Independent Study Informs You, Not Conforms You

I can’t stop thinking about this piece of student writing by Eco Dzaman:

http://tinypaste.com/e2f5e

This student’s thesis is that home schooling/independent study is valid, and perhaps superior to our 10 month, Monday-Friday education system.

Yet I can’t help but read something else into this. It could also be a plea for more authentic, inquiry-based learning in today’s schools.

Then one of  iGoogle’s quotes of the day caught my eye  yesterday:

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

Leonardo was onto something, and Eco has learned to understand what that is perfectly in today’s world.

A Vision for Teacher-librarianship

And here’s “21st Century Teacher-librarian”  created in MovieMaker.

This work is submitted as a final assignment for partial credit in my University of Alberta Teacher-Librarianship Distance Learning course: Information Technologies for Learning with Joanne de Groot.

How I chose to illustrate my vision was up to me, with ANIMOTO or another mash-up suggested as a possibility.

At first I thought it would be far too difficult to encapsulate something this highly conceptual using ANIMOTO, so decided to do a MovieMaker video instead. I could narrate what I wanted to say, and I had a lot of learning from my course to convey, plus I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate a reference list or give proper credit using ANIMOTO.  Yet after assembling all the images I needed for my MovieMaker video, I thought that perhaps the images could convey the message on their own, so decided to use ANIMOTO as an experiment.

I copy and pasted the draft script I used to narrate the MovieMaker version to Wordle and was very pleased with the resulting visual synthesis as a word cloud. I included it in both presentations. I also like the image mashup I made using Mosaic Maker from fd’s Flickr Toys.

Getting the right image to illustrate a specific concept turned out to be the hardest part.  I had to choose photos with permission from students and staff, or cleared with creative commons licensing, or for non-commercial educational use.  I e-mailed and Twittered for permission where permission wasn’t clearly granted. I have a stack of permission e-mails and photo release forms that I’m not sure what to do with, or how long I need to keep them- sigh . . .

I’ve decided to add the ANIMOTO version to my school library page and blog  because of it’s 21st century look and feel.  It’s edgier, more engaging, and fun to watch.

I’m not sure which presentation is the most effective. What do you think?

Here are the images and sources list that may have been too blurry to view:

Sources List:

Alberta Learning, Alberta, Canada. (2004). Focus on Inquiry: A Teacher’s Guide to Implementing Inquiry Learning. Retrieved March 12, 2009, from Alberta Education: http://education.alberta.ca/media/313361/focusoninquiry.pdf

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from AASL Learning Standards: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

Asselin, M., & Doiron, R. (2008, July). Towards a Transformative Pedagogy for School Libraries 2.0. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from School Libraries Worldwide: http://asselindoiron.pbwiki.com/SLW14%3A2+AsselinDoiron

Canadian Association for School Libraries. (2005). techbroche.pdf. Retrieved March 10, 2009, from Canadian Association for School Libraries Website: http://www.cla.ca/casl/techbroche.pdf

CAST: Center for Applied Special Technology. (1999-2008). Retrieved March 12, 2009, from What is Universal Design for Learning?: http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html

Davis, V. (2008, January 17). It is about Educational Networking NOT Social Networking . Retrieved March 25, 2009, from Cool Cat Blog: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/01/it-is-about-educational-networking-not.html

Doyle, S., & Trousdell, L. (2007, November 15). The Library is a Mashup. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from Animoto: http://animoto.com/play/5b84f59869b8cbf7c6ab7426548e957e

Gasser, U., & Palfrey, J. (2009, March). Mastering Multitasking. Educational Leadership , pp. 15-19.

King, J. Getting In Deep Online Image From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal. http://www.fno.org/feb06/febcartoon.html.

Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum. (2004-2008). Retrieved March 12, 2009, from Manitoba Education, Citizenship & Youth: http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/show_me/continuum.html

Mullen, R., & Wedwick, L. (2008, November/December). Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs. Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas , pp. 66-69.

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital. New York: Basic Books.

Plair, S. K. (2008, Nov – Dec). Revamping Professional Development for Technology Integration and Fluency. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ816794&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ816794

Ransom, S. Leaving Digital Footprints that Count Online Image ransomtech>Digital Footprints. http://ransomtech.wikispaces.com/Digital+Footprints

Rossini (Composer). Barber of Seville. On Frequency Orch. Rossini Selections: http://www.freeplaymusic.com.

The International Society for Technology in Education. (2007). The ISTE Technology Standards and Performance Indicators (NETS-S) for Students. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from ISTE: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007_Standards.pdf

The International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). The ISTE Technology Standards and Performance Indicators (NETS-T) for Teachers. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from ISTE: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Valenza, J. +. (2009). You know you’re a 21st century librarian if . . . Retrieved March 10, 2009, from Information Fluence: http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com/You+know+you%27re+a+21st+century+librarian+if+.+.+.