Encouraging and supporting diversity through the media center can mean a lot of things. It can mean that the media center is inclusive by having material, books, and resources related to a myriad of topics that include race, culture, gender, religion, and special needs. The media center should be accessible and useable by all students and teachers regardless of handicaps, disabilities, and language barriers. Technology can make this possible in many ways. For instance, my school has a large population of students with hearing disabilities. Teachers of these students use sound enhancing devices during instruction that consists of microphone and speakers so students who have limited hearing can hear better.
Although we do not have any children at my school with vision impairments, there are types of technology that can assist them. Computer software can translate what is said to writing and writing to speech for these students. There is also similar software that can translate documents to other languages. Technology can also assist students with vision impairments by creating larger images to display information.
Media centers can also be a place of familiarity and refuge for students who do not represent the majority in their schools. Books, magazines, maps, etc. could help students from other countries learn more about their homes as well as be a tool for the rest of the student population to learn more about different cultures. The resources can help increase students’ tolerance and respect for people, customs, and religions that are different from your own. I have seen media centers acknowledge cultural holidays and observe special months like Hispanic Heritage month and Black History month by creating bulletin boards and displays of books and resources related to those topics.
A supportive and encouraging media center can be a valuable asset to school’s and communities by providing stakeholders with technology and resources to make sure all of their needs are met in a safe and engaging environment.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Technology, Diversity, and the Media Center
So it seems that all of the other topics that we have blogged about are helpful by themselves, but none of them will be successful if we don't know how to best relate them to our specific students. What is diversity in the media center? The most obvious answer would be to have materials to support and engage students from different races. That is indeed a huge part of diversity. However, diversity can also be as simple as making sure the media center is accessible to students with physical handicaps. All different "categories" of diversity need to be addressed within the media center. For instance, gender, age, and language are all factors in our students' success. Accommodating those diversities does not only mean that we welcome the students into our library and have books for them, but it also means that we facilitate discussions, awareness, and understanding between our diverse population of students.
As the media specialist, we have the unique situation of being able to work with all of the students in the school. I definitely believe that the classroom teachers are responsible for teaching about diversity in the classroom, but they don't always get to work with a very diverse population. We should encourage diversity in the media center and collaborate with teachers to facilitate diversity in the classroom.
Technology can help us teach our students about diversity. When referring to diverse races, obviously the internet if full of information that can be shared with the students. Media center webpages and blogs can be forum to use to encourage diversity to the parents and reinforce the importance of diversity to the students. There are different technologies out there that are used to help students with disabilities. Making sure the media center has technologies for those students is very important in order to encourage participation from everyone in the school.
I don't think it is necessarily important that the media center is always stocked with the newest book or gadget that has come out. What I do feel is important is that the media specialist has "built" a media center that is designed to meet the needs of the diverse population at that school.
As the media specialist, we have the unique situation of being able to work with all of the students in the school. I definitely believe that the classroom teachers are responsible for teaching about diversity in the classroom, but they don't always get to work with a very diverse population. We should encourage diversity in the media center and collaborate with teachers to facilitate diversity in the classroom.
Technology can help us teach our students about diversity. When referring to diverse races, obviously the internet if full of information that can be shared with the students. Media center webpages and blogs can be forum to use to encourage diversity to the parents and reinforce the importance of diversity to the students. There are different technologies out there that are used to help students with disabilities. Making sure the media center has technologies for those students is very important in order to encourage participation from everyone in the school.
I don't think it is necessarily important that the media center is always stocked with the newest book or gadget that has come out. What I do feel is important is that the media specialist has "built" a media center that is designed to meet the needs of the diverse population at that school.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Who knew that digital storytelling and e-books could be so easily incorporated into any classroom?
I would guess that I am one of many adults--and children--who love to hear a story read aloud. Digital storytelling is a brand new concept to me, but one that I would love to learn more about, from the creator and observer standpoint. As we continue to move more and more each day into a standards-based curriculum, the technological education of our students becomes more and more imperative. The CRCT continues to be the primary standardized--multiple choice--test used to determine the competency of our students, but how much longer will that be in effect? There are not many classroom teachers today who rely soley on the pencil/paper objective assessments to evaluate a child's competency and progress. The tests that we knew as students are now being replaced by performance tasks. With the right equipment and some basic technology training, today's students could easily complete a variety of performance tasks through the digital storytelling medium.
