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Category Archives: Library2.0

MyNotes: Mobile Maker-Technology in Makerspaces

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by mguhlin in Book, Education, Library2.0, Review

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This is the third of several blog entries in which I share my take-aways from ALA’s The Makerspace Librarian’s Sourcebook. I’ve skipped over Chapter 4, which covers Safety and Guidelines in the Library Makerspace. That chapter includes some suggestions worthy of consideration.

About the Makerspace Technology

Some of the major parts of the book, listed below, focus on a variety technologies that may find their way into makerspaces. Having read the chapters skipped, I must admit that these serve as a cursory introduction to the technologies. Certainly, anyone who undertakes Raspberry Pi and Arduino will need some more support. Your level of technical expertise will be tested and I’ve indicated which of the following activities should not be undertaken without district level technical support.

Find out more

Some technologies will require more extensive training. Given a tiered approach to makerspaces, you may want to stagger these so that learners will have a chance to move forward slowly through the various steps, allowing time for practice and reflection.

  • Chapter 5 (3D Printing)* 
  • Chapter 6 (Raspberry Pi)*
  • Chapter 7 (Arduino)*
  • Chapter 8 (LilyPad, Adafruit, Wearable Electronics)
  • Chapter 9 (Google Cardboard for Librarians)
  • Chapter 10 (Legos in the Library)
  • Chapter 11 (littleBits, Makey Makey, Chibitronics)
  • Chapter 12 (Computer Numerical Control in the Library with Cutting and Milling Machines)
  • Chapter 13 (Robotics in Libraries)
  • Chapter 14 (Drones in the Library)
  • Chapter 15 (Library Hackerspace Programs (includes Minecraft, )

While I cannot claim to be an expert in any of these areas (and who would?), each of these technologies provide learners with opportunities to diverse experiences.  Again, each of these chapters serves as a primer and will require deeper study. These chapters would be helped by some curated list of resources online, however, Chapter 17 provides an extensive list of social media hashtags, Facebook pages, Twitter lists, blogs & websites, listservs and mailing lists.

What we, as design thinkers, have is this creative confidence that, when given a difficult problem, we have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before,” IDEO founder David Kelley as cited in Chapter 18.

My Notes – Chapter 16

  1. This chapter focuses on mobile makerspaces and was authored by Kim Martin, Mary Compton, and Ryan Hunt.
  2. A mobile makerspace is a miniature makerspace that’s built into a vehicle, usually the back of a truck or a revamped bus.
  3. Some reasons to go mobile are mentioned:
    1. People are fascinated with mobility
    2. You have a small library
    3. Your library caters to a large population of a scattered area
  4. Steps to go mobile:
    1. Gather a core team
    2. Engage your community
    3. Be financially prepared
  5. Mobile Lab examples
    1. FryskLab
    2. SparkTruck
    3. MakerMobile
    4. The MakerBus
    5. Arts & Scraps

Reflections on the Book

Library makerspaces continue to thrive, drawing new patrons in and engaging them as never before. This hands-on sourcebook edited by technology expert Kroski includes everything libraries need to know about the major topics, tools, and technologies relevant to makerspaces today. Packed with cutting edge instruction and advice from the field’s most tech-savvy innovators, this collection

  • leads librarians through how to start their own makerspace from the ground up, covering strategic planning, funding sources, starter equipment lists, space design, and safety guidelines;
  • discusses the transformative teaching and learning opportunities that makerspaces offer, with tips on how to empower and encourage a diverse maker culture within the library;
  • delves into 11 of the most essential technologies and tools most commonly found in makerspaces, ranging from 3D printers, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and wearable electronics to CNC, Legos, drones, and circuitry kits; and
  • includes an assortment of project ideas that are ready to implement.

As useful for those just entering the “what if” stage as it is for those with makerspaces already up and running, this book will help libraries engage the community in their makerspaces. (Source)

What I like best about this book is Chapter 2, which addresses the pedagogy and instructional approaches that best fit with makerspaces. The chapters focused on various technologies are worth reading as primers, but what is missing is paper approaches. For example, consider these technologies mentioned that merit further review:
  • Cardboard
  • Textiles
  • Beading
  • Repurposing existing materials
The question is, Would you buy an $85 book on setting up makerspaces in libraries? That depends, really, on whether you know anything about the topics raised above. Throughout the book, I kept hoping for projects or project recipe cards.
Still, you may find this text of help.
Some additional resources I’ve been curating:
  • Writers’ Workshop and Makerspace
  • Middle School Maker Journey: Recapping the Capstones
  • How To Stock Your Makerspace
  • Making from Scratch

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

MyNotes: Transdisciplinary Makerspace

01 Monday May 2017

Posted by mguhlin in Book, Education, Library2.0, Review

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This is the second of several blog entries in which I share my take-aways from ALA’s The Makerspace Librarian’s Sourcebook.

Find out more

My Notes – Chapter 3

  1. Transdisciplinarity is the concept that problem-solving tools exist in every discipline.
  2. Makerspace users, as teams or individually, can learn from other experts in a variety of fields and adopt problem-solving techniques to solve their unique lessons.
  3. Robust problem-solvers who can think on their feet, take risks and troubleshoot issues are sought out.
  4. Makerspaces are defined not by specific equipment but by a guiding purpose to provide people with a place to experiment, create, and learn.
  5. Setup tiered levels of engagement…
    1. users can situate themselves on a ladder of expertise.
    2. By setting up levels in an informal learning environment, users can scale up their own skills as much or as little as they prefer, depending on the nature of their projects.
    3. The higher students progress up the tiered structure, the greater their expertise will become.
    4. An example of a tiered structure:
      1. Level 1 – Introduction to technologies and small projects
      2. Level 2 – Learn to work on their own and work towards ownership of the tools and services.
      3. Level 3 – Learners identify as makers and recognize their skillsets. Engages users in self-evaluation of technical skills.
      4. Level 4 – They troubleshoot technologies with the community regularly and become known as experts in specific technologies, and they add value to the maker community.
      5. Level 5 – Become a leader in the core community, a volunteer, employee, peer trainer or ambassador. They engage in prototyping and troubleshooting, reflect critically on their projects.
      6. Level 6 – Take on responsibilities as an employee or regular volunteer. They offer workshops about what they have learned, and may turn their ideas into businesses. Users at the most advanced level will have significant expertise in one or more areas and offer workshops to others about the details of their projects. They troubleshoot efficiently.
    5. Makerspaces are places that challenge the status quo, safe places to ask questions, places to acknowledge and honor differences, places to talk about solving societal issues, places to embrace design thinking strategies, and places where users feel safe enough to tackle the questions that matter the most.

Disclaimer: This is the first of several blog entries featuring this book. ALA approached me with a copy of the book, asking me to review it. I received no payment for this review. I retain full editorial rights over my content and any quoted content is indicated. 



Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

In the Midst of Info-Chaos @susannaclavello

13 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by mguhlin in Education, GuestBlogger, InformationLiteracy, Library2.0

≈ 1 Comment

Note about Guest Blog: Thanks to Susanna Clavello (Twitter: @susannaclavello;
Coordinator, Digital Learning for the Education Service Center, Region 20) for sharing this awesome take on helping students make sense of information chaos!


Full Title: Helping Students Navigate the Digital World in the Midst of Information Chaos


Susanna Clavello (@susannaclavello)
Today, librarians and library media specialists’ roles are more important than ever before. Let me explain why.


A research report from Adobe Education notes that, “In today’s world, a proficient employee needs to be computer literate, visually literate, information literate, media literate, and digitally literate.” Yet, a recent study from Stanford School of Education proves a shocking reality: the majority of middle school through college students are digitally illiterate. With so much emphasis on educating students to be good readers, how can we explain this disconnect?


We live in an age where instead of a traditional textbook, the world has become the curriculum and it can be easily accessed anytime. This reality has a significant impact on teaching practices, and since this shift challenges a comfortable and safe status quo, the future of many classrooms is for the most part stuck in the past.


Century after century and decade after decade, the American public school curriculum has adapted to meet the needs of a constantly evolving society. The Information Age began in the late 20th Century with the birth of the internet, putting new demands for a new skillset among graduates. Today, shifts in the global economy plus the increasing sophistication of technology and the shift from Web 1.0 to 2.0, then 3.0 and 4.0 have opened doors to the Conceptual Age. This very fast change has put strains in an education system that has been slow to adapt. In their book Teacher as Architect, Smith, Chavez and Seaman conclude that this inevitable change “…will require an upgrade to our curriculum, new instructional methods and materials, a new profile of a global graduate, and an open mind.”


The definition of literacy has changed in the Conceptual Age. Traditionally, literacy has been defined as the combination of reading, writing, speaking and listening -a skillset that is taught throughout the curriculum and across grade levels, and that state requirements and accountability measures put much emphasis on. Yet, these skills do not transfer from print to online format. Teaching reading using digital content requires a shift in thinking about what we call literacy as well as a change in pedagogy.


Digital literacy -which many equate to media literacy, web literacy, information fluency, information literacy, or transliteracy- is constantly evolving as technology continues to change and the demands of society continue to increase.


The digital world is where students spend a great deal of time looking up and sharing information, creating content, and interacting with others. Educators must understand the impact of this media on students’ identity and behavior, and help them become literate in the chaotic and confusing web of information. In his Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom video, Alan November reminds us that one of the myths about technology in education is that the web provides diverse ideas from around the world resulting in a generally better educated society, when in reality, this can only be accomplished when users know how to validate and interpret information in order to make informed decisions.


If you are curious about how digitally literate your students are, try one of these experiments. Take your elementary students to TheDogIsland.com and practice main idea and details, context clues, cause and effect, and other reading comprehension skills. Then ask them, Would you take your dog to Dog Island? Why or why not? Observe their reasoning and the conclusions they draw. How many of them realize that the information is completely false? And if they do, how can they tell?


If you work with secondary students, ask when is it best to search for information using Google, Wolfram Alpha, Wayback Machine, subscription-based digital collections, or Twitter. Chances are, this may be confusing. Students may not realize that the quality, credibility, audience, and purpose of the information may vary drastically in each of these sources.


Digital literacy is not defined as the knowledge of using technology tools and applications; it is a combination of competencies and skills that are constantly evolving. According to Dr. Renee Hobbs, University of Rhode Island professor and founder of the Media Education Lab, “digital and media literacy closes the gap between the classroom and the culture because it capitalizes on the idea of making information relevant. Relevance ignites intellectual curiosity, and intellectual curiosity fuels lifelong learning.”


On the other hand, educational researcher Doug Belshaw discusses eight essential elements of digital literacy in his TEDx talk: cognitive, constructive, communicative, civic, critical, creative, confident, and cultural – which add another layer of complexity and depth to the modern definition of literacy. Belshaw concludes, “Digital literacies allow ideas to be amplified, to spread quickly, to be remixed.”


Just like reading online is different from reading on paper, so is writing. When students get ready to write online, there should be a prior conversation on what to write, where to publish it, for what purpose, for whose benefit, and how to use good judgment to engage in civil dialogue, should it become necessary.


Current state standards fall short of deepening student understanding of the intricacies of the digital world. Research projects using digital resources are often planned at the end of the school year -once standardized testing is over- and new literacy skills are often covered superficially. In addition, teacher preparation and professional development opportunities very rarely include digital literacy.


Current data from surveys nationwide indicate that 72% of teachers never ask their students to use online tools like Twitter or news feeds to acquire information, and 60% of teachers never or rarely ask their students to conduct research projects using digital resources (BrightBytes, January 2017). Why does this matter? Professor Renee Hobbs says that, “To take advantage of online educational opportunities, people need to have a good understanding of how knowledge is constructed, and how it represents reality and articulates one point of view” (Hobbs, 2010). More than one point of view is needed to draw conclusions and make informed decisions.


The ISTE standards for students 2016 cover digital literacy, and can guide educators in weaving new literacies across the curriculum fabric. State technology standards, on the other hand, may not reflect the most current digital literacy competencies and skills. Consequently, we must create opportunities for students -and adults alike- to be prepared to meet the demands of a constantly changing society, distinguish facts from alternative news, and engage in civil discourse.


