Leap into the Deep: A way to encourage deeper reading in 2012

Quite a while ago I told myself I was going to read the book by Nicholas Carr called The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. I never made good on my pledge, but I did manage to find time to listen to this 7 minute piece on NPR about the book. Ever since that story aired over a year and a half ago, I've been obsessed with figuring out a way to get kids to read more deeply while also encouraging use of social media and the full menu of Internet tools. While I can sometimes read with great focus while on a computer, it is more often true that I get distracted and my mind wanders off in several different directions at once. When it comes to students, I rarely see a kid sticking with a long Web page or database article long enough to read it thoroughly. This bothers me. I know it may not be the end of the world, but I strongly believe the most successful of our graduates will be able to read deeply and effectively. What can be done to make more kids into deep readers that do more than scroll, skim and click? Last weekend I thought of a clever campaign. I'm calling it "Leap into the Deep." Since February has an extra day this Leap Year, I figure that gives everyone an extra 24 hours to do something productive such as read deeply on a subject. I also wanted the title to reflect the spontaneous nature of research where reading can be done whenever the inspiration hits and plunge deep into a subject. Hence "Lead into the Deep" is the perfect title for this little program. My school is a special place where Project Based Learning is the norm. Still, the students are often so packed with projects and they work in a fast-paced environment that doesn't always allow enough time to research thoroughly. I wanted to allow students to decide for themselves what to read deeply about and allow the to do so in the context of one of their projects, preferably the one that is most interesting to them. Once a student has identified a project and a set of questions for a research quest, he simply tells the teacher he is read to "Leap into the deep," which means a pass to the library for 30 minutes of intensive research assistance and offline reading. The details of the program are in this short Slideshare presentation. Please look it over and send me feedback. In particular, I'm looking for scaffolding and instructional ideas to help struggling readers.

Leap into the deep

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Grand Unification Theory of Librarianship...It's the Reading and Thinking!

With time off to think, its only natural that I turn my attention to reading, reflecting and writing. When I left for the Winter break, I had in mind to learn more about some of the latest trends in librarianship, particularly the notions of Enchantment, Transliteracy and Information Literacy.  Specifically, my first goal was to read the E-book, School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come,  put together by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton, two of the great stars of the School Library world. I was honored to be one of the contributors to this project.  Of course, just as soon as I finished reading that one, Kristin Fontichiaro goes and releases another E-book by her graduate students called Information Literacy in the Wild. Reading that book is another goal for the remainder of this break.

What have I gained from this reading? In terms of content knowledge I now have a firmer grip on the distinctions between Transliteracy and Information literacy. More importantly, I learned about some more amazing colleagues from all over the World that I now follow on Twitter. Finding kindred spirits and role models is what keeps me going in this business, and that alone made the reading worth while.

However, reading through this book in one sitting, its easy to feel overwhelmed with all the talk of new professional standards, roles for librarians, goals for library facilities, as well as deeper concepts that require understanding before applying them to practice. For me, the big takeaways are not anything new, but reaffirmations of the core of my philosophy of librarianship, which can be summed up in two words; Reading and Thinking. Yes, it really is that simple, but its complicated.

Taking just the concept of Transliteracy, which describes a state where an individual is competent at various literacies that enable not just the acquisition of knowledge from reading, but the ability to process information  from all forms of media and participate in the global conversations via the same types of media. Obviously, a very complex and high level outcomes are necessary to produce transliterate students, and it is overwhelming to think about the prospect of all of the individual teaching objectives and lessons that would be necessary. However, when one thinks about it, the underlying skills are really the same as reading.

Expert readers are really capable of being transliterate, assuming they learn various skills such as social media, video production and various other computer applications. None of these latter skills are difficult compared to becoming an expert reader.  An expert reader has more than a strong vocabulary, but a habit of continually asking key questions while reading and highly honed skills of efficiently assimilating the most vital information and perspectives from text. It's practically impossible to become an expert reader without simultaneously becoming an expressive and competent writer and a learner that is at least somewhat comfortable in an ambiguous and complicated world of abstraction. Strong readers don't just passively absorb ideas, but they respond.

