Quick, quick! Come see my Wiki!

"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself."
Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor (1847-1922)

So what is a wiki? Well according to one of the world's largest wikis, Wikipedia, it is "a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.[1][2]" Although not a difficult concept to grasp, the most straightforward description of a wiki can be found at Wikis in Plain English.

Clearly there are many benefits to using such a user-friendly collaborative tool, but the main one is the idea that "many hands [or heads] make light work." According to 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis, The Wiki Way states that "[a]llowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site...encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users." I think the most important thing to note is that it allows people, (in my case teachers) who are not "techies," to create and use a free tool with students that will make their work easier.

I created my jessicamartens wiki using PBwiki, as it was quite straightforward, and seemed to be one that is commonly used. In case you're confused, I go by my maiden name at school and once I am finished this course, I will take out the reference to my married name.

When I began checking out wiki sites, I started with PBwiki, and went on to Wikispaces as well as Wetpaint. I found Wetpaint to be far more involved than I was prepared to get, so I decided to save that for another day. In the end, the deciding factor was the name - Peanut Butter Wiki - I like peanut butter, so right now, when I don't have time to weigh all of the pros and cons, this seemed the obvious choice.

I began by setting up my frontpage, and then I personalized my wiki by changing the colour. I couldn't think of a logo, other than my school logo, and I thought that for the purpose of this course, I would leave that out for now. This was easy, but then I had to think about how I was going to use this tool with my classes. At the moment, the most logical step for me is to use it as a message board, where I post the projects that my classes will be working on. This is a good starting point because then students and parents can access the projects from anywhere. Also, I took an idea from Joyce Valenza's Springfield Township High School Virtual Library, and I am using the wiki as a pathfinder, which students can use to help them begin their research. I spent A LOT of time finding useful links, and I am hoping that students will contribute some links as well.

I realize, that there are many other ways that wikis can be used, but I am hoping that if I start with this, then other Social Studies 9 and English 11 teachers might contribute as well. I think that teachers and students can really benefit from the use of wikis when students are working on group projects. A wiki allows all group members access to the project at all times which would help to avoid the problems that arise when a group member is away, and s/he has all of the work on his personal drive.

What I appreciate about PB wiki is that so far, I have received daily emails from them with a new aspect of setting up my wiki. I have only really skimmed these messages, but it is nice to know that there is support available. I also found the pbwikimanual which I referred to several times while I was setting up my wiki; however, in all honesty, everything seemed quite straightforward, which makes me wonder if I am just becoming more knowledgeable and less fearful, or if wikis are designed to be that user-friendly. Also, I really like the fact that as a teacher, I can invite my students, and other people that I choose to edit and view my wiki, and I can trace who has edited it. This prevents students and others from abusing the ability to contribute information.

The one thing that I had a lot of difficulty with is that it seems I can't edit my wiki at school - everytime that I try, it crashes, and I can't save my edits. This is rather inconvenient, as I would like to be able to access it there, and I would like students to be able to edit it. I will have to investigate further as to what is causing this glitch.

I think that this is another tool that I can add to my toolbox of Web 2.0 tools that can easily be used with students and staff. In fact, a couple of other teachers and I are going to plan a fieldtrip to see a performance of Macbeth, and I am going to suggest that we use a wiki to list and check off the tasks that need to be completed in order to make this work.

A library is a library is a virtual library

"The only true equalisers in the world are books; the only treasure-house open to all comers is a library; the only wealth which will not decay is knowledge; the only jewel which you can carry beyond the grave is wisdom." J. A. Langford

Although Langford is referring to a library filled with books, he couldn't have possibly known what was to come with the arrival of new technologies. He would not have been able to envision the benefits or the possibilities of virtual school libraries for students and educators. According to digital library federation in the USA as quoted on the Library and Information Science wiki, virtual libraries, also known as digital libraries, "are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities." There are many other definitions available, but this seem to encompass all aspects of what a virtual library is.
Here begins my exploration of virtual (also known as digital) school libraries. This is the first time since the beginning of the course that I have had an inkling about the blog topic for the week. But to be honest, I had not yet explored virtual school libraries as a teaching or learning resource. What I discovered was that there was yet again another valuable option that I hadn't fully investigated.
Before I began my exploration of several different virtual school libraries, I wanted to know what some of the advantages and disadvantages of this library format would be. The advantages seem to vastly outnumber the disadvantages:

According Virtual Libraries Supporting Student Learning, some of the advantages of virtual libraries are that they:

• allow for instant access to a wide variety of resources which couldn't possibly be available in "physical collections"
• are available anytime and anywhere
• provide opportunities for learning that might not occur in a regular school library
• contain information that is current, and can be easily updated (which is almost impossible when working with print material)
• are "organized and managed to increase productivity and efficiency of the user"
• make audio and video resources available, which can benefit people who are visually and hearing impaired (as well as engage the students of the 21st Century many of whom are visual and oral learners)
• more importantly, provide the opportunity to "build a different type of library collection in [which] student created art, photography, oral histories, local histories, and local survey data" can be housed.

Disadvantages of virtual libraries seem to have more to do with how the students use the information. Many of the initial concerns about access and the skills to manouveur through a VL don't seem to be an issue any longer as computers and the Internet are used in almost every household. One of the main concerns is that students have difficulty "making effective choices when confronted with multiple databases" (Gunn) and as a result struggle with deciding which information is relevant.

As with many of the teaching and learning options available through the Web, I think that the virtual library is another one of those unexplored opportunities due to the fact that teachers aren't aware of the possibilities. It would be beneficial to have some professional development in which educators could investigate the many different virtual school libraries. With this in mind, I began my investigation.

I began by visiting Joyce Valenza's virtual library, and I was immediately drawn in by her daughter's amazing artistic depiction of Springfield Township High School Virtual Library! The site is so visually appealing, and easy to navigate through that afterwards I was continually comparing other virtual libraries to it. There are many online lessons and activities that can be used by any teacher or student, such as What's the Fuss About the Thesis? or any of the many teacher resources found under Links for Teachers. Something new that I learned about on this site is pathfinders which resemble Joanne's trailfires in their function, as they help to direct students' research. It seems that originally these were pages that listed links for students to access, but Valenza is in the process of converting these to wikis so that others can add sites to the pathfinder. From what I understand of wikis, and am realizing about the collaboration aspect of Web 2.0, it makes sense to allow visitors to the site the opportunity to contribute their knowledge for the "greater good." However, in using wikis, there is the potential for some people to link sites that are not necessarily appropriate, or that aren't applicable. I tend to think that this wouldn't happen, but to ensure that it doesn't, the librarian probably needs to be more diligent in checking the pathfinders, whereas before this wouldn't have been an issue.
The next Virtual library that I visited was Bessie Chin Library at Redwood High School. After looking at Springfield's VL, I found this site to be very visually unappealing due to the "busyness" of it. In particular the announcement feed running along the top which was a constant distraction to me. However, despite this, there are some useful handouts one of them being the Website Evaluation Rubric. There are many links for students to follow, but the design is much simpler in that it doesn't expand on information in content areas (Social Studies, English, Science, etc.) as widely as some of the other VL's that I visited.

I then explored the 3 other VL's that Joanne listed, but because these were elementary oriented, I did feel a little out of my element. I began with Grandview Elementary Library Blog, which has a beautiful home page. It is colourful, clearly laid out, and straightforward for parents and teachers to use. I don't think students would use this often, as it seems to be a K - 3 school, and the level of writing is adult oriented. But what it does do is provide parents with some useful tips, such as what they can be doing before, during and after reading a story, as well as encourages them to visit the grade level links so that they can know what projects students are working on in class. There are many interesting powerpoints, links and podcasts that can be followed in the Reader's Theater, Poetry and Story Telling areas. The one tool that I found useful for all levels, and one that I will bookmark, is the link to the Digital Pencil. This tool provides links to the Commoncraft "In Plain Engish" series, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's 7 Things You Should Know About... series, as well as several inspiration videos, etc.

