"
Beyond Google -
AddThis
Posted by Mr. Byrne at 2:12 PM
Labels: Google, Internet search, teaching technology, Teaching With Technology, Technology Integration, web search, web search strategies
5 comments:
SIS Media Specialist said...
Geesh Richard, another great resource; like your posts are not enough. Many, many thanks. I have followed your blog for about a year and have learned SO MUCH. I understand you are from CT. Any chance we can get you to the joint annual CASL/CECA (Connecticut Association of School Librarians and Connecticut Educators Computer Association) conference next year?
October 24, 2009 10:35 PM
Mr. Byrne said...
Yes, I am originally from Connecticut. In fact, I went to CCSU for freshman year. I'd like to come to CASL/CECA. Can you send me an email? richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers
Thanks.
October 25, 2009 6:47 AM
Linux and Friends said...
Thanks for the amazing document.
I am aware of a few of the resources listed in the document. However, many of the others are new to me. I will definitely check them out.
November 2, 2009 9:45 PM
dunnes said...
I visited and bookmarked four sites from this post! Thank you for the great resource. Students want to use Google rather than stick to the school library catalog, but they need more instruction on how to do this. I have seen too many children search with ineffective terms, and then waste time clicking on their random results.
November 8, 2009 12:38 PM
Lois said...
Beyond Google is a great resource. I wish I had your skills for taking what you learn and putting it together as you do. I love reading your daily blog.
November 15, 2009 10:04 AM
Post a Comment
Links to this post
Beyond Google: Improve Your Search Results
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/10/beyond-google-improve-your-search.html While working with some of my colleagues in a workshop earlier this week, I was reminded that a lot of people aren't familiar with tools
Download an e-book, watch videos, and use tempates from teachers to learn how to use Windows Live Movie Maker and other tools to make learning more personal with pictures and movies in your classroom." />Stylesheet
Homeschooling can be a good way for your children to learn, but if they don't have a good teacher, then your homeschooling efforts will be worthless. A good teacher is one of the most important asp...
started by milesmorales on 14 Aug 14
no follow-up yet
Unfortunately, too many people consider libraries as mere rooms full of books and computers, and librarians as mere functionaries in charge of the rooms and their contents. When district leaders look for savings in a budget, too often they see the most important teacher in a school as the most expendable. California schools have seen a marked decrease in the number of teacher librarians in recent years. New York City has about 50% more schools than it did in 2002, but more than half of the district's libraries have closed in the past decade. In California, New York, and anywhere else cutting libraries, it's a classic example of a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach to budgeting: there's no shortage of evidence that libraries and librarians - both, together - have a strongly positive impact on student learning.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
WebCHECK Professional, designed for educators and Web designers to use for (1) assessing the quality of Web sites used for assignments and learning activities and (2) determining how to improve the quality of locally-designed personal, classroom, library and/or school Websites.
· WebCHECK Senior, designed for high school students (grades 9-12)
· WebCHECK Middle, designed for middle school students (grade 5-8)
· WebCHECK Junior, designed for elementary school students (grades 2-4)
· WebCHECK for Facilitors, designed for K-12 educators, administrators and higher education faculty to use when assigning a single Web site to be evaluated by groups or classes of students or by educators in an in-service or professional development workshop.
What makes WebCHECK unique:
· based on a foundation of instructional design and motivation theory.
· available online, fully automated, and free.
· both fun and easy-to-use.
· a powerful instructional and learning tool.
· generates a full evaluation report to share results with teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc.
· uses graphs for visual representation of scores and text for details and interpretations.
· On the WebCHECK Web site, you will find all of the instruments, as well as more than 30 lesson plans, designed by school librarians nationwide, that incorporate WebCHECK at various levels and subject areas.
Public libraries in rural areas really don’t have a large enough donor base to make extensive fundraising worthwhile. The other problem public libraries have with outside fundriasing is that if you start taking in a lot of major gifts and donations, then your steady stream of revenue, the local government, may just wind up cutting your funding.
True with school libraries as well; can't fundraise because can't lose current funding, but then feel sense of lack of control over revenue streams? = ick.
