A short and sweet Q &A session on FILTERING!

Here's to keeping it short and sweet this week! (Yeah...right!)


(Thanks Erik Kastner for this great new tool! Spell with flickr)


Filtering, Blocking, Accessing, Securing, Protecting, Banning...Every article I read this week seemed to call it something different but it doesn't matter what you call it, the simple fact remains that the issue of filtering has gotten somewhat out of control in the past few years as the internet and its storage of tools has grown. Some educators, administrators, government officials and IT Directors are fearing this evolution of technology (particularly the internet) and thus creating barriers to restrict access for our students as their way of dealing with the situation. Instead they should be providing them with the necessary knowledge and capabilities to learn from and deal with the "objectional, offensive and inappropriate" material that is out there. As Stephen Abram states in his article "Justifying the Social Tools", "Fear and misinformation should not triumph over logic and an agenda for learning."


Many questions I had never really thought of before discussing this topic, came to mind as I reflected on our readings this week. I decided to sit down with myself in a Q & A session, trying to tackle some of my own questions on the issue:

• Who should be responsible for making these decisions? I believe it should be those that know our students and what they NEED in order to get the best possible education for their future...the teachers (or librarians of course!). As Mary Ann Bell put it best in her article "I'm Mad and I'm not going to take it anymore!"..."It is time to give educators the professional respect they deserve rather than let technology personnel who have not studied education make choices about access."


• Does this help our students to filter the internet or harm them? There is no doubt that by filtering the internet we are helping protect our children from some of the harmful, offensive and inappropriate material on the web but as many experts on the topic discuss "we tend to place too much trust on the filtering software itself" (Bell, 2006) thus creating a false sense of security and leaving students unsupervised as they surf the net. Not only that but by not educating our youth on internet safety and how to deal with objectionable material while that are at school, we leave them ill-prepared for it when they are faced with it in an unfiltered environment such as at home, on their PDA's, public libraries, cybercafe's... (I think you get my point!).


• What about content that has been blocked but IS appropriate and important for students to access? What teacher, in frustration, hasn't come across a site that they wish to access for educational purposes but received the "This site has been blocked" warning screen. Mary Ann Bell addresses this issue vehemently in her article, "Filtering Woes Redux" with several examples of teachers wishing to access information and being denied, worst yet, those that went through the proper channels and had to wait over 7 months to finally recieve access. Youtube has always been a "bone of contention" for many teachers, as it does contain a lot of inappropriate material for children but also provides a wealth of resources for the teacher at their fingertips (literally).


• Are we infringing on the intellectual freedom of our students by filtering? From the age of 5 - 9 or so...I think not, parents are still guiding their children in developing their values and understanding what is right from wrong. Parents act as the filters for young children in everything they do. But as our students mature and their ability to make independent critical judgements grows, they are also able to assume responsibility for what they are reading, publishing, creating and doing! They have a right to intellectual freedom that an "overzealous" filtering system will not allow them to attain.


• Can filtering be accomplished without compromising the education of our students to prepare them for a socially networked future? I'd have to say NO! If we continue to filter out such things as social networking sites and other Web 2.0 technologies without properly informing our students on how to use these tools effectively "...is to ensure our schools produce unprepared students - students who have to learn about such sites in an underground kind of way or who can't compete with others in the fully connected world of the future." (Abram, 2007) Enough said!


• What can I do in my own school/ school division to get the message out about filtering? I enjoyed Doug Johnson's article, "Change from the Radical Center of Education", particularly when he discussed the principle of "looking for truth and value in all beliefs and practices." At times, those in the position of IT director and teachers, may not see "eye to eye" on the issue of filtering ,Johnson's principle reminds us that "when two sides are able to find mutual values, change is more likely to happen." Perhaps if IT directors and those teachers school divisions who are seeking to reduce filters were able to sit down and find that "mutal value", they could come to a reasonable compromise on the issue. In the meantime, Don Hall had made a great suggestion in his article, "Web 2.0 The Virtual Wild Wild West" that I could see myself adopting as a TL in my school (and a teacher!); EDUCATE my colleagues, students and parents about internet safety and filtering from a more informed perspective and most importantly "stay abreast of news in the rapidly changing and expanding Web 2.0 world."

