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The Scanner is the newletter of ISTE SIGMS. Spring 2012 issue.
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Volume 3 Number 2
The Scanner
In this Issue:
Teaching &
Learning
SIGMS provides a support network to school library media specialists and oth-ers in leadership positions who are work-ing to promote the use of instructional technologies to enhance student learn-ing. It provides a forum where we can consider and explore ways in which we can best use existing and emerging tech-nologies to improve and enhance teach-ing and instruction, student learning and management, helping students and teachers become competent, critical and ethical users of information.
What is SIGMS?
Page 2-3
ISTE 2012
Page 4
Professionally Speaking
Page 5
SIGMS Newsletter Guide-
lines
Pages 6-7
Mobile Books are Here to
Stay
Pages 8-11
Mobile Learning in High
School
Pages 12-15
Digital Citizenship
Pages 16-21
Down from the Hallway
Bulletin Board—Up On
the Web
Pages 22-23
Teaching with Technology
in Authentic Contexts
Pages 24-25
Transporting to Literacy
Pages 26-30
What Does a 21st Century
Media Center Look Like?
Page 31
Our Organization
ISTE 2012 ISTE 2012 in San Diego is fast approaching! As you begin to fill your conference planner, please take note of these special SIGMS events. Please note that Tuesday’s Forum and Wednesday’s Breakfast are both ticketed events. You must sign up for them during your registration process in order to receive a ticket and gain entry to these sessions, even though there is no additional charge. Sunday, June 24 – 3:00 PM SIG Fair: Watch for the SIGMS booth, where you can “Hang out with the Stars”!
Monday, June 25 – 8 AM to 4:00 PM 21st Century Media Center
Playground: Watch for volun-teer opportunities! Evening Social: Location & exact time to be announced
Tuesday, June 26 – 2 PM to 3:15 PM – ticketed event! SIGMS Forum: Expanded Learning Opportunities: Us-ing Social Media in the Li-brary Lisa Perez, Steve Hargadon & Leading Librarians The SIGMS Forum will be a highlight of ISTE 2012 for our members. The forum features nationally known keynote speaker Steve Hargadon with the “Digital Diva” Joquetta Johnson and SIGMS Vice-Chair Tiffany Whitehead (Mighty Little Librarian).
We’ll also have some fun-packed social media games throughout the session. This is one event you won’t want to miss! Wednesday, June 27 – 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM – ticketed event! SIGMS Breakfast Meeting & Awards Alan November, Keynote Links you need: Conference Registra-tion: www.isteconference.org/2012 Conference Plan-ner: www.isteconference.org/2012/planner ISTE Conference Ning: http://iste2012.org SIGMS Wiki: http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net
Laurie Conzemius
Communications Chair
SIGMS brings you two exciting webinar series this year: ISTE SIGMS webinars and 1 Tool at a Time webinars.
With the wealth of education webinars to attend, why choose to participate in these particular webinars?
Time spent attending a SIGMS professional development event, is time well spent. Our webinars offer:
Practical content to apply to teaching practice
Great presenters who are ed-ucators leading the way in tech-nology integration
Professional networking
Free professional develop-ment from the comfort of your home
Free resources
Many of the topics focus on the professional needs of media spe-cialists, however the content is applicable to any educator want-ing to learn about the latest tools, news, and issues in the educational technology world.
SIGMS wants to support your professional development on an on-going basis, so check out the resources found on our webinar wiki pages. Here you will find links to archived webinars and associated presenter resources.
Professionally Speaking
Brenda D. Anderson
Professional
Development Chair
ISTE SIGMS Webinar Series
http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Webinars
Upcoming Events
Upcoming events can be located on the SIGMS wiki at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Webinars.
Archived Events
Links to the archives of previous-ly presented webinars can be found on the webinar page at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Webinars.
ISTE SIGMS is proud to partner with the Australia Series to pro-vide a wealth of timely interna-tional professional development webinars for our members. This partnership allows us to offer events in a wider variety of time zones to meet the needs of our international members. These webinars will focus on topics re-
lated to educational technology for school, community college, and higher ed librarians; teach-ers, administrators, and other members. Additional information may be found on the Australia Series wiki page which is main-tained at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/australiaseries.
The 1 Tool At a Time: Build Your Toolbelt webinar series is brought to you monthly by ISTE's SIGMS and SIGILT. Each webinar lasts for 30 minutes and focuses on a particular tool. Classroom integration strategies are high-lighted and there is time for dis-cussion.
Previews of the upcoming 1 Tool at a Time events as well as ar-chives of previous events can be accessed at http://1toolatatime.wikispaces.com
SIGMS Newsletter Guidelines
Australia Series
Professionally Speaking
SIGMS Newsletter Guidelines The SIGMS Scanner is the news-
letter of ISTE's special interest
group for library media special-
ists and related school leaders
working to promote the use of
instructional technologies to en-
hance student learning. This
newsletter will feature SIGMS
business items, SIGMS profes-
sional development alerts, mem-
ber article submissions, personal
success stories, and links to great
resources. We will be publishing
3 newsletters this year.
Winter (March 2012) Tools of the Trade Spring (April 2012) Teaching and Learning Pre-Conference (June 2012) Professional Development Policy Issues
Deadlines associated with The Scanner may be found on the SIGMS wiki at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/SIGMS+Scanner+Newsletter+Guidelines.
Proposals for feature and short articles should be 100 words or less and submitted through this Googledoc form: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFppbmwtT19EM3pIcm1SYmxBVk9iVUE6MQ#gid=0
a) Feature articles and personal success stories should be be-tween 500 and 1,000 words. A maximum of 2 photos and/or graphics may be submit-ted with the article.
b) Short articles of less than 500 words are welcome. These articles may be accompanied by 1 photo or graphic.
c) An author photo and brief biography should be submit-ted with the article.
After notification of acceptance, final versions of articles and oth-er submissions should be sub-mitted to [email protected].
Additional information regard-ing SIGMS Scanner submissions should addressed to [email protected].
Carolyn Starkey
Newsletter Committee
Chair
Issue Themes
Deadlines
Article Lengths
Final Submissions
Information
Article Proposals
With Android and iDevices the ability to instantly down-load books to a mobile device keeps getting easier and easi-er. Just about every state in the United States has a public library accessible to the resi-dents of that state. It is just a matter of applying for a free library card, connecting your mobile device to your account and downloading eBooks and audiobooks. This is emerging technology out-side the United States, but in the U.S., it is very new and not very well known.
Ten years ago, the defini-tion of a book was pretty clear cut, and the thought that a book would be some-thing other than a bound stack of paper was not one that entered most people’s minds. Today, a book can be defined in many ways. In addition to a traditional book, there are a number of applica-tions that allow books to be downloaded to a wireless mo-bile device through thin air. Many of the digital books no longer have page numbers but use a percentage of the book that’s been read. The ad-vantage is that, if the reader
Mobile Books are Here to Stay
Rick Weinberg
chooses, these digital books could be here today and with-in seconds, downloaded from just about any place in the world, and be gone tomorrow.
