Multimedia Presentation

This is my part of our Multimedia Presentation on Glogster for a 6th Grade Science Class Project. You will need to turn it up REALLY LOUD and use headphones.


Below is a transcript, or rather, my notes for the presentation:
- Introduction
Today we will be discussing our Multimedia project using Glogster. I will talk about why we chose Glogster, the relation to the AASL standards and our book Meaningful Learning with Technology. Adam will give you the background on the project, demonstrate our Glogster and answer any questions you may have. Briefly, we are using Glogster to create a list of resources for a 6th grade science project. Students will share what they have learned via Photostory.

Sorry I could not be here for all of your presentations. I had a prior work commitment.

Why Glogster
It is easy to use and displays resources in a way that is visually appealing. It appeals to a variety of learners in the following ways:
* visual- visual presentation,
* verbal-linguistic - narration,
*nature- about animals,
* logical learners - steps/process to do research and create presentation.


Relation to AASL standards and Meaningful Learning with Technology
Our Glogster supports the following AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner:
Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.
1.1.2: Use prior and background knowledge as a context for new learning. - Students who have used web resource will be familiar with a Blog/Glog format
1.1.4: Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. - The Glogster provides links to various internet and library resources that they can use to create their Photostory
1.1.5: Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context. - Provide appropriate sources for their research, but it is up to them to decide which information best meets their needs
1.1.6: Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning. - Information is presented in a visual and graphic manner
1.1.8: Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information and pursuing inquiry. - Students will need to understand how to use internet resources and library resources (databases and print books) to complete the research assignment

Standard 3: Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.
Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
3.1.1.:Conclude an inquiry-based research process by sharing new understandings and reflecting on the learning. - students will share the research they have found via Photostory
3.1.3: Use writing and speaking skills to communicate new understandings effectively.
3.1.4: Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understandings in ways that others can view, use, and assess.

According to Meaningful Learning with Technology, this assignment supports investigating with technology and communicating with technology. For investigating with technologies, students will be using the internet to gather information and they will be presenting their information via Photostory, a multimedia software.

Comment on Integrating Social Media into the Classroom

On the Libraries and Transliteracy blog a recent post called Take the Plunge, Integrating Social Media into the Classroom highlighted four steps that librarians and teachers can take to integrate social media into the classroom. They include, letting down the filters cautiously, adding digital citizenship to the curriculum, watch student conduct and 'the law', and finally, teach with social media.

Students already know about social media - facebook, myspace, etc. We should be using it and teaching them how to use it wisely and appropriately. It is a great tool to reach out to students and to encourage involvement in discussion and education. Many libraries already have Facebook pages and Facebook groups. This supports communicating with technology and integrating technology. It would appeal to kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic and logical learners. Teachers and librarians need to do more to get schools to allow social networking access and show administrators how social media can be effectively used in education.

Comment on Reaching Forward 2010: Hyperlinked Services for Young People Slideshow

As I watched this slide show, "Reaching Forward 2010: Hyperlinked Services for Young People" by Michel Stephens, I was thinking of all the ways that school librarians could utilize hyperlinked services in their libraries.

The slide show talked about letting go of control and work with teens to create places (and staff) that are "welcoming, enabling and inspiring to young adults. connecting to students/users/teens in their spaces, be it physical or virtual. This includes allowing games, food & drink and cell phones in the library. It also means creating collaborative physical spaces - round tables, comfy chairs, cool events, plenty of computers. Create a place where teens can give feedback and make sure that librarians/staff are responding to the feedback and really taking into consideration their suggestions.

Another thing that is more geared to public libraries is to "embrace out of school time", where staff and librarians are trained to be "welcoming and supportive of youth". Could school libraries stay open after school, and be available as long as there are other activities happening on school grounds?

Lastly, the presentation discussed creating and engaging students via in-library games, posters, social networking worlds using tools such as flickr, polls, podcasts, delicious, etc.

