Yearly Archives: 2013

Participate, engage, shine – Professional learning in 2013

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Cindy Tschernitz, Executive Officer of the School Library Association of Victoria, explores the theme of professional learning events from SLAV in 2013 and introduces the first conference of the year.

Learning has become a participatory process in schools. In recent years many have joined online professional learning networks developed through the partnership of the SLAV and SLV to grow their experience and knowledge within a worldwide context. The opportunities are limitless, it is all about participating. This year we look forward to exploring the multiple information sources required for transliteracy; research skills in the national curriculum; the integration of technology into learning, changing library spaces and reading in a digital age. With the theme ‘Participate, Engage, Shine’ we look forward to another exciting year of learning in 2013.

New technologies, a diversity of resource formats and a continuous journey of learning have become familiar landscape for school library staff. In 2013 school libraries are in a transformative period. The accelerating changes of the Australian Curriculum and AITSL national professional standards for teachers is changing the education landscape and as a consequence the role of the library. It is both an exciting and challenging time. Overwhelmingly, it is a time to participate, engage and shine to ensure success for both yourself and your students.

With this in mind the first SLAV Conference of the year will explore the world of opportunities available for teacher-librarians and school leaders. Professor Tara Brabazon, the newly appointed Professor of Education and Head of the School of Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU),  will lead the day with a provocative keynote “Note to Self: Note taking and the control of information” that will challenge our thoughts on student learning. Patricia Cowling, Principal Genazzano FCJ College and the 2012 SLAV School Leaders Award Winner will present the closing address, “A Principal’s View of school libraries”.

In between we will examine new professional and cataloguing standards. Dr Graeme Hall and Ms Emma Scott will look at AITSL standards and how they will impact on teacher-librarians and Renate Beilharz will introduce us to the new cataloguing standards RDA/FRBR and the impact of the semantic web.

The afternoon brings us three dynamic concurrent sessions facilitated by practitioners. Attend a workshop on getting ready for RDA, learn about how to best use new library systems and how they enhance learning outcomes or look at different models for data gathering and analysis.

So join us and “Participate, Engage and Shine” at the first conference for 2013.

Event details:

School Libraries a new frontier – a world of opportunities: a conference for teacher-librarians and school leaders

School Library Association of Victoria Conference, Friday 15 March 2013, Etihad Stadium, Docklands

Download the conference program

Download the conference registration form

 

What it takes to be a DIY Learner

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Maria Anderson on Free Range Learning

With so much educational content now online for free, many educators are turning to DIY or free-range learning to support their professional development. It’s a great idea, but having limitless information at your fingertips does not equal learning. And simply consuming content does not mean that skills or knowledge will develop.

In this illuminating TED Talk, “Recipe for Free Range Learning”, Maria Anderson takes the audience through conditions and elements vital for successful self-directed learning.  Participating in online programs such as the Personal Learning Network can help learners meet many of the conditions Maria speaks about in her TED Talk. You can check out details of the next PLN course here.

Maria also highlights some of the common pitfalls in managing one’s learning such as info-whelm, decision fatigue and optimism bias.

This video could also be well worth viewing and discussing with students, perhaps as a springboard for further talks on time management, learning habits or future pathways learning.

Make a digital mural with Mural.ly

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Mural.ly is an interesting new site that lets users create a digital mural using images, videos, web pages and diagrams sourced from any website. While there have been other sites that have similar features to Mural.ly, it is definitely worth a look as it combines a number of great features from other web tools.

At first glance Mural.ly looks like a cross between Glogster and Wallwisher (which recently changed names to Padlet). You can pin items to a large virtual wall by either uploading the items, entering the url of the item or dragging the item into the Mural.ly window. You can also search Google Images from within Mural.ly, and connect your Google Drive account to add items from there as well. There are also inbuilt symbols, stickers, sticky notes and text boxes that can be added to your board. Several graphical organisers are also provided as templates. At this stage the graphic organisers tend to be more business focused, but hopefully some educational based templates will be added over time.

Where Mural.ly really sets itself apart from other virtual pinboard tools is the Frames options. This lets a user define the areas of the board that viewers will see in sequence. It works in a similar way to Prezi, one of the popular zooming presentation tools. Viewers can then click through and be taken on a tour of the elements of the board. Any interactive elements like videos or web pages can also be viewed from within the Mural.ly site.

By defining frames on your board you can tour viewers through your presentation.

Overall Mural.ly is an easy to use site with a wide range of educational applications. It could be used as a shared planning space, a presentation tool or as an inspiration board for a piece of writing (in a similar way to the Story Scrapbook tool). The ability to define frames also means that a board could serve as a way of telling a digital story, such as an animated timeline or a multimedia story.

Mural.ly is still in beta, meaning that you can expect a couple of minor bugs (particularly when zooming your board). It might not be ready for an entire class to use just yet, but I’d definitely recommend having a look at the introductory video below and exploring the site. You can also see a sample mural we built.