To make this magic happen you have to do a few things in advance. One of the first things you will want to do is find a library in your state
that provides digital content. Often local libraries provide digital content as well, but most times, libraries in large cities or state capitals have larger digital collections. With the power of the Internet, proximity to the library is no longer important.
Once you find a library you will want to apply for a library card. Most library cards are free and can be applied for online or by printing an appli-cation, filling it out and faxing it back to the library (or scan-ning it and emailing the appli-cation). The library will also require proof that you are as-sociated with that state. For example, I live in Pennsylvania but work in New York State. I am a member of the New York Public Library (nypl.org). I am a member because I work in New York State. Libraries re-quire that the member apply-ing for a library card either work, live or go to school in the state the library is physi-cally located.
After you apply and receive your library card (sometimes libraries will give you a tempo-rary card until your full card is sent to you), you can start to check out “books.” You could always sign out eBooks or Au-diobooks to your computer and read them or listen to them that way. The only problem with this method is that it is not mobile. Available on all iDevices and Android devices is the OverDrive Me-
Mobile Books are Here to Stay
Mobile Books are Here to Stay dia App (Overdrive.com). You can find this application in a couple ways. If you own an Android device you can go to the Android Market and download the app for free. And if you are an iDevice (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch) owner you can go to the App Store, on your device, and download the app for free.
Once you download the app, you have to add your library or libraries to the Overdrive Media app. To do this you click on the “Get Books” But-ton on the app and click “Add a Library.” Next you can either search for a local library or browse for a library. If you browse for a library, the libraries are categorized by country and then by either city or state. Se-lect your library and then click “get books.” Look for the digital book that you want in the library and enter your library card and pass-word. You will want to down-load books over a wifi connec-tion.
I know what you are think-ing. How does this work with Copyright? Well, the Over-drive Media app only allows you to “keep” the book for a maximum of 21 days. After 21 days, the book is deleted from
your device and, if you want to keep reading it, you can easily download it again. Here is the great thing: I have had to do this twice, and each time the Overdrive Media app remembered where I was in
the book and kept all of my bookmarks. It kept this infor-mation even if I had to wait to download the book when someone requested it. You can also borrow Kindle and Nook books but you have to have accounts at each of the respective companies and the-se books use different apps.
Most often, I use the Over-drive Media app to download audio books that I want to lis-ten to in the car, either with my family or for my own learning. As a professional developer for 22 school dis-tricts in New York State, I have taught teachers how to download books to mobile devices for free for a few years now and the results are com-ing in. Many teachers report that students who are strug-gling readers are starting to enjoy reading due to listening to audiobooks. Some stu-dents are even reading on their own. In many cases, the audiobook excites students enough to read print books. I have always felt that the over-arching goal for any library media specialist is to help ig-nite the flame that sparks a student to enjoy reading.
Rick Weinberg works for 22 different school districts in New York State. He works at Cattaraugus Allegany Board of Coop-erative Educational Services and has for 11 years. He pro-vides professional development on Technology Integration and Educational Leadership to teachers and administrators in Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties. Rick has also written for ISTE’s Learning and Leading Magazine, SIGML and con-tributed to the ISTE published, Liz Kolb book “Cell Phones in the Classroom.” Rick is also a member of the leadership team of SIGTC.
High school students al-
ready have powerful
smartphone devices in their
pockets and purses. Showing
teachers, library media spe-
cialists and students how to
use them purposefully and
effectively in the learning en-
vironment is key to develop-
ing confident digital citizens.
The following tools, resources
and examples can easily be
incorporated in any library
media center.
Learner Management
System
Edmodo – is a social learn-
ing platform and manage-
ment system that is easy to
set up for librarians to con-
nect, collaborate and share
content with students at each
grade level or even with each
class. With an area for polls,
quizzes, backchannels, discus-
sions, video clip and other at-
tachments, Edmodo is a free,
secure and safe platform to
use. The company itself offers
a variety of helpful hints
online and via webinars. I also
Mobile Learning in High School
Nicole Lakusta
have set up a mock SIGMS
student example in Edmodo
that you can check out. Go to
http://www.edmodo.com,
click on “I’m a student” and
type group code hhpy27. You
will be asked to register your-
self and there is no need to
enter an email address. As
well, Edmodo is easily accessi-
ble via a mobile phone or tab-
let either through an android/
apple app or through http://
m.edmodo.com, giving stu-
dents 24/7 anywhere access.
A really great example of
using Edmodo was one shared
by VanMeter and Brook For-
est schools. The two libraries
started a summer reading club
with students in 2011. See
http://
twolibrar-
iesonevoice.blogspot.ca/2011/0
5/where-will-van-meter-and-
brook-forest.html for their
story.
And for those of you who
want even more ideas on how
to use Edmodo, check this
GoogleDoc list at http://bit.ly/
HsmcKt .
Polls/Surveys
PollEverywhere is a tool
where you can use your mo-
bile device to answer ques-
tions, either through a text
message, website, or Twitter.
Mobile Learning in High School
Mobile Learning in High School
It collects the responses im-
mediately, generates a report,
there is no need for any soft-
ware download to use it and
you can embed the polls into
presentations like Power-
point, Prezi and Keynote.
Polleverywhere is free for up
to 40 responses per poll. You
can also buy the premium
version which allows for more
responses. Polls can be set up
as yes/no, multiple choice, or
free-form text (sentences). A
quick “how it works” is found
at http://
www.polleverywhere.com/
how-it-works.
See how Buffy Hamilton
engages her students in the
library with PollEverywhere
http://
alalearning.org/2010/02/11/
engaging-learners-with-poll-
everywhere/.
Photos
Using Flickr Photostream
in the library can take ad-
vantage of students’ mobile
cameras. You can ask students
to take pictures of a particular
topic or novel being studied
and send it to a specific Flickr
account. This account will
then have a stream of photos
added to it.
It’s quick and easy to estab-
lish a Flickr account at http://
www.flickr.com/. Once this is
set up, the Flickr account
comes with its own unique
email address. Share this
email address with students
once you have designed a spe-
cific assignment using photos.
Ask students to enter the
photo title in the subject line
and in the body add a descrip-
tion or more info. With the
number of smartphones that
have a great camera and even
photo editor apps, this activi-
ty will certainly be a visual
delight for
everyone in-
volved. As
you get more
photos on a
particular
topic you can
put them to-
gether into a
“set”.
Nicole Lakusta is a Curriculum Educational Technol-
ogy Facilitator with Parkland School Division 70 in
north central Alberta. She is passionate about link-
ing technology with engaging, authentic and chal-
lenging learning experiences for all students, teach-
ers and administrators. She can contacted via http://
about.me/nlakusta.
