March 23, 2013 · 3:29 pm

Minecraft and Manners 2.0

So I’m at home working, and two of my sons are online playing Minecraft on computers in different rooms. Suddenly, one of them slams down his headphones, yells down the hall at his brother and stomps off into his own room slamming the door.  I go upstairs to find out what all the noise is about. Through the door, he tells me that his brother pushed him in the lava. I’m like, “Excuse me. Come again.”

“He pushed me in the lava!” he yells back.

I turn around and walk down the hall to confront his brother. “You want to explain to me what happened here?” I ask.

“No.”

“Did you push your brother in the lava?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you are not allowed to push your brother in the lava in this world or the virtual world! Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

At this point, I am trying so hard not to laugh. “Do NOT let it happen again. Seriously, I can not believe that we are having this conversation. Where are your manners?”

Virtual environments and other online sandboxes afford a player the opportunity to interact with others–sometimes in ways that they would never consider in the real world. (See example above.)  However, virtual worlds also allow players to experiment in different environments and scenarios. James Burling, a graduate student at UMW, used Minecraft to teach performing literacies during a summer reading program. Participants “utilize the video game Minecraft to recreate elements, activities and stories from the Summer Reading Program,” thus, becoming the character or inhabiting the world of their favorite books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z8UwXOPE8w

In another example of library-based gaming , Mr. Jarrett at NCS runs an after school program where he “creates a learner-centered, student-guided experience in which kids in grades 1-8 can play, collaborate, teach and inspire each other” using Minecraft and MinecraftEDU . Reflecting on his experiences, he wrote, “We spent a lot of time making sure kids were ‘playing nice’.”

Hey, manners matter in this world and the virtual world. No matter where you play– remember..No pushing!

Read More:

How Second Life Affects Real Life from Time magazine

Eastwick, P., Gardner, W..  Is it a game? Evidence for social influence in the virtual world . Social Influence. 2009;4(1):18-32.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research

Pace, T., Bardzell, S., and Bardzell, J.. The rogue in the lovely black dress: intimacy in world of warcraft. Computer Human Interaction, 2010, 233-242.

Virtual Worlds for Girls

Virtual Worlds for Teens

Young, G., and Whitty, M.. How Should We Judge Deviant Behaviors on Virtual Worlds? A review of Transcending Taboos: A Moral and Psychological Examination of Cyberspace, New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.

Email, RSS Follow

5 Comments

Filed under Creating, Virtual Environments

Tagged as , ,

· 1:30 pm

Basketball Twitter Diaries

 

I work at a super cool high school library that is fortunate enough to have a 70″ flat screen in its space. This last Thursday and Friday, we aired the NCAA Basketball tournament from 11 am to 4:30 pm. Previously to turning on the games on Thursday, we had not promoted the viewing, and when I first turned the games on, I noticed a student texting his friends. Pretty soon, we had more, more spectators, phones in hands, arriving as the games got under way. We were at capacity both days, and on Friday at 4:30 pm, I had to literally force some of our male students to leave against their will.

During the games, the students were very engaged-yelling at the screen and reacting to the plays. They were also talking to each other and on the internet and their phones. Many were commenting on the Twitter feed on the sidebar-commenting on the comments and commentators. They were participating and connecting, in both the physical and virtual environments.

This level of engagement can be replicated in the classroom using Twitter and other chat tools. Students have something to say that can be said in 140 characters or less.

Read more:

Danah boyd, Scott Golder, and Gilad Lotan.“Tweet Tweet Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter.” Proceedings of HICSS-42, Persistent Conversation Track. Kauai, HI: IEEE Computer Society January 5-8, 2010

New on the Shelf: Teens in the Library. Findings from the Evaluation of Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development, An Initiative of the Wallace Foundation. Final Report.

