Bookish

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Linda Angeloni

Bookish is a new book recommendation and e-commerce site competing with the likes of Goodreads, Library thing and Amazon. Although some question the effectiveness of these sites, Bookish promises a different experience based on the resources and expertise available to publishers driving the project.

Bookish is a collaboration between a group of major publishers claiming their recommendations engine, with input from real editors, is the best yet. With publishing heavyweights like Penguin, Random House and Scholastic on board, the site has already collected an impressive list of contributors, 400 000 author profiles and 1.2 million books in their catalogue.

At this stage, Bookish is leaving the social aspect of recommendations to established sites like Goodreads although they do link to Facebook. Their focus is editorial content – delivering magazine style essays, articles, news and reviews written by authors and professional editors.

Bookish represents an interesting commercial model for publishers to position themselves as an alternative to community based book recommendation sites. Whether Bookish stays impartial, only time will tell.

Talking Reading

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Cam Hocking

With a recent study indicating that approximately 44% of Australian adults have a literacy level below the minimum required for everyday life, promoting reading and literacy has never been more important. The Talking Reading project on ABC Pool is a wonderful resource for anyone with an interest in developing literacy skills and promoting reading.

The project brings together interviews with literacy experts, librarians and authors. The episodes were recorded during the National Year of Reading and are hosted by Tony Wilson, Paula Kelly and Sally Rippin. One episode features the fabulous Miffy Farquharson, who talks about her love of reading and reveals that she has read close to 15,000 books!

Other episodes explore young adult literacy technology (featuring our own Kelly Gardiner), apps for literacy (with Dan Donahoo) and author profiles with authors such as Leigh Hobbs, Cath Crowley and Alison Lester.

You can view all of the episodes and find out more about the project at the Talking Reading site. It’s an excellent resource full of ideas about promoting this critical skill and fostering a love of books in young people.

Mapping your PLN

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Catherine Hainstock

In 2010, I read David Warlick’s Gardener’s Approach to Learning: Cultivating Your Personal Learning Network and was inspired to map out my PLN (personal learning network). I’m glad I did because it gave me a different perspective of my learning landscape. I saw how I was connecting with colleagues and professionals, what places were most productive for me, and I was able to identify gaps worth exploring for future growth and weed out connections no longer meeting my needs. Growing my PLN became more purposeful.

Remapping my PLN a couple of years later, gave me further insight; I became aware of how the tools were shaping me, how they were shaping my online relationships and that I was growing from being a consumer towards being a collaborative, creative producer in my network. The activity was inspiring, rewarding and produced concrete evidence of professional growth. The map is a highly visual artefact that can be used in professional development plans and performance review conversations.

If you have never mapped your PLN before you may want to start simply with:

Face-to-face associations – eg. Teaching faculties, school/organisation learning teams, professional organisations you meet with in person.
Online associations – eg. nings, online organisations, Twitter hashtags you follow like #vicpln, groups on social media sites like Facebook
Access/aggregation – places you go to for learning and things you subscribe to eg. blogs, newsletters, curation tools like Diigo

Concentrate on your cohorts and the types of connections you have developed, don’t worry about naming individuals.

Once you are confident mapping your own PLN, why not take it a step further and have your students try mapping theirs? Most young people already have informal networks for learning, especially those involved in online gaming. Mapping then discussing as a group places they go to obtain information could help them to see connections between informal and academic learning. It might also be a great way of introducing them to a broader range of resources and ways that cultivating their PLN can help them achieve at school.

Interactive writing and note taking with Meeting Words

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Cam Hocking

Recently I attended an online seminar with Howard Rheingold, an advocate of using technology mindfully. As the session began, Howard directed participants towards a shared note taking space set up using the Meeting Words site. As the session progressed participants added notes in the shared space. They pasted in links mentioned by Howard, made their own notes and shared ideas. It was an interesting addition to the session and means that there is now a lasting record of the seminar.

Meeting Words works in a similar fashion to the shared document editor in Google Drive. Most of the screen is taken up with a simple shared note taking space and a chat window appears on the right. Every participant’s entries are colour coded, giving a visual representation of each contributor. Text can be overwritten or replaced by other participants and any changes appear in real time on screen.

Each participant’s contribution is colour coded.

As the name suggests, Meeting Words is perfect for taking notes collaboratively instead of relying on one person to catch every piece of information. It would also be a great way to work on shared projects, such as group assignments or curriculum planning. But the site could also have more creative applications.

Meeting Words would be a great way to do interactive, shared or modelled writing with a group of students. Teachers could even assist by adding in comments, helping make revisions or using the chat window to suggest ways the story might progress. There is even a time slider function to see how the piece has progressed from start to finish.

Meeting Words is easy to set up, users can start contributing to the document without needing to login, and the colour coded text means that you can easily see what has been contributed. While the tool has some similarities to Google Drive’s document editor, these clever features make it well worth exploring.

Participate, engage, shine – Professional learning in 2013

Posted on February 19, 2013 by slavadmin

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

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Catherine Hainstock

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

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Cam Hocking

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

Posted on February 13, 2013 by slvadmin

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.

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

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Catherine Hainstock

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?”
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.

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

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Cam Hocking

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.

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.

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.

School Library Association of Victoria

Monthly Archives: February 2013