The Unquiet Librarian

We are pleased to announce the debut of our Unquiet Library Pageflakes pagecast! What is Pageflakes, you may ask? It is a cool Web 2.0 tool that allows users to create personalized online desktops similar to that of iGoogle. Users can easily add widgets related to education, photos, social bookmarking sites, news, podcasts, fun games, and even comic strips! Our pagecast is designed to give you another avenue for accessing our library resources as well as provide a little fun for you where you can play online games, listen to our podcasts (coming February 1!), and view RSS feeds to some of our most popular library resources.

Please add our pagecast, http://www.pageflakes.com/theunquietlibrary/, to your favorites! We will also be linking our pagecast from our blog and regular media center website the week of January 21, so check back next week!

You can even create your very own pageflake account at http://student.pageflakes.com/. If you need assistance utilizing our pagecast or setting up your own student pageflake account, see Mrs. Hamilton or Mrs. Fleet! You can learn more about Pageflakes in this PC Magazine review from December 7, 2007.

In the meantime, get it together @ The Unquiet Library Pagecast!

I stumbled across this fun and oh so librarian 2.0 tool this afternoon!  Go to http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/ and fill in the fields to crank up your very own catalog card!  Yes!  If you don’t like the way it looks, just hit F5 to refresh, and you will see slight changes in the fonts, tint, and handwriting style.  When you are happy with the results, right click on the image and save to your computer.

You have the option of making a “traditional” print card, an audio card, or even a video card! 

How cool is this?

On Thursday, January 10, the Library of Congress announced exciting news:  it will be partnering with Microsoft to create interactive exhibits and to allow online visitors to take “virtual tours” of exhibits of the user’s choice!  Imagine looking at the Gutenberg Bible or a draft of the Declaration of Independence from the comfort of your own home!  The service is designed to enhance experiences for people who visit the LOC in person as well as via the world wide web.   For more information, surf over to this story at PC World; I am also providing the original press relase from the Library of Congress that was posted this past Thursday:

The Library of Congress and Microsoft Corp. have signed a cooperative agreement that will change the way Library visitors experience history. The joint technology initiative will electronically deliver the Library’s immense collection of historical artifacts to patrons visiting its Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., and will allow unparalleled and immersive interactive experiences that will bring the institution’s vast historical collections and exhibits to life–on-site and online–through the upcoming myloc.gov Web site.

Through Microsoft’s investment of funding, software, technological expertise, training and support services, the Library will deliver a new experience to its visitors through interactive kiosks within the Jefferson Building as well as through rich Internet applications delivered through a robust Web infrastructure.

“Microsoft is helping to put a vast array of the Library’s unparalleled educational resources literally at the fingertips of students and lifelong learners alike, both on-site at the Library of Congress and virtually, through the Web,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “The Library of Congress and the causes of inspiration and creativity will benefit immensely from this act of generosity and expertise.”

“Technology can play such a meaningful role in facilitating the learning and discovery process for people of all ages,” said Curt Kolcun of Microsoft Federal. “This partnership between the Library and Microsoft will help citizens explore the Library’s–and our nation’s–historical treasures in unprecedented ways.”

New interactive galleries will bring to life the world’s largest collection of knowledge, culture and creativity, with virtual hands-on interaction with such items as the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Gutenberg Bible, the 1507 Waldseemüller World Map that first used the word “America,” and original volumes from Thomas Jefferson’s personal library. Key to these experiences will be interactive presentation software for kiosks using Microsoft technologies that will offer incredible fidelity between the on-site and online experiences.

A new “Passport to Knowledge,” with a unique barcode linked to an online account, will allow visitors to “bookmark” areas of interest that can later be accessed and explored in-depth at the upcoming myloc.gov Web site. “Knowledge Quest,” a game-based learning activity, will send visitors on-site and online searching for clues in the art and artifacts of the Library. Teachers will also have access to new educational resources.

The new experience for visitors, both on-site and online, will be powered by Microsoft Web and content-management software.

