the scanner v2 n3
DESCRIPTION
The Scanner is the newsletter of the ISTE Media Specialist Special Interest Group (SIGMS). This issue is Volume 2, Number 3 and serves as the pre-conference issue for ISTE 2011.TRANSCRIPT
Volume 2, Number 3
The Scanner
In this Issue:
Professional
Development
SIGMS provides a support network to school library media specialists and oth-ers in leadership positions who are work-ing to promote the use of instructional technologies to enhance student learn-ing. It provides a forum where we can consider and explore ways in which we can best use existing and emerging tech-nologies to improve and enhance teach-ing and instruction, student learning and management, helping students and teachers become competent, critical and ethical users of information.
What is SIGMS?
Page 2
Our Organization
Page 3
President’s Message
Page 4
Professionally Speak-
ing
Page 5
Show Us the Love!
Pages 6 and 7
Top Ten Tips for
Conference Attendees
Page 8
Come Out and Play!
Page 9
Newsletter Wrap-Up
Pages 10 and 11
Online Ghost Town or Dynamic Learning Community?
Pages 12 and 13
Tips for Making
Online Professional
Development Work
for You
Our Organization
QR Code for SIGMS Wiki
http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/
Executive Committee
Lisa Perez Chair Chicago Public Schools Dept of Libraries [email protected] Maureen Sanders Brunner Chair-Elect Pike High School MSD Pike Township, Indiana [email protected] Shelee King George Vice Chair Peer-Ed [email protected] Laurie Conzemius Communications Chair Pine Meadow Elementary School [email protected] Brenda Anderson Professional Development Chair Montgomery County Public Schools [email protected] Joyce Valenza Member-at-Large Springfield Township High School Erdenheim, Pennsylvania [email protected]
Committee Chairs
Advocacy Kathy Sanders Taylor Prairie IMC Director [email protected] International Librarianship Lesley Farmer California State University Long Beach [email protected] Newsletter Carolyn Starkey Buckhorn High School [email protected] Webinar Jennifer Gossman Holy Redeemer [email protected] Andrea Christman Rosa Parks Middle School [email protected] Technology Innovation Award Tim Staal Michigan Association for Media in Education [email protected]
Keeping in Touch at ISTE 2011: Backchannels for SIGMS
Full conference schedule available at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/ISTE+2011
Official Twitter hashtag for SIGMS is #sigms11
Join the SIGMS group at the conference ning at http://www.iste2011.org/group/
A Message from the SIGMS Chair Dear SIGMS Members:
At ISTE 2011, I will be complet-ing a two-year term as the ISTE SIGMS Chair. I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome our incoming chair, Maureen Sanders Brunner. She has already been hard at work this year as our chair-elect, spearheading the planning of the “21st Century Media Center Play-ground” among other things. I know she will provide great new leadership for our SIG and I hope you will join me in wel-coming her at the SIGMS Break-fast/Business Meeting.
As I reflect back on the past two years, I am encouraged and uplifted by all we have accom-plished in taking SIGMS to the next level. Shelee King George joined us as the SIGMS Vice-Chair two years ago. She worked quietly behind-the-scenes in many activities, including the development of this newsletter, now chaired by Carolyn Starkey, and our “Share the Love” con-test. She also worked many hours at our playground and SIG Fair. Shelee is concluding her term now and I’d like to person-ally thank her for her years of service.
I am happy to report that Lau-rie Conzemius, our Communica-tions Chair, and Brenda Ander-son, our Professional Develop-
ment Chair, have agreed to stay on for one more year. As SIGMS activities have expanded and our leadership grew, we felt it was necessary to move to a staggered schedule of terms to best sup-port continuity in SIGMS activi-ties. Watch for elections for the-se positions next year. Laurie continues to make great contri-butions to SIGMS, keeping us informed about SIGMS activities through the listserv, Facebook, Twitter, our wiki, our ning group, and LinkedIn. She has
also chaired our proposal selec-tion committee, helped coordi-nate the SIG Fair, and helped develop the “Share the Love” contest, as well as other things. Brenda has played an integral role in bringing together a com-mittee to plan monthly webinars for SIGMS members on a wide variety of timely topics. I feel that SIGMS now offers some of the best, freely available profes-sional development for school librarians anywhere –thanks to the team of volunteers that Brenda has assembled.
