One of my "new" favorite tools is voki. I used this tool to create an introduction to databases for students in my library. "Hey, that looks like you!" Showing up may be half the battle, getting them to pay attention to your content is essential for learning.
I know other people may already use this tool regularly but I found it to be very easy and a real attention getter for my students so I wanted to be sure that other educators reading this blog will be able to integrate it into their content areas.
In case you haven't found their site, 4teachers.org offers free generators for quizzes and rubrics along with a host of other online content. Did I mention that these tools are free?
Short post, but good things need to be shared!
Showing posts with label Library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Library. Show all posts
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Getting Ready for Summer
So once again we are nearing the end of another school year. I don't know about the rest of you but I've been flat out since March. Testing, getting the lab cleaned up, shelf-reading, weeding, helping students with projects, working with teachers to coordinate research and library time... Needless to say it's been crazy!
This particular article is for new librarians. Something you ought to consider is developing an end of the year check list of items that need to be completed before you leave.
Inventory: now I know this can be a daunting task, especially the first time and if you work alone it can be difficult. Call a library friend with similar software, make sure you understand the process. If you don't have someone in your professional network who can help, check the web for instructions on how to inventory using your library software.
Create an Annual Report: start with what went right this year, include circulation numbers, the number of people using the library space, database usage, important additions to the collection and any losses you've experienced. Examine the threats to your program, what is keeping you from really getting things done? Include quotes from library users, both good and bad. What opportunities do you have to improve services? Include pictures of people using the library. Use graphs to report statistics. Try to find the positive.
Clear out things that are broken, or unused. Most libraries have a motley collection of broken junk. Get rid of it, send broken equipment out to be repaired. Remove broken furniture. Clean like your mother is coming to visit. Make that your Mother-in-Law...
Start lists of what you need for next year. Clean out your files both physically and virtually. Prepare new folders for next year.
Being organized will keep you from feeling overwhelmed when the new year starts. Finally your library is clean, your shelves are read, your desk is clear. Take a picture, because it starts all over again in a few weeks!
-AMA
This particular article is for new librarians. Something you ought to consider is developing an end of the year check list of items that need to be completed before you leave.
Inventory: now I know this can be a daunting task, especially the first time and if you work alone it can be difficult. Call a library friend with similar software, make sure you understand the process. If you don't have someone in your professional network who can help, check the web for instructions on how to inventory using your library software.
Create an Annual Report: start with what went right this year, include circulation numbers, the number of people using the library space, database usage, important additions to the collection and any losses you've experienced. Examine the threats to your program, what is keeping you from really getting things done? Include quotes from library users, both good and bad. What opportunities do you have to improve services? Include pictures of people using the library. Use graphs to report statistics. Try to find the positive.
Clear out things that are broken, or unused. Most libraries have a motley collection of broken junk. Get rid of it, send broken equipment out to be repaired. Remove broken furniture. Clean like your mother is coming to visit. Make that your Mother-in-Law...
Start lists of what you need for next year. Clean out your files both physically and virtually. Prepare new folders for next year.
Being organized will keep you from feeling overwhelmed when the new year starts. Finally your library is clean, your shelves are read, your desk is clear. Take a picture, because it starts all over again in a few weeks!
-AMA
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Why Librarians Don't Want To Be In Charge Of Educational Technology
A friend of mine recently posted a blog entry on why librarians should be in charge of technology in schools. In larger school districts I believe that Doug Johnson is right there needs to be a Chief Information Officer and that should be Librarian, with an Information Technology background.
Knowing that I've been bitten by the tech-bug you would think that I would agree with his assessment of the situation. While this may work in big school districts, I don't think it will work out well in the smaller school districts for three reasons.
#1 In a small school district the librarian's focus should be on 21st Century Skills.
While this includes digitial communication and the ethical use of information resources, a librarian needs to be able to focus on literacy. Literacy in this case in not just technology lingo. Literacy can mean the difference between students becoming skilled thinkers or Luddites.
#2 Technology demands need to be the center of someone's attention in the smaller school district.
If the librarian is attempting to teach, collaborate with other teachers on their curriculum needs or work on a special project with school administration while having to fix or fulfill all the technology needs in a school, their focus cannot be student centered. Technology is a demanding discipline that requires serious maintenance.
#3 Being a model for 21st Century Skills in a small district requires a certain amount of glamour.
Implementing and developing professional training for colleagues regarding new technology is a big part of being a role model. Running ethernet cables, setting up equipment, fixing fried motherboards, cleaning spilled coffee out of a keyboard is not glamorous nor does it provide people with a positive view of 21st Century Technology. Not to say that in a pinch, we can't do that. I have and will continue to pitch in when our tech department needs assistance.
