Alice in InfoLand

Wow! Share this intriguing video with everyone you know!
The original presentation was created by Karl Fisch, Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Colorado: http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2006/08/did-you-know.html,
then re-mixed by Scott McLeod, a professor in Minnesota: http://scottmcleod.typepad.com/dangerouslyirrelevant/2007/01/gone_fischin.html
And definitely read the comments at both posts for more background info!

also cross-posted at the AASL blog

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Wow: 110 different ways to graphically demonstrate information and concepts!
Although the examples given in the table are all business-based, it should be easy to adapt these into possibilities for revising many of those standard (and boring) “write a report on” assignments.

found via Lifehack.org

A sad reality is that — too often — classroom teachers just don’t know how to effectively utilize the skills of a school librarian.  Here’s the text of a flyer I gave out to teachers every year:

The mission of our School Library program is to:

• develop information-literate students
• create lifelong learners
• help teachers teach

I CAN HELP YOU BY:

• working with you to develop authentic research activities for your classes.
• coordinating information and research skills strategies with classroom curriculum.
• recommending additional resources to extend your classroom materials.
• presenting booktalks about new/relevant books for your classes.
• preparing Project Pathfinders to guide your students to the best resources for your assignments.
  
• brainstorming project ideas, lesson strategies, and topics with you.
• providing guidance relating to the ethical use of information.
• notifying the public library of any class assignments.
  

 YOU CAN HELP ME BY:

• notifying me as soon as possible of any planned resource-based class projects or assignments.
• meeting with me to develop/plan effective resource-based activities.
• reserving class time in the library as far in advance as possible, and notifying me as soon as possible of any schedule changes.
• understanding both the extent and limitations of the School Library’s resources and schedule.
• remaining with your students and supervising their behavior while they are in the library.
• sending no more than two students at a time to the library on a pass, unless prior arrangements have been made.

and the tag line on every notice I sent out:

Having these guidelines clearly defined made connections/cooperation/collaboration by teacher and librarian so much easier for everyone concerned!
 

For my upcoming presentations and hands-on workshops on “how to use Bloglines to look brilliant to your faculty” I’ve put together a set of instructions… using the create a blog capabilities of Bloglines itself.

These are only introductory instructions; I cover more details and advanced strategies during the actual workshops.
The demo blog is at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/Aliceinfoshow2rss

Comments and suggestions gratefully accepted here, since the Bloglines blog doesn’t have any comments capability.

I’m still gathering examples of school library bloggers. Check out an extended list on the TeacherLibrarianWiki that Joyce Valenza has created for us to use as a collaborative courtyard.

tags: RSS, web 2.0, school library, teacher-librarian, CIL2006, ISE2006

The Coordination of School Library Media Programs and Services (aka ‘so you wanna be a school librarian?!’) online course I teach via RU/SCILS/PDS is offered in both the Fall (14 week) and Summer (8 week) semesters.
Since

• I frequently revise course units as I find new readings to use, and have to crunch / expand the course content depending on the timeframe, I end up with files, notes, etc. all over the place,
• My former students often ask if there’s a way they can find out what ‘new’ readings I’m recommending,
• I’m fascinated by the possibilities of web 2.0 applications for EXPLORING AND SHARING information.
  

I’ve decided to try using a wiki for my course-materials, to force me to learn how to utilize and demonstrate this new format.

There are lots of free wiki-hosts out there, but after I noticed that both Steven M. Cohen and Meredith Farkas (two of MY gurus) use PBWiki, that’s a good enough recommendation for me — esp. with a tagline that says “PBwiki makes creating a wiki as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.” So I’ll be setting up my Intro to School Librarianship wiki at http://slmps.pbwiki.com .
Do I need to worry about crunchy or smooth?

Jacquie Henry’s "I will — as a school librarian" meme is a wonderful thought-provoker.  The irony, unfortunately, is that those ‘old style’ school librarians will never even know about it, since it’s not (ahem) available in print, but only on that newfangled read/write interweb thingy.

Use the link in the Navigation Bar (to the right) to access some of my FLIP it!™ materials.

