Not So Distant Future

technology, libraries, and schools

Not So Distant Future

E-book market update

February 22nd, 2012 · No Comments · E-books

It seems like I’ve been on an e-book tear lately but with the market changing so rapidly, I find it helpful to share.

Today I met with a representative from Baker and Taylor who shared their new e-book product.  Their marketing I find a bit confusing because of so many different product names, but their digital media library is called Axis360.   When you begin using Axis360, your site is fairly standard across their platform, but they can customize your logo and a couple of other items.   Once you select the e-books, they appear within a couple of hours on an Axis360  site called the Magic Wall, which shows all of your e-book offerings in an attractive display, much like Amazon or other online stores.

Patrons can make a wish list or check out a book, and for some titles they have short synopses.  Students can also contribute book reviews.   If students are reading the book on an iPad, they need the app Blio to actually read the book.

The process works like this–students go to the Axis 360 site(your Magic Wall) with your books.   They login and select the book they want.  Then they can either download it to read on the computer or use the Blio app to download it to the iPad or Android device.  If they are reading on multiple devices, the book is stored “in the cloud” and it keeps their place as well as their notes.   (Notes can be copied and pasted out of the app before the book is returned, evidently.)   When students open their Blio app, the book is already waiting there to be downloaded, without physically hooking any device up to a computer.

One limitation that we discovered today was that although the Axis360/Magic Wall site works fine on the iPad for browsing titles,  as soon as you try to check out a book it freezes up.  It appears to use a flash pop-up for the sign in, and so there’s not a way to initially “check-out” the book on the iPad that I could find, unless the site was just being problematic when I was using it.  You would have to use a computer to check it out from the Magic Wall, and then it would load into the Blio app for reading later.  Our rep seemed to think that the books have to be checked out on the website, but then they can be downloaded anywhere.

Baker and Taylor doesn’t have this ready for prime time on the Kindle or Nook although that is evidently coming in the next month or two.

Their pricing model is pretty optimal for schools– to start it is $125 annual fee, which doubles to $250 the second year.  You have to start with a minimum order of $1000, but that’s it.  The content is yours, so if you quit BT, you can have them help you move the books to another site.

I did find their ordering site (Title Source 3) a little too detailed for my purposes, although the speed of it is much faster than Overdrive’s site which is very slow.

One other plus with Follett and Baker and Taylor is that you can have a district e-library, and Follett even allows you to have separate k-6, 6-8 collections in a district.  While all of the books from BT are one-to-one use, (Follett has a few multi-use titles), this could still provide some significant cost savings, as there are titles you may want to have in district, but don’t need copies of at every library all the time.

I plan to write an updated post about Follett’s Shelf offerings soon, as they also look like an affordable and viable model for k-12.   So the e-book developments continue…

Tags:··

Adding to the e-book mayhem

February 11th, 2012 · 9 Comments · Web 2.0

Some new details on the e-book front the last few days…

First, Penguin announced the end of their contract with Overdrive, not only leaving librarians unsure as to what’s going to happen with existing Overdrive books from Penguin, but also casting doubt on Overdrive’s ability to keep large publishers as partners.   Having just gone with Overdrive this year, it makes me hesitant.  There’s no answer yet about whether libraries will be able to retain their existing titles from Penguin either.   This decision on Penguin’s part, as well as Harper Collin’s decision to limit checkouts on their titles demonstrates the deep disarray going on in the e-book market as it regards libraries.

Publishers need to wake up and recognize the proven impact that library’s use of books can have on sales and that librarians are important players still in recommending or highlighting titles.

The good news in all this is that there appears to be some relief on the e-book front as other players on entering the market.  It’s easy to start seeing the day when you’ll easily buy e-books from all the large book jobber warehouses as easily as you would buy a print title.   Baker and Taylor is rolling out a totally rethought model of their e-book content using the Blio app, one designed in conjunction with Ray Kurzwell.   They’ll be reformatting books for publishers and also giving them the tools to make additions and changes. Presumably this will also come into play with library lending models, but it’s an interesting development to look out for as Baker and Taylor is such a large jobber.