Mural.ly doesn’t do anything particularly groundbreaking, but it does take some of the best features of other web tools and puts them all into a very attractive package.

PLN registrations are now open

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Registrations are now open for the next round of the Personal Learning Network, an online course run by the State Library of Victoria and SLAV. The course is the perfect introduction for teachers or school library staff looking to connect with other educators and discover some great free teaching & learning tools.
Computer Toddler
The PLN is delivered entirely online, meaning that participants can work through the course materials at any time. Over seven units you will explore tools to help you stay organised, discover useful resources, and explore issues like digital citizenship. You’ll also get started with blogging and learn about the range of free professional learning resources available online. Weekly webinars will also give you the chance to meet other participants and explore the themes of the course in more depth. The course is $115 ($105 for SLAV members) and commences on March 12. You can find more information or book online here.

The PLN is now in its fourth year, and this year marks a new and exciting time with the shortening of the PLN course and the introduction of several short courses. Alongside the PLN course there will also be an Advanced PLN running over four units in July, and the Research Toolkit will return in October 2013. We’ll keep you posted about these courses here on Bright Ideas, but if you’d like to register your interest in any of these courses then email pln@slv.vic.gov.au

For details of how to stay up to date with all of the news from the course and to connect with the #vicpln community make sure you have a look at our PLN page. We look forward to seeing you in the course and online.

School Library Plans into Actions

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A Peter Drucker article read for uni many years ago ended up influencing me immensely as I started my first job running a primary school library. I was on my own, in a part-time position and was very passionate about effecting change to the service.

In the article written for Harvard Business Review, Drucker revealed that the best/most effective directors in business differed in personality, values, attitudes and styles of management but all of them were found to follow eight practices. They:

        • asked, “What needs to be done?”
        • asked, “What is right for the enterprise?”Photo by UQTR via Flickr CC
        • took responsibility for decisions.
        • developed action plans.
        • took responsibility for communicating.
        • focussed on opportunities rather than problems.
        • thought and said, “we” rather than “I”.
        • ran productive meetings.

If you translate these practices to the school library then the first two practices apply to the school library’s vision and its place within the whole school’s strategic plan. You can read more about these here.

The last three are to do with influence (which I’ll blog about later).

The middle three points are about turning those visions and goals into effective plans. 

A Word about Decisions and Communication

Most people have heard of the SMART guide for planning. They are important elements, but Drucker’s article highlights another aspect that is critical to effective plans; responsibility in the decision process.

Have you ever been in a meeting where a decision was made/a plan was approved but never got off the ground because no one was in charge or no one was accountable for certain steps? How often have we heard of something that affects us at work in a by-the-by fashion, after the decision has been made or on the grapevine instead of being included?

Responsible decision-making means you will improve your plan’s ability to succeed by:

        • making sure all of  the relevant people are involved in the decision process,
        • responsibility is taken for each aspect of the plan,
        • someone is responsible for effectively communicating about what’s going on throughout the process to all the relevant people (they may be different from the ones involved in the decisions).

Plans: Effort and Returns

Once you have your goals set and some plans in the works the next decision is, what to do first, what to do next? Prioritizing when your library is a busy place or if you are the lone Librarian is crucial.  An Action Priority matrix is a simple tool that can help you to spend your time and energy on the right things. It allows you to map your plans on the quadrant according to the amount of effort involved in relation to impact/return you’ll make (perhaps especially important when you are first trying to make an impact with your service). I like the matrix on this website; the labels and explanations are clear and relevant to any profession. There are also some excellent tips on how to score your plans and activities.

Action Priority Matrix

References

Drucker, P. (2004, June 21). Peter Drucker on Making Decisions. Retrieved February 4, 2013, from Harvard Business School website: http://ubswk.hbs.edu/archive/4208.html

The Action Priority Matrix [Fact sheet]. (2006). Retrieved February 4, 2013, from Time Analyzer website:  http://www.timeanalyzer.com/lib/priority.htm





 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Create ebooks with Readlists

			
						

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Readlists is a site that lets you put together bundles of articles, share these articles with others and also download the bundle as an ebook. It is a great way to curate reading lists for students or colleagues, save articles for later reading, or simply as a way of sending interesting articles to your ebook reader.


Readlist- Bright Ideas
Articles can be added by pasting the url. Lists can be worked on collaboratively.


Readlists can be created by anyone and no login is required (though you can login with a Readability account if you want to keep your lists together). Every Readlist has a url that you can share with others and you can also send out a different link that lets other people add to or edit your list. It would be a great way for colleagues to develop a shared reading list.


Creating a Readlist is a simple process. Give the list a name, write a brief description of the list and then begin adding articles by url. If you want to add an article that stretches over more than one page then it is best to look for a Print or View All on One Page option at the bottom of the article. This usually takes you to the full article with one url that you can add to your list.


