Sharing new tools
Today I tried to imagine how Rollyo could revolutionize our library practice. Here’s what I came up with:
Would you like an easier way to find county school information? Try my new Rollyo search! I took all our individual school websites and “rolled” them into one customized search: http://www.rollyo.com/erindowney/joco_schools/
This is but one of the awesome tools we learned about in the Internet@Schools sessions. I can see recommending this tool to patrons who need the “right” information rather than a Google search dump… especially for homework. Help kids pick a handful of trusted and authoritative sites, and they can roll their own search engine that gives them very specific results.
If we don’t like to rely on Google, now we have an alternative. Of course, this means adding an extra step and selecting sites in which we place authority. That means that we need to have a better sense of what’s out there to use on the web. And again, more librarian job security to the rescue 😉
Addl thoughts during Berger’s keynote
Michael Wesch’s Managing Information video. I just love it more each time I see it.
Epiphany during video: if we’re changing the power of hierarchy in a metaphorical sense, are we not also challenging the hierarchy and authority of the entire power structure of education? We are, more often, moving towards becoming facilitators of learning. It implies an active learner and a responsive facilitator of of learning. Learning is becoming more reciprocal – how will this mesh with a system that defines itself as a highly controlled atmosphere? What does this mean for the concept of in loco parentis? How is that even possible in a world of information that constantly changes? What should this mean for the textbook industry? For the whole industry of education (for it is an industry, make no mistake)? The future of learning may not even include PLACE as a concept. I have already seen teens in the library who are attending school virtually, and they have NOT chosen any physically local program in the area. They have used the internet, they have shopped around, and they have NO LOYALTY to locality. Which means we need to simultaneously give them a reason(s) to participate fully in the community in which they’re physically located.
DAY 2 – Pam Berger Keynote
Phoebe Bechir in SL – www.infosearcher.com
Learning and Literacy in a Digital World
Last night she went to animoto and made a music video-style presentation on yesterday’s session! Fun!
Internet as transformative technology. What is digital literacy? What does it mean to be a learner in a digital environment? What are some of the key survival skills learners need?
Native or immigrant? I was yes to 7 of 8 questions.
Y, Y, Y, N, Y, Y, Y, Y
Today’s student: They would answer 8 of 8
Tells a story about a modern-day student and how she uses technology in her life. Very integrated into all her life – connected 24/7. They’re collaborative. They share. They connect. The internet has become the computer. 55% of online teens have social profiles but only 20% of adults.
OMG – all I can think about is a class I took about the Bloomsbury group – EM Forster’s quote “only connect” seems to have actually happened! Musings on the anxiety of technological change on society…
Paul Gilster’s book Digital Literacy: 1997 “ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when presented via computers.” Kathleen Tyner’s book Literacy in a Digital World – two literacies: tool literacies and literacies of representation.
Ppl. Are required to use a growing variety of technical, cognitive and social skills… literacy advances the ability to effectively and creatively use and communicate information. But it’s always CHANGING.
We come to Web 2.0… now memory is less of an issue as the programs and platforms reside “on the web” – the idea of collective intelligence. Can get and create content. Web 2.0 characteristics: Interactivity, user participation, collective intelligence, self service, convergence of media.
Matches what we want to see in schools. Collaborative, active, independent learners. Indeed!
Graphic literacy: being able to “Read” graphical displays so that they can function at a high level – photo-visual literacy. Navigation next – need to construct knowledge from large quantities of non-linear information. A new sort of spatial orientation!
Kids 7-12 worked on the International Children’s Digital Library: designed the interface to orient the reader. The question of finding and presenting information stymied the adults. Kids voted to search for the color of the book too!
Students need to develop a sense of context so that they can use information in intelligent ways.
Focus: digital environments tend to fragment the attention. Encouraging reflection and deep thinking. Learning to organize information to facilitate quick retrieval. Tagging will encourage this process– folksonomy may be more personally relevant.
My observation: Tagging evolution follows this order: confusion/randomosity, epiphany, folksonomy. I want to incorporate this into the cyber 6 wiki!!!
Diigo is one of her favorites. She started a best practices web 2.0 tools tag
Confronting the Challenge of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century – Henry Jenkins is a must read.
Developing these new literacies requires passion on a personal level – and a ton of these skills are learned outside of the traditional school system. It’s not about web 2.0 – it’s about giving students the tools they need to learn. The services they need to make it happen – and the platform for Inquiry 2.0 = student learning.
New IST standards released at NECC: moving towards habits of mind rather than concrete skills: OERCommons.org
Wesch’s video
Just in case any new readers haven’t seen Michael Wesch’s videos… this is his latest and greatest. He’s a winner on many counts: from KSU, awesome thinker, and all about information.
