<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Edging Ahead...</title>
	<atom:link href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org</link>
	<description>One Teacher-Librarian's Journey from Print to Web...to Web2.0</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1</generator>
	<language>en</language>
			<item>
		<title>Great Minds think alike&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/09/03/great-minds-think-alike/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/09/03/great-minds-think-alike/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/?p=39</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

&#8230;and we&#8217;ll ignore the corollary. Doug Johnson mentioned me in a recent Blue Skunk Blog and I&#8217;m humbled to have my thoughts given more credence than I had assumed. Weighty responsibility to live up to&#8230;
By the time I finished a Comment to Doug&#8217;s post,  I decided I wanted to &#8220;hold that thought&#8221; in my blog [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--[if gte mso 9]&amp;gt;  Normal 0     false false false  EN-US ZH-CN TH               MicrosoftInternetExplorer4              &amp;lt;![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]&amp;gt;                                                                                                                                            &amp;lt;![endif]--></p>
<div id="item1869971" class="body">
<p>&#8230;and we&#8217;ll ignore the corollary. <a href="http://www.doug-johnson.com/bio">Doug Johnson</a> mentioned me in a recent <a href="http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/9/2/end-of-a-season-end-of-an-era.html?lastPage=true#comment1869971">Blue Skunk Blog</a> and I&#8217;m humbled to have my thoughts given more credence than I had assumed. Weighty responsibility to live up to&#8230;</p>
<p>By the time I finished a Comment to Doug&#8217;s post,  I decided I wanted to &#8220;hold that thought&#8221; in my blog too, rather than just as a comment in BSB. Thanks, Doug, for both the nod to my &#8220;struggle&#8221; and more importantly, for helping me solidify my own sense of personal and professional balance.</p>
<p>Doug&#8217;s post also reminded me that I&#8217;ve never acknowledged another colleague who does read my blog, and pointed me to a Post from his  back in 2007 where he raised many of the same issues I have about balance and efficacy <a href="http://dharter.edublogs.org/2007/03/20/changing-the-world-or-our-world/">in the real world out there</a>. Thanks, <a href="http://dharter.edublogs.org/about/">Dennis</a>, for both being a great colleague in residence, but for reminding me that I&#8217;m not alone in my thinking.</p>
<p>And my response to Doug?</p>
<p>&#8220;Doug,<br />
&#8230;I&#8217;ve been wondering if my last couple of posts come across as self-pitying instead of self-reflective, and I&#8217;ve really been planning to work on a more&#8230;constructive(?) way of voicing my misgivings and outlining my coping strategies. Now you go and shine a spotlight on my inadequacies;( )) Gotta work on that!</p>
<p>But no, your post hits me right where I live. Increasingly in the last two years (coinciding, it seems, with my New Dad status) I&#8217;ve become preoccupied with misgivings about the future of not just education, but 21st-century society in general. I&#8217;m invested enough in this that I&#8217;ve written a novel about it (I&#8217;ll get to this in an upcoming post). Closer to where I live - and work - have been those growing questions about finding that elusive balance in an increasingly technology-obsessed work environment. And finally, of course, as a 50-something (first-time) father, I&#8217;ve only now begun to truly wrestle with those very personal issues of what, in the end, is it really important for me to achieve in whatever time I&#8217;ve got left.</p>
<p>It was on this last level that your posting really hit home. In our headlong rush to embrace the new global networking phenomena, we risk losing the intimacy of family and tribal customs that have been the glue of society from the very beginnings of human culture. As we find the &#8220;free&#8221; hours of each day whittled away by wonderful, but time-consuming online interactivity, we have to give up something - and too often that is quality time where it really counts. And as we devote ever more time to exploring the fascinating but arcane worlds of web2.0 , social networking and virtual reality environments, we risk letting go of hands-on traditions faster than we can build new ones that will have the same staying power as those weekends at the lake, those shared family traditions, those daily family routines.</p>
<p>So:</p>
<ul>
<li> I&#8217;m going back to my travel agent to say that that trip home to Canada at Christmas really <em>is </em>important, even if I can&#8217;t get there on an award flight.</li>
<li> I&#8217;m rethinking my decision following <em>our</em> summer at the lake to let go of my dream of building a &#8220;green&#8221; home there.</li>
<li> And I can&#8217;t wait to introduce MY son to <em>Big</em>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The other stuff is, in the end, not my life. It&#8217;s my work, and it will, like my blog, continue to be &#8220;Edging Ahead&#8221; while I focus on what&#8217;s really important.</p>
<p><a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/files/2008/09/tknmomscarving31.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-41" src="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/files/2008/09/tknmomscarving31-300x225.jpg" alt="Looking to the Future" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
<p>Thanks!<br />
Rob&#8221;</p>
</div>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/09/03/great-minds-think-alike/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Seeking the Middle Way, Pt.2</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/27/seeking-the-middle-way-pt2/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/27/seeking-the-middle-way-pt2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:12:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/?p=38</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And so how do I try to &#8220;walk the talk&#8221; of Middle Way thinking? What is it about my library or my program that demonstrates my commitment to preserving the best of traditional teaching/learning environment while giving the nod to the the exquisite potential of new media and web2.0?
