What is diversity in the Media Center?

Diversity in the School Media Center must be more than just stocking our shelves with books about differing races, religions, cultures, values, etc. Diversity in the Media Center is about being responsive to the diverse needs of its patrons. It is about encouraging learning outside one’s comfort zone and providing opportunities for that learning to occur. Diversity in the School Media Center means meeting the needs of students with differing cognitive levels, learning styles, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Understanding and responding to our students in these areas is the key to making a true difference. It is exciting to know that we can now respond with more than just print. Technology has opened up a vast new cosmos in learning and teaching.

A diverse media center can open a whole new world to those who may have grown up in their own little “bubble.” It can also provide a galaxy of knowledge and ideas to those who have grown up with little exposure to print and information. Having a diverse media center full of technology and all kinds of educational tools makes learning fun and exciting for anyone, from any age, ability level, learning style or any walk of life. Whether it be a child who is interested in learning all about the funny looking insect she saw in her front yard or one who wants to read creative stories similar to the ones he makes up in his head, a media center that is diverse, can and should be the hub for this exciting world of learning.

eBooks and Digital Storytelling…What’s the Story?

Digital storytelling is a win, win for teachers, students and school library media specialists. Digital storytelling is rarely in my school. However, there are a lot of great ideas that could be incorporated into our curriculum. Our teacher cadet students do “fake” Facebook pages (we can’t access Facebook at school) for an introductory lesson to their students. I think it would be cool to do a personal narrative using digital storytelling. Our Culinary Arts students could use the digital storytelling to do an instructional lesson for a specific recipe they have invented. Our social studies department did a digital storytelling unit using PhotoStory during Black History Month. My role to with these lessons would be to support the students and teachers with their research skills, technology skills and presentation skills. This would also be a good use of the SmartBoard in the media center. Digital storytelling, in my opinion, will make the reluctant learners more interested in learning and difficult content more understandable.

We have 65 eBooks in my media center. They are not circulated only because we have had difficulty with downloading the appropriate readers. We hope to have this situation fixed by next school year. The 65 eBooks are mostly classics. The classics include The Call of the Wild, Great Expectations, The Iliad, etc. We also have quite a bit of William Shakespeare’s work on eBook. I was blown away by the amount of eBooks available on The Gutenberg Project. On April 17th, 2010 92,171 were downloaded! Yes, eBooks have a future in the media center. I have weeded hundreds of books this year that haven’t been checked out in 20 years. What a waste of money? I feel that the eBook will eliminate wasting of paper books. I hope that eBooks will soon be the new textbook. As textbook manager, it is difficult to manage so many textbooks and students. I hope that the day will come when each student can download all their textbooks onto one e-reader. I’m sure it would be more cost efficient.

Differentiating Technology Training

I experienced one of those “ah ha” moments recently while receiving technology training provided by the county. We were being trained on how to use the iRespond student response systems which are supported by our newly installed SmartBoards. While I was trying to pull up a certain screen the instructor had directed us to, another student was already three screens ahead of me and almost finished with the task given to us. I felt embarrassed and a little “stupid” for lagging so far behind. As I raised my hand to ask for help I noticed that the instructor was helping someone else log on. My feelings then turned to frustration as I thought that person should not need help with something so basic – the instructor should be free to help me with my problem. I now have a personal understanding of the frustrations my students experience everyday – those on both ends of the learning spectrum.

I value that experience as a teacher and as a student of technology. The particular training that I mention was one that was mandated because we are being required to use it (the plan is to have our students take paperless benchmark tests by next year). We are also offered many opportunities for elective technology training throughout the school year. These are not very well attended and I think it is largely because of the frustration I just mentioned. We all have a different skill set and it is painfully obvious in a technology training class. In a day when differentiation is such an educational buzz word, it is time we learn what that looks like in our own learning environment. Self guided lessons are a possibility but do not allow for that personal connection with someone that can answer specific questions. As a reading teacher I know the value in leveled guided reading groups. I would like to see this type of instruction offered. The classes would be leveled based on the hierarchy of a skills checklist. As a responsible student, you would evaluate where you would best fit and sign up for that particular level.

As I look forward to my future role as a Media Specialist, I must remember this “ah ha” when planning teacher training.

Technology Training

Technology skills….lacking! The faculty at my school has little technology skills and unfortunately no desire to acquire new skills. However, the two staff development training aids that I put together for Instructional Design were a big hit. The faculty appreciated being able to have the information and instructions to look over and practice with on their own time.

Technology training, I feel, is an asset in my county. I wish more teachers would take advantage of it. The training takes place at a new elementary school that had a “technology wing” added to it when it was built. The training is provided by the various ITS in Muscogee County. The times of the training varies from full day to afterschool hours. Some of the technology training that is being offered is Smartboard, Wiki, Destiny, Photostory and Google Apps. Of course the full day (8 hours) training is the best but the school has to provide the funds for the subs and the school doesn’t have the funds available. If training is necessary for teachers such as the new Crosspointe Training that we are doing right now the ITS will come to the school. We have enough lab space for the ITS to teach the teachers during their planning periods.

