Social networking..it’s the phrase we’ve all come to know. Had it been mentioned five years ago, no one would have known exactly what was meant. I have managed to make it thus far without joining Facebook® or any variety thereof. The majority of the teachers I am with daily have a Facebook® account. They all talk each day about what they have posted and what other teachers have posted. Honestly, I am not interesting enough to have that sort of page about me; nor I do not want to know that much detail about another’s life . At times the level of impropriety amazes me. When our principal had to tell a teacher to remove a specific posting, I became conscious that my apprehension to join in has been based on that fear. However, I am realizing as I read that a social networking tool could be good for school and for a media center. The realization then sets in that I do not have to have a personal site; I could use one only with educational purposes in mind.
Reading Alex Ragone’s blog on social networking further secures my ideas that educational social networking is a good idea, but that policies covering their use should also be in place. While students do not always intentionally “friend” teachers outside of the work realm, teachers need to be aware of the potential problems this could create and abide by the rules in place.
After considering what is entailed in setting up this sort of network, I see that wikispaces are a social networking site that students can access. This is available at my school! I have talked with several teachers about setting up a book club for our own pleasure reading and they are all for it. Figuring that this would reflect the setting up of a student book club, my plan is to proceed and see what we get. Teachers can be involved in the first round; we can then set it up for students with some ground rules provided at that start.
In the elementary school where I currently work, there is a team for the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. While I do think that elementary students should not be on a social networking site, one could be used for middle to high school students to allow for discussion of books outside of the book club meetings. If started and mediated by the media specialist, the control would not be an issue. The issue of bad postings would be gone as the media specialist sees all postings before they appear to the public. Students can read each other’s thoughts and perhaps have a conversation with someone they would not have access to on a daily basis; an older student or student in another school perhaps. The thoughts of this sort of “book club” are exciting to me and to many students with whom I have spoken.
Additionally, I can see a media specialist setting up a networking site to allow for voting for Georgia Book Awards winners, for requesting favorite materials or collaboration with other media specialists. To increase pleasure reading in students is one of my goals. Setting up a place where students and teachers alike can go and discuss books they have read is exciting! In my mind, the ideas for this type of networking are endless.
Having thought about this for the week, I can honestly say that my thoughts on social networking are shifting. I still don’t have much desire(or time!) for Facebook®, but do realize its value and place. Used properly, even the most social of networks can have a place in an educational setting.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Simplicity of School TV News!
After viewing the two TV newscasts posted in CourseDen this week, I was extremely impressed with the talent of both newscasts. Both give great ideas on how to complete an impressive newscast to present to your school.
I talked with the media specialist, Mrs. Conner, at Central Elementary. Their school TV news is done every morning when the bell rings at 7:50am. A camera is set up in the conference room of the school. A select group of six students, fifth graders, who are doubled up to run the show. Students take turns running things behind the camera for a week, such as the camera, lights, and music, then they would have two weeks off. Mrs. Conner is the assistant director/producer. The Quest teacher has another group of six students who also rotate and these students are in front of the camera. Under the Quest teacher's direction the student's make the announcements, read the lunch menu, read the math word of the day lesson, read the character word of the day lesson, and read a Spanish word of the day lesson. The math, character, and Spanish word of the day lessons consist of reading the word, giving the defintion, and giving and example of the word. Sometimes, but not often, a live interview may be conducted with guests to Central Elementary or small groups of student's who have done something on behalf of the school. This might include All County Chorus Winners, Academic Team members who had won a meet, Drug Awareness Poster Winners, and any other special programs.
When the news begins at 7:50am a previously recorded tape of the students asking everyone to stand for the pledge of the allegiance and moment of silence comes on. On Monday's only, a recording of the Star Spangled Banner, but the other four days of the week the news goes to live feed, using one camera, one monitor, one light, and one CD player. The camera fades in with the students reading the days announcements, moving right into the word of the day lessons, then an ending moment where students say goodbye as music fades in, and then the screen fades to black. The actual newscast usually takes about five minutes, but prior to the newscasts it takes about ten minutes to get ready.
Students are selected by teacher recommendations. Since Mrs. Conner only knows students through the media center, she likes to have teachers inputs on if the student can be reliable when it comes to attendance, and if they can be reliable with the equipment. The Quest teacher selects the students by whose dialect can be understood, who can stay on task, and if the students can be reliable with their attendance.
