LILT

Post 17- Bandwidth madness

2008-02-12T23:59:00.002-06:00

I am realizing more and more, the complexities of providing and maintaining access to technology for SPPS staff, particularly when we have pushed so hard for them to use the new technologies in their instruction. Bandwidth- or not enough of it- is the current dilemma.
The reality is that this isn't our mother's Internet... many of the web.2 tools take up huge amounts of bandwidth, which has resulted in an almost constant traffic jam, which often discourages our teachers from continuing to try to use the technologies. Many say that more bandwidth is not the answer, that what we must do is monitor how the existing pipe is being used. There are no easy or simple (or economical) answers.

Post 16- Thing 17, One New Thing: Comic Life

2008-02-10T21:54:00.000-06:00

As far as "new things" are concerned, there are so very many that I see or interact with on a daily basis, that I become a little dizzy just thinking about the possibilities. The truth is, I am not one to "play" on the computer- for me, my computer equals work- so I appreciate it when I am forced to learn a new application, such as when I promise to teach it to a class of students...

My tech integration colleagues have done some very cool projects with students using Comic Life, piquing my interest. (See French postcards at Washington- http://washington.spps.org/French_II.html )
I had not gotten around to actually using it though, until I talked Jill at Harding into using it with her Spanish students for a class project. (I also volunteered to teach it to them....) Students can use their own digital photos or create their own art for the strips. They then insert dialog and captions to tell the story or relay the information. I could see this used in many content areas for biographies, how-to, persuasive, pro and cons on an issue and many others. In the case of Jill's Spanish III students, we used it to practice present and past tenses.
Though not every student was completely immersed in the project, I'd venture to say that they enjoyed it, and that it was a nice change of pace for them. Show-time is later this week, on Thursday, when we'll see the finished products. I'll plan to post a couple of them here.

The upshot is that I see this product, which is available to all SPPS staff & students, as a great "show what you know" tool for our students, particularly for ELL or World Language practice.
Try to find some time to check it out.

Leslie

Post 15-Thing 16, Using MNLink/MINITEX Document Delivery Service

2008-01-04T14:13:00.000-06:00

MEDD is basically a service offered by MINITEX whereby documents are delivered to you electronically, free of charge. All you need to do is create an account for your school or classroom. Articles can be viewed, downloaded or printed, though there are copyright restrictions. See http://www.minitex.umn.edu/docdel/medd/

Many of the private and suburban high schools use MEDD and I continue to be surprised that no one in SPPS has made use of it. I encourage you to check it out. We are here to facilitate if you want to give it a whirl.

Leslie

Post 14- Me in action, posting a photo on my blog

2008-01-04T14:07:00.000-06:00

OK, I tried this weeks ago and kept getting errors. When I went and read the help Q & A, it looked like it might be an issue with Blogger, but I have not made it back to try again. Here goes... Whoa Nellie! It worked! I actually was able to post a photo. Now maybe I'll go choose some more and then have a lovely illustrated personal blog like Lindsay! Here I go...

Post 13- One New Thing, Social Bookmarking

2008-01-04T13:42:00.000-06:00

I am an avid reader of professional literature and publications, so tend to know more in theory about various tech innovations and tools i than I can actually DO. Sometimes this creates and uncomfortable disconnect. Today while reading the latest online issue of TechLEARNING News, I came across an article called Social Bookmarking in Plain English that not only explained social bookmarking to me, but introduced me to a very cool online resource Common Craft that I know I'll use again. Common Craft does the following: (Text from their website.)
Our product is explanation.

We use a simple format and real-world stories to make sense of complex ideas.

We're interpreters. We present your products and services in plain English using short, unique and understandable videos in a format we call Paperworks.

Essentially, they use very simple, very low tech screencasts to explain tech concepts in a down-to-earth manner. It certainly worked for me and was also entertaining. I now feel like I know what the del.icio.us reference on websites means and also think I 'll further investigate social bookmarking and well as promote it to the teachers I work with. More on this when I have actually tries it out.

Leslie

Post 11- SPPS Online Resources- A Brief Overview

2008-01-04T13:29:00.000-06:00

The following is a copy of the notes (edited and revised somewhat) that I created while listening to the group presentations during the November MILP meeting on SPPS Online Resources. While it is not a complete list, it will provide you with an overview of some of the resources. See Post 11 for an overview of resources not mentioned here.

