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CATEGORY: Professional Development |
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Designed to help students understand the importance of their education and motivate them to make a difference, the webinar series will feature thought leaders on a variety of topics of importance to students and educators throughout the year.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Jan 2012
Take a look at schoollibrarymanagement.com's infographic about Apple's iTunes U app announcement.
News/Cool Links - Posted 19 Jan 2012
The iTunes U app gives iOS users access a catalog of free educational content from top universities including Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, and any K-12 school district can offer full courses through the iTunes U app.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jan 2012
ALA's American Libraries magazine has published a great article on ebooks and school libraries. Part of the first two paragraphs should get you into it.
News/Cool Links - Posted 16 Jan 2012
The alignment means that PBS TeacherLine reading/language arts and mathematics courses provide professional development training and resources that help teachers develop lessons and deliver instruction based on Common Core State Standards and meet students' individual needs, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jan 2012
The Learning Progression Tool is a new function that has been added to SINET's Common Core solution suite, Common Core 360. It provides an intuitive way to browse the Standards for lesson planning, curriculum alignment, and remedial/special education planning, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jan 2012
The new courses from ASCD support educators implementing Common Core State Standards. Three support implementation of new math standards; four subject-based courses focus on supporting educators in integrating the new literacy standards into science, history/social studies, English language arts, and mathematics lessons.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Jan 2012
A song that keeps repeating in Mary Ann's head these days is "Hard Times Come Again No More," no doubt owing to the hard times and education budget cuts her public school colleagues are experiencing in Texas. In an effort to chase away this earworm with some positive thinking, she asked herself and other educators what they can do in the face of these cuts. See what the crowd came up with.
Media specialists know to double-check that all technology is in working order, even when the activity has previously worked well. Springboarding off her updated Tips for a Successful Internet Experience planning checklist for media specialists and teachers, Mary Alice delves this month into continuing questions about lab scheduling, file storage, and printing.
Comprised of four new modules - two for instructional leaders and two for teachers - the series helps educators use data to make informed decisions for planning and implementing effective instruction.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Nov 2011
For November 15, 2011: In a recent workshop given by Kathy Orr , library media specialist from Olentangy Liberty High School in Ohio, she discusses "filter bubbles" and how they affect searching on the Internet. To learn more about this fascinating concept, watch the video Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles."
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 Nov 2011
By
Linda C. Joseph
The study shows that secondary school students in the United States rely more heavily on social networks for content in their papers and less on cheat sites and paper mills compared to college students.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Nov 2011
The Follett Challenge was designed to reward school libraries for applying technology, content and creativity in ways that engage students, foster literacy and promote critical thinking.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Nov 2011
Mary Ann's topic this month is backing up your important files. Are you faithful about this? She used to be. But, she says, recently she has grown careless. So this article is in the vein of, "Do as I say and not as I do," … or did.
Mary Alice notes that local museums, libraries, businesses, and passionate volunteers are digitizing primary resources and providing other digital content through processes once only affordable or possible by larger entities.
Johanna winds up her stint writing for Internet@Schools by revisiting some of the tech innovators she wrote about to explore what they're up to and the "tech effect" of their efforts.
Link from Victor Rivero's edtechdigest (thanks Victor) to this interesting infographic on digital textbooks, originally from OnlineEducation.net.
News/Cool Links - Posted 24 Oct 2011
"The Big Shift: Curriculum and Technology Leaders Advancing Digital Learning" provides districts with strategies on how to strengthen the collaboration between K-12 curriculum and technology leaders in the use of digital learning resources and technology infrastructure.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Oct 2011
The three-hour, on-site workshops will help participants increase their knowledge of visual learning concepts and techniques, as well as how to apply these techniques to increase students' critical thinking, planning, organization, outlining and writing skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Oct 2011
The new features and new Mini Camera Kit expand the use of classroom video for professional learning communities and classroom observation.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Oct 2011
Focused on providing fun and engaging tools to classrooms and homes, these joint efforts include components like supplemental family activities, K-12 curriculum programs, interactive classroom lessons and more.