Additional thoughts from Aaron’s presentation
Aaron’s presentation was really good, and I just thought of something I forgot in the last post. He referenced the recent articles on churches who are using Halo to draw in young men who would otherwise have no excuse to attend. And then he noted – surely SCHOOLS and PUB LIBS can use Halo and other “violent” games if churches are using them in this way. I think he has a point there… the number ONE game guys always ask me about is if we’re doing Halo tournaments. And then they get pretty much disinterested when I have to say “no, no Halo” and “no, you can’t bring your own controllers and games in..”
Get Your Game On
presented by Aaron Schmidt — librarian@gmail.com – XxagentcooperXX
Line Rider – YouTube video of INCREDIBLE set up
Eleven BILLION dollars – gaming industry is bigger than books, movies, music – everything.
Games as content and as service – games and learning. Presentation on walking paper after the fact.
Strengths of libraries are to create community. But what about kids electing to be in the library voluntarily? Wii for retirement homes – fun for many generations. 18-35 is core gamer age group. Average gamers – but trending older too.
MMORPGs
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Like Runescape and WoW
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They are navigating HUGE amounts of info at once – reading, constantly changing landscape.
Participatory Culture: Media Education in the 21st Century
Play: the capacity to interact with one’s surrounds to do problem solving?
Research Quest: ACRL studying gaming and matching mapping standards for Halo and Fantasy Football?
Wired article about Yahoo exec who used his WoW accomplishments as his resume.
Questions – asking about violence-free games and games with no competition – one person claims that band concerts are an example of non-competitive collaboration (but nobody speaks up to note that you compete fiercely beforehand to get a better chair!!!!) How much technical expertise does it take to do a LAN party? We want to know what ratings the games are BUT of course no internet so we can’t find out in real time. This is SOOOOOO frustrating!!!!!
(**this is my epiphany that NOBODY has wifi** We are all typing on wordpad or similar programs. I don’t think anybody is online!!!)
Nintendo DS games – Cooking, Trauma Center under the knife, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Hotel Dusk acts like interactive e-book to read and move around to solve mystery.
AZ state game called Quarantined! Started off as a paper board game where you are a student using information resources to save the campus from a virus.
Talks about hosting a gaming event. People have really basic questions about the games themselves, gaming platforms, logistics like how many boxes to have, etc. Public libraries should be collaborating with school libraries to share gaming equipment if they need it.
Conference Notes So Far
Well, the keynote was pretty great. We immediately ran into snags accessing wifi and THEN, to my horror, I discovered that the room for Internet@Schools West has NO internet access. As Carolyn says in her blog, I felt like I was missing a limb. So far, I was glad to hear that schools have bought into Helene Blowers‘ Learning 2.0 program as I was planning to reference that in my Cyber 6 Pack presentations anyway. Excellent reinforcement – I feel as though I have been told “you are headed in the right direction here.”
Practical Mashups
Robert Lackie and Robert Terrio presenting :University folks: Presentation online at http://tinyurl.com/2w2j2g
robertlackie.pbwiki.com; infomaniac
Article in last Internet at Schools mag, references and other stuff full text via database
About 30 people in room, no wifi, squeaky mikes
Useful collab tools used by new folks being mashers
Tumblr examples: musiclibrarian.tumblr.com
Non-editorial style, more faceted. What do you want to share?
Looks like just another style/strategy for blogging? How is this better than embedding a UT video in your existing blog? Must investigate. He references the Gray Album – Danger Mouse– being the epitome of mashup.
Shares with his wife: Looks like a myspace style sort of approach on his template. Has a painting demo mashed with a song by the artist being depicted. Learn to photoshop while listening: Foxytunes. Yackpack for your PBWiki. Like meebo but with VOIP. Would this be allowed in school districts rather than text chat?!?!?!?! Our embedded Meebo modules are blocked. I ask this question: allowing certain things through, like specific video clips and stuff. Yackpack walkie-talkie widget not blocked at any of his schools yet. Video has been blocked widely. Yackpack on a wiki worked and with high quality. Would we have to train reference staff?
Google docs API scripting – lit-trips and stuff
World Geography quiz like the ones we put on Facebook
The Route 66 google maps mashup – YES but NOW I want to know strategies in how to teach kids to code this themselves. They can CONSUME this stuff but ultimately with the new AASL standards they are going to have to learn how to DO it themselves – with the mandate to CREATE information products.. “create new knowledge.” Standard 3.1.4: “Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess.”
The EPA report on the Superfund sites – incorporating a Google map onto the page identifying the locations of superfund sites. Yay toxic waste!
AFTER THE SESSION: We realize that a woman with an iPhone has internet access and has been creating a Tumblr about the session! I ask her to email me the link, so I will post it when I get it.
Erin Downey Howerton 