Lesson 13-Reponse to readings-The Future’s Bright, the Future is…

As LIBE 477 winds to a close, I am excited to be writing this final entry into my blog. A small measure of the scope of my learning lies in the fact that I didn’t even fully understand what a blog was in January. Now, only four short months later, my own little technological diary contains 33 entries and incorporates a gamut of technologies previously foreign to me: slidecasts, animoto videos, podcasts, Flickr slideshows, voicethreads, links to wikis, YouTube videos…the list goes on. I might be tempted to believe that, by the force of my somewhat fragile mastery of this cool Web 2.0 gagetry, I have achieved my Week One goal of muscling my “dinosaur brain into the 21rst Century”. Picking up on Futurelab’s “The Future is Bright, the Future is…(2007) reference, this would be little more than my own version of viewing Web 2.0 as early converts to automobiles viewed these as “horseless carriages”. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are more than just the sum of their gadgets, compelling though these gadgets might be. I believe this to be one of the most fundamental truths I have grasped by reading, viewing, experimenting and discussing my way through this course. What the immergence of Web 2.0 has created is a whole new integrated information landscape with staggering quantities of digital content, open choice, digital spaces for collaboration and participation in the larger global community and countless opportunities to both consume and create information (Todd, 2008). The result is that our students are creating their own learning environments everyday, whenever they access a YouTube video, go on Facebook or read the Twitters of those they follow. For this reason, Futurelab asks a vital question I believe all governments, school districts and individual educators must ask: “When e-learning provides so many resources and in a way so easily personalized to meet their specific needs, what added value can schooling bring to the educational process?” (Futurelab, 2007). There is no doubt that educators still have a vital role to play but this role absolutely must change if we want our schools to maintain any future relevance at all. No longer can teachers present themselves as “information experts” but rather as “facilitators” in accessing the information and the experts and as fellow contributors to the communal body of knowledge that is the Internet. As Futurelab emphasizes, our job will be to “help fashion a curriculum which will focus not on content but on equipping students with the skills they’ll need to select, evaluate and make most effective use of so much multimedia all-singing, all dancing material” (Futurelab, 2007). Here is where the “new literacies” we have spoken so much about come in to play. In his lecture, “Learning 2016”, Stephen Heppell adds his own list of literacies to those of fellow experts when he speaks of the necessity to teach students to “create, critique, collaborate and communicate” (2006). It will be vital that our schools teach these new literacies or I believe our future generations could actually end up taking the horrifying path depicted in Epic 2015 (Sloan and Thompson). Personally, one of the questions that “keeps me up at night” is how teachers and librarians can best advocate for their students in this area, when school districts are cutting technology budgets along with all the rest, axing specialist positions, librarians being some on top of the list, and enforcing outdated and misguided restrictions to technology access in the spirit of “protection”. On the flipside, as someone who has always been somewhat wary of the invasiveness of technology, I question whether such innovations as open source learner management systems and their kin might greatly dehumanize our teaching and learning environments, something I feel would be very sad. While I have appreciated the flexibility and richness of my on-line learning experience, I must admit I would have preferred at least some face-to-face contact. My final and very personal concern is “how the heck” I will mange to keep up with the ridiculously fast-paced evolution of the technological landscape. Through considerable time and effort, I have managed to scratch out a rather tenuous perch in the Web 2.0 world and now comes Web 3.0! Despite these reservations, I find myself much more open and comfortable with the idea of approaching and mastering new technologies and I am absolutely convinced of the necessity to do so. As I look to the 21st century, I tend to find comfort in the perspectives of those thinkers who can bring the debate back to certain essential truths. When Stephen Heppell speaks of the future, he puts a very hopeful and a positive slant on the Worldwide Web and all its associated technologies. He refers to the 21 Century as a “learning age and a transparent age” and perhaps an age where Web 2.0 and even Web 3.0 tools will be there quite simply for the purpose of “helping people to help each other” (Heppell, 2006).

Lesson 13-Demonstration of new knowledge: My Vision of the Future

I thought you might like to see the Slideshare I created as part of my Vision for the Future assignment. To see my complete project, please visit Patrice's Vision for the Future wiki at: http://patriceslibraryvision.wikispaces.com/

Kids Of The Future

View more presentations from Patrice Mauriks.

Lesson 12- Response to readings: Reflections on Online Repositories, Open Access and Stone Soup

It was interesting to read the perspectives of both Willinsky and Esposito on the issues of open access and on-line repositories but I must say I was left a little confused. Should we trust Willinsky, when he states that “In this current knowledge economy, the Internet appears to be able, through various models of open access publishing, to do more to extend the circulation of knowledge, and to increase participation in a global exchange around that knowledge, than print has been able to achieve” (Willinsky, 2003)? Or should we believe Esposito when he warns that, “OA is the Botox of scholarly communications, a cleverly applied poison destined to keep a permanent smile on a publisher’s face (Esposito, 2004)? Thank goodness for Alice and her Voicethread on on-line repositories and open access! Her presentation made the topic much more accessible by bringing it out of the world of academia and into our classrooms and libraries.

