Diversity and Technology in the Media Center

Encouraging and supporting diversity in the media center is about recognizing that there are other cultures, perspectives, abilities, values, and opinions other than our own. However, rather than trying to define what diversity is, we can be more effective as media specialists by simply listening to the people we serve.

If given a chance, our stakeholders will express their ideas and interests regarding the media center’s uses and resources. This can be accomplished through informal conversations with students and staff or needs assessments can be conducted to gather information about the needs, wants, and ideas of our stakeholders. If we truly value their feedback and are responsive to them, the media center will reflect much of the diversity that is already present in our community and nation.

In addition to this, the media specialist has the opportunity to intentionally mold the look and shape of the collection. I believe it is a professional responsibility of the media specialist to recognize and address weaknesses and deficits in the collection regarding certain subjects, topics, and genres. However, he must be careful not to overly assert his personal bias. He can also make a conscious effort to respect holidays and observances of people from many different cultures and religious backgrounds by incorporating their celebrations into media center activities. Fortunately, tools and resources that jobbers provide take some of the burden and judgment off of the media specialist. An OPAC such as Destiny is capable of recognizing weaknesses in the collection electronically and jobbers such as Follett can provide recommendations for resources that will provide a greater balance to the collection. Also, when a media specialist makes an effort to include award winning books and technology into the media center, these resources already tend to reflect diverse viewpoints and life stories because they are voted on by large groups of people, selected by panels, or put into place to recognize a particular community or culture of people. For example, the following link is capable of steering a media specialist to some award winning titles that would bring diverse perspectives into the media center:

http://libguides.utoledo.edu/content.php?pid=70654&sid=523405

In my media center, I see that our media specialist is very responsive to the community the school serves. However, it has not always been this way. For example, the demographics of the school have changed dramatically in the last ten years. ESL students currently represent almost 50% of our school’s population. Under the past librarian, this was not always the case. Therefore, the resources present in the media center were no longer responsive to the current school community. However, our current media specialist has made an effort to ensure that the resources are diverse enough to meet the needs and address the interests of our current students. The numbers of bilingual texts are increasing, and many of the newer titles include a wider range of cultural and religious topics.

Fortunately, during this shift in culture, our school has also been blessed with some great technology resources. Thanks to an interactive white boards and LED projector in every classroom, limitless and diverse resources are made available through the internet to every student. This enables the teacher or media specialist to specifically adapt and diversify resources according to a 15 -25 student micro-community. Thanks to developments like this and efforts from media specialists to respond to the needs and wants of the communities they serve, our schools can become more diverse places of learning than ever.

21st Century Storytelling

There is nothing better than a good story. A story that has you sitting on the edge of your seat, or stirs emotions in yu will capture your attention and stay with you for a long time. Take a good story and add music, images, and video and you have 21st Century storytelling at it's best. When you take history, math, science, art, music, or any subject and put a story with it, it grabs your attention and keeps you wanting more. Our goal as educators should be to capture our student's attention and keep them wanting more! Digital Storytelling lends itself to this....

According to The University of Houston, Digital Storytelling is defined as, "the practice of using computer based tools to tell stories". Digital stories usually contain several forms of multimedia. Digital stories can contain images, video, audio, music, and text.

An awesome place to learn how to incorporate Digital Storytelling into your curriculum is the University of Houston, The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html . This website offers many features to learn about digital storytelling and to help you get started. Listed below are some of the features of this website:

• Examples of DS in many subject areas (you can view several examples of Digital Stories)
• Software: gives you access to links to some popular software programs that can be used to support your Digital Storyellling. According to this website, many of the software options may be obtained for free or for an inexpensive cost.
• Essentials: Under this heading you will find 7 elements to DS. Educational uses, goals and objectives, copyright laws associated with DS, and microsoft DS e-book.
• Create: this feature gives tutorials for gow to get started with DS. It gives step by step instructions to walk you through all the steps for DS. It also explains how to do storyboarding.
• Evaluate: This feature aligns DS with National Standards. It gives links to the stnandards. It also has a link to Rubistar. http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
• Web 2.0: This feature has links to articles tha tyou can read about DS and how to effectively use it in the classroom. One beneficail article that I found to be helpful was, "Digital Storytelling Find its Place in the Classroom". http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

This feature also had links to royalty free media and public domain sites. I found this very helpful as I was researching to find items for my resource kit.