News/Free Resources - Posted 10 Oct 2011
Teach! Strategies & Resources is designed to help schools bridge current instruction and future Common Core expectations with on-demand instructional professional development support.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Oct 2011
The online system allows observers to move from traditional paper forms to a technology-enabled process that allows them to seamlessly schedule classroom observations, collect and organize observation data, align evidence with a framework, and then store it on one secure platform.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Sep 2011
In these two new online workshops, participants will be walked, step by step, through Considerations for Next Generation Assessments: A Roadmap to 2014, a comprehensive guide for making the transition, released by Pearson earlier this year.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Sep 2011
Based on Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, the new system helps observers to make reliable, consistent, and defensible judgments of teaching practice.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Sep 2011
The special live student session will feature acclaimed children's author Jean Craighead George.
News/Free Resources - Posted 13 Sep 2011
The effort is part of CoSN's Participatory Learning in Schools: Leadership and Policy initiative, which is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Sep 2011
Mary Ann decided she wanted to know more about her peers—educators "of a certain age"—and their level of adoption of computer technology in education. One informal survey and a large number of responses later, she has her answer.
It is disconcerting when a school or state purchases valuable resources and usage is low. Mary Alice says the start of the school year is a good time to begin overcoming nonuse.
As you start the school year in this era of economic challenges, Stephen offers a range of strategies for partnering with your local public library.
Johanna continues her examination of technology infusion in global educational settings with a look at how a "retiring" educator took up a teaching challenge at the City of Knowledge in Panama.
The company has upgraded its Discovery Education streaming service with a variety of new resources, more efficient navigation and a free, three-week series of webinars to help educators explore how to incorporate the digital resources into their instruction.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Aug 2011
Seen on Victor Rivero's edtechdigest.com: A great article/posting by Greg Limperis—Teaching to the Common Core Standards.
News/Cool Links - Posted 18 Aug 2011
The second edition courses feature improved navigation, additional video content, and additional materials for download, including PDF readings and job-embedded resources that support educators as they implement their learning in the classroom.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Aug 2011
On his edtechdigest site, Victor Rivero has put up a brief post on SIIA's newly released 2011 Vision K-20 Survey that's worth a look … good synopsis, key findings, etc.
News/Cool Links - Posted 11 Aug 2011
New in PD 360 version 5.0, Common Core 360 will provide a guide for states, schools, and districts implementing the Common Core Standards. It includes Common Core-specific video segments featuring teacher-leader conversations and classroom examples of implementation.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jul 2011
Victor Rivero's edtechdigest.com just passed along a link to a great list of influential education and ed tech Twitter Tweeters and their Twitter handles that you should consider following.
News/Cool Links - Posted 20 Jul 2011
New updates enable educators to create public profile pages and connect through mobile devices.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Jun 2011
The report, released during the recent ISTE conference in Philadelphia, seeks to understand how students and faculty want to use technology, measure how classroom technology is evolving and identify opportunities for continued growth.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jun 2011
Dave Saltman writes for the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Harvard Education Letter, producing, among other things, some of those popular "list" kinds of articles. The concept can be overdone, but his are great, including "Eight Tech Trends for Librarians (and Teachers too!).
News/Cool Links - Posted 21 Jun 2011
The annual report highlights innovative educational technology activities that are playing a crucial role in K-12 school improvement efforts in states and local communities across the country.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jun 2011
Teachers will learn, share and have fun in this one-day professional development day, and leave with confidence to create online lessons for the new school year.
News/Free Resources - Posted 20 May 2011
With a flexible, multimedia design and a deep course catalog, the PD Online series supports the needs of almost any type and size of learning group—from individual learners and small professional learning communities to districtwide professional development, and integration into university courses and programs, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 May 2011
Four grade-level winners have been selected, with the winning entries to be published in Study Island online products.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 May 2011
The results of November 2010's elections coupled with the ongoing financial woes have brought threats to schools, libraries, and educators according to Mary Ann. What can teachers and librarians do? She's got lots of ideas.
Too often, says Mary Alice, obvious and necessary training about the basics gets lost in training about "big picture" items such as cloud computing or data mining. So she brings us back to those basics and discusses where media specialists fit in.mary alice anderson
Johanna argues for and promotes a more flexible approach to teaching and using digital media through fabulous examples from the students of Ross Wallis, head of creative arts at a school in the U.K.
"As fast as a trending Twitterstorm and as powerful as a flood of Facebook fans, there's a curious phenomenon moving through our schools these days: social media." Read all about the phenomenon … and the tools that comprise it … in Victor's feature.
From Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy's new INFOdocket blog of fabulous information and education resources: The economic education team of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank has developed a new online resource for teachers.
