Monday, July 27, 2009
Week 8, Thing 19.1, Alaska's Diginal Pipeline
I use the Alaskan databases all the time at school. It is one of the items I cover in my freshman library orientation and I also cover it in more detail with my orientation with sophomores as they begin their big research paper for their English classes. The majority of kids are sold on it after seeing how quickly they can find verifiable information compared to Google searches.
I determined to try something I had not done, so I looked into creating journal alerts and search alerts and opened and saved the tedious instructions on each. The second thing I did was watch the Flash movie on the coming Ebscohost 2.0 interface. However, it sounded like it was to have been implemented in 2008. I went on to the Digital Pipeline and discovered that it was indeed the interface used now.
At school I teach the students to go on the the databases through our District web program called FILE' under the resources tab. On there I always taught them to use the Student Research Center because it was supposedly designed for high school curriculums. Last year during the school year it was not using the Ebscohost 2.0 interface. I logged on to the databases in this manner and discovered that Student Research Center still does not use the Ebscohost 2.0 interface, whether I went onto it from FILE' or from the Digital Pipeline link on SLED. From now on I will teach students the Digital Pipeline way because the Ebscohost 2.0 interface is so much more powerful.
My information gleaned on placing journal or search alerts from the Ebsco Support link from the Raven About Web 2.0 page is now obsolete as the alerts are so easy to place from the Ebscohost 2.0 interface--just a click away.
I then went in and started a folder for myself, something I had never done before. It was easy and it is one click to put an article in the folder from Ebscohost 2.0. Can see it as useful when I am doing research that I can't complete in one session. I can add to the folder and sort later for the cream of the crop.
I am a huge fan of Ebscohost and am very grateful to the Legislature for providing it free of charge. I know I would not be able to afford it in my Library and cannot imagine living without it. We have a big automotive department at NPHS so I also point that database out in my freshman orientation.
I determined to try something I had not done, so I looked into creating journal alerts and search alerts and opened and saved the tedious instructions on each. The second thing I did was watch the Flash movie on the coming Ebscohost 2.0 interface. However, it sounded like it was to have been implemented in 2008. I went on to the Digital Pipeline and discovered that it was indeed the interface used now.
At school I teach the students to go on the the databases through our District web program called FILE' under the resources tab. On there I always taught them to use the Student Research Center because it was supposedly designed for high school curriculums. Last year during the school year it was not using the Ebscohost 2.0 interface. I logged on to the databases in this manner and discovered that Student Research Center still does not use the Ebscohost 2.0 interface, whether I went onto it from FILE' or from the Digital Pipeline link on SLED. From now on I will teach students the Digital Pipeline way because the Ebscohost 2.0 interface is so much more powerful.
My information gleaned on placing journal or search alerts from the Ebsco Support link from the Raven About Web 2.0 page is now obsolete as the alerts are so easy to place from the Ebscohost 2.0 interface--just a click away.
I then went in and started a folder for myself, something I had never done before. It was easy and it is one click to put an article in the folder from Ebscohost 2.0. Can see it as useful when I am doing research that I can't complete in one session. I can add to the folder and sort later for the cream of the crop.
I am a huge fan of Ebscohost and am very grateful to the Legislature for providing it free of charge. I know I would not be able to afford it in my Library and cannot imagine living without it. We have a big automotive department at NPHS so I also point that database out in my freshman orientation.
Chapter 7 of textbook.
This chapter covered a topic that is near and dear to the hearts of school librarians. In a perfect world we would have no filters on computer systems so students would have access to all the wonderful tools and toys and information available on the net. However, in the perfect world none of these online tools would be abused either--not by the students or the segment of the world preying on the students.
Until I read this chapter, I was not aware that districts receiving various federal funding were subject to the CIPA requirements. I think I will be a bit more patient with the filtering of the net now that I am aware of that. I have always understood the reasoning for filters but when helping students do research on some topics it is really frustrating to see official sites that would have the best information for them blocked. My tendency has been to blame the shortsightedness of the District administration, but now I know that the impetus comes from higher up than the District.