I proceeded to investigate Parkcrest Elementary School Library and McLurg Elementary School sites, both of which were also clearly laid out and informative, although I didn't find them as colourful or attractive as the Grandview site.

Upon investigating these sites, the one thing that became clear is that they all have great security in that a visitor has to have a student name and password to access many of the links, in particular the ones where student work is shown. Also, the VL's would not want to allow everyone access to their databases.



I also followed the link for other examples, and came to School Library Websites Wiki where I proceeded to investigate many of the high school links because these would be useful for me, and I would have a better understanding of what information students and teachers would find useful. What I found is that these were all American based, and although bits and pieces were useful to me, I wanted to find something Canadian, and I lucked out and found Esquimalt High School Virtual Library a relatively "local" school. I really liked this site because it was clearly laid out with the intro page highlighting and linking to some social issues such as Climate Change and a great powerpoint on Millenium Development Goals. This is a useful VL for someone teaching or learning the B.C. Curriculum. Another plus, is that it is one of the few sites that links to a variety of podcasts which would be of interest to both teachers and students.

Further exploration led to South Carleton High School Virtual Library located in Ontario. Although more simplistic than the Esquimalt example, it does have many useful links for students to follow. In particular, it links to the Ottawa Public Library, Carleton University Library, University of Ottawa Library, and Algonquin College Library. This is likely only useful for students who can access information from these places using logins and passwords from the librarian. Another great site is the Calgary Board of Education site - I like the way it had the libraries divided into 3 different levels and it is very visually appealing - in the same style as Springfield Township's VL.

So . . . What would my Virtual School Library look like:

If I could find someone with Emily Valenza's artistic abilities, I would definitely want my library to resemble the Springfield Township and Calgary Board of Education sites. Because I believe that a library should be a colourful and inviting place to be, I feel that a VL should do the same. I want to draw students in so that they are excited about whatever the topic is they are studying. I would try to include the following besides the obvious information about library hours, where to find information, and so on:

• pathfinders that are wikis because of the collaboration aspect
• highlight a social issue that students and/or teachers are interested in
• links to podcasts, photo sharing sites, graphic organizer sites
• links to databases and newspapers
• if possible, links to the public library, as well as the local university or college libraries

My goal would be to make the VL one of the sites that students and teachers would automatically visit when they are about to embark on research or class work.

Podcasting with limited success!

I had a great time creating this podcast featuring my daughter's recitation of a couple of nursery rhymes that she recently learned. However, there were numerous steps that I needed to follow, which I would not have been able to do without Podcasting for Teachers & Students by Tony Vincent. Listed below are the relatively easy, straightforward steps that I followed:
1) Download Audacity - a program which allows one to record and edit audio
2) Practice, and "pump up" my daughter's enthusiasm about talking into the computer - a fairly easy task, as it is still relatively novel for her.
3) Record her nursery rhymes
4) Edit the file to get rid of some of the "dead air" - I could have deleted her comment about having to "concentrate," but I thought it was cute.
5) Add some sound effects using SoundSnap - I found a great "water" sound, as well as a turkey gobbling. Then I had to find and add a "burp" otherwise the rhyme doesn't make sense, and my daughter doesn't include one.
6) Export file to my desktop
7) Download Levelator - a program which "levels out the volume"
8) Add identifying tags in iTunes
9) Create artwork using Piknik - this was a fun and allowed my creative side to come out. I could see myself spending a lot of time doing this
10) Add artwork to my podcast
11) Save the file to my desktop
Up to this point the steps were fairly easy, although some more time consuming than others, but this is where I hit a stumbling block. I wanted to have my podcast accessible on my blog. I spent several hours trying to figure this out and have now decided to attach a link for fear that I won't be able to accomplish this today.
I hope that you enjoy Jes' Podcast! I know that it makes me smile when I hear it, but I am slightly biased.

Podcasting

"Podcasting will shift much of our time away from an old medium where we wait for what we might want to hear to a new medium where we choose what we want to hear, when we want to hear it, and how we want to give everybody else the option to listen to it." Doc Searls of IT Garage as quoted from the article "Podcasting 101 for K - 12 Librarians" found in Computers in Libraries v26.

