What brilliant news! A National Year of Reading for 2012 has been announced.
So far the website has only the basics, but will adding much more content for
There are, however, already a number of flyers, logos and videos available to view, use and distribute. A year to celebrate one of the things we love – how exciting!
For anyone studying or interested in the World Cup, the BBC has produced a five minute video of the history of soccer in South Africa. The video is available to viewers in Australia (not always the case with BBC videos).
Kim Baker, the Programme Executive: Document Supply and Information Services at the National Library of South Africa says “Some nice publicity showing the worth of libraries and how they can add value to sport!”
Thanks to Helen Boelens for this link.
Free Soccer Game
For soccer fans comes the free game Can I play this at home? Ideal for schools, this site uses geography, maths and language tasks to help players progress through the soccer game. Select your team and you’re away. It is actually a lot of fun.
Thanks to Greg Pallis for submitting this resource.
An update on The Parliamentary Inquiry into school libraries and teacher-librarians.
The School Library Association of Victoria have also been invited to provide further oral evidence at the hearing of the committee which takes place on Thursday 29 April (today) at Parliament House, Melbourne.
It is a public hearing – however if you are unable to attend, the hearing will be webcast live (audio only) on: http://webcast.aph.gov.au/livebroadcasting/
If you are unable to catch the webcast, the hearing proof transcript will be on the Committee’s website approximately a week after the hearing. Submissions will also be published on the Committee’s website at some stage in the future.
Places are still available for the SLAV / SLV Personal Learning Network Program which commences next Tuesday 27 April 2010. It is a great opportunity to provide technology leadership at your school while also creating an ongoing personal learning network and gaining 25 hours for VIT registration. Suits beginners as well as those with web
2.0 skills and experience. See http://slav.global2.vic.edu.au/2010/03/18/your-personal-learning-network/
for further information and for registration details.
Plaese contact the SLAV office on 9349 5822 if you require further information.
The Ed Tech Book Club ning is an excellent way to connect with other educators reading non-fiction that focuses on technological change in schools.
From the ning’s main page comes the following information:
I believe the true catalyst to change in education is collaboration and communication between educators. Those in the trenches know what is needed in schools more than politicians and many policy makers.
We hope that you will take time to join us through various book conversations! We will focus on non-fiction books with Educational Technology, Educational Leadership, and Educational Practices as their foundation. Our ultimate goal is to create lifelong learners in the field of education and help serve as the catalyst to change!
Thanks to Krista Scott and Marti Sides for developing and maintaining the ning.
The School Library Association of Victoria in partnership with the State Library of Victoria present the PLN – Personal Learning Network program. This program is funded as part of the digital education content initiatives and strategies of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
Your PLN is a reciprocal learning system designed just for you!
Find out how you can use the web 2.0 environment to:
This twelve week online program, enhanced with regular Elluminate how-to sessions, exemplars, and online mentoring offers you a hands-on experience of a range of web 2.0 tools and activities.
This program is designed for novices to the web 2.0 world as well as those who wish to further explore this interactive web environment.
When: Commencing Tuesday 27 April 2010
Who: Teacher-librarians, teachers and library team members
How: Work at your own pace, explore new things week by week, share your learning as a team!
Why: So that you build a network of trusted sources for learning and collaboration.
Cost: $175 per person for SLAV members – team discounts apply!
The Technology and education box of tricks is a multi award winning website. The A-Z internet resources for education page lists numerous tools while briefly outlining their uses.
The creator of the site is Jose Picardo who is the
Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Nottingham High School, where I teach Spanish and German, and I believe fervently in making education compatible with the needs and expectations of our students through the effective use of technology.
LOTE teachers will also find lots of interest on the site.
Thanks to Helen Boelens for passing on another great site. The American Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children have developed a page entitled ‘Great websites for kids‘.
Each site listed has a brief summary, a link and an age guide. Although some sites are not particularly relevant to Australia or other countries, there are many that are. Worth a perusal.
The article “School Libraries Seek Relevance Through Virtual Access“, in which US school libraries are the subject, appeared on the Education Week website a few days ago and is certainly worth a read.
Some readers may know of the funding issues that have hit US school libraries in the last few weeks. This article, which quotes Buffy Hamilton and Joyce Valenza, outlines how some proactive school librarians have been changing the use and vision of school libraries and as such, how libraries are viewed by students, teachers and parents.
The advent of Web 2.0 tools and the way that some school librarians have embraced them are discussed, particularly with the view that these school librarians have kept their library relevant to their students:
In addition to teaching students and teachers how to navigate information, libraries have now become a place where students go to create and produce, said Carolyn Foote, the district librarian who works at the 2,500-student Westlake High School in Austin, Texas.
“Students are producing all sorts of products—YouTube videos, PowerPoint presentations, online slideshows, podcasts—and so as librarians, we need to have the skills to work with all those different formats and help students learn how to produce in those formats,” she said.
Consequently, it’s increasingly important for librarians to be familiar with new technologies and Web 2.0 tools, she said.
“There’s a lot of debate in the library field about whether you can even be a 21st-century librarian if you aren’t willing to embrace some of those Web 2.0 tools and be very proficient in them,” Ms. Foote said. “There’s a real need for us to be participating all the way through the [creation] process, and we need the skills to be able to do that.”
The library as both a place and a service, or a state of mind is discussed; the importance of a flexible, attractive physical space as well as the Web 2.0 tools which can connect students to the world through the library are vital. A great article advocating the excellent work many school librarians do.
Anyone with a Google account may have noticed a new option in the last few days. The TechCrunch website says that ‘if Google wave is the future, then Google Buzz is the present’. A cross between Twitter, Facebook and other social networking tools, Google hope that Gmail users will find Buzz ‘the easiest way to share online’.
Read the excellent TechCrunch article here.
Thanks to @libraryfuture for the link to this YouTube video from Google: