Tag Archives: News

School Media Specialist

TIES Highlights: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

Submitted by: Nancy Lorentz, Becker High School Media Specialist

Monday’s speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, gave an inspirational as well as humorous keynote. He discussed the state of education in the United States, and our emphasis on standardized testing and continuing to train our young people for an industrialized economy that simply no longer exists. We need to expose students to all sorts of experiences–arts, music, movement, technology as well as academics so that they can discover where their passions and talents lay.

The most valuable sessions I attended dealt with the use and management of mobile devices in education–specifically the iPad, and putting content on-line (especially using Moodle).

Becker High School will be rolling out a one-to-one program next fall, and every student will be issued an iPad for use during the school year. One of the challenges we will face is management of over 800 devices–without any extra personnel. A seemingly great solution was presented by JAMF Software out of Minneapolis in their session titled, “Apple Mobile Device Management Using the Casper Suite.” Some of the management capabilities of the Casper Suite iOS device management software include: Remote Wipe, Remote Lock and Remove Passcode. Mail can be set up on devices remotely; configuration profiles can be pushed to devices; the App Store can be removed from student devices; LDAP groups can be used to push out content and it automates the Apple Volume Purchasing Program. Sadly, there is a cost of approximately $8 per device for this service, so there will need to be a discussion about how to pay for it.

Because of our one-to-one initiative, the other topic I was interested in at TIES is creating content for the iPad. There were several sessions about future of textbooks in our schools. With more and more content being available digitally, teachers are able to find free materials and customize them for their own courses. A California initiative (CK12.org) provides “flexbook” content free for anyone to download, although most of the content is presently math and science/engineering related. The availability of this type of digital content, the ePub capabilities in iWork, the ease of creating presentations and video on the iPad will someday (hopefully soon) make the purchasing of expensive textbooks unnecessary.

Presently, about 25% of BHS teachers use Moodle and our wiki to put their content on-line. When all of our students have access to iPads 24/7, that means they will also need access to our content 24/7. Moodle is a free and easy way for teachers to post assignments, upload worksheets, link to websites, and create lessons and quizzes that students can access any time. The blogging and forum features of Moodle and wikis also make it easy for students to communicate with their teachers and each other on a regular basis. The math department in Byron, MN has done away with textbooks completely and now have all of their content–including videos of their lessons–on Moodle. While they pay licensing fees for some resources, the rest is a blend of open education resources and teacher-created content. Wolf Creek Online High School has used Moodle as its content management system for the past three years, using forums and on-line texts and journals with students to create and foster relationships between the students and their Learning Managers, and amongst themselves. The teachers have put together learning modules to teach academics, technology, career planning and personal and social skills to their students.

School Media Specialist

AASL Launches Video Contest for Students

A partnership between the American Association of School Libraries (AASL), SchoolTube and Cisco has launched a project called Learning4Life in My School Library Student Video Contest. The videos should focus on how school libraries and their technologies encourage students to become lifelong learners. Student video submissions will be accepted between January 4th and March 18th. Winners will be announced April 1st, and will receive a Flip video camera and a prize for their school library. More information can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/l4lvideocontest/.

General, Public, School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

Submitted by: Joan Nevitt, Paynesville High School & Middle School Media Specialist

After attending one day of the 2010 Ties workshop, I was energized and inspired by the professional and relevant information that was presented. Unfortunately, I could only partake in 2 breakout sessions of the many offered.  Time and money would not allow for more this year. A big thank you to CMLE and the scholarship that allowed for me to attend. The first workshop that I chose was “Building a PLC (Professional Learning Community) using Google Docs and other tools”. Not only was the presenter knowledgeable, she also shared how this technology can inform staff with the ease of not rushing to countless meetings, etc. The other workshop provided insight and free applications for High School teachers to use with their Smart Boards.

The first staff meeting after the conference, I shared the many opportunities available for those who attend.  We will be sending staff members every year in the future. Serving on the Staff Development Community and Technology Committee will allow me to keep the word out about this amazing experience.

