Thing # 11.5 : Evaluation

End of the Trail by Schizoform



This image may indicate how I feel, but as long as I am a Spring Branch librarian, I know I will never reach the end of the trail! I might fade out with a whimper, though.... This course of 11.5 Things has been a labor of love, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, and I am proud of that! I was challenged, but I didn't give up--haven't given up (see Second Life). I have faltered but never fallen. I have enjoyed moments of prideful success and instances of rueful self-doubt. There have been times when I felt dumber and denser than a fence post, but I always got to the "aha" moment, sometimes with professional help (thank you, VWB) and sometimes by reading the blog entries of colleagues. The important thing is that I did it, and if I did it, then so can everyone else.

I have mini-lessons prepared for staff development that I cannot wait to offer! I chose the easier ones to demonstrate first: wordle, screencast, slideshare, glogster. I am reminded of the impact that trading cards had on most bloggers last year. Suddenly, it seemed as if no lesson were complete without a culminating trading card or magazine cover! Was everyone doing it? Yes! Did it matter? No! Teachers felt successful integrating technology into their lessons, and students loved having a technology product at the end of a unit.

If each of us takes away just two or three great, new Things to use with this year's crop of students, then each of us will be rewarded by the harvest. When I think about that, it doesn't matter how many hours I spend on 11.5 Things. We are not paid by the hour; we are paid by the lifetime.

Thing # 11: Digital Citizenship

http://www.wordle.net



What I am taking away from this lesson is that every teacher in the system is responsible for teaching digital literacy / digital citizenship. Our philosophy in Spring Branch has always been "meet the student where he is and take him where he needs to be," but I have read blog entries in which teachers advocate letting colleagues know that they, too, are responsible for teaching digital literacy, expecially when it comes to the evaluation of resources and the citation of sources.

The advice to go beyond the first few sites google spits out is invaluable as that brings back to the user the responsibility for evaluating and assessing websites. I think our district does very well teaching digital literacy and citizenship in the elementary grades, but I know that I have not done a thorough job of it in high school and am motivated to do better.

Maybe the culminating activity for such a lesson could be a wordle?

One Second After

Want a thought-provoking, fast-paced, apocalyptic thriller on the order of On the Beach, Alas, Babylon, or maybe even The Stand? Try One Second After by William Forstchen.

John Matherson, a widower rearing two daughters, is a retired Army colonel who teaches history at a small college in rural North Carolina. One late afternoon, all the power goes off at once. Suddenly, there are no working cell phones, televisions, microwaves, refrigerators, generators --none of the everyday modern conveniences we are so used to--and even most cars refuse to run.

John, with his Army and military history background, becomes aware that this is not just a local disturbance of some sort. He begins to suspect that the United States has been targeted by a high-altitude nuclear bomb which has unleashed an electromagnetic pulse that has instantly disabled all electronics and made America vulnerable not only to its attackers but to its own population which quickly descends to humanity's lowest level. Chaos, starvation, and death ensue. John's background and experience push him to the forefront in his town's bid for survival.

Newt Gingrich's foreword is enlightening; the premise of this book is entirely possible.

Thing # 10: Second Life Second Step

I changed emails and was able to create a Second Life account and have been able to log on. At last! I am Squatchina Bumblefoot, and I am in--except that I received this message: "Unable to upload yada yada...The server is experiencing unexpected difficulties. Please try again later." Well, I will, because I have to, but how many people who are digital immigrants will be willing to encounter this frustration every step of the way? I predict that a lot of people will just give up.

Well, it is later, and the server is still experiencing difficulties. Which server? Theirs or ours?

Thing # 10: Second Life

I had read other blog entries for the dreaded #10 so that I would have some idea what to expect, and I was lulled into thinking it wasn't going to be such a scarifying challenge as I had anticipated. I was already intimidated since I am not good at video games, and I watch my son play these involved and complicated games that look just like second life to me. His avatar seems to do a lot of running, which I am not fond of, but his avatar also heals, makes things, sells things, gardens, etc. My son finds it all relaxing, fun, and entertaining, as do his friends who are also online and playing this same game.

I did have some initial difficulties--such as registering my avatar. The first time, the registration failed. The second time, the registration failed. The third time, the registration failed, and I received a message that I had too many avatars for one account. I couldn't figure that one out--how could I have too many if each attempt had failed?!

