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CATEGORY: Professional Development |
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Every now and then, Mary Ann is seized by an idea or topic that really takes hold of her, piques her interest, and engenders new enthusiasm for learning and exploring. This year's big idea has been data visualization. She has discovered that she had been a fan of various presentations of data visualization without being aware of the term. Read and "see" what she's got to say about it in this month's Belltones.
Mary Alice is often asked, "Have you ever been a coach? You always stay so positive and have upbeat suggestions." No, she, says, she hasn't; nor is she immune to negative thoughts. But challenges notwithstanding, media specialists have "pretty darn good jogs," and so this month she offers a few ideas to encourage positive thinking in the face of those challenges.
Presented by a cadre of nationally known speakers with more than 20 years of product experience, Capstone's professional development program incorporates best practices with research-based products on a range of dynamic topics.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Mar 2010
In this age of easy access to Google, standardized testing, and AP curriculums, why should we teach research skills? Don't students "know everything" about research and the web? Hardly! Carolyn Foote has a lot to say about this, and even more about why teaching research skills counts for even more today than in the past. What we're striving for, she says, is student empowerment.
Most of today's teachers are comfortable with the notion of technology inclusion. On nearly every campus today, you will see students using online or software programs to supplement and extend learning. Infusion is another paradigm altogether, one that emphasizes technology as an essential partner—and many times, as the creative element—in traditional learning. Technology applications become one of many parts that contribute to the everyday education of students. Learning remains curriculum-based, but those tech apps—research, digital storytelling, websites—are now embedded into the disciplines.
After reading an interesting Library Journal piece by Tom Peters entitled "The Future of Reading: As the Book Changes Form, the Library Must Champion Its Own Power Base—Readers," Stephen Abram is moved to ask, Is reading in jeopardy? Personally and professionally, he says, he really doubts it, but …
With online learning growing by a rate of 30% over the past few years, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, once-lonely and isolated education professionals are now taking advantage of tech-based tools and platforms and connecting like never before. From self-paced courses, product training, instructional seminars, and real-time information resources to video segments and streaming content, educators have plenty of ways to hone up on just about anything.
The advent of the internet and Web 2.0 has significantly changed our relationship to information and personal learning opportunities outside of formal education, notes author Steve Hargadon. The technology that took this amazing change and multiplied it tenfold is an underlying theme of Hargadon's article, which ranges across social networking, Web 2.0, the emergence of educational networking, and what he sees as the first real area of significant adoption for educational networking: professional development for educators.
Distributed scoring uses online services to break down physical barriers historically associated with scoring large-scale assessments, enabling experienced scorers to effectively score assessments from home.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Feb 2010
Each month registered Module of the Month Club members will have unlimited access to one selected module from the Teachscape XL library.
News/Free Resources - Posted 19 Feb 2010
The competition gives educators an opportunity to win one of two $1,500 scholarships to attend this year's ISTE 2010 conference in Denver in June.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Feb 2010
Through the partnership, schools and districts can purchase a package of professional development resources from the NSTA Learning Center along with their netTrekker subscription.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Feb 2010
PreK-12 educators can enter the PBS Teachers Innovation Awards program through March 12 for a chance to win a behind-the-scenes trip to the premier annual PBS event and other prizes.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jan 2010
The platform will enable easy sharing of educator-generated success stories on technology use in the classroom.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Jan 2010
The AASL Affiliate Assembly requested that the AASL Board of Directors choose a title for its professionals that is clear to other educators, administrators, and the public, and that presents a common nomenclature for all publications and advocacy efforts.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jan 2010
People say it all the time: If you want to keep up in today's fast-moving world of technology, keep a kid around. In other words, just ask a Digital Native—someone who has grown up with computers and the internet. Well, Mary Ann believes that we can absolutely learn from our students, children, and even grandchildren. At the same time, though, she believes that adults need to be careful not to attribute more expertise and understanding to youngsters than is justified.
In her last Media Center column (November/December 2009), Mary Alice examined the power of primary sources and shared ideas for using them to enhance student learning. This month, she discusses how educators can learn how to add power to their teaching by using Teaching With Primary Sources Direct, or TPS Direct, a powerful, high-quality, free online professional development tool from the Library of Congress.
We seem to be moving inexorably toward an infinitely more complex world where specialization is necessary because there's not enough time to be good at so many things. We're also seeing the demise of many jobs that had low barriers to entry. That is, they did not require too much education or experience. Our children are faced with fewer low-skill jobs and the need for higher levels of skill to be assured of a working wage that can support an individual or family at a standard of living better than or similar to that of their parents. Scary for parents and educators? Read Stephen Abram's thoughts!
Scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010, Discovery Educator Network SCIcon 2010 is designed to help participants transform science instruction with digital media and to improve student achievement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 15 Dec 2009
Central Michigan University, Northwest Nazarene University, and Madonna University are the latest of 28 higher education institutions to offer teachers graduate credit
for PBS TeacherLine's courses.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Nov 2009
The consortium is designed to offer a research-based approach for transforming chronically struggling schools into successful learning environments without requiring mass dismissals of staff, school closures or turnover to charters or outside management organizations.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Nov 2009
The guides offer best practices on building standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction, professional development, and learning environments.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Nov 2009
More than 130 online courses for teachers in science, math, reading and language arts, instructional technology, and instructional strategies start Jan. 27, 2010.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Nov 2009
The new resource is designed to help schools struggling to meet the challenge of simultaneously improving students’ mastery of mathematics and advancing their academic language development.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Nov 2009
The Milestones for Improving Learning and Education Guide is a tool designed to help practitioners evaluate their 21st Century skills initiatives.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Nov 2009
PBS TeacherLine has received nearly $600,000 in grant funding from NASA to create online courses and free professional development resources for "Teaching Climate Change"
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 Nov 2009
The new partnership combines netTrekker's digital resources with CyberSmart! Online Workshops to support 21st century teaching and learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 Nov 2009
How does one keep up as the tools and resources for educators. Mary Ann offers both her own advice and that of a former students of her in this helpful edition of Belltones.
Samsula School has been a successful institution since its inception in 1912, in no small part due to the commitment and involvement of the Samsula, Fla., community. But the school community had to think on its feet in February 2008 when the public school district announced its intention to close the doors of the small, rural campus, along with those of several other rural and minority schools across the county. Johanna Riddle recounts how that thinking led to action … and the hammering out of an alliance with a successful charter school that kept Samsula's doors open.
An increasing number of K–12 academic institutions are going online, changing the way they teach in response to how today’s students today want to learn. Industry organizations such as the International Association for K–12 Online Learning (iNACOL) believe online learning is revolutionizing global education, and those academic institutions with strong elearning strategies will advance to help prepare students to reach their full potential in a digital age. Today’s students want more options when it comes to education, and online learning is providing new opportunities for universal access to the best possible education for all students, regardless of ability, background, income level, or geography.
The November 17, 2009 webinar focuses on resources and strategies to help students understand how germs, viruses, and vaccinations work.
News/Free Resources - Posted 29 Oct 2009
The collaboration has resulted in the first integration of Moodle and Cisco WebEx Training Center, a live or on demand web conferencing and training platform that engages learners with interactive, media-rich online instruction.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Oct 2009
For October 15, 2009: Teaching students how to think mathematically through hands-on technology is one of the goals at the Center for Technology and Teacher Education.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 Oct 2009
By
Linda C. Joseph
Offering tips, tools, and suggestions for easing into the teaching field, New Teacher Survival Central provides educators with essentials such as classroom management techniques, ideas for connecting classroom activities to the curriculum, lesson plans, peer-networking resources, and tools to create engaging learning centers.
News/Free Resources - Posted 14 Oct 2009
There's been a lot happening with Wolfram|Alpha since we linked you to an Information Today, Inc. NewsBreak on its arrival last May. Most recently, we noted—and are herewith passing on to you—an excellent posting at ResourceShelf on moves at Wolfram|Alpha on behalf of educators and students, including plans for an October 21 Homework Day Webcast.
News/Cool Links - Posted 12 Oct 2009
“Student-Powered Podcasting: Teaching for 21st-Century Literacy” defines what podcasts are and explains why they are important to students. The book leads Mac and PC users through tutorials on the audio editing programs GarageBand and Audacity, taking them through an entire project from start to finish.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Sep 2009
Global Education: Using Technology to Bring the World to Your Students is written to provide educators with the tools they need to help students gain a more global perspective and to prepare them for an increasingly interconnected world.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Sep 2009
Focusing on how to incorporate digital content and the latest educational technologies into classroom instruction, the Fourth Annual streamathon and the Fall 2009 Virtual Conference showcase best practices and highlight new techniques attendees can apply to their classroom lessons to improve student achievement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 09 Sep 2009
Designed for both individuals and academic organizations, the Elluminate Teacher Certification Program is available to anyone as a public or private course, online or onsite. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees earn two academic or continuing education credits.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Sep 2009
There is no better way to enhance your knowledge of a topic than to teach it and engage in discussion with a diverse group of graduate students representing various age groups and professional experiences including practicing media specialists, classroom teachers, and paraprofessionals. This column reflects Mary Alice's recent experience teaching an online reference course for Minnesota State University–Mankato and discussions with other media professionals.
