Podcasting in plain English

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Information Literacy meets Library 2.0

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Web 2.0 technologies have been seen by many information professionals as critical to the future development of library services. This has led to the use of the term Library 2.0 to denote the kind of service that is envisaged. There has been considerable debate about what Library 2.0 might encompass, but, in the context of information literacy, it can be described as the application of interactive, collaborative, and multimedia technologies to web-based library services and collections.

These developments challenge librarians involved in information literacy with more complex and diverse web content, a range of exciting new tools with which to teach, and a steep learning curve to adjust to the constant change of the Web 2.0 world.

Of course my passion in this scenario is trying to understand what this all means for schools and school libraries.

So in case you haven’t heard Facet have recently published a new book, to which I contributed the School Library 2.0 chapter!

Godwin, P. and Parker, J. (eds) (2008) Information Literacy meets Library 2.0. London: Facet. ISBN 978-1-85604-637-4.

I have my own copy now, and the various chapters are jam packed with fantastic information for anyone involved in Library Services. It’s a fantastic roundup and the editors Peter Godwin and Jo Parker are to be congratulated on this excellent compilation.

“This edited collection from an international team of experts provides a practically-based overview of emerging Library 2.0 tools and technologies for information literacy practitioners; addresses the impact of the adoption of these technologies on information literacy teaching; provides case study exemplars for practitioners to help inform their practice; and examines the implications of Library 2.0 for the training of information literacy professionals.

Key topics include:

School Library 2.0: new skills and knowledge for the future

information literacy, Web 2.0 and public libraries

the blog as an assessment tool

using Wikipedia to eavesdrop on the scholarly conversation

information literacy and RSS feeds

library instruction on the go: podcasting

sparking Flickrs of insight into controlled vocabularies and subject searching

joining the YouTube conversation to teach information literacy

going beyond Google

teaching information literacy through digital games.”

It’s available from the Facet book shop and all good retailers.

Better still, the book is being updated via the Information Literacy meets Library 2.0 blog.

Buy the book and grab the RSS feed to stay in the conversation.

Thanks to Jo Parker and Peter Godwin for all the work they put into getting the book together

Photo: Earth from Sky

Emerging technologies for learning

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Some excellent research and commentary is available from BECTA in the UK in the recent publication

Emerging technologies for learning: volume 3 (2008)

The various chapters explore the ‘net generation’ who can seamlessly move between their real and digital lives; examine the implications for education of the convergence of mobile devices, pervasive wireless connectivity, and internet applications and services; discuss the development of virtual worlds and ‘serious games’ and how we can make best use of these technologies to support better learning; analyse the problem of finding and searching digital content on the web and the limitations of current systems; and considers the potential of some emerging display and interface technologies to improve interaction with computers and facilitate collaborative activities in more natural and intuitive ways.

These are excellently presented too, and make good professional reading handouts for staff discussion.

Twitter – a teaching and learning tool

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I’ve been collecting lots of posts about Twitter in my Del.ici.ous collection, all of them good reads providing information, ideas, or reflections on the ‘whys and wherefores’ of Twitter use.

No surprise then that I was alerted to Tom Barrett’s post Twitter – A Teacher and Learning Tool via Twitter.

In my experience, and in the short time that I have used it, Twitter has grown quickly to play a major part in the way that I interact with fellow colleagues and professionals from around the world. In my classroom and with the children I teach it has been an exciting tool to utilise and support learning.

Tom has written a brilliant post, that explains and elaborates on the function and scope of Twitter – and rather fantastically extends our horizons with ideas for integrating this micro-blogging tool into our teaching and learning activities.

GO and read the post! Go on! 🙂

Beyond RSS – with Alltop.com?

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I caught an interesting commentary from Clay Burrell on RSS in education – and got quite interested in the read for a while. I agree with Clay’s comments – to an extent. The thing is, there is more to RSS than mentioned here – but I’m thinking that it is outside the domain of teachers that we find the true power of RSS.

How about setting up an RSS feed on info topics, based on good selection of key terms, which are delivered directly from comprehensive journal databases, or scholarly internet resource collections, or searches that your have “rolled” yourself?? That’s ‘serious’ information gathering! RSS is not just for web info collection – that’s basic – and eventually pretty boring! Any wonder kids (and teachers for that matter) are not much interested. RSS also drives the work of students participating in the Horizon Project. Perhaps it’s the purpose for which the RSS is being used that makes it work. Check out Sue’s post on How I use RSS to Make My Life Easier – that’s an important message for teachers too!

I’m lucky – I can preach a different gospel of RSS coming from my library side, than I could coming just from my teacher side. There’s just more to learn about RSS – that’s all!

The good thing was that Clay told us about Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop service. As a fan of popurls my interest picked up again. What a great writing task set up by Clay. OK, time for me to dig deaper into the potential of Alltop.

Nah – no good! Well not for some of us anyway. Seemed to be a pretty slim representation of important education blogs. Even worse, I couldn’t find anything for education and library – either academic or school.