Ingram told me at ALA Midwinter that they are working on deals with fiction publishing houses, and they also are considering some “lease” options for sets of books which could be very interesting.

At TCEA this week, Follett demonstrated their newly announced apps for their products.  The new Follett Digital Reader app will allow students to check out books to their mobile devices from the Follett SHelf, a collection of e-books that the library can build. Follett’s pricing is very appealing to schools, as they aren’t charging an annual fee (this continues their policy of not doing that) nor will they be charging an additional “mark-up” for e-book content.  The Follett Shelf product also stands alone from Destiny, so if a district doesn’t have Destiny, they could have the Follett Shelf book collection for student check-out.   They are also rolling out Catalyst Digital (frankly, in the k12 student world, I think they could have picked a more memorable name for students), which is their audio e-book platform, again check-out-able.(is that a word?)  The content in Catalyst is based off of Follett’s popular Playaways.   Follett also has rolled out a new app for their catalog, Destiny Quest (which you can use whether you use Quest or not), but you have to do the latest upgrade on your catalog to get it to work).

Follett knows libraries, and their entrance into the check-out ebook market may make them a significant player in K12, but it will depend on the quantity and quality of books offered.  And libraries may end up offering multiple platforms as the offerings vary (for example Overdrive has only the audio version of Hunger Games, while Follett only has the e-book version).

And so the mayhem continues….

PostScript:  This is an excellent Scoop-It on e-book news if you want to keep up with the latest!

 

Tags:·····

Upcoming workshops at TCEA conference

February 6th, 2012 · No Comments · Web 2.0

I’ll be presenting all this week at the Texas Computer Educator Association conference in Austin (as well as learning at Tuesday’s Edubloggercon and other sessions!)

If you are interested in following along here are the presentation topics and times:

Tuesday, 1:30 – 2:14   Twitterlution:  Changing Advocacy
I’ll be talking Twitter, and its role in revolutions, and as Diane Cordell says, contributions and evolutions, as well, and how we can apply lessons learned to education.

Wednesday 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.   How To:  live blogging class discussions
We’ll talk about different tools for live blogging in the classroom (or other venues) like Chatzy, CoveritLive, TalktoMe, etc.

Thursday 9:15 – 10:15   iPads in the Library
I’ll be covering several methods of implementation of iPads in libraries, from learning stations, to e-readers, to 1:1 adoptions.

Thursday 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.  Library Design
This session is more interactive and takes place in the Web 2.0 area (They’ve moved it to a Ballroom if you have been there before).    We’ll talk about how to be “anthropologists” and listen to our students, how purpose enters into good library design, how technology changes that, talk examples, and do some brainstorming.

Hope to see some of you there!  If not, after the conference, I’ll be posting summaries and links to session information!

Tags:··

E-book advocacy

January 24th, 2012 · 2 Comments · E-books

Or  news  from the quagmire that is the e-book market….

In Kansas State librarian Jo Budler’s session at ALA Midwinter,  “Do I Own These E-books or Not,”  Budler summarized the issues that Kansas State had faced with Overdrive’s e-book contract, which in its earlier iteration, allowed libraries to “keep” their content after discontinuing Overdrive.   The newer version of the contract uses different languaging so for many libraries, the experience she had is perhaps a moot point.  But what I learned from the session was to be willing to negotiate with our e-book providers.  We are the customers and we need to increasingly be pro-active and willing to ask our providers for what we need.

Overdrive’s e-book platform currently operates on what I consider to be basically a “subscription” basis.  Since I am accustomed to databases which operate in that fashion, I bought it knowing that.   Of course that means, once you quit paying their annual fee, you will no longer have the e-books you have selected.

