Librarians feel compelled to acquire eContent from only one distributor because it is too confusing – for them, for students, for teachers, for business managers - to purchase eContent from a variety of distributors, thus materials selection is driven by who they buy from, not what a
igns with the curriculum. This is a classic example of the tail wagging the dog.
It is our job to develop our collections, aligning them with our school/district’s curriculum – not to buy ready-made packages from vendors. It is our job to create, instructional materials, and to determine how to best assess our students’ learning. This requires granular knowledge of our patron base, our curricula, and our collections. You can't fake this. It takes a long time to build that knowledge base. If we relinquish these responsibilities to commercial interests, we literally sell out our own profession.
eContent requires meticulous, patron-aware (rather than traditional) cataloging. It is virtually (no pun intended) impossible to “display” eContent. There is no way to physically put it in the hands of students, if students are using their own technology. This is not happening for a few reasons:
Since vendors and library management systems have made it possible to import MARC records, librarians, as a whole, have been falling out of the cataloging practice.
Cataloging is time consuming, and tedious work.
Cataloging, as we learned it, doesn’t work for our students. We have to reinvent it. For example, at New Canaan High School, we add the project name as a subject heading to each title in the eCollection that supports it.
In BYOD programs, library programs should be undergoing significant instructional transformations that evolve as students’ facility with mobile technology increases. The ratio of print to digital content should be contingent upon students’ ability to access eContent. Developing a system to calculate this would help school librarians make sound decisions about format choices."
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:
In these days, organizations choose to migrate their data from Exchange to office 365. It has numerous advantages which are quite significant when compared to on-premises migration. Office 365 is m...
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Their mission ...
To continuously monitor attacks on freedom of information worldwide;
To denounce any such attacks in the media;
To act in cooperation with governments to fight censorship and laws aimed at restricting freedom of information;
To morally and financially assist persecuted journalists, as well as their families.
To offer material assistance to war correspondents in order to enhance their safety.
When you need little extra cash to cover some unexpected expenses, you can simply trust upon popular same day payday Loans proposed by some of the online lenders. These services help employed people to avail the small cash advance in urgency and that without going through the trauma of traditional lending. It provides the effortless and quick way to arrange the loan facility to tackle any financial problem.As the name says, these are instant short term loans that help to get the desired cash in the shortest time possible simply by proving your repaying ability with the upcoming salary. The online market is a hub of lenders that offer such credit to the loan seekers based on their need and repaying ability. But before making the final decision, you must consider the following details that will assist you to make the favorable decision.
Excellent post with suggested scripts to use in responding to patrons when they ask why the library does not have a certain ebook title. Also gives a sample script to provide to patrons to use in contacting the big publishers (and contact information).
The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 151 acclaimed art partners from across 40 countries. Using a combination of various Google technologies and expert information provided by our museum partners, we have created a unique online art experience. Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share. With a team of Googlers working across many product areas we are able to harness the best of Google to power the Art Project experience. Few people will ever be lucky enough to be able to visit every museum or see every work of art they're interested in but now many more can enjoy over 30 000 works of art from sculpture to architecture and drawings and explore over 150 collections from 40 countries, all in one place. We're also lucky at Google to have the technology to make this kind of project a reality.
We create economic value out of information when we figure out an effective strategy that includes aggregating, filtering and connecting.
So, the real question is, how do we design filters that let us find our way through this particular abundance of information? And, you know, my answer to that question has been: the only group that can catalog everything is everybody. One of the reasons you see this enormous move towards social filters, as with Digg, as with del.icio.us, as with Google Reader, in a way, is simply that the scale of the problem has exceeded what professional catalogers can do. But, you know, you never hear twenty-year-olds talking about information overload because they understand the filters they’re given. You only hear, you know, forty- and fifty-year-olds taking about it, sixty-year-olds talking about because we grew up in the world of card catalogs and TV Guide. And now, all the filters we’re used to are broken and we’d like to blame it on the environment instead of admitting that we’re just, you know, we just don’t understand what’s going on.
The five forms of filtering break into two categories: judgement-based, or mechanical.
However, even experts can’t deal with all of the information available on the subjects that interest them – that’s why they end up specialising.
As we gain skills and knowledge, the amount of information we can process increases. If we invest enough time in learning something, we can reach filter like an expert.
There can also be expert networks – in some sense that is what the original search engines were, and what mahalo.com is trying now. The problem that the original search engines encountered is that the amount of information available on the web expanded so quickly that it outstripped the ability of the network to keep up with it. This led to the development of google’s search algorithm – an example of one of the versions of mechanical filtering: algorithmic.
heingold also provides a pretty good description of the other form of mechanical filtering, heuristic, in his piece on crap detection. Heuristic filtering is based on a set of rules or routines that people can follow to help them sort through the information available to them.
Filtering by itself is important, but it only creates value when you combine it with aggregating and connecting. As Rheingold puts it:
The important part, as I stressed at the beginning, is in your head. It really doesn’t do any good to multiply the amount of information flowing in, and even filtering that information so that only the best gets to you, if you don’t have a mental cognitive and social strategy for how you’re going to deploy your attention. (emphasis added)
I've been seeking a way to explain why I introduce Diigo along with Information fluency skills in the E-Learning for Educators Course.
This article quickly draws the big picture. Folks seeking to become online teachers are pursuing a specialized teaching skill that requires an information filtering strategy as well as what Rheingold calls "a mental cognitive and social strategy for how you're going to deploy your attention."
"What it is: IDroo is an educational multi user whiteboard that lets students instantly collaborate online. Everything that is drawn or written on the whiteboard is visible to all participants in real-time. IDroo supports an unlimited number of meeting participants, the only limitations are computer power and internet connection speed. There is a professional math typing tool built-in making it easy to teach or work through math problems collaboratively. Best of all, IDroo can be used with Skype! IDroo is free for non-commercial use. Now for the downfall (and this is a HUGE downfall in my humble opinion), IDroo is currently only available for Windows. I know, disappointment for us Mac lovers. *sigh* If you are using a Windows computer this is a great way to collaborate online!
How to integrate IDroo into the classroom: IDroo would be a great app for collaborating with other classrooms around the world. Students can use the multi user whiteboard space to work together, share ideas, and brainstorm. IDroo would also be fantastic as a way for teachers to tutor students virtually. Set up an "open lab" time once a week online where students can drop in and get extra help. Virtual lab times are especially helpful for elementary students who can't dictate their own schedules and often can't stay after school for extra help.
Tips: Don't forget to allow IDroo to access Skype API after you download!" iLearn Technology
Public libraries have long lived by the "Blockbuster model": require people to drive to a physical location, pick up a physical book, then drive home, only to repeat the driving a few weeks later when the book is due. And how well did that approach work out for Blockbuster as iTunes and Netflix made digital delivery a reality?
But books haven't gone digital as quickly as music and then movies did. Early attempts at e-book lending were execeptionally clunky affairs involving special OverDrive software, few choices, and a poor browsing interface. Getting books onto devices involved downloads and USB cables.
Enter the Kindle. Amazon's hugely popular e-reader hardware and apps recently opened access to public libraries in the US, which can use the Amazon account and distribution infrastructure to control and distribute time-limited e-books to library patrons. Will we ever drive to physical libraries again? After testing the new system, it's safe to say: yes. Yes we will. But Kindle library lending provides a glimpse of the future rushing so quickly at us.
Are you new to learn Spanish Language? Looking somewhere to learn Spanish? There are many ways that you can use. The best way to learn Spanish is to buy a Spanish Learning book. Book is the least expensive way to start. Here is a well written Spanish Learning Book for Beginners. "How To Learn Spanish For Beginners" is the best Spanish learning book, which will really help you to understand the sounds and structure of the language. It consists of consists of examples of mostly commonly used phrases, commonly used greetings, commonly used Help and Directions, Wish Someone Something, Spanish Expressions and Words written in Spanish to English. Download the Book from here - http://www.amazon.com/How-Learn-Spanish-Beginners-Phrases-ebook/dp/B00L85OCLE/.
asteLink is a simple to use tool that allows teachers and students to send large files (up to 250MB) without having to sign up and register for a service. Users can also share as many files as they want and they will stay accessible to the other party for a full week. This is a great site that breaks the 10MB email cap that most schools enforce and it is simple to use with its drag-and-drop file loading and no registration requirement. A great way to quickly and easily send a large video or photo file that otherwise might require a service with a registration or a physical media exchange.
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...
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In these days, organizations choose to migrate their data from Exchange to office 365. It has numerous advantages which are quite significant when compared to on-premises migration. Office 365 is m...
From classroom pop quizzes to RSVPs for your family reunion, you can use Google Forms in tons of different ways -- which is why it's important to be able to customize each form to fit your needs. Starting today, you'll be able to take advantage of four new features to create your perfect form: progress bars, data validation, embedded YouTube videos, and custom messages.
"Welcome to Serendip's Exchange! Glad you stopped by.