Included so far are:

• Overview and Graphic Organizer
• Background/Explanation of how FLIP it!™ works
• Information Skills Categories
• Information Literacy Standards Matrix
• Research Activity Guides
• Research Reflection form
• Additional Applications of the FLIP it!™ mnemonic
  

If there’s enough interest, I will consider setting up a discussion forum for FLIP it!™ users.

Any questions ? 

 

According to Reed Hundt, former FCC chair, he once asked Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education, to support the legislative proposal for the Telecommunications Law of 1996 that would eventually pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. 

Bennett refused to help, because, as he told Hundt, he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education.  Gee, nice statement from the guy being paid by the guvm’t to set policy for public schools.

Fortunately, the bill did manage to pass, and as Hundt points out in his article at the TPM cafe, "The Internet has been the first technology made available to students in poorly funded schools at about the same time and in about the same way as to students in well funded schools."

 

Transparency in education should be the goal of every teacher, administrator, board of ed member. 
But how do you accomplish that?

Take a look at Mabry Middle School’s website for a wonderful example of how to publish up-to-date info about school activities !   While the principal’s blog sets the tone and addresses the Big Issues, it’s the individual teachers’ blogs — with homework assignments, test reminders, classroom notes, etc. — that open up those classroom doors to the community.

The Media Center’s blog exemplifies the kind of info every school library’s web-presence should include: book recommendations, resource/research guidelines, class projects, library schedule, etc., all in a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

Many schools/districts tell their teachers to "get on the web," but then merely provide minimal guidance,  a basic webpage template, and almost no follow-up… which is why so many teacher pages never get updated.   Mabry’s site uses blogging software (WordPress, I suspect) that offers many options, without requiring complex HTML-coding knowledge. 

Kudos to Dr. Tyson, Mabry’s principal, for this exemplary use of information technology to push learning to the world beyond the school building’s walls.

Thanks to the generosity of fellow bloggers, I can now glean information from various professional conferences without being physically ‘there’ at them!
I started following the PLA blog last January, and now also use RSS feeds for the SLA blog, the LITA blog, and even the unofficial wiki for this year’s ALA conference.
I may not always fully understand what they’re talking about, but it’s still a worthwhile learning experience!

I’m looking forward to learning about/from the NECC and NEA conferences this way, too.

If you’re willing/interested in helping me blog from the AASL conference in October, please let me know! I haven’t settled on a format (and host/server) yet, so any advice will be gratefully accepted. I really think this kind of reportage could be useful as another form of professional development for all school librarians!

Any/all suggestions and willing participants welcome!
Learning is always more fun when you’re doing it with friends.

Ken Smith, on Weblogs in Higher Education, recommends

Bold face. Tim Porter’s custom of putting key phrases in bold face in his longer posts, such as this one, is respectful of a reader’s time and implies the writer is clear about the points he’s making — a nice technique for making a reader-friendly site.

What a great idea!  Think of the time this could save for those of us who read (too much) gobs of text on the screen.  Definitely a technique that I will adapt/use for any lengthy posts on this site.

Michael Lorenzen’s Information Literacy Land of Confusion blog led me to the resources of the 21st Century Information Fluency Project, “Developed to instruct patrons in the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to understand information fluency. Focuses on teaching people how to locate, evaluate, and integrate digital information.”


Notice that qualifier: digital information. For most librarians, info is info, no matter what format is used to produce it.

Still, I do like their distinction between information LITERACY and information FLUENCY:

“Information Literacy can be defined as “the ability to locate, evaluate and use information.”
21st Century Information Fluency is a sub-set of Information Literacy that might best be described as a combination of aspects of Information Literacy and Technology Literacy that people need to locate, evaluate and use digital information resources efficiently and effectively. We call it “fluency” rather than “literacy” to emphasize that the abilities involved are more than basic abilities. But we know that there is a spectrum of abilities ranging from basic literacy to the more advanced levels we call fluency.”

FWIW, I also think it’s important to clarify the distinction between

• Info-Lit as a concept (embracing that wide spectrum of skills and abilities), and some of the
• Info-Inquiry/Processing Models that are frameworks for developing or scaffolding the skills required to demonstrate information fluency.

Annette Lamb has an excellent overview of the variety of models available.
Too many folks seem to think that Information Literacy and the Big6 (for example) are synonyms.  They’re not: each of the processing models are really just arbitrary sets of ‘steps’ used to teach/demonstrate the skills utilized by an information-fluent person. It’s important to understand — and acknowledge — the difference between the basic concepts and the various processes !

Imagine what might be accomplished if some corporate entity would sponsor and convene a
Libraries and Learners in the 21st Century conference
that brings together an equal and representative sampling of both practitioners and pundits
from the overlapping circles of K-12:

• school and public libraries
• educational technology
• curriculum development
• supervision and adminstration, and
• local Boards of Education

No pompous panels of presenters who pontificate but don’t participate here:
At this gathering our actively-engaged education advocates would have already analyzed a core set of readings and are now prepared to put their combined brain-power to work developing the following documents:

1. a glossary of information literacy terms with definitions that all stakeholders can agree on.
2. a comparison of the respective responsibilities of the classroom teacher /school librarian /technology specialist /curriculum supervisor in developing information literacy skills in grades K-4 / 5-8 / 9-12.
3. a matrix identifying how/where to integrate grade-level appropriate information literacy skills instruction within each of the major content areas.
4. benchmarks for developing effective professional collaborations across all areas of the curriculum,
5. an explanation of the teaching function of the library program in the K-4/5-8/9-12 school settings.
6. talking points to use with community groups, local news media, etc., to show  how effective school library programs increase student achievement.

After the conference is over, attendees and other interested parties would use the ‘read/write web’ to continue the initial work through:
— online forums for ongoing discussions to refine the working documents for publication, and
— a wiki to provide a holding place for all relevant links and readings.

And finally, within a year of the original conference:

• publication and free dissemination of the final documents to all attendees, teacher-training institutions, and state and federal departments of education, AND
  
  
• approval /adoption of these guidelines by AASL, AECT, ASCD, NEA, AFT, NSBA, NCTE, NCSS, NSTA, etc.

A girl can dream, no?

I teach an online grad course — Core Competencies for School Library/Media Programs and Services — for new/potential school librarians through Rutgers University’s Professional Development Studies (the off-campus and continuing education program of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies).  The ENTIRE course is done online, and each week’s unit includes (mostly) online readings, asynchronous discussions, and occasional what-if scenarios (dare I call them “What Would Dewey Do”?). Students also have ‘research’ assignments to:
1.  Explore/evaluate various prof. resources,
2.  Investigate a ‘name’ in the field,
3.  Review/analyze a month’s worth of LM_Net postings,
4.  Prepare a pathfinder on a current professional concern,
all of which are to be shared/serve as additional resources for their fellow classmates.

My problem?  This 3 credit course runs in the summer for 8 weeks, and the fall for 14 weeks, and I’ve got to figure out how to crunch/expand the course content to fit those two timeframes!  The course serves as an intro to the functions and services of the K-12 school library and the various roles and responsibilities of the school librarian, with emphasis on the basic management aspects of the job.  Other courses in this program cover children’s, young adult, non-fiction, and reference materials, integrating the library program into the school curriculum, developing multi-media resources, and cataloging, so this course is pretty much the intro/overview of basic knowledge for working school librarians.

For the summer/8 week version, I’ve organized the units as follows:
1.  Roles & Responsibilities
2.  LMC Facility & Functions
3.  Professional Resources (yes, a whole unit on the journals, websites, etc. that ‘support’ our professional endeavers. The wealth of materials out there is amazing!)
4.  Collection Development & Maintenance
5.  School Librarian as Information Specialist
6.  School Librarian as Instructional Partner
7.  Public Relations: Marketing and Advocacy
8.  Strategic Planning

Any suggestions as to which units should be e x p a n d e d for the fall semester will be greatly appreciated!  Even though I’ve taught this course several times before, I continue to revise/update the content and structure each semester.

Salon | 21st: Are we ready for the library of the future?
(found while Googling for images of ‘computers AND books’) — an article written almost 10 years ago addresses an issue that continues to bedevil us:  “Far from becoming keepers of the keys to the Grand Database of Universal Knowledge, today’s librarians are increasingly finding themselves in an unexpected, overloaded role: They have become the general public’s last-resort providers of tech support.”