So, to make a long-story short, we as librarians should pay attention and teach skills related to transliteracy whenever we have the opportunity. However, out core mission of just plain old literacy is still number one. Kids that regularly read through books of hundreds of pages are prepared to be transliterate, while those that can't or don't read regularly will never be transliterate.  Having a quality mix of books in print and E-book form is more important than ever, and the battle for student minds will be won by librarians that are transliterate themselves, who can connect with students and lead them towards the world of text and abstraction. This leads me to the last point, which is about thinking, specifically the types of thinking that don't happen with a book in hand.

If libraries are to be relevant in the age of the e-book, we have to serve a purpose that is beyond promoting reading.  Librarians need to lead young people towards a life of the mind.  For me, this means games. I allow and encourage video games and I make sure to praise and reward students that go beyond the level of just playing games. Video games can be a gateway to knowledge acquired through books or avenues for learning skills related to transliteracy.

Even more so, I am a big proponent of off-line games such as Chess and Bridge that promote problem solving, critical thinking and social skills on a very high level. These games figure into my library program. I recognize that not all librarians are inclined to start chess clubs and bridge clubs, but I think these two games have proven track records at boosting student skills and self-esteem.  I encourage individual librarians to identify and promote all activities that lead to these outcomes.  If librarians are creative, they will be sure to inspire creativity in others. Just as if we model transliteracy in our practice, we're likely to inspire it in others.

Getting Social: My presentation to 9th grade students

I'm grateful for a job that gives me the opportunity to talk to young adults about social media and it's importance to their futures. Most of the talk in schools that I have seen primarily focus on the 'fear factor' and telling students what they shouldn't do. I wanted to talk solely about the positive possibilities of social media with the intention of opening up students' minds about the tremendous benefits of using social media effectively.

For this talk, I used CPS systems to anonymously poll members of each class. The slides with the tan background and black text are the questions for the 'clickers.'

Getting social

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The interactive nature of the talk gave me some interesting insights into the students thinking. Here are a couple of things I learned:

1. Students have a fairly low regard for expert opinions. They had a strong preference for getting information from Google or people they know, but seemed completely disinclined to seek out an expert in a field. I will certainly follow up on this when presenting on sources and credibility of information!
2. In one class only 1 of 20 students reported writing for their own blog, while in the others the percentage of bloggers was right at 50%. The class with only one blogger was also the least engaged and receptive to my message. To me this suggests that teaching social media in itself would be ineffective without addressing the students' writing abilities and confidence in their communication skills. 

I hope others can benefit from my experience and would love to here from other educators that are presenting or wish to present a positive message regarding social media to teenagers.

Why schools should embrace video games instead of banning them

Recently I answered a colleague who asked on a question on the Texas Library Association Listserv regarding our library policies about video gaming. When she reported back on her findings it turned out that I was the only one that encouraged or supported gaming. Some respondents talked about allowing "only educational or approved games," and others said they tried allowing gaming until it "got out of hand."  Most just banned games on library computers.

I'm actually sympathetic to these viewpoints. At times the gamers make a little more noise than I am comfortable with, and the computers in the library are limited, so it seems wrong to have game players taking over computers of those that want to do "real work." Furthermore, I myself wasted far too many hours of my youth (not to mention my hard earned money one quarter at a time) on video games. As a mature adult, that no longer "wastes time" on video games, I sometimes I wished I would have learned a 2nd language instead of practicing my alien-slaying skills. Did all of those hours of joystick jostling pay off in any way? The truth is, I'm not sure.

One thing that is different more than 2 decades later after my Atari saturated childhood is that video games are much more sophisticated and much more a part of the culture. They involve much more problem solving instead of mere hand-eye coordination. Video Games allow for creativity and open-ended exploration of virtual environments. Virtual reality, 3-D graphics, simulations...These are all entire industries now. Don't we want some of our students to prepare themselves for jobs in these fields?    Games also teach valuable leadership and collaboration skills.  We are in favor of those, right?

