David,
What I am thinking here is that some of us have not seen the
educational applications of Web 2.0 technologies. They are relatively
new animals. So much of the press has been so negative that I think
the many folks who are leading learners in thoughtful work is being
overshadowed. We may allow our fears to prevent us from exploring.
You ask: Most of us teach in schools that reference "education" in ou
mission statements. How do these tools specifically relate to
education?
Are ALL of these blogs and wikis really useful for education, or are
they just there?
Please take a good look at this year's winners of the EduBlogs Awards.
http://incsub.org/awards/2006/the-edublog-awards-2006-winners/,
especially:
Flat Classroom Project http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/
Duck Diaries http://duckdiaries.edublogs.org/
Polar Science http://www.polar06.yesican-projects.ca/
AP World History Review Wiki
http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/~ahistory/apwhreview/index.php?title=AP_World_History_Review_Wiki
Holocaust Wiki
http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/~ahistory/apwhreview/index.php?title=Holocaust_Wiki_Project
Here are own fledgling examples of 2.0 collaborations with our teachers:
Mrs. McCaslin's Lit Circles
http://mrsmccaslin06.wikispaces.com/Literature_Circles
Mr. Rodoff's Hamlet blogs http://hamlet06.wikispaces.com
Hurston Blog 2 http://zora.learnerblogs.org/
Research Log Template http://researchlogtemplate.edublogs.org/
Last year's pathfinder blogs http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/pathblogs.html
Springfield Art Gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/45367058@N00/
Mr. MacFarland's Global Studies Blog http://globalspartan.edublogs.org/
Mr. Woehlcke's Hamlet Blogs http://ghost0411.learnerblogs.org/
Mr. Martin's Senior Seminar Blogs http://seniorsemfall06.wikispaces.com/
Also look at my friend Darren Kuropatwa's Pre Calc Blogs
http://pc4sw06.blogspot.com/ and his use of Flickr in math
http://adifference.blogspot.com/2006/11/what-does-success-look-like.html
And there's my friend Gigi Lincoln's Night Blog http://nightwiesel.blogspot.com/
And Will Richardson's Secret Life of Bees Blog
http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/
For more examples, visit my 2.0 workshop page for our new teachers
http://joycevalenzaworkshop.wikispaces.com/
I personally find these tools learning tools. I love the webcasts and
podcasts I attend when I cannot attend conference. I love attending
meetings at EdTechTalk. My students are preparing instructional
podcasts and streaming video for our website. I am planning to turn
my own pathfinders into wikis to encourage collaborations.
The tools are easy and most of them are FREE. They can be engaging
and creative. They give young writers authentic audience. Some of
them—Edublogs and LearnerBlogs—were created just for us.
As for safety, the way we set up our blogs, teachers can control the
comments and the level of visibility. We can use these tools to
teach about safe and responsible use. We can work with classes to
jointly set rules for behavior and negotiating content. Nothing is
100%. We must accept that.
David, you say: "We also need to be careful that we don't promote
something that turns out to be less than helpful technology. Some of
you are old enough to
remember laser disks. Those a bit older will remember beta/vhs
battles. I'm old enough to remember four-track/eight-track tape
players."
These tools are free and global. They are embraced by business and
universities. They are a huge part of a flat world growing flatter
and I believe they are far stickier than laser disks and eight-tracks.
They have a power to connect us.
You say: Librarians, as a group, tend to be early users of new
technologies, and sometimes we push for something that turns out to
not be able to deliver
what was promised. When that happens our credibility is reduced.
What happens when we choose not to lead? Who introduces these tools
thoughtfully to teachers and learners across the curriculum?
Joyce Kasman Valenza
Springfield Township HS Library
Phone: 215-233-6030 Ext. 2502 Fax: 215-836-5237
Cell: 215-518-1846
Library website: http://mciu.org/~spjvweb Blog:
http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org
Doctoral candidate UNT SLIS
On 1/25/07, David Lininger <tss003@tnp.more.net> wrote:
> Doug Achterman wrote:
>
> > In a lunch conversation with Joyce Valenza yesterday, we both expressed
> > our distress over the number of people who mentioned that their
> > preference for the
> > listserv was based on the fact that blogs were blocked in their
> > district. Others mentioned that any websites that included a wiki were
> > also blocked.
