Copyright-friendly wiki pathfinder

Just wanted to alert those folks who don’t read my SLJ Blog to my latest post.

One of my most popular pathfinders in our high school, where media projects are fairly commonplace, has been the one that leads learners to images and sounds they can use easily in Web publishing, podcasting, and broadcasting.

As I worked on updating my pathfinder on copyright-friendly media, I thought I’d open it up to our library/edtech community.  Can we build together an uberwikipathfinder?  Let’s see.

In any case, feel free to use the resources in the pathfinder if you’d rather build your own.

Database VoiceThread

In preparation for the Teachers Teaching Teachers webcast tonight, I put together a little VoiceThread called: Why I Love Databases. It’s a bit corny and it needs a little humor. I welcome your ideas!

Please try to join us tonight at 9 PM Eastern for an EdTechTalk conversation about using State Online Virtual Library Click on Listen to listen live. Participate in the live text chat by clicking on the CHAT link (no password needed).

Host Susan Ettenheim shares:

Joining us tonight, will be Nancy Keane, who taught the online class this past summer for YALSA about teens and database use and Michael Gorrell, the Chief Information Officer for EBSCO (thank you Karen Minton of GALILEO, Georgia for making the connection!) As a Dad of 5 boys, Michael understands our cries for support and greater understanding about using these resources. Join us to learn new info from the inside!

We also welcome back Kate Storms of NOVEL, New York, Sylvia Norton of MARVEL, Maine, Karen Minton and Courtney McGough of GALILEO, Georgia.
Join Lee Baber and I (Paul is still away) and Joyce Valenza and Kevin and TEB and all of the teachers who are sharing!

Effective school library websites: about the study

I finally submitted my dissertation to the university after addressing my committee’s suggestions. The paper and the stuff that had to go with it were so bulky that Liza (above) had to help me stuff it all in the official envelope.

Looking at my past posts, as well as the past couple of sentences, I realize I’ve been writing far more about the process of writing a dissertation than the study itself.

My goals were to identify and examine models of exemplary practice in school library websites and to develop two taxonomies to describe them–one of features, one of characteristics. A wonderful Delphi panel helped me to identify ten exemplary sites and helped me build the taxonomies. I followed with a content analysis of the ten sites. The taxonomies and their accompanying codebooks should serve practitioners as they plan and build effective sites, whether in traditional html or blog or wiki or other emerging formats. I will be working on an article to summarize results, but since folks are asking, I thought I’d share just a bit here:

Research Questions
The thousands of school library website efforts represent conspicuous diversity in approach. With sites ranging from single-page brochures to dynamic, multi-page learning environments, examining the broad scope of these professional efforts would be much like comparing apples and oranges. The disparity of these efforts, compounded by students’ heavy reliance on the Web, and a body of professional literature that documents the need for online professional intervention with learners, suggests the need for research and points to the following critical research questions:

1. What models of exemplary practice exist in school library websites?
2. What common features are presented in sites representing exemplary practice?
3. What common organizational structures and design characteristics are employed in exemplary school library sites?
4. From the models observed in sites identified as exemplary practice, can a functional descriptive taxonomy of features be developed?
5. How are school library sites evolving? How do the features and services offered by exemplary sites in 2006 differ from the state-of-the-art of the randomly selected sites last studied by Clyde in 2002?
6. To what extent do exemplary school library websites present features devoted to: information access and delivery, learning and teaching, and program administration, as expressed in the context of the current national standards document Information Power (AASL & AECT, 1998)?

I hope to eventually cover all these questions a bit here in the blog, but for now let’s look at Question 2.  (BTW, Question 3, on characteristics takes a look at 2.0 strategies! We’ll look at that one next time.)

Among the conclusions (on common features):

What are the universal features in the ten sites I studied?

The features, present in all 10 sites in the sample are– OPACs, databases, search tools, reference, documentation, and contact information.

Nine of the sample sites include links to other OPACs, links to news sources, online book discussions, library hours and staff information.

Eight of the sites offer instructions for remote access; links to dictionaries, biographical and geographical reference tools; links to local and international news; pathfinders; and mission statements.
Here are four tables that describe features present on six or more of the ten sites in the sample:

I discovered major discrepancies between the features the Delphi panel expected to be present in exemplary sites and what actually existed in practice.

These discrepancies are especially evident in the absence of content in the category of Learning and Teaching.  The limited content observed in this area of the features taxonomy is inconsistent with the instructional focus represented by Information Power (AASL & AECT, 1998).

