FCIS- Annual Conference

If you are from outside of Florida, or you are not aware of our statelyacronym,  the Florida Council fo Independent Schools ( FCIS) met this week to hold their annual conference in Orlando.  Educators from independent schools across the state met  to discuss issues facing  education in private insitutions…funding,  technology advancements,  curriculum development etc.

I considered myself to be very fortunate to attend this year.  In a year of financial belt-tightening, funds  for many activities are limited.  Many thank yous to Mrs. Pullen, my Head of School, Mrs. Ann Wolcott our Professional Development  co-ordinator for allowing me to attend  this year.

An early morning drive with  my two   colleagues got us to the  Orlando conference site at 7.30am.  Mrs. Ewert and Mrs. Nixon were set to present  a workshop Smile and Breath! Yoga Based Activities for the K-8 Classroom during the 10.25 am session.   I was  able to duck into  a  workshop related to blogging  as an educational tool.   Blogging is an obvious interest of mine.  From there , I was able to sit in on Web 2.0 Tools for Teaching to learn more about  web 2.0 applications and who they can enhance my teachings.Varios sites  of interest, used by our neighbours at Out of Doors Academy were discussed.   And finally, the reason for my conference attendance , was to  learn more about serving on an FCIS accreditation team.   This session highlighted the responsibilities of accreditation team members when  carrying out  a visit . ( Each year,  FCIS schools  must prepare for an accreditation visit of their peers to measure their successes and   list ways in which schools can be more efficient in  their mission to educate their student population.)

Above all else, it is an excellent opportunity to meet with other educators , from local independent schools to share ideas and commiserate on what works well and what needs to be tweaked.  A useful day of professional development  was had by all.

 

Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader

I’m not sure this is a solution to the recipe storage problem, and since it will cost  three Benjamin Franklins ,  chances are  I’m not likely to find out. The Demy, claimed to be the first and only kitchen-safe recipe reader and will be available before Christmas  2009.  What does kitchen safe mean…exactly?  Microwave-proof? Oven safe up to 400 degrees?  Wipeable? And in whose kitchen was it tested in?  Perhaps the Kitchens of the Culinary Institute  of America are more demanding that my simply kitchen…….

Cited as a  November 2009 “Good Thing”, a monthly column in the  Martha Stewart Living magazine, this device can store  up to 2500 recipes, and is sync-worthy with your account at keyingredient.com.  Crafted by Key Ingredient, this device contains a sealed 7-inch display, storage for up to 2,500 recipes and USB connectivity for syncing with your PC. Furthermore, it provides three kitchen timers, a measurement conversion calculator and an ingredient substitution dictionary to get cooks out of a pinch if they are one special ingredient short. Yes, but does it wash the dishes  and take out the garbage?

As I have cited in a previous blog, I love my cookbooks; they are my guilty pleasure in life. Some cookbooks bindings have collapsed under repetitive consultation  on a given page.  Many of them are stained from  grease spatters, flour sprinkles and such over the years, and in the case of a few books in my collection, over the generations.   Many are even  written on  index cards, in  my Grandmother Rivier’s careful handwriting.  Part of the cooking experience, is  in re-experiencing her handwriting  and reliving the memories of  preparing that particular recipe with her in my childhood.   Much of my  treasured recipes are mostly not online.

In the current rush to  make documents available on-line, e-books , Kindles , e-readers and now the nook, I do not feel motivated to give up on my  cherished cookbooks in their traditional form.   Not until someone explains  the term kitchen-safe to me, anyway……..
inspired by http://www.popgadget.net/2009/03/demy_the_digita.php

 

@SantaClaus Is Not Using Twitter Lists

Twitter, a current fashionable social networking tool allows  mebers to publish current posts of their activites .   Many Twitter users are  embraing “Twitter Lists,” a feature which allows you to organize Twitter users into groups and share that list with others.

But apparently the news hasn’t gotten all the way to the North Pole; Twitter user @SantaClaus has yet to create a “Naughty” or “Nice” list, which makes you wonder whether Saint Nick’s holiday operation is really embracing technology at the speed of Elf or if Santa Claus is merely dabbling with Twitter because it’s considered the  fashionable thing to do.

Even apart from the obvious benefit it would provide to Father Christmas in organizing information and having, at a glance, a list of behaviorally-organized names and profile photos, I think Twitter users would benefit greatly from knowing where they stand, in regards to naughtiness/niceness. The microblogging social network, where the jolly, rotund gift-giver apparently spends a significant chunk of time, would be a very efficient place to convey that information.

I would hope that Santa would take this not a mean-spirited criticism, but as a gentle, but firm nudge in the black patent belt to embrace change before change leaves him behind. I would hate to be the first person on Papa Noel’s “Naughty” Twitter list.