Social media demographics 2012: 24 sites including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Teaching Teens to Twitter: Supporting Engagement in the College Classroom, Rey Junco, Associate Professor and the Director of Disability Services in the Department of Academic Development and Counseling at Lock Haven University

The Trending 20: Teens On Twitter Share What They Like Least About High School

 

Email, RSS Follow

2 Comments

Filed under Connecting, Sharing

Tagged as , ,

March 21, 2013 · 5:10 pm

Keeping Up with the Kids

My friend posted this on Facebook this week:

Now, I’m thinking to myself, “Great! I just figured out how Facebook works, gotten up to speed and am more engaged, and it’s already passé.” According to an article by Anne Flaherty at Huffington Post, “More than three-fourths of teenagers have a cellphone and use online social networking sites such as Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. But Facebook for teens has become a bit like a school-sanctioned prom – a rite of passage with plenty of adult chaperones – while newer apps such as Snapchat and Kik Messenger are the much cooler after-party.” These apps do not require a credit card or even a cellphone; all the child needs is an internet connection and a device-no parent permission, no supervision.

Teens use social media to engage their friends and participate in the digital community. While adults worry that children are communicating with strangers online, most say that social media strengthens their relationships, and many have used social media to make connections with friends of friends. In their book Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out, Ito and company make this statement:

The fact is that teens will go where their friends are, and their parents are not. It does not matter if it is the street corner, the mall or Google+.

Read more:

The Online Generation Gap: A Study by the Family Online Safety Institute

Online Reputation Guide for College-Bound Students from SafetyWeb.com

Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives from Common Sense Media

Teens and Technology 2013: A Pew Internet Study

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under Connecting

Tagged as , , , ,

February 21, 2013 · 8:05 am

Interview with Latrice Ferguson, U-High Head Librarian

I interviewed Latrice Ferguson, head library media specialist at University High School in Normal, IL. (I work there; she is my boss.)

The library has a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a blog and a Pinterest page. What she finds is that social media takes up a lot of time and that to do it right, she needs to be constantly engaged and a consistent poster.

Both Pinterest and Facebook are blocked at school, which makes it harder to target and engage students in these forums. Our awesome Pinterest page affords us an opportunity to promote our library in the community and to curate resources and materials for faculty.

She uses social media mostly as a contact medium to members of her personal learning network (PLN). She is a member of a Ning for Black Librarians and several other wikis. She also follows several blogs and twitter feeds. She uses the iPad app Flipboard as her RSS feeder. She also follows the listserv for the Illinois School Library Media Association, which is a wealth of information for pre-service and practicing librarians.

She employs Digsby as the reference chat, though it is sometimes misused by students. As part of her job, she teaches about digital literacy, citizenship, especially cyber-bullying, and privacy issues—other common SM problems in high schools.

Overall, she has positive feelings about social media, but she often struggles to find time to do it professionally and personally.

Email, RSS Follow

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

February 18, 2013 · 7:41 pm

Book Reviews 2.0

 Librarians use reviews to decide whether to purchase a book. When books are published, a paid professional reviewer reads it and then publishes an opinion based on the book’s merits. These reviews are published in newspapers like the New York Times and in journals like the School Library Journal or VOYA.  A good review means some shelf space, a book tour and possibly a better contract for the author. However, using this marketing method, word of mouth is slow, and there are many gatekeepers controlling information about the book.

The Internet and social media have changed all that.  According to Gefland’s research, the “omission of social media will delete you and your enterprise from the public radar”; the converse is also true.  (Gefland 2012)

Social media decentralizes the power from publishers and professionals—thanks to blogosphere, anyone can be a critic, everyone has a voice. The YA Book Blog Directory lists hundreds of book review blogs. These blogs can be the work of one individual or a collaborative effort.  Thanks to advanced reader copies (ARC) and websites like Netgalley.com, bloggers can read and post reviews even before the release of the book.

Like many authors, book bloggers may have a blog, a Facebook page, a twitter feed and a Pinterest page on which they will promote themselves and their reviews. YouTube and Vivemo afford reviewers and avid readers a platform to post original book reviews and trailers. Virtual communities like Shelfari.com, goodreads.com and Bookglutton.com revolve around book critique and encourage readers to share their thoughts and reflections.

