INF506 - Evaluative and reflective statements

Part A - Evaluative Statement

The evaluation of the content covered in the modules needs to cover various areas and is not limited to the exposure to new social networking tools. As a result there is only one tool that is evaluated in this report as it is the most relevant one to solve the current communication challenge that is facing the school (Doyle, 2013 April 21). In addition to the social networking tools themselves, it is important to examine the associated issues related to this technology. The first one is examining the different engagement levels and roles in using this technology as it has definite consequences for the success of their adoption. Finally, the issue of information validity must be examined as it is an issue that is facing educators worldwide and is directly related to the redefinition of information that social networking has caused.

A range of tools were trialled during module 2. RSS is the tool that proved to be the most relevant to solve a communication problem at our school. RSS, Rich Site Summary, is a way to distribute changing web content which is used by many news servers as well as blogs (Attitude Group Ltd, n.d.). It enables people to easily stay up to date with a variety of news and other information sources. It means that people do not have to actually visit every site to get this information, but get it all delivered to them courtesy of a RSS feed reader (Murley, 2009).

An RSS feed is a tool that could begin in the library as a way to stay in touch with clients. As this tool is gaining wider use in the community as a way for them to stay up to date with news sources, applying the use of this tool for library news would not be a substantial time investment for parents. Ultimately, with evidence of success, it is a tool that could gain wider use by the school community. Our school newsletter is a common topic of discussion in regards to whether it serves its purpose, or whether there is a communication tool that would be more effective (Doyle, 2013 April 21).  Providing an RSS feed to parents so that they can stay up to date with school news could be an appropriate alternative to the   traditional newsletter.

The Boston school example (Doyle, 2013 April 21) shows how multiple feeds can be used to serve a variety of purposes.  In this case there were separate feeds for news, events and alerts. Similarly, an individual school could also offer a number of feeds, including one that offers library news. In addition to this, there could be a connection to the school calendar, as shown by the example with Rosalie School, that has a separate RSS feed for their calendar (Doyle, 2013 April 21).

The research conducted by Bernoff (2012) that was explored during Module 4 was an interesting examination of the social media roles that people adopt. While it seems a simple categorisation of the way people view or interact online, it has implications for any social media strategy that could be employed. If a strategy was dependent on large scale active participation, then there would be a risk that it would not be successful since the research shows that a large proportion of users prefer to take an observer role (Doyle. 2013 May 6).

This result from the research also needs to be considered in regards to the use of this technology with children as a part of learning. If a large majority are comfortable simply to operate the applications as observers, there will not be the level of collaboration that may have been hoped for. The challenge for a teacher or teacher-librarian is to determine if there are any barriers to participation for these users and whether the removal of these barriers would result in different levels of active participation. In addition, it is unclear whether the results of Bernoff (2012) equate to the same numbers when considering child users of the technology. Children are naturally more adept and confident with using new applications and may deliver different results if they were the focus of this study.  

In module 5, the issue of finding authentic information in a socially networked world was explored. The growth in use of social networking has meant not only a higher level of access to information, but the ability to be a creator of information. The collaborative nature of applications such as wikis and blogs means that more people than ever before are creating content. The problem for educators is that information that in the past would have to pass through editors and publishers before being accessible on a shelf to students is now undergoing very little scrutiny before being available for viewing by students who report it as fact (Lorenzo, 2007). The greatest challenge in gaining the most value from this collaboration is teaching students how to determine the validity of the information they are viewing. Lorenzo (2007) believes that we too quickly mistake students’ technologically savvy confidence for the ability to distinguish the different between quality information and misinformation.

Part B - Reflective Statement

My evolution in thinking from the beginning of the session to now is dramatic. My original definition of my understanding of social networking and its reach within an information agency was grossly limited. The initial post that I made during this subject was limited to the perspective of a user (Doyle, 2013, March 9). The growth in understanding that has resulted has led to the realisation of the extent to which these tools can be harnessed as a facilitator or creator of content. While there has been the addition of new, useful tools that can be used by students to build collaboration and communication, there has also been the opportunity to harness this technology as a way to build upon the library’s services, develop promotional strategies and most importantly in 21^st century education, maintain relevancy.

Kelly (2009, March 10) raised an interesting idea, suggesting that individuals have the choice whether or not they adopt a certain technology or application. Presently, you can make the decision whether to participate in Facebook, for example. However, this subject itself proves this point wrong and suggests that opting out of social networking is becoming increasingly difficult. Since the forum for this subject was run as a Facebook group, it meant that everyone undertaking this subject had to be a member of Facebook. Similarly to this example, there are more instances where social networking is becoming a requirement rather a choice (Doyle, 2013, April 20). If this is the current growing expectation in the professional world, then the world that will greet our students is one that will have a more complex weaving of online and offline worlds. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of the educational system to prepare students for this connected world.

