I did another Google search looking for websites which dealt with technology in education. I hit the jackpot with a site www.iste.org. The acronym ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit member organization. They define themselves in the following statement:
An organization of great diversity, ISTE leads through presenting innovative educational technology books and programs; conducting professional development workshops, forums, and symposia; and researching, evaluating, and disseminating findings regarding educational technology on an international level.
The site includes information on careers in education technology, educator resources, andnational educational technology standards (NETS); as well as providing conferences, blogs and other forms of communication and idea sharing.
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
A vision of students today
As I have gone through this summer, and this search for information regarding technology's affect on academics and critical thinking, I have started heading to the conclusion that educators need to use technology in much more creative ways than they are in order to assist their students in their own use of resources, like the internet.
I found one teacher who does just that. Professor Wesch, of Kansas State University, uses technology to help teach, and his class put together a video which stated quite clearly why he must do so. The following pictures are from a youtube video (4:44) that was put together by his class (all 200 of them) from information they collected and surveys they conducted amongst themselves.
The video can also be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=related
Further information about Prof. Wesch and his classes can be found at Prof. Wesch's personal website: mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg or at the class' website: www.netvibes.com/wesch
I found one teacher who does just that. Professor Wesch, of Kansas State University, uses technology to help teach, and his class put together a video which stated quite clearly why he must do so. The following pictures are from a youtube video (4:44) that was put together by his class (all 200 of them) from information they collected and surveys they conducted amongst themselves.
The video can also be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=related
Further information about Prof. Wesch and his classes can be found at Prof. Wesch's personal website: mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg or at the class' website: www.netvibes.com/wesch
Databases - LibLit
My final database search was through Library Literature (LibLit) because I wanted something pertaining directly to libraries. I decided on the successive fraction search. I knew everything would be about or for libraries and so I would narrow the search down using the other terms until I had a manageable number. I initially searched for "technology" and "education", both as subject searches, and came up with 205 results. I then searched the results for "high school".
This gave me 5 hits.
This gave me 5 hits.
Databases - JSTOR
For my third database I decided to use JSTOR. With almost four million articles, almost two million of which are full-text, I was sure JSTOR would have a high chance of good recall. I decided to use a specific facet first search since the database is so large, which would hopefully give me enough results where I would not need to continue searching. Because previous searches of other databases had returned so little on Boarding Schools, I decided to include that in my search term. I searched for full-text articles under the heading "boarding school library".
The search returned 2620 hits and so I narrowed it further by including the term "academics" linked by an AND operator. This only returned 144 hits, of which one really caught my eye. It was an article from 1996 by a school board member who was discussing the change in research.
The search returned 2620 hits and so I narrowed it further by including the term "academics" linked by an AND operator. This only returned 144 hits, of which one really caught my eye. It was an article from 1996 by a school board member who was discussing the change in research.
Databases - ERIC
Since the hit I felt most appropriate in the DIALOG search was from ERIC, I decided to do a citation pearl growing search in ERIC using that hit as my "pearl". I used the ERIC number as my search (# ED501560):
From there I saw that the first descriptor was "Technology Uses in Education", which was what I was looking for. I therefore clicked on the link that was inserted into the document and ERIC used that subject (technology uses in education) to complete another search. The results are as follows:
The first hit will be very useful toward learning as much as possible about my chosen subject, how technology affects academics and critical thinking.
From there I saw that the first descriptor was "Technology Uses in Education", which was what I was looking for. I therefore clicked on the link that was inserted into the document and ERIC used that subject (technology uses in education) to complete another search. The results are as follows:
The first hit will be very useful toward learning as much as possible about my chosen subject, how technology affects academics and critical thinking.
Databases - DIALOG
As an assignment for my class I needed to search four databases for information related to my topic. This is the first of the four posts.
For DIALOG (accessible at www.dialog.com)I used a building block search which returned many more options than I could have easily browsed through. Had I not worried about the nature of the database to bill by the minute I would have spent much more time refining my search terms once I was comfortable with the setup. However, as it was, I feel that I would have been hard pressed to narrow the terms further without drastically reducing recall (of which other databases are sorely lacking). My search is as follows:
The results were not exactly as I would have wanted but they did all deal with technology in learning. Of the first few results, the sixth hit was the one most appealing to me. It seemed to have the most bearing on the need behind the search.
