InfoTeacher

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.

I wasn’t sure it was true, but according to reliable sources, she’s gone. 

I thought everyone knew Ms. Dewey – at least all library/info/technology types — but I discovered today that she is more obscure than I thought.  This is the very same day that I discovered she might be gone.  

Picture from Wikipedia. URL of the Wikipedia entry on Ms. Dewey can be found here. 

In my school district, we frequently email our group for a quick answer. Today I emailed, and one of my colleagues quickly responded with EXACTLY the information I needed. She was a real Johnny on the Spot. I responded (to the whole group) with “never mind, Ms. Dewey found it!” (so that no one else would bother to send the very same info).

A quick note — I probably shouldn’t have called a female colleague Ms. Dewey. She could probably sue me for sexual harrassment. I meant nothing, but Ms. Dewey is the provotive, sexy search engine (I was smart enough to not say that on our district’s email).  

Back to my story. Just in case anyone was not familiar or didn’t know the address, I was going to send the Ms. Dewey URL in the email, but I decided to check it first.  By the way, that URL is (or was) http://www.msdewey.com. But if you go there now, all you see is an very plain page with a button inviting you to install Microsoft Silverlight (no idea what that is). 

So, I went ahead and sent the email, but  I stuck in a quick “never mind, Ms. Dewey is gone,” but I failed to remove the link. In response, I received many questions (one colleague even stuck a quick “are you going wacko over there?”).

Ms. Dewey was owned by Microsoft.  Back when I first discovered her, some were speculating that they were trying to test an entertaining interface to entice people away from Google. They simply used the search content from Live (at that time was it Live or MSN Search?), and let Ms. Dewey be the interesting and entertaining interface. She would always lead in with a short, but entertaining clip (like you had interrupted work at the Circulation desk in the virtual library in which she worked). She would ask you what you were searching for (like any good reference librarian!). Some days she was friendly, and some days she appeared impatient. If you sat idle, she would challenge you to hurry up or ask you if you were still there (knocking on the glass of your monitor). Often she would sing, dance, and had something entertaining related to the holiday or special occasion of the day. She always gave you good search results (not research, but search — she was after all only a search engine and not a real librarian or information professional).

Wikipedia says that “at some point the site became inactive.” They don’t even tell us when she went away. A terrible tribute.

Well, that’s what I get for working too hard. One of my favorite useful and entertaining sites went inactive and I failed to even notice.  I really should go home earlier so I can surf the web for fun.

Goodbye Ms. Dewey. Even though I hadn’t been to your site in quite some time (I confess I Google like the rest of the World), I will miss you. You were a rare fusion of entertainment and usefulness (ok, if you had been that useful, why did I keep going back to Google?).

Tags: Nature of Information

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.