In a school setting, it is vital that any new initiative or tool that is introduced for staff use is one where the benefit will clearly outweigh the cost and effort. Forcing a new program onto a staff can be an unpredictable process (Wizenried, 2010). However, for teachers it is no longer acceptable to opt out of technology, or simply rely on colleagues to complete any computer related task on your behalf. We have gone from learning to use technology, to using technology to learn. Any teacher or teacher-librarian who ignores the latest advances in social networking technology as a tool to learn, collaborate and communicate are doing themselves as well as their class and school as disservice. 

As with the introduction of any new technology, policy development must grow at the same rate. At RHS our current Acceptable Use of Technology agreement that is signed by students and parents does not take into account participation in social media. A revision of this document through consultation with the various stakeholders is necessary to ensure we are sufficiently regulating the use of these tools.

The role of the teacher-librarian as a facilitator and possible champion of this technology is going to be multi faceted. While the obvious avenue is educating the staff and students alike about the technical requirements of using this technology, the larger issue of pioneering a shift in thinking is the more complicated role. This involves redefining how we see information, not as a static fact but rather an evolving idea that can develop through collaboration and discussion.

A change in approach is required in regards to facilitating research for students. The process for conducting research at my school remains the same as when I was in primary school, except the source of information is usually the internet instead of books. However, such a dramatic change in source requires a definite need for a change in approach. Information is now up for debate and critical literacy skills are becoming a vital requirement for the 21^st century student. The future challenge is to redefine our roles in education so that we are teaching the skills to distinguish quality information, rather than acting as the delivery system, so that the top ranked result on Google is not automatically praised by all as the ultimate holder of knowledge (Wittenburg, 2007; Garfinkel, 2008).

This subject has challenged my thinking more than any other that I have participated in so far. The initial expectation that I would be an expert in this area was swiftly challenged as I found a whole arena of new ideas and interesting discussion points about the future of information. The collaborative nature of social networking and the creation of content means that the definition of information has been altered. Therefore, our approach to teaching and learning is also experiencing a dramatic shift that needs to be managed effectively so that teachers and teacher librarians are not left behind.

Reference List

Attitude Group Ltd. (n.d) What is RSS? Retrieved at: http://www.whatisrss.com/

Bernoff, J. (2012). The Global Social Takeover [January 4]. Retrieved from: http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2012/01/the-global-social-takeover.html

Doyle, P. (2013, April 20). INF506 Module One thoughts ethnic technology [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://pendoyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/module-one-thoughts-ethnic-technology.html

Doyle, P. (2013, April 20). INF506- Module 2 – Blogs etc – Possible communication solution + OLJ activities [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://pendoyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/inf506-module-2-blogs-etc-possible.html

Doyle, P. (2013, May 2). INF506- Module 3 – Library 2.0 OLJ activity [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://pendoyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/inf506-module-3-library-20-olj-activity.html

Doyle, P. (2013, May 6). INF506- Module 4 – Making web 2.0 work [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://pendoyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/inf506-module-4-making-web-20-work.html

Doyle, P. (2013, May 11). INF506- Module 4 – Making web 2.0 work [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://pendoyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/inf506-module-5-social-networking-and.html

Garfinkel, S. (2008). Wikipedia and the meaning of truth. Technology Review, 111(6), 84-86. Retrieved from www.technologyreview.com

Kelly, K. (2009, March 10) Ethnic Technology [Blog Post].
Retrieved from: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/03/ethnic_technolo.php

Lorenzo, G. (2007). Catalysts for change: Information fluency, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the new education culture. (March). Retrieved from http://www.edpath.com/images/IFReport2.pdfDoyle, P. (2013, March 9). INF506 First Post [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: http://pendoyle.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/inf506-first-post.html

Murley, D. (2009). The power of RSS Feeds. Law Library Journal, 101(1), 127-135. Retrieved from http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/llj/LLJ-Archives/Vol-101/pub_llj_v101n01/2009-08.pdf

Wittenberg, K. (2007). Credibility of content and the future of research, learning, and publishing in the digital environment. The Journal of Electornic Publishing, 10(1). Retrieved from: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;rgn=main;view=text;idno=3336451.0010.101 

Winzenried, A. (2010). Visionary leaders for information. Centre for information studies, Charles Sturt University: Wagga Wagga.