One of the issues that Alice brought up is one that I thought very worthy of a little more reflection. I am now pretty familiar with Asselin and Doiron’s “Literacies for the Information Generation” (Asselin & Doiron, 2008), as I have addressed them in several of my assignments during this course. I have thought about their concept of “ethics and social responsibility” (Asselin and Doiron, 2008) from a variety of perspectives. This said, I hadn’t really considered the “responsibility” to contribute to online knowledge from quite the same point of view before reading Alice’s Voicethread. Do we, as teachers have an ethical obligation to share online and to teach our students to share as well? How important to digital citizenship is the idea of becoming “givers” rather than just “takers”? Alice’s point about the amount of time teachers “volunteer” to create resources is very well taken. I think it does impact on the willingness of some to generously “give away” what they have created. Is such reticence justified or is it the result of a narrow-minded, archaic point of view? In my comments on Alice’s Voicethread, I used an analogy of the wonderful art project that a teacher might create and share only to find that the following year, it had already been done and published on another teacher's bulletin board with no credit given. How important is the issue of credit and how well will it be respected as materials are cut up, mixed up and mashed up? I’m not sure, but I can’t help but think about one of my favourite primary school books, Stone Soup. Is the Internet not, in fact, serving as a facilitator for our communal generosity in much the same way the hungry travelers did in Stone Soup? How can it be a bad thing when we all take the little bits of knowledge that we have, which might individually not amount to much, and contribute them generously to the global “soup pot” of knowledge? When considered in this very simplistic way, OA seems to provide a great vehicle for the digital sharing that should perhaps not just be considered an option but a moral obligation.

Lesson 11-Response to readings: Learning about Open Learning

I just read Ester Shein's article "One Stop Shopping With Learning Management Systems and found particularly interesting the link to the Gwinnett County Online Campus (GCOC). Of course, I've been living my own "open learning" adventure since January but hadn't thought much about other contexts where such an opportunity might be helpful. While it seemed quite natural to be participating in such a program at a post secondary level, I hadn't considered the use of such technology to provide learning alternatives to high school students. There would be many situations where a high school student might wish to catch up or to get ahead and would find such an online option very desirable. I can also imagine that students who have health or other concerns would benefit greatly from LMS. The sophistication and flexibility of LMS is worlds away from what is now provided with traditional correspondence courses. Coincidentally, my son decided to take a correspondence course beginning this September. In our district, this was the only option provided outside the walls of the classroom. He made the decision to take Planning 10 via correspondence so that he could free up his schedule to take English 11 in his Grade 10 year. Unfortunately, he ended up really struggling to complete the course and "made it out alive" only with intervention by me and a high school counselor. As I compare my experiences using Vista to his using a much more traditional and limited model, I can understand why he found the learning process so challenging. His experience also really taught me that online learning definitely doesn't work for everyone. I can see that you would have to be a very independent, organized and self-motivated worker to optimize your learning...something that many 15 year old boys are not. This said, I can't help but wonder how much more positive the experience would have been for Zach had he been in an LMS environment. Here are a number of advantages I feel LMS has over "old school" correspondance.

More personalized contact: Zach had virtually no contact with his "teacher". When e-mails were sent for clarification, response would come but often a week after the fact. Also, there was no opportunity to connect with other learners for collaboration or discussion. With LMS there is personalized contact potentially through podcasts, video and even the possibility for a "virtual class". Relationship building and collaboration with other learners can occur through chat rooms, discussions forums or wikis. This would go long way to reduce the feelings of isolation and disconnect, which can be demotivating for anyone, but particularly for an adolescent, and enrich the learning experience.

More immediate feedback: One of the biggest frustrations for Zach was the lagtime between the time he handed in an assignment and the feedback he received from his instructor. This occured in part because his assignments were handed in to his school in hard copy format and had to be hand delivered to the office of his teacher. Pick up only happened once a week. It was only at this point that assignments could be marked according to their "position" in the pile, which sometimes took weeks.

No hard copy required!: At one point, Zach handed in one unit's worth of assignments (probably about 9 or 10 chapters.) These assignments somehow were lost in transit and he was asked to redo them...this was the straw that broke the camel's back for him! With LMS, there are no hard copy assignments. In addition, there are helpful tools to organize assignments and resources.

Many opportunities to be engaged: Planning 10 by correspondence was chapter after chapter of read and response type assignments. There is so much excellent and interesting content in Planning 10 and this could be presented in so many engaging ways within an LMS system. Connecting with "experts" through blogs, video, podcasts, virtual classroom environments, discussion forums with "classmates" and experts and many more possibilities.

Although an LMS would not have guaranteed success for my son, it would have made his first online learning experience so much richer and more relevant both to his life and his learning style. I hope our school district and others jump on this technological bandwagon very soon and I hope Zach gives it another shot...someday.

Week 10- Response to readings: Wrapping my head around mashups SOA and web services

The readings in this lesson were a challenge for me. I must admit that reading Breeding's article, Web Services in the Library Environment, felt a little bit like trying to read Chinese. This is probably due to the fact that, to date, I have no experience working in a library and this is my first TL certification course. Needless to say, my prior knowledge is pretty skinny. For this reason, I have been working hard to wrap my head around the concepts of mashups and web services. As I understand it from The Horizon Report, a mashup is “a web application that combines data from more that one source via a single unified tool” (2008, p. 20). According to the article, mashups are “powerful tools for navigating and visualizing datasets; understanding connections between different dimensions such as time, distance and location; juxtaposing data from different sources to reveal new relationships; and other purposes (Horizon, 2008, p. 20). This started to make sense to me when I read Eric Schnell’ article, Mashups and Web Services, in Library 2.0 and Beyond. On page 64, he describes “Almost 600 Google Maps mashups…that overlay maps with anything from gas prices, to hurricane tracking, to cell phone coverage, to locations where scenes from a particular movie were filmed” (Schnell, 2007, p 64).

