Category Archives: Assignment Two

July 13, 2013 · 11:04 pm

Making meaning of week 2

Where I was:

  • consumer of content
  • introducer of content
  • collector of resources
  • list keeper
  • social media phobe
  • user of tech to do course work but not elsewhere

Where I am:

  • blogger
  • connected educator
  • collaborator
  • contributor
  • curator
  • organizer
  • ICT appreciator
  • learner and enthusiastic user of ICT for learning

Where I am going(what am I going to do…)

  • continue to develop my PLN
  • use PLN to improve my practice
  • encourage students to create there own PLN to pursue their ‘spark’
  • use ICT to for many purposes:
  1. to connect better to students
  2. to allow students to connect to each other
  3. to allow students to create and share creations with the world
  4. to connect students to experts and sources of local interest/expertise
  5. to connect better with parents

I am also trying to find out what is happening in our district and why I don’t know about it, and how I can help others know about it. For example I just found out about the social networking tool called yammer which apparently is available in my district. It is sort of a corporate Facebook style interface, so my next job is to find out about that and why we have it when nobody’s using it and maybe encouraging people to use that as a tool within our district for connecting and collaborating and sharing ideas.

Our sociological discussions this week about socio-cultural homeostasis, dynamic conservatism, institutional isomorphism, autopoeisis, structural coupling and linguistic cognitive domain, have been thought-provoking, interesting, depressing, hopeful, daunting, energizing and inspiring.

Out of all of that what I feel at the end is that what I need to do is to work on using ICT resources to further my own practice, to learn to create exemplary lessons in which students learn with, through, and about technology. I have to learn To take more risks to allow learning to be more students centred than ever before. As I do this I have to leverage my connections, my connectedness to try to inspire, influence, or persuade others to join the ICT side.

I think providing inspiring examples sharing successes and being a reflective learner and teacher, and sharing what I’m doing is a way to effect change slowly, authentically, sustainably, and organically. Certainly that’s how I’m starting to learn from other people. One of the first things that I’m going to do in the wider school context (providing that I am at the same school) is to bring the idea of asking why to more aspects of our practice. Why did we bring iPads into the school? why are we doing what we’re doing? I think we go back to the why we will do more well.
If I’m not at the same school if I am in a new school environment I think that the way to deal with the dangers of institutional isomorphism and other factors against innovation and radical change is to continue to seek out people outside of my school (PLN) with whom I have common goals, so that I can continue to develop my own practice.

Looking back at this post I notice that I’ve got lots of adjectives and lists of adjectives I wonder if that’s a symptom of how full my brain is.

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July 11, 2013 · 4:08 pm

Developing World Libraries

However you slice it developing a worldwide library collection or digital libraries in developing countries is being seen as a way to provide access for people who are under serviced by libraries. Programs for providing infrastructure in the developing world abound such as Global libraries through the BIll and Melinda Gates Foundation and many others. All over the world cellular technology is putting cell phones in the hands of people faster than land lines. According to water.org more people have cell phone than have a toilet.
Oraganizations such as UNESCO are attempting to create digital collections “in multilingual format, [of] significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.”
http://youtu.be/xhBYGI6Tfzo
see their site: http://www.wdl.org/en/

Another resource is the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/ founded by Brewster Kahle.

Kahle states: “It’s not that expensive. For the cost of 60 miles of highway, we can have a 10 million-book digital library available to a generation that is growing up reading on-screen. Our job is to put the best works of humankind within reach of that generation. Through a simple Web search, a student researching the life of John F. Kennedy should be able to find books from many libraries, and many booksellers — and not be limited to one private library whose titles are available for a fee, controlled by a corporation that can dictate what we are allowed to read.”[12]

There are digital collections for young people like the International Children’s Digital Library which is particularly interesting because part of their mandate: “The ICDL Foundation promotes tolerance and respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children’s literature from around the world.” The site is available in English, Spanish, French, Mongolian, and Russian. Books are often available in more than one language, and their stated goal is to have all their books translated into 100 languages. They even have a training manual for teachers to use the digital library. The training manual contained this interesting definition of digital libraries:

Digital Libraries

William Arms, creator of D-Lib Magazine, gives a simple yet effective definition of a digital library. He defines a digital library as a “managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network” (Arms, 2000, p. 2). Digital libraries are considered extensions of the physical library, not replacements. They have benefits such as being “open” twenty-four hours a day at a relatively low cost, bringing the library to the user, allowing for powerful searching and browsing, being able to share unique collections, and providing access to up-to- date information (Arms, 2000).

