Did you know that there is a free Kindle app for the iPhone? Students of Oklahoma City Public Schools do. And, it’s not surprising that Amazon has no reservations about offering free downloads–probably because the folks at Amazon know that most people will always prefer print over electronic books. The potential for differentiation by iPhone book to reach a select few of our reluctant readers is exciting, and I can’t wait to try it out.
How many Web 2.0 tools can one teacher use? I advocate for using them all, or as many as you can–because the more of them you use, the more familiar and comfortable you will be improvising with them.
I challenge you to use a different one for each assignment. Sound unmanageable? Maybe, but you can keep a list of tools you use posted on your website or posted in your classroom and encourage students to use them interchangeably for assignments. Let the students choose their favorites. Simply ask them to email the link to you.
Why would you want to do this? The skills students (and teachers) gain from using these tools are skills of collaboration and knowledge sharing. Engaging students in multiple ways of building these skills will encourage students to use higher order thinking skills. Tip: Pick one login and password for all your Web 2.0 tools.
Some of my favorite Web 2.0 directories are listed below.
My Backpack – This unique pathfinder creatively lists applications by function including thumbnails of the application for easy recognition.
Go2web20 – I love this portal because of the thumbnail images, again making it easy to recognize that favorite app that you used back when.
If you like Shareflow, then you will certainly like Google Wave, which will prove to be an amazing online collaboration tool that will far outperform MS Outlook and other email apps! It is scheduled to be released later this year. Google Wave will be completely open sourced, free to use. It will be amazing. I can’t wait to use it.
Online Line collaboration skills, e.g. sharing information, commenting, posting, document sharing, and IMing are important 21st Century Skills–skills students will need to have as they enter college.
Consider requiring the use of Shareflow in one of your lessons. It is as simple as adding an assignment as a new “Flow,” inviting students to join the “Flow,” and then letting the students take over.
Ask students to work in groups to document their research on a current event, for example. Ask that each group meet outside of class on Shareflow in a discussion group. Require students to comment on each others’ work. Require students to locate and attach video, primary source documents, and research articles related to their topic. All of these activities are recorded and can be monitored in real time, so teaching digital citizenship is also be a big part of a lesson with Shareflow.
While Shareflow is advertised as an alternative email tool–and some of the functions are cumbersome (like you have to plan out the order of your comments before you add them, because there is no way to move them around or sort them)–it is easy to imagine all the possibilities for using this tool in the classroom. The first 5 flows and 25 MG are free. And, the best part is students can do this all from home, so you can spend valuable class time having discussions rather than in the computer lab and still be fully integrating technology in your curriculum.
Today’s YALSA program featured a teen panel, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was especially intrigued by their response to what they thought about book clubs, what they liked and disliked and how they envisioned the perfect book club. I also took note of the many recommendations they made about how we (librarians) can make libraries better places to for young adults.
Following is my list of Do’s and Don’ts that I devised from this panel.
Don’t set ridged book club reading deadlines, as this makes teens feel like their being assigned homework.
Do make book clubs flexible and allow teens to read at their own pace.
Don’t require teens to read every book club selection–again, it feels too much like homework if they have to read a book in order to participate.
Do allow teens to reserve the right to not read a book (if they chose) or to not finish a book if they also chose.
Don’t run the book club–teens don’t really want adults to even attend book club meetings and certainly don’t want us “telling” them what to do.
Do emphasize that the book club is youth run, but that you are there if they need you.
Don’t ask teens for recommendations and then neglect to buy the books.
Do add teen recommendations to your collection as quickly as possible.
Don’t buy the first book in a series and then make an excited teen wait months to read the next book because you have to order it.
Do buy all the books in a series at one time or as they are published.
Don’t promote books and then neglect to replace them as they are lost or stolen.
Do replace popular books that have been lost or stolen as soon as possible.
Today I attended Genre Galaxy presented by YALSA in which I was very fortunate to have listed to many accomplished authors who talked about various genres in young adult literature including fantasy, science fiction, romance novels, mysteries, historical fiction, and a new hybrid genre known as the mashup. To find out more about the session visit the YALSA Conference Wiki, Genre Galaxy: Explore the Universe of Teen Reading.
Even though I’ve only attended one day of ALA 2009, I find myself excited and overwhelmed. There were so many good ideas being suggested, must-read novels recommended, and new technologies promoted–all with the express intent of engaging a new generation of teens in reading. This generation, a digital generation, is saavier, techier, bolder, and edgier–attributes that are reflected in the books they read, the activities they enjoy, and the way they communicate with one another. Like my generation that was emboldened and empowered by loud music and a sense of social and political resistance–today’s teens are finding ways to stretch limits–not without boundaries, but within boundaries that are set on their terms.
