The experience of having and maintaining a blog for this class was an interesting and valuable lesson. I had never had a blog of my own or even posted a comment to a blog prior to this class, so for me it was quite a learning opportunity. As well, Task 1, in which we got to explore Blogging more generally, was eye opening for me since I had looked at very few blogs in the past. I have found that this experience affected me in several ways. For one thing, I now sometimes just search blog content when Googling a topic (through Google Blogsearch). Also, I find that I am much more aware of blogs as a genre of the Web. Another affect this has had on me is that when I was building a new website for the Canton High School library, I was comfortable including a blog as one of the links and teaching the TL how to use the blog.
More specifically, through blogging and posting to classmates’ blogs, I have learned quite a bit about the technologies we each were assigned. I really had very little familiarity with computer based concept maps (my first technology) before the class started, and I had not even heard of Filamentality (my second technology). I believe that the medium of blogging allowed us to share in a way we might not have if we had simply been assigned to discuss these topics in a group space on WebCT. Blog postings have a more easygoing, laidback style to them than posting on our class bulletin board. Perhaps it was because of this that many people in my group ended up using material posted on YouTube to help explore their assigned topics. These videos ended up being great ways to learn about the various technologies.
After using, posting to and replying to blogs, I can now imagine using blogs in many different scenarios and would be comfortable recommending their use to teachers. If, for instance, several teachers had just attended a workshop to learn how to use a new technology, I could imagine setting up a blog for them, which they could use to keep each other posted on their progress since the workshop.
I think my own blogging could be improved if I used tags (called Labels by Blogger). As my blog became longer, this would help make it easier to find posts on various topics. Also, keeping a list of “Related Resources” would make it easier for people visiting my blog to explore links related to the topics I cover.
Now that I have had the opportunity to explore, create and use blogs, I would be comfortable with using them again in the future. This comfort with technology is perhaps the most important outcome of the experience.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Nice summary and/or introduction to Filamentality
I think it is very fortuitous that I happened to find Keith Stanger's website on Filamentality this week. His website not only does a great job of providing an introduction (or, in this case, summary & wrap up) of what Filamentality is, it also provides descriptions and examples of each of the five Filamentality types. I think that Keith's website would be good to use to introduce teachers to what Filamentality is. (The only downside to Keith's page is that it has been 2 years since he has updated it... so, as is inevitable, many of the links are no longer active.)
If you don't feel that Filamentality is quite the right fit for you (or for your teachers), here is a list of resources of other similar products (click on " IV. Use the Web to Create Materials and Publish Work," the Filamentality-type stuff is in section "A. Create online teaching materials."
This site also offers some alternatives to Filamentality (and a description of them). Scroll about 2/3's of the way through the page to the section called "Some Examples of Free Online Authoring Tools" to find where the five examples are described. It is nice to know there are so many fairly straightforward ways for TLs and teachers to create materials online. Do any of these particularly appeal to you?
If you don't feel that Filamentality is quite the right fit for you (or for your teachers), here is a list of resources of other similar products (click on " IV. Use the Web to Create Materials and Publish Work," the Filamentality-type stuff is in section "A. Create online teaching materials."
This site also offers some alternatives to Filamentality (and a description of them). Scroll about 2/3's of the way through the page to the section called "Some Examples of Free Online Authoring Tools" to find where the five examples are described. It is nice to know there are so many fairly straightforward ways for TLs and teachers to create materials online. Do any of these particularly appeal to you?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Thoughts on Week 13 readings
Two of this week’s readings (Technology to Support Learning by Bransford, Brown & Cocking and Teachers Face Handheld Revolution by Brant) mention the fact that using new technology doesn’t always mean better education. Although many new technologies have many potentially wonderful applications, I think this point is important to consider.