The problems faced with the newscasts mainly consist of problems with the equipment since it is rather old. Most days the equipment works fine. Mrs. Conner hesitates when sending equipment off to be repaired, as it might take a month or two for the equipment to return. Another big issue with newscasts is the cable system. If the cable system goes out, it could take days or weeks for the county maintenance workers to fix the problem. If things can not be fixed into proper working order students may read the days announcements over the intercom. The only problem with reading the announcements over the intercom is that the "behind the scenes" students do not have a job to complete.
I talked with the media specialist, Mrs. Conner, at Central Elementary. Their school TV news is done every morning when the bell rings at 7:50am. A camera is set up in the conference room of the school. A select group of six students, fifth graders, who are doubled up to run the show. Students take turns running things behind the camera for a week, such as the camera, lights, and music, then they would have two weeks off. Mrs. Conner is the assistant director/producer. The Quest teacher has another group of six students who also rotate and these students are in front of the camera. Under the Quest teacher's direction the student's make the announcements, read the lunch menu, read the math word of the day lesson, read the character word of the day lesson, and read a Spanish word of the day lesson. The math, character, and Spanish word of the day lessons consist of reading the word, giving the defintion, and giving and example of the word. Sometimes, but not often, a live interview may be conducted with guests to Central Elementary or small groups of student's who have done something on behalf of the school. This might include All County Chorus Winners, Academic Team members who had won a meet, Drug Awareness Poster Winners, and any other special programs.
When the news begins at 7:50am a previously recorded tape of the students asking everyone to stand for the pledge of the allegiance and moment of silence comes on. On Monday's only, a recording of the Star Spangled Banner, but the other four days of the week the news goes to live feed, using one camera, one monitor, one light, and one CD player. The camera fades in with the students reading the days announcements, moving right into the word of the day lessons, then an ending moment where students say goodbye as music fades in, and then the screen fades to black. The actual newscast usually takes about five minutes, but prior to the newscasts it takes about ten minutes to get ready.
Students are selected by teacher recommendations. Since Mrs. Conner only knows students through the media center, she likes to have teachers inputs on if the student can be reliable when it comes to attendance, and if they can be reliable with the equipment. The Quest teacher selects the students by whose dialect can be understood, who can stay on task, and if the students can be reliable with their attendance.
The problems faced with the newscasts mainly consist of problems with the equipment since it is rather old. Most days the equipment works fine. Mrs. Conner hesitates when sending equipment off to be repaired, as it might take a month or two for the equipment to return. Another big issue with newscasts is the cable system. If the cable system goes out, it could take days or weeks for the county maintenance workers to fix the problem. If things can not be fixed into proper working order students may read the days announcements over the intercom. The only problem with reading the announcements over the intercom is that the "behind the scenes" students do not have a job to complete.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Wonder Of Media Center Webpages
When constructing a media center web page, the most important question is "What do you want the purpose of the web page to be?" Once you determine the purpose, you can decide if a web page, wiki, or a blog would be the best idea. I think that a web page is the best idea. That is just my opinion, but others may feel differently. A lot of blogs and wikis are blocked so that would create a problem when students go to view it. When you begin to create your web page, it is a good idea to view other media center's web pages just to get an idea of what they have included on theirs.
I would want to have a media center web page that helped students, teachers, parents, and other members of the school community. Web pages should contain many different items. A few things that I believe are important is the goal of the media center, a link for any reading program used in the school, a school calender, contact information, the library catalog, and any important information. The web page should be easily read, and should not contain an abundant amount of information. You want to keep things, shall we say, "short and sweet." Web pages should have a font that can be read easily by the users. The web page should contain images that grasp the users attention, but the web page should not have too many images on the page. The age group viewing the page should be considered when building the website. The website should be promoted througout the school. Classroom teachers should have it easily available to their students, and the website should be introduced to faculty and parents. I believe that a well designed website will benefit all users. The website should be educational and fun for all.
