Web 2.0 in Schools: Our Digital Divides Are Showing! October 30, 2008
Posted by mmardis in : Hot Topics , 6commentsThe findings of this year’s longitudinal study suggest that Web 2.0 tools are gaining popularity in schools across the U.S. These tools are enabling forms of communication, collaboration, and learning never seen in K-12 education.
These findings are exciting because they signal the timely, if not prescient, nature of the Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Even a year ago, Web 2.0 tools in schools were less widespread, and so was the need for standards that spoke directly to the role of the school library not only in fostering information literacy and knowledge management. The Standards support a library in which students take responsibility for discovering lifelong curiosity and powerful communication in addition to locating, using, and making sense of information.
Still, the findings also suggest that the use of Web 2.0 tools are in their early stages and that, in some situations, are subject to less-than-ideal integration environments. Research in related fields like school administration and educational technology suggests that the implementation of these tools reveals four levels of influence that take the form of “digital divides” in schools.
The first level of digital divide is access. Access to adequate amounts and types of hardware is an ongoing issue, but we’re now seeing access play out in schools in terms of bandwidth available for applications like streaming video and audio.
The second level of digital divide is skill and Web 2.0 tools present a new professional development and personal mastery imperative for many schools.
The third, and emerging, level of digital divide is policy. All too often in schools, we’re seeing technology policies that enforce slow hardware replacement cycles or restrictive use and filtering policies that block Web 2.0 applications.
The fourth digital divide, motivation, cannot be overlooked. That is, we’re seeing children, teachers, media specialists, and administrators all having different motivations to either adopt, ignore, or actively thwart learning innovation with Web 2.0 tools. Todd Marshall at Syracuse University is doing some very interesting work in this area.
The divide model can be used to describe the implementation in schools if one considers that if problems exist in any quadrant, none of the other quadrants can function properly. But, the quadrant model is just my opinion. What do you think, AASLblog readers?
- Which Web 2.0 tools is your school using?
- What do you consider the hindrances or helps to their implementation in your school?
- What’s your role in the using Web 2.0 for learning? What would you like it to be?
- What questions can we ask on future versions of the longitudinal survey to document how the school library is changing?
Openness in government includes libraries October 30, 2008
Posted by Wendy Stephens in : Check this out! , add a commentFrom Vannevar Bush’s memex to the one-laptop-per-child initiatives, librarians have long been concerned about being supplanted by technology. Now, the digital age has occluded one part of my job description, albeit an extremely minor and clerical one.
When I started seven years ago as a librarian at a high school, one of the strangest duties with which I was tasked was maintaining a pair of binders. Pre-punched and reinforced, additional or replacement pages would arrive, routed from the principal, some time after the school board adopted or modified a policy. This responsibilities caused me more anxiety than any other aspect of my work. On the rare occasion when a teacher or staff member came to consult the binders, I had no way of making sure that the information being consulted was actually up-to-date. The lag time between policy changes and new pages seemed to vary, and those manila envelopes seemed an awfully insecure method of transmission. And I couldn’t figure out a good way to stay on top of it. After all, these sorts of adjustments to our local procedures weren’t the sort of things covered by the news media.
My school district has a great new website, and among its really transparent aspects is the fact that all the board minutes and policies are now online and accessible. Well, accessible for those with web access, but that’s another story.
Any interested party can review the personnel decisions, student transfers, and salary schedules at their leisure. I can’t think of any reason why these sorts of records aren’t as easily accessible for any public bodies. I think the election year has us more aware of openness and accountability in government. I had never thought about electronic correspondence as public record until reading about Sarah Palin’s use of private email accounts for official gubernatorial business.
In the same way teachers are encouraged to post and send home classroom rules, I have begun a concerted effort to document all library media center policies and procedures, too, so that parents and students are better aware of the rights and responsibilities involved with the use of the school media resources. Becoming more open with our communities can only earn us more support for the complex nature of our work. I work in a fast-growing district where the local voters have repeatedly rejected both sales and property tax initiatives to fund education. Perhaps the ability to review how the system makes use of its scant resources will persuade some of the populace that the system is in fact under-funded, now that the record of the public schools has been made, well, public.
AASL News October 29, 2008
Posted by Melissa Jacobsen in : AASL News , add a commentAASL awards offer members more than $45,000
Do you work with a school administrator who provides exemplary support for the library media program in your school? Perhaps you have shown creativity in developing a program to motivate your struggling readers to read. Are you a new school library media specialist who would like assistance to attend an AASL conference or ALA Annual Conference for the first time? Or, maybe you have demonstrated vision and leadership through the use of information technology to build lifelong learners.
The AASL Awards program supports these situations and others through nine awards and grants totaling more than $45,000.