In fourth grade we study Native Americans, European explorers, the first American settlements and colonies, and the Revolutionary War, and that's just in social studies. Why not have groups of students create digital stories demonstrating knowledge of each of the six Native American tribes that we study? How about a story detailing one of each of the six European explorers that we study? Divide your class into groups and have them create the storyline, find images, and tell the story of our country's beautiful, and sometimes tumultuous, history. Just think about how that would engage a child as creator and listener.
I had no idea what an e-book was until I took MEDT 7465 (Resources for Children and Young Adults) at West Georgia. Dr. Putney had us review several e-books on Tumnblebooks, and I was amazed at the quality and variety of these e-books. I love to hear a story read aloud, so I have always tried to read aloud to my class each day, to model fluency and engage my students in the written word. My school district has just received a trial membership to Tumblebooks, and I plan to explore this medium of storytelling much more completely. I would think that many educators have typically thought of e-books as resources for the lower, primary grades, because they are orally narated books. We need to push our students to read grade-level materials on their own, right? Why? Why not have them listen to an e-book--on grade level or above--and then complete a variety of standards-based activities? Why not have them listen to a story read aloud to help them improve their own reading fluency? Tumblebooks even provides teacher lesson plans for many of their e-books. Take a look at an e-book or two, and try something new in your literacy workstations next week.
In fourth grade we study Native Americans, European explorers, the first American settlements and colonies, and the Revolutionary War, and that's just in social studies. Why not have groups of students create digital stories demonstrating knowledge of each of the six Native American tribes that we study? How about a story detailing one of each of the six European explorers that we study? Divide your class into groups and have them create the storyline, find images, and tell the story of our country's beautiful, and sometimes tumultuous, history. Just think about how that would engage a child as creator and listener.
I had no idea what an e-book was until I took MEDT 7465 (Resources for Children and Young Adults) at West Georgia. Dr. Putney had us review several e-books on Tumnblebooks, and I was amazed at the quality and variety of these e-books. I love to hear a story read aloud, so I have always tried to read aloud to my class each day, to model fluency and engage my students in the written word. My school district has just received a trial membership to Tumblebooks, and I plan to explore this medium of storytelling much more completely. I would think that many educators have typically thought of e-books as resources for the lower, primary grades, because they are orally narated books. We need to push our students to read grade-level materials on their own, right? Why? Why not have them listen to an e-book--on grade level or above--and then complete a variety of standards-based activities? Why not have them listen to a story read aloud to help them improve their own reading fluency? Tumblebooks even provides teacher lesson plans for many of their e-books. Take a look at an e-book or two, and try something new in your literacy workstations next week.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Digital storytelling and ebooks
Digital storytelling seems to me to be a new medium for synthesizing factoids of information gathered on a subject. It goes beyond the superficial knowledge base of filling in bubbles on a test to find the one right answer to a teacher posed question. Instead it allows students to create their own questions and story to answer it. This creation of meaning allows for more critical analysis of the subject matter and as a result lasting understanding and more personal connections to future learning.
One workshop that I attended at the GaETC was centered on student use of digital storytelling. The media specialist from Forsyth County explained how students create their own questions based on GPS standards and create the docudrama. They encourage students to create “open questions” that are compelling and essential and learn to research rather than just search the Internet. She uses the DigiTales web site as a foundation for training teachers to incorporate digital storytelling. She found that it was a very successful program for students but that it was very time and energy consuming for teachers. She advised using this program during holiday (down times) and after CRCT. She also recommended that students start with a poem and an image first. They find an image that supports the mood of the poem. She mentioned that many students need help in creating the mood of the story instead of just randomly selecting from the plethora of images on a subject. She also recommended using Voice Thread to do small projects (2 day duration) first. On the first day they determine the question, complete the storyboard, and then on day two the students find the answer and supporting media. These days could be tech visits over a period of time that the students are studying a particular unit. This gives the tech teacher a chance to be collecting images to file for the final visit where students create the video.