According to Information Power,

Schools have evolved to focus on learning, and effective school library programs have also changed their focus from collections to learning that engages students in pursuing knowledge within and beyond a formal curriculum (AASL & AECT, 1998, p. 59).

The limited instructional content is also inconsistent with the predictions of major school library researchers.  Kuhlthau (1997, 1999) saw library websites as constructivist environments, as new zones of intervention for guiding learners and customizing instruction.  Clyde (1997) believed that the primary purpose of the library homepage would be instructional.  While a few of the sites in the sample appear to have strong instructional focus, most did not.  If teacher-librarians are truly to function as teacher-librarians in the 21st century, we  need to investigate effective strategies for translating our instruction for digital landscapes. Teacher-librarians would  benefit by examining effective practice in Web-based instruction outside the library world.

Program Administration was another area of service not fully addressed by these exemplary sites. The availability of online survey tools and interactive forms, led me and several panelists to predict that exemplary sites would be using such strategies to enhance the librarian’s ability to communicate, solicit feedback, schedule, promote, and manage.  Few libraries share their reports and public relations materials. Few use available interactive calendar tools to share their library schedules. Few use available technology to survey users or to mine data.

It is quite possible that busy school librarians who choose to maintain websites for their learners will focus most of their efforts in creating Web spaces that address those learners directly.  When prioritizing content for a library website, program administration features might not warrant the same attention as information access, learning and teaching or books and reading.  Yet, features identified in this area by the Delphi panel and the principles identified in Chapter 6 “Program Administration” of Information Power (AASL & AECT, 1998, p. 100) serve to communicate the purpose and impact of the library program. These features may be strong tools for advocacy. Potential in the area of Program Administration is addressed by some of the sites in the sample but less than fully realized.

Next time, characteristics!

“The best research apps/sites you’ve never heard of”

Jimmy Atkinson of the OEDb: Online Education Database (a group concerned with presenting reviews of online colleges and degree programs) wrote me yesterday to share OEDb’s newly published list of best tools for online research. And he asked, “let me know what you think.”

This is a dangerous question to ask of this librarian. I started to fill my arms with the virtual equivalent of a pile of books. And I thought I’d put Jimmy’s question out to you too, dear readers.

While the list suggests “there is no complete substitute for a good old-fashioned trip to the library,” I guess the one thing I want all our non-librarian friends to know is that you don’t have to visit the library to visit the library. I especially want this known by those taking online courses. I want the outside world to know about the databases I purchase in all media formats–journals, video, ebooks, etc. I want the outside world to discover those databases purchased by state organizations and public libraries and their universities.
But back to the OEDb list. It’s an interesting (and very nice) mix of large portals, search tools, and subject gateways. In fact, I don’t think there’s one I don’t have on some pathfinder or a list of search tools somewhere on my site.

But, what would you add? What would you leave out? If we compile a list of additions, perhaps Jimmy will publish a little addenda.

The OEDb list: (See my little starter list of additions below the OEDb list.)

• Artcyclopedia
• BioMedCentral
• Digital History
• FindArticles.com
• INFOMINE
• Internet Public Library
• Library of Congress
• Perseus Digital Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Research Guide for Students
• U.S. Government Manual

I guess my feeling is that it useful to break this stuff up. For instance, IPL has so many gateways that stand alone–literary criticism, biography,presidents, states, countries, etc. Ditto for the Library of Congress with all its American Memory wonderment!

Nevertheless, Jimmy started me thinking. Here’s my beginning list of free Web additions with a slightly high school accent. I had to stop short before I spent an entire day reproducing my own website. There is so much more.   I’ll leave it to you to fill it all in in the  comments or on your own blogs.

• Library of Congress Country Studies
• CIA World Factbook
• Department of States Background Notes
• Freedom House
• Human Rights Watch
• American Cultural History
  
• Multnomah County Library Homework Center: Social Issues
• Time Magazine Archive
• Public Agenda
• Occupational Outlook Handbook
• TeacherTube
• ResearchChannel
• Internet Archive
• Headline Spot (and the other Spot portals)
• Healthfinder
  
• Medline Plus
• NOAH: New York Online Access to Health
• Internet Movie Database

eSchoolNews

Two stories from eSchoolNews caught my eye this week.