>
>
> I'm not sure that I completely agree with blocking ALL blogs or wiki
> sites, but I can certainly understand the thinking behind such decisions.
>
> >
> > It seems to me that this is a major battle that our profession MUST
> > engage in--
> > and win. Social software applications such as blogs and wikis, not to
> > mention
> > interactive multi-media platforms like SecondLife, are fast becoming
> > critical
> > tools in 21st century teaching and learning.
>
>
> How so? Most of us teach in schools that reference "education" in our
> mission statements. How do these tools specifically relate to education?
> Are ALL of these blogs and wikis really useful for education, or are
> they just there?
>
> > Yes, there are real
> > safety issues
> > with social software, just as there are safety issues with lab equipment,
> > automobiles, and even bicycles. But in each case, the advantages of
> > their use
> > far outweigh the risks.
>
>
> So what are the advantages that outweigh the disadvantages and risks?
>
> > So what do we do? We teach safe and
> > responsible use. If we throw up our hands and do not engage in these
> > technologies because some
> > uninformed techie tells us we can't, we may as well give up any claims
> > to being
> > instructional leaders. As information specialists, we need to not only
> > embrace
> > such technologies; we need to make it clear to the educational
> > community that
> > banning their use concedes that we are willing to deny teachers and
> > students
> > their greatest educational opportunities.
>
>
> We also need to be careful that we don't promote something that turns
> out to be less than helpful technology. Some of you are old enough to
> remember laser disks. Those a bit older will remember beta/vhs battles.
> I'm old enough to remember four-track/eight-track tape players.
>
> Both four-track and eight-track tape players disappeared after only a
> couple of years because they were replaced almost immediately by
> cassette tapes. Beta, even though it was technically superior to vhs,
> lost out because of some poor marketing decisions, and vhs is being
> replaced by dvd. Laser disks never really caught on, and were replaced
> by dvd.
>
> Librarians, as a group, tend to be early users of new technologies, and
> sometimes we push for something that turns out to not be able to deliver
> what was promised. When that happens our credibility is reduced.
>
> >
> >
> > I am not implying that those who posted about blogs vs. listservs are
> > throwing
> > up their hands in response to district filtering. Their posts merely
> > prompted
> > my thought that we need a concerted effort to fight this battle. How
> > about a
> > toolkit of resources, presentations, etc. that library media
> > specialists can
> > download to use in their own districts? Come to think of it, maybe we
> > could
> > start brainstorming this on a blog. Hey, Joyce, maybe you'd like to
> > host this?
>
>
> To be honest, I'm not a fan of blogs, because they are more difficult to
> use than a listserv. As someone else pointed out, I suspect that blogs
> will go the way of newsgroups (anyone remember those?). A wiki might
> actually serve a limited purpose (I'm thinking about students writing
> their own reviews of books), but someone is going to have to review
> every single post before it goes up. Do you have the time to do that? I
> don't.
>
> Lest someone think that is censorship, just talk to the school
> newspaper, yearbook, or television news sponsor, and ask them how much
> they review before it is published. Why is it reviewed? Liability. In
> our lawsuit-happy society, we have to make sure that nothing is
> published that can't be defended in court. The vast majority of our
> students will not abuse our trust, but there will be a few who will.
> Would YOU want to have even a small amount of cyberbullying on something
> you were in charge of? Of course not. Cyberbullies, like all bullies,
> know that they are doing wrong - they just choose to ignore that
> inconvenient fact.
>
> I'm not opposed to new technologies, but we need to be sure that the new
> idea is actually an improvement over what we already have.
>
> --
> David Lininger, kb0zke,
> MS/HS librarian
> Hickory County R-1 Schools
> Urbana, MO 65767
> 417-993-4226
> tss003 at tnp dot more dot net
>
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