Our county is pushing the use of webinars and Elluminate sessions for various training. If technology training were my responsibility I would rely on as many electronic portfolio lessons as possible. I also intend to incorporate the tech tips from the Technology for Media Services class. Teachers appreciate that I value their time. If I feel that face-to-face sessions are necessary, I would do the training during planning periods.

Do for Technology Training:
Make the content useful
Apply the material to the standards
Make it user friendly
Be available for assistance

Don’t for Technology Training:
Make it boring
Waste time
Talk over their heads
Go into training unprepared

Video Distribution Systems.. How are they used or not?

1938…..this was the year of the first graduating class at Jordan High School.
1940…. Jordan students enjoyed programs, which were broadcast into the cafeteria by clubs and classes on the service club's amateur radio station.
Present…announcements are made each morning over the intercom.

I am embarrassed to admit that not much has changed at Jordan High School in the way of video distribution systems. Our teachers have never taken an interest in having students do a broadcast using the video distribution system. I attempted to start a program using our journalism students but the administrators didn’t approve this. We are, however, grateful for Channel One. We are in our 3rd year using Channel One. The12-minute Channel One news is broadcasted daily to nearly six million teens in approximately 8,000 middle schools and high schools across the country. Channel One offers outstanding teacher resources, as well. I encourage you to check out the teacher resources at http://www.channelone.com/teachers/.

The Georgia Public Network and United Streaming are awesome. I have used these resources often with our teachers. Our teachers have,also benefited from the webinars offered by Georgia Public Network. PBS and NPR present a free lecture series-GPB’s Educational Forum at http://forum-network.org/. TV411 is a television series for adults who want to strengthen their math and language skills. This is a part of GPB and can be reviewed at http://www.tv411.org/. The resources at http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ are unbeatable. The teachers at Jordan use the videos from this website quite often. The history teachers seem to get the most use out of it. (The trouble that I have as the media specialist is teachers that save the videos to their share drive and take up valuable space.)

I challenge you to take a look at the websites I have highlighted in this blog, so many resources….so little time!

The Morning News - Elementary Style

As an EIP teacher, I am usually already working with students when our school’s Morning News Program airs, but when I do get the opportunity to watch it I am always amazed with what I see. We have come a long way from listening to the announcements presented by the principal over a staticy intercom. Of course in the school setting, the concept of a News Program starts with a staff member or members with a vision for the possibility and a commitment to a huge project. In my school, the vision was begun by a former Media Specialist and continues with the current LMS and three other teachers. They manage five different teams of fifth grade students who are responsible for one show a week. The students, under the direction of the teacher advisors, write, design and create the show. The News Crews were selected based on applications they submitted along with teacher recommendation.

The benefits of a school news program are many. Let me just take a minute to brainstorm a list – build writing, verbal communication, technology, research, reading and media literacy skills, as well as editing and revising skills, promote teamwork and development of collaborative skills, sharpen problem solving, decision making and critical thinking skills, encourage interest in current affairs, build self esteem and, on top of everything else, create a great sense of community within the school. When you think of the impact this type of program has on the students involved, the benefits become immeasurable.

My school news program includes a segment on Fridays called Super Science. A group of students are filmed conducting a simple science experiment, usually using common household items, and then they explain the scientific principle behind it. This feature alone has ignited a school wide interest in science and illustrates the power behind the media – even at an elementary level. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have our national media embrace the notion of this “positive power?”

Submitted by Diane Brannen

YES...to Social Networking in Schools

Yes…Yes…Yes…Social network sites should be used in schools. By integrating social networking technologies into educational environments, teens have the opportunity to learn from adults how to be safe and smart when participating in online social networks. There are a tremendous amount of activities that students/schools can take part in to increase participation in learning.

Social networking gives teens meaningful ways to use and improve reading and writing skills. A school can use blogging software to publish its newspaper. The blog format allows for timely publication and the ability to make updates easily. Publication costs are minimal and there is no limit to the length of the paper. Check out this school’s newspaper, www.uni.uiuc.edu/gargoyle/ . Another example I found described two biology teachers in different parts of the country working with students on the topic of water quality and ecology. The teachers create a joint wiki for the unit of study. As students find information on the topic, they post to the water quality wiki findings, observations, and useful resources. As a media specialist I liked the idea of an author creating a MySpace account as a way to keep in touch with teen readers. The author’s space includes biographical information, book information, and reflections on reading and writing. These are just a few of the ways that social networking can be used in schools.

As a high school media specialist, I feel that it is my responsibility to attempt to teach students how to use these social networking tools. There are some wonderful resources at http://www.opal-online.org/archivelis.htm . The Federal Trade Commission also has an article on safety tips for tweens and teens, this article can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec14.shtm .
Unfortunately, my school does not allow for the use of social network sites. I hope that someday, soon, I can help lead the pack in allowing this useful teaching tool to be used in our schools.

Media Web

I posed a question to one of my kindergarten students last week. His response to me was, “I don’t know but we can Google it.” That is proof that kids, even very young kids, are using the internet to get information. For this reason, Media Center Websites are an essential part of today’s technological advances, benefiting students, teachers, parents and more. A website dedicated solely to the school’s media center not only makes resources easy to access, but also affirms the important role of the center as a part of the school, and more importantly a large part of a child’s education. The key however, is to make sure that the website is done in a manner so that is easy to use and visually appealing. A website can say a lot about what it is representing, so it is important that the website is efficient and intriguing.

An important thing to remember when creating a website for a media center is that it must be done with a specific population in mind. For example, an elementary school website should be sure to use terminology that younger students can comprehend, as opposed to higher education level jargon. I am at the Elementary level so I see an ideal site as having a splash page that will draw students inside and then having lots of useful links and games. There should also be a link for teachers to follow that would provide lots of useful information on lesson planning, curriculum development, classroom management, calendar pages, and a launch page for carefully selected web resources. In addition to those two audiences, I think the Media Web page should include information for parents. After all, parents are the biggest influence on the students and will be the ones to encourage the at-home use of the page. The parent link could include a school calendar and a place for homework and parenting tips.

On a negative note concerning Web pages, I’ve seen a lot of teachers get excited about creating a web page (or be required to establish one) and then once the page is created, get busy and never update it. It reminds me a planting a great garden and then neglecting it. The potential was great for producing good fruit but because it requires time to maintain, and time is something we seem to have less and less of, the sites are abandoned and become eye sores. I hate to follow a link only to find it is totally out of date. If you cannot dedicate the time for weekly updates then the page should consist of information that is not time sensitive. Even then, links should be checked often as they frequently become obsolete.

There are a lot of paid sites to help you build a web page but here are a few free ones that I was able to find-

http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/
http://www.classnotesonline.com/
http://www.educatorpages.com/Home.aspx

Wow for the Wiki!

I have so many thoughts about the wiki and how it can be beneficial for the students, teachers, schools and districts. It seems to be a bit overwhelming! Wikis are a means of giving students the opportunity to author in a collaborative environment. Benefits from this collaboration range from learning from others to developing higher order thinking skills. I also believe that ease of use is a benefit worth mentioning. One aspect that caught my attention while researching is the collaborative textbooks. As the media specialists at Jordan I have also been given the job of textbook manager. This can be a full time job, itself! California has begun an initiative to create online textbooks using wiki software. This initiative is known as the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP). COSTP will save California time and money.The founder of the project contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget.The founder of the project contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget.

There are two drawbacks that I feel are worth mentioning. One is that users can modify the content of a wiki. Modifying means adding, editing or even deleting material. Another drawback is the amount of time necessary for monitoring and/or updating the content.

Visit the following wikis for highlights:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/presentation+tools

Wow for the Wiki! Wikis are a powerful yet flexible collaborative communication tool for educators and beyond.

Catching up with the Six Year Olds! A blog about podcasting

I am admittedly a technology neophyte but am amazed at its growth, intrigued at its influence, and excited about its future. I am quite willing, even driven, to learn how to become more technology savvy but lack that innate ability to fearlessly maneuver the discipline. I share this as a prelude to a story about a first grade classroom with which I work. This past year the teacher complained that her students were interrupting her guided reading time everyday because they could not seem to work the cassette player in the listening center. The teacher had never had a class that had so much difficulty with this. She realized that none of the students had ever used a cassette player. She decided to purchase an MP3 player and then had her son  upload some stories on it. She placed the devise at the listening center, without instruction, and sat back to observe. She was amazed that the first pair of students picked up the MP3, found the title that matched the book on the table and began listening without asking for any assistance. Problem solved.

The point is that there is a generation of students in our elementary schools who are technologically fearless, unlike me, an “experienced” teacher. What happened in the classroom made me realize that we as educators must adjust our way of executing the standards so that we can catch up with these six year olds! If a first grader feels very comfortable with listening to books on MP3s then why not create little mini lessons via Podcasts to upload as well. This would be a great way to differentiate the curriculum to a classroom of students whose aptitudes and abilities are spread out all over the place. The teacher could create small remediation, review or enrichment lessons and assign them to different students to listen and respond to – all at the same time!

In the same way, a Media Specialist could create podcasts with instructions for equipment hook-up and operations, curriculum enrichment, book talks, resource sharing, etc. These could be shared with teachers, students, administration, and media colleagues. I chose to pursue a Media Specialist degree because I love literature, children, and sharing information. I am very excited about the new, 21 Century ways of sharing that information.

To learn more about creating Podcasts, visit some of the following links.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/podcasting.htm
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/podcasting-101.htm
http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/
http://etec.hawaii.edu/proceedings/2008/Miltenoff2008.pdf

submitted by Diane Brannen