Three disruptive and converging conditions in today’s teaching and learning:

• The future is unpredictable. We don’t know what we are preparing our students for.
• Our students are networked.
• We’re working in a new information environment.

What is a video game?

• competitive
• challenging
• fun
• uses a different environment
• exceptionally tasty patterns of reality
• have roles and rules

Games today are a whole experience – a culture. As they advance, video games don’t get simpler, they get more complex because the brain demands it. The mind at play craves complexity, so how do we put student minds at play.

The most needed skills in the workforce according to a recent study are: professionalism, teamwork, oral communications, written communications, critical thinking/problem solving.

Video games as learning tools are something that educators are just starting to explore. Our students come to us with brand new learning skills and we have to tap into them and change the assignments we give. An easy read on this topic is How Computer Games Help Children Learn by David Williamson Shaffer.

This generation of students are competitive, risk taking, sociable (even games that you play by yourself, the game is social in nature), believe in the role of luck, and self-confident.

Many games come with no manual, so kids have to figure out what the rules and roles are. They have to get past the level “boss” in order to advance. These skills are important to kids futures in the workplace. Many times kids see the teacher as the level boss who tried to stop their advancement. Teachers should be the strategy guides that give kids the “cheats” that help them move forward. The “cheats” are the curriculum or learning standards.

There is new movement towards designing games that are built around real world issues, for example, Food Force. This free game can be downloaded and asks players to help get food to hungry people.

We’ve all heard the quote about students having to power down when they go to school. Does this mean that students believe they have to stop thinking when they come to school? Playing some of these video games is more intellectually stimulating than anything done in school.

Can video games save education? What does this new research mean for educators? Video games and social networks are valuable learning experiences, but how can we harness the power of that learning and use it in the classroom? Maybe we need to look at the kinds of experiences kids have playing games and bring those same experiences into the classroom.

Side note: The digital divide between the technology haves and have nots is going to have more impact than we know right now. Other countries are working on a plan to have broadband internet access for all citizens, while we are not.

The video game culture has expanded into urban games where people are playing games in real situations. Here’s an example.

Playing the information – research as a video game. Players amass points by making responsible and effective use of information found on the internet.

Cheating in the video game culture – players try to win the game by cheating or changing the rules.

Another byproduct of the video game culture is that you can play the game through your digital editing software and make a video using the video game characters and setting. This is called machinima.

Do teachers need to become video game creators? Probably not, but wouldn’t it be great if we could take rules and roles concepts of video gaming and create more authentic assignments for our students? It’s definitely something to think about. We’ve been trying to use real world situations and problems with our research projects, but maybe incorporating some role-playing and rules in a more thoughtful way would help us to make research more engaging for students.

To get started:

Great last thought: Education that is targeted at you, but doesn’t include you, isn’t worth sitting still for.

Social bookmarking sites allow us to share all of the great web sites that we find.

A comparison of three bookmarking sites from this session can be found on the Melissa ISD moodle site at http://web.melissaisd.org. Login as Guest and choose Teacher Tech Tools.

Tools discussed were Diigo, del.icio.us, and Trailfire.

Diigo has a sticky note feature that is similar to the notes field on del.icio.us.

Trailfire allows students to create a “trail” of resources about a particular topic. Trails can be public or private.

Kids are bored in school because teachers follow their instructional “recipes” to the letter and never branch out and experiment. Tools we have today can help us vary “the menu” to make instruction a little more exciting.

Assessment helps us determine the value of learning. Traditionally the teacher determines the value. Today Google is creating an authentic e-portfolio for everyone. Wes presents the idea that we should be helping students create things that are posted on the web, so that when future employers Google their names, they will find samples of their work.

Using web 2.0 tools helps a teacher look directly into the mind of the student to see what they know and don’t know.

Wes played the video I posted earlier this week, Learning to Change, and we had a brief discussion to help us process it. Although he admitted that the ideas presented might be “pie in the sky” we have to do what we can to move ourselves forward. He offers a summer of professional learning on his wiki – Teach Digital.

Learning is still about high expectations, but also about differentiation and blended learning. When looking at using technology, decide if the tool makes the learning interactive and asynchronous.