Another thing that I found beneficial on this website is that you can use anything on this website for educational purposes. It really made me think about how I could use it to educate other teachers on the possibilities that are out there for DS. This website will answer most your questions about DS. It is a must have link for any media center. There are downloadable powerpoints that can be used for educational purposes. With the resources and information available from this website, there are an endless amount of possiblities.

As I researche DS, I discovered many great ideas and ways to use DS for instructional purposes. Below are a few ideas that I found:

• Teachers can use DS to hook students, they can use it to promote discussion on a particular subject, they can use it as a way to make difficult content more understandable, they can use it to incorporate multimedia into the classroom.
• DS is an effective learning tool tha tcan be used by teachers to teach "research skills, writing skills, organization skills, technology skills, interview skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, and assessment skills" (University of Houston).

Not only is it educational, it is so much fun for students to create something that they will take pride in. This is a technology that we as educators need to find time to use in our classrooms and with our students. Before i began this class, I knew nothing about DS. I am simply Amazed at this technology and how we can utilize it. I am also amazed at the resources available to help us out. It makes it so easy for us. DS is something I want to begin with my students and I would also like to educate teachers in my building on the possibilities that are out there with this technology.

ebooks & Digital Storytelling

There was a time I thought I’d never stop buying CD’s. Why would I want a song from I-tunes when I would be forced to forgo an entire CD including liner notes and a case to proudly display with my vast music collection? Yet a few years later, I now can’t see the point of purchasing a CD. With music, I have evolved; but with books, I am still behind the technology curve a little! The new wave of storytelling comes in many formats, from ebooks and self published tales on the internet, to short stories told through digital storytelling.

A Brief Reflection on Ebooks
We could probably all agree that one of the best ways to prepare a child for an education is to read to them and with them. We could also probably agree that many students arrive at kindergarten with little to no experience with books. This is the beauty of ebooks. Ebooks can be used by teachers to allow students to read along, showing word to sound relationships in a meaningful, current, and entertaining format. My school uses ebooks on Tumblebooks in the computer lab and in the classroom and elementary students of all ages enjoy them. We also use them for lessons about vocabulary, story elements, and for examples of rich language.

Tips for Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling, however, is so much more than just eBooks. Teachers and media specialists can find tons of resources online that offer historical viewpoints, life lessons, interesting narratives that support learning objectives. We can also design our own stories to use in class or help students develop their own stories.

As you continue to create your own digital story over the next few weeks, The University of Houston offers seven tips to keep in mind. They first suggest having a solid point of view in your story. Next, to generate interest, creators should begin with an intriguing question that will be answered by the end of the story. Their third tip relates to connecting with your audience. I think this is done through honesty, realism, and putting some emotion into the piece. Their fourth tip, using your voice, does not mean recording narration. It’s the same as I tell my students so often when teaching writing: use your voice, make your story sound like you are the one telling it. Are you funny? Thoughtful? Stay true to how you would tell the story to your friends. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show. (Sound like Writing 101 so far?)

The fifth element is the power of the soundtrack which of course means adding music or sounds to enhance your story. This element matches so well to the third tip because music connects us all and certainly evokes emotion from the listener. The sixth facet may remind you of a family relative that extends a Sunday prayer much past what is necessary, leaving your mind drifting to the decreasing temperature of the hot meal that awaits you. With today’s “Now” generation, it is imperative to not overkill the story. We all loathe hearing someone talk in circles who does not get to the point because we lose interest. Which leads me to wrapping up this blog with the last suggestion: Pacing. Keep your story stead; don’t go too fast or too slow.

All of these suggestions seem right in line with traditional storytelling. Hopefully these tips remind you that the basics of traditional storytelling can be applied to the latest way to get a meaningful message to your students.