For DIALOG (accessible at www.dialog.com)I used a building block search which returned many more options than I could have easily browsed through. Had I not worried about the nature of the database to bill by the minute I would have spent much more time refining my search terms once I was comfortable with the setup. However, as it was, I feel that I would have been hard pressed to narrow the terms further without drastically reducing recall (of which other databases are sorely lacking). My search is as follows:
The results were not exactly as I would have wanted but they did all deal with technology in learning. Of the first few results, the sixth hit was the one most appealing to me. It seemed to have the most bearing on the need behind the search.
Monday, 30 June 2008
LibraryThing
I just opened a LibraryThing account and searched via tagmash for books relating to my interest in academic librarianship. I found that adding in "boarding school" or anything along those lines only pulled up Harry Potter books and other fiction so I made my search very simple and then scanned titles. Here are the tags from one book I found using a search of "librarianship, non-fiction":
April_2007 Bankier professional(1) higher education(1) information literacy(4) instruction(1) librarianship(1) libraries(1) library instruction(1) library science(1) non-fiction(3) pedagogy(1) perused(1) recommended(1) teaching(2) unread
The book, Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes, can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/work/1041607
I liked the sound of this book because it deals with how to motivate students to learn and love research and gives tips for working in conjunction with the teachers. It was also one of the few books which dealt with students outside of the elementary level.
I found a few other books during my search which I liked and so I'll include them as well, even though they are not necessary. These books, for the most part, would have been hard to find using tagging because most of them have very limited variety on their tags. I would have had to be very lucky to get a hit off of them based on what I was initially searching (boarding school, library, librarian, academic, high school, private,...).
Exploding the myths: the truth about teens and reading
http://www.librarything.com/work/183996
Diversity now: people, collections, and services in academic libraries
http://www.librarything.com/work/254598
Right Book, Right Time: 500 Great Reads for Teenagers
http://www.librarything.com/work/4323906
April_2007 Bankier professional(1) higher education(1) information literacy(4) instruction(1) librarianship(1) libraries(1) library instruction(1) library science(1) non-fiction(3) pedagogy(1) perused(1) recommended(1) teaching(2) unread
The book, Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes, can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/work/1041607
I liked the sound of this book because it deals with how to motivate students to learn and love research and gives tips for working in conjunction with the teachers. It was also one of the few books which dealt with students outside of the elementary level.
I found a few other books during my search which I liked and so I'll include them as well, even though they are not necessary. These books, for the most part, would have been hard to find using tagging because most of them have very limited variety on their tags. I would have had to be very lucky to get a hit off of them based on what I was initially searching (boarding school, library, librarian, academic, high school, private,...).
Exploding the myths: the truth about teens and reading
http://www.librarything.com/work/183996
Diversity now: people, collections, and services in academic libraries
http://www.librarything.com/work/254598
Right Book, Right Time: 500 Great Reads for Teenagers
http://www.librarything.com/work/4323906
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
New RSS feed added!
Take a look at the new RSS feed I have just added. There may be more in the future depending on what I run across but I liked starting out with a feed from a source that deals very generally with the topic of Libraries catering toward teens, and American Association of School Librarians does just that. The paper by Tom March mentioned in the June 24th post is well worth a visit, as is the post itself. It discusses a topic which has been highly debated lately, namely, if and how well technology is helping the current generation learn in a constructive and thought provoking manner. On the website there are also a lot of good posts which offer tips to Librarians in the field. It's a great source for someone who wants to take the best they can to their own library.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Google Generation podcast
I needed to look for a podcast which dealt with the area of Librarianship that I wanted to focus on. I did a Google search and ended up at the website for Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in Britain. On their site they state their mission as "to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of [Information and Communications Technology] to support education and research" and they have a wide variety of information helping people do just that.
One of their podcasts had to do with the "Google Generation" and if those who have grown up in a digital age were actually the best able to use the web, especially for education and research purposes. It deals with the impatience of those in the generation and need for instant gratification without the knowledge of the best tools. It talks about a report which has come out recently and I highly agree with many of their findings. You can view it at:
'The Google Generation' - myth or reality?