INF506 - Module 5 - Social networking and information policy

OLJ activity - The challenge of finding authentic information in a socially networked world

The most urgent and important issue being raised at my school at the moment is the need for students to be able to evaluate the quality of information. So willingly the accept whatever is written on Wikipedia or other sources that aren’t necessarily presenting authentic information Lorenzo (2007) agrees that the level of misinformation on the internet is causing educators problems when students are reporting it as fact. Part of the problem, stated by Garfinkel (2008), is that whenever something is searched for on the internet, the Wikipedia entry on the topic is always one of the first search results that appears. As a result, students believe that this means it is the best source.

Lorenzo raises the interesting point that we make the assumption too often that since students seem technologically savvy in their everyday interactions and navigations online, that they are equivalently savvy when in comes to determining the validity of the information. While the skills of the students seems to be far outstripping their teachers, the skills that are needed in order to process all this information is not moving at the rate.

The possible answer to this problem is suggested by Wittenburg (2007), that the role of teacher librarian, as well as teacher needs to be redefined. This means responding to the needs of young students, rather than lecturing them for using Google as a source of information (Wittenburg 2007).

 

The modern day librarian now needs to be as technologically savvy as the students that he/she teaches. Rather than spouting the knowledge found solely in books in the library, the librarians role has to focus more on the search process through digital media.

Through my own work in the library the last 2 years it has become apparent that students become stuck on the first step of the information search process and do not properly define the purpose for their search. Due to this they are often flooded with information that is irrelevant or misleading for what they are actually looking for. The new role of a teacher librarian needs to be to step students through the ISP for digital resources.

 Reference List

Garfinkel, S. (2008). Wikipedia and the meaning of truth. Technology Review, 111(6), 84-86. Retrieved from www.technologyreview.com

Lorenzo, G. (2007). Catalysts for change: Information fluency, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the new education culture. (March). Retrieved from http://www.edpath.com/images/IFReport2.pdf

Wittenberg, K. (2007). Credibility of content and the future of research, learning, and publishing in the digital environment. The Journal of Electornic Publishing, 10(1). Available http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;rgn=main;view=text;idno=3336451.0010.101 

 

INF506 - Module 4 - Making web 2.0 work

This module has made me rethink what I thought this subject would provide. While I thought I would be exposed to a range of social networking tools to teach the students for them to use in the learning. However, it has provided the additional bonus of learning how to develop a strategy for using social media as a way to improve library services and promotion.

 

OLJ – Social networking to meet organisational needs

Bernoff (2010) recognised in his research that the majority of people fill the role on mere observer online rather than conversationalist which I would’ve assumed. Perhaps this study is already showing its age and if updated today would show a larger proportion of people engaging in online conversation through Facebook and Twitter. However, once reviewing an updated version of these statistics it shows very little change in the categories of conversationalist and observer. So while there may be more people using social networking technology, the roles that they are taking have not changed.  It cannot be ignored that apparently so many users act as only observers online and do not often contribute to the conversation. This means that when planning a social media strategy for the library, it needs to be taken into account that more people may observe action on a social network than participate and contribute.

These are important findings to take into consideration when planning a social media strategy for my own library. While there is a socially active parent community at our school, it is likely that their online social networking role adoption would reflect in some way the results of Bernoff. Therefore, while it would be beneficial that there is some level of conversation that is part of our social network presence, it is also necessary that sufficient information is provided or accessible for those that are simply going to access our service as observers.

This has larger implications for our school as a whole. As we are having communication issues due to parents not reading out fortnightly newsletter, it may serve us well to consider a web 2.0 solution, enabling our parent community to access our school news and event information in smaller parts but at more regular intervals.

Reference List 

Bernoff, J. (2010). Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder [January 19]. Retrieved from: http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.html

 

Bernoff, J. (2012). The Global Social Takeover [January 4]. Retrieved from: http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2012/01/the-global-social-takeover.html

 Brown, AL. (2009). Developing an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy [July 30]. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com

INF506 - Module 3 - Library 2.0 OLJ activity

OLJ - A-Z of social networked library

The following five points are considerations of how social networking needs to be embraced by our school library. These have been taken from Anna Laura Brown's A-Z of social networking for libraries, http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/

 A – Active

Inactivity could be seen as a sign of disinterest. By being active on the social networking elements of the library site, it shows that information is current and not stale. If you are not active and constantly updating your social media status then users will believe that you are not serious about your social network presence.