Just when I thought I was getting a sense of the whole mashup thing, Schnell had to add service-oriented architecture (SOA) and web services into the equation. Actually, he does a pretty good job of explaining the SOA model in layman’s terms by comparing it to the manufacturing of cars using interchangeable rather than specific tools. Schnell goes on to explain that “if a library were to build an online catalogue using the SOA model, the bibliographic data, the core application, and the user interface would be designed as individual software modules. This modular approach to system and source development facilitates the flexibility and responsiveness required in a changing environment” (Schnell, 2007, p. 65). Schnell then goes on to link the concept of web services as being directly tied to SOA. Web services, he explains, “are websites that are designed for other computers to use” (Schnell, 2007, p. 65). Using Schnell’s article as a reference, Breeding is starting to make a bit more sense to me now. I can certainly appreciate that using web services would hold some definite advantages over library specific interfaces such as Z39.50, MARC and others. Schnell offers the following example: “ a library customer could access a library website to request a document. The online interlibrary loan management system could use a web service to communicate with OCLC or commercial suppliers to identify other libraries that could fulfill the request…the request system could then communicate directly with any of the suppliers to locate the item needed. During this process the customer receives messages updating them as to the progress of the order. The resulting service is a seamless system of communicating and exchanging information using non-proprietary, nonlibrary specific standards” (Schnell, 2007, p. 66).

As I understand it, opening the door to web services in a library setting, could also open up the door to all kinds of interesting library oriented mashups. Schnell talks about a number of great ones like Delicious Library, Go-Go-Google-Gadget and LibraryThing.

Some of the challenges in such a change in practice would be obvious. Issues of intellectual property versus fair use and data security come to the forefront, as do possibilities for trademark and copyright infringement. According to Schnell, the jury is still out on the use of mashups in a library environment. He believes that “Before mashups can make the transition from cool toys to sophisticated applications, much work will have to go into distilling robust standards, protocols, models and toolkits” (Schnell, 2007, p. 72). This being said, I would have to agree with Schnell’s point at the end of his article: “ Libraries need to move common resources to the network level and concentrate on customizing and creating value for their local customers. Libraries need to use SOA, web services and the mashup to strengthen collaborative efforts if we are to remain significant in the increasingly competitive information marketplace" (Schnell, 2007, p. 72).

Week 10-Demonstration of new knowledge: My first podcast

As my demonstration of new knowledge for Lesson 10, I thought it would be a good idea to create a podcast and incorporate it into my blog post. Before beginning this somewhat scary endeavor , I read Will Richardson's chapter on Podcasting (Richardson, 2009, pp. 109-122) in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. He has a great step-by-step on creating and editing podcasts. His information, in addition to the tutorial provided by Audacity, helped me muddle my way through the creation process. Although I need to spend more time practicing with the editing features, I found the general creation of the podcast to be relatively easy. Where I ran into difficulty was with the publishing. Will Richardson suggested using OurMedia.org to store the MP3 I created. He stated that the trick was to get a "unique URL that is assigned to the file to create a direct link to it in your blog" (Richardson, 2009, p. 118). Easier said than done Will! I spent well over an hour and could not get OurMedia to do what I needed it to do! I then went to Switchpod but it has apparently gone off-line. I was really getting frustrated when it occurred to me (after a desperate e-mail to Joanne) that I should use the "Help" function on Blogger and see what they had to say. Well, that did the trick! Blogger suggested a number of free hosting services and I chose Box.net. It was extremely simple to use. Within a couple of minutes I had signed up and been given an embed code for my MP3 file, which I have now incorporated into this post. So here it is, my first little attempt at audio publishing.

Week 9- Demonstration of new knowledge: YouTube here we come!

Dipping my toes into YouTube was generally an enjoyable and easy experience. Luckily, we had all the necessary gadgetry in our house. We also had the perfect occasion for creating a video. My daughter and her two friends were performing in their first singing festival together and were practicing up a storm.

As with several other of my interactions with technology, the creation of the product was very simple. It was in the publishing realm that I encountered a couple of little challenges. The first came from the girls themselves. They weren't crazy about the performance (they did sound much better on competition day!) and were hesitant to put themselves "out there" so publicly. Ultimately, they agreed on the condition that I not add any tags and that the video be removed at the end of this course. It makes me wonder how many videos have been published without the consent of their subjects.

Once recorded, I saved my video on Pinnacle Studio and retrieved it once signed in to YouTube. The upload process started fine but was taking forever. I had neglected to save the video in a format that worked well with YouTube. It was easy to get the information I needed to correct this problem from YouTube's "Video Toolbox". Once I reformated my product to an MPEG4, the video uploaded without a hitch.

I can certainly see why people get hooked on creating videos for YouTube. It's so immediate, simple and a wonderful way to share with friends and the greater public. So here are my little beauties singing "I Know It's Today" from Shrek the Musical. My daughter Kira is in the middle. Enjoy!

Week 9- Response to readings: There's Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education

In his article, There’s Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education, Gardner Campbell reflects upon the many educational virtues of the podcast. When Gardner wrote his article in 2005, podcasting was still a relatively up-and-coming phenomenon. Five years later, less from the point of view of creation but certainly from that of consumption, podcasts have become quite commonplace. I myself enjoy listening to a variety of programming via podcasts on my i-pod while I run. As with most of my interactions with technology, however, my personal use of multi-media tools has not often translated into my professional life. Gardner’s article is giving me a great opportunity to reflect upon how I might use podcasts should I find myself in a library setting, but more immediately, how I might use podcasts in my current practice.

I think the first time I really considered the power of the podcast was when Joanne used one to introduce herself at the beginning of our course. This being my first on-line educational experience, I was nervous about feeling cut off and depersonalized. Gardener speaks of the voice as being able to “connect with the listener on a profound level” (2005). What I experienced on hearing Joanne’s words was instant relief that I was in fact dealing with a real person, who was going to be open and responsive to my needs as a student. It’s amazing what a difference that little bit of voice contact made to my comfort level.