Podcasting in Plain English refers to podcasts as "Personal On Demand Casting," which is a clever phrase that makes sense to me, although it is not the origin of the word podcasting according to Wikipedia.

I love Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe but very seldom am I close to a radio on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 pm in order to listen to this great program. Not only that, but I would love to have my English students listen to Stuart telling one of his humorous stories about Dave and Morley and their "real-life" antics. Well, through podcasts, I now have this ability, and I am THRILLED!!!

For the past few days, I have been reading about and listening to podcasts, as well as searching for different podcasting sites. What I have discovered amazes me and terrifies my husband . . . I could spend literally every minute of my day listening to presentations, music, and discussions through podcasts!

I love listening to the radio, particularly the CBC, as I am working in the kitchen, which is where I spend a lot of my time. In fact, the radio is the only way that I can stay informed because I am one of the few people in the world who doesn't watch TV. And, of course, I have some radio programs that are favourites such as Vinyl Cafe, Hot Air, and Sounds like Canada (which sadly no longer exists as of September). But what I have discovered through learning about podcasting, is that I can actually listen to most of my favourite shows, or specific episodes that I want to hear whenever and where ever (once I get an ipod) I want to. AMAZING!!! The question that I kept asking myself this past week is why didn't I explore this sooner. Granted, I don't have an ipod, and I just assumed that I would need one in order to be able to listen to podcasts, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

I now have our laptop plugged into the kitchen, and I find myself searching for something to listen to as I wash dishes or make lunches. I had no idea that there were so many podcasts of personal and professional interest available on the Web. This has truly opened up a new world for me. I have even gone so far as to ask for an ipod for Christmas from my family, so that I can download podcasts to listen to when I go for long drives, or when I finally manage to find time to go walking again.

I have to admit that most of the podcasts that I listened to the past few days have been for personal pleasure, but I also spent some time looking at podcasts that could be used in teaching, and I came across a few sites that were quite useful: Podcasting in Education, is a helpful site that explains what podcasting is and how it can be used in the classroom; The Education Podcast Network, which is provided by David Warlick and The Landmark Project, is designed to bring together podcasts for teachers and students, and Education World has several articles on podcasting. Of course there were many more to choose from, but I found that these could be useful for teachers and students. Furthermore, I was even able to listen to a podcast about Podcasting in the Classroom.

My head has been spinning with the possibilites for podcasting in my classroom. In the next few weeks my grade 11 students will be studying Macbeth, and I plan to divide students into groups, and have each group create a podcast for one of the scenes that we will be reading. I think that this will be a great way for them to work with podcasting, as well as allow them to collaborate and be creative through the editing process. I can also see this being beneficial for me and my colleagues, as it allows us to access and listen to educational materials when we have time. We can also incorporate podcasts into our teaching to support our auditory learners, as well as to encourage other students to develop critical listening skills. Clearly there are many more ways to use podcasting in the classroom, but I am going to start with Macbeth in hopes of getting my students excited about studying Shakespeare.

Bookmarking - Personal or Social?

"You have to solve a problem that people actually have," Schachter says [about the creation of del.cio.us]. "But it's not always a problem that they know they have, so that's tricky" Technology Review.

Joshua Schachter the creator of the original del.icio.us probably didn't realize the impact his bookmarking system would have on the Internet when he originally launched it in 2003. Not only is it a social bookmarking system, but its use of tags is also making it an invaluable resource for many.

I was one of those people that didn't know I had a problem, until about two weeks ago, when suddenly everything changed.

Let me preface this by saying that I have three computers that I consistently work on - two at school and one at home, and I have the same list of favorites on all of the computers. The way that I achieved this was to always email myself the sites that I had bookmarked, so I could access them at either location. (Right now, I can almost see all of you in cyberspace shaking your heads and laughing at me.) Only now do I realize what a waste of time this was.

