Supporting and Encouraging Diversity

I think the word diversity often brings to peoples’ minds race or gender. When I think of the media center at my school in particular I think mostly about gender since our students are predominantly the same race. We worry about losing our male readers as they get into the upper grades (3-5). One thing that has helped (and I’m sure many would disagree, but it’s helped at my school) is Accelerated Reader. We have a contest between grade levels, classes and boys and girls. Because of their competitive nature, many of the boys will read because they don’t want the girls to win (the underlying results is increased reading by our boys).

Supporting and encouraging diversity through the media center means that one must have a open mind towards all students, even those that look differently, learn differently, sound differently, even act differently. Serving the needs of all students should be the ultimate goal of schools including the media center. Providing materials that appeal to a diverse audience and taking a few moments to invite these different groups into the media center would be a great way to support and encourage diversity. Our media specialist does a great job in working with our student that speaks different languages. While I have not seen her use technology with this group she always tries to find books in their native tongues. She encourages their parents to come and visit the media center as well. As our populations become more diverse by race, gender, special needs and other, we must provide support to all groups that are served by our media centers.

Technology, Diversity and the Media Center

When it comes to diversity in my school, the focus right now is overwhelmingly on differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is instruction that maximizes learning for students regardless of their academic level. Not all students learn at the same pace and in the same learning style. Differentiated instruction creates a classroom environment where all students, regardless of their skill level can excel. Differentiated instruction takes typical classroom teaching strategies and throws them out the window. In this learning environment every student becomes a motivated, engaged learner because the teacher is allowing all students to learn in their optimal learning style. Having the media and technology specialists on board for creative learning strategies is key to reaching students. Students and teachers alike have different learning styles. Diversity in schools is at it’s finest when the media and technology specialists are able to step in and work collaboratively with classroom teachers to create exciting, engaging lessons and presentations to ensure that students from all learning levels can thrive.

I am a special education teacher and sometimes feel like I have to stand on my head to achieve and maintain my student’s attention and interest, when I use different types of technology into my classroom, my students are eager to participate. Teachers do not always realize the different resources available to them, media and technology specialists need to be there to introduce new innovative classroom ideas. I work in a school with little technology support, we share our technology specialist with two other schools, she does not have time to introduce new materials to us, we depend on the media specialist for this type of insight.

Digital Storytelling & Ebooks

I have briefly heard of ebooks and digital storytelling, and was very interested in talking with my mentor about these resources. However, she did not offer a great deal of knowledge on these topics. I turned to my Library 2.0 and Beyond text, where I found most of my information.

Digital storytelling is a story told using moving digital images, digital voiceover narrative, and digital music. Digital storytelling formats are short and precise. Digital storytelling is created for people to tell stories about their lives using drama and emotional content. It must include facts established form context and include emotion and heartfelt meaning.

Library 2.0 and Beyond lists the seven elements of digital storytelling:
1. Point (of view)
2. Dramatic question
3. Emotional content
4. The gift of your voice
5. The power of the soundtrack
6. Economy
7. Pacing

Ebooks are online resources, that ocus on areas where print materials are lacking. Ebooks come in a variety of commercial contents, such as Mobipocket, eReader, the Palm eBook Store, and ecookbooks. Reference books are available in ebooks for law, medicine, and humanities. Gutenberg is one of the largest and oldest online sources of ebooks. It provides 19,000 public domain works.

I look forward to talking to my schools literature/Language Arts department about the benefits of using Digital Storytelling and Ebooks.

Digital Storytelling and Ebooks

According to the University of Houston, digital storytelling is the practice of using computer based tools to tell stories. The Center for Digital Storytelling developed the Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling, which can be helpful as you begin to create a digital story. The CDS' Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling include a point of view, a dramatic question, emotional content, the gift of the creator's voice, the power of the soundtrack, economy (using just enough content without overwhelming the viewer) and pacing. As students create digital stories in the classroom, it would be beneficial to discuss these seven elements. These elements serve as a good starting point for the students. I believe that the media specialist's role in digital storytelling is very important. The media specialist should collaborate with the classroom teacher and discuss the topic/topics of the digtial stories. The media specialist should then put together a digital storytelling kit comprised of images, videos and audio for the students to use as they are creating their own digital story. The digital storytelling kit would allow the students to focus more of their time on the quality of their project instead of spending a majority of their time searching for images, videos and audio for their digital story. I believe that digital stories would be a great technology tool to use in the classroom in all subject areas. The students enjoy working with technology and would more than likely have a better understanding of the topic/subject after completing a digital story. Recently, I have dicussed digital storytelling with the media specialist at my school and we are planning on completing a digital story with my third grade class during our Response to Intervention Time. I am excited about this opportunity and hope to continue to become more familar with digital storytelling in order to successsfully implement it in my classroom on a regular basis.

