The Digital citizenship: using technology appropriately website has recently published a post on the nine elements of digital citizenship. Each element is described in detail on the site. The elements include:
Please access this excellent site for more information, ideas and support.
Some teachers in Australia have holidays beginning next week. So a brilliant time to access the Free Cyber Summit on 21st Century Readiness to be held between September 20 – October 5.
For more information click on this link and for international time zone conversions, click here. A fantastic opportunity to add to your professional learning and to broaden your personal learning network.
Thanks to Pru Mitchell for forwarding the following information and report:
New research just released on “School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010”
Princeton, NJ – September 9, 2010 – A new research report was issued today that summarizes the results of an extended look at school principals’ use of social networking. The underlying research for the report, “School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010,” was conducted by edWeb.net, IESD, Inc., MMS Education, and MCH Strategic Data.
Since the creation of MySpace and LinkedIn in 2003 and Facebook in 2004, online social networking has quickly become a pervasive means for people to connect all over the world. Yet schools are one of the last holdouts, where many of the most popular social networking sites are often banned for students, and often for teachers, librarians, and administrators, out of a concern about safety, privacy, confidentiality, and lack of knowledge about how best to ensure appropriate use.
At the same time, education reform initiatives from all corners-Federal and state programs, education research, and policy initiatives-are advocating the use of innovative and collaborative technology to drive improvements in teaching quality and student achievement.
The goal of this research study was to take a close look at the attitudes of school principals about social networking for their own personal use, with their colleagues, and within their school communities. Principals can play an important role in encouraging and training their teachers and staff to adopt new technologies, and in setting policies for the use of technology and the Internet in schools.
The research was conducted in two phases: an online survey sent to a cross section of educators across the country in the fall of 2009, followed by an in-depth EDRoom online discussion with 12 principals who are currently using social networking in their professional lives.
Key findings:
· Most principals who responded to the survey believe that social networking sites can provide value in education because they provide a way for educators to share information and resources with an extended community of educators, create professional learning communities, and improve school-wide communications with students and staff. About half of the surveyed principals felt that social networking is very valuable for these purposes.
· Most of the principals in the discussion group thought that social networking and online collaboration tools would make a substantive change in students’ educational experience. Specific types of changes they mentioned included: development of a more social/collaborative view of learning; improved motivation, engagement, and/or active involvement; and creation of a connection to real-life learning.
· None of the responding principals in the discussion group had school/district policies in place on social networking that were deemed adequate, suggesting the need for conversations and collaboration on establishing policies that can facilitate appropriate use of social networking in schools for educational purposes.
For a free copy of the report:
You can download a copy of the report at any of the sponsors’ websites: www.edweb.net, www.mmseducation.com, or www.mchdata.com.
To request a copy or for more information, send an email to survey@edweb.net.
For more information, please visit the edweb site: | info@edweb.net | www.edweb.net
A reminder that applications for the 2010 School Library Association of Victoria awards close on Friday 17 September.
The John Ward Award, The SLAV Research Fellowship, The SLAV Innovator’s Grant and the SLAV School Leaders Award are presented each year. This is a fantastic opportunity to recognise the contributions of a colleague.
John Ward was a founding member of SLAV in the early 1960s, a founding member of Australian School Library Association in 1968 and a founding member of the International Association of School Librarianship. He held the positions of Secretary and President of SLAV for many years and was the Secretary of ASLA during the 1970s, a period of rapid library expansion. In recognition of John’s contribution to our profession, the SLAV Council established the John Ward Award in 1998, with a professional development grant of $2000 to be awarded annually.
The recipient/s must demonstrate an outstanding contribution to learning and teaching at their school and raise the profile of the profession through their role as teacher-librarian.
In recent years education authorities have based curriculum reform on the results of research projects that have been carried out here and overseas. Academics and practitioners alike have emphasised the need to carry out action research projects and document the impact that our school library programs have on student learning outcomes.
The SLAV Research Fellowship supports research projects that involve school libraries in learning and teaching. The fellowship will take the form of a $1000 grant to provide practical support to a teacher-librarian implementing a local research project.
Sponsored by Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd – Links Plus
In conjunction with Pledger Consulting, SLAV is particularly pleased to sponsor an award that goes to an innovative library or school team. Teams may self nominate or be nominated by SLAV branches. The grant will consist of a package of SLAV professional development and/or publications to the value of $800 plus $200 worth of Pledger Consulting products. SLAV would like to take this opportunity to thank Pledger Consulting for their generous sponsorship of this award. Over a period of many years Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd has provided directories of internet sites to learners, teacher-librarians and teachers in schools. All of their products are designed to guide research and save time for students, teachers and librarians.