Gardner uses post-secondary examples of podcasting but many of the stated benefits could be applied to my Grade 1 French Immersion scenario. He speaks of “the explaining voice” (2005) as a conveyor of “microcues of hesitation, pacing and inflection” (2005). These are very important aspects of second language instruction. Gardner also states, “When we hear someone read with understanding, we participate in that understanding, almost as if the voice is enacting our own comprehension” (2005). Parents of students in French Immersion often struggle when providing at-home support to their children. They often cannot read the books that their children bring home and, if so, are not equipped to model appropriate pronunciation, pacing and inflection. I could imagine using a classroom blog to provide a “library” of teacher created podcasts to accompany books that are going home. Not only would this support students and parents, it would also provide an additional point of connection by bringing the teacher’s voice home. I know it would be quite the project to create such a library but what a wonderful resource you’d have in the end! Podcasts could incorporate such activities as weekly “dictée” words”, the sound of the week, listen and repeat, real tempo listening and comprehension and many more. French Immersion teachers often deal with a paucity of resources and are quite used to creating their own. With podcasts, these would no longer have to be restricted to the written word.

Week 8- Demonstration of new knowledge: Fooling Around with Flikr

I spent a little time this evening fooling around with Flikr. I chose to install Flikr software on my computer in order to facilitate the uploading of photos. The installation went off without a hitch (always a relief considering my already overburdened computer) and uploading photos was relatively quick and easy. Although I have not yet explored the full range of options, the site offers some interesting choices for organizing, describing and tagging photos. They have also partnered up with Snapfish so that, for a cost, you can create calendars, photobooks, cards and all kinds of other fun stuff. By making my photos "public", I was able to embed a short slideshow of them in my blog. These photos were taken during our little town's summer Ladysmith Days Parade...enjoy!

Week 8-Response to readings: The Structure of Collaborative Tagging Systems

I have made several entries on the topic of the social bookmarking system, Delicious, from the point of view of its usefulness as an organizational tool. As previously stated, I have found it to be immensely helpful in facilitating my "sensemaking” (Golder and Huberman, 2008, p. 3) of the plethora of information to be dealt with in the context of our coursework. For this reason it was interesting to explore a bit of the theory behind this very practical collaborative tagging system. It was particularly fascinating to compare how the evolution of my own tagging behaviours meshed with many of the issues addressed in the Golder and Huberman article.
Once I learned what Delicious was, my rationale for using it was very simple. It allowed me quick access to articles, research papers, videos and many other resources from any computer anywhere. It wasn’t until I began amassing a rather large inventory of resources that I started to appreciate the use of tagging as a means of filtering through my own “library”. For this reason I began to develop and fine tune a system of tagging that would best serve my needs. For these reasons, I fall very solidly into the broadest category of Delicious users described my Golder and Huberman: those who use Delicious for their own interest. Here is where the theory, as explained by Golder and Huberman, adds another layer to my understanding of Delicious and other social bookmarking tools. The authors explain that most users of Delicious bookmark for their own interest and not expressly for the “collective good”. Despite this fact, because of the public nature of Delicious, “useful public good” (Golder and Huberman, 2008, p. 3) may result anyway. It is the public aspect of Delicious that I had not fully explored before reading the Golder and Huberman article, so I will focus somewhat on this element now.
What makes Delicious “public” is the fact that, not only can you see your own bookmarks, you can access all bookmarks created by others. Delicious also allows access to other users’ personal pages and allows a filtering of these pages by tag. These features can provide an additional way of researching. If, for example, I was interested in articles on gaming addiction, I could browse others’ Delicious pages using the tags “gaming” and “addiction”, or maybe “gaming_addiction”, in order to find out what likeminded people were reading about these topics.
Golder and Huberman put some emphasis on the potential pitfalls of collaborative tagging in their article. Because there is no set taxonomy and everyone can tag as they see fit, certain challenges present themselves. This being the case, it is somewhat surprising that the tagging system is actually quite “stable” (Golder and Huberman, 2008, p. 7). This stability is apparently due to the fact that, “after a relatively small number of bookmarks, a nascent consensus seems to form, one that is not affected by the addition of further tags” (Golder and Huberman, 2008, p. 7). They believe that this stability has “important implications for the collective usefulness of individual tagging behaviour” (Golder and Huberman, 2008, p. 7). The authors attribute tagging stability to two factors, “imitation and “shared knowledge” (Golder and Huberman, 2008, p. 7). This makes sense to me in the context of my own behaviour on Delicious. When I first started tagging, I created my own tags without paying much attention to the interface showing “public tags”. As my library grew, the tags I began with were no longer useful because they were too general. I realized that my tags needed to be more specific and it became helpful to look to the public tags for “advice”. The idea of “shared knowledge” makes sense as well. It would be interesting to take a peek at some of the tags my colleagues are using to filter their course resources, but my guess is that they would be fairly similar to my own.
I will definitely continue to use Delicious and, thanks to Golder and Huberman, I can now more fully appreciate the ways in which social bookmarking benefits the greater collaborative community.

Week 7-Response to readings: The many things I didn't know about Facebook

Today, thanks to Joanne and Trailfire, I have been delving more into articles and commentaries on Facebook. After reading an Educause Learning Initiative article (May 2007), "7 things you should know about Facebook II", I thought the topic worthy of a revisit.

One of my concerns about Facebook is the whole issue of privacy. This is a concern to me, not so much in my own context, but when I consider the time that my teenagers spend in this social networking realm. It appears that Facebook provides many options for users to control who accesses their page and what they see. I knew there were some safeguards, of course, but I did not appreciate how specific these could be. According to Educause, " Beginning with the profile page, users can decide which of the elements are displayed and to whom...Another setting lets users specify who is allowed to see their profile in search results-profiles can be open to anyone, to users in some or all of the user networks, or only to friends. " But, let us not get too comfortable. As the Educause article states, "being able to control access to personal information does not necessarily imply an understanding about the ways-both good and bad-that the information might be used". In other words, just because my children have the option to choose wisely when it comes to personal privacy, this doesn't mean they have the maturity or judgment to do so. I have nightmares of my daughter going to her first job interview and discovering that her prospective employer has had access to a Grade 8 pajama party video. This is, of course, where a parent must be vigilant and knowledgeable about the tool, but are we vigilant and knowledgeable enough?

