Last year, the Educational Testing Service reported that most college freshman lack the necessary skills to successfully navigate today’s information rich world.  They know how to IM and post on the various social networking sites but they have difficulty in identifying bias, determining accuracy, effective search strategies, etc.  Their report said that they were going to try to secure nation wide support for an information literacy curriculum in schools and colleges.  Simpson asks the question, why don’t they know about Information Power and the literacy standards that we are already teaching.

In several recent blog entries, discussion between librarians and others, have focused on the issue of having a common set of standards for information literacy.  As it stands now, literacy standards are part of the Information Power, International Society for Technology in Education and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  To add to the mix, the English teachers, the science teachers, the social studies teachers and other have their own standards.  All of the standards have common features and share a common goal-to create information literacy citizens. 

Here in Virginia, the information literacy standards are incorporated into the State Technology Plan and each school division was encouraged to adopt an information literacy model that would be used across all grade levels.   Many of you have done an outstanding job of incorporating these standards into your library program.  The Linking Libraries project at DOE has lessons that show how to connect information literacy to the subject area content standards.

One way that we might begin educating others is by developing a common language.  If you mention information literacy to many classroom teachers they have no understanding of the term.  But when we start talking to them about students being able to locate, access, evaluate, produce, and communicate information, they can quickly relate.  Add Bloom’s taxonomies and critical thinking to the discussion and suddenly you are making a connection to their curriculum! 

VEMA has a Information Standards committee that has been presenting at the regional and state meetings.  They share how we can communicate outside of our library community the value that we as the information specialists contribute to academic achievement. 

So, what are you doing with information literacy?  Who are you sharing your skills with?  Do parents, teachers, and the community you serve know what their children are learning when they visit your library?  If the answer is no, then as Simpson says in her article, “If we don’t snatch this chance, the technology folks will, and we will have sealed the fate of librarians as dinosaurs who refused to move with the times.”

Happy Sailing! 

    I began to think, why did I join VEMA?  I joined VEMA back in the mid 1970’s and have continued my membership since then.  Why do I stay in?  I will answer that by pointing out 5 things you may not know about VEMA.

1.  There are close to 2,000 members.

2.  VEMA is the state affliate to AASL and is nationally recognized by both ALA and AASL for their outstanding contributions to school libraries and academic achievement.  Several Virginians have served or are currently serving as officers or board members of the national organizations. 

3.  VEMA offers scholarships to aspiring and current librarians.

4.  VEMA provides opportunites for professional growth through regional meetings, summer leadership training, the annual conference and through a quarterly newsletter, The MediaGram.

5.  VEMA connects us with thousands of other librarians who are facing the same challenges as we do every day.  The list serve links those who need to know with those who know.

I know that if you are reading this, you probably are already a VEMA member, but I am sure that you know others that aren’t.  Copy this, forward this, print this out, and share why you are a VEMA member!

On behalf of the VEMA Board, See you at the Regionals!

Just to review, the Virginia General Assembly placed into law effective July 1, 2006, a mandate that all schools include a component of Internet Safety into the K-12 curriculum as part of the same legislation that required Acceptable Use Policies and filtering technologies. A complete guide to the legislation is included in the Guidelines for Internet Safety available for download at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/OET/internet-safety-guidelines.shtml  I encourage each of you to read the guidelines and to become familiar with the recomendations.  I would also suggest that you identify who in your division has been charged with creating the Internet Safety program. 

As librarians, we are constantly charged with ensuring that students are informed and ethical users of information.  This legislation provides us with another opportunity to teach both students and faculty how to be safe online.  It is also another opportunity to teach alternate search strategies that do not involve open Internet searches.  The databases provided by the Library of Virginia are an excellent alternative to guide students and staff to for quality information.

But, it is important to remember that while at school, our students are protected from accessing unfiltered information, we also need to teach them what to do when faced with situations such as requests for personal information and cyber bullying.  The educational value of Internet 2.0 and other emerging technologies must not get lost in the fears of what might happen. 

School divisions are facing a giant disconnect in the area of technology.  Students are used to controlling the technology and making it fit their life style and learning demands.  School technology leaders are trying to ensure maximum network efficiency while at the same time working to determine how best to incorporate new technologies into the system.  No easy job for either the technology advernturers in the instructional realm or for the persons charged with maintaining a robust and secure network environment. 

Your thought?

At the AASL Affiliate meeting on Sunday, each affliate was given an opportunity to meet with its membership and discuss areas of change and growth.  As a group we were lead through a discussion on a mega issue: How can AAS/ALA enhance its value to propective members in order to significantly increase membership?  The mega issue was broken down into 4 defining questions.  The assembly was divided into 4  groups each charged with looking at the issues and determining possible reactions to the questions.  We were asked what do we know about the issues and what choices could we make to impact change or do we need to do nothing? 

Several interesting questions were raised such as why join AASL/AL?   What is the hook that causes people to join?  What are we going to do to attract new members, younger members, members who represent culture and ethnic diversities?  No easy answers came for any of these but it was an opportunity to raise the issues and determine their level of priority to the organization.