Leslie

ABC-CLIO
• Social- studies & literature
• Google-like searching
• Returns in categories
• Ranked results
• Images
• Includes encyclopedias, essays, reference
• Topic exploration section with activities and quizzes
• Citation button in multiple formats within articles
• Staff section sppsforstaff sppsfor staff0708
o Aligned with textbooks
o Test creator

EBSCO-
• Similar to Gale but higher level
• Various databases, can translate articles
• Help section & tutorials
• Can narrow down topics, creates concept maps
• Visual searches
• Many are abstract only, so you must obtain article elsewhere.
Use MEDD at MINETEX to get full text

Ethnic Newswatch-
• 280 publications
• Resources in 18 languages
• Can limit search by date
• Ethnic group pull-down menu

Gale Databases-

Multiple access points for varying levels-
Student Edition
• Multilingual
• Newpapers, periodical and reference
• Related topics
• RSS feed
• Article email

Discovering Collection
• Topical search
• Sort by date, relevance, etc

Grolier
• 7 encyclopedias
• What happened today in history? (Birthdate activity)
• 10 minute tutorial (read or video)
• “For educators” section aligned with state standards
• Uses Boolean for search

Proquest
• Newspapers, periodicals
• Excellent science info

SIRS Researcher
• Issue based
• Topic trees
• Pro/Con approach
• My analysis section with 5 step approach
• Excellent search features

United Streaming
• See training in Atomic Learning for this library of digital video clips, images, quizzes and teacher support materials

Post 9- Thing 5, Teacher Web Pages

2008-01-02T14:32:00.000-06:00

Five years ago, when I began this position, the idea of a web page was as foreign to me as a trip to the moon- and that year, when I created my first page and put it up, it was amazing to me- that I had my own little piece of the pie out on the web. The wow factor, while cool, does not get the job done. But teacher web pages do. I continue to be amazed at what an efficient and effective an Urban Planet page can be at getting information to end users and in supporting instruction. If back in the classroom, it is one resource I know I would make good use of, as it has a very high return for the time needed to create a page.

The issue as always, is time. Time to learn how to create a page and the time to maintain it once it is created. What I have seen with this is that if you wait for it to happen, it likely won't on it' s own. You need to 1.) Schedule time and 2.) Use your resources. Take advantage of your colleagues and others who have more experience with Urban Planet than you and ask for help when you need it. Or, take a class. However you get there, give this resource a try!

Post 8- Thing 4, Know Your Public Library

2008-01-02T13:36:00.000-06:00

On a personal level, I have been a public library user from the beginning of time (my time that is). As a child, I'd go as often as possible, check out the maximum limit of books, and then try to read them all in one night. When I first moved to St. Paul, many moons ago, I lived in low-income housing and depended on the public library to keep me in reading material.

These days, I am still a loyal patron, but tend to check out audio books which I listen to in my car. Though I still check out print materials for leisure or informational reading, I am more likely to look for the titles I need at used bookstores and buy them, so as not to have to worry about fines. The available time for reading just isn't there like it used to be, and it can take me much longer to finish reading a book. The SPPL card is good at the Ramsey County Library which is very nice, especially since sometimes there just isn't anything new or interesting in audio books at the St. Paul Branches.

Professionally, I am amazed at what a wonderful resource the local public library is. With very few exceptions, I have found the library staff to be accommodating and supportive. Several years back, when we wanted to make sure that all the 9th graders at HPSH had library cards,
Marcus from the Highland branch traveled to the school weekly for six weeks to cover all of the advisories. In addition to presenting a sales pitch regarding library services, he also forgave hundreds of dollars of student fines in the interest of getting the kids back to the libraries.

The reference desks have also come to my aid and helped out with student queries on numerous occasions. It's fun to have folks who know and like information available to help!
Lastly, I have used the local libraries when materials were needed for class projects, and found the service to be superb! Requests were done by phone and materials were mailed to me. You can't beat that! For those who have not used the local public library for school related projects,
don't wait- call them now!

Leslie

Post 7- Thing 3, Feeds

2007-11-05T21:46:00.000-06:00

I've already written a little about this, but will say again, that though I created the feeds using Ann's excellent instructions, I tend to go back to the main page to read and comment on our blogs. This approach requires alot more clicking, but let's me see the original blog as well as previous posts, which works better for my style.

I am going to have to look at some of the resources and finish this later.

Post 6- Thing 2, My Blog

2007-10-31T21:09:00.000-05:00

The Blog, though created, seems to be an ongoing character building experience...
I continue to have log in problems, requiring several tries. The images I attempted
to upload resulted in error messages. My avatar is created but I cannot seem to find the
instructions for downloading her, even after many searches on the Yahoo site. Oh yes, and the
fact that I have to do any blogging from home, since Blogger is still blocked from my office.
So much for working in the tech department....

What I am most aware of is the time all this requires- both the doing and the trouble-shooting. Which means that something else needs to give. I don't yet know how I feel about the trade-off.
That said, I love reading your blogs, and like the energy around them.