Some tools that can be used:

• Find a tool that lets you tell a story online. Voicethread is one example. When we ask students to explain their learning in their own words, powerful things can happen.
• Allan Levine’s site – 50 Web 2.0 ways to tell a story (cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+ways
• Google Notebook should be used for Internet research to help kids keep track of web addresses (check acceptable use policy for minimum age to have a Google account)
• Xtimeline – designed to create timelines with links and images
• Open web publishing – Google yourself and encourage students to Google themselves
• Polleverywhere allows text message voting
• Kids have phones, phones are powerful, we don’t have enought classtime – figure out a why to use them

Teachers are leaders and inventors and have influence. Use some of this stuff and encourage others to do the same.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. — Albert Einstein

I caught the tail end of November’s presentation after Lee Rainie’s session ended. As I entered the room, he was very excitedly demonstrating how to make your own customized Google search engine that just searches the sites you tell it to search. Sounds like a pretty nifty idea. For more on this session and the ideas it included, see Digital Deb’s post over at Plugged In.

In this highly entertaining session, two big names in the world of instructional technology debated the pros and cons of Wikipedia, now known as the world’s largest encyclopedia. Kathy participated virtually via Skype, while Alan was there at the TLA conference. Kathy was at a little disadvantage, since Alan had control of the computer on which she appeared, but both presenters made some good points about the good and not so good aspects of Wikipedia. The back and forth banter was pretty rapid-fire, but here is a quasi-transcript of their ideas:

Moderator: What is your overall impression of Wikipedia?

KS says she has difficulty finding a way to validate information on Wikipedia. How do students determine if the information is correct? We can’t see the contributor’s name.

AN takes a conceptual approach. It is not an information tool, but a publishing tool/forum for children to use

KS agrees, but says they don’t sell themselves as that

AN gives an example of a Wikipedia entry for the Pitot House in New Orleans that was written by a 3^rd grade class researching the landmark. Says we can use the History tab to see different iterations of the article under the name of the teacher. Changes are still being made.

KS agrees that using a wiki as a publishing tool is one of the most powerful things we can do with students

AN says we don’t want to evaluate new tools using old thinking.  Role of the teacher is to help students evaluate new information.

KS doesn’t like what Wikipedia does to help its articles come to the top of a Google results list. She says Google is a popularity search engine – they use the number of times a site is linked to to determine relevancy. In some articles on Wikipedia, authors provide links to other web sites that will provide additional information on the topic, but Wikipedia hides the links to those web sites from the Google search engine, So even though another site might be more authoritative on a particular topic, the Wikipedia article on that topic is going to rise to the top of the Google results list when a Google search is done. The other resources that authors are using, are not assigned their appropriate “popularity” because those links aren’t seen by Google. She calls this a “slimy practice” by Wikipedia.

AN counters by saying that Google also looks at title of site, URL and content too when sorting and determining relevance.  Says the knowledge of the masses has validity. He believes we all have the responsibility to correct misinformation in Wikipedia.

KS says only 17 % of the world’s population is on the Internet and that the masses aren’t correcting Wikipedia. Kids believe that using one source for research is ok.

AN says that the power of Wikipedia is when students do good research using several sources then publish or correct an article.

Moderator: How do you critically evaluate an entry?

AN says that we need to read AND write on the Internet, just as we read and write on paper.  Many articles are rejected – there is academic rigor involved. What is published gets comments from all over the world. It’s hard to evaluate something you don’t know anything about. Learn about how it works. Use RSS feature to subscribe to an article and its corrections/changes.

KS still argues that the articles should have to be signed with the author’s real name and brings up the saying “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” Wikipedia’s editors have no credentials. She also mentions  GoogleKnol coming as a competitor to Wikiepdia.

Moderator: quotes The World is Flat as saying that it is too easy to slander people because there is no one accountable for the information. What keeps people from slandering others?

AN cites a study that looked at number of errors in Britannica and Wikipedia and found that the average error rate in Britannica is 3, Wikipedia is 4. He also cites as an example that the Oxford English Dictionary began asking anyone to contribute the definition of a new word in 1863. He says that we can’t just rely on scholars to provide information.

KS says that since there are no citations in many articles, that there is lots of plagiarism. Top 10 things looked up indicate that the most users are young people. We need to help students look at everything critically. She recommends using it as a source consulted, but not cited.

