Not So Distant Future

Ok, this is what I feel like after the first week back from spring break.  Anyone else?

The vision committee I’m a part of just shared a presentation with our faculty based on our site visits to California, about the ideas we’re bringing back to our campus.

It brought back to me the excitement of the trip, the excitement of feeling like a education professional, and the excitement of believing that so many of us on our campus have so many untapped passions and abilities.   At the end of the presentation, we ask:

I have to admit, and this isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this, that the one thing I am over-the-top excited about is thinking about opportunities for cross-curricular connections that would take our curriculum to a new level and engage students in a whole new way where ideas relate to one another, not just in one great class, but all day long.   I believe the library can play a large role in that, and I also feel it’s the way we all learn in “real” life.

I don’t exactly know what I am envisioning or looking for in terms of “school” yet, but I know what it feels like–it feels dynamic, it feels like there is a “buzz” when you walk in the door of the school because something exciting is happening there,  it feels like students and teachers alike are enthused to be there, it feels like people listen to and support one another, it feels like we work as a team.

I’ve always thought it would be exciting to work at a dotcom company–maybe it used to be my secret ambition, and I think the reason was that “buzz” and excitement that you sense in those environments….you can feel the innovation oozing from the walls and in the corridors.

   And I’d also like the library to have that “buzz”–(which some days it does)–of students and teachers in an innovative physical space, working together, talking, reading, creating, and sharing their excitement about learning.  

I see the infusion of technology as a big part of that for our students, because it is a natural part of their lives, and feeling innovative is exciting to them, and excitement creates enthusiasm for learning.

So what I come to work every day for is that enthusiasm for learning–I see my job as trying to support that in the classroom as much as I can.  

    I also want teachers to use the library as “their” space and not see it as “my space,” (pardon the pun), and to see it as a real resource for learning, reading, meeting, conferencing, etc.  I want our new facility design and policies to reflect that.

That’s my “vision.”   What’s yours?

As we move students into doing more projects online, using wikis or blogs or posting videos or images, Tim Stahmer at Assorted Stuff brings up some excellent points to consider about unintended audiences.  Students typically have a certain audience in mind when they create a project and post it online.

“However, what about the accidental audience, the people who didn’t know they were looking for our work but found it anyway?

…It’s important for students to realize they need to consider how the words and images they use will reflect on them.  And not just at the time of publication.  The web has a persistence and a randomness which means materials out of mind, may not be out of sight. “

He continues: 

“Rather than trying to scare students with visions of the latest Dateline tabloid piece, we could approach the subject of safety in part by talking to students about how to project a positive image to the world.”

I think the terms “unintended audience” or “accidental audience” are an excellent way to talk to students about work they do online, just in terms of increasing student awareness.   Stahmer goes on to write that most of the time people who stumble across your work online are very positive and want to share new ideas with you, but that students need to be aware of a much broader audience, because that’s not always the case.

Dee Martin, who writes the blog Thoughts Have Wings, picked up on the conversation and offers some very helpful questions  we can ask students to consider when they put content online.

To me the point of all this isn’t the “fear factor” promoted by the media, but getting students to think about the content they put out in the world in a more mature way.  One of the advantages of the web 2.0 tools is that we can broaden students’ sense of audience in a much more authentic way, and they get it, because most of them are online daily.

And we can talk to them about  the professional and life skill of how they present themselves in the world, again in a much more authentic way. 

Any questions you would add to the list?  comments?

Maybe because I’m working on the new plans for the library, as well as rereading Daniel Pink’s book Whole New Mind, plus having recently visited High Tech High, I’ve been obsessing a little bit lately over the idea of the role of design and creativity in schools, and pondering about what we could do better.

 design as ’shrimp sushi’

Not just design in the sense of a building, but in the sense of how we could teach elements of better design for student projects, and create more cross curricular opportunities for using art/music/design, etc., that would tap into the talents of so many of our students.  I’m just starting to think about all this as a way to bring information use, technology, and creativity together in classrooms and the library and using technology in a more “transformative” way(which Ian Jukes talks about).

(We do have a few projects like the Vietnam Wall photostories our English 3AP classes did earlier this year, where we talked to students about the visual design and music and how it should integrate into the feel of the project.)  But I’m wondering what other connections we can make to make students more aware of design elements across the curriculum?

I’ve also been thinking about how to apply these design and creativity ideas to a library because when you enter a space that is well designed and innovative, it seems like it creates such a positive energy in general.