As for me, I’ll keep thinking about purchasing a Kindle…well, one day.

Tech Training: My thoughts

The school I am employed at has a staff meeting each Tuesday and offers professional development opportunities on in-service days designated by the district each year. Currently, our staff most frequently utilizes interactive whiteboards and LED projectors in instruction. This equipment is available in each classroom and is utilized daily, and teachers demonstrate familiarity and confidence using these tools. Skills related to other hardware, software, and online resources vary greatly. Some of the staff has taken initiative to develop presentations incorporating technology for others to view at meetings and special events, but the rest of the staff seem to keep their knowledge to themselves or lack confidence regarding advanced skills.

Although this is my first year at Belmont Hills Elementary, it appears that in the 2009-2010 school year that professional development regarding technology skills was not an area receiving the highest priority. However, I do believe my school places importance on professional development. As we serve an over 36% limited English proficient student population, developing ESL certified staff was a goal that understandably received greater attention. When professional development regarding technology skills has been offered, it has occurred during the school’s weekly Tuesday meeting, during an in-service day provided by the district, or through a course/workshop offering provided outside of our local school by the district. Typically these trainings introduce staff to a new skill or resources that will benefit instruction. In my experiences with trainings such as these, there is rarely time provided for follow-up or sharing of skills. Typically, when the day of training is over, there is little evaluating or assessing the skills of those who have attended.

Although I would not suggest testing teachers on what they have learned, I do think a follow-up meeting or forum to share experiences, tips, and frustrations after training would be beneficial. I would also suggest providing technology in-service opportunities in a way that allows a teacher to manage his own time. Everybody comes to a training at a different skill level regarding technology. In whole group situations, those who are more advanced often have their time wasted reviewing skills they have already mastered. Therefore, a self-paced tutorial type of training would be better. This will allow staff to work at a pace he is comfortable with and allow for maximum efficiency- possibly saving hours in a day for some participants. Self-guided/paced instruction can allow for the same amount of accountability and assistance as whole group training sessions offer. If a teacher chooses, he can do a self-paced in-service requirement in the comfort of his own home or in the evenings. This will free up hours at a time that are better used organizing materials or planning lessons in the classroom. Feedback and accountability can be provided by moderators who assess contributions to blogs or Wikis regarding the training. Participants could collaborate during the training via blogs or Wikis, and provide or post examples of his contributions and efforts when he finishes the training. Although this type of training experience might never fully replace whole group training sessions, I believe this is the direction districts need to head towards to develop tech skills among staff.

State of the Union: Technology Training in My ES and Beyond

Technology skills of my faculty vary from person to person, according to their previous experience with the technology and whether or not they have access to different kinds of technology (for instance, one teacher only has a tape player which she uses to play Mozart on; if she had speakers on her PC, she could play a CD on there; also, some teachers have ActivBoards in their classrooms and projectors, while other teachers just have an overhead projector and no promise of a whiteboard in sight).

There used to be ways that we could do tech training; with our former technology person for county, she would email out tech training opportunities that could be done over the Internet, either independently for free (websites that provided training modules) or through RESA. Currently, we have no methods of getting technology training from either the school library media specialist or the technology department of the county office. The primary reason that the media specialist does not offer technology training is because she is drowning in troubleshooting the technology that we do have. The online process to get help from the technology specialists is so involved and takes such a long time for response (although our county has been trying to address concerns of timeliness in regard to similar requests) that the media specialist often finds it is easier to just try to help them herself (her errant grad student might lend a hand, on occasion).

How would I provide tech staff development? Wellllll…..I would start, as I did in last semester’s class, and as Jurkowski (2006) details on page 188, with giving a needs analysis (and “wants” analysis) of the staff members through a simple survey like on www.surveymonkey.com (thanks, Cole!). After reviewing the information, especially any comments made by teachers (I find that the comments that are made separately from answering the questions on 5 point scales and the like are the most telling responses), I would begin to map out a plan for tech staff development.