Good librarians are great Web 2.0 information professionals – and they are the ones who can show teachers like Clay how else to effectively use RSS and a host of other Web 2.0 tools. Plus the information flow from librarian bloggers is fantastic too. Check out the Lib Bloggers in my blogroll, and you’ll get the idea 🙂

In a Web 2.0 world collaboration is essential. It’s time that librarians, teacher librarians, media specialists and teachers learnt more from each other – and collaborated more. That’s what Web 2.0 is all about.

Image: Light Bulb

School libraries leading learning

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I am currently attending an excellent conference on School Libraries and their various roles in leading learning. The conference is co-hosted by the Australian School Library Association (NSW) and the NSW Department of Education and Training. Congratulations to both organisations for an excellent two-day program.

This biennial event provides a ‘shot in the arm’ for teacher librarians wishing to keep abreast of the exciting developments in librarianship including Library 2.0.

Perhaps the Keynote speakers should be able to better model this type of engagement to teacher librarians? Ross Todd from CISSL at Rutgers University (exponent of Guided Enquiry) gave a brilliant keynote presentation – as he always does. Ross speaks well, and provides a superb approach to guided inquiry and evidence-based practice. Thank you Ross!

I was glad of his reference to social networking tools and sites, but not his demonstration of personal/professional use of Web 2.0 tools. The time has come for those who talk about Web 2.0 to BE Web 2.0 themselves in order to model Learning 2.0 or Library 2.0. I would like Ross to lead us in this journey too.

On the other hand, Jon Callow, from Sydney University, gave a lively and engaging presentation on Literacy through digital stories. Jon’s statistics on youth engagement online were current and he used some fun quizz techniques to make the point about the immersive nature of online environments. Underpinning his presentation was the vital message – that digital literacy is with us, here to stay, and therefore we must harness these learner generated contexts for higher order skills of problem solving, communication, team works and technology skills.

[Oh! I also noticed that Jon provided attributions for images used in his presentation! and music, explaining the use of Creative Commons through-out his presentation. Ross did not attribute his images! or provide a link to the source of Web 2.0 images he used.]

I was fortunate to take part in the end of day panel discussing the shape of Library 2.0 – but unfortunately the topic seems a little ahead for most attendees as we had no pertinent questions from the floor.My cameo comment focussed on the need for teacher librarians to embrace Web 2.0 and social networking in order to develop a strong professional learning community to help take school libraries forward. There are far to few Teacher Librarians active in this area in Australia – and there is certainly little scope for professional dialogue amongst them via Web 2.0 tools. The notion of collaboration and communication is still very much embedded in the era of email and listservs – very Library 1.0.

So the challenge is ahead for them as a professional group. An issue for me is the lack of a strong professional community to help each person develop their knowledge and skills. Even where I see people stepping into the Web 2.0 world (and lead by consultants in some instances) those doing the training are such ‘newbies’ that they haven’t understood which key steps to model, which tools to highlight, which techniques to adopt to streamline Web 2.0 use. So overall we have a big bit of learning still to do! quite a bit! – while our students stream ahead and leave us knocking on the doors of Facebook, Myspace and the like.

My minor keynote presentation focussed on my favourite topic of multi-modal learning – in the context of school libraries.

Learning is a global multi-modal conversation and it is [r]evolutionary. Choice, co-creation, and information access are changing what it means to be a net-savvy teacher. As we pour our own words, tags, sounds, images, and multimedia into the ever-increasing global knowledge and information pool, we have to become adept at patterns of connectivity in these learning environments. If students think of the internet as a virtual locker, backpack, notebook, diary, and communication tool, then we must create flexible learnign environments which are transfored by this multi-modal focus. More than ever flexibility and personalization are at the core of re-purposing our libraries and learning environments in a Web 2.0 world. Are you up for the challenge?

Photo: La Caverne aux Liveres

Virtual sanity online?

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

British children are spending more than 20 hours a week online, most of it at social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, and are in effect being “raised online”, according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Read the Guardian’s Warning to parents over children ‘being raised online’ for more information about the report and the recommendations for government intervention.

I stopped to think. What are global educators doing then? Uhmmm ….. spending rather a lot of time online as well. We have a lot of commentary about various online tools, and the pros and cons for teachers. The blogosphere is full of it.

In my case I can confess to spending a huge amount of time in Second Life this last Easter break catching up with Australian and international colleagues, talking about professional learning issues that are central to our daily work.

St Joseph’s College has a professional base on the island of Jokaydia, and our Convention centre is something of a conversation hub for newbies and experienced Second Life educators alike. This spills over to Heyjude Hall – a space created for the same purpose when I was working with the Catholic Education Office last year.

The collaboration takes the cake for ingenuity and flexibility in Second Life. The boundaries are unlimited, and don’t require special skype conferences, ustreamTV events or flashmeeting setups. Just drop in, and see who’s around! We’re very lucky to have such a creative space as Jokaydia to gather – not affiliated with any particular insitution, and therefore a gathering place for many organisations and individuals alike. You are welcome to visit the Island of jokaydia where you can engage in videos and podcasts, slideshows, virtual books, drums and balloon rides. Visit http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/113/150/23

During the weekend some of us gathered on Jokaydia I near Heyjude Hall (SLURL) and talked with Al Upton about the Mini Legends. Australians and international educators made up the group.Reports and blog posts have been running hot over the Department of Education Order for Closure of Al’s mini-Legends blogs – one of the best global grass-roots initiatives around. It is embarrassing to have such things happening in Australia. We must all lend our support to Al who is as dedicated and as energetic as any teacher I know.

