Inquiry #4 Mobile technologies

I was glad that this week's blog question included the benefits of mobile devices to libraries in both developing and developing nations. There's no doubt in my mind that yes, all libraries can benefit from mobile devices. I am not talking about cell phones and game centres, but just the good old laptop! Imagine if EVERYONE could have access to a laptop? I searched around and found this perfect example from India called E-path. Whether or not India is still considered a developing nation or not is a topic for debate, but I liked the way that Akhil Paul, director of Sense International India (1), discussed that in terms of education and accessibility, he considers India as a developing nation with a long way to go.

When I started to read about E-path-on-Wheels I was immediately drawn to the wonder of how amazing it would be to be able to provide this service! I can think of populations right here in our own city of Vernon that would benefit from a tech-based "Library on Wheels". For example, I think of how many learning opportunities we could provide as an early intervention to improve kindergarten readiness if we could provide our young frazzled families meaningful learning opportunities practically to their door. Maybe I'm just a "bleeding heart" educator, but when I read about children getting great opportunities like what is happening with E-path on wheels, it really does inspire me.

The mission of E-path on Wheels is to enhance educational opportunities for underprivileged children from kindergarten through 12th grade. Our goal is to bring the outside world to isolated areas and provide children a unique opportunity to experientially learn through extensive use of technology.
Children are provided digital study aids, tutoring and mentoring in respective age groups.

Salient Features

• The mobile school on wheels is a custom built replica of a modern day techno savvy classroom on wheels.
• Teaching is imparted through computers, touch based tablets, screen and projector.
• Education is imparted through use of visual aids like animation, slideshows and educational videos.
• The mobile unit covers an area depending on remoteness of the area, population, number of children in specific age and group, family income, occupation, education levels, etc.
• Participants are engaged in formal and non-formal education, remedial classes, study tours, exposure trips, health checkups, awareness sessions on personal hygiene, de-addiction, life-skills, safe environment, etc. to make a difference in their overall well being.

The description on the e-path website above is an excellent example of using technology to move communities forward, increase accessibility, and improve skills.

Part of our blog question this week is whether or not there is benefit in BYOD models in schools. This fits in with my previous blog posts in that I don't think the type of device matters but rather, the authenticity of the experience. Whether students surf the Net of their personal device or one of the school's laptops really isn't the issue. The purpose for accessing the Net is what is important. Yes, we will have to spend time educating students on appropriate uses etc., but we already do that...BYOD can definitely have benefits and many would argue that personal devices improve student motivation. As noted by the Learning Design Team at Penn State's World Campus (2011), educational opportunities using technologies that evolve to meet the demands of student learning styles do motivate students. Like anything in education, I think a balanced process is going to yield the best results in the end.

Interesting video about balance between books and technology:
How kids learn today: Libraries, Technology, and Learning at MIT in the 21st Century - Ann J. Wolpert - MIT Club of Northern California



1.  http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/apr/07/is-india-still-a-developing-country
2. http://epath.net.in/about-e-path.php
3.  http://epath.net.in/e-path-on-wheels.php
4. http://learningdesign.psu.edu/research/MLRTWhitePaper.pdf
5. video.mit.edu/watch/how-kids-learn-today-libraries-technology-and-learning-at-mit-in-the-21st-century-ann-j-wolper-8777/

Inquiry #3 ICT Professional Needs

As a Teacher-Librarian and a Vice-Principal, I highly value a service approach to my everyday work. It is my firm belief that both of these roles within my school community are founded on the need to provide support to students, colleagues/staff, and parents. In terms of meeting the ICT needs of those stakeholders, there are a few things that I try to do regularly and a few things that I am trying to implement. Each stakeholder group requires me to be supportive of their technology needs in different ways but generally speaking, they all need communication about technology and enthusiastic modeling of practical uses for technology.  

Communication: Regular communication with practical ideas about how to use aspects of technology is critical - we need to reach them! We need to be cognizant of what their needs are, make predictions about what they might need, and follow through with supporting their explorations. I have often found that many people won't use technology only because they don't know what they don't know! They have no idea what they're missing (like me and Twitter). A simple, yet perfect, example of this just happened to me last week. A staff member was talking about how much work it takes her to make new bingo cards for each different topic she wanted to cover in her french lessons. I asked her what she was using to make them...she was writing them by hand and used a good ol' ruler and a marker to make the template for the cards. In less than two minutes I was able to show her a sample of what was available online for making bingo cards. It opened up a whole new world of thinking for her and of course, I was right there to support her endeavors! The point is, she just didn't know and she doesn't have the "technological confidence" to go looking without some kind of modeling and support. I communicate ideas mostly via email as that reaches all of my colleagues regardless of their technological level. Email is established as our district's method of communication and so even the least tech-interested must use it. When I finally get my library site going, I look forward to being a lot more creative and engaging than just using email. Some of the useful things I try to communicate via email are websites, opportunities for using technology, and I have just come up with the idea that I can colour scan covers of new books that I get in the library and email those to classroom teachers too as a way of promoting new materials that might be immediately relevant to them. Communication opens doors for people and I am so happy to be able to help them take a step through!
Modeling: I have always been a "let's try it today!" kind of person and that is the approach that I take to modeling technology. Whenever I come across something that I like in terms of using technology, I do not hesitate to share it with my colleagues. I offer my support to facilitate implementation and definitely invite anyone interested to come and see it in action. For example, I have attended several in-services on using SMARTBoards in the classroom and in turn, I have shared my learning and experiences with others during professional development days. I invite others to come into my classroom at any time so they can see it in action with real students. In modeling the "everyday" uses of technology, I think we will get more "believers". If you only show the golden lesson, then it seems contrived and intimidating. Showing the everyday and simply integration of technology makes it seem "do-able" for all end users.

Service and support are critical pieces to any change process and ultimately these are the pieces that maintain the momentum needed to make the change long lasting and meaningful.

...and did you know there's an actual condition called technophilia? This is described on Wikipedia as "a strong enthusiasm for technology". And of course, that means there's also technophobia...

1. http://print-bingo.com/
2.http://justcoachit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Three-Leadership-Heads.jpg
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzi2RIt8_nk
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophilia

Inquiry Question #2: Professional learning

While I was thinking about how to approach this week's Inquiry blog, I spent some time browsing Twitter. Since I have never used Twitter before, it took me a little bit of "following" and "unfollowing" until I could really see if there was any benefit to it. I am happy to report that I did indeed find some interesting things! First of all, I found "the big wide world" of Twitter! Wow - there's no way to describe just how much really relevant information and discussions are on there. On the flipside, I found that I was overwhelmed thinking about how anyone can possibly find the time to read all that!. I worried that I might be missing something really good so I ended up staying on Twitter just jumping along from site to site for about 2 hours! In the end, I came to some conclusions about my personal learning and development.

My first realization was that I definitely need to do more networking and in order to do that, I'm going to have to invest some time finding good, reliable sites and people to "follow".
I want to spend some time developing our school library blog and also strengthening the network of librarians within our district. Even today I was thinking about how great it would be if I could just find out which read-alouds other elementary school librarians were reading this week so I wouldn't have to "invent the wheel" on my own! I was also wondering who has recently ordered leveled guided reading books, where did they order from, how much did the books cost...?? How could I find out all this information? A network would sure be handy! So, I turned to Twitter and of course, I found some that I might link to my new library blog...as soon as my District's new technology platform will let me get it started!

1. http://www.goodreads.com/genres/childrens?original_shelf=children-s
2. http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/kids/books/
3. http://www.roomtoread.org/

To help me get started on this social networking quest, I also I looked around on the Internet (2) for some literature about it. Digging a little deeper, I found this video and it inspired me to think about how I can use social media as a professional networking tool in a meaningful way (rather than the social side of it):

One of the parts of this video that particular got my attention was a slide stating that in 2009 the US Department of Education found that on average, online students outperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction....ouch. While that statement hurts, I can certainly also use it as a catalyst to motivate me to continue to develop my technology skills as an educator that believes in authentic experiences to deepen learning! This video really does remind us that our kids are not new to technology - we are.



