Wikipedia

It was last year in March that I had had my first discussion about wikipedia. It was in a circle of people that consisted of a media specialist from Illinois, a retired San Francisco College librarian a doctor, music teacher and little ole me. The SFC librarian had mentioned the questionable content of Wikipedia. The shame he felt for subjecting an unknowing public with any information that had not gone before a board of review to approve the content. Little did I know at nearly the same time a year later I would be recognizing the importance of reliable and valid information. John's article strikes me with a twinge of humor as I reflect on the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911. It puts my Goodwill purchase of 1957 World Book Encyclopedias to shame. I must say they were a steal at $15 for the whole set. The information that my own children take from these books must be scrutinized for its validity. I cannot imagine the time people have to check, edit, add and remove information from wikipedia. Clearly there is some one on some sort of "bored" of review.

Test Results

I was interested to see our results compared to the other schools and our own pretest. It was good to see some gain in what students had learned in regards to information literacy including reliable resources. It took me a little while to understand the results. I would like to see another updated version with all the results form the pre and post tests. Highland had a slight increase in correct answers and that could be for many different reasons. I would like to suggest that the Pretest and Post tests be rewritten to use the language that may be more user friendly. Perhaps I as a teacher need to stress those concepts in the vocabulary used in the tests.

Free Tutors Online

I am so excited about the Saint Paul Public Library Homework online. I will be telling my classes about it tomorrow. I can not believe that I missed that piece earlier in the year. What a powerful tool. Thank you SPPL.

Last Class

I know from the class that I am definitely more aware of the new technology and ways we can incorporate it into the classroom. I cannot fully express the benefits that I and my students will recieve. When Karen mentions that we will have to review the wiki information and its new enhancements, I find myself a little nervous. It is hard to relearn constantly. It is just like our email at school that says Campus will be updated in the next couple of weeks with the 2008 version. Scary. Will it work? Why do I have to start over at the end of the year? Will I be adjusting once again to a new look and new buttons to push? I guess the phrase is Open to change. As public school employees we are being asked over and over again to change. I hope that I can continue to be open to change. I will continue to work at imporving my computer and resource searching skills. My puzzle piece goals are good to set and put together. I am excited for summer, but realize that I must continue to blog and experiment with the technology to keep my know how fresh

Highland Community

Highland Park Senior High School is currently making attempts to redefine our mission, values and goals. Our administrator has worked diligently to get our staff to take ownership of our school with hopes to create a common focus. In her attempts to open a discussion she has planned 3 community meetings. Each meeting she has opened with the You tube video clip " Did you know...challenges for the future" which was an updated version of the piece we saw called "Shift Happens." This is a great way to start looking at what we do in our classrooms and to consider looking at what we do in a different way. It is hard to envision taking advantage of the technology and jumping into the information literacy when the money necessary to equip and train seems so sparce. It is a challenge to plan and incorparate the technology into our classrooms with so many demands.
One of the items our technology group agreed upon was creating a computer lab space closer to the library. This space would allow students research space close enough to the media specialist so that the students would utilize the most reliable resources with the assistance and support they need. We talked about more opportunities for the students to stay after school to complete papers and research. Students would have more fair and equal access to the technology.
Technology is only one piece. We need to be creating a culture of accountability for each student. We want a student body that values working together and sharing ideas. Study groups should be encouraged. Communication via the most up-to-date technology would enhance any of these efforts. Just getting the technology is not enough. We have to be ready to use it and Prepare for its use. So much for my ramblings...

Technology PDP

One of the Professional Development Plans this year was a Highland Park Information Literacy for the 21st Century a Technology initiative. We met for one of the last times to contemplate year one. We want to provide fair access to all students so that they can use the computers for research and documentation. (to be continued)

PostTest complete

I completed my post test with my student groups on May 1,2008. I was only able to schedule 13 Dell Lap Tops because all of our labs are reserved for MCA testing, Administrative events and IB testing. The challenges we encountered were when some of the computers were not working. Since my classes were about 25 to 35 students I thought that I would have half the class complete the test online. Later I would switch during the class period and allow the 2nd half of the class to test. As smooth as that might sound it is difficult to use the laptops when there are so many that do not work well. There were some students that got near to the end of the survey when the computer mysteriously died. Some students voiced disgust feeling they were being required to fill out one more online test. There was some absenteeism this time and with the altering of class schedules some students were tested that may have missed the initial pretest. Some of my students were taking the post test for the 2nd time since they had done it in Mr. LeCompte's Chemistry class on the same day. The students all completed it and we will move on to continue to incorporate Technology literacy in our classes.