LibraryRemix

Michael Stephen’s Tame the Web features a reprint of the article: The hyperlinked school library: engage, explore, celebrate, originally published by the Australian School Library Association. Arguing that the financial crisis compels us to move towards the needed changes (when we need those changes anyway) may be an effective lever for those reluctant media specialists who still resist moving into a 21st century already a decade old.  Let’s hope so.  Stephen’s appeal is well-informed and nicely put.  For those of us who have embraced the change, the article provides some nice reinforcement to share with colleagues who question the changes we’ve implemented.  If you’d like to share,  you can download a PDF of the article here.  The article was based on a presentation at ASLA which you can view here.

The video below is interesting on a couple of counts.  Obviously, the message intrigues (perhaps scares) us.  It’s a different world than many professionals (and parents) are immersed in.  While we may facebook, our use is more deliberate…less social than that of the young person who’s grown up in a social media environment.  Then…there is the fact that this is a BOOK REPORT. Can you imagine if our students demonstrated their understanding in this way….non-linear,

From a blog associated with the new book, GroundSwell, the post Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder shows how twitter and facebook status updaters are figuring into the the world of social media. Reminds me alot of Gladwell’s Tipping Point.

"Conversationalists" are now on the ladder of social media

The author’s note that these “conversationalists” are an intriguing lot with a definate stake in market trends. I can’t help but come back to my own professional observations of how market and classroom align in today’s marketplace of information and media. Consider the following suggestions offered in the blog:

“Convince your boss this stuff is for real, and that if you haven’t jumped on it, you’re late.”

There is a hum (or drum) in education now pushing administrators to recognize social media not just as a tool that could be harvested, but as a new way of communicating that MUST be engaged if we are to remain relevant in society.

“Profile your customer base, and see what they’re ready for, before planning a project to reach out to them.”

Know your students. They don’t learn the same way we did, even 15 years ago. The dilemma in education? Student’s today are technologically MORE ready than we are! At the same time, they’re social aptitude has slipped they navigate through the online social network “willy-nilly.” Shouldn’t we be there with them…to teach, to model?

“Segment your audience; build different strategies for different segments. (Social is so prevalent now that a single approach for your company is probably too broad.)”

Differentiate your approach to reach different learners. We’ve embraced that in the classroom, but too often we settle for seeing “technology” AS an approach, rather than as a space in need of these differentiated approaches. All said, it comes down to…SCAFFOLDING!

Literary summaries and analyses.  In developing a library collection, teacher can’t agree.

For some, there is a double standard with regards to literary guides such as Blooms Literary Themes or the Understanding Literature series published by Lucent. One school where I taught shelved every volume (every edition) of MasterPlots “for teacher use only” because…a plot summary and analytical overview is a “refresher” for teachers and “cheating” for students!?  Cliffnotes, SparkNotes…the cheap way out of reading required materials.

Others teachers welcome the guides and the fresh, updated takes they offer.  They generally believe that any student willing to read the guide is probably immersed in the literary experience.  It’s for these teachers that I share the 60 Second Recap, a great site, whose mission is to “make the great works of literature accessible, relevant, and, frankly, irresistible to today’s teens…to help teens engage with the best books out there … not just to help them get better grades, but to help them build better lives.”  This is how the site introduces it’s mission:

“Eat your lima beans,” Mom used to say.

And now that you’re out on your own, honestly, are lima beans a staple of your culinary repertoire?

There, in a lima bean, lies the problem confronting the great works of literature. We’re all forced to read them in school so we can get good grades so we can go to a good college so we can get a good job so we can forget all about that literature they used to force us to read so we could get good grades.  Read more... (515 words, estimated 2:04 minutes reading time)

On September 30, 2009, John Temple, former editor, president, and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News, posted a transcript of his keynote presentation at the UC Berkeley Media Technology Summit, delivered that same day.  Under Temple’s direction, the paper won a total of four Pulitzer Prizes.  And yet, seven months earlier, that same paper printed it’s final edition, after almost 150 years of publication.

I see valuable lessons in what Temple has to say to news professionals that apply in the secondary school setting–not just in our journalism classes and school publications, but also in the classroom and school paradigm in general.  Below are some key points to consider:

Newspapers, like schools operate under  long-established and respected models of delivery. Each is served by professionals rigorously trained to operate within these models. And those models and the paradigms they support are difficult to shift, largely because they have deeply engrained conventions and cultural functions. Temple notes:

“…we thought we were in the newspaper business….and put the vast majority of our efforts into the print war. We didn’t understand what was happening to the playing field. Media companies used to think they were in control. That they could “own” a market. What we didn’t take into account is that in this new era, consumers were going to be in control.”

Failure to adopt technology was not “the problem” that plagued Temple’s newspaper, anymore than it is a failure in most American schools today. And yet, too often technology is seen simply as a way to make existing tasks easier or more efficient. Use and development stop short. We adapt the adopted technology to fit the existing model of delivery, rather than adapting the model of delivery to adopt the new ways of thinking made possible by the technology.    Temple writes:  Read more... (1329 words, estimated 5:19 minutes reading time)

A cultural phenomenon…you know a medium has gone mainstream when it’s become and informational source…Science Tattoo Emporium from The Loom (Blogs at Discover Magazine Online):  Below are just a few examples from 23+ pages of images.

I’ve admired Wesch’s work since I was first introduced to it a couple of years back. His digital ethnographic studies are facinating and address the crucial changes that are occuring in our culture (and should be occuring in our classrooms). His youtube presentations include Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/ing Us, A Vision of Students Today, Information R/evolution, and Twitter and the World Simulation. Wesch spoke this spring to to Wisconsin educators at WEMTA, and the following, from the 2009 Personal Democracy Forum reiterates much of what he presented to us. I look for opportunities to share these ideas…and hope readers here will too.

With semester exams and end-of-year details, attending this year’s Games, Learning and Society Conference (GLS 5.0) in Madision wasn’t a possibility (booooo!).  But then again, through the magic of “Twitter” I was practically there, if only wandering the halls, evesdropping on the buzz, rather than actually participating.  While I was thrilled to be part of the Educator Symposium held on Saturday (great panels), it was painful to hear all the “backchatter” and know just what a great conference I was missing.

That said, the BACKCHATTER game was interesting, particularly in light of the Twitter Analysis for GLS09 provided by Mike Edwards, who, along with others, set up and ran the game.  Wishing I had a stronger background in stats, I am still gratified to find my other self (hattiebb) figuring “loudly” in the chatter.  Everytime someone asks me why I’ve (recently!) taken up tweeting (something many argue is nothing more than naked status posting) I have to defend the meaningful possibilities in the tool.  Twitter allows me to push content (my own and that of others) beyond my limited sphere of influence and do what library information and media specialists do…find it…share it…market it…and in some cases, create it.

Click to read the analysis...

Check out the World map of Social Networks! It’s almost as if the Cold War is still in play!