As a kid, Mary Ann used to collect insects, setting the critters into their respective boxes and tagging them by laboriously printing information on little slips of paper. Apparently the process of classifying appealed to her deeply, and ultimately lead to … what else? … this month's discussion of tags, folksonomies, and tagging as a participatory sport and useful intellectual activity.
Looking at the world around us, it seems clear that digital photography and video are here to stay—and they should be used in K–12 education. Equipment prices have dropped significantly; cameras and other digital devices can be placed in students’ hands without concern. In this article, Charlie Doe takes a look at some of the possibilities for the classroom and media center.
PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 host a series of free webinars for educators on digital media and technology in education. The new fall line up of PBS Teachers LIVE! webinars includes topics on science, digital storytelling, geography, social studies, education in the digital age, and online professional development and teaching resources.
News/Free Resources - Posted 13 Aug 2009
The upgrades and enhancements offer educators improved search capabilities, as well as expanded student access and new interactive games and tutorials.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Aug 2009
The platform now includes curriculum mapping to the core concepts and critical skills found in standards, varied student assessments that provide timely data for teachers, Classroom Walkthroughs for measuring instructional practices against modern research, and a host of online learning modules for driving classroom instructional practice.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Jul 2009
The strategic partnership with the Gabriel Piedrahita-Uribe Foundation, based in Cali, Colombia, is designed to bring high quality learning resources, safe communication tools, and collaborative experiences to Spanish-speaking educators and their students around the world.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Jul 2009
Any number of recent studies are concluding that reading is declining, primarily the reading of novels and longer works of nonfiction. Pundits are remarking that online reading is changing their personal reading behaviors. Doug Johnson infers from this and other observations that we are rapidly becoming a "postliterate society." In Doug's feature, you can find out just what he means by that, and learn how libraries can serve this postliterate society.
Collaboration is certainly the way that today’s learners prefer to work. Technology-savvy students are creating a demand for learning and communicating collaboratively at school, just as they do at home. This trend is not only creating a new kind of learner but a new kind of educator as well—one who specializes in developing and sustaining a nexus for cooperative learning and who has the skills, knowledge, and contacts to connect students with resources. Enter Roxana Hadad—“The Collaborator.”
In this month’s column Stephen highlights some thinking in his home province of Ontario. He is encouraged, he says, that some of the political leaders in the educational sector are trying to move beyond testing and actually into practicing 21st-century strategies. At the end of April 2009 the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) released a discussion paper titled “What If? Technology in the 21st Century Classroom”
According to experts Joellen Killion and Cheryl Williams, in order to reflect the current research, to change teaching practice, and to increase student achievement, professional development must be ongoing, job-embedded, relevant to the teacher’s instructional needs, and collaborative in nature. The advent of quality online professional learning combined with in-person, peer-based professional learning communities has enabled this approach to professional development to have the greatest success for increasing teaching quality and student learning. Read on to learn more of Killion's and Williams’ assessment of the PD scene.
PBS TeacherLine has enhanced its online suite of professional development resources and tools that help teacher leaders, coaches, and mentors provide sustained, collaborative support to peers.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Jun 2009
The postings on the Inside Google Book Search blog, usually by folks from the Google Books Online team, are thoughtful, sometimes provocative, often featuring multiple media, and, of course, full of news about new features brought online at Google Books. They're very busy folks, so it's worth keeping up with them.
News/Cool Links - Posted 18 Jun 2009
The October 2009 program will share Internet pioneer and Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf as keynote speaker with the concurrent and co-located Internet Librarian conference, and will feature sessions like Trying Not to Filter: Internet Filtering Technologies Update, Gaming in the Library: The Hows and Whys, Expanding the Concept of Library … and more!
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Jun 2009
The new self-paced online courses are designed for K-12 educators and can be applied for continuing education, salary advancement recertification, and graduate credit programs.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Jun 2009
The summit, which will take place solely online, affords education, policy, civic, community, and business leaders the opportunity to interact with one another and discuss important education reform initiatives. The Cyber Summit leads up to the National Education Summit on 21st Century Skills, which will take place on June 12 in Washington, D.C.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 May 2009
There is a dirty little secret out there in school land, and it involves money and time wasted due to poor purchasing. Far too often, supplies, equipment, software, books, consumables, and other materials are bought (frequently in bulk), but they turn out to be huge disappointments that see little or no use. Enter Mary Ann Bell, with “one of those ‘do as I say, not as I do’ missives,” to advise you and address this situation.
Special needs students—those with physical, behavioral, cognitive, and learning disabilities—represent a diverse range of learners. Because of the nature of the job, media specialists must provide resources that meet their needs. There are many ways you can do this, making connections to a broad range of learning needs and working with a broad range of teachers, and in this month’s Media Center column, Mary Alice gives you some guidance.
A new, free white paper—"Best Practices for Using Games & Simulations in the Classroom"—that tackles the practical challenges teachers face when they use video games was released this past February by the Software & Information Industry Association's Education Division. In this article, Lee Wilson, the author of the paper and the co-chair of the working group that produced it, summarizes, excerpts from, and describes the main points of the report.
When he read the recent New York Times article “In Web Age, Library Job Gets Update,” featuring strategies of New York City school librarian Stephanie Rosalia, Stephen was moved this month to list a number of tricky web sites like the one that she uses to teach her kids information evaluation skills. Check out his list. It’ll make you laugh, or cry, or laugh ‘til you cry … but the sites comprise an eminently useful educational tool.
Today, Web 2.0 tools make collaboration easier than ever, and your public librarian is there to help you navigate through them. While public libraries have many focuses, resources for children and teenagers are a mainstay of their programs and materials. These librarians work with the same students you do, just after school—helping with homework, research papers, and math problems, as well as finding the perfect novel for a historical fiction assignment. Why not work together during the school day? This collaboration can help you assist students to understand the Web 2.0 tools that can make research fun and invigorating, and it gives you a chance to share the workload.
From a recent Scout Report: "Civics can be a dreaded word for some students, but things just got a bit more interesting with this rather thoughtful and interesting video workshop created by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Center for Civic Education."
News/Free Resources - Posted 24 Apr 2009
"How to Do Research" offers online tutorials to better equip both students and educators with 21st century information literacy skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Apr 2009
The updated ISTE book for administrators shows how to leverage technology to improve student learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Apr 2009
From the University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Sciences Internet Scout Project's April 10, 2009 Scout Report comes a tip about this great resource for language arts and literacy educators.
News/Free Resources - Posted 10 Apr 2009
The new book helps school and public libraries connect, partner, and share resources to improve and expand services even during times of fiscal restraint.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Mar 2009
Interactive Videoconferencing focuses on integrating videoconferencing with teachers' standards-based lessons to enhance learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Mar 2009
Through the partnership, CORE will be able to deliver a 24/7 professional development program for literacy and math educators that will provide curriculum support to maximize student achievement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Mar 2009
Charles Doe reviews PBS TeacherLine Peer Connection, a web-based instructional and professional development resource.
Mary Ann is still on the warpath! Her purpose in this article is to enumerate some of the most common “reasons” that are used to support the overly restrictive filtering that is prevalent in all too many schools and districts. “I put the word reasons in quotations because it is my opinion that, very frequently, these are excuses rather than reasons,” she notes. Here are some arguments, and her responses.
We’ve all got too much email. Mary Alice Anderson notes she has four accounts: one for her district job, one personal, and two for online teaching work at two universities. Without careful management, we can find ourselves confused and spending too much time sorting it all out. What’s a busy educator to do? Well, start by reading Mary Alice's tips, along with a few illustrative anecdotes, in this month's column.
New features of the web site include two new sections – Standards & Guidelines and Research & Statistics – that hold AASL's most sought-after tools, “Standards for the 21st-Century Learner” and results from the School Libraries Count! longitudinal study.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Feb 2009
The school library world is abuzz about an article that appeared in the New York Times on Presidents Day that touts and clearly illustrates the importance of the new role school library media specialists are playing today.
News/Cool Links - Posted 16 Feb 2009
Through new partnership with The School Improvement Network, PBS TeacherLine Peer Connection will soon feature content from PD 360 and The Video Journal of Education.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Feb 2009
Upgrades to Discovery Education streaming give educators faster access to digital content, integration tools and professional development.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Feb 2009
The student response provider rolls out comprehensive consulting services and expanded professional development programs.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Feb 2009
Authors and new Web 2.0 tools are adding interactivity to the literature-based online resources of TeachingBooks.net.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Feb 2009
PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 host free monthly webinars that feature education experts, authors, and PBS producers discussing curriculum topics and technology integration.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Jan 2009
Inspiration Software offers a free Webcast on Jan. 29 titled “Using Visual Learning Techniques to Improve Academic Performance with Inspiration.”
