eTextbooks with Kim Lane and Sonja Stewart

eBooks in School Libraries

eBooks in School Libraries

Videogaming in the School Library

School libraries have included gaming stations for recreational, after school use, but now understood a teaching tool. It’s is likely to be rooted in a state or Common Core standard with specific learning goals. Gaming is an virtual and physical world where students learn by doing. The challenges are continual. Feedback is ever-present. Students will iteratively work their way out of failure. They aren’t easy to play. They’re complex and have demanding learning activities. Gaming is great informal learning.

Libraries may be one of the best learning environments for gaming for the same reasons libraries have always been good learning spaces. They are a multipurpose classroom where students can play, think about the playing, independently learn to play or learn from each other.

So librarians as an instructional partner often co-plans with teachers about opportunities for gamification in the curricula which may include the most challenging areas in the course.

There are a number of studies indicating recreational gameplay impacts cognitive process and how that might transferred to other kinds of learning and learning environments. Libraries are collaborative spaces and newer educational digital games accommodate multiplayers with students working cooperative rather than competitively.

A game-like public school in New York City, Quest to Learn, (Q2L) has teachers who are licensed by the Department of Education. Students take required standardized tests. But at Q2L, a team of game designers, curriculum specialists, and after-school mentors work with teachers to design rigorous, engaging, game-like learning environments, including the design of classroom games.

In the article, Video Games as Digital Learning Resources: Implications for Teacher-Librarians and For Researchers by Teddy Moline, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Canada showed examples of students being highly self-motivated to play and learn. One teen reported, “You never start out as the master of anything. You have to practice that skill and use it constantly to increase and improve. Another stated that he gained satisfaction from accomplishing goals and being capable of figuring things out on his own.

The teens rarely showed frustration in another study. It was part of the gameplay to solve a task. They found it exciting and imaginative. They trusted themselves. They experienced tension rather than frustration.

Librarians see gaming as a way to formalize learning. Just as librarians understand themes in urban lit and fan fiction can be a launchpad to more classical literature, it is the same with gaming. Gaming help students, as they search for answers to move through the required tasks, maximize inquiry-based learning. In my role as librarian, I teach kids how to formulate questions and investigate thereby creating for themselves new understanding and knowledge. All of these skills are core to gaming.

As positive as gaming is for school libraries, some educators are skeptical because of cost for equipment, software, training and maintenance. Logistics and planning may also be an issue.




Cited:
Quest to Learn: A collaborative effort to design engaging game-like learning environments | Gaming Life
Karen Jensen, TLT on April 12, 2017- Brigid Alverson on April 12, 2017- Travis Jonker on April 12, 2017- Elizabeth Bird on April 12, 2017- Amanda MacGregor on April 11, 2017- Travis Jonker on April 11, 2017- Elizabeth Bird on April 11, 2017- Robin Willis on April 10, 2017- Colby Sharp on April 10, 2017 - http://www.slj.com/2012/12/opinion/the-gaming-life/quest-to-learn-a-collaborative-effort-to-design-engaging-game-like-learnng-environments-gaming-life/

A whole new game: digital games, information literacy and the school library
http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/gblcompendium/part-2-provocation/a-whole-new-game-digital-games-information-literacy-and-the-school-library/

Opinion: Video games in libraries? A smart move There are a number of studies indicating recreational gameplay impacts cognitive process and how that might transferred to other kinds of learning and learning environments. Libraries are collaborative spaces and newer educational digital games accommodate multiplayers with students working cooperative rather than competitively. Ruben Navarrette - http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/15/opinion/navarrette-library-video-games/

My kids gaming in the library after school. Always the last to leave.

My Flipped Learning Lesson

I usually repeat some lessons a lot. It is usually a one-on-one kind of interaction. I don't discount the need to be repetitive because students really benefit from the quick lesson. But sometimes, I think I could record some of these tips so students could watch them as they need a quick tutorial on something. Google Advanced Search is one of those quick tutorials.


Google Advanced Search

Flipping Digital Learning

From my twitter encounter this week of #flipped learning, I created a magazine on Flipboard with a couple of articles that suggested tools for teachers to use for flipping. One of the two articles offered 54 tools. I thought that sounded pretty comprehensive so I took a look at that. The other had the top 10 tools. I thought that one would be more discriminating. I found both to be useful. I chose another article because it offered help with lesson planning for flipped classrooms. So far, the magazine has help with creating videos, what I should consider before flipping, flipping videos relevance to project-based learning. Lastly, one article offered help for teachers who see the “at home” as quite a hurdle. It stated, "But successful flipping has one big catch -- if it's going to work, the at-home learning absolutely must happen. And teachers have zero control over what happens at home.” Flipped learning is the future, so I’m sure I will be adding to this magazine for months to come.
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Click here to view the magazine

Changing Spaces for Changing Learning

This is the library computer lab as it appeared when I first began working at this school in 2007. It is almost unchanged for the length of time I served this learning community. I added a blue seating area about four or five years later. More about this in a moment. I primarily taught students general information gathering skills, how to use information databases, Web 2.0 tools for assignments. I would then walk around the room and monitor their progress and help them troubleshoot their topics. If they had been assigned individual topics, it was an okay arrangement. If they were required to do anything beyond individual work, the area was restrictive.