Though I agree with my friend that this is where our bigger school districts need to go, I think the smaller school districts need to forge working partnerships with their technology oriented cohorts. Modeling student technology needs for the Information Technology department and helping them understand our pedagogical reasons for implementation of technology in education.
My two cents.
-AMA
Knowing that I've been bitten by the tech-bug you would think that I would agree with his assessment of the situation. While this may work in big school districts, I don't think it will work out well in the smaller school districts for three reasons.
#1 In a small school district the librarian's focus should be on 21st Century Skills.
While this includes digitial communication and the ethical use of information resources, a librarian needs to be able to focus on literacy. Literacy in this case in not just technology lingo. Literacy can mean the difference between students becoming skilled thinkers or Luddites.
#2 Technology demands need to be the center of someone's attention in the smaller school district.
If the librarian is attempting to teach, collaborate with other teachers on their curriculum needs or work on a special project with school administration while having to fix or fulfill all the technology needs in a school, their focus cannot be student centered. Technology is a demanding discipline that requires serious maintenance.
#3 Being a model for 21st Century Skills in a small district requires a certain amount of glamour.
Implementing and developing professional training for colleagues regarding new technology is a big part of being a role model. Running ethernet cables, setting up equipment, fixing fried motherboards, cleaning spilled coffee out of a keyboard is not glamorous nor does it provide people with a positive view of 21st Century Technology. Not to say that in a pinch, we can't do that. I have and will continue to pitch in when our tech department needs assistance.
Though I agree with my friend that this is where our bigger school districts need to go, I think the smaller school districts need to forge working partnerships with their technology oriented cohorts. Modeling student technology needs for the Information Technology department and helping them understand our pedagogical reasons for implementation of technology in education.
My two cents.
-AMA
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Librarians and Cataloging
Today I met with an aspiring school librarian. We talked about cataloging because that is her next class, and the importance of being able to find information in your library.
Long ago in the dark ages, when I took cataloging, doing it yourself by hand was the only way to make sure that information in your library had a proper location. Cataloging and classification of materials used to be the center of a librarian's universe. A librarian would spend hours examining books for subject headings, measuring and precisely recording the size and shape of a book so that other librarians could find and retrieve information for patrons. Theory and relationships factored into how a book was finally classified. When your librarian had finished with the book it was ready to be shelved, sometimes never to move again during it's entire stay in the library.
Books and librarians have changed. While being able to catalog a book properly is still important (thank you to my cataloging teacher) there is nothing more important in your library than the students these materials are intended to help. Cataloging can still take me away to a quiet place where I achieve a certain Zen Oneness with the library universe, but most of the time, I admit to not having time to catalog. There I said it, go ahead call me a blasphemer, but I don't believe that using the Library of Congress or OCLC as a source for records is wrong.
Cataloging as we knew it 20 years ago should not happen in small libraries. We do not have the resources to spend an hour cataloging 10 books by hand, most of us don't have the resources we had even five years ago. Clearly there will be exceptions i.e. libraries without Internet access, special books that don't have records in the big libraries, ephemera (still my favorite to classify) and self published items, just to name a few. If you want to be a cataloger there are libraries out there that are looking for you...
But, if you want to be a library media specialist ask yourself the following questions: What is the real reason you wanted to work in a library? Did you think it would be a quiet place where you could read and not be disturbed? Where you would look at books all day long and never be bothered? Or did you want to help people find information, learn how to distinguish the good stuff from bad? Do you like helping people? Libraries today are not bastions of silence. At least not my library and not any of the others that I have visited. Libraries if done right, are the center of a school or community. A library is where the heart of learning and culture in your building should exist. If your library is a quiet place where people are afraid to ask questions, you need to find a real librarian.
-AMA
Long ago in the dark ages, when I took cataloging, doing it yourself by hand was the only way to make sure that information in your library had a proper location. Cataloging and classification of materials used to be the center of a librarian's universe. A librarian would spend hours examining books for subject headings, measuring and precisely recording the size and shape of a book so that other librarians could find and retrieve information for patrons. Theory and relationships factored into how a book was finally classified. When your librarian had finished with the book it was ready to be shelved, sometimes never to move again during it's entire stay in the library.
Books and librarians have changed. While being able to catalog a book properly is still important (thank you to my cataloging teacher) there is nothing more important in your library than the students these materials are intended to help. Cataloging can still take me away to a quiet place where I achieve a certain Zen Oneness with the library universe, but most of the time, I admit to not having time to catalog. There I said it, go ahead call me a blasphemer, but I don't believe that using the Library of Congress or OCLC as a source for records is wrong.