Cite Sources
Ensuring that students cite
sources properly while they
are researching and develop-
ing their ideas for specific as-
signments is important. I find
that Ottobib - http://
www.ottobib.com/ and David
Warlick’s Son of a Citation
Machine - http://
citationmachine.net are the
easiest and fastest way to cite
sources.
Mobile Learning in High School
Nicole Lakusta
Phlog/Microblog
Creating online spaces for
students to reflect on books
read, research, current news
or suggestions to posed ques-
tions is also easy with iPadio
and Tumblr.
iPadio at http://
www.ipadio.com, combines
the telephone with the blog to
create an audio “phonecast”/
phlog which is streamed live
to the Internet. You can
phonecast from any phone,
anywhere in the world - no
need for a computer or even
access to the Internet. Phone-
casts can be cross-posted to
social media and blogging
platforms and embedded on
any number of websites.
Phonecasts can be converted
to text, geo-located and put
on a map, and either streamed
live or moderated. A school
library could have its own iPa-
dio channel.
To see how iPadio works,
think about this question:
How have you used or can you
use audio recordings in your
classroom/library/school?
Once you have an idea of what
you’d like to say, call 1-888-200
-1292, enter the registered
number 780-975-1573 and the
pin: 5248. This audio record-
ing will be sent to my iPadio
site and my email address. I
can then moderate it quickly,
refresh my iPadio website and
on the site will be your audio
recording. This recording can
be shared, embedded and you
will see a speech-to-text con-
version after a few minutes.
My demo channel is http://
www.ipadio.com/channels/
NicoleLakusta where your ex-
Mobile Learning in High School
Mobile Learning in High School ample recordings will be host-
ed, if you choose to generate
an iPadio recording.
I like that iPadio can be used
from any mobile and landline
and it gives students an op-
portunity to reflect out loud
rather than in written form.
Tumblr - http://
www.tumblr.com is a mi-
croblogging platform that al-
lows teachers, librarians and
students an opportunity to
share their experiences, their
learning and their reflections
in a variety of ways easily and
quickly. You can set up a pro-
fessional/personal Tumblr ac-
count in which you can input
text, photos, quotes, links,
and chats, audio or video
clips. A library could have
Tumblr account set up to
share various information in a
variety of formats, which
could then be linked to the
school website.
Or you can use Tumblr as a
group space where you share
a specific email address linked
to a Tumblr account for stu-
dents to share pictures or text
possibly relating to a particu-
lar topic that is being dis-
cussed in class.
Generate Interest
QR codes have been
around for more than a dec-
ade and they continue to en-
tice educators to use them in
innovative and engaging
ways. These three dimension-
al bar codes can be linked to
websites, text, quotes, audio,
and video clips. Students need
to download a special qr code
reader app on their
smartphone or tablet to ac-
cess the content from these
3D codes. Cheryl Burnette has
a great Slideshare at http://
www.slideshare.net/
CherylBurnette/successfully-
using-qr-codes-in-libraries
explaining how she uses QR
codes in the library.
Whether is managing in-
formation and assignments,
posing a question via a poll,
engaging in visual and audito-
ry literacy, citing sources,
phlogging or blogging or gen-
erating interest via QR codes,
the library media center con-
tinues to be a special place for
capturing students’ interests
and engaging conversations. I
hope to hear from those of
you who are trying any of the-
se aforementioned tools. I can
be reached at http://
about.me/nlakusta.
Nicole Lakusta is a Curriculum Educational Technol-
ogy Facilitator with Parkland School Division 70 in
north central Alberta. She is passionate about link-
ing technology with engaging, authentic and chal-
lenging learning experiences for all students, teach-
ers and administrators. She can contacted via http://
about.me/nlakusta.
As 21st century students
attend school, teachers are
responsible for guiding their
educational journey. Teaching
in classrooms focus on the
three ‘Rs —reading, (w)riting,
and (a)rithmetic. I suggest
there should be an additional
R in all grades of PK-12 educa-
tion—instruction on how to
be a Responsible digital citi-
zen. Students do not obtain
their digital citizenship auto-
matically, these skills must be
taught. “Digital citizenship
does not just happen. Teach-
ing it has to be intentional,
with lessons that show stu-
dents acceptable norms of
online behavior” (Winn,
2011). We can teach our stu-
dents by demonstrating ap-
propriate digital citizenship,
providing them with age-
appropriate training, and be
knowledgeable about new
technologies so we can
demonstrate correct use of
these tools.
An example of how to
teach your students about
Digital Citizenship:
Mary Jo Davis
responsible digital citizenship
could be your district’s Ac-
ceptable Use Policy (AUP).
AUPs, are designed to provide
the district with some legal
protection by outlining to
everyone what is acceptable
for online behavior, but the
mere act of signing an AUP
does not help students under-
stand how to be a responsible
digital citizen. In a past posi-
tion as technical coordinator
and network administrator for
a small charter school, I was
required by our Ameritech
grant to insure there was an
appropriate AUP in place for
our school. AUPs can be de-
signed from online templates,
through discussions with oth-
er school districts, or from ex-
amples shared by regional ed-
ucational consortiums. When
teaching basic computer skills
at this same school, one of the
first lessons included a discus-
sion of the school AUP, rea-
sons for each rule, and how
the consequences could affect
Digital Citizenship:
We Teach Through Example, Instruction, and Leadership student learning. Check with
your district administration to
learn more about your dis-
trict’s AUP, then use that AUP
to guide student instruction.
Your AUP can serve as a
hands-on tool for teaching
students about responsible
digital citizenship.
When providing instruc-
tion in digital citizenship,
there are outstanding re-
sources available both online
and in print form. Digital citi-
zenship is defined by Mike
Ribble in “Digital Citizenship
in Schools” (an ISTE Publica-
tion) as “…norms of appropri-
ate, responsible behavior with
regard to technology use
(Ribble, 2011). In the Ribble
book, nine elements are listed
that can help schools/
educators teach our students
how to become responsible
digital citizens. These nine
elements and a brief descrip-
tion follow:
1. Digital Access—insure
that all users can access digi-
tal content when desired and
at the levels they choose to
participate.
2. Digital Commerce—
students must have adequate
knowledge about how to safe-
ly buy and sell goods in a digi-
tal marketplace.
3. Digital Communica-
tion—all users must under-
stand all forms of digital com-
munication and be able to ap-
ply each type of communica-
tion when applicable.
4. Digital Literacy—each
user must make an appropri-
ate level of effort to under-
stand digital tools and their
uses, along with sharing their
knowledge appropriately with
others.
5. Digital Etiquette—
digital citizens must under-
stand and be able to follow
communication context and
conduct as expected and in
consideration of fellow
netizens.
6. Digital Law—all users
must fully understand rules
Coordinator
Kromer Instructional Materials Center
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, MI 48859
and policies governing digital
technologies, be prepared to
take responsibility for their
actions, and be willing to ac-
cept the consequences of digi-
tal misdeeds.
7. Digital Rights and Re-
sponsibilities—rights extend
to everyone and responsible
digital citizens must be ready
to defend both their own
rights and the rights of others.