News/Free Resources - Posted 19 Jan 2009
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) offers the fourth installment in its 2008-2009 Internet & Education Webcast series with “Long Tail Learners: How Technology Transforms Learning” on Jan. 21, 1-2 p.m., Eastern Time.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jan 2009
The March 2009 program will share Lee Rainie as keynote speaker with the concurrent and co-located Computers in Libraries conference, and will feature Johanna Riddle, Sheila Gersh, Art Wolinsky, and a host of other speakers. The Advance Program is now available online.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Jan 2009
How well are you faring with getting your technology agenda endorsed and funded by your management team or district? Is everything going swimmingly? No one is trying to block useful applications such as YouTube or blogging? Your filters aren’t obstructing useful teaching technologies? … From his conversations with many K–12 folks, Stephen Abram believes that this is the management challenge of our times. And so he devotes this month’s column to tactics and strategies for talking about tech with management—those key stakeholders, such as principals, board members, trustees, administrators, and even parents.
Professional development content from Just ASK Publications & Professional Development will be incorporated into PBS TeacherLine Peer Connection.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Dec 2008
danah boyd, an internationally recognized authority on online social networking sites, will open the American Association of School Librarians 14th annual national conference and exhibition with a keynote presentation on Nov. 5, 2009 in Charlotte, NC.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Dec 2008
The 2008-2009 Inspiration Software Inspired Visual Learning Awards program will recognize 15 educators and their students for creatively using visual learning in their classrooms.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Nov 2008
The report, Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Visionary Administrator, contains profiles of nine education leaders representing four school districts and three schools to highlight their success in leveraging technology in the classroom.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Nov 2008
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) launched a Green Computing Leadership Initiative designed to help schools identify ways to reduce waste, save energy and promote sustainability.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Nov 2008
In her previous column Mary Ann Bell protested loudly, "I'm Mad and I Am Not Gonna Take It Any More!" regarding overly restrictive internet filters. In this column, she shares some tactics for gaining access, starting here with the bandwagon ploy: "Everybody else is doing it!" After all, decision makers need to know that many educators are moving ahead with Web 2.0 sites.
Like that of many others, the condition of the technology in Mary Alice Anderson’s district has declined to the point of continuing frustration. The need for change was obvious. Even this longtime Mac user and champion knew they had to do something … And so they did. In this column, Mary Alice shares her district’s success story in the hopes that she can help media and technology specialists in similar situations remain … well … a little less discouraged.
Much behavior in the teacher-librarian/media specialist community is too often driven by opinion and no data. And every class, every school, every library club, every community, is, or can be, different. However, when you are attempting to empower your learners to excel, it is incumbent on you to have an informed view of their technological bent. So Stephen Abram has devoted this month's column to providing you with a starting point for checking out where your students stand in the technological spectrum.
Though it may have gone unnoticed by most K–12 users of Internet2, in the 2 years since the publication of Erika Miller’s article, “Internet2, K–12 and Librarians,” in the September/October 2006 issue of MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, the available bandwidth for this powerful network has increased dramatically. Now capable of moving along at 100 gigabits per second, Internet2 (I2) provides powerful new potential for the research and education communities to take advantage of an ever-increasing range of options for high-speed applications that change the way students and educators learn and teach.
School districts noted that their biggest challenge is funding for technology (50 percent), closely followed by integrating technology into the classroom (40 percent). Twenty-nine percent of responding districts have explored or adopted open source technologies.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Oct 2008
MultiMedia & Internet @Schools product reviewer Alice Kurtz is the recipient of the 2008 Iowa American Star of Teaching Award.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Oct 2008
The new program is intended to increase the capacity of practitioners to embed 21st century skills into classroom practices.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Oct 2008
Discovery Education recently launched New Teacher Survival Central, a new Web site and partnership with Walden University, mimio, Adobe Systems, Inc., Elmer’s Products, Inc., and CDW-G.
News/Free Resources - Posted 13 Oct 2008
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) launches its fourth annual professional development Webcast series on Oct. 15.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Oct 2008
We think this article, which appears in the Duke Gifted Letter, captures a lot of the causes of plagiarism, and, more important, logically presents a number of very sensible strategies for preventing it.
News/Cool Links - Posted 09 Oct 2008
The American Association of School Librarians and the Children’s Book Council released the names of the contributors selected for the AASL Knowledge Quest journal’s “Meet the Author/Illustrator” column during the 2008-2009 school year.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Sep 2008
Added functionality and new professional development modules on coaching practices and effectiveness are designed to enhance PBS TeacherLine's online offering for coaches.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Sep 2008
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) presents an “Introduction to Geocaching” Webinar on Sept. 24.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Sep 2008
Teachers' Domain is a digital library of free media online resources for teachers, and online professional development courses created by public television station WGBH.
News/Free Resources - Posted 05 Sep 2008
Discovery’s 12-hour “streamathon” on September 23 offers sessions on integrating digital media into classroom instruction.
News/Free Resources - Posted 04 Sep 2008
The ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT) is a free online resource created to help guide teachers, administrators, and other educators as they observe and assess technology integration in classrooms.
If you’re somehow keeping up in this age of the participatory, “content creationary,” interactive, 2.0 Internet and all that it offers educators and students! … and in the ongoing era of NCLB mandates, shrinking budgets, mushrooming lists of curriculum standards … not to mention all the new literacies—from information, to visual, to technology, to online social literacy—to teach to your students … then 1) you’re remarkable, and 2) we want you to speak at Internet@Schools East next March in Arlington, Virginia!
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Aug 2008
Each of the 40 winning middle or junior high school educators will receive a $1,000 grant to implement classroom lessons on the environment or renewable energy initiatives.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Aug 2008
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) provides a free online “Disaster Recovery Checklist.”
News/Free Resources - Posted 17 Aug 2008
The Board of Directors of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) approved the development of a new program designed to help gain attention for AASL's Standards for the 21st Century Learner.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Jul 2008
ReadingPlace.org shares easy-to-implement strategies to build reading skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Jul 2008
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is now searchable as a WilsonWeb database.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Jul 2008
According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the skills we need to be teaching include the following: information, media literacy, and communication skills; thinking and problem-solving; interpersonal, collaborative, and self-direction skills; global awareness; economic and business literacy, including entrepreneurial skills; and civic literacy. While the context in which our schools operate today has changed, the goals have not. We can look at these 21st-century skills as an extension of efforts that date as far back as John Dewey at the turn of the previous century. The key difference is that today we have a new set of tools to apply to the tasks. Moreover, the changing economy makes it more of a necessity that our students can use technology to solve problems, collaborate, and create. Learn more on this subject in this article by Adobe Systems' Bob Regan.
In Mary Alice’s May/June column, we heard from media specialists who are refocused and recharged in their second careers. They are busy with writing, speaking, online teaching, consulting, and multimedia production. In Part 2 Mary Alice focuses on how these accomplished people built a bridge to retirement and what they have to say about all they’ve learned in their new careers
If there’s a refrain Stephen Abram hears too often, it’s that many of us feel it’s impossible to keep up and learn all this new stuff in technology and learning. So he has devoted this month’s column to a few sites that he finds useful to quickly orient himself to some of the Web 2.0 technologies. Even when he has already played with or experienced some of these tools, he says, he always learns something new from these sites.
Media specialists have useful and unique skill sets that can serve them well if they want to continue working when they leave their K–12 jobs. They are multimedia creators and producers, writers, speakers, university instructors, online instructors, educational consultants and leaders, and volunteers for the professional organizations they belong to. They work with print and technology; they use their organizational, teaching, communications, and advocacy skills. They are excited and passionate about their work. Mary Alice Anderson offers thoughts and lots of examples on the subject of media specialists and retirement in this month's Media Center column.
Early this past fall Mary Ann Bell got tired of hearing other people talk about Twitter and feeling left out. She had been mentioning it as something new to the Web 2.0 world in presentations and with students, but felt a little hypocritical for doing so without participating. So, as she reports in this month's Belltones, she paid the site a visit and signed on. Follow her journey from skeptic to convert, plus how and why Twitter won her over and what it can do for you as well.
Just when you thought you understood how to fully integrate internet learning into your curriculum, along comes Web 2.0, the “social side” of the internet where people can communicate with others and contribute their own content. As a librarian you should be able to communicate with students, parents, and teachers the issues that they face when placing materials on Web 2.0 social networks, and one of the big ones is copyright. This article looks at several situations in which library users may use popular social networking sites and confront copyright laws.
If you’re somehow keeping up in this age of the participatory, “content creationary,” interactive, 2.0 Internet and all that it offers educators and students! … and in the ongoing era of NCLB mandates, shrinking budgets, mushrooming lists of curriculum standards … not to mention all the new literacies—from information, to visual, to technology, to online social literacy—to teach to your students … then 1) you’re remarkable, and 2) we want you to speak at Internet@Schools West next October in Monterey, California!
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Mar 2008
ISTE releases new books on RSS and PowerPoint with an educator perspective.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Mar 2008
Facebook is getting increasing recognition, and use, in the education community. Thomas Krivak has put an excellent primer together for you on this important social networking site. (From Information Today, Inc.'s Information Today magazine.)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 07 Mar 2008
Students can easily overlook websites that aren’t filled with often changing content. Do you think you’re too busy to devote time and effort to attract users to the great resources available on your library website? If you can simply copy and paste, think again! With no coding skills you can set up your websites to continually display fresh content. Read how in Aaron Schmidt's article.