As Alan November mentions to in his Mission Critical: How Educators Can Help Save Democracy article (December 2016), conditions that keep schools from teaching digital literacy include:
  • Teaching that often focuses on what is tested, and does not foster enough intellectual inquiry or academic exploration;
  • The omission of digital literacy in the core curriculum and standardized assessments;
  • Restrictive web filters that block teachable moments and give a false sense of security instead of promoting digital citizenship and critical thinking;
  • Limited knowledge of search strategies and how to validate online information;
  • Research skills that are taught superficially, late in the school year, in secondary grades only, or as a one-time introduction at the library.


The following are additional contributing factors:
  • Schools requiring teachers to follow a scripted curriculum versus allowing them to be creative and responsive to their students’ interests and cultural backgrounds;
  • The use of digital devices for supplemental programs or remedial courses, thus limiting access to tools for inquiry and creative work;
  • The misunderstanding that research equates to looking up information, with no analysis or synthesis involved in the process;
  • A perception that technology-related activities are separate from core instruction and therefore non-essential;
  • The fear that technology will eventually replace classroom teachers;
  • Teaching practices that are no longer current and do not harness the power of digital tools. In other words, why ask questions that students can google?  
  • A lack of certified library media specialists at each campus; and
  • A lack of awareness of the implications of digital illiteracy.


So what can schools do to ensure that students are good navigators of the digital world? A lot, actually. Here are some considerations:
  • Identify opportunities to use technology beyond the stage of consumption or substitution of traditional schoolwork, and redesign instruction to allow for student collaboration and creation of content;
  • Equip students with the necessary skills to validate information online and make informed decisions;
  • Allow students to be curious and question the validity of information they are exposed to, challenge assumptions and engage in high levels of inquiry and civil discourse;  
  • Provide opportunities for students to apply complex thinking to identify and create solutions to predictable and unpredictable problems in their community and beyond;
  • Empower students to think about their own thinking, and tap into their personal interests and passions;
  • Allow students to take control of their own learning;
  • Expose students to different social media channels, identify look fors, and develop a deeper understanding of how information is constructed and shared;
  • Implement a digital citizenship program with fidelity and establish a culture of safe, ethical and responsible use of technology;
  • Provide access to a quality collection of subscription-based digital resources that are reliable and trustworthy, and promote their use;
  • Involve school librarians and library media specialists throughout the process.


Why are school librarians and library media specialists so critical in this mission? For once, librarians are experienced classroom teachers with a Master’s degree in library and information science, and certification. They are the information experts on campus for both digital and print materials. They are also computer literate.


Librarians support teachers in helping students build literacy skills -including digital literacy- by teaching students to distinguish legitimate sources from untrustworthy ones, make sense of the information they are exposed to and put it into the right context, so they can make informed, responsible decisions. The library is the largest classroom on campus -a place where curiosity leads to discovery. Librarians provide resources and strategies to promote and implement innovative learning opportunities for students. In addition, they partner with teachers “to design and implement curricula and assessments that integrate elements of deeper learning, critical thinking, information literacy, digital citizenship, creativity, innovation and the active use of technology.” (see futureready.org).


Some of the most exemplary lessons I have observed are the ones co-designed by teams of teachers, librarians and instructional technologists. Some of the best student projects I have seen were supported by a great school librarian.


Schools have the responsibility to teach students and educators alike how to navigate today’s messy and chaotic digital world responsibly and with confidence. We invite you to be open minded about the ideas listed above, remove any barriers or limiting thoughts, and envision the benefits of a digitally literate community at your school. And if it ever feels too overwhelming, remember Martin Luther King Jr.’s words: “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”


Susanna Clavello serves as the Coordinator of Digital Age Learning at Education Service Center, Region 20. She is also an IPEC certified professional coach and Energy Leadership Master Practitioner.

@SusannaClavello


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Google-Animated Book Display for Your Library @kristawelz

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Google, Library2.0, TCEA, TechNotes

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Krista Welz (@kristawelz) has shared an incredible use of Google Slides to create what she calls, “animated book displays.” This allows you to feature your school library’s new books or a specific genre collection. 

Note: This blog entry originally appeared in TCEA TechNotes award-winning blog at http://www.tcea.org/blog

She has even created a template to go with it. Krista describes it in this way:
Feature your school library’s brand new books or a specific genre collection with this animated book covers display. The display is made on Google Slides – yes, Google Slides. It is a slideshow with preset animations on each book cover.
She offers this template for download; when you click it, you will be given the option to make a copy of it into your own Google Drive (you will want to be signed into your Google account).
google animated bookSee it in action
Here are her step-by-step instructions with some minor edits.
  1. Create a new Google Slides file. Set your background to white.
  2. Create a list of the books you want to display on your animated book covers slideshow. You can type them in a list on Google Docs or use any list-maker method you prefer.
  3. Create a folder on your desktop titled “book covers.”
  4. Go to www.goodreads.com and search for a book on your list. Right-click on the book cover image and save it to your desktop folder labeled “book covers.” Repeat this step for every book cover you need to save. Once you have saved all the book covers to your folder, you will start inserting them into the slideshow.
  5. The animating book covers slideshow is set up with two rows and five columns. You are going to start inserting your book cover photos and arranging them in two rows and five columns. All book covers have to be resized to the same height and location. They need to be consistent and match each other. Once the books are perfectly resized and aligned correctly, you will add the animations to them.
  6. Now you are going to animate each book cover in a zigzag pattern.
    1. If you click on the first book cover labeled #1, you are going to add an animation to it by clicking on the Insert menu and choosing Animate. The Animation window pane will pop up on the right of the screen.
    2. The animation you want to choose is “Fade In – After Previous.”
    3. Next, choose the book labeled #2, click on Insert, choose Animation, and then set it to “Fade In – After Previous.” You are going to do this for all 10 books.
    4. There is only one change to the animation that you are going to make. The change occurs on your sixth book. Instead of choosing the animation “After Previous” – you will choose “With Previous.” This change in animation reduces the choppiness, giving it a smoother flow.
Please take note of the animations listed on the right-side of the Google Slides slideshow. You must follow this exactly as it is shown to have a beautiful, flowing animated book display.
Some other points that Krista makes:
  • Once you access the slideshow, all you have to do is right-click on each book image on each slide and then choose Replace image.
  • You will then select Choose an image and then upload the book cover(s) from your desktop folder of saved book covers. All the animations and slide transitions are already timed for your convenience.

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

MyNotes: Guided Inquiry

14 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by mguhlin in GuidedInquiry, InformationLiteracy, Library2.0, Research

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Note: These are my take-aways from Carol Collier Kuhlthau’s Guided Inquiry: School Libraries in the 21st Century. from January 2010. Read it online.

Thanks to my Twitter PLN–especially Carolyn Foote (@technolibrary), Leslie Maniotes (@lesliemaniotes), and Jennifer LaGarde (@jenniferlagarde), as well as Dee Dee Davenport (@deelibcoord) for introducing me to Information Search Process (ISP) and Guided Inquiry. DeeDee was kind enough to send me A Model Third Grade Guided Inquiry Unit. (I’ll have to check that out in more detail!)

Source: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/docs/websiteGIDFramework.pdf as cited by NEISD

Reflections
This article was written in 2010, based on research the author conducted even farther back; to be blunt, there is nothing here that is “earth-shattering” and new. However, there is comfort in that fact…it means ideas have certainly taken in hold somewhere, if not in practice.

In the article, the author suggests that the partnership involve the teacher-librarian.  One idea that suggests itself is that an edtech coach could certainly play a significant role in this process.

I love the simple 3-step process. A lot of work has been done around these 3 steps, and it’s tough to imagine they could be so easily accomplished. To gain systemic support (step 1), it seems essential to have an awesome team of leaders committed to building support…a PLC, perhaps. An implementation plan and timeline will have to take into consideration a variety of factors. The network required for sharing, well, Twitter or social media can play a part.

Again, how this gets implemented is key.

MyNotes

  1. A new way of learning is needed that prepares students for living and working in a complex information environment. 
  2. Mobile devices provide instantaneous communication any time and any place. Multifunctional hand-held devices are ubiquitous around the world from cosmopolitan urban centers to remote rural outposts. Web 2.0 tools help us interact, connect and collaborate in new ways. Technological tools that have become part of our everyday life have great benefit for people across the world. 
  3.  We need to move beyond teaching how to use technology tools to teaching technology in use for creativity and meaning.
  4. Learning all of the bells and whistles of a new device isn’t the hard part of information technology use. The hard part is learning to use the technologies for creativity and enlightenment.
  5. Inquiry is a way of learning new skills and knowledge for understanding and creating in the midst of rapid technological change.
  6. The underlying concept is considering a question or problem that prompts extensive investigation on the part of the student.
  7. Inquiry that is guided by an instructional team to enable students to gain a depth of understanding and a personal perspective through a wide range of sources of information is called Guided Inquiry (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007). 
  8. Guided Inquiry equips students with abilities and competencies to meet the challenges of an uncertain, changing world.  
  9. Collaborations with teachers in a team can create the necessary climate for students to inquire, participate, create and learn in an information environment.
  10.  If we think of the student’s world outside of school and the student‘s cumulative knowledge and experience as first space and we think of the curriculum as second space, the question arises of how to make these two very separate spaces intersect. 
  11. When first space and second space overlap third space is created. 
  12. Third space is where the most meaningful, lasting learning takes place. 
  13. The teacher’s main challenge is to create third space as often as possible.
  14. Inquiry provides the opportunity to create third space and Guided Inquiry enables students to make their own connections within the inquiry process that motivates learning and builds ownership and expertise.
  15. Guided Inquiry recommends a three member core team that plans and supervises the inquiry with an extended team of other experts joining in when most needed. 
  16. Although two member collaborations between a school librarian and a teacher are common, three member teams provide a synergy of ideas for developing inquiry learning. 
  17. Three member teams also provide the additional professional guidance and ongoing support student inquiry requires. 
  18. The third member joining the librarian and the subject area teacher may be second classroom or subject area teacher or any of the other specialists in the school, such as a teacher specializing in reading, technology, music, art, or drama
  19. The SLIM Student Learning Inquiry Measure (http://cissl.scils.rutgers.edu/) provides assessment throughout the stages of the inquiry process.
  20. Five kinds of learning are accomplished through inquiry (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007, p. 9): 
    1. information literacy – “the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information.” Five criteria for evaluating information–expertise, accuracy, currency, perspective, and quality–are applied for making good choices in inquiry learning.
    2. learning how to learn – Guided Inquiry enables students to learn how to learn by becoming aware of their learning process. Each time they work through the stages of the Information Search Process (ISP)– initiating, selecting, exploring, focusing, collecting and presenting–they learn the process of inquiry as well as how they personally interact within that process. Guidance is provided at critical intervention points to teach strategies for learning from a variety of sources of information. Inquiry is a fundamental way of learning in the information environment of the ‚real world‛ where everyday tasks require learning from information. Through guidance students personalize the inquiry process recognizing that ‚this is my process, this is the way I learn.‛ 
    3. curriculum content – Four common themes in subject area standards are fundamental to Guided Inquiry: 
      1. constructivist approach to teaching and learning; 
      2. information explosion–too much to learn it all; 
      3. focus on broad themes and big ideas; and 
      4. meaningful instruction through integration and problem solving (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007)
    4. literacy competence – Students need to go beyond learning to read, to reading to learn. They need to be able to comprehend informational texts as well as understand stories in fiction. Determining importance in informational texts is an essential skill in the information environment in which they live and learn. The basic skills of literacy, reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and presenting are enhanced through inquiry learning.
    5. social skills  – Students gain the ability to interact with others in situations that require cooperating and collaborating. Organizing small work groups is a strategy applied in Guided Inquiry called inquiry circles (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari, 2007). 
      1. Adapted from Daniels’ (1994) literature circles, inquiry circles are structured work groups with each student assigned a different job. Jobs are rotated to give students an opportunity to practice each task independently. 
      2. In Guided Inquiry each task represents one aspect of inquiry that students need to learn. 
      3. Eight jobs essential to inquiry recommended in Guided Inquiry are: 
        1. word hunter (finds key words and definitions); 
        2. evaluator (evaluates the source); 
        3. messenger (summarizes big ideas and main points); quiz kid (raises questions); 
        4. connector (makes connections between self, texts and the world; 
        5. note taker (takes specific notes on content); 
        6. image maker (creates visual scheme of ideas); and 
        7. interpreter (asks, ‚What does it mean?‚ and ‚Why is it important?‛) 
  21. Getting Started and Sustaining Change – 3 steps:
    1. First, you need to gain systemic support.
    2. Second, you need to develop an implementation plan. You will need a plan with a timeline for implementing an inquiry approach. You can begin by organizing one three member team to collaborate on an inquiry project with one group of students as an example of how it works. This can form the basis for implementing a flexible team approach in your school. 
    3. Third, you will need to create a network for sharing stories of success and problems you encounter


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

#nErDcampsa unconference – Literacy Focused

14 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, SAnews, Texas

≈ Leave a comment

Image Source: @BrightTeacher

Have a free morning on Saturday, February 14th? Why not attend nErDcampSA? You can also add your twitter contact info!

nErDcamp is an UNconference focused on literacy! All content areas are welcome, but the focus is on accessing the content through literacy.
nErDcampSA will be held in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, February 14, 2015.
An UNconference is different from a scheduled conference. How? YOU are both participant AND presenter.
Who is the audience? Educators and librarians serving anywhere in the South Texas area or region. We’ve already had interest from Mississippi! The conference is open to anyone. No limits. If you can get here, you can attend!