One of the concerns our group, which has been discussing equity and access related to BYOD,  brought up while discussing the issue in class was that much digital content available is in English. How then can it be accessed by non English speakers? This is another issue around BYOD that I have been contemplating. If your students are doing inquiry based learning, do we care if ESL students are reading all of their materials in English? If our purpose for the activity is for that student to learn English then yes but if our purpose is to decide which french speaking country they would like to visit if they were given $3000 dollars to go on an adventure holiday, then maybe not. Is it more important to have students learn and understand about the content, than that they use English to do every single task? Having the option of completing some tasks in their first langauge can enable ESL students to complete learning tasks in a timely manner. At any rate if we want tasks to be authentic and if we want students to practice their 21st century skills we are going to be looking at how that student interacts with the internet outside of school and I am sure that will involve them using Google Translate and accessing content in their first languages. Having their own devices with their own apps would help facilitate this.

As a TL this means that we need to create our own libraries digital presence in such a way that it acknowledges and takes advantage of these resources. Teacher Librarians need to draw peoples attention to digital resources just as they promote new print books, and should be mindful of how their materials are being accessed to ensure positive user experiences. Does your school library website have a mobile app?

 

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· 12:16 am

Fighting the forces against change at my school

Sociocultural Homeostasis, dynamic conservatism, institutional isomorphism oh my! How can we effect change in our own schools?

I think that the best way for me at my school (if i were back there again) would be to proceed into the brave new world of ICT by finding like minded souls who are interested in pursuing connectedness, ICT and other related issues and quietly collaborate with them on various projects. This way we will have results that we can share with others.

If I were the teacher librarian at the school I think what I would start by doing this by carving out for myself time to staff meetings to present various topics in ICT. I would also think about setting up a series lunch time proD workshops maybe offer ‘workshop Wednesdays’ and invite staff members to come into the library and collaborate and share around ICT. I know that there are some teachers who would be interested in any of these topics right off the bat. Getting them onside and getting ideas from them would be a piece of cake. But those really aren’t the people that I would be looking for. I would be looking for the people who say “this is the way I do things I’ve always done them this way” or for the people who think “look at my website, I already am doing digital technology”. I would be looking for the people who need a push to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones.
The topic that we covered today that struck me the most was our discussion of linguistic cognitive domain. The idea that the way that you frame a new idea the words that you use and the way you introduce it will affect other people’s perception of the concept, will Influence their willingness to adopt new techniques used new resources step out of their comfort zone and try new things.
As the librarian you’re in the ideal position to introduce new ideas for several reasons:

  • In your role as a teacher librarian you are creating a website and virtual library so you’re more likely to be familiar with a lot of these things
  • You’re the person that works with all the members of the staff and all the members of the student population
  • You are the one (in the minds of other teachers at least) who has time to invest in learning about ICT because you don’t have lesson planning and marking to do. (some of them think this I know)

So time and care must be put into planning how you can introduce new ideas and how you’re going to change the culture of your school to try to counteract some of the forces like institutional isomorphism that make change more difficult.

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July 9, 2013 · 10:29 pm

So they are going digital with Edmodo

As I mentioned in my previous books one of my colleagues has decided to with his team go digital classroom. I decided that I would look into what they are planning and look into whether or not BYOB is part of their plans. So through Twitter I was told that they are going to adopt Edmodo. This is a platform that my colleague who teaches the Middle Ages Gifted Cluster Class (MACC) has raved about all year.