The Innovative Learning Conference, presented by CUE and FETC, issued a call for speakers for the Innovative Learning Conference 2008 (ILC 2008) taking place Oct. 14 – 16, 2008 in San Jose, CA.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Feb 2008
The latest collection of PBS TeacherLine courses addresses classroom instruction for the fastest-growing segment of student population.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Feb 2008
The Video Professor online safety program features content from Net Crimes and Misdemeanors: Outmaneuvering Spammers, Stalkers, and Con Artists—a book by cybercrime expert Jayne A. Hitchcock published by Information Today, Inc.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Jan 2008
The solution is highlighted by new partnerships with key educational technology companies, including Futurekids, Inc., 8e6 Technologies, Promethean, and RM Educational Software, that broaden CDW-G’s offerings.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jan 2008
Vernier Software & Technology offers free hands-on workshops designed to help educators learn ways to integrate computer and handheld data collection technology into any science or math curriculum.
News/Free Resources - Posted 23 Jan 2008
Reinventing Project Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age offers educators a practical guide for maximizing the benefits of project-based learning in today’s technology-rich learning environment.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Jan 2008
The featured technologies in the book, Technology in the Secondary Science Classroom, range from the easy to master, such as digital cameras, to the more complex, like probeware and geographic information systems.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jan 2008
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will launch the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers at the World Ministerial Seminar in London on Jan. 8.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Jan 2008
The American Association of School Libraries (AASL) released the results of its first longitudinal survey for school library media specialists, titled School Libraries Count!
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jan 2008
The study, which is part of IMLS’s initiative, Museums and Libraries Engaging America’s Youth, examined Institute-funded programs for youth aged 9-19 and surveyed nearly 400 museum and library programs about their goals, strategies, impact, and outcomes.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 Jan 2008
Technology staff development isn’t receiving the attention it once did in professional journals or at professional conferences, but the need hasn’t gone away; it has simply shifted along with technology and our roles. Staff development continues to be an important role for us because, as an Illinois language arts teacher explained, “not all teachers are on board with technology.” She added that, to such teachers, “incorporating technology into instruction is someone else’s job, and the skills are either not taught or [are] fragmented.” Teachers are also now expected to use instructional management tools in more ways, such as understanding student assessment scores. Quite often if media specialists don’t assume a leadership role in providing technology staff development, it simply doesn’t get done.
RSS allows you to keep up with just about anything that you want to on the web. If you want to stay focused on the latest blog posts on the effect of global warming, RSS can help. If you just want to be updated whenever The New York Times publishes its latest book review, RSS can help. And, if you want to know when the next Dave Barry column appears, RSS can help. The greatest part of RSS is that it can do all of this in one place, without your needing to parade all over the web looking for the new content. RSS is a continuously updated customized online newspaper, and it can not only help you in locating new information (in fact, the content comes to you, not vice versa), but it can help you do it in a quarter of the time.
Do you still remember the thrill of receiving a summer postcard from your teacher? How exciting it was to open the mailbox and find that personal piece of mail waiting—and to realize that your teacher was thinking of you. Perhaps the photograph on the face of the card led you to the encyclopedia to learn more about a particular place, while a handwritten line or two described a cultural experience, unusual food, or new language. Travel postcards, sent by thoughtful teachers over the years, have broadened the world of many a child. Yesterday’s postcards have gone high-tech. Weblogs, or blogs, enable today’s teachers to send a new kind of post, sharing their travel experiences as they unfold. Blogs provide an up-to-the-minute opportunity for teachers to continue to educate their students through semester breaks, to interact with their school communities, and to share experiences and locales that encourage understanding of the broader world. And those 21st century postcards come complete with the ability to upload and publish journal entries, photos, slideshows, audio, video, and educational links.
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) will hold its 13th annual conference March 9-11 in Washington, D.C.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Dec 2007
The Accidental Technology Trainer: A Guide for Libraries addresses a range of issues for library staff who find themselves newly responsible for technology training, be it in computer labs, classrooms, or one-on-one with library users.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Dec 2007
What Works in K-12 Online Learning serves as a research-based guide to what works from more than two dozen contributors with real-world experience.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Dec 2007
The H.W. Wilson Foundation announced the continuation of its support of education in library and information science with a new round of scholarship grants.
News/Free Resources - Posted 10 Dec 2007
Teacher education programs for initial licensure are oriented toward preparing teacher candidates to use educational technology, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Dec 2007
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) offers a free Small School District Technology Leadership wiki created with support from the U.S. Department of Education.
News/Free Resources - Posted 21 Nov 2007
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) launched its first Digital Institute, “Minding Your Students’ Future,” as part of the AASL e-Academy online offerings.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Nov 2007
In keeping with the often practical nature of this column, this month Mary Alice addresses how a simple lesson became a successful unit and how it supports information and technology literacy standards: Sometimes the most successful teaching efforts are those teachable-moment lessons that arise unexpectedly to meet an immediate need. The “Technology P’s lesson” is one of those.
There are many ways to teach information literacy—the formal classroom way, library visits, team and project-based methods, and more. No matter how you define “reference work” today, it likely involves the process of accessing print and electronic sources, understanding a variety of containers from books and videos to Web sites and serials, understanding how to ask questions of people in person and virtually through search engines … as well as questions of ourselves. It’s more than just a research skill. True information literacy has emerged as one of the defining life skills of our century. Building citizens who can learn and inform themselves throughout their lives in a new century of predictable massive change is the Holy Grail of our era.
With the growth of Web technologies, the availability of high-quality professional development for educators has increased significantly. There are numerous benefits to professional development for educators, including increased job satisfaction, career advancement, better pay, and improved student learning. However, there are significant challenges that often impede them from pursuing opportunities that will contribute to their growth, such as convenience and affordability. Professional development delivered in an online-learning environment removes many of the constraints associated with traditional forms of professional development.
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About… series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices.
News/Free Resources - Posted 22 Oct 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) released “Differentiating Instruction with Technology in K-5 Classrooms,” a book written by Grace E. Smith and Stephanie Throne.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Oct 2007
Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools, by Lynn Schrum and Gwen Solomon, provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging Web 2.0 technologies and their use in the classroom and in professional development.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Oct 2007
Some of the questions addressed by the kit are as follows: What should Media education be like? Who should provide it? How should it be included in a curriculum? Beyond schools, do families have a say in the matter?
News/Free Resources - Posted 10 Oct 2007
The K12 Online 07 Conference is in progress now, having started with David Warlick's keynote address, "Inventing the New Boundaries," today. In the keynote, Warlick examines just what it means now to be a student and/or a teacher.
News/Cool Links - Posted 08 Oct 2007
ITI's new book is an easy-to-use guide to podcasting for educators and librarians written by educational technology specialist and podcaster Linda W. Braun.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Oct 2007
FileMaker Pro Basics provides a comprehensive downloadable set of free training materials designed to help K-12 educators learn the essentials of creating FileMaker Pro databases.
News/Free Resources - Posted 21 Sep 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) recently released the second edition of its National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NET*S).
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Sep 2007
We’re seeking presenters for our Internet@Schools East 2008 conference, to be held in Arlington, Virginia, April 7-8 2008.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Sep 2007
It happened to Mary Ann recently, for the first time in ages. She had a near meltdown because of a glitchy computer problem. … Actually, she had several problems. … In fact, it was a perfect techie storm!!! ... So for this month's Belltones column, Mary Ann has thought through and compiled a range of tips and advice to help herself--and you!--deal with such eventualities, or should we call them inevitabilities.
You can eat an entire elephant if you cut it into small enough pieces. That well-worn advice is worth remembering; it helps us through those times of feeling overwhelmed … which explains why a collection of small elephants decorates my office. They inspired me as we moved into a new media center, implemented a new automation system district wide, and worked toward other major program changes. Are there similar daunting tasks in your future at your media center? Here are some more axioms, maxims, and just plain sage advice that may help you, whatever the task you’re facing.
Stephen Abram has no worries about great new ideas being developed throughout libraryland, but he is concerned that such ideas are not diffusing fast enough. In this Pipeline column, he ponders why this is and how the tendency can be combatted, and also offers a rich list of creative librarians' blogs and other resources that will help you speed that diffusion yourself.
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) e-Academy will offer five continuing education programs starting on October 1.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Aug 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education (NECC) is seeking proposals for the juried portion of the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), to be held June 29 - July 2, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Aug 2007
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) presents a new Internet & Education Webcast series for the coming school year.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Aug 2007
Don Johnston, Inc. and the Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd) are co-sponsors of the “Moving Forward with Technology” free Webinar series covering a variety of technology-related topics.
News/Free Resources - Posted 06 Aug 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) now offers a center for networking and collaboration on its own virtual “island” in the Second Life multi-user virtual environment (MUVE).
News/Free Resources - Posted 22 Jul 2007
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) is accepting presentation proposals for its 13th annual K-12 School Networking Conference until August 24, 2007.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Jul 2007
In the May/June 2007 MMIS issue, Mary Ann wrote about listserv communication and the benefits thereof. That caused her to think of a related but slightly different array of communities: online support groups. For personal use, and also for patrons, it is worthwhile to look at these environments. They can be highly beneficial, but there are a few caveats. So this month, she discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such groups.