I regret that I’m in the midst of last minute Valentine Day rushing for family and won’t be attending, but you may still benefit from this event if you drop everything and go to NErDcampSA!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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2nd Annual San Antonio Book Festival

03 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, SAnews, Texas

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Visit the San Antonio Book Festival web site



The 2nd Annual San Antonio Book Festival is scheduled for Saturday, April 5, 2014.

The festival will feature over 70 national and regional authors and will include book readings, panel discussions, book sales and signings, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, live music, food trucks, and more.

As you can imagine, all these activities need volunteers to support their success.  If you would like to volunteer, click here: http://vols.pt/Nagdsg, pick the area and time you would like to work, enter your name, contact information, and t-shirt size.

Needless to say, whether or not you can volunteer, I hope you can join us at the festival. The full day of free events takes place downtown at the Central Library and the Southwest School of Art. To learn more about the San Antonio Book festival, please visit http://www.saplf.org/festival.

Finally, please feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested in attending or volunteering. With your help the festival will be a great success.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need more information.

Thanks,

– Marty

Martha (Marty) Rossi
Project Manager, Digital Resources and Library Services
Education Service Center, Region 20
1314 Hines Ave.
San Antonio, TX  78208
(210) 370-5711
martha.rossi@esc20.net
http://texassuccess.org
http://learn421.net
http://dkc.esc20.net


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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5 Actions to Big6 Problem-based Lessons Using Graphic Organizers

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Big6, Education, InformationLiteracy, Library2.0, OldyButGoody

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http://goo.gl/Si2egq


The communities of Santa Teresa, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas have something in common÷both communities are monitored by the U. S. Border Patrol, but not in the way that many illegal aliens have come to expect their attention. The U. S. Border Patrol has set up outreach centers to bring about goodwill and provide teenagers with the opportunity to explore career possibilities. For the legal citizens of these communities, this is a wonderful initiative. For the undocumented aliens, parents of teenagers coming face to face with the U. S. Border Patrol in school, it’s a nightmare.

Illegal immigrants fear that the U. S. Border Patrol may try to identify children of illegals, and then use this information to locate and prosecute the parents. Despite the U. S. Border Patrol’s protests that this will not happen, the relationship between parents and school officials is tenuous. How will parents who are illegal immigrants attend school meetings if they fear encountering deportation officials? While the stakeholders of these border communities probably have not heard of ill-structured problems, they are certainly in the middle of one.
Ill-structured problems like this one are messy by nature. They are like the real-life situations students can expect to encounter when they leave school, and they can be great learning opportunities as a form of problem-based learning. Problem-based learning (PBL) uses real-life problems modeled after a contemporary or historical case to engage students as they pursue specified learning outcomes that are in line with academic standards or course objectives (Stepien & Pyke, 1997). Students work through the problem as a stakeholder. The teacher acts as a guide or advisor as students explore the issues involved, formulate questions, conduct research, and consider possible solutions to the problems.
Since most problems spring from a lack of information, problem-based learning makes an ideal tool to use and reinforce the Big6 Skills. The Big6 approach to information-problem solving provides a framework for students to find, organize, and present the information that they need to solve-real life problems. This accomplishes two goals÷to help them complete their assignment efficiently and successfully, and to remind them that they must be information processors in their life beyond school. Combined with graphic organizers, the Big6 becomes a powerful tool to help students work through the U. S. Border Patrol scenario.
Using graphic organizers with the Big6 process can help students build their own knowledge and reflect on how new information links to their mental framework, or schema, of the world. This is important because, according to Buzan (1996), the human brain works primarily with key concepts in an interlinked and integrated manner. For each step in the Big6, there is at least one graphic organizer that helps students integrate new information with information that they already know (see Table 1).
Table 1. Matching Each Big6úSkill with a Graphic Organizer Tool
Table 1

BIG6 Skill Graphic Organizer
Task Definition 1.1 Define the problem 1.2 Identify information needed
  • Chain of events: Use to plan out problem-solving process.
  • //Fishbone Mapping:// Use to identify problem causes and interrelationships between them as they relate to the problem.
  • //Cycle:// Use to show interactions between events.
  • //Spider Map:// Use to explore a topic and identify main ideas and details.
  • //Problem/Solution:// Use to identify a problem and consider multiple solutions and possible results. ||
Information Seeking Strategies 2.1 Determine all possible sources 2.2 Select the best source
  • Clustering: Use to generate ideas about possible sources of information.
  • //Compare/Contrast:// Use to compare/contrast information sources. ||
Location & Access 3.1 Locate sources 3.2 Find information within sources
  • //Spider Map:// Use to determine key words for searching.
  • //Clustering:// Use to generate ideas and key words. ||
Use of Information 4.1 Engage information in sources 4.2 Extract relevant information
  • //Continuum:// Use to develop timelines, rating scales or show historical progression.
  • //Compare/Contrast:// Use to compare/contrast information sources.
  • //Venn Diagram:// Use to identify similarities/differences. ||
Synthesis 5.1 Organize information from multiple sources 5.2 Present the result
  • //Clustering:// Use to pull together ideas organizing a product (project, presentation, or paper).
  • //Compare/Contrast:// Use to organize compare/contrast information.
  • //Problem/Solution:// Use to articulate problem and consider multiple solutions and possible results.
  • //Storyboard:// Use to map out presentation or Web page. ||
Evaluation 6.1 Judge the result 6.2 Judge the process
  • Interaction Outline: Use to judge the problem-solving process, and the interactions between team members. ||


Problem-based learning is a valuable tool for students of many levels. However, the task of designing a problem-based learning lesson can be daunting÷the problems are large and messy, and it can be a challenge to know where to start. The following Big6-related five actions can help you keep your problem-based learning lesson under control and moving along.

Action 1
 – Select a Problem and Brainstorm an Idea to Explore Its Potential (Task Definition)
According to Stepien and Pyke (1997), a problem-based learning situation must meet several criteria. The situation must provide an effective way of engaging students with experiences that scaffold higher order thinking. The situation should also accomplish curriculum objectives and include age-appropriate topics. Further, the learning situation should take the form of an ill-structured problem to foster inquiry at a level that is cognitively engaging but not frustrating. 


Lastly, the situation should make efficient use of instructional time allotted to the unit.When selecting a problem, the teacher can either look through academic standards and objectives for a dilemma, or search news stories for a problem that will allow the introduction of academic standards. In examining the problem, the teacher can use a brainstorming map to explore the content that students may encounter as they go about examining the issue and suggesting possible resolutions.

Brainstorming with some form of visual aid (e.g, spider map, clustering, fishbone mapping) can be an important tool for teachers to consider the breadth of the issue and to include cross-curricular connections. For example, in the past, the author worked with a sixth grade social studies teacher who was asking the class to examine the core dilemma involved in dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 

By focusing only on activities to teach history, the sixth grade teacher missed the big question, “Should we have dropped the bomb?” and possible explorations through the stakeholders’ points of view (for example, President Truman, U. S. Air Force Pilot, residents of Hiroshima, etc.).

Action 2
 – Engage Students in a Real-Life Problem (Task Definition)
This action builds a blueprint for inquiry and the investigation process to follow. As the teacher, you identify key curriculum goals and work forward from those to pose an engaging introduction that reflects a real world, ill-structured problem.As in real-life, students must use the inquiry process and reasoning to solve the problem. The narrative that introduces students to the real-life problem is the key to a successful problem-based learning lesson. You can find sample narratives at: http://www.esc20.k12.tx.us/cut/ The Curriculum Using Technology (CUT) Institute Materials web page.

Action 3
 – Focus Inquiry and Investigation (Task Definition to Information Seeking Strategy, Location & Access and Use of Information)
Once students are engaged in the problem, they begin to write down their hunches about it and identify with a stakeholder. Following this, they can begin the process of locating, gathering and using sources of information using the Big6. Inquiry and investigation builds a basis for students to design a solution product.

Action 4
 – Support Problem Resolution (Synthesis)
As students work their way through the different points of view according to the stakeholder position they have taken, it is important that they share information with each other. One way to do this is to encourage students to suggest a solution to the problem that considers the various points of view of all stakeholders. The teacher will want to facilitate a discussion to determine how students will share information to arrive at such a solution.

Action 5 – Facilitate Problem Debriefing (Evaluation)
After solving the problem, a key piece of problem-based learning is to debrief students. The debriefing step asks students to consider what steps they took to solve the problem and to determine the effectiveness of their reasoning. In addition, students reflect on whether or not they believe their solution will address the causes that were identified in Task Definition. For example, students can look at the criteria identified in Task Definition and ask themselves, “Did I find research from multiple sources?” and “Did I spend my time well in gathering and using information from various sources?” The role of the teacher is to help students focus on metacognition and to review issues inherent in the problem (Gallagher, 2000).

An Example: On the Border
This article began with a presentation of a problem that exists on the border of the United States and Mexico. Here’s how the author used this situation to develop a problem-based learning (PBL) lesson called “On the Border,” which reinforces essential Big6 information problem-solving skills.Don’t forget that preparing curriculum is an information exercise for the teacher, just as the lesson itself presents an information problem for the student. 


Since lessons based on real-life problems are broad and information-rich, Task Definition is a particularly important step for the teacher.A particularly useful Task Definition exercise for lesson planning is the articulation of curriculum objectives and learning outcomes. 

When developing the On the Border lesson, the author identified four curriculum objectives:

Students will:

  • Examine how history, culture, and geography influence a person’s perception toward a particular issue.
  • Construct an understanding of the various stakeholder points of view by immersing themselves in the role of individuals who live there.
  • Research, analyze, and synthesize how the historical, geographical and cultural implications have influenced the views of various groups of people found on the border between the U. S. and Mexico.
  • Apply what they have learned concerning differing points of view, and technology, to create a multimedia presentation to the class.


Once the teacher has defined the desired learning outcomes for the lesson, the next step is to consider possible issues associated with the central problem. This will help the teacher to identify and anticipate ways that students may potentially approach the problem. In developing the On the Border lesson, the teacher used a brainstorming map (http://www.geocities.com/mguhlin/writings/ontheborder.jpg) to examine the issues connected with this particular ill-structured problem. 

The brainstorming map identifies possible stakeholders, issues arising from the influx of undocumented workers, the deaths of border patrol agents, the culture clash between Mexico and the United States, the impact of free trade policies the federal government has enacted and much more. Of course, as any experienced teacher knows, there is no way to anticipate everything the class will come up with–expect to be dazzled by your students’ insight and creativity!

While Task Definition deals with the problem at hand, it also asks you to define the type of information needed. For the teacher, this means considering what he or she expects for the final product of the lesson. The author determined that as students progress through the lesson, they would build a portfolio for assessment. Each assessment task pinpoints specific learning objectives. 

An overview of the assessments for this lesson include:Student Product Objectives (I=Individual Product; G=Group Product):

  • Fishbone map of the causes and effects. (I)
  • Cluster map of stakeholder questions. (I)
  • Comparison/Contrast chart on information sources. (I)
  • Spider Map that identifies stakeholder question responses. (I)
  • Problem/solution map that reflects all stakeholders’ information. (G)
  • Venn Diagram with different points of view. (G)
  • Multimedia Presentation (G) assessed using the Multimedia Presentation rubric.
  • Peer Evaluation (G) assessed using the Peer Evaluation rubric.


