still have a great deal to learn where technology in education and the library are concerned. During my 9 year career in education, my access to technology in the classroom has been quite varied. As a result of the access (or lack thereof) to technology on the most recent campuses, I have gotten stuck in a rut. I am not familiar with many of the technology resources that seem to have the strongest pull for students.
As a librarian, I plan on attending technology professional development that is offered through my campus or district. I know that budgets are tight, but I feel staying abreast of resources is a necessity in the library. I have always included professional development in my own personal budget so I plan to continue to do that as a librarian. I plan on seeking a library position in Chicago. I am not familiar with the types of professional development that is available in Illinois but I am excited to know that I will be on ALA’s home turf. While teaching in Texas, I attended the TCEA conference for 5 years and learned a ton. I paid to attend TCEA myself and will do the same as a librarian, given the conference or training opportunity.
When I become a librarian, I also plan to align myself with the campus technology coordinators or experts. In my experience, these people are the best resources on the campus. I would also like to develop close relationships with any new teachers on campus. Teachers who are new to the profession are usually familiar with new technologies in education. While familiarizing these new staff members with what the media center has to offer, I can be learning from them.I am not afraid of technology and am excited about exploring the technological avenues that go hand and hand with being a librarian. As a librarian, I hope to utilize my strengths and to constantly be aware of and willing to work on my weaknesses. Growth is important in any profession, but I believe it is especially important for people in the education field. I can not be responsible for educating the adults of the future if I do not continue to educate myself.
As a librarian, I plan to continue to explore online resources for my students and their teachers. I would like to be a resource and a cheerleader for technology on my campus. I am not afraid to “play” online to find something that will help enhance the learning experience.
I still have a great deal to learn where technology in education and the library are concerned. During my 9 year career in education, my access to technology in the classroom has been quite varied. As a result of the access (or lack thereof) to technology on the most recent campuses, I have gotten stuck in a rut. I am not familiar with many of the technology resources that seem to have the strongest pull for students.
As a librarian, I plan on attending technology professional development that is offered through my campus or district. I know that budgets are tight, but I feel staying abreast of resources is a necessity in the library. I have always included professional development in my own personal budget so I plan to continue to do that as a librarian. I plan on seeking a library position in Chicago. I am not familiar with the types of professional development that is available in Illinois but I am excited to know that I will be on ALA’s home turf. While teaching in Texas, I attended the TCEA conference for 5 years and learned a ton. I paid to attend TCEA myself and will do the same as a librarian, given the conference or training opportunity.
When I become a librarian, I also plan to align myself with the campus technology coordinators or experts. In my experience, these people are the best resources on the campus. I would also like to develop close relationships with any new teachers on campus. Teachers who are new to the profession are usually familiar with new technologies in education. While familiarizing these new staff members with what the media center has to offer, I can be learning from them.I am not afraid of technology and am excited about exploring the technological avenues that go hand and hand with being a librarian. As a librarian, I hope to utilize my strengths and to constantly be aware of and willing to work on my weaknesses. Growth is important in any profession, but I believe it is especially important for people in the education field. I can not be responsible for educating the adults of the future if I do not continue to educate myself.
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