Not So Distant Future

    If you’re a fan of the Office, you may have gotten a good laugh out of Jim’s “Facebook” Halloween costume in this week’s episode.  There’s something refreshing about applying a sense of levity to discussions about using Facebook in schools.  Not that there are not serious considerations about the issue, but sometimes we need to step back and take a different view.

Coincidentally, today I ran across this excellent resource for 100 ways to use Facebook  in the classroom thanks to a link from Stephen Abram.  It includes ways to use it safely and wisely, a great list of apps for Facebook use for students, ways for educators to network on Facebook, and advantages to using it with students.  While the article is directed at college level educators, many of these tips would apply to use in secondary schools also!

Maybe it is time we join ‘book face’, think outside of the box,  and have a different type of conversation about how to use Facebook in the classroom.   Our campus is getting ready to do a pilot to have Facebook available to some teachers on our campus to initiate just such a conversation.  Piloting sites like this to troubleshoot the pitfalls and experiment with the successes is an excellent way to approach those “spooky” sites and to find solutions rather than just slamming the door on them.  We’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

photo: http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/

What does this photograph and this beach at Asilomar have to do with libraries, you might ask?  It’s from a place that I find irresistible.  Taken during a conference I find irresistible–a conference that keeps me coming back for more.

Ever since Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson wrote their intriguing article in School Library Journal, I’ve been pondering what the 21st century school library can or does look like.

In listening from afar in to the keynote address at Internet Librarian West (brilliantly entitled “Libraries of the Future: Places of Desire”) by NYPL librarian Paul Holdengraber  I heard him give the key answer to my question–that he wants libraries to be irresistible.

And that’s all you could want for a school library–for it to be irresistible to the students and teachers you have at your campus–whether that means read-alouds, book groups, online presence, twittering, facebooking, gaming events, a beautiful space, etc.–whatever the means, the end goal is making the library an irresistible learning hub.

And it’s not just because that will help us be more viable, or help us “survive” budget cuts–or any of those fear-based things.  It’s because it’s what we are here for.  We’re here to offer services in the best way we can that invite our customers/students in and engage them in learning and creating.

Rereading Chris Brogan’s much commented upon post about services public libraries offer, he pushes the envelope for public library services, like offering geotagging of sites outside the library, for example.  Many readers chimed in with their ideas, praise, kudos, or wishes for their libraries.

At Internet Librarian West today, I followed tweets discussing ways to take libraries mobile.  I wondered afterwards why our vendors couldn’t design  iphone apps for our services that we could offer to students.  I heard David Lee King talk about using meebo chat or other tools for instant communication with customers(and on the spot, I decided to set up my own library twitter account so I could be “tweeted” questions, though I don’t know how many students are really on twitter yet.)

While I love trying these tools, I wonder how many of these services would get used by high school students–?  And I think the answer is, it depends.  It depends on what we build in terms of relationship with our students–how “living” a presence our library sites are for our students, and how well we promote what we do/offer.  Marketing is a big part of our role.

Some teachers I talk with are reluctant to share online because they feel that perhaps they are ‘tooting their own horn.”  But coming from a library perspective, I tend to think of it more as marketing.  We are marketing to our customers, who are students and teachers in our building and beyond our building.  We are not only marketing our own services but the idea that libraries are helpful places with helpful and creative people.

We always need to be mindful the core idea of making our very space/staff/services ‘irresistible’ to our users, whatever tools we use to do so.  We need to know our students and what “floats their boat” so to speak. (And we need to know the same about our teachers–how to reach them, and what “floats their boats” as well.)

As Bodanger asked in his keynote, ‘What if  librarians thought their role was to oxygenate the library?’  That, to me, is the evolution of the 21st century library–an oxygenated library.  And one that, like that beach in my photograph, keeps our students coming back.

In the last few days I’ve been following the simmering discussions that spun off of work by Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson, eminent librarians and leaders in our field, about the issue of 21st century librarians and what responsibility we all have to embrace new technologies.

It’s been fascinating reading the excellent blog discussions that have ensued, and reading subsequent blog posts by Joyce, Buffy Hamilton and Doug Johnson, among others.