Let me see&#8230;

Instead of our stable, but static [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>And so how do I try to &#8220;walk the talk&#8221; of Middle Way thinking? What is it about my library or my program that demonstrates my commitment to preserving the best of traditional teaching/learning environment while giving the nod to the the exquisite potential of new media and web2.0?</p>
<p>Let me see&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>Instead of our stable, but static school-based website as an entry to library collections, programs and services, we&#8217;ve created <a href="http://isbhslibrary.edublogs.org">HS</a> and <a href="http://isbmslibrary.edublogs.org">MS blogs </a>which allow us to take advantage of emerging interactive capabilities (commenting on posts), display options (flickr photo streams from our library) and linking technologies (research and reference websites, blogs and wikis). At the same time, we&#8217;ve kept the links alive from the schoo website for those that are comfortable with our well-tested &#8220;<a href="http://www.isb.ac.th/Research_Tools">3-clicks-in</a>&#8221; to research tools strategy.</li>
<li>We&#8217;re rolling out a new graphic-interface <a href="http://isbml.isb.ac.th/">OPAC </a>this year, while at the same time reverting to Genres Collections for our HS Fiction. Patrons can take advantage of the google-like search and results OPAC interface or just walk to their favorite genre and browse for a new Independent Reading title</li>
<li>Our new catalog features integrated web-searches along with the hunt for traditional print and AV/media references. For those patrons who expect to find their answers on the web, there&#8217;s no longer a need to carry out two independent searches.</li>
<li>On the one hand, we&#8217;ve continued to bolster our online subscription reference databases while on the other, we&#8217;ve integrated our traditional print Reference Collection into our general Non-Fiction Collection, and encourage patrons to borrow any print item that meets their information needs.</li>
<li>Both our blogs and our websites link to internal iptv offerings providing live access to news and educational programming on any computer on the campus area network.</li>
<li>Although we carry very sophisticated subject-specialty databases, including literature references, we&#8217;ve retained our 1970-2000 collection of Gale CritLIt references. In order to facilitate student use of these wonderful but weighty references, we offer free photocopying of any Gale references needed for advanced research.</li>
<li>We&#8217;re in the process of retiring our legacy VHS video Collection, but we&#8217;re committed to preserving the best of the instructional programming embodied in this collection by either buying new DVD editions of specific titles or transferring the VHS programming to DVD (after due diligence in searching for DVD editions of the specific work)</li>
<li>Our &#8220;Gutenberg&#8217;s Intent&#8221; LIbrary Club now features three division. For the traditionalists, we&#8217;ve got a Readers&#8217; Group who recommend titles, conduct buying trips for local materials, and discuss their current reading interests. To cater to the more action-oriented patrons, we run a Games Divison, currently meeting on Friday afternoons to test their skill with the latest 1st-person shooters, strategy games, and virtual environments. At the same time, a sub-group of Gamers are,playing f2f, real-world chess, and new this year is a Writers&#8217; Group who hope to support each other in getting a student manuscript through to publication before they leave ISB. Although we&#8217;re open to traditonal publishing opportunites, we plan to take advantage of emerging Print-on-Demand options to facilitate getting student work into print while minimizing ptotential environmental impact.</li>
</ul>
<p>Middle-Way? Well, I&#8221;ve just read Joyce Valenza&#8217;s article in the June SLJ about web2.0 tools in the library, and clearly, we&#8217;ve got a ways to go - but we&#8217;re on the Path&#8230;</p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/27/seeking-the-middle-way-pt2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>&#8230;and finding a (Personal) Balance</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/19/and-finding-a-personal-balance/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/19/and-finding-a-personal-balance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:06:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/?p=37</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s a crazy world. Ray Kurzweil claims that &#8220;the singularity is near&#8221; - that point at which computer processing power will match human capabilities - and it&#8217;s likely to happen within the working lifetime of the kids we&#8217;re teaching today. 
What&#8217;s on the other side of that watershed moment?  On the one hand, a graph of technological change [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left">It&#8217;s a crazy world. Ray Kurzweil claims that &#8220;the singularity is near&#8221; - that point at which computer processing power will match human capabilities - and it&#8217;s likely to happen within the working lifetime of the kids we&#8217;re teaching today. </p>
<p style="text-align: left">What&#8217;s on the other side of that watershed moment?  On the one hand, a graph of technological change is nearing the vertical, which leads one to wonder if the singularity will signal the end of human evolution as we know it. Are humans destined to be replaced by our creation? Will the Terminator scenario become a reality? Will our daliance with the glitterati of instant access and our infatuation with living largely in the bubble of our personal online community mean that we face the world post-singularity without the social tools to cope with a new reality?  On the other hand, a timeline of world history suggests that nothing really &#8220;ends&#8221; - it just morphs into something new, although often reminiscent in odd ways, of that which it replaces. And so the question of balance becomes - are we&#8217;re adequately - and appropriately - preparing our students for the future, whatever that may be?</p>
<p>The rush to adopt new information-seeking, management and manipulative tools is a daily reminder of this question of balance. As we approach this watershed moment in human history, we&#8217;re constantly wowed by powerful new information storage, retrieval and manipulative capabilities, and now the latest web2.0 interactive strategies for becoming participants in this grand experiment. These are powerful and amazing for the sheer kick of what they allow us to do, but down at the heart of it, aren&#8217;t we simply reliving the technological promises of the past, albeit on a vastly amplified scale? Back in the Day, as they sometimes say, before educational technology became a synonym for Cool, those of us looking for new and better ways to stimulate learning were almost as wowed by VHS video, Programmed Learning and Interactive Multimedia as the new educational entrepreneurs today are by Skype, Twitter and Jing. Back then, it looked like it couldn&#8217;t get any better than &#8220;Anywhere, Anytime&#8221; Learning, and it seemed that the development curve was reaching the vertical in terms of what was possible with video and multimedia.</p>
<p>But then the Web came along.</p>
<p><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/25/67425550_a5b041e016.jpg?v=1139043350" alt="Uploaded on November 27, 2005" width="692" height="340" /></p>
<p>Beginning in the mid-&#8217;90&#8217;s, the World Wide Web became the new Library of Alexandria - all the world&#8217;s information gathered in one (virtual) place. Building on the ubiquity of informationa access that resulted, communications technologies have shrunk the world to the size of your monitor and input device so with Skype, SMS and Twitter (just some of today&#8217;s catchwords) you can keep up a moment-by-moment discourse with like-minded colleagues in the far corners of the globe. And now the rendering capabilities of the new machines make a virtual tour of London, New York or the Grand Canyon only as far away as Google Earth and exploration of worlds of the imagination another click away in virtual environments like World of Warcraft or Second Life.</p>
<p>The Point (again)?</p>
<p>I guess, for me, the point is that while we need to invest relatively heavily in exploring what&#8217;s possible with the range of new tools available to us as educators, it&#8217;s important to not lose sight of &#8220;the forest for the trees&#8221;. It&#8217;s important to find a Balance between exploring the new and the unknown and paying homage to (and reapplying lessons from) the past. The Balancing Point is the Here and Now. Lean too much on past experience and we risk slipping back into obscelescence and Irrelevance - but bound too eagerly forward, and we run the equal risk of sliding into the chaos of entrepreneurial anarchy. I&#8217;m playing with words here, extrapolating to the logical conclusion of either course, but the sentiment is real</p>
