Category: Conferences Notes

Nonfiction 2.0: Digital Extensions of Text to Support the Common Core

Dr. Marc Aronson, Author, Lecturer Rutgers

Knowledge is inherrently changing quickly — ability to process data, doubles every two years. [More’s law]

We have to begin to give them the context that information changes. Ability to process knowledge as it changes. Pluto perfect example of this.

Marc is telling stories about fossil finding.

Lee Berger used Google Earth and had a new perspective looking down. Because he looked w new eyes and asked new questions, he found new answers. And we can do the same.

Story told in print form. How does the story change in digital form? Marc showing book in iBooks format (not out yet)

The story opens with a video, explaining how Lee Berger used Google Earth for new fossil discoveries. No hominid clavicles had ever been found before.

Digital platform — freedom where you more space on digital platform.

As science changes, Marc & Lee will be tracking changes at Scimania.org

The print book that narrates a story to the iBook that shows the story. To the experience that allows you to see change as it happens.

InFORMation. Knowledge as it takes form. That’s what is exciting about Common Form.

Read for evidence, argument, POV. Compare/contrast. To see one view against/another. Not passively absorb, but actively think through reading, writing, and speaking.

That is the only training that will prepare young people to deal with 9 planet solar system vs 15 planet.

Knowledge is In – Form – Ation.

Melissa Jacobs Israel, Coordinator of Library Services, NYC Dept. of Education [@missyji]

“How can the use smart tech web tools and apps build curiosity, critical thinking and independent inquiry amongst students?

You can’t just teach to a standard, still have skills to teach. Many skills needed to get to the standard. These skills scaffolded. To meet a standard, you’re teaching over time. You have to break down the standard to the individual skill.

Teaching kids to critically think through these digital apps/ebooks. Not necessarily teaching a site. Teaching kids to critically think about the items they are extracting.

Ebooks

Bats! Flurry Fliers of the Night book. How does this change the learning experience for kids vs. flat book? How does it extend idea of inquiry? Repetition, further discovery of the bat’s life, there’s being the bat. The book uses the space of the iPad (horizontal/verticality). Understands that digital space is different from print space.

It understands that kids have questions. What does it mean to be a bat? Where would I live? What would I eat? Can I survive during the day?

Al Gore’s Our Choice book. An app like this is changing the way we interact with books. Changing the way kids are reading. They are empowered as learners, to dive deeper in the process of thinking, gives the context and the content to deal with the information and the problems.

Web Tools

Provide historical context — historypin.com Tour collections. Narrow by date, area, subject. Look at two photographs and seeing how they’ve changed. Capturing first hand account information when something happened. Gathering that from around the world. This is a way of starting inquiry, critical thinking, and getting kids excited about learning about the world around them. Also teaching kids copyright, authoritative sources, debate.

Extend conversations and inquiry w Multimedia Resources from ARKive Images of life on earth. Photos & videos of wildlife of endangered species around the world. Help students see beyond facts of the animals, the information. Why are these animals endangered? Why do they need to be saved? It has a kind of wiki feel to it. People can edit the entries, ARKive verifies the posted info and if it’s correct, will incorporate. Gives credit to the videos and images. Post, comment, share information.

Education part of the site, resources for different age groups. It has teacher notes, presentations, and activity packs. Edit presentations/resources to what you need.

AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning project

NEW! AASL Best Apps for Teaching and Learning project

To Flip or Not to Flip, That is the Question!

Kari Arfstrom, Ex. Director, Flipped Learning Network, Washington, DC

Pat Semple, Upper School Librarian, Bullis School, Potomac, Maryland

flippedlearning.org

Pat: Flipping allows me to spend more time with students, build relationships with them.

Her school is BYOD for Middle School and Upper School. Lower School uses iPads.

Her environment is heavily digital.

Kari Arfstrom, quick overview of Flipped Learning

Ben Stein video being shown — awful lecture.