In regard to other blogs, I have not made time in my life to regularly read the ed tech professional blogs, even though I know they have wonderful discussions and information.
Several of my favorite people (and friends) maintain high profile blogs, which I will try to spend some time reading as we work through the Things. I still tend to read the printed info first, as I spend far too much time in front of my computer already.

Leslie

Post 5- Things, the beginning

2007-10-30T09:23:00.000-05:00

I am going to go back to the first thing- Information Literacy- and try to do this with some method to the madness. I have been doing quite a bit of reading on the topic of information literacy and am struck with several things:

I really liked the Shapiro and Hughes article that references it as a "liberal art." I have thought of it more as a very badly neglected basic skill, the liberal art argument elevates the notion in a way that seems to... add value, perhaps.
Most experts talk about information literacy (IL) as one of the many "new literacies" that educators not only need to be aware of, but teach. I actually see it as an umbrella that includes all of the related 21st century literacy skills. For example, if our students are going to get information from audio and video as well as print sources, then media literacy is the evaluation component of IL.
And lastly, I have seen several very well written "call to action" articles regarding the importance of teaching IL, with publication dates in the 1990's. So, I am wondering why IL is still not on the radar of our school leaders and policymakers. We remain so very focused on basic skills, at the detriment of our students. I really worry about the soulessness (sp?) of where we are at.

The good news is that here we are, in year two of the MILP, school by school and teacher by teacher, making a difference for our students. It is a pleasure to work with you all.

Leslie

Post 4- Getting back on track...

2007-10-30T09:09:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, this is not easy... after being out of town, I tried coming back last week, but could not get into my blog due to Google changes. Got that figured out, but now it seems I can't work on this from work due to filter issues. But I am back and determined.

I am fascinated with this whole concept of blogs and the possibilities, but for me as for all of you, the issue is time- and finding it to keep up with an additional responsibility. I have not exactly started this out right- which causes me a fair amount of chagrin. My false starts bring to mind the tag on Mary Mehsikomer's (from MDE) emails-
"If you can't serve as a good example, at least you can serve as a horrible warning..."
One of the things I've always liked about education (and I used this often enough in the classroom) is that when you have a bad class, day, week, or year, you can regroup, come back the next class, day, week or year and do it again, better. I would like to be a good example for you all, so here I am.

Post 3- Same day, five minutes later

2007-10-02T21:23:00.000-05:00

I am behind, and do not want to set a bad example by doing all my posts next Wednesday before the meeting, so here I am again.

As I mentioned in my first post, I have been hard at it, trying to wrap up the work of Son of (actually, we have renamed her, Daughter of) Research Project Calculator, which I have been involved with for WAY too long. We are very, very close- and it is almost like giving birth- the pain and the excitement! Check it out- http://rpc.elm4you.org/step1.php?teacher=yes
We welcome any feedback you might have!

Tomorrow, I go to the Fall MEMO Conference (MEMO is the School Librarian and Technology Professional Organization) where I'll give two presentations- one about the Calculator, and the other about you! I should return with inspiration and good things to share.

Leslie

Post 2

2007-10-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

Setting up my Blog last week made me think of something I read years ago about "3 year, 20 minute projects." Those things (maybe I am the only one who does this...) that you put off for years, that end up taking 20 minutes to do. I did not create my blog the day we did them in class, as I was fighting with the technology gremlins that were trying to keep you from creating your blogs. Then, I put it off. And then I wasn't sure if I would do it right... And then I got the "do it now or else" email, so I jumped in- and it was easy and fun!

So, to save myself more pain and agony, as soon as I saw Ann's email with the instructions tonight, I quick set up my feed. The problem is that I wanted to talk back to everyone, and there does not seem to be a comment button on the feeder view. You also do not get the benefit of the personality of the blog and blogger from the agregator.

I see amazing potential for this tool- for teacher PD and for classroom discussion. It is quite entertaining to read your posts- you are an amazingly funny group! I have been sitting in my kitchen laughing out loud- I believe that is supposed to be "lol," but I am not quite there yet.

Hasta la proxima,
Leslie

LILT

2007-09-26T01:59:00.000-05:00

Dear MILP2 Cohort Members,

For the past week, actually, for the past several months, I have been lost in Son of RPC hell... I am thinking though, that I just might make it, and live to come back to enjoy the information literacy adventure with you all.

Tomorrow, bright and early, Jane and I meet with Michael, our very own Minitex programmer, to submit the final documents for the RPC Teacher Guide. If all goes well, perhaps I'll get my life back, and then we can all enjoy the fruits of my labor as we teach everyone the research process.

Hasta pronto, Leslie