AN says that certain controversial topic articles cannot be edited by anyone, e.g., Hilary Clinton and the campaign – authors must have clearance. Telling students not to use Wikipedia doesn’t help them learn to deal with it.

Moderator: Does Wikipedia fill a need for pop culture information?

KS says everything can be found easily which makes it popular. It is larger than any print encyclopedia. Some articles contain opinion which can influence students not ready to determine the difference from fact and opinion.

AN references Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Wikipedia can tell you what people think about things, not necessarily what the facts are. Collaboration is expected in 21^st century – a wiki is a tool for collaboration.

No solutions were found, but both sides gave the audience much to think about regarding Wikipedia and its place in the Web 2.0 world.

Lee Rainie is the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. This organization does original research to determine how the Internet impacts people in their daily lives. His presentation was fast-moving and full of research findings about how information and communication are changing and the role that libraries can play in the digital age.

When Rainie first started this research in 1999, he was surprised to find that librarians were some of the most avid consumers of Internet content. Since that time, however, librarians have been identified as the #1 stakeholder in the work of the Project. His latest studies have found that with the advent of Web 2.0 (the “social” web), there has been a major shift in the social lives of Americans today that has big implications for libraries and they way that they serve their communities.

Rainie discussed 8 hallmarks of the Internet today:
1. Media and gadgets – Everyone uses media and has technology gadgets.  97% of computer users use the Internet. The web itself has become a storage device that allows people to access the information they want via whatever device they have access to.

2. Broadband access – More than ½ the population now have broadband Internet access at home. The web has become the central information center and the first place people go for answers to questions.

3. Wireless connectivity – allows access anywhere. This connectivity has changed the way we have to think about the digital divide and the importance of e-mail.

4. Content creation – Ordinary people are now publishers and creators of their own content. These new content creators post photos, create social networking profiles, blog (either on a blog site or on their social networking profile), create their own web sites and help others create sites, take other online content and use it to make something new (mashup), and create avatars, or online identities. 

5. Many different audiences – All of these new content creators have some sort of audience that uses video sharing sites, reads blogs, uses wiki sites for information, downloads podcasts, etc.

6. Sharing knowledge and feelings – People are using these new web tools to share what they know and what they feel. By doing this they are creating online conversations and communities. There are many services that allow users to rate people, products or services and communicate their feelings about them. Other users tag online content or make comments on videos, photos, blog posts.

7. Customization of the web – People are customizing their Internet experience with web 2.0 tools, e.g., iGoogle and myYahoo pages.  Others use RSS feeds to get the news/information they want.

8. Different people use technology in different ways. Rainie’s findings have identified three tiers of Internet users:

High tier users

• OMNIVORES have the most info gadgets and participate voraciously in content creation
• CONNECTORS are more into e-mail cell phones and the social networking aspect of the Internet
• LACKLUSTER VETERANS are frequent internet users of the Internet, but don’t really love it
• PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCERS are positive about technology and the way it helps them do their jobs

Middle tier users

• MOBILE CENTRICS – embrace the cell phone and its capabilities; includes a high share of African-Americans and Latinos
• CONNECTED BUT HASSLED - have a lot of technology but don’t like how it intrudes into their lives

Low tier users:

• INEXPERIENCED EXPERIMENTERS – occasionally take advantage of online connectivity and can use it if they are shown how to do it
• LIGHT BUT SATISFIED – use technology but it does not play a central role in their lives. These are the people you have to call and say “Did you get my e-mail?”
• INDIFFERENTS – have some technology, but don’t like it
• OFF THE NETWORK – do not have cell phones or use the Internet at all. These people tend to be older or without the resources to buy technology

All this connectivity changes our relationship to information and to each other. We are living life in a “continuous state of partial attention.” The validating of information becomes more social.

Libraries need to plug into people’s social networks as a source of information. People perceive the Internet as a “node” on their social network to fill in gaps when friends can’t help them solve a problem.  Libraries should be one of the sources that they can turn to easily.