Classrooms: Used to sitting in nice neat rows, looking forward at lecturer [kind of like the conference room setup]

Many classrooms today are chaotic, project based learning.

Flipped learning: built in the trenches, for and by teachers/librarians

Why do we have so much unprecedented change in education? Lots of different examples on slides.

What is the best use of your face-to-face class time? Better…

  • practice
  • discussion
  • assessment
  • instruction
  • application
  • remediation 

Time shifting the direct instruction… 

So isn’t that blending learning or online or virtual?

All of these are specific methods, techniques, that involve technology and learning.

Online — online – little interaction.

Blended learning — missed her definition.

Flipped model: interaction with the students and teachers have together — this is the key piece.

Flipped learning occurs when direct instruction is moved from the group learning classroom to the individual learning space. Moving from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered learning environment.

[Thought: Could the Library 23 Things programs be an unintentional example of flipped learning, before this concept existed?]

Flipped learning IS NOT all about videos.

Some teachers will front-load videos, some will share them in the middle, or some will share them at the end. Some are asking students to help create videos or find them. Up to the teacher for when these videos can be used.

Digital Divide. If one-to-one initiative exists, everyone has Internet access, the buses have Internet access, this is great. But what if you don’t? Making sure students have Internet access some way (not that they DO the homework), but just that they have access to the Internet. This is still a HUGE issue in many parts of the country.

Different ways of recording the videos: showing computer, whiteboard, chalkboard, or videoing face, or tiny face.

25 minute lecture during might be compressed down to 8 minutes — much shorter.

Ex. PE teacher has a flipped classroom – Pickle Ball video.

Does flipped learning propagate bad teaching (lectures)? If the teacher is bad yes, good, no.

Is flipped learning THE answer? No, it’s ONE of the answers.

Still can have discussion, project based learning, socratic method, or other methods. What works for you? For your students? Find your style as a teacher.

Bloom’s taxonomy — can time shift remembering/understanding down the time level.

Flip your classroom book

Lots of webinars on this teaching method available online at the Flipped Learning Network website. Flipped conference in Stillwater, MN, July 17-19, 2013. Workshops. More!

Foundations of Flipped Learning — blended learning course available

Pat Semple

Too much time on general information, not enough of her. Also wanted to get into answering questions well why isn’t Wikipedia a good resource, ec. She taught the basics of using citation software, setting up accounts beforehand, and many other things, etc., using the flipped model.

Side perk: not being a classroom teacher & 500 students, could have more relationships with students. Talk about their topics, getting the information kids need for research.

Solution: use websites alot, her school uses Haiku LMS — hard for the librarian to use this, so she set up www.ineedgood.info as her resources website.

Flipped learning allows me to set up groundwork beforehand. Gotten feet wet, and have questions and problems that many are sharing. Allows students to pick and choose.

She can help students much more now. She does a better job, doesn’t have to give the lecture multiple times of day, and wants to be the value-add to the students.

[I really need to read that Flip Your Classroom book. Wonder how this method could be used in professional development/continuing education settings with adults.]

Keynote Notes: Evolving Community Engagement- What would Amazon & Google Do?

[liveblogging, please forgive typos]

“In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.” -Eric Hoffer, American social writer and philosopher

Brent Leary (@brentleary, BrentLeary.com) & Rebecca Jones

In 2005: 5M Terabytes of info (Google)

No Twitter, little Facebook, no iPhones, iPads back then.

Today, it’s ridiculous the amount of information getting creating.

iPhones being bought, than babies being born. 378K vs 371K (each day/each week/each month — didn’t catch that that rate)

2005: last pope elected, very few cell phones and pictures being taken.

2013: almost every person had cell phones and taking pictures.

People skip TV ads; direct mail never opened; unsubscribing from emails

“The attention economy is not growing, which means we have to grab the attention that someone else has today.

Tech has changed our behavior, activities, expectations. But the philosophy hasn’t changed. People still want to be listened to and valued, more than just the money.