8. Digital Health and
Wellness—users must consid-
er all risks for engaging with
digital technology, both phys-
ical and psychological.
9. Digital Security—users
must be prepared to protect
themselves and others from
security breaches in data and
personal information access
(Ribble, 2011).
These nine elements of
digital citizenship encompass
the breadth of activities and
issues that the typical digital
user would face. The elements
help to remind all users of
ethical, legal, and personal
Digital Citizenship:
Mary Jo Davis
responsibilities that come
with being a citizen in the
digital world of the 21st centu-
ry. Digital citizenship is not
just another subject to be
added to an already crowded
schedule in today’s PK-12
classrooms. Educators must
not only learn about how to
create digital citizens, but we
must pattern our behavior so
we demonstrate to students
how a responsible digital citi-
zen behaves. While instruct-
ing students in responsible
digital citizenship, be sure
students understand the rea-
soning behind guidelines,
such as user safety, ethical
conduct, and copyright. These
all provide lesson topics that
can be taught to any age
group.
Leadership on how to be a
responsible digital citizen can
come in many forms from me-
dia specialists. A great place
to start could be working one-
on-one or in small groups in
your media center, guiding
student research and web ac-
tivity. Hollingsworth, et. al.
talk about how media special-
ists, teachers, administrators
and parents, which they call
“the village,” are responsible
for keeping abreast of new
technologies, and how they
can be used by students. “…it
is important that parents and
schools stay informed, in-
volved, and actually become
advocates for the newest tech-
nologies” (Hollingsworth,
Dowdy, Donavan, 2011). By
Digital Citizenship:
We Teach Through Example, Instruction, and Leadership keeping current with industry
trends and issues, educators
will provide students with in-
formation needed to make
informed decisions about
their digital behavior. Regard-
less of the age of students at
your school, your students
and staff will benefit by your
serving as a knowledgeable
“technology guru.” Serving as
a technology leader you can
insure your school is using
digital sources both properly
and to their best advantage.
Leadership can also take the
form of the example you show
your students. Educators
must follow digital citizenship
guidelines in all daily activity.
Not sure about online copy-
right or other digital citizen-
ship concerns? Find the infor-
mation you need to be an in-
formed user of digital content.
By providing all students with
outstanding examples, in-
struction, and leadership, we
can help all students become
responsible digital citizens of
the 21st century, prepared to
get the most from all techno-
logical resources, now and in
the future.
References:
Hollingsworth, R., Dowdy, L.,
& Donavan, J. (2011). Digital
citizenship in K-12: It takes a
village. TechTrends, 55(4), 37-
47.
Lindsay, J., & Davis, V. (2010).
Navigate the Digital Rapids.
Learning & Leading with
Technology, 37(6), 12-17.
Oxley, C. (2010). Digital citi-
zenship: Developing an ethi-
cal and responsible online
culture. Paper presented at
the School Library Associa-
tion of Queensland and the
International Association of
School Librarianship Confer-
ence incorporating the Inter-
national Forum on Research
in School Librarianship
(Brisbane, QLD, Australia,
September 27-October 1,
2010). Retrieved online from
ERIC on March 12, 2012.
Ribble, M. (2008). Passport to
Digital Citizenship. Learning
& Leading with Technology,
36(4), 14-17.
Ribble, M., & Bailey, G. (2011).
Digital Citizenship in Schools
(2nd ed.). Eugene, OR: Inter-
national Society for Technolo-
gy in Education.
Winn, M. R. (2011). Promote
Digital Citizenship Through
School-Based Social Network-
ing. Learning & Leading with
Technology, 39(4), 10-13.
Coordinator
Kromer Instructional Materials Center
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, MI 48859
The school Library/Media Center can play a crucial role in transforming student writ-ing through establishing a vir-tual clearinghouse of Authen-tic Student Writing/Publishing Projects and facili-tating dissemination of these student works to peer read-ers. In doing this it will help students find and learn from real audiences for their writing, foster-ing learning in nu-merous areas of Lit-eracy as a result. What follows is a description of a transformative ap-proach for which the Library/Media Center serves as a hub of organization and communication that can make it all work.
For decades our students’ level of achievement in the area of Writing has been distressingly low. Many statistics spell this out. For me, however, the da-ta point presented in The Na-tion’s Report Card (2007) in-
Down from the Hallway Bulletin Board - Up on the Web: Using Technology
Mark Gura
forming that 88% of Eighth Graders (that is almost all) perform at the lowest level of achievement measured, says it all.
It is not that teaching writ-
ing does not get much band-width in our schools. Writing is considered important enough to be measured in standardized tests. It is a ma-jor component of the ELA curriculum and in many dis-
tricts figures in the instruction of Science, Social Studies, and other subjects, as well. Yet, we seem perennially to produce poor results in this set of skills. One, by the way, that those
who track the dy-namics of School to Work assure us is a key to success in the workplace. Employ-ers feel strong frus-trated, as the level of writing of employees is, in their opinion, lamentably lacking, impacting negatively on business.
By the way, poor performance in this skill set has implica-tions that reach fur-ther than just writ-ing. There is strong evidence that Read-ing and Writing, as well as the other pil-lars of Literacy, Speaking and Listen-ing, are not only re-
lated, but are complementary. Strength in one contributes to strength in the others.
Writing instruction in American schools often is
Down from the Hallway Bulletin Board - Up on the Web: Using Technology
to Build a School-wide Community of Peer Writers and Readers
based on non-contextualized exercises that comprise a buffet of related skills. Many educators have come to con-sider that this lack of strong context is one of the key rea-sons our students fail to learn to write easily and well. One dimension of The Writing Process, a powerful frame-work to support learning to write, offers the key to fixing this. In its classic form, The Writing Process is comprised of the following stages: Pre-writing (brainstorming, gath-ering information, outlining, etc.) – Drafting – Revising – Proof Reading and Copy Edit-ing – and Publishing. It is the final stage, Publishing, that is key to improvement of writ-ing in our current era of tech-nology dependent Literacy. In the real world, we know very well what the term “Publishing” refers to; profes-sionally prepared text items that we find for sale in bookstores and newsstands and at libraries. In the class-room, though, this has always been something of a stretch, with teachers often directing students to Read your writing aloud to a group – or - Send a
copy to a friend or relative – or - Put your writing on dis-play in attempts to approxi-mate in a culminating activity the finality and impact of real publishing. With the advent of Web 2.0 resources though, actual publishing of student work is made possible, with the line between the look and feel of the products put out by commercial publishing houses and classrooms continually blurring. It is the technology that makes this possible. Many in the field of Education have assimilated some of this into their understandings, something that is made clear by The National Council of Teachers of English in its pub-lication Writing Now: A Poli-cy Research Brief, stating, “Digital Technologies influ-ence the processes of writ-ing… and students need to learn how to work effectively with them.”
