Facebook unblocked at Vancouver Schools - Reading Break

Steve Cardwell, our new superintendent has unblocked facebook at Vancouver Schools!

So far, so good...I haven't heard of it being an issue.

Here's something I found interesting - I don't think all the students know about this yet - I told a couple today and they were shocked - happy but surprised.

For once, I knew something before they did! : )

A quote that I like -from an article in Google Reader - Reading Break

"We don’t stop playing games because we’re getting older – We get old because we stop playing games." (author unknown)

Exploration with Animoto - Reading Break

KG Staff Adventure - Curling 2009

Bembo's Zoo - a very fun website! - Reading Break

A colleague of mine introduced me to a new website (well, new to me, at least) called Bembo's Zoo (click on 1 of the letters and see the magic begin!) and I had to mention it in my blog! What a creative way to use and introduce Flash to students! Lee (my colleague) is planning a shaped poetry assignment and when he came across this website, he told me that he realized new technologies have added an interested twist to this whole concept.

Another reminder (along with our article for our group wiki project) that we do have to think about the way we teach "old" concepts when new technology becomes available to us.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what his Technology Immersion students will come up with for this unit!

Wikimatrix and WikiIndex - cool tools - week 6

I just wanted to make a quick comment about Wikimatrix and WikiIndex - what cool tools!

I really like being able to compare the different wiki options - this way we can pick the best one suited for our needs. Honestly, I didn't know there were so many different sites that provided wiki opportunities. Very Cool!

WikiIndex is also a great resource - again, I didn't know there were so many wikis out there! Something I definitely need to explore more in the future. Or better yet, get the students to explore them.

An example of a wiki I like as a TL - week 6

If I haven't said it before, I will say it now...I feel so fortunate to be a TL in the Vancouver district. We have amazing people at the school board that support and really understand what we need to grow and develop as TLs in the 21st century.

Our wonderful TL consultant, Moira Ekdahl, has created a wiki that other TLs have so graciously contributed to. Along with her blog, she really have provided us with many tools that I find invaluable.

I've noticed that I need to update some information about our school - and the beauty of a wiki - I just need to be added as a contributor and then I can be a voice in this wonderful community!

If you're interested, check out the TL wiki that was created by Moira and many other amazing TLs.

Reflection on Oatman's article and wikis - week 6

As I consider week 5 and 6 readings/lessons, I am realizing the potential of wikis as a powerful collaborative tool for both students and staff.

Some postive points that Oatman brings up in his article are:

- using wikis as a way to empower students and learners
- wikis can teach students to be tolerant and accepting of different points of view
- media is controlled by people who have the means to, and wikis give people equal opportunity to contribute.

I like this quote:
"young people develop "writing skills and social skills by learning about group consenus and compromise - all virtues you need to be a reasonable and productive member of society" ( Oatman 2005).

This point stands out for because we have a lot of tech savvy students at our school, but giving them opportunities to develop the social skills needed to apply their technical skills is just as important. They all need to be given the chance to celebrate each other's contributions and develop skills that they will need in the real world.

Reflection on Badke's Article - week 5

I think this week's activity and reading on Wikipedia has given me a new perspective on student usage of Wikipedia.

A few points in Badke's article really did get me thinking:

#1 - the whole idea of Colbert's term "Wikiality" (truth by consensus) got me comparing consensus vs reliability. It's interesting to me - can reliability be gauged by the degree of consensus? I don't know, I'm finding it a bit abstract trying to figure out whether I support or refute this relationship...
But it did get me thinking about the definition of a theory and so I looked it up and found this definition on The Free Dictionary website :

"A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena." (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009)

So I guess if I can accept a theory written in a book b/c it is "widely accepted", maybe this applies to Wikipedia too since it is based on the consensus factor. Hmmm...something to think about.

#2 - "Wikipedia doesn't depend on elite scholars" (Badke, 2008) - this is true and probably is what threatens them the most. It does bring up the question - who is an "expert" these days? Do you have to be a scholar to know a lot about a topic?
Also, it brings to light the idea that education is changing because information is so abundant and accessible.

#3 - Some important things to inform students about when it comes to Wikipedia - the fact that an article read one day can be completely different the next day, and Wikipedia itself provides a disclaimer about checking its information with other sources.

#4 -Wikipedia is great for details, currency, and accuracy but at the same time, students need to realize it is also an "environment for shallow thinking, debates over interpretation, and the settling in scores" (Badke, 2008). Bottom line, Wikipedia has its pros and cons, but it definitely is a good tool to use with students when teaching information literacy.

And both #3 and 4 is a reminder that TLs have an important role in helping students sort all this out.

#5 - "the academy has a unique opportunity to engage Wikipedia in a way that marries the digital generation with the academic enterprise" ( Badke, 2008).

I thought Badke makes a great point with #5, rather than criticize and ban Wikipedia, why don't scholars participate on Wikipedia and make it a better source of information? Why don't professors use it as a teaching tool for their courses? Wouldn't this be a more proactive solution?

My First Edit in Wikipedia - week 5

Well, I did it! My first ever edit in Wikipedia - I always knew this was possible and done in Wikipedia, but I never realized how easy it would be! This only serves to convince me even more how important it is to teach our students about information literacy. I will use my editing experience for a lesson around Wikipedia with the students - I think they need to realize how easy it is to change things and that the changes are not detected right away - this will serve as a good lesson in the importance in fact-checking.

