Not So Distant Future

Kim Cofino twittered a link for her excellent presentations for the TeachIt! conference this morning, which reminded me that I hadn’t ever shared my presentation from the Internet Librarian session I did on Web 2.0 tools that librarians could share with their administrators.

So in the interest of sharing resources, here are my slides:

[slideshare id=144623&doc=il2007-1193251903222853-4&w=425]

Several administrators, including one of our own, as well as Patrick Higgins and Dennis Richards, sent greetings for the participants in VoiceThread to open the session.

Other things I shared which aren’t in the slides–

• The Podcasting principal’s two part podcast series on tools administrators could use effectively (this is so effective since it’s a principal speaking to principals)
• A still classic conversation among administrators about blogging from G-Town talks
• A pageflakes site I set up for our campus and administrators on 21st century learning
• link to CASTLE site for school leadership

Administrators often hold the “key” to resources–financial resources, filtering rules, student guidelines for web 2.0 use, etc.   By showing administrators how these tools can be used to make their campus more efficient, and to create better communication and transparency with the learning community, we can move the discussion forward.

Why do librarians have a role in that?  We want our students to be able to use the tools effectively, to be information literate.  Administrators don’t need to understand every tool’s capability, but for the school to have a supportive climate for thinking outside of the box and bringing innovative practices to the classroom, administrative support is a critical component.

Too often, we discover innovative tools, only to find them blocked or deemed not appropriate after the fact.  If we are “on the same page” with our administrative team about the possibilities and curricular uses of technology, then it smooths the way for using these tools.  

As a curricular leader, the librarian has a strong role in working with administrators both at the campus and district levels to share awareness of how these tools support instruction.   Sharing our successes, meeting with administrators to share new tools with them particularly related to library instruction, setting up sites for the administrator, inviting administrators to attend key conferences, and initiating meetings to better communicate about obstacles are all ways that librarians can work hand in hand with technology departments and administrators.

I also think another responsibility we have is to go to where administrators are: presenting at administrative conferences, writing articles for administrative periodicals, or posting on administrative blogs are all ways we can help further a deeper mutual understanding of our roles on a campus.

As I come away from Internet Librarian and try to pull together a thread running throughout the conference, I would say it is this:

Web 2.0 is here to stay, but we must be cognizant of our users, whether they are “library patrons” or students or teachers. This theme has been running around the blogs recently as well.

Sarah Palmer, a librarian at the American Bar Association, did an excellent presentation on suggestions for how to introduce users to web 2.0 tools. Since she works with attorneys, she pointed out the confusion that business professionals have about web 2.0 tools (I would say this is true of educators as well). They associate the tools with frivolous fun—like social networking becomes “MySpace” instead of a tool to help attorneys or educators find other colleagues and assistance for developing their own knowledge.

She comments that the often “jargony” terminology, RSS being a prime example, is a barrier for new or casual technology users as well, yet it is a tool that can be extremely powerful for those who need to keep up to date in their field.

Couple this with the fact that according to the Pew Internet survey that Lee Rainey shared in his session, as many as 25% of adults are mildly or not at all interested in technology use, and 50% are in the mild user category. So this begs the question, how do we address this as librarians/tech educators/teachers? Because the more serious users are younger, and eventually these numbers will change—so we want to be preparing our students, because 75% of teens are creating some sort of online content already.

One big draw for busy professionals is showing them how it increases their efficiency. But the tool has to be easy enough to use, so you have to start with something that is easy.

Another issue that Mary Ann Bell pointed out in her presentation on blogging is to be sure you show the safety as well as simplicity and value when introducing tools to educators.

In her presentation on digital literacies, Pam Berger talked about one of the biggest obstacles that we face in working with new technology users, what Marc Prensky identifies as “navigational literacy.” Many, not all, of our students have the ability to easily navigate technology, because they understand it’s “geography” so to speak. But for many of our teachers, it is truly like driving in a foreign country—they are on the wrong side of the road and it feels awkward and uncomfortable.