Authors listen carefully to teens working to understand their issues, perspectives and needs. Because of social networking, today’s authors are in constant contact with fans via email, blogs, etc.
What I learned (in part) about the current young adult generation–what connects them to YA literature–from the author’s presenting today was:
Good fantasy and science fiction authors are able to weave reality into their stories, making it easier for adults to connect with teens and talk about serious issues such as negative stereotyping, racism, environmental degradation, peer pressure, drug abuse, and violence.
YA novels of the 80’s were unfortunately referred to during that era as “problem novels” because they–like today’s YA novels–were about the issues that young adults were going through. What we know now is that the term “problem novels,” which paints a negative picture of these works, are less about problems and more about the realities teens are facing and the serious issues that they are desperate to understand and act upon. We now call this type of literature “realistic fiction.” Realistic fiction of today and the past helps teens see the issues that impact them within realistic contexts so they can see how they play out and make decisions about how they would react in a similar situation. This is an important step in critical thinking and lifelong learning.
Characters need to be honest about issues, real and authentic. If a certain teen would use vulgar language in real life, that teen should not be censored in a novel. Teens need to see themselves and each other authentically in characters.
Teens demand reality that reflect their perception of society–even though they see society differently from their parents and teachers–as they live different lives, and because they spend less time with adults they seek information from alternative sources.
The problem is not about protecting teens from inappropriate literature–the problem has always been about growing up and how to deal with that.
I’ll close with an anonomous quote this afternoon, “Every day teens are living the lives we would’t let them read.”
I’m looking into several options for pre-assessments for incoming freshman at my high school. I find TRAILS: Tool for Real Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills, which has a higher ed component, Project SAILS, to be a promising tool with the following benefits:
The process is fully automated – supporting our goal of technology integration.
Student ID’s are automatically generated – saving valuable planning time.
Reports are automatically generated – saving more valuable planning time.
Assessment is research based – providing us with valuable information on our students that can be used across the curriculum.
Assessment is standards based – allowing us to drill down to specific categories of skills by student.
Assessments are available at levels 6-12 – allowing us to track growth.
Higher ed assessments are available – providing opportunity to assess college readiness.
“Because of generous support from ILILE, IMLS, and Kent State University, there is no cost for library media specialists and teachers to use TRAILS” (TRAILS website).
“Knowledge assessment with multiple-choice questions targeting a variety of information literacy skills based on sixth and ninth grade standards. The Web-based system was developed to provide an easily accessible and flexible tool for library media specialists and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students” (TRAILS website).
I was once again reminded by Stephen Krashen in his recent post on the AASL forum on February 4, 2009, that the most effective tools for education are often overlooked and underutilized, [Yes, I am a little behind in reading my listserv].
India claims that it is developing a very cheap laptop “to improve the skills of millions of students” (“India says it will produce new laptop for just US $10,” Feb. 4). There is no evidence that a $10 laptop will help students learn more.
Let me recommend a device is even cheaper, and its efficacy is supported by a tremendous amount of research. It is random access, compact, and highly durable.
Using this device stimulates temporal and pre-frontal areas of the brain, and may even delay senility in addition to increasing literacy levels dramatically and providing children with large amounts of information.
It is safe for use by children.
One warning: This device is extremely pleasant to use and may result in addiction.
These devices are found in great abundance in libraries, where they can be borrowed for free.
When thinking about technology and its applications in schools, it’s easy to forget about the importance of learning from each other–the social significance of interacting with culture and community. I wanted to take the opportunity to post information about this year’s Community as Intellectual Space Symposium. The conference is held in Humboldt Park and is a joint effort between the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and the University of Illinois’ Graduate School of Library and Information and Community Informatics Initiative.
Community as Intellectual Space: Critical Pedagogy and Community Building
5th Annual Symposium
June 12-14, 2009
La Estancia
2753 W. Division Street
Paseo Boricua, Chicago, Illinois, USA
I just finished testing g.ho.st, a free virtual desktop that includes multiple ways to organize all types of media, web links, documents, and even social networking software. It took me only but a few minutes to start a new account and get to work. The great feature of this software is the ability to share documents and link to other web created content. Users even have the ability to instant message other members and send and receive email. And, did I mention it was free including the 15GB of backed up storage?
The benefits for schools are many. The applications are many more. There is no overhead, no maintenance, no complicated configuring or network setup. Like other web 2.0 tools, it’s as simple as setting up a user account.
I just finished testing 