It's Not Nothing

There's been an interesting conversation going on recently regarding "transliteracy."

Medical librarian David Rothman questions whether this concept is any more than a new buzzword for the same type of information literacy with which librarians have always been concerned. Rothman's stance is that "the world changes as technology changes. Education and libraries adapt (well or poorly, but they adapt). There’s nothing new here. There’s no need for a new movement, a new term, or so much discussion about nothing."

I strongly disagree.

The location, evaluation and aggregation of factual information will always be an essential component of the library experience, whether in a K-12, university, specialized or public facility. Providing materials for scholarly and recreational reading, listening, or viewing is a second key service.

But modern life require something beyond accessing and searching resources...and that's where transliteracy skills become necessary. Our students, our citizens must be skillful in collaboration and creation. They are expected to process, reconfigure, transfigure raw materials (be they data or ideas), sometimes while working with virtual colleagues across the world. They don't just find information: they create and disseminate it.

And they must perform these tasks with tools that are rapidly evolving. Information users need to be adept at learning new skills in a constantly changing information landscape, able to identify, investigate and utilize powerful new instrumentality for storing or communicating information.

In “The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant," Dr. David Lankes says

"What will kill this profession is not ebooks, amazon, or Google. It will be a lack of imagination. An inability to see not what is, but what could be. To see only how we are viewed now, but not how that is only a platform for greatness... It [librarianship] only survives if we, librarians and the communities we serve, take it up, renew, refresh it, and constantly engage in what is next."

There's an army of librarians working to keep librarianship relevant.

Bobbi Newman has given the term translitercy new traction with her Libraries and Transliteracy blog. Buffy Hamilton's Unquiet Librarian blog and innovative SlideShares highlight the elements of both transliteracy and participatory librarianship. Joyce Valenza, Gwyneth Jones, Shannon Miller, Carolyn Foote, Cathy Nelson and others model the rich, multi-layered learning that can take place when transliteracy is regarded as a medium for learning.

Perhaps Mr. Rothman, Information Services Specialist at the Community General Hospital Medical Library, doesn't see evidence of transliteracy in his professional life. But any K-12 teacher/librarian can testify that information literacy is only a part of what their students need to learn. Exemplary student projects demonstrate mastery of the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

In a world that demands learners and creators, not just consumers, "transliteracy" makes sense to me.




"Lighting enTrails/Tunnel Trails/Tunnel Vision" by Mr Magoo ICU

Welcome to the Jungle

Education Week has just made available online a timely article about the shifting role of school librarians and the evolving purpose of libraries.

The dual title says it all: School Libraries Seek Relevance Through Virtual Access; Librarians' Roles Shifting to Address the Demand for Quality Online Content.

As Cassandra Barnett, the president of the Chicago-based American Association of School Librarians and the school library media specialist for the 2,000-student Fayetteville High School in Arkansas, points out,

"Gone are the days when a library was essentially a warehouse of books...We have really burst out of our walls, and we’re a part of everything in the school now, which I’m not sure was always the case."

Yet even as school libraries work to expand their scope and purpose, budget issues on the local, state, and Federal levels threaten to severely curtain services. Hours of operation, level of staffing, and print and online resources all depend on funding that is increasingly tight.

Why do schools need professional teacher/librarians?

Doug Johnson, director of media and technology for the 7,000-student Mankato school system in Minnesota, explains it this way:

"We’ve gone from being a guide in an information desert to a guide in an information jungle," he said. "Instead of having to seek out information, students and teachers are now inundated with it... and it is the librarian’s role to teach them how to judge the 'good resources from the bad resources.'"

Information literacy, the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, and share needed information is “no longer an optional literacy,” said Buffy Hamilton, the media specialist at the 1,500-student Creekview High School in Canton, Ga. “It’s a literacy and a form of cultural capital that I think you have to have in order to fully participate in today’s society.”