NCAA tournament and March Madness On Demand: built apps around the experience, and social experience built in to the platform. TV ratings went up. Traditional way (TV) people watched more — people expect more and more and more, as they get used to different technology.

“Improving the life experience of a customer goes beyond improving their experience as your customer.”

This is the way to get people’s attention, and keep it. How do we better develop ______ to create a better experience for our customers, our patrons?

Google Glass and Google Now — examples of creating technology to make experiences better for people. Different ways of taking information and making it more consumable for the people they are trying to engage.

“True service pays off”

1pt increase in customer satisfaction can predict a 14% change in revenues on the web; also, people more likely to buy again from the same company, recommend company to others, felt sense of brand commitment (2012 Foresee E-tail satisfaction index)

Subscription Economy (example Zuora): instead of buying products, people will subscribe more and more to services.

Zip Cars, instead of buying a car, pay a fee to use a car.

By 2015, more than 40% of media and digital products companies around the world will use subscription services…”

Tie Society: people don’t necessarily want to buy ties, company built subscription service like Netflix for ties. Tie selected goes in an online closet. Sent through mail, wear it for awhile and send back. Interesting… Hmm.

Definitely is a new way to engage with customers!

Amazon Effect: People don’t buy from companies. People buy from other people: people buy based on good experience.

‘People buy from a good experience’ Not people, not company, but how they enjoy the experience. ‘Frictionless experience’. #cildc –darnlibrarian

“Amazon who invented the one click purchase, perfected online shopping with data, efficiency, and customer service.” -Flurry.com, 2012

Amazon Prime membership.

How do you go through all these stages? Data; information; insights; empathy; action; interaction; trust.

Cannot skip empathy.

If you don’t get privacy right, info used for nefarious purposes, people will drop you quickly.

Sentensity. Sentiment + Intensity. How passionately do people feel about things?

Amazon bought Goodreads. People aren’t happy about that.

People are relying on people and social networks to find books. Why Amazon bought Goodreads — good network, with even more data.

Speaker is okay with this purchase, as long as the data is used correctly.

Pyramid of Customer Loyalty graphic.

Q&A Time with Rebecca Jones

Libraries are in relationship business. This is the first customer service expert the conference has had. People don’t buy [borrow/interact] from companies [libraries} with experiences.

The possibilities there are IMMENSE, when looking at our libraries within this lens.

What does this mean for libraries? 82% of Amazon Prime members will buy from Amazon, even if it costs more. If you create the right environment, climate, people, it allows you to create a community online/offline that will last for the long haul.

Rewards come from maintaining customers who are our advocates not from customer acquisition. Something for libraries to think about #cildc. @lauramoore

Amazon will look at the data to find the answers that they can’t get elsewhere. [My question: but can people be FULLY understand, simply through data? I don’t think data captures every bit of human nature & its vast diversity.]

Good point from Twitter: I agree. Data informs decisions; it doesn’t make them. #cildc -@anastasia_do

Rebecca Jones: it’s not just about the relationships. It’s the end of the relationship — the impact on the lives. YES!

Idea of mutual value–customers bring value to a organiz & we give value to them. Creates bonds to discover what those values are. #cildc -@Whslibraryrocks

How do you keep from going to the dark side with our data? His answer? We’re consumers. Did anyone else catch a real answer to that question?

Quick reaction: I enjoyed his talk, but as I began thinking about something Aaron Schmidt said yesterday in a UX Boot Camp workshop, that should we be imitating Amazon/Google/Apple, or be ourselves and then I also realized that data isn’t the WHOLE story for our communities and libraries, I became kind of disenchanted with his talk. Need to process more.

My trip to DC

Eagerly ready to head to DC for Computers in Libraries, I leaped out of bed and quickly got ready and carpooled with another librarian to Kansas City International to catch our 6 am flight to DC…. Okay that’s a cheesy start.

