I'm Back...

Greetings from Mongolia!  It's been a rougher start than I anticipated, emotionally speaking.  I was definitely on overload the first few weeks; but now that school has started, and the familiar routines are in place (school is school, wherever you are), I'm settling, getting a routine going, and figuring out where to buy those little things like, you know.....FOOD!

Anyway, I am in the process of getting the library set up, getting policies in place, etc.  This involves of lot of rethinking of the program I set up at my old school, upgrading things that worked,  revamping (or dropping) things that didn't.

I've done a couple mindmaps of the library website in specific, and the library program in general. Add your thoughts for anything I may have left out! Notice the one on the library program has nothing on literacy yet. I'm still thinking about what I want to do with that. I will update it in a few days.

Guest Blogger: I'll Meet You Where Two Worlds Collide

I am very pleased to introduce you to Bib 2.0's first guest blogger.  Meet Motzie, a teen who is working actively to build a positive digital footprint.  Motzie has some decided views on  schools' failure to meet students "where they're at," and I asked her to blog about that today.  So, without further ado.......

I'll meet you where two worlds collide

The aim of schooling and education is essentially to prepare students for life in the outside world.  Sure, we also learn content from subjects we enjoy and we strive to achieve grades high enough to allow us to go on to further education, but the hope is that we arrive at school as students, and leave as adults.  

So it stands to reason that the ‘school world’ should resemble the ‘outside world’.  There is no point keeping students completely sheltered from potentially negative influences, when there will not be that protection later on in life.  When a young employee finds himself dealing with a bullying boss, there won’t be a stern vice-principal to look down her nose at him until he slinks away, embarrassed.  Instead, we are taught techniques to develop self-confidence and to deal with situations calmly and safely. 

So why is it that teachers don’t use the same formula when teaching about digital footprints?  I can only speak from my own experience, but the limited education I have been exposed to on this topic has been sadly lacking.  The focus, rather than being on developing similar coping tactics and techniques for smart and safe internet usage, seems to be on scaremongering or blatant prohibition of resources such as social media sites.

At my school, Facebook and Myspace are amongst several sites that are blocked from the server.  Supposedly, no student can access these sites.  Every member of the student body knows, however, that there are ‘proxy’ sites that allow you to bypass site blocks.  And with that, the level of social media access during school hours rises significantly.  It’s an oldie, but a goodie: “The best way to make a teenager do something, is to tell them they can’t”.  Banning these sites only serves to make them more attractive to students, who see it as a way to rebel.  If the school says we can’t use it, then it must be ‘cool’ - because the ‘school world’ isn’t ‘our world’. 

My school has been lucky enough to upgrade a lot of its facilities with some government funding.  Unfortunately, they aren’t being used to their full potential just yet.  Some teachers are starting to use Interactive Whiteboards, but primarily as a projector for slideshows.  Computers are essentially a fancier way of writing up essays and reports.  And because of this, there are some students who believed the school is wasting money on upgrades that aren’t necessary.  None of these technologies are being used in an interactive, ‘Web 2.0’ way – there is little or no connection to the world outside of school.   

As a result of this, the only positive use of the internet and technology that we are being exposed to is for research, and the ‘online world’ remains completely separated from the ‘school world’, and students have little idea about the potential uses of technology in areas other than the social sphere.

As I see it, students would benefit more from a shift in focus on cyber education. Constant scare tactics and campaigns to make students aware of the consequences of irresponsible online behaviour have passed their expiration date.  

Instead, I believe a focus on the possible benefits of using the www would be more effective.  We’ve been told about the things that can go wrong, work with us to develop positive ways of using technology.  Teachers facilitating discussions about ways to foster a positive digital footprint, establishing blogs to allow comments and feedback about work, and incorporating the use of social media in coursework (characters from classic novels such as Pride and Prejudice have appeared on Twitter and retold the story in collaboration with the other characters, using Jane Austen’s language and first-person recount style) are all ways for teachers to demonstrate that technology is not simply a teenager’s social domain. 