But at the same time, I also learned the positive aspect of Wikipedia - the fact that people can update information so that outdated or erroneous information can be corrected is something that we need to appreciate as well. An important point to also consider. So yes, I do agree it is a good place to get current information, but the students need to be shown its limitations!

A good example - I searched up our school on Wikipedia, and to my surprise, I found a page in existence. After reading it, I found a couple of minor things - not quite mistakes, but things that I felt should be updated. I'm interested to see whether or not my changes will removed because I've actually corrected it!

So how are students supposed to know whether information is accurate or not? They don't always, which is why they need to use more than one source! I think this "editing Wikipedia" lesson will be an "aha moment" for the students. I am more hopeful now that they will be convinced to not rely soley on any one source - print or electronic.

Here's a screenshot of the original page:


Here are screenshots of my edits:




And finally here is a screenshot of the edited article:

Wikipedia in the classroom - week 5

What a coincidence that this week's topic is Wikipedia...I had a teaching moment with Wikipedia today. Well, I always seem to be the dragon lady trying to convince students that good research does not mean going to Wikipedia. In fact, a good day is when I'm not met by a defensive grade 8 telling me "Wikipedia is never wrong", yet he/she is completely surprised when I tell them the definition of a wiki!

But today, like many days, began with me explaining the importance of fact-checking and using other sources. Then I took the opportunity to introduce them to the Biography database that we subscribe to. I also explained to them that Wikipedia was a good place to start and great source of info. for many things (in fact, I use it a lot in my personal life), but that it was equally important that they use other sources like the database.

To my surprise, many of them were very receptive to my explanation and the value of the database - and in fact, by the end of my talk, quite a few of them got off Wikipedia and logged onto the database!

A learning moment - they started their own dialogue about the difference between Wikipedia and the database. It was great, I know they will still use Wikipedia, but at least now they know there are other resources available to them and the difference between a database and a wiki.

A second learning moment - some girls realized the importance in fact-checking. Through their research, they found that Faraday's date of birth differed (database vs. Wikipedia) - so this prompted them to ask the question "who is right then?" and check in another source to verify. Maybe Wikipedia was wrong, maybe the database was wrong...but the most important thing is they learned that one source of information should not be soley relied on.

A happy day for me - I don't believe in banning Wikipedia because it is a good source of information, but I do believe in teaching them to think about the way they research and to question their sources of information.

Screenshots of our school's forum -week 5

Here are some screenshots of our forum:

This is the login page


This is homepage after login


This is the list of reviews made so far - students can add new reviews and/or respond to others


This is a sample post and reply

Some new subscriptions on Google Reader - week 4

MAKE magazine is still my favorite subscription so far, but I found a couple of more this week that interested me:

I subscribed to Wellness and Lifestyle as a way to get health updates. As a few of my classmates have expressed - balance between our work life and personal life is crucial to our well-being. Since I tend to neglect my own health and well-being, a subscription to something like this would be a good reminder for me. Definitely something to work on. This reminds me...a subscription to easy and healthy meals would be useful...note to self...must look for this tomorrow!

As well, I subscribed to Comics Worth Reading and New from Dark Horse Comics - I really believe in developing a good graphic novel collection and so I appreciate any help I can get. I find it quite tricky when it comes to choosing appropriate graphic novels that appeal to teenagers.

Speaking of Google Reader...I read some cool updates from Doug Johnson's blog and emailed them to a couple of colleagues/admin:

To our Principal - Information Deformation

To my colleague and collaborator (Earth Science 11 teacher) - Paper free committee-ment

To our TL Consultant - What does good library tell you about a school

I even found a quote that I liked...I will include in my week 5 post...

Examples of Blogs (classroom and library) - week 4

One of our Science teachers has created her own blog (Ms. Gray's blog) as a homework site for her classes.

Another Science teacher created a blog for similar purposes last year - I will include a screenshot of her blog once she gives me permission to view it! Sorry, it's not open to the public. : )

I've made a list of library "Pro-D" blogs - see my bloglist. The TL Weekly Special is the one that I read most regularly. Our TL consultant at the board is fanastic and she created this blog as a way to keep up informed.

I also found a couple of new ones this week on blogged.com :

- Library Congress
- A Wrung Sponge
- Writings of the Loud Librarian

Reflection on Stephen's Interview with Harris - week 4

I really enjoyed this week's article and I feel that Chris Harris brings up some really important points in a much more positive and inspiring manner. I like how he has given us suggestions of things that we can create - like moodle, RSS feeds, discussion forum, and blogs. I particularly appreciate the specific example of Robert Eiffert's Bookblog. What a great idea! And the fact that two students act as facilitators and guides only serve to empower them and give them a sense of ownership in their learning. As well, other students will probably be motivated to participate in such a blog since it is led by their peers rather than teachers.

I thought it was cool that he mentioned discussion forums because we are in the process of launching a book review forum for our school - a place for our students and staff to review, discuss, and recommend books. We've only just started, but there's already been some posting and I'm really excited about this project. One of the English teachers is equally as excited and we've been working hard to sign her classes up so that she can use the forum as an online discussion thread for her novel study units.

Okay, back to the article...some things that stood out for me:

- calling it a "re-shifted school library" - I like it - it's not like what we're doing is no good...but instead we need to re-position ourselves so we stay relevant.

- his quote - "what I am saying is that if school libraries fail to make a digital re-shift, they are going to lose relevancy in the world of digital information" (Chris Harris 2006)

- school library space will be flexible, embrace technology and TLs will be flexible, support information literacy and knowledge management (Chris Harris, 2006)

- concept of "information commons" - which I've heard termed "learning commons"