<p>The Big Picture is what&#8217;s important, and for me, that means imparting to kids the analytic, metacognitive and communications skills to cope with the next generation of technological gewgaws and bangles - and to be ready as adults for not only whatever&#8217;s beyond the Big Bang of the technological Singularity, but what&#8217;s on the horizon in the next decade, or perhaps even next year. And that means not abandoning the personal 1on1, F2F learning that takes place when two learners sit down together - in the same physical space - and learn from each other.  Or when one person sits down in a quiet room - with a piece of &#8220;realia&#8221; - a physical, tangible item that he or she can hold, examine, study and ingest -  a painting, a piece of sculpture, a book.. and learns from it - as we have done since man&#8217;s first steps on that long road to the Singularity.</p>
<p>As always, when it&#8217;s a question of Balance, one&#8217;s attention can never stray for long&#8230;</p>
<p> </p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/19/and-finding-a-personal-balance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Seeking the Middle Way - pt.1</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/10/the-middle-way-pt2/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/10/the-middle-way-pt2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:54:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/10/the-middle-way-pt2/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

Yesterday
Originally uploaded by Caro&#8217;s Lines
 

I had an interesting conversation with a former student yesterday. After spending his Freshman year here, he went off to an exclusive ivy-league prep school in New Jersey where, his parents decided, he’d become better prepared to face the world following HS graduation than he would be here in the hinterlands [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="float: right;margin-left: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/caroslines/2254480335/"><img style="border: solid 2px #000000" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2233/2254480335_96193318c6_m.jpg" alt="" width="201" height="136" /></a></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 0.9em;margin-top: 0px"><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/caroslines/2254480335/">Yesterday</a></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 0.9em;margin-top: 0px">Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/caroslines/">Caro&#8217;s Lines</a></span></div>
<p><span style="font-size: 0.9em;margin-top: 0px"> </p>
<p></span></p>
<p>I had an interesting conversation with a former student yesterday. After spending his Freshman year here, he went off to an exclusive ivy-league prep school in New Jersey where, his parents decided, he’d become better prepared to face the world following HS graduation than he would be here in the hinterlands of Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>“Do you use wireless laptops?” I asked.</p>
<p>“We-lll,” he finally said. “Most students have them in their dorms. But there’s a cable plug-in.”</p>
<p>“Mmm,” I thought. “We’d never go back to wired laptops here, now that we’re untethered.”</p>
<p>“How about SmartBoards?” I asked, and once again, I was unprepared for his answer.</p>
<p>“No,” he said. “We still use chalkboards.”</p>
<p>“You mean WhiteBoards?” I countered.</p>
<p>“NO!” he insisted. “We still use green CHALKboards. There are almost no computers in our classrooms.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I was almost speechless. We’re now so heavily invested in technology that even whiteboards are an endangered species here, and we haven’t seen a CHALKboard since we moved to this campus in 1990.</p>
<p>But then I paused to consider, and the reality of the world at large was once again brought home to me. If even in America, there are expensive private schools still using chalkboards and eschewing the “wired” world, what exactly are the percentages of students around the world for whom Web ANYTHING is a reality, much less web2.0?</p>
<p>I haven’t made time yet to search this out, but my own experience tells me that classrooms in MOST schools in China, India, Indonesia and the “have-not” Southeast Asian countries (Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos), and even the “haves” (Thailand and Malaysia, with the possible exception of Singapore) will look more like this one than the wireless laptop, Smartboard-equipped, media-rich environments that we now take for granted in our classrooms. Together, these eight countries account for nearly half the world’s population. The students going to these institutions today will become the next generation’s “Renewable Energy” labor supply.</p>
<p>The point?</p>
<p>Buddhism suggests “the Middle Way” as the path to overcoming “dukkha” (”unsatisfactoryness”) Perhaps a little “Middle Way Thinking” is in order as we strive to ensure that we are preparing our students for the world of tomorrow. Perhaps the expensive prep school still relying on 19th century technology to shape the thinking of students today is onto something. Perhaps their graduates will be better equipped to relate to the “huddled masses” exiting the unwired schools still dominating the landscape of schools around the world than the pampered, gadget-rich graduates of our ultra-wired schools. Perhaps we should all take a step back and “seek the Middle Way” as we prepare to embrace yet another round of “best-yet” educational technologies and practices.</p>
<p>Oh-ohmmm. Manee Padme Ohm…<!-- WSA: rules for context '72890nocolor' said: don't show ad --></p>
<p> </p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/10/the-middle-way-pt2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Back at it..</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/back-at-it/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/back-at-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:07:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/?p=31</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hard to believe it&#8217;s been FIVE months since I posted here. It&#8217;s been a whirlwind, with end of school, setting up for a new Integrated Library System in ISB&#8217;s Main Library, summer travel, my son&#8217;s first birthday, and the abortive (:() release of my first novel on Amazon! (for the whole story, check out my [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hard to believe it&#8217;s been FIVE months since I posted here. It&#8217;s been a whirlwind, with end of school, setting up for a new Integrated Library System in ISB&#8217;s Main Library, summer travel, my son&#8217;s first birthday, and the abortive (:() release of my first novel on Amazon! (for the whole story, check out my Writing Blog at <a href="http://maishangrila.blogspot.com/">http://maishangrila.blogspot.com/</a>. </p>
<p>Happily, the book&#8217;s back on track, our new system is gradually working out it&#8217;s kinks, and the school year&#8217;s about to kick of with a powerhouse team in our <a href="http://isb21.wikispaces.com/">ISB21</a> group. Check out the video on Kim Cofino&#8217;s summer posting at <a href="http://mscofino.edublogs.org/">http://mscofino.edublogs.org/</a>.</p>
<p>Let the Games Begin!!!</p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/back-at-it/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Copyright Catechisms and the (small-d) digital diaspora</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/27/copyright-catechisms-and-the-small-d-digital-diaspora/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/27/copyright-catechisms-and-the-small-d-digital-diaspora/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Copyright]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Guided Inquiry]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DMCA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Doug Johnson]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DVD]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Fair Use]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[school libraries]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[TEACH Act]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[VHS]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[video loans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/27/copyright-catechisms-and-the-small-d-digital-diaspora/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
 Catechism, and diaspora: from Wikipedia, the Digital Encyclopedia
catechism (pronounced /ˈkætəkɪzəm/; Ancient Greek: κατηχισμός) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching &#8230;[1] Catechisms are doctrinal manuals often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorized.
