InfoTeacher

One other seminar I attended at the TIE conference was on an instructional programming language called Python. It looks a lot like the old BASIC language which I’ve been intending to re-acquaint myself with and use with some G/T math kids (hate to keep returning to just G/T kids, but my G/T teacher is open to almost any new thing, and she already does things with kids that may apply to things I’d like to do with kids. If not G/T, then perhaps some 4th or 5th grade kids could “skip” math a couple days per week to do Python with me.) Python gets kids thinking about math — they engage themselves in meta-cognition because they have to think about how a simple math concept is done so they can program the computer to do it. Rather than returning to BASIC (now “Visual” BASIC and different than when I learned it in the ’80s), Python is simple and English based so the kids can think about how to program (and do the math and logic), but the seminar I attended already has many of the lessons prepared for me to teach with kids!  The benefits are that kids engage in higher level thinking as the debug their programs and think about logic and math concepts in a new — detached — manner of thinking. I see many benefits for students. Python is a powerful language with simple possibilities that can make learning fun.

Friday morning. Just sitting in potentially the most informative course of the week. I will post as I listen (if possible). Two class spaces listed on the board as I arrived:

1. http://alsuproom24.wikispaces.com/
2. http://www.room24.blogspot.com/

Fourth Grade Teacher at an IB school in Commerce City.  Obviously these sites are not blocked at they are in my district, now beginningto talk, so I will post and listen. Begins with — I want to tell you HOW to use these tools in the Elementary classroom. I am excited to learn.  Instructor has a wiki up - has a link to a page for TIE for this seminar with questions for seminar participants. We can post comments to his questions live and all can see live updates continuously.

We are starting a district hosted blog, wiki site this fall. I have asked to be a part. After seeing the possiblilities, i intenet to contact my G/T teacher. I think some of the writing activities she does with 4th of 5th grade would be a good place to start - then if I can look for ideas for students to respond to we could increase opportunites for students to write in ways that would get them excited about writing as a way of expression. The 5th Grade social studies unit also might be a good place for students to collaborate on a wiki writing “assignment” that could possibly turn into a perpetual student-led collaboration. 

Obviously I haven’t posted — been trying software tricks at night from seminars I’ve been in each day. Fought with Windows Moviemaker last night for a long while wishing it worked like garageband. Went to another eminar today and saw more tricks from garageband — I’m amazed and really wishing Windows had something remotely similar. I’m about to sit through a Fundamentals of Moviemaker seminar — a change from my original plan — just because I finally figured it can’t be that bad. I must be the one who is unable to teach myself. I know Moviemaker doesn’t do nearly what the Mac does (whether it be garageband or imovie or what . . . ), but it must be a little better than what I’ve taught myself. So, I’m going to sit through this seminar and try to learn what they teach. The instructor was here when I came in and asked me why I attended. I mentioned wanting to get kids podcasting and wished we had something like garageband. He didn’t say (as I’d hoped), “you can do more with Moviemaker than you realize.”  What he said was, “I can tell you about a product called JOURNALIST IN A BOX that lets a Windows guy do just about the same thing as the Mac guys. I’m not to encouraged. I was hoping with Moviemaker we could get remotely close — since I don’t want to have to buy more software (with budget constraints, plus all of the district bells and whistles needed to get software for the school) but use what we already have!

So, I’m sitting in the last session of the CASL preconference — and I have to say how impressed I am. CASL really did things well. With the wiki (http://caslworkshops.pbwiki.com/), all of the handouts from the speakers are available online as well as the schedule and changes to the schedule (if any, I didn’t notice any, but if they had to make some changes, they were ready). Since they are holding this in conjunction with the TIE conference which has a wifi set up all over the Copper Mountain’s conference rooms. Just in case you couldn’t access the web, they handed out flash drive. On the flas drive was a folder containing all of the CASL speaker handouts and notes as well as the PowerPoint from the featured speaker. Wow, I’m impressed and excited. Good learning sessions, too. One last main session, and then CASL session is over and TIE begins in the morning. I’ll try to sum up today’s sessions in a longer post a little later on. 

I’ll be blogging the TIE conference this week to post my thoughts and network with other library/information teacher bloggers. Today is the CASL preconference to TIE. Sitting listening to introductions right now, and looking forward to learning.

More 21st Century Learning Facts to ponder. Are we doing enough to prepare our students [to survive / to compete / to collaborate with / to be informed along with] the rest of the world in the coming age of technology and information (techformation). I spend a lot of time telling members of my staff that I don’t see myself as the technology teacher. I am the information teacher (I am a librarian after all). It’s WAY more important to teach our kids how to handle information than simply technology. They will learn how to use technology, but if they can’t handle information they may be slaves to the technology. To master their futures, our kids need to be techformation literate.