B – Blog

Maintaining a blog is a great and easy way to keep users up to date with information on the library. A blog would be the main element in my library’s social networking strategy as they are a great way to connect with students and encourage them to participate and contribute to discussions and ideas.

G – Good reads

The way that I get users through the doors of my primary school library is by providing high quality children’s literature that they want to read and explore. I share new acquisitions and encourage students to explore beyond their safety zone and implore them to recommend their favourite to others. Our OPAC users the review function so that users can write reviews and recommend books to each other. Using a blog or other web 2.0 feature would be a great way to inform students of new and exciting books/magazines/graphics that are available and would continue to foster the strength of our collection.

M – Mobile

The majority of our upper primary (year 5 & 6) students have access to a mobile device that accesses the internet (often at school). With the capability of phone and ipods to access the internet now a large amount of a students web access is happening on a mobile device. Therefore it is vital that our social network is accessible from such a device. It is also a goal to have out OPAC accessible from a mobile device.

R – Reference

With the increasing reliance on the internet as a source of information, it has raised the issue of effective referencing and education about copyright and plagiarism. Therefore, up to date and easy to follow information about referencing is necessary to be accessible for students.

 

 

INF506 - Module 2 - blogs etc - possible communication solution + OLJ activities

Looking through the 12 microblogging tools it raises a whole wave of opportunities that could be open for schools. Co-op would be an ideal solution to a communication problem at my current school. There was a previous noticeboard system that operated successfully a few years ago that worked to keep teachers informed on what was going on in the school. When the ACT department of education changed their systems and got rid of this tool, we needed to find a new solution to this issue.

The replacement for this system has been to send a multitude of whole school emails on a daily basis. The problem with this system is that the number of emails can become overwhelming. Also, when responses are made to these whole school messages, they are often not returned as “reply all”. This means that people are left out of the loop and there is the constant feeling of having to catch up to what is going on. A web 2.0 solution where the discussion and answers can be followed and tracked means communication and decision making can be made clearer.

An additional bonus to a new web 2.0 tool for this problem would be to enable a forum for sharing ideas and tools in order to make the work environment more collaborative.

However, before considering introducing this tool to the staff as a solution, it is necessary to examine the obstacles. We are operating in an environment with varying levels of digital literacy where there is constant discussion about the level of technology that should be taught and implemented in students learning. With a high workload already in place, the introduction of yet another task that needs to be completed (contributing, checking, responding to the co-op) could possibly result in an immediate opposition from a number of staff who are already feeling overworked.

A possible way around the opposition from the teaching staff could be a slow implementation of the tool with interested staff. Therefore, this small scale introduction would need to be successful in order to generate positive word of mouth to encourage other staff to want to take part in the project.

However, the problem this tool would solve is a whole school problem and would be difficult to trial a solution to it without including the whole staff. Therefore, in the beginning it would need to be trialled with a specialist group that would use the tool on a specific project that could be free standing from the rest of the staff.

This is an exciting prospect that could solve the nagging communication problem that has been wearing away at the staff for a number of years. Getting this project off the ground will be the real challenge.....

OLJ activity - Delicious

 

As a teacher-librarian at an IBO Primary Years Programme (PYP) school, I spend a large amount of my administration time looking for up to date resources to support the teaching of our constantly evolving programme of inquiry. The current function on our opac that enables websites to be listed is not one which has proven useful or friendly for use in the classroom. Delicious offers an alternative way to save and share these resources.

Initially I have been using my delicious account as a way to find resources that will support learning at my school. Simply searching the term ‘pyp’ opens up a vast range of resources that have proven much more useful than an identical google search. While google simply searches for the term ‘pyp’, the resources on delicious are those that have been deemed useful by someone to be associated with the program.

 My original plan was to set up an account for the library and add resources that would be relevant for a particular unit of inquiry. This means adding individual links that may be relevant for one of eight different year level teams. The comment box enables me to clearly define what the resource is or/and justify its relevance within the inquiry. Eventually I hope to convince a wider range of teachers within my school to use delicious to add to the communal knowledge pool.

Delcious is a simple to use tool that would be beneficial to use as a tool to share resources within a school community. The context of a PYP school means that resources cannot simply be rehashed each year, but due to the changing nature of the program, the resources that are required also change. As a result, it is a program that is worked on by a collaborative team of teachers throughout the school. A central tool such as Delicious would be an effective way to collect and share relevant resources and one which I hope to share and implement at a whole school level.