Anyway, I contacted "help." I filled out the questionnaire I was emailed, and I received a ticket number. I can check on this ticket number if I log in, but not being able to log in is why I needed help in the first place! I was able to log in as a guest, but when I tried to access the ticket number (as a guest) I was told I wasn't authorized to see that ticket with its helpful information.

I have not given up; I am just temporarily stalled. I have looked at everything I can view and read and explored what I was able to, but I have not yet been able to enter a world. Hopefully, my registration difficulties will be resolved before August 10th!

Stephanie Plum? Anyone? Anyone?

If you are a Stephanie Plum / Janet Evanovich fan, you need no introductory remarks! You know who she is and what she is up to!

In this New York Times interview, click on the link below, Janet Evanovich talks about her transition from romance writer to number one best-selling author of crime fiction, featuring a mediocre bounty hunter with Jersey hair and a manicure. Evanovich's son and daughter are deeply involved in her book business, and her family has a contest each time for the best new title!


What makes Evanovich's books so popular? She thinks it is because she writes happy books about good people. Watch for her new series starring Diesel!

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/07/17/multimedia/1247463461442/a-conversation-with-janet-evanovich.html

Thing # 9: Great New Summer Reads PowerPoint

Great New Summer Reads

View more presentations from benefiej.

Student VoiceThread Success Story!

Today was so exciting! An English class in summer school came to the library to do individual VoiceThreads as a culminating activity, and they did a great job and had so much fun! They were fully engaged all day long, an admirable feat in summer school!

After reading William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the students had come to the library to research (using both print and non-print sources) an aspect of daily life during the Middle Ages. After researching their topics, citing their sources, and creating note cards, they withdrew to the classroom to compose a short story using this research material.

In the library today, students created their free email account at yahoo.com. I had suggested yahoo because it seemed easier to get Flickr Creative Commons images if they already had a yahoo account. Most of the students already had an email account, but a few needed to set up one. No one had any trouble doing this.

Unfortunately, Flickr was still blocked this morning even though I had sent in a request to have it unblocked. I missed my best opportunity to discuss the creative commons, copyright,and giving credit to sources; we used google images instead, but I don't think anyone actually figured out how to give credit on the VoiceThread slide.

Students then requested a free account at VoiceThread.com
All that is required to register is the usual information plus a valid email account. No student had difficulty with this. (Use the K-12 link for free)

Students logged in to VoiceThread, uploaded (step 1) their 8 required images and attempted to record the story relating to each image (comment = step 2) We used the old library Dells, and most of the students were able to record successfully without an external microphone. We had some external mikes available for use by students whose machines proved uncooperative. The opportunities for re-recording are endless so one can record and record and record until one is satisfied with the result!

Sharing is step 3. One can copy the link and share it, invite friends, send in an email or embed (which is what I did in my blog) or export an archival movie version which costs $2.99 per export or buy 10 for $10.00. The students clicked on the tab that said +Add to MyVoice page
so they can locate it and present it to the class tomorrow for their assessment.

Isn't it great to see one of the 11.5 Things actually being used in the library and with such great success???

Thing # 8: Still tweaking the screencast

There was a problem before with the screencast's size; it did not fit into the blog space. I tried again because Screencast-O-Matic allows you to embed code for three different sizes. The medium-sized picture was still too large. This is the smallest one. It is called "tiny." and it is, too. It is too tiny to read, but it fits. You still have the option to click to see the full size at Screencast-O-Matic.com

I still didn't re-do the screencast, so that will have to be done at a future time; it is still sub-standard at this point, but I do know now how to perfect it!

Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery

This book by Spencer Quinn is one of the funniest, most refreshingly enjoyable books I have read in a long, long time, and I come from a long line of cat lovers so that's saying lot!!

Chet is a mongre-ly sort of dog with one white ear and one black ear. He and Bernie run the Little Detective Agency, which sometimes suffers from a cash flow problem.

Good, kind-hearted, environmentally-conscious Bernie is a somewhat down-at-the-heels PI and a former cop. He and Chet, who flunked out of K-9 school despite being the best leaper in the class, embark on a quest to find a missing teenaged girl whose divorced dad seems to be some kind of sleazebag developer who is financially embarrassed and involved with the wrong sort of people.

Told entirely in Chet's voice and from Chet's point of view, this mystery never seems too cute. Chet is always a dog with doggy likes, dislikes, and habits and the author never tries to endow him with human traits.

If you want a delightful read for a lazy summer day, stop by your neighborhood library or bookstore and ask for Dog on It!

Thing # 8: Do as I Say

For your reading enjoyment, let me explain what you should do--not necessarily what I did!