SIGMS has made other great strides in the past year. Notably, we now have an active advocacy committee, chaired by Kathy Sanders. Our SIGMS advocacy statement, posted at our wiki at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net, continues to help librarians to press for the support of technol-ogy in the library. An article in the March/April “Learning & Leading” magazine showcased the great technology integration of stellar school librarians. Les-ley Farmer, our International Committee chair, has provided monthly Tapped-In chats on a wide range of topics for the past two years. Our Technology In-novation Award is going strong. And, Carolyn Starkey has greatly improved “The Scanner”, thanks to the contributions of many of our members.
This won’t be a good-bye! SIGMS releases a survey each September to learn about its members and to solicit volun-teers for the school year. I have reaped so many benefits from my experiences in working with SIGMS members that I know I’ll volunteer in some capacity again. I hope you’ll also consider joining a committee or contrib-uting in some other way. I’ll look forward to seeing you at ISTE 2011 and in the upcoming year as SIGMS colleagues!
Lisa Perez SIGMS Chair
sigms
Ah…..Summertime and the PD is easy What are you planning to do
this summer to grow your pro-
fessional practice? While I love
the intensity of learning I experi-
ence at the ISTE conference, I
also enjoy spending some time
in the summer taking it easy and
exploring all those links I book-
marked throughout the school
year. Or relaxing with a cool bev-
erage and viewing a webinar I
was not able to attend in real
time.
So if this sounds enticing to
you, remember the SIGMS webi-
nar resources on the SIGMS and
the 1 Tool at a Time wikis are
great places to visit for your
summertime PD. All the webi-
nars have been archived and ac-
cessible when it fits your sched-
ule. As you take this relaxed
learning journey, think about
what PD offerings you would like
SIGMS to sponsor next school
year. Gather some ideas so you
will be ready to share when we
survey you in the fall.
Also check out the latest addi-
tion to our webinar offerings
through our partnership with
the Australia series. This part-
Professionally Speaking
Brenda D. Anderson Professional Development Chair
nership allows us to offer events
in a wider variety of time zones
to meet the needs of our interna-
tional members. These webinars
will focus on topics related to
educational technology for
school, community college, and
higher ed librarians; teachers,
administrators, and other mem-
bers. Learn more about the offer-
ings here.
ISTE SIGMS Webinar Series
http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Webinars
Upcoming Event
June 15th, 2011
8 PM Eastern, 7 PM Central
6PM Mountain, 5 PM Pacific
Topic: Ready, Set, Go to ISTE11
Presenter: Laurie Conzemius
Archived Events
2010-2011 and 2009-2010 Webi-nars are available on the SIGMS wiki at http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Webinars.
The 1 Tool At a Time: Build Your Toolbelt webinar series is brought to you monthly by ISTE's SIGMS and SIGILT. Each webinar lasts for 30 minutes and focuses on a particular tool. Classroom integration strategies are high-lighted and there is time for dis-cussion.
Previews of the upcoming 1 Tool at a Time events as well as ar-chives of previous events can be accessed at http://1toolatatime.wikispaces.com
ISTE SIGMS Events Calendar
To stay in the know about all the useful, professional development that SIGMS provides, just book-mark the SIGMS Events calendar: http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/
Show Us the Love! ISTE SIGMS is holding a con-test to have you show us you love SIGMS. Take a picture of yourself with the SHOW US THE LOVE sign and use the "Comment Wall" to add it to our SIGMS group http://www.iste2011.org/group/sigms on the ISTE 2011 Conference Ning. Be creative! Clever com-ments or captions welcome.
Using a random numbering tool, one winner will be chosen each week from May 9 -June 24, 2011. Each winner will get a SIGMS selected publication from ISTE. Whether your picture is indoors or out, in a city or rural setting, at school or not, we are looking for UNIQUE images! Post today... and next week... you must post to win! And yes, please share this contest with your friends. To access the sign and to stay up to date on the Winners List, go to the SIGMS wiki http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Show+the+Love+SIGMS.