Another way of looking at the profound impact of Stu-dent Publishing is that it al-lows for student writing in-struction finally to meaning-fully contextualize instruc-tional activities. When stu-dents are traditionally as-
signed to write an essay on an arbitrary, albeit instructional-ly appropriate topic, they sense that they are doing so simply because teacher told them to and that there is no intrinsic purpose in and cer-tainly no expected actual im-pact on the world that will result. In today’s connected world, students hunger for involvement in authentic ac-tivities that have real, palpa-ble connections to the real world and offer the possibility of their participation in it.
It is no longer sufficient to design student activities by simply focusing on content. The factor of Student Engage-ment must be made an im-portant instructional design consideration from concep-tion of activities. This point is made abundantly clear in the NCREL Quick Key Action Guide 10 - Using Student En-gagement to Improve Adoles-cent Literacy, stating, “Educators who teach reading and writing skills without ad-dressing student engagement are unlikely to yield substan-tial improvements.” Student publishing, then, can no long-er be interpreted as hanging a
final ‘best copy’ on the class bulletin board in the hallway or sending it home to be affixed to the refrigerator door with a magnet. Today’s stu-dents need something more, something authentic. It is the context of authenticity that engages students and writing real pieces that serve real pur-poses to be presented to real audiences is an approach that satisfies this need for highly engaging, instructionally ap-propriate and rich context.
Authentic Student Writing and Publishing projects are a path to engagement that is highly consistent with indi-vidualized and differentiated learning, and project-based learning. It is an approach by the way that, if implemented thoughtfully and effectively, involves students in extensive and relevant use of technolo-gy, a factor that further con-tributes to the level of student engagement and learning.
Researching and writing a report based on a self-selected theme and then using sophis-ticated word processing to render it into a professionally produced book or magazine is
Down from the Hallway Bulletin Board - Up on the Web: Using Technology
Mark Gura
eminently do-able in today’s classrooms. And while it is not yet a common practice, it is certainly done in numerous classrooms currently. Educa-tors need to push this practice a little further though, tap-ping technology to dissemi-nate student works in order to fully realize the context of au-thentic student writing and publishing. This can be done by saving the work in PDF for-mat and uploading it to one of the free online document sharing resources.
By doing this we surmount the ultimate hurdle in the equation, to provide an audi-ence for student writers and publishers. Its one thing to engage students in writing activities that focus and moti-vate them with the promise of readers who choose to read their work out of interest, but delivering this audience can be challenging. The natural and logical audience for stu-dent work is other students. By setting up a school-wide program to facilitate this, the Library/Media Center can support all members of the learning community in grow-ing as readers and writers. A
simple centralized, searchable listing of student works is all that has needed. Students con-tribute works as the culminat-ing phase of their research and writing efforts, activities that are constants in all instruc-tional programs. Additionally, they include peer works as part of the reading they choose for ‘next’ projects.
The notion of a “Circle of Readers and Writers” is a long-standing one among Literacy educators. Students derive inspiration, motivation, and a wealth of ‘how to’ knowledge about writing through their activities as readers (and vice versa). By establishing stu-dents as readers of peer stu-dent writing, a broad spec-trum of benefits in the learn-ing culture of a school may be brought about, bringing the concept of collaborative learn-ing to strongly bear on Litera-cy, our most core mission in education.
At any level of implementa-tion, setting this cycle in mo-tion provides a significant en-hancement to tired, traditional programs in writing instruc-tion. However, one can easily
Down from the Hallway Bulletin Board - Up on the Web: Using Technology
to Build a School-wide Community of Peer Writers and Readers
imagine the value added by this approach a few semesters or years into implementation when the body of available student written and published works numbers in the hun-dreds or thousands and the school culture has integrated the practice thoroughly. En-couragingly, there is little to this that requires a great deal more work on the part of the teacher or the student. And there are many schools in which parts of this broad approach are already done. How-ever, it is through organizing and cen-tralizing this prac-tice that a trans-formative critical mass of available works will be achieved and the members of the school community will see the practice as key to effective learning of the skill set of Writing. In this, the library media center can play a cen-tral and crucial role.
The library media center is the school-site nexus through which such exchanges be-
tween student writers and their peer readers can be facil-itated and encouraged, and thus, becomes an essential enabling component of this type of highly enriched litera-cy community.
Furthermore, teachers in-volved in assigning and guid-ing students in writing and
publishing activities within such an extended literacy community will need access to resources (e.g. computers; software; Internet access; and online writing, editing and publishing tools, etc.) as well as expertise (for both their students and themselves) in their use for: student research for writing and publishing
project content, guidance in preparation of student writing for publication (e.g. citations, indexing, book publishing for-mat and conventions, etc.), and Web 2.0 self/school com-munity publishing methods, to name a few areas requiring such support. This may be especially important in sup-
porting teachers of subject areas like Social Studies and Science in which there is high poten-tial for literacy learning across the curriculum. Their professional prepa-ration and acquired bag of tricks is like-ly inadequate to handle realizing such potential on their own. The Li-brary/Media Center
is the school-based resource through which these varieties of support can be organized and delivered effectively.
To make this all function as intended, the necessary central cog is an organized, online resource, a student publishing virtual ‘home base’ that all members of the com-
munity have access to in or-der to research, identify and locate peer works, download them for reading, and (with proper permissions controlled by adults) upload works and give authors and other read-ers feedback and recommen-dations based on their own experience.
This can be ac-complished relatively easily with user-friendly, ubiquitous Web 2.0 tools. How-ever, what’s key here is that the school set a standard for doing this. It will not do to have students from a variety of classes ap-proaching this differ-ently as the purpose is to establish the school as a commu-nity in which all students are, or can aspire to easily be, on the same page. This is one more important aspect of the practice that the Library/Media Center can be instru-mental in facilitating from its centralized position and exist-ing partner relationships with teachers and students throughout the school.
Down from the Hallway Bulletin Board - Up on the Web: Using Technology
Mark Gura
By uploading each com-pleted student work to a doc-ument sharing resource like Scirbd.com or Docstoc.com, they are available instantly to read online or download. Some go beyond simply providing Vanilla posting and sharing of documents. Youblisher.com, for instance,
offers a particularly nice page flipping, virtual book, online interface for those who want to offer reading works that way as part of their program.
An essential element in all of this is maintaining an an-notated listing (organized however, the Librarian/Media Specialist feels would work
best for the school) on which each student’s work is entered. This is not only emblematic of the individual student’s partic-ipation in a community of writers and readers, but facili-tates locating works of inter-est. By maintaining a single web page, quite possibly an easy to set up blog, on which
to post this fre-quently updated listing, it can be searched (blogs like Google’s blogger now offer search box widgets that are easy to add.) Stu-dents submit a short description/summary that sits under the listing en-try of their work (title and author etc.) And, of course, leveraging the con-
venience of technology, within each student’s listing would be a link that takes interested readers directly to the student work so that it can be read or downloaded.