The more obvious teachers make it that they may not understand all technology, the more students are likely to revel in the fact that they do.  ‘Our world’ needs to become part of the ‘school world’.  In fact, the ‘school world’ should be ‘our world’.  Because it is ‘our world’ that we need to be prepared for, and distinguishing that from school, which is essentially the longest occupation many of us will ever hold, will do us more harm than good.

Positive Digital Footprints: Minding Your Own Business

We need to teach students to Google themselves on a regular basis.

Like it or not, the internet is changing not only the nature of privacy, but people's attitudes about privacy. A 2010 Pew study found that only 44% of 18-29 year olds actively manage/limit their online information, though that number goes up (65%) for those on social networking sites such as Facebook.

A Will Richardson post got me thinking about moving beyond just  teaching research skills, digital citizenship or cybersafety, and actually crafting  a program to guide students in actually building an online presence. With the advent of Web 2.0 (3.0!), there's an increased "pressure of participation." If potential schools or colleges do a search and not only find nothing negative, but don't examples of a creative online life, what does that say about the student?

Students are increasingly aware of the potential to be "Googled" by prospective colleges; many have taken to posting on Facebook and other sites under avatars or assumed names.  But I doubt many have considered actually trying to manage and build their own digital footprint. I don't think Middle School is too soon for students to be thinking about this, but definitely by 9th grade.

One 17 year old who is consciously developing her online image is Motzie, who started a blog for exactly this purpose.  As she states,

"I don’t claim to have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of the www, but I do understand that anything and everything you post or do on the internet is stored, in some form, and can be traced back to you... I am someone who is very conscious of the trail I leave online – this blog is in some ways an attempt to not only keep my footprint neutral, but even leave a positive impression. " (linked with permission). 

(btw: I'm hoping to have Motzie as guest blogger sometime in the next few weeks, discussing her views on how we can help students me more footprint-aware.)

So here are my thoughts--so far!--on what such a program would look like. 

1.  Raise Awareness  

First, get students thinking about their online life.  What activities do they engage in? With which communities do they connect? Is there any overlap?  How does the web enrich or limit their daily life? 

I ran across this great project from Luther Jackson Middle School, which obviously encourages students to think along these lines.  Have students do an ego search and think about the results.

2.  Self-Analysis

Have students do an ego-search.  What do they find?  What does it say (or not say) about them (i.e. what is their "brand")? What would a stranger think?  One potentially nifty tool (though I wasn't able to get it to work today) is this Graph IT facebook app, that makes both a Wordle-like or 3D cloud of your status updates. Great for giving an overall idea of how you come across online.  Here's mine... 

In addition, students should ponder what is in their control and what's not, and how to minimize "bad press." Tony Fish, who blogs about digital footprints for business, reminded me in the comments on my last post that  digital footprints consist of not only what you say about yourself, but also of what others say about you.  Unfortunately, we don't have much control of that. Students can, however, start thinking about just what sort of pictures they allow to be taken of themselves, and whether they really need 937 friends on Facebook.

In worse case scenarios, there's always the Web. 2.0 Suicide Machine, which claims it can wipe out your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles/feeds/updates.

3.  Action Plan

I read somewhere that if you're not taking control of your online presence, someone else will.  Students--we!--need to develop a specific plan for building a digital profile, considering

• What information or traits would they like to have available?
• What are the best tools for creating those...blogs? Uploaded videos/art/photographs?
• Collaborative comments/posts on other sites. I'm always surprised when I do an ego-search, how many of my comments on Amazon, Ning,  and various news sites or blogs come up.  These are also venues for students to build their online profile.  

As Media Specialists, we also need to encourage teachers to embed these opportunities into their own lessons and assignments, as well as providing those opportunities for students ourselves. 