The media center at the elementary school in which I am employed does not have any fiction or nonfiction Ebooks at this time. I dicussed the topic of Ebooks with my media specialist and she explained that while she would love to have them in the media center, there is just not any funds avaiable for this type of purchase at this point during the school year. Hopefully in the future our school will be able to purchase Ebooks for our students. I believe the Ebooks would be very beneficial to our students. Even though we do not have any Ebooks in our media center, it should not stop us from seeking out and using free Ebooks online. The International Children's Digital Library website features a variety of Ebooks in many different languages. The literature provided on this site will help students understand the value of respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas.

University of Houston. (2009). The Educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved November 19, 2009, from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html

Digital Storytelling/Ebooks

We are truly living in the digital age. With that in mind moving storytelling into digital form seems to be a natural progression. The text by Courtney (2007) provides the best definition of digital storytelling that I have found. It gives clear guidelines of what is included in digital stories (still images, video clips, voiceover narrative, and music). Additionally, the University of Washington website provides great information in the essential section. The seven elements included provide an excellent outline of what to consider when creating a digital story. While all of the elements are good, the element of economy and pacing are two that stand out for me. When telling a story we often try to tell too much, but it is very important to give viewers just enough without over loading them. Also, pacing can really make a difference in how engaging a story is to the viewer. The goals and objectives of digital storytelling point out that creating digital story allow students to synthesis large amounts of information and organize it for an audience. This allows students to get to those higher order skills. So often teachers get cookie cutter projects from students, I like the fact that digital storytelling allows student to add their creativity and individuality to their project. One way that media specialist can aid in creating digital stories is to provide resources for students like finding video clips, pictures, and music. Media specialist can also instruct students in the use of the Movie Maker technology.

As for ebooks, currently our media center does not have any fiction or nonfiction ebooks. While we don’t have any online encyclopedia, we do have access to encyclopedias on DVD. Most of the reference materials in our media center are print. We do have access to Galileo and Nettreker. I think that there is room for ebooks in media centers. Ebooks provide access to books using different technologies including online.

Courtney, N. (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond: Innovative technologies and tomorrow's user. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Technology Training

Technology training is a no longer just a valuable asset to schools, in the 21st century technology training is a necessity. Teachers must be up-to-date on the latest technology equipment and resources available to them. Students are not using encyclopedias to do research and write reports any longer; they are using internet websites to research materials to create power point presentations. Furthermore, students are no longer writing research papers, but instead using their word processor to type the information. I recently graded a host of social studies projects that were submitted on computer flashdrives, the material was organized, neat and easy to read. In today’s classrooms, students are not content reading from the textbook and discussing the materials they read; students are more likely to focus on an interactive lesson where the teacher is using a Smartboard or other form of technology in the classroom. Technology is integrated into the curriculum to engage student’s and enhance classroom learning. When teachers use technology in their classrooms, it takes students to a whole new level of learning. Additionally, technologies in schools helps teachers become more proficient; offering the most current information in their academic subject. Teachers should be educated on effective ways to use computer-related technology in their classroom and ways to integrate technology into the curriculum. I admit that I am not readily taking advantage of the technology around me, nonetheless I understand the need to step up my own pace and seize the opportunities I am being presented.

Staff Development

The media center where my mentor is located is not necessarily where I do most of my field experience, but the media specialists there are the ones who answer all of my questions as they seem to be most in tune with my college education. I guess that is why I chose them!!! The staff at the school varies from those who have no idea about computers and even hate to email, to those who wish there were more options. This particular school is not on the forefront of technology, but they did just have LCD projectors installed in the ceiling of every classroom. The school doesn't have a SmartBoard yet, but they are on the list...that is the way the county does things I guess. As far as staff development is concerned, whenever there is an early release day, the media specialists are expected to present an in-service for teachers to get PLU's. The last time there was an early release day, one specialist taught podcasting and one taught movie maker. I think this is great, but things are slow to change. Teachers really don't have time to incorporate this new technology into their lesson plans. I think the best thing that comes out of the training is that teachers can assign and then understand what their students have put together because kids are all about the latest and greatest technology. It is VERY hard to keep ahead of our students technologically speaking, but we could go on forever about those who are digital natives and the advantage they have over those of us who are digital immigrants!