25 items | 5 visits
This list contains blog URLs which relate to the role of librarians in the school.
Updated on Jul 22, 15
Created on Jul 31, 13
Category: Schools & Education
URL:
A blog by Daniel Russell about search, search skills, teaching search, learning how to search, learning how to use Google effectively, learning how to do research. It also covers a good deal of sensemaking and information foraging.
Savvy schools and teachers have long been taking advantage of sites like Skype to give students from San Diego to New Zealand the opportunity to interact with people from all the world and to stamp their virtual field trip passports. Here are just a few examples.
This is a demonstration of mathematical curiosity and creativity. "Teaching how to think requires giving power and responsibility to individuals while teaching what to think can be done with one-size fits all bullet points and check boxes."
This is a checklist for principals as they look at the upcoming shift to Common Core.
Digital reading is rising fast among children ages 6 to 17, but this is not necessarily translating into a greater desire to read, according to a report released on Monday by Scholastic Inc.
A school library in each and every school, staffed by a professional and certified librarian, is critical to the education of our students. We cannot expect to have an informed citizenry if we neglect to teach our students to think critically and evaluate the information that inundates them daily.
"A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold, rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen, instead. A human with a brain and a heart and a desire to be uplifted, rather than a customer with a credit card and an inchoate "need" for "stuff." A mall--the shops--are places where your money makes the wealthy wealthier. But a library is where the wealthy's taxes pay for you to become a little more extraordinary, instead. A satisfying reversal. A balancing of the power
The new report is not just focused on STEM interest. It also highlights national and state-by-state data on job prospects in the STEM fields. Experts tell me that the data on future STEM jobs have been available for some time, but that the survey information on student interest has not. In any case, the report cites a federal estimate that there will be at least 8.7 million U.S. STEM jobs in 2018, up from 7.4 million today. The report probes differences in STEM interest not just by gender, but also by race and ethnicity.
The report documents how STEM interest has been continually rising in high-school students since 2004, and an astounding 25% of all high-school students currently have an interest in STEM majors and careers. Since the graduating class of 2004, overall interest in STEM majors and careers among high school seniors has increased by over 20%. Arguably the most concerning trend with students interested in STEM is the increasing gender-gap.
The 2013 NMC Horizon's Report on Higher Education, which brings together international experts in education and technology, attempts to take the pulse of emerging technologies in higher education and predict where the field will move in the near, middle and far term. The report points to MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, as the big change agent in the higher ed landscape, but it also reaches a little further, bringing 3D printing and wearable technology into the mix.
What lessons can we learn about genetically engineered organisms from the example of the jabberjay, a fictional bird in the movie "The Hunger Games"? In this lesson, students discuss the definition of genetically modified organisms, learn about the risks and benefits of research on G.M.O.'s, explore the growing do-it-yourself biology movement, and develop proposals seeking to either restrict or permit research into genetically modifying the avian flu virus.
Recently I was traveling around to a few schools in my district looking at our 1:1 pilot. I walked into an elementary classroom and saw the image at the top of this post. Around the room I saw various sizes of pieces of paper with kids writing on them with @ symbols, what appear to be hashtags and other parts of the Twitter vernacular.
Paul Hynes of the George Spencer Academy in Nottingham operates a BYOD policy that gives access to free, filtered web access (no passwords). He points out that there's some underlying problems with a tablet-only approach; lockdown, updates, damage, iTunes, the illusion of personalisation, tech problems with displays, printers, wireless, also difficulties in storage and sharing. I'm with him on this and have real doubts about the rush to spendlarge sums on tablet projects in schools. There are several reasons for preferring BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to BEND (Buy Everyone a New Device)
Has the Internet changed the way students conduct research? Yes, and not always for the better, reports to a study released last week by the Pew Research Center, "How Teens Do Research in the Digital World." According to a survey of more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers, "research" for today's students means "Googling," and as a result, doing research "has shifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment."
A Guide to Citing Images, a new infographic from our friends at NoodleTools, offers a MLA-aligned flow chart to guide researchers through a variety of image citation situations. But it is not just about image documentation. It asks learners to ask themselves a few important questions before using and documenting images that were born digital. NoodleTools labels an image born digital if: it was created in digital form, or if you do not know where the image itself is physically stored. The poster suggests special scrutiny for digitally born visuals, including: comparing the images with others, checking for metadata, locating the white dot-reflection of the light source-in the eyes of people, and using shadows as a test of consistency.
One of the CCSS shifts focuses on the direct correlation between vocabulary and comprehension. We as educators are told to spotlight the value of vocabulary more than we ever have. ELA teachers, librarians, linguists and wordsmiths alike have always valued "words" as they hold power:
*Power to capture an image
*Power to express our thoughts correctly
*Power to send a message
*...and now power to understand and comprehend...or receive a message
graphite.org
To evaluate the bonanza of apps, games, and websites that claim to have educational value, Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization best known for rating commercial media for age-level appropriateness, has developed a new rating system called Graphite. The site provides ratings of products in three categories: pedagogy, engagement, and support. Pedagogy is the highest weighted category, and is based on the depth and quality of content and how well it's integrated into the mechanics of the reviewed game or website. The highest rated games require players to think critically about how to progress, and help build skills that are transferable. The engagement category measures how well the game grabs and keeps players' attention, and the support category refers to the quality of tools the product offers to help learners when they get stuck. Support also includes tools for parents or teachers so they can help a learner and gets higher marks if it offers content in a variety of ways, catering to different types of learners. Some examples might be clear tutorials or content offered with both visuals and text.
Can you save me the comics? This familiar question was often spoken in my household on Sunday mornings. A picture of fatherhood, my dad who had awakened early was holding his second cup of morning coffee with the Cleveland Plain Dealer spread across his chest and small ink marks on his hands proving that he had indeed been reading. After saying our good mornings, my elder sister and I would focus our gaze on the perfectly folded unopened newspaper sections stationed on the small table beside him. We would ask for articles about the arts, books, movies and, of course, the comics. Those first sections containing current news and the front pages would never do. Later in the morning, when dad had reached the desired sections he would share them with us. I remember reading the comics and enjoying the small illustrations of characters who spoke in word bubbles. But I know more than anything my favorite part was doing something grown up- reading the newspaper. - See more at: http://overdriveblogs.com/library/2013/07/28/the-business-of-superheroes/#sthash.Hj3nPRME.dpuf
This morning, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project released How Teens Do Research in the Digital World. This one really speaks to the need for digital literacy skills and the type of instruction we are all about. Conducted by Pew, in collaboration with the College Board and the National Writing Project, the survey revealed that though of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers believed that digital search tools have a mostly positive impact on student research, they had serious concerns about student distraction, their use of a narrower range of resources, their expectations of quick answers, and their difficulty finding credible sources. The results point to the need for digital literacy in the curriculum.
A Great Website for "Reading" Teachers...and That Means All of Us
I am really happy to share with you information about a website that does something critically important and does it well. It applies CCSS Reading Anchor Standards to Primary Source Images (photographs). The website is called Primary Source Nexus and can be accessed at http://primarysourcenexus.org. The site is a joint project of the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program of the Library of Congress and the Barat Education Foundation. All content area teachers should find this useful.
25 items | 5 visits
This list contains blog URLs which relate to the role of librarians in the school.
Updated on Jul 22, 15
Created on Jul 31, 13
Category: Schools & Education
URL: