Blog 2 Media Center Webpages

After reading all the information for the assignment and looking at the websites given I decided to check out several Cobb County media center websites for all three levels of schools.  Wow, it’s amazing how different they are.  There are those that you can tell spend a lot of time updating the website and keeping it relevant to the school.  There are others, however, that have not updated the website in months and still advertise events from September.  I even found a couple of schools that had nothing but the media staffs’ names.  I looked at these websites for a couple of hours and saw some things I loved and other things that just drove me crazy or made me cringe.  I am not identifying any particular schools in this post.  These are just things that I feel are important.

Some of the things I loved were:

·         Hours of operation and when students needed a pass to visit

·         Quotes from books

·         Media Center video orientations

·         Book club information

·         Book reviews

·         Volunteer information

·         Television lineup for channels available at school

o   For high school (which is what I am most interested in)

§  Citation links with TUTORIALS

§  Georgia Hope information links

§  College information and links

§  EOC and GHSGT study guides

§  Georgia Driver’s Manual link

Some of the things that drove me crazy were colors, outdated information, links without instructions on how to use them, links that didn’t work, jumbled layouts, and misspelled words.  I love colors but some color should just not be used.  Websites with dark backgrounds and dark colors, or those colors that make you squint to see what’s on the page make them too unappealing.  I even gave up on one just after pulling it up because it was just too hard to read.  Then there are links; a pet peeve of mine is to be given a link to something and when you get there you have no idea how to use it and it is extremely time consuming to try.  I would definitely leave that site and find another one on my own.  It would be nice to have a tutorial right next to the link so everyone will use what you have put on your website.  Right up there with useless links are those links that just don’t work.  I clicked on several that did not work but the two that really stood out were a link to our Cobb County Digital Library that took me to an old screenshot of our district website, and one where I clicked on the media center link on a school website and it gave me a clickable listing of all Cobb County School media centers instead of directing me to their own website.

               

And how about jumbled websites that make it very difficult to find your information?  I found a couple that seemed really clever but as I scrolled over information it circled the area in red, but the circles covered most of the words so it was hard to read what I was hovering over.  Another website just listed several links at the top of the page, in no particular order and it was hard to follow.

Misspellings are another issue on a website.  Sometimes these are difficult to catch, even our textbooks have typos.  You should have someone who will take the time to look over your website periodically and make sure there are no errors.

With all that being said, the things that really made me cringe were having media center class schedules, with teachers’ names and times they were visiting the media center, and sign in Google Forms with students’ names and why they visited the media center accessible to everyone inside and outside the school.  There are so many privacy laws and predators out there that I believe this to be a safety concern.  Having children of my own that just graduated high school I definitely would not want their information out there for everyone to see.

I have learned so much just from visiting these websites and the ones suggested in our assignment.  Some information I will use for ideas for my own media center website while others I will make sure not to use.  It is a good idea to look around at other websites and maybe even ask staff and students what they would want on our school website, but this gets me started in the right direction.

Working the "Wiki" Way

Like anything new, I think there is a hesitation to Wikis in the Media Center because of a fear of the unknown. If you are not particularly tech savvy, it is understandable why some may be intimidated. It certainly requires a lot of work from the start, but if it is set up efficiently with precise directions, a Wiki  can create a great space to engage the teachers and the students.

To be used most effectively with teachers, I think it is important to treat the space likes a Barnes and Noble book store. When you go into a book store, you want to be able to walk around on your own time and at your own pace. You may pick up a book and scope out the cover. You may select another one and read the author’s dedication. Everyone’s strategy is different in how they make their selection. The same is true for teachers. As an instructional supporter, SLMS can utilize the Wiki to provide a menu of choices and services that teachers can peruse. Perhaps including links to sample student work to engage the teacher to try a new tech tool might encourage a hesitant tech user to sample the menu. Including “how to” You Tube videos for common questions and services provides a “Self Service” tool for your teachers always on the go. If they are given the opportunity to look through the Wiki to see how the SLMS can help them create a more engaging and meaningful learning environment, the Wiki can definitely be an effective tool for a SLMS.

For students, I think the same book store experience holds true. Students want to be able to look around and see items before making a final choice. I would definitely incorporate a social media section since this seems to be the best way to capture a student’s interest, at least at the high school level. I think including several “how to” videos would be extremely helpful for students such as how to drop a file into a teacher’s drop box or how to format a Word Document to MLA. Providing the student an opportunity to learn and see new tools and books also encourages student traffic through the media center. If they can connect through an online presence such as a Wiki, they are likely to connect with the Media Center itself.

A huge drawback to the Wiki includes an abuse of power. This can come with any new tech tool though. According to Educause Learning Initiative (2005), “because users can modify the content of a wiki,” they can just as easily modify the content in a negative way. With this in mind, I think it is especially important to communicate clear expectations, and this is where administrative consequences would need to arise for a misuse of technology. This type of behavior would not be tolerated in a classroom so it is important to acknowledge that the same in not tolerated in a virtual classroom as well.

A particular strong use for the Wiki included Derrick Higginbotham’s Wiki for his English class at Barnard. With the emphasis on text analysis and close reading, especially as content subjects switch to GA Milestones, I would want to encourage this use among the Language Arts teachers. Teachers can post sample text along with close reading passages. From there students can write their answers and collaborate with the class. The teacher can also take a sample text, highlight, and annotate and post their annotations for the class to view. It really helps encourage a flipped classroom where teachers can post the essentials, and then questions can be addressed during class time.

A particular weak use of the Wiki is the bias. It reflects the thoughts and works of a selected group, and over time it will continue to reflect the attitudes and thoughts of one specific group. To address this, it may be a good source for students for a short terms project and not necessarily a semester or yearlong project. For teachers, I think it is important to continue to add new things so teachers do not continue to see the same items in your Wiki store.

To prevent Wikis from becoming “storage cabinets,” follow Dave Foord’s acronym STOLEN to create “active spaces for collaboration.” A SPECIFIC objective should be communicated to the users. What is the purpose? What is the point? What are the users hoping to achieve. Definitive TIMES should be established even if the purpose is to leave it open-ended. Users should agree to check, verify, or update on a predetermined basis. There also needs to be a sense of OWNERSHIP between the collaborators so everyone feels a part of the team. To help with this, a LOCALIZED structure can help create the community ownership. ENGAGEMENT is also a huge necessity to dictate the terms of the Wiki such as who can add and modify as well as establishing what is acceptable to post and what is not acceptable to post. Finally, NAVIGATION is also crucial to keep the site structured, simple, and user-friendly. Following the aforementioned criteria will help create an active and successful Wiki verses a dense storage closet. 

It is encouraged to work the "Wiki" way as a SLMS because the engagement and collaboration potential between students and teachers is infinite. As long as you keep in mind the Barnes and Noble model, you are likely to have both the teacher and the student buy into the idea. 

Wikis_Blog 1 post by Melissa Gooch

Well, I didn't know that the word “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian language and it means quick or fast. My first initial thoughts on using Wikis in the School Media Center vary. I wonder if it would be a beneficial tool to use for collaborative efforts among your school district media centers as wells as for limited external uses. I recently visited at a local middle school Media Center and experienced how they utilized a shared calendar for Media Center reservation time sign ups. This tool seemed very valuable and helpful for that purpose. Since wikis are like web pages ‘under construction’ this can be seen a drawback. Users can edit ad-hoc in real-time you would definitely need to be concerned with privacy and security practices and settings.  Looking over the articles, I did find that using a wiki for collaborative purposes, whether it be for research or class project, and this type of assignment would be made more efficient if using a tool such as a wiki for the group members assigned. I could even see how in my current work environment, how a wiki document would be so helpful. Currently, we share many user documents, manuals, test plans etc, and we are tasked to update them accordingly. Well, that is fine, unless someone is in the document you need, and even though we have ‘tracked changes’ turned on, you can’t access the document at the same time as another user. In this example, a wiki document would be the go to accessory to have! We are often updating our user guides (manuals) and there are more than a dozen of us team members responsible for keeping those guides updated in our subject matter areas. In a school environment, I think this tool would be handy for those teaming teachers, for ease of updating lesson plans or other documents shared collaboratively. I recently (a few semesters ago) had the opportunity to create wiki documents via google.  Students were are all assigned to groups. In these groups, we created google docs of School Library Media Center handbook items, such as: inventory procedures, mission statements, video policy, etc. In this setting, the wiki platform worked very well. We could all edit the document at the same time, and we didn’t have to save local copies or email the group attachments when completed with our section updates, it was a great tool for this assignment!

A drawback, would be if for any reason another user had access (security) and was able to complete an ‘accidental’ editing session, you would in this case, want to ensure you had a back-up stored locally and some good security measures in place for preventive and accidental measures.  I did learn from the readings that you can establish controls and set your wiki as public or private, so that would ease some of the security concerns I had initially.

Wiki’s seem to be another one of those tools that are on the cutting edge of technology for our 21^st century learners. Helping them by providing the platform for collaborative learning, social networking and engaging and personalized learning environments.This tool assists with different learning styles and shifts the roles of students to creators of the knowledge from consumers.

Lastly, I leave you all with a short comical story, I asked my husband (an IT support staff) and our techie teenager what a wiki was? The response from my husband was, I don’t know, why? And out teenager gave almost the same typical answer as well, I don’t know, but strangely he didn't ask why. There is much to learn regarding all the ever changing technology tools available. Do you all see Wikis as collaborative tools for educational settings, and school media centers?