On another completely unrelated tangent, I wondered about the implications of having students each equipped with their own PDAs – ostensibly to record homework assignments, and download library books (as discussed in Teachers Face Handheld Revolution). As I was reading about the 9 year old who said he would use the school-provided PDA for downloading music (rather than the above approved uses) I found myself thinking about this week’s filtering discussion. Will these PDAs have Internet access? If so, will the content be filtered? As technology becomes ever more pervasive and integral for a complete education, these questions about the right amount of access to give kids will likely increase... so I guess it's good we're beginning the conversation now, as library students!
On another completely unrelated tangent, I wondered about the implications of having students each equipped with their own PDAs – ostensibly to record homework assignments, and download library books (as discussed in Teachers Face Handheld Revolution). As I was reading about the 9 year old who said he would use the school-provided PDA for downloading music (rather than the above approved uses) I found myself thinking about this week’s filtering discussion. Will these PDAs have Internet access? If so, will the content be filtered? As technology becomes ever more pervasive and integral for a complete education, these questions about the right amount of access to give kids will likely increase... so I guess it's good we're beginning the conversation now, as library students!
Filamentality as a personal organizer
Last week, Elise commented, “Filamentality seems to me to be more of a way to consolidate information into one place, kind of a make-your-own-reference page for a particular topic rather than as a lesson-building tool.”
This week I looked at a study published in 2004, that makes just this argument. The study was done by two researchers on whether introducing student teachers to Filamentality makes things easier or harder for them when they are using technology. Specifically, this paper examines a class of 41 student teachers who were taking a science education method class. All students had received instruction in Microsoft Office, the Internet (and searching techniques) and Hyperstudio.
As part of their class, students were asked to find appropriate web sites for an elementary science topic of their choosing, and develop a Hyperstudio Stack. For this study, the students were divided into two groups, one of which was trained in Filamentality (specifically Hotlists and Scrapbooks) and one of which was not. The researchers found that the students who used Filamentality had a much easier time organizing their presentations. The control (non-Filamentality) group did not effectively organize the results of their web searches as they did them, and so they spent a lot of extra time re-doing their same searches.
The researchers found that at the end of the class the Filamentality group had higher confidence levels, and lower PTE (perceived task effort) on the difficulty of Hyperstack and the Internet. Filamentality effectively helped these students “manage the cognitive load and their PTE… more efficiently and effectively and consequently it may influence their confidence in using ICT (Information & Communication Technology) tools” (page 31).
The take home message to me is that although you might think that having students learn more technology would stress them out, if the technology is ultimately helpful (like Filamentality was for these students), stress & sense of difficulty may actually decrease with additional technology. Prior to reading this paper I hadn’t thought as much of using Filamentality as an intermediate step (as opposed to the final product) or as just a way for me to personally (or students to personally) organize websites.
I found that this paper made a compelling case – at least for those students who are not tech savvy and don’t know about social bookmarking. What are your thoughts?
Source: Angeli, C. & Valanides, N. (2004). The effect of electronic scaffolding for technology integration on perceived task effort and confidence of primary student teachers. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 37 (1), 29-43.
This week I looked at a study published in 2004, that makes just this argument. The study was done by two researchers on whether introducing student teachers to Filamentality makes things easier or harder for them when they are using technology. Specifically, this paper examines a class of 41 student teachers who were taking a science education method class. All students had received instruction in Microsoft Office, the Internet (and searching techniques) and Hyperstudio.
As part of their class, students were asked to find appropriate web sites for an elementary science topic of their choosing, and develop a Hyperstudio Stack. For this study, the students were divided into two groups, one of which was trained in Filamentality (specifically Hotlists and Scrapbooks) and one of which was not. The researchers found that the students who used Filamentality had a much easier time organizing their presentations. The control (non-Filamentality) group did not effectively organize the results of their web searches as they did them, and so they spent a lot of extra time re-doing their same searches.
The researchers found that at the end of the class the Filamentality group had higher confidence levels, and lower PTE (perceived task effort) on the difficulty of Hyperstack and the Internet. Filamentality effectively helped these students “manage the cognitive load and their PTE… more efficiently and effectively and consequently it may influence their confidence in using ICT (Information & Communication Technology) tools” (page 31).