Carolyn Foote, the district librarian who works at the 2,500-student Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, speaks of the expansion of services to include not only research, but production

“Students are producing all sorts of products—YouTube videos, PowerPoint presentations, online slideshows, podcasts—and so as librarians, we need to have the skills to work with all those different formats and help students learn how to produce in those formats,” she said.

Continuing this train of thought, Joyce Kasman Valenza, library information specialist for Springfield Township High in Pennsylvania, adds

"...libraries are no longer 'grocery stores' where students can go to pick up ingredients, but 'kitchens,' where they have the resources necessary to create a finished product."

While some might question the need for a physical library, given the pervasiveness of Internet connectivity, advocates say there is still a need for such a space, operating under the guidance of a teacher/librarian:

"Providing students with a space where they can gather, share ideas, and learn is what we try to do,” Ms. Hamilton added, “to be at the heart of learning, both formal and informal.”

"The library is not a shrine for the worship of books...A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas." -Norman Cousins




"Welcome to the jungle" by neeZhom

Zombies: A Teachable Moment

"Zombies Night of the Living Dead" from Wikimedia Commons

You just never know when opportunity will present itself!

A few Study Hall students were discussing an article they had seen online, purportedly from the BBC, which announced the appearance of a dangerous new Swine Flu variation:

There has been a small outbreak of “zombism” in London due to mutation of the H1N1 virus into new strain: H1Z1.

Similar to a scare originally found in Cambodia back in 2005 , victims of a new strain of the swine flu virus H1N1 have been reported in London.

After death, this virus is able to restart the heart of it’s victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believe to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alert to phase six, its highest level, and advised governments to activate pandemic contingency plans...

I did a quick online search and shared my findings:

According to Snopes, versions of this hoax have been making the rounds since April 1, 2005, where the "Zombism" was allegedly caused by mosquito bites. Since an actual BBC article was cannibalized for the joke, the page appears authentic at first glance.

Entertainment Weekly pointed to the Zombie Swine Flu report while chastising Twitter users for spreading misinformation.

Internet searchers and surfers of all ages, child, teen, or adult, need to be aware that good digital citizenship requires users to check and verify sources they are sharing. In an educational setting, learning how to evaluate websites should be a prerequisite for research projects.

There are a number of resources available to teachers:

CyberSmart! Education Company addresses Evaluating Websites in its free K-12 curriculum.

Kathy Schrock focuses on grades 6-8 in her "Critical Evaluation of a Web Page" unit.

A collection of bogus websites, posted by the Australian Department of Education and Training, can be used to test your students' skill at detecting inaccurate sources - and provide material for some interesting class discussions!

Information literacy is a key concept in our connected world. Without guided practice, students will be unable to effectively function as critical information users, collaborators, and creators.



Full disclosure: I am a part-time employee of CyberSmart! Education Company as well as a full-time teacher librarian

Cougars

When my husband began researching cougars for an art project, he went directly to Google. He expected to find this:


Maybe a few of these:


And perhaps some:


What he didn't expect to see was:


Evidently "cougar" can also be defined as "a woman 40 years of age or older who exclusively pursues very young men." To commemorate Barbie's landmark birthday this year, a video entitled "Barbie at 50: Cougar Barbie" popped up on YouTube showing the birthday girl partying with men young enough to be her sons. (The link is below - may be considered offensive by some, so use discretion when viewing.)

While my husband and I laughed at the fruits of his research, this experience did reinforce some key concepts relevant to student internet use:

• seemingly innocent search terms can lead to unanticipated results
  
• not all search engines are created equal
• for younger students, pre-selected websites may be the best choice
• adult supervision and monitoring is key
  

In our district, elementary classes are told not to use Google. Instead, the district website has links to Clusty and Ask which both cluster results. In this case, a student searching for information on cougar, the animal, could quickly identify appropriate pages. Additional, less desirable results might appear, but they would be grouped under a different category.

Another approach is to cooperatively plan research units with the school's library media specialist, who can help teachers locate websites and databases appropriate for their grade level. All sites should be tested prior to student use, just to be sure that there are no unwelcome surprises.