While there, I also attended a seminar sponsored by OCLC, ” Who’s Watching YOUR Space?  This was a panel discussion lead by Michael Stephens, Howard Rheingold, and dannah boyd (No caps intentionally).  The seminar’s message was that the Internet has changed the site of the authority of the text and it is up to the reader to determine the authority of the entry.  Today’s students are no longer passive users of the media, instead they create, consume, and modify information.  Today’s changing technology forces us to question what level of privacy are you willing to give up for the sake of technology.  We are creating a new voice with a unique identity and are modifiying our identity to meet the demands of the technology of the moment. 

As librarians what changes are we making to accomodate the new ways of learning?  How do we work with those who control our infastructure to allow us to be on the same playing field with our students in managing technology?  What changes do we need to make in our instructional practices to insure that they have the skills required to determine the author’s authority? 

Wow! Lots of questions…very few answers…Your thoughts?????

I recently received an email from a librarian from a small conservative area of the state who was concerned about the growing number of young adult novels that contain language and topics that are often graphic and explicit. She wants to offer a well-rounded collection of titles to meet the needs of her students but feels that many of the topics would not pass the scrutiny of the morals of her community. She wondered how others were dealing with this issue.

Your thoughts…..

Professional Reading

This month’s issue of Teacher Librarian is a must read! Our own Gail Dickinson has an article entitled, “The Spirit of Inquiry in Information Literacy”. The focus of the issue is on the Teacher-Librarian as a Learning Leader.

Annual DOE Educational Technology Leadership Conference

Once again, VEMA was included in the sessions offered to the over 1100 conference attendees. John Osterhout, Kathy Lehman, Lori Papa, and Margaret Flanagan presented sessions highlighting the work of school libraries and technology integration.

Internet Safety Update

The DOE recently released a guidance document on guidelines for meeting the state mandated Internet Safety Instruction. The document may be downloaded at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Technology/OET/internet-safety-guidelines.shtml

     There were several sessions at the recent technology conference. If you or your school is doing something to communicate to parents, teachers, students, etc., please share your ideas with us. We would love to hear from you!

     Several sites of interest may be found by going to Trackstar, http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/;jsessionid=3150CA77EB3F03F16DF2E41F07D9A469 A simple search will provide you with lots of information. To access the one created by Charlie Makela, the password is ALMS.

‘Tis the Season of Lights:  Sites to Explore on the Winter Solstice

1. Web Feet

http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm

2. From Encyclopaedia Britannica

http://school.eb.com/all/search?query=December+Celebrations

http://school.eb.com/all/eb/topic?idxStructId=645665&typeId=13

3. From eLibrary http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/elib/do/results?firsttime=y&set=search&referer=&edition=&sortResultsBy=TopicRelevance

4. EBSCO Host

http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=5&hid=105&sid=1fc53c33-5d3b-45aa-a5b3-8bba5a6e55e0%40sessionmgr104

5.  SIRS

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-sub-display?id=SVC00146-0-6865&method=date&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=N&keyno=0000078545&0000078545=Y&auth_checked=Y

6.  Thompson Gale

http://find.galegroup.com/ips/infomark.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&docType=IAC&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A154690970&userGroupName=va_s_007_0162&version=1.0&searchType=BasicSearchForm&source=gale

Media Literacy Through Hoax Sites— from WebFeet Spotlight

The Internet is an outstanding source for information; however, not all Web sites should be trusted. Some sites may appear legitimate, but in fact are jokes or deliberate hoaxes. These sites fall into that category. They are excellent examples for educators who are teaching students how to identify bogus information–a useful skill, especially when citing sources in a research paper.

Britain for Americans
http://www.brookview.karoo.net/BFA/

BuyDehydratedWater.com
http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/

Cloning of George Washington Reported
http://www.angelfire.com/la/jfled/george2.html

Dog Island
http://www.thedogisland.com/

Case Analysis of a Historic Killer Tornado Event in Kansas on 10 June 1938
http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Conference_papers/SELS96/WoO.html

Feline Reactions to Bearded Men
http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html

First Genetics
http://www.firstgenetics.com/

Godsend Institute
http://www.godsendinstitute.org/home.html

Mechanical Marvels of the Nineteenth Century
http://bigredhair.com/robots/

University of Santa Anita : The True But Little Known Facts About Women and AIDS
http://ithaca.edu/library/research/AIDSFACTS.htm

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
http://www.vhemt.org/

Lacuna, Inc.
http://www.lacunainc.com/home.html

McWhortle Enterprises, Inc.
http://www.mcwhortle.com/

The Dangers of Bread
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/bread.html

Mike Sandman … Chicago’s Telecom Expert: Telco Powered Products
http://www.sandman.com/telco.html

Miskatonic University
http://www.miskatonic.net/

MoonBeam Enterprises and the Lunar Travel Agency
http://www.dreamweaverstudios.com/moonbeam/moon.htm

Ninja Burger
http://www.ninjaburger.com/

NonprofitableTech
http://www2.nonprofitabletech.com/

The Ova Prima Foundation
http://www.ovaprima.org/

Oxford Open University
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/EmirMohammed/university.html