News/Free Resources - Posted 26 Apr 2011
Enrollment is now open for the late spring term beginning on May 11, the early summer term starting June 22, and the late summer term commencing on August 10.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Apr 2011
Key Math Strategists, a new professional development organization from Key Curriculum Press, is designed to help schools make sense of, and gain maximum benefit from, the integration of the Common Core State Standards.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Apr 2011
Florida State University School of Library & Information Studies is using an IMLS grant to explore how school librarians can make it easier for students and their teachers to use digital content to support STEM learning. The project investigates how librarians are currently using open content STEM resources and develops a tool that allows librarians to easily create catalog records for digital materials.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Apr 2011
To provide schools and districts with a more comprehensive eLearning program model for students, the e2020 Inc., Common Core Standards alignment process is manually configured, resulting in more accurate and granular results.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Mar 2011
New on-demand, video-based modules are available that are designed to deepen teacher knowledge of global climate and earth system change, while providing a resource that can also be used with students.
News/Free Resources - Posted 24 Mar 2011
The online community of practice will first focus on student-owned devices, followed by broadband. Future areas of focus may include cloud computing, mobile computing, enabling home access, wireless access and network design, among many others.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Mar 2011
The report explores the fundamentals of mobile devices for schools - from their education potential to the pros and cons of student- vs. school-owned devices. It also details four components of mobile learning that factor into technology planning and decision making, and highlights how some school districts are successfully leveraging mobile devices.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Mar 2011
Districts using Lexia's software for essential reading practice, instruction and assessment, will now benefit from CORE's literacy professional development and comprehensive implementation assistance.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Mar 2011
Mary Ann says there can be change even when there is just one person with vision, a message she wants to get out to those who struggle against the odds with efforts to bring 21 st-century skills to their libraries and schools!
Will media centers as we know them be built 20 years from now? Will trends of classroom and mobile technology make physical space irrelevant? The knowledge gained about new facilities Mary Alice helped plan provides the basis for her forward-thinking ideas this month.
The Google search religion is finally starting to be challenged, according to Stephen. Search engine spam and questionable results run the risk of ruining the usefulness of search engines. It's time to build credulity skills in learners and researchers about what's behind the results they get from these engines.
Johanna reports on how Deborah Hargroves is providing "large school" media services to two separate "small school initiative" schools that could not otherwise afford them.
The professional development scene for teachers has advanced to the point that the web is a true gift to educators. Here are some excellent online professional development resources to help move you toward a 21 st-century classroom.
Atomic Learning is a subscription service that offers online training and resources to educators and students for software, applications, and 21 st-century productivity skills. Training is delivered via short tutorial movies.
PD 360 is an on-demand (ready for use whenever needed) library of professional teacher development resources that makes professional development more effective, convenient, and sustainable.
Sublime Learning services offer training for educators in the effective use of technology as it is woven together with teaching best practices.
Gary Price and colleagues will continue to provide valuable information and education resources through this new site as well as FullTextReports.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Mar 2011
Practically all education reform models use some form of learning community, each of which has benefits and drawbacks. But School Loop's Mark Gross writes that it's possible to use technology to create a hybrid learning community virtually that compensates for real-world problems.
Entitled "Deepening Commitment: Teachers Increasingly Rely on Media and Technology," the report indicates an insufficient capacity of computing devices and technology infrastructure to handle teachers' internet-dependent instructional activity.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Feb 2011
Victor Rivero reports briefly on the Obama administration's push for a federal edtech agency in a posting on his edtechdigest.com blog.
News/Cool Links - Posted 11 Feb 2011
Information Today, Inc.'s news bureau chief Paula Hane posted a story January 20 on interesting activities and plans at Alexander Street Video, including acquisition of a distributor of documentary films, plans for an online collection of streaming video developed for teacher training and development, and more.
News/ITI Cross Links - Posted 21 Jan 2011
A recent posting on Victor Rivero's edtechdigest blog turned us on to a CoSN report, "Empowering the 2st Century Superintendent."
News/Cool Links - Posted 20 Jan 2011
The new website offers states an integrated array of resources for the move to Common Core Standards.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jan 2011
Not satisfied with how her 2010 was going, Mary Ann decided to reboot and upgrade last September to 2010.2—giving her a jump-start on New Year's resolution-making.