The take home message to me is that although you might think that having students learn more technology would stress them out, if the technology is ultimately helpful (like Filamentality was for these students), stress & sense of difficulty may actually decrease with additional technology. Prior to reading this paper I hadn’t thought as much of using Filamentality as an intermediate step (as opposed to the final product) or as just a way for me to personally (or students to personally) organize websites.
I found that this paper made a compelling case – at least for those students who are not tech savvy and don’t know about social bookmarking. What are your thoughts?
Source: Angeli, C. & Valanides, N. (2004). The effect of electronic scaffolding for technology integration on perceived task effort and confidence of primary student teachers. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 37 (1), 29-43.
Friday, April 11, 2008
RFID technology in use
I know (at least to me) it seems like forever ago that we talked about RFID technology (it was actually in the third week of the class). I'm so glad we did discuss it, though, because I was able to understand what they were talking about in this article.
To quickly summarize the article, the library in Shenzhen, China is starting to use "Integrated Library Automation Systems" (ILAS). These are essentially like ATMs for books -- or another anology that came to mind was vending machines. These carts depend on RFID technology. The article does not go into detail on this point, but does say that patron cards, the books, and other library materials all have RFID tags. Patrons can request a book via the web (or at the machine) and the book will be delivered to the ILAS nearest them. It sounds like patrons will also be able to browse and choose a book that the ILAS has available for checkout, as the article talked about books "circulat(ing) on a three-layer conveyor belt to facilitate readers' selection." (that's the part that seemed reminiscent of a vending machine).
The city is planning to build several dozen of these machines and sprinkle them across the city in places like supermarkets, subway stops, and office buildings.
Personally, upon reading this article I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I love that books will be more conveniently accessed by more people. On the other hand, it starts seeming less and less like a "library" to me if someone's entire library experience could be had without interacting with anyone. How will patrons whose whole experience is at ILAS's know about all the other services the library offers?
What are your thoughts? Are the ILAS's good for the future of libraries (since they make the books more accessible) or bad for the future of libraries (reducing the role of libraries to book vending machines)?
To quickly summarize the article, the library in Shenzhen, China is starting to use "Integrated Library Automation Systems" (ILAS). These are essentially like ATMs for books -- or another anology that came to mind was vending machines. These carts depend on RFID technology. The article does not go into detail on this point, but does say that patron cards, the books, and other library materials all have RFID tags. Patrons can request a book via the web (or at the machine) and the book will be delivered to the ILAS nearest them. It sounds like patrons will also be able to browse and choose a book that the ILAS has available for checkout, as the article talked about books "circulat(ing) on a three-layer conveyor belt to facilitate readers' selection." (that's the part that seemed reminiscent of a vending machine).
The city is planning to build several dozen of these machines and sprinkle them across the city in places like supermarkets, subway stops, and office buildings.
Personally, upon reading this article I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I love that books will be more conveniently accessed by more people. On the other hand, it starts seeming less and less like a "library" to me if someone's entire library experience could be had without interacting with anyone. How will patrons whose whole experience is at ILAS's know about all the other services the library offers?
What are your thoughts? Are the ILAS's good for the future of libraries (since they make the books more accessible) or bad for the future of libraries (reducing the role of libraries to book vending machines)?
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Looking at some examples on Filamentality
Now that we have learned the basics about Filamentality, I thought the main thing we would do this week is to take a look at how people are actually using Filamentality.
I thought this Filamentality webquest was particularly appropriate, since it is on the topic of "a day in the life of a library media specialist." I thought this was a pretty neat webquest, though I was wondering in what capacity it is used... I wonder what age students use it and also if it was developed for a particular class. At the schools I've been at, it doesn't seem like the teachers would give the kids the three or so periods that this webquest would likely take to complete. The other comment I had after looking at it is that I miss graphics. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been so noticable that a webpage lacked graphics (because so many did) -- but nowadays the lack of graphics makes it stand out (at least to me). I wonder if Filamentality is considering revising this policy?