Cables, adapters, and memory cards disappear; batteries run low at inopportune times; and busy teachers quickly borrow a camera from another classroom “just for a second” to take advantage of a photo opp. Digital photographers excited about creating photo-filled classroom Web pages come to work sessions with a camera incompatible with the computer’s software or without the necessary connecting cable. It seems that no technology has caused more management hassles than digital cameras. Well, if you've got such problems—and who doesn't?—Mary Alice Anderson's got answers!
Many organizations are distributing free newsletters with timely articles and links to valuable resources. Joining a mailing list or RSS feed is easy and convenient, and it's a timesaver when you want the latest news about innovative technology and practical ideas for integrating it into your classroom. This month, Cyberbee directs you to a selected mix of educational technology newsletters and RSS feeds to investigate.
Blogs, wikis, social software, Web 2.0—it’s not really about the technologies but about the method of collaboration between users that presents some of the more interesting advantages. The goal of authors Robert Lackie and Robert Terrio in this article is to continue the discussions of practical Web 2.0 tools and social networking sites that have been brought up in this magazine and at recent school librarian conferences and to highlight other collaborative tools and exciting developments in free Web 2.0 social software, items they categorize as “Useful Collaborative Tools” and “Practical Mashups”—both very exciting and practical for today’s teacher-librarian!
The new netTrekker channel provides educators and students with three pathways to find resources that support the core elements of 21st century skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jun 2007
Peer Connection's content enables instructional coaches to deliver customized professional development to their peers while building a community of learners.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jun 2007
The new site is intended to offer educators a place to discover and share ideas and resources for effectively using Inspiration Software's visual learning products to develop students' critical thinking skills across the curriculum.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jun 2007
With Ask ePals, educators and others can share their knowledge with teachers, parents, and students, as well as seek the advice of others. The service is available either at www.epals.com/askepals or through Web pages that embed the widget capability.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jun 2007
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) released its 2007 Compendium, an annual collection of monographs on the key issues facing K-12 education technology leaders.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Jun 2007
Through the science courses, K-12 teachers learn to engage students with media-rich resources, and to incorporate practical, real-world applications into their instruction, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Jun 2007
The October 2007 program will feature Lee Rainie, Pam Berger, and Gary Price as keynote speakers, plus Mary Ann Bell and a host of other speakers. The Advance Program is now available online.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Jun 2007
The panel discussion brings together a mix of creative and educational experts with the specific goal of uncovering and illuminating the global importance of engaging the spirit of innovation in students.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jun 2007
The comprehensive professional development conference for media educators will take place June 22-26 in St. Louis, offering over 75 workshops, panels, and peer networking opportunities, as well as presentations by media literacy experts from the United States, England, Canada, Australia, China, and Japan.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jun 2007
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association, announced the 2007 recipients of its annual awards.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Jun 2007
The new book reveals both the strengths and the weaknesses and biases of 100 top news and information Web sites.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jun 2007
For the first time, the organization is offering eight-week summer school courses online for full year courses such as Algebra 1, English 9, and English 10, subjects that many students struggle with.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 May 2007
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) is offering a series of professional development training clinics for school district technology leaders. The sessions will be held in Texas, Georgia and California.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 May 2007
The California School Library Association’s online tutorial guides you through the ‘tools of the trade’ that your students use every day: blogs, photos and images, RSS and newsfeeds, tagging and technorati, wikis, online applications, podcasting and downloadable audio, and much more.
News/Free Resources - Posted 10 May 2007
This enhanced version of the email newsletter service delivers a more intuitive user experience while also offering a more extensive array of customization options to library administrators, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 May 2007
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) offers a May 16 webcast titled “Implementing Open Source in K-12,” the latest installment in the organization’s 2006-2007 Internet & Education professional development webcast series.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 May 2007
Mary Ann Bell was recently housebound during an infrequent ice storm in the Texas Hill Country. But, she writes, "I am far from lonely. The main reason for this is my connection with people all over the world via listservs." Thus her topic for this issue: communication. Read as she celebrates the many ways is able to be in touch with others via the Internet.
Sarah Cooper teaches at an independent school where a new library is being built. “Once this facility opens in September 2007, we want our students and teachers to use it as an intellectual hub for innovative research projects,” she writes. In this article, she describes the successful methods and tactics she and her team are using to make sure this happens.
You’ve likely heard the numbers. Conservative recent estimates describe Second Life as a pretty huge virtual ecology. More than 1.2 million people have created avatars in Second Life, and 1,525,670 unique people have logged into Second Life at least once. Of that number, 252,284 people have logged in more than 30 days after their account-creation date. The conservative monthly growth rate is about 23 percent. Twenty-three percent growth will mean 3 million in a year’s time—a healthy number, but not hyperbolic growth. It can be managed, and we can see the effects and react—unlike other Web-based changes we’ve lived through. Stephen Abram finds this enormously engaging and interesting to a profession that thrives on being interested and making things interesting. Read on ...
You’ve read the news articles, seen the stories on TV news, or possibly heard them on the radio: Bullies have gone online, predators are lurking everywhere, and MySpace is a nightmare for kids and teens. What the media doesn’t tell you are the facts about how kids and teens can stay safe online. They tend to focus on the sensationalism and not the realism. Now you can learn what to look out for, what to advise parents about, and how to help students who may be experiencing problems online.
The Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) is seeking Applications to Present for consideration for the 55-minute sessions to be held on Thursday, January 24, and Friday, January 25, 2008 in Orlando, Florida.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Apr 2007
Seven educators nationwide are the recipients of the Vernier/National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Technology Award honors.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Mar 2007
Cybersafety expert Nancy Willard’s book gives parents the tools to help keep children and teens safe from online threats such as sexual predators, pornography, hate groups, and cyberbullies and to encourage responsible online behavior.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Mar 2007
Ask a Librarian will allow Web site visitors to interface with a staff librarian and submit inquiries on a variety of topics.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Mar 2007
We’re seeking presenters for our Internet at Schools West 2007 conference, to be held in Monterey, California, October 29-30, 2007.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Mar 2007
“Online Facilitator Training I - Mastering the Skills of Online Teaching” offers teachers the opportunity to gain skills in Web-based instruction.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Mar 2007
Public Radio International “Here and Now” host Robin Young interviews former librarian, author, and reading advocate Mike Sullivan about the phenomenon of reluctant boy readers and what we can all do about it.
News/Cool Links - Posted 12 Mar 2007
During the webinars, ETS will also introduce a new Preplanning tool that gives students a choice of eight plan types, including an outline, an idea web, and templates for specific types of essays, such as compare/contrast and cause and effect.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Mar 2007
Wilson Library Bulletin, the trade magazine for librarians published from 1914 to 1995, is now available on two H.W. Wilson library and information science databases.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Mar 2007
PBS Teachers offers thousands of free lesson plans, local and national educator resources, teacher professional development, videos, blogs, and more.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Mar 2007
In recent Belltones columns, Mary Ann Bell has discussed technophobia and technolust. Now her thoughts have turned to another complaint. While not as debilitating as technophobia, which keeps victims from feeling comfortable with any technology, featuritis is a condition that keeps many users from making friends with the devices they use. Read on to find out why, and what to do about it.
Mary Alice Anderson has compiled the results of an informal survey she did among school librarians on the subject of e-scheduling, concluding that "Clearly, e-scheduling is the choice of many media specialists and appreciated by teachers." Read the details and collected wisdom in this month's Media Center column.
In an article originally published in The Golden Key, the journal of the Hawaii Association of School Librarians (HASL), in fall 2006, Violet Harada, of the University of Hawaii’s Library and Information Science Program, and her colleagues write on a collaborative venture to further librarians’ roles in assessment of learning.
As online learning has become commonplace at universities throughout the country, the option is now being explored to a greater degree by teachers and administrators at the secondary and elementary levels. Nancy Rohland-Heinrich and Brian Jensen take you through the state of the art of online learning in this feature, with special emphasis on the role of media specialists in supporting and furthering it.
There's a new collection of Stephen Abram's visionary writing and thinking at ALA Editions. Learn about it via this Cool Link.
News/Cool Links - Posted 21 Feb 2007
Applications will be accepted until March 1 for the AASL School Librarian's Workshop Scholarship.
News/Free Resources - Posted 20 Feb 2007
H.W. Wilson announced the addition of 28 science education journals to its Science Full Text Select database.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Feb 2007
For February 15, 2007: Sponsored by the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, the Cyberbullying site provides the Educator's Guide to Cyberbullying, Parent's Guide to Cyberbullying, and links to real life stories.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 Feb 2007
By
Linda C. Joseph
The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for its 2007 Summer Teacher Institutes. The Institutes provide educators from grades 4-12 across the nation with the opportunity to engage in intensive study and exploration of a specific topic using the staff expertise and facilities of the Library of Congress.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jan 2007
The new blogs give educators a forum to share ideas and best practices on using the latest digital technology in the classroom, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jan 2007
This is the first in SafeSchools’ Online Safety Series, which covers the various means of communication as well as the growing dangers that can entrap students when they’re online, including cyberbullying, predators, and threats of violence.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jan 2007
According to the report, 55 percent of online teens use social networks and 55 percent have created online profiles; older girls predominate.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Jan 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) now offers an online career center focused on educational technology positions.