Other vendors do have an opportunity to move into this market.  For my library, the ability to deliver the content to the iPads was critical since we are a 1:1 ipad school and Overdrive really has been the main provider of that sort of ability.  But at ALA, I also discovered that Follett’s Shelf product is rolling out an iPad app on January 27.    The e-books we currently have in Follett can be transferred to their “shelf” product and then we can utilize the app to access them.   Follett has a no-annual fee model;  however, the experience with Overdrive makes me wonder if we would be able to keep them if we migrated to some other system in the future.   I believe Follett has or is considering a multi-user model as well; if anyone has more information on that, I would be interested in knowing more.

Gale has an e-book reference product that many of us use, which integrates into their database, and has MARC records that can be embedded into your catalog.  You “own” the book if you pay the annual maintenance fee, which is fairly low for school libraries with a smaller number of Gale titles, and Gale has an app from which you can access their e-book content easily.

I also spoke with Ingram at the exhibit hall, after hearing about their e-book offerings, since they are a large book jobber that was mentioned at the Kansas State session.  Currently, their primary offerings are nonfiction and reference, but they are negotiating as we speak with major publishers such as Random House, etc. for fiction collections.    They have several different pricing models–I’m not sure how feasible they are for schools or not, but they are interesting and will become even more interesting once they offer fiction.   Ingram allows you to purchase the e-book as part of a single collection for one cost(a $10 to $15 markup per book), or as part of a multi-user library (multiple users can access at once) (a 1.67% pricing over book price).  And they are looking into a very exciting possibility–leasing “class sets” of novels to a school for a few weeks when they are needed, rather than the school purchasing the e-books.  (I hope I’m supposed to blog that!)  From my understanding, Ingram allows you to keep the content which they store on their server.

The pricing model for all the e-book content is also pretty fascinating.  Publishers make far more on e-books than on print books, and publishing houses that dove into e-books full force are showing profits.    In a fascinating blog post, author Kristine Rusch explains at length the reasons that publishers are making more on e-books, while authors make more on print books.   Basically, in older contracts, authors were paid 50% of the cover price of a print book for an e-book, even if an e-book cost substantially less.   But now, the way the contracts are constructed, they make only 15% profit from e-books.   And in addition, the e-book is cheaper for the publisher in the first place, due to reduced production costs and distribution costs.  So between those two things–paying authors substantially less, and having fewer costs, the publishers are doing quite well with the e-book market.

So, I bring this up for a reason–if publishers are making much larger profits on e-books, then why are they charging libraries more for them?

That is the question we need to be putting to every e-book vendor we as librarians do business with.   As consumers, as an audience member at Jo Budler’s ALA session pointed out, librarians need to be savvy and we need to ask vendors the tough questions and need to put the pressure on.   Yes, we are a pittance of the book market, and the e-book market particularly, but statistics clearly show that libraries play a significant factor in driving readers to purchase books later (I can’t find the statistic but heard this at ALA)  So what we do counts in sales for publishers later.

The fact that publishers and vendors are listening to library concerns and getting into the e-book market means we are listened to.  And I’m not opposed to products that work well and are convenient for students.  But they need to be cost effective for libraries and public institutions.    So we need to continue our efforts to speak up, ask questions, and advocate for cost-effective e-books for libraries.

( Caveat:  Amazon and Apple and Barnes and Noble don’t typically charge a tremendous overhead for e-books,  but their devices and distribution model aren’t really designed for library use either.  Another thing we need to be continuing to advocate strongly for.)

 

Tags:·····

Growing an e-book library

January 15th, 2012 · 14 Comments · Web 2.0

Because our school is in the midst of a 1:1 iPad implementation, it became critical to figure out how to deliver “library” books to students, and an e-library seemed an important way to reduce costs for students who might otherwise end up individually purchasing every reading title they need.

While our library has been experimenting with a variety of e-book offerings the last few years, finding a model that worked easily and well with the iPads was now important.  So among other things, we have chosen to try Overdrive’s e-library service which allows you to build an e-library that students can “check out” books from.

Overdrive has many limitations, but it’s the major player in the e-book market for 1:1 devices.   It’s fairly costly, only offers certain publishers, is an annual subscription (again, costly), and using it with Kindles or Nooks is a little complex. But with the iPad app, it’s a pretty easy implementation once the actual collection is built.

Students simply install the app, locate your library in the “Add a library” list, star it as a favorite, and then they are ready to borrow materials.  Much like Amazon, they put items in their cart, and “check out” of the store when done.  Books return themselves automatically when they are due, eliminating “overdues” as a concept.  Just like Mission Impossible (a reference lost on most of the students), the e-books dissolve in a puff of smoke on their “due date.”

Overdrive can also be used by any students with Nooks, Kindles, iPhones, and mp3 players as well, so it’s pretty flexible in terms of how students can retrieve a book.

I have learned lessons during the implementation process:

1.  Initial Implementation–
Overdrive charges an annual fee, half of which goes to new titles and half of which is a subscription fee.  Even taking into account both fees, that makes our average “cost” about $30 per book/audiobook, which since many of them are only in hardback release currently, isn’t an entirely unreasonable cost.  You do keep titles and then add more each year, but that half/half model continues.  If you quit Overdrive, currently, the titles purchased are “lost.” I think this is a model Overdrive needs to strongly reconsider as that is a deterrent, but I decided to think of it in terms of a subscription like a database, which we pay for annually.  In any case, you “fund” the account ahead of time, which does make purchasing easier.

Once you have committed to the service, it takes some advance time to implement Overdrive because as the librarian, you have to help develop the design of your custom site as well as developing the e-book and audiobook collection based on your school’s needs.

2.  Designing the site–
The first step is designing the look of the website and completing training sessions on purchasing.  Somewhat frustratingly, Overdrive controls the website design process, so there can be quite a bit of unnecessarily time-consuming back and forth as you design the look and feel of your site. Though many elements are common from one site to another, the overall look can be customized.  After a bit of frustrating design back and forth,  I finally “drew” a picture of the colors I wanted and eliminated having a masthead in the interest of getting the site to go “live”sooner.  Because there is an intermediary sales person between you and the web design team, things can get lost in translation and the quality of the design can be problematic.   The basic format of the design does look a lot like Amazon or other sites students will be familiar with, which is a plus.  But Overdrive does force a few features on the site which feel like advertising for Amazon, and I was disappointed those couldn’t be removed.

3.  Collection development –
The next step in implementing Overdrive is material selection.   While Overdrive has excellent training sessions on this, some of it doesn’t make complete sense until you actually are done and utilize the site, because once you use it, you see the reasons for some of the collection development decisions.  I think Overdrive could develop graphic materials (like charts that map your choices) that would make this more clear in guiding the initial collection development.   Initially, your Overdrive subscription gives you a set amount for purchasing books, but you can add individual titles over that amount.  So when you are purchasing, it generates a p.o. that “subtracts” your purchases from the already paid amount.  That makes purchasing quick as books can be added within 24 hours in the system.   Their Content Reserve site is easy enough, but it is pretty slow in terms of searching, and the speed of it needs to be improved.
a.  Book collection–  The device your students will be using matters.  In our case, students would mostly be using iPads.  Books come in different formats;  some are ONLY offered in Kindle editions, and some are offered in both Kindle and ePub formats.   Using the Kindle format is more cumbersome on the iPad because students have to take the further step of logging into Amazon after searching your library in order to actually download the book.  Also, Amazon keeps track of their check-outs, which is a privacy issue for libraries.   And if the book only comes in Kindle format, it prevents a large segment of your students from using those books if they have Nooks or other devices.   So I steered towards items that came in both formats, Kindle and ePub.
(But this was only something I realized after getting the collection going, so that’s one thing I wish I had paid more attention to, as I did end up with some Kindle only books).  Also, on the patron side, I think Overdrive still needs to work a little on the way the books are displayed on your library site, so that it is clear what format students are selecting because that appears in the “fine print” so to speak.
b.  Audiobook collection — Similarly, audiobooks come in two formats; WMA and MP3.  Audiobooks in WMA format obviously won’t play on i-Devices, so for our purposes, MP3 audiobooks make more sense.   Again, an element that didn’t register with me when I was purchasing the first few audiobooks, so I ended up with a couple of WMA only format audiobooks.

