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

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.