diaspora (in Ancient Greek, διασπορά – &#8220;a scattering or sowing of seeds&#8220;) refers [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1></h1>
<p> <strong>Catechism, and diaspora:</strong> from Wikipedia, the Digital Encyclopedia</p>
<p><strong>catechism</strong> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Pronunciation" title="Pronunciation">pronounced</a> <font face="Arial Unicode MS">/ˈkætəkɪzəm/</font>; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Ancient Greek</a>: κατηχισμός) is a summary or exposition of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine" title="Doctrine">doctrine</a>, traditionally used in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian" title="Christian">Christian</a> religious teaching &#8230;<sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catechism#cite_note-0">[1]</a></sup> Catechisms are doctrinal manuals often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorized.</p>
<p><strong>diaspora</strong> (in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Ancient Greek</a>, <strong>διασπορά</strong> – &#8220;<em>a scattering or sowing of seeds</em>&#8220;) refers to any people or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicity" title="Ethnicity">ethnic</a> population forced or induced to leave their traditional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeland" title="Homeland">homelands</a>, the dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their culture.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m wrestlying with what to do about VHS and DVD copy issues that keep raising their ugly heads at my school. More and more, it seems to me, the current state of copyright understanding is built on catechistic principles becoming increasingly untenable and the reality of copyright compliance is being further diluted by the rationalization of the new diaspora of &#8220;Digital Natives&#8221;.  I characterize these as a diaspora in the purest sense of the word, meaning no disrespect or criticism; the term simply recognizes their wandering from the traditional roots of information access, manipulation and delivery and the emerging strategies for the sharing of ideas that no longer lend themselves to a realia-based copyright model.</p>
<p>Wordplay aside, Web2.0 has rendered &#8220;Fair Use&#8221; assessments questionable at best and unworkable in practice (although they have always been almost so). A few of the new questions that arise in trying to apply traditional Fair Use guidelines to a digital piece might be;</p>
<ul>
<li>Character of Use - In an open-source environment, how might we assess the character of use? Once a work is posted to the web, for example, it can be viewed widely, printed, excerpted, edited and referred in many ways by different users.</li>
<li>Nature of the copyrighted work - a typical digital document includes a variety of embedded file-types making it difficult to assign a simplistic &#8220;nature&#8221; to the work.</li>
<li>Amount and substantiality of the portion used - how can we accurately determine what part of an attributive posting is covered by Creative Commons licence and what is considered proprietary material? How should we assess the percentage of a source being used? Should we measure the percentage of storage used (considering the disparate data-requirements of text vs. sound vs. image or video), the percentage total elapsed straigh play-time coopted or the estimated total interactive user engagement?</li>
<li>When material is being freely shared over the open web, how can we intuit harm to the Market Value of a piece? Does this suggest that there is no harm, or are their other indicators of &#8220;market value&#8221; that should be evaluated? (user reviews? blog citations and comments? Hit counts?)</li>
</ul>
<p>In my library, which is still heavy to &#8220;web1.0&#8243; media offerings (non-interactive information delivery packages) several scenarios dominate, being;</p>
<p>1) The teacher who wants us to archive a favorite VHS (no longer available) onto DVD so he/she can continue to use it with his/her laptop and Smartboard.<br />
2) The teacher who wants to create an edited version of a DVD for brevity or censorial purposes (adult content, language, etc)<br />
3) The student who wants to use an extended video clip in a powerpoint, or a commercial music piece to back up a personal video.<br />
4) The administrator who plans to use library videos for rain-day entertainment in the cafeteria.<br />
5) The parent who wants to borrow library videos for what appears to be primarily entertainment purposes.</p>
<p>The first four situations are, in my mind, clear violations of traditional copyright (as I understand it, from an &#8220;informed layperson&#8217;s&#8221; perspective), and I&#8217;m constantly finding myself trying to explain or justify our position. But I&#8217;m beginning to wonder how much time I should be expending trying to convince people that their requests are illegal, immoral or simply inappropriate due to their questionable nature. Maybe it&#8217;s time simply throw in the digital towel and say, &#8220;Go for it.&#8221;</p>
<p> If that&#8217;s not a viable option, what are some alternative suggestions? I&#8217;ve tried posting copyright guidelines, running articles in school publications on Fair Use, offering copyright update sessions on ProD days, and presenting at conferences. Of course I&#8217;ll continue to to trot out my current box of trick. But I need some new tools, some new props, perhaps a whole new approach. I&#8217;m open to suggestions. </p>
<p>The situation gets even muddier as we enter the arena of new media formats and delivery systems. this post has rambled on for far too long, but <a target="_blank" href="http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/">Doug Johnson&#8217;s Blue Skunk Blog </a>posting  <a href="http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/3/25/if-i-cant-get-it-legally-is-it-ok-to-steal-it.html">If I can&#8217;t get it legally is it OK to steal it?</a> raises many of the questions regarding media like game soundtracks, theme music and cellphone ringtones. </p>
<p>Doug doesn&#8217;t answer most of the questions either, but perhaps if more rational people continue to talk about these issues, once they get to whatever legislative systems are invoked to deal with them the new agreements will have become part of the lexicon of shared understanding that will help to move things forward. Meanwhile, it&#8217;s the wild west revisited when using new media in the emerging virtual (and physical) realities we&#8217;re increasingly living in.</p>
<p>What are you doing about Library1.0 lending issues in a Web2.0 world?</p>
<p>Are you still trying to observe the spirit of the DMCA and/or <a target="_blank" href="http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/intellectualProperty/teachact.htm">the TEACH Act</a>? Or have you set your sights on Web (and Library) 2.0 and are you spending less time obsessing over &#8220;Fair Use&#8221; and concentrating on &#8220;appropriate&#8221; (i.e. educational) use? What&#8217;s a morally conscientous but future-oriented teacher-librarian to do?</p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/27/copyright-catechisms-and-the-small-d-digital-diaspora/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Lending Media Matters&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/lending-media-matters/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/lending-media-matters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:04:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Copyright]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Guided Inquiry]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Thinking Ahead]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ALA copyright Fact-sheet]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DMCA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DVD]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[school libraries]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[TEACH Act]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[VHS]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[video loans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/lending-media-matters/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;re currently in the throes of discarding our thoughtfully selected (over almost 20 years), meticulously cataloged and carefully managed collection of VHS titles that were, five years ago, one of the highlights of our library. Every visiting group (local universities and schools wanting a taste of what &#8220;western&#8221; school libraries look like) was ushered into our &#8220;Special Collections&#8221; area (4500 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We&#8217;re currently in the throes of discarding our thoughtfully selected (over almost 20 years), meticulously cataloged and carefully managed collection of VHS titles that were, five years ago, one of the highlights of our library. Every visiting group (local universities and schools wanting a taste of what &#8220;western&#8221; school libraries look like) was ushered into our &#8220;Special Collections&#8221; area (4500 VHS tapes, 1500 music CD&#8217;s, 1000 in-house archival videos, a growing collection of DVDs&#8230;) </p>
