The Trailees - Vote for your favourite book trailer through SLJ

Photo license:AttributionShare Alike Attribution, Share Alike (jsawkins from Flickr)

If you've discovered the fun of creating video book trailers using Vimeo or Animoto (or any other video editing tool, then you'll appreciate the School Library Journal's nominees for the best book trailer. The award, called the Trailee, recognizes excellence in building excitement around a book with video technologies that are easy to use. Check out the link and vote for your favourite. Maybe next year, I'll get nominated!

http://reg.accelacomm.com/servlet/Frs.frs?Script=/LP/51148056/reg&Context=STARTNominees for Trailees

Gary Wolf: The quantified self | Video on TED.com

Here's some of the latest gadgets for observing biometric data. Given the easy access to these kinds of apps, what use will be for educators. Do these kinds of devices have a place in our classrooms? How might teachers help students use these devices? One possible use occured to me and that was to determine when optimal learning takes place for students. What is their body setting? Does movement assist students in retaining knowledge?

Gary Wolf: The quantified self | Video on TED.com

Buffy Hamilton, Slide Share, Photos & Libraries

I only got half-way through Buffy Hamilton's Slidedeck called "Beyond Balance: Participatory Librarianship for Creating,Connecting, Conversing and Contributing." I stopped when I had overwhelming contrary urges. The first urge was to want to throw something at the laptop screen. The second urge was wanting to dance and read something techy simultaneously. I attribute both urges to the fact that it's late on a Friday night and it's been a hellish week, both personally and in my library.

My first urge deals with the thought that has been running through my head for the last 48 hours. I'm flat-out exhausted and frankly frightened that I may be headed for a case of depression. I sat in my car yesterday and realized I didn't want to go home because going home was even more exhausting than being at work. (Our dryer went kaput and we've had 2 different plumbers in to deal with a septic system back up in our basement and my daughter is fighting a virus that I'm afraid will land her in the hospital with chest issues - again.) Balance sounds positively heavenly right now, because my life is completely unbalanced. I am certain that I am not the only person in the field going through something similar right now. I'm sure there are many t-l's who are wondering if they're going to be able to breathe anytime before Christmas. And yet.......

The second urge speaks directly to my love of my job and my passion for making the library at my school a relevant conversation! I've always believed that libraries are conversations and that learning is so central to what we do that we must be experts in all the different ways to draw people into the conversation and explore this amazing world of ideas. I get so excited thinking about the possibilities, particularly the use of technology to expand the conversation beyond the walls of the building. Buffy's use of Slide Share and the images she chose speak so powerfully to my own values, that I was bouncing in my seat...Okay, bouncing in my head. My body is too tired to bounce much right now. I envy the Minnesota teacher librarians who will get to discuss and share these images and thoughts. How energized they will be after this session. If it could be bottled and sold - I'd buy a bottle of it immediately, but I'll have to make do. I'll be sharing this with my district colleagues when we meet for the first of our monthly meetings next week. Perhaps the images will inspire me to try a few more photos at school to show the possibilities of student use of technology to my staff.

The Learning Curve

Photo by Vernon Swanpoel. Creative Commons Copyright.

It's funny how serendipitous reading can be sometimes. A friend of mine, who was trying to get me involved in her home-based business, told me that "we draw things to us that are the object of our personal focus." Universal magnetism is an interesting concept, but this week (and today particularly) have proven to be the week of "the learning curve."
In reading Scott McLeod's latest blog post, I was struck with the similarities in posts I've read from Doug Johnson and Buffy Hamilton. Everyone seems to be talking about why there is a gap between the blogosphere and the average classroom teacher (and perhaps teacher librarian). Scott's comment that "the majority of the voices in the EdTech Community are so far ahead of the curve that it doesn’t even seem like their on the same road anymore." really struck a chord with me.
On Monday, my school hosted Tracy Poelzer for a Pro-D presentation on IWB's and Web 2.0 tools. (Tracy Poelzer is our district's new Technology Coordinator.) Tracy freely admitted that the topics we had chosen were huge and way too much to cover adequately in one day. In the afternoon, as we began to address Web 2.0 tools, Tracy asked how many people had an i-Google page (or barring that - a personalized start up page that showed weather, RSS feeds and personal interest info. Only a handful of the 40 or so people present had something like that. Only 15 of the staff had Facebook pages. Everyone was relatively comfortable with email and liked the district's new Zimbra program. It was clear that all the tools Tracy was about to present were new to 90% of the staff: Voicethread, iGoogle, blogs and wikis. I knew that encouraging staff to use new tools was going to be an uphill battle - we've started a new timetable this year, so everyone is busily revamping their course outlines and lessons to align with shorter blocks. Although I would look at this as an opportunity to introduce many new tools, my colleagues clearly are in the same space that Steve Dembo is talking about: they don't know there are different coloured pills to be able to choose one or the other. The other issue will be finding the time to play with the technology.

