Tag Archives: Education

Public, School Media Specialist

Report: Schools Should Go Digital Within 5 Years

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A report released recently by the State Educational Technology Directors Association suggests states and school districts should completely shift from print to digital resources in the next five years. In pointing out the benefits of digital educational resources, the association finds there are 22 states that already have adopted such resources. The association finds that digital resources will help districts cut costs and improve education. Read the full article  at T.H.E. Journal (9/24)

The  52 pg. report mentioned in this article is titled,  Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook in a Digital Age

Academic, Public, School Media Specialist

Taking Information Literacy on the Road

Bridging Information Literacy (IL) Across Libraries has become our CMLE tag line for work we have been doing with high school media specialists and college librarians. CMLE is in a unique position to convene important conversations across library types, and IL is the first bridging topic we have chosen. The group first met in April to get acquainted and get their draft assignments. By using a wiki and email, both groups finished  draft documents by the end of May. Then, a face-t0-face meeting in July really bonded this group in ways the wiki may not have been able to do.  Initially, we were uncertain how much the groups had in common. As we talked in July however, the group acknowledged the many commonalities, and that they want to do more around this subject. They did not want to end their work!

We wanted others to hear of our “bridging experiment” and laid plans for sharing what we had learned through MLA and MEMO Conference presentations. We believe it is useful to share the process we used, some outcomes, and some exciting plans for the future. We concluded that it is not helpful to “preach to the choir”  about IL….our colleagues already get it!  Somehow, the group felt it was worth a try to reach students. To that end, we recently developed a survey for college students asking them to offer advice to younger students. Specifically, we asked “Based on your experience, if you could tell a high school student three things to help them prepare for college-level research, what would it be?” We are hopeful that younger students will heed the advice of their older peers and engage more deeply in IL . We hope to produce a short video of college students sharing their message, with quiet  supported by a librarian message, and share it broadly through You Tube.

CMLE will continue this IL work, and hope to grow the circle of involvement and engagement. In the meantime, we are on the road sharing the message, and have opened the group wiki up so others can see the draft documents.  We hope to share a polished executive summary within the next couple of months. Visit the wiki to get the draft version of the  following:

  • Media/information literacy power standards (according to three high school media specialists)
  • Typical student profiles and research frameworks for high school freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior
  • Suggested skill sets for incoming college freshmen
  • The MLA conference handout which shares key points of the work of this group, and steps going forward.

Tip: Check out the New Insights documentation on the site, which captures shifts in thinking and understanding of IL and the work of  other librarians.

Would you be interested in participating in an event where we convene a larger group of high school media specialists, college librarians, and public librarians around the topic of information literacy? Let us know in the comments….or send email to papost@stcloudstate.edu

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Education and Broadband Access

“[Broadband is]… just as important as having electricity and water. It’s really become a core component of the whole business of delivering instruction and also managing school districts.” …This according to TIES Technology Integration Development and Outreach Facilitator, Mary Mehsikomer, in a recent St. Cloud Times article regarding the importance of broadband connectivity in education. The article goes on to explain that parents may have thought that a dial-up connection was enough, but now dial-up connections are not robust enough to handle the type of information that students are required to access online. But, it’s not just at home; some rural schools and colleges are facing the same problem as households. Some district budgets simply cannot afford high-speed connectivity. Due to this difficulty, some schools have now joined forces via the Minnesota Educational Technology Network. The network strives to improve access to broadband in rural areas. It allows for the cooperative purchase of internet access and video services to rural schools and libraries. This network of rural schools and libraries effectively has greater buying power than each institution on its own. A few institutions in the network have even begun the cooperative sharing of servers or IT departments.

In addition to seeking out cooperative arrangements, schools and libraries may also be interested in securing grants to support their technology needs and updates. Locally, a $4,000 grant was received by the Foley School District from the Blandin Foundation’s MIRC Program for the installation of additional wireless units in the schools for school and community use.

At the college-level, there may be even greater need for high-speed connectivity. With the boom in online courses and fully online programs, high-speed connectivity for college students is essential. Vi Bergquist, Chief Information Officer at St. Cloud Community and Technical College, says “Internet access has gotten so vitally important for college students. It’s almost a must.” Bergquist goes on to explain that there’s often an assumption (especially at larger metropolitan campuses) that all students will have a device and access to high-speed connectivity — but that’s a dangerous assumption. Bergquist explains that there are still students that don’t have this access, and students that simply don’t understand the technical requirements for taking online courses.

With demand will ultimately come greater access to connectivity and high-speed providers. James Koenig, Director of IT Services at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, explained that already “…there’s enough [provider] competition in the area that we can buy from a local provider”. This is certainly a move in the right direction!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

TED-Ed Brain Trust Online Forum

TED leaders recently announced the upcoming launch of a new initiative called the TED-Ed Brain Trust. The TED-Ed online forum will build upon the strengths of the traditional TED site and related content, but will have a focus on education. Anyone can join this forum, and short videos that are “catalytic to learning” will be accessible for free through the site. In addition, the previous 900+ TED talks will be available through the forum and organized with educators and their specific disciplines and uses in mind. According to the site, visionary educators, students, organizations, filmmakers and other creative professionals are also welcome to join the forum and possibly add their own educational videos, which will be “enhanced” by TED officials. The forum will be live soon, sans videos. The videos will be made available in the months following its launch. Read more here.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/3251451369/ by Jurvetson

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Education Nation

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NBC is launching a discussion, starting Monday, September 27th, on the topic of education in the United States. The mission statement for the week long segment is:

“Education Nation seeks to engage the public, through thoughtful dialogue, in pursuit of the shared goal of providing every American with an opportunity to pursue the best education in the world.”

Key political figures, decision makers, educators, parents, students, and the general public will come together to discuss all aspects of education (positive and negative), and determine why, in a nation that is founded on democracy, our students continue to fall behind.

Special events include a television interview with President Obama, a special appearance by Collin Powell and his wife Alma Powell, and an education summit with attendees such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Multi-media coverage of the event will occur on the Nightly News, the Today Show, Meet the Press, MSNBC, ivillage.com, EducationNation.com, and several other news outlets.   

For more information please go to http://www.educationnation.com/.