The Library and Information Industry Careers Evening was held from 5.30 – 7pm yesterday at Experimedia @ the State Library of Victoria – and what a wonderful success!
180 young people eagerly sought information about courses and career prospects – with large numbers expressing interest in becoming teacher-librarians.
Further information regarding careers and courses can be found on the destinationlibrary wiki at: http://destinationlibrary.pbworks.com
If you are having trouble convincing colleagues about the need for technology in schools, this video entitled Mr Winkle Wakes might just change their minds… It would be a great way to begin a meeting or presentation on ICT in schools. (If you don’t have access to TeacherTube at school, consider accessing it at home and dropping it into Vodspot. It is well worth the effort.)
It is certainly food for thought and is true in many schools, despite the best efforts of many! Thank you to Sharon Brennan for sharing this one.
An Information Evening regarding careers in the Library and Information Industry is to be held on Tuesday 26 May at Experimedia @ the State Library of Victoria from 5.30 – 7pm. Representatives from the industry and representatives from tertiary institutions will be on hand to assist secondary students with advice and information. If you have students who are interested in information management, website design or any library field – please let them know! Please circulate this information to the careers advisor at your school and display the posters in your library.
Colour, black and white, A3 and A4 posters are available on the SLAV website.
The School Library Association of Victoria hosted a conference on 4 May 2009 entitled ‘Shared Perspectives’. Here are links to some of the conference presentations:
Sandy Phillips’s (DEECD) presentation on Global Connections, Shared Perspectives.
Renate Beilharz’s (Box Hill TAFE) presentation on Creative Commons and other tools.
An Information Evening regarding careers in the Library and Information Industry is to be held on Tuesday 26 May at Experimedia @ the State Library of Victoria from 5.30 – 7pm. Representatives from the industry and representatives from tertiary institutions will be on hand to assist secondary students with advice and information. If you have students who are interested in information management, website design or any library field – please let them know! Please circulate this information to the careers advisor at your school and display the posters in your library.
Colour, black and white, A3 and A4 posters are available on the SLAV website.
ASLA and ALIA have just released research findings on Australian school libraries and teacher librarians. A copy of the report can be accessed here. Alarming trends regarding budgets and staffing, but many people already knew that from their own school circumstances. As the ALIA website states, “School libraries are hovering on the poverty line.”
A similar tale in the May edition of the AEU News (Victorian branch). An article about teacher librarians is entitled “On borrowed time”. Read the article here.
Rob Mercer, the ICT Outreach – Project Officer for the Faculty of Information & Communication Technologies at Swinburne University of Technology has sent out the following information which may be of interest.
I would like to announce that the SwinGame 09 games design competition is open again this year. The competition ran for the first time last year and our senior academic staff from the Computer Science and Software Engineering academic area were impressed with the quality of the entries. The winning games from last year can be seen at www.swingame.com
This year’s competition now includes two different categories (Arcade and Open) to encourage all secondary school students to enter and participate (visit the website for category details).
Once again, the SwinGame.com website will have the following supporting programs and materials to help students:
– The creation of Game Development Kits available in VB.NET, Delphi, Pascal, VB6 and C# to give students a range of tools and examples to assist in the creation of their game;
– Sample games which include tutorials with videos on how to create games;
– A forum where participants can ask questions, get help and post ideas about their games;
– A teacher only forum for teachers to discuss ideas and ask questions.Swingames poster
Similar to last year, the 2009 competition is:
– Free to enter
– Open to individual students and teams of up to three
– Open to all secondary school students in AustraliaPrizes for the Arcade Category (team or individual):
1st Prize – $2,500
2nd Prize – $1,000
3rd Prize – $500Prizes for Open Category (team or individual):
1st prize – $1,000The competition is currently open and entries must be submitted by 7 August 2009 (see website). All entries will be judged by a panel of experts and winners will be announced on 16 August at Swinburne’s Open Day. This is a good way to get students from your school excited about software and games development, which will hopefully encourage younger students to choose IT as a subject.
A class presentation is available for your students on the SwinGame 09 competition which can help them get started. If you would like a Swinburne staff member to visit your class to present SwinGame, please contact me on the number/email below.
All information on the competition is available here:
If you have any questions feel free to contact Rob.
Recently the Diamond Valley Leader newspaper featured the wonderful community work of one SLAV member. The aptly named Angela Harridge, teacher librarian at Plenty Valley Christian College has come up with a unique and thoughtful way to support her school’s fire affected families:
Librarian’s quilts offer lots of hugs
“There’s a real mixture; there will be an individual quilt for every child,” Ms Harridge said.
Nothing beats a hug when you’re feeling down.
That thought inspired Plenty Valley Christian College teacher librarian Angela Harridge to create ‘snuggle quilts’ for families who lost homes in the bushfires.
A keen seamstress, Ms Harridge sent out an email asking people to donate any left-over quilt blocks so she could create some quilts for the school’s 12 fire-affected families.
She said the response was overwhelming, with donations coming from as far away as Rhode Island in the United States.
“A community of people have developed, and things have exploded around it,” she said.
“Everyone wanted to help in some way.”
Ms Harridge is now hoping to make more quilts for other bushfire victims.
She said her “snuggle quilts” were a little smaller than regular quilts, and were aimed at younger children.
“You can wrap yourself up in one,” she said.
“They’re a size you can sit on the couch and snuggle under.”
The quilts will all feature unique designs, with bright colours for girls and darker tones for boys.
(Diamond Valley Leader 1/4/09)
Angela’s has her own blog detailing the progress of the snuggle quilts, as well as the kind donations from people all over the world.