The Curve in Tech Awareness

The amazing U of A Masters in T.L. grad, Tracy Poelzer, is the presenter at my school's Professional Development day today. Interestingly, most staff do not have a home page that their computer defaults to which contains RSS feeds. Most don't have a Yahoo or i-Google page. Well over 80% didn't seem to know what an RSS feed was. Is it any surprise that students are frustrated with a general lack of use of technology in our classrooms? Tracy is doing a great job, but as she says, this is an immense topic and we only have a short day to cover it.
The other observation is that Tracy is here in her new district position as Tech Coordinator. It's only a half time position. In this day and age, to have a half time tech coordinator to help teaching staff improve their use of technology in instruction explains where our district is at.

Photosharing and other fun media

I'm fortunate to have accounts in 3 different photosharing sites, although I primarily use Google's Picasa for personal photos. Professionally, I'm a huge fan of Flickr and its wide selection of Creative Commons licensed photos for school use. Last school year, I made a point of introducing students to the advanced search in Google images to ensure that they were searching for images that could be altered or used without going through the lengthy permission-seeking process. (Having spent the summer negotiating this process with Cirque du Soleil for a 3 minute segment of a song, I have a new appreciation for Creative Commons.) Students were frustrated by the limited number of images that would be returned, but when introduced to Flickr and other sources, the number of hits returned widened.
Although I've used Flickr and photo sites for sharing family photos and videos, the features of tagging definitely present the most amazing opportunities to create visual dictionaries. For children with stronger visual learning tendencies (FASD, Down syndrome, Autism Spectrum) the use of tagging can allow for a more focused viewing of a picture and enhancing of vocabulary development, as well as improving visual tracking skills.
The tools are simple enough for most learners to master, although steps must be broken down for learners with cognitive delays.
As I'm currently attending a National Youth Leadership conference in Montreal, the photos my students have uploaded to my laptop will be loaded up to a specific and private account (family & friends only access)so that they can see the fun we're having. Students will also be working with me on the flight home on the presentation we will give to our school to share our experience. Tagging for locations, sections of a plate of traditional food, and people will be part of the process and will be part of a special blog that I'll create when I have more than 15 minutes at a computer. (That will probably be on Monday!)

Evolution

I've spent the day thinking about introductions and evolution. I've done a few introductions of various kinds for various purposes. I have a generic personal intro to who I am at the beginning of my blogs, but didn't really post an introduction at the beginning of this blog - I just jumped in with my big mouth to get myself going. Jumping in is basically how I learn everything new. I'm a big believer in trial and error and starting again. I've done it many times in my life, in many different ways and it always helps me evolve as a person. After reading Will Richardson's take on blogging in Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms,
I realized I initially was thinking about blogging in the way that I began my blog writing. I began to experiment with blogs because I'd heard the fuss and wanted to see what Blogger was all about. My first blog, Creative Chaos, was essentially a vanity blog or wordy form of Facebook without the good pictures and games. I shared my experiences raising children, and pondered some things, but wrote only sporadically. I really couldn't see the point. Blogging seemed like nothing more than a web-based diary and I'm terribly at keeping diaries.
My next blogs were work related and a chance to gather together images, assignments and links for student research. Essentially, I was using a blog, when I should have been using Trailfire or a wiki. Students didn't really have a chance to interact, other than tell me when links were dead, so I could fix them. Because I was setting these up for other teachers, I wasn't embedding questions or forums to help them ponder their research - something I will definitely be fixing this year before these annual projects roll around again.
When Richardson wrote that a blog becomes an academic exercise when it "links with analysis and synthesis that articulate a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind", I finally had an Oprah "a-ha" moment. Blogging isn't about journalling (although it may be where one starts), it's about deepening understanding through reflective writing which invites conversation. In a way, the vain part of me wishes this post could be my introduction, but that wouldn't be particularly honest. Like everyone, a starting point may not be pretty in 20/20 hindsight, but it's always exciting to recognize that you've grown beyond where you were. Clearly, there's much more to learn yet, and many more exciting discoveries to be made through collaboration and reflection.