Last Class May 7th including Reflection Paper

Wednesday the 7th of May was the last class for the MILI group. It was a good time to reflect on what we had accomplished the last 8 months and to plan for the future. We had a good time talking with each other about the progress we made and heard some great ideas of have individuals planned to expand and continue to explore research tools for the 2008-2009 school year. I had the reflection paper finished, so I turned in a copy to Diane and to Ann. I will also post a copy here on the blog. Till next year enjoy the summer.

Kathleen Beaman
Patrick Henry High School
May 7, 2008

Metronet Information Literacy Initiative

This past year three Minneapolis High School Media Specialists and teachers from their individual schools had the opportunity to participate in a program to integrate technology, research and literacy skills into the classroom. This year only three high schools choose to participate, Henry, South, and Wellstone. Unfortunately in the end, only one staff member from Henry choose to participate, but fortunately for me, as I was able to concentrate my time with one individual teacher and her classes, not that it stopped me from using the skills with other teachers and students. We were required to begin the course with a three day, two hour training session in October. As the year progressed, we continued to meet once a month for a two-hour session during the months of November, January, February, March, April, and May for a total of 18 hours of classroom instruction. At each session MILI staff introduced at least one of the twenty-three Informational Literacy skills. Our responsibility was to complete 17 items considered Core skills to teaching literacy during the two-hour sessions and on our own to choose another six skills from the list. We were asked to blog on our individual pages what we covered in class, and what we learned on our own.

I entered this class thinking that it would be mainly a lot of review and “putting in my time.” How wrong could I be! During the first session we took post it notes and rated our selves on a scale for each of the 17 literacy skills. I was shocked at how little I truly knew about each of the skills. Although I knew something about most of the items, I could not honestly rate myself as an expert at any one item.

I would like to use this opportunity to talk about some of my favorite activities that I have experienced this past year. My number one favorite of all the activities was setting up a Del.icio.us account. A Del.icio.us account is basically a website designed to keep track of all the websites that you would like to access without having to constantly re-goggle every time you log on to a different computer. I really like this feature. In the past I would have to reset up the bookmarks on each of the computers I used. Very time consuming. This is definitely one activity skill that I will continue to use.

My next favorite activity was the opportunity to explore digital maps and image collections on line. I think my ultimate favorite site was the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System. This web site contains a collection of still life photos from 10 U.S. Fish and Wildlife image libraries from around the country. As an example I put in a search on the subject Polar Bears that resulted in 29 records or images displayed for my use. When I selected an image the web site presented me with the image(s), its title, and library source. I could download the image to my computer if I desired. I especially liked the fact that it gave me all the information I needed to do a proper citation with out seeking the information. I also enjoyed visiting the NYPL Digital Gallery. This free website allows you to explore for images under the following categories: Arts and Literature, Cities and Buildings, Culture and Society, History and Geography, Industry and Technology, Nature and Science, Printing and Graphics. If you are not sure which category to search under, the website will search all categories for you if you select that option. It was a little confusing at first, but after exploring and trying a few different search entries it became quite simple. The older students shouldn’t have any problems using it, but younger students would need guidance. What these websites offer is an alternative to the usual image search of google that does not give the students the proper citation information for developing a proper bibliography.

Other skills that I foresee using in the future with students are:
1. The Research Project Calculator. This tool will assist students via a timeline, to keep students on track in the writing of a research paper.
2. Free websites designed to assist students in the writing of bibliographies. One of the best that I located and linked for students from my website is CitationMachine. This website was a snap to use. Some students have also use www.studentABC.com that students can use for either APA or MLA bibliographies.
3. Websites designed for educational games on line. I had a lot of fun with www.theproblemsite.com. The website contained several higher level thinking games for students to explore. I am participating in the game Treasure Hunt. I am still trying to solve the first clue. The game weaves this great story in which I have to figure out what does a turtle, the moon, a car and the human ear all have in common? I liked that it allowed the student to search for the answers without logging out of the game. Once you think you know the answer the game allows the user to enter temporarily the answer (not that you can't go back and change it) before heading on to the next clue. Once you have solved all the clues you enter your answers and if correct you can "win the Treasure". When exploring for websites, it seemed as if one could basically find a game to work on almost any skill you want on any grade level. It might not be exactly what you are hoping for but it sure is fun looking. It is surprising what one forgets when not required to regurgitate the skill on a daily basis. I might even be forced to look the monitor straight on and admit, " I'm not smarter than a Fifth Grader!"