Even on the "safest" sites, inappropriate content may appear. This doesn't mean that children should be barred from the riches of the Internet. It just reminds us that students need to learn how to safely navigate in cyberspace, and we need to be there to guide them.






"Cougar" by dracobotanicus
"1970 Mercury Cougar" by dave_7
"Prince George Cougars" by iwona_kellie
"Barbie at 50: Cougar Barbie" on YouTube
"Cougar Niece" by Mo ToMo

As A Twig is Bent

"As a twig is bent the tree inclines." –Virgil

Virgil's quote is very apt for students. It applies equally well to their teachers.

Few would argue that there needs to be some measure of technology embedded in our curriculum. Reports like Tough Choices or Tough Times, new standards from the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), Thomas Friendman's best-seller, The World is Flat: all detail the types of literacies our students will need to survive and prosper in the 21st century.

The question remains, what needs to be taught, how will it be taught, and, most importantly of all, who will teach it?

We have a number of intelligent, energetic young teachers in our building, many of whom did their student teaching here. These new educators are interested in learning how to use technology tools to deliver content, but they didn't arrive with prior knowledge beyond how to access and use research sites online. Taught and mentored by older teachers who were not themselves fluent in the new literacies, many education majors are as much in need of instruction as their students.

Today, I looked at the courses required for an education major at SUNY Plattsburgh, the alma mater of many of our teachers. While graduates of the program are expected to "endeavor to practice effective pedagogy, reflect critically upon teaching and the learning process, and exemplify ethical, human and democratic principles within a complex, technological, global society" it is impossible to judge from the course descriptions exactly how, or even if, this goal is accomplished.

New teachers, trying to establish their careers, obtain tenure, pay off crushing student loans, and complete the NYS requirement for a graduate degree within a set number of years, have enough to do without learning new technologies they should have already mastered.

The tree can be bent crooked or bent straight. But either way:

"A twig is bent while it is green.” -Turkish Proverb

"Let's stop pretending" by streetoftrees

The Electrifying Sign Language of Images

"Criticism has hugely overestimated the centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the electrifying sign language of images." -Camille Paglia


As a visual learner, I've always valued the clarity and immediacy of images. Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 Rule makes great sense to me:

“A PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.”

Today I attended a workshop conducted by a very knowledgeable retired school superintendent. The audience, composed of administrators, teachers, and librarians, was pre-disposed to like this gentleman. The information he shared with us was valuable and timely. He used an overhead projector to share text, statements, and quotations. We were given a set of questions to answer, but there was little interaction, except for a few polite questions. Everyone learned a lot, but it seemed like a very long day and participants did not linger after filling out mandatory evaluation sheets.

It didn't have to be that way. A key topic the presenter discussed was having high school students complete culminating projects as a graduation requirement. One anecdote was about a boy who decided to build a boat. The story was interesting, but a vital element was missing: photographs of the student, the process, the finished vessel.













Another senior learned how to skydive. He took lessons at a local airfield, kept a detailed journal, and perform an actual jump in front of the project judges. Again, this was the perfect opportunity for a picture or even a video clip, but all we got were words.


Inspired by the "design evangelism" of Dan Meyer and Scott McLeod, English teacher Damian Bariexca transformed an informative but text heavy slideshow on medieval anti-Semitism into a stunning visual representation that is sure to draw students' attention.

French photographer Robert Doisneau said that

"Nowadays people's visual imagination is so much more sophisticated, so much more developed, particularly in young people, that now you can make an image which just slightly suggests something, they can make of it what they will."

and author/producer Peter Russell adds

"Information is recorded in vast interconnecting networks. Each idea or image has hundreds, perhaps thousands, of associations and is connected to numerous other points in the mental network."

By providing images to spark connections, we can extend and deepen understanding. We can create memorable pictures that linger in the mind long after a presentation is over.


“For such an advanced civilization as ours to be without images that are adequate to it is as serious a defect as being without memory.” -Werner Herzog


"medal for meddling" by gilesbooth
"kit parts" by dwstucke
"interior coated with epoxy" by dwstucke
"Skydiving 006" by wonderjunkie

W00t!

