Greenville Loves Neal Shusterman!

Author Neal Shusterman visited several middle schools during the month of February. Blue Ridge Middle School, Sevier Middle school, Berea Middle School and Tanglewood Middle students had the opportunity to meet Mr. Shusterman and hear about his life and writings.

Here are some pictures from his visit -

Click here to see a short movie from one of his presentations -
















Have other pictures to share? Please send them in!

E-Audio Books

Good afternoon!

We are still looking in to NetLibrary and OverDrive as possible solutions to a district wide eBook and eAudio book solution. We are waiting for quotes from the two companies and I've been collecting various input from the group - what are your thoughts folks?

I know several of you have written wanting to get off the ground with the MP3 projects connecting the eAudio - I've listened to several so far and I am loving the possibilities.

Cell Phones, Text Messaging and Bears - OH MY!

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/177490

So Frank Baker sent this article to us on the SCASL listserv this morning, and I see more and more like it as I read through various technology magazines. I'm left shaking my head, and really feeling like I am about to jump in to the deep end - I guess its a good thing that I like water!

I shake my head because I worry that this is another have and have not situation division for our children - Are the gadgets that allow peer to peer communication like cell phones/ text messaging/IM one more thing that separates our students who have the financial resources from the students who don't? Chances that we will have a run on school districts buying all students cell phones so that they can experience the same technology are slim to none. Or, do more students have cell phones regardless of their families incomes because they have become like cable or satellite - where even those who can't really afford them buy them anyway?

As for jumping in the deep end, I'll start with a personal aside... as up on technology as I like to stay, I just started text messaging seriously on my phone a few months ago, and I love it. I don't think the abuse is as prevalent and doom ridden as the news presents - but it is there, and it is there enough that it can't be ignored. It falls down to discipline, if you know the phones are there, make it a starting procedure for class to bring them out and turn them off - have a cell phone "time out" area if you need to. If you are running a meeting and don't want them going off, make a point of it at the beginning. (I'm guilty of getting calls and messages in meetings too so I say this with much love and self chastising.) I think I reached a new level of awareness for this when I was required to give a "turn of your cell phones" speech before going in to perform storytime on Saturday mornings at the public library - and that was a few years ago. No one is immune!

I love the last lines in the article that state what we need is a solid education in media literacy so that we are using the tools instead of the tools using us. This could be said for adults as well as children. How many adults are used by their cell phone/Blackberry? Can't leave it at home for a few minutes... feel lost without it if you leave it behind? (Look at the picture portrayed in the movie, Night at the Museum - the boyfriend's character is in technology overdrive with cell phone, pager, Blackberry and laptop plaguing him at every turn.)

Maybe this media literacy instruction needs to include what good, tech savvy librarians have been saying all along - you have to be comfortable enough with all of the technology options to know when it isn't the best option at all.

January Updates 1

Library World:
I hope all of you are following the progress of the 65% bill in the SC legislature. According the wording libraries are included at present, but we need to stay on top of this to make sure we stay in there. (http://www.scstatehouse.net/sess117_2007-2008/bills/3348.htm) This bill passed in Georgia, but libraries were not included in the definition of “instructional purpose.” In short the bill makes it mandatory for 65% of a school’s baseline budget to be spent on classroom/instructional funding. If libraries are left out of this picture it is very likely that book/technology budgets will be cut, if not eventually the media specialist and aide positions because they wouldn’t fall under the 65%. We are not curriculum support, we are curriculum CRITICAL - make sure you are active in and out of your school in making sure you are part of the instruction and curriculum initiatives at your school. Watch this and be ACTIVE, it is important for us not to bury our heads in the problems at our particular site – we have to be proactive rather than reactive!I hope to see many of you at the SCASL conference in March – you can still register as I understand it!! Great opportunity for professional development and networking - everyone needs the chance to recharge and get new ideas for their library programs.

Reading:
http://screadinglady.blogspot.com

Technology:
I’ve been immersed in video over IP land – there are some great possibilities here, but it is going to be a big change for everyone. As with any new technology change, we have early adopters who are starting to get excited and dream big, some people whose interest has been peaked and will wait to see how other people use it first, and then some who are choosing to ignore the change until they absolutely have to pay attention to it. Hmmm….. where do you and your teachers fall??I love my MP3 player, how about you?? I’ve downloaded books and music, united streaming videos and I have dreamed wonderful dreams about the fabulous projects we will be able to incorporate in to our library programming. Dream away folks, I want to order more and really get the digital ball rolling in the library. We are still looking at an eAudio library, one of the features we are trying to make sure we have is the simultaneous downloading of the titles, we want all of our children to have access. It will also be nice in that it will handle the copyright for us so we don’t have to track or count users in the downloads. There will be particulars to see to such as where and when students can download, and handling the space/purging of files on the computer. I look forward to talking to the pilot group in the next few weeks and brainstorming ways to incorporate and streamline the usage in the schools.

I think I am going to break off a technology blogspot as well to keep updated technology stuff... what do you guys think?