OLJ activity - RSS

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a way to receive a variety of news sources without visiting their website using a RSS feed reader (Attitude Group Ltd, n.d.).

An example of a primary school that has harnessed the RSS feed is http://rosalie.wa.edu.au/news-feed/. This school uses the feed as a way to share information with their school community. Their intention is that this is an easy way for parents to find out headline news about their school which can fit into their busy schedule (Murley, 2009). They also have a separate feed where you can subscribe simply to the school calendar so you are aware of events.

At a larger scale, school systems have started to use RSS feeds to provide information to their students/parents. http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/rss-feeds is an example of a school system that has set up several RSS feeds for purposes such as events, alerts and news. This enables parents to subscribe to the individual feeds that they are interested in and stay up to date with that particular source of information.

There are 3 ways RSS could be used at my school.

With teachers: An RSS feed, in addition to our delicious account would be an ideal way to use an rss feed within my school. This would be an efficient way to share new tags or links from delicious.

With students: Another way rss could be used within a school environment would be to share the blog posts of various classes. It has become popular for classes, or in some cases individual students, to start their own blog where they record and reflect on their learning.  In order to gain the most advantage from these entries it would be ideal for these blogs to be share at a year/whole school level. This would give the blogging tool more of a chance to be used as a tool of collaboration as it would raise the viewership of the content and increase the chances of interaction.

Communcication with parents: Like the examples above, using an rss feed could be an efficient way for us to communicate with our school community. Parents often do not read the school newsletter which contains a range of news and information on upcoming events at school. Using the headline approach may be a more effective way to deliver this information.

Attitude Group Ltd. (n.d) What is RSS? Retrieved at: http://www.whatisrss.com/

Murley, D. (2009). The power of RSS Feeds. Law Library Journal, 101(1), 127-135. Retrieved from http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/llj/LLJ-Archives/Vol-101/pub_llj_v101n01/2009-08.pdf

INF506 - Module One thoughts - ethnic technology - the right to choose

The article Ethnic Technology (Kelly, 2009 March 10) raises some interesting points in regards to the take up of new technology.

Individual choice over using a technology is a concept that I would challenge. While it is seemingly possible to choose not to participate in social networking, current work and social pressure and expectations dictate otherwise. While applying for teaching jobs overseas it become necessary to become adept at using Skype as this was the only form of communication that potential employers would use. Without giving in to this necessity it would diminish any opportunities to pursue international teaching work.

In addition to needing social networking skills over a variety of apps in order to attain the job, it is necessary to stay up to date on various applications as part of the function of the work. Some employers question the ability to teachers to facilitate learning using a variety of social network tools. If it was truly up to an individual’s right to opt in or out of using social networking apps they would then be made to forgo the majority of opportunities provided in a professional teaching and learning environment.

Beyond the workplace pressure, social pressure is now forcing people into adopting social networking technology that they would otherwise have avoided. A clear example where there seems to be widespread acceptance and adoption of a technology is Facebook. This is an application that has had widespread adoption within the developed world. It is not rare to hear a discussion at work based on something that was shared using Facebook or Twitter. To be an outsider on this technology then leads to becoming an outsider on many conversations that arise from such online interactions.


Kelly, K. (2009, March 10) Ethnic Technology [Blog Post].
Retrieved from: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/03/ethnic_technolo.php

 

INF506 - First post

Social networking provides opportunities for people to not only connect online with others but to collaborate with them. People can create online communities that when effectively managed are able to jointly construct ideas and solve problems. The increasing advancements in both website and mobile application technology are enabling social networking to bring further benefits for education and other professionals.

Social networking sites that are already being accessed include Facebook, Blogger, Twitter and the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Schools Connected Learning Environment. Facebook and Twitter, until now have been used solely for personal purposes. The chance to use Facebook as a professional and learning tool will be interesting to explore during the course of this subject. Blogger has been used previously during this degree to chronicle learning. In addition, Blogger has been used with a primary class to report their learning to a wider audience. The ACT schools Connected Learning Community is a new initiative that is still being implemented in ACT public schools that allows students to have their own blogs and communicate on forums with classmates.

Throughout this subject, it is anticipated that there will be further exposure to emerging technologies and their uses in education will be explored. It is becoming a growing expectation in educational contexts to be adept at using social networking applications for educational purposes. Pursuing this subject as an elective could be seen as quite beneficial in operating in these environments. It has become increasingly important considering a new teaching opportunity that is beginning in Vietnam mid way through this year. Effectively harnessing social networking for professional purposes means being able to sustain professional relationships in Australia while extending my professional skills internationally.