Social media affords book bloggers the ability to publish in real time, media-rich, decentralized, collborative environments. Consequently for librarians, “the information about a text [has] become as important as the primary text itself.” (Barrett 1992)

Read More:

Barrett, E. Sociomedia: Multimedia, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (1992).1.

Burns E. Curl Up with a Cup of Tea and a Good Blog. School Library Journal. (2007, Feb);  53(2): 40.

Furman J. Top 10 Tips for Marketing a Book Using Social Media. PM World Today. (2012, Jan);14(1): 1-7. 

Gelfand J, Lin A. Social Networking: Product or Process and What Shade of Grey?. Grey Journal (TGJ). (2012, Spring2012); 8(1): 14-26. 

Shank J, Bell S. Blended Librarianship: [Re]Envisioning the Role of Librarian as Educator in the Digital Information Age. Reference & User Services Quarterly. (2011, Winter2011); 51(2): 105-110.

Wasserstrom, J. Why read book reviews? The Chronicle Review. (September 9. 2011). B20.

Email, RSS Follow

3 Comments

Filed under Book Reviews 2.0, Connecting, Creating, Sharing

Tagged as , ,

February 17, 2013 · 10:02 pm

Web 2.0 & the School Library Mash-up

 Web 2.0 is a real time, media-rich, public, two-way, social, decentralized, mobile global community.

In 2005, Tim Reilly said:

 “Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages   of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from  multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network  effects through an ‘architecture of participation,’ and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.”

In order to stay relevant in the interactive world of 2.0, school libraries need to “deliver rich user experiences” by embracing and adapting the 2.0 attitude.

Five Ways School Libraries Can Reboot
1. Real time: A library webpage and digital resources that can be accessed at school and from home 24/7/365. A reference chat that is available during school hours would also help users find information when and where they need it.
2. Multi-Media: Delivering instruction and information using Podcasting, YouTube, Vivemo, and existing TEDtalks
3. Social: Promoting library events and feedback via Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
4. Curation: Using social bookmaking web tools like Pinterest, Diigo and Delicious to lead faculty and students to information and resources available on the web and in the collection.
5. Creation & Experimentation: Providing a physical and virtual “learning commons” where instruction, collaboration and creation can occur similar to the YOUMedia extension at the Chicago Public Library or through the use of wikis and simulated environments.

Like Web 2.0 tools, a 2.0 School Library is a “continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it.”

More Reading:

Anita Mary Brooks K. Becoming Teacher-Librarian 2.0. Partnership : The Canadian Journal Of Library And Information Practice And Research [serial on the Internet]. (2007); (1).

King D. Creating a Customer Experience On the Web In the Library In the Community. Slideshare. September 30, 2011. http://www.slideshare.net/davidleeking/creating-customer-experience-on-the-web-in-the-library-in-the-community-9493673.

Naslund J, Giustini D. Towards School Library 2.0: An Introduction to Social Software Tools for Teacher Librarians. School Libraries Worldwide [serial on the Internet]. (2008, July); 14(2): 55-67.

O’Dell S. Opportunities and Obligations for Libraries in a Social Networking Age: A Survey of Web 2.0 and Networking Sites. Journal Of Library Administration [serial on the Internet]. (2010, Apr); 50(3): 237-251.

O’Reilly, Tim. “Web 2.0: Compact Definition?” OReilly Radar. October 1, 2005. http://radar.oreilly.com/2005/10/web-20-compact-definition.html.

Partridge H. Becoming “Librarian 2.0”: The Skills, Knowledge, and Attributes Required by Library and Information Science Professionals in a Web 2.0 World (and Beyond). Library Trends [serial on the Internet]. (2010, Summer-Fall2010); 59(1-2): 315.

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under Connecting

Tagged as , ,

January 7, 2013 · 8:54 am

Like I was saying…

Loretta's Quote

“People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it’s surfaced through friends and people they know and trust.” -Malorie Lucich, Facebook Spokesperson

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.” -Steve Jobs

Seth Godin on Social Working

Email, RSS Follow

1 Comment

Filed under Connecting, Creating, Sharing

Tagged as , , , ,