Equipment investigation reflection

This was my first time actually using Prezi in a project; prior to this I have seen other's use it but my expertise in Microsoft PowerPoint has always led me to use that instead. I felt that the Prezi was less of a collaborative experience than the Google Doc we used for the makerspace inventory. Since Latrece and myself were unfamiliar with Prezi but Sean had experience we had Sean create and setup the Prezi we had. From there we were able to put in information from our makerspace inventory and then expand upon it in the Prezi. We talked about the content to add to the Prezi and then Sean carried out the major changes we wanted to see. 

Prezi seemed easy to use; I did not need to look up any kind of tutorials on how to make changes or add new slides to it. Latrece had some issues when trying to make small changes to some of the text on the slides and because of this her and I looked for edits that needed to be made together. After locating them I would then make the changes since I was able to just double click on the text and edit it. After everything we put into the makerspace inventory it only took a few hours to get everything into the Prezi and have the final version done. It seemed fairly easy to me. Sean and Latrece are easily the best people I've ever worked on a project with; their enthusiasm, easy manner, expertise, and interest in new things made this project fun while removing all the stress I normally feel going into group projects. They are great people to explore something new with. 

The design options in Prezi are much more attractive than those available in PowerPoint. It also moves more smoothly visually resulting in a more engaging presentation I think than PowerPoint. In the future I believe I will use Prezi when creating presentations that are meant to be engaging to the audience. This could be in a class intended to teach patrons something or when presenting something to young people that will be bored by a PowerPoint. However, if I am giving presentations to a board of directors or similar group I believe I will use a PowerPoint because its simplicity gives it a professional feel. Prezi seems just as useful as other presentation mediums like Google Presentation and PowerPoint; to me it is just a slightly different tool for different audiences.  

Makerspace Inventory Reflection

When constructing the Makerspace inventory we started out by discussing what could potentially go into the makerspace we would create and who the space would be for. Since Sean and Latrece both work in public libraries we decided to focus on a public library environment and devoted the new makerspace to children ranging from toddlers to older school children. From here Sean brought up interest in having the capability to build robots with the children and I brought up having a Lego wall so that toddlers would have somewhere to build and show off their creations. After we had a general idea we started building an actual inventory of what to include and I created a Google Document for all of our information and plans. 

Having worked with Google Docs before it was easy for me to set up the document, share it with my group members, and then add in a table to organize our inventory. I explored a new feature of Google Docs by using the drawing function to create a diagram of what the makerspace would look like in our new library. We based it off of the way the children's section and preexisting makerspace is organized in the library Latrece works at. I was somewhat disappointed that I could not use formulas in the table in Google Docs to add the cost of all our items together automatically. Everything had to be added together in a separate excel sheet and then one of us would just change the total cost in the Google Doc as we added more items to our inventory. I was able to add in new rows to our table as Latrece and Sean found more items we could include; Latrece was having some difficulty in adding a row and I am unsure how to do this on a Mac computer. This removed some of the technical difficulty that would have come up if she had to do this alone or if we simply divided the project into parts and worked separately. 

Google Docs and the other office like functions they have like slide show and spreadsheets is already a part of my professional tool kit and will continue to be a part of it. All of us being able to work on the document together and separately was immensely useful. It saved us a number of emails and revisions were we to have used a word document or just a long email. Another thing we did that I will need to start using in future group work was use a conference call to be able to work on the project together without actually being together. I'm not a big fan of talking on the phone and am usually quick to pick a video chat over a call. This worked out perfectly for our group; we worked on the project together online and spoke on the phone without anyone losing contact because of a bad internet connection or misunderstandings in what was said due to choppy quality. 

VLC Google Template Reflection

The most useful thing to me about the VLC template was the detail in each section on what could be put there. It gives you an idea of where to begin which was useful given it was the first virtual learning commons I had ever made. The site comes with a number of pages already created and labeled that allow the site developer to easily organize different events, projects, archives, news, books, and other items so that users of the site will know which page has what they are looking for. The preloaded videos seemed very helpful in site development to me as well and I kept them to review at a later date. Having worked with Google Sites before on other pages I found it helpful that they already had the side bar created with suggestions of content to add as well. From looking at the Rebecca Crown University website I was easily able to determine what would be useful across different pages of the website for quick reference by users.

There were a few things about the template that were somewhat frustrating. Even being familiar with Google Sites I was not able to determine how to edit the custom footer and chose to remove it instead. The three columns seemed to ask for similar information across the different pages. I would have omitted some of the repeated suggestions for content in some areas just to make it a little less redundant. From my own understanding of a virtual learning commons I felt there was more physical information described than there needed to be. This template has veered from my understanding of what a virtual learning commons can and should encompass but given it was a somewhat new concept to begin with that was not surprising.