She also said that the entire school promoted this program and supported each other through its implementation. She said there were times when the teachers wanted to bail out, because it was exhausting to support this approach, but that it did reap benefits in the kind of deep learning that students achieved. I can see how this approach would have to be supported by 21st century technology tools and staff support. School staff and faculty have to work as a team to fully utilize this approach.
As far as ebooks, our elementary school does not at this time have ebooks as a resource. Electronic reference materials are largely found at the middle and high school levels and even at that level they are centered on online or software based versions of encyclopedias and dictionaries. Galileo and web links are included in the electronic resources at the middle school level. Galileo has an abundant collection of electronic resources including articles from websites, encyclopedias, newspapers, and books. The great thing about these electronic resources is that a list can be generated on a topic to support student research and the list can be further defined by the student Lexile level to ensure that students can read and understand the information that they gather. Being electronic in nature also enables students to find current information.
One workshop that I attended at the GaETC was centered on student use of digital storytelling. The media specialist from Forsyth County explained how students create their own questions based on GPS standards and create the docudrama. They encourage students to create “open questions” that are compelling and essential and learn to research rather than just search the Internet. She uses the DigiTales web site as a foundation for training teachers to incorporate digital storytelling. She found that it was a very successful program for students but that it was very time and energy consuming for teachers. She advised using this program during holiday (down times) and after CRCT. She also recommended that students start with a poem and an image first. They find an image that supports the mood of the poem. She mentioned that many students need help in creating the mood of the story instead of just randomly selecting from the plethora of images on a subject. She also recommended using Voice Thread to do small projects (2 day duration) first. On the first day they determine the question, complete the storyboard, and then on day two the students find the answer and supporting media. These days could be tech visits over a period of time that the students are studying a particular unit. This gives the tech teacher a chance to be collecting images to file for the final visit where students create the video.
She also said that the entire school promoted this program and supported each other through its implementation. She said there were times when the teachers wanted to bail out, because it was exhausting to support this approach, but that it did reap benefits in the kind of deep learning that students achieved. I can see how this approach would have to be supported by 21st century technology tools and staff support. School staff and faculty have to work as a team to fully utilize this approach.
As far as ebooks, our elementary school does not at this time have ebooks as a resource. Electronic reference materials are largely found at the middle and high school levels and even at that level they are centered on online or software based versions of encyclopedias and dictionaries. Galileo and web links are included in the electronic resources at the middle school level. Galileo has an abundant collection of electronic resources including articles from websites, encyclopedias, newspapers, and books. The great thing about these electronic resources is that a list can be generated on a topic to support student research and the list can be further defined by the student Lexile level to ensure that students can read and understand the information that they gather. Being electronic in nature also enables students to find current information.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Who is responsible for technology training?
Technology training is a must at any level within the educational arena. Often, teachers’ gradebooks, lesson plans, and attendance are managed online. Most of our research today is completed online. Documents and spreadsheets are created on the computer to track student progress. Teachers communicate with a variety of stakeholders through email, class webpages, and blogs. Even our traditional search tools within the media center are now online. Up-to-date, ongoing technology training is absolutely essential for all members of the educational field—in and out of the traditional classroom.
Knowing that training is essential, I have to wonder who should be responsible for this training. Technology training is really all over the place in my school district. Our computer lab managers (LST—Local School Technologist) and our media specialists are not usually the ones to deliver any of our technology training. In fact, I am the person at my school who manages our school webpage and has delivered all the training to our teachers on the design and maintenance of their webpages. I’m just a regular education classroom teacher, so how did I get that job? I guess I was chosen because I have an interest in technology. And that’s all well and good, but I have to wonder if there shouldn’t be a specific chain of command—so to speak—for training teachers on the various aspects of technology within our buildings. I enjoy working with the teachers to help them get started, but I have my own classroom to attend to. I can’t always address issues when teachers need me, and of course, our planning times are all different.
Some teachers, especially many of the veteran teachers I’ve worked with, are terrified of the many new (and some old) forms of technology available within the school setting. I would like to see my school district put a designated team in place for properly training trainers within each school. For example: The LSTs will train teachers on all Microsoft products, gradebook, attendance, lesson planners, and any educational software to be utilized. The media specialists will train teachers on use of OPAC, webpage design, any aspects of Web 2.0, and research. If teachers know who to go to get information and receive training, they are more likely to take advantage of the technologies that are available.
Knowing that training is essential, I have to wonder who should be responsible for this training. Technology training is really all over the place in my school district. Our computer lab managers (LST—Local School Technologist) and our media specialists are not usually the ones to deliver any of our technology training. In fact, I am the person at my school who manages our school webpage and has delivered all the training to our teachers on the design and maintenance of their webpages. I’m just a regular education classroom teacher, so how did I get that job? I guess I was chosen because I have an interest in technology. And that’s all well and good, but I have to wonder if there shouldn’t be a specific chain of command—so to speak—for training teachers on the various aspects of technology within our buildings. I enjoy working with the teachers to help them get started, but I have my own classroom to attend to. I can’t always address issues when teachers need me, and of course, our planning times are all different.
Some teachers, especially many of the veteran teachers I’ve worked with, are terrified of the many new (and some old) forms of technology available within the school setting. I would like to see my school district put a designated team in place for properly training trainers within each school. For example: The LSTs will train teachers on all Microsoft products, gradebook, attendance, lesson planners, and any educational software to be utilized. The media specialists will train teachers on use of OPAC, webpage design, any aspects of Web 2.0, and research. If teachers know who to go to get information and receive training, they are more likely to take advantage of the technologies that are available.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Technology Training in Schools
I have had various experiences with technology staff development at the schools that I have worked at and at the places where I have had field experiences. In my county we have tech staff development on an as needed basis. We have a group of central office techies that make the major decisions and acquisitions and then a tech support individual at each of our schools that relays that information to us. Most of the tech “support” consists of reminders to run Spybot and Adaware each week on our computers. We have had short tech training at faculty meetings to demonstrate this process accompanied by cheat sheets we can use to download and run updates.
This year we changed to Gmail and Infinite Campus and we have had a lot of training sessions and handouts dedicated to teaching staff how to take attendance, enter grades and run reports. We’ve had co-teachers give helpful hints for using Gmail labels and folders. Another co-teacher taught the faculty how to use the Promethean board in the science lab. The technology specialist at our school also had optional tech sessions to show us how to use the set of responders so that when they are available for classroom use, we will know how to use them. Last week four of our faculty (including me—yeah!), the media specialist, and the technology specialist were able to attend the 2009 Georgia Education Technology Conference. After teachers and technology specialists attend the GaETC, they generally provide a very short staff development at the next faculty meeting. This session shows the faculty as a whole a way to utilize technology more efficiently. Handouts are distributed to enable staff to apply the training to future needs.
The media specialists that I have talked with do most of their training in the area of utilizing Destiny, our OPAC. They create tech tip cheat sheets that enable teachers to find guided readers and resources more quickly by entering the correct terms in the specified search areas. When I am a media specialist, I will follow this same approach. I will find out what my school needs are and meet with grade levels to offer assistance in finding materials to support the standards that are taught. Then I will show them how to search for these materials efficiently using the OPAC and provide cheat sheets. Most teachers have very limited time for staff development and it needs to be a practical experience for them. Keeping training focused on the needs of staff will make the experience positive and worthwhile.
I don’t usually have a DON’Ts list, but I would try hard not to waste a teacher’s time with tedious tasks like telling me how to plan lessons when they have signed up to come to the media center. I certainly think that teachers should be involved with lesson development when they decide to sign up for a media visit. But they need to be able to state their needs and trust me to create a lesson that utilizes technology and media resources. As I model efficient use of technology, teachers will incorporate these kinds of activities in their classroom providing that they have the kind of technology available that supports it.