Related to all this, I ran across a fascinating short talk(15 min.)about creativity and education from Sir Ken Robinson, and posted it on the Vision committee blog.   If you have a few minutes, I’d highly recommend it.

photo credit: (I went to flickr.com looking for photos to illustrate my post and ran across the clever sushi illustration by Japanese designer Kenya Hara, referenced here:  http://iridesco.com/onetwo/2007/03/04/design-of-design/  and http://www.flickr.com/photos/phluke/409555446/ )

What am I doing writing about the SXSW Interactive, Film, and Music Festival on a blog about libraries and education?  (Well, first off, because we won FREE wristbands to attend the SXSW music festival–thanks KGSR!)   But also, as I’ve been using the SXSW website and reading articles about it, it’s fascinating to see how technology is woven into the fabric of how communication happens at the conference.

And I bring this up here because our students and recently graduated students from around the world attend this event, and I want to know more about the tools they are using in their “outside” life.  

This year, for example,  SXSW sold the wristbands via a text message system that sent a message to phones the day tickets were to be sold with a time and location of the wristband sales.

   The SXSW website provides a new cell phone service– SXSW mobi  as a “new adventure in mobile content delivery”which allows you to subscribe with a smartphone and get text updates of schedules, venues, who’s attending and more.  The site includes a free mp3 song from each band who played that can be downloaded to a cell phone or computer (here’s one for the band we saw–Harris Tweed from South Africa).

  Another interesting and cool tool that I had seen before (on principal Tim Lauer’s blog) ,  but hadn’t quite figured out is Twitter, which allows you to post very brief updates to what you are doing at any given minute, like “reading a book 7:05,  drinking coffee 7:10.”  I hadn’t quite figured out the implications or use of it other than flooding the web with even more information.

But after seeing how SXSW is using it, I can see why it would be useful (and especially to our more wired students).    Twitter works online, or through im, or through text messaging on your cell phone.  You can “subscribe” to a friend’s update (which can be sent to your phone) so for something like SXSW, it becomes a handy tool for meeting up with people or finding where your friends are.)

Elsewhere on the SXSW site  you can hear podcasts, see video of panel discussions, see movie trailers for the film festival,  or subscribe to email alerts for particular aspects of the conference.   (And yes, it seems like an almost overwhelming amount of information–maybe that is something to have a conversation with our students about.)

The point is–this conference, which is a big part of our city’s culture, is fully “wired” and also global.  (Last night we saw bands from L.A., Liverpool and Johannesburg.) 

I don’t have to be able to use all these tools myself, but it’s good to have an understanding of what kinds of tools our students are using “outside” the school walls.    And being aware of all these options may help us find innovative uses for these tools and help us bring the “outside” world into our classrooms.

Will Richardson has been struggling  quite a bit lately about how to bring about changes in education that better reflect the sort of connected world that our students are growing up in.

Then yesterday, he got an email from Senator Lamarr Alexander’s office asking him (as a blogger) to join a conference call today about the America COMPETES Act, which has been cosponsored by several senators on both sides of the aisle.   So before the call, Will is seeking input from educators about the Act, which provides funding for national math and science initiatives, support for teacher training at various federal agencies, additional state monies,  and increased support for AP and IB programs,  etc.

Swing by Will’s blog and leave your comments.  (He has links to explanations of the Act there as well if you want to read more before commenting).

Today is the first official day of Spring Break for most Texas schools, and thankfully, the weather will actually be spring-like also!

Most of us are long overdue for a mental break!  I’m looking forward to time to read, reflect, and mainly just rejuvenate.

  It’s enjoyable just to be in Austin for the break–SXSW started last night, which is our huge music, film, and interactive technology festival and it creates this incredible sense of energy here.  Independent films are showing all over town and later in the week the music festival starts.  My insider tip with the films is to go to the earlier shows–the serious attendees usually sleep in, and so there are seats available at the earlier showings, even without a film pass to the festival.  Once the music festival starts, there are always lots of free “preview” shows at Waterloo records and different venues around town also.

As much as I like what I do, sometimes you need the time to slow down and reflect, let your thoughts mill around, re-connect with your “non-work” life, and get the creative juices flowing again.   I’m looking forward to that.

Update 3/11:  We went to see our first SXSW movie of the week today–Silver Jew(which is the name of an renowned but somewhat reclusive indie music group).  The film is about their first music tour, which took them to Jerusalem.   The filmmakers were there for questions after the film, and commented how amazing it was that they were able to take their camera into the historic parts of the city without any difficulty. 

Rereading the Blog of Proximal Development that Will Richardson recommended and visiting other high schools has stirred up thoughts for me about how compartmentalized both high schools and many colleges are in terms of curriculum.