Angela’s blog profile reads: Mother, Teacher Librarian, reader, lifelong learner and lover of all things fabric and quilting! My mission in life is to hold my family close to my heart, never stop learning and to finish some of the quilts that are running around in my head!
After reading this article, Bright Ideas contacted Angela, who although flat out with the quilting, has provided readers with some more information about her project. She begins with the initial post on her blog:
Monday, March 2, 2009
The initial request
On Saturday, February 7th, 2009 Victoria was stunned. A firestorm unlike anything we had ever experienced ripped through the Kinglake Ranges, taking lives, homes and our beloved forest with it.
The wider Kinglake area is the main ‘feeder’ area for my school – Plenty Valley Christian College. Many of our families lost everything. Most of us know someone/many who lost their homes, and lives. Needles to say, the College community went into shock, but banded together to support each other, and those in the wider community. As a staff, our main purpose was (and still is) to provide our children with the stable environment they need – for some, school is the ONLY thing in their life that hasn’t changed.
Like many, I felt a great heaviness, as I wanted to do more, but wasn’t sure just how I could help. Until I thought of quilts. A quilt is a gift of love – and love is a powerful healer. With this in mind, I decided to make a ‘snuggle’ quilt for each of the children from school who lost everything. But to achieve this I needed help.
My idea was to make quilt blocks – 9 of these would be put together into quilts large enough to ‘snuggle’ into. The task was a little daunting, but I knew it could be done – so I set about ‘spreading the word’. I emailed the College staff, an online Teacher Librarian quilters list I belong to, and my quilting gals. I let the College community know via our weekly newsletter, and the wider world via Twitter.
The brief:
- 12″ quilt blocks (+ 1/4″ seam allowances).
- Pure cotton fabric.
- Any colour – there are boys and girls from Prep to Year 12.
- Donations of $ or fabric or batting to complete the quilts.
- Quilters willing to put the quilt tops together.
- Quilters willing to do the quilting.
It doesn’t matter how many blocks are made – as well as our children there are many more who need a ‘snuggle’.
The response has blown me away. It appears there are MANY more who feel like I do. Emails have been coming in from around Melbourne, interstate and overseas. Individuals and small groups from within the College community to as far afield as Bristol and Rhode Island are stitching. How amazing is that???
This blog is the story of the journey.
A xo
Angela explains how she has managed the project:
When I began the ‘journey’ I let my Twitter followers know, and sent the email to our staff, the girls I quilt with and quilting friends, put it in the College newsletter, and sent it to my ‘oztl_quilts’ cohort. A few years ago ACT-based Barb Braxton twigged that there were a few oztl_netters who were also quilters, and she started up our oztl_quilts list. We share ideas, offer ‘pearls of wisdom’ and even discuss things like Book Week in relation to quilts (we could make for our libraries). We’re a small bunch, but we’re … well … quilting TLs – and disseminating information is our job!
I guess I should have expected what would happened after sharing the email with those gals … they disseminated it … widely! Those who had the time quilted, and those who weren’t able to, spread the news or sent fabric. Quilts and fabric have come in from around Australia. When Jan Radford was in England she met Heather Southall (Librarian at the Red Maids’ School in Bristol) who is a member of the Clifton Quilters … and it’s this group that has sent so MANY quilts and quilt tops over. Quilts have also arrived from Rhode Island, but I haven’t been able to work out exactly how they found out about it … they’re both teachers, so I ‘assume’ that’s the network through which the information travelled.
The whole thing has really reinforced, for me, the ‘power’ of social networking, the strength of the TL network … and how much people care.
As well as quilts, Barb has been, yet again, involved in her Teddy Bear drive for the children affected. It seems like every time there is a child in need, Barb is there with teddies.
What a dedicated and wonderful person Angela is to make such a difference to the students and families at Plenty Valley Christian College. Thanks also to Barb Braxton for her Teddy Drive. What comforts you ladies have brought to those in need! And what wonderful ways to use the networks you are members of to help others less fortunate than ourselves.
The Horizon Report has now published a K-12 edition specifically for schools. In this edition they highlight the challenges facing schools in relation to technology:
Our research indicates that each of these six technologies will have a significant impact on schools within the next five years:
- Collaborative Environments
- Online Communication Tools
- Mobiles
- Cloud Computing
- Smart Objects
- The Personal Web
Key Trends
- Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed.
- Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives.
- The web is an increasingly personal experience.
- The way we think of learning environments is changing.
- The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing.
Critical Challenges
- There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.
- Students are different, but educational practice and the material that supports it is changing only slowly.
- Learning that incorporates real life experiences is not occurring enough and is undervalued when it does take place.
- There is a growing recognition that new technologies must be adopted and used as an everyday part of classroom activities, but effecting this change is difficult.
- A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment.
It is well worth a read to see where we are headed and if we are on track!
Linda Angeloni, the Education Programs and Offsite Learning Manager, Learning Services at the State Library of Victoria has kindly sent Bright Ideas the following information.
The State Library of Victoria’s William Buckland Foundation Teaching Fellowships provide teachers in the first five years of their career with a rare opportunity to further their curriculum planning and professional research skills in a world class cultural institution.
Recipients receive the opportunity to work within the Library’s Learning Services Division for one semester and contribute to the development of innovative learning programs and research projects relating to the Library’s collections and resources. Funding will be provided to fill the applicant’s position at their school during the period of the fellowship.
For more information, application information or to attend a free information session on April 30th, please email langeloni@slv.vic.gov.au or call 8664 7015.