The agreement is part of a larger effort to transform the public spaces of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building into an experience that combines unique artifacts with cutting-edge technology and invites visitors to explore the collections in engaging new ways. The Library’s new exhibition “Exploring the Early Americas,” which opened Dec. 13, offers a sampling of the new experience. More exhibits and enhancements, including personalized Web sites at myloc.gov, are scheduled to debut later in 2008.

“This spring, when we open the bronze doors of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, we will unleash new ways to tap into the knowledge housed here,” said Library of Congress Chief Operating Officer Jo Ann Jenkins. “Through this new experience, a wealth of information will be accessible as never before.”

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, seeks to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its vast collections of books, manuscripts, films, and art objects from all over the globe. The Library’s award-winning Web site is at www.loc.gov.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

The latest study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “Online Activities and Pursuits:  Information Searches That Solve Problems”, revealed some surprising findings that challenge traditional beliefs about who uses libraries; the report also seems to allay fears that libraries may be losing their relevance in the digital age.   The report highlights these key findings: 

• Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, not just the problems mentioned in the survey.
• Young adults in the tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30)  led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose.
• Young adults are the ones who are the most likely to say they will use libraries in the future when they encounter problems: 40% of Gen Y said they would do that, compared with 20% of those above age 30 who say they would go to a library.

“These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down. Librarians have been asked whether the Internet makes libraries less relevant. It has not. Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are the most likely to visit libraries,” noted Leigh Estabrook, Dean and Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois, co-author of a report on the results.  She added that Internet users with broadband were much more likely to patronize libraries than those without broadband access to the Internet (61% vs. 28%).

The survey did seem to indicate the problem of the digital divide and traditional issues of equity of literacy (as demonstrated in Deborah’s Brandt’s ground-breaking researching in Literacy in American Lives).  The report summary states:

A major focus of this survey was on those with no access to the Internet (23% of the population) and those with only dial-up access (13% of the population). This “low-access” population is poorer, older, and less well-educated than the cohort with broadband access at home or at work. They are less likely to visit government offices or libraries under any circumstances. And they are more likely to rely on television and radio for help than are high-access users.  

What do you think are the implications of this study for us as media specialists and educators?  How can librarians (school and public) better reach those who are not using the library for information?  How can we bridge the gaps highlighted in this report?
 

While I am on the “high” of my “Library 2.0″ moments of the week, I want take time to jot down a few thoughts!

Google Scholar, Google Library, Google Books, Del.icio.us

I used a combination of Web 2.0 tools to locate information sources not in our collection as well as to tap into existing information sources we do have as part of our virtual collection.    I then integrated the RSS feeds for these resources into a pathfinder I created for one of our Honors English teachers.

Conversations I’ve had recently with UGA librarian Nadine Cohen and UGA Professor Mary Ann Fitzgerald have had me thinking about how I could harness the power of Google to point students to quality information sources with more ease.  First, I used Google Scholar and Google Books to search for nonfiction texts that we did not have access to through our databases or print collection.  I then created a “My Google Books Library” to create an online collection that the students could access through a RSS feed link. 

If you have not used Google Books, you MUST check it out!  Books are searchable and some can even be downloaded as PDF files; plain text options are also available for viewing.  Students also get “similar books” suggestions available through Google Books, and they also have bibliographic data available at their fingertips for that particular book.  Students can also subscribe to our RSS feed for this feature and keep up with the latest additions to our Google Books!  These tools are powerful because they provide access to materials you might not be able to obtain in print and increase accessibility to these resources to EVERYONE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

The other tool we have been using as part of our research pathfinders this year is del.icio.us.  Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking web 2.0 tool that allows you to bookmark and catalog your favorite web resources with “tags”—think of tags as keywords or subject headings.  You can access these resources from any computer—not just your home computer.  For this assignment, I tagged some articles from our GALE Virtual Reference Library (GALE is the only vendor right now that we can “infomark” directly to articles, but we are hoping more vendors will get on board with this feature). 