Another filamentality page that I thought would be interesting for us to look at is this one on marketing your school library. This filamentality page is a Hotlist (essentially an annotated website list). On a personal note, I am planning to bookmark this page as it seems to be a "one stop shop" for all your library marketing needs. It includes what look to be very good websites/articles on the topics of "The Need for Library Promotion," "Library Mission Statements," "Research on the Value of Libraries and Librarians," "Marketing and Promotional Tools," and "Promotion Ideas and Resources."
I hope you find these Filamentality examples of a webquest and hotlist as interesting to explore as I did.
Nat
I thought this Filamentality webquest was particularly appropriate, since it is on the topic of "a day in the life of a library media specialist." I thought this was a pretty neat webquest, though I was wondering in what capacity it is used... I wonder what age students use it and also if it was developed for a particular class. At the schools I've been at, it doesn't seem like the teachers would give the kids the three or so periods that this webquest would likely take to complete. The other comment I had after looking at it is that I miss graphics. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been so noticable that a webpage lacked graphics (because so many did) -- but nowadays the lack of graphics makes it stand out (at least to me). I wonder if Filamentality is considering revising this policy?
Another filamentality page that I thought would be interesting for us to look at is this one on marketing your school library. This filamentality page is a Hotlist (essentially an annotated website list). On a personal note, I am planning to bookmark this page as it seems to be a "one stop shop" for all your library marketing needs. It includes what look to be very good websites/articles on the topics of "The Need for Library Promotion," "Library Mission Statements," "Research on the Value of Libraries and Librarians," "Marketing and Promotional Tools," and "Promotion Ideas and Resources."
I hope you find these Filamentality examples of a webquest and hotlist as interesting to explore as I did.
Nat
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Schools and Cybersecurity
Since our class discussion this week (about phishing) did not focus on the school environment, I wanted to make a blog post on the topic of cybersecurity in schools. This article is about a high school district which serves 8,000 people (that's as big as my town!) and has 2500 computers.
One reason I liked this article is that rather than saying that the first line of defense is anti-virus software, they say that it is responsible users. This fits in well with my own thoughts on the topic. By educating the students (and faculty), they will be more responsible and have more ownership. Because the students feel a sense of ownership, rather than having "fun" hacking into the system, the students serve as a proactive first line of defense.
Another smart realization this school district has had is the influence of teachers on students' behavior. If the students know the teachers are not respecting the rules (for instance, if teachers disrespect copyright), the students are much more likely to pick and choose which rules they will follow too. In this district they attempt to solve this problem by having workshops for the teachers about ethics and safety.
One more thing I liked that this school is doing is that they are trying to give extra support to teachers with technology use. They realize that teachers are really too busy to be on top of the technology curve, so they are taking the time to educate the teachers (rather than expect them to pick up things themselves).
I think the most important ingredients for cybersecurity in a school setting are education and empowerment. What do you think?
One reason I liked this article is that rather than saying that the first line of defense is anti-virus software, they say that it is responsible users. This fits in well with my own thoughts on the topic. By educating the students (and faculty), they will be more responsible and have more ownership. Because the students feel a sense of ownership, rather than having "fun" hacking into the system, the students serve as a proactive first line of defense.
Another smart realization this school district has had is the influence of teachers on students' behavior. If the students know the teachers are not respecting the rules (for instance, if teachers disrespect copyright), the students are much more likely to pick and choose which rules they will follow too. In this district they attempt to solve this problem by having workshops for the teachers about ethics and safety.
One more thing I liked that this school is doing is that they are trying to give extra support to teachers with technology use. They realize that teachers are really too busy to be on top of the technology curve, so they are taking the time to educate the teachers (rather than expect them to pick up things themselves).
I think the most important ingredients for cybersecurity in a school setting are education and empowerment. What do you think?
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