But still what resonates most with me is Doug Johnson’s question–”How can we give a voice to those who choose not to network?”   (I would perhaps take issue with the word “choose” because I do think it’s possible for someone to be somewhat unaware of all these online networks of librarians–remember that in our profession we encompass a variety of librarians–from those in tiny rural schools to those not certified and struggling to run a library program, etc.)

It’s not that I disagree that as librarians we need to be leaders, innovators, and models for our teachers–I believe we do.  Buffy makes an excellent case for that in her incredibly articulate blog post.    But like Beth, whose comment to Doug’s post led to some of this lively discussion, I wonder what we are doing to mentor other librarians, and like Beth, I worry that we are driving people out of the conversation–it is very easy to become insular, self-referential, and overly steeped in 2.0 language to the exclusion of those we would like to join us in conversation.

If you look at surveys of  internet use by Pew Internet and American Life Project and other work on internet use, early adopters total only 5-10% of the population.  Given this, clearly not all of us can be early adopters although we can be leaders.

So my question, following up on Doug’s and Beth’s is this:  What can each of us do individually to bring more librarians into these conversations who might not be there currently?

I would posit that we need to watch our language–in our enthusiasm, we can overwhelm others with all the bells and whistles and options.  And I question if that is not counterproductive to our aim.   Yes it is amazing to show what is possible, but if we don’t also show a step-by-step roadmap for getting there, then it is just so much ‘pie in the sky.’

I think a sign of leadership is also being able to break down the details in a way that they are accessible.  I liked Joyce’s attempt to do this in her article, How to Retool Yourself, (though I found a little too many options there for a beginner, to be honest)–but I really and truly applaud her leadership as always in realizing that this sort of specific post is what is needed.

I know we all do  things everyday to help our colleagues along and many of us have done that for a long time. But I think it’s important to renew our efforts to reach out to those who are interested but don’t know where to start, or who haven’t even broached the idea because they are too overwhelmed, or are not currently we think the conversations are happening.  But then again, maybe we aren’t where their conversations are happening either.

Rather than debate whether or not people “should” be somewhere, let’s help them get there by our individual and joint efforts.  That may mean we have to get out of our own sandboxes once in awhile but I think our profession will be all the better for it–we all have something to learn and we all have something to teach.   I thank Beth for her courage in raising these challenging issues.

So, my question is, what can we do?  How can we connect with humility, open arms, and understanding with our colleagues at all levels of  technology adoption?

Time for a utilitarian post–and to clear the decks of some handy web apps I’ve run across via Twitter lately.

One of my favorites is fur.ly. (thanks for the tip, David Jakes!)  This site is a teacher/librarian’s dream when making a pathfinder.  It allows you to consolidate a list of websites under one url.  Then you just have one address to share with students. Here’s a fur.ly I created for this post. Use the small arrows at the top of the screen to flip through each site.

I revisited VoiceThread recently and found a lot of handy new features there, plus a downside.  They have added a “call in” feature so that you can use a cell phone to add your commentary on a slide.  Handy if you are working on some sort of oral history project with someone who doesn’t have a computer, for example–they can call in their narration of the slide.  Also handy if you don’t have a webcam or microphone available!   You also now have the long-awaited ability to purchase an archived version of your VoiceThread, which is an excellent way to preserve a project.  The downside is that it seems you can only have three VoiceThreads in your account unless you pay for the account;  downside if you are using it very often.

A last handy site I found via twitter was bitty.com. (thanks to Aschmitz on twitter!) It allows you to embed another webpage within your website.  The webpage is fully functional within the frame,  or you can click on it to launch the page.   Very handy and a nice way to garner student interest in a site, unless it gets blocked by your district’s internet filter!

Here’s an example of Bitty at work–with fur.ly’s home page.

We all wonder sometimes what effect we have on our library patrons or on students who walk through our doors, or if anything we say or share “sticks.”

I had a conversation with my five year old nephew a few days ago that convinced me how much impact we all make on students.  Just a small incident, but worth sharing.

We were at my nephew’s house for dinner when he announced that “he needed to go out and get some exercise.”  It seemed like an unusual phrasing on his part, but since the rest of the family was occupied, I offered to go out and watch him.