I then used Google Scholar to search for scholarly articles related to our research topics.  While we can’t use Google Scholar to interface with our databases in the ways that college libraries can at this point in time, we do have access to JSTOR, a college level database of scholarly research articles covering all disciplines.  Because JSTOR is a vendor partnered with Google Scholar, we can use Google Scholar to search for articles and then “tag” those articles with our del.ici.ous account.  While some would argue doing this takes away the element of students searching for articles on their own, I would counterargue that this method is more of an “entry” into the database that will hopefully entice students to further explore that information source once they have acquired a “comfort zone” by looking at what we have put on the “menu.” 

The teacher was extremely excited about these new tools and felt it was a major improvement on the research pathfinder from last year (we collaborated in 2006 on this same assignment).  The students will be in here tomorrow and Friday, and I think once they have time to get “immersed” in these tools, they too will feel excited and energized about the research project. 

It makes me feel good to know that I can provide our students access to new materials we don’t physically own!  I also am excited that I can use web 2.0 tools to help my students “mine” or find an entry into quality information sources we own but that may be intimidating to students.  I hope that this hybrid of web 2.0 tools will make our database resources and books seem “cooler” and more relevant to our students.

That is today’s Library 2.0 roundup!

Are you trying to create a cool, Photoshop-ish badge or logo image for your website, blog, or wiki?  Check out this cool new tool I found courtesy of Joyce Valenza:  typoGenerator.  You simply type in your text, click a button, and this magical web 2.0 tool will create a beautiful and striking image for you!  If you don’t like what it generates, you can keep repeating the “try again” button until you get something you like.  Here are some samples I created for our new 23Things@TheUnquietLibrary project.

One university professor has decided to take Wikipedia and turn it into a teaching tool for her students in her environmental history course at the University of Washington-Bothell.  After perusing Wikipedia, Dr. Martha Groom noticed that the information was lacking in information related to topics she covers in her course.  Consequently, she decided to do away with the end of the term research paper, and instead, students are now required to write a complete entry on a course topic or to do a major edit on an existing topic related to the course syllabus.

Dr. Groom cites several benefits to this assignment:

• For her students, the Wikipedia experiment was “transformative,” and students’ writing online proved better than the average undergrad research paper.
• Knowing their work was headed for the Web, not just one harried professor’s eyes, helped students reach higher — as did the standards set by the volunteer “Wikipedians” who police entries for accuracy and neutral tone.  The exercise also gave students a taste of working in the real world of peer-reviewed research.
• Most of the articles were well received, but Groom said some students caught heat from Wikipedia editors for doing exactly what college students are trained to do: write an argumentative, critical essay.

Dr. Groom also feels that this assignment presents a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about using quality and authoritative information sources as well as evaluating information.  In addition, she believes her students have a better understanding of how to go the extra mile to do secondary research that goes beyond “surface” level research.  However, Dr. Groom is disappointed that the Wikipedia editors have been sometimes “rude” in their responses to student entries.

You can read more about Dr. Groom’s experiences by checking out these links:

• Yahoo News
• Ars Technica
• CNN Technology

I think that Dr. Groom has had a stroke of instructional genius here!  What do you as teachers think about this assignment?  I have emailed Dr. Groom to see if we can get a copy of her assignment guidelines.  If any of you are interested in collaborating with Ruth or me on this kind of research project for your students, please let us know…this assignment could be incredibly beneficial on many fronts and would definitely cover many of the Georgia Performance Standards that you are required to teach in your courses.

Buffy

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.437676&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Check out this COOL and easy to use Web 2.0 tool:  VoiceThread!  Voice thread allows you to record a single or multiple voices and images to create a multimedia show that is personalized and applicable for educational projects as well as personal multimedia endeavors.  Your VoiceThread presentations can be made public to anyone or you can make them accessible to selected individuals.  You can even set up an account for individual classes that will allow multiple classmates access to the account for group projects!  As you can see, you can also embed your VoiceThread presentations in your blogs.    To learn more about the exciting features of VoiceThread, check out their FAQ page! 