Another aspect of Facebook that I had not considered was the specificity with which networks can be created. I suppose this is because, for me, Facebook has been about "friends". I have never experienced Facebook being used by colleges or universities to facilitate the building of community among its learners. As the Educause article states, " the application is still fundamentally about relationships and the always-changing networks among individuals, but these relationships are increasingly based on professional interest, political activities and other connections that are not strictly social."

I'm still not sure that, as an educator, I would use Facebook as my social networking application of choice. It was interesting to read Don Johnson's perspective on Facebook in his Blue Skunk Blog. He expresses some doubts about the educational value of Facebook and asserts that other Web 2.0 tools might fit the educational bill in a more appropriate way. He was particularly forceful in this warnings about students and teachers "friending" on Facebook, stating that it, "violated the teacher/student relationship and could lead to actual or perceived inappropriate interactions" I think that, to some degree, this would depend on the context. If a specific network was set up and the student/teacher interaction occurred within a defined educational arena, it don't think alarm bells would be sounded. This said, it seems other social networking tools might be more suited to an educational environment. A Ning, for example, might to be more conducive to creating opportunities for networking and the building of community, while providing a bit more structure and control. The NCTE article, "Social Networking: The Ning's the Thing", provided some great examples of using a Ning in teaching.

As stated in Educause, "Facebook has become a model for how communities-of learners, of workers, of any group with a common interest- can come together, define standards for interaction, and collaboratively create an environment that suits the needs of the members." Whether educators choose to use Facebook, Ning or another social networking application, it seems most critical to acknowledge the underlying need of our students to interact in this fashion and to determine how we might best harness the social networking reality to facilitate the achievement of our educational goals.

Week 7-Demonstation of new knowledge: A quick word about Facebook and Twitter

Just a quick word on my use of Facebook and Twitter.

I had a Facebook account before beginning this course and I used it very sporadically, mostly to connect with those in my circle of acquaintances that live in other parts of the world. I must admit that I continue to use it very intermittently. Although I can fully appreciate why it is hugely appealing to my teenage daughter, it does not seem to be the way I most enjoy staying connected. I find so many aspects of the layout distracting and, although I enjoy seeing pictures that others send, I find it strange to see them with people I do not know and I wonder how these "friends of friends" would feel about me seeing them during their last trip to Vegas or on the beach in Maui. It is not that they are doing anything particularly compromising, it just seems somehow too intimate considering I do not know them at all. I will continue to explore this particular social networking tool and perhaps my sensibilities will change with experience and time.

While I have had difficulties warming to the use of Facebook, I find Twitter has some interesting advantages. Some of the tweets by the various professionals I am following have lead to fabulous discoveries and excellent resources. I cannot imagine anyone finding the time to read every message but taking a few moments to skim can provide a source of many thought provoking ideas. I particularly enjoyed how easily I could post my own Slideshare on Twitter and have it instantly available to others. I continue to find it distracting to see such messages as "I am drinking a Latte at Starbucks". The trick with Twitter, I believe, is to ensure that you only follow those you would find inspiring in the real world, those with whom you share common interests and agendas. By making serious, thoughtful choices about those you follow, Twitter can provide a wonderful opportunity for professional enrichment and growth.

Week 7- A reflection: Junk mail on a blog...how irritating!

Like many techno-newbies, I wrestle somewhat with concerns about privacy and with my own comfort level "putting myself out there" in the digital world. For this reason, I was quite disconcerted when I found "junk mail" on my blog. It had not occurred to me that someone might choose to use this forum as a foot in the door to deliver his or her personal agenda. Does this kind of thing happen all the time? Is this just an occupational hazard when creating such a public document as a blog? I couldn't help but feel it was an invasion of my personal space but then I guess a blog isn't my personal space anymore is it? I guess I will have to reevaluate my sensibilities if I want to become a true blogger. In the meantime, off to the junk pile it goes!

Week 7- Demonstration of new knowledge: Delicious revisited and more

Back in Week 2, I set up a Delicious social bookmarking account. I was inspired to do so by one of that lesson's articles entitled "Weaving Web 2.0 into classroom practice". For the last five weeks or so, I have been using Delicious to bookmark the many articles, websites, videos and other bits and pieces of information that have been building from a variety of sources. Initially, I could see the value of having an immediate, easy way to bookmark something of interest. I also appreciated that you could add additional bibliographical information. What I didn't fully understand at that point, was the notion of tagging. In Week 2, I only had a few documents bookmarked. I now have 65 bookmarks. As my list gets longer, my appreciation grows for the value of the tag. Tagging, used effectively, is an excellent organizational tool. The longer my list of resources gets, the more detailed I find my tags need to be. Initially, I was using such general terms as "Web 2.0" and "technology". Although these tags are appropriate, I discovered that I needed to be more specific if I wanted to have quick access to topic-specific information. If, for example, I didn't remember the name of a particular article, I only had to know that it was on the topic of wikis in order to retrieve it, assuming I imputed "wiki" as a specific tag. Of all the new technologies investigated so far in this course, I have found social bookmarking to be one of the most helpful in the process of "making sense" of and organizing information. At this point, I am using tagging more as an internal organizational structure and have not delved into the social aspect yet. Where I have been investigating this realm a little more has been with my forays into LibraryThing. Here is a place I could see myself spending some time! I have been in a book club for years and love to talk about books! I'll talk to complete strangers about their suggested reads, whether I'm in a book store, a library, on the beach or in a cafeteria line-up! For this reason, LibraryThing makes me feel like a "kid in a candy store"...so many like-minded people all wanting to discuss books! I have particularly enjoyed finding those who have my favourite reads on their book lists and finding out what other titles and authors they enjoy. I've also joined a few discussion groups and would love to spend some time "hanging out" there at some point. Here, once again, I come to the crux of an issue that is of constant wonderment to me. Where do people find the time? It amazes me how many hours people must invest documenting and discussing. Maybe one day I'll have the leisure time to do the same. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy being an occasional tourist in this wonderful world of books!

