The digital age is rapidly advancing and heralding new tools each day. What strategies do you use to keep yourself abreast of these new tools, how do you manage your time to learn about them and how among your other tasks do you promote them?
The SLAV blog 'Bright Ideas' by Judith Way is a great resource as Judith keeps the teacher librarian community informed of new tools. Another terrific resource is called 'Cool Tools for Schools' at:http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/ and DiRT at: http://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/ I find I spend many late nights investigating new web 2.0 tools! I promote them by using them at school with students and informing/demonstrating to staff at meetings etc. While these tools are certainly engaging for our students (and us!), it's important to keep in mind that they are 'tools' - and we don't use them for their sake alone, but what they can do for our teaching and learning.
One of the other issues is whether students and/or staff have access at school as at times some tools (like glogster) can be blocked by the Education Dept. This can be frustrating when you locate a tool you can utilise with students, only to have access denied. I now check a site's 'allowability' prior to getting too excited about using it! Or, if as a teacher I have access, I use it as a teaching tool.
I too find SLAV's Bright Ideas a great resource for exploring new Web 2.0 tools and issues. I also appreciate the examples given of how some of these tools have been applied in various educational settings. Time is really the key issue for me too. That and the means to effectively choose, apply and promote the best and most timely application. At the moment I tend to target specific groups of teachers with the pertinent link and information, generally via email. Not a terribly systematic approach I know. In the meantime, one other useful ICT resource I was recently shown is - https://icttoolkit.wikispaces.com/online+Tools This A-Z guide provides an array of ICT tools including for Mind maps; Timelines; Image editing and more.
Karen Marston - School Librarian, Distance Education Centre Victoria
Sharon Your own webpage is a bit of a treat too! Congratulations. And I love the Book Week animations! Time is of course the essence - but it has always been so I guess. Whatever we can do whenever - the email approach works quite well to seed ideas Karen. And it is critical to not overwhelm or be overwhelmed - choose a few tools and promote those - we did that with audacity and wikis and the takeup by teachers has been good. Creates a demand for cameras, recorders etc etc though. And interesting too to apply the copyright laws - we have just been working on a flyer for our staff to remind them of the restrictions with youtube for example. Time and unblocking I need more of.
I went to an ALIA one day workshop on general Web 2.0 tools a couple of years ago, in preparation of assisting my Teacher Librarian with setting up a webpage for our school library. Since then we have had a complete rebuild of our IT system, so we haven't been able to implement any of our ideas.
(B?)logging into this blog has given me more specific resources and information on Web 2.0 tools for when we are able to get our page set up.
I would like to thank all of the participants who have shared their experiences and information on Web 2.0. I have taken note of the websites mentioned, and checked them out. They are very good, and I will be passing this onto my TL. Hopefully we can work on developing and setting up our school library page later in the year, or earlier next year.
There is certainly a lot of data and tools to use for Web 2.0.
Best wishes and regards to all,
Elisabeth Wells - Library Technician Blue Mountains Grammar School
The SLAV blog 'Bright Ideas' by Judith Way is a great resource as Judith keeps the teacher librarian community informed of new tools. Another terrific resource is called 'Cool Tools for Schools' at:http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/
ReplyDeleteand DiRT at: http://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/
I find I spend many late nights investigating new web 2.0 tools! I promote them by using them at school with students and informing/demonstrating to staff at meetings etc. While these tools are certainly engaging for our students (and us!), it's important to keep in mind that they are 'tools' - and we don't use them for their sake alone, but what they can do for our teaching and learning.
One of the other issues is whether students and/or staff have access at school as at times some tools (like glogster) can be blocked by the Education Dept. This can be frustrating when you locate a tool you can utilise with students, only to have access denied. I now check a site's 'allowability' prior to getting too excited about using it! Or, if as a teacher I have access, I use it as a teaching tool.
Sharon McGuinness, Teacher Librarian, Thirroul PS, NSW
I too find SLAV's Bright Ideas a great resource for exploring new Web 2.0 tools and issues. I also appreciate the examples given of how some of these tools have been applied in various educational settings.
ReplyDeleteTime is really the key issue for me too. That and the means to effectively choose, apply and promote the best and most timely application. At the moment I tend to target specific groups of teachers with the pertinent link and information, generally via email. Not a terribly systematic approach I know.
In the meantime, one other useful ICT resource I was recently shown is - https://icttoolkit.wikispaces.com/online+Tools
This A-Z guide provides an array of ICT tools including for Mind maps; Timelines; Image editing and more.
Karen Marston - School Librarian,
Distance Education Centre Victoria
Sharon
ReplyDeleteYour own webpage is a bit of a treat too! Congratulations. And I love the Book Week animations! Time is of course the essence - but it has always been so I guess. Whatever we can do whenever - the email approach works quite well to seed ideas Karen. And it is critical to not overwhelm or be overwhelmed - choose a few tools and promote those - we did that with audacity and wikis and the takeup by teachers has been good. Creates a demand for cameras, recorders etc etc though. And interesting too to apply the copyright laws - we have just been working on a flyer for our staff to remind them of the restrictions with youtube for example. Time and unblocking I need more of.
I went to an ALIA one day workshop on general Web 2.0 tools a couple of years ago, in preparation of assisting my Teacher Librarian with setting up a webpage for our school library. Since then we have had a complete rebuild of our IT system, so we haven't been able to implement any of our ideas.
ReplyDelete(B?)logging into this blog has given me more specific resources and information on Web 2.0 tools for when we are able to get our page set up.
I would like to thank all of the participants who have shared their experiences and information on Web 2.0. I have taken note of the websites mentioned, and checked them out. They are very good, and I will be passing this onto my TL. Hopefully we can work on developing and setting up our school library page later in the year, or earlier next year.
There is certainly a lot of data and tools to use for Web 2.0.
Best wishes and regards to all,
Elisabeth Wells - Library Technician
Blue Mountains Grammar School