Libraries should also help teach new literacies. Rainie ended his presentation with a reference to a post by Pam Berger in her InfoSearcher blog. In her post, Pam identifies the new literacies required by the digital age:

graphic literacy – the language of the screen

navigation literacy – the transition to nonlinear formats

context literacy – the importance of seeing connections

focus – the value of reflection

skepticism – the capacity to evaluate

ethical behavior – the will to be responsible

Overall, an excellent presentation that was worth getting up for the 8:00 start time!

 19th Century Schoolbooks

http://digital.library.pitt.edu/n/nietz/

Searchable full texts of 142 American textbooks of the 19th century offer insights into what 19th century American students were taught about history, arithmetic, art, geography, and other topics.

•  100 Things To Do with Google Maps Mashups – gmapsmania http://gmapsmania.googlepages.com/100thingstodowithgooglemapsmashups

I believe that the future of reference service lies not in finding information, but in helping people understand it through visualization.

These Google Maps mashups demonstrate things like finding wi-fi hotspots, a public toilet, world hostels, webcams, etc., and tracking packages or US or Canadian flights in real time.

•  Access Newspaper Archive Institutional Version http://access.newspaperarchive.com/InvalidIP.aspx

“a new program that gives public libraries and K-12 schools around the world FREE access to NewspaperARCHIVE.com’s historical newspaper database. Students and library patrons can browse tens of millions of newspaper pages in our archive for free through your institution. This free version of Access NewspaperARCHIVE will allow users to view, save and print full-page newspapers dating from 1759 to 1977.” For obvious reasons, I wasn’t able to try this out, but it certainly seems worth the effort for school media specialists to download the application form and send it in.

•  Ballot Box

http://governing.typepad.com/ballotbox/

If you can’t get enough political news and analysis, check out this new politics blog from the experts at Governing.com who routinely track federal, state and local government.

•  Build a Network, Not a Destination – Readership Institute http://www.readership.org/blog2/2007/04/build-network-not-destination.html

This advice for news media on building websites that attract and retain readers would apply equally well to libraries’ websites.

•  Butterfly Lab

http://www.naturemuseum.org/online/thebutterflylab/index.htm

Lots of information, pictures and diagrams on butterflies and their anatomy, life cycle, behavior, and interdependence. Browsable by species.

Includes an Ask the Expert feature and suggested activities.

•  Government Information Online – Ask a Librarian http://govtinfo.org/ Sometimes the answers you need are only available in hard-to-find government publications, so if you don’t have a government documents librarian right at hand, you can use this “free national online information service supported by nearly thirty public, academic, and state libraries throughout the United States. Participating librarians specialize in finding government information sources of all kinds, and will try to answer your questions through chat or email.”

•  Hairstylesdesign.com

http://www.hairstylesdesign.com/

The hairstyle galleries may help you find young men and women find a great hairdo before a visit to the stylist. Choose from men’s or women’s, short, medium, or long, formal or celebrity styles. Also check out galleries from Oscar and MTV award shows. There’s not much here for older customers, though.

•  The Industry Standard

http://www.thestandard.com/

If you were in on the early heady days of the world wide web, you were almost certainly reading The Industry Standard for the latest news. It folded as a print publication, but still exists online here, as a source of industry news and predictions.

•  Movie Toolbox: 85+ Tools and Resources for Movie Fans http://mashable.com/2007/09/16/movie-toolbox/

Includes online catalogs, recommendation engines, master indexes, encyclopedic sources, review sites, free streaming video sites, and more.

•  Online Collections from the Wisconsin Historical Museum http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/collections/online/

The online collections provide hundreds of images of Children’s Clothing, Needlework Samplers, Quilts, Moccasins, and Dolls.

•  Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines

http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-web20-search-engines

Engines that use Web 2.0 technologies to improve relevance. “Some offer functionality that’s slowly making its way into traditional search engines. Others further the attempt to traverse the invisible Web and index other previously unsearchable research sources.”

Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2008.

A six-months archive is available on the web site.

Presenters: Dr. Mary Ann Bell, Dr. Holly Weimar, Sam Houston State University

Many teachers and librarians have not had time to explore web 2.o tools. Blogs are familiar, but other tools are not.

Web 1.0 = presented information to users

Web 2.0 = users can add their own information

ABCs of Web 2.0
gives a little more detail into what Web 2.0 is. My favorites are P -participation required and U – users are what drive the web!