Cataloging as we knew it 20 years ago should not happen in small libraries. We do not have the resources to spend an hour cataloging 10 books by hand, most of us don't have the resources we had even five years ago. Clearly there will be exceptions i.e. libraries without Internet access, special books that don't have records in the big libraries, ephemera (still my favorite to classify) and self published items, just to name a few. If you want to be a cataloger there are libraries out there that are looking for you...
But, if you want to be a library media specialist ask yourself the following questions: What is the real reason you wanted to work in a library? Did you think it would be a quiet place where you could read and not be disturbed? Where you would look at books all day long and never be bothered? Or did you want to help people find information, learn how to distinguish the good stuff from bad? Do you like helping people? Libraries today are not bastions of silence. At least not my library and not any of the others that I have visited. Libraries if done right, are the center of a school or community. A library is where the heart of learning and culture in your building should exist. If your library is a quiet place where people are afraid to ask questions, you need to find a real librarian.
-AMA
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Numbers talk...
When people come into your library, what do they see? Is it a busy place full of students? Are you working with teachers on their lessons? Do they see students approaching you for help?
Every school library should look like this, and most libraries today do because we live in the information age. How does that translate into institutional value? Often it doesn't. Administrators and community members don't understand the value of libraries because they haven't seen what you do, don't have time for a visit and are worried about things like test scores. If you want your program to be seen as valuable you have to talk the same language as your administrators and community members. Words like circulation, Ethernet cable, T1, LCD, database usage, check-outs, cataloging and OPAC mean nothing to people outside the library. So how do you communicate if you're not speaking the same language?
In most civilizations (or tribes if you will) the first communication between two groups is a trade or barter and to do this effectively, you provide an equal number of goods. Once numeracy rates are settled upon you know what you have to bring to the table in order to get an equitable trade.
Your first meeting with the head of your school is a similar dance. You find out what they know about what you do and what this administrator perceives as added value. Administrators are generally not given tours of libraries during their training. Their courses are in curriculum, education reform, school law, school finance, education technology, statistical analysis of data, assessment and evaluation. Do you see libraries in this list? No?
I'll give you a hint: most librarians perform monthly statistical analysis of library data when they pull the numbers from their databases, catalogs and room usage. You do speak the same language! Well, part of it anyway. Use your numbers to create a report on library and technology usage that lets your principal see what you do, when you do it and how it adds value to your school.
Don't be afraid to make correlations. Is circulation up in the library? Are reading scores? If the answer is yes to both questions, make that point! Is circulation down, are reading scores? Use that to emphasize the importance of libraries to reading. Reports should be narrative, emphasize numerical information, indicate problems, propose solutions, be easy to read (no more than three pages), graphics are good and most importantly they should reflect who you are, what you do and how you add value to the school.
An administrator does not have time to read all of your data, so put it in charts and graphs. Add pictures of students in their library media center to the report. Keep it simple and clean. Not sure if it's ready? Read it. Does your report start with a narrative? Does it contain a strong body of data? Did you include both opportunities and threats in your analysis? What do you foresee happening from this information for next year? In five years?
Remember that you have value, and that students need you. How do you help with student learning?
-AMA
Every school library should look like this, and most libraries today do because we live in the information age. How does that translate into institutional value? Often it doesn't. Administrators and community members don't understand the value of libraries because they haven't seen what you do, don't have time for a visit and are worried about things like test scores. If you want your program to be seen as valuable you have to talk the same language as your administrators and community members. Words like circulation, Ethernet cable, T1, LCD, database usage, check-outs, cataloging and OPAC mean nothing to people outside the library. So how do you communicate if you're not speaking the same language?
In most civilizations (or tribes if you will) the first communication between two groups is a trade or barter and to do this effectively, you provide an equal number of goods. Once numeracy rates are settled upon you know what you have to bring to the table in order to get an equitable trade.
Your first meeting with the head of your school is a similar dance. You find out what they know about what you do and what this administrator perceives as added value. Administrators are generally not given tours of libraries during their training. Their courses are in curriculum, education reform, school law, school finance, education technology, statistical analysis of data, assessment and evaluation. Do you see libraries in this list? No?
I'll give you a hint: most librarians perform monthly statistical analysis of library data when they pull the numbers from their databases, catalogs and room usage. You do speak the same language! Well, part of it anyway. Use your numbers to create a report on library and technology usage that lets your principal see what you do, when you do it and how it adds value to your school.
Don't be afraid to make correlations. Is circulation up in the library? Are reading scores? If the answer is yes to both questions, make that point! Is circulation down, are reading scores? Use that to emphasize the importance of libraries to reading. Reports should be narrative, emphasize numerical information, indicate problems, propose solutions, be easy to read (no more than three pages), graphics are good and most importantly they should reflect who you are, what you do and how you add value to the school.