News/Free Resources - Posted 14 Jan 2007
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), in partnership with HP Philanthropy and Education, is looking for grant reviewers for the 2007 HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Jan 2007
The April 2007 program will feature Lee Rainie, Joyce Valenza, and Gary Price as keynote speakers, plus Carol Kuhlthau, Ross Todd, and a host of other speakers. The AdvanceProgram is now available online.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Jan 2007
Mary Ann continues this month to ponder the question of when, whether, and how to use technology in teaching and learning. After all, she notes, her friend Bernie Poole stands up for technophobes in certain cases, writing to her: "If they're truly technophobes, leave them alone, Mary. They deserve their space. They can teach absolutely as effectively the way they know and love as if they were constrained to use high tech."
Mary Alice Anderson notes she has survived one of two big media center moves her district is making this year and is currently experiencing the third such move of her professional career. Given that background, plus a good sense of what worked and what didn't, this month she offers sage advice on moving a media center.
The Internet has changed the way students learn and communicate. With the click of a mouse, they can instant message one another, work together on projects, download all kinds of multimedia files, and post to blogs, Web sites, and RSS feeds. Access to people and information enhances instruction, but what happens when the "dark side of the Internet" sneaks around the corner and into the classroom or home? In this column, Cyberbee points to lots of resources that can help.
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, announced the launch of a new open discussion list, YA-MUSIC.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Dec 2006
H.W. Wilson announced the January WilsonWeb launch of Library Literature & Information Science Retrospective: 1905-1983, a wide-ranging retrospective article index.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Dec 2006
ETS says it is seeking corporate alliances for the program, which would provide new teachers with incentives and professional development support.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Dec 2006
Virtual Economics 3.0, a CD-based program from The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE), provides more than 1200 activity-based economics and personal finance lessons for K-12.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Nov 2006
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) recently launched state chapters in Georgia, Louisiana and New Mexico.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Nov 2006
ABC-Clio’s new program is designed to demonstrate how librarians and social studies departments can partner to develop students’ information literacy and inquiry skills.
News/Free Resources - Posted 20 Nov 2006
An online version of the American Film Institute’s (AFI) K-12 screen education program, “LIGHTS, CAMERA, EDUCATION!,” is now available on Discovery’s unitedstreaming service.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Nov 2006
Curriculum Associates now offers free podcasts that cover current trends and happenings in education, as well as ways to incorporate Curriculum Associates’ products with current events training.
News/Free Resources - Posted 15 Nov 2006
All PBS TeacherLine courses embed technology resources in the course content. Educational technology provides the means to engage students in core subjects while helping them gain skills to communicate, collaborate, and create, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Nov 2006
Don Johnston, the founder and leader of the multimedia company that bears his name, has written an autobiography designed to inspire struggling students to become self-learning advocates and to take charge of their own learning process.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Nov 2006
Mary Ann Bell counts herself as a hortiphobe-turned-hortiphile. Well, almost. The point is, she says, she was able to change. And she thinks you can help your school's remaining technophobes change as well.
A procedures book is a collection of documents that explains how your media program operates. It describes or prescribes a preferred, common, and consistent course of action. It is both a practical tool to help you and your staff and a resource that helps define the philosophical basis of your program. Does your media center have an up-to-date and helpful policy and procedures book? There is no better time than now to begin compiling one, and Mary Alice's column this month can serve as your guide.
Stephen Abram offers more tricks to build information fluency in the second of his columns on the subject, this time offering teaching/learning ideas based on MySpace, Second Life, Teen Second Life, Activeworlds, OPAC or Web treasure hunts, and game show Web sites.
A mystifying or vague buzzword to many, Web 2.0 was made fashionable in late 2004 by O'Reilly Media, the foremost publisher of computer technology books and a leader in cutting edge online technology conferences. This article will provide an introduction to Web 2.0 for libraries and will also attempt to bring to light a few notable, free Web-based interactive communication tools that can help librarians and other educators seamlessly access, create, organize, and disseminate information for their library, themselves, colleagues, and friends. The resources mentioned and the references and recommended readings provided should bring librarians up-to-speed on little-known and newer techniques, tools, and thinking on this crucial topic.
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) recently announced the lineup for its 2006-2007 series of Internet & Education webcasts.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Oct 2006
The Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA) is accepting session proposals for its 2007 National Media Education Conference, “iPods, Blogs, and Beyond: Evolving Media Literacy for the 21st Century,” to be held June 24-26 in St. Louis, MO.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Oct 2006
On October 11, Google very quietly launched Google for Educators, a site that pulls together access to and, in a sense, annotates a whole bunch of Google features, tools, and resources in a way that will make them easier for educators to find, understand, and use for teaching purposes. Read all about it!
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Oct 2006
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) offers a new leadership initiative, Value of Investment (VOI) for ed tech.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 Oct 2006
Scholastic Red Professional Development has released the suite of online courses for secondary school educators.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Sep 2006
Information Today, Inc.’s blog staff will be posting throughout Internet Librarian 2006 and the co-located Internet@Schools West from October 23 - 25, 2006 in Monterey, Calif.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Sep 2006
The deadline for submitting a speaking proposal for Internet@Schools East is approaching, so if you haven't sent something in already, it’s time to submit your idea!
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Sep 2006
The free classroom program allows teachers, kids, and parents to explore blogging, messaging, and private social networking while having fun and connecting safely online, according to the announcement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 19 Sep 2006
In the book, leading trainer and search guru Greg R. Notess augments his personal advice with examples, approaches, and techniques from a “who’s who” of the search training world.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Sep 2006
The free online resource enables educators to understand student concerns and
areas for administrative growth, according to the Zoomerang announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Sep 2006
Any time is good professional development time, especially when you can do it on your own schedule … via online courses. Here are some good ones from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
News/Cool Links - Posted 08 Sep 2006
The scholarships will support professional development activities for educators who champion the integration of visual learning and technology into the curriculum.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Sep 2006
Register by September 29 to receive the discounted registration price, plus bring a colleague for $99.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Sep 2006
We’re seeking presenters for our Internet@Schools East 2007 conference, to be held in the Washington, DC, area April 16-17, 2007.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Sep 2006
Mary Ann Bell writes: "I think today, many of us feel like we are washing elephants with toothbrushes. We have too much work, not enough time, and inadequate tools. How can we make meaningful progress with so many demands? Can technology help, or does it just complicate our lives? While there may not be any easy solutions to the problems we have with so much work, lack of sufficient staffing, frustrating deadlines, and other pressures, I can share some of what has been helpful to me." And so she does, in this month's Belltones column.
Community involvement can increase media program visibility and help develop support that can be very beneficial to your programs. No matter how large or small your district, there are possibilities; the community may be an entire city or it may be a neighborhood, but involvement can bring positive results. Mary Alice Anderson offers ideas in this issue's Media Center column for outreach to student families, beyond the school community, and more.
As Stephen Abram writes, "The Internet has given us many new ways to provide learners with an environment that allows them to learn through discovery, play, collaboration, and just plain having fun." He elaborates, and give loads of examples, featuring YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Blogger, podcasting, del.icio.us, and more in this month's Pipeline.
Internet2 allows unprecedented worldwide communication and collaboration on data sharing, and provides an invaluable opportunity for K–12 teachers and students. In the year and a half since her school district has been connected with Internet2, author Erika Thickman Miller has begun to explore a small part of its capacity—a taste, she says, that has made her feel she has opened a book of wonderful new adventures, and that she feels compelled both to share and to further explore.
ISTE’s new book is a comprehensive guide for planning, implementing, and managing successful laptop programs in the classroom.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Aug 2006
Here’s a hot Cool Link, thanks to the Internet Scout Project’s Scout Report. It all points to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Knowledge Media Laboratory and its work on how technology can best be used in the classroom.
News/Cool Links - Posted 21 Aug 2006
More than half of all student-used computing devices will be mobile by the year 2011 and online learning will grow at a compound annual rate of 26 percent over the next five years, according to a new study of the top 2,500 U.S. school districts sponsored by Discovery Education and Pearson Education.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Jul 2006
Designed to be a comprehensive online source for educators, Promethean Planet provides searchable information to help educators maximize the use of interactive technology in the classroom.
News/Free Resources - Posted 05 Jul 2006
Mary Ann Bell loves technology, and techno-gadgets--almost to the level of addiction. (Well, not really.) It's not too serious, but it's a problem she says she's working on. In schools, though, with the advent of technology, the problem of unwise purchases seems to have increased dramatically, and it can be serious. In this month's Belltones, Mary Ann get into some of the reasons for this, and what LMSs and their schools can do about it.