<p>There&#8217;s a story in itself, in view of Ross Todd&#8217;s exhortations that we stop obsessing over collections of &#8220;stuff&#8221;, but that&#8217;s not the issue here. The question is whether we should limit, or even deny use of our replacement collection of DVDs to our school community.</p>
<p>Why would we deny access to our collections? To provide full access to our collections - for our primary users (students and teachers).  But if we do so, are we denying full Library2.0 access to ideas (and opportunities to create new ideas from these)?</p>
<p>On the other hand, is the the whole issue academic? Are DVD&#8217;s passe in a Web2.0 world anyway? Is it time to simply abandon &#8220;realia&#8221; media collections  altogether? Should we just open the gates wide and deal with access issues IF they arise?</p>
<p>As an international school where our students have minimal access to the public libraries,  Borders-quality bookstores and commercial video outlets that populate most neighborhoods in the developed world, we&#8217;ve always felt a responsibility to offer our collections for &#8220;community&#8221; use.  This manifests itself in regular (often daily) use of our facilities by a small cadre of unemployed parental &#8220;spouses&#8221; who live in the gated community in which our school resides, regular circulation of adult-interest print (e.g. travel and geography titles, along with adult-interest fiction) materials - and, of course, what I&#8217;ve called the &#8220;Saturday morning Video Club&#8221;. These are the parents, who stock up on video titles every Friday. the sheer number of titles they borrow and the timing of these loans suggests that they are not used in an instructional setting, but rather, as an &#8220;educational&#8221; alternative to the limited cable-tv offerings in Bangkok.</p>
<p>So why is this a problem? A couple of years ago, I published the following in our PTA publication, &#8220;the Touchstone&#8221;.</p>
<blockquote><p><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">Recently, a number of Main Library video titles have not been available on request by teachers during the school day. Following a review of our policies, I have decided that the policies are fine but enforcement has “relaxed” over the years, so have asked Main Library staff to strictly enforce the “Overnight Loan” policy for all video material loaned to anyone other than a classroom teacher.  The policy has been in place for several years, but regular users may sometimes keep titles for several days and may have asked to borrow  items during the school day rather than at the end of the day, once the chance of a classroom request has passed.</font></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">From March 1 onward, I have asked staff to provide videos on strict overnight loan to non-teachers for parental review or student extra work on the following basis;</font></p>
<ol>
<li><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">Titles may be borrowed following the regular school day between 2:05 and 3:00 (following which we have only one staff member on duty and close down the Special Collections area (including videos)</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">All titles provided on Overnight Loan should be returned between 7:00 and 7:20 the NEXT school day.</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">As we have only a single staff member on duty on Saturdays, we cannot offer video service on Saturday</font><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"> </font></li>
</ol>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">We would also like to remind patrons that while ISB’s Main Library holds an impressive video collection, each title in the collection was purchased “with instructional intent”, meaning that it is not our primary purpose to provide weekend entertainment for our students. There are many video outlets available in Bangkok providing this service.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">We value the wonderful collections that ISB has built to help every one of our students achieve to his or her potential. Please help us to ensure that these materials are available at all times for their intended use.</font></p>
<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman">**********************************</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The American Library Association provides the following guidelines for non-instructional use of school-purchased videos. </font></p>
<p><font size="2"><font face="Times New Roman">1. <em>Loan/Rental of Videotapes</em><br />
Libraries may loan/rent videos to patrons for their personal use. This is true even if the video is labeled &#8220;For Home Use Only.&#8221; According to (ALA) <strong><em>&#8220;a library or school that resells, rents, or lends a copy of a copyrighted videotape, which it owns, is not infringing on the copyright owner&#8217;s rights.&#8221;</em></strong> Some guidelines to follow when loaning/renting a video to a patron: </font></font></p>
<p><font size="2">·</font>         <font size="2" face="Times New Roman">Libraries should not obscure (i.e., cover or deface) the copyright notice as it appears on the producer&#8217;s label. </font></p>
<p><font size="2">·</font>         <font size="2"><font face="Times New Roman"><em>Libraries should not knowingly loan a video for use in public performances. If a patron inquires about a planned performance of a videotape, he or she should be informed that only private uses of it are lawful</em>. </font></font></p>
<p><font size="2">·</font>         <font size="2" face="Times New Roman">Libraries can charge a nominal fee for use of videos…&#8221;The fact that a fee is charged is irrelevant; the right to distribute a copy includes the right to rent it &#8212; for a fee or deposit or otherwise.&#8221; </font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">Check out the ALA &#8220;Fact-Sheet&#8221; site containing this at; </font></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Library_Fact_Sheets&amp;Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&amp;ContentID=24635"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman">http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Library_Fact_Sheets&amp;Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&amp;ContentID=24635</font></a></p></blockquote>
<p><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><font size="3" face="Georgia">The question at hand - Should we continue this policy, or are we justified, given the new access to commercial media, internet sources and social networking options, in locking up our DVD collection and making it available exclusively for teacher preview, instructional use and student review (in-house).</font></font> </p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/lending-media-matters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Blogging Gold</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/blogging-gold/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/blogging-gold/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:54:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Professional Blogs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[21st Century Literacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[informaton literacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[libraries]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/blogging-gold/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As I&#8217;ve begun spending more time in the &#8220;blogosphere&#8221; as I&#8217;ve called it here, I&#8217;ve come across an increasing number of wonderful, but not as well-know sites as those at the &#8220;Blogosphere Heavyweights&#8221; Blogroll list to the right.