Week 1 Winner
Colette Cassilli
Week 2 Winner
Peggy George
Shelee King George Vice Chair
Week 3 Winner
Gwyneth Jones
Week 4 Winner
Lynne Phillips
Join in the fun with the offi-cial ISTE Show Us the Love contest too! Take photos of items you love with the Love Statue and upload them to our Flickr group for a chance to win fabulous prizes.
1
Use the conference planner
The planner allows you to add both conference and personal events. It is a great way to maximize your time by view-ing the program ahead of time and selecting those sessions and activities that you don’t want to miss. One tip I’ve learned: the conference plan-ner doesn’t always add the exact room number or speak-er name. Type those in your-self so that you have all the info you need when you view your planner.
2
Register for SIGMS events
and watch for SIGMS picks
The SIGMS breakfast and fo-rum are ticketed events: you must register for those ahead of time. Search the program for SIGMS picks (sessions of special interest to media spe-cialists) and other SIGMS
Top Ten Tips for Conference Attendees
Laurie Conzemius Communications Chair
events (like the 21st Century Media Center Playground on Monday).
3
Prepare your pc
or portable device
Download any apps or soft-ware listed in the program be-fore you get to Philly. Down-loading during sessions can affect network speed for other attendees and can keep you from participating. If you know you’re attending a ses-sion that requires special soft-ware, make sure you have it ahead of time. In addition, verify that your computer is wireless network ready and doesn’t require any passwords or over-rides that you don’t have.
4
Be QR Code ready
QR codes will be huge at this year’s conference! Make sure
you have a device with a QR code reader installed so you can take advantage of the technology right away. In ad-dition, if you don’t have a so-cial bookmarking account (such as Delicious or Diigo) set one up right away. You will run across many interesting new links and if you can book-mark them right away you don’t have to worry about sav-ing a scrap of paper or remem-bering a url. Bookmark and tag everything!
5
Be fully engaged
for networking
Bring current business cards with you. Break out of your shell and network with your fellow conference goers while you’re in line at the airport, on the shuttle, waiting for ses-sions to begin, between ses-sions, and all other times. You never know when the right connection may be standing by your side: say “hello!”
In addition: volunteer! A well-
(and a few for people who can’t attend, but want to!)
kept secret is that conference volunteers can register at the early bird rate! There are many jobs to do, and most require little in knowledge or skill. One of my personal fa-vorites? Volunteer to do “seat drops” for a keynote session (place flyers and coupons on conference seats). The big perk is you don’t have to wait in line and you get to sit as close to the front as you want!
6
Be prepared to
work through lunch
Throw a box of your favorite granola bars into your suit-case and carry a few with you each day. It might be lunch. Bring a reusable water bottle for quick fills at the drinking fountain, and some of those little packets of drink mix if you don’t like plain old water. Wear good comfy shoes, carry a backpack so you don’t break one shoulder, and scope out a good grocery or convenience stores where you can pick up some fresh fruit and snacks.
7
Participate in the
back channel
There is a conference going on in the hallways (and across the country at ALA). Your participation is needed to keep the conversation going. Set your RSS feeds to your fa-vorite ed tech bloggers and begin reading their confer-ence previews. And don’t just read: respond!
8
Don’t get lost
in the exhibit hall
This is from experience. The exhibit hall is a wonderful place, but it is a bit of a time warp. Don’t pick up more than you can carry, set time
limits for yourself, and use it as a great break.
9
Take advantage of free food
Watch for invitations prior to the conference from your fa-vorite vendors. Be open to free meals (especially break-fast), but don’t just be a free-loader. Only attend those you actually would consider pur-chasing, and listen attentively to the sales pitch.
10
Continue the conference
after you get home
We’ve all experienced confer-ence overload. A wonderful ISTE concept is ISTEvision: recorded sessions you can watch on your own time after you get home. My favorite way to share? Open a few cold drinks and invite your coworkers to attend a great conference session with you.
ISTE 2011 Important Registration Dates
June 17
Web/phone/fax registrations close
June 25–29
Onsite registration at Pennsylvania Convention Center
School is almost out, but the playground will still be hop-ping in June!