Research has indicated that principal or school leader support of the library program is critical in encouraging teacher / teacher-librarian collaboration and in making the library program an integral part of the learning and teaching of the school. (Colorado Study, 1999)
The SLAV School Leader Award is made to a school leader who demonstrates outstanding support of the school library and the work of the school library team.
The award recipient will be recognised by the presentation of a certificate at the International School Libraries Day Dinner. School leaders can be nominated by a teacher-librarian or the school library team (SLAV membership required to nominate). School personnel who are members of the school leadership team within the school are eligible to be nominated.
The news released yesterday that Victorian schools will be able to gain access to funding and support to become eSmart schools is a brilliant step towards cybersafety.
The program developed by the Allanah and Madeline Foundation and trialled by a number of schools is now set to be rolled out to Victorian schools.
With funding, training, information and actions for students, teachers and students, eSmart schools will have a number of resources to hand to help avoid cyberbullying and policies to help deal with it if it does occur.
Detailed information is available on the eSmart schools website.
Berni Wall has developed an excellent site for language learners.
Gapfillers: Learn English Online has a number of free resources on its site including:
Worth investigating if you know English language learners.
Recently author Hazel Edwards undertook a ‘Skype an author’ session with New Zealand librarians. Hazel explains how the process felt:
Surreal Skype NZ Book Launch with NZ librariansI felt a bit like a security camera. Surreal. I was an electronic participant-observer via web-cam On the wall screen. f2m: the boy within was launched by Kevin Hague, Green MP, at 6pm. But it was 4 pm in Melbourne, and I was on the Skype web-cam from Melbourne.Hazel on webcam from Melbourne
We’d had a practice two nights earlier, luckily. Sorted the visual and sound problems. I could hear the enthusiastic crowd, and see some of them, and apparently they could see me on the big screen. Had to remember not to do anything embarrassing. But I couldn’t control where/what I could see.Location of physical launch: Unity Books, 57 Willis Street, Wellington. New Zealand.Thoughtful, witty and enthusiastic launcher NZ Launcher Kevin Hague Green MP’s Review, Green MP stressed how health issues were realistically covered in the novel. Quotes proved he’d READ the book, thoroughly!But I only ever heard his melodious voice, never saw his face, because the web cam was fixed.Ditto for my co-author’s eloquent launch speech & the bookseller. Plus they had rich NZ accents.So I felt rude, not to be looking into people’s eyes, nor acknowledging each by name. I could hear the rustles of appreciative response from the big crowd and see some of them. Not sure how many more were there outside my field of vision.Distanced, but observing the fabulous buzz in the room. On a technological high, I realised I could take a book crowd snapshot via Skype. So I did. But I was facing the wrong way and they were moving off to form a queue to get their copies autographed by Ryan. And they sold ALL the copies!Congratulations to my co-author Ryan Kennedy. A fabulous book launch.Summing up:A satisfying artistic and electronic experience. Plus: Saves time and money. I didn’t have to fly to New Zealand. And I could keep working my computer while I waited for them to set up. Downside: I had to settle for toasting in virtual champagne.
Next week sees a number of free professional learning sessions looking at digital tools for learning and teaching. Presented by SYN Media in conjunction with the State Library of Victoria, all events are free, but bookings are essential. Highlights include:
A fantastic opportunity to discover more about ways to engage students.
Big sister to Sweet search, findingDulcinea is a must see site for school library staff. The aim of the founders of the site is “to bring users the best information on the Web for any topic, employing human insight and methodical review.”
So what exactly does findingDulcinea provide?
FindingDulcinea selects and annotates credible, high-quality and trustworthy Web sites, saving time for both the novice and experienced user.Each piece, whether a Web Guide, a Beyond the Headlines news story or a Netcetera feature article, undergoes the same meticulous research. The Web sites included in each piece are connected through original narrative, providing users with information on each site before they visit them.
- Web Guides
- Beyond The Headlines
- Netcetera
- Custom Search
findingDulcinea provides a range of web guides to popular research topics. Their FAQ page explains:
Our Web Guides provide resources on thousands of topics.
Our collection of Web Guides began with the original Guide to Web Search. With the Guide to Web Search, you should be able to find any Web resource you need, but we’ve drilled down into much more specific topics to help with more targeted search.
Our collection of nearly 300 topic-specific Web Guides is always growing, and the Web Guides already on the site are updated frequently by our research team.
The Guides include fun topics such as Family Travel, academic subjects such as Elementary School Social Studies Resources, serious health topics such as Leukemia.
To find a Web Guide use our site search function (in the upper right corner of any findingDulcinea Web page) or browse our guides from the most general guide on the Web Guides main page to the most specific guides by using the Web Guide topics shown on the right side of any Web Guides page.
More information is available in this video:
Although the site has a US bias, there are plenty of web guides and other resources for global audiences.
