School TV News

I was quite impressed with both Orenco Elementary and Eisenhower Middle School’s morning announcements.  In comparison to the morning news broadcasts I’ve witnessed, they have some pretty original content and I especially like that the broadcasts are made available online.

At the elementary school where I volunteer, the school news is broadcast every morning from the media production room in the media center.  It is distributed throughout the school via closed circuit television (channel 4).  The news broadcast is a combination of PowerPoint slides and live presenters, and the presenters change out every year or as needed throughout the school year.  Students try out for the news at the end of each school year (for the following year) and are also recommended by teachers and administrators based on academic achievement and good behavior. 

The content of the announcements is fairly basic: the students announce the date, a special event in history or a fact, the pledge, birthdays, lunch choices, and school news/events.  The media specialist and REACH teacher put together all of the news content and operate all of the equipment while the students essentially read information on-camera.  They work on the content and have it ready by the time they leave in the afternoon so everything will be ready in the morning. The students are given just a few minutes before the announcements start to go over the “script” and any other special instructions.  One great part of the announcements is the “Student of the Week” award where the student is honored on-air.  The kids really seem to love that concept and are very excited and proud for their classmates.   The media specialist and the REACH teacher also try to incorporate music into the announcements and try to choose songs that relate to the content of the announcements.  Of course, the students love it.

In terms of problems, there is always the issue of a student losing his or her place while reading (understandably so) or having a fit of nervous laughter.  This is usually at the beginning of the school year and as time goes on, the student gets more comfortable.  So far, there have not been too many technical glitches, although just last week the computer software used to broadcast the announcements was having issues and would not open.  After a little troubleshooting, the media specialist was able to re-install it and get everything working properly.  

Social Networking

Social Networking: Society in Virtual Evolution

 

Impacting student achievement has been a much heated debate for 21st century educators. Do we need additional assessments? Or should we group the under achievers with the over achievers? And how does one really effectively collaborate? In a classroom of thirty-five students with reading abilities ranging from non readers, poor readers, slow readers, graphic novel readers to  novel readers, one thing is for sure, adequately meeting all educational needs can be a bit daunting. Now more than ever, teaching can be a work of disinterested art if you do not have a few instructional tools  strapped around your ever expanding common core belt. To add a little more fuel to the fire, students, many of which are performing below grade level, can be found rapidly pounding their thumbs to surf the internet, blog, bump, tweet, instagram, or discharge a mass text. Where does education fit in this social networking puzzle? 

Is this the new condoms-in-the-school debate?              

Or is it as anticlimatic as legalizing marijuana?

I mean nothing really happened...

Many schools were afraid to get involved when the ever expanding role of educators included distributing birth control contraceptives at the school. Won't that entice students to have sex? The same argument could be said for legalizing marijuana. Won't that entice individuals to use drugs? Well, it seems regardless of the content, if individuals are already up to something, we might as well add some guidance and parameters to the equation.The just-say-no campaign does not really work in this arena; individuals are already engaging in this legal activity: social networking.

In the article Jordan Davis: How Social Networks Help Students, senior Jordan Davis shares that many schools, which include social networking as part of their school routine, witness attendance rates soaring and grades improving socialnetworking.

Classrooms use this form of communication to allow students to post reactions on websites using blogs or classroom wikis.

In fact, the ICT Advisors provide 10 useful tools one single device can add to a classroom:

• Control Your Classroom Computer-use your tablet as an air mouse or wireless keyboard
• Write Notes-students can insert an audio of what the class is working on
• Mobile or Static Visualizer-wIth a VGA connector it serves as a second monitor
• Class Pets-virtual, that is
• Share Ideas
• Collaborate-apps such as voicethread 
  allow teachers to "create, share, annotate and draw on pages/photos/videos to stimulate discussion"
•  Story Making & Telling
• A Globe
• Creative Writing
• Blog 

oneipad

In short, I am a big proponent of social networking; it keeps me in the loop with my students learning habits as well as technological shortcomings. Besides, I don't have to carry around bundles of ungraded work. I can just slip my cellphone in my back pocket. I have dedicated email account for students and parents, and Edmodo is installed on my cellphone. To be perfectly honest, if I don't turn my phone off at night, it will beep incessantly. With what, you might ask? Students, yes that wireless sleepless bunch submits work through all hours of the night-including weekends. Lol smh... 

  

Media Center Web Pages

It was eye-opening for me to examine the different web sites provided for this assignment, especially since they are all geared toward different age/grade levels.  I guess I am very much of the "elementary" mindset (even though I work with college students) so seeing and thinking about the differences for each grade was extremely helpful to me.  That being said, I feel that there are "standard" elements that should be included on every media center web site: policies and procedures, hours, contact information, a link to the catalog, media center events, links to online resources, tutorials, and research guides.  I also think that linking the site to the media specialist's blog is a great idea.  If the school or media center has social media accounts (facebook, twitter, etc.) those should also be included somewhere on the media center page.  If we want to encourage students to use our resources, we must advertise them, especially for older (middle and high school) students who are probably more apt to follow social media instead of visiting web sites. I also love the idea of including a sidebar on the web page that displays what the media specialist or teachers may be currently reading, similar to the one found on Buffy Hamilton's (Creekview High School) LibGuides profile: http://theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/profile.php?uid=9724 .  This would also be a great way to post new or popular books in the collection and the media specialist could even make separate ones for different categories such as new fiction, new non-fiction, etc.