One of the activities that I was extremely disappointed in was activity 28: Photos and Images, where the assignment was to explore the website Flickr. When I first logged on to the website and read it was a site where people share photos by accessing a map and attaching photos to that location. I thought neat, the students can access photos people took while on vacation and that would make these cities and towns more personalized. So imagine my shock when I put in Lancaster, PA and up came all these photos of a woman breast-feeding her child. Boy was I thankful that I explored before I showed a class. Sure pointed out the importance of exploring a website before using it with a class. I must admit that when I typed in my passion Christmas Ornaments, I was privilege to view some beautiful antique ornaments.

I invite you to visit my blog at henrypatriots.blogspot.com to read about the other Literacy skills covered during the last eight months.

Each Media Specialist was allotted a University Intern for a total of nine hours per week plus one hour for them to Blog on their experiences. This freed me up to work with the teacher participating in the program and to explore many of the tools we covered in class. I also had the time to step away from the desk and interact with the students as they came in to use the computers, look for a book, and work on homework assignments, or a staff member needing help without fear that the phone would ring, or a student would need to check out a book. I had a terrific Intern who worked well with the students and was not afraid to help me with many of the everyday tasks. If she saw a “chore” that needed to be done she jumped right in. She was willing to learn new skills and to follow through with the assign task till completed. I had no “fears” about leaving her in charge at the front desk. I would highly recommend her.

After all that we have learned this past year, I would recommend that this program should be open to include Minneapolis middle school teachers and media specialists. By the time students reach high school it would be nice if the basic research skills were covered and high school teachers could then concentrate on more advanced features. I understand that next year one of the requirements is that the research project be all year long. This requirement will be difficult for the high school teachers who may only see their classes for a semester.

Activity 24 Online Gaming

I have been exploring what is out there for educational games on line. That is when I could access the website. Sometimes I would get partway into the site and then up pops the district block. However I did find some that I could explore. I had a lot of fun with www.theproblemsite.com. There were several higher level thinking games for students to explore. I am participating in the game Treasure Hunt. I am still trying to solve the first clue. The game weaves this great story in which I have to figure out what does a turtle, the moon, a car and the human ear all have in common? I liked that it allowed the student to search for the answers without logging out of the game. Once you think you know the answer the game allows the user to enter temporarily the answer (not that you can't go back and change it) before heading on to the next clue. Once you have solved all the clues you enter your answers and if correct you can "win the Treasure".

I also explored a game site for the Houghton Mifflin publishing company that works with their textbooks. I found myself hooked on the matching game. Reminded me of the old concentration game I use to play as a child, OH SO MANY YEARS AGO!

It seemed as if one could basically find a game to work on almost any skill you want on any grade level. It might not be exactly what you are hoping for but it sure is fun looking. It is surprising what one forgets when not required to regurgitate the skill on a daily basis. I might have to look the monitor straight on and admit " I'm not smarter than a Fifth Grader!"

Activity 26 Digital Image Collections

I really enjoyed playing with this activity. I found two really neat websites that I would like to Blog. My favorite site was the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System. This website contained a large collection of still images (photos) from ten different Fish and Wildlife libraries from around the country. They are working on improving the Keyword search feature, but I did a few subject searches and was impressed. As and example I put in a search for Polar Bears, which resulted in 29 records. Once I chose an image to investigate further, I was given the option of downloading the image to my computer. Some came in different sizes so it allowed my to make a choice. I especially liked the fact that it presented me with all the information needed to do a proper citation for the image.
The other website I visited was the NYPL Digital Gallery Their images are arranged by categories. If you knew the category the image you were searching for fell under, one could just search that category. If not the library would search all ten categories. This Free website is divided into Arts and Literature, Cities and Buildings, Culture and Society, History and Geography, Industry and Technology, Nature and Science, and Printing and Graphics.

I didn't stop to search it very far, but the Smithsonian also had a Digital Library listed, as well as many other museums. Students seem to think that the only place to go is a goggle image search. It is nice to point out that there are many other choices out there to explore.

Class April 16th

I must admit that I was not in the best of moods to think about trying anything new on Wednesday night, however you quickly peaked my interest and got me out of my mood and for that I thank you. I had a lot of fun doing the podcast. My only disappointment is the fact that I went to show off my podcast the next day to my student aides and Intern and all I have is a white square. Did any one else find a problem? I hope it is only me, as there were some great podcasts. I wonder if we are missing som sort of plug in on both the mac and pc's in our building? Did anyone find out if we can do more than one without it affecting the previous recording? I can certainly see where this would be a lot of fun to do with a group of students. If we find out that more than one can be recorded it has a lot of potential for us as media specialists. Not only would it be nice for quick notes to the sub, but also for short here's how on our media web pages.