Update, 11 a.m, Nov. 3: The @SantaClaus Twitter account has been updated to include “Nice” and “Naughty” lists, but apparently the move was made under duress. In two posts this morning, the North Pole resident wrote, “Everyone is making a big deal over the fact I do not post a Twitter list for my naughty and nice lists. Do YOU want all to know if YOU are on the Naughty list? It is not anyones (sic) business except for me which list you are on. Does everyone REALLY want that published to all?” Perhaps I’m being oversensitive, but this does not strike me as jolly.

As of this writing, only @MrsSantaClaus is listed on the “Nice” list and no one has yet been added to the “Naughty” list.

as cited  from http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/santaclaus_custom.JPGhttp://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2009/11/santaclaus_is_not_using_twitte.html?sc=fb&cc=fp, November 3, 2009 By Omar L. Gallaga, of NPR

 

Falcons creating History Heard

Web site provides 1st-hand history interviews

Dr Robert Kahn who is considered a co-creator of the Internet

Imagine hearing Sgt. Sammy Davis talk about being the real Forrest Gump and winning a Medal of Honor.

Or how about listening to Drs. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn talk about how they created the Internet?

“First-person accounts of history are impossible to come by unless you meet the person,” says Kathleen Addison, 17, of Bradenton.

So she and her 15-year-old sister Amy created History Heard — a Web site to preserve peoples’ stories and to make researching history projects for students more fun.

History Heard is the single largest attempt to chronicle modern American History ever undertaken. There are a few projects which have tackled different, much more limited, pieces of the process but History Heard is the first to try the “big picture”. Here’s a link to the site; www.historyheard.com

Mrs. Juanita Eaton with Addison sisters

The goal is to create an elaborate “tapestry” of video interviews with newsmakers who were first person witnesses to some aspect of modern American history.  Rather than read an account written by someone removed from the event, History Heard offers students a video account of what happened in the words of the people who were actually present.

The unique aspect of History Heard is that it is designed to be entirely managed by students in high school and middle school.  As of October 2009, our first group of interviews have been viewed more than 4,300 times!

Carl Misch, a WWII veteran with Addison sisters

So far, the sisters have interviewed 22 people, including some they went to see in Washington, D.C. They are choosing people who have made an impact in history. Amy’s favorite interview in Washington was Juanita Eaton, the widow of a World War II Tuskegee airman pilot.

“She talked about being in an African-American military family and wife of a military general,” Amy said.

Sgt. Davis is one upcoming interview Kathleen is looking forward to. Another is Bill Reinert, who invented the Toyota Prius. She wants to know his thoughts about how the vehicle has had such an impact on the transportation industry.

Because the girls want to continue building their library, their site allows students to add their own interviews.

Dr Eugenie Clark, “The Shark Lady” and founder of Mote Marine

The girls should be commeneded  for creating the site because it wasn’t an assigned school project.

They created it during their spare time.
As  inspired by  recent article  in the Bradenton Herald,Posted on Thu, Oct. 08, 2009 http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/v-print/story/1762863.html

 

Are dictionaries obsolete?

Do we still need dictionaries in the age of Google?

Dictionaries are, the original  giant databases of words compiled by lexicographers who investigate word usages and meanings.

Recently, Google has become our database of meaning. Want to know how to spell assiduous? Type it incorrectly and Google will query you with the possible spelling.

“You and I can be our own lexicographers now,” says Barbara Wallraff, the longtime language columnist for The Atlantic magazine. “We don’t need dictionaries.”

But dictionaries have also failed us in many ways. They infuriate word sticklers by presenting a variety of usages and leaving the reader to decide which is correct. Dictionaries fail to update meanings often enough. And due to space constraints in the print editions, many dictionary definitions are so concise as to be unhelpful. Or provide enough usage examples. Without relevant example sentences, dictionaries are crippled. Don R. McCreary, a linguistics professor at the University of Georgia, says that his studies show that student comprehension of dictionary definitions improves dramatically when multiple example sentences are provided.

Online, the situation is no better. Most free dictionary sites contain the same crammed definitions and lack of example sentences as their print cousins. Online definitions are also usually from older, out-of-print dictionaries – and thus are often outdated. What’s more, they are festooned with blinking flat-belly advertisements.

It’s time for a new model for dictionaries. After all, we are all professional writers in this era of texting, blogging and tweeting.  And although Google is doing a pretty good job aggregating meanings, I would prefer some human experts to give authority and heft to a new database of meaning.

Alternatively, we bloggers can turn to  a new online dictionary,  Wordnik. Right next to each word’s defination is  a numnber of example sentences from Twitter and some technology publications that nicely illustrate a word’s meaning and current usage. Wordnik offers definitions from dictionaries old and new, but its real advantage is its trove of example sentences pulled from sources ranging from Twitter to newspaper articles. It even pulls photos from Flickr to illustrate words.

Wordnik is a good first step towards a dictionary for the modern wordsmith, but without up-to-date definitions it’s really just a better Google search for example sentences.

As found on the Wall Street Journal, SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Thank you Julia Angwin

 

A librarian’s manifesto 2.0

What we all must strive to work towards….

 

Socialnomics…revolutionising our mode of communication

Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?   Welcome to the World of Socialnomics…..rethinking the way we as humans  communicate…..