Online learning is one of the most rapidly growing areas of education. It is expected to continue expanding as more colleges and universities increase their offerings. What's it like to take an online class? For this article, Mary Alice communicated with graduate students who have taken multiple online courses from several universities, fulfilling a need to earn course credits toward a degree or to meet professional development goals. Read on to see what they say and what hints you can pick up.
Helping school colleagues keep up with technology trends is a function library media specialists are well-placed to fulfill. It's also a function that can further underscore the importance of the LMS at school. With that in mind, we've turned to Nancy Willard, prominent—perhaps even ubiquitous—spokesperson on the subject of online safety in the face of new Internet technologies. Nancy's feature gives you in-depth ammunition, understanding, and resources to press into service to help your staff and entire school community cope with all aspects of this important new technology trend.
Students do better academically in schools that have good libraries, but reports of the elimination of school librarians and library programs keep surfacing. This and other negative trends led the ALA to respond to “the urgent need to support and maintain school library programs and certified school librarians” by forming a Special Task Force on School Libraries last year. Read about the work that’s been accomplished in Task Force member Katherine Lowe’s article.
The grants are designed to help offset a current shortage of school library media specialists, library school faculty, and librarians working in underserved communities, as well a looming shortage of library directors and other senior librarians.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Jun 2006
The fourth annual survey of teacher technology use indicates technology access and professional development are driving improved teacher and student performance, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jun 2006
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) offers a new Web site-- http://www.k12opentech.org/ --designed to raise awareness among K-12 education technology decision makers about the use of open technologies.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jun 2006
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is accepting requests for program and Exploratorium proposals for the 13th National Conference and Exhibition, “The Future Begins @ your library.”
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Jun 2006
The October conference in Monterey, California, shares a keynote—author and former K-12 librarian J.A. Jance—with Internet Librarian, and features cybercrime expert Jayne Hitchcock and Web search Guru Gary Price as well.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jun 2006
Summer is good professional development time, especially when you can do it on your own schedule … via online courses. Here are some good ones from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
News/Cool Links - Posted 05 Jun 2006
Vocabulary Strategies for the English Language Learner, a free online professional development course developed and led by Elia Corona, an English as a second language training specialist, can be accessed at http://www.catraining.com/ under the Topics in Education banner.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Jun 2006
Dr. David Thornburg’s new book, When the Best is Free: An Educator’s Perspective on Open Source Software, examines free software programs that run equally well on nearly any current operating system found in schools today.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 May 2006
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the Texas K-12 CTO Council present the inaugural CoSN CTO Leadership Clinic, June 27-28 at the Sockwell Center, Plano ISD in Plano, Texas.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 May 2006
Carvin writes: “This blog … will focus on the intersection of Internet culture and education. One of the primary goals is to help guide educators through the ins and outs of what’s often referred to as ‘Web 2.0.’”
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 May 2006
Esther Kreider Eash’s article is just what its title suggests: a solid primer on podcasting, including sections entitled Reasons to Use Podcasts in School Libraries and Create Your Own Podcast. Send it to reluctant colleagues and help them join the ranks of digital immigrants and/or better reach their digital native students. (From Information Today, Inc.’s Computers in Libraries)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 24 Apr 2006
EBSCO is offering free access to the new Teacher Reference Center, a bibliographic index of more than 260 titles from teacher and administration trade journals, periodicals, and books. (From Information Today, Inc.’s NewsBreaks)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 17 Apr 2006
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) released its 2006 Compendium, the annual collection of monographs by leaders from the education technology community.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Apr 2006
The series is designed to help educators get the most from video games in the classroom.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Mar 2006
Handheld Computers and Smartphones in Secondary Schools
provides guidance and activities to help educators learn how to use this new
technology effectively to meet curricular goals.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Mar 2006
Scholastic RED Professional Development introduces the course to help teachers build students’ academic vocabulary.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Mar 2006
New MMIS columnist Mary Ann Bell introduces herself in her inaugural Belltones column and discusses some of her interests and plans for upcoming columns, including information ethics, technology use in schools, the principles of AASL's Infomation Power, information access, and more.
A media specialist's instinct is often that teachers of core subjects—language arts, social studies, and science—are the logical and easiest clientele to work with. That isn't always the case. Some media specialists say they have more success collaborating with noncore areas than with the "traditional academics." Mary Alice Anderson looks in this month's Media Center column at some of these kinds of collaboration.
Our own Internet @ Schools East conference is coming up in March—the 23rd and 24th, to be specific—in Washington, DC, along with the Computers in Libraries conference. And you’re invited!
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Feb 2006
We’re seeking presenters for our Internet @ Schools West 2006 conference, to be held in Monterey, California, October 23-24, 2006.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Feb 2006
Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Cruelty, Threats, and Distress provides strategies on preventing and responding to cyberbullying and cyberthreats.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Feb 2006
Educational Testing Service (ETS) is hosting free Web seminars that examine using standards-aligned assessment to drive instruction and improve student achievement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 24 Feb 2006
The program for the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) includes a closing session focused on the Texas Instruments “We Use Math Every Day” initiative, based on the popular CBS television series “NUMB3RS.”
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Feb 2006
Sunburst’s new program focuses on student improvement in grades K-12 using technology developed for targeted intervention.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Jan 2006
The site targets museums, libraries, and public broadcasting stations, aiming to help them “work together to address local needs, increase civic engagement, and improve the quality of life” in their communities.
News/Cool Links - Posted 23 Jan 2006
The programs are designed to provide effective differentiated instruction, immediate, corrective feedback, and vocabulary support in students’ native languages in an effort to provide tools to help English Language Learners (ELLs) become fluent readers.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Jan 2006
Technology guru Nicholas Negroponte and filmmaker Dewitt Jones will deliver keynote presentations at the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) 2006 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Diego in July.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Jan 2006
Dialog is accepting applicants from North America for its 2006 Roger K. Summit Scholarship.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jan 2006
Teachers receive research-based information on principles and strategies as part of Curriculum Associates’ Topics in Education Web site.
News/Free Resources - Posted 06 Jan 2006
Reviewer Susan Hixson examines P.E.T. Learning Styles Solution, an online program based on the work of Carl Jung that evaluates teaching and learning styles.
In the last installment of the two-year run of Learning Unleashed!, Trevor Shaw looks back and takes stock of what they have accomplished over the past 2-and-a-half years of their technology infusion and integration program at his school.
Mary Alice Anderson writes, "In recent months I've had numerous opportunities to visit media centers in other districts as we plan for media center renovations and program improvements at our senior high. Our visitation team included media specialists, board members, architects, administrators, local press, and community members who care about media centers." And then she draws on this experience to give you expert advice on how to prepare for visitors to your own media center ... and why ... and how doing so will benefit you and your program.
In her newly published book Super Searchers Go to School, Joyce Kasman Valenza interviews a dozen prominent K–12 educators and educator-librarians who share their strategies for helping students become effective, lifelong information users. In this excerpt, Joyce elicits wisdom that points the way toward a successful future for K–12 libraries from Ken Haycock, whose impressive professional experience includes being a school librarian; principal; school board president; president of the American Association of School Librarians; and, currently, director of the school of library and information science at San Jose State University.
In this feature, board certified media specialist Jan Ross convincingly and helpfully lays out the whats, whys, and how tos you need to know in order to obtain your own Certification for School Library Media Specialists.
How can teachers help students develop visual literacy skills that complement and deepen phonemic literacy? How can teachers help students develop critical thinking skills so they can analyze, reflect upon, evaluate, and make inferences from the images they see and not be the passive recipients of visual information? The answer in part is for teachers themselves to develop the conceptual, instructional, and technical skills so that they feel comfortable incorporating visual learning into traditional learning. Mary Burns' article discusses a series of professional development activities that can help.
The interactive offering provides teachers and literacy coaches with a constant network of support, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Nov 2005
The program will feature Joyce Valenza as keynote speaker, plus Alice Yucht, Debbie Abilock, Marjorie Pappas, and a host of other speakers. The Preliminary Program is now available online.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Nov 2005
The tablet computer rollout--culmination of the Learning Unleashed! program--went off smoothly this fall for Trevor Shaw's school. In this column, he discusses how and why it worked out so well.
Will Richardson, supervisor of instructional technology at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Fleming, N.J., and now a well-known speaker on cutting-edge educational uses of the Web, has written a book to be published by Corwin Press in February 2006 entitled An Educator's Guide to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Cool New Tools That Are Transforming the Classroom. This article is adapted from a chapter of that book, with permission from the publisher.
Databases can inspire novel approaches to creating curriculum. As teachers become familiar with them, their thinking about lesson planning and student research often moves in innovative directions. In this article, Sarah Cooper describes five projects through which librarians can take the lead in helping history and English teachers see the potential of this new world of sources. Included is coverage of database resources from Accessible Archives, Country Watch, EBSCO, Gale, JSTOR, LexisNexis, NewsBank, The OED Online, and ProQuest.
Following up on her earlier Media Center column "Data Gathering--Why You Need the Numbers ... And What You Can Do with Them," Mary Alice Anderson tells how to build and use an Excel spreadsheet that will hold the kind of qualitative and quantitative data you want.