This column's new title has prompted Mary Alice to think about the skills that new media specialists need. Here, then, are some attributes and attitudes she believes are essential for the profession at this juncture.
Stephen has been to a bunch of large conferences in the past month that were focused on the school library and teacher librarians. At each, he witnessed librarians' passion as it overflowed into real tears, anger, and hand-wringing about the state of staffing, budgets, and resources for libraries. This month, he offers validation and, more important, hints and strategies for moving forward.
In the scant time allotted for professional collaboration, teachers naturally tend to nestle into their grade- and discipline-specific niches. But they would benefit from shaking loose every once in a while to walk a mile in others' Keds.
Given their popularity with students, knowing more about how search engines such as Google work is vital to understanding information access in a digital age.
Enrollment is now open for this new online professional development course developed by INSPIRE at Purdue University to help pre-K-6 teachers improve learning and foster interest in STEM careers.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Dec 2010
The findings in the "Innovate to Educate: System [Re]Design for Personalized Learning" report are based upon the insights and recommendations of some 150 visionary education leaders convened at an August 4-6, 2010 Symposium in Boston, Mass.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Nov 2010
The monograph provides a detailed historical perspective on the role chief technology officers (CTOs) have played in the past, and forward-looking insight into how that role is expected to evolve over the next decade.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Nov 2010
Why shouldn't kids have a chance at school to look up information to satisfy their own curiosity or to explore a hobby or a personal interest, especially if they don't have internet access at home? In many schools, figures Mary Ann, strict rules, tight filters, and overly zealous teachers prevent students from using computers to find anything not strictly tied to a specific class assignment. To that mentality, she raises a virtual fist and sends up a virtual shout … hogwash!
As her bio notes indicate, Mary Alice is an online adjunct instructor for the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and she's well versed in the ways of teaching online. Since online education is growing in importance, whether for higher education, professional development, or for K-12 settings, Mary Alice offers the benefits of hers and many of her online colleagues' experience in this realm for this month's Media Center column.
Just carry an iPad into a restaurant or a school library and see how much attention you get! It's a device everyone wants to get their hands on, touch, and play with. But just what are its strengths and weaknesses as a teaching and learning tool in schools? That's what author Carolyn Foote and her colleagues wanted to find out in their district. Read on to learn about their ongoing iPad pilot project at Foote's high school research center as they examine whether the devices are helpful in a school and/or library environment.
In other columns this year, Stephen has explored the nature of the ebook in school libraries. But, he notes, he hasn't actually discussed the pros and cons of the print and electronic formats for books in general, nor focused on the classroom as opposed to the out-of-classroom library use of books. So that's what he covers in this issue, starting with a simple list of pros and cons.
Teachscape Reflect combines state-of-the-art 360-degree video capture hardware and online software to provide teachers with a panoramic view of their classroom that helps them reflect on their teaching, share instructional practices, and receive timely coaching support.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Oct 2010
Shmoop Site Licenses allow schools and libraries to give all of their students, teachers, and patrons complimentary access to Shmoop's subscription products anywhere they have web access.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Oct 2010
The new forum for dialogue about education is written by Inspiration co-founder and president Mona Westhaver.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Sep 2010
Participatory Culture: Building Blocks for School Leaders is designed for use by superintendents, principals, chief technology/information officers (CTOs/CIOs), technology directors and curriculum directors.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Sep 2010
Educators are asked to answer the question "What would $200 help you do with your school's library?" The deadline to apply is Monday, Oct. 11.
News/Free Resources - Posted 15 Sep 2010
The goal of this research study was to take a close look at the attitudes of school principals about social networking for their own personal use, with their colleagues, and within their school communities. Principals can play an important role in encouraging and training their teachers and staff to adopt new technologies, and in setting policies for the use of technology and the Internet in schools.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Sep 2010
At NEStest.com, teacher licensure candidates and faculty members will find complete testing information, candidate preparation materials, and college and university faculty preparation resources for the contemporary, 100 percent computer-based testing program.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Sep 2010
Since the new year and the new decade of 2010 was ushered in with the usual hoopla in January, Belltones columnist Mary Ann Bell began to wonder how educators are faring when it comes to using technology. She has conducted a number of surveys online on the subject. This month, she shares the results for administrators, compares them with teachers' answers, and offer her thoughts about the similarities and differences.
