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!

Video Distribution System/GPB Resources

At Fairview Elementary we have a video distribution system. Pre-recorded announcements, videos/DVD’s and morning Math and ELA trivia questions are among the items that are delivered to the classroom televisions via the video distribution system. In addition, our school system has provided access to a limited number of cable channels such as the weather channel and PBS. However, this system is mainly used to show the many educational videos and DVD’s that our media specialists have amassed over the years. In addition to educational videos, the system is used to broadcast the occasionally non-educational video/DVD for students with good behavior. This activity is called Principal’s Movie Choice. Students really enjoy this fun activity and work hard to earn it. To avoid copyright issues, our media specialists purchase a “right to show” agreement that allows movies produced by certain companies to be broadcast legally in our school. The video system is controlled by the media center but movie can be loaded in a VCR and teachers have the ability to start, stop, pause, and rewind them using their telephone keypad. Before showing any video in the classrooms teachers must complete a video use form. If the video/DVD is not apart of our collection, the video must to approved by an administrator. In some cases parental permission must be gained for students to view video materials.

The Georgia Public Broadcasting Resources are available to all teachers in our building and are used quite frequently by many. The most popular component of the resources seems to be access to the Discovery/United Streaming videos. Teachers are able to stream these video directly to their student via classroom computers. One component that is not widely used in my school but looks very interesting is the Digital Library. The Georgia’s back roads contain short video clips about interesting places in our own state. This would be an awesome tool for teaching about our state and the information is already compiled in on easy to locate place. This site is an excellent tool for teachers. The New Georgia Encyclopedia can be accessed from the GPB resources page as well; it too is a great tool.

Georgia Public Broadcasting

The mission of Georgia Public Broadcasting is “To create, produce and distribute high quality programs and services that educate, inform and entertain our audiences and enrich the quality of their lives.”

Georgia Public Broadcasting possesses a video media distributing system comprised of exclusive educational materials, Georgia teachers are encouraged to use in their classrooms. Current, available materials consist of over 7,000 locally produced videos, and nearly 60,000 brief video clips. Material available through the Georgia Public Broadcasting distributing system is aligned to the Georgia Performance Standards to ensure vital academic value. Material is intended to be used as a supplement to the current curriculum.

GPB broadcasts educational video programming to:

1. Every public school
2. Regional library
3. Adult technical education center
4. Youth development center
5. Public college and University in Georgia

School News- What a Performance Task!

The idea of School News takes the morning announcements to a new level! In this time of standards based instruction, where students are asked to produce more real world products for assessment, this idea is very appropriate and exciting. Talk about getting students actively engaged! The Pleasant Grove Elementary School’s (which is in the same district as my school, but much newer) Kid News Network is an exemplary program. After viewing the page I was in awe of how student centered this project seemed to be. Students were involved in all aspects of creating the news program and the production process was very cross-curricular. Additionally, the production process promotes working cooperatively. Students had to work together to create a successful news program. This type of project also works to increase the integration of technology use in schools. This project takes this a step further and allows students to see the how technology is used to produce something that resembles a product in the real world “a new cast”. The process of creating this project for their peers allows students to have an authentic audience. Students work better when they realize their work will be shard with a real audience.

Although we don’t participate in this type activity at my school, my media specialist stated that she had been apart of school news broadcast at her prior school. When talking to her, she stated that the students really enjoyed and actually looked forward to the weekly broadcast. The music teacher worked with her to help the student produce the board cast. Some key points that she mentioned for an elementary news cast (but could be applied to middle/high) were:

• To keep the format simple and easy to follow
• Make the news stories relevant and interesting for all grade levels
• Invite other staff members to contribute to the process
• Plan and organize
• Make sure to describe all roles for students prior to starting the process
• Start simple and slowly and added to the program

An elementary school near us does do a live daily newscast. I was able to email the media specialist and she was happy to respond to my questions. She stated that she and the SAGE teacher coordinate the newscast. The format includes the pledge, lunch menu, weather, announcements, behavior pledge, and special announcements for certain events like Red Ribbon Week. The principal or assistant principal will do daily announcements on the newscast. Students interview for the positions on the crew and as anchors. Teacher may submit names of students for special event announcements. Teachers also write and submit special announcements like for Children’s Music Month. The crews rotate over a grading period with different students interviewing for positions. These students must display good behavior and maintain good grades. Because this is a K-3 primary school third graders are selected for the crew but students from the other grades can be selected to do special announcements.