“Students who pick their major based solely on postgraduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will in all likelihood struggle in both school and career.”
would agree that public librarians questionably need a library specific degree, or a degree at a graduate level anyway, as evidenced by the wealth of paraprofessionals who often do at least as good a job in that setting, though for management I think you would want someone trained in public management with library experience. In an academic setting, there is a credibility issue that begs credentialling in the areas of research and education, and credentialling to a higher standard than is now present in library schools, hence the inadequacy of the degree university libraries particularly, or at least that degree alone. The degree needs to be reinvented and would best partner to at least confer joint degrees in librarianship and business, education, and other disciplines
The piece I was missing was how to develop workable ideas that were well researched and aligned with the basic tenants of Librarianship.
philosophy and values of librarianship. It also grounded me in supervisory skills, in library management, and collection development.
Paraprofessionals here have been the ones leading the discussion on topics such as fair use, copyright, RDA, cataloging standards, FERPA, etc. There are several levels of paraprofessionals from pages/shelvers, circulation desk workers, catalogers (copy & original), acquisitions, IT Systems, ILL , etc. MLS Librarians are mostly reference & instruction positions, collection development and/or managers. Education is absolutely needed for some positions, but experience should be recognized as well. Our newly hired MLS people would be lost try to perform original cataloging, acquisitions/budget or ILL just as the paraprofessionals may lack the knowledge in instructional pedagogy, management/leadership, etc.
Much of my practical learning during grad school came from my classmates that had worked in libraries for years and were just then getting the degree. They had a MUCH better context for what was going on than I did at 23 and straight out of my undergrad
Require the masters in a specialized field rather than the MLIS. That could definitely work in academia. And you can require directors and managers to have the MLIS, but not necessarily the librarians at the reference desk or running a department like circulation.
But why do acquisitions, CD, or e-resources librarians need the degree? Those are practical jobs, that you do need practical experience for.
Any self-starter with a library job could easily supplement training and hands-on experience with reading books from leaders in the field on the subject, starting a blog, getting involved in conversations in the library community.
But for colleges, this becomes a game of perpetual growth – to secure funding and improve programs, we need more students, more alumni to donate! Job markets shrink, shift and dry up all the time, but rarely does a degree program shrink proportionately
Why I couldn’t pick up a book here, attend a webinar there, and get the same place eventually through grit and dedication like the librarians just a generation before me.
I am a Library Director in a hamlet (pop 3,000) in NH. The likelihood of my ever advancing to a larger library is categorically denied by that degree requirement. It doesn’t matter what experience I bring. Paying for another degree (I have a B.A. and an M. Div.) is out of the question for me, and, certainly, out of the question for the trustees of the library I serve
Laura is correct – being in a rural library is actually very challenging. There are far fewer resources for our patrons – so good luck directing them to the resources they need.
The public school teachers (including the school librarians) in my area have a starting salary that is about $10,000 higher than the starting salary of the public library system. Yet only the school and (some) public librarians are required to have a Masters before applying for their jobs
They are responsible for recruiting too many librarians, and the schools need to take responsibility for over saturation. If not, how are they any different than for-profit colleges or career colleges.
This is a women’s profession. Women are not valued. Hence any professional education we may have is useless in the eyes of…. us. Ah, feminism we’ve come so far.
I realized when I went to library school that it was merely a sham union card for a lowly paid job.
Library school does need to emphasize more about management – not just one class. This is what will make us more useful. The best library directors are those who kept their libraries afloat during the economic downturn. This is because they have the fundamental ethics of a librarian coupled with mad management skills.
This isn’t just in the public sector. Academic librarians have crazy politics to wade through as do school librarians.
What if we migrated from our current degree to a B.A. in Education (with a focus on libraries); an M.A. in Education (with a focus on a particular library type or area); and a Ph.D. in Education (with a narrow focus on a particular library type or area)?
This would also serve to define who we are (educators) and what we do (education: through self-directed, research assistance & instruction, instructive & enlightening experiences
Honestly, I privately refer to this as my fake master’s degree.
There is no unified body to convince that the MLS is somehow superfluous to needs; you have to convince these individuals, 99% of whom have an MLS and probably can see the value in it.
When I first became a librarian, I found that my past experience working in a bookstore was far more valuable to me than my MLS program.
For many, it clearly does not provide necessary or useful theory and practice opportunities.