So, reservations aside, I'm going to argue that a permissive policy on video games is far better than a restrictive one.  Here's how it all worked out for me this year.

During the very first weeks of school, many students had not yet discovered the library. Those that did were overwhelmingly interested in a game called Minecraft. In the opening scenes of the game, it's a violent struggle for survival. Monsters, shooting... you get the picture. My instincts told me that I didn't want this stuff in the library, lest the administration see it and reprimand me for allowing such stuff to go on at school. However, I overrode my instincts. Instead of telling the boys to quit that game in favor of something more wholesome, I decided to ask the students to tell me about the game and why they enjoyed it. They all talked about the creativity that the game allowed.  I spent quite a lot of time watching the game and listening to them. As the year went on, the boys got into more and more advanced levels of the game and I could actually see what they were talking about.

Then, just recently I was glancing at my Twitter feed and the word "Minecraft" jumped out at me. It was a story from @edtweeps about a school in Oklahoma that uses the game for simulations in an Agriculture class. Wow! I did some more digging on Twitter and found @MinecraftTeachr who teaches in a virtual school and uses MineCraft as his learning space. He has over 4,000 followers.  It turns out there are Education modules for Minecraft.

I started asking the Mine Craft boys at school about their feelings about using Mine Craft for their school projects. They were all convinced that this would be a great thing for them. Today I spoke with one of the parents of these students, and she sung the praises of Mine Craft, and it's potential in educational value. I'm now looking for ways to collaborate with the Geography teachers to encourage Mine Craft as a tool for Project Based Learning.

Ok, so let's review. If I would have banned unapproved video games, I wouldn't even know about Mine Craft. Secondly, it's engaging to the kids and it encourages them to work together. Thirdly, the parents (at least a small sample) expect their kids to learn the 21st Century way. How, under these conditions can one ban games such as Minecraft?

Stay tuned for a future post where I will argue that Social Media and Games must be included in Librarian's defense of Intellectual Freedoms. It's not just about banned books anymore!

Geek Culture in the Library

One of the greatest things about my job is that it forces me to try new things. My motivation is that I want to stay relevant, keep the library program relevant and help get kids ready for the careers of tomorrow. My latest round of learning is on programming Android apps. A few years ago I tried my hand at programming a Library gadget for Google, but ran into numerous obstacles trying to get the search to work with library systems. Furthermore, there were not many resources for beginner developers to get started and I abandoned the project without producing a workable gadget.

Now with the proliferation of Android, it's a different world. Google has made App programming more visual and created some wonderful tutorials to learn the basics.   When I created in the first Hello Purr App via the tutorial and got it on my phone I was so excited, I wanted to show it off to everyone in the library. Here's a short introductory video.

I'm a natural born geek, but not hardcore.  In high school I watched Star Trek, but wasn't one of those going to conventions in full regalia speaking Klingon. If I can do this, anyone that is even slightly geeky can try it out.

I've been progressing through the tutorials learning about the drawing canvas, image sprites and soon I will make Mash Mole, a fairly simple game based on the carnival favorite, Wack a Mole.

Now that I'm ahead of the students, I'm ready to help them get started. Ultimately I would like to form a little App developer group and get them working on a real world project. I even have some ideas and potential partners. This project is really a logical extension of my work I described in the wonderful collective Ebook, School Libraries, What's Next, What's next to come. Additionally, I was inspired by this story on NPR about youthful App developers. It's all about creating opportunities for the kids to develop skills that can make them successful and perhaps the next software billionaire!

What is it like for a New Tech HS Media Specialist?

The big questions I have been trying to answer in my new position are the same as the Library/Media specialist profession as a whole. How does a library and librarian figure into the future of education? Will we have jobs in the future? How will our roles evolve?

The good news for the more traditional librarian, is that my new state of the art high school has a print library and it opened for business at the end of the first week of school. So far approximately 10% of the student body has checked out an old-fashioned book during the first week of operations. That's with absolutely no effort on my part; no marketing, no book talks, no classes, just placing the books out on display.

