School libraries: making a difference.

I am preparing the annual budget for next year’s spending and in the process explaining to the business manager that using digital resources in school does not that they are cheaper than the old, hard copy/print resources. I am explaining that the digital resource world does not necessarily mean free and that some of the better digital resources have an annual cost linked to them.

The annual library report will also stress that the skills that the teacher (or school) librarian  has and the knowledge they can impart to students is even more important in today’s learning climate. The staffing for next year will again be considered and I will have to report on what the library staff have contributed to the learning environment this year and what we plan to do next year. We have a number of ICT projects that we are in the process of developing to support the work we are doing with classes and individual students and teachers. There are various ways to present evidence for the statements in my report and there I thought I would try to present some of the statistics visually as an infographic. At the moment it is a “work in progress”.

Information from my PLN meant that I came across the video below which summarises some of the arguments I have been making to my school administration

The video below was produced by the New Jersey Association of School Librarians with funding provided by its advocacy partnership with LibraryLinkNJ.

Useful links (Weekly)

  by  shareski 

• Beta! | Services to Schools Timeframes was a great site for finding digitised heritage content from the largest public collection of photographs in New Zealand, the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Although it is still developing and changing the site, Beta (National Library online channel) will be replacing Timeframes as the premium channel for finding and browsing the digitised, born-digital and physical collections of the National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library. Here you can dive into nearly half a million digital photographs, paintings, drawings and many other different types of images alongside all of the published collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library and National Library.

• HelloSlide – Bring your slides to life HelloSlide is a pdf-only tool that allows you to add computer-generated voice to your documents. Upload your presentation, type the speech for each slide, and the programs automatically generates audio. Presentations are searchable, editable, and available in 20 different languages. An edit feature allows you to tweak the speech without re-recording the audio. Translations are available as a paid feature. This may be useful for ESL learners. (Note: it is super easy to export PowerPoint and Keynote files as pdfs.)

• Online Presentations | Mobile Video Presentations | eLearning | Brainshark This promising tool allows you to add voice to PowerPoint, documents, images, spreadsheets, or videos. (MyBrainshark supports nearly 100 video formats.) Polls may be inserted. Users may add narration with their phones or computer microphones or by uploading a pre-recorded MP3. Speaker notes may be displayed as a support. And visual dashboards allow creators to track viewing results.

• How Adobe DRM Requires People to Pirate Library Books | TorrentFreak Interesting discussion posted just after March 28th (Document Freedom day). “The goal of the day was to spread awareness about the increasing need to adopt an open standard for public as well and privately held documents. The e-book industry is one which is in dire need of such a standard. Currently, ebooks are often protected with DRM, which has become famous for causing problems for the customers who pay for those ebooks.”

• How DRM weakens publishers’ negotiating leverage with retailers – Boing Boing

• Use Google Docs to Facilitate a Digital Writer’s Workshop ~ Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners A post about using Google Docs to facilitate the writing process. The author identifies some of the useful features available in Google Docs to support writers. Ideas about how to take advantage of document sharing and comments for feedback and collaborative writing.

• Comparison of Citation Software at MIT – Overview of Citation Software at MIT: Managing Your References – Research Guides at MIT Libraries Research Guides. Overview of Citation Software at MIT: Managing Your References. “Citation software (also called “bibliographic software,” “citation managers,” or “reference managers”) helps you to: import citations from your favourite databases and websites. Build and organize bibliographies. Format citations for papers. Take notes on articles and save them in your collection of citations. Save and organize PDFs, screenshots, graphs, images, and other files for your research.”

• Digital Differentiation ~ Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners A good site for supporting lesson and unit planning. “The goal is to design student-driven learning experiences that are fueled by standards-based Essential Questions and facilitated by digital tools to provide students with flexible learning paths.”

• A Head Teacher’s Thoughts on Leadership and School Libraries – Pedagog Malmö Thoughts on Leadership and School Libraries from one Swedish example.

