Calling All Accidental Technology Stewards

[Judi Moreillon]

Graduate students in IRLS 581 have read an article from KQ 35.4 by Nancy White called “The Technology Steward Or, How You Can Gamble Very Little and Gain a Lot" (pp. 32-35).

One of the lines in this article that popped off the page at me was: “Stewarding technology use for and between these two groups can assure that its use is generative, rather than a force that threatens to divide a community” (p. 33). [Students are one group; teachers, parents, and administrators are the other.]

We would be interested in hearing your technology stewardship testimonials.

I will be inviting Nancy White to drop in on the conversation.

[Sue Rasmussen]

There are so many stories I could tell--but I'll choose the most recent, I saw the results just this week. The first theme in the 5th grade reading series is Nature's Fury so I've developed a unit in which students learn information skills in which they "become an expert" in one example of this theme to teach their classmates. They used both print and electronic resources to get their information, Kidspiration to organize and PowerPoint to present, with lessons in each along the way. I talked to all three teachers before starting, and though we were unable to schedule extra times to get the students into the library, they did agree to help the students work on the presentations during their scheduled time in the computer lab. We have two new 5th grade teachers and what they didn't tell me is that neither one was familiar with using PowerPoint with students, it turns out they were learning right along with the students! They are so enthused about how excited the students are about their presentations that they've come to me about collaborating on more projects in the future.

[Andrew Zollman]

Although I don’t have experience working on a library or professional environment I can see why, from your story, collaboration and the use of technology is important to the overall success of teachers when working with L-T's in the early k-12 grade levels. Sue you talked about the use of incorporating student work into PowerPoint’s for presentations, but you also discussed a program called Kidspiration. I have never used Kidspiration before while taking classes for the department. What kind of program is it? Is it similar to some of the other computer related tools we have been using in class for our projects?

[Sue Rasmussen]

Rather than a presentation tool like PowerPoint, Kidspiration is a graphic oragnizer that is valuable for helping K-5 learners record, sort and categorize concepts and ideas. You can find out more about both Kidpsiration and Inspiration (the version for older students) at http://inspiration.com/

[Karrie Romero]

Our school is also a myspace blocker, and it's because a lot of the material in there is uncensored. If you want to show students how to learn social computing, maybe something should be set up specifically for your school, where the students could go to a "safe" environment and learn those skills. We block game sites that are not educational and the students are not allowed to check e-mail at school. The rationale of the administration is that most of them have the ability to do this at home, and school is not the time to be doing that. We do have tech classes where the kids learn HOW to use those things, but they are "dummy" programs to teach the basics rather than letting them loose on the www. In high school it might be different, but at the middle school level, I do think it is important to place restrictions on what students can access to avoid ugly situations later. A student who is not allowed on myspace at home might try to do it at school, and without blocking things like that, it gets out of hand pretty quickly - we had that situation arise, which led to the blocking of the site in the first place.

[Sue Rasmussen]

First, thank you for giving a name to what I have been doing for years--looking for ways to use technology effectively in all the facets of my life. You described me to a T. I enjoy experimenting with new tools and thinking of ways they can be useful at school, but I am anything but a geek. I am fortunate to work in a district that recognizes the potential and funds technology initiatives, but it is sometimes a struggle to get staff on board.
I think the most important message a technology steward can share with those who are not so technologically inclined is that it is a tool for reaching goals-not "one more thing to learn". I often wonder if teachers were as reluctant to integrate overhead projectors into their lessons as they are to use some of the many tools that are available today. As a steward, I find it helpful to demonstrate the technology in action at staff meetings or by having students share what they've done with me. It gets the teachers curious and opens lines of communication that can lead in all sorts of directions.

[Judi Moreillon]

I’ll jump in – but the example below is dated. (Sadly, my most recent example – spring 2006 - would be a failure to get a high school to open up blogging access so juniors could conduct YA literature circles with UA graduate students…)

In 1993, I began serving in at an elementary school of 600 students. The library was NOT automated, and there were just three or four computers in the library with word-processing and curriculum-orientated software like “Timeliner.” (I brought the collection online the summer after my first year there…)

Although it had a great print collection and students enjoyed coming to the library, I believed that these students, most of whom did not have computers in their homes, would be motivated by tech tools. (I had come from a school where I had introduced a CD-ROM encyclopedia the previous year and was excited by how much more motivated some students were to conduct and present research.)

I wrote grants and had three funded by Hughes Aircraft three years in a row. I started our electronic collection by purchasing a number of CDs to promote reading (such as the Living Books), HyperStudio (a kid-friendly PowerPoint program), and something called “Computer Eyes,” a converter that projected the computer monitor onto the TV monitor.

The effect was astounding. Kids were very motivated to complete their inquiry projects and present their work. Their classmates, whose eyes are trained for the screen, would actually pay attention to each other's presentations. The classroom teachers were positively impressed when the quality of the students’ work shot up!

When our principal saw the kids’ enthusiasm and noted that classroom teachers were learning these tools as well, she got us a bank of computers for the library so students could conduct research in small groups and share their learning via technology. At the end of my second year at that school, the principal funded a successful technology summer camp for neighborhood kids that our library assistant and I facilitated.

This may not have happened for quite a few more years if the library hadn’t stepped in to offer students and teachers some progressive tools and choices.