Engage Students in a Real-life Problem (Task Definition)
Once the teacher has gone through his or her own Big6 process to plan the PBL lesson, it is time to present the lesson to the students and prepare them to engage in their own information problem-solving process to complete the lesson successfully. First, it is important to help the class understand the importance of the problem. Role playing is one way for the students to become actively involved in the problem. The student must say, “My mother is an illegal alien. How do I feel about the U. S. Border Patrol in school?” or perhaps, “As the U.S. Border Patrol Agent in charge of setting up the outreach centers, how can I reassure these children that I am not here on official business in order to hunt their parents?”The teacher can use the Big6 and graphic organizers to help students identify with a particular group. Following is an excerpt from the lesson, where students use graphic organizers to help them begin to define the task of their particular stakeholder group.


Big6 #1: Task Definition


1.1 Define the information problem: The U.S. Border Patrol has created several outreach programs to provide teenagers the opportunity to explore career possibilities. With these programs, the Border Patrol hopes to improve its relationship with residents in El Paso and Southern New Mexico. One particular initiative in Santa Teresa, New Mexico seems to be doing just the opposite. As you listen to the National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast, do the following:

  • Create a fishbone map of the situation.
  • Identify the stakeholders involved with each cause and identify who is impacted in the result.
  • Select a stakeholder that you would like to know more about.


1.2 Define the information needed to solve the problem: After selecting the stakeholder you would like to know more about, ask yourself as many questions as you can about the point of view you will represent. Use Inspiration software to create a cluster map of these questions. Develop specific questions about your point of view to which you do not yet know the answer.
Big6 # 2, 3, 4: Focus Inquiry and Investigation (Task Definition to Information Seeking Strategy, Location & Access and Use of Information)

2.1 Brainstorm possible sources of information: After you have done a Web search on your topic, organize the possible sources in a chart, like the one below. Use the chart to compare and contrast sources of information and to gather information for the questions you’ve written. Be sure to use citation guidelines for any information you find.


2.2 Selecting the best sources: Look at your chart and decide which sources you will use to respond to your questions.
Big6 #5 – Support Problem Resolution (Synthesis)

5.1 Organize information from multiple sources: Once again, a graphic organizer can help with this task. Create a spider map that deals with your stakeholder questions and summarizes the information you have found to answer your questions. This will ensure that you include all of the important information that you have collected, and will help to illustrate the relationships between ideas. 


Next, develop a problem/solution map to show solutions from your point of view, what you think the results will be, and how these results will affect the overall situation. This is where the point of view of the stakeholder is particularly important÷keep in mind what your group will think is a good idea, and what solutions the members of the group would be opposed to. 

Finally, share your information with your team (the other stakeholders) and then create a Venn diagram to show how the different points of view are similar and different. This will give you the information that you need to develop a problem/solution map that includes the ideas of all members of your group.

5.2 Present the information: Now that you have analyzed the results of your research, develop a multimedia presentation. Using eight slides, address the major points of your group’s problem/solution map, such as:

  • Title of your presentation and list of Group Members
  • What’s the problem?
  • Why is this a problem?
  • Who are the stakeholders?
  • What are some of the attempted solutions and their results? (use a different slide for each solution and result).
  • What do you see as the end result of these problems/solutions?
  • List your references.
  • Reflect on your success as a group.


Big6 #6 – Facilitate Problem Debriefing (Evaluation)

Since students worked both individually and as a group for this project, it is important that they evaluate their individual work as well as their team work.


6.2 Judge the process (Individual): Use the following checklist to judge your information gathering process.

  • What I created to finish the assignment is appropriate for what I was supposed do in Big6 #1.
  • The information I found in Big6 #4 matches the information needed in Big6 #1.
  • I have given credit to my sources and have used a standard citation format.
  • My work complies with copyright laws and fair use guidelines.
  • My work is neat.
  • My work is complete and includes heading information (name, date, etc.).
  • I would be proud for anyone to view this work.


Judge the Process (Group): Use the following checklist to judge your group’s information gathering process.

  • The group received a high score on the multimedia presentation rubric.
  • We have given credit to our sources and have used a standard citation format.
  • The group’s work complies with copyright laws and fair use guidelines.
  • The group received a high score on the peer evaluation rubric.
  • Our work includes the components outlined in Big6 #5.
  • We would be proud for anyone to view this work.


Conclusion
Using graphic organizers with the Big6 information problem-solving model provides students with essential tools to participate in problem-based learning. Graphic organizers give students maps they can use to locate, gather, organize, and synthesize information from a variety of resources. 


Then, students can put that knowledge to use in developing possible solutions for real-life, messy problems. The process of growing up isn’t easy . . . it requires us to work through problems, running into barriers as we gather information and trying to reconcile new information to what we already know. 

That’s why information problem-solving processes, such as the Big6, are important; they allow us to externalize the process we go through. By making the process external, we can begin to approach the situation, not only as stakeholders willing to fight for our beliefs, but also as people who can recognize and reconcile different points of view.



References

  • Guhlin, M. (1999). Five steps to Big6ú problem-based learning lessons using graphic organizers. [Online]. Available:http://www.geocities.com/mguhlin
  • Freeman, G. (1999). The graphic organizer. [Online]. Available: http://www.graphic.org/ (current September 8, 1999)
  • Gallagher, S. A., & Stepien, W. (January, 2000). Problem-based learning: Blueprint for bringing curriculum reform to the classroom. Workshop presented at the ASCD Professional Development Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
  • Stepien, W., & Pyke, S. L. (Summer, 1997). Designing problem-based learning units. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 20(4), 380-400.
  • On the Border Lesson
  • Brower, D. (no date). Border patrol outreach programs. [Online].




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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Chromebooks in the K-12 Library

15 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Chromebook, Education, Library2.0

≈ 2 Comments

Source: http://goo.gl/H1OPn

While reading my unautographed copy (yay!) of Doug Blue Skunk Johnson’s The Indispensable Librarian, I found myself reflecting that any technology planning guide should include libraries. I confess that I’d left libraries out of my technology planning guide, not because I forgot them per se, but because, well, they weren’t my first priority. A mortal sin, I know.

One of Doug’s points in his book is that as we move online more, our “students’ homes become our library.” I suppose my favorite line from the first few pages of the book are:

When information is transmitted to a class instead of the class being transmitted to the library, where should the Virtual Librarian be working with students?

When I think of a library these days, I see a hybrid of virtual and physical resources and books vying for attention. Instead of rows of desktops, why not Chromebooks? These are less expensive, allow for easy replacement of obsolete boat anchors (e.g. OS X-X.6, WinXP computers) that use up tons of space and electricity.

Source: http://goo.gl/OucpQ

Check out the results of this Ohio study (shared February, 2013):

Overall, the Chromebook does appear to meet its promise of easy use. 89% of patrons found the Chromebook reported that they were able to complete their tasks using the Chromebook. 

Similarly, 90% of staff members also reported that they were able to complete their tasks using the Chromebook. Common praise of the device was the quickness of loading and the speed of the browser

…many staff members commented that their dissatisfaction with being unable to get ebooks from the library on the Chromebook. Patrons can in fact get ebooks from the library via the vendor Overdrive on a Chromebook using a free app called the Kindle Cloud Reader. To accomplish this task, the patron would need both their library card and an Amazon.com account. 

Patrons were unequivocally in favor of the service: 97% said that this was a valuable service the library should provide

While you will want to read the study in its entirety, what about using Chromebooks as replacements for aging computers in K-12 school district libraries?

With Chrome apps like Readium (DRM-free ePubs), Kindle Cloud Reader, B&N’s Nook for the Web, reading content isn’t as much an issue. Thoughts?


Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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The Disinterested Leader: In the Library

15 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by mguhlin in DisinterestedLeader, Education, Leadership, Library2.0

≈ 1 Comment

Altar of Sacrifice – http://goo.gl/IId00

“Why aren’t people interested in my agenda? Don’t they know that it’s the best for students and staff?” The questions aren’t uncommon among librarians, as Doug’s recent blog post highlights:

The short answer: Figure out what the principal believes is important for you to do – then do it. This means creating a program that helps meet the goals and solve the problems in your school, NOT creating a program that meets AASL standards necessarily. It means deliberately learning what is important to your principal and then effectively communicating how you are contributing to those important issues. I don’t know of another way to get a principal “on your side.” Too many principals have worked with librians who have their own agendas which are viewed as irrelevant. 

It’s easy to misunderstand Doug’s short answer…it seems a bit of a sell-out at first glance, doesn’t it? Just do what the principal or administrator wants so you can “earn some credit” in the system (a.k.a. political capital) that you can spend on what you really want.

In a previous blog entry, The Disinterested Leader, I shared the power of disinterest. That is, affecting the role of a disinterested leader who asks some simple questions to get him/her-self in the frame of mind that grants him/her impartiality.

The Crucial Conversations and Confrontations books advocate asking questiosn that that help us do a gut check:

  1. What do I really want for myself?
  2. What do I really want for you and me together?
  3. Have I made the effort to build mutual purpose and respect?
These questions have profound implications for anyone who is trying to get things done and hitting a brick wall. For fun, let’s explore these together…no promises this will make sense.
1) What do I really want for myself?
As a librarian, my goal is to encourage information literacy and problem-solving, encouraging reading. I want to do this well because it taps into my excitement and fulfills me as a teacher-librarian and a human being. I love crafting programs that engage students, staff and community. To that end, I’m willing to work a little extra because it’s what I love to do. I want to be appreciated for this work because it makes me feel good. I don’t want to be the school media manager and chase people down constantly about how they’re abusing technology, or a media police officer.
2) What do I really want for you and me together?
I want you to understand that the world has changed, and although libraries may seem to be out of phase with current time and events, the fact is that information problem-solving is even more important these days. What I really want is to encourage teachers to feel as excited about building engaging, quality literacy programs for students and community members, and have the principal supporting this–not only lip service, but funding–every step of the way. 

3) Have I made the effort to build mutual purpose and respect?
You know, I often feel like I’m on one side of the fence and teachers are on the other, with the principal somewhere off in left field. We end up sniping at each other because we’re about competing interests. Each party wants what they want and it’s not necessarily what I think is right.

Everyone else seems interested in one thing or another–having a facility that looks great, works great, is organized, clean and inviting, high stakes test scores, using the library as a meeting room but seldom as a core component of the school community–and I feel left out. I realize that maybe I’ve told myself a story about the way things are, and my bitterness comes from that.

I need to ask how what others really want out of the library, and then ask how we can accomplish this together. It’s so easy to complain and whine about what I don’t have or what others aren’t doing. I need to engage others.

Reframing is a powerful tool for gaining clarity, generating new options, and finding strategies that work. Educational leaders need to have the ability to frame and reframe the issues they encounter. 

Source: Bolman and Deal’s Reframing Organizations via slideshare preso

Stepping Back – The Way of Disinterest
If we assume the role of the disinterested librarian, there’s a way to transcend the bickering, the infighting and disagreements among people who lack mutual purpose and respect. That way is to ask ourselves, What is best for the school and those it serves? When we re-frame our conversations with others from this perspective and do so genuinely, we send a message that is unconsciously picked up by those with whom we speak. Others begin to trust us more because we’re not working for our own gain (e.g. MY project is more important than your’s) or trying to block you from achieving gain.

By doing this, we enable others to trust us because they know our motives and intent are purely focused on the good of the organization and those it serves. This is important, as Stephen Covey points out:

 When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up. My experience is that significant distrust doubles the cost of doing business and triples the time it takes to get things done. 

By contrast, individuals and organizations that have earned and operate with high trust experience the opposite of a tax — a “dividend” that is like a performance multiplier, enabling them to succeed in their communications, interactions, and decisions, and to move with incredible speed. A recent Watson Wyatt study showed that high trust companies outperform low trust companies by nearly 300%! 

We are saying, simply and powerfully, that we’re willing to sacrifice our sacred cows for the benefit of the organization. We communicate that we’re team players that hold nothing above the good of the organization. When an idea is challenged, we don’t respond from what is the AASL’s perspective, or our fiercely held beliefs, but rather, from the perspective of, what actions will result in the best way ahead for the organization?

The way of disinterest, of impartiality means setting aside what we most desire, transcending the bitterness that results from failed attempts to dominate and control the conversation. Calmly, one can put ideas, information into a pool of meaning, engage in dialogue that focuses on what is best for the organization.

Are you ready to make that level of commitment? I assure you that the way of disinterest is the way to organizational success.


Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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4 DIY Video Hosting Solutions for Common Core Students

21 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, Podcasting, VideoHosting

≈ 3 Comments

Source: The School Library Journal, A Video Hosting Solution for Schools by Christopher Harris (@infomancy)

Why not host those Common Core videos created by students on your own servers, rather than swing wide the gates of YouTube promiscuous perfidy (playing here…) with binders of age-inappropriate content for K-12 students? (or, you could have a discussion with the Community about teachable moments…no, you’re right).

In this School Library Journal article, Christopher Harris (Twitter: @infomancy) points out the following:

Podcasting was all the rage a few years ago, but these days, video reigns supreme. In New York’s recently released Common Core (CC) exemplar modules for English Language Arts, about half of the tasks required of students in grades three to five either expressly stipulate video or lend themselves perfectly to a video assignment. So under CC, students will be writing scripts, reviewing books, making public service announcements, and creating other content, all using video. For schools, this presents a technical challenge: Where to host all this video?

Although Christopher points out that they used a bevy of free, open source solutions to handle video, he didn’t mention the following Do It Yourself (DIY) YouTube clone solutions (listed in alpha order) that could be hosted internally on a GNU/Linux server or virtual Linux server:

  1. ClipBucket – A free open source solution (FOSS) replete with features. Check out the demo.
  2. CumulusClips – A FOSS that looks pretty good. Check out the server requirements and play around with an installed version, a demo.
  3. PHPMotion – This allows you to host, not only videos, but MP3 audio files. Play around with demo of this free, open source solution. Check out server requirements.
  4. Kaltura video hosting – This features Moodle/Elgg support.

While it’s easy to understand why a school district or a small team of technicians wouldn’t want to take on DIY video hosting, and as great a solution as Vimeo is, some may want to consider DIY as an opportunity to REALLY jump into podcasting (involves hosting audio files) and video (enhanced and video podcasting, digital storytelling), and addresses the “community” aspect of videos.

I hope to be implementing one of the 4 solutions above in my teaching, learning and leading situation. I’ll be sure to report back on the particulars of success (or not).


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

MyNotes – Story of libraries looks grim

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, Texas

≈ Leave a comment

MyNotes:

Despite $10M allocation, story of HISD libraries looks grim 
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 09:49 p.m., Sunday, November 20, 2011

  • Houston ISD libraries have slipped into further disrepair, despite a $10 million investment over the last three years. 
  • More than 80 percent of HISD libraries fail to meet state guidelines for staffing and book collections, and an additional 20 percent of the district’s 289 schools don’t even have functioning libraries, according to Houston Independent School District data.
  • “It’s incredibly disheartening when the largest district in Texas has librarians at less than half of its campuses,” said Gloria Meraz, Texas Library Association spokeswoman.


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Disintermediating Librarians – Words and Lightning

08 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0

≈ Leave a comment

Source: http://www.photographycorner.com/images/blog/articles-by-amy-the-awesome-power-of-lightening-combined-with-digital-photography.jpg


In an after supper conversation about her planning book, I used the “d-word” with my daughter. The word? Disintermediation. 

…disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: “cutting out the middleman”. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediate (such as a distributor, wholesaler, broker, or agent), companies may now deal with every customer directly, for example via the Internet. One important factor is a drop in the cost of servicing customers directly. (Source: Wikipedia)

That’s the big word these days as we reflect on Amazon cutting out publishing houses, allowing independent authors to publish their books without a traditional publishing company. 

Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers. (Source: New York Times)

It should come as no surprise that the same is happening to librarians and instructional technologists…and, though the process moves slowly, in fits and starts, the suddenness can be breathtakingly painful.

In a blast from the past post from 2007, Doug Johnson excavates all that survives from a Thingamablog entry I wrote. Wow, it’s weird to read something from that far back knowing that the original blog entry (along with 7000 other ones) no longer exist:

Librarians are the last gasp of an educational system that believes in information gatekeepers, master archivists who work like priests. It’s about time we did away with these intermediaries to the words and ideas of people like you and me, and helped everyone accept information literacy as their own personal responsibility (oh, I wanted to write “saviour” but it wouldn’t fly…). – Miguel Guhlin, (much tongue in cheek) 

Wow, I love that paragraph. I can tell I had a lot of fun crafting it. That said, if you disagree with the thrust of that paragraph’s message, I hope you’ll join me in ensuring all school libraries are properly staffed, open, and available for children every day.

Any school receiving Federal funds should be required to have a credentialed School Librarian on staff full time with a library that contains a minimum of 18 books per student. Failure to have a school library open to all students and/or failure to have a credentialed School Librarian to run that library should be punishable by a immediate withdrawal of all Federal monies. 

Study after study has shown that well-stocked, well-funded, well-organized school libraries staffed by a “highly qualified” School Librarian, or other similarly qualified credentialed individual, improve student reading scores, test scores, and literacy rates. 

Why don’t you join me and sign the petition before November 27, 2011?

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

Though wise [librarians] at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night….

Read the real version of Dylan Thomas’ poem online.


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Bright Ideas and Invisible Professionals

14 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, MGBlog

≈ Leave a comment

http://slav.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/07/14/worth-reading-invisible-professionals-replacing-librarians-with-ipads/

Special thanks to Bright Ideas Blog–by the School Library Association of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria–for featuring my blog entry, Invisible Professionals-Replacing Librarians with iPads.


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The Dark Side Beckons – Boolean and #Joomla 1.6 PDF Uploading

13 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Joomla, JoomlaTip, Library2.0, TechTips

≈ 1 Comment


It’s always fun to answer a question that perplexes someone else…with a 10 second Google search. I might take some pride in doing a Google search, but…not really. Being able to find stuff on the Web is pretty easy these days, isn’t it? Do we even need Boolean search terms anymore to find what we want?


The question comes to mind as a result of a question someone asked me yesterday:

Should I add a component to the online class that covers Boolean logic and searches?

My initial reaction was, “Yes, as a historical footnote.” (after all, this document at Google says we use Boolean search less than 5% of the time!) But then, I reconsidered and said, “Yes” hoping I wouldn’t be challenged on the value. Reading Joyce Valenza (shown right) back in 2008, and I realize that my first instinct was right: 

That led me to thinking about all those lessons we learned back in library school that may no longer make a difference. . .So much has changed.

For most of the big search engines, AND is assumed.  In my experience, OR makes a very large result list even larger.  And, when NOT is really necessary, it is usually easier to disambiguate on an advanced search screen. For instance, Google’s Advanced Search screen clearly offers a box for unwanted words.  No symbols necessary.

IMHO, Boolean is one of those things we need not explicitly teach.


Today, a question arose about Joomla 1.6. In case you’re not familiar with Joomla, it’s a content management system that makes it easy for people to manage web sites without having to do HTML. Apparently, Joomla 1.6 version still has a few rough edges that need to be smoothed over…one of them is how to upload PDF files via the Joomla Media Manager. Apparently, this doesn’t work well.

Trying to figure this out was a “noob,” someone who is really just a “new user” or “newbie” to Joomla 1.6. I overheard the conversation, the question and the search term for Google popped into my head:

how to upload pdfs in Joomla 1.6


In less than 10 seconds, I had 3 viable alternatives. In another 30 seconds, I had a few more. The solutions are outlined below, and the first one is the one that worked when I passed it on to the resident Joomla wizard.

I’d feel pride in this accomplishment but Google did the work. All I did was communicate a solution relevant to a problem I was aware others were having.

How many of us do this for a living?

  1. Uploading a PDF to Joomla 1.6 – A Workaround (Thanks, Elaine, for sharing your solution back in April, 2011!)
  2. Lots of nice screenshots
  3. JEFUM Extension


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Inspiring 5 Conversations Blog Posts

30 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0

≈ Leave a comment

To be honest, I had no idea that 5 Conversations I don’t want to have anymore would inspire such interest. I’ve been tracking visitors from all walks of life, educators from other countries than the United States, and I’m grateful for the feedback.

Even more exciting is that 5 Conversations has inspired another blog post (it’s all about conversations, right?) by Lib-Girl. Check out the first paragraph and then read the rest on her blog:

The other day I ran across this post about educational conversations that have run their course. That is to say, ed-chat (not to be confused with #edchat) topics of discussion that have been discussed to death. We’ve all heard of educational “sacred cows,” well… these are their “dead horse” companions. Naturally, this got me thinking about a similar list of library related conversations that I am tired of having. 

Read the rest over At the Adventures of Library Girl!
What 5 Conversations do you want to stop having?


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Invisible Professionals – Replacing Librarians with iPads?

25 Saturday Jun 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, iPads, Library2.0

≈ 1 Comment

Adapted from http://psd.fanextra.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/invisible3.jpg

Students need to read, but would you replace your campus librarian with an iPad? “The bad news,” shares Matt Montagne, “is that schools are buying iPads in huge numbers against a backdrop of substantial budget cuts.”


Judy Freeman Curtis says, “iPads do not speak and teach. Librarians teach many skills and today they are know by another name and all should know that too…”


Apparently, knowing this is a challenge. Maybe we need to visit our libraries a bit more?

. . . as in districts across the country, many school officials said they had little choice but to eliminate librarians, having already reduced administrative staff, frozen wages, shed extracurricular activities and trimmed spending on supplies. Technological advances are also changing some officials’ view of librarians: as more classrooms are equipped with laptops, tablets or e-readers, Mr. Polakow-Suransky noted, students can often do research from their desks that previously might have required a library visit.“It’s the way of the future,” he said. (Read More)

Being hyperconnected is the way of the future, as Tim Stahmer points out over at Assorted Stuff. If you’re hyperconnected, maybe you don’t need a librarian? Still…can we afford to keep pumping technology–like iPads–into schools and pushing out librarians and others? I’m disappointed at our desire to replace people with things. Carolyn Foote highlights this in her blog entry:

In the current budget cutting climate in Texas, many librarians have been laid off or reassigned (see my previous post: Mapping Librarian Cuts map).   We’ll have to address the day to day realities of coping with that, but we also need to think forward to what we want to happen once the funding crisis lessens.
In the library advocacy world, we often talk about making ourselves “indispensible” by working harder, publicizing our efforts, etc.  

Source: Carolyn Foote, What Librarians Can Learn from Apple 

One lesson librarians need to learn from Apple…be ruthless. 

Ask a leader what kind of technology to put in a library, the answer isn’t a more open, less expensive eReader like the Aluratek Libre (inexpensive) or Nook. Instead, it’s the most expensive device that can be purchased…an iPad. Why? There are plenty of other less expensive technologies that can be used.

We have to learn to do more with less. Let’s get more focused about strategic use of technologies where they make sense…it’s like school leaders are grabbing the fire hose and hanging on for dear life. Maybe, the one person they need to help guide them is the school librarian.

Gary Hartzell, professor of education at the University of Nebraska, refers to library media specialists as “invisible” professionals…He argues that in many school districts, library media specialists should be participants in the decisions affecting technology, curriculum, and resources at the school and district level. He also points to the widespread trend of cutting library budgets and, in some cases, library media positions to ease school financial problems. (Read More)

Consider the guiding principles of the article cited immediately above:
  1. School libraries have no boundaries. The “library” is not a place; rather, library is everywhere. This means that school library media specialists should not be cloistered within the walls of the library and within the constraints of scheduled library time
  2.  Library and information professionals should be flexible. 
  3. Ensure that students are effective users of ideas and information.
  4.  Students need to master the information literacy skills they will use in everyday life. The idea that information is everywhere is a basic premise of information literacy
Of course, a telling point is that those guiding principles come from an article written November, 2000. If one needed any proof that school districts could care less about the research and the why they do things, then this certainly might reinforce that concept. The challenge isn’t getting people to understand the research, but rather finding out WHY the school agenda in place avoids the research in the first place.

It’s tempting to say, “Until librarians figure out how to deal with this….” but the truth is, librarians already lost the battle. What I want to know is, now that public policy and education “leaders” have decided libraries are a waste of resources, what, if anything, will be done to re-train these invisible professionals?


Hang on…let me google that on my iPad….

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Texas Library Association (#TLA) Conference

30 Saturday Apr 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Conferences, Education, Library2.0, Texas

≈ Leave a comment

As I shared earlier this month, I had the opportunity to present at the Texas Library Association 2011 State Conference. My thanks to those of you that sat in on my Podcast Pizzazz workshop–materials available online here–and I hope the session was useful to you.
I thought you might find the post-conference links in this email from TLA worthwhile, especially if you did NOT attend the conference….