I hope we can come up with some method of letting students do some of the social networking on school computers. There are a lot of projects that this would enhance. I also realize that their are a lot of bad people out there that we like to protect our students from. However, most of these kids are on these sites at home and many on their cell phones, so they view us as so antiquated at school when they can't use any of the sites and tools there. Surely there has to be a happy medium. I think districts are going to have to do something, because it is getting harder and harder to justify the inability for students to use something like Flickr or Twitter in school.
The copyright issue is huge and one I deal with on a daily basis. Kids really do think that because "it" is on the net that it is available for downloading or copying. They also view information as true because it is on the net. What copyright means and what things are legal to use or download and what are not are tough topics to get students to believe and comply with when they research. Equally important is the ability to evaluate websites for pertinence and expertise of opinion. These topics need to be dealt with as regulary as reading and math, beginning in the elementary grades.
Until I read this chapter, I was not aware that districts receiving various federal funding were subject to the CIPA requirements. I think I will be a bit more patient with the filtering of the net now that I am aware of that. I have always understood the reasoning for filters but when helping students do research on some topics it is really frustrating to see official sites that would have the best information for them blocked. My tendency has been to blame the shortsightedness of the District administration, but now I know that the impetus comes from higher up than the District.
I hope we can come up with some method of letting students do some of the social networking on school computers. There are a lot of projects that this would enhance. I also realize that their are a lot of bad people out there that we like to protect our students from. However, most of these kids are on these sites at home and many on their cell phones, so they view us as so antiquated at school when they can't use any of the sites and tools there. Surely there has to be a happy medium. I think districts are going to have to do something, because it is getting harder and harder to justify the inability for students to use something like Flickr or Twitter in school.
The copyright issue is huge and one I deal with on a daily basis. Kids really do think that because "it" is on the net that it is available for downloading or copying. They also view information as true because it is on the net. What copyright means and what things are legal to use or download and what are not are tough topics to get students to believe and comply with when they research. Equally important is the ability to evaluate websites for pertinence and expertise of opinion. These topics need to be dealt with as regulary as reading and math, beginning in the elementary grades.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Week 8, Thing 19, Library Thing
For some reason my text didn't show up with my LibraryThing widget so I will do it again. I was already a member of LibraryThing, having joined in the fall of 2007 and then never adding to my original five books. I am also a member of Shelfari and Goodreads, both at the invitation of friends. Those two I have managed to keep up a little better. I really like what I see now that I have explored LibraryThing more. The discussions could be a lot of fun. It was interesting to see the statistics on my book listings. Not a surprise that The Kite Runner had 21,885 members and 754 discussions and that The Life of Pi 18,082 members, but I was amazed to find that Losing Julia only had 163 members and The Book Thief only 8070. It is interesting when books I considered good, and in the case of The Book Thief, great, don't show up that way statistically. I look forward to viewing other students book shelves via LibraryThing.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Week 8, Thing 18 Summary
It was definitely easier to figure out how to publish to blog on ZohoWriter, but now that I know how on GoogleDocs, it won't be a problem. I liked the image insertion on GoogleDocs better--it was easier to play around with the editing. However, they both are so similar to any word processing, particularly Word in my case, that it is amazing. I am also going to use the spreadsheet because I keep my ongoing bookorder on one and it would be so easy to add books from home then. I am quite excited about this and can't imagine why I waited so long to use it. The very next document I need to do will be on one of these programs.
Week 8, Thing 18B, Googledocs
Week 8, Thing 18B, Googledocs
Well, Zohowriter worked so I will give Googledocs a try. I tried to play around with imbedding my picture within wraparound text in Zoho and could tell I needed to spend more time to find out how to do that. 
I will see if I can do it with GoogleWriter. Will look for something to insert and see how the two programs compare in ease of doint a insert. When inserting this photo, if I chose left aligned I had the option to wrap around text. If I chose center aligned, I did not get that option. Am also trying the header option on this one. Now I will try to publish.
I will see if I can do it with GoogleWriter. Will look for something to insert and see how the two programs compare in ease of doint a insert. When inserting this photo, if I chose left aligned I had the option to wrap around text. If I chose center aligned, I did not get that option. Am also trying the header option on this one. Now I will try to publish.
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