I will very tentatively push the ‘Publish’ button on Bright Ideas today, as I know many of you have received far too many notification emails when a post goes live.
The clever people at Edublogs have been working away and trying to fix it, so hopefully all is well now.
Apologies for the radio silence over the last few days while we looked into this error.
Thank you for your patience.
The Report of the Australian Parliament, House of Representatives, Education and Employment Committee’s Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher-librarians in 21st century Australia was tabled on 23 May 2011. SLAV welcomes the recommendations and is working in collaboration with the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) to formulate follow-up strategies at the state and national level.
The full text of School Libraries and Teacher-librarians in 21st century Australia can be found at http://www.apo.org.au/research/school-libraries-and-teacher-librarians-21st-century-australia
The SLAV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry can be found at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/subs.htm (submission 114)
Be involved!
SLAV has established a Parliamentary Inquiry Reference Group that will provide input and support for its representatives in national discussions and also to identify and implement practical strategies that will ensure that what has come out of the national Parliamentary Inquiry will have a positive impact here in Victoria.
All SLAV members are invited to express interest in becoming a member of this Reference Group.
To express interest, please send an email as follows:
To: slav@netspace.net.au
Subject: Parliamentary Inquiry Reference Group
Message:
Please indicate your name, school and SLAV membership number
Briefly indicate how you would like to be involved – for example: attending meetings, collaborative online comments and discussion, skype hook-up, ….
SLAV needs input from as broad a range of members as possible!
Tell your good news stories!
To help build the evidence base regarding the positive impact of school libraries, members are encouraged to place their comments, stories and feedback on the following sites.
Facebook – What a difference a school library makes
http://www.facebook.com/pages/What-a-difference-a-school-library-makes/120543444695337
Wiki – What a difference a school library makes
London Evening Standard is running an expose on what they are terming as ‘London’s illiteracy crisis’. The below article is ‘Scandal of the homes with not a single book to read’ (31st May 2011), and examines why ‘one in four children leaves the capital’s state primaries unable to read properly’. Have a look at ‘Also on this topic’ at the bottom of the page for further reading.
‘Librarian positions cut in schools across the country’, published by HuffPost Education (last updated 1st June 2011), is a look at the struggle teacher librarians in the USA face to hold onto their profession. Australian teacher librarians are circulating the article (e.g. I found it from Tony Ogden on OZTL_NET). It is scary to think how ignorant many are of the role of the teacher librarian in the school community, that they can make these positions redundant.
‘Lyn finds fun plus learning equals smart kids’ is an interview by the Melton Weekly with the inspirational 2011 Victoria Teachers Credit Union Outstanding Primary Teacher Award Winner, Lynette Barr. Lynette is a teacher at Rosyln Primary School and uses 3D games to provide engaging, authentic learning experiences for her students. Lynette explains how teaching needs to reflect the needs of the students:
You can also view Lynette’s presentation ‘Improving student engagement and relationships’, that was part of the 2010 Innovation Showcase, below:
As some of us sail through first term, others may find it to be more of a trudge, while others still are finding they are struggling to pull free of the thick, muddy clods that have become their experiences with web 2.0 and the internet generally. It is important that we don’t find ourselves being pulled under by information overload. Consider the web like a big stack of non-fiction books full of information on a particular subject. You won’t read every single page of information, but will look at the titles, skim read, skip, and use only the resources that are of value to you. Cory Doctrow has written a great article about this for the guardian.co.uk called ‘Information overload? Time to relax then’. Have a read of this and remember to step-away, re-evaluate, and take the dog for a walk (if you don’t have one, just take yourself).
Judith Way has been the manager of Bright Ideas since it began in 2008. 2011 marks the changing of the guard.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the readers of Bright Ideas for their support and encouragement since the blog began in August 2008.
It is now time to hand the reigns over to a new and exciting blog manager, Rachel Fidock. Rachel has been featured several times on Bright Ideas previously (Google Lit Trips @ Mooroopna SC and Mooroopna SC library) and has been a stand out contributor to our profession.
Rachel was a participant in the 2010 Victorian PLN program, which shows what this type of professional learning can lead to.
All the best to Rachel!
Judith Way
January 2011.
It is a privilege and an honour to be managing the Bright Ideas blog in the footsteps of Judith Way, a leader and fantastic mentor in the teacher librarian profession.
Bright Ideas will continue to encourage teacher librarians and educators to actively engage with ICT, to share tools and experiences, to network on a global scale, and to embrace dynamic teaching and learning opportunities.
In an exciting step forward, Bright Ideas is now being run by SLAV in partnership with the State Library of Victoria (SLV). The SLV has a strong focus on learning for the future, especially in the dynamic environment of information and communication technology. We hope that this collaboration will help the blog to reach more people, increase the breadth and depth of contributions, and provide educators across the the state and the globe with examples of the work of Victorian teacher librarians and schools.
There are exciting times ahead, and I look forward to sharing them with you.
Rachel Fidock.
SpineOut is a new Australian online magazine for young adults produced by the team responsible for the Good Reading magazine.
Currently the first issue is available online and it looks engaging.
Students also have the opportunity to contribute to the magazine.
You may be interested to know that Bright Ideas has been shortlisted for two Edublogs awards this year.
The sections Bright Ideas has been nominated for are:
and
It is a real honour to be shortlisted in these international awards and I thank the kind people who nominated Bright Ideas and those who will take the time to vote. Voting closes on Tuesday 14th December.
If you visit the Edublogs awards page, you are sure to find an amazing array of educators to follow. The 2009 awards were a revelation to me and I have built my Personal Learning Network around many of these fine teachers and librarians. There are 23 categories to investigate this year including Best student blog and Best class blog. Good luck to everyone who has been shortlisted.
A couple of new YA fiction books about gaming have recently been published and are must reads for teacher librarians, library staff, teachers, parents and of course young adults themselves.
I recently read and reviewed For the win by Cory Doctorow. Covering a global approach to gaming, much of this book is actually based in fact. It’s quite scary to think that economies are influenced by the invisible and virtual gaming economy and that young adults can earn more money from gaming than their currently parents earn. For the win is available in paperback or ebook format and the ebook download is free. My review is here, thanks to CMIS.
Helen Boelens alerted me to another new book, this one by Salman Rushdie. Helen explains that “Luka and the Fire of Life makes references to Super Mario and there is a strong connection between the story and the video game.” Information about this book from The Huffington Post is available here and a review by The Guardian is available here.
It seems (and it is) a long time ago that Space Demons was published. However I think that these books are an excellent way of discussion and coming to terms with gaming and how it affects our young adults. We can build on this information. Remember that the 2010 K12 Horizon Report assessed gaming as becoming mainstream in education in 2-3 years. One of those years has almost passed.