Better yet, visit this actual VoiceThread presentation that SHOWS you what VoiceThread can do!

Check out these great sample VoiceThreads created by teachers and students….the possibilities are endless for integrating this into your classroom!  Goodbye, PowerPoint!

• VoiceThread as a Multimedia Venn Diagram (very cool)
• BookTalks/Book Reviews/Book Reports
• What is Function?
• Measurement and Uncertainty
• Density
• Measuring Volume of Weird Objects
• Graphs of Functions
• The Industrial Revolution

If you want to use this as an instructional tool or as an learning artifact for your students, please see me or Mrs. Fleet—we will be glad to help you get started!

Buffy Hamilton

I am playing with a cool new Web 2.0 tool for annotating web pages!

Live from Treasure Mountain: My Rant – NeverEndingSearch – Blog on School Library Journal

Thanks to the Teachers First Tech Edge page, I came across this fun tool, Fleck, for annotating web pages.  How, you may ask, does this relate to instructional real world practice?  Here is what the experts at Teachers First had to say:

Summary of Fleck:

Fleck allows you to put sticky notes and other annotations onto existing web pages and share them with others. Now you can tell students exactly what you want them to do on a page, point out instances of bias or unsafe Internet practice, etc. You can put effective reading strategies right ON the text of the page. See an example here. Your students can also “fleck” to each other as they work on group projects, noting how they will use information or categorizing what they find. Fleck uses FLASH and does not work well on TOP of Flash-driven pages. The annotated pages take a few moment to load, even on a quick connection.

Possible Uses:  Professional and Instructional

• Student research projects
• Guided reading of web sites,
• Comprehension questions, guiding questions, annotations for tough vocabulary with younger students or students who may be below grade level reading
• Internet safety lessons, students analyzing sites as part of information literacy lessons
• Art critiques by you or students
• Student collaboration and source-sharing
• Professional notes for your own reading or graduate work, etc.
• Assign students to “Fleck” a site as an assignment in critical thinking and turn it in by sharing with you

Skills Needed/How to Get Started

• Join the site and wait for the confirming email (usually pretty fast).
• While you are waiting, click over to the HOME page and watch the “How this works” animation. Then try the link to “So why don’t you give it a try.” (This trial will NOT be saved!)
• Enter the URL of a page you wish to annotate at the top of the Fleck screen and click GO.
• Use the toolbar that appears with the web page to add notes, etc. and SAVE.
• You can also download an extension for Firefox or bookmarklet for Internet Explorer (to make a Fleck button on your toolbar).
• Be sure to choose public or private for Flecks you make when you SAVE (can be changed).
• Share your Fleck by clicking the Share button and emailing a note to your recipients– or yourself.
• The email actually provides a URL (link) to the annotated page. Unfortunately, sending the email is the only way to get the actual URL. Once you have it, you can copy/paste it to give to students in an assignment, etc.

Safety Notes/Possible Web Safety Issues

• To use Fleck safely, you can have students use your login account to make their own Flecks. If students have their own email, they can also have log-ins, but you have no monitoring over what they do.
• For safety’s sake, you might want to require all student Flecks to be private and shared ONLY with class members.
• Since enforcement is tough, start with the teacher-only account and make Flecks for students to SEE. Once you are comfortable with the tool, allow students to use your account. You will not know WHO made inappropriate Flecks, but you can see and delete them from one place.
• Of course, you will need to test whether Fleck is blocked in your school (we hope not).   NOTE:  I am posting this from home, so I am not sure if this is blocked on our CCSD network.
• IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: This is a public site, and some of the “recent Flecks” that show on the HOME page are NOT school-appropriate. TeachersFirst has contacted Fleck about this concern, but — until it is resolved– we recommend starting from the member home page we have provided and avoiding Fleck HOME altogether. 