Throughout the month May, many of your SIGMS col-leagues have been working hard so you can play hard at the our 21st Century Media Center Playground event scheduled all day on Monday, June 27 at the ISTE 2011 con-ference in Philly. More than 40 different leaders, greeters, and presenters are planning eight themed stations of our playground.
Our “play” stations will in-
Come Out and Play!
Maureen Brunner SIGMS Playground Chair
clude presentation on and practice sessions using tools in digital animation, image, video and audio production, cloud-based research and or-ganization software, creative presentation resources, mo-bile and interactive hardware, and many others. There will also be a station devoted to helping you discover ways to incorporate a “learning com-mons” approach into your teaching and learning activi-ties.
Stations run from 8:00am to 4:00pm and are designed to
be causal and stress free! Presentations will be planned in short 5 to 10 minute seg-ments, and there will be plen-ty of computers available for you to try new tools. Even if your conference schedule is busy on Monday, you still can swing by for a few minutes of high tech play. Schedule your play-date reminder today by visiting the ISTE Conference website and adding the 21st Century Media Center Play-ground to your conference planner (http://isteconference.org/
ISTE/2011/planner).
Schedule of SIGMS Activities
Sunday, June 26: Join us at the SIG Fair! The Time is Now!! Stop by our booth and say “hello”. Have your picture taken and join in the fun!! We want to see you all!
Monday, June 27: 21st Century Media Center Playground 8:00 - 4:00 The playground is the place to play! Visit with media specialists, check out some great tools and get ideas on how you can inte-grate them into your school’s curriculum!
Monday, June 27: ProQuest Social
ProQuest is inviting SIGMS members to an evening social! This is a chance to network with other media specialists, so watch more additional info on time and location!
Tuesday, June 28: SIGMS Forum
Title: A Dawning Era For School Librarians: There’s no better time for school librarians Doug Johnson is heading up an all-star cast: Amy Oberts, Anita Beaman, Buffy Hamilton, Cathy Jo Nelson, Gwyneth Jones and Shannon Miller. This is one session you won’t want to miss!!
Wednesday, June 29: Breakfast and Business Meeting
Will Richardson Title: Swimming in the Flow: Succeeding in the new Information Landscape. Although this session is sold out, watch for it on ISTEVision following the conference!
SIGMS Newsletter
It is with a great sense of satisfaction that I look back over the three great issues we have collaborated to publish this year. Thank you, Newsletter Committee, Executive Committee, and authors for your contribu-tions to the newsletter.
Carolyn Starkey Newsletter Committee Chair
Library media specialists often struggle with the perfect time to offer face-to-face professional development (PD) because teachers’ daily schedules vary greatly. As a result, librarians, like other instructional person-nel responsible for PD, are ex-ploring online formats for con-tent delivery.
As you move to the online en-vironment, it is important to ex-plore whether your PD resem-bles a ghost town or dynamic learning community. Is there evidence that people were there but no indication of online inter-action? Do participants attend one PD opportunity never to re-turn again? What can you do to actively and continuously engage teachers in your chosen PD envi-ronment?
This article lists seven lessons learned from eight years as an instructional technologist and online facilitator.
Lesson #1: Create It and They Will Come
Just because you create an online PD opportunity does not mean teachers will participate. Market, market, market. Teach-ers may not realize the oppor-tunity is available if you do not promote it through various me-diums and events. In addition, teachers may be timid about par-
Online Ghost Town or
Jeannette Shaffer National Center for Teacher Education
ticipating in PD in an online en-vironment, so highlight the ben-efits of online learning.
Try, try, and try again. Some teachers will try online PD for the first time and will not suc-ceed. Be patient; online PD is a new way of learning in a new environment for teachers. Teachers love the convenience of working at their own pace and on their own schedules, but may be unsure of how to be success-ful in a Web-based environment.
Lesson #2: Meet Them Where They Are
Teachers signing up for online PD come with a wide range of technology skills and under-standing of online learning envi-ronments. Facilitators must be prepared to meet teachers where they are by providing support through additional resources, one-to-one instruction, and ex-tended time to complete assign-ments. Build in support when designing the PD and consider online mentors for teachers wanting extra guidance and sup-port.