1. The fourth annual Speak Up survey revealed student, teacher, and parent attitudes relating to educational technology. The study found that students want to increase integration of technology into such subjects as science and math. Students cite communication as their number one use of technology.

Here are some other results from the survey:

•97 percent of students think cell phones should be allowed at school for emergencies and connecting with parents, compared with 77 percent of parents and just 56 percent of teachers.

•Use of digital cameras, MP3 players, and laptop computers in grades 3-12 has increased significantly during the past two years of the study.

•53 percent of students in grades K-12 use video games on a weekly basis. Girls are just as likely to be playing as boys until high school. •75 percent of teachers believe the use of technology in schoolwork has resulted in increased student performance and achievement.

•One-fourth of students are eMailing their teachers.

•One-third of students are interested in taking an online class.

•When asked how well they think their school is preparing students for working in the 21st century, 48 percent of parents and 47 percent of teachers said well. More than 50 percent of parents said not well.

2.  And watch out college music downloaders. RIAA looks to change students’ tune. The Recording Industry of America is escalating its war on illegal music downloading, targeting 23 universities.

The group’s new approach, which began last month, calls for pre-litigation letters to be sent to a number of different universities each month, informing the schools that a copyright-infringement lawsuit against one of their students is forthcoming; students can settle with the group within 20 days to avoid being sued.

In a related personal story, Matthew surprised me a few weeks ago coming down from his room wearing a new t-shirt.  “You see, I listen, Mom.”

No popcorn button

An unintentional parable.

Two honors students visited yesterday.  They asked to use the library microwave to make a bag of popcorn for their class.  We sent them to the little kitchen area in the back.

We heard no popping.  We smelled no butter.  Five minutes later the girls emerged.  “There’s no popcorn button,” they complained. 

We shared our own wisdom.  “Sometimes in life, there is no popcorn button.” 

Manifesto for change (academic libraries)

 Today I discovered The Changing Roles of Academic and Research Libraries, an essay resulting from a November ACRL Roundtable on Technology and Change in Academic Libraries.

This was a particularly happy discovery. I am on the AASL committee tasked with rewriting the national guidelines. It is cool to peek in on the visioning processes of another division, one also devoted to learning. 

As I read the essay, it occurred to me that we too need to make sense of a messy future.  The ACRL essay reads like a manifesto for change.  Much of what I have been writing here over the past two years are posts longing to be a manifesto.  My new rules for guerrilla practice from last week, the vision chart that hit me in a burst of energy one day last summer, and so many of those other scattered posts along the way.  Many of our friends are posting in similar directions.

I was impressed by the following section of the ACRL document:

Making Sense of a Messy Future

There are three essential actions libraries must take to achieve the necessary transformation and remain vital forces on campus in the years ahead:

• First, libraries must evolve from institutions perceived primarily as the domain of the book to institutions that users clearly perceive as providing pathways to high-quality information in a variety of media and information sources.
• Second, the culture of libraries and their staff must proceed beyond a mindset primarily of ownership and control to one that seeks to provide service and guidance in more useful ways, helping users find and use information that may be available through a range of providers, including libraries themselves, in electronic format.
• Third, libraries must assert their evolving roles in more active ways, both in the context of their institutions and in the increasingly competitive markets for information dissemination and retrieval. Libraries must descend from what many have regarded as an increasingly isolated perch of presumed privilege and enter the contentious race to advance in the market for information services—what one participant in our roundtable termed “taking it to the streets.”

What is at stake is the definition of the indispensable library—indispensable to faculty and students in the first instance, and to the knowledge and information industry in the second. In redefining and reasserting their value, libraries will have to embrace much more aggressively the fact that they are one of many contenders for their institution’s financial support. Libraries have been comparatively slow to realize and accept the need to function in an environment of direct competition for resources, either from within or outside their institutions. As one participant in our roundtable observed, “Don’t assume that people care about libraries. People care about streamlining the processes that support research and learning.” Libraries must be active contestants in the race for financial support or fall increasingly to the periphery of their institution’s strategic vision.

The essay continues to describe a “reconfigured portfolio” for the “road to indispensability.”  Let’s each of us take a good look at our own existing portfolio and work together to make sense of the messy future we own.

My friends, I think we have to stop making the beds!  When I read through the listservs I so often find myself fretting over the small stuff some of us fret about.  Time to fret (or sweat) the bigger stuff. 

My own research leads me to conclude that shift is slow to come to school libraries. My research leads me to fret, that without dramatic shift, without change in mindset and vision, with shift in preparation, without a real manifesto for change, we will lose relevance for a generation of learners who live, communicate, research, and create content online.  Are YOU a window on the desktops of your young users? Can they reach you in someway (not necessarily synchronously) anywhere/anytime?  Can you clearly define where you fit in an emerging school culture?

BTW, I’ve updated my last vision chart recently. I’d love suggestions for revision!

The great ppt shift AND copyright, copyleft redux

Something is happening in the vernacular of presentations.  I remember the great vowel shift from my long-ago study of linguistics and I wonder if this shift is akin to that one.  Or, it could be merely a matter of style. And those of you who know me well, know that I am a slave to that stuff. Right now I am sure of something. My PowerPoints are growing stale. 

So, yesterday I took a break from my big paper to try to relearn presenting for the 21st century and to examine what folks are calling “presentation zen.”  My understanding of this is that I need to work toward a more feng shui approach. Critical words and phrases and powerful images should stand alone and make their impact on stark backgrounds.  Garr Reynolds’ blog has lots of examples.

Anyway, my exploration led me back to Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture presentation.  Folks tend to point to this white-typewriter-text-on-black-background approach as early presentation zen.

I don’t think I can adopt this approach entirely.  I like pretty too much and those words come flying awful fast. 

But now a thought shift:

My visit back to Lessig’s presentation resonated.  It resonated especially in light of my recent post and current feelings of confusion and abiguity surrounding information ethics, the regulation of creativity, technology, the expansion of copyright, intellectual freedom, the owning of culture, and intellectual property.  If you haven’t already viewed this presentation, go back, take a look, and think.  Lessig’s story about the Disney’s approach to intellectual property, as well as his timeline relating to culture and copyright, may give you fresh context and cause you think twice about where all this is going. 

Go copyright. No copyleft! Navigating intellectual property waters

It’s one of those issues I face as a teacher and a librarian in this shifting landscape as I share the excitement of mashing and mixing and working with students to produce and share new communications that respect intellectual property, as I try also to encourage creative free speech and intellectual freedom.

It is a challenge to share guidelines and options for this darn confusing landscape. I used to be an expert here, but things now look pretty fuzzy. I’ve been trying hard to promote the work of Creative Commons and I try to lead students to copyright friendly resources.

Someone please tell me, are those guidelines I posted years ago, based on the Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia, still useful? They seem just a little archaic.

Articles like this recent Wall Street Journal piece, describing a new tool for scanning the Web for copyright violations, make me certain my efforts count, especially when I look at the stuff I see posted on YouTube and MySpace

And so, I am always on the prowl for resources to help me guide my learners. Perhaps they will help us all:

• Learn How to Use Copyright and Stay Legal in the K-12 Classroom (CyberPlayGround) http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Internet/copyrightleft2.html

• Music Law http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musiclaw.html

• Creative Commons’ Podcasting Legal Guide

• UNESCO’s Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues for Libraries

• Bloggers Beware http://www.llrx.com/features/bloggersbeware.htm

• Student Bloggers FAQ http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-students.php

• EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/

• Intellectual Property and Free Speech in the Online World http://fairusenetwork.org/resources/OSPreport-2007.pdf

• White Stripes Creative Commons Video http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/

• World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/

New draft of NETS

Today’s issue of eSchool News announced ISTE’s release of a draft of the new NETS for students. It seems like only yesterday, but the original version of these heavily adopted standards about what students should know and be able to do with technology, have now been around for nine years.

Yippee! It really is time for change and these new standards focus less on the technology itself and more on how learners/citizens might thoughtfully employ it.

The standards are organized around six new categories:

• creativity and innovation;
• communication and collaboration;
• research and information retrieval;
• critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making;
• digital citizenship;
• technology operations and concepts

The article quotes ISTE CEO (and friend) Don Knezek,

“these new student standards focus on skills and knowledge that students need to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital society … Cognitive and learning skills, as well as creativity and innovation, are the focus now–and information and media literacy are also elevated [in importance].”

Knezek described the changes as a shift away from a focus on “competency with [technology] tools” and toward a focus on the “skills required in a digital world to produce and innovate” using technology.

ISTE welcomes our input and feedback on this critical document.
I look forward to thinking about these standards. And I look forward to updates of NETS for teachers and administrators.

Note: I may be a bit quieter over the next three weeks as I work to push this dissertation out of my laptop. (The babies were easier.)