From Scholastic, freely downloadable, comes this update of the uplifting and substantive report “School Libraries Work!”
News/Free Resources - Posted 24 Oct 2005
We want to signal the existence of an interesting (almost) new discussion group “for school, academic, and public librarians to exchange ideas on information literacy programs and experiences that demonstrate a collaborative relationship between K-12 and higher education institutions.”
News/Cool Links - Posted 12 Oct 2005
S.O.S. for Information Literacy is a dynamic, multimedia, Web-based, and freely accessible resource for K-8 library media specialists and classroom teachers that promises to make a significant contribution to enhancing the teaching of information literacy skills worldwide, according to the project organizers.
News/Free Resources - Posted 12 Oct 2005
iEARN-USA is offering its Multimedia Guide to Global Online Collaboration in CD-ROM format at no cost, while supplies last.
News/Free Resources - Posted 07 Oct 2005
Information Today, Inc. News Bureau Chief Paula Hane writes that "The venerable ERIC database has been undergoing an extensive restructuring and modernization program ... " (From Information Today, Inc.'s NewsLink)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 04 Oct 2005
iEARN-USA is recruiting American high school science teachers to work online with peers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand on an English-language project appropriate for science and geography classes or after school and community programs.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Sep 2005
ETS has repositioned all of its flagship K-12 products and services under the System 5 brand.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Sep 2005
Teacher-librarian, author, conference speaker, and MMIS Media Center columnist Mary Alice Anderson will be offering this online course through the University of Wisconsin—Stout Department of Education Online Professional Development program.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Sep 2005
Bowker has released a variety of new resources to assist library professionals with the operational changes necessary to transition to the new global ISBN-13 standard that takes effect in 16 months.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Sep 2005
Macromedia’s new K-12 site license offers educators a combination of digital communication tools and resources to enhance teaching, learning, and communication, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Sep 2005
Trevor Shaw documents their plans in anticipation of "deployment," as the the first day of the 2005–06 school year and the initial rollout of their student tablet PC program approach.
Much has been written about the challenges “digital immigrant” teachers—those who have come later to technology—face as they work with digitally native students. But what’s it like to work with digitally native teachers? Mary Alice Anderson has noticed some consistencies among this first generation of educators to grow up with technology. This article reflects insights from other media specialists and educators as well as her own experiences working with new teachers and innumerable university students each year.
In recent months, there’s been a revolution in interactive technologies—both in their design and in their cost. In this month's Pipeline, Stephen Abram takes a look at some of them, laying out an area in the free Web playground where learning can happen. "The swings are IM," he says, "the teeter-totter is podcasting, the slide is Skype, and the merry-go-round is JYBE."
Richardson’s keynote will touch on blogs, wikis, podcasting, video blogging and other new tools for transforming the classroom.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Aug 2005
In the latest in the Super Searchers book series, leading librarians and educators share their strategies for helping K-12 students become effective, life-long information users.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Aug 2005
Informed Librarian’s new resource is a database index of articles from library periodicals designed to help library professionals keep up with their professional reading.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Aug 2005
National Board Certification in Library Media: A Candidate’s Journal by Peggy Milam will be released by Linworth Publishing in November 2005.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Aug 2005
Here’s an idea for some no-cost online professional development, in one-hour bites, for those of you whose schools/libraries subscribe to ProQuest products and services.
News/Free Resources - Posted 28 Jul 2005
Since last month, when we steered you toward information on online collaborative and role-playing games and what they may mean for current and upcoming generations of learners and researchers, we’ve turned up a Library Journal article and a 30-minute streaming video with more on the subject.
News/Cool Links - Posted 27 Jul 2005
A review of Differentiated Instruction: Success for Every Student, a free online professional development resource.
This month, Trevor Shaw focuses again on the importance of the public relations aspect of his school’s tablet PC initiative—good PR gained largely through a substantive, all-faculty professional development day primarily planned and executed by the faculty themselves, that is.
Media specialists enrolled in the online graduate course Mary Alice Anderson teaches are required to create electronic portfolios. They begin the process feeling uncertain and overwhelmed. They finish the process proud of their portfolios and of their accomplishments as media specialists. Even without the requirement of a class project, an electronic portfolio is a worthwhile pursuit. Mary Alice tells why ... and what, and how ... in this issue's Media Center.
The nationwide Discovery Educator Network—a community of teacher-innovators in digital media—will “connect teachers to their most valuable resource—each other.”
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Jun 2005
Powered by the QuickMind.net online learning environment, Sunburst’s portal offers teachers an economical selection of classroom tools and resources that they can use immediately, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jun 2005
We’ve been following in background mode the subject of “gaming” and what it may mean for current and upcoming generations of learners and researchers, and we recommend that you keep an eye on the field as well. Here’s both an introduction to gaming and a rationale for knowing about it, in an article by librarian Heather Wilson.
News/Cool Links - Posted 17 Jun 2005
ISTE’s new book is a collection of essays on exemplary projects from the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology program.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Jun 2005
Project SMARTArt was created to integrate two principal tenets of media literacy – critical analysis and self-expression – into traditional curricula, according to Tessa Jolls, president of the Center for Media Literacy.
News/Free Resources - Posted 03 Jun 2005
Entitled “Test Preparation Strategies,” the three-lesson course discloses findings on factors that affect test performance and shows teachers ways to create a positive, anxiety-free attitude toward test taking, according to the announcement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 31 May 2005
The partnership should provide a larger audience for the ETS PATHWISE courses, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 May 2005
Announced at the 2005 International Reading Association Convention in San Antonio, the Riverdeep products are Destination Reading Course III for grades 4-6, Course IV for grades 6-8, and Course V, a high-school-appropriate Proficiency Course for students who have not mastered the foundational reading skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 May 2005
You’ll like Gary Hartzell’s 2002 article, and you’ll love the consolidated collection of education- and library-related articles from the defunct ERIC Clearinghouse now housed on ERICDigests.org.
News/Cool Links - Posted 09 May 2005
MetaMetrics, Inc.’s three-day conference, to be held August 8-10 in Research Triangle Park, NC, will focus on linking reading assessment and instruction across the curriculum and grade levels.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 May 2005
Scholastic’s Text Talk is a research-based program intended to build oral vocabulary and comprehension skills through language-rich “Talk about Text.”
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 May 2005
Teaching Mathematics to All Students is a professional development course that combines Internet-based training content with CD-ROM video elements.
School administrator Scott Hannon sets forth ways and means for building a strong partnership between the library media specialist and the principal, which he sees as the cornerstone of an effective library media program. "If both parties--the principal and the LMS--'get it,'" he writes, "then we have the beginnings of a good relationship. Together, these two people comprise a powerful partnership that can take a school to new heights, maybe greatness."
Change can be hard to swallow, and the introduction of one-to-one computing has presented massive changes for virtually everyone involved in Trevor Shaw's school's technology initiative, Learning Unleashed. In this column, Shaw discusses their experiences with getting parents and teachers on board with the initiative, in the face of resistance to change. And he comments on new tactics they evolved that helped.
“We really are going to get this cupboard in better shape—eventually!” How many times have typical LMSs said that? Yet their software storage cupboards have probably never been ideally organized. Media specialists and technology staff discuss ways to manage networks, set up servers, or configure computers, but they don’t take much time to share ideas about how to organize the physical stuff in their cyber environments. In this issue's column, Mary Alice Anderson take time to do just that.
Recognize the need for information to solve problems and develop ideas; pose important questions; use a variety of information gathering strategies and research processes; locate relvant and appropriate information ... These are some information literacy benchmarks listed by the Canadian Association of School Libraries. "Seems simple enough ... But what does it really mean in grade 1? grade 3? grade 9?" asks Stephen Abram as he re-examines this all-important topic for educators in general and librarians in particular in light of 21st century realities.
Reseller Educational Resources is offering schools a free three-month subscription to the QuickMind.net collection of online curriculum and other resources.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Apr 2005
Tell your school and district administrators about this online course, geared specifically to them, designed to help them learn how to support and maximize their schools' librarary programs to increase student achievement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Apr 2005
The American Association of School Librarians is currently accepting proposals for the Exploratorium, which will take place at the AASL National Conference and Exhibition in Pittsburgh next October.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Apr 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Mar 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Mar 2005
News/Free Resources - Posted 11 Mar 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Mar 2005
Looking for a dynamic way to market and advocate for your school's media program? A media program Web site can be a versatile and far-reaching advocacy tool. What can happen if you use the Web site to showcase your school's media program to students, parents, and the community? The outreach potential is unlimited. Here’s a look at some possibilities for advocacy and marketing.
Can learning be achieved effectively by the standard measures, via e-learning, or through some blend of technological and classroom strategies? When added to the issues of the digital divide, you have a problem of gargantuan proportions. With effort, thought, and money, however, it is possible.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Feb 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Feb 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Feb 2005
(From Information Today, Inc.'s EContentMag.com.)
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 04 Feb 2005
Staff technology training sessions can get bogged down if too much time is spent in direct instruction and not enough time is spent actually working on projects and discussing ideas of how to use the technology in classes. There are ways to avoid such pitfalls, however, and this month’s Learning Un |