   As I said previously, one of the things that excited me the most during our site visits last week was seeing some interdisciplinary connections, because I think they reflect more accurately how we really learn.   While we all need the fundamental background in order to even know how to pursue an interest, we also cross over lines of the curriculum when we begin to research something.

In his post on his Blog of Proximal Development, Konrad Glogowski pointed out:

We need to give our students the freedom to learn and engage with ideas that they find relevant and important. I think it begins with stepping out of what Will today referred to as the “Comfort Zone of Content.” It begins, it seems to me, when the teacher becomes a learner and replaces the static curriculum documents with inquiry, conversation, knowledge-building, and personal networks.

As a librarian, the library(hopefully) is an optimal environment to see students doing that sort of inquiry and personal knowledge building, and to see the “lights go on” for many of them while they are pursuing their interests.

But my question is–how can we broaden the use of research across our entire curriculum, so that students see research as an integral part of the field of history or science or math, etc.?   Careers in almost every core subject are defined by constant learning and research and change, and research isn’t separated out into a “unit” but is part and parcel of how people in these fields work. 

The internet has created an environment where following up on information becomes a more spontaneous process.   But do we even have enough computers in each classroom to really allow students to get online and in the moment, find what they are curious about?

The other integrative aspect of making research opportunities a natural part of the curriculum is that it crosses over curricular lines and classroom walls–students may begin pursuing an interest in science and invariably end up crossing into math or possibly art or history.   Students may begin studying a novel, as we often do here, and end up crossing over into history and art.   The connections are real and waiting to be discovered.

So, my question of the day is–how do we already embed research into our curriculum, and are there courses and places where we can do a better job at making inquiry and personal ”knowledge building”  a living and breathing part of how we teach our courses?  And how can I better support that across the school?  What tools do we need to help with this?

    A couple of the schools we visited on our site visits last week impressed me with their international “feel,” and I’ve been thinking about how we can bring more international connections into our curriculum here (both in the library and in general).  

So I was pleased to rediscover the Newseum (a news museum that will open in the fall in D.C.) which has a handy tool on their site–a daily display of 576 newspaper front pages.   (This site has been around for awhile, but they have updated it with new features.) 

You can find the papers you want from a list, a map view, or a pull down list of regions.  There are national as well as many international newspaper front pages, so it’s useful for government, foreign language, history, etc.

If you select the “analysis” button, you’ll also find daily analysis and comparisons of the front pages of about 10 major newspapers.  They also have a “today in history” feature about a news story from the past.  It’s a nifty tool for bringing international content into your classroom.

As I sift through my thoughts from the site visits this past week, the theme that keeps recurring to me is the different ways the schools we visited supported either their teachers or their students, or both.

Every school we visited had a non-traditional schedule, including our last site, Mt. Carmel, which I haven’t had time to write about.  This provided for both tutorial time for students within the school day as well as teacher staff development time within the school day.  

I really liked that model for a number of reasons.  As we try to build in more 21st century learning opportunities for our students and more technology as part of that, we all need time to work together on learning new web 2.0 tools and troubleshooting them as far as classroom use.  These alternative schedules provide for that.

Also, a couple of the schools we visited had more opportunities for cross curriculum connections, particularly High Tech High, which is built around that whole concept.  So by having more planning time, teachers are able to make that work across different disciplines.  As a librarian, perhaps because I work with teachers from across the school, I was really taken with the possibility for more cross curricular collaboration. 

At High Tech, students work with a humanities strand and a math/science strand, and the two teachers of those strands work together with the art teacher as students complete projects.

So for example, the students were building a plexiglass, interactive museum box with help from the engineering teacher on the building side and physics teacher on the concept side.   The boxes were designed by the art teacher to fit exactly into the window frames in the building, and he worked with them on the design of the box.   So all three teachers helped students complete the project.

Another project entailed students in physics explaining how something “worked.”  They then designed an art print in concert with the art teacher, using good design principles to demonstrate their understanding, and those were displayed in the hallways.

The biotechnology teacher works with students each year on a project to design a field guide for the San Diego Bay(which is then sold on Amazon) and they worked with local experts as well as national figures like Jane Goodall. 

Again, web 2.0 tools, like chat, wikis, email, collaborative documents on Google Docs, Skype–these tools could allow us to collaborate easily across classrooms and class periods, but also with teachers and students in other schools or experts like Jane Goodall on projects like these.   And again, staff development time in the school schedule as well as a vision for what we want to do, really contributes to these ideas being successful.

Our schedule will afford us some of that flexibility next year, so I’m excited about the possibilities.   And perhaps we can use some of the contacts we’ve made at other schools to make some  cross-state connections as well.