Republic of Molossia
http://www.molossia.org/countryeng.html

RYT Hospital: Dwayne Medical Center: GenoChoice: Create Your Own Genetically Healthy Child Online!
http://www.genochoice.com/

RYT Hospital: Dwayne Medical Center: POP!: The First Male Pregnancy
http://www.malepregnancy.com/

Sellafield Zoo
http://www.brookview.karoo.net/Sellafield_Zoo/

The Time Travel Fund
http://www.timetravelfund.com/

California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge (1993)
http://www.umbachconsulting.com/miscellany/velcro.html

DHMO.org: Dihydrogen Monoxide: Research Division
http://www.dhmo.org/

AFDB: Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie
http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html

Thumbshots Ranking

This is a cool site, http://ranking.thumbshots.com/ that can be used to help students understand the need to search more than one search engine. Put in the search terms, select two search engines to compare and it will graphically display the overlapping links, unique links, and the total number of links found. It also displays the link ranking for each page and compares where it falls within the selected search engine.

May you celebrate the Holidays with joy and love.

Admiral Charlie

How do you deal with copyright as related to multimedia,specifically using music in multimedia projects.

Last year, Gail Dickinson from ODU wrote a wonderful explanation of the difference.  I am going to ask her for permission to reprint it.  And Carrie Gardner from Catholic University serves on the Intellectual Freedom committee for ALA.  I hope that she will give us some insight as well. 

One of the interesting points that was raised during the discussion was that librarians thought they were being censors if they removed materials they had found and felt were inappropriate. 

Here is your opportunity to sound off!

After an extended absence, the Linking Libraries and Academic Achievement Blog is BACK!

     At the recent VEMA conference, I was installed as the Future Trends and Issues committee chair and I was asked to resume posting on this blog.  I will be posting ideas and information but more importantly, requesting feedback on issues that affect our role as librarians. 

     The recent conference was excellent and the speakers gave us much to think about.  I would love to hear what you thought and how you are going to implement those new ideas into your library program.  What sessions sparked your curiosity?  What did you think about the session with Pam Berger?  And what was your definition of a story? (Kendall Haven).

Cool Things I Learned At VEMA

DOE Wiki: The Office of Educational Technology of the Virginia Department of Education announced that they have established a WIKI to inform us of news and items of interest. The URL is http://librarymediaservices.wikispaces.com

WEB 2.0: How to become more digitally literate? Am I a digital native or a digital imigrant?  How do we connect the dots to create active learners to create new understandings?

Shake it up and Sing it Out: Barbara Stillman Lawson-makes learning fun! Singing about peanut butter and jelly and coming to the end of my lollipop are ways to encourgage young learners.

Our brains are hardwired for storytelling!  Kendall Haven tells us that we are born ready to hear stories!

Raising and Adjusting Your Sails

 Many of you have expressed concerns about the changes that occured with the library specialist position at the Virginia Department of Education over the past several months.  Lan Neugent, assistant superintendent for technology and Dr. Tammy McGraw, director of the office of educational technology have assigned three specialists to work with school library programs.  It is going to take some time before they are familiar with their new crew(s) and the ships they will be sailing.   During this transition period, as they learn about what happening in Virginia, let’s make the feel warm and welcome by sharing your successes and challenges with them.   Please do not hesitate to contact them at library.services@doe.virginia.gov 

Children’s Literature Week

November 17-23

http://www.educationworld.com/a_special/book_week.shtml

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Children_s_Book_Week/

http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/bookweek.htm

Thanksgiving

http://www.eduplace.com/monthlytheme/november/thanksgiving_activities.html

http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/

http://childparenting.about.com/cs/holidays/a/thanksgiving.htm

      My problem is this..I think that we are underestimating the ability of our students to become critical thinkers.  If you have ever watched a child play a video game, it becomes obvious that multiple decisions are required of the player each with its own set of consequences.  Decisions about what tool (read weapon) is needed, the skills of the opposing character, knowledge of the environment of the virtual world are required in order to move to the next level in the game.  These are critical thinking skills.  Students are naturally curious and somehow we need to capture and channel that curiosity into learning.

      As you are reading/working with students your attitude towards learning will determine how comfortable/free the students will be in thinking ‘outside the box’.  Many people joke about how thinking can get you into trouble, that employers don’t want you to think, just to do.. but what is one of the critical qualities they look for in new hires…the ability to think and solve problems.  It is a conumdrum for which I don’t have an answer.

       Frequently we are reluctant to allow students free thinking because it takes time away from the task at hand.  But I wonder, if we gave them opportunities to think, would they learn more?

       Your thoughts???

     I remember reading a Tom Clancy book one time that it seemed like every possible combination of letters and numbers were used to identify weapons and aircraft.  I became so frustrated that I could not finish reading the book. 

    This tendency to abbreviate is so prevelant among our young people.  They use shortened alpha-numeric combinations in their text messaging and their instant messaging (also known as IM-I actually typed IM at first!).  I am shocked at the number of Emails that I receive from persons asking for information from the Department of Education that contain abbreviations, poor grammar and punctuation skills. 

    Am I getting old, or do others find this trend troubling?