I think some programs, like the one I attended, relied a lot on theory, and that meant that my dream, of creating better technology, was not quite realized as I needed the practical skills at building technology
A classmate of mine jumped ship and attended a business school in New York, and now works at Goldman Sachs…I stayed on board hoping to do meaningful work; that hasn’t quite happened yet, really because of the emphasis on theory..I think my classmate saw the writing on the wall and made a smart calculated move; I do not like to start something and leave it unfinished,
The survey found that 62% of the respondents belong to a social network. Within the educator subgroups, 61% of teachers, 51% of the principals, and 71% of the librarians indicated they are members of a social network. Educators believe that social networks could provide significant value for education.
A series of studies that have had a great deal of influence on the research and decision-making discussions concerning school library media programs have grown from the work of a team in Colorado—Keith Curry Lance, Marcia J. Rodney, and Christine Hamilton-Pennell (2000).
Recent school library impact studies have also identified, and generated some evidence about, potential "interventions" that could be studied. The questions might at first appear rather familiar: How much, and how, are achievement and learning improved when . . .
librarians collaborate more fully with other educators?
libraries are more flexibly scheduled?
administrators choose to support stronger library programs (in a specific way)?
library spending (for something specific) increases?
high priority should be given to reaching teachers, administrators, and public officials as well as school librarians and school library advocates.
Perhaps the most strategic option, albeit a long-term one, is to infiltrate schools and colleges of education. Most school administrators and teachers never had to take a course, or even part of a course, that introduced them to what constitutes a high-quality school library program.
Three factors are working against successful advocacy for school libraries: (1) the age demographic of librarians, (2) the lack of institutionalization of librarianship in K–12 schools, and (3) the lack of support from educators due to their lack of education or training about libraries and good experiences with libraries and librarians.
These vacant positions are highly vulnerable to being downgraded or eliminated in these times of tight budgets, not merely because there is less money to go around, but because superintendents, principals, teachers, and other education decision-makers do not understand the role a school librarian can and should play.
If we want the school library to be regarded as a central player in fostering academic success, we must do whatever we can to ensure that school library research is not marginalized by other interests.
A great overview of Lance's research into the effectiveness of libraries. He answers the question: Do school libraries or librarians make a difference? His answer (A HUGE YES!) is back by 14 years of remarkable research. The point is proved. But this information remains unknown to many principals and superintendents.
Anyone interested in 21st century teaching and learning will find this interview fascinating.
"As is he habit once every month, I feature here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning a list of some new educational iPad apps that I came across in different blogs and websites. Of course I can not include every single app I bookmarked because the list will be too long, however, the suggestions I have below are the ones that stood out to me from the rest. I invite you to check them out and probably share them with your colleagues."
Nearpod is an interesting new service that teachers can use to create, deliver, and monitor student use of educational content on iPads and iPods. Nearpod is still in a closed beta (they are looking for pilot schools), but what I have gathered about it so far indicates that teachers use it to create quizzes, polls, Q&A activities, and instructional presentations. Teachers using Nearpod to deliver quizzes and polls can look at students' responses individually or in aggregate.
"Failure has been a trending topic on Education Unbound recently, particularly in regards to the disconnect between educational objectives and game-based learning (GBL). The basic problem is that games depend on players failing multiple times as the primary means of learning how to overcome obstacles. Education, in contrast, is predicated on the notion that failure is bad - for the student, the teacher, and the system as a whole."
"SchoolsWorld is a brand-new, multimedia platform, providing innovative and informative content for everyone involved with or wanting to be involved in schools. Besides all the content from Teachers TV, there is something for everyone: videos, interactive games, work sheets, fact sheets, information and latest education news. There's also opportunity to get involved in great competitions and daily polls. With our team bringing more than 25 years of experience in education SchoolsWorld is passionate about connecting people to great education daily."
Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put
Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put
Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put
Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put
put
Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put
Contractions are formed when two words are contracted or put
Contractions
are formed
Contractions
Word Lists
Analogies - New!CapitonymsCompound Words - New!