4.  Setting up patrons and check-out periods –
This process is relatively simple.  Overdrive can help you upload your student id numbers or account information, depending on what library software you use.  We have Follett Destiny, so we had to extract a file of student IDS and upload them to Overdrive.  Students aren’t identified in the system by name, only by their ID number in that case.  (This process seemed fairly easy but one of our IT staff actually did this step for us).

5. Going Live and Training
At that point you are ready to go “live” after completing a staff webinar training with Overdrive.  Overdrive does include a lot of training tutorials for students that are divided into short easy segments.   Of course, it’s important to demonstrate it to students as well, particularly in our 1:1 environment since all of us would be using the same device.  Publicity is key, and can tie into your public library offerings if they have Overdrive as well (which many of them do, but judging from the response of our students, it’s not something students are aware of.)  The implementation in a multi-device environment is of course much more challenging, so tutorials are very helpful.   And coincidentally, when I was visiting classes to introduce Overdrive (as well as our other e-book services), I discovered that one of our students actually created all the training videos for our local community library!  Check out her materials here.  Because there are so many formats, having tools like this for students is helpful.

 

The marketing of library e-books is still a “work in progress.”  This morning Joyce Valenza shared an interesting article from the Washington Post, “As Demand for E-books soars, Libraries struggle to fill their Digital Shelves” which is an excellent summary of the issues facing libraries when implementing Overdrive and other e-book solutions.  Often there won’t be enough titles to go around, since it’s cost prohibitive.

But as we all know, this is a rapidly evolving market.  Publishers are trying to figure out how to wrangle the electronic book market, (as music companies did a decade ago), librarians are trying to figure out how their services can be a choice in the offerings, salespeople are trying to market all sorts of solutions to librarians, and it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.  It’s critically important that librarians make their voices heard in this debate.  Vendors need to hear what we want, publishers need to hear from us as well (as they have been when Random House limited the number of check-outs of their e-books), and salespeople need to carry that message back from us to their companies.

For a further overview of all sorts of e-book offerings and issues, check out the new ALA title No Shelf Required 2 (Ala 2011) which collects essays by librarians across all service levels(myself included, I have to admit)  in discussions of e-books and issues surrounding them, along with specific examples of implementations.   (It does come in e-book format as well as print).  This isn’t a “sales” pitch ;) as I have found the other essays extremely informed and helpful in understanding this market in terms of school, public, and academic library issues.

Now that we’ve implemented Overdrive, I’ll be following up later on how it’s being received by our students and how it dovetails with our iPad rollout overall.  But one thing is clear, though this model works pretty well, the entire market has a long evolution to go before it standardizes.  And the inconsistencies across services are creating headaches for libraries around the country until things do standardize more.

 

 

 

 

Tags:·

Anatomy of an iPad implementation

January 15th, 2012 · 1 Comment · Web 2.0

One-to-one technology implementations often receive bad press in the media.  So it’s been fascinating to be part of a 1:1 iPad implementation at my own school and observe and participate in the process first hand and see the impacts.

My recent article in Internet @ Schools summarizes some of my observations.  But I will add that what has transformed is how we work — how students work and learn, how teachers work and learn.   And I do think there is something different about using a tablet like the iPad versus a laptop.  Maybe it’s because a laptop is a device they’re familiar with, but using a different sort of technology forces some creative problem solving, or maybe it’s because a tablet becomes a camera, notebook, video camera, writing device, textbook, all in one..  Another shift is that the lack of wireless printers at our campus has also really forced a more paperless climate on us, and teachers and students have become savvy at exchanging documents paperlessly.

As I mentioned in the article, I think the most transformative part of the process is how the newness of the device created a climate where all of us were learning together — that created a more democratic learning process for our campus because everyone was thrust into the position of “learner.”  It was like starting a new school in that sense.

We have work to do and hurdles to deal with, but it will continue to be a collaborative learning process, and that’s the shift that has been most significant.