This year we changed to Gmail and Infinite Campus and we have had a lot of training sessions and handouts dedicated to teaching staff how to take attendance, enter grades and run reports. We’ve had co-teachers give helpful hints for using Gmail labels and folders. Another co-teacher taught the faculty how to use the Promethean board in the science lab. The technology specialist at our school also had optional tech sessions to show us how to use the set of responders so that when they are available for classroom use, we will know how to use them. Last week four of our faculty (including me—yeah!), the media specialist, and the technology specialist were able to attend the 2009 Georgia Education Technology Conference. After teachers and technology specialists attend the GaETC, they generally provide a very short staff development at the next faculty meeting. This session shows the faculty as a whole a way to utilize technology more efficiently. Handouts are distributed to enable staff to apply the training to future needs.
The media specialists that I have talked with do most of their training in the area of utilizing Destiny, our OPAC. They create tech tip cheat sheets that enable teachers to find guided readers and resources more quickly by entering the correct terms in the specified search areas. When I am a media specialist, I will follow this same approach. I will find out what my school needs are and meet with grade levels to offer assistance in finding materials to support the standards that are taught. Then I will show them how to search for these materials efficiently using the OPAC and provide cheat sheets. Most teachers have very limited time for staff development and it needs to be a practical experience for them. Keeping training focused on the needs of staff will make the experience positive and worthwhile.
I don’t usually have a DON’Ts list, but I would try hard not to waste a teacher’s time with tedious tasks like telling me how to plan lessons when they have signed up to come to the media center. I certainly think that teachers should be involved with lesson development when they decide to sign up for a media visit. But they need to be able to state their needs and trust me to create a lesson that utilizes technology and media resources. As I model efficient use of technology, teachers will incorporate these kinds of activities in their classroom providing that they have the kind of technology available that supports it.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Video Distribution/GPB Resources
My school uses our video distribution system quite extensively. I am at a new school, so some of the technology is considered “cutting edge”. The video distribution system is housed in a room in the media center. The video system consists of several DVD/VCR players, a satellite system (Direct TV), a digital video recorder (TiVo), digital cable, and the Channel One receiver. Every classroom has a TV and there are several TVs located in places such as the cafeteria and offices. This system can be a bit overwhelming for a media specialist. It is very complicated and takes a lot of time to learn.
We use our system for the daily school news broadcast and to broadcast Channel One each morning. We also run a looped PowerPoint during the day that contains announcements and student recognitions. We record programs for teachers and use the system to broadcast the program to the teacher’s room. The system is capable of broadcasting from 5 different sources at the same time, so several teachers can be using it at the same time.
As I mentioned before, this is a complicated system to run. I have been overseeing it for the past year, and I still occasionally need some help from outside sources. We are fortunate that we have two media specialists, because I don’t see how one person could do the video system plus all of the other tasks that a media specialist must do.
One thing that I didn’t realize, until I became a media specialist, was the impact that the recent change from analog to digital TV signal would have on schools. Several of my county’s older schools have had to invest in a new video distribution system because of the digital signal that is being used. From what I have been told, these new systems were quite expensive.
My school uses United Streaming, which is provided to us by Georgia Public Broadcasting. Unfortunately, we do not make good use of all of the resources that GPB provides. I think that a lot of our teachers are hesitant to use their TVs in the classroom because of past problems and misperceptions that people (the public) have about TVs in the classroom.
We use our system for the daily school news broadcast and to broadcast Channel One each morning. We also run a looped PowerPoint during the day that contains announcements and student recognitions. We record programs for teachers and use the system to broadcast the program to the teacher’s room. The system is capable of broadcasting from 5 different sources at the same time, so several teachers can be using it at the same time.
As I mentioned before, this is a complicated system to run. I have been overseeing it for the past year, and I still occasionally need some help from outside sources. We are fortunate that we have two media specialists, because I don’t see how one person could do the video system plus all of the other tasks that a media specialist must do.
One thing that I didn’t realize, until I became a media specialist, was the impact that the recent change from analog to digital TV signal would have on schools. Several of my county’s older schools have had to invest in a new video distribution system because of the digital signal that is being used. From what I have been told, these new systems were quite expensive.
My school uses United Streaming, which is provided to us by Georgia Public Broadcasting. Unfortunately, we do not make good use of all of the resources that GPB provides. I think that a lot of our teachers are hesitant to use their TVs in the classroom because of past problems and misperceptions that people (the public) have about TVs in the classroom.
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