2011 Conference Logo
2011 TLA Annual Conference Survey & Resources
Dear MIGUEL,

Thank you for participating in the 2011 TLA Annual Conference in Austin!  We hope you had a wonderful and productive experience. 


The following post-conference resources are now available:
  • 2011 conference evaluation survey to help the 2012 conference planners   
  • Claiming CPE (continuing professional education) credit hours:
    • CPE hours and certificates will be ready to claim/print on May 2nd
    • TLA members should access the link through the members only section of the TLA website  
    • Non-members can access CPE credits here   
  • Electronic handouts for 2011 conference programs   
  • Conference on CD – Entire conference or individual sessions    
  • Social media – Please visit our Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr pages for pictures and videos of conference!     
  • Exhibitors – Shop the 2011 TLA exhibitors on the new TLA Buyers Guide
  • Lost & Found – please note that any unclaimed items that were turned into the Lost & Found counter at conference have been shipped back to the TLA office.  If you lost something, please write to Ileah Hirschy (ileahh@txla.org) to see if it was turned in at conference. 
Thank you again for participating in this year’s conference!  Don’t forget to join us in Houston, April 17-20, for the 2012 TLA Annual Conference, R4L – Libraries: Responsive, Relevant, Revolutionary, Right Now!  Reservations for 2012 hotels are already open!  Be sure to visit the onPeak website to make reservations.   

See you in Houston!

Ileah Hirschy 
Texas Library Association


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Weeded Out – Libraries At Risk #libraries #library

14 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0

≈ 1 Comment

Later today, I have the opportunity to share a little of what I know about podcasting with Texas librarians. Unfortunately, a conference that’s meant to celebrate librarians’ learning and sharing is playing out against a backdrop of callous disregard for Texas education by the State’s Legislative leaders. And, even worse so than educational technology, librarians are seen as anachronisms, to be weeded out of the State’s and the Nation’s schools.

When you consider the changing media landscape, it’s not impossible to imagine that being a librarian isn’t about tending books, periodicals, and automation systems. Rather, it’s about challenging thinking, molding young minds to become critical thinkers, question-makers, information problem-solvers.

Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog) suggests that teachers, like librarians, should be asking questions like the following:

  • Where did you get your information?
  • How do you know if the information is reliable?
  • Is the information important for others to know?
  • If so, how will you communicate this information?
  • And how will you know you’ve done a good job?

It’s not hard to see the Big6 lurking in the background. Yet, as wonderful as the Big6 is, as often as it is referenced, I seldom see the Big6 used. What causes that? After all, is it the status of libraries and/or librarians unable to encourage teachers to use the Big6 that makes a difference? Or, is it that the Big6 just seems so obvious, albeit formulaic, and unnecessary?

I’m not sure why the Big6 hasn’t been embraced. I’ve played my part in encouraging the Big6 in school districts, both from the inside and outside. Again, only librarians seem interested. The rest quickly move on. And, I’ve seen this reaction even when I’m not the facilitator.

Perhaps, it’s time to embrace different ways of thinking that put aside “information problem-solving,” “media-rich environments,” “technology integration,” and boil it down to the essence of what we learn, for what reasons, how we go about that, who we can learn with across boundaries. What new language, thinking tools can we provide educators who have a different focus than solving information problems a la Big6?

Salt Lake City Public Library – Most Beautiful Library Buildings (See More)
Source: http://flavorwire.com/131864/the-most-beautiful-public-libraries-in-the-us/9

Rather than think of our students becoming content experts, I imagine not that they are content experts but people who can scan content, their environment, and then build a product from materials from a wide range of sources in collaboration with others like them. If I had to wish for libraries, it would be that they not be seen as the buildings where you go to for resources, but as places that enable collaborative learning in virtual spaces. What ideas should be “weeded out” out of our conversation about libraries?

Yesterday, I listened to an executive director of a local foundation share how businesses and parents wanted to donate money to buy books for an urban school district which had underfunded its libraries for years. Will we pursue the investment of precious funding in a cause we can all get behind that’s easy to achieve, or consider new approaches (ebooks, ereaders) that challenge our thinking, that have to be explained multiple times?

In regards to the InfoGraphic, consider the following:

With the help of one of our expert genealogists, Kathleen Brandt, we conducted interviews with several important researchers and compiled our findings into a white paper, which you can download below.
White paper link: The Importance of Libraries to Family Historians 

Additionally, we’ve put together a visual graphic representing this pivotal moment for the American library system, taking a look at American attitudes toward libraries and reviewing their financial predicament. We are asking every single librarian, teacher, and concerned citizen to help us spread the message of why libraries are important to the family history community. 

Why are libraries, as they are, important to YOU? And, how SHOULD they be important in the future?




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Exploring OpenLibrary.org

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by mguhlin in ePub, eReader, Library2.0

≈ Leave a comment

 
http://openlibrary.org

 

Exciting announcement…will it live up to the hype?

The Internet Archive, in conjunction with 150 libraries, has rolled out a new 80,000 e-book lending collection today on OpenLibrary.org. This means that library patrons with an OpenLibrary account can check out any of these e-books.
The hope is that this effort will help libraries make the move to digital book lending. “As readers go digital, so are our libraries,” says Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. (via ReadWriteWeb)

So, the question for me is, what do you do next? Well, after creating an account, I decided to do a search on Scott Sigler‘s name. He’s a Sci-Fi writer who not only posts some his work online for free, but also makes serial podcasts you can sign up to listen to. I was introduced to his work after encountering that work, and always look for his stuff online.

Here are the results of my search:
Notice those two books on the list? Well worth the investment! When I first read INFECTED, I couldn’t put the book down until I was done. The sequel, Contagious, comes up in the search, too.
I decided to find at a library, and then entered my zip code to pull up nearby libraries. No titles came up at a nearby library, so I clicked on WorldCat. I did find it that way but it required an account in the library.
In short, I probably could have gone to an online ebook seller and just purchased it there. I’m not sure that OpenLibrary is all that great for finding for cost books, and for finding free stuff, well, there’s so many other places.
What am I missing?


Save Austin Schools 
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MyNotes – Death of Academic Libraries

05 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, eReader, Library2.0, MyNotes

≈ Leave a comment

When I first saw this blog entry (Academic Library Autopsy Report, 2050), I fell out of my chair laughing. . .yes, gallows humor again. It’s hilarious read, even as it chronicles the passing of libraries…technology departments won’t be far behind. It’s obvious that the article hits upon several key points, many of which can be cited when reading The User-Driven Purchase Giveaway at Educause.

Reading the Educause article, it only seems natural that libraries be struck dead:

  1. Libraries were viable when paper reigned supreme; digital copies of everything make them unnecessary.
  2. The predominance of eReaders of all sorts make books unnecessary hindrance, filling up space that need no longer be so…and you can imagine the Amazon Rainforest is breathing a sigh of relief!
  3. Librarians are caretakers for a system made obsolete by technology.
  4. Producing a book digitally costs less than printing it…and makes the 

That’s not to say that librarians aren’t wonderful people…only that as technology gets easy enough for anyone to use, the vaunted skills of information literacy are no longer the province of a teacher-librarian…but of everyone.

View a highlighted version of “Academic Library Autopsy Report, 2050 – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education” at http://awurl.com/MZvBMBowi

Just the highlights:

  • Academic Library Autopsy Report, 2050 By Brian T. Sullivan
  • The academic library died alone, largely neglected and forgotten by a world that once revered it as the heart of the university.
  • Causes of death: 
    • Fully digitized collections of nearly every book in the world rendered physical book collections unnecessary
    • As databases became more intuitive and simpler to use, library instruction in the use of archaic tools was no longer needed.
    • It was the persistence of librarians, who in the academic library’s dying days lost faith in their ability to impart useful knowledge to students, that led to the universal adoption of campuswide information-literacy standards
    • Libraries and librarians were subsumed by information-technology departments.
    • Reference services were replaced by ever-improving search engines and social-networking tools, while queries could be answered by low-wage employees (including student workers) with minimal training.
    • Economics trumped quality.
    • Ever since it became so easy and inexpensive to find adequate resources, paying significantly more for the absolute best was no longer an option for perpetually cash-strapped

QR Codes in Libraries

14 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by mguhlin in Library2.0, QRCodes, TechTips

≈ Leave a comment

I enjoyed an email this morning that highlighted this blog post…QR Codes in Publications. Here’s the actual email:

A Great / Great Resource > Sites / Cites / Links > Thanks Teresa Ashley /


Librarian / Austin Community College District

[snip]

Summary Of Ideas For Using QR Codes In Libraries:

1. Provide point-of-use instruction at point-of-need locations

2. Have step-by-step instructions on machines like photocopiers and printers

3. Post QR codes by study rooms. Students would be able to check the

availability of a study room, and then book it from their cell phone while

standing in front of the room

4. QR codes in the stacks could bring up a list of LibGuides on topics

related to books in the call number range area

5. QR codes in the stacks could show where the ebooks would be on the

shelves

6. QR codes around campus could link to digital libraries or items from

special collections related to the different buildings

7. Add QR codes with your contact information to your library website

8. Direct users to a service that’s specifically aimed at mobile devices

users, such as a chat or IM reference service, or the mobile version of the

library’s catalog or databases

9. QR code to the online Ask a Librarian site could be posted at the

physical reference desk and at all public access computer workstations

10. Library tours – barcodes can be placed in different areas of the library

so visitors can access information relevant to that particular space. Audio

tours can also be provided this way.

11. Library Maps – Instead of just a map that has, Reference, Reserve,

Computer Lab on it, put QR codes for every area that has a web page, so that

the patron can go directly to that web page for more information.

12. Library reviews – if someone has done a review on a book or item, a QR

code can be put on that item, linking to the review.

13. Link to Phone number on a web page so people don’t have to dial the

number on their phone.

14. Link to a web page associated with an event by placing a QR code for the

web page on the event’s poster.

15. QR Codes can be posted at public service desks to advertise services:

Laptop checkout, fines, and book renewal information could be posted at the

point of service, the Circulation Desk, for instance

16. Help Desk info could be posted on QR codes

17. Tag exhibits (“Mobile Tag Closeup.” ACU Library Photostream.

18. Librarians can tag pre-formatted tailored searches for events and

exhibits

19. Add QR codes to poster, flyers, and other library instructional or

promotional materials

[snip]

Link To Full Site Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/2w3eu2h ]

See Also My Blog Post > QR Codes In Publications From May 2009

[ http://tinyurl.com/qgf623 ]


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DiigoNotes – Libraries deal with Disruptive Change

28 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, MyNotes

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Thanks to Carolyn Foote for sharing this article with me. Profound implications for libraries. As Blue Skunk Blogger Doug Johnson points out, you can’t just be a Book-Librarian anymore.