Teachscape Instruction | Mobile version 1.4, optimized for the iPad, further expands the number of devices that educators can use to collect data during their classroom visits.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Sep 2010
School maintenance staff along with school secretaries always appear on lists of the key people a media specialist must get to know at the start of a career. Who else do you work with and depend on as you build successful media programs? Who else depends on you? Who else can we potentially add to what Gary Hartzell calls our "Power/Dependency Map"? In this month's column, Mary Alice walks you through an exercise to help you explore this issue.
In this month's column, Stephen shows you some great initiatives, lead by librarians and educators, that attempt to help bring everyone up-to-date and up-to-speed on the latest in learning technologies and even create learning experiences for these technologies and concepts. What he finds exciting about these efforts, he notes, is that they're not just for librarians. They can be used by teachers of any stripe, subject, or experience level, as well as by administrators such as principals and superintendents.
In this article, Victor Rivero draws on educators' and educational technology product developers' thinking that he picked up during a visit to this summer's ISTE conference. Victor cruised the show, talking with attendees and presenters, as well as with representatives from organizations such as the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills and The Software & Information Industry Association, to get their opinions on 21st century education.
In this article, well-known educator and administrator Dr. Rudy Crew, former chief of the New York City school system and former superintendent of the Miami-Dade County school system, explains his four competencies for a 21st century education as well as why addressing them will help every student graduate high school fully equipped to face a world that will demand the highest level of skill and experience as a well-rounded individual.
Focusing on how to integrate digital content and the latest educational technologies into classroom instruction, these free, virtual events offer educators of all skill levels insight into best practices and new techniques that participants can immediately apply to their classroom instruction to improve student academic achievement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 26 Aug 2010
For August 15, 2010: Search for exemplary lessons and information by topic or keyword at the free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence website.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 Aug 2010
By
Linda C. Joseph
Based on a partnership between CompassLearning, district and school leadership, and teachers, Impact Teacher Academy is a research-based process that builds teacher capacity and enforces accountability of program implementation. Flexible delivery models — on-site, virtual, and blended — give educators and administrators options suited to their district and school requirements.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Aug 2010
Discussion Activities found in Part 2 are designed to facilitate a dialogue among educators, policymakers and other stakeholders on school and district needs and challenges and whether emerging technologies have a role to play to meeting those needs and achieving educational goals.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Aug 2010
The California School Library Association (CSLA) 2.0 team is has announced - just in time for lesson planning for next year - the newest update in its suite of 2.0 tutorials.
News/Free Resources - Posted 03 Aug 2010
Professional development plus instructional and assessment materials are intended to help teachers adjust classroom practices and prepare students for transition to the new standards.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jul 2010
The conversion provides schools with more flexibility in licensing, customizing and delivering PBS TeacherLine's online professional development courses to their teachers.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Jul 2010
Susan Finley reviews the Student Bullying and Violence Prevention Program, which provides online training and resources teachers can use to communicate with students about bullying and violence-related issues.
Having written a column several issues back entitled "What Kids Know (and Don't Know) About Technology," Mary Ann has now been inspired to address the same subject and questions to teachers and then also to administrators. So this is what she'll be covering in this month's column and the one to follow.
Like most educators, Johann has logged in to her fair share of webinars. These seminars, conducted through the internet, have some distinct advantages over the traditional, face-to-face group meetings. But they're "different," so Johanna has used this month's Tech Effect column to talk about how you, as a webinar instructor or presenter, can make them work well.
Last time, Stephen wrote about some of the issues facing us in the transition to a new and much more complicated ebook ecology, exploring our understanding of ebooks and how they differ from traditional books. In Part 2, he looks at emerging standards, legal issues, and what's in the pipeline for ebook devices, plus strategies for school libraries and their learners.
Part 1 of this article, which appeared in the May/June issue, looked at a range of safety and security issues affecting educators as we all strive to attain the vision enunciated at the beginning of that feature. Part 2 addresses universal digital media safety and literacy education as well as targeted youth risk online prevention.