By all means keep track of Doug and Joyce and Will - but don&#8217;t miss these wonderful, thought-provoking [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As I&#8217;ve begun spending more time in the &#8220;blogosphere&#8221; as I&#8217;ve called it here, I&#8217;ve come across an increasing number of wonderful, but not as well-know sites as those at the &#8220;Blogosphere Heavyweights&#8221; Blogroll list to the right.</p>
<p>By all means keep track of Doug and Joyce and Will - but don&#8217;t miss these wonderful, thought-provoking blogs on Libraries, Information Literacy &amp; 21st Century Literacy in your quest to become (or stay) &#8220;21st Century Literate&#8221; . The &#8220;heavyweights&#8221; are who everyone quotes, but do yourself a favor and have a look at some of these too.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/about.html"> Library 2.0 An Academic&#8217;s perspective </a>- by Laura B. Cohen, Support Librarian, University at Albany, SUNY, who has sadly recently retired. Fortunately, her blog is slated to stay up for a year or so and we can still learn from her insights into the world we&#8217;re facing.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t miss either <a target="_blank" href="http://classroomtechtips.wordpress.com/">Classroom Tech Tips </a>- by Donna DesRoches</p>
<p>or<a target="_blank" href="http://newdunstantoo.blogspot.com/"> &#8220;Dunstanology&#8221; </a>by Jane L. Hyde at the St. Dunstan Libraray at The Library of Christ School, an Episcopal school for boys,boarding and day, in the western North Carolina mountains near Asheville.  Jane&#8217;s Feb. 25th posting &#8220;The Only Thing Constant is&#8230;&#8221; neatly summarizes the time conundrums we teacher-librarians face today. Well worth a visit.</p>
<p> More as I have them&#8230;</p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/blogging-gold/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Visions of 21st Century Learning - Everything old is new again?</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/comparing-visions-of-21st-century-learning/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/comparing-visions-of-21st-century-learning/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:44:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Guided Inquiry]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Thinking Ahead]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[21st-century learning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[AASL]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[inquiry learning]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ISTE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[NETS]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ross Todd]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[school libraries]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Standards]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Web2.0]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/comparing-visions-of-21st-century-learning/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Everything Old is New Again&#8221;, goes the refrain in the Peter Allen  song of the same name from 1974, and the flurry of new teaching and learning standards surfacing during 2007 reminds me of that refrain. 1974 was the year I spent waiting tables, driving cab and trying to wrap my head around the dichotomy [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;Everything Old is New Again&#8221;, goes the refrain in <a target="_blank" href="http://www.smartlyrics.com/Song418583-Peter-Allen-Everything-Old-Is-New-Again-lyrics.aspx">the Peter Allen  song </a>of the same name from 1974, and the flurry of new teaching and learning standards surfacing during 2007 reminds me of that refrain. 1974 was the year I spent waiting tables, driving cab and trying to wrap my head around the dichotomy I saw between the promise of  Open-Area Education to achieve a new vision of vision of &#8220;child-centred&#8221; <em>teaching</em> compared to the reality I saw in my practice teaching (inner-city schools in Vancouver, B.C.). Technology was the poster-child back then. It was going to play a huge part in achieving that vision of every child achieving to his or her potential.  </p>
<p>Over the past 30 years we first added computers and every peripheral we could get our hands <a target="_blank" href="http://newali.apple.com/ali_sites/deli/index.shtml/"></a>on to the lineup of &#8220;must-have&#8221; technologies in the classroom and the library (the &#8217;80&#8217;s). We then populated the ever-increasing RAM and hard-drive space with a plethora of electronic databases and data sets (the early &#8217;90&#8217;s) that promised &#8220;anything, anywhere, anytime&#8221; access to information. When that still didn&#8217;t seem to produce the quantum-leap in learning we&#8217;d anticipated, we jumped on the &#8220;Information Highway&#8221; big-time in the late &#8217;90&#8217;s and into the early 21st century in order to provide our students with access to &#8220;real-world&#8221; data and information. </p>
<p> And it seemed to work. Life was good. Technology had saved the day. A slew of studies in the &#8217;90&#8217;s and early 2000&#8217;s said so. <a href="http://www.oelma.org/StudentLearning/documents/OELMAResearchStudy8page.pdf">The Ohio Study </a>by Ross Todd and Carol Kuhlthau was just one of  these. But in spite of the positive results, The <a href="http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6320013.html">School Library Journal interview </a>with Todd in 2004 ended with;<a target="_blank" href="http://newali.apple.com/ali_sites/deli/index.shtml/"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We see so many kids coming into the school library with a project to do. At the end, did they learn anything? And what does that learning actually look like?&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Put another way, had all of this &#8220;stuff&#8221; (Ross Todd, 2008) translate into vastly new and better, &#8220;child-centered&#8221; <em><strong>Learning</strong></em>? It seems not.   Although on the one hand, the data from landmark studies like those of Todd, Keith Curry Lance and others have assured us that there&#8217;s a confirmed link between libraries and learning, it seemed that actually, the &#8220;<a href="http://nationsreportcard.gov/">Nation&#8217;s Report Card</a>&#8221; was not showing significant and consistent gains in student performance or learning as we might have hoped, given the promise of Educational Technology over the previous 20 years. Even though several subject areas have shown improvement in 2005 0ver 1990&#8217;s scores, the <a href="http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_grade12_2005/s0201.asp">Executive Summary for Reading </a>published in November, 2007 showed that;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;In 2005, the average reading score for high school seniors was 286 on a 0–500 scale. This score was lower than in 1992, although it was not significantly different from the score in 2002. With the exception of the score for students performing at the 90th <a name="glossary1" href="openGlossaryWin('/glossary.asp#percentile')" title="glossary1">percentile</a>, declines were seen across most of the performance distribution in 2005 as compared to 1992. <a href="http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_grade12_2005/s0202.asp">More&#8230;</a></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>The percentage of students performing at or above <a name="glossary1" href="openGlossaryWin('/glossary.asp#basic')" title="glossary1"><em>Basic</em></a> decreased from 80 percent in 1992 to 73 percent in 2005, and the percentage of students performing at or above the <a name="glossary1" href="openGlossaryWin('/glossary.asp#proficient')" title="glossary1"><em>Proficient</em></a> level decreased from 40 to 35 percent&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Scary? Well, keep in mind that &#8220;everything old is new again&#8221;. Unfortunately, the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.poemhunter.com/song/everything-old-is-new-again/">Bare Naked Ladies version </a>of the song by the same name might be a more accurate depiciton of the way it&#8217;s turned out, at least in the school libraries I&#8217;ve worked in. But, to mix in another metaphor, maybe Lenny Kravitz really got it right back in 1991. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzPynaOTAiE">It ain&#8217;t over &#8217;till it&#8217;s over&#8230;</a> There IS a difference this time around, and the difference is in the technology. It&#8217;s called Web2.0.</p>
<p>Web 2.0 has helped us embark on yet another cycle of renewal and rebirth in our dream to take every learner to the limits of his or her personal ability; to help him achieve &#8220;to his academic potential&#8221; in the parlance of the ISB Vision and Guiding Principles.  If we&#8217;re lucky, perhaps this time, the vision and the reality will mesh more neatly than it has in the past. Perhaps the technology has matured enough in &#8220;Web2.0&#8243; to really help us make &#8220;everything old new again&#8221; - in the best Peter Allen Tradition. I&#8217;m hopeful&#8230;</p>
<p>To begin with, the new AASL <img border="0" vspace="5" align="right" width="127" src="http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/cover.JPG" hspace="5" alt="Standards for the 21st-Century Learner cover" height="164" /><a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/standards.cfm">&#8220;Standards for the 21st-Century Learner&#8221;</a> AASL&#8217;s New Teaching Standards offer &#8220;a vision for teaching and learning to both guide and beckon our profession as education leaders.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Standards describe how learners use skills, resources, and tools to</p>
<ul>
<li>inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge;</li>
<li>draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge;</li>
<li>share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society;</li>
<li>pursue personal and aesthetic growth.</li>
</ul>
<p>While the AASL has been framing its new standards, ISTE, the International Society for Technlogy in Education, has been working to the same ends. In 2007, ISTE completed updated standards for students, and these identify;</p>
<p><em>&#8220;</em><a href="http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_for_Students.htm"><em>What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively</em></a><a href="http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_for_Students.htm"> </a><em><a href="http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_for_Students.htm">and </a><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_for_Students.htm">live productively in an increasingly digital world </a>…”</font></em></p>
<ul>
<li>
<p align="justify">Creativity and Innovation</p>
</li>
<li>
<p align="justify">Communication and Collaboration<font face="Times New Roman">  The new standards identify several higher-order thinking skills and digital citizenship as critical for students to learn effectively for a lifetime and live productively in our emerging global society</font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p align="justify">Research and Information Fluency<font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p>
</li>
<li>
<p align="justify">Technology Operations and Concepts</p>
</li>
<li>
<p align="justify">Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making</p>
</li>
<li>
<p align="justify">Digital Citizenship</p>
<h3 align="center"><img border="0" width="257" src="http://www.iste.org/AM/Images/NETS_test/Resized_small_NETSS_graphic_web.jpg" alt="Image" height="202" /></h3>
</li>
</ul>
<p>At the same time, the &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/" title="The Partnership for 21st-Century Skills">Partnership for 21s Century Skills</a>&#8221; launched <a href="http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/">Route 21</a>, an online, one-stop shop for 21st century skills-related information, resources and tools. The group is a veritable &#8220;Who&#8217;s Who&#8221; of the key players in InfoTech  today.  Their core beliefs?</p>
<p><font size="1"><font size="2">&#8220;We believe schools must move beyond a focus on basic competency in core subjects to promoting understanding of academic content at much higher levels by weaving <strong><font size="2" face="GillSans,GillSans">21st century interdisciplinary themes </font></strong><font size="2">into core subjects: &#8220;</font></font></font> </p>
<ul>
<li><font size="2">Global Awareness</font></li>
<li><font size="2">Financial, Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy</font></li>
<li><font size="2">Civic Literacy, and </font></li>
<li><font size="2">Health Literacy</font></li>
</ul>
<p><font size="2" face="GillSans,GillSans"> <img border="0" src="http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/images/articles/rainbowicon-coresubj.gif" /></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="GillSans,GillSans">And finally, International School Bangkok&#8217;s Own own cut on 21st Century Learning  comes out of the work of Technology Resource Coordinators </font><font size="2" face="GillSans,GillSans"><a href="http://medagogy.edublogs.org/">Justin Medved</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://dharter.edublogs.org/">Dennis Harter </a>. </font><font size="2" face="GillSans,GillSans">They write:</font></p>
<blockquote><p><em>Over the school year we &#8230; came up five essential questions that we felt addressed the core elements of a comprehensive technology and learning curriculum&#8230;         </em></p>
<ul>
<li>How do you know information is true?      </li>
<li>How do you communicate effectively?      </li>
<li>What does it mean to be a global citizen?      </li>
<li>How do I learn best?      </li>
<li>How can we be safe?</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>When I look at any of these systems of core values, I see, in each of them;</p>
<ul>
<li><font color="#25981e"><strong>Critical thinking</strong> </font><font color="#000000">in a 21st-century context (deep understanding, just-in-time learning, use of appropriate technology, evaluative abilities, communications skills)</font></li>
<li><font color="#25981e"><strong>Global Awareness</strong> (</font><font color="#000000">the environment, and how our stewardship of the planet impacts on the future)</font></li>
<li><font color="#25981e"><strong>Global Citizenship</strong> <font color="#000000">(human interactions and how they influence our individual and collective futures)</font> </font>
<ul>
