Did I say I was done?

Okay, this will be my final post in this blog. It has run its course. (Literally. Only those of you in EDES 501 will get that one.)

I couldn't leave the issue of "use this Gmail method" hanging. I would be ignoring my responsibility as an educator. It is actually a hyperlink error in Edublogs' instructions for creating student blogs.

Wait a second...

I just tried it again and it worked! It isn't an error on Edublogs part, it is an error on my part! I am so embarrassed - what a classic PEBKAC error! You see, I usually open hyperlinks in new tabs. This helps me quickly navigate back and forth between web pages and it also helps me keep track of where I've come from. But this particular hyperlink isn't intended to open in a new tab. It's one of those windows within a window types, like this:

Sigh...and here Pam and I thought we were so clever. We found the alternate Gmail method instructions in the FAQ section of Edublogs' Premium Support. Yup, Premium. I upgraded to a Pro account. It was the only way I could create the student blogs.
I was somewhat misled by a quote from one of my textbooks, which claimed student blogs were free. Or at least that is what I interpreted from this plug for Edublogs: "Set up blogs for students even if they don't have e-mail accounts. It is free and comes with 100MB of free space with 20 MB in size for image uploads" (Berger & Trexler, p. 107, 2010). In fact, plenty has changed in terms of what Edublogs delivers its Free and Pro clients. On the left is a quick look at the difference between Edublogs Free and Edublogs Pro. To be honest, the promise of "Safe, secure, reliable and trusted by over a million users..." is worth the extra $40.00 for the upgrade. For classroom blogging, I want a platform that specializes in creating a superior and worry-free educational experience for teachers and students. I am impressed by the user interface. Although not easy, it is fairly logical if you have had some blogging experience.

I would not recommend this tool to a colleague new to blogs and blogging, unless she was willing to put in considerable time with my support and guidance. And by time I mean about four to five hours. I would expect it would take at least this long to introduce the platform, learn how to set up the student blogs with the appropriate settings for privacy and administration, and then play around with the features like the themes and widgets. Blogging with students is not a project to take on the night before introducing it into a unit of study. I recommend at least a week of prep blocks, after school hours, and even a few evenings, dedicated to playing around with the platform and preparing for the inevitable "what ifs?". For certain, blogging in the classroom is the most complex Web 2.0 area I have explored to date. I am really honoured that Pam asked for my help and I am looking forward to implementing all we have learned with the Grade 9 students in the new year!

A look back...

...to my first post shows the tools I intended to explore on this Web 2.0 journey. I am so thankful that this was my inquiry project, and that there was some flexibility in my tool choice. I had no idea that to reach my goal of proficiency in each chosen tool would require so much time! It didn't take me long to realize that my intentions were unattainable. There will be plenty of details provided in my final reflection, which I will publish as a page on this blog. For now, I am pleased to say that I have no regrets. The tools I chose have served me well and are welcome additions to my Teacher-Librarian toolkit.

This is Jessica Levitt signing off for real! Thank you for reading.

References
Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. 

The future. . .

I made it!

My nine weeks of Web 2.0 exploration are complete.

I have forwarded my recommendation to my colleague, Pam, for her upcoming blogging adventure with the Grade 9s. The winner of the hotly contested Edublogs vs. 21Classes blog platform debate can be found here.

Pam and I are meeting tomorrow to create the student blogs with the Pro Account I purchased. It will be interesting to see how Edublogs works around the usual requirement for an active email account. In my initial attempts to set up the additional student blogs I see that an email account is "required", yet a few lines further down it instructs, "If your users do not have email addresses you can use this Gmail method to add your users!"So far, clicking on this Gmail method hyperlink takes me in a circle. Hmm! I will have to investigate this further. The details of this dilemma will not be known before this post's publication deadline - further evidence that a Web 2.0 exploration project never really ends!

This is Jessica Levitt, mum, wife, reader, tl, and BLOGGER signing off!

Platforms?

This question is bigger than I expected it to be. And it may be that neither Pam nor I can answer it. However, we can certainly form an opinion based on a comparison of services offered by blogging platforms designed with students in mind.

There are several "names" in the student blogging business. Berger & Trexler (2010) suggest "Blogger, Class Blogmeister, Edublog, Live Journal, Moveable Type, WordPress, and 21Classes" (p. 107). Now I'm fairly pressed for time, with the deadline for this assignment arriving in less than a week, so I was pretty ruthless and not at all fair in the process of narrowing it down to my top two contenders. First, the castaways...

Blogger: We've been friends now for nine weeks, and I have yet to read anything student or teacher friendly about you, other than the fact that you are free. It's nothing personal, but you should really step it up if you want to tap into a seriously big market.

Class Blogmeister: I am sorry but I didn't even scroll down on your home page: I was turned off by your font choice and colour scheme, and I physically recoiled from text overload.

Kidblog: Sorry, the Grade 9 students will never go for it! They are waaaayyyy to mature.

LiveJournal: I think you might have moved in a new direction since the publication of Berger & Trexler's text? If you are still into blogging I suggest you make it a little clearer on your homepage.

