We are about to launch a loan service of mini Kobo readers alongside our Overdrive Download library and I wanted to let teaching staff in school know about this exciting new development. I usually pass on information to staff through a traditional email list and include a link to click on for more information. However I recently discovered Smore – an online poster/flyer making site. It’s very simple to use and can be embedded into an email so the information you want to convey is shared in a very visual way. There are a number of templates to choose from depending on the type of information you want to share e.g newsletter,event and its very easy to upload photo’s, change font style and format. It also has records the number of views your flyer has had and how long it has been viewed for. Brilliant 
Catching the MOOC virus
Last week I caught the flu virus and not the MOOC virus! This meant I wasn’t able to contribute to the many discussions about the theme of Distopian versus Utopian views of technology. I was, however, able to view the short films and managed to tweet about the one called “Thursday” to another school librarian. #edcmooc
Should I give up?
I pondered what to do. Should I abandon it? It’s only a 5 week course so it means that in effect I’ve missed 20% of it. “Is it worth playing catch up?” I asked myself.
Fortunately I decided to watch the recording of the Google Hangout with the course tutors which I had missed last Friday night and this 1 hour’s worth of interaction gave me a really good taster of what had been going on.
Motivations for completing the MOOC
Each of the “professors” spent about 5 minutes looking at one aspect of what had been happening across the fora and social media spaces. I learnt that participants were discusing two main concerns – why weren’t the course tutors more visible and what should the final assessed assignment be like? This was interesting because I thought the course literature made it clear that the professors weren’t going to be hands on and it was up to the MOOC participants to collaborate in creating a narrative of the week’s learning. I also found it bizarre that people were worrying about the digital artifact they were supposed to produce at the end of the MOOC. But , for me, it’s always about the taking part and learning as I go when I embark on a course of study. I don’t need the assessment at the end to validate my achievements although it’s sometimes nice to have it! It was interesting to hear one of the tutors suggest that thinking about the end product at the beginning was a way for some people to make a strategy for navigating their way through the course. I have never looked at it like that before. For me it’s always the excitement of the journey and the unknown destination – a bit like a magical mystery tour
Constraining tropes when talking about digital culture
The discussion about the actual content of the first week was also a great summary of what I had missed. It was interesting to consider the way scholarly writing in the past 20 years had resulted in a binary discourse in relation to technology, culture and educational learning.
Distopia v Utopia
Native v Immigrant
Digital v Non Digital
These are simplistic constraining binaries and we have been greatly influenced by them. It opened my eyes to how my own thinking has been moulded by this narrative. I’ve always found the Native v Immigrant description flawed. It’s quite obvious when working with 11- 18 year olds that it depends on a mix of personality, upbringing and peer group pressure as to how individuals approach the technological world. I also became aware of the artificiality of the dichotomy between Digital v Non Digital when I purchased my first iPAd a couple of years ago. The digital and non digital world has become very blurred for me through the use of this tablet.
However, up until now I hadn’t challenged the cultural constraining discourse of Distopia v Utopia and I shall certainly look to do so in the future.
Constraining Trophes when thinking about Learning
I’m also now thinking about how educationalists use this oppositional structure when considering young people’s learning.
Facts v Skills
Formal v Social
Do I need to challenge myself about this simplistic view of the world of learning too?
Starting a MOOC
I’m really excited to be starting a MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) today! A MOOC is a new way of studying online in collaboration with a lot of other participants. The Digital Cultures and E-Learning course is being provided free by Edinburgh University on Coursera. It’s a chance for me to reflect on how technology affects learning. Is it a neutral tool? Does it drive change in education? How can I best understand my student’s use of it within a traditional school environment?
Apparently over 40,000 people have begun the course since it opened online yesterday evening and discussions are taking place across social media….on Twitter using the #edcmooc hashtag, through groups on Facebook and Google+. The interesting thing is that these groups have been started by individual participants rather than the course providers. The facilitators from the Edinburgh University MSC in Digital Education are providing the course content for the next 5 weeks but making suggestions about how individual students can collaborate to share their learning.