First Podcast

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Thing 28 Photos and Images

The other activity I took time to explore this snowy weekend was I wanted to learn about Flickr. I can certainly see how popular it is. It is owned by Yahoo. It looks like you can use any of 8 different languages to access photos. It claims to have over 2 billion images, and I believe them. It is access able from either PC or Mac. It claims that you just grab your photo and drop it on a map where you took it and it will add it to the files. So I thought great. I am heading to Lancaster, PA this summer maybe I can view some photos about the area to see if I might be interested in visiting. WHOAH, be careful of that. Up pops a bunch of photos of some woman breast feeding her child. I never did locate many photo's showing the location. Glad I didn't try that for the first time in front of a classroom full of children. It looks more like a place for people to dump their personal photos without regard to content. I certainly would not use it with young children. I am sure there are others out there but I stopped looking after that.

Activity 25 Digital Map Collections A Snowy Weekends Work

Well we certainly didn't get the predicted snow fall, but I usually head north to Wisconsin on the weekend. Good thing I didn't as my mother is still snowed in. By Friday night it was up to Dixie's belly (Shitzu) and by Sat afternoon the drifts in her driveway reached her back. Now I know she is not a large dog, but shoveling that heavy snow is a little much. Luckily Mom doesn't have to be anywhere till Wednesday, and the weather should melt the snow to a drivable level by then. It's the end of the drive that is the worst as the county plow did come out and plow so big chunks are at the end of the driveway she said. So I decided it was a good time to catch up on the different activities so here it goes.

I went to three different websites that I would like to share:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gnthtml/gmdhome.html

Library of Congress Website

The map collection is organized by seven categories: Cities and Towns, Conservation and Environment, Discovery and Exploration, General maps, Cultural landscapes, Military Battles and Campaigns, and lastly Transportation and Communication. In most cases a map is only assigned to one of these seven categories, although there may be exceptions.

I typed in Minneapolis, Mn and the computer search of the webite produced 20 different pictures and maps after searching the seven categories. I found the maps hard to see until I zoomed way in but one must remember they are on old parchment paper and have turned a little yellow.

One feature that I found interesting for a website is a whole section devoted to answering questions on copywrite issues and a link to instructions for how to cite electronic sources was provided.

http://www.census.gov

United States Census Bureau

Maps for the United States only. Again I had trouble viewing as it was tiny and light. Good Old Zoom Button. I had to download the maps, but brought them up with the preview feature. I went into the Native American section and called up by tribe different types of information.


http://digital-library.usma.edu/colletions/maps

United States Military Academy at West Point

Great source for civil war maps, colonial and federal maps

Activity 31 Bibliographic Tools

Today I wanted to blog on different bibliography composers I have found on the internet to assist students who are struggling with their bibliography citations. I have used Citation Machine for many years with my 8th grade students. When I came to Henry, I added this link to my home page on the school website to help many of the students who continue to struggle. For this blog activity I tried to locate other tools on line that were free to students. One of our teachers suggested noodletool.com, but unless I am mistaken I didn't find it to be free. Perhaps he subscribes to the service and has his students use his account. There is a free starter account available for grades 1-5 and ESL students. Everything else I clicked on appeared to cost. So I went on the hunt and found www.easybib.com. I didn't like this website. I found it confusing and difficult to navigate. It looked like you would access under mybib, but that it only did MLA Bibliograhies.

I did locate www.studentabc.com as a free service for students. I liked this website, and found teacher resources to be an added bonus. Students can do either an APA or MLA style of bibliography. You can also link it to your home page.

Those using firefox may want to use the extention www.zotero.org.

Activity 35 On Line Productivity Tools

In class on the 5 th of March, class was composed of a small group of individuals who explored tools to assist us in teaching. I enjoyed the small group atmosphere as for some reason the internet, computer and I didn't make "good bed fellows". I sure did have to call for help a lot. We covered three major items, Social Bookmarking where we created our delicious bookmarks, igoogle where we had the opportunity to customize a home page, see earlier blog, and just briefly touched on online documents. This is where I seemed to have a lot of difficulty setting up the account and getting it to work. Whoa.. They just called a pep fest. Will log on and edit this entry later.

4/7 As you can see I didn't get a chance to log on and finish this blog before spring break. Which was very relaxing I might say. Boy to think back to what I wanted to say. Hum..... I could see how this google productivity tool would be helpful for students who do not own a copy of Microsoft Office or Appleworks. As long as they have access to the internet there are several tools available. The only problem is when students use a program that is not compatible with our programs and they come in a rush to print work from home and it can not print. I doubt that I personally would use google documents as I find office and appleworks easier to use. Plus I do not need to rely on a network connection.

