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!