I’ve just joined the course and signed up to the “honor” code and will be blogging about my experience on this Learning Log #edcmooc
What to say about Snapchat and Poke?
Snapchat and Facebook’s copycat app Poke are apps that share messages
photos and videos that “self destruct” 10 seconds after being viewed by the recipient. Snapchat cheekily sticks out its tongue to all us e-safety educators and says nnah nnah na nnah – your images don’t have to last forever! Yes you can share a goofy pic or sext and it doesn’t stay on the web for future generations. Yes you can bully someone and unless they’re extremely quick with the screenshot they can’t keep the evidence to show an adult. No you don’t have to “think before you post” anymore! Teens love the fun of Snapchat-obviously.
I love the way the Snapchat inventors have turned the received wisdom about social networking on its head. Facebook seems an old-fashioned establishment institution in comparison. Who’d a thought it?
But what do I say to the students in my PSHCE lessons? Those who know me well know I’m not going to say don’t use these apps. I’m not a party pooper. Isn’t a shared fleeting moment as socially valuable as a considered post? But I can’t say what I usually do – show a trusted adult if you’re uncomfortable about it.
Image Conscious: how teens search the web
Today I’m giving a presentation at Internet Librarian International about my research into how teens and pre-teens search the web for information. They seem to take a much more visual approach to reading information narrative than I do. A significant proportion browse through picture search to discover the text around images This obviously has big implications for how school librarians approach the job of helping them search better for the things they really need to know. Should we adapt our strategies to focus on helping them enhance their browsing techniques rather than trying to impose our way of doing it through developing advanced key-wording skills?
See my Prezi below or follow this link
Cat Woman meets The Wasp in the Library
We recently took part in a Superheroes Challenge Day for all new Year 7 students to our school. The aim was to ensure the students talked with children joining Kingswood from other schools. Throughout the day they worked on team challenges which enabled them to “gel” together as a Year Group.
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In the Library we opted for a critical thinking challenge. Students had to create their own superheroes outlining their strengths and weaknesses, their safe and dangerous habitats, their outfits and their gadgets. Each team’s Superhero then faced their rivals in a series of Scenarios we had created for them.
I used the Trading Card Creator on the Readwritethink website. We had 5 categories for the scenarios – who, what, where, when and why. The challenges ranged from alien attacks to zoo animal escapes. Sadly Ice Slasher met his demise in the Volcano challenge even though he had a heatproof shield!
It was interesting to see the strategies used to compensate for each superheroes fatal flaw. Some teams gave their heroes very specific flaws (e.g being allergic to pineapples) which they hoped would not come up in any of the challenges. At the other extreme heroes had special powers that were so all-embracing they could face up to anything e.g Shapeshifting. A lot of the teams didn’t prepare for their hero to time travel though which left them kicking their heels rather than visiting the Egyptian pyramids with Howard Carter in 1922.
Our favourite Superhero was Lobsterman. His back story was that he became a superhero when his parents got cooked in Paella! His special power was the ability to squirt corrosive wee and his dangerous territory was, naturally enough, Spanish food restaurants His body armour i.e. his lobster shell had teleporting powers and his gadget allowed him to talk to animals to persuade them not to harm him. That pretty much covers every scenario I think!
Make your own slideshow at Animoto.
Although we had to close the library to other students for a whole day we got to know the new students meeting all 90 of them and it was a great way to start. We have since followed on with more formal induction through their English lessons.
The CharCharChest: providing library books to schools in Malawi
CharCharChest
This summer students and staff from our school went on their bi-enniel trip to Malawi. Whilst there they delivered a book box to one of the schools we support. It has been provided by the CharCharTrustQuest and paid for by the booksale we hosted in Kingswood Library as part of our World Book Day Celebrations.
The thing that really impresses me about the CharCharChest is the way it has been so carefully designed to maximise use in a challenging environment. The project also ensures teachers exploit the resources by linking to local teacher training programmes. Fabulous. And all this for just £200. Wouldn’t it be great to provide CharCharChests for many more schools in Africa?