MoveableType: You're a little too sophisticated for my simple needs.

Wordpress: Oh, you were tough to let go. Most of the educators I follow have their blogs hosted on your platform, and I find their visual appeal stands out from all other providers. But I think that you are the genius behind one of my top two contenders?

Which leaves . . .

Edublogs and 21Classes in the running.

Will there be enough time to squeeze in a detailed look at these two options? Can I produce one last post? Check your RSS feed later this week!

References 
Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Promises!

I promised my colleague, Pam, I would explore blogging options for her Grade 9 students. This is the same group of students to whom I introduced to Diigo earlier in this Web 2.0 inquiry project. Due to their enthusiastic response to that first Web 2.0 tool, I want to make their introduction to blogging just as positive. Now that I am a seasoned blogger, with 17 (almost 18) posts published and widely read, I feel poised to pass on some advice. And just in case I am not as blog savvy as I profess to be, I did check in with a few trusted, academic sources for guidance.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect for me in regards to students getting into blogging, is that "blogging in its truest form has a great deal of potentially positive impact on students" (Richardson, 2010, p. 20). Richardson goes on to list six aspects of pedagogy which blogging can positively influence:

• Weblogs are truly a constructivist tool for learning;
• they expand the walls of the classroom;
• blogs archive the learning that teachers and students do, facilitating all sorts of reflection and metacognitive analysis;
• the Weblog is a deomcratic tool that supports different learning styles;
• the use of Weblogs can enhance the development of expertise in a particular subject; and,
• blogs can teach students the new literacies they will need to function in an ever-expanding information society (p. 27)

Now, I know a little bit about the process required for getting to the stage where one is "blogging in its "truest form", and I know this is a process that requires the learner to struggle. I want to help Pam's students with this struggle. They will need some scaffolding. Richardson believes older students

can be asked to begin using Weblogs for extended study and reflection on a topic. They could be asked to reflect and build on previous ideas, incorporate feedback from readers, synthesize reading s from a number of different sources, and advance new ideas or interpretation of the topic (p. 33).

I am certain this group of students is up for the challenge, but I have a little confession to make. You see, I taught this group of students in Grade 6. I was their English teacher before I moved into the Teacher-Librarian position. I don't think I did a very good job of teaching them the skill of synthesis.

In Bloom's taxonomy, his classification system for the hierarchy of education goals, synthesis is one of the higher-order thinking skills.



In Bloom's revised taxonomy, which was developed by a team of psychologists, including Lorin Anderson, a former student of Benjamin Bloom's, synthesis is needed throughout the hierarchy.



 So, how best to teach synthesis? To the right is a scaffold model I wish I had when I was a Grade 6 English teacher (Zawilinksy, 2009, p. 658).

It illustrates, in a simple step by step process, a plan for students to follow. I would expect initially, the end result to read fairly prescriptively, but if this had been introduced in Grade 6 and reinforced across the Middle Years Program (Grades 6-8), by the time Pam got this same group of students in Grade 9, in the GYP (Graduate Years' Program) they would be natural synthesizers. That much more prepared to segue into creating their own blogs and experiencing all that blogging can offer a learner. Sorry for the extra work you are going to have to do with this group, Pam!

References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking. The Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661. doi: 1707486871

Why so quiet?

Fifteen (15!) posts ago I was a rookie blogger. On October 15th, 2011 I published my first post; I started sharing my opinions and ideas and I waited breathlessly for my readers to respond (Berger & Trexler, 2010, p. 103). And I am still waiting, and waiting, and waiting. . .

Now, this isn't entirely true, as I have collected 16 comments . . . okay, okay, five of the 16 are my responses to my readers' comments, and one of the 16 is from my sister, so really ten of the comments are unsolicited. Okay, okay, so I pressured Pam into commenting the first time. . . that leaves me with nine genuine comments.

This is kind of . . . disappointing. 

 

     And somewhat . . . deflating.

You see, "it is the blog's feedback feature that is most important to the blogger; it is the gateway to the discussion that the blogger hopes to generate through his or her original posting" (Berger & Trexler, 2010, p. 103). Berger & Trexler (2010) share "Seven Ways That Blogs Support Student Learning:

1. Supports critical thinking, encouraging students to think and reflect prior to writing.
2. Motivates and engages students.
3. Provides an opportunity to improve literacy skills.
4. Offers an authentic audience, encourages students to write responsibly.
5. Provides a forum for feedback, collaboration, and discussion.
6. Involves students in a community of learners.
7. Helps student develop their voice and provides equity" (p. 105).

In this list,  points 4, 5 and 6 all allude to some aspect of readership: an authentic audience, a forum, a community, which is intended to improve the content of the blog. As Kist (2010) states, "audience has implication for everything from language to tone and even to length" (p. 39). But it's hard to sustain the illusion of writing for an audience when your audience is so silent. The "Page Views" widget I have installed shows 531 page views, and I am not counting my own views - this seems like a significant readership to me. But why are they so quiet?