Today she tweeted “luv Edmodo for: st engagement, book club connections, PLN, ongoing parent communication”. I haven’t taken the time to learn even what it is and what it can be used for, so I decided that tonight’s task was to spend some time looking at Edmodo.
I started out by looking for video tutorials related to Edmodo and I found a quite lengthy one on the website called www.teachertrainingvideos.com. Here’s the link to that Edmodo introductory video:

http://youtu.be/DZHB6FfRjnQ

Some key things I’ve learned about Edmodo are that it allows you to create a Facebook style interface in which you can create groups for each of your classes and your students can sign up and be members of the designated groups. You will be given a group code to enable students to sign up. You can create assignments and have students turn them in. It also allows students to post items on the groups wall. You can create quizzes and those quizzes will be marked and students can be given feedback instantaneously, which is a feature that I appreciate. Apparently you can also give parents a parent code.
Here are some other tutorial videos that I watched on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/x0f9Syv8yCI
http://youtu.be/BILtGaDe3qA
Part 1: Getting started with Edmodo

Part 2:Assignments

Part 3:Using the Calendar

http://youtu.be/UoVfi10qqvM

I learned how to assess an assignment and provide feedback to individual students. I learned how to manage a class group and find the parent codes for each individual students. I learned how you can embed video directly into the wall of your class groups. And those few there were only a small portion of the available tutorials of varying lengths that have been created and put up on YouTube regarding

This video introduces sort of comparison between Edmodo and another application called Moodle which I have never heard of, I have no idea what it is. Maybe that’s the next thing to look at.

The MACC class which have been using this Edmodo platform is essentially a one to one class with a BYOD policy. It is a unique program in that it is a district program that pulls kids from all over the district not merely from our catchment area so a lot of the parents actually drive the kids in from a relatively great distance to purchase paid in this program and those students are asked to bring in there on the laptops I believe I don’t know that they’re given the option to use other kinds of devices. In this class the teacher reports that the students love using Edmodo. They love being able to message each other and get involved in debates. She likes that one of the features is that she can keep track of who hands and assignments on time and to track work habits marks. She’s a fan and I think she’s starting to convert the others!

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July 8, 2013 · 10:07 pm

BYOD and “going digital”

One of my colleagues From my now former school tweeted that he and his team are “going digital classroom next year.”

This intrigued me. I want to know what he means by that and what that might look like and how that will play out and what plans there making and I’m planning to interrogate him.

So far I know that the planning adopting Edmodo with their classes. So I’ve decided to use this as a jumping off point to look into BYOD policies, pros and cons and what’s happening in other districts jurisdictions. I’m also going to look more into Edmodo and what it is how it looks maybe compare it to the MS SharePoint alternatives that our district is pushing and look into also am blogging with edublogs as an alternative.
Through my conversations on Twitter with the teachers involved in planning that project of going digital as well as another teacher at our school who teaches the grade 6 MACC class which essentially runs is a one-to-one program I am looking at what’s happening at our school in terms of practical everyday usage devices. As a school we don’t have a vision statement or policy on bringing your own devices, we do have the code of conduct.

Here is an excerpt from the electronic devices protocol contained within that document:
“Based on feedback from students, staff and parents, the use of electronic devices is not permitted during instructional time (defined as all times between 8:40 a.m. and 2:50 p.m. except nutrition break and lunch time) unless directed by a teacher or staff member. Off-site activities including field trips and sports trips are also included in this prohibition. Examples of electronic devices include but are not limited to cell phones, Blackberries, iPods and iPads, iTouch’s, iPhones, MP3 players, cameras, etc. Teachers are engaging in expanding their use of technology to support student learning and as such may ask that students use programs and devices under their supervision in their learning, with the intent that all students develop a constructive understanding of the use and misuse of technology. Valuable items are brought to school at the owner’s risk and should be kept in the student’s locker. The school is not responsible for items that go missing during the course of the day.”

One of my first steps is gonna be reading “Bring Your Own Device: A Guide for Schools” created by the Alberta government. It is divided into three sections policy,practices and planning. It is not “a step-by-step guide” for implementing bring BYOB in schools, what it does is bring up a number of questions and issues for consideration I’ve included below the list from the table of contents which gives you an idea of the kinds of questions the document is asking.

1. Policy
a. What value do personally owned devices bring to student learning?
b. What BYOD models are school authorities adopting?
c. What policies are needed to ensure high quality use?
2. Practices
a. Will students be ready to learn using personally owned devices? Will they be good digital citizens?
b. What pedagogies fully leverage personally owned devices for teaching and learning? What types of professional development help teachers leverage such pedagogies?
c. How can digital content be used effectively through personally owned devices?
d. What infrastructure will be required to support student use of personally owned
devices?
3. Planning
a. What are the key school readiness indicators that ensure effectiveness of a BYOD
model?
b. What are the BYOD implications with the community?

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