The company has rolled out 'netTrekker Search,' plus plans for teacher and student productivity tools to support project-based learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jun 2010
In Everyone Plays at the Library: Creating Great Gaming Experiences for All Ages, Scott Nicholson—educator, librarian, game designer, host of the "Board Games with Scott" video series, and founder of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse—shows how gaming programs can be successfully implemented in school, academic, and public libraries, covering all types of games for all age groups.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jun 2010
Developed by educators, for educators, Acuity PhD is an collection of online professional development courses for teachers, assessment coordinators, and administrators.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Jun 2010
Measures of Effective Teaching is a national effort to help educators and policymakers identify and support good teaching. As part of its involvement, NBPTS will utilize its National Board Standards and assessment processes to confidentially evaluate videos of classroom instruction.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Jun 2010
Discovery Education experts will provide interactive learning professional development courses using the Epson BrightLink 450Wi interactive projector.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Jun 2010
The national campaign, Making the Learning Connection, is intended to help communities assess their needs and contribute to a shared vision for 21st century learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Jun 2010
The downloadable ebook by cybersafety authority Nancy Willard focuses on three critical issues for schools: creating change in technology adoption; effective internet use management; and Web 2.0 in schools—legal issues.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Jun 2010
Authored by various members of the education industry, the report highlights industry shifts and emerging trends as they relate to five main topics: K-12 learning management systems, postsecondary learning management systems, online learning, state of the states, and mobile computing.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Jun 2010
For May 15, 2010: Want to brush up on Web 2.0 technology tools, gather ideas to use in your classroom, or add some professional development to your portfolio? Visit INFOhio's 21st Century Learning Commons.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 May 2010
By
Linda C. Joseph
For the last several years, Mary Ann has enjoyed using many online tools designed specifically for the purpose of conducting surveys. These are great for professional use by librarians and teachers. She started, she says, with SurveyMonkey and really took off with it. In this month's Belltones, Mary Ann discusses a selection of survey tools, and examines ways educators and students can use them.
If you have been diligently weeding your media center, there may not be books full of dust bunnies or obsolete technology around. But for many media specialists, weeding is a continuing need and a frequent topic of inquiry in discussion groups such as LM_NET. In Mary Alice's state group, there are often questions about what to do with specific items such as VHS tapes or offers to sell AV equipment or materials. Get your garbage cans ready as she examine the task of weeding in this month's Media Center column.
Subscription web services for education offer a fascinating variety of products and approaches for teachers, parents, students, and school systems. Some services provide grade book and student information systems, others offer assessment and learning management platforms, and some feature classroom resources including lesson plans, videos, digital tools, activities, and games. This article takes a look at a representative sampling of subscription-based websites that are appropriate for use in K-12 classrooms.
It's clear that concerns about internet risk and the ineffective way in which schools are now trying to manage internet use are a major barrier to moving schools forward to embrace 21st-century learning environments. Nancy Willard says it's time for schools to address these issues in a more comprehensive manner. In this two-part article (Part 2 will appear in the next issue), she outlines how cyber-savvy schools can embrace the future.
More than 70 video tutorials can help teachers and students learn how to use the visual learning software's capabilities.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Apr 2010
The "Teacher Video Challenge: Classrooms in the Digital Age" asks educators to submit videos featuring their thoughts and opinions on digital resources and classroom technology.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Apr 2010
PBS TeacherLine and NBPTS are offering a six-week online training course for educators who provide support to teachers pursuing National Board Certification.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Apr 2010
New in H.W. Wilson's Current Issues database series, Careers offers a wide array of information on diverse careers in a single vetted source, in articles selected by H.W. Wilson editors from thousands of magazines and journals.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Apr 2010
For 2010, beginning on April 7, the In Depth web-based program will explore the Institution's Week Six (August 2-6) theme, "Excellence in Public Education."
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Apr 2010
The California School Library Association has released an audio journal, "Circulate This: Stories from the School Library," which is packed with powerful stories about school libraries.
News/Cool Links - Posted 06 Apr 2010
The free professional development event on April 24th will focus on integrating educational technologies into classroom instruction.
News/Free Resources - Posted 22 Mar 2010
To help educators rejuvenate their passion for teaching, Teachscape's higher education division is offering free face-to-face events to learn what quality traits make a teacher a hero to students.
News/Free Resources - Posted 12 Mar 2010
Expanded the number of devices usable for collecting classroom walkthrough (CWT) data, the application allows users to gather instruction data through classroom walkthroughs on a netbook, laptop, or tablet PC, with or without an internet connection.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Mar 2010
The web-based resource is intended to greatly increase access to affordable, job-embedded support in the teaching and learning of math.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Mar 2010
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
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