Just as students would be directed to the traditional online catalogue to locate works to read by author or in-
Down from the Hallway Bulletin Board - Up on the Web: Using Technology
to Build a School-wide Community of Peer Writers and Readers
terest related keywords, they would search through this blog listing of peer student work to make a selection to read. With a little bit more sophisticated organization and setup, the blog can be tweaked to receive comments from readers, something that would make this already rich practice offer still more learn-ing value. The body of availa-ble plug in widgets or “gadgets” available for blogs is an ever improving, moving target. And the motivated us-er can now configure blogs to include comments that sit ‘on top of’ existing posts (Google Blogger’s ‘Recent Comments’ gadget, is an example), elimi-nating the need to do every student entry as a separate post. The intricacies of blog-ging are too extensive to ex-plore here, but a little imagi-nation and perseverance will produce an easy to create, easy to maintain and update resource without the need for advanced tech skills or invest-ment of significant amounts of time.
By the way, in their current state, all of these Web 2.0 re-sources can be tweaked to
give teachers and librarians control over who sees the stu-dent work and comments made about it. While up on the Web, none of this has to be made available to the gen-eral public, unless of course that is one of the intentional dimensions of the model adopted and the resource’s preferences are set that way. And if you think about it, this is something that a school might well opt for, as increas-ing the potential readership exponentially by open access could lead to many benefits. Security can be assured, how-ever, by opting to list things on the open Web with no oth-er identifier about who the student author actually is oth-er than a first name or per-haps a penname. Imagine the impact down the road when, should this approach be adopted by a good number of schools, all of which partici-pate in the same pool of writ-ing, publishing, and reading of student work activities.
Student writing and pub-lishing projects are the logical outgrowth of The Writing Process, a well-established framework to foster the skill
set of Writing. Publishing has traditionally been its capstone phase. In the era of EdTech, though, it should be seen as the keystone phase. The full power of publishing, howev-er, will never be realized until it is fully authentic, that is, publishing in the sense of gar-nering a true audience, one that appreciates and learns from the student writing and that, in turn, may offer feed-back from which the student author can learn, as well. ELA classes functioning on their own will not be able to imple-ment this practice, which ironically, is one that offers them a path to realizing their own goals highly effectively. What’s needed is the transfor-mation of the school as collec-tion of independent learning efforts (classes and courses) to a fully integrated learning community that writes for one another and, in turn, val-ues reading peer writing as part of its body of important literacy activities. The school Library/Media Center can function as the catalyst to bring this important next step in Literacy learning to frui-tion.
Last year I decided to con-
front a problem of practice I had
been having for some time.
Some of my undergraduate stu-
dents in my Technology in Edu-
cation class were just not seeing
themselves as future profession-
als. I do have to point out that
my class often consists of fresh-
men who haven’t yet been ac-
cepted into the teacher educa-
tion program. Therefore, they
haven’t had their content area or
professional education courses. I
found that some of my students
completed the coursework for a
grade or they made superficial
connections to using technology
in the service of learning. I real-
ized that while the activities
were constructed to engage
them in tasks that would help
them meet our standards for pre
-service teachers, well, they
weren’t very authentic.
Let me explain. I found myself
in the trap that perhaps many of
you find yourselves. I thought
that if I had students “do” some
of the things that teachers “do”
that my activities were authen-
tic. The problem was that in the
real world authentic activities
have consequences. We don’t
Teaching with Technology in Authentic Contexts
Kathryn Dirkin
just put the artifact out there; we
put it out there, use it, get feed-
back and evaluate its success. So
I decided to make a change, a
real world change. Real world
change involves collaboration.
So last spring I had my students
create web resources for stu-
dents in a middle school class-
room studying the Civil Rights
Movement. Last fall my students
created web resources about cur-
rent and future trends in educa-
tional technology for students in
a high school classroom in Chi-
na. At the end of the unit in the
fall they were able to Skype with
the students in China. This arti-
cle presents some of the tips and
tricks I learned along the way
when developing collaborative
projects.
1. Make contact early and make
it mutually beneficial. Con-
sider all of the important
stakeholders and contact
them as soon as possible.
Most K12 technology projects
involve two important
groups of people: the class-
room teacher and the library
media specialist. Library me-
dia specialists are key in
terms of supporting students
as they develop the infor-
mation fluency skills that are
critical for 21st century learn-
ing. K12 teachers not only
provide access to classrooms
but also serve as role models
and experts in terms of mod-
eling the application of con-
tent area and pedagogical
knowledge in real world set-
tings. However, in the cur-
rent economic climate we are
asked to do more with less
and take on more and more
responsibilities. It is hard to
find time to develop quality
web based resources that stu-
dents and teachers can access
from home and school. By
connecting with classroom
teachers and library media
specialists my students have
opportunities to build digital
learning environments that
can actually be used by teach-
ers, students, and staff in K12
education.
2. Create quality artifacts by
providing opportunities for
feedback at multiple stages
from their peers and from
outside sources. While stu-
dents construct their re-
sources I pass out peer evalu-
Teaching with Technology in Authentic Contexts
Teaching with Technology in Authentic Contexts ation forms on paper so that
students can get quick feed-
back from their peers. After
the project has been com-
pleted I create a Google form
with my class to collect feed-
back on the resource we de-
veloped. I have had middle
school students, other un-
dergraduate students, and
professionals in the field
evaluate and provide feed-
back on my students’ work.
Once again all stakeholders
are involved. The classroom
teacher and media specialist
can inform the evaluation
questions so that it aligns
with their approach to teach-
ing information literacy
skills. The Google form
serves as a teachable mo-
ment for the classroom
teacher or library media spe-
cialist when they instruct
students on how to evaluate
a collection of resources.
This process also works in
the reverse direction. Stu-
dents can use Google forms
to gather information from
my students.
3. Use Web 2.0 tools to ac-
cess and organize infor-
mation and build engaging
environments. Whenever
you engage in a cross-site
collaborative endeavor it
seems almost impossible to
accomplish your goals with-
out using Web 2.0 technolo-
gies. Library media special-
ists can share examples of
quality web resources for K12
students using sites like Dii-
go, which will let them share
annotated web pages. Stu-
dents can use collaborative
web-based tools such as
Google docs or wikis to plan
their resource. They can col-
lect and organize infor-
mation using web-based
tools such as Livebinders or
Diigo. They can share what
they have found using a
plethora of web based publi-
cation sites. Blogs, wikis, and
web pages are just the begin-
ning. Sites that let you in-
clude other web 2.0 tools
have the added bonus of al-
lowing you to customize
your content for your audi-
ence. Web pages for young
learners can include a speak-
ing Voki avatar that intro-
duces the topic or tells them
how to use the site. The ben-
efit of the avatar is twofold.
Students are drawn in by the
speaking character and more
information can be commu-
nicated without worrying
that young students have
understood the written text.
Both of these projects were
incredibly successful for every-
one involved. The middle school
students went on to present
their projects at a state confer-
ence. Students in my class and
the high school in China learned
that they had much in common.