“I propose that we listen to the signals that come through the walls of our classrooms from the outside.”

Anne Ruggles Gere 

The value of social networking and its place in 21st century education was the talk of the town at last week’s National School Boards Association’s Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.  The association released a report, “Creating and Connecting”, that detailed the findings of a survey conducted by the association in conjunction with research firm Grunswald Associates that examined the use of social networks by school age children and the implications of those findings for public educators.  The study was comprised of three surveys: an online survey of 1,277 nine- to 17-year-old students, an online survey of 1,039 parents and telephone interviews with 250 school district leaders who make decisions on Internet policy.Here are some of the findings from this survey:

·          96% of the students surveyed who online access had reported they had used social networking technologies, which includes chatting, text messaging, blogging, and online communities like Facebook and MySpace.
·          81% of the students surveyed said they had visited a social networking website in the last three months.
·          71% of the students surveyed reported using social networking tools at least once weekly.
·          60% of students reported that they discuss educational topics on their social networks; 50% reported that they specifically discuss homework.

What do students use social networking sites and tools to do?
·          Posting messages
·          Sharing music
·          Sharing videos
·          Sharing photos
·          Building websites or online profiles
·          Blogging (1 in 6 reported adding to blogs they have created weekly); 30% of the survey participants reported having their own blogs.
·          Creating content

Students who identified themselves as nonconformists—students who step outside the rules of online safety and behavior rules—tend to be the ones who are the cutting edge of social networking.  Nonconformists tend to be significantly heavier users of social networking sites than other students. 

How do these facts relate to school district policies regarding access and the use of social networking tools and technologies? 

·          84% of school districts in the survey prohibit online chatting ; 81% prohibit instant messaging on school networks. 
·          62% of school districts in the survey do not allow participation in blogs on campus; 52% of the districts do not permit students to use any social networking sites at school.
·          School district leaders seem to believe that negative experiences with social networking are more  common than students and parents report. For example, more than half of districts (52 percent) say that students providing personal information online has been “a significant problem” in their schools, yet only 3 percent of students say they’ve ever given out their e-mail addresses, instant messaging screen names or other personal information to strangers.      Similar differences occur between districts’ beliefs and students’ and parents’ reported experiences with inappropriate material, cyber bullying and other negative incidents.  While many educators now require their students to use the Internet or have web access for assignments, school policies across the country do not show that administrative decision makers are convinced about the value of social networking technologies as effective educational tools.  However, the survey indicated that attitudes may be shifting; the following results may be hints as that policy changes could be on the horizon:  ·          District leaders say they hope social networking will help students “get outside the box” in some way or another.  However, fewer than one in three (29 percent) believe that social networking could help students improve their reading or writing or express themselves more clearly (28 percent).
·          Large proportions of district leaders say that a strong emphasis on collaborative and planned activities (81 percent), strong tools for students to express themselves (70 percent) and an emphasis on bringing different kinds of students together (69 percent) would be required for them to buy into social networking for school use. But most also would insist on adult monitoring (85 percent) and would continue to prohibit chat and instant messaging (71 percent) as conditions of social networking use in school. 

After reviewing the data in the survey, The National School Boards Association made the following recommendations in their report:
 ·          Explore social networking sites.
·          Consider using social networking for staff communications and professional development.
·          Find ways to harness the educational value of social networking.
·          Ensure equitable access.
·          Pay attention to the nonconformists.
·          Reexamine social networking policies.
·          Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value.  

How might the findings of this study and these recommendations affect our technology use in the Cherokee County School District?  What are ways we can harness the educational value of social networking?  We are already using del.icio.us, a social bookmarking service, as part of our pathfinders here at the Creekview High School Media Center as well as blogs.  We are also considering how we could establish a presence on Facebook and MySpace like many college libraries have already done in order to be more accessible to our patrons.  What do you, as students, teachers, and parents, see as the potential of Web 2.0 tools for learning and true educational value?  Do you feel the current use of Web 2.0 tools by CRHS is helping you learn?