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/01/podcast26googlegeneration.aspx
This podcast states the Librarians will be more important than ever! It also gives an idea of how the Library will be so important. It is easy to take what is said straight into the Library, especially ones found in an academic setting.
One of their podcasts had to do with the "Google Generation" and if those who have grown up in a digital age were actually the best able to use the web, especially for education and research purposes. It deals with the impatience of those in the generation and need for instant gratification without the knowledge of the best tools. It talks about a report which has come out recently and I highly agree with many of their findings. You can view it at:
'The Google Generation' - myth or reality?
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/01/podcast26googlegeneration.aspx
This podcast states the Librarians will be more important than ever! It also gives an idea of how the Library will be so important. It is easy to take what is said straight into the Library, especially ones found in an academic setting.
Monday, 9 June 2008
Teaching in the Library using Sci Fi as a Basis?
I went online (Google Blog search) to try and find someone else's blog about teaching students to use different resources, particularly for high schools. I found, instead, a blog which deals a little bit with Librarians as teachers but it really was comparing Boarding Schools that actually exist with Boarding Schools and the like in different Science Fiction/Fantasy novels. What intrigued me was the idea that I probably could take examples from these novels and put them to good use, especially since the kids would be familiar with the sources! Take a look:
Julie Andrews: Wiscon Day 3 - Report 6
http://julieandrews.livejournal.com/27054.html
"Fantastic Groves of Academe
M: Susan Groppi, Victoria Gaydosik, Tom La Farge, Ariel Franklin-Hudson, Keridwen Luis
...
Other schools mentioned besides Hogwarts were the College of Magics, Ender's Battle School, Starfleet Academy, Prof. Xavier's X-Men school, and probably others I don't remember or am not familiar with.
The audience participated quite a lot in this one. Among the things discussed was schools that are isolated, closed systems, such as boarding schools. Many schools in sf/f are for either the ostracized or the elite, or students that are both.
Victoria talked about the teacher as tour guide. Introducing students to things they may not be aware of. Like, here's this cool thing over here. It might be a museum, or a symphony. Opening up a new world for them.
...
One trend noticed in science fiction was schools where you learn at your own pace. Such as the home-schooled taught by computers.
Someone in the audience said that democratized magic, that anyone can do, would be technology.
...
Real world schools of course entered into things and we got the idea that public schools in the US are teaching students to be workers, while private schools are teaching students to be managers."
Does anyone have any particular Sci Fi or Fantasy books in which they really liked the school system? I'd be interested in tying it into how I present things in the library.
Julie Andrews: Wiscon Day 3 - Report 6
http://julieandrews.livejournal.com/27054.html
"Fantastic Groves of Academe
M: Susan Groppi, Victoria Gaydosik, Tom La Farge, Ariel Franklin-Hudson, Keridwen Luis
...
Other schools mentioned besides Hogwarts were the College of Magics, Ender's Battle School, Starfleet Academy, Prof. Xavier's X-Men school, and probably others I don't remember or am not familiar with.
The audience participated quite a lot in this one. Among the things discussed was schools that are isolated, closed systems, such as boarding schools. Many schools in sf/f are for either the ostracized or the elite, or students that are both.
Victoria talked about the teacher as tour guide. Introducing students to things they may not be aware of. Like, here's this cool thing over here. It might be a museum, or a symphony. Opening up a new world for them.
...
One trend noticed in science fiction was schools where you learn at your own pace. Such as the home-schooled taught by computers.
Someone in the audience said that democratized magic, that anyone can do, would be technology.
...
Real world schools of course entered into things and we got the idea that public schools in the US are teaching students to be workers, while private schools are teaching students to be managers."
Does anyone have any particular Sci Fi or Fantasy books in which they really liked the school system? I'd be interested in tying it into how I present things in the library.
The Purpose of this Blog
I've never had a blog before and so it is a powerful force that had me create one. I am taking a class for my Masters in Library Science which brought the perfect opportunity. Through this blog you will see my thoughts on Librarianship as well as a few things which look like HW assignments (chances are, they are). My goal is to become a Librarian in a boarding High School. I really want to find a way to help get today's kids engaged in learning and have them avoid using solely the Internet for their sources. If you have anything you would like to share along those lines, please, let me have it!
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