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Not So Distant Future | technology, libraries, and schools
School libraries in the 21st century |
Today more information is stored digitally than in all the libraries in the world combined. We simply don’t need to ‘remember’ everything. The output of our digital mediums exceeds the wildest dreams of nineteenth century industrialists, and alters our view of memory; forgetfulness; creativity and originality. Thats why schools need to extend their vision of learning beyond ‘memory-arts’. We are in a hyper-dynamic world of connections, relationships, and adaptive tools that help us make sense of the information flooding about us. Our students need to develop insights into how to navigate and select a pathway in their learning world, how to juxtapose text, sound, media, and social connections in real time, and how to mix and match what they see, hear and experience to build personal knowledge and understandings. Rethinking our structures and learning frameworks is central to meeting the demands of 21st century learning. It is an exciting and challenging time for education.
The 10 Web 2.0 Tools/Apps I Use Most As A Teacher, Learner & Leader
Awhile back Larry Ferlazzo wrote about the Web 2.0/Social Media tools that he uses every day. I read Larry’s blog all the time, but what struck me about this post was not the tools that he listed as being useful to him, (even though I use many of them myself), but rather the actual process of identifying the technology he uses each and every day. Not that this is hard work, mind you, it’s just that technology is such a ubiquitous part of my life; the tools/toys I use most often don’t feel like “tools” at all – rather they are almost an extension of who I am: a part of my daily routine so “normal” that I don’t think twice about the important role they play. Of course I start my day with a cup of coffee, my google reader and a personalized web curation app. Doesn’t everyone? And that’s what’s so brilliant about Larry’s post. #1 & #2 Google Reader + Feeddler Pro: In Larry’s post, he says that “RSS is truly a magical service” and he is so right! #5 Twitter: #9 Instagram: Bonus!
White Ravens
Each year the language specialists (Lektoren) at the International Youth Library (IYL), in Munich, Germany, select newly published books from around the world that they consider to be especially noteworthy. This list of books is compiled into the annual White Ravens Catalogue, which is introduced each year at the Bologna (Italy) Children's Book Fair. The White Ravens Online Catalogue, which includes all titles from 1993 through 2007, was created by ICDL researchers in collaboration with the IYL and is available on the ICDL web site with the permission of the International Youth Library. The White Raven label is given to books that deserve worldwide attention because of their universal themes and/or their exceptional and often innovative artistic and literary style and design. The titles are drawn from the books that the IYL receives as review or donation copies from publishers and organizations around the world. 3557 booksfrom 84 countriesin 60 languages
What does a school library look like in the digital age? | Teacher Network
The concept of a school library in a digital age is challenging. With the capacity to download books onto a range of digital devices there is every possibility the library could look superfluous to youngsters growing up today. Why would you want to visit a room which is essentially about storage and distribution? We are in the middle of redesigning our school library. If we view the library as purely a function of lending books this is indeed the case. The Renaissance witnessed the exponential growth in libraries with the invention of printing. So what does this mean for a school? The design brief for the libraries in our junior and senior schools is premised on inspiration. The senior school library continues the journey. The digital age therefore, far from sounding the death knell of school libraries, offers schools an opportunity to create their own distinctive library space.
Daniel Willingham - Daniel Willingham: Science and Education Blog
Coverage from NPR made it sound like Hart & Risley had been debunked, with the headline “Let’s stop talking about the 30 million word gap.”But the Sperry report doesn’t really upend Hart & Risley.First, Sperry et al. claim that the Hart & Risley finding has never been replicated. I am not sure what Sperry et al. mean by “replicate,” because the conceptual idea that socioeconomic status and volume of caregiver→child speech has been replicated. (The following list is not offered as complete—I stopped looking after I found five.)Gilkerson et al (2017)Hoff (2003)Hoff-Ginsberg (1998)Huttenlocher et al (2010)Rowe (2008)None of these is an exact replication---they have variations in methods, population, and analyses. What is the role of a scientist in these difficult application issues? For better or worse, I have come to what seems the obvious resolution: give people the fullest information you can and let them decide.
Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming
It’s important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members’ interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. And I am biased, obviously and enormously: I’m an author, often an author of fiction. So I’m biased as a writer. And I’m here giving this talk tonight, under the auspices of the Reading Agency: a charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. And it’s that change, and that act of reading that I’m here to talk about tonight. I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about the building of private prisons – a huge growth industry in America. It’s not one to one: you can’t say that a literate society has no criminality. And I think some of those correlations, the simplest, come from something very simple. Fiction has two uses. I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. It’s tosh.
