S401 Post #3

Today I was browsing through the other feeds I joined and I finally came to the conclusion that if I quit my job and sold my children I might have enough time to read maybe a ¼ of all the available blogs. I am very intrigued at the moment with the feed titled Librarians Internet Index. It is an index of websites that may have a use in a library setting. I could see this being a valuable asset in a school setting when a teacher wants a list of random web sites in order to guide the students through some web analysis and evaluation. Examples from this Thursday’s (it’s updated each Thursday) list are: The Blurb, Tip of the Week, Coyote Bytes, California Schoolfinder, New River Gorge: Bridge Day, The Alliance for Climate Protection and the list continues. I see web evaluation becoming bigger and bigger in school systems. As more students are flooded with information, a generational skill they will have to have is how to evaluate that information. A generation past mine could find success without a high-school diploma, if you could read and write and know basic math, you were going to be O.K. My generation started the computer trend, although I was in high school before I ever typed on a keyboard. The generation of my children already knows how to type and manipulate basic computer operations; information and technology will be a daily part of their lives. If I want to equip them for success, I need to equip them with the basic information fluency skills. Even after this class I may keep my feeds to see what’s going on in the World Wide Web.

S401 Blog Post #2

I’ve been reading some on the different feeds and find myself drawn to The Shifted Librarian. I was especially taken with the description of what the shifted actually means. Jenny Levine writes, “the biggest difference is that they expect information to come to them, whether it's via the Web, email, cell phone, online chat, whatever.” She is talking about today’s students and the generation they are living. I have been teaching school for the past 16 years, in those years I have seen the slow way that education had embraced technology as an important and necessary component of the educational cycle. The students of now are much more technology orientated than those that teach them. Education seems to want to hang on to an antiquated way of doing things, the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” only holds true of you are in charge, what if I do think it’s broke? I guess when I read blogs I tend to read those that agree with my own way of thinking. It’s like being in a huge auditorium and I’m walking around listening to scraps of different conversations, when I hear something that intrigues me, I’ll stop and listen and then move on. Some conversations I would really like to listen to, while others I would rather never listen to again. Blogging has shown me that people are passionate and passion is a good thing but it doesn’t make them an expert on the topic. I know I went way off track but it seemed like a logical cycle of thought.

S401 Posting #1

This particular rambling is more about blogging in general, rather than one specific location or site. I happened to be reading in blogspots in a blog entitled The Shifted Librarian. As I began to skim the latest posting I became aware of how much information is on the web. I realized this because this particular blog had links to several other sites within the article, when I went to some of those sites I was again given the opportunity to go to other links. It seemed like an enormous web, all interconnected somehow, and yes I do see the irony of what I just said. It just struck me as information overload, where a person could seemingly spend countless hours reading what other people think. Herein lies the danger of blogs, in my opinion, unless I am reading blogs from a specific company or source, i.e. National Geographic, what I am reading is still only someone’s personal thoughts. Even if the person is qualified and trained in whatever they are rambling about it is still their opinion. I need to be careful and remember that as I read about all the negativity that current librarians seem to be portraying on blog sites. I know that not all librarians are unhappy, yet someone who is a follower or naïve may decide on issues based not on their own experiences but on those experienced by others. I learned I need to read these blogs for what they are, one person’s thoughts and ideas which they have the right to share, but that doesn’t mean I need to listen to what they say.

I just finished with some small cosmetic additions to my presentation. I was thinking of the possibilities of a similar project in my classroom and thought that I could present it as a type of personal history, family background, a sort of "Where do I come from?" project. For a younger age group, perhaps elementary, you could stick with the basics of a country report and include such elements as geography, culture and religion, recent history, past history, and so on. To make it more relevant to them I would ask that they be able to identify a reason for their choice of this country. An example would be my great-great-grandfather was from Ireland, so I chose Ireland for my country. For the older students, high school and middle school, I would add the personal elements of trying to find documents or visible proof of an ancestor in a distant time. As far as correlating this to Indiana's Language Arts standards it would be simple to devise an entire project that also targets the specific skills. I could incorporate all of Standard 2: Comprehension and Analysis of Nonfiction and Informational Text, as well as standards four and five, Writing: Processes and Features and Writing: Applications. I suppose like most students I wasn't very happy with the project to begin with; I perceived it as something to occupy my time. It was only with reflection and assessment of my own work that I was able to see the value in what I accomplished. In my teaching career, I sometimes fall into the mode of teaching a curriculum because it is what I have taught in the past, or maybe because it was easier. I can understand now how much more potent my lessons could be if I were to engage the students on a personal level. I know this sounds so Utopian, and perhaps it is, but someone had to think of Utopia to begin with.

Done, I'm done. That's all I really want to say. No, I have a much better understanding of what the word inquiry means. I would have told you before that it was a fancy term for research. Now I am able to see how much more it actually is. I have also come to better understand one of my favorite terms from this experience; that term is information fluency. In Callison's blue book it is defined as, "the ability to analyze information needs and to move confidently among media, information, and computer literacy skills, resulting in the effective application of a strategy or strategies that will best meet those needs." I think that this project was exactly that, it forced me to be or try to be as information literate as I could be.

I can give a resounding yes as I saved my project for the last time (I think). It was a journey that made me realize what I put my students through when I assign a project. Their hesitancy, their doubt, their anger are suddenly very understandable. Even with a time-line and guidance, at times I felt all alone, that I had frustrations and questions that I needed answered and no one was willing to help me. I know this isn't reality but it's honestly how I felt at the time. In this phase of wishing I would like to think that I have come up with a project that fulfills what I wanted out of it. Although upon reflection I would have probably done a few things differently. One would have been the gathering of information from a much earlier date. Another would have been selecting my focus earlier. If I could have managed to find a site like tools4teachers earlier, this might have helped me narrow and focus what I wanted. I believe the strength of my project is the simplicity and the design of the information presented. I designed this project for young boys, probably between the ages of 8-10. The weakness would be the same; as they grow older and want or need to know more in-depth information, I will not have it available. If I could name a challenge it would be that I had to wade through wave after wave of Siberian information. I finally had to stop using anything that ended in ru (the Russian .com) because I didn't have the time to go through every single Russian women who wanted to be a bride. If I had to describe my personal approach to inquiry before this project it would have been one of nonchalance. I would have believed that with my background I would have started and ended this project with ease. After, I realized how very little I understood about the emotions that go along with a project, especially one that has personal connections with it. Well, long enough. I'll finish soon.