A few years ago, I changed practically all of the areas of the library. This leisure-seating moved from the main floor into the library. I brought the computer tables closer together to accommodate the additional furniture. This furniture is shown in the following picture.

I was surprised by all the different ways this furniture was used in the lab. Students used it as a way to record video for their projects. Teachers would consult with groups about research projects. Kids who brought their own laptops to school and didn't need the desktop gathered there. Students would plan and divide work responsibilities and all right there in that spot.

Even though this room was not aesthetically at it's best, the seating added more functionality. But I'd like to see the furniture streamlined

I would like to make more aggressive changes to the computer lab so that students could work differently and more collaboratively there. If I had more funds, and $1,000 might be a stretch, but I'd recreate this computer lab featured here. I'd make the old space look more like this because it would expand the number of areas that could be used for group work. I would keep the tables, but I'd like to alter or hack them with a tabletop mounted flat-screen tv.

The new space would allow students to work together in small clusters. Even though each student might be using individual laptops to research different aspects of a topic, one laptop would be connected ia an HDMI cable to the flat screen tv so that everyone in the group could see the work and contributions as they are being developed. The dry erase whiteboards would be used to work out ideas.

Click here for the cost of changing the computer lab space.

Content Curation.

My introduction to curation was happenstance as I stumbled upon Scoop.it and Paperli a few years back. I’d teach kids that content curation was a good way to keep abreast of headlines on their assigned topics such as subsistence farming, world religions, and so forth. I’d introduce curation to explaining to them that it was similar to a museum curator. They’d submit a topic to a curation tool and in turn get a thread of information about that topic. I think for the most part, the students found it to be useful and enjoyed using it. In 2012, that was the extent of our use for it in the library. It was another resource for information.

Fast forward to now, I see that I’m a little behind on how it has evolved and how people are using it.. This week I am having to expand my idea of what new tools can be useful for curating. One article that I found promised 50 Killer Curation Tools. I’ve used tools without thinking of them as curating tools. I’ve taught kids how to use Thinglink, but never presented it to them as a way to curate even though they were gathering resources around a common theme. In a way, it was overlooked opportunity to discuss curation using that tool. I am looking forward to future conversations that are more expansive and progressive about content curation. I’m also looking forward to making clearer distinction between my activities as a content creator versus a content curator.

I’ve decided to use this opportunity to combine curation with ebooks in school libraries. This topic has been so controversial and the trend has had a slow start. I’m curious because I personally don’t read paper books anymore. People have a hard time reconciling my profession as a librarian and using paper books. I understand their confusion. It’s just my personal preference. I don’t think I’m endangering paper versions. My most prolific student readers despise ebooks.

Flipboard is a tool that I’ve used and let fall by the wayside. But this week’s reading for this unit by Aaron Tay has me more than interested in taking a second look at Flipboard. He too is a librarian and he makes a compelling argument as to why it’s a good fit for him professionally. I like the way he outlines his path to Clipboard.

I enjoyed this comic strip highlighting the inability some people have in defining content curation.

Where Educators Rush In: Mitra and Clark discuss the Hole in the Wall project.

Educators often embrace innovation that is supposedly supported by research only to experience high expectation and then low results. Like many educators, I examined Sugata Mitra's talk of his "Hole in the Wall" project with intrigue. His chief claim is that he simply inserted a computer in the wall and students found answers. They organized the information for and among themselves. For a good while, teachers have used computers in classrooms. However, Mitra brings a bit of a twist to the idea that children will naturally teach themselves given a wired computer and opportunity with little or no other resources needed. Some educators, to a degree, might on the surface agree that independent learning can manifest. Mitra also suggests that children will, on their own, go on an educational adventure. That sounds reasonable too. There is also his notion that if the interest of children is captured, learning will take place. Again, some educators might nod in agreement. But it is this type of consensus building that is used to get educators on board at the start of a new program. These ideas and programs are presented as reasonable. Teachers wanting to be flexible, accept and take the prescribed course of action. Certainly, Mr. Mitra has been called a guru. That may help enlarge his audience for the program.

An alternate view of the project comes from David Clark in "Plan B." Clark suggests that Mitra's work does no justice to girls who seem to be left out of the learning. Clark also says it further divides educational opportunities for the most impoverished. The funding is not equally distributed. The pursestrings belongs to a "non-charitable" source. Clark laments that the learning barely scratches the surface of real knowledge. It appears to be low on the instructional scale with no teacher to raise learning. In fact, the project undervalues the role of teacher. They simply aren't needed because children will find answers on their own. Clark's concern, if we are truly to test the sustainability and trust the validity of Holes in the Walls, probably should not be ignored.