• Research and an infographic about research « NeverEndingSearch As with all information it behoves all of us to carefully examine the logic of what is presented to us. Joyce Valenza looks carefully at research and an infographic about research. “As I looked more carefully at the infographic, as I really read it, I began to see some distorted truths and some opportunities for information literacy explorations.”

• Transforming Information Literacy for Today’s K-12 Learners Through the Lenses of Transliteracy, Inquiry, and Participatory Learning | The Unquiet Librarian Slides from Buffy J. Hamilton.

• schoollibraries2011 – checklist for parents There are no facts and figures about the school library on the My Schools website, yet the library and the teacher librarian play a vital role in your child’s education. So are Australian children and young people getting the best deal? ASLA research shows that a strong library program that is adequately staffed, resourced and funded can lead to higher student achievement regardless of the socioeconomic or educational levels of the adults in the community. This is a 10-point checklist designed for parents to investigate if their school is investing where it counts.

• Do I Really Have to Leave the Role of School Librarian To Do the Work of a School Librarian? | The Unquiet Librarian Great piece by Buffy Hamilton rebutting a piece by Linda Braun in an issue of School Library Journal. It was a cover feature story called, “Next Year’s Model: Sarah Ludwig left the library, became a tech coordinator, and forged a path to the future.” Buffy: “Unless I have misinterpreted the article, author Linda Braun wonders if school librarians have to leave the library and take on a completely different job title to do the work of a modern school librarian.The thesis seems to be that school librarians taking on job titles other than school librarian, like “technology coordinator”, might be the future of the profession. While I’ve had my own misgivings about the future of the profession, I respectfully disagree with Linda Braun and would argue that such a path will only lead to the demise, not the flowering, of our profession’s future.”

• When Authors Take Risks, That’s Not Kid Stuff – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com Article by Patricia McCormick.Young adult authors are doing some of the most daring work out there, taking creative risks — with narrative structure, voice and social commentary.

• Content Curation: Truths, Threats, Motivations and Opportunities

• http://www.eyeoneducation.com/bookstore/client/client_pages/pdfs/5ThingsCCSS_Davis.pdf 5 Things Every Teacher Should be Doing to Meet the (US) Common Core Standards. It highlights the need for research skills and the skills of a T/Ls. It is clear that teachers should be able to collaborate with their T/L to get these “multiple sources of information”

• Helping Students Create Positive Digital Footprints – ASCD Annual Conference 2012 A presentation from the ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) discussing how educators can help to make sure students create a positive digital footprint. Offers a link to presentation in Prezi format: “Digital Footprints – Your Students’ New First Impression”

• 10 Innovative Schools Allowing Smartphones in the Classroom | Online College Tips – Online Colleges A look at the approach of 10 US schools to smartphones. They are interested to discover if they will help students become more engaged and interested in lessons.

• ThinkBinder Think Binder is a website that gives students a place to create online study groups. In each group students can share files, share links, chat, and draw on a collaborative whiteboard. Students can create and join multiple groups. It is very easy to get started and it is free.

• Teacher guides Microsoft has some great Teacher Guides available. The guides have teaching tips and step-by-step instructions on a variety of topics and tools and technologies. The guides are all free and downloadable in PDF form. Topics include: Critical Thinking in web searches, Windows Movie Maker, Free tools from Microsoft, Digital Storytelling, Microsoft Office, web apps, OneNote, Bing and Mathematics, and Accessibility in the Classroom. The guides are easy to use and read and a great resource

• How do I cite a tweet? Information about how to properly cite a tweet from Twitter in MLA format.

• GraphWords.com – Visualize words! An interesting site that provides webs of related words. To use type any word into Graph Words to see a web of alternative word choices. Click on any word in the web to generate a new web of more related words.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Useful sites (weekly)

  by  Ron Houtman 

• Assessment for Learning: Home | Assessment for LearningWelcome to the Assessment for Learning website. This site has been developed by Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the education departments of the States, Territories and Commonwealth of Australia.   

• 41 Websites for Teachers to Integrate Tech into Your Classroom « Ask a Tech Teacher A variety of approaches that could help kick-start any effort to put technology into lesson plans.   