Lesson #3: All-inclusive Expe-rience
Online PD must contain more than content. Many teachers will complete online PD during plan-ning periods or personal time so there must be a trade-off for sac-rificing the time. Covering con-tent alone is not enough to keep teachers coming back for more online PD. To facilitate an all-inclusive experience, provide op-portunities for teachers to build their professional network. Gen-erate and encourage engaging conversations and collaborative activities where teachers get to know one another. Activities might include live chats, reflec-tions, polls, and collaborative mind mapping.
Make the learning experience more robust for teachers by con-necting the PD content to teach-ers’ classrooms. Initiate conversa-tion around teachers’ ideas of how they can immediately imple-ment the content learned.
Finally, an all-inclusive experi-ence provides teachers with more than they need. Enhance the PD learning experience with related links, blogs, ebooks, Twitter hashtags, videos, and social bookmarks.
Lesson #4: The ART (Automatic Response Technol-ogy) of Response
Dynamic Learning Community? Start the PD with a personal welcome message. Ask teachers to respond to a particular ques-tion when they receive the mes-sage. The question should focus on previous experience based on the PD content and what con-cerns they may have about par-ticipating in online PD. Reply with a personal comment to each teacher’s response and con-cern. This interaction begins the development of an online rela-tionship and trust with the facili-tator.
In addition to personalized messages and responses, make yourself available to teachers. Encourage teachers to stop by the library during school hours if they have questions and main-tain virtual office hours. Always respond to inquiries within 24 hours! Even if it is a quick mes-sage to say, “I received your email and will respond to you when…”
Finally, be active in the course as a participant and facilitator to make the learning environment more dynamic. Complete assign-ments with your teachers and encourage feedback on your work, or help teachers find re-sources (i.e., links, videos, blog posts) related to their assign-ments.
Lesson #5: Under Construc-
tion
Teachers do not want their online PD content to be “under construction.” Their time is valu-able (along with the facilitator’s time) so the content of an online PD must be complete, accurate, and organized. If the content is not complete, teachers will dis-continue the online PD and think twice before signing up for another online PD opportunity.
Does this mean that the facili-tator needs to understand and be able to use every feature of the online PD environment? No. Decide what features will be used and master those features. As the facilitator becomes more experienced with the environ-ment, more features can be uti-lized to make the online PD ex-perience more dynamic.
Lesson #6: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Teachers are busy with job re-sponsibilities and the demands of home life. In order to keep them connected to the PD, com-munications from the facilitator such as a “gentle reminder” email about an assignment due date or a tweet highlighting con-versations or ideas shared within the online PD are essential.
Facilitators may also want to attempt to encourage more
teacher interaction in the PD environment by requesting early drafts of an assignment for com-munity feedback, a reflection on content learned, or response to a poll mid-way through the PD opportunity. Requiring teachers to interact with the PD as they work their way through the con-tent makes the learning environ-ment more dynamic and keeps teachers engaged.
Lesson #7: Instant Gratifica-tion
Teachers must be able to im-mediately implement what they learn. Make it is as easy as possi-ble for teachers by creating les-son ideas that can easily be adapted to their classroom while PD content is fresh in their minds. Provide support beyond the online PD opportunity as they implement these lesson ide-as and other learned concepts or applications.
Hopefully these lessons learned will help you, as librari-ans and online PD facilitators, to avoid creating an online PD ghost town. Like any PD, it takes a creative and knowledgeable facilitator to create a dynamic learning community in an online environment.
Contact Information:
Online professional develop-ment is a great way to hone your professional and technological skills. As a librarian, I have had different roles in online courses, starting out as a learner, then moving to developer and facilita-tor. Over time, I have identified several basic practices that are integral to a positive, successful online learning experience.
Set time aside for the course.
When you attend face-to-face professional development work-shops, you block those hours out on your calendar. Most online professional development is asynchronous, meaning you nev-er have a designated time that you have to “attend” class. This can be one of the greatest bene-fits of online learning. However, you should still make time in your schedule to do your course-work. It is too easy to let a week go by and not sign in to your course. Online professional de-velopment opportunities will often include details about how many hours of work are expected each week. Try to designate days of the week or times of day when you will log in to your course, read the discussion forums, and complete assigned readings and activities.