AASL institutes offered in Western New York region
Making professional development a priority for its school library media specialists, the Erie 2 – Chautauqua – Cattaraugus BOCES has contracted with AASL to offer multiple AASL Licensed Institutes on various topics across Western New York State. Funding for the institutes was made possibly by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. Twenty-seven Licensed Institutes will be offered over a six-month period to school library media specialists from multiple school districts. They will have the opportunity to attend three different professional development events. Find out more information on AASL’s Licensed Institutes. Read the full press release.
AASL Fall Forum endnote speaker praises AASL learning standards
Calling AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner “among the most brilliant of those I have seen,” endnote speaker Everett Kline praised AASL’s learning standards for developing excellence in teaching and learning, teaching students to value assessment in their learning process, and offering feedback to students to continually optimize learning. Kline challenged Fall Forum attendees to use assessment in their work in much the same way—to constantly improve or self-adjust. Read the full press release.
Did you miss the Best of the Best from the University Presses program on BookTV?
The 2008 Best of the Best from the University Presses program is available to watch online!
You must have RealPlayer in order to watch the video. View the complete list of books.
AASL News October 22, 2008
Posted by Melissa Jacobsen in : AASL News , add a commentHave you joined AASL’s group on Facebook, yet?
AASL now has a group on Facebook. Are you a member? If not, be sure to look AASL up the next time you are there. Be sure to search for the “American Association of School Librarians.”
New Best of KQ available from AASL
AASL has a new publication available to members and advocates of school library media programs. School Library Services in a Multicultural Society, edited by Patricia Montiel-Overall and Donald C. Adcock, is now available at the ALA Bookstore. This is the second volume in the Best of KQ series. The publication will serve as a resource for school library media specialists as they seek to address the needs of students in an increasingly diverse, multicultural society.
The 2008 Best of the Best from the University Presses program airs on BookTV
Every year, the AASL American University Press Book Selection Committee reviews books from university presses and presents a selection of titles in a program at the ALA Annual Conference. This year’s program will be aired as “2008 Best of the Best from the University Presses” on CSPAN’s BookTV on Monday, October 25, at 10 a.m. (EDT).
South Dakota recognizes the importance of school library media specialists
Recently, Sioux Falls public schools made a $1.1 million investment in their students’ futures by approving the hiring of seven new elementary school library media specialists and monies for new titles in their elementary library media programs. The goal of the process is to get students into the library and interested in reading.
AASL News October 15, 2008
Posted by Melissa Jacobsen in : AASL News , add a commentAASL launches national initiative, Learning 4 Life (L4L)
AASL has launched Learning 4 Life (L4L), a national implementation plan for the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. L4L’s goal is to increase awareness and understanding of the learning standards and to create a committed group of stakeholders with a shared voice. In addition to public awareness initiatives, AASL will create hands-on tools to assist in the implementation of the learning standards and program guidelines. Such tools include assessments, planning and discussion guides, toolkits, educational opportunities (conferences and webinars), best practice articles, and searchable online FAQs and resources. AASL members can download the L4L document for their school’s use in the Professional Tools section of AASL Web site. Read the full press release.
AASL sponsors two Emerging Leaders
AASL is pleased to announce that it will sponsor two Emerging Leaders for the class of 2009. Suzanna Panter, library information specialist at Dumbarton Elementary School, Henrico, Virginia, and Beth Patin, head librarian at Holy Cross School for Boys, New Orleans, will both receive $1,000 from AASL for travel expenses when they attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference in 2009. Learn more about the Emerging Leaders program at the ALA wiki. Read the full press release.
AASL News October 8, 2008
Posted by AASL office in : AASL News , add a commentFall Forum Spectrum Scholar announced
Congratulations to Kathy Carroll, school library media specialists at Ridge View High School, Columbia, South Carolina, for receiving a Spectrum Scholarship for attendance at the 2008 Fall Forum, which will take place October 17-19, 2008, at the Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort in Oak Brook, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Read the full release. Registration for the Fall Forum is still open! Visit www.ala.org/aasl/fallforum for details.
School Libraries Count! longitudinal study 2008 results posted
The second year of AASL’s longitudinal survey, School Libraries Count!, received responses from 6,988 public and independent school library media specialists. A report on the results is available on the AASL Web site. Read the full release.
Standards in Action comments due October 15
The AASL Learning Standards Indicators and Assessment Task Force has completed the second draft of Standards for the 21st-Century Learner in Action (working title). The draft is posted on the AASL Web site for review and comment.
AASL to offer Premidwinter Institute on advocacy
At the ALA 2009 Midwinter Meeting, AASL will be offering a Premidwinter Institute, the School Library Advocacy Institute. Led by Deborah Lebitov, the institute will be held Friday, January 23, in Denver, Colorado. Read the full release. The ALA Midwinter Meeting site is available at www.ala.org/midwinter.
National Student/Parent Mock Election approaching
The National Student/Parent Mock Election seeks to turn the sense of powerlessness that keeps young Americans and their parents from going to the polls into a sense of the power of participation in our democracy. The Mock Election will take place October 30. Learn more about how to participate at www.nationalmockelection.org.