In my mind a virtual learning commons would be a completely virtual space that people interact with and learn new things. I can understand having some physical information just for location or instructional purposes but feel that describing all physical club events would not be as useful as webinars. Based on this I think if I am ever able to construct a virtual learning commons I will make sure to include detailed information about the physical commons on one page for users that prefer to have that information or see past projects done in the library. Something that I felt should have been included were discussion boards or chat windows. It would be useful to have them integrated already into the template instead of trying to figure out the coding needed for it. Allowing comments on a page seems messy to me given the page itself is supposed to be a fixed item on the website and the comments would need to be deleted when new content is published. Also I wish there was an option to allow users to upload files with suggestions for content instead of having them contact me to see if they can contribute to the commons.

Thoughts on Blogger

The blogging assignment was one I was looking forward to because I have had multiple blogs in the past. My greatest familiarity has been with Blogger because I began using it as a teenager when I wanted to post my drawings and poetry for other people to see. Before deciding to use Blogger however I tested out some of the other options listed in the course wiki. I started with edublogs and while it seemed helpful and capable of doing what I needed for the blog; it had a number of features that were not necessary for me. The ability to set content controls was one of these things. In the future if I ever am working with young children I believe I would use it but it is currently not what I need. Medium was the next blog platform I tried and though I enjoy the suggestions for blogs and people to follow the actual features available during creation were a letdown. It was difficult for me to determine how to insert images into my blog and the layout restrictions bothered me. Medium will not be incorporated into my PLN. 

When it comes to my PLN I will be using Blogger for my own blog posts and occasionally for connecting with others. The available options for changing the look of text and ability to add in videos/images seemed to be the greatest benefits to me of the site. Also when making my new blog I was allowed to enter a custom domain for the page if I wanted too. Knowing this I feel I could easily integrate the blog into a professional website. Edublogs will be something I bookmark for later use. I think it would be great for any kind of work based interaction with children. Kids could publish book reviews, content they create, links to content, and comment on new things they have learned easily on this site. It also seems like a good way to keep parents in the loop. Edublogs seems like a good place to go for ideas when creating lessons for children as well. 

When working with patrons in the future I feel that blogger will be a great way to teach people how to create their own blogs. It seems like a simple way to teach patrons how to change layout and design to suit their personal/professional goals. The options are not difficult to understand and the html use options will be useful in any advanced lessons given to patrons. Blogger has a number of blogs for patrons to search through to find ones that will provide information about their hobbies and interests for those interested in connecting with other people on the web. For children I would start them off with edublogs since it has controls around content to ensure children are not exposed to images or information that would be age inappropriate.

Thoughts on "School Libraries Cultivate Digital Literacy"

For my Media Services and Production class at Dominican University I recently read an article by Tanya Roscorla titled School Libraries Cultivate Digital Literacy. In the article five issues around cultivating digital literacy among young people are discussed. They are:

1. Access to technology
2. Filtering (school's restricting access to websites like YouTube and Facebook)
3. Sharing the importance of digital literacy (learning it isn't optional anymore)
4. Instructional time (digital literacy is not incorporated into set instructional time)
5. Teaching young children (kids believe what they see and the internet is full of opinions)

Although all the issues above are important I believe 1,2,3, and 5 are not the biggest challenges when it comes to cultivating digital literacy. A large number of students have access to technology either at home, school, or at the library; many schools have taken to trying 1 to 1 initiatives and it has become easier to convince administrators of the fact that technology is a necessary part of the budget. In the article there is mention that requests can be put in to have websites evaluated that are blocked when cases are made for the potential of the site as a tool for student learning. Librarians are aware of the importance of digital literacy and teachers are aware as well how necessary these skills are. Teaching young children how to understand when something is legitimate is an ongoing issue that educators and parents have faced for a long time. Kids are more willing to accept what they see and well assessed lessons will help with finding the best way to teach them.

From my own personal experience as a student I would consider instructional time to be the most challenging obstacle to overcome. Instructional time to teach digital literacy is something librarians have to do outreach for from everything I have studied and seen. As a student my teachers did not begin to bring up digital literacy until I was almost in college and even then they did not teach me how to be digitally literate; they simply told me what sites I could not use for research. In college my writing instructors actually set aside class time to visit the library and learn how to properly search for and evaluate information. This was taught by the University librarian. While digital literacy is a part of the common core and librarians learn it is their responsibility to help the children they work with become digitally literate they are not given set time with all students in every school. Librarians have to reach out to instructors to have digital literacy sessions occur in a class. Given librarians are not required in all schools in Illinois; that leaves some schools without any push for having digital literacy lessons being built into instructional time during the year. Due to all this to me just getting the instructional time for every student to learn these skills is the most challenging obstacle out of the five listed.

An Australian survey of a sample of children who have access to computers and the internet.

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features60Jun+2011

Still want some more information on how the digital age has changed things. Check out this video Did you know?