An administrator does not have time to read all of your data, so put it in charts and graphs. Add pictures of students in their library media center to the report. Keep it simple and clean. Not sure if it's ready? Read it. Does your report start with a narrative? Does it contain a strong body of data? Did you include both opportunities and threats in your analysis? What do you foresee happening from this information for next year? In five years?
Remember that you have value, and that students need you. How do you help with student learning?
-AMA
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Closing Down the Digital Divide
When computers were first introduced in schools a lot of educator's thought that this is the tool that will level the playing field for most students. Computers have allowed students to gain access to more information resources, help children with poor motor control to write legibly and even allow schools strapped for cash to do virtual field trips. Sounds wonderful doesn't it?
When you work in public schools today, it's easy to see which family has money and who doesn't. It used to be harder to tell, but technology has widened our social divide in most places. I'm talking about gear. Not shoes, or special backpacks, but mp3 players, computers, ebook readers and phones. Students bring these items to school and show off their prowess using the latest tools. Creating what I call gear envy. Students who see these new tools want to use them too, and don't understand why their school doesn't have access to these tools.
Schools unfortunately, find themselves falling farther and farther behind in integrating new technologies into lessons and assignments. Part of this comes from funding problems. One of the first places that school boards look to when reallocating funds are libraries and technology departments. These departments support student learning, so school boards and some administrators don't see their direct value to students. Especially if your library and technology department have flexible teaching schedules. So how do you improve your student's access to new technologies?
First you have to give your teachers and support staff access to new technology and professional development on the use of these technologies. Applying for technology grants (Title IID, private foundations and some corporate entities) can sometimes help with funding issues, but grants are usually limited to gear or service providers. Grants for infrastructure upgrades, additional personnel or professional development are few and far between. These things have to come from your community. How do you get your community to see the value of investment in technology? A simple solution is to involve them in your decision making process.
People who are involved in decision making processes will be more invested in the outcome. How? There are several ways really. Are there evening programs coming up in your school? Use these programs to showcase new technology. When people ask how it was done and they will, explain the tool and it's value to education.
Keep it simple, but advertise. Write to your paper and showcase new technologies being used by students. Show off student projects on local cable channels or on the web. Encourage student participation in local technology contests. Emphasize the positive with web brags on student achievement to your community.
Invite community members to participate in strategic planning for your school. Make a school technology plan part of the strategic plan for your district. This kind of comprehensive planning is essential for infrastructure building and professional development. Keep your focus on student needs. Don't let people make it negative or turn the spotlight away from student learning. What every community wants and needs is for their children to become productive members of society. By keeping the focus on student needs, you deliberately remove road blocks and close down your digital divide.
-AMA
When you work in public schools today, it's easy to see which family has money and who doesn't. It used to be harder to tell, but technology has widened our social divide in most places. I'm talking about gear. Not shoes, or special backpacks, but mp3 players, computers, ebook readers and phones. Students bring these items to school and show off their prowess using the latest tools. Creating what I call gear envy. Students who see these new tools want to use them too, and don't understand why their school doesn't have access to these tools.
Schools unfortunately, find themselves falling farther and farther behind in integrating new technologies into lessons and assignments. Part of this comes from funding problems. One of the first places that school boards look to when reallocating funds are libraries and technology departments. These departments support student learning, so school boards and some administrators don't see their direct value to students. Especially if your library and technology department have flexible teaching schedules. So how do you improve your student's access to new technologies?
First you have to give your teachers and support staff access to new technology and professional development on the use of these technologies. Applying for technology grants (Title IID, private foundations and some corporate entities) can sometimes help with funding issues, but grants are usually limited to gear or service providers. Grants for infrastructure upgrades, additional personnel or professional development are few and far between. These things have to come from your community. How do you get your community to see the value of investment in technology? A simple solution is to involve them in your decision making process.
People who are involved in decision making processes will be more invested in the outcome. How? There are several ways really. Are there evening programs coming up in your school? Use these programs to showcase new technology. When people ask how it was done and they will, explain the tool and it's value to education.
Keep it simple, but advertise. Write to your paper and showcase new technologies being used by students. Show off student projects on local cable channels or on the web. Encourage student participation in local technology contests. Emphasize the positive with web brags on student achievement to your community.
Invite community members to participate in strategic planning for your school. Make a school technology plan part of the strategic plan for your district. This kind of comprehensive planning is essential for infrastructure building and professional development. Keep your focus on student needs. Don't let people make it negative or turn the spotlight away from student learning. What every community wants and needs is for their children to become productive members of society. By keeping the focus on student needs, you deliberately remove road blocks and close down your digital divide.
-AMA
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