He promptly marched out in the driveway and started doing stretches with his arms, carefully winding his arms in circles like a windmill.  Then he took off running down the sidewalk and back again.  He walked  up and pronounced proudly to me, “My p.e. teacher told us we need to exercise and burn off some steam.” 

And there he was, after a week of school, already taking her advice and feeling proud of himself for doing it.

In all the casual interactions we have with students, we have to recall that what we say matters and is remembered.  We can use that influence for good and support good habits, or we can squander it, in every encounter we have.

Food for thought….

The nation’s President delivered a very motivational message to a group of obviously excited students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, yet many of our nation’s students missed this message intended for them.

As I was listening to it, I thought of Kennedy’s speech which inspired us to go to the moon, and how his speech led young people  into being more involved in science, volunteerism, and politics; in fact, even inspiring a future president.

Obama’s speech today, no matter your politics, was an eloquent “pep talk” to the nation’s students, encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning. Yet across the nation, parents and school districts alike denied them the opportunity to participate–and I wonder in what way is that encouraging students to be responsible?

Do we not trust students (and their teachers) to analyze, discuss, and think about what they hear? And do we not want students to be inspired and motivated by leaders (whether they be principals, guest speakers, or Presidents?)

“Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. . .And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.”

Isn’t that a message we want our students to hear?

And when do we as educators stand up for the school as a marketplace of ideas, and at least make these ideas “available” to our students?

In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Farenheit 451, (a book commonly taught in high schools), books are burned to prevent the spread of ideas. Because ideas might make people think.

When we as a culture are afraid to examine the ideas of an opposing viewpoint, when we encourage our children to block out/screen out opposing viewpoints, when we pressure our schools to block out/screen out opposing viewpoints, at what point does this become a form of censorship?

The quote of the day on my blog today, ironically, is by Indira Gandhi. It reads: “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”

How do we teach our students to be part of the great melting pot of our country if we don’t allow ideas in? And what is our role as educators in that?

Some things I believe we can do, now that the speech is over:

1. Air the speech as well as the speeches to students given by Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Ask students to compare and contrast rhetorical styles, the setting for the speech, response of students in the audience, etc.

2. Use Wordle.net to have students create Wordle visuals of presidential speeches to examine their emphasis and content so they can compare and contrast.

3. Examine the media frenzy over the recent speech. Help students filter out fact/fiction in print reporting /internet reporting over the speech. Have students look at the reporting before the speech (by checking newspaper archives, databases for last couple of weeks, letters to the editor, etc.) and then have them check out the post-speech reporting in the next day or two in those same sources.

4. Have them analyze the speech for examples of good rhetorical techniques (using a personal story, word choice, call to action, etc.) Compare these used to other motivational speeches.

5. Use the Newseum website to examine headlines around the country for their reporting on the speech and compare/contrast the reporting. (But quick, before the headlines disappear!)

The point is, as educators, we have many tools/methods for teaching our students that ideas aren’t dangerous–that speeches aren’t dangerous–and that we can use our powers of analysis to dissect the content and learn from it.

And then, just maybe, we won’t have missed the boat completely!

photo credit: Flickr, BrianForbes37

It’s Scott McLeod’s annual leadership challenge.   A recent post by David Jakes on his blog, Strength of Weak Ties, “Me, Obsessed?” has me thinking about the future of what we call school.  And Don Tapscott’s work in his new book, Grown Up Digital,  makes me realize how little our schools reflect the students coming into our buildings right now.

It’s like we “know” things–we know our students are more digitally inclined, we know they live online in ways we never considered, we know tv takes a back seat to multi-tasking on the internet, we know the relevance of impromptu video production and the role of our students as producers of content, we know they are wired into devices, and yet the places they learn seem to reflect this so little.

So my challenge to administrators is to begin thinking what a building would look like that would accommodate “net gen” students.  Are there informal learning spaces in your building that are ‘wired’ or is access blocked everywhere?  Are there any mobile devices in your school?  What can be easily changed about your existing buildings’ space? (See David Jakes’ post for some ideas.)   And will we even need “buildings” in the future?  If not, how will students gather and communicate?  Are we preparing for these changes which are bound to come?  Are we testing out ideas that will lead us there?    Or are we just assuming, as David Jakes notes, that classrooms won’t change that much?