• Use Screencast-o-Matic because it is free, requires no downloads and is simple to use
• Prepare a script so you know what you want to say
• Practice, practice, practice until you can perform your little operation without stumbling
• Use the built in audio quality/volume test
• If you are not satisfied with the result of your screencast, discard it and create another one or go back to add more or cut down
• If you are satisfied with your screencast, upload it to YouTube or Screencast-o-Matic or export it
• You can export it as a movie to My Videos as a .avi and it will play on Windows Media Player
• You can embed your screencast as AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media 100 MB maximum size
• Embed your screencast in your blog by going into Edit Html mode, clicking on the video icon, and selecting your video
• Click that you agree to the terms, and upload your video
• Enjoy viewing your screencast without embarrassment!

Thing # 8: A Laughable First Attempt

Rats! In more ways than one....

1. 
   

I submit this quote in reference to my previous post on blinkx.com:

VWB said...
raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...drop by sometime, I'll sing you the entire score! The only thing missing from your list is the rats!
July 14, 2009 8:31 AM

Well, I cannot believe how beautifully this works in! One of my most favorite books is Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan. It is a narrative of one year's worth of rat-watching in the alleys of New York City. Fascinating stuff.

Then, and this gets even better, I have just finished The Strain: Book One of The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (Hardcover - Jun 2, 2009) It is a wonderful new vampire horror story that begins with the landing of a 777 on a JFK runway. Suddenly, all contact is lost,and the plane goes dark. As you may know, vampires must have help in order to cross water, and someone has helped one of the most evil and long-lived vampires of the Old World to cross the Atlantic on this very airplane. The hunt is on, and our hero, Dr. Eph Goodweather of the CDC's rapid response team, investigates the furiously multiplying vampire virus that is taking over New York.

And then--and then--at the very end of the book, the author credits Robert Sullivan's Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants with information attributed to a book character, an exterminator, as the good guys creep about underground searching for hidden vampires. By using a special light, they can track vampires in much the same way exterminators can track rats! I knew it all seemed familiar!

I had such a great idea, but I am at school and now cannot access amazon.com, although it was available earlier this morning. Not now. Anyway, there you can view a video trailer (The Strain was originally written as a movie pilot) as well as an interview with Guillermo del Toro, one of the authors. I was going to link you up, but alas! You are on your own for this one, although some would say my audience would be small anyway!

Thing # 7: Whiskers on kittens

I am trying to remember the lyrics to the Sound of Music song--you know, the one about the rain drops and whiskers on kittens--these are a few of my favorite things.... Anyway, blinkx.com was a perfect place to make a wall of videos representing my favorite things. Let's see. Metallica, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, the Kirov, Baryshnikov and Twilight.

Safe Search was turned on, and when I spot checked Metallica for language, I didn't hear anything that would make me cringe! Making a wall is really easy. One simply selects the videos and clicks on "make a wall!" I avoided YouTube videos even though they were great. Since they cannot be viewed at school, readers might suffer keen disappointment if they couldn't see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers! I also noticed that I had some duplication, probably my fault, and some of the wall is cut off on the right-hand side in the blog. Other than that, everything works great!


I am compelled to offer this additional note: At home, it all works; at school, it is iffy. There is an obnoxious Dept. of Public Safety ad about your license plate that pops up at inopportune moments, and Kirk Hammett of Metallica fame seems to be on a loop about Metallica's Hall of Fame experience. In fact, I experienced Baryshnikov dancing Nutcracker with Kirk speaking in the background. While that is not exactly impossible to imagine, it is difficult!

If you haven't tried blinkx.com then I hope you will! Please share some of your favorite things!

Thing # 7: Blinkx.com

Thing # 6: iTouch Apps

This was a real learning experience. I am still reeling from the wealth of information that can be delivered via this small, nearly flat device. Hoping to save myself a trip to the mall on a hot summer afternoon, I asked the summer school students if any of them had an iTouch. There were a few hands raised, but the students said they hadn't brought them to school. Right.

Suddenly one of the students working on Plato said, "That blue-haired computer guy has one!"That blue-haired computer guy patiently showed me how the iTouch works and how to download apps. Easy. It seems easy. But if iTouch is so easy, why does it need a 98 page instruction booklet? 98 pages is hardly a booklet. Tome.

Anyway, an iTouch would be anyone's dream come true. It is too bad I have to think of educational uses for it when I want to grab it out of blue-hair's hands and play, play, play!