  • Gutenberg 2.0 | Harvard Magazine May-Jun 2010 – Annotated
    • Gutenberg 2.0

      Harvard’s libraries deal with disruptive change.

      by Jonathan Shaw
    • Increasingly, in the scientific disciplines, information ranging from online journals to databases must be recent to be relevant, so Widener’s collection of books, its miles of stacks, can appear museum-like.
    • Google’s massive project to digitize all the books in the world will, by some accounts, cause research libraries to fade to irrelevance as mere warehouses for printed material.
    • The skills that librarians have traditionally possessed seem devalued by the power of online search, and less sexy than a Google query launched from a mobile platform.
    • Yet if the format of the future is digital, the content remains data. And at its simplest, scholarship in any discipline is about gaining access to information and knowledge, says Peter Bol, Carswell professor of East Asian languages and civilizations
    • where the research horizon is constantly advancing, much of the knowledge created in the past has very little relevance to current understanding.
    • “you want to be riding the crest of the tidal wave of information that is coming in right now. We all want access to information, and in some cases that will involve building collections; in others, it will mean renting access to information resources that will keep us current. In some cases, these services may be provided by a library, in others by a museum or even a website.”
    • That’s a vision of librarians as specialists in organizing and accessing and preserving information in multiple media forms, rather than as curators of collections of books, maps, or posters.”
      • – post by mguhlin
    • “Internet search engines like Google Books fundamentally challenge our understanding of where we add value to this process,” says Dan Hazen, associate librarian of collection development for Harvard College. Librarians have worked hard to assemble materials of all kinds so that it is “not a random bunch of stuff, but can actually support and sustain some kind of meaningful inquiry,” he explains. “The result was a collection that was a consciously created, carefully crafted, deliberately maintained, constrained body of material.”
    • Internet search explodes the notion of a curated collection in which the quality of the sources has been assured.
    • When you get into the Internet world, you tend to get a gazillion facts, mentions, snippets, and references that don’t organize themselves in that same framework of prominence, and typology, and how stuff came to be, and why it was created, and what the intrinsic logic of that category of materials is. How and whether that kind of structuring logic can apply to this wonderful chaos of information is something that we’re all trying to grapple with.”
    • How the flood of information from digitized books will be integrated into libraries, which have a separate and different,
    • contradictory, logic remains to be seen.
      • – post by mguhlin
    • Bol’s vision of future librarians as digital-information brokers rather than stewards of physical collections is already taking shape in the scientific disciplines
    • In fields faced with information overload—such as biology, coping with a barrage of genomic data, and astronomy, in which an all-sky survey telescope can generate a terabyte of data in a single night—the torrents of raw information are impossible to absorb and understand without computational aids. 
    • There is growing awareness of the need to have an “information-processing approach to medicine baked into the core education of doctoral and medical students.” Otherwise, Kohane says, “we’re condemning them to perpetual partial ignorance.”
    • “How do we make information as useful as possible to our community now and over a long period of time?” 
    • “The digital world of content is going to be overwhelming for librarians for a long time, just because there is so much
    • librarians need to teach students not only how to search, but “how to think critically about what they have found…what they are missing… and how to judge their sources.” 
    • Actually delivering a physical book from the HD, on the other hand, costs $2.15—much more than the delivery of a digital book to a computer screen.
    • If students want to read a book cover to cover, the printed copy may be deemed superior with respect to “bed, bath and beach,” John Palfrey points out. If they just want to read a few pages for class, or mine the book for scattered references to a single subject, the digital version’s searchability could be more appealing; alternatively, students can request scans of the pages or chapter they want to read as part of a program called “scan and deliver” (in use at the HD and other Harvard libraries) and receive a link to images of the pages via e-mail within four days. 
    • “the notion that we are going to abandon the codex as we have known it—the traditional book—and go digital overnight is very misguided. It is going to be a much longer transition than anyone suspects, just as the transition in the past between the oral tradition of literature in antiquity and silent reading as we’ve known it for almost two millennia was a long transition, taking the better part of a millennium itself.”

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

State Database Usage #tcea2010

15 Monday Feb 2010

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, Podcast, TCEA2010, TexasEducationAgency

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Thanks to Susanna Garza (ESC-20)–shown left side above–for being such a deliberate presenter! I also appreciate the shout-out she made to Micha Villarreal (Ysleta ISD) and I at the start of her preso! Here I thought I was incognito….
Listen to Susanna Garza
The title of this presentation was, “Communicating with School Leaders.” It certainly highlights the importance of advocacy for teacher-librarians…or ensuring that everyone knows what you’re doing and how it makes a difference…consider reading Doug Johnson on the subject.
This podcast features a short introduction by Karen Kahan (Texas Education Agency), Ann Mason (State Libraries), and then Susanna Garza (ESC-20) shares her points about the School Libraries. Karen made me laugh as she asked, “Are you recording me, Miguel?” The answer? Of course I am but only during the presentation.
Here is a slideshow of some of the slides Susanna shared…love the list of challenges and then how she plans to overcome them.

Great information to share with others, especially your school leadership!

Listen to Susanna Garza


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

DiigoNotes – ICT Skills Curriculum Based on Big6

05 Friday Feb 2010

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, MyNotes

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Below are my notes–copied and pasted–from the Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) Skills Curriculum Based on the Big6 Skills Approach to Information Problem-Solving by Mike Eisenberg, Doug Johnson and Bob Berkowitz (Revised January 2010).

When I first read this article many years ago, it served as one of my texts for Big6 and what information problem-solving. In fact, sharing and discussing portions of this text at workshops endeared me to librarians (smile).

Here are some of the points that jumped out at me:

  1. Can the student who uses technology well enough to play a game, send e-mail or browse the Web be considered technology literate? Will a student who uses technology in school only for running tutorials or an integrated learning system have the skills necessary to survive in our society? Is the ability to do basic word processing sufficient for students entering the workplace or post-secondary education? Certainly not.
  2. Educational technologists…advocate integrating technology skills into the content areas, recognize that technology skills should not be taught in isolation, and affirm that separate “computer classes” do not allow students to apply technology skills in meaningful ways. There is increasing recognition that the end result of technology literacy is not knowing how to operate technology, but rather to use technology as a tool for organization, communication, research, and problem solving.
  3. information skills can be integrated effectively when the skills (1) directly relate to the content area curriculum and to classroom assignments, and (2) are tied together in a logical and systematic information process model.
  4. Teacher-librarians, technology teachers, and classroom teachers need to work together to develop units and lessons that will include technology skills, information skills, and content-area curriculum outcomes.
  5. Students need to be able use technology tools with flexibility, creativity and a genuine purpose. All learners should be able to recognize what goa they need to accomplish, determine whether technology will help them to do so, and then be able to use the technology as part of the process to accomplish their task. Individual technology skills take on a new meaning when they are integrated within this type of information problem-solving process, and students develop true “information technology literacy” because they have genuinely applied various information technology skills as part of the learning process.
  6. This curriculum requires more than teaching computer skills, technology hardware, and software programs in an isolated approach. An effective technology curriculum must be integrated across content areas and grade levels to improve the learning process. Technology is successfully integrated when it seamlessly supports curricular goals. Students learn and refine their technology skills when they work on projects that require them to solve problems and make decisions.
The article then divides up into the 6 parts of the Big6. Definitely worth reading in its entirety and reflecting on.


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

DiigoNotes – INFOLIT EXPERTS MERGE K-12 TECHNOLOGY LITERACY AND INFORMATION LITERACY INTO ONE CURRICULUM

05 Friday Feb 2010

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, MyNotes

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  • Big6 » Blog Archive » INFOLIT EXPERTS MERGE K-12 TECHNOLOGY LITERACY AND INFORMATION LITERACY INTO ONE CURRICULUM

    • INFOLIT EXPERTS MERGE K-12 TECHNOLOGY LITERACY AND INFORMATION LITERACY INTO ONE CURRICULUM

    • Expert authors and advocates for information and technology literacy, Michael B. Eisenberg, Doug Johnson, and Robert E. Berkowitz announce their revised Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) curriculum for K-12 education.

    • ICT-Big6 Curriculum-Eisenberg-Johnson-Berkowitz-2010 (download.pdf)

    • Authors blend baseline information literacy contexts from Big6 Skills (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1988) with technology standards developed by International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards for Students (ISTE NETS-S, 2007). The result is a guideline for relevant technology skills all K-12 students could reasonably be expected to demonstrate before they graduate.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. Thanks to Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog) for sharing this. In fact, this is one of the first articles that introduced me to Doug!

DiigoNotes- “Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age” « ResourceShelf

04 Friday Dec 2009

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, MyNotes, Research

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An interesting report that makes one ask, Are librarians really doing the job they need to be doing to meet the needs of today’s college students?

  • New Full Text Report: “Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age” « ResourceShelf

    • New Full Text Report: “Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age”

    • A report of findings from 2,318 respondents to a survey carried out among college in six campuses distributed across the U.S. in the spring of 2009, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents, while curious in the beginning stages of research, employed a consistent and predictable research strategy for finding information, whether they were conducting course-related or everyday life research. Almost all of the respondents turned to the same set of tried and true information resources in the initial stages of research, regardless of their information goals.

    • Access the Complete Paper (42 pages; PDF)

Some of the neat stuff (IMHO) from the report includes the following:

  1. Welcome to college in the digital age. Students are entering the world of higher education at a time when the entire digital information universe is expanding at an unprecedented rate — six-fold each year.
  2. This dramatic proliferation of available information coincides with young adults being asked to receive, access, evaluate and deliver more information than most have ever had to process in their lives. It is a challenging task some may never be called upon to do again at quite the same pace and level.
  3. We administered an online survey in the spring of 2009 to 27,666 students enrolled at six community colleges and public and private colleges and universities across the U.S. Our findings are based on a collective sample of 2,318 responses
  4. The purpose was to collect data about the key information needs of college students— how often their needs arise and which resources students are likely to consult when conducting research.
  5. Many students in the sample reported being curious, engaged, and motivated at the beginning of the course-related and everyday life research process. Respondentsʼ need for big-picture context, or background about a topic, was the trigger for beginning course-related (65%) or everyday life research (63%).
  6. Almost every student in the sample turned to course readings—not Google—first for course-related research assignments. Likewise, Google and Wikipedia were the go-to sites for everyday life research for nearly every respondent.
  7. Librarians were tremendously underutilized by students. Eight out of 10 of the respondents reported rarely, if ever, turning to librarians for help with course-related research assignments.
  8. Nine out of 10 students in the sample turned to libraries for certain online scholarly research databases (such as those provided by EBSCO, JSTOR, or ProQuest) for conducting course-related research, valuing the resources for credible content, in-depth information, and the ability to meet instructorsʼ expectations.
  9. Even though it was librarians who initially informed students about using online scholarly research databases during freshmen training sessions, students in follow-up interviews reported turning to instructors as valued research coaches, as they advanced through the higher levels of their education.
  10. The reasons why students procrastinate are no longer driven by the same pre- Internet fears of failure and a lack of confidence that once were part of the college scene in the 1980s. Instead, we found that most of the digital natives in the sample (40%) tended to delay work on assignments as they juggled their needs to meet competing course demands from other classes.
  11. By far, respondents had the most experience with conducting research for argument papers (67%). Respondents also conducted research for a fair number of interpretative reading assignments (i.e., “close readings”) of a passage or a text (53%), or for the analysis of a historical event (39%). Less frequently assigned were case study analyses—only a third of the sample (33%) had conducted research for a case study in the last year.
  12. students frequently referred to a need for “finding context,” in one form or another, when they discussed conducting research.
  13. We soon discovered that finding context is key to understanding how students operationalize and prioritize their course-related and everyday life research activities.
  14. Finding context entails getting information for interpretation and definition of a topic, or an assignment. Students described finding context as laborious, often frustrating, yet essential to most of their research.
  15. Contexts include the following:
    Big picture: Finding out background for defining and selecting a topic.
    Language: Figuring out what words and terms associated with a topic may mean.
    Situational: Gauging how far to go with research, based on surrounding circumstances.
    Information-gathering: Finding, accessing, and securing relevant research resources.
  16. Google was the go-to resource for almost all of the students in the sample. Nearly all of the students in the sample reported always using Google, both for course-related research and everyday life research, and regardless of whether they were looking for the big picture, language, situational, or information- gathering context.
  17. In addition to course readings, nearly all of the respondents used scholarly databases in their course-related research in order to satisfy all four of their context needs.
  18. Few respondents made use of librarians—whether it was during course-related or everyday life research.