It could be that my readers follow a few of the rules like those William Chamberlian has set up for his fifth-grade students:

If you don't have anything to write, don't write anything; and,
Always remember that they can comment on your post, too! (as quoted in Kist, 2010, p. 55).

 I assume that the bulk of my readers are my classmates, but then some form of the old adage comes into play: she who lives in a glass house shall not throw stones. I have read many of my classmates' blog posts, but I have commented on a grand total of . . . I am embarrassed to say . . . maybe three? In Kist (2010), Angela Maiers posed some questions to students to consider before beginning their blogs; I wish I had considered and communicated the following early on in my blog, "What do I expect from my audience" (p. 62)?

I wonder if this might have increased the noise level of my blog?

References
Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. 
Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom: Teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Goodreads through an academic lens

I have two friends! Wait - three, and a fourth is pending! I can really see the lure of this social tool. I have been very distracted this week by emails from Goodreads that pop up in my gmail account, like:

 and

and

It is a lot of fun to check out my friends' shelves, to add their chosen titles to either my "read" list or some to my "to read" list, to gasp in shock at their ratings, or to nod in agreement. One of my Goodreads friends is currently reading Twilight, and she has shared some hysterical insights into the book that I had not thought about.

"Edward is an admittedly supernaturally handsome man, so that would explain the initial attraction and perhaps some of the later attraction. I also get that vampires seem to have some persuasive mojo going on. I am not sure, however, that that would override the fact that Edward is a jerk and Bella seems to be trapped in this strange abusive relationship"(McMartin, 2011).

I raced through the entire series two summers ago. I lost a week of my life that I have never regretted, but it wasn't until I got on Goodreads and learned what some other members had to say about the series that I had this thought: I am not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend the series now. I will have to temper my enthusiasm, having read about Edward and Bella from so many different perspectives. I will still recommend this series to my female students, but I will now add a little caveat about the reality of some of the content matter. There is nothing wrong with getting lost in a romantic novel, but there is something wrong about ignoring the secondary, and possibly harmful, messages.

Wait, now I am essentially self-censoring the school library collection. I can't do that! But if I recommend based on my opinion, without being aware of other perspectives of the novel, then I am censoring due to bias and deliberate ignorance.

This is making me rethink the whole idea of the teacher-librarian as a reader's advisor. I have just learned the boldfaced term after reading Stover's (2009) article, "Stalking the Wild Appeal Factor", in which the author explores three "book-centered social networking sites", LibraryThing, Shelfari, and Goodreads (p. 244). Stover (2009) explains:

Readers' advisory (RA) is one of the most social services librarians offer. It's no surprise that talking about books so easily made the leap to the Internet. This discussion is a natural extension of the readers' advisory conversation" (p. 244).

She goes on to describe book-centered sites as being a combination of the "the in-person RA interview" and the "in-depth questioning through reader profile forms", in that "online readers are using all the descriptors available to express what they like about what they have been reading or what they want to read. They are in a relaxed environment, they are taking their time, they are enjoying looking for the right words, or even using creative terms to describe what they like" (p. 244). She even refers to a new taxonomy, or classification system, on these sites called a "feeling taxonomy" (p. 244). This reference to taxonomy connects to Richardson (2010) when he explains the tagging system Diigo uses; he describes how a new classification system has evolved on social bookmarking sites which he calls "folksonomy" (p. 91). Essentially, "the idea is in working with your community of researchers, new tagging systems will emerge and become accepted that will allow us all to participate in the process" (Richardson, 2010, p. 91). I think this idea can be applied to members in sites such as LibraryThing, Shelfari, and Goodreads, and I think Stover (2009) would agree, as she states "The shared language of readers' advisors and readers is changing and expanding when put to use on the Internet" (p. 244).

While working through all of this information about book-centered social networking sites, I do not want to lose sight of this fact explaining the necessity of being present on at least one of these tools:

"Not only are library staff reaching new and different patrons, but they are improving their own knowledge of books read, heard of, and glanced at, and it is all in one place" (Stover, 2009, p. 244).

Being a reader's advisor is a much bigger responsibility than I thought. . .

Goodreads, launched in December of 2006, was the third book-related social networking site to come online, after LibraryThing launched in August 2005, and Shelfari launched October 2006 (Stover, 2009, p. 245). Stover says LibraryThing "is moving into the business of library catalog enhancement with its LibraryThing for Libraries service" (p. 244). I have just signed up for a one hour Webinar on this service, hosted by Cisco WebEx on Tuesday, November 22nd. Best to learn all I can about these different tools before choosing one for my school library.

A quick email to my VISLA Google Group (Vancouver Independent School Librarians Association) , which is an exciting addition to my expanding PLN, elicited a few responses, all of which have just added to my dilemma about which tool to align with. Perhaps I will do as Stover (2009) suggests, in this piece of excellent Web 2.0 advice:

"Try out all of the Web toys out there. It's the responsibility of a good readers' advisor to at least be familiar with the numerous Internet playthings. But once they've all been taken for a test run, commit to one and politely show the others the door. It will be enough of a time commitment to keep one account current on a reading network, and it will be very important to keep that account up to date" (p. 246).