Decide what type of online professional development is
Tips for Making Online
Jennifer Hanson
Librarian, Primary Source
right for you.
Online professional develop-ment comes in a range of for-mats--self-guided, webinars, courses, and more. Deciding which kind of professional devel-opment is right for you can be tricky. Do you need professional development points or continu-ing education units? Do you need graduate credit? Do you just want to learn about new books, a new Web 2.0 tool, or new library technologies?
If you do not have a lot of time to commit, self-guided profes-sional development or webinars might be right for you. Each week you probably receive emails about webinars hosted by book vendors, library magazines, and professional organizations. I frequently sign up for webinars knowing that if something comes up and I cannot attend, I can get the recording a few days later. Self-guided professional development usually comes in the form of videos, such as the new interactive modules from the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/selfdirected/). Online videos can be paused and revisited when necessary, and they provide con-tent in short amounts of time.
For those seeking graduate credit or continuing education
units, there are longer online courses available that can meet your needs. Online courses typi-cally run from 3 or 4 weeks to 8 or 10 weeks. The more credits available, the longer the course. Online courses often carry a tui-tion fee. Webinars and self-guided options are frequently free, but some organizations charge small fees for this type of professional development.
Post early and check in on your course often.
If you are taking an online course, you will most likely be asked to post regularly to discus-sion forums as the primary means of communication. I al-ways tell online course partici-pants that they should post early in the week in order to facilitate an active discussion. If you wait until the last minute to post dis-cussion forum responses, you might find that others have al-ready articulated your ideas or that the amount of discussion forum posts to read can be over-whelming. It might be tempting to skip a post if you feel like you have nothing to add to the dis-cussion. Be sure to log in to your course two or three times a week to keep up with discussion fo-rums and make time to craft thoughtful responses to discus-sion forum prompts.
Professional Development Work for You
Be sure to have the proper equipment.
Just like you would have paper and pen with you for a face-to-face workshop, be sure you have the necessary tools for online professional development. At the very least, you will need a com-puter (mobile devices are not always optimal for webinars or online courses). For a webinar, you will need either computer speakers or a telephone. If a webinar or course is really inter-active, you might need to have a microphone available in order to talk with your colleagues. Online courses may use Flash-based ap-plications or require you to download readings that are PDFs. Be sure you have the per-missions necessary on your com-puter (or talk to your school’s IT person) to download any soft-ware or applications required to complete course assignments. A good online course provider will provide a “tech check” or tell you ahead of time about any technol-ogy requirements.
Have fun!
Don’t be afraid to try some-thing new. Online professional development is a great way to connect with school librarians across the country.
Online Professional Develop-ment Opportunities
ISTE SIGMS
http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/Webinars
The Media Specialist Special Interest Group of ISTE offers monthly webinars for members. Archived recordings of past webinars are available through the SIGMS wiki.
Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/
The new Teachers Page from the Library of Congress includes self-guided interactive modules that librarians and teachers can use for professional develop-ment. In addition, the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Project at Waynesburg University offers a five-week online course about finding and using primary sources in the Li-brary of Congress collections.
Primary Source
http://www.primarysource.org/onlinecourses
Primary Source provides pro-fessional development for kin-dergarten through twelfth grade educators, including librarians. Online programs include gradu-ate credit bearing courses like The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China; Changing China: History
and Culture Since 1644; and Thinking Like a Historian: Prima-ry Sources for Primary Students. One-hour webinars are also pro-vided throughout the school year. Graduate credit and profes-sional development points are available.
Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Infor-mation Science Continuing Education
http://alanis.simmons.edu/ceweb/
Simmons College provides month-long online courses on topics for young adult and school librarians including Graphic Novels for Young Read-ers, Building a School Media Cen-ter Website, and School Media Center 2.0. Continuing education units and professional develop-ment points are available.
Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/profdev/professionaldevelop-ment.cfm#learning
YALSA offers one-hour webinars, webinars on demand, and online courses on a variety of topics about libraries and teen services.
Contact Information:
“Online professional development is a
great way to hone your professional
and technological skills.”
ISTE SIGMS
The Scanner
Volume 2 Number 3