While I don’t think our school is ready to take the morning announcements to the level of Pleasant Grove Elementary. Exploring their site and hearing about what's going on at the near-by school does encourage me to “start simple” and encourage my media specialist, teachers and administrators to allow our students to start with small things like taping students doing specials announcements and airing them over the closed circuit TV unit. I think it would be engaging and allow students to use some critical thinking skills. I might even encourage some students to look at broadcasting and production as a career choice!

School TV News

As a homeless person (AKA substitute teacher at many schools) I am witness and privy to many ways of "doing" the morning announcements. At one elementary school that is only K-1-2, the P.E. teacher announces over the intercom any news that needs to be shared as well as the pledge and a moment of silence...no video. At the K-3-4-5 school that follows, the media specialist has an elaborate production each morning with a news crew that changes jobs each week. For example, you may be the camera man this week and next week the anchor. I thought this morning show had way too much for students that age, but I was surprised by their abilities to handle it! I agree with a post I just read that this may lead to a less than professional morning show, but think of what the kids learn!!! This morning show has all the typical announcements and each elementary school I have been in does things slightly different. One school I was in, the media specialist was not is charge of the morning show, but I think that is a rarity. My 6th grade son was on the news team last year at his elementary school. The media specialist interviewed the students who applied for particular jobs and then determined who she felt was capable of each particular job. The students then held the jobs she assigned and the teams she assigned for 6 weeks. The announcements were written and overseen by the media parapro and is a live production.

I have not seen much middle school because middle schoolers scare me :) I have been through middle school with my older ones but I did not pay attention...and my youngest is just in 6th grade now. I know they have a morning show everyday and applications and auditions for these positions, but that is all I know. The middle school where my son attends has the students on visually every morning... this is also a live production.

In most of the high schools I have subbed in, the morning announcements come in the form of an administrator over the intercom. He/She leads the Pledge, moment of silence, and various other important activities that need to be addressed. On Fridays is the BIG show. Not live...that would be too scary...but prerecorded...edited...and very good! Students either take a class (some are part of drama class) or are in a club that produces the morning show. This is an elaborate production with acting and skits and a variety of interviews where teachers and students alike are acting silly, but trying to plug whatever activity, club, or event they are promoting. These announcements are really VERY good and I love to have the opportunity to watch them! After my son graduated from High School I even got to see him on the morning show because it was an enticement to get students to buy tickets to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. His band was recorded by students on the morning team and a lip synced version of the song with his band acting silly was shown. This prerecorded tape gets delivered to the media center and is then played to the entire school Each teacher turns his/her TV on in their room to watch the morning announcements and homeroom is dismissed when they are done. These are the only morning announcements that high school kids listen to!!! The only job the media staff has is to play the show...

School TV News

As a third grade teacher at Clarkesville Elementary, I view a school news broadcast every morning. Even though I was very familiar with the daily school news, I decided to sit down and talk with the media specialist at my school today during my planning time to discuss the school news broadcast. She explained that four fifth graders are chosen each nine weeks to participate in the school news broadcast. Two of the students serve as the news anchors, while the other two students operate the video camera and sound. At the beginning of every school year, the media specialist goes around to all of the fifth grade classrooms and discusses the news broadcast team. The students are then given the opportunity to sign up to audition to be a part of the broadcast team. The auditions are held in the media center and four students are chosen for each nine weeks. Therefore, 16 students are chosen in all for the school year.

The media specialist has a script written out for the anchors to read from during the news broadcast. Several components of the script stay the same each week. For example, the Pledge of Allegiance, the moment of silence and KIP's Code (school motto) will be same each day. The character education word of the week changes each week. However, the counselor talks about the character education word each day on the news broadcast. She discusses what the word means, gives examples, shows videos and even reads books to help the students better understand the meaning of the character education word.