Activity 27 Customize Your Home Page

In class on the 5th we had the opportunity to explore igoogle and create a home page that contained a lot of fun info. I found a food website that changes pictures each time I log on with a different food item. I was able to customize to our local weather and to add my delicious bookmarks. I worked on the page last week and switched items around.

Activity 23 Del.icio.us

I really enjoyed class on Wednesday learning about a way to quickly go to my saved bookmarks without having to recreate them on every computer. It does appear that the first time on the computer I have to set up buttons. I did set them up on my home computer, and thought because it was a mpls account that they would (the buttons that is) follow along. This morning I logged on to the school computer and found that the post to and my del.icio.us buttons were not there. So now I have put them on to the mac on my desk and we will see what happens when I log on to another computer in the media center. However the bookmarks that I did post to delicious were there which was nice. I think that I will set up a file just of personal bookmarks like my ornament sites, travel sites especially the ones I am hunting on Pennsylvania for our trip this summer. It has been a challenge to keep googling Gettysburg, and Lancaster.

I will blog on the other sites we visited as I get an opportunity this month to explore them.

Activity 21 YouTube and More

I decided that I would do a little exploration on the web for other forms of instructional videos because of YouTube being blocked by the district. The district already subscribes to UnitedStreaming, and I have spread the good word of that website amongst my staff. I overhear someone in the last session talk about teachertube and figured that there are lots more out there. Here are a few that I found so far.
www.merlot.org
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.

The website has a large collection of learning materials made by colleagues from around the world. Membership is free, but you do not have to register to use the website. Most of the video clips were very low tech, but I thought gave a great lesson. I did a search for plagiarism and came away with several ideas and resources to draw on. There were a couple that would involve a fee, but each site is reviewed and the reviewer does disclose this information right up front. Way to many free tools to bother with that.

www.pbs.org

I found this website a little harder to navigate, but does contain some great teaching tools all based on the Standards. I felt that it mainly pushed its products that are for sale. However you can download free Marc Records for PBS Videos that you record off the air. I also liked the link to copyright and fairuse policies for PBS videos.

www.learner.org

Annenberg Media is a distribution of video programs/print materials that are broad casted over the Annenberg Channel, the learner.org website or by purchasing videocassettes, DVD's, or printed media. It was necessary to register, but painless. I really liked the videos. I did a search of civil war material and there were loads of videos.

I know that there are more out there, and hope that someone else in our group also decides to do this activity and share their findings online.

Updating Media Center home page

Today I had success in uploading photographs on to the Henry Media Home page. I invite you to take a look at our celebration that the media center held on February 14th. Not only did we celebrate I Love To Read Month, but the finial completion of the last item in the construction process for the new Media center. I have had various amounts of success with uploading pictures. I finally figured out that I have to be careful to watch the way that I save the photo's on the desktop.

I am please to begin to hear more teachers caution students on plagiarism, my comments, and those of my fellow teachers are beginning to get through to the students. Before we would hear comments, "it doesn't matter," "who's going to know," etc. With more staff using TURNIT IN students are beginning to recognize the importance. Now if we can just reach our CFL students. Many of the students in this program see nothing wrong with copy, paste, or just printing the article without citing sources. This can only be addressed by the teachers accepting this in the assignment. But I won't give up.

Activity 13 Subscription Databases

In class on Wed We had the opportunity to explore four different subscription databases. Each one could have easily devoted the whole two hours for exploration. I know we barely touched the surface, and I look forward over the next few weeks to using my intern time to become more familiar with the offerings of each. I am not sure how much I will use the web page we created under EBSCO but it does allow me to present additional resources to my students. I really liked ProQuest, this is a database I haven't properly made use of in the past even though our district had this link available. We tried to set up an RSS feed to my reader account, but no luck so instead we set up an email alert. So far no new messages to report. I also set up an account on NetLibrary.com and WorldCat. I want to further explore NetLibrary as this is a new database for me. At this time I do not see me using WorldCat with students.

Our instructors were great. I found them to be very helpful and my only complaint is that we tried to cover way to much in the two hours. No fault of theirs, just a time restraint. They were very knowledgeable.

My intern started last week. She has been a great help in working on switching our SSR books from the textbook view on Destiny to the library view. This will give us a better handle on titles available in both the media center and SSR section. We are looking forward to being able to view statistics to back our claim that there is an increase in the use of the media center for pleasure reading. The statistic portion of Destiny will also show us the top 10 titles which will give us an indication of the type of book that is currently popular. It will take us several weeks to switch over all the books, as we are pulling slowly so that there are plenty of choices always on hand. We are also on the look out for locating how many books have grown legs and trained themselves to walk out the door. Sandy is also helping students who come in with questions. Hopefully we can provide her with an experience that will benefit her in her coursework. I have asked her to let me know if there is anything she needs to have experience in that is required in the class. The students seem to really like her, and that is half the battle on the high school level. She treats them like the young adults that they are, and not children.