• Diagramly – Draw Diagrams Online Diagrammly provides an easy drag and drop interface for creating visuals or diagrams. Create workflow, BPM, org charts, UML, ER, network diagrams. No sign up required.  

• Wolfram Alpha Turns 2: ‘People Just Need What We Are Doing’ | Epicenter | Wired.com  

• Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers | Teaching Degree.org By Kelsey Allen. “Gone are the days of children sneaking comics past diligent parents and teachers watching out for sub-par literature. The comics of today not only have plenty to offer, they are gaining well-deserved recognition and awards. Take advantage of the natural affinity children have for comics and use them as a powerful teaching tool in your classroom. The post contains links to tips, tools, and resources.    

• for the love of learning: More on how I use Angry Birds in the classroom From the blog “for the love of learning” One teacher’s post about how he uses Angry Birds in the classroom  

• Red Tape – That famous space shuttle photo: When is sharing stealing? @Copyright News “In a world where social media users, bloggers and even some professional journalists are increasingly comfortable simply copying the work of others and republishing it, can intellectual property rights survive? Can original content survive? “   

• Dvolver Moviemaker. Make digital movies online. Formerly Dfilm. Home a tool to create your mini animations by pointing and clicking. You can choose the setting, characters, music at the background and how the chosen characters interact in your animation. You write what you want your characters to say and it shows up in bubbles in your animation. Children can watch a video and write an ending for it or they can summarize a story.   

• Technology Integration Matrix The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated.  

• Domo Animate – Make your own Domo Animations and Slideshows with GoAnimate’s super easy to use tools. A tool to create animations. You can animate the characters, change the background, movement, sound effects and emotions; you can add speech bubbles, interactive elements and music to your animation as well. You can resize things, delete, and move or change their places. Children can create their animated books that talk or they can write their own screenplays and turn them into animation.  

• Keeping It Real | edSocialMedia A post about one teacher’s experience. “At the beginning of the school year, I thought that the social media class that I do with tenth graders would help me write a constant stream of edSocialMedia articles through the year. It didn’t quite work out that way, but the class has given me a lot to think through”   

• 5 Surprising Perspectives About Online Schools | MindShift ”Most people think of online learning as a quiet, solitary experience. But over the past few months, after interviewing students, parents, and educators, a different sort of picture has emerged. We’ve learned about who teaches and learns online, and why, what works and what doesn’t, and perhaps most importantly, whether online learning affords the same quality of education as that of traditional schools.”   

• e-Learning Stuff » Blog Archive » Ten ways to use QR Codes A list of 10 things you can do with QR codes. The idea is that once you know what you can do with QR Codes then you can build learning activities round those functions.

• TeachersFirst: Wiki Walk-Through Teachers First have put together Wiki Walk-Through to help teachers who are wanting to know about wikis and how to use them in their classrooms. The ‘Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels’ is great for people who know the basics and want to know how to integrate wikis into their classroom teaching and student learning. The site gives some fantastic classroom ideas for maths, science, social studies, language arts, and other subjects. Even if you are an advanced wiki user, this site can give you some new ideas for using the tool in the classroom. 

• !00 things kids will miss if Teacher librarians go : Outstanding School Libraries AASL President Nancy Everhart released a list of 100 things students would miss if there were no school libraries in their buildings.  

• Tell me, what do you teach? « NeverEndingSearch A post that draws a picture of what TLs teach and what threy can do for the learning community. @Joyce Valenza ” it is time for us to seriously consider our full impact on those around us. Perhaps, it is time to explain our role”   

• Librarians are Teachers, Too: Why Schools Need Librarians Now More than Ever | Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning  

• Mobile Learning: A Quick SWOT Analysis | Upside Learning Blog SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for mobile learning “For over two years now, we have not only just been hearing about mobile learning but also actively understanding and working on it. From trying to explain five myths of mobile learning to assisting customer new to mobile learning, getting started with mobile learning has been an exciting journey through which we have seen mobile learning seeing increasing adoption. This has been possible due to a variety of factors – better, faster, cheaper smartphones, the advent of tablet computers, and an increasing awareness of the benefits and applicability of mobile learning.”  