Please post any thoughts you have on additions to this, or anything you've done with students that helped raise their awareness.

Preview of Upcoming Attractions:  Today I was lucky enough to be able to talk with Michelle Luhtala, one of the winners of this year's AASL  School Library Program of the Year Award. Her school is just down the road from me, and she generously let me not only visit her library, but ask a volume of questions about her program.  I recorded a 20 minute interview with her, which I will transcribe and post sometime in the next several days.  She's an amazing  and energetic woman, who is doing a great job getting students excited about libraries and media.

REACH: Free Book Download

Jeff Utecht is quite generously giving a free download of his new book, Reach: Building Communities and Networks for Professional Development.  Find the details here.

Zonkk: Create your own social networking site

This is brief as I start playing with it, but you might want to check out Zonkk, a new social networking tool which just went public. 

I say tool, because rather than being a pre-set up site a la Ning, Zonkk allows you to set up your own social networking site, with a pretty hefty (and slightly confusing) set of features.

The website is currently pretty weak on details or tutorials.  I hope they're working on that. But if the photos they give up sites already up and running are anything to go by (and why aren't there links so we can look at them for ideas?), this has potential for schools as a whole or individual classes.

While it's free, there are the inevitable ads on the website you create.  It will cost you $15/month to get rid of those.

I'll post more details once I've had time to play with it.

EdWeb: Slow the Pace!

EdWeb.net is a relatively new social networking site similar to Ning, but dedicated solely to education. It also has a LOT fewer people on it, which can be good or bad depending on your point of view.

I loved Ning when I first joined a few summers back and everyone was discovering the joys of professional social networking. However, it has grown a bit ponderous and unwieldy for me, so I haven't been on in a while.]

EdWeb offers several features: blogging, chatting, calendar sharing, a wiki, document archives and more; I like the interface better than Ning--it seems cleaner and easier to navigate. Of course, there aren't many people with which to form a network yet, which is a drawback. But there is a school librarians group with 50 members in it; it will be interesting to see if we can make that a viable community.

I am a bit concerned that there already seems to be a corporate presence on the site. Again, we'll see what happens.

Need a new 2.0 App?

These sites were mentioned on LM-Net today, and I hadn't heard of them. They're both searchable web directories of Web 2.0 apps (who can keep track of all of them?!)

Go2Web20 According to their "About" page, the site archives over 2,500 web 2.0 apps. You can search by the type of app you want (e.g. timelines) or use the tag cloud. I found typing in the search tool somewhat slow and clunky (though I enjoyed the sound effects), and it seems overly precise.

For example, typing in "time" brought up 13 time-related apps. However, "timeline" only brought up XTimeline, even though there was another timeline application (TimeToast) in the earlier set of apps. I assume that's because it used "timelines" as part of its description, rather than the singular form of the word.

Simple Spark is an interesting addition to the growing set of social networking sites. I never would have thought of social app-ing, but what a no-brainer for anyone involved in staff development!

You can search the database of applications by keyword, category, or sub-category. You can also add in your own applications, if you've create any. The free registration creates an account where you can save the apps that interest you, write reviews and share the list with friends.

It might be somewhat hit or miss with the contents. I searched some obvious tools, finding Flickr listed on both sites, although neither had Jing. Simple Spark had VoiceThread; Go2 didn't.

I plan to do weekly, short tech-tutorials next year; Simple Spark may be a good tool for sharing with the other teachers. I'll keep you posted on that!

NSBA Weighs In On Internet Safety

The debate continues as the National School Boards Association publishes a recent study on education and social networking sites, according to an article in ars technica, which also provides a direct link to the study, fortunately, since I couldn't find it on the NSBA site after 25 minutes of searching--even with the study's title!