I’ve been saying it for a while. When I introduce encylopedias to students, I try to have both print editions and an online edition to show students (sometimes I even hold up an old CD that we used to have, but I don’t even load that one up; I haven’t used one in 5 years, and their useful life is essentially over). When I talk about the encyclopedia, I usually tell the students (3 or 4 graders) that they will likely never use a print one after they leave Keller (I wouldn’t).

I usually get a very funny look from the teacher. I know they think I’m nuts. Most don’t say anything, but their eyes tell me that students will always use prefer a paper version that that one on the computer. Of course, they would! They tolerate this computer nerd of a teacher, but in reality I’m just a little too positive about the advantages of the computer, the Internet, and  all these cool 21st century tools.

Well, now I have an article to show them. Encyclopedia publishers are beginning to plan for the end of the paper encyclopedia. They see the end in sight, and are actually excited about producing an informations source that isn’t already out of date when the first book hits the bookstore.  Check it out, here.

Generally in life I have this idea that if you hear something once and never hear it again it was not so important. If you hear something, and then hear it again and again and see it and experience it, well you may be in the middle of a dynamic change. In the library world, I have that feeling right now.

Now to be in the middle of a dynamic paradigm shift does not mean that everything that you now know, experience and feel will go away immediately. But these things will change. Sometimes the change is slow. Sometimes the change is fast. Sometimes the changes are both too slow and too fast to be understood; the things you want to change slowly change too fast and you wish you had the time to keep up. Likewise, the things you desire to change fast do not change fast, these things undergo their changes at a snail’s pace.

For about two years I have been following certain blogs. I have started and stopped blogging twice. Once I started and stopped blogging about my former profession as a way of keeping up (but, alas, I have little to say about that profession anymore and I read others’ blogs and though I have started again, I post very little).  Similarly, in the area of information/library/education, I have begun a blog, joined a Ning (social/professional network), and am attempting to learn to wiki by using two different free accounts (and inviting/recruiting as many people to join and experiment along with me as I can).

As a professional who deals in the realm of education and information, I just believe that it is my duty to stay connected to these new forms of information exchange, information education, information technology.

Now as a part of all of this, comes the time to explain to others the difference between a wiki, a blog and the latest thing, a Ning. (As if I fully have a handle on all of this myself). (Pehaps the content of the next post?) Additionally, I struggle with the idea of how these technologies will/are changing education (along with other professions). The web 2.0/library 2.0 phenomenon seems like a concept that will grow and one which the forward thinking librarian/information specialist will be on board.  Some see little change. Others see fads which come and go.  I see the future, but its application is blurry.  Though I can’t see how this will play out, it sure is an exciting time to be a teacher of Information Literacy.

At least two things are true. First, fads to come and go. Certainly blogs, nings, wikis will have some portion of them which are faddish. Some parts of what are super hot/must do today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Additionally, (to quote an old, true saying), “the more things change the more they stay the same.” What I mean by this is that even if every school adopted all of these 2.0 technologies, learning will largely remain as learning always has — with some people on board, some people radically resisting, some people criticizing, some people calling everyone to reform, some people demanding everyone return to basics, . . . etc. Students will need to read and write. Perhaps they will read and write on parchment, animal skins, paper . . . or on the latests electronic storage media. They still read; they still write; they still need to learn to think, analyze, digest and process information. They will still need to learn to put projects together to demonstrate their learning whether these projects are sewn together on animal skins or uploaded to Google notebook. The learning stays the same, but the media may change a thousand times.

Tonight I went to an “old fashioned” (i.e. face to face instead of virtual) meet and greet with my fellow, Southern Colorado school media/information teachers. One again, the topic on hand was blogs, social networks, and wikis. Some are adopters. Some are curious. Some are wondering how we can possibly do it all and serve our school population as we do and still have a life (I’m married to a business owner who works 60 hours a week; my kids are soon headed to college; and I almost feel the calling to devote to the future of the school media/information educator).

I’ve now heard of blogs, social networks, and wikis so often that I am convinced they are more resilient than fads. The way we deal with information is changing. There may be value in seeing what stays the same and what changes, but we must be enough on board with the changes to use the new media fluently (if not fluently, then well enough to minimize our accents so that the new generation can hear enough of what we say to listen and learn).

In my adulthood the nature of what information is has radically changed, and it isn't finished. This makes me wonder how to communicate this to my students. More than ever they must be information literate.

As a part of this new adventure, I am determined simply to post once in a while about something fun. Hopefully the fun will — most of the time — be related to information, learning, teaching or eduation. Sometimes it may be related to none of these.

Today’s fun post is about Ms. Dewey — a search engine that entertains, at least briefly. Nevertheless, she (I insist on personifying her, since her creators obviously intended this) produces interesting information when she is consulted. Check her out, here.  I’ve known of Ms Dewey for over a year. For a time, I actually tried to compare her results to the major search engines just to see if I could see a pattern. Alas, I’m not systematic enough to have discerned any. Somewhere along the way, I lost interest, until, well I don’t know what brought her memory back. So, in the interest of fun, I introduce Ms. Dewey, the informative librarian (with attitude).