• EdTech Toolbox: Free Icon Sets List of sites for royalty free images and icons   

• Lizzie Wilcock | author Author Lizzie Wilcock’s blog. Books include Extinction series, Losing It and grIEVE

• A Principal’s Reflections: Banning is the Easy Way Out A post of New Milford High School Principal Eric Sheninger explaining how to move from banning to embracing technology and social media.  

• SearchTeam – real-time collaborative search engine SearchTeam is a collaborative search engine. You start your research by creating a SearchSpace on a topic of interest. What makes SearchTeam unique and valuable is that you can do your searches collaboratively with others you trust, such as friends, colleagues and family members. You can invite any set of people you trust to search with you from within a SearchSpace   

• Reading Comprehension: Identifying Confusion « Shifting Phases  

• immersive elearning | e-learning NOT as usual  

• 4 Keys To World-Class eLearning   

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What do TL’s teach?

After a week where I read about the trials of the school librarians in the US and then some of the articles following the recommendations of the Parliamentary Inquiry it was timely to remember the positive things. The SLAV submission to The Inquiry and read some of the great things that have been written by some of our great advocates.

  by  joycevalenza 

This is an excellent visual supporting the work of teacher librarians by Joyce Valenza. It is also great that she has made it available for us to use by attaching a cc license. It is linked to a great post that offers other links. Another one I like is ” 100 things kids will miss if they don’t have a School Librarian in their School” by AASL President Nancy Everhart.

There are many great things going on in school libraries (and libraries in general). The Bright Ideas Blog is just one way of publicising these ideas and programmes/projects. This grew out of a  The PLN  programme, called “Learning through sharing” this year, has recently started and a lot more teacher librarians will be exploring the opportunities the digital world offers us in our never-ending search to give our students the best opportunities to learn.

And a video (link found thanks to Joyce Valenza) to finish on an upbeat note.

Useful sites (weekly)

  by  Gideon Burton 

•  TEACHERNINJA: Unfortunate Covers: The Cay  A look at the changing covers of this book and why (in this blogger’s view) they don’t work 

• 11 teen movies based on classic books Interesting list and one that could provide inspiration for library promotions

• Can Censoring a Children’s Book Remove Its Prejudices?  Interesting post. Author has been “examining two versions of Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle (1920, 1988) and three versions of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964, 1973, 1998), we’ve been addressing this question: Do Bowdlerized texts alter the ideological assumptions of the original? The answer is more complicated than you might think”

• ASLA – School library policies and statements Policy Statement – School Library Bill of Rights. School libraries are concerned with generating understanding of freedom and with the preservation of this freedom through the development of informed and responsible citizens. The responsibility of the school library is …..

• 10 Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week With The New York Times – NYTimes.com A New York Times article that offers some ideas for celebrating Banned Books Week with students and anyone lse who believes in having “the freedom to read.”

• www.bullying.org Where you are NOT alone! Created by Bill Belsey 

• 100 Word Stories – y11re’s posterous Here is an example of one of the 100 word stories that are currently being wriiten by a R.E class. They will shortly will be turned into another magazine.

• Charlie Higson – Charlie Higson – Writer – Young Bond, The Enemy, The Dead  Official author website

• PDFmyURL.com – Free & Online: Convert and save PDF from any web page Use this tool to convert any website into a pdf.

• Google New The site to find all things that are new on Google. It includes a neat sorting facility and the capability to quickly share via the major social networking portals.

• Children’s Fantasy Novel Engages Readers with Augmented Reality  

• In the context of web context: How to check out any Web page — Scott Rosenberg’s Wordyard  Great tips for any journalist on how to find necessary context for what you’re reading online. An excellent guide to how to dig in a website and find out who owns it. basic investigative techniques to you know who’s behind what you’re reading online.

• Time-Saving Twitter Tools to Help You Work Smarter | A Zesty Buzz 

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.