Looking at the two perspectives remind educators of the saying, “all that glitters is not gold.” I've been in the crosshairs of educational debates including Accelerated Reader, Khan Academy-styled Flipping Videos and CScope Curriculum. So this topic is personal.

Researched-based Accelerated Reader program promised to impart a love of reading and increase vocabulary and comprehension skills. Results are varied and hotly debated. Natural readers loved AR and struggling readers loathed its testing.

Khan Academy (KA) for flipped learning experienced mixed results also. KA has been heralded as a breakthrough. However, one of the chief concerns of KA is that it can't genuinely replace instruction; it is a resource. That is probably a fair way to look at it. Other critics assert that students accomplish only surface learning. The KA outcomes may have breadth but not depth. This same criticisms have been levied at the Hole in the Wall project.

My district adopted the researched-based C-Scope curriculum as the new savior. It was abandoned after two years especially after it received negative press for a variety of reasons. I reference these three examples because of the considerable cost in either or both time and money.

Because these were my own professional experiences, I felt compelled to make notes about adopting and adapting educational research for future reference.
1. Be inspired by lofty goals of projects and go from there.
When Sugata Mitra presents the Hole in the Wall project, he shares that young students teach themselves English words in order to interact with the computer. I am eager to hear more as he explain how this great byproduct of the project materialize. I’m inspired because it makes me ponder what I can create with my learners.
2. Know your students.
I must keep in view my own students' strengths, vulnerabilities, and potential. To abandon what I know about my students to broadly and blindly accept innovation is a big risk. Clark suggest that girls were vulnerable as they edged out of screen time.
3. Find the balance for my specific learning community
Every class is different and those variable should be taken in consideration when seeking to implement a new program. It is the variables themselves that prevent the exact outcomes surfacing from classroom to classroom. Perhaps Mitra and Clark's views can be blended allowing for students to self organized with teacher as facilitator.

When I listen to Mr. Mitra, I acknowledge that he makes some genuine and valid points. But it appears that he oversimplifies. There are complexities far beyond the points he makes. So when he say, “The bottom line is, if you're not the one controlling your learning, you're not going to learn as well,” I acknowledge that but that responsibility is shared with teachers, classmates, parents and a whole learning community. Students may be primary in that responsibility, but they aren't islands.

“Knowing is NOT the most important thing. To be able to FIND OUT is more important than knowing,” is another assertion that Mr Mitra makes. To become this knowing individual is to sometimes discover multiple truths and possibilities that will require help in navigating. Self-organizing the knowledge for young children in a variety of disciplines is not always possible. Some content will require a guide.

Educators can benefit from Mr. Mitra ideas. I find the evolution and expansion of his Hole in the Wall experiment now called SOLEs (Self Organizing Learning Environments) to be extremely interesting. I will follow this work. I don't discount or make light of what he's shares. But, I will also pay close attention to his critics as well. I simply view it as starting point of what I might be able to accomplish in teaching children to be responsible for their own learning. I think that is a good approach for most educational research.


References:

Kids can teach themselves Sugata Mitra - https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves

Sugata Mitra: Slum chic? 7 reasons for doubt Donald Clark - https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.ca/2013/03/sugata-mitra-slum-chic-7-reasons-for.html?m=1

We Need Schools... Not Factories Sugata Mitra - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sugata-mitra/2013-ted-prize_b_2767598.html

Angel or devil? The strange case of Sugata Mitra https://jeremyharmer.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/angel-or-devil-the-strange-case-of-sugata-mitra/

Top 9 quotes of Sugata Mitra famous quotes, rare quotes and sayings | inspringquotes.us inspiringquotes.us - http://www.inspiringquotes.us/author/7025-sugata-mitra

This article was important and influential for me also this week.
Don’t import the scourge of scientism into schools http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/14005#.WMmPdXeZPeQ

Sustaining the Learning

To keep my fingers on the pulse of what's going on, I used to reserve a bit of my budget for expensive professional publications. Never again. Many of those publications, have very resourceful blogs. So that is one way of keeping up. Another way I keep up is by curating my interest on digitizing learning with options like Scoop it. It provides so many journal articles from one portal. It's fantastic, especially when I'm pressed for time.

I also still use listservs. My favorite one is LM_NET. It's a gathering place for librarians to talk shop. School libraries, whether some like it or not, have become academic computing centers. So of course, much of what we discuss is how to manage the digital and online demands of our library users. So to stay ahead, this source is a sure bet.

More and more, I go to social media outlets for news on digital literacy. Pinterest and Twitter have become invaluable to me because that is where the practitioners talk. Our peers nationwide can come up with some of the most ingenious ideas to challenges we all face as educators.

Can't seem to get the Webinar thing going though. Will pre-register and they come and go without my getting around to logging in. I do like some of the online conferences that are being offered annually. Have attended only one or two, but they are information-packed.

Lastly, I take a course every now and then on digital and mobile learning to stay engaged.

Personal Introduction -- https://youtu.be/GhQuQrdSf-8

https://youtu.be/GhQuQrdSf-8