Final thoughts on "What we can do"
* Don't be afraid to change
* Know it's ok to fail
* Involve your YA's every step of the way
* Be human
* Imagine
It may be difficult to incorporate some of these tools into the school library, especially if social networking sites are banned at school or the internet has filtering software.

Commentary on NetFlix Fail, Libraries and the Daring Librarian

The Daring Librarian blogged about her frustration with Netflix and related it to school libraries. The summary is that she wanted to make a suggestion to Netflix, but could not find an email address. As it turns out they don't have one, but you can chat, call or tweet them. She relates this to school libraries by saying that libraries should have several points of contact and they should be easily findable.

Last semester, I took an education class that required students to observe a school library media specialist. Many of the library websites did not have contact information, or if they did, they only had a phone number and you had to really dig for that information. What a turn-off for students, teachers and parents. If I were a student, I wouldn't dig for contact information, I'd just go somewhere else. Maybe this issue goes back to standardized websites and what is and is not allowed on them. But if you want to be reachable by students/parents/teachers and your users, you need to be where they are and have multiple points of contact. That means email, IM/chat, twitter, phone and in-person.

Marketing in Libraries with animation software

Today, we participated in a Webinar with Gwenyth Jones (The Daring Librarian), who spoke about how school librarians can use animation software to connect with students. She demoed Xtranormal and Goanimate. One thing that she said that struck me was that kids really respond to animation, even for public service announcements or little blurbs.

We also played around with Flips. They have limited functionality (zoom), but that is what made them so easy to use. I thought that they were a great little tool that students could use to create documentaries or short movies. It is really easy to pull the flip videos into Imovie or Windows Movie maker to edit and narrate them.

In my sidebar I created a GoAnimate 12 second movie. It was a really cool and fun software to use. I could see using this to create a little advertisement that would appeal to students.

Flips and other animation tools would be great for visual, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal learners. They also help students create content and demonstrate their knowledge of a topic.

Comments on The Traditional Model of School Librarianship

While reading Buffy Hamilton's post about the 'Traditional Model of School Librarianship', two thoughts occurred to me. The first was the realization that I have often wondered how a school librarian would be able to accomplish everything that they should be doing (outreach, information literacy, creating relationships, ordering supplies, cataloging books, running the library) with a small or non-existent staff. It is simply impossible to do everything, or do it well. Which could be one of the reasons why administrators/purse string holders think that libraries are not essential.

My other thought is that the "new" model Ms. Hamilton is talking about is what college and university libraries have been doing for years with the liaison or subject specialist model. Having even two librarians and one support staff person for 1000 students would still be a better model. Being part of a team (both a library team and a instructional team) would help lessen the workload, create better educators and help with the creative process. Is this a model that we, as librarians, could suggest to our administrators. What is an acceptable ratio of students/staff to librarians?

This topic may be outside of the "technology in teaching" topic, but it is an important one to consider. How will we have the time to include new technology into our teaching if we are barely keeping up with everything else? As Ms. Hamilton said, media and technology take time (and can have a huge positive impact on learning), but if we have inadequate staffing levels are we setting ourselves up for failure? Are we fulfilling the idea that libraries/librarians do not have a large impact on teaching and learning?

Commentary on School Library Websites - J Valenza

Today, I was reading Joyce Valenza's post about a tour of school library websites. She writes that it is EXTREMELY important that school libraries have a virtual/web presence. In my current position as a distance education librarian, I cannot agree more. For me as I try to change careers, I find it SO FRUSTRATING to see boring, out-of-date, or worse, poorly created websites. This is a disservice to the students. As the librarian at St. Andrews Episcopal Upper School,Barb Jensen, said it's great to work with teachers to create class specific wikis that showcase "resources that students will use to satisfy requirements and show and evaluate their results".
Joyce also showed examples from Buffy Hamilton who uses multimedia and social networking applications on her site at Creekview High School. There are other librarians out there incorporating RSS feeds, Twitter Feeds and LIBguides, to name a few other technologies.

I think it is important to use any technologies we can to connect the library with students and students with resources. How can students do that with websites that lack lists of resources or are not visually appealing or even well-organized?