References
McMartin, P. (2011, November 18). Re: Pmcmartin is currently reading: [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from www.goodreads.com/user/show/6962786-pmcmartin
Richardson, W. . (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Stover, K. (2009). Stalking the wild appeal factor. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 48(3), 243-246.

Breathing room

While learning about and using the Web 2.0 tools Diigo, Jing, VoiceThread, and Podomatic, I mainly explored how I could use these tools as a Teacher-Librarian. My focus has been mostly professional. With my attention now directed toward Goodreads, a tool intended SOLELY for book lovers, which teacher-librarians undoubtably are, I have yet to explore it for anything other than personal use. How ironic! To be honest, it feels like I am getting a little break from the self-imposed professional restrictions of my Web 2.0 exploration.

My exploration into Goodreads began with a casual inquiry directed toward my friend and colleague, Pam. As you will learn from the sidebar, Pam tends to "jump in with both feet", to quote an obscure blogger. I had mentioned GoodReads to her late in the morning, and sure enough, true to form, Pam returned to the library that same afternoon raving about the site. Here's how it works:

Goodreads is a free website for book lovers. Imagine it as a large library that you can wander through and see everyone's bookshelves, their reviews, and their ratings. You can also post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, are currently reading, and plan to read in the future. Don’t stop there – join a discussion group, start a book club, contact an author, and even post your own writing (How it works, 2011, para 1).

Pam has this practice of recording every book she reads and writing her own reviews, for herself. Now she has discovered an online tool where she can publish her reviews for others to enjoy. And let me tell you, it is enjoyable! I've been stealing moments of time to check in with Goodreads: while my daughters are in the bath, while the perogies and sausages are cooking on the stovetop, while having lunch at school. It's addicting.

These are two of my favourite features:

1. "Most book recommendation websites work by listing random people’s reviews. On Goodreads, when a person adds a book to the site, all their friends can see what they thought of it. It’s common sense. People are more likely to get excited about a book their friend recommends than a suggestion from a stranger" (About Goodreads, 2011, para 3).
2. "We even created an amazing algorithm that looks at your books and ratings, and helps you find other books based on what fellow Goodreads members with similar tastes enjoyed" (About Goodreads, 2011, para 3).

The algorithm only works after you rate 20 books. I could hardly believe how quickly I rated more than 20 books. I chose to browse through the books Goodreads has categorized into lists, found via a hyperlink called Listopia. Two rows down is "Recommended Lists" and the sublist "Best for Book Clubs". Within seconds I had rated my required 20 books. I then clicked on "Recommendations" and was thrilled with the results of the "amazing algorithm". Several more clicks and I had an impressive "To Read" list. Bring on the Christmas and Hanukkah gifts!

Here is a look at my "Favourites Shelf":
There are different book covers available so you can specifically choose the edition you have read, which I really like. I do not like the new cover for Through Black Spruce at all, and was relieved to find the edition I had read. I preferred the uncle's narrative voice to the niece's, so this cover with the male figure appeals to me.

The series title comes up in parentheses after the book's title, and I learned that some books are part of multiple series! (These come up in separate parentheses.)

The number column represents the Goodreads readers' average rating out of  5. The orange stars are my rating, also out of 5.

I have discovered that I am not naturally social on Web 2.0 tools. I really have to force myself to seek "friends" out. I am not interested in actively following people in Diigo, and I am more of a lurker than a

contributor on Twitter.

I have one friend on Goodreads. . .

Here's my pathetic call for my bookloving friends to join me on Goodreads. . .

References
How it works. (2011). Goodreads Inc. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/about/how_it_works
About Goodreads. (2011). Goodreads Inc. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/about/us

Battle of the Books

I have to credit two colleagues for showing me the value in podcasts. Firstly, Steve, our Information Technology teacher and my "office" mate (you have to see this combination of library workspace/home to 40 laptops/computer repair/circulation desk/weekly school newsletter publication hub to understand the need for quotations) steered me toward CBC's Canada Reads contest. I mean really, I call myself a Teacher-Librarian and I have hardly paid any attention to this annual battle of the books! Well, that's about to change. For those readers who may not be as tuned in to Canadiana as we all should be, this year's theme is non-fiction:

"We want stories. Books that are page-turners with captivating narratives, memorable characters and vivid prose. Books so riveting you forget they are non-fiction. Books that introduce readers to a brand new world and bring them wholly into it. While we love the work that Canadian essayists, academics, chefs, decorators and self-help gurus do, those books aren't quite right. We want the final five to have stories that captivate the country.

They also have to be in English, in print and Canadian"(CBC Radio-Canada, 2011, para 7).

The conversation then included Pam, one of our senior English teachers (faithful reader of this blog and Canadian author expert), and within minutes a promising unit took shape.