The study, Creating and Connecting, which surveyed 1,277 students finds that:

• 96% of students reports using social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook
• 20% say they have seen inappropriate pictures on the sites
• 18% have seen inappropriate language
• 7% say strangers have asked for personal information
• 3% have been repeatedly contacted by strangers trying to communicate with them
• 7% have experienced cyberbullying
• 4% have had conversations that made them uncomfortable
• 2% say a stranger tried to arrange a meeting offline
• .08% have actually met someone from an online encounter without their parents' permission

The study concludes that "School district leaders seem to believe that negative experiences with social networking are more common than students and parents report. More than half of districts (52%) say that students providing personal information online is a 'significant problem,' yet only 3% of students say they've ever given out their email addresses or IM screen names."

Of most interest, the study also reports

• 59% of students talk about education-related topics such as college planning, careers , political ideas
• 50% talk specifically about schoolwork

The study wisely advised schools, "whose responsibility is to prepare students to transition to adult life with the skills they need to succeed in [business and higher education], to reckon with it" and "strike the appropriate balance between protecting their students and providing a 21st century education."

They also recommend districts

• Consider using social networking sites for staff communication and professional development
• Find ways to harness the educational value of social networking
• Ensure equitable access
• Reexamine social networking policies
• Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value

While one needs to be slightly skeptical of a study partially funded by Microsoft and Verizon, here, at last, is a pro-social networking study district administrators may listen to. As Media Specialists responsible for preparing students to survive and flourish in a digital information world, we need to be strong vocal advocates for teaching responsible use of technology as an alternative to outright banning.

Planning Progress

As my year of grad school starts its mad rush to the end (only three more weeks! And so much to do!) I realized today I better start planning now for keeping abreast of all the latest ed tech info once I start working again this fall. I've been granted the incredible luxury of being able to spend as many as 6-8 hours a day just browsing and reading and hunting down great information and websites. Obviously, I can't keep that up once I'm actually in a library. Not if I want to keep the job, anyway! If I want to keep up this level of learning--and it's been a real path-changer for me--it's not going to happen by accident. Thus, here is my plan to both learn and share on a regular basis.

My Circle of the Wise. Vicki Davis (CoolCatTeacher) posted a while back about creating a web of wisdom around yourself--immersing yourself through reading and online networking in people who truly inspire you to create the world you envision. It's important to keep the momentum and inspiration going and not become lost in the daily routine. I've created a multi-faceted program that I think will be both useful and workable.

Blogs:

• I have a manageable collection of blog gurus to read: Joyce Valenza, Will Richardson, Doug Johnson, etc. (see my blogroll for the links). I actually have more in my feed than I do on my blog roll.
• I've also created a nice mix of technical feeds (TechCrunch, Mashable) and theoretical/philosophical reads. (The above mentioned names, though they provide lots of practical info, too!)
• I'm building a routine of reading my feeds right after my email in the morning. I'm getting pretty good and skimming and scanning. Anything that takes more time, I can star to read later.

Podcasts:
Fortunately, I have about a 30 minute drive to and from work every day. Bummer on the gas, but a great time to get those podcasts in that I would never have a chance to listen to, otherwise. My regulars:

• Ed Tech Talk
• Women of the Web 2.0 (grin--I aspire to be part of this group one day!)
• Tech Teachers

You can also subscribe to all of them through iTunes, or find others worth listening to.

Social Networks:
These will be the hardest to fit in, I think, but offer fantastic opportunities to collaborate, share, seek advice from and work with like-minded (and very experienced) professionals. I've joined several groups on the Ning site, and vow to check in for at least an hour each week. (Total, not each!) Groups I think will be a valuable resource:

• TeacherLibrarian Ning
• Classroom2.0 Ning
• Library20.Ning
• EdubloggerWorld

Finally, I vow to keep up my own blog. Not just because I hope it will be a resource for my classmates as we part physical ways, as well as my my new co-workers in Connecticut. But more because, as with all writing, it's such a learning tool for me--an opportunity to think, reflect and make connections. As E.M Forster said, "How do I know what I think until I see what I write?" Wise man.