I would want to have a media center web page that helped students, teachers, parents, and other members of the school community. Web pages should contain many different items. A few things that I believe are important is the goal of the media center, a link for any reading program used in the school, a school calender, contact information, the library catalog, and any important information. The web page should be easily read, and should not contain an abundant amount of information. You want to keep things, shall we say, "short and sweet." Web pages should have a font that can be read easily by the users. The web page should contain images that grasp the users attention, but the web page should not have too many images on the page. The age group viewing the page should be considered when building the website. The website should be promoted througout the school. Classroom teachers should have it easily available to their students, and the website should be introduced to faculty and parents. I believe that a well designed website will benefit all users. The website should be educational and fun for all.
Universal Web design: Making Web sites accessible to all
Universal Web design: Making Web sites accessible to all by Doug Adams. Retrieved from http://www.4teachers.org/techalong/adams/index2.shtml on March 3, 2010.
“Can you imagine having to surf the Net without a monitor? What if you could see pages, but couldn't point and click? How would you navigate the Web? For most of us, an inaccessible Web page is one which uses technology not available in our browser. We haven't installed that plug-in, we are using an older version which doesn't support newer technologies, or our brand of browser doesn't support a competitor's technology.”
Doug Adams caught my eye on this consideration to media center websites. With schools that have school websites, if you dig far enough, you will usually find the media center site, each with varying degrees of appeal and usefulness. But what of the special needs students? Adams brings up several points to consider.
Blind and visually impaired people use screen reader software, which translates text on the screen to Braille or spoken words. This software is usually limited to reading from left to right and top to bottom, which works fine for standard text but simply can't handle the complex formatting on many Web pages. Newspaper style columns and tables used for formatting cause problems for screen readers which also cannot translate graphics.
Students with fine motor skills issues don’t have the ability to point and click easily. I think of how many times I sat with my young daughters or my old mother and would say so they would understand that a double click requires a bit of speed control. Click too slow and it doesn’t work. If your Webpage has some of the multilink images (say the World Atlas and you need to click on Maryland to get to their map) think of the frustration if you can’t control your mouse.
Are all your media center computers set up for right handed students? All your directions written in l format? What of the student has limited use of their right hand or is missing their right arm totally? What can you do for them?
Luckily for us, the standards have been set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They have created a set of specifications as part of their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to help make Web pages accessible to people with disabilities. Located at www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH, the guidelines cover everything from style and structure to images, audio and video. (Do you provide headsets for the hearing impaired so they can crank up the audio on the computer without disturbing the entire lab?) It is an exhaustive list of guidelines. So they created Bobby. Bobby is a free program designed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), that will check a Web page for accessibility issues and suggest changes needed to make the page W3C/WAI compliant. To use Bobby, type the URL of the Web page to be checked into Bobby's online form (www.cast.org/bobby/). Bobby returns a detailed report of the required (by law) and recommended changes to make the site accessible. It also checks your sites compliancy with all the different varieties of Web browsers. I think the best thing about using Booby is that it will improve the use of the website for all users. Following standards on the Web helps everyone. It ensures that browsers stay compatible and that Web pages remain usable, and most of the recommended changes take only a minute or two to implement. A school or media center with an inaccessible Web page is exactly like a building without wheelchair access or a museum without services for the blind.
For more information on Web accessibility and usability issues, check out the following pages:
All Things Web (www.pantos.org/atw/), which includes a humorous article called "Could Helen Keller Read Your Page?” (www.pantos.org/atw/35412.html)
The Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation: WebABLE (www.paciellogroup.com/index.php). Browse this site for other library resources.
Designing a More Usable World (http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/).
Doug Adams is guru of all information at SCR*TEC, located at University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
“Can you imagine having to surf the Net without a monitor? What if you could see pages, but couldn't point and click? How would you navigate the Web? For most of us, an inaccessible Web page is one which uses technology not available in our browser. We haven't installed that plug-in, we are using an older version which doesn't support newer technologies, or our brand of browser doesn't support a competitor's technology.”
Doug Adams caught my eye on this consideration to media center websites. With schools that have school websites, if you dig far enough, you will usually find the media center site, each with varying degrees of appeal and usefulness. But what of the special needs students? Adams brings up several points to consider.
Blind and visually impaired people use screen reader software, which translates text on the screen to Braille or spoken words. This software is usually limited to reading from left to right and top to bottom, which works fine for standard text but simply can't handle the complex formatting on many Web pages. Newspaper style columns and tables used for formatting cause problems for screen readers which also cannot translate graphics.