• The Grade 11s will be introduced to the Canada Reads contest and learn of past finalists and winners here.
• The Grade 11s will gather on November 23rd to hear the live reveal of the Top 5 titles and the celebrity panel.
• In some format, to be determined, the Grade 11s will read at least one of the five titles.
• They will listen to previous Canada Reads events found in the archives from 2002-2008, 2009, and 2010. (Finding these archived podcasts required quite the journey through the CBC website!)
• They will choose a book from the Top 5 titles that they want to defend as the non-fiction book that Canada must read. 
• Each student will prepare a passionate speech defending their chosen title, to be recorded as a podcast and shared publicly on the Internet.

I will put my new skills to the test in guiding the Grade 11 students through the podcasting experience. I will advise the students to use Garage Band to create their podcasts, as we have MacBooks available at school. I will explain to them how they can then upload their podcast to iTunes, as many of them have an account. From iTunes, they can upload their podcast to Podomatic, the free site I used to host my first podcast. From Podomatic, they can share their podcast by emailing a link or capturing the embed code to place it somewhere yet to be established.

I am really excited about sharing the podcasting experience with the Grade 11 students. I hope to encourage them to subscribe to a few RSS feeds for podcasts I will recommend in our podcasting workshops. I am impressed with the introduction to podcasts provided in iTunes. I have already set myself up with subscriptions to "Q" with Jian Ghomeshi and I am downloading TED Talks like crazy. My favourite to date has to be "Learning From a Barefoot Movement" by Bunker Roy.

Perhaps some of these students will join me for a piece of humble pie?

References
CBC Radio-Canada. (2011, September 27). Introducing Canada Reads: True Stories [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/2011/09/introducing-canada-reads-true-stories.html

The Conundrum. . .

Eating crow
I do not like to argue because I often get too passionate about the issue being debated and find myself short on facts. It is not a situation in which I am comfortable, and it can be a very frustrating experience. Generally, I state my opinions after carefully considering all sides and ensuring I can defend myself against opposing viewpoints. Occassionally, I find myself having formed an opinion that is weakly supported; once I have sorted through my misconceptions and misunderstandings, I am prepared to admit that I was wrong.

Well, it has happened. And publicly, right here on this blog. This post, this quote:  "I have said before how insufferably boring I find podcasts."

It's time I made myself a podcast pie.

Or, an audiocast pie? Or a blogcast pie?

There is some discrepancy in the academic world as to the correct terminology. Richardson (2010) calls it podcasting, "the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple" (p. 112). Berger & Trexler (2010) agree partly: "in its simplest form, a podcast is an audio file recorded on a computer and later shared with others over the Internet" (p. 128), yet, then state that "podcasts come in three types: audio, screen, and video" (p. 128). Lee LeFever (2011) adds another definition in his video, "Podcasting: In Plain English":

 This screenshot on the left is the end of a demonstration of the difference between "broadcasting" and "podcasting". The point being made is that podcasting allows for "personalized, time-shifted content for your consumption whenever you feel like" (Richardson, 2010, p. 113).

To minimize confusion, and to contribute to Apple's quest for world domination (for all you conspiracy theorists out there), this blog will use the term podcast for audio files created and shared.

Now, let me unpack my previous thoughts on podcasting, because I cannot ignore the fact that I labeled podcasts as "insufferably boring". Perhaps Richardson (2010) can help with this caveat: "Be prepared: This is not the highly polished professional radio you might be used to. Cracks and pops, obscure music, and "ums" and "ahs" are all a part of the podcast genre. . . .Try not to let production value overwhelm what might be really interesting content" (p. 113). I confess, I am rather judgmental. I have felt, at the end of some podcasts, that the knowledge I gathered from them could have been better delivered, and more quickly delivered, via the written word. I think it is time I lightened up a little and lowered my expectations. After all, I have yet to make a podcast. . .

I'll take a scoop of vanilla ice cream with my podcast pie.

References
Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Common Craft, LLC (Producer). (2008). Podcasting in Plain English [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/video/podcasting
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Improving on the past

In the real world it is not possible to go back in time and change the outcome of a certain event; as my husband says when playing Hearts, "a card laid is a card played".

In the blogging world it is far too easy to edit posts that have already been published.

In my previous post you will have learned I am missing elements of the criteria for this blogging assignment. I could go back and revise my published posts so that they better reflect the assignment requirements, but that is cheating. Blogging is a social media tool, and to be true to my readers (all three of you - thanks Pam, Joanne, and Jenn) and to be true to me, I am not going to cheat. I am going to try to publicly (granted to a small, safe audience) fix the problem.

Watch for the supplementary pages titled, *Web 2.0 tool* - The Missing Pieces.

Reflecting . . . and a bit of ranting (just a bit)

I am at the halfway point in my blogging project. On Friday, I received informal feedback from my professor on my blog to date. It was not great, but I am not surprised. I have deliberately neglected including certain aspects of the overall assignment criteria in this blog. Not because I am a rebel, although I can join a good cause in a heartbeat, but because I am struggling to find a space in my blog for the very things I do not like reading in others' blogs.