Follow up articles from the last few weeks:
I also found these on Twitter which I thought were good reads:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-fishman-lipsey/100-great-ideas-for-the-for-the-future-of-libraries_b_6551440.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2015/01/30/ordinary-kids-read-as-infrequently-as-ordinary-adults-less-than-5-books-per-year/

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/teaching-in-the-age-of-minecraft/385231/?utm_content=bufferf048f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

References:
1) Networking image: https://www.google.ca/search?q=images:+network&client=firefox-a&hs=5ur&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9hPgVIWCJtDWoASq_YKgBg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=638#imgdii=_&imgrc=oNSwCTC8cVZQNM%253A%3BidnGWsmy7cZq9M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ffuturecan.ca%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2013%252F05%252FSocial-Network-Stock-Photo.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ffuturecan.ca%252Fsocial-networks-management%252F%3B1600%3B1200

2) http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworkingreviews/tp/Social-Networking-Sites.htm

3) Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Inquiry Blog#1 Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools

 

I have always loved to read and so promoting reading is a genuine passion of mine and something that is very easy for me to get jazzed up about! We do all kinds of things to encourage reading in our school, from working with parents and reading volunteers to home reading programs and book clubs. We have teachers collaborating during targeted reading instruction times, we have students of all ages reading together, and we have big buddies as reading coaches. Our teachers have spent a huge amount of personal professional development time and our school and district have invested significantly in adopting Richard Allington's six T's of Effective Literacy Instruction: Time, Texts, Teach, Talk, Tasks, Tests (1). It's a long and detailed story, but the short version is that we engage students in reading daily with "just right" texts following specific instructional strategies that Allington suggests as critical to improving reading skills for all readers. In this endeavor, I am deeply involved in a variety of ways but a few little "extras" that I really like are:

• Free books!
• Hallway home readers
• Library highlights - new books, theme of the week books, online books, etc.

Who doesn't want a free book? Kids LOVE this idea! I have started to purge older ("well loved") books that no longer have shelf appeal. Each week I pull about 5 books off the shelves and when my classes come in, I showcase the books and make a big deal about the free book give away! You'd think this would cause complete pandemonium in the library but it all works out because what actually happens is that the kids race to finish their weekly book selection so that they can READ! They sit with the free books and do a "book look" in small groups. They love to explore the books and their conversations around what they think the books are about, the connections they make, etc. are heartwarming to this reading teacher! It's a perfect example of incorporating Allington's Time & Talk strategies!

One of our most successful reading supports at our school is our hallway Home Reading book selection. These bins are set up in the hallway and are filled with leveled books that kids can choose for overnight borrowing. Students have been taught about "just right" texts and are able to independently select "just right" books at their level - yes, even our grade one emergent readers! There is always a buzz of activity by the hallway home reading bins and again, the talking about books that happens here is quite something! The kids absolutely love choosing the books and giving each other advice as to which books they have made connections with, etc.



To keep this blog post from overflowing, I lumped a number of strategies that I use for promoting reading into the "Library highlights" category. This is where I really just get to have fun pumping up reading! Every library class I showcase all kinds of books, including online book sites such as Storyline Online and making connections with our local Okanagan Regional Library, which has excellent eResources for kids. I show newly purchased books (usually that students have requested on the student request board) or theme-related books (to make connections, model a specific reading strategy, etc.).  Sometimes I engage the teachers during library visits by having them help me read a story "reader's theatre" style (and yes, we change our voices!). The bottom line here is that I show enthusiasm for reading and I try to meet the interests of all the students with choosing books that they like. We have targeted most of our funds this year for junior non-fiction books and leveled classroom libraries to keep students engaged with "just right" texts.

I am thinking that maybe our library could have a blog so that kids can post book reviews...I will have to look into how we can make this work!

References:
1) This article was originally published in the June 2002 issue of Phi Delta Kappan as "What I've Learned About Effective Reading Instruction From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers." Source: Phi Delta Kappan, 20020601, Vol. 83 Issue 10, p740
Item: EJ648693

Images:
1. I Love Reading! https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQGeS6bzxUWLr1ic5XQTv67-SL9PwHWCLMiePcHQ4jLvxnXWYjm
2.http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://odearylibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Free-Books-620x350.jpg&imgrefurl=http://odearylibrary.com/book-love/arcs-get/&h=350&w=620&tbnid=H7YRTR_rHUcNVM:&zoom=1&docid=8jg2h_tOXIZidM&ei=Q17UVND7EYfwoASLr4GQDQ&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a&ved=0CCoQMygNMA0
3. children reading on a bench: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLtmoYPj3A1oWk9NDw5cyLjl53K0mZHSZExEsHz_U8vy_Uee42