The order of trainings might have to do with current resources and the ability to borrow resources as well. For instance, if teachers responded that they would be interested in learning more about podcasting, wikis, and using their active whiteboards, I would start by making a quick inventory of all the equipment that would be necessary to actually teach the lesson or lessons (making sure that I could borrow a whiteboard, for instance, or hold the training in someone’s classroom, if my media center did not have a whiteboard), putting things in motion to borrow something from a RESA or GLTC that might be useful, if needed. Then, I would start developing the materials with which to hold the prof learning (a wiki, blog, or other online environment; a few key handouts or brochures so the teachers could have something tangible to carry with them, etc.), checking to see whether or not the teachers could earn a PLU from their contact hours (in person and/or online) with me, as that might be a big draw.

With materials in hand, I would then create my adult lesson plan for teaching this material, being sure all my course materials were relevant and as interesting as possible and that course completion would indicate the ability to act on the new knowledge. Then, I would publicize the training event(s), visiting the planning periods of as many grades/departments as I could, to encourage teachers to attend. I agree with the Jurkowski text that gives additional information as to implementation and follow-up (especially the evaluative aspect—if teachers thought it stunk up the place, I want to know so I can change and do better next time).

As for “Do’s and Don’ts” of Technology Training:

• DO:
o ask for teacher opinion of training;
o get your principal involved (even if it is just to approve your course);
o plan fun activities and inject humor in the training whenever possible;
o keep records of all trainings, formal and informal (Jurkowski 2006);
o Customize your trainings to be of interest to both beginners and more advanced technology whizzes—if this means you will need to enlist help from other teachers/staff, do it!

• DON’T:
o make like a tree and leave after the in-service—make yourself available to teachers indefinitely for questions, follow-ups, and ideas for new trainings;
o do a session all in one or two days—break it up so the teachers have multiple opportunities to perform the tasks, ask questions, and stay interested;
o disregard teacher comments, either in person or on surveys—they may drive future professional learning opportunities.

Let’s be honest. Some of us are better at technologically-related tasks than others. Also, some of us are quite gifted when it comes to teaching youngsters, but put a room full of adults in front of us and we freeze. In order to fulfill even the most basic idea of Principle 8 in Information Power, which discusses the need for professional development among most stakeholders (including the media specialist him/herself), we must be willing to at least dip our toes into the pool of technology training, which might at first be the creation of instruction and tip sheets that will remain with items like projectors, digital cameras and docking stations, and digital video cameras [Jurkowski (2006) really has it going on with this topic]. Nobody is saying that we have to start out with a grand series of professional learning courses that will result in 3 PLUs for all involved teachers. There are many different levels of involvement and participation, but the point (I think) of this blog is to realize that we have a long way to go, baby. And, that is true no matter whether you currently provide some training to teachers in your media center or whether you are a humble grad student with an eye toward graduation and that SLMS who is retiring in a year.

So…where are you coming from? And, where are you going to go?

Video Distribution/GPB Resources

Our school utilizes a closed circuit cable system to distribute video productions throughout the school building. This system is rarely utilized for purposes other than the school news. The school news is not broadcasted live through this system. The CCTV broadcast includes students announcing upcoming school events and conducting the pledge of allegiance. Typically, the broadcast does not exceed a few minutes. Because this broadcast is recorded and not a live production, no last minute changes or additions can be part of the broadcast after it is filmed. The school uses the traditional PA system for this purpose. As the school news Bear Club only meets once a week, the student news program is only broadcast once a week over our school’s closed circuit video distribution system. This takes place on Friday mornings. The entire third grade and a few special education classrooms are housed in trailers; therefore, they do not have access to the closed circuit televisions that the school news is broadcasted through. However, to make the news available for the portable classrooms, a copy of the production is posted in a folder each week on our school’s shared drive. These classrooms are reminded to play the news on the shared drive through an additional announcement over the PA system on Friday mornings.