Teachers and library media spe-
cialists can also initiate partner-
ships with universities. These
partnerships not only provide
valuable learning opportunities
for both college and K12 students
but they are also an untapped
resource for media specialists
and K12 teachers who are look-
ing to provide their students and
staff with customized web-based
content.
Special thanks to Jodi Cloutier
and Ruhui Ni.
Sites mentioned: Voki http://
www.voki.com/, LiveBinder
http://www.livebinders.com/ ,
Diigo http://www.diigo.com/,
Google Docs https://
docs.google.com/
In these days of shrinking budgets and strictly allotted teaching time, the field trip is often the first item jettisoned from the curriculum. But the field trip offers the opportunity for hands on learning, as well as hitting upon Standard 3 of the AASL Standards for 21st Century – “Learners use skills, resources, and tools to share knowledge ethically and productively as members of our democratic.”
The "field trip" can become a basis for transliteracy (defined “as the ability to read, write, and interact across a range of plat-forms, tools, and media”), as op-posed to just a day out of school. The T.H. Harris Library sponsors one or two yearly field trips. Stu-dents pay for the trip by reading, responding, and using various Web 2.0 tools to react to the subject. Once on the field trip they are active participants using technology and field notes to create a final digital product; a digital walking tour using Google Maps or a movie trailer using apps for IPad are two ex-amples.
With Harris, the road to transliteracy began with a cata-strophic event and a student’s cavalier response to the devasta-tion of Hurricane Katrina. Our school is less than 10 miles away from one of the major levee
Transporting to Transliteracy
Ruth Brewington
breaches at the 17th Street Canal. So with the help of the 8th grade English teacher, a field trip was developed to tour the devastated areas of New Orleans. Prior to the trip, students researched as-pects of the storm using books and magazines. Students went on the field trip, took close to 700 pictures, but finished only a rough draft. Part of it was due to lack of timing, but also how real the destruction was to them. They talked to other students about it, wrote legislators, but most importantly unknown to the teacher and I- they cried at the levee breach.
While the teacher and I knew that they had been deeply affect-ed by the trip and their scores in Language Arts portion of stand-ardized test reflected this. We had little to show for the effort. In October 2006, it was decided to go on a “NOLA” field trip; the students were affect-ed and did the neces-sary leg work, but did not cre-ate a quality print prod-
uct. Other students began clam-oring for the opportunity to go on the “Katrina” trip and the need was still there; but there had to be a better connection to the students. One day while working on a presentation, I came across Google pictures of New Orleans. But these pictures were not of the devastated city, they were of the New Orleans that existed prior to the storm. Then it hit me; students needed to know that people really lived in these devastated areas - that these were once thriving vibrant neighborhoods. By 2007, Web 2.0 tools were coming to the fore-front and they proved to be an excellent starting point for our trip and its new purpose – NOLA Neighborhoods – Before, During, and After Katrina.
A wiki was created for the pro-
Transporting to Transliteracy
Transporting to Transliteracy ject with links and photographs to help guide the students. A Google video was shown to the students –” A Hurricane Katrina Tribute. “The students were as-signed various neighborhoods to research using books and web sites. Their photos and research were saved to their computers. Students that had posted their notes on the wiki were allowed on the field trip. In order to fur-ther make the connection, stu-dents were also given a tally list of New Orleans architectural styles. On the field trip, students tallied the different styles of the houses, as well as their livability. The students used these findings to create brochures, which were published on our schools web page and later embedded into a wiki. Students were using all sorts of tools - digital photo-graphs, web pages, and surveys
to create a unique product. They were beginning to practice Transliteracy.
The field trip to New Orleans has become an annual tradition at our school, and each year the teachers and I strive to find a unique tool or medium to docu-ment the ongoing recovery of New Orleans. In 2008, they cre-ated videos ; in 2009 voice threads were done on neighbor-hoods, in 2010 they created mu-seum boxes; and in 2011 they cre-ated a digital walking tour of the Make It Right neighborhood. With each trip, a wiki was built to guide the students as well as to showcase their work. Blogs were used not only to comment on their trips but also as a vehi-cle for book reviews. Online notes, such as wall wisher and lion it, were used as a check for
under-standing as well as a qualifier for the field trips.
The students’ work on the field trips also became a basis for our school’s
work with local institutions, such as the Louisiana State Mu-seum, Jean Lafitte Bara aria Na-tional Park, and the World War II Museum. With each institu-tion, a product was created that involved real life experience, vid-eoconferencing, blogging, print and digital research. While on a field trip to Jean Lafitte, students were sent out on the trails to document the flora and fauna. Upon their return, they searched for archival images and com-bined them with images from their trip to create an online notebook. With the Louisiana State Museum, they created pod-casts for artifacts in the Pres-bytere and the Cabildo, as well as digital stories about their hur-ricane experiences. With the World War II Museum they act-ed as i-reporters to the Grand Opening of the museum’s’ ex-pansion in 2009. They comment-ed and posted videos on tumblr as they interviewed WWII veter-ans. This fall they posted re-views about historical novels on a dippity timeline, tweeted about the Louisiana Renaissance Festi-val, and they are currently creat-ing video trailers about the festi-val.
What’s next? Well, Opera-tion Sail is coming to New Orle-ans in spring 2012 and Harris students will be there.
During the 11-12 school year RSU57's Massabesic High School decided to use govern-ment stimulus funds to rein-vent its library and turn it in-to a twenty-first century me-dia center. This is the story of that journey. From first con-cept to final deployment the question of what does a twen-ty-first century media center look like is examined. Focus-ing on student work flow, a new learning environment is created that supports infor-mation gathering, and infor-mation creation.
Located in Waterboro Maine, Rural School Unit #57 (RSU57) is on a journey. This journey involves the transfor-
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
Robert Stackpole
mation of our district into a Proficiency Based Educational environment (PBE). Fortu-nately, RSU 57 was the recipi-ent of a significant amount of federal stimulus dollars to aid us in this quest. Our first question as a district was how do we use these funds as a capital “one time” investment that supports PBE and posi-tively affects student learning for years to come. One idea that quickly floated to the sur-face was to upgrade the high school’s library.
The library at Massabesic High School had never re-ceived a physical, or, concep-tual upgrade since its con-struction was completed
about thirty years ago. It was a place of book stacks and mag-azine racks. The major new technologies located there were a few old Macintosh and Windows computers. The li-brary had an extensive catalog of VHS tapes along with VHS players attached to CRT Tele-visions. Of course there was still the odd film strip and overhead projector, along with several film projectors. In fact, this library looked a lot like the library in my high school... and I graduated in 1971!
Someone in the planning group stated that we need to change the name from the Li-brary to the Media Center. Another said that the Media
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
Center had to support twenty-first century learning. In piec-ing all this together we came up with the term “Twenty-first Century Media Center”.