Teachers may turn in any announcements that they would like to be read on the school news to the media center and the anchors will read them the next morning. Our school administrators use the daily news broadcast to communicate important announcements with the students. The administrators even draw out of grade level containers every Friday for lunch with the principal.
The school annoncements are very popular at Clarkesville Elementary. No matter what my students are working on in the morning, they are quiet as soon as the announcements begin because they want to make sure they don't miss anything they may need to know!

I believe that it is very important to have a school news broadcast that is at least aired to the entire student body each week. Although I can't imagine our school changing from a daily news broadcast to a weekly broadcast because there is so much happening at our school! The daily news is a wonderful way for the students, teachers and administrators to communicate with one another.

Social Networking in Schools

As I began formulating my stance on social networking in schools, I began to think of all of the positive effects of the use of social networks in both the classroom and in the media center. Most students use some type of social networking site several times each week in order to communicate with their classmates and family members. Therefore, most students already know how to use social networking sites. As I am teaching my students, I sometimes struggle engaging them in every lesson and activity in the classroom. However, I believe that the use of social networking sites would help to increase student interest in classroom projects and assignments. While I know that social networking sites could not be used all the time, I believe it would be beneficial for teachers and students to have access to these types of sites when needed in order to help improve instruction and student learning.

Even though I believe social networking would be beneficial for instruction, every type of social networking site is blocked for every school in our school system. This was proven true today during a meeting with our academic coach. Our academic coach needed to use Teacher Tube to show us a video to help further explain her topic for the meeting, standards based classroom. However, she was unable to access that website because it was blocked. During the meeting, she spoke with our technology director and he explained to her that all social networking sites are blocked across the county and they will not allow access to the sites. Needless to say our academic coach was very disappointed and also frustrated. Access to social networking sites would have benefited the teachers in our meeting today and I believe access to social networking sites would benefit our students on a daily basis.

While I understand that there can be negative aspects to social networking sites, such as access to inappropriate material, I also believe that the students can be taught how to use social networking sites properly. Students need to be taught by teachers how to safely search the Internet and to use social networking sites. Not only would the students have the benefits of using social networking sites, the students would also learn how to safely use the Internet to help to improve their learning.

To Block or not To Block that is the question?

Social networking sites are a big “No! No!”at our school for the students and teachers per the technology department. All social networking sites are blocked by the school firewall. In fact, today I wanted to get my blogger for this class unblocked so I could work on my homework but to no avail. I am still waiting. The technology department cited that they must review the site before it can be unblocked. Although, yesterday our Assistant Principal sent out an email asking for volunteers to attend a class on assisting teachers in setting up blogs. I wondered if the Assistant principal knows that the technology department has these types of social networking sites blocked.
As for me I think it would definitely be an asset to our classrooms. Some students that just don’t seem to be able to put any thoughts down on paper can certainly use Facebook or My Space. My thoughts are that students need to learn how to participate in social networking sites appropriately. The students need to be taught the rules on internet etiquette and how to protect their selves from predators.
During the summer, our AP classes used blogs for their summer reading books. The students were able to relate to each other concerning their thoughts on the reading material through this monitored blog. The students encouraged each other to read and to express their thoughts. This blog presented opportunities for self-expression and friendship building that would never occurred with just a summer reading assignment.
I know there are several negatives to blogs such as risky behavior, cyber bullying and revealing too much information about ones self. At some point students need to be responsible for their actions. As educators, we should teach students internet safety and develop policies for the use of the social networking sites at school. If students fail to abide by the rules then consequences should be given. The American Association of School Library’s survey revealed that “social networking tools are becoming more and more vital in a student's education.”

What makes your website unique?

In order to get the reader's attention, the media center's website must be unique and valuable to the user.

As stated by David Warlick(2005), we “must challenge ourselves to step back and examine the overreaching goals of our job—assisting students to become successful learners as well as supporting teachers in their efforts to create and craft meaningful learning experiences for their students—and to do this within the context of a contemporary information environment.” I think this statement sums up the way we should be thinking when we are planning our media center website. The website should meet the needs of the students, teachers and the community.

Unfortunately, when I have been scanning some school’s media center websites I have found that many websites have not been updated in a couple of years. To me, these websites are useless. If the media specialist does not care enough to update their own site then why would someone even bother to look at the website. Other websites disasters are: 1) websites that are wordy 2) websites that hard to read because of fonts and/or colors 3) some websites contained pictures that have not been compressed or files that were too large and the sites would not open 4) many contain links that do not work.