 

Social Media for Online Learning

A recent article by Ruth Raynard,  Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities highlights  the ability for social media and social networks enhance online learning , geared towards students with a highly developed skills set  in the online arena.

My discussion here… introduces the idea that social networking is only the beginning of a longer and more complex process of socially constructed learning and ultimately collaboration and knowledge building. That is, if educators only integrate the ability of students to connect and socialize, deeper points of learning will be missed. (emphasis mine)

How can we improve learning spaces for our students by employing the best  of online collaboration?  By loosely modeling current ( and very  traditional) classroom structures in an  online  format ( such as an email listserve) ignores  many  benefits of learning in an online environment. Raynard’ article  supports  resources sharing between students:

While in more traditional learning environments much of this must be orchestrated and planned by the instructor and organized through the grouping and pairing of students, when using a social networking tool this level of connection can happen immediately.

Using social media to augment  collaborative learning  does require careful monitoring and guidance  by the instructor/teacher.  This guidance , as Raynard suggests,  will keep a course’s blog or wiki space from jumping the rails and becoming  a depository of  e-junk.   Also, the instructor must foster an e-environment  which promotes a student’s comfort  to  share their ideas publicly within the group.  This learner autonomy’ exists in all learning  environments,  including online.   In a  related article,  The 4Cs Social Media Framework, breaks down the levels of collaboration and community building that are standard  in many social media sources. The third C is community, or “the idea that social media facilitates sustained collaboration around a shared idea, over time and often across space.”  Similar to a successful online classroom? I wonder…….What is currently  missing in the professional writings  about social networking and online learning is a need to reevaluate the context of learning theory and education psychology to support  and/or deny the types of collaborative creation that occurs via social media tools.  How does this learning benefit students?  Compared to a more  traditional style of learning or as preferable to a more traditional online classroom, as we currently know  it to be.

citation from  D. Hooker http://blog.danielhooker.com,  who is an insightful librarian

 

Everywhere is here? ….the digital library

What is a library when ‘everywhere is here’?

What is the role of the public library  when digital inforamtion is so readily accessiable  everywhere. How should traditional spaces of information change for a digital world?  Could the future of the library be an urban information bar?

as suggested by Rosie Sasso

 

Web 2.0: why should I embrace this?

Why  should teachers and librarians bother to become involved in social networking outlets?

Technologies and trends come and go. (Any one remember BETA video?) We are invested  learning new things, and we’ve outlived  what turned out to be transitional technologies and in many cases  passing fads.

So why should educators who work with children jump on the electronic  bandwagon now by establishing accounts with  Facebook, Wikis, Blogging, YouTube, Twitter, Second Life,  Vodpod,  and so on?  If they are the current  fad, won’t it be over soon and moved on to something else?

Most likely. This is the nature of  automated technology, the newest thing, often is outdated within 6 months.   Certainly, in the case of specific communities and software applications. However,  we should get involved nonetheless.

In a David Letterman style,  below are five top reasons for getting involved (invested?)  in current tech trends . perhaps it will amount to only learning the basics about it and then only trying it once.

5.   It is helpful to  build your confidence to learn something new and experiment.  Feed off of your own success!

4. Some of these fads are likely to “stick” in one way or another.  Or at the very  least elements of what we have learned today will live on in new incarnations tommorrow. When that happens, we’ll be ready to integrate these   elements more effectively because we’re already familiar with them.

3. You will build a knowledge base and transferable skills to be used when the next “thing” comes around.  It will be much easier to learn a completely new technology  when it  arrives  if you already have a skill set developed  and in place to use another interface. (Reiterating  point # 5 …build confidence.)

2. You can engage in intelligent conversations with other  professionals about the trends in the  fields of education and information management.

and most importantly…..

1. Ideas often come from unexpected places… and people. The “next big thing” in your library or school  just might be born out of your involvement in what are otherwise passing trends.

From an April 2007  Wiredbiz web article, Tim O’Reilly: Web 2.0 is about controlling data:

At the heart of the discussion is this quote from Tim O’Reilly:One of the big changes at the heart of web 2.0 is the shift from the creation of software artifacts, which is what the PC revolution was about, to the creation of software services. These are services that ultimately, if they are successful, will require competencies of operation, of scale, and the like.

O’reilly also speaks about 2.0 as being about the control of data, not the interfaces,  by saying:

We’re still trying to move people toward really understanding what that new world looks like. I don’t think a lot of people are there. A lot of people still think, “Oh, it’s about social networking. It’s about blogging. It’s about wikis.” I think it’s about the data that’s created by those mechanisms, and the businesses that that data will make possible.

This is the challenge for librarians and educator  libraries to attempt to adapt to a 2.0 world.

When we talk about the challenges of implementing this current technology labelled Web 2.0 ,then consideration needs to be given to what we are really struggling to deal with. Is it the emergence of new technologies  or is it really the uses  to which the technologies are put and the way we define, use, and control information?

Something to ponder on.