As our universe expands, so does our language.

My cyber buddy, Cathy, asked who would be the first to blog about the addition of "w00t" to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The term is, in fact, the Word of the Year for 2007.

So my answer to Cathy is: Me!

Virus

"A bunch of germs were whooping it up
In the Bronchial Saloon.
The bacillus handling the larynx
Was jazzing a gag-time tune,
While back of the tongue in a solo game
Sat Dangerous Ah Kerchoo.
And watching his luck was his light of love
The malady known as Flu." -Cal Beacock

The gift that keeps on giving: one (or more) of our children has shared a virus with me, thankfully a cold and not the flu.

Although I'm a veteran teacher, I do occasionally fall victim to the germs that are sprayed, wiped, and sneezed on us daily. In a K-12 Library, you can't even assume that it's the little ones who are the culprits, since none of the students seem to be inhibited when it comes to distributing viral largesse.

Coincidentally, three eighth grade science classes have begun doing research on viruses. The teacher conferred with me beforehand and we decided on some appropriate medical sources. Friday was their day in the reference section of the LMC. Today, we all headed to the computer lab to continue searching on some sites that the teacher and I had pre-selected. Neither the adults nor the students were pleased to find that many of the web links were blocked by our district filter. The IT tells us that we can request specific addresses be temporarily unblocked, but that teachers do not and will not have override privileges. In some instances, I resorted to using Google cached information to get some facts or statics for the increasingly frustrated researchers.

The experience was as unpleasant as having the flu; and none of the students were "infected" with a desire to participate in similar projects in the future.

What are we trying to protect them from? And what are they losing in the process?


“You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.” -Clarence Darrow

"influenza_virus" by changturtle

Control

"When I grip the wheel too tight, I find I lose control."-Steve Rapson

For all my fine talk of "student voice" and being partners in learning, I realized the other day that I'm still in pretty tight control of my high school class. As the teacher, I certainly should set some parameters (not walls!), but there is room for student input and a bit of shared decision-making.

Once I'm sure the kids are clear on information literacy basics like website evaluation and source citation, I'll let them work on mini-research projects - alone or in small groups, their choice - as practice for a larger project later in the school year. They will need to choose a current events issue to focus on, but the shape their project takes will be up for discussion.

I've already told the group that they'll be helping me to master the fine art of podcasting. I bought a relatively inexpensive MP3 player specifically for the Current Events class and would be willing to let students borrow it for project use. Other techtools will be introduced, as appropriate.

Today, I turned over my digital camera to some of them during our class. Their shots weren't very different from the ones I usually take (except, of course, that now I'm also in the picture) but I'm hoping that they'll get more creative as we go on.

Not a radical instructional strategy but, hey, it's a start!


"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."- Mario Andretti

Conversations

"Good conversation has an edge: it opens your eyes to something, quickens your ears." -James Hillman

My Current Events class is still in low gear, waiting for our blog to be enabled (we have gotten administrative approval, so progress is being made!).

Inspired by David Warlick's Keynote for the K12 Online Conference 2007, I started some informal conversations with students today about their understanding, and every day use, of technology.

One senior told me that he wants to major in psychology in college and has some programming experience. He's quite adept at data manipulation but only has a vague idea of what "tagging", online collaboration, and wikis are all about.

A second, younger (Grade 8) student was doing some research for a career report on designing video games. He was initially puzzled when I asked him if he knew what "Second Life" is. He recovered quickly, though, and compared it to various Sim games he had played. Then, he took the discussion to a higher level by offering the opinion that businesses would really benefit by holding conferences in Second Life rather than in the "real" world. "You could save a lot of money on airfare to Japan and China!" he decided. You could indeed.

I'm going to keep my eye on that gentleman! He definitely has Flat World potential.