The perfect website on the high school level would contain 1) information about the media center including policies and procedures 2) equipment available (to students, teachers, & community members) 3) OPAC 4) databases 5) pathfinders 6)media center events 7)Wikis 8) Book talks 9) video clips –students love images 10) widgets (Apple has tons of free downloads)

Another point made by Warlick is that people do not come to the internet to read. A website must be snippets of information or links to additional information. People are typically just scanning for information. In order for a website to be useful it must catch the readers attention.

Warwick, D. (2005). Library media programs in a web-wise world. Knowledge Quest. January /February 2006 retrieved from http://staging.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqarchives/v33/warlick.pdf

Media Center Web Pages

I believe that a media center web page is the media center’s second front door. An effective media center web page pulls together, in one unified interface, the media center resources, policies and procedures and any other needed information for the teachers, students, parents and other members of the community.

As a media specialist is determining what to include on the school’s media center web page, it is important for her or she to keep the targeted audience in mind. Information that is needed by teachers, students and parents should be included on the web page.

What to Include for Teachers?

Teachers are always searching for new ways to teach lessons to their students. They are always searching for good books to read and valuable websites and technology resources to use in order to enhance their lessons for the benefit of their students. Because this is reality, why not help decrease the amount of research time for the teacher by providing them with easy access to lists of good books, valuable websites and other resources to use in order to help them better plan for their students. Teachers would appreciate lists of books, to use in the classroom, that correlate with the Georgia Performance Standards for their grade level. A list of websites that contain lesson plans already created would also help to benefit the teachers and also help to improve their instruction. If certain technologies are present in the school, such as SmartBoards, it would be beneficial to have a link to information about using SmartBoards and also lessons already created for the SmartBoard. It is important for the media specialist to make the media center web page teacher friendly!

What to Include for Students?

Students love reading good books! We know this for a fact; therefore, media specialists should include book lists organized by genres to help students find the right book for them. Book talks and book reviews should also be included on the media center page in order to help the students become excited about reading. A list of the recent book award winners would also be helpful for the students as they begin their search for a good book. The students also need to know the hours that the media center is open and the procedures for checking out books. This information should be easily located on the web page and presented in a format in which students can read and understand easily. We also know that students love to search the Internet and are required to use the Internet frequently to complete assignments. Therefore, media specialists should provide the students with a list of student friendly websites that will help them complete their assignments successfully. The websites should be listed in an organized and friendly use manner.

What to Include for Parents?

Parents are very interested in what is happening at their child’s school. Therefore, it is important to provide access to this information. A media center calendar would be very beneficial for the parents to be able to access on a regular basis. The Accelerated Reader program is used in many schools and some parents are interested in how the program works and a list of AR books that are located in their child’s school library media center. This information would be beneficial for parents as they help assist their child in becoming a better reader.

Web Page Layout

As the media specialist begins typing all of the information for the web page, it is important for him or her to lay out the information in a way that is user friendly. When viewers are locating information on a web page, they want to be able to scan the words and paragraphs and find their information quickly. Therefore, it is important to indent the content contained on the web page, to keep the paragraphs short (no longer than 3-4 sentences), to use bullet lists to display information, to use different style fonts and different color fonts for information, and to include images to catch the viewers eye. A user friendly media center webpage will be in the making if those tips are used!

Wiki Who????

First, I did not really think about Wikipedia being a wiki site. I know that as a teacher that I am constantly telling the students that you cannot use information posted to Wikipedia because it can be written by anyone. It never fails that in their research papers the students will cite Wikipedia. Well, a wiki site is a web page that can be viewed or modified by any person using the internet.

Wiki’s are excellent tools that teachers can use to allow students to collaborate on certain topics. This summer one of our high school language arts AP teachers created a wiki on her Wetpaint webpage and students had to post discussions about their summer readings. It was amazing how enthusiastic the students were with the summer work assignment. In their words, the students said, “We only had to post and not write an essay”. The students never realized it was the same assignment but the discussion board served as their writing portion of the summer assignment.