Conferences, lots to choose from! October 5, 2008
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : Check this out!, Conferences, Learning, Opportunities , add a commentAfter the rush of a new school year I was reorganizing my desk. Among the items I re discovered was the program for last October’s AASL conference in Reno. I enjoyed looking over the program but it made me wish this were the year for another AASL conference. I know that the AASL Fall Forum (October 17 – 19 Oak Park Illinois) is near but I will not be able to attend. I am hoping that a few people will be blogging on this site from that meeting.
Meanwhile, I got to wondering what other school library related conferences might be in the works. I knew from LM_NET postings that several were coming up. I asked on LM_NET for a list as a Target. One thing led to another and the project turned out to be bigger than I planned. It would have been nice to have done this a month ago as a number of conferences have come and gone and several are going on NOW.
I have the list that I created posted on the LM_NET wiki for those who want to look it over (left navigation pane, Conferences 2008-2009). There is an excel file also. The list does not just show school library conferences, there are some technology conferences where school librarians are major partners are also listed. As a disclaimer, I expect there are some errors both of omission and of information and I would be happy to make corrections as I receive them.
I also made some observations while looking at my list.
Over the summer there were five conferences.
Three recent conferences were in September.
There are 18 possible conferences in October (Six this past week-end).
November has 10.
December has three
January has two
February has three
March has six
April has eight
May has three
Four conferences have @ as part of their theme as it @your library.
Several of the conferences have established wikis to allow for post conference sharing. Take a look at the Kentucky School Media Association wiki or the Rhode Island RIEMA08 for some examples.
Some of the conferences are co-sponsored, some examples;
Oregon and Washington associations offer a combined conference.
Colorado offered a summer conference co-sponsored by Technology in Education.
Georgia’s conference is a combined effort by Gerogia Library Association, The Georgia Library Media Association, and the Georgia Association for Instructional Technology.
Kentucky’s conference is a collaboration between 2008 National Diversity in Libraries Conference (NDLC) Kentucky Library Association, Kentucky School Media Association, and Southeastern Library Association. Some of the conferences are state library conferences co-sponsored by the state school library association or the state association has a division or special interest group for school libraries. Lastly, there are four regional library associations who are also sponsoring conferences. The Kansas Library Association conference is a joint conference with the Mountain Plains Library Association Conference for example. At any rate, there are lots of opportunities for school librarians to attend a conference. I recommend going, you always come back from a conference with new ideas and new energy.
AASL News October 1, 2008
Posted by Melissa Jacobsen in : AASL News , add a commentChris Crutcher to make appearance in Second Life in support of Banned Books Week 2008
On Saturday, October 4, author of the controversial book “The Sledding Hill,” Chris Crutcher, will make an appearance in Second Life at 8:00 p.m. EDT/7:00 p.m. CDT/5:00 p.m. SLT for Banned Books Week 2008. Chris’ avatar, ChrisCrutcher Bookmite, will appear on ALA Island’s main stage to speak to visitors about the importance of Intellectual Freedom.
Read for the Record Campaign chooses the children’s classic Corduroy
Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Campaign 2008 will be held Thursday, October 2. The event was designed to bring national attention to the importance of early education. The campaign encourages hundreds of thousands of children and adults to read the same book on the same day. The 2008 campaign has chosen Corduroy as its official book. AASL encourages its members to go to its Read for the Record site and register to host a reading event in their school.
Information on transportation to AASL’s 2008 Fall Forum available online
Those attending AASL’s Fall Forum are encouraged to visit AASL’s Fall Forum pages to learn more about the various methods of commuting from Midway airport or O’Hare International airports to the institute. Fall Forum will continue to evaluate the topic of assessment. It will offer attendees ideas for incorporating assessment strategies into their school and various opportunities for networking with other educational leaders on the topic.
ALA President Rettig announces virtual poster sessions
Are you reaching underserved populations; are you vital to local political activity; is your library a center of learning; are you visible outside the building? This year, under ALA president Jim Rettig, members will have the opportunity to showcase their success stories through an ALA-wide virtual poster session. Members are encouraged to share ways that they are making their library vital in their community.
To be considered for inclusion in the poster session, please send a proposal in the form of a summary of your library’s efforts, making sure to address the following points:
- Question or problem (need not be stated as hypotheses)
- Environmental context of the question or problem (such as public libraries, academic libraries)
- Organizational context of the question or problem (internal services, outreach, community analysis, etc.)
- Approaches to address the question or problem (i.e., the specific ways the library and its staff have addressed the kinds of programs and activities mentioned in the Community Central description)
- Outcomes (details on the effects of the approaches, including data, testimonials, or other evidence of community involvement)
The summary must be no longer than 3 pages, double-spaced (one or more photos or images may be included as part of the 3 pages).
Approximately 25 submissions will be selected and will be available for viewing during the month of January 2009. The deadline for submitting proposals is November 15, 2008. Please send the proposals via e-mail to Dr. John M. Budd at BuddJ@missouri.edu.