“So, what does a twenty-first century media center look like?” someone asked. That’s when the looks of con-sternation and befuddlement began to appear. After an elongated discussion the plan-ning group defined a twenty-first century media center as place where students can ac-cess information and create new information to be shared.
During the next several planning meetings we began to put some meat on the bones of this concept. We
realized that gathering infor-mation didn’t mean just hav-ing networked computers. Twenty-first century students are mobile and they will need access to mobile devices. This means laptops, iPods, and iPads. Since MHS is not a one to one school (every student is not assigned a computer), students will need to be able to check out devices from the Media Center. Special Needs students will need accessible furniture setups and adaptive technology.
Then we looked at the flip side of the coin and addressed what students would need to create new sources of infor-mation and then be able to
share that information with peers, and possibly the world. Clearly they would use the hardware identified in the previous paragraph along with software applications like iMovie, GarageBand, iPhoto, Pages, and Keynote, but that’s really just a starting place. Today’s desktops and mobile devices have a fantas-tic array of tools available for content creation; however they focus mainly on the indi-vidual experience. Modern scholars need access to an ad hoc video/sound studio where they can work in groups to produce and record school news programs, act out skits for course projects, and per-form scenes from Shake-
Robert G. Stackpole is an educator is southern Maine. He has worked
for RSU57 for over thirty years. His career began as an elementary
school teacher and then moved into technology education as the dis-
trict's Technology Coordinator. Additionally, Mr. Stackpole has
served as a school board member in his home town, and as an adjunct
faculty member at the University of Southern Maine. He is also the
founder of ACTEM (the Association of Computer Technology Educa-
tors of Maine).
speare. Equally important will be a recording studio for stu-dents to create and record original music and narrations. The audio and video labs will use professional level software applications like Aperture, Final Cut, and Logic, for stu-dents to create professional quality files that they will have an intrinsic desire to share.
Round this out with a high end video streaming server and an audio file server and we’ve made a giant leap for-ward toward enhancing pro-ject based learning. This also establishes a locally focused information source for all stu-dents to access.
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
Robert Stackpole
The placement of a wide-screen high definition TV in a corner of the Media Center creating a small theater envi-ronment is the icing on the cake. The TV will have a ca-ble connection to let the world into the Media Center. The addition of an Apple TV device supports student/teacher presentations. Using Airplay students will present their video projects to large groups. Using the same setup small groups are able to view professional educational vide-os from an extensive video library streamed from iTunes.
With the philosophical dis-cussions behind us and a solid
purchase plan in place the planning committee began looking at the physical space available.
The current footprint of the Library would support the hardware/access goals of the planning committee. Howev-er, the current layout would not suffice. Radical changes to the layout and other storage spaces would have to occur for the plan to be successful.
The magazine storage area was the first space reviewed. The simple fact was that paper magazines just weren’t that popular with students any-more. The trend was to read more and more magazines and
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
blogs online. In the day of “Google” why were we storing National Geographic going back to 1960? It was decided that the magazines in the magazine storage area were to be tossed or donated, the area cleaned out and used as a combination server closet and technical support work space. The real plus is that the tech support staff member for the building would be located in the media center and immedi-ately available to support the new technologies.
Next we tackled the AV closet. This was comprised of many CRT TVs on carts. Most of these carts never moved out of this space as teachers
now used Smart board projec-tors with their laptops to show classroom videos. These carts and other small devices were either given to teachers to store in their rooms if de-sired or tossed (recycled). This provided space, with walls, for the recording stu-dio.
The recording studio/AV closet is positioned adjacent to a conference room. A plan for a sound studio quickly emerged. Fortunately, the wall separating the two rooms was not a supporting wall. Cables run through the ceiling and over the wall into the re-cording studio allow the mi-crophones used with the re-
cording studio to be shared and used for video recording and production. This space could quickly be converted back and forth from a sound studio to a conference room as needed.
Using the circulation sys-tem for data, it was deter-mined that almost 50% of the books in the stacks had not been checked out in a decade. Once identified, these books would be donated to a needy source and the physical book-cases removed. With this completed the space would be used for the theater and an expanded desktop computer area.
Robert G. Stackpole is an educator is southern Maine. He has worked
for RSU57 for over thirty years. His career began as an elementary
school teacher and then moved into technology education as the dis-
trict's Technology Coordinator. Additionally, Mr. Stackpole has
served as a school board member in his home town, and as an adjunct
faculty member at the University of Southern Maine. He is also the
founder of ACTEM (the Association of Computer Technology Educa-
tors of Maine).
Summer came and the work began. POs were pro-cessed as the new equipment was ordered. Several accessi-ble computer stations and touch screen computers were ordered to address student special needs. New rugs were laid down and the walls were painted. Student volunteers moved the furniture and reor-ganized the book stacks. The tech staff ran new cabling to support the new computers. Additional electrical circuits and electrical outlets were added. Computers and other devices were unboxed and prepared for student use.
So what did we purchase?
40 iMac computer
2 Mac servers (one as a file server for audio and video
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
Robert Stackpole
files and one for streaming video)
30 laptops with a laptop cart
3 special order touch screen iMacs
30 iPad 2 with a sync cart
30 iPod Touch with a sync cart
10 digital video cameras
2 digital SLR cameras
Camera accessories (tripods, cases, memory sticks)
A professional quality record-ing studio (cost about 15k. Equipment list provided by request)
2 professional quality digital video cameras
It is too soon to estimate the educational impact of the
new media center on learning at MHS. While students use this new environment daily, it remains an investment in the future. RSU57 is in the begin-ning stages of our transforma-tive journey. As the profes-sional staff and students trans-form themselves into twenty-first century teachers and learners the seeds of the new media center will take root and bear fruit.
Our concept is solid. A twenty-first century media center is a place where stu-dents access information in new ways, while having the tools to synthesize and create new information for sharing and collaboration within the school, community, and the world.
sigms
Our Organization
QR Code for SIGMS Wiki
http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/
Executive Committee
Maureen Sanders-Brunner Chair Ball State University Muncie, Indiana [email protected] Tiffany Whitehead Vice Chair Central Community Schools Baton Rouge, Louisana [email protected] Laurie Conzemius Communications Chair Pine Meadow Elementary School [email protected] Brenda Anderson Professional Development Chair Montgomery County Public Schools [email protected] Annette Lamb, Ph.D. Member-at-Large School of Library and Infor-mation Science Indiana University [email protected]
Committee Chairs
Advocacy Kathy Sanders Taylor Prairie IMC Director [email protected] International Librarianship Lesley Farmer California State University Long Beach [email protected] Newsletter Carolyn Starkey Buckhorn High School [email protected] Webinar Jennifer Gossman Holy Redeemer [email protected] Andrea Christman Rosa Parks Middle School [email protected] Technology Innovation Award Tim Staal MAME [email protected]
Second Life
What Does a Twenty-first Century Media Center Look Like?
ISTE SIGMS
The Scanner
Volume 3 Number 2
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