If you'd like to see how my Delicious list is expanding, feel free to access it through this blog. Above is a print screen of my LibraryThing page.

Week 6- Response to readings: Why wiki...and for what?

Why Wiki...and For What?

View more presentations from Patrice Mauriks.

Here is my presentation on wikis that I uploaded into Slideshare. I used PowerPoint, as this is a presentation software that I have a bit of experience with. It was interesting to become familiar with Slideshare, both from the point of view of its benefits and its limitations. I uploaded one my son's presentations to see what it would look like in Slideshare first. I'm very glad I did this because it helped me strategize a little bit before I started my own presentation. I'm pretty happy with the result and feel I learned so much! Due to my limited experience with PowerPoint I had a lot of mastering to do. For example, it took me a long time to figure out how to import pictures efficiently and how to maneuver my way through the program.

I hope you find my presentation informative and maybe a little fun to watch too!

For those of you participating with me in this week's discussion, questions are now posted on the discussion page under week 6.

Patrice

Week 5-Response to readings: More thoughts on Web 2.0 The Sleep of Reason Part I

This comment was one I made to a course-mate after reading Web 2.0 The Sleep of Reason Part I (Michael Gorman) and Will Richardson's chapter on Weblogs, Pedagogy and Practice from his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I thought it was worth noting here if for no other reason than to chart the evolution of my thoughts throughout this course:

As you point out Aaron, it is now so quick and easy to publish and/or access information online, while checking, authenticating, and legitimizing this information is much more time consuming. Will Richardson addresses this in this book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. On page 37, he writes: ..getting a handle on the reliability of Web content in general and blog content specifically takes time, much more than you or your students are used to. He goes on to describe specific steps in the assessment process. This definitely underscores the importance of the teacher/TL as "guide". What I wonder is how many users, so used to "quick fix" access to information, would be prepared to undertake the arduous task of verifying its reliability. I think Gorman makes some excellent points.

Week 5-Demonstration of new knowledge: I'm a Wikipedia editor!

Today was a day of Wikipedia immersion! I read countless articles on Wikipedia, reflected upon my own preconceptions and upon how these have changed in the course of my reading. I have formulated my own position and initiated discussion with my peers. Finally it was time for the fun stuff...editing a Wikipedia entry! Below is a print screen of my entry before edit, while the above image reflects the additional information I included. I chose Mount Washington, British Columbia because it's a place I'm quite familiar with, having spent time there hiking in summer and skiing in winter. I also know that it is very implicated in the plight of the endangered Vancouver Island marmot and I wanted to ensure that this reality was reflected in the entry.



I found working with Wikipedia much less "user friendly" than many other applications I've experimented with in this course. It was very helpful to have the Wikipedia-supplied "Cheatsheet" though. I found my speed and comfort level were already increasing by the end of the entry. It was particularly satisfying to learn how to create both Internal and External links and to see them in action. My next challenge on Wikipedia will be to learn how to include an image. I would have loved to import a picture or two from my personal library. That will have to be for another day though because I'm exhausted! If you would like to see my revised Wikipedia entry in all its glory, go to Wikipedia and search Mount Washington, British Columbia.

Week 5-Response to readings: My thoughts on Web 2.0 The Sleep of Reason Part I

It was very interesting to read Michael Gorman's perspective on the evils of the digital age and his rationale for claiming that the "anarchic world of the Internet" threatens the very foundation of human learning. I wonder what entertainment would come from having Mr. Gorman and Mr. Prensky in the same room together? I guess what made me think of Prensky when I was reading the Gorman post is that, in my view, both gentleman are similarly narrow in their perspectives. I feel that Gorman, like Prensky, makes some valid points in favour of his position. As Will Richardson says, "We've entered an age in which there are no longer many free passes when it comes to assessing the reliability of a source". I can understand on one level why Gorman pines for a time of "authoritative printed sources..." "created by scholars and published by reputable publishers". It did kind of make life simpler didn't it? With the advent of digital resources, the responsibility to authenticate now sits firmly on the shoulders of the "consumer". Will Richardson (pg. 36-37 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms) shares the perspective of Stephen Downes on this topic: "there is no way to tell for sure if something you read on the Web in general is true" "we can no longer trust even traditional sources to always be accurate and tell the truth". Downes summarizes by saying that "determining what to believe-or to not believe-is a matter of trust. You need to determine for yourself who to trust about what" (Downes, 2005)." The point that Downes makes leads me back to Gorman's article:
"Human beings learn, essentially, in only two ways. They learn from experience—the oldest and earliest type of learning—and they learn from people who know more than they do. The second kind of learning comes from either personal contact with living people—teachers, gurus, etc.—or through interaction with the human record, that vast assemblage of texts, images, and symbolic representations that have come to us from the past and is being added to in the present. It is this latter way of learning that is under threat in the realm of digital resources."
Here is where I find Gorman's position misses one of the essential strengths of the Internet. Although the Internet may make our interactions with "human record" more difficult to evaluate, it gives us a huge advantage in our access to "teachers" and "gurus", which, even by Gorman's own evaluation, can further learning. No longer do we need to be face-to-face with the people who know more than we do. We can now access our mentors by following them on Twitter, subscribing to their blogs, and by many other technological means. Although not face-to-face, my brief experience with this type of access to "living people" is that it is surprisingly personal. Of course, Gorman would only have us trust those in the "world of scholarly and educational publishing". In his subsequent post, The Sleep of Reason Part II, Gorman rails at the "cult of the amateur". In this Gorman is fighting a losing battle I believe. For better or for worse, the Internet has empowered us to chose our own teachers and gurus. The onus is now on us to choose well.