I am glad I was finally able to log on to my blog today. Last week I tried and all I received was a blank page after typing in my user name and password. Was very frustrating.

Activity # 6 Teacher Guide to RPC

Here is the other post that my blog is missing.

During class on Oct. 17th we were introduced to the Research Project Calculator. During class on Oct 22nd Liz Roth had several of her classes in the Media Lab, and she introduced the RPC to her classes. I had the pleasure of joining in and helping with a couple of her classes. I liked how she gave her students points for participating. So I decided to do this with my advisory. I just have to come up with an incentive as this is a group of students who meet once a week to build a community within Henry.

The last time I accessed the RPC website it has been updated. I like the new website. I found the teacher guide to be full of ideas.

Activity # 7 Getting to know RCP

Well here I go again hope I can remember all I said before. This is one of the posts that is apparently swimming around in cyberspace.

Shortly after the Research Project Calculator was introduce to us I took advantage of my small advisory group of ninth graders to introduce the calculator to them. I went on line prior to class and added a link from the media website to the RPC website. I did a short lesson on how they could use it in the media lab. Several of my students are part of the open/IB programs and this will prove to be a great tool for them to use in future research projects. That is not to say that our two other SCL can not take advantage of this tool, but they are not as enthusiastic participants. What I did was have them pretend that they had a project due on a specific date. We then went through the options and explanations of time lines. Because advisory doesn't have a grading system other than credit no credit I offered a edible treat to anyone who completed the setup procedures and printed a final product. I do hope they take advantage of this resource. I have been helping Liz introduce it to her classes.

Activity # 32 Wikis and Activity #10 Copyright

At our class on Jan 16th we covered copyright through the use of a wiki developed by MILI. I enjoyed searching for the answer to one of the questions. Unfortunately I picked a question that required a longer time to search than time allowed. I did get the experience of posting it to the website. Perhaps someone else will find the answer and post it. As far as creating my own wiki, I will be truthful and say no way. Too much work to up keep unless it was part of my work requirements. But it was fun to play with one that someone else created.

I do want to thank the individuals that created the copyright wiki we used as it contains links, explanations, and resources to copyright questions that come up during the year. If I was teaching a course in media this is definitely a wiki that I would use.

Activity # 36 Social Networking

I searched on line for different explanations of the types of social networking websites other than MySpace and FaceBook. I came up with the understanding that the concept of social networking is the linking of individual through the network either as a small closed community where all the clients either know each other or share common values, goals, or experiences. That small community does not open itself to new ideas or contacts like a large social network allows. The larger your client base the greater the possibility for new ideas and contacts.
I sometimes wonder are we being overly concerned? Will these sites be nothing but a fad and disappear as the new latest technology comes along to attract students. I remember when I was in school if you didn't join in with the right social crowd you weren't "cool". Or the Fraternity and Sorority "rush". We joined in to get that post graduation social contacts (I know some joined for the "social" aspects)to get those future jobs. The technology wasn't around like today's future graduates will use. However with that said, students need to be taught the proper etiquette for the use of this technology. Especially high school students who post photo and information that future employers may not appreciate in their future employees.

Frustration with Blogging

I decided today that I would enter a new blog about Social networking and some of my fustration with students using backdoors to get past the block from the district to MySpace, but before I began I took a look at my past postings. Surprise three of my posts are not there. I hate having to redo. Did I forget to press post? Did the internet goblin have it for breakfast? Or am I just imagining my self typing away? and someday the internet fairy will find them in space and they will suddenly be there?

Activity # 12

Here I am jumping around through the different activities, but I had need to locate other serach engines to help a group of students find a health article for class, so I took the opportunity to explore the web for a variety of search engines to help find current articles.

The first search engine I came across was dogpile.com that was nice for the students as it combined the results from google, ask, yahoo, etc and it appeared to filter and narrow down the results. Very little advertising websties.

The second search engine was findearticles.com. Linked to BNET Recseach Center with over 10 million articles. One nice feature was that students can search by category, publication, or keyword. There were also links to additional websites and search engines. Not a lot of help for searching by the category history ect, but great for my health magazine article searches.

The third search engine that I found was AllSearchEngines.com. The site is copyright protected, but they encourge you to link to their page. I really liked some of thier links to websites under their topic headings such as government and health, but you have to watch as there are ADULT sites listed. I would use this only under extreme supervision.