Bloggers lose my attention when their posts are lengthy and when they descend into the how tos of a task, with those awful "and then, and then, and then" that I tried to beat out of my Grade 6 and 7 students when I was a classroom teacher. (Not beat in a violent sense, more in a repeated reminder sense.)

If I want "how to" instruction, I'll watch a step by step video on YouTube: I do not like to wade through written instructions. I would even suffer through a podcast, although I have said before how insufferably boring I find podcasts.

Herein, lies my problem: I do not want to produce something which I would not like to read.

I am not a technical writer. I prefer to teach by demonstrating. I am not the kind of teacher who provides her students with reams of notes to "learn" from. My lessons are mostly of the "demonstrate and apply" format, followed by an assessment of the application.

Yet. . .

This blog is for an assignment. I want to do well on this assignment, and I want to conclude this project in December having met the following four goals set in my proposal:

• to achieve the level of "proficiency" in all six tools
• that my future Web 2.0 experiences, through self-regulation, will be rich with deep learning 
• that each post will be a place “of critical thinking, analytical writing and reflection”
• to become a resource for teachers and students in my school (See my full proposal for further explanation of these goals, including references for some of the language appropriated here in quotations.)

I believe my readers are knowledgeable and they can infer a great deal from what I am not telling them. I believe my professors can do the same.

But. . .

Can my professors assess what they infer? I do not think so. To date I have demonstrated proficiency in Diigo, Jing, and VoiceThread. I believe I am becoming a resource for teachers at my school, and I have provided some evidence of this in these blog posts. But my posts have yet to be places "of critical thinking, analytical writing, and reflection", nor have I explained much of the deep learning that I have experienced.

Hmmm. . .

So. . .

My challenge from this point forward is:

• to include the "how tos" in a critical, analytic, and reflective style that will hold my readers' attention; and, 
• to provide evidence of my deep learning through connections to academic literature

My posts are going to get longer. I just hope they get better, too.

P.S. The rant: I HAVE SHINGLES! According to The U.S. National Library of Medicine, when you have had chicken pox as a child the virus lives on forever in your body. And for about 20% really fortunate people (sarcastic tone necessary) it can reactivate during a time of lowered immunity. Say, when your husband is away with the senior boys soccer team and you are single parenting and trying to stay abreast of your Master's level coursework. . .ARGHHHH!

For further information on shingles, refer to this page. Caveat: the images are disgusting!

Outcomes tbd

When composing posts for my blog, I uphold the belief that it is "crucially important to be able to express oneself in writing using words" (Richardson, 2010, p. 153). Yet in my previous post I told a story with audio and digital photographs. The written word was secondary, even tertiary, to the story of my daughters' foray into sisterhood. In fact, if you ignore the captions, there were no words in the VoiceThread until my friend Bruce added some written commentary and I responded. (Thanks, Bruce!) Was the VoiceThread expressive? I would argue yes. Was it emotive? Judging by the feedback I received from my Mum and Dad and a couple of friends, who would not (could not?) comment directly on the VoiceThread - yes, it was. The digital story is an entirely separate entity from the written content of the post. The written segment sets up the expectation that a digital story is going to be told, but the digital story does not need the written introduction to exist - it tells its own tale.

So. . .

Is it equally important to be able to express oneself in a medium other than writing using words?

In British Columbia, the Ministry of Education Language Arts Integrated Resource Package (IRP) hints at a form of expression that differs from the written word in Grade Four. One of the prescribed learning outcomes states, "It is expected that students will create meaningful visual representations that communicate personal response, information, and ideas relevant to the topic" (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 70). However, a few pages later the features and conventions expected in said visual representations are listed, containing key words and phrases like: simple and compound sentences, paragraphs, noun-pronoun agreement, tenses, capitalization, commas, spelling, legible writing, spacing words (p. 72). That sounds like writing to me.

Richardson (2010) argues, one of the big shifts we, as educators, have to make in how we teach content and curriculum is that "writing is no longer limited to text" (p. 153). If this is true, then the BC Ministry of Education appears to be holding us back. Fortunately, by Grade Eight the expected features are far more open-ended: "It is expected that students will use and experiment with elements of form in writing and representing [emphasis added], appropriate to purpose and audience, to enhance meaning and artistry, including
– organization of ideas and information
– text features and visual/artistic devices" [emphasis added] (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 53).

Teachers cannot wait for the Ministry to catch curriculum up with Web 2.0 developments. Our Kindergarten students should be publishing their own VoiceThreads! I just might have to write up my own learning outcomes for digital story telling. . .

References
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2007). English Language Arts 8 to 12: Integrated Resource Package 2007. Retrieved from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2007ela_812.pdf
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2006). English Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package 2006. Retrieved from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2006ela_k7.pdf
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

A little bird told me about VoiceThread

I played around with the digital story telling tool, Little Bird Tales last spring and shared it with the Grade One teacher in my school. With the support of the IT teacher, these two colleagues then collaborated in the true spirit of innovative education to create a classful of student narrated tales. Although the end products were enjoyed by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and peers, my colleagues' experience was plagued with disappearing images, voices that existed digitally on Monday yet not on Tuesday, and some basic login issues.