I’m documenting this travel experience to DC as part of my CILDC blogging, simply to remember the crazy turns — because it could frankly be turned into a novel…or comedy? And also use it to reflect and learn from.

We got to the airport about 430, I checked in, so I could check a suitcase, passed through security, and starting waiting for our boarding at 5:30. They started preboarding, and then nothing. 6 am approached, and suddenly there was announcement that “there was a an ‘alarm’ on the aircraft that we can’t stop, so standby while we figure it out.” About 20 minutes later, they started rescheduling connecting flights for people, and then sent everyone who had checked bags out of security and back to the ticketing counter to get tickets on a frontier flight to DC at 740.

This is where everything broke down for awhile, and it is the first critcism I have for US Airways. A group of us showed up at the ticketing counter, and all the agents just looked at us stupidly. No one knew what to do or what was going on. No one from our gate communicated with the ticketing agents about the plan, apparently. A couple of agents started trying to help a couple of passengers, but were having issues. One older lady was stressing out, I offered her a hug, and she took it — seemed to help calm her down.

Back at the gate (ranch?), several people with carryon luggage were issued Frontier tickets, and sent over to the Frontier terminal. At some point the rest of the carryon luggage crew was sent to the US Airways ticketing couner as well.

Back at the ticketing counter, I finally had a chance to snag someone who looked like he might know something and explained the situation. There was confusion about how to book our flights on Frontier, how to get our checked luggage, etc. This guy took off, and finally snagged a supervisor, Kren. Once Kren came over to the ticketing counter, she took control of the agents, and started getting things to happen. I was issued a Frontier ticket, and then decided to wait for my friend to get her new ticket too.

That’s when this got frankly hysterical.

Lesson 1: I realized, laughing, smiling, and trying to be cheery regardless of the circumstances, made the whole situation much more bearable, and tolerable, and helped those around at least continue to bear through this all. And I kept that up.

Why did it get hysterical? THE FRONTIER FLIGHT WAS DELAYED 90 minutes due to mechanical issues. Are you kidding me, was the reaction?

AND the US Airways plane had been cleared and was ready to go. Everyone was sent back to the gate. I had to be reissued another US Airways boarding pass, because my old one had been tossed after I got my new ticket on Frontier. That hiccupped, but the amazing Kren helped me out and got it reissued.

I made it back through security (AGAIN) [and got pretty upset because the two drinks I’d bought inside security and hadn’t opened yet, had to be tossed out], got on the plane, and waited while several others trickled on. As others trickled on, I learned that they had been ones who were issued tickets and sent over to Frontier. They were treated EXTREMELY rudely apparently, and told their tickets weren’t valid, and it was US Airways problem and they couldn’t help. These people were sent back to the US Airways gates and finally boarded the plane as well.

Lesson 2: I don’t care who you are, rivals or not, the customer should always be helped, especially in stresful travel situations. Through this whole experience (and there’s still more to tell and actually I’m writing this right now still sitting in KC at this point without a resolution so far), I’ve seen examples of poor, clueless, and superior customer service. And the ones who gave the poor customer service (Frontier) have lost me as a customer, and I’m going to remember the kindness and attentiveness of certain US Airways staff (especially Kren).

Everyone was sitting on the plane, ready to back away from the gate, and the pilot came on and explained what had originally happened (computer issues, basically, it sounded like). We wait a bit longer. Next thing we know the pilot gets back on the radio to say we’re leaking hydraulic fluid from the nose. Oh great. He didn’t immediate deplane us.

10-15 minutes passed. Then they decided to deplane us and sent us back to the ticketing counter to get on the Frontier flight. This time the agents “appeared” more ready for us. However, chaos again suddenly rued the day, as it came out, Frontier wasn’t an option as the US Airways system wasn’t talking to the Frontier system correctly, and tickets weren’t being issued correctly.