Looking for "the answer" to a question? There are plenty of websites out there which will tell you what to think. Serendip instead aims at helping you to think for yourself, and in the process of discovery to formulate new questions and new explorations.
Nothing on Serendip is "authoritative", but there is lots here that you can learn from and contribute to. See (and click on) the material below and to the right for recently added discussions. Click here for publishing guidelines."
Zoom-In Inquiry is often an introduction portion of a lesson. During this activity, students uncover a primary source image piece by piece in order to understand a big idea or theme related to curriculum standards. An investigative question starts the exploration and guiding questions focused on observation, interpretation, and evaluation follow as pieces of the image are revealed one at a time. Students use evidence and subject specific vocabulary to support their hypotheses. Students reflect on their understanding of the primary source and its relationship to "the big picture" or a large scale understanding that is overarching and essential to the subject. Finally, other related primary sources are presented that ask students to apply knowledge and understanding from the Zoom-In Inquiry to a new source or problem.
May 15, 1924 issue of Library Journal, Helen E. Haines wrote about contemporary fiction
It offers constant problems and perplexities
strong role in domesticating
Booklist, Bill Ott, likes to say that librarians are divided into information people and story people
Librarians, historically, have been at the place where new formats and new technologies happen to people in their daily lives.
Plato was concerned that the new-fangled idea of writing stuff down would dilute scholarship and make men lazy
even the best of writings are but a reminiscence of what we know, and that only in principles of justice and goodness and nobility taught and communicated orally
I thought perhaps she would extend the You-Tube example back to the oral and getting away from the written word
change is our only certainty
argued between those who consider all fiction foul or useless and those who see no harm in it at all
Jamie Larue, director of the Douglas Public Library in Castle Rock, Colorado, calls librarians �the keepers of the books, the answerers of questions, and the tellers of tales.
Our job is to keep ideas and make them available.
Le Guin's words remind me of is how important it is to keep ideas that we do not comprehend, or believe in, or agree with; to keep them safe, and to keep them available. If librarians don't do this, who will? There is no other profession enjoined to preserve and disseminate all the truths of humankind that is our job.
also need to remember that some ideas thought worthless today may turn out to be the bedrock of tomorrow's truths
available not just good ideas and noble ideas, but bad ideas and silly ideas and yes, even dangerous and wicked ideas.
librarianship is the connecting of people to ideas
readers need to have available to them truth in all its myriad guises, light and dark, easy and difficult
core values of librarianship are access and service
always like to mention a few books that I think my audiences would enjoy
Susan Patron's The Higher Power of Lucky.
Ann Bausum's With Courage and Cloth
Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel
nformation person and a story person
Technology is our campfire. Change is what happens:
copyright is designed not only to protect the rights of owners, but also to preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation.
the critical test for fairness in terms of educational use of media is transformative use
adds value to, or repurposes materials for a use different from that for which it was originally intended, it will likely be considered transformative use; it will also likely be considered fair use
BGA filed suit against DK for copyright infringement. The courts threw the case out, agreeing with DK's claim of fair use. The posters were originially created to promote concerts. DK's new use of the art was designed to document events in historical and cultural context. The publisher added value in its use of the posters. And such use was transformative.
The fact that permission has been sought but not granted is irrelevant. Permission is not necessary to satisfy fair use.
What is fair, because it is transformative, is fair regardless of place of use.
One use not likely to be fair, is the use of a music soundtrack merely as an aesthetic addition to a student video project.
adding value, engaging the music, reflecting, somehow commenting on.the music
photocopying a text book because it is not affordable is still not fair use
a discussion to
"develop a shared understanding of how copyright and fair use applies to the creative media work that our students create and our own use of copyrighted materials as educators, practitioners, advocates and curriculum developers."
This seems like an obvious share. An important discussion because it also opens more collaboration with colleagues. I have found that some colleagues want to avoid the gatekeeper because of the conservative nature of understanding copyright and fair use. This has been even more difficult while being in an international school.
This is a webquest designed by Camilla Elliott.
"A new tourist company, 'Antarctic Tours', wants to establish monthly trekking tours in the Antarctic for four months from November to the end of February. They plan to take 400 trekkers to Antarctica during this four months each year. The Australian government has requested that an Environmental Impact Team explore the impact of this tourism proposal on the animals and natural environment of Antarctica. The Environmental Impact Team will be made up of a Tour Operator, an Environmentalist, a Scientist and a Politician. This Team will present a report to the government with recommendations to either support or argue against giving the go ahead for 'Antarctic Tours' to begin operations in November this year"