 

Tags:···

“You’re my fireworks”, i.e. the Edublog Awards

December 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · Web 2.0

Every  year, participating in the Edublogs Awards is a “time-out” for me to seriously consider sites or online conferences that are influencing my thinking, are influential in our field, are inspiring my own ideas, or are blogs I wish I read more because of their quality.    As always, it reminds me of the depth and breadth of quality blogs that exist, written by colleagues around the world who are serious about their thinking and contributions back to their field.   So these are my “fireworks”–and thanks for the inspiration!

Best individual blog– Wow, this is a toughie for me.  So many blogs where educators are pouring their hearts into their work and reflecting their dedication to their students or their profession.   But I’d like to honor my colleague, Carl Hooker’s blog, Hooked on Innovation, for the way his blog has grown, and  his creative writing style and clever use of visuals.

Best individual tweeter–@shareski    Dean Shareski uses Twitter to share pride in his students and solicit assistance on their behalf, but also he’s willing to be real, to share pithy observations on daily life, to ask for help and to shoot the breeze.  The perfect blend, just  like the perfect donut  with a great cup of coffee and some good meaty conversation.

Best group blog–In the Library With a Lead Pipe
A thoughtful group blog that deeply explores issues of concerns to librarians of all stripes.   For example, check out this post–Occupy Librarianship:  5 Variations on a Theme

Best new blog — Virtual Dave: Real Blog
Dave Lankes’ blog (or vlog) pushes our thinking about libraries with his “traveling road show” video series that helps us explore what new librarianship is all about.

Best student blog– Lakin’s Blog
Lakin is a new blogger whose creative story writing moved me, and I want to recognize and encourage it.  Keep at it, Lakin!
Best ed tech / resource sharing blog Free Techology for Teachers
Of course.  Best resource sharing site around.

Most influential blog post — Expeditions
This video blog by David Lankes on the libraries as community has influenced my thinking about libraries all fall.   Well worth reading/viewing.

Best twitter hashtag–#txlege
As educators kept a close eye on the proceedings of the Texas legislature this spring, this hashtag became an essential way of keeping up with budget cuts to education and keeping educators informed.

(My runner up is #mbteamS
Where else could a group of educators be tweeted on to winning two brand new Mercedes but Twitter using the power of their social networks?)

Best librarian / library blog — Unquiet Librarian
Buffy Hamilton’s blog is a must-read for in depth, reflective thinking on the library profession.

Best School Administrator blog–Burlington High School Principal’s blog
Great example of how an administrator can blend blogging about their own school with blogging about what inspires them at the same time.

Best free web tool–TodaysMeet.com
Today’s Meet is an easy to use backchannel or collaboration tool that takes two minutes to set up; very user friendly.  This is a tough category though.  I also want to mention Scoop.it or Livebinder or Simplemeet.Me as well–all helpful, easy to use tools.

(closely related is best app–another category which I think is needed)

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast — The Blackline Mystery (K12 Online Conference Session)
Jess McCulloch’s wildly creative use of video and audio at the K12 Online conference is a must-watch for its sheer freshness and creativity.

Best educational wiki– Joyce Valenza Springfield Township Virtual Library
simply the best “go-to” resource for tools, copyright free resources, research and more

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series   Global Education Conference (organizers Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon)
a insanely ambitious global conference that showcased educators from around the world beautifully.

Best use of a social network– Teacher Librarian Virtual Cafe
What if a group of library geeks got together and created a virtual space for their own professional development?  That’s what the Virtual Cafe is–a generous group of sharing individuals who have built a community.  (spearheaded by the indomitable Daring Librarian among others.)

Lifetime achievement -  Will Richardson.  Whose ideas I always pay attention to even if I’m not reading blogs sometimes.

I’d like to propose two more category–

1. Best use of Facebook posts.(or Google +)
My nominee is Gary Stager.  Always interesting mix of education posts, jazz music, travel, and pop culture.