The bad news for the more traditional librarian is that 90% of my time has been spent on duties completely unrelated to the print library, and I have been very busy. Part of the reason I was hired for this job in the first place was my willingness to serve outside of the normal capacity of a librarian. It's doubtful that this campus would have a librarian if he/she were unwilling to also take on the responsibility of Technology Manager. My role as Technology Manager, though somewhat unrelated to library services is completely vital to a New Tech High School. In this capacity I have helped set up user accounts in our Echo learning management system and our Google Apps. Since the staff is completely new and few have had any prior experience with these systems, it has been up to me to anticipate and identify problems and help teachers get up and running during the critical first week of school.

The upside of my service as Technology Manager from a library perspective, is that I have learned the names of many students, been a visible presence in the classroom and developed collaborative partnerships with teachers and students. As someone with an inside view of how the students are using the social features of our technology systems, I have also gathered vital intelligence for future lessons and discussions on digital citizenship and and cyber-ethics. These are certainly aspects of a 21st Century Librarian's job, so in a sense the Tech Manager role is not entirely separate.

The most exciting aspects of my job are in fact related to library services. Though the print library is in place with over 1,000 volumes for 140 students, the rest of the library program and facility is still in the incubation and planning stages. Our New Tech HS is a community just 2 weeks old, and amidst all of the flurry of activity in this startup period, I have managed to make progress in the following areas:

1. Ordered Nooks and Ipads for periodical reading and library system access. The periodical collection will be mostly print-free! These devices will be replace print magazines and also lead library services in an exciting new direction.
2. Planned the implementation of the new Media Cast system. The Media Cast platform will completely replace the VHS/DVD collection and put all video on demand, including local and cable TV programming. The system is capable of live broadcasts and has a Kiosk feature that will control screens around the campus. These Kiosks will disseminate school information including library programming ads, book trailers and other forms of literacy promotions.
3. Started the online learning commons an established productive online relationships with students. The chess club and anime club are now library programs with a student-driven online presence!
4. Met with architect to plan remodel of facility, including spacious and technology rich teaching space and relaxed area based on the coffee shop model.
   

Yes, there is a lot on my plate, but I wouldn't have it any other way. When asked how my new job, I give the same answer; "The student population I serve is only one-tenth of my previous schools, but I'm at least 3-times as busy." In short, my role as library/media specialist within the traditional comprehensive high school was limited by campus culture and the teacher's comfort-level with technology and the Internet. At New Tech High School the campus culture propels me towards innovation and challenges me daily to learn and apply new skills. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity at this stage of my career and I sincerely wish others in the library profession will have the same opportunity.

Seven Effective Twitter Habits for Teachers

Twitter has occupied so much of my thinking lately and now it's time to blog about it. There are so many good guides to getting started on Twitter, that I won't do that here. Twitter is so important in today's world, that I believe all educators should be involved. Here are some simple ideas and procedures for Twitter teachers. My apologies if they are not original.

1. Follow a Twitter feed about current events via TwiterFall or some other hashtag aggregator. Good activity for getting analyzing points of view, fact vs. opinion, etc.

2. Locate hashtags for big global sporting events such as Tour De France, World Cup and the Olympics and see how many languages you can identify in the feed. Then try translating to English.

3. Identify and follow thought leaders, writers and major figures in your content area/field. If you start interacting with them, try inviting them to your class or conference. It never hurts to ask!

4. Start discussions on Twitter and give out a prize for the best Tweet.

5. If you do anything creative, such as a video or a killer lesson be sure to share it and Tweet it.

6. If you present anything for a local training, a conference, put it on Slideshare and tweet it.

7. After you've been on Twitter a while, you will naturally develop your Professional Learning Network (PLN), the folks that share your passion. Be sure to interact with them and thank them for their ideas. If you go to conferences, make sure you meet them in person. That's probably the best part of being a Tweeter.