The slow destruction of my old system began at the end of August when I started EDES 501, and started to visit and revisit what feels like hundreds of sites on the Internet. I happily bookmarked many of the sites that I had been visiting - some for future reference, others because I needed to investigate them further. As per usual, I emailed myself all of the site URL's that I had bookmarked, but I was beginning to have an inkling that this was not the best scenario..

Suddenly, two weekends ago, my semi-organized world came to a screeching halt! I (somewhat) merrily went into school to work on photosharing sites; however, the entire network was down, which meant that I couldn't access anything. My frustration escalated, as I realized that I was unable to work at home that day because my husband and daughter were housebound due to the rainy weather (Anyone with young children will understand why working at home wasn't an option for me). Suddenly, I could feel panic setting in as I realized that I would need to
a) find a computer to use and
b) waste precious time by having to find all of my bookmarks over again.

Fortunately, I was able to use a computer at my husband's school, but I spent (wasted) a lot of time trying to find all of the sites that I had bookmarked. This is when I thought to myself that there must be a better way to make this work. With all of these great web tools, I should be able to access my bookmarks from anywhere in the world.

In keeping with the inquiry topic for this week, I embarked on a journey of trying to stay organized in an electronic Web 2.0 environment. But the first thing I needed to figure out was what this tool might be called. Fortunately, it didn't take too long to figure out, so I then began reading Solomon and Schrum's section on social bookmarking in Web 2.0 - new tools, new schools. They note that "traditional bookmarking is an exercise in frustration because students use different computers each time they work[,]" and even if they could work at the same workstation, it is possible that someone may have erased the information. Frustration was what I was feeling , so I knew that I was on the right track.

Then I went on to read Richardson's detailed description on social bookmarking. He talks about both Furl.net and del.icio.us (Note that this spelling is no longer used); his favorite being Furl.net. In general, I have found that Richardson's favourite tools are also the ones that I tend to gravitate towards because they are the most straightforward. However, since the first edition of his book's printing, Delicious has undergone some significant changes to make it have similar features, as well as a few more than Furl.net.

Social bookmarking in Plain English comments that "social bookmarking sites take a world of chaos and make it orderly." Due to the fact that it is becoming more common to work from different spaces such as one's laptop, personal computer, computer at work, and possibly a hand held device such as a Blackberry, it is necessary to be able to quickly and easily access one's bookmarks. This is just one more step to staying organized in a Web 2.0 world.

I went on to explore both Furl.net and Delicious, and found Delicious to be more user-friendly than Furl.net. What I found particularly useful was that Delicious was able to import all of my "favorites" directly from my computer into my account. This was not an option on Furl.net, and it saved me a lot of time. I then proceeded to "tag" or label everything, as I originally had everything in folders in my personal bookmarks. I was pleased with how easily this was accomplished. I was definitely hooked, and I feel very relieved that I can now access the information that I need from anywhere in the world. In fact, the minute that I get onto a new computer, I install the Delicious Internet Explorer add-ons, so that they are at the ready.

So what are the implications for teachers and students?

"[A]lthough del.icio.us didn't need lots of users to be useful, once it had lots of users, it became valuable in an entirely new way. Almost accidentally, it became an excellent tool for making sense of the Web" Technology Review. For me and my colleagues, social bookmarking can be a great organizational tool, but I also learned that it can be a great resource to share information about a particular topic with each other, with students or others in cyberspace. By making my bookmarks "public," and using common tags I enable others who are looking for similar topics to access them. The beauty of social bookmarking is that it "allows like-minded individuals to find one another and create new communities of users that continue to influence the ongoing evolution of folksonomies and common tags for resources" Educause.

The one thing that became obvious to me this last week was that teachers on my staff are not aware of social bookmarking and the many advantages found through tagging. As I spoke to my colleagues, I was the only one who was exploring it. When I expanded my search to include my students, they also didn't know what I was talking about. Clearly my job in the coming weeks and months is to espouse the benefits of social bookmarking sites and encourage colleagues and students to sign-up and try one out! I think they might be amazed by the vast amounts of "organized" information that they will have at their fingertips.