Join us at TALO’s sypmposium online “Learning in the 21st century” on May 2nd, either physically or virtually, and listen to Al Upton, and discuss these issues in more depth.

Last evening saw me again talking with some colleagues at St Joseph’s Convention Centre on Jokaydia II (SLURL). We soon teleported to talk ‘conferences’ and content for presentations.

Here are the three muskateers – from the left, Tempest Nitely (Melanie Hughes, AIS); Slammed Aaybe (ICT co-ordinator, Marist High School) and Heyjude Jenns (me!) talking with Lernys Reino (Fernando Santamaria) Universidad de León, Spain, as Lernys prepared for his conference presentation on “Introduction to Second Life and possibilities for education”. Learnys asked us to line up for a photo shoot. Nice one.

I first met Learnys at the Edublog awards last year – on Jokaydia of course!

New literacies – new media – new networks

Posted on March 15, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Two questions from teachers this week set me on a new search for information – which of course included using the power of my professional learning community.

Question 1. Year 8 English is about to embark on an ICT unit where they will explore Youth Culture on the web? Could I help with theme, websites, ethics, nettiquette etc. Could I? I began to think about so many things, and so many ways to work on this that my mind began to spin like a top.

Question 2. Could I help them in Drama to work with Shakespeare in some new ways, using some of the tools I had mentioned at the Subject Co-ordinators meeting? Well, I didn’t actually mention many, but I did alert the group to new possibilities, trying to capture the interest of a few brave souls.

So I asked my professional network for more information. From Twitter came a reply from Laura Nicosia who teaches in these fields, being a professor of English and Director of English Education at Montclair State University in NJ.

Urrgh, I couldn’t believe it! (sounding like a kids story now!). Just that evening I had missed attending the launch of Angela’s book, and having dinner with her and a good group of friends passionate about these topics.

Never mind, let me promote Angela’s blog and her Youth Online book to you. Angela works at Sydney University English Education researching digital cultures, new media literacies, multimodal semiotics and digital narratives. Angela also teaches and conducts auto-ethnographic research in Second Life. Needless to say, Angela (Anya Ixchel) and I (Heyjude Jenns) sometimes get up to mischief in Second Life!

We are very fortunate indeed to have such expertise right here on our doorstep! I’m still waiting for my copy of the book, but I know it will be just what I need to help develop our work with the Year 8 English cohort.

Of course Laura went on to point out another excellent resource. The person launching Angela’s book was literacy expert Colin Lanksheer, who together with Michele Knobel co-authored a new release of New Literacies: Everyday practice and classroom learning. This book will also help us understand the real meaning of ‘new’ in ‘new literacies’. I’ll add this to my shopping list now!

Laura had dinner the night before with Michele – and I was supposed to have dinner with Angela! This six degrees of separation thing really is something!

From Colin and Michele’s blog, Everyday Literacies, I also learnt about the Folger Shakespeare Library, and a fantastic set of resources for enabling students to produce audio plays from Shakespeare’s work. These have been collated into a set of free, online resources titled: “Remixing Shakespeare.”

This set of resources includes an introductory video–and this is a must see! I have yet to observe a group of high school students more engaged in reading Shakespeare than the kids in this video. This introduction is accompanied by samples of students’ audio plays (brilliant!), a how-to set of tutorial guides, and a set of audio and audio editing resources. This is such a nice example of what can be done in schools within existing requirements and with digital technologies in ways that the students no doubt themselves find compelling and useful beyond school.

I grabbed the video and dropped it into my VodPod collection. It is vital that we teachers and teacher librarians take a lead role in showing students how to work effectively, legally and ethically to use materials in new mashups which allow for remix of original materials in creative and compelling ways to create wonderfully original works.

You know, I love my professional network 🙂 They give me so much knowledge and inspiration.

Oh, and Bec (from school) and myself are attending Angela’s Digital Literacy course. Can’t wait to have fun with machinima.

Mini-legends 08 – sweet stuff

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

You’ve got to love blogging and the Web 2.0 platform! Today I ‘met’ my mini-legend called Zelda. How did I do this?

Well, Al Upton is at it again – a new group of kids, a new set of wonderful learning experiences.

Al Upton and the miniLegends 08 are going to be interacting with the world through a unique mentoring program.

Al says:

If you’re an educational blogger of any kind (or visitor) and would like to ‘mentor a mini’ then please leave a comment on THIS page saying who you would like to be connected with. The idea is to drop into their blogs from time to time throughout the year and leave a positive comment .

Very simple … why not join in this educational adventure with the miniLegends of 08? They are after mentors for all students from as many different countries as possible. They are adding additional mentors, so there is still time for you to share a miniLegend with an international friend.