U.S. Department of Commerce launched DigitalLiteracy.gov

Today the U.S. Department of Commerce launched DigitalLiteracy.gov http://www.digitalliteracy.gov/, a gateway to materials, research, online learning tools and more to help librarians and educators access and share materials to use when training learners of all ages on topics such as information literacy, computer skills, digital literacies and more.

The Dept. of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) created the portal in partnership with nine federal agencies to provide librarians, teachers, workforce trainers and others a central location to share digital literacy content and practices.

Individuals are welcome to visit the site to find resources, upload their own and/or connect with others who are offering training on these topics. Visit http://www.digitalliteracy.gov/ to access the resource, or read more
about it from the ALA Washington Office's blog:

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2011/05/ala-collaborates-with-ntia-to-launch-enhance-digitalliteracy-gov/

ipads in the classroom

Technologically speaking, I'm an early adopter. Techno-gadgets are appealing to me. They offer fun and function in a stylish container. As a gadget-loving School Librarian I grapple with the dichotomy of a shrinking budget and arming students with state-of-the-art learning tools. At $500 a piece-the ipad2 is a possible answer.

Skills, information acquisition and habits of mind are best acquired by creating a product on a particular thesis or topic of study. Whether it’s a paper, a video, or a presentation, kids learn by creating a project for an audience. Many students are overwhelmed with the management and expression of the various forms of information they locate (i.e. video, audio, images).

The Camera
The ipad 2 offers a central location where students can store various media and information. Equipped with HD capabilities the camera can capture high-quality still and moving images. When students are out on location gathering information for their project the camera enables them to capture information in various forms of media to a centralized location for easy storage and access when designing their project.

FaceTime
Imagine the possibilities here. Students can interact one-on-one with a subject matter expert related to their topic of study. How about videoconferencing with a group of scientists live as they research the ecosystem in Antarctica. Video-chat with other classrooms in another part of the country or world who have just read the exact same book as your class has and discuss the main points. This is the powerful component of FaceTime to me. Allowing students to connect to anyone in the world. Students are no longer confined to their local area for information. FaceTime allows students to use technology to actively access the world.

As the conversation continues with respect to ipads/tablets in the classroom I will update this posting with the key points.

How iPad can help me make the match.

One of the most important aspects of technology is its applicability. How can I use it to do my job better. One of the most important roles I play in the library is matchmaker: matching the book/resource to the need.

After performing a simple search with the keyword "library" the App store delivered a important tool to place in my librarian toolkit.

ICDL-Free Books for Children-International Children's Digital Library

I see this App as offering more than one use. At first glance it is a way to read books to your children or have children read books on the iPad or iPhone. The books come in every language you can imagine and one can filter by Award Winning Books, Cover Color, Picture Books, to name a few.

In addition to this function the App is a tool for the Librarian when performing the role of Reader Advisor. The strength of this App is the database of books written in languages other than the primary languages we all thing of. For example A librarian in Virginia went online to the International Children's Digital Library to help a local man find books in Farsi that he could read to his children. Read the full article here.

Powerful tools are available to use and I hope to find more to share with you in the coming weeks. If anyone can provide additional App recommendations for today's Children's Librarian I welcome your comments!

Reflection

Technology in the School Media Center has delivered a sense of confidence through which I feel I can achieve the ability to educate and inspire through web 2.0 technologies in the school media center. For more than 10 years I have worked as a Knowledge Base and Technical Specialist for camera companies which has provided me with a solid technical base from which to learn about web 2.0 tools. What I was most pleased with by taking course 626 was the ability to direct the use of various web 2.0 technologies into skill-appropriate lessons in the school library.

Social Bookmarking tool Delicious is really useful. Why haven't I been using this before? The ability to manage and access bookmarks from any device is really convenient. Tagging book marks allows them to be accessed through various keywords instead of only having the title of the webpage in my list of favorites.

The ability to showcase the work I have completed incorporating web 2.0 tools into age-appropriate lessons was the most valuable aspect of the course. As a candidate for School Librarian opportunities I will frequently update the Blog and Wiki with new content as I continue to find relevant ideas to share.

Librarians teach Digital Citizenship

Every Thursday I am lucky enough to receive "From the Desk of David Pogue" email newsletter. As you can imagine I was beyond excited when I read this week's story title: "Q&A: Rumors, Cyberbullying and Anonymity". How incredibly awesome to bring to light a very prevalent topic in today's schools and in organizations. As I continued to read I was disappointed at the prevalent misunderstanding (and it's not just Pogue & Palfrey who are unaware here) that School's don't teach about digital citizenship, website evaluation tools and techniques, netiquette, cyberbullying and Internet safety.

In the article John Palfrey, professor of law and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, states, "I think almost no emphasis is being put on giving kids the skills that they need to sort credible from non-credible information. Schools have to wake up and have to give those skills to our kids. It's the critical thinking skill of the 21st century that they're going to need, sorting credible from not credible information. And I think we're asleep at the switch."

Ugh...again.

How can we as School Librarians shout from the mountain-top that we do teach these skills? The ITSE NETS (National Educational Technology Standards) and the AASL Standards for the 21st-century learner are what we all teach to.

Promotion of what we do and how we help our school and our society through the information literacy skills, digital literacy skills and digital citizenship lessons is paramount in order to prevent the continued removal of School Librarians from Schools. I do not want to be part of a Nation without School Librarians.

E-books are here to stay!

Upon hearing the news that Amazon has sold more e-books than hardcover books I was motivated to generate this survey. Once I have received replies I will be able to import the data into the spreadsheet to discover the most popular answers and share the results.

Reading 2.0

Reading 2.0 offers technical tools that help us to promote books not replace them. Creating book trailers can turn my students fondness for the online world to our advantage by highlighting my library's offerings with the latest technological tools. My favorite tool is Photostory which incorporates video, audio, music with innovative transitions and effects.