As we struggle with successful ways to bring these tools into our classrooms and libraries, and how to help teachers with them, we have to keep in mind these factors.
As David Warlick points out, we have to work with the students we have(and with our own navigational skills), both the K-12 students, but also the teacher-learners, so we need to address both groups of learners “where they live.”

  If you’re attending Internet Schools West and visiting my blog for the first time, welcome!

To find pages on web 2.0 tools or the link to my conference notes, check out the wiki page.

My presentation slides can be found on Google presentations.    If you’re interested in using VoiceThread in the library, here’s an example on databases versus google.  And here’s an example of using TeacherTube and digital video to convey a lesson on the authority of sources to students.  

Or here’s an interview we did with our own teachers about staff development if you are looking for something to share with your administrator about the value of using digital video.

Thanks for coming to the session!

Image:  Point Lobos State Park, California;  Internet Schools West 2007

My plan this evening was to write a beautifully coherent post about many of the websites, tools, and strategies that I’ve heard about at Internet Schools West the last two days.   But just as I was starting to write, there was an earthquake here in Monterey, so I had to leave the room and sit downstairs for awhile. 

So…it’s a couple of hours later, and all is now calm, but to distract myself, I’m going to post some websites that I learned about today, in no certain order.  (I’m not even going to go into the fact that I was logged onto twitter, and that’s how I left a message for my husband that there had been an earthquake, because A  T & T phones went down here for bit, nor that others on Twitter from elsewhere in California were quickly exchanging information, while the local tv channel here kept on showing Charlie Brown.)

So now that I haven’t mentioned all that, onto the web tour–

Similar to the School Library 2.0, the California School Library association now has a self-guided web tour for teachers, to be explored over several weeks, at their Classroom Learning 2.0 site.  A great way to get teachers started with web 2.0.

Podscope allows you to search podcasts by the words spoken in them.

Gaggle has free email accounts for students that teachers can supervise.

From Gary Price, who writes Resource Shelf–

Reuters uses metacarta to map news headlines.

For free online books, he suggests you check out the Online Books Page.

For an incredible number of news feeds from around the world, check out NewsNow.  Click on “regions” on the toolbar to the left to get news feeds from international sources.

Newspaper Archive will give free accounts to teachers for back issues of newspapers going back at least 100 years.

And finally, to make podcasting even easier for your users, phonecasting allows you to submit a url of a podcast, and it gives you a phone number to put on your website.  When users dial the number, they automatically hear the podcast!  If you are trying to get teachers interested in listening to podcasts, there are many already posted, that you can just dial in and listen to.

Another interesting thread during the conference which I would like to explore was about remembering our customers.   Lee Rainey reminded us that only 8% of technology users (according to the Pew Internet Survey) are what he calls “omnivores.”   And up to 50% of users would rather not be using technology very much.   I’m going to explore this more later, but it is a good reminder to select tools and web applications that are going to be helpful, significant, and user friendly for your audience.

   Yesterday morning (since I woke up at 4 a.m.–still on CST, evidently), I walked down two blocks to the cove at Pacific Grove(near Monterey, California).   If you look closely at the photo you can see the seals balanced on the rocks here, scooting themselves onto the boulders in the cove, while the waves crash up against them.  They move slightly with the waves, but adjust themselves by lifting a fin, or raising their tail, and somehow manage to stay balanced on the rocks.  Meanwhile other seals frolic and play in the water nearby.

It struck me that these abilities–the ability to adapt and the ability to play– are qualities we need to nurture in education. We have to learn to be flexible–let the waves move among us, and adjust ourselves to find our balance moment by moment. But we do have to be able to adapt to changing tides, boulders that erode, and changing  patterns in the bay,  in order to adapt and prosper and to help our students adapt and prosper. 

And we can’t forget to have fun–fun with our students, fun with learning, and fun with tech tools that can bring vitality to a lesson or project.

Our closing session today ended with an interesting spontaneous dialogue with a network administrator, the workshop presenter(Dr. Mary Ann Bell), and other librarians, discussing how the different interest groups could really open a dialogue about internet filtering and web 2.0 use in schools. It really strikes me that we need systems in place that allow us to be like the seals–to be flexible, balanced, and yet prosper and be capable of adjusting to each wave that comes by.