All Twittered Out: Thing # 5

http://www.turtletrack.org/

1. I think I like microblogging very much! So far, I have twittered, but I don't really have the hang of it yet. I get notices that certain individuals are "following" me, and I do spare them a fleeting thought. What must their lives be like if following me seems interesting to them?!

I used Twitter in an instructional setting yesterday! What kind of timing is that? I didn't even have to cudgel my brain to find a library-ish application! A summer school teacher had heard about the new graduation requirements and was worried about the impact on staffing. She went to the TEA website and trolled through without finding anything specific. So--since TEA is on Twitter, I suggested she click on the little Twitter button! Came right up....

Did you notice the pictures? Pretty little birds. In Choctaw, they are special because they are the little Chata newsbirds called bishinik. Bishinik survived the Great Flood by perching upside down on the sky. The floodwaters rose so high that they split Bishinik's tail, and that is why he is scissor-tailed today. Since the Great Flood, Bishinik has been a special friend to the Choctaw, alerting the family when strangers approach by tapping out warning messages on the trees.

I thought of Bishinik yesterday on the way home as I listened to NPR. Someone was talking about the brevity encouraged by email and about how he was still too longwinded for his employer. He had emailed important information to his boss; his boss emailed a one word reply--"shorter!" He hadn't even read the email and wouldn't until the message had been pared down to the bone.

The speaker said he had taken the message to heart and had been using it around around the office with much success. Whenever a conversation became too long, he would utter the word "shorter!"and walk off. He suggests that we all give it a try!

If Twitter can limit the number of characters to short bursts of speech, could we possibly do that in person? Looking at the length of this blog entry, I don't think I am the Twitter type. Maybe we all want to blog at length while other people should be made to Twitter!

I wonder what Bishinik would think about that? Have much experience with woodpeckers?

I suppose all you will see at school is a large white block of space because that is what I see. If you do not trust me, you can open this up at home or click on the link at the end of this post! I had nothing prepared, sad to say, so I made an Animoto of my father's 90th birthday party, which took place three years ago. I had never made an Animoto before, and I certainly had never before contributed to YouTube or TeacherTube, but both were easy--surprise! I had read a posted comment that the YouTube offering would commandeer all the blog space and then some, and that turned out to be true. It was also true that the Animoto would not be as sharp / clear in YouTube. These are small things, though, and do not dim my pleasure in the finished product!

I would like to try this with something other than an Animoto, just to know that I can do it, but I need to move along or I won't finish 11.5 Things!


An additional note about the birthday party--I chose Amazing Grace as the background music because my father always loves to hear that song sung in Choctaw. When he was growing up, his father and his sisters would sit out on the porch and sing in the evenings. They all had lovely voices, and the neighbors on the farms all around would sit in their yards and listen. "Like the angels singing," they said.

My Aunt Dottie, in particular, had a beautiful singing voice, and she often performed Amazing Grace in Choctaw. What a treat it was to hear her!

90 Years Young

Image: C.seal by moon8woman

Tubing: Thing # 4

Thing # 3: SKYPE HYPE

Last night, after a long, hard day, I downloaded Skype and prepared myself to learn something difficult and ego-threatening, but guess what? It was easy! Still unsure of myself, I invited two friends to join Skype--Old Faithful and Terry, and I learned that they were already Skype-ing. Of course, I invited myself to join Skype, too, and am still wondering how I did that!

Anyway,

Old Faithful was offline--very unlike her, but before I could gather my wits, a message from Terry popped up! She had not even been trying to Skype; she was househunting online when my message appeared on her screen.

We had a delightful catch-up conversation. My part was to ask questions about Skype--just to give her a chance to practice, of course--and her part was to think up reasons a teacher would use it. She had the easy part, right?

Terry says that a lot of people talk to friends and relatives in other countries. She, herself, maintains contact with family using other providers, but she has to set up an appointment first!Students can speak with peers in other areas of the world in real time, classes can contact an expert to interview...you get the idea!

In Terry's honor, I have posted a Flickr image from Creative Commons: Boston Public Gardens--Swan Boat by David Paul Ohmer.

Thing # 2: Bookr

You must know by now that I love Metallica and that I attend every concert I can, even outdoors in 104 degree summer weather, but you don't appear to understand why being a heavy metal fan has enhanced my Library 2.0 competencies and nourished my soul at the same time! So, I have published an informational booklet which will demonstrate why attending Metallica concerts will actually help you to become a better librarian!