Four months later, I expected this tool to have either flown the coop and fallen off of digital storytelling radar, or to have molted and left its chick-like technology quirks behind. Sadly, it exists, and still in its infancy stage. Multiple login attempts left me frustrated. A password forgotten led to the creation of another account, which requested a school code, which, having been created and forgotten last school year was eventually deemed irretrievable.

Did I call it quits? Throw in the towel? Snort in frustration over the idiots at LBT mission control?

Yep.

Time slows for no woman! I have an evening in which to play with a digital story telling tool and blog about my experience before I single-parent the next three nights as my husband heads off to the provincials in Kamloops with the senior boys soccer team. (Go Titans, go!)

Two hours later. . .

I am in love, again. Jessica Levitt, Grad Student, Narcissist, falls for yet another Web 2.0 tool. I can't wait to share VoiceThread with the Grade One teacher in my school. It leaves the fledgling LBT behind in the nest.

Please, add your voice or video to the VoiceThread.

My fling with Jing

According to the timeline I developed for this inquiry project in Web 2.0 tool exploration I should have completed my time with Flikr and Picassa. Astute readers of this blog (ummm, hi Joanne and Jennifer) will notice I have deviated from my timeline proposal significantly. It was only natural to overlap Diigo with Jing; really, it just happened. When I initially planned out my time with Diigo I intended it to be exclusive on-on-one time, but no one seems to have gotten hurt by my shared affection. Time flies though, so now that I have to leave Jing in the upper right hand corner of my screen, rather than actively open on my desktop, I should get back on track and return to Flikr and Picassa. But I can't. Storytelling seems to flow so nicely from Jing. So I'm off to visit Little Bird Tales and Voicethread. But first, the Jing affair...

Before I ventured into the screencast world I thought, as I always do, that it was something super techie and it was really going to stretch my capabilities. Was I wrong! It is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, as my daughter's teacher says. . . . except for those hours of my life I will never get back trying to figure out where my clipboard lives on my Macbook Pro. . . .

You see, TechSmith, the company that developed Jing, shared this little tidbit with me on their Jing tutorial page: "Now that you have your new Screencast.com button, you are ready to capture images or videos as usual, and click the button you just made to have embed code copied to your clipboard" (TechSmith, 2011). So I dutifully searched for my clipboard. I remember PMD (Pre-Mac Days) when my clipboard could be called up in a word processing program, but this simple process seemed to elude me on the Mac. After several frustrating searches in the Finder and then on the Screencast.com page looking for this bloody html code that was supposed to be ON MY CLIPBOARD, I finally, accidentally, figured out that it was hiding, where I could not see it, on my clipboard. Make sense? Yeah, not for me either, but when I hit "command + V" the embed code appeared in my draft post. Thanks be to the tech gods!

After this slight glitch Jing swept me off my feet. I captured a screencast for the Grade Five students to help with their inquiry project on diseases,


and one for the Grade Nine students as an at home refresher for an introductory lesson on Diigo.


All of these are hosted on my school library wiki where I have posted my Jing experiments for real time use.

Jing, you were just what I needed. 

Carina Olsen (Kat's Photography)

References
TechSmith Corporation. (2011). "Embed Jing content using Screencast.com." TechSmith. Retrieved from http://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-jing-embed-content-using-screencastcom.html?requestsource=productredirect&redirlang=enu&redirproduct=jing&redirver=2.0.0

I've been cheating on Diigo

I feel like I have developed a good relationship with Diigo, but I need to tell you, it is not exclusive. You see, in order to demonstrate my learning I've had to master the art of the screenshot, and in so doing I have kind of fallen for another Web 2.0 tool.

Hard.

Actually, to be completely honest, I am in love with this new tool. Is it because I get to hear my voice in video captures? Or because I can precisely set the crosshairs to capture the exact portion of the screen? I'm not sure at what point I started pushing Diigo to the back burner, but it's happened, despite my best intentions to give it my all.

We'll still be friends, I promise.

Next post: My new love and I go public.

Why does online success surprise me?

I celebrate every digital achievement: from publishing a post on my blog to manipulating html code to shrink a screen capture, and now this . . .

Diigo will send bookmarks directly to my blog for publication!

Gr. 9 Epic Works

The Tain Bo Cuaillnge 

Explanation of the Irish Epic "Tain Bo Cuailnge".

tags: epic poems poetry tain bo cuailnge 

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I continue to be amazed by what I am capable of in the online world. It may be small potatoes to some, but it is epic to me, in that cheesy, teenage slang use of the word. To culminate my experience with Diigo, and to ensure that I do not lose track of the progress the grade nine students are making in Diigo, I have added a widget to the right hand side of this blog, right underneath my Blog Archive. I can follow the new content they add to their own Diigo Group, thanks to the Teacher Console which allowed me to set up protected student accounts. With this introduction to Diigo, in a safe and controlled environment, it is my wish that they continue to use this practical Web 2.0 tool.

Richardson (2010) worries that "it's not technology that's causing a decline in critical thinking, it's our lack of understanding of how to use technology well" (p. 94). I have taken on the responsibility to ensure that I understand how to use certain technologies, and that I teach and share this knowledge as widely as possible. Thanks for the play, Diigo! Until next time . . .

References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web 2.0 tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

I introduce Tain Bo Cuailnge to Diigo
I set out last week to collect some appropriate websites for one of the senior English teachers in my school. She is beginning a study of epic works across the ages with her two grade nine classes. The classes have been divided into small groups and will be researching Gilgamesh, Ramayana, Aeneid, Kundalakesi, Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Epic of King Gesar, and Chanson de Roland. I continue to live in awe of the breadth of literary knowledge my colleague possesses. Every time I work with her I learn alongside the students. I wanted to impress her with my diligence and determination in finding the best websites for her students to use.

The students researching Gilgamesh, Ramayana, and Aeneid were the lucky ones; several Diigo users have publicly available bookmarks linking to excellent sites. Those looking for links to Tain Bo Cuailnge were not so lucky.


Now I have never done anything new in cyberworld. Never. I have always followed someone else's lead, mimicked something tried and true - I play it  safe online. What I am about to reveal is not ground-breaking in a technological sense, but it is epic from my point of view: today, I introduced Tain Bo Cuailnge to Diigo. That's right, I did something that has never been done, online. I tagged two of my bookmarks with Tain Bo Cuailnge. I am a true pioneer.


I just have to add one more successful moment. In this post, blogger Steven Anderson stated: "Another feature I love is the ability to auto-post to my blog. If you look at the post previous to this one you will see 10 of my favorite saves from last week. I set that up through my preferences. I tell Diigo what saves I want to post (either everything I save or specific tags) and what time I want it to post. And presto! A fresh blog post of resources to share" (Anderson, 2011). Now, presto, in my next post you should get a list of my new Diigo resources. Cross your fingers. . .
References
Anderson, S. (2011, October 14). Why diigo rocks! [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-diigo-rocks.html

Just like Brownies . . . (Girl Guides, not chocolate)

Today I got my first badge. I was approved to open a Diigo Educator Account, and to show their "sincere appreciation to those educators who are taking pioneering steps in getting their students and/or their peers started on collaborative research using Diigo’s powerful features" they have created nifty badges for educators to post on their websites (Diigo, 2011). I even got to choose a colour that matches my blog design!

I am now an official badge-carrying Diigo Education Pioneer. Acquiring my first badge led me to investigate the Web 2.0 badge phenomenon. For more information please have a read of this blog post.

  I have been using Diigo, a social bookmarking tool, since February of this year, but along with a few other Web 2.0 tools I enthusiastically signed up for in the same month (Symbaloo and Tumblr to name a couple), I have either ignored their existence or grossly underutilized their potential. Diigo falls into the grossly neglected category. I quickly learned how to create lists and downloaded the Diigo toolbar onto my desktop, and for the past seven months I have accumulated approximately 150 articles, blog posts, websites, slideshares, archived webinars, videos, and the like. It reminds me of my first few years of teaching when I photocopied entire teaching units with little thought given towards the usability of the stacks of paper I proudly labeled and filed. (And then recycled twelve years later in a massive purge that was initiated by a peculiar smell emanating from one corner of the garage. Several shredded box corners later we discovered what must have been small animal remains sloshing around inside a spare tire.)

And, here I am, back in that same rut, gathering more resources than I could ever need (digital resources, mind, but resources nonetheless), and flying solo on a social bookmarking site. So my goals are to: a) ease up on my hoarding tendencies; b) get connected with others on Diigo; and, c) discover the differences between this new Diigo Educator Account I have and my personal Diigo Account I originally acquired back in February.

Next post: Pioneering update.

References
Diigo V5.0 beta. (2011). "Wear your 'Diigo education pioneer badge' with pride :-)." Retrieved from http://www.diigo.com/teacher_entry/get_badge

Proposal Approved!

As you can see from the text below my photo, I am a part-time grad student at the University of Alberta in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program (TLDL). My full-time gig is as a Teacher-Librarian at a small, independent K-12 school just outside of Vancouver, BC, Canada.

I am enrolled in a course this semester which requires independent exploration of at least six Web 2.0 tools. My learning is to be documented through this blog. The design of my exploration was crafted in the form of a proposal which I submitted earlier this week. The feedback I received last night from my professor was very positive. My proposal is approved!

I intended to explore the following tools in this order:

1. Diigo
2. Flikr and Picassa
3. Video/Screen casting
4. Good Reads vs. Shelfari
5. Digital Storytelling
6. Google Apps

However, this week I was experimenting with the screencasting app, Jing, so the order of tool exploration may shuffle as this blog evolves. For a detailed look at my proposal, this link will take you to the document in the publc file of my Dropbox account.


Next post: Introducing Diigo