Because–seals aren’t all identical, nor is every rock they perch on the same.  And the sea itself, the larger environment, is changeable.  Each wave that comes by is a little different–each year that passes is somewhat the same, yet brings new ecologies into play.

What are some ways we can encourage flexibility and play among our teachers, administrators, students, and systems, so that we, like the seals, can balance in our oceans?

I was planning to live blog the IL Schools West conference, but unfortunately the one room we are meeting in doesn’t have internet access because we’re not in the conference center, so, I’m taking a quick fire minute break to post an update!

I feel like my limbs are missing since I haven’t been able to blog anything, check email or twitter all day long–I realize how entertwined my work has gotten with my online network!

One of the most interesting sessions I saw today was Aaron Schmidt’s on gaming in the library.  His presentation was clever–he showed images of different video game characters to test our visual literacy(what score would our students make compared to us?) and challenged us to think of the ways that video games help students with skills of reading, collaborating, team building, planning, etc.

I’ll be posting more about that later!

Also I learned of a new Classroom 2.0 self-training site that I’m hoping to share when I get back.  It’s similar to the Library 2.0 program from the California School Library Association, but for teachers.

More later, as I am getting ready to head back into the conference room to hear Mary Bell talk about blogging.   Here’s Mary with her library action figure in the audience from my presentation earlier, which was about web 2.0 tools that librarians can share with their administrators(available on my wiki sidebar)!

   Little does she know we have the action figure on our front desk as well! 

Something about being in a different place, or maybe a place so rich with literary history, makes you realize that learning isn’t just something that can go on in school, but all around you.

The Monterey area is like an outdoor learning laboratory–you hear sea lions barking at night or can watch them from the wharf, you can explore tide pools or watch sea otters swimming off shore–or you can look out and see farms much like John Steinbeck must have seen 75 years ago.

Being away from familiar sites makes me realize how much the world around our students wherever we live is a learning laboratory.   There is much potential for us  to expand our thinking about what school “looks like.”

On the plane, I watched Brian Crosby’s K12 Online presentation video on “obstacles to opportunities” which was awe-inspiring.  I think what I found so moving about it was the way he has expanded the world for his students and what opportunities they will now believe are open to them as a result of his teaching.

I’ll be sharing ideas from the Internet Librarian conference this week that we can use to open up our schools and libraries so that they can become  global laboratories for our students.   (Edublogs is having some difficulties by the way, so if my blog becomes unavailable during the conference for any length of time, you can follow me on technolibrary.tumblr.com, which is a scrapbooking site where I’ll share my thoughts.)

In this “must read” post, Joyce Valenza challenges librarians to climb on the front of the wagon-train and be leaders of this new educational expedition.  But I believe her challenge applies to all educators as well.

Thanks to SC Morgan from Twitter for the tip!

(The only comment I’m not sure I agree with is that the outside world isn’t reading our blogs, because I do think they are!)

But I think that clearly, change is something we must embrace, support, and investigate.  Maybe we can’t keep up with everything–but we can try, each in our own way, to be open to what’s coming down the road, and when we find something new that seems worthwhile, say “Yes, let’s see what that can do for us!”

I’m heading to the Internet Librarian conference this weekend, which for me is always a mind-bending experience– to see so many librarians embracing the technology in their workplace, stretching it, testing it, and finding new ways that it can support our program is really invigorating.

I’ll be sharing what I see “coming down the pike” from the conference.  See you there!

p.s. The link is fixed now!

 InfoToday, who hosts the Internet Librarian conferences, has posted a list of bloggers attending this year’s Internet Librarian West at the end of October; while this is a small conference, it is a powerhouse collection of librarian technologists.    

This is a  great list of bloggers to get a preview of what’s going on in libraries and technology today, ranging from public, to school, to academic libraries; I feel honored to be on the same list!   By the way, the technorati and flickr tags are il2007 or ISW2007 if you want to follow along, and the conference wiki is here.