Now that I've mentioned all of the components that I think should be included in media center web sites, I must admit that I am a bit picky about how web sites are structured.  It is my biggest pet peeve to have to dig around a website to find information or have a bunch of flashy buttons that don't make sense or are dead links.  One thing that I feel is extremely important for media center web sites (and any other web resource, really) is currency.  If the site created but is not updated over several years, it gives the impression that there's not much going on in the media center. This is definitely not the image that any media specialist or media center wants to make.  I admire Creekview High School Media Center's site because it does a great job of showcasing its media center as a "living" place: there are tweets, photo streams of students in the media center, e-mail alerts, etc. Chances are if your media center web page does not get updated very frequently, students will be less likely to revisit the site.  Just as in the physical media center, we have to engage and inspire our students in order to keep them coming back.  The media center web site should be a reflection of our efforts to make the library a destination rather than a passive place without much new to offer.

Blog 2 Wikis

http://necowade.blogspot.com/
(Sorry this wasn't listed under Team 8 earlier...it was posted here last week)

A Communication Free For All!!

http://xmenmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Viper

After reading the Educause Learning Initiative Article, I became a bit more intrigued with the purpose of Wikis. Up until this point, Wiki seemed to be a confusing word to use when attempting to access a website. Now I get it. According to wiki.org, this intellectual property allows multiple users to create and edit Web page content. In some regard, Google drive mirrors this concept as both allow a document to Stay Alive without the use of a glitter headband. Likewise, I am sure many of us would find relief in reducing the number of back-and-forth emails all in the name of collaborative group projects.

Here's an interesting fact:

The name "Wiki" was inspired by the Hawaiian word wiki or wiki-wiki, which means "quick". The first wiki was developed in 1995 by an American, Ward Cunningham, who wanted an alternative to the word "quick" for his product that would allow quick, collaborative editing. He remembered the wiki-wiki shuttle buses that run between terminals at Honolulu International Airport and the name stuck.
Retrieved from http://community.wikidot.com/what-is-a-wiki-site

Listed above is a wiki of the chronology of X-Men movies brought on by a heated classroom debate on Wolverine. That was when the light bulb went off. If a wiki was used to post a classroom assignment, students would have an opportunity to update, change, or add information to benefit the entire group. Although we display exemplary work and allow students to share out, the efforts are not as enduring or comprehensive. For instance, when my students created Romeo and Juliet videos, students could only view them in class. Also, alternate classes had questions on websites and software used by other students. A wiki could have allowed students to post links or updates on which application is user friendly or accessible at school. So yes, wiki is an awkward word with a suave approach to group projects.

Podcasting in the Media Center

After reading and reviewing all the resources on podcasting, I began to think of ways to utilize such a creative and fun technology in the media center. As a subscriber and listener to podcasts, I must admit that I never really thought about how simple the process is and that it doesn't take all the fancy or expensive equipment that I thought it might. After reading Kristen Fontichiaro's short piece "Podcasting 101" and experimenting a bit more with Audacity, I started thinking of all the different and interesting ways podcasting could be used in the media center. Utilizing podcasting as a tool in the media center is a great way to reach students of all different learning styles, interests, and skill levels.

After listening to Nancy Keane's podcasts (is it just me, or does her voice induce a feeling of tranquility?), I started thinking that it would be great to take it a step further and have students create their own podcast "booktalk" in lieu of a written book report. This would be a great way to start a dialogue about the book with classmates and teachers while also teaching students essential technology, writing, and speaking skills. Creative touches such as music or images could be added to make the podcast more engaging and fun for the students.  

Better yet, why not have a student recommendation (perhaps every one to two weeks) podcast that could be posted to the media center or school web site as well as displayed and played within the media center?  Students always seem to be asking for the same book that a friend or classmate is reading (you know, the one with "a green cover with a horse on it") so I think creating a podcast of student recommendations would only help encourage and inspire students to read more and have more discussions with one another about what they're reading and why they might or might not like it. Teachers and staff members could also contribute and bring their recommendations to life through a podcast "recommendation." The podcast book reviews/teasers could even become a permanent display in the media center. One could simply place a small mp3 player/ipod along with the book in the media center to help showcase new titles in the collection and encourage students to check out books they may not have seen or heard about before. Students who have an easier time listening to information might feel less intimidated by choosing a book when they can hear about it rather than having to read the synopsis provided on the book cover.

The possibilities for the use of podcasts in the media center as well as the classroom seem limitless. Another way to use podcasting in the media center would be to have students create a "character" trivia podcast about a book character, historical figure, or famous individual that requires them to research the subject, write and record the podcast (they could even create a voice for the character/person),and play it back to the class to see if they can guess the individual depicted in the podcast. This would be a fun and creative way to bring books and history to life for all students, regardless of their lexile level or abilities.

Overall, I can see how podcasting can be used to reach, engage, and empower students in many different ways.  I agree with Fontichiaro’s (2007) statement that student podcasting projects can help students “write with an audience in mind, develop a ‘writer’s voice,’ and increase confidence” (p. 22). I've seen seemingly shy students display their hidden extrovert when given the chance to participate in morning announcements or in a dramatic reenactment in front of the class. I think that podcasting, much like writing, can help encourage students to become better listeners, especially when it comes to really listening to themselves and developing a better understanding of how to communicate thier own ideas if given the chance to present them in a creative way such as podcasting.

References:

Fontichiaro, K. (2007). Podcasting 101. School Library Media Activities Monthly, XXIII (7), 22-23.