Readlist- Bright Ideas
Once you paste the article’s url, Readlist will locate the title and author information.


Once you are done, click on the Export options on the left of the page to send your ebook via email, or to send to your Kindle or Apple device. Readlists can also be embedded into your website.


For a sample have a look at our Readlist of some of our posts from Bright Ideas embedded below. Click on the Export option to download the list as an ebook or send it to your ereader.



					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Promise from Webwise

			
						

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Today is Safer Internet Day and across the world a number educators and organisations will work with students to explore the theme of  ‘Online Rights and Responsibilities – Connect with Respect’.


To coincide with the day, the Irish association Webwise have launched Promise, a thought provoking video exploring the impact of comments online. Whilst the video does touch on the damage caused by negative online comments, the piece also explores the power of communities and the potential of the web. It’s well worth a look, and would be a great conversation starter in your class today. You can watch Promise below and find other resources on the Webwise site.




Promise from PDST Technology in Education on Vimeo.

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Safer Internet Day 2013

			
						

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February 5th marks the tenth anniversary of Safer Internet Day. This international event aims to promote safe and responsible internet use by increasing awareness amongst students and educators. The event’s theme is ‘Online Rights and Responsibilities – Connect with Respect’.




Once again the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Cybersmart team will coordinate events across Australia to promote the day. You can find out all about the day’s events and get some great resources from the Cybersmart site.


ACMA are also running an internet radio show on the day from 5pm-8pm AEDST. The show will feature student panellists, representatives from social media companies and experts from a number of organisations. You can take part by emailing cybersmart@acma.gov.au or tweeting using the #SID2013Oz hashtag. If you can’t tune in on the day then the program will be available for download afterwards. The global hashtag for the day is #SID2013


Congratulations to the Cybersmart team on their excellent work in organising these events and their work in general. They do a great job educating people about an often tricky subject. Make sure you explore the Cybersmart site for all of their fantastic resources and follow along with all of their updates on Twitter and Facebook.


 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Save quotes instantly with Citable

			
						

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Highlight text, click the extension and save the quote




The online document editor and storage service Google Drive is a great way to keep research organised, and a new extension has recently made it even more powerful. Citable lets you highlight web text and send it automatically to a Google Spreadsheet.


Once you’ve installed Citable you can select text on any webpage, hit the shortcut button and choose where you want to store the quote. Citable will automatically fill in the date & time accessed, author and address of the page. You can also add tags to help keep your quotes organised.


The extension works in the Chrome browser and doesn’t require a login. However, you do need to give Citable access to your Google Drive account, but like all apps you can revoke access at any time. You can download any files created by Citable from your documents and edit the document manually at any time. 



Visit the Chrome web store to install Citable. If you need help getting started then here is our step by step guide to installing and using the Citable extension.

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
New Year, New Resolution

			
						

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Every year brings new challenges to school libraries; whether it is budget cuts or 1:1 technology roll-outs or something else. In the current education climate it is vital we all continue to demonstrate how our services benefit the school community and improve teaching and learning. This article is the first in a series that will focus on supporting Teacher Librarians in their leadership and advocacy roles.


 Resolution: noun. 1. A firm decision to do or not to do something. (Google definition)


I’ve been on school holidays, but like every other Teacher Librarian I’ve been making plans for the next year. I’m looking for ways to encourage students to read more and learn how to put information into their own words. I’m planning a Tumblr site for students and staff as we launch the iPad program plus a whole lot more. And now here it is – the start of a brand new term.


We all know that keeping New Year’s resolutions is hard. Staying committed to new plans in the library can be just as hard. They get lost in the day-to-day scramble to meet the needs of students or staff, or they get side-tracked by other ideas that crop up. It’s easy to slip into a reactive mode of operation rather than a proactive one, and that’s not good for a school library’s image. So how do we maintain our resolution and realize our wonderful plans? First, we need to lay some foundations.


Compass
Image Credit: Compass by Walt Stoneburner on Flickr


Build a Vision, State your Mission

Have you got a vision for your school library? Visioning may sound like day-dreaming, but it is a vitally important proactive step for school libraries. The vision is how you see the library in the future, it is your inspiration. It is also how you aim to meet the future with your service.


Without a vision, things can be confusing (or worse). You may find members of the school community have out-dated perceptions of the purpose of the library, the role of the Teacher Librarian and even the relevancy of the service. Share your vision and refine it with principals, staff, students, community members; it will improve your library’s position and help it to become important to the school’s overall vision and strategic planning. Now commit to the vision with a Mission statement. (No, they are not the same thing; you’re going to need both!)


Mission statements spell out how you intend to turn the vision into reality. The statements you make in it are your approaches or strategies so think broad rather than specific for this. Once you have good mission statements, you can use them to help you prioritise and decide on goals and the actions/programs to achieve your goals.


If you’ve never written a vision or a mission statement before, there is plenty of help at hand.