Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

If you are new to the Web 2.0 world as it relates to education, or if you want a convenient gathering of the ideas of some of our most forward- thinking thinkers, consider downloading the very new: Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web, edited by Terry Freedman. http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/db/web2/

You’ll recognize the international cast of authors which includes: Alan November and David Warlick. And you’ll get a very quick overview, and perhaps get caught in the wave of, the way things seem to be going. The ebook includes interviews, essays and tutorials. The work of these 14 authors will continue in a wiki to which we will be able to add our own wisdom.
This is a fabulous way to introduce new interactive strategies to those teachers and administrators who do not yet have a clue. I plan to show it to those who continue to laugh whenever I say the word wiki.
From the table of contents:

1. Preliminary Information
2. The Contributors: Quick Reference Guide
3. Introduction
4. Glossary Of Terms Used
5. Book Review: Redefining Literacy For The 21St Century
6. Effective E-Learning Through Collaboration
7. What Are Rss Feeds And Why Haven’T I Heard About It?(Rss Feeds From An Educator’S Perspective)
8. Blogging: Shift Of Control
9. Photo-Sharing And Clip-Art
10. Factoring Web Logs To Their Fundamentals
11. Virtual Support Via The Blogosphere
12. The International Edublog Awards
13. Blogs You Must Read!
14. Elgg And Blogging In Primary Education
15. Using Blogs In School
16. Thinking About Creativity, Thinking About Blogs!
17. Book Review: Classroom Blogging: A Teacher’S Guide To The Blogosphere
18. Book Review: New Tools For Learning
19. Diary Of A Potential Podcasting Junkie
20. Finding Good Podcasts
21. Podcasting Resources
22. Podcasting
23. Finding And Subscribing To A Podcast Via Itunes
24. Obtaining Information About A Podcast In Itunes
25. Giving Students A Second Listen
26. Podcasting: A Review Of Recording Devices
27. Other Useful Websites
28. Create An Rss Feed For Your Podcast
29. List Your Podcast And Find Others’
30. Podcasting And Wikis
31. Recording A Podcast On A Computer
32. Uses Of Podcasting In Schools
33. Video Blogging: Terry Freedman Interviews Paul Knight
34. Video Blogging In Schools
35. Wikis: An Introduction
36. Wikipedia Vs Britannica
37. Setting Up A Wiki
38. Wikiville: An Interview With John Bidder
39. Social Bookmarking
40. Forums, Instant Messaging And Other Ways To Participate

When my state young adult book committee met this Sunday around my dining room table, it became clear to me that my colleagues were struggling, caught in a downward spiral that alone, they were not able to stop.

I heard stories of amazing librarians whose budgets were cut to next to nothing. Of new high-tech schools being built with no plans for a library or a librarian. Of schools planning NOT to replace retiring librarians.

Over the course of the past year I’ve been visited by teams of administrators, and board members, and department chairs whose librarians suggested they visit to see what a library program looks like. It is not an obvious thing.
I guess I just didn’t get it. I see my job growing richer and more complex each year. I see myself as the ICT vision person, the chief information officer, the knowledge manager, the webmaster, the trainer, the integrator, as a curriculum designer–online and offline, as a literacy cheerleader. I know that, by filling these roles, I actually save our school money.

After years of neglect, it is possible that many administrators have never seen what a well-funded, tech-rich program looks like and they may not have been lucky enough to see one in their own educational experience.

I just know that I can no longer tend my own garden. None of us can. It is hard to sit by and watch as the situation grows increasingly less equitable. It isn’t fair that my students have the books, and databases, and other electronic resources they need. Across the city border and down the Turnpike, students just as worthy have so much less.

Teachers wouldn’t teach without textbooks, yet we expect libraries to run (or not run) without professional staff, or budgets, or those amazing subscription databases all students deserve to use. The Web was not designed for young people; those databases were. Though they directly meet learners’ developmental and curricular needs, fewer of us are able to afford them each year.

We are fortunate in our state to have the Access PA POWER Library resources, yet without a librarian to make them accessible to young people, without a librarian to promote and teach their use, they lay wasted.

It is time for action. I am convinced we need to organize. We need to recognize that we are at the very top of a very slippery slope–one I personally have no intention of sliding down! We need to gather and strategize and support each other. We need to create toolkits. We need to use our state conferences, and our blogs, and our wikis, to plan positive action.

We also need to make sure that we ourselves are trained to operate in the 21st century, that we ourselves clearly add value and relevance to our schools.

We need advocate, but not for ourselves and our positions. We need to fight back for the learners who are now shortchanged and those who will be shortchanged in the coming years if this pattern continues.

Please join me in working on this issue. I am adding a section to our teacherlibrarian wiki to collect our ideas and resources.

Help me figure out if I am way too out of touch.

A couple of weeks ago a student showed me a video she was going to incorporate into a persuasive presentation. Her goal was to convince the class that we need to all think more seriously about how to make vehicles more energy efficient.
The video cartoon, produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council, does a great job presenting the message. Flip, the bi-polar bear and P. Chilly, the penguin, concerned about global warming, take over a reality television show “Pimp Mom’s Ride” and show Mom how to save money and make her Fjord Explosion more green. Mom is happy at the end: “Now with my new pimpin’ ride, I’m saving a ton of cash, and helping stop global warming! It’s just so inspiring.”

Now I kinda like MTV’s Pimp My Car–it’s fun, it’s aimed at teens and adults, but I must admit, the first time I saw it several years ago, I had a hard time getting past seeing the word pimp and watching the show. My daughter had to calm me down.

The student, whose first language was Korean, was shocked by my reaction. The young teacher didn’t see any real problem with the student using the film in a class presentation. She thought it was subtle and that the overlying message was appropriate.

But something about this still bothers me. Yes, the video is fun. But however the word has evolved, the underlying message remains. Whether we use pimp in a positive light as a noun or a verb, we are somehow glorifying a life style that oppresses women.