Second runner up–Buffy Hamilton.  By sharing  blog posts and interesting articles she mines on Twitter,  she keeps me informed.

2.  Interesting posts on school design
My nominee would be David Jakes, for his interesting ponderings on re-envisioning school spaces.   As we move forward in our conversations, school design is a critical piece of school change that should be recognized.

Lastly, Katy Perry sings about the inspiration that lives in all of us, about realizing that what we do counts.   So this is a shout out to all those of you who write, podcast, video blog, tweet, and share your passion about education.   It matters.  And baby, you’re my fireworks.  Thank you.

 

 

Tags:

“Thinking made visual”

December 1st, 2011 · No Comments · Design, Play

“Design is thinking made visual.“  — Saul Bass

This quote cuts to the heart of what good design shows–when everything in a space just “clicks” and feels comfortable, it’s really because the design is just reflecting the philosophies and beliefs behind it clearly.

How do we get to that point when redesigning educational spaces?

Most importantly we get there by knowing, as the participants at the recent Reimagine:Ed conference discussed, how people learn.  And in a library, it’s about understanding how people learn in a space like a library, specifically, and how the space can support the learning of students and teachers better.

One thing that the Reimagine:Ed conference organizers  did was collect video interviews of students answering some questions about how they learn, what types of environments make them feel comfortable, how they work, etc.   We taped a few interviews from our students here and it was fascinating to hear them reflecting on their own learning environments.  If you are designing a space, this might be a great way to gather feedback from students and teachers alike about how they learn.

We also have to question things and see what might commonly be overlooked.  We have to re-see, re-envision.  David Jakes evokes this wonderfully, exploring how we can rethink hallways as  usable learning spaces in schools.

Since designing our own library, in my wanderings, I try to notice places and pieces with good design that reflects the principles that I held important when designing our own library:  transparency, playfulness, creativity, comfort, light, collaboration.

Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has it right when he reminds us  about borrowing ideas from everywhere for good  design:

So, here’s a few more pieces I’ve collected lately that reflect the philosophies that our students and staff have shared with me about our library space.  (And reflect my own design aesthetic as well, I must admit).

 

 

Playful light fixture from Ikea

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another playful light fixture, also from Ikea–sort of an interesting play on literacy and reading.   It’s also transparent, which fits the theme of our library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a menu stand at Galaxy Cafe, an Austin restaurant.  The menus are hard laminated cards, and are well designed.  That gave me the idea to make cards like this for our library services, bringing in modern graphics and making our services more visible and easy to follow for students.

 

These signs at the University of Michigan are a clever way to promote the “faces” of the library.   They have several different series of signage similar to these, which inspired me to create something similar for our hallways.

 

 

 

 

This chalkboard at Galaxy Cafe advertises their new “specials.”  It inspired me to buy this chalkboard easel at IKEA so we could do the same.   We have many students who love to write decorated signage for us, so it allows us to invite them into the process of publicizing new books or other events.

 

 

 

After getting the idea at Galaxy Cafe, I stumbled over this nice and inexpensive combination whiteboard/chalkboard easel in the children’s department of Ikea.  It’s already being put to use in our library.  (and our students like to do the lettering on it, so it becomes quite collaborative.)

 

 

 

Inspiration can come from everywhere–for example,  I noticed that the meeting rooms at the University of Michigan Law school are called “Ponds” and loved that idea.  What a great name for a learning space! (although the signage itself could have certainly been more appealing to the eye!)

To see details like these we just have to look around us with a mindful eye–we have to become like children just learning to read, and see our environment for all its details and take the time to really see.  We have to be willing to be playful and curious.

For more inspiration, check out these  beautifully decorated design quotations.   Then take a camera, and go play.

Tags:·

Expanding the notion of backchanneling

November 14th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Web 2.0

At Tech Forum Austin, Paul Wood (Bishop Dunne Catholic School) and I presented “Tapping into the Backchannel”–a session on the variety of ways that backchannels can be used both professionally and in the classroom setting.