Students with fine motor skills issues don’t have the ability to point and click easily. I think of how many times I sat with my young daughters or my old mother and would say
Are all your media center computers set up for right handed students? All your directions written in
Luckily for us, the standards have been set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They have created a set of specifications as part of their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to help make Web pages accessible to people with disabilities. Located at www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH, the guidelines cover everything from style and structure to images, audio and video. (Do you provide headsets for the hearing impaired so they can crank up the audio on the computer without disturbing the entire lab?) It is an exhaustive list of guidelines. So they created Bobby. Bobby is a free program designed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), that will check a Web page for accessibility issues and suggest changes needed to make the page W3C/WAI compliant. To use Bobby, type the URL of the Web page to be checked into Bobby's online form (www.cast.org/bobby/). Bobby returns a detailed report of the required (by law) and recommended changes to make the site accessible. It also checks your sites compliancy with all the different varieties of Web browsers. I think the best thing about using Booby is that it will improve the use of the website for all users. Following standards on the Web helps everyone. It ensures that browsers stay compatible and that Web pages remain usable, and most of the recommended changes take only a minute or two to implement. A school or media center with an inaccessible Web page is exactly like a building without wheelchair access or a museum without services for the blind.
For more information on Web accessibility and usability issues, check out the following pages:
All Things Web (www.pantos.org/atw/), which includes a humorous article called "Could Helen Keller Read Your Page?” (www.pantos.org/atw/35412.html)
The Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation: WebABLE (www.paciellogroup.com/index.php). Browse this site for other library resources.
Designing a More Usable World (http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/).
Doug Adams is guru of all information at SCR*TEC, located at University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wiki Wonder!
A wiki is a type of website that allows visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and edit and change available content. There are three different sites where you can create a wiki. They consist of Wikispaces, WetPaint, and PBWiki. The ease of the website makes for an effective tool for collaborating. Wiki's can be read just like any other website, but the power of the wiki lies within the group that is collaborating on the content of the site. The wiki is a tool that can be used in education by teachers and students. Student's can use wiki's for group reports, to compile data, and share research results they have found. Teacher's can use wiki's to work together on curriculum.
There are many different ways wiki's can be used in a classroom. Educators just should be creative, and it is sure to be hit among your students. Educators may want to choose wikis because they are free, they run on older computers, they run on slower internet services, and they are easy to use. When using wiki's learning goes up, excitement increases among the students, the ability to track student particiaption, the ability to control who joins/edits and views the wiki, and it is a great "scrapbook" of digital artifacts. Wikis are a great way to summarize lessons, collaborate notes, and promote classroom organization.
There are two negative aspects of the wiki. One concern is that it takes a vast amount of time to monitor the site, and also to keep the site updated. You do not want you wiki to turn into a site that hasn't been updated in month's or even year's. Another concern with wiki's is that members can add, edit, and delete another member's information they have posted. Sometimes this can be done purposely, and other times it can be done on accident. When working with a wiki, users want to be very careful so that they make sure they do no edit or delete another member's information. Wiki's can be protected so that they are not left open to everyone on the web.
Interesting Websites:
http://blog.aids.gov/downloads/toolkit_wikis.pdf
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/wikiedu/
There are many different ways wiki's can be used in a classroom. Educators just should be creative, and it is sure to be hit among your students. Educators may want to choose wikis because they are free, they run on older computers, they run on slower internet services, and they are easy to use. When using wiki's learning goes up, excitement increases among the students, the ability to track student particiaption, the ability to control who joins/edits and views the wiki, and it is a great "scrapbook" of digital artifacts. Wikis are a great way to summarize lessons, collaborate notes, and promote classroom organization.
There are two negative aspects of the wiki. One concern is that it takes a vast amount of time to monitor the site, and also to keep the site updated. You do not want you wiki to turn into a site that hasn't been updated in month's or even year's. Another concern with wiki's is that members can add, edit, and delete another member's information they have posted. Sometimes this can be done purposely, and other times it can be done on accident. When working with a wiki, users want to be very careful so that they make sure they do no edit or delete another member's information. Wiki's can be protected so that they are not left open to everyone on the web.
Interesting Websites:
http://blog.aids.gov/downloads/toolkit_wikis.pdf
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/wikiedu/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