Contractions
Dolch - Sight
WordsGeography ListsHomophones, Homonyms, etc.Literature Based Word
ListsMath Vocabulary - Most Popular!Monthly Holiday ListsMultiple Meaning Words - New!Phonics & Sight Word
CurriculumPossessive NounsSample
Lists By GradeScience Vocabulary - New!Sequential Spelling
ProgramSound
Alike WordsSyllables - New!Word Abbreviations
Help and InformationFAQs -
Frequently Asked QuestionsPrintablesOur Educational AwardsTestmonials- New!Custom Sentences and Definitions Handwriting
WorksheetsStudent Writing PracticeTeacher Training
VideosGetting Started
Welcome LettersFunding Sources - New!
ArticlesResearch on
Spelling AutomaticityThe Importance of SpellingRecommended Learning
ResourcesImprove your writing
skillsAdopt-A-ClassroomSpellingCity and NCom
put
ingReading ComprehensionIncorporating Spelling Into
ReadingWriting Prompts that Motivate
Contractions
Contractions
when two words
are contracted or
are contracted
are contracted or put
are contracted or put
Contractions
Contractions
Contractions
are contracted or put
Contractions
Contractions
Contractions
Word Lists
Analogies
-
New!
Capitonyms
Compound
Words
-
New!
Contractions
Dolch -
Sight
Words
Geography
Lists
Homophones, Homonyms, etc.
Literature Based Word
Lists
Math
Vocabulary
-
Most
Popular!
Monthly
Holiday Lists
Multiple
Meaning Words
-
New!
Phonics
& Sight Word
Curriculum
Possessive Nouns
Sample
Lists By
Grade
Science
Vocabulary
-
New!
Sequential Spelling
Program
Sound
Alike
Words
Syllables
-
New!
Word
Abbreviations
Help and Information
FAQs
-
Frequently Asked Questions
Printables
Our
Educational Awards
Testmonials
-
New!
Custom
Sentences and Definitions
Handwriting
Worksheets
Student
Writing Practice
Teacher Training
Videos
Getting
Started
Welcome Letters
Funding
Sources
-
New!
Articles
Research on
Spelling
Automaticity
The
Importance of Spelling
Recommended Learning
Resources
Improve
your writing
skills
Adopt-A-Classroom
SpellingCity and NCom
put
ing
Reading
Comprehension
Incorporating Spelling Into
Reading
Writing
Prompts that Motivate
Contractions
Contractions
tractions
Contraction
Contractions
Contractions
are
are contracted or put
Contractions
are
formed
when two
words
are contracted or put
together
are contracted or put
together
are
are contracted or put
Contractions
are
formed
when
two
words
are contracted or
put
together
'Connect your classroom to the world. A free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom. Meet new people, talk to experts, share ideas and create amazing learning experiences with teachers from around the world.'
"The contemporary educational system has imposed many changes in the way teachers share knowledge. It seems that you cannot be a successful teacher without being an EdTech enthusiast at the same time"
Cathy Oxley on 23 Nov 09" Beyond Google - AddThis Posted by Mr. Byrne at 2:12 PM Labels: Google, Internet search, teaching technology, Teaching With Technology, Technology Integration, web search, web search strategies 5 comments: SIS Media Specialist said... Geesh Richard, another great resource; like your posts are not enough. Many, many thanks. I have followed your blog for about a year and have learned SO MUCH. I understand you are from CT. Any chance we can get you to the joint annual CASL/CECA (Connecticut Association of School Librarians and Connecticut Educators Computer Association) conference next year? October 24, 2009 10:35 PM Mr. Byrne said... Yes, I am originally from Connecticut. In fact, I went to CCSU for freshman year. I'd like to come to CASL/CECA. Can you send me an email? richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers Thanks. October 25, 2009 6:47 AM Linux and Friends said... Thanks for the amazing document. I am aware of a few of the resources listed in the document. However, many of the others are new to me. I will definitely check them out. November 2, 2009 9:45 PM dunnes said... I visited and bookmarked four sites from this post! Thank you for the great resource. Students want to use Google rather than stick to the school library catalog, but they need more instruction on how to do this. I have seen too many children search with ineffective terms, and then waste time clicking on their random results. November 8, 2009 12:38 PM Lois said... Beyond Google is a great resource. I wish I had your skills for taking what you learn and putting it together as you do. I love reading your daily blog. November 15, 2009 10:04 AM Post a Comment Links to this post Beyond Google: Improve Your Search Results http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/10/beyond-google-improve-your-search.html While working with some of my colleagues in a workshop earlier this week, I was reminded that a lot of people aren't familiar with tools
