California State History Day now!

National History Day is a national program for students in grades 6-12.  Nationwide, over 300,000 students participate in this program.  Each year a national theme is chosen and students chose topics to research and then present their findings in one of six ways: historical paper, performance, documentary, exhibit, website or poster (the latter two categories are for 4th and 5th graders as well and only exist in California).  The theme this year is “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”  Students must place in the top two in their category at the county and state competition to qualify to  compete at National History Day in June.  History day is one of the best research based programs that exists.  Because it is research based, the importance of libraries is obvious.  I became involved first as a history teacher and then as a library media teacher.

Today marks the beginning of California State History Day which is taking place at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach, Ca.   Over 1000 students in grades 4-12 are now ready to present the findings of their research through their performances, documentaries, exhibits, papers, posters and web sites!  On Sunday, the top finishers will be announced and will then travel to College Park, Maryland for National History Day.

If you’re in the neighborhood (in Long Beach), stop by to watch these outstanding student generated projects.  The most exciting time will be on Saturday from 3-9 when all of the “finals” take place in the junior and senior divisions.  Congratulations to all the students who qualified to compete in California State History Day!

Distance Learning Today in USA Today

Today’s issue of USA Today (April 27,  2007) includes the second issue of “Distance Learning Today” produced by the US Distance Learning Association.  The articles include timely topics such as the making the grade online, digital textbooks, and another success story from the Florida Virtual School.  All of the articles provide further evidence of the changing landscape of education.

Some of the key quotes from some of the articles:

“Those who will succeed in our global marketplace have learned to learn from each other and, importantly, to teach each other.”

“Employers increasingly cite distance learning as a key to increased employee satisfaction and retention…and expect the role of online high education to increase in their organizations in the next two or three years.”

“Florida Virtual School’s (Middle and High School) total population has grown from 77 enrollments in 1997 to almost 56,000 in 2006. “

Powerful article about kids, technology and education

Mark van’t Hooft, a technology researcher at Kent State University, has written an outstanding research article about students and social networks.  The article entitled, “Schools, Children, and Digital Technology: Building Better Relationships for a Better Tomorrow” was written in the April/May issue of Innovate, the Journal of Online Education.  

The article begins:

“While kids are not afraid to use innovative digital tools such as blogging and repurpose them for their own uses, adults are usually more cautious. In fact, rather than appreciating the varied and often creative ways in which young people make use of new technologies, adults tend to be wary or even afraid of digital tools and seek to strengthen restrictions on their use in schools and libraries. ”

Later in the article, he discusses how social networking for teenagers is a way of connecting with their peers which is not all that different than in the past.

“In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, kids would run and bike all over the neighborhood with their friends, and teenagers would hang out at local hamburger joints, drive-ins, or, eventually, shopping malls… “By going virtual, digital technologies allow youth to (re)create private and public youth space while physically in controlled spaces” (Boyd 2006, “Digital Publics” ¶8).” 

Still the classic differences between the digital natives vs. the analog adults.  He goes on to suggest ways that schools should be involved in guiding students in the use of these tools.

“However, if schools do not take on the responsibility of teaching students how to use the Internet safely, ethically, and responsibly—and given the inability of many parents to do so—who will? According to many technology standards for teaching and learning, schools should play an important role in this regard.“ 

One of his concluding lines, which I will quote and re-quote, is:

“Digital tools will not have a real impact on teaching and learning until educators build more genuine relationships with both kids and technology. ”

The well researched article cites research from Danah Boyd, Andy Carvin, David Warlick, Will Richardson, and others.  READ this article and then you’ll want to share it with the decision makers in your schools.

MySpace and online safety

Earlier this week I spoke to the Gifted and Talented Advisory Board (parents) about online safety, MySpace, Facebook, and Web 2.0 tools. My Web 2.0 journey is here and my online safety tips are here.

I was pleased to read from the Shifted Librarian how MySpace has teamed up with the Illinois Library Association to promote online safety and produced some nice looking and up beat bookmarks. Also promoted over on the YALSA blog.

Also good to read in the recent Pew Internet Report about teens and social networking that:

“The majority of teens actively manage their online profiles to keep the information they believe is most sensitive away from the unwanted gaze of strangers, parents and other adults.“

And, the Librarian in Black points us to some other ongoing research by library school students about MySpace and libraries.

In my research, I have found that MySpace continues to be more and more proactive in helping to protect that millions of teenagers who have MySpace profiles. The entire online community benefits from different organizations and groups working together for the betterment of all.

Big6 workshop in Bolingbrook, IL

It was a pleasure working with the group of dynamic teachers and school librarians at Bolingbrook High School yesterday for the Big6 worshop.  (Workshop content is here).  Bolinbrook High School is part of the Valley View School District which is about 40 miles southeast of Chicago.  This school is just three-years-old and it was wonderful doing the workshop from inside the library media center.  This school library is staffed by two credentialed librarians, a paraprofessional and a computer lab technician.  This is one exciting school library!