[Judy Franz]

I, too, have found that students will work to put together a really good presentation if it is going to be televised in-house. Three years ago, an English teacher in the school where I taught had students do newscasts as a project connection with current events. It was shortly after Katrina. I can still remember the one a student who literally came to school depressed every day and was perpetually lethargic. He began is news cast with, “Good Morning, America.” Then he added, “It’s not such a good morning for the people in New Orleans.” That comment received such a favorable response that his entire attitude changed from that day on. I would not be the least bit surprised if he became and anchorman one day. Teacher-librarians are in a good position to teach these technical skills and help with productions. On a related note, does anyone know the protocols/restrictions for producing website videos, etc.? Even for a photo to be put into our school newsletter, we needed parental consent? Are there general guidelines that are required and are these in print somewhere? Word and speech presentations are one ting, but I always picture red tape when it comes to pictures or live presentations.

[Allison Showers-Chlup]

I recently read an interesting article from T.H.E. Journal Online:Technology Horizons in Education entitled If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em. The article discusses how educators are beginning to recognize that social networking is an integral part of our students' lives and therefore must be integrated into the classroom. The article explores different safe avenues for this integration. I think it is particularly relevant with regard to the school media center and how it engages students. While Myspace is not appropriate in the public school due to content concerns, perhaps there are other alternatives so as to incorporate social networking in the public school. Does anyone have examples of alternatives to MySpace that incorporate social networking in the public school?

[Judy Franz]

I am a big advocate of creating blog sites, because these can be made private for a particular group or project. What I like about them is that students can be taught the technology for digital photography, uploading pictures, creating links, and many other skills. Then they can see the results of their work. When I explained some of these features to a principal last week, he emailed me back and said he was ready for me when I was ready, and I could have as many computers in the library as I needed. Currently, the school has done very little with technology, because the staff needs training. Most of them do not even know about blogs, Poscasts, or iPods and how these can be used to enhance learning. And as someone else mentioned, the students may know the technology, but not know how to produce it or use it in an educational environment. The great thing about Podcasts is that they can be used in virtual learning to demonstrate computer skills or to produce voice presentations with pictures and active links.

[Nicole]

Sue and others,
I am always one who does not like to reinvent the wheel but make it faster. Work smarter not harder is my goal for this month. Where is a good place to find lessons that give you examples of using teachers in collaboration? Would you be willing to share some of your lessons that correlate with the Houghton Mifflin series? I also would have the majority of our teachers learning right along with the class. Does your school district have a curriculum? With so much to teach and so much to share how do you decide what direction to go in?

[Judi Moreillon]

Hi Nicole,
A collaborative lesson plan requires that the teacher-librarian and classroom teacher sit down together to plan the lesson, including who will gather resources and create students' graphic organizers, who has responsibility for teaching which aspects of the lesson, and how student work will be assessed.

If you are looking for K-6 lesson plans that involve coteaching with classroom teachers, then I must recommend my book (info below). The reading comphrension-information literacy lessons in my book are designed to be cotaught by two or more educators. (Some of them involve students in using technology tools or electronic resources; all of the lessons are centered on children's picture book literature.)

They are not "collaborative" lesson plans until you and your colleagues adapt them for the students in your charge or the resources available to you. Yes?

Info about the book:

Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact begins with background information about collaborative teaching and teaching reading comprehension strategies using research-based instructional strategies. The how-to chapters that follow include background information about each reading comprehension strategy, bibliographies of children’s picture book literature and 3 fully-developed reading comprehension lesson plans for coteaching that strategy with emerging, advancing, and advanced readers. Using the 21 lessons in the book as samples, teacher-librarians will easily be able to design additional lessons for teaching these strategies.

You can read about the book at: http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog2&_pn=p...

All of the graphic organizers, rubrics, and sample student work teacher-librarians will need to teach these lessons can be downloaded from: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/publishing/alaeditions/webext...

I also have support for teaching the sample lessons on my own Web site at: http://storytrail.com/Impact/index.htm

[Sue Rasmussen]

I am a true believer in your philosophy of not reinventing the wheel. Most of my true collaborative lessons (which I would love to do more of) have come out of discussions that start when teachers ask for resources on a certain topic and I probe to find out a little bit more. From this I say something like "How about if we did it this way" or "Have you ever tried...?" and it develops from there. I just finished a project with a 6th grade teacher who I taught as a second grader many years ago (small towns are special) that started with a discussion in the hallway that started "One of our standards is ancient tribes of what is now the U.S--you've been teaching a lot longer than I have. How would you teach that to students?" It worked out well so we're starting a project on Meso-American cultures next week. I also get ideas from professional books and magazines (from publishers like ALA, Linworth, Libraries Unlimited) that I have collected over the years--they plant a seed so that I'm ready when the opportunity arises.
But you have to know that much of what I do is within a fixed schedule so I do what I can to find out the standards for each grade level and where teachers are at any given time. I develop lessons that incorporate information skills into those topics. Often I'll go to teachers and say this is what we did today but I think we could take it farther if... sometimes it works sometimes not--but they appreciate that I've extended the classroom learning at any rate.
We don't exactly have a curriculum, but a few years ago we developed a scope and sequence of skills and concepts based on the standards and IP2. We need to look update them since standards have changed, but I'd be happy to share anything I've created . I'll add it as an attachment when I am at school tomorrow.