Week 4-Demonstration of new knowledge: Patrice's blogroll up and running

I continue to be amazed at the new vocabulary that has come to life for me these last several weeks! Animotos, Voicethreads, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, blogs..I could not have defined any of these terms at the beginning of September. Now, not only can I define them but I have even created a few of my own. The newest addition to the list is a "blogroll". You can now find mine on the sidebar of my blog. Check it out!

Week 4-Response to readings: Why Does Audience Matter?

Many thanks to Joanne for her "trailfire" on blogs and blogging. I found the article by Dean Shareski, "Why Audience Matters", particularly thought provoking. He begins by quoting a Hugh McLeod cartoon: "the good news is they're hyper-connected, the bad news is, that's all they are." This cartoon reflects to a tee how I often feel when observing my children on Facebook. Is it all about the number of friends? What is the actual quality of these relationships? If you wouldn't call someone up and chat with them on the phone, why, in heaven's name, would you want them as a Facebook buddy? I myself feel vaguely uncomfortable at the number of people I've responded favorably to on Facebook. Shouldn't we actually call it "acquaintancing", rather than "friending"?

Because of my internal struggle with "the shallowness and fluff" of many tech relationships, I was very interested in what Shareski had to say about the value of audience when it comes to classroom blogging.

I have never seen blogs in action in a classroom environment. I wish I had some solid experience to back up many of the online examples I've reviewed today. This said, I can certainly imagine that getting beyond the "Audience as Eyeballs" stage would be very important in order for classroom blogging to reach its full potential as a rich learning opportunity. I'm not sure, however, that I agree with his statement that it is "unlikely" that an "authentic exchange between interested learners" can happen uniquely in the classroom and that it requires "an audience from the outside". I think this position does not consider the importance of relationships. Would we not be more motivated to be thoughtful and creative in our learning when we have a relationship with those in our audience? This is not say that someone unknown can't provide interesting insights and perspectives but would this feedback be given more or less weight than were it to come from a fellow student with whom I have a physical/emotional connection? I'm not sure. I soon hope to have the opportunity to address these questions by "doing". I do, however, entierly agree with the statement made by Chris Lehmann at the onset of the Shareski post:"When having an audience is no longer novel, simply having one is no longer motivating. We must still help kids have something powerful to say."

Week 3-Demonstration of new knowledge: Regarding my Voicethread

In my previous post, you can see that I've been experimenting with Voicethread. It was a very interesting process. I can now begin to imagine what huge potential Voicethread has for the classroom! Wow! Off the top of my head, I can picture my Grade One students doing a "Book Sharing" of their favourite French picture books. It would be such and advantage to have them record their commentaries.

There are a number of key aspects of Voicethread I have not mastered. I haven't been able to edit my scribblings yet. Also, I'm not sure if I should have embedded this version as it does not look like a finished product in its presentation. I do not have a microphone set up but would love to try making comments verbally. Not bad for a first try I suppose. This evening I'm going to spend some quality time with the Advanced Tutorial. Onward and upward!

For those who wish to see and comment on this Voicethread. Please visit http://voicethread.com/share/863380/

Week 3-Demonstration of new knowledge: Fishing with John on the FV Sundog

Week 3-Demonstration of new knowledge:Fishing with John Voicethread

http://voicethread.com/share/863380/

Week 3-Demonstration of new knowledge: Animoto continued....too easy!

Thanks Joanne for your help with the embedding. I was, once again, looking for something complicated and it was just too easy!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Week 3-Demonstration of new knowledge: My first Animoto Video

Animoto is such a blast to work with! So is it a tool or a toy...hmmm? I had no problem uploading my photos and there was a nice variety of background music to choose from. Next time I'd like to try picking my own music from i-tunes. My Animoto video was also very easy to share on Facebook and Twitter. Where I'm running into challenges is embedding the video into my blog. Apparently this is possible but I've spent almost an hour and haven't been successful yet. I'll continue to work on this "technical difficulty" but, in the meantime, if you'd like to see my first Animoto video, feel free to check it out on my Facebook page.

Week 3-Demonstration of new knowledge: My iGoogle page

I've had some fun this evening setting up my igoogle page as you can see above.

The process to establish my personalized homepage with iGoogle really couldn't have been simpler. There were all kinds of crazy gadgets but I particularly enjoyed having my e-mail messages displayed and the option to read news headlines and weather. I was feeling quite on top of my techno-game, particularly when my 15 year old son didn't know what iGoogle was. Can I become a cutting edge leader in Web 2.0 after all?

Week 3-Response to readings: Prensky, backup or best method?