Change can become viral quite suddenly and if we aren’t prepared for it, we find ourselves reacting to it.  What if we envisioned our building five years down the road, or ten?  And then added in the key component, what will our students be like ten years from now?  (Imagine that first grader who can use a laptop, Wii remote, and iPhone and then project forward ten years.)    What would we do differently in our building arrangement, remodeling, or planning to prepare for those students?

Because they are coming soon, to a school near you.

Or Where are we going?

I’m fortunate to be participating in a very exciting panel discussion Thursday evening on the future of libraries, how social networking fits into that, and how we design our facilities due to those changes.  It’s a great group–Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton, Cathy Nelson and myself, meeting to discuss and answer questions.

The meeting will be held in Elluminate, Thursday June 18 at 7 CST–look here for more info.

If you have any questions you’d like to ask, feel free to post them here.

       Here are a few of my favorite websites to explore and learn with this summer.  See how they can help seed your curriculum in some way, enhance your website, or inspire you.

Animoto  — Create a quick and easy animated slideshow of your photos.  Use it with students to create visual poems, field trip presentations, progress of a plant’s growth, photos from around the world, etc.   You can even use it collaboratively by having different students in the class each add their own photo.

Slide.com – Another quick and easy slide show creator.  Very quick tool for putting together a visual slideshow with music (and no copyright to worry about since the music is on the site already).

FD’s Flickr Toys – This tool is a fun way to create visuals for/with students.  Use your own photos(upload one) or grab one from Flickr.com and add captions, make a poster, make badges,  etc. 

Etherpad –  This is a shared writing pad tool.  Start a new writing pad, then send the address of it to anyone you want to collaborate with.  Then you can both write on a document, chat about it, brainstorm together, etc.   It’s easy and no sign up for basic writing uses.  It’s not a word processor but just a collaborative tool to work on something together (which you could then put into a word processor!)

 Wordle  — A simple tool but with creative possibilities.  Paste in some text.  The site assembles the words into a collage, with the most used words larger than the least used.  Up the ante–paste in your syllabus, a poem, a study guide, keywords in your vocabulary lesson–voila–a unique visual representation.

Twitter –  Okay, so yes, everyone is raging about twitter and you may not see the point.  But check out these Teachers on Twitter  (sorted by subj. area) to see how they are using it.  Or consider researching who is professionally ”tweeting” in your field.   If you teach government, for example, many government officials are now tweeting their daily legislative activities.  Who in your field is on Twitter and is posting current updates?  Wouldn’t that be excellent for students to start following and get current updates?  And it’s a way to create an online teaching community for yourself as well.

  Poll Everywhere – Coolest feature?  That students can either text their responses or use the web and it links to an already created, live Powerpoint slide that updates the responses.  Forget the costly CPS systems, and use this for quick polls!   Other good polling sites– Polldaddy and SurveyMonkey.

FreeTech4Teachers –  One of our teachers, Kris Phelps, turned me onto this site, which has excellent new tools featured constantly, and serious lessons attached to the posts.  Very inspiring!

Wetpaint — If you’ve considered blogging or wiki-ing but haven’t gotten started, check out Wetpaint.  It is a very accessible Wiki site that resembles a web page and is easy to use and edit, with a nice layout and design.

Diigo or Delicious – You at home wishing all your favorites weren’t on your computer at work?  Or vice versa?  If you haven’t started using an online bookmarking tool, try one of these out!  Install the gadget on your toolbar, and then just click anytime you find a site you want to keep track of for later.  Diigo has the added benefit of allowing you to highlight what you find with your own notes.  A great tool to consider using with students during research projects, or even just as “current events” collection areas for their class.

These are just a few of my favorites of the moment.  Find what works for you!  and if you have some to share, feel free to add them here.  Of course, it’s not the tools, it’s what we do with them to enhance learning for our students! 

 Image credits:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsandilands/1283533631/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomthephotographer/207345259/