General, School Media Specialist

MEMO Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE Scholarship recipient.

Submitted by: Wanda Erickson, Upsala Area Schools K-12 Librarian

6:30 a.m. came much too early for this night person!  Two mornings in a row I grumbled out of bed to meet my ride (Deb Disher, Holdingford’s master Media Specialist) and beat the sun into St. Cloud.  You will all laugh with me as I jerked awake Friday morning at 6:20, my alarm set for 7, because Deb was to arrive at 7.  Some have a reading dyslexia; I have a math dyslexia.

But I try not to miss the MEMO Fall Conference and especially appreciate the multi-year contract in St. Cloud as it means I can attend more easily.  Thursday evening’s vendor reception allows me to scout out the vendor area, talk to the various sales reps and begin to place my name in drawing bins.  (Whom do I talk to about not winning anything this year?)

Buffy Hamilton, Cathy Jo Nelson and Marcia Thornton Jones jogged ideas through my brain.  Participatory librarianship = a BIGGER vision!  PR will not make you relevant; YOUR vision for how the library can contribute does!  Develop 23 Things On a Stick for students and call it 5 Things In Our Pockets (put jeans pockets or old card pockets on a bulletin board-kids collect laminated activity cards when they complete each task-master Flip video camera, layout a poster, read an ebook, teach another student to request a title).

Assisting Joan Larson at the book tables in the past has whetted my appetite for more.  This year I volunteered to help with the author visits and the book tables.  What a wonderful time!  I gathered information from the authors to disseminate to my public library staff, who invest Legacy funds in author and illustrator visits.

I am a Boomer librarian who is not transitioning easily to life in the cloud.  I ponder the definition of library.  Where do my libraries live and just exactly when did they transform because I missed it?  Can a Skyped author visit really encompass the same energy as a F2F visit?  Seeing Pat Bauer and Dave Geister in full costume cannot be reproduced.  And, perhaps, there is no substitute for ‘real’ experiences.  After all, I learned one can storyboard very effectively with post-it notes on a laminated piece of cardboard.

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Top Ten Things I Took Away from the Fall MEMO Conference: A CMLE Scholarship

The following report was submitted by a CMLE Scholarship recipient.

Submitted by: Debbie Disher, Holdingford High School and Elementary Media Centers

Balance is a matter of perspective and is temporary.  We need to embrace the ups and downs and the wobbles.

Data collecting library statistics doesn’t have to be that difficult.  Start simple!  Do it on a monthly basis and then it won’t be so overwhelming at the end of the year.

“Real Men Read” program really can be done and doesn’t require special things.  Using a regular digital camera, PhotoShop Elements or other editing software, a poster size printer (or a local print shop) and some willing men.  I am now in the process of working with our photography teacher to have students do these as an assignment.

Things to consider with ebook readers:  batteries, how to circulate, cataloging, siding audio with electronic text can be done.  Great River Regional Library just started using overdrive.

Who will be responsible for teaching social networking ethics to students if we don’t teach it at school?

Web 2.0 tools that I need to take another look at included:  Library Thing, Shelfari, and Polldaddy.

Thanks to the conference I am going to try to be a better blog follower.  Plans to pursue:  The Ubiquitous Librarian (Brian Mathews), Techno Tuesday (Cathy Nelson), The Unquiet Librarian (Buffy Hamilton).

Kelly Tenkely has a new Bloom’s Taxonomy visual that looks really neat.  http://ilearntechnology.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Screen-shot-2010-08-31-at-11.36.54-AM.png

Two Youtube videos worth sharing with staff:  Infowhelm and Information Fluency and A Vision of K-12 Students Today.

Great statistics were given in the session 21st Century Learner.  Such as:  A higher percentage of adults admit to sending and receiving text messages while driving than teenagers.  Another thought that was shared is that our children are growing up in a world of filled with multimedia messages, yet they receive little if any training on evaluating and understanding these messages.

All in all, a great conference with many excellent sessions.  Now to take the time to put some of these ideas in motion.