  19. Library guides often recommend a strategy for scholarly information seeking, underscored by the use of credible, authoritative sources. These sources are more likely to bring success by resolving many of the credibility issues facing digital natives.
  20. 2. The student approach is based on efficiency and utility. The student strategy attempts to satisfy context needs (identifying and developing a topic) by using a combination of instructor-sanctioned sources (i.e., course readings) and with open-access, collaborative public Internet resources (i.e., Google and Wikipedia) that return a lot of results early on.
  21. Most respondents used very few of the resources and services available to them. For instance, relatively few students in the survey used services that required contact with librarians. Only about 1 in 10 respondents ever used online reference (12%) or on-site, non-credit library training sessions (12%).
  22. Few students in our sample consulted librarians about research assignments (e.g., developing a research strategy) (20%) or about the campus library system (24%) (e.g., finding out about available resources on campus). Eight in 10 respondents—80%—reported that they did not use librarians for help with a course-related research assignment.
  23. Over three-fourths of the sample reported that they rarely, if ever, asked a librarian about the workings of the campus library system (76%). In a related question about respondentsʼ perceived helpfulness of library services, less than a third of the respondents (31%) reported that consulting a librarian about an assignment proved helpful in their course-related research.
  24. Eight in 10 respondents— 80%—reported that they did not use librarians for help with a course-related research
  25. A majority of respondents also used databases because of their usable interfaces (65%) that made finding content “quick and easy.” In particular, sites with a “one- search” search box were also a reason why a majority of respondents (60%) reported using databases.
  26. The 24/7 online, last-minute availability of scholarly research databases was also a factor that determined use, though less so. Almost a half of the respondents (43%) reported using databases because it saved them a visit the library.
  27. By far, respondents—8 in 10—put the greatest value on instructorsʼ availability for answering the questions they submitted by email (82%).
  28. Setting standards about which resources to use for assignments with written guidelines was also considered helpful by three fourths of the sample (76%).
  29. The actual writing and editing of papers is another way that students see instructors helping them complete course-related research assignments. A majority of the respondents (71%) considered instructorsʼ review of paper drafts helpful and slightly fewer respondents (61%) found separate deadlines for section by section of papers useful to them.
  30. todayʼs college students may be more confident when it comes to their course-related research competencies.
  31. These findings also suggest that some students may have an “illusion of immediacy” since there are so many resources online, leading students to misjudge how much time is truly needed to complete a course-related research assignment. At the same time, though, students in our sample clearly felt pressed for time as they juggle multiple research assignments.
  32. This finding suggest that students in our sample, given their needs to meet competing course demands, may feel they have less time for research, so therefore, they rely on predictable research strategies that had worked for them before.
  33. When it came to everyday life research, nearly all of the respondents used Google, Wikipedia, and friends for finding context. Almost all of the students used course readings, library resources, and public Internet sites such as Google and Wikipedia, when conducting course-related research—no matter where they were enrolled, no matter what resources they had at their
disposal.
  34. A significant majority of students in our sample—8 in 10—did not ever consult librarians for course-related research assignments. Instead, instructors played an important role in coaching students through the research process—from figuring out a research strategy to finding acceptable resources to writing up their findings.
  35. When we have presented our findings, we are often asked what makes todayʼs digital age student different than those who have come before them? todayʼs students have defined their preferences for information sources in a world where credibility, veracity, and intellectual authority are less of a given—or even an expectation from students—with each passing day. “Books, do I use them? Not really, they are antiquated interfaces. You have to look in an index, way in the back, and itʼs not even hypertext linked.”
  36. Recommendations:
    1-administrators and faculty should systematically examine student workloads across classes on their campuses, in light of an institutionʼs educational goals. We recommend that an analysis of gaps between desired results and existing conditions and their consequences be undertaken and examined more closely on campuses, as needed.
    2-recommend that students be given course-related research assignments that encourage the collection, analysis, and synthesis of multiple viewpoints from a variety of sources, so the transfer of information literacy and critical thinking competencies may be more actively called up, practiced, and learned by students.
    3-recommend librarians take an active role and initiate the dialogue with faculty to close a divide that may be growing between them and faculty and between them and students—each campus is likely to be different.
    4-Librarians should systematically (not just anecdotally) examine the services they provide to students. This may require looking at things through a new lens, if need be.

MyNotes – 14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media

25 Friday Sep 2009

Posted by mguhlin in DigitalCitizenship, Education, Library2.0, MyNotes, SocialMedia, Twitter

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You’ve gotta love Joyce’s new article on 14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media! I encourage you to read the article in its entirety at the link below. Do you agree or disagree with her assertions?

In the meantime, here are my favorite parts:

  • Read Joyce Valenza Ph.D
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    14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media

    • 14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media
    • This is the best time in history to be a teacher-librarian. Major shifts in our information and communication landscapes present new opportunities for librarians to teach and lead in areas that were always considered part of their role, helping learners of all ages effectively use, manage, evaluate, organize and communicate information, and to love reading in its glorious new variety.
    • A school’s teacher-librarian is its chief information officer, but in a networked world, the position is more that of moderator or coach, the person who ensures that students and teachers can effectively interact with information and leverage it to create and share and make a difference in the community and beyond.
    • These information-fluency standards scream inquiry, critical thinking, digital citizenship, creative communication, collaboration, and networking.
    • For librarians, and for most other professionals, the game has changed.
    • 14 retooled learning strategies that teacher-librarians should be sharing with classroom teachers and learners in the 2009–2010 school year.
    • 1. New fun with intellectual property.
    • Whether it is communicating the results of inquiry and research or composing and sharing a digital story, we now guide learners as they create and share media products in a mashup, remix world.
    • Creative Commons: a new world of voluntary content sharing
    • Librarians should be teaching about the icons attached to these licenses and making it easy for teachers and learners to access major portals for CC content.
    • Use of Creative Commons demonstrates respect for intellectual property while recognizing a more open information landscape, the desire of content creators to share, and the need of content users to build on prior knowledge.
    • Fair use allows us to use copyrighted material without asking permission if that use adds value to or repurposes the original work. Released in November 2008, the new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education helps us understand when our use of copyrighted material is fair. It helps untie the hands of creative educators and learners who want to thoughtfully live and learn and create in a media-rich world. One of the tools I and other librarians will use with students this year is the Tool for Reasoning Fair Use. (See my post on the release of the new code.)
    • 2. Documentation doesn’t have to be a miserable task.
      • Though we teach with NoodleTools at our school, among the alternative free citation generators your own librarian may be sharing are:

        • Bibme: Free citation generator that anticipates sources and pulls reference content from a database of resources.
        • EasyBib: Automatic bibliography and citation maker covers a large variety of source types and is updated for MLA, seventh edition.
        • Son of Citation Maker: David Warlick’s interactive tool does MLA (7th edition), APA, Chicago, and Turabian.
        • OttoBib: For books only; enter the ISBN and the tool will complete the citation.
    • 3. Moving beyond one-trick, single-search mode.
    • Librarians should offer their constituents an array of appropriate search tools. At the high-school level, that array reaches into social search—blogs and wikis and Twitter —as well as copyright-friendly media and scholarly content.
    • We have new primary sources to analyze and evaluate. I want my students to be able to locate and contact experts and to follow conversations about breaking issues in the news via Twitter or by using the new real-time search tools.
    • 4. Pushing information and working with widgets.
      We can show students and faculty how to work smarter, and how to make search tools work harder for them, by sharing the power of RSS feeds and feed aggregators.
    • 5. Searching yourself.
    • 6. Scouting and networking.
      Through their social networks—Nings, listservs, Twitter, and social-bookmarking activities using Diigo or Delicious sharing—today’s librarians are, or should be, on the lookout for resources tools with which to serve the curriculum and engage learners across content areas and grade levels.
    • Twitter can be a powerful networking tool for research, current awareness, and professional development if students and teacher learn to leverage its power to meet their learning needs.
    • media-rich networks help students access news, collaborate, discuss, and share within in a dynamic environment.
    • 7. Transparency and the research process.
    • When you use either blogs or wikis, the process becomes more interactive and transparent. Most of our teachers and students prefer to work with wikis, probably because we’ve been working together to build lessons and resource pages on that platform. Wikis are easily edited and updated. They hold media in all formats, including bookmarking widgets, video, and images of their mind maps. They preserve links. The discussion tab permits conversations between teachers, librarians, peers, and mentors, as well as intervention when a crisis is imminent or when praise is called for.
    • 8. Organizing tools.
      We’ve long used Inspiration as a tool for brainstorming questions prior to research and for organizing the results of research. A new array of mind-mapping options is available, creating opportunities for collaborating and sharing. In addition to employing Inspiration’s new, Web-based Webspiration, librarians can help teachers integrate a wide variety of mind-mapping and time-lining options to help students organize their thinking and their work.
    • 9. Survey tools for research and learning.
      I absolutely adore Google Docs. I am using the new templates to create a new calendar for our library. I am also using spreadsheets in Google Forms to create surveys (like our genre poll–scroll down and look on the right–and our Current Awareness Service)
    • 10. Connecting with authors and experts.
    • 11. Communicating research and telling new stories.
      The read/write Web means audience. Our students no longer write for their teachers’ eyes only. They script and blog and tweet and write, building knowledge for others in our school community and beyond.
    • 12. Rethinking collection.
    • 13. Reading 2.0.
      Over the past three years, I’ve worked with our classroom teachers to move our literature circles into blogs and wikis and Nings. Our students promote our reading-list books by creating book trailers. (You can find similar student-created trailers, reviews, and book talks inspired by librarians all over the world on YouTube, TeacherTube, TeacherLibrarianNing, VoiceThread, Animoto, and Glogster.
    • 14. Intellectual freedom extends to Web 2.0.
    • Web 2.0 is an intellectual-freedom issue too. Librarians should be willing to fight for open access to new information and tools with the same energy we use for books, helping our districts develop reasonable filtering policies and demonstrating models of effective use of online tools.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Format Bigots a la Doug Johnson

10 Thursday Sep 2009

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Library2.0, OnlineLearning

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Thanks to Doug Johnson for a great presentation on Format Bigotry….

Format bigotry

View more presentations from doug0077.


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

$18.5M Available for 80 Library Grants!

07 Wednesday Jan 2009

Posted by mguhlin in Library2.0

≈ 1 Comment

$18.5M Available for 80 Library Grants!

The Education Dept. is offering a new $18.5-million dollar program for funding 80 awards for school libraries– deadline: Mar. 6.

Eligibility: Local educational agencies with at least 20% of students below the poverty line

See below for details:

Purpose: The program improves student reading skills and academic achievement by providing students with increased access to up-to-date school library materials; well-equipped, technologically advanced school library media centers; and well-trained, professionally certified school library media specialists.

Funds may be used for the following purposes:
  • Purchasing up-to-date school library media resources.
  • Acquiring and using advanced technology that is integrated into the curricula of the school to develop and enhance the information literacy, information retrieval and critical-thinking skills of students.
  • Facilitating Internet links and other resource sharing networks.
  • Providing professional development for school library media specialists and providing activities that foster increased collaboration among library specialists, teachers and administrators.
  • Providing students with access to school libraries during non-school hours.

For all the details on this and all of the latest federal and private grant opportunities, just click on this link and register for two-week free access to Federal & Foundation Assistance Monitor – or any of our other new reports! When you reach our site, simply check Federal & Foundation Assistance Monitor.

If you have trouble signing up for the two-week free access, call Chet Dembeck at 1-800-666-6380, ext. 131 — or email subscriptions@cdpublications.com.

CD Publication, 8204 Fenton Street, Silver Spring Md. 20910


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Comment Hoist – Change in New Obama Administration

21 Sunday Dec 2008

Posted by mguhlin in CommentHoisting, Education, Library2.0

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Jane Lofton (librarian) responds to this blog entry, and I thought I’d try to “amplify” her voice:

Dear Miguel, I applaud your message to the next administration but would appreciate it if you would include the need for strong school libraries and trained library staff in your future communications.

In schools that have a credentialed librarian, the librarian is one of the key champions and mentors for the use of technology both in the library and throughout the school. With proper federal and state support for school libraries, every school would have a trained librarian championing technology in the school.

Grateful for Library Champions!


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Fair Use Video and Document

12 Wednesday Nov 2008

Posted by mguhlin in Copyright, Education, Library2.0

≈ 1 Comment

The Media Education Lab recently (11/11/2008) released the document, “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Education Literacy Education.”

This document is a code of best practices that helps educators using media literacy concepts and techniques to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question—as it does for certain narrowly defined classroom activities.

This guide identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community’s current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials, wherever and however it occurs: in K–12 education, in higher education, in nonprofit organizations that offer programs for children and youth, and in adult education.
Read More

With that document, they also released a video, shown below:


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Web 2.0 Librarian

18 Saturday Oct 2008

Posted by mguhlin in Library2.0, Podcast

≈ 1 Comment

Listen in on my conversation with Laura Alfaro, SAISD Library Media Services facilitator, about Web 2.0 tools that are available! She shares about her desire to create 30-second commercials using Animoto to promote what they are doing in their library. “Getting people to use the library, the electronic resources we have” is what Laura is looking for librarians and teachers to do!

We had a far-ranging conversation at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year about Web 2.0 and Libraries, and Laura had a LOT to share. You can hear her enthusiasm in the podcast, and I hope you’ll take a moment to explore some of what we discussed.

Listen to Podcast

Relevant Links:

  1. Animoto.com
  2. VoiceThread.com
  3. 23LibraryThings
  4. Another 23 Library Things
  5. Texas Bluebonnet Books VoiceThread by Tracy Mapus (to access this link, you’ll need to login with your email account name and password or just login as guest).
  6. Check out this VoiceThread Tutorial!
  7. How to Check if you machine has Flash/Shockwave
  8. Stephen’s Lighthouse
  9. Thinkfinity.org
  10. Thinkfinitytexas.edublogs.org

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