Week 9: Thing #23

There has been an interesting thread on Calibk12 during the last couple of days concerning creative commons versus a physical site. David Loertscher posed the following questions:

If you combine the textbook budget, the library budget, the technology budget, and the salaries attached, at what point does it become cheaper to provide and maintain a virtual learning commons?

In answering this question, consider the safe and free Google Apps for Education, Open source textbooks, the growing number of free ebooks, etc., etc., etc... along side the movement toward blended and online education?

What is the appropriate mix of physical and virtual learning commons right now? In six months? And, how fast is this all changing? And, what should we as teacher librarians be prepared to provide leadership for?

None of these questions carries much weight for me right now--my library had virtually no budget except salaries and maintenance this year--and those are about to be cut, at least partially. A creative commons needs to have funding from somewhere in order to staff and maintain even a virtual site. Students still need a "safe and free" physical environment in which to work, not just digitize their products.

Nevertheless, I see much potential for a creative commons in a world of, at least partial, virtual education. Students are now able to collaborate in ways never dreamed of; thinking this can only go on in the physical proximity of a school or school library no longer is logical. Just as many workers now telecommute--and do so interacting with other employees--students will begin to this routinely. Some of our students are currently taking classes online. There is real potential in going to school, to a building, on fewer days--especially for high school students. We currently encourage them to use cloud based productivity tools and collaboration and project based learning are the order of the day. Or are they? Many of our students do not have access to any digital equipment outside school. Cell phones may become the productivity tools of the very near future--I have had students use them in the library, but they still do not print and are of little use for word processing.

The idea of creative commons is more than freedom of space and time, easy collaboration, and a few million free or inexpensive apps that allow quick access and adaptation. There is an international, multicultural, gender-free, and ageless quality to the world arena where the creative commons fits. It also has some multi-dimensional, untamed, and frightening aspects. Privacy and personal rights are at risk and need to be scrutinized very carefully by each of us.

Ethics is a much bigger issue now than in the past--at least digital ethics. Copyright laws are much more difficult to understand, much fuzzier in concept, for professionals as well as for students of any age. Piracy is rampant and responsibility is nil. Teaching and enforcing rules against plagiarism is mind boggling at times, so finding ways to make it comprehensible is difficult. I was impressed with the Duke publication "Tales from the Public Domain." I have bookmarked it and sent it to English and government teachers.

I started School Library Learning 2.0 fairly early--in the fall after it had been announced. I did not finish it then, but figured I would "someday." In the interim, I have done many, most, nearly all, at one training or another, preparing for a lesson, or just out of personal interest. The most useful part has probably been doing a sustained blog--I have created several for different purposes, but always abandon them after the original event. So, this has been a good exercise for me--especially anything to do with images because I really hate working with them. I got a little more practice.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Week 9: Thing #20--YouTube

March of the Librarians YouTube, 2007

As I watched this YouTube video, I was taken back to the Painted Desert productions that augmented the curricula of the 50s and 60s social science classes where I learned pretty much of what I know today about wildlife and geography. Now, of course, we have similar topics over-covered at Imax theaters where I have been bored numerous in a larger format about fish or alligators. While librarians watching March of the Librarians were no doubt amused, anyone else would have been catatonic. Gotta wonder what alligators in Louisiana would think about watching themselves and their habitat interpreted on the big screen?

My school district only lately allowed the use of YouTube. The County Office of Education had for decades provided a film library (need I say Painted Desert?) and then offered United Streaming/Discovery Streaming. Eventually, they were forced to recognize that YouTube and public media offered more content with excellent quality for free and they turned on access--just last year. Discovery Streaming will be a thing of the past next year as budgets tighten and younger teachers go first to their computers or iPhones to find content. Recognizing change and adapting to it is one of the challenges facing educators and librarians. Providing 24/7 access to information is only beginning to become a goal in my school district, which has been thinking 8/5 for quite awhile.

I looked at a lot of library tutorial because I see a need for them in my library, but found only a few that I thought were appealing. Examples of YouTube videos that I might model because they were brief, yet offered great information:

One I did like: The Library Minute: Top 5 Resources for Online Students

Most were either cut and dried (practical), or just too cute. Like a lesson plan, there needs to be a good anticipatory set--but the entire tutorial cannot just depend on that. Several had very good, or eye-catching, introductions, but then when into  dry and boring screen shots with moving cursors and typed instructions. A little goes a long way. Another concern: Very fast pictures, fast-talking speakers, fast, moving through instructions. Or slow, droning voices, moving endlessly forward. Just because it CAN be done does not mean that it SHOULD.

Animoto is embarrassingly easy to use. I "created" a sample using a few images on my computer: unfortunately there is no noticeable logic or sense to it. It was made from odds and ends of pictures on my hard-drive, several of them from Flickr and stored side by side in the folder. I chose a theme, clicked and downloaded, added a song from the Animoto inventory. I am looking forward to using Animoto--it fits my style.

The uses are astronomical both because it is so easy to use and because it can be so appealing to given audiences. The possibilities abound for use for advocacy, for advertising, for tutorials, for family photos. I am going to get serious and do an MLA citation Animoto for Senior Project next year. And a family album. As mentioned before, I am photophobic and hate (or am frightened by) photo/image/video. I can take 'em, I just cannot manipulate them. This looks like scrapbooking on steroids, but I will try it.

Honest, I'll fix it.