<li><font color="#000000">Encompasing issues of personal &#8220;safety&#8221; and &#8220;health&#8221;</font></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><font color="#25981e"><strong>Metacognition</strong> </font><font color="#000000">(learners&#8217; reflection on and engagement in their own learning)</font></li>
</ul>
<p>The rather sobering thought that follows is that I&#8217;ve been seeing these core values in every &#8220;system&#8221; I&#8217;ve encountered since my Open Area days in the 1970&#8217;s. In other words, however you label them, people looking to the future of education have been zeroing in on the same fundamental skills, topics and themes for as long as we&#8217;ve been thinking about it&#8230;</p>
<p>Everything old is new again?&#8230;</p>
<p> (planned for an upcoming post - How can we ensure that students who spend a semester, a year, a school division or a complete schooling career with us are adequately prepared for the challenges in those four overarching themes? What do we need to do to reinvent ourselves in school libraries so that we regain the relevance to a learner&#8217;s journey that we believe libraries should have? How can we make our libraries, our programs, and our<em>selves</em> &#8220;new again&#8221;?</p>
<p>The answers may lie in the <a href="http://www.slamit.org/course2/documents/The%20Preferred%20Future%20of%20SL%20by%20Ross%20Todd.ppt">new collaborations that Ross Todd exhorted us to forge</a> with the people who can help us best when it comes to using the power of technology to achieve our aims. At ISB we call them &#8220;Technology Faciliators&#8221; and we&#8217;re working hard to make sure that our next efforts really are the &#8220;best yet&#8221; in terms of achieving our dreams of taking learners to the places they need to go to be successful in the 21st century world they&#8217;re facing. -rjr)</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/"></a></p></blockquote>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/17/comparing-visions-of-21st-century-learning/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>More Ross Todd on Transforming School Libraries</title>
		<link>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/05/ross-todd-on-transforming-school-libraries/</link>
		<comments>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/05/ross-todd-on-transforming-school-libraries/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:05:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>rubisr</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Guided Inquiry]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Thinking Ahead]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[21st-century skills]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[network cred]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/05/ross-todd-on-transforming-school-libraries/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I spent some time tinkering with a personal summary of the &#8220;Big Ideas&#8221; on Guided Inquiry in the school library that Ross presented in his preconference session at the ECIS Librarians&#8217; Conference in Berlin on February 28th. Unfortunately, I had initially marshalled my thoughts in a table form, and when I tried to import them to this blog, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><strong><font face="Times New Roman">I spent some time tinkering with a personal summary of the &#8220;Big Ideas&#8221; on Guided Inquiry in the school library that Ross presented in his preconference session at the ECIS Librarians&#8217; Conference in Berlin on February 28th. Unfortunately, I had initially marshalled my thoughts in a table form, and when I tried to import them to this blog, all sorts of things went wrong.</font></strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong><font face="Times New Roman">Fortunately, before I invested too heavily in trying to resolve the technical problems I was encountering, my colleague and co-attendee, Kim Cofino <a href="http://mscofino.edublogs.org/">http://mscofino.edublogs.org/</a> posted an absolutely crystalline analysis of the conference.</font></strong></em></p>
<p><strong><em><font face="Times New Roman">More to the point, Kim proposes a number of strategies that are absolutely seminal to the teaching and learning issues at hand. Kim absolutely nails the rationale for Edtech Facilitators and Library/Media professionals (in whatever guise we see ourselves) to work together in a new model of collaboration which will marry the innovativeness and enthusiasm of the former with the experience and traditional expertise of the latter. </font></em></strong></p>
<p><strong><font face="Times New Roman"><em>This frees me up to move in new directions with this blog. In the spirit of  recent postings by Will Richardson </em><a rel="bookmark" href="http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/urgent-21st-century-skills-for-educators-and-others-first/" title="21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others) First"><em>URGENT: 21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others) First</em></a><em>   and ISB colleague Dennis Harter </em><a rel="bookmark" href="http://dharter.edublogs.org/2008/03/05/is-school-curriculum-still-meaningful/" title="Is school curriculum still meaningful?">Is school curriculum still meaningful?</a> <em>I&#8217;m going to indulge in a bit of professional self-examination to see if I can develop a bit of that &#8220;network cred&#8221; that Will talks about. The question might be, &#8220;If a blog post exists in a blogosphere vaccum, do the ideas really matter?&#8221;</em></font></strong></p>
<p><strong><font face="Times New Roman">Meanwhild, a last note on Ross Todd.  </font></strong><strong><font face="Times New Roman">In addition to the Big Ideas noted in &#8220;A Side Trip&#8230;&#8221;, Ross went on to exhort School Libraries to:</font></strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Offer effective alternatives to <strong><em>“cut ‘n pasting”</em></strong> strategies</li>
<li>Move beyond the “scope &amp; sequence”  info literacy to “information to knowledge” strategies</li>
<li><font face="Times New Roman"><strong><em>Develop Additive vs Integrative</em></strong> knowledge construction</font></li>
<li><strong><font face="Times New Roman">Be(come) zones of <em>intellectual conflict, intellectual discontent, intellectual activism. </em></font></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><em><strong><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>To get to the nub of  </strong><strong>the  work on Guided Enquiry by <strong>Dr. Carol C. Kuhlthau &amp; Dr. Ross J. Todd </strong></strong><strong>go to; <a href="http://cissl.scils.rutgers.edu/guided_inquiry/introduction.html">http://cissl.scils.rutgers.edu/guided_inquiry/introduction.html</a> . </strong></font></strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong><font face="Times New Roman"><strong>All material presented at the Guided Inquiry site is copyright protected under Creative Commons</strong></font></strong></em></p>
<br />Authored by <a href="http://edgingahead.edublogs.org">rubisr</a>. Hosted by <a href="http://edublogs.org">Edublogs</a>.]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://edgingahead.edublogs.org/2008/03/05/ross-todd-on-transforming-school-libraries/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
