InfoTeacher

Everyone should read this post at the Dangerously Irrelevant Blog (the title of the post is “10 Questions About Books, Libraries, Librarians, and Schools” (great blog to read, by the way — oh, I forgot, I mean btw).

Myna – a web based audio creation site. See the Myna Demo. It looks cool. It shows what can be done and how easy something that used to take specialty equipment can now be done.

Ill admit, I haven’t tried Myna. It was just something I noticed while perusing a new 2.0 Webside called Electric Chalk (now in my Blogroll)  I’m into Audacity and find bandwidth a challenge at times, and I spent too many years working where web link was unreliable.  Same reason I don’t link to You Tubes, but instead download them so that I “have” them whether the web is working or not.

Anyway, cool site, cool tool.

The  New York Times writes more on digital textbooks.  They are coming; they are going to change what we do (probably more than we expect them to), and they are going to change other aspects of teaching and learning.  One open source philiosophy textbook already online for high school math is MathOpenRef[dot]com. I have had links to certain parts of this site for years on my school’s resource page. My impression: it’s terribly under utilized (It’s not necessarily under utilized by my school’s teachers. I teach at an elementary school, and Math Open Ref is a high school curriculum. My school makes use of it’s visuals occasionally; and I do wish more teachers would use it. But I believe it’s very under utilized by high schools who could supplement their texts DAILY.  I think that by doing so, they would better  engage kids. Qualifer: I don’t know what really goes on in high schools. Perhaps they do make use of this, and other digiatal sources on a DAILY basis. I hope so).  I’ve also made use of John Page’s (Math Open Ref’s author) article, “Ten Reason’s Why Technology is Vital to Education”

My school just purchased a new reading series and a new math series. We spent tons of money and these series will last us a number of years (not including consumables).  These new paper books do come with great online supplementation, e books, online assessments and the like — it’s way different than the last new series we bought (only about 8 years ago). 

But, I was just wondering. When we replace this series in a few years, will there be a paper book at all?  Will the entire replacement be digital? Will it use digital readers, e books, online assessments, online projects and online assignments?   Will the reading materials be put on something equivalent to a Kindle instead of old-fashioned paper?  Will the audio reads be Itunes subscriptions instead of CDs that it comes with now? (Text for another post:  Itunes University).

These things are interesting to ponder.  The future will definitely be different than what we do now. How many of us are ready? How many of us are preparing kids now so that when the future gets here they will be ready?  I think we are making progress, but I think we are behind and playing catch-up.

Several universities — Case Western, Reed, Princeton, University of VA, Pace, and Arizona State — are going to issue Kindle’s instead of textbooks.  Wall Street Journal article.

Backpacks would get immediately lighter, and the used text book market would immediately die if (when) this goes widespread.  I’m sure there are lots of other 21st century implications, as well. Soon — sooner than many think — books are going electronic.  This will catch us all by surprise even though we should be preparing for it right now (how to prepare? I’m not sure).

21st Century Library minus the Technology

Equals

15th Century Library minus all the monks

This formula didn’t come from me, see the link to its source, below.

In the movie, I Robot, Will Smith’s character resists the role robots (and all integrated technologies) have come to play in society. Another character accuses him of backward thinking. One quote (approximate), “I guess you would have resisted the closing of the libraries in the early 21st century when all information became available on the Internet.”

I work as a librarian. I actually don’t like the term. Really what I am is an Information Teacher (see the title of my blog).  In a profession that ought to focus people on future thinking, way too many of us are still using antiquated thinking and we use an antiquated term for what we do. It makes you think of old, quiet rooms and grumpy old ladies (sorry, that was my stereotype, but I think many of your male K-12 students are with me on this).  I have a logo at my school’s library that says, “not your grandma’s library.”  I keep it kinda low key, but really want to post it everywhere (link).

http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2009/05/media-technology-specialists.html

The cell phone. It’s now a source of information.  Sure, I could buy an iphone or a Blackberry, but I’m a guy on a budget.  So, I’m talking about the simple cell phone (with unlimited texting — I found that to be indispensable with two teenage daughters, one away at school. We text more than we talk).

Well, text for information. Two sites (that I know of)

1. Text Cha-Cha (spell it, 242-242). Text your question and get an answer. It’s free.
2. Google (of Course!! – spell this one, too 466-453). Send your question and get an answer; also free.

I tried to ask both for the definition of pusillanimous (but I spelled it wrong). I texted “define pussilamous.” From Cha-Cha I got two responses. First, they told me it’s not in dictionary. I tried a different (still wrong) spelling and got the answer, still not in the dictionary, but it seems to mean . . .” followed by a somewhat accurate, but clearly kind of made up definition. 

From Google (sendng the exact same mis-spelling), I got a corrected spelling, “did you mean pussillanimous?” followed by a dictionary definition. Then Google followed with a second text (limited characters allowed in phone texting, you know). The second texttold me the definition came from wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.

I find Google especially to be pretty handy. The “human” response of Cha-Cha might also be handy at times. I’m told you can ask current scores of games, what’s on TV, etc. (limited only by your imagination; trying to ask for a definition was just a way to try it out). Although I don’t know how I would cite that definition, I don’t see using this in a paper so much as just needing on the spot information. I can use this for a lot more than asking for definitions. 

 I added both Cha-Cha and Google to my phone’s address book.  Isn’t the age of instant information exciting? I have my computer with me a lot (though I don’t have mobile broadband), but I have my phone almost all the time.

Kathryn Greenhill from librariansmatter.com – a librarian from Australia posts this on Slide Share.  Really having trouble with the embed, so here is the link.  (I’m not that happy with WordPress’ format – chose it and Edublogs so my district wouldn’t block it; gotta say – Blogger is MUCH easier!!)

In my district, even those of us who TALK quite a bit about these technologies are not DOING them enough. Quite a few more as asking “why bother?” – this show says a lot about why we should bother, though it only touches the broad range of what’s new – no details. In the end, a push to at least try one. (I especially like slide 137 — “No offense, future man, but is everyone in your time retarded?”). Very creative, broad encompassing and interesting.
 

I have created a rubric that can be used for Podcasts of Digital Stories.  I think I am going to jump in head first with a class next week turning their stories into Podcasts. They already have the stories finished, and have created their own pictures, so some of what is in the rubric is a little obsolete. Hopefully they will still catch on as their stories are evaluated. This rubric will help them as they are evaluated on the technology/media side of things. Rubric was created with Rubistar Rubric Maker (they are great, and already have suggestions for categories for podcasts; this rubric was created the simple way — just using the suggested content of categores chosen from the pull down list).

I was going to upload an Excel Spreadsheet but can’t see how to attache a file (except video, audo, image etc), and I can’t even see how to paste a table in here (still figuring out Word Press after using Google Blogger for 2 years).  Email me if you would like to see it until I figure our how WordPress uploads Excel.

Tags: 21st Century Learning

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. 

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.