I just read the Prensky article, "Backup Education" for the second time today. As this was the first article I read this morning, I wanted to give myself an opportunity to reevaluate and "re-respond" in light of subsequent readings about Library 2.0 and its role in 21st century learning. For the second time today, I felt quite disturbed. I believe that Prensky does make some very interesting arguments for his "Backup Education" position. His sundial/watch analogy certainly helped me wrap my head around his basics versus best method idea. Some of Prensky's statements make a lot of sense. I have been party to discussions with certain "old school" teachers about calculators for example. I myself have made the argument that calculators are a desirable tool and will in fact not undermine a student's ability to do math. My rationale was one that Prensky argues as well. You can't properly use a calculator if you don't understand the underlying concept. Why then did I find Prensky's article so disturbing? Am I now one of those "old school" teachers who can't see that the best method has simply changed? Am I the only one who is shocked by the idea that we should teach reading and writing only until something better comes along? Perhaps what bothers me most is that Prensky makes certain assumptions that I find surprisingly elitist. Apparently, ALL our kids are going to have laptops, cell phones and automated cell phone wallets. He doesn't seem to take into account that technology and the ever constant need to upgrade such technology is extremely expensive. Does he consider that not all children will have equal access to these devices? At least writing doesn't require much more than a pencil. Can the same be said about his new "best method"? We already have such a division between the "haves" and the "have nots" in our schools. I am very concerned that Prensky's best methods would further widen this divide. Before we decide to make reading and writing obsolete, we'd better make very certain that not one child is left behind as a result.

Week 2- Demonstration of new knowledge: I can do a screen capture!

I finally determined how to do a screen capture and incorporate it into my blog. There is truly sweetness in little victories! This image shows a Touchgraph Google page that I was fiddling with.

Week 2- A reflection: Social networks and Haitian relief

This weeks terrible earthquake in Haiti has led me to reflect on the role of Web 2.0 tools in mobilizing community. A couple of examples come to mind. Driving home from work yesterday, I learned on Radio Canada about a large group of youth in Montreal who, communicating through Facebook and Twitter, agreed to present themselves at a Haitian community centre (La Perle Retrouvee) to offer condolences and support. Last night on T.V. I heard that a Californian actress (sorry, I've forgotten her name) posted on Twitter that she would send a free video to all who contributed more than $200.00 to Haitian relief. I'm guessing there are countless similar ways in which Web 2.0 has expedited and heightened our response to this horrible tragedy. Haiti being primarily a county of youth ( the median age being 18.4 years according to Wikipedia), it seems fitting that the young people of supporting countries, linked through social networks, would implicate themselves so directly in this massive relief effort.

Week 2-Demonstration of new knowledge: Playing around with Touchgraph

This evening I've been doing a little playing around with TouchGraph Google. The keywords I entered were "Grade One French Immersion Teacher Resources". I was amazed at what appeared on my screen in a matter of seconds! My plan was to follow Joanne's directive to use a screen capture to document my experimentation with this Web 2.0 tool. I must admit I was having some difficulties making this happen. That's when I realized I had the option to use a Delicious "tag". What an epiphany! If you would like to see the result of my little foray into the world of TouchGraph Google, visit My Delicious Bookmarks.

The more I use Delicious the more I love it! I've found it a very efficient way to keep record of the 477 articles I've read. Not only is access made effortless, but I can easily share my results with fellow bloggers. If you haven't yet had the chance, I would highly suggest you give Delicious a go!

Week 2-Demonstration of new knowledge: Visit my Delicious page!

To document my learning today on social bookmarking and more particularly Delicious, I would like to direct you to my Delicious site at http://delicious.com/patricemauriks

More to come!

Week 2-Response to readings: I think it might actually be Delicious

I have spent much of today trying to get a grasp of "social bookmarking".

I decided to sign up and "play" with a /Delicious bookmarking account. I was inspired to do so by our Lesson 2 article entitled "Weaving Web 2.0 into classroom practice". /Delicious is apparently owned by Yahoo so I needed to first sign up for a Yahoo account. O.K., I did that. I then spent many, many minutes reading tutorials and trying to determine what and how to bookmark.

I need to read much more to fully understand the benefits and implications of this particular Web 2.0 tool. This said, the Naslund article, " An Overview of Social Software Tools for Teacher-Librarians", has gotten me off to a great start.

I'm finding all the articles so helpful and informative that I thought it might be fun to bookmark all our readings for 477B. After much fiddling, I think I've got a start on it!

I wasn't sure at the outset, but I think that social bookmarking might, in fact, be quite /Delicious!

Week 1-Demonstration of new knowledge: I'm Official!

O.K. I'm officially a Blogger and a Twitterer (or is there a more official term?)! My learning curve has been so huge this week that I feel like I've hiked Mount Kilimanjaro! It has been a really fascinating process though. My biggest accomplishment I think was finally figuring out where and how to establish links from my blog to my personal sites. I was so excited the whole house had to know about it!

More adventures to come I'm sure!

Week 1-Reponse to readings: A reflection on my dinosaur ways

Just read the fabulous article by Asselin, M. & Doiron R. Toward a Transformative Pedagogy for School Libraries. I think I'm starting to "get it" a little.

In Asselin's article, I was introduced for the first time to such terms as the "Net Generation" and "digital native". My interaction with many of the 2.0 technologies has been quite minimal to date. Other than e-mail, internet surfing and the odd Facebook entry, I have been somewhat purposefully oblivious to what is going on in the techno-world. As someone who likes to sit in a comfy chair and read a nice linearly presented book, I find the tools very busy and overwhelming. What I'm starting to realize though is that it isn't about me. While personally I may seldom choose to interact with these technologies, as a teacher or teacher-librarian it is my responsibility to help my students develop "competancy in the new literacies of the Internet" (Asselin) so that they can fully participate in our rapidly changing society.

The views in Asselin's article were also reflected in one of the YouTube videos that Joanne posted on Twitter. Although I wasn't loving its country music presentation (sorry country music lovers!), the message was one to consider: "Prepare us (students) for the future and not YOUR past"

I will keep these thoughts in mind as I try to bring my dinosaur brain into the 21st century.