How can librarians in teachers learn about Web 2.o in a filtered environment? Districts are starting to allow access to some Web 2.0 tools and using them with students.

Start out by being a blog reader. Can subscribe to blogs via e-mail, but a better way is to use a blog aggregator.

Before starting a blog, know what you will do with it and be able to commit time to it. Regular posts are required.

Another way to start is by opening a Google account and using all of the tools they have to offer.

When you’re comfortable with blogs, you might move on to wikis or join a ning, which is a community of like-minded people.

Try out a web 2.0 tutorial, like MISD’s Learning Through Play.

Some great new tools are VoiceThread and Twitter. Twitter is like blogging meets instant messaging. You can follow other Twitter users and keep up with their new ideas. Twitter posts can be no longer than 140 characters.

Other fun and free web 2.0 sites are featured at Knock Your Socks Off.

Web 2.0 organizational tools:
Ta-da list
43 Things
Remember the Milk

60 Second Science – Scientific American
News, articles and daily 60-second podcasts from Scientific American.
Search or browse the archive by category. Recent podcasts have tackled issues like brain sex differences, false memories, the Dover “Scopes Trial,” “superdupernovas,” etc.

Christmas Traditions Around the World
An annotated guide to numerous sites detailing international Christmas traditions. Teachers and librarians may especially be inspired by an elementary school’s internet scavenger hunts.

List of Films Based on Poems – Wikipedia
And far more of them than you would ever guess. It’s not just Beowulf and Dr. Seuss books that have inspired moviemakers, but also Gunga Din, The Raven, Jabberwocky, The Cremation of Sam McGee and many others.

My Family Health Portrait
Construct your family medical history here and print it out whenever you go to a new doctor; it will save you the effort of trying to remember once again who in your extended family had what medical condition.

NPR Music
A new service that National Public Radio calls “a free, multi-genre, multimedia Web site that presents the best of public radio music.” Listen to or watch concerts, studio sessions, and interviews, and check out news and reviews.

Periodic Table of Comic Books
“Click on an element to see a list of comic book pages involving that element,” then click on thumbnails to see the whole strip. Another wonderfully sneaky way to interest kids in science.

Any one who is interested in learning along with us is welcome. You won’t be eligible for staff development credit or prizes, but we’d be glad to have you along for the ride.

At the TLA District 5 Fall Meeting on Saturday, I presented a session on the Learning 2.0 program that we will be launching in our district on October 22. In lieu of a handout, I promised the participants that I would post the resources I used in the presentation, so here they are!

Learning 2.0 – original program created by Helene Blowers for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library

School Library Learning 2.0 – adapted by the California School Library Association

Learning Through Play – adapted by Mary Woodard, Mesquite ISD Library Services

43 Things I might want to do this year – article by Stephen Abram

43things.com

The Machine Is Us/ing Us – Web 2.0 video

Creative Commons

Learning 23 Things – My School Library Learning 2.0 blog

RSS in Plain English – Common Craft video

Social Bookmarking in Plain English – Common Craft video

Links to the Web 2.0 Tools Discussed

Image Citation:
“Logo 2.0.” Gualtierocatrame. 30 Apr 2007. 8 Oct 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gualtierocatrame/478181093/>.

In his very perceptive article Rick Anderson writes:

We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning.

While I don’t think we need to abandon the teaching of research skills altogether, I do think that it’s important for us to work at eliminating the barriers to locating the information by creating intuitive user interfaces that use natural language instead of “librarian-ese.” As Anderson says, it’s hard to reach every patron personally, and many of our students and their parents are using our resources at home where there isn’t a friendly librarian on hand to help them know where to look. If we can successfully create these intuitive online library environments, our lessons can focus less on location of information and more on the critical thinking skills of using information.

Lastly, Anderson urges librarians to “acknowledge and adapt to radical, fundamental change” that we are seeing in our society today. Earlier this month the National School Board Association released a study about teenagers and their online behaviors. One finding was that

students report that they are spending almost as much time using social networking services and Web sites as they spend watching television. Among teens who use social networking sites, that amounts to about 9 hours a week online, compared to 10 hours a week watching television.

If we don’t adapt and change the ways that we relate to these young people, we become irrelevant to their world and left in the dust. The opportunity to be an integral part of our students’ online lives is there – are we willing to take it?