NEW ADDITION (9:22): Just remembered: one of the passengers mentioned she needed to get her stroller off the plane, that had been curbside at the plane checked as she boarded, for her 5-year old daughter. No luggage crew was available to help get it out of there, so finally the pilot of the plane and one of the crew went and got it for her. That’s GREAT customer service there — it wasn’t their job, yet I guess they had the credentials to get to the needed area to get this stroller. Thanks to whoever this was who did that. That’s going above and beyond the call of duty.

Meanwhile, half the plane had been held back at the gate, saying the new plan was to try to get another plane from the hangar and do some parts switcheroo from one plane to another. I’m sure I’ll have a full story at the end of this post (everything started getting blurry at this point — so tired).

 

Kren — saving the day again — explained that they were going to try to get another plane, apologized profusely for the rude Frontier staff, and sent us back to the US Airways gate again.

Lesson 3: At this point, people stopped being strangers. I introduced myself to a couple of women I’d kept getting in lines with, and we laughed together. Laughter and smiling and staying positive was really helping bear this frankly godawful situation at this point.

I made it back to the gate, went through security a THIRD time, and then started waiting. Got thirsty — but the convenience section of the gate area was closed. Great.

Shortly after that, one of the gate agents brought a few sprites and cokes to the gate area. Bless her, whoever she was. She quickly ran out.

Then, the flight attendants for our flight, brought in a couple of carts from a plane or something, that had beverages and snacks. So thankful for that.

At this point, we’re still waiting for a plane to be delivered to the gate. It’s 9:10am. I’ve been at KCI since about 4:30am. Very tired. I’ll update this post when I know more. If I have so far gotten anything mixed up or incorrect, please forgive my tiredness.

UPDATE 10:48AM: On plane, cruising at 37,000 feet. Never been so happy to be on a plane in all my years of traveling. Here’s hoping the rest of this flight is uneventful!

DML, Maker Spaces, Libraries, and Ignite

Hi blog. It’s been awhile. I wonder if anyone still reads you….

What’s been new? Information Overload presentations. Grad school work. Day job. And DML2012.

DML2012 was. incredible, and had me wishing more librarians had been present.

With the increased focus in some part of our profession on the potentials of maker spaces (read David Lankes’ latest encounters with the Fayetteville Library Fab Lab), media labs, and community spaces for learning, DML2012 was the conference where those situations were on center stage. More librarians needed to be there to join in the conversation — go next year — it’s in Chicago!

Other parts of the conference dealt with gaming, different learning approaches, and other education-related things (sorry to sum it up all so fast). John Seeley-Brown’s keynote set the stage on Thursday. I highly recommend you take some time to watch it online. You won’t regret it.

I spent the rest of the conference attending sessions on maker spaces, and a short talk panel that included sections on a research project into student digital use and Evernote used in an academic library orientation. My notes are somewhere on my iPad in scattered form. The collaborative notes from conference participants is a much better place to gain an idea of the conference.

My other part of the DML Experience was giving an Ignite Talk. Thanks to Buffy’s encouragement, I turned in the idea, “Lifelong Learning @ Your Library from Birth to the Grave.” Surprisingly the conference organizers took the proposal, and I had to give the talk. Eek!

What’s an ignite talk? It’s a five-minute presentation, where the slides auto-advance every fifteen seconds. The presenter prepares the slides and an accompanying script. See Wikipedia for more information.

The video of the talk is supposed to be posted at some point online. But until then, here’s my slide deck. If you view the slideshow on Slideshare and click on the notes tab below the slides, you’ll be able to read the script as you advance through the slides.

DML2012 Ignite Talk: Learning from Birth to the Grave @ Your Library

View more presentations from Heather Braum

The ignite talk was definitely an experience, and I was incredibly nervous. But it was an amazing opportunity to share the awesome possibilities in libraries, especially from the ones here in Kansas. I’ve been using the presentation in our board trustee training this week in response to the future of the library in light of the coming age of eBooks, and it’s been well-received. Kansas, we really do have an awesome library community!