"What students lack in school is an intellectual relationship or conversation with the teacher." -William Glasser

Photo by spies and spying

A Question of Censorship

"The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion." -Henry Steele Commager

I find it both ironic and disturbing that even as the ALA conducts its yearly Banned Books Week promotion (September 29–October 6, 2007), there has been an increase in educational blogging about incidences of filtering and censorship in school districts.

Despite being caricatured as "one-dimensional bookish-types", librarians are frequently on the front lines defending First Amendment rights and intellectual freedom. The American Library Association's "Freedom to Read" statement warns that "Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad."

Today, Tim Stahmer, in one of a series of posts on censorship, reminds us that "Schools are supposed to be institutions of learning where students gain the knowledge and skills needed to successfully live and work in the real world. And then we spend large amounts of time, effort, and money trying to block that real world from leaking through the electronic walls."

In other words, if teachers and librarians are not given the tools to provide instruction in the safe and ethical use of technology, how will our students evolve into effective collaborators, communicators, researchers, and critical thinkers?

Karl Fisch describes "two levels of override" which allow for some discretionary unblocking by his district's staff members. The trade off is that although teachers can gain access to "forbidden" sites like YouTube, students are no longer be able to "watch videos on their own, or find videos, or work on presentations that include videos, or upload their own videos."

Clay Burell takes filtering to its logical conclusion: if search engines permit students to click into pornography and other inappropriate data, then all search engines should be blocked.

Or, perhaps, all technology should be banned, blocked, filtered, suppressed, eradicated, wiped from human consciousness.

"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still." -John Stuart Mill

"Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest of cowardice."
-Holbrook Jackson

"Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always be the last resort of the boob and the bigot." -Eugene Gladstone O'Neill



Illustration by Isaac Mao

Our Collective Future

"The decision to have a child is both a private and a public decision, for children are our collective future."
-Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century) economist.

A few days ago, our district held an orientation for incoming seventh graders. Students got to meet their teachers, locate rooms, practice opening their lockers, and learn the details of a new folder system intended to help them stay organized. The program was designed to alleviate some of the stress associated with changing from an elementary to a middle school environment. Judging by the smiles at the concluding ice cream party, it was successful.


It wasn't just the kids who benefited. I got to observe my students in a relaxed setting and take a quick measure of the group dynamics. More importantly, I was reminded why I was reading, blogging, exploring: not just for my own professional development but to enrich their learning experiences and help them become more information literate.

Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean Emeritus, Barnard College, listed the qualities that these conservators of our collective future will need:

"The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community—these are the most vital things education must try to produce."

Four Slides

This is my stab at Dan Meyer's "competition"
based on the Chicago Graduate School of Business' recent announcement:

writing - 1950s.....................reading - 1960s


exploring - 1970s..................connecting - now

The Gift to be simple

''Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,It will be in the valley of love and delight."
-Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr. (1797-1882 ) Simple Gifts (melody)
Members of the Shaker community embraced a philosophy of simplicity. Their way of living, like their furniture, was "plain in style, durable, and functional".

There has been some discussion recently about the Chicago Graduate School of Business requirement that prospective students submit "up to four slides about themselves with their application". These slides may contain text, pictures, charts, etc. but "bells and whistles such as Flash, video clips, embedded music and hyperlinks won't be considered in the evaluation process".

Michael McVey mourns the loss of creativity such a submission would entail, likening it to "the difference between a butterfly in the wild and one pinned to a board in a display case". He comments that "when you evaluate this creativity based upon two dimensional screen captures devoid of the very creative energy you sought to assess, you might as well have students submit their test scores and forego the technology charade."

In rebuttal, Christian Long links us to Dan Meyer's slide quartet, to prove that it is not only possible, but desirable to stipulate such stringency.

Sophocles ("Much wisdom often goes with brevity of speech.") and Shakespeare ("Brevity is the soul of wit") appear to side with the minimalist faction; Blaise Pascal ("Too great length and too great brevity of discourse tends to obscurity.") and Arthur Koestler ("True creativity often starts where language ends.") would seem to come down on the side of more enriched offerings.

Which should it be: four simple slides or a multi-sensory presentation? The debate continues.