The GPB Education website is an excellent source for teachers and students to access. Teachers benefit from the diverse and appealing resources that allow them to quickly build lessons or supplement instruction. There are a variety of educational games, videos, and cartoons that address ESL students, foreign languages, math skills by grade level and many other academic areas. The resources are colorful and of high interest to elementary aged students as many familiar and popular cartoon characters present academic content in a fun audio-visual and interactive format. There are dozens of videos and games available that can be used to enrich instruction and appeal to a variety of learning styles.

The website also provides a “Read More” section that features audio and pictures of many great books for children. These stories could be shown on interactive white boards and are read by famous Georgians such as celebrities, athletes, and politicians. I was also pleased to see that these audio visual ebooks are all available in both Spanish and English languages since my school has a very large ESL student population. There are even music videos available that address social skills and responsibility. All together this is a resource that is too valuable to go unnoticed or unutilized.

Another extremely valuable resource includes the “Raising Readers” section of the site. This tool includes PBS Kids Island. It allows students to build a character, and he or she can play a variety of reading games with this character. The games are interactive and include rewards for success such as tickets to earn a free video or game. Parents and teachers can access this account and assess the progress of the student. There is also news available on the website regarding current events. This is a safe way for teachers to provide students with information about state, national, and world news. Finally, the announcement section provides great information regarding webinars and upcoming events that provide professional development and educational opportunities for students, teachers, and families.

Video Distribution and GPB Broadcasting

Our school has a video distribution system. It is used so that several classes can view the same video/DVD at the same time. Teachers may request to use the video distribution system to show videos and DVD’s. Teachers must complete a video/DVD request form that must have prior approval from administration. The video/DVD must have instructional purpose. The request form must be submitted with lesson plans.
Another purpose of the video distribution system is to broadcast information to the entire school or sometimes different grade levels at the same time. The media center has used the video distribution system to broadcast upcoming book fairs. Also, our school started an anti-bullying campaign this year. The distribution system has been used to show the DVD that came with the anti-bullying campaign curriculum. Students watched the DVD during homeroom then took a pledge to not take part in bullying and to report bullying when they see it going on.
Teachers can not control the distribution system in our school. When they are ready to begin a DVD/video, they must call the media center, and the media specialist will begin the video/DVD. We do not have school TV news in our school, therefore the distribution system is not used for this purpose. The video distribution system in our school has the capability to broadcast two different things at the same time on different channels. That is the extent of our distribution system and what it is used for. Announcements are made over the intercom.
According to Georgia Public Broadcasting, “Georgia Public Broadcasting's education service is Georgia's electronically delivered classroom for all Georgia learners, and Georgia educators' source for top-quality multiple media educational products and services. With a network of 2,428 satellite dishes, GPB broadcasts educational video programming to every public school, regional library, adult technical education center, youth development center, and public college and university in Georgia, serving over 115,000 teachers and approximately 1.6 million students across the state via satellite, the web and open-air broadcasts.” http://www.gpb.org/about
GPB is an amazing place to go to find just about anything you need. The resources are unlimited. The ranges of categories are unbelievable. It starts with pre-k and extends to education for adults. I went in and found awesome educational games for children. I found resources and lesson plans for teachers. I found videos for all subject areas.
They have podcast available to upload for free. The podcasts cover a variety of topics. I found a lot of Georgia History and Biographies. There are websites to go to from GPB that are very educational. Some of the websites I viewed were rich with history.
I visited the WWII Oral History Project. I found a website that was rich with history of WWII accounts of men and women from Georgia whose lives were affected by the war. It was an awesome place to use to teach WWII history with a real life effect. http://www.gpb.org/wwii
When I went to Georgia Stories, another place that is rich with history and information about Georgia, I found that GPB has correlated GPS Standards with the content. This is another wonderful attribute to using this resource. http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories
This resource offers a host of services for teachers and students. A person could spend hours here and never see it all. The easiest way that I found to find what you want on this website is to do a search. I searched several different topics and found something on every topic I searched. I searched math, science, social studies, technology, and other topics. I never came up empty handed. This resource is invaluable with information for educators and students. I have been on it before, however, I have never investigated it as thoroughly as I have this week. If you have not checked it out, check it out now. You will be pleased with what you find. It has something for everyone!