I would use a Wiki in my media center so students could write books reviews on books that they read. This is an excellent way for students to interact with others on their reading interest. Of course, the drawback would be that someone might post inappropriate thoughts but of course the student’s name would be attached to his posting. Other opportunities for wikis in the media center could include calendar sharing and live AV conferencing.

I think Wiki’s are great collaboration tools and maybe some people only consider Wiki’s as storage cabinets. The difference between the two would be how the person using the Wiki perceives its usage. The more thought and input that the wiki designer puts into the site the more useful the site will become to students. In this digital age, students will use high order thinking skills if there is a link to technology.

The drawback at my school would be that we do not allow chat rooms. I would just have to convince my technology department the educational value of using this tool. A solution may be to host our own wiki on the school server or locked some pages of the wiki from public view.

The Wonderful World of Wikis

Who knew that we would so quickly shift from the wonderful world of libraries to education being such a multi-media event! The shift is dramatic and encouraging, however I think there are many who are still reluctant to jump on the band wagon. I too, would have been one of those who lagged behind simply because it is easier to keep doing things the way I always have as opposed to taking the time to learn something new. The most beautiful revelation I have had is that most of the new ways of creating and presenting information are not all that time consuming to learn. I read a note on a friends fridge that said "Fear is a feeling, trust is a choice." We must get beyond the fear we feel and trust in the future of education.

What does this have to do with Wikis you ask? Well, wikis are one of the new ways to present information that could be a good catch. The media specialists at Harrison High School where I spend much of my time, created a Wiki using a free source so they were limited to 100 who could join. But, they forged ahead thinking that if this really caught on, they could worry about that later. So, they worked and planned and created a Wiki that provided email sites for each department and links to websites that would be beneficial to them. They also included a generic site for postings of information that would be appealing to everyone. Teachers could also post any relevant ideas they had that could help others.

Great idea...right?!?! Well, they only had 3 teachers join. I asked what they thought might be the issue? Overwhelmed was the reply. Ever feel that way? Every day your kid comes home from school with a new blog you are supposed to visit, or you buy something new and are supposed to visit that website as well. Weather, news, information, emails, school, work, church, etc. The list goes on for sites you must visit. Training was the other reply. Possibly if the teachers had an in-service to be trained on how to use a Wiki, see how easy it is to use and realize the teaching advantages it would create, then they might be more interested in taking the time to visit.

Podcasting:Reaching the Digital Learners

One of my roles as a media specialist is to stay abreast of all the new technologies. If a teacher ask me to help him with a podcast and I knew nothing about podcasting then of course I would be honest. Next, I would express my desire to learn about how to create a podcast. I would explain to him that I would research podcasting and let him know my findings by the end of the day if possible. My number one goal as a media specialist is to collaborate with teachers on making the classroom a successful and exciting place for students. In addition, these digital learners prefer a multimedia approach to education.

My first step would be to find resources on how to conduct a podcast. Next, I would locate the equipment needed and download software to deliver a quality podcast. Then, I would complete a trial run of my own podcast so I could model for this teacher the steps in creating a podcast for his class.

After this teacher’s class was successful in creating podcasts, I would conduct an in-service training for teachers using this class as an example. I would suggest ways they could use student created podcasting in their own classroom.

· In the media center, I would conduct book talks and post on my website.

· In the history classes, students could create podcasts to interpret documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Students could do virtual tours of countries using a podcast.

· In language arts, students could create podcasts of poetry or plays. A podcast could be used as an assessment at the end of a unit.

· In math, students could create podcasts to explaining methods to solve math problems.

· For our special education teachers, I see this as great way to reach those auditory and visual learners. In addition to motivating these learners, podcasts gives students a way to deliver their thoughts in a non-text mode.

This list is endless for the possibilities of incorporating podcasts into a teacher’s lesson plan to reach those digital learners. Not to mention, the endless numbers of podcasts that are available on the internet just by using searches such as Podzinger or Yahoo Podcasts. Kathy Schrock has an evaluation guide for podcasts listed on her website at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/evalpodcast.html. In the in-service training, I would include a copy of the School Library Monthly website on Podcasting 101 for those who are unsure about using this resource.