We spoke specifically about how backchannels can be used by educators as:

  • 1)learners
  • 2)information gatherers
  • 3)presenters (including speakers, principals, board members, etc–any sort of meeting)
  • 4) in classroom settings

As learners, tools like Twitter can be invaluable ways to tap into professional development workshops that we could never attend, and become aware of conferences that may have escaped our notice.   We can even participate in the conference from afar, ask questions, discuss the merits of ideas presented, etc.

As information gatherers, even the news media has picked up on the ability of twitter to report the news instantaneously.   This means that Twitter can be an invaluable tool for gaining first hand knowledge of an event.   Earthquakes,  government upheavals, drastic weather events–all are easily researched on Twitter.  It’s the new “primary source” and as educators, it should be included in our arsenal of information gathering tools.

As presenters, wherever we are speaking, we almost have to presume now that what we say is being backchanneled.  Cliff Atkinson, the author of Backchanneling, suggests that consequently as presenters, teachers, etc. that we need to be sure that our presentations are tightly focused, but that it is important to make an effort to interact with, embrace, and invite in the backchannel as a way of connecting with and engaging with the audience.  So if you are a school board member or superintendent, you should be sure that your meeting is probably being written about on some backchannel or another, so why not announce a hashtag for the meeting(one that you could look back at later?)  With our school conducting a 1:1 iPad initiative for teachers, it occurred to me the many ways that administrators could incorporate backchanneling into local workshops and faculty meetings and create a more interactive dynamic in the meeting.

For example, a principal could have a hashtag for the faculty meeting, where teachers could tweet their questions, or if she wanted to keep the discussion internal, set up a chat room on many of the available tools like TodaysMeet, Simplemeet.me or Chatzy, so that she could review the questions or comments later.  With a faculty at a large high school, this could be helpful way of moving the discussion along in workshops or at meetings.

Of course, backchanneling can be so effectively used in the classroom or library to help a large group be more actively engaged in the discussion at hand. Many of the tools we talked about in the workshop (see Prezi below) also lend themselves well to use in library settings, like backchanneling student research presentations, or inviting guest speakers in for students can interact with and also talk to via a backchannel like Skype, or a chat tool.

In the classroom, using a chat or backchannel can really help students focus on and engage more with a film, with a panel discussion, with an inner/outer circle discussion, or a teacher led discussion, or even small group assignments.   This isn’t “new stuff” but more and more tools are becoming available to us to use in these settings (check out our Livebinder to see some of the newer ones available.)

For our session we used SimpleMeet.me  which worked very effectively, and can be used on the iPad (which many of the others can’t.  The only issue with SimpleMeet on the iPad was that if the participants switch out of the chat to do something else, and come back to it, it starts the chat over.  But that’s hopefully a way to keep students more on task ;) )

While our session was just an introduction for administrators to the possibilities of backchanneling, check out our Prezi and Livebinder for some new tools and interesting video examples of backchanneling at work.

Tapping into the Backchannel on Prezi

Tags:······

If you had just one word…

November 8th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Web 2.0

Sometimes, as they say, less is more.

We often ask students to expound upon their ideas, add more details to their writing, or explain further. But it’s equally a skill for them to be able to crystallize an idea into one word or image, and it’s an exercise that can challenge them to really think about their concept.

During his inservice presentation at our school last week, that’s just what Dean Shareski asked a group of our teachers to do.

After some small group discussion revolving around the idea of “learning”, we used compfight.com to locate a Creative Commons photograph that represented a word or concept that encapsulated what learning meant to us, and then used the Fotolr Studio HD app to import the photograph, add the word, and select the font and size and arrangement to create a dynamic visual.  The teachers emailed the images so we could collect them into one slide show.  And then each teacher had twenty seconds “Pecha Kucha” style to give a rapid fire explanation of their slide’s meaning.

Below are some of the slides created by our staff representing what learning is to them, collected into an Animoto. Interestingly, without the specific teachers’ explanations, each slide has to now stand on its own.  But also, by combining all the slides together, a new reflection also emerges about how we define learning collectively.

Learning is….

Tags:·