OK...I said short and sweet so I'll finish now with this finally quote from Mary Ann Bell,

"The internet is not going away, and it is going to increase in complexity as well as value as an information source. Librarians, teachers and administrators need to work together to use the best the Internet has to offer and to help students be successful and safe searchers."

What's in YOUR "bag of tricks"?

My thoughts and reflections this week were inspired by a blog post from the Shifted Librarian, Libraries and the Net Gen that popped up on my Google Reader. The post summarized many of the issues we have been discussing this week regarding who these "digital natives" are and how we as "digital immigrants/pioneers" need to adapt our teaching strategies to engage these new learners. An interesting observation she noted was from a pool of photos on Flickr that were tagged "whats in my bag". Check out this photo...

Is this what our students are carrying around in their backpacks today? They say you can tell a lot about a person from what they have in their purse/bag! What are the contents of this bag telling us about the 21st century student?

According to Marc Prensky in his article, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, "Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach...Our students today are all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.", what Prensky and many others refer to as Digital Natives. By the looks of the contents in the bag shown above, this statement couldn't be more true. I certainly wasn't carrying around those things in my school bag back in the 80's. I guess that makes me the Digital Immigrant, "Those of us who were not born into the the digital world but have , at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology."(Prensky, 2001). However, my husband was not so thrilled by that definition, ironically he is several years older than me BUT earned his Computer Science degree and technology has always played an integral part in his career. He feels more like Kathy Schrock, a digital pioneer ( he used the term "frontier"), "someone who has grown up with the technology and adopted each technology as it came about."

Whatever we may "label" ourselves and our students, the simple fact remains...educational trends and teaching strategies are always changing but now, more than ever, we are faced with a different group of children that require a different set of tools and methodologies to engage them and prepare them for their futures! This presents challenges for those of us who would call ourselves "digital immigrant teachers" to keep up with the "digital native students" in our classrooms. As Prensky notes, "Digitial immigrant instructors are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." We need to make changes in how we teach these students to ensure they are not only engaged in their learning experiences but that they are being prepared for their digital futures. These were the same recommendations that students themselves expressed in Greenhow's article, Who are Today's Learners?.

After reading, The AASL's , Standards For the 21st Century Learner and the ISTE's NET list of standards and performance indicators, I realized that teachers have some pretty high standards and expectations to meet in order to be the most effective teachers for the 21st century student. It's no wonder that some teachers who are trying to meet these standards are feeling overwhelmed as they are barely treading water in the advancements of technology and others feel it is too much to take on and back off altogether from technology integration. Does that mean these organizations have created a seemingly impossible task by expecting digital immigrants (such as myself) to teach the 21st century learner these skills? I don't think so! But it can't be expected to happen overnight...that's where my "bag of tricks" theory and achieving a balance in our teaching strategies can help "digital immigrant" teachers reach the 21st century learner.

My "bag of tricks" theory is not that complicated. It's nothing new. In fact, as a creative, innovative teacher who loves making learning fun and authentic for my students, all it requires is reaching into my evergrowing, "tried and true" arsenal of teaching strategies that really engage my students, AS WELL as making additions to that "bag" with new tools of the 21st century. I think as educators we need to remember that we are also lifelong learners. We need to be prepared to learn these new skills and digital world advancements to better understand our students so "we can tap into, reinforce, build on, and extend their knowledge and experiences" (Greenhow, 2008) and create a balance with more traditional strategies that continue to foster growth, learning and excitement in our students.

What implications will this have on my teaching, my school and how my students learn? I hope a lot! I've already tossed around the terminology of "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" in the staffroom to see what kind of reaction I get. Mostly, I'm met with awe and a few lightbulbs going off as teachers realize that "yes, our students are different and that we are on different playing fields when it comes to our knowledge and use of technology". I'm not sure many of them have taking a lot of time to think about what that should mean to them as their teachers and how they might need to change their way of teaching. What does that mean? I think it's time for some serious professional development in our school, just to become aware of the students in front of us and those coming up!!

For me personally, I like to think that I am moving away from the title of "digital immigrant" and moving toward (what my fellow classmates have so affectionately titled a "digital dual citizen"). My students and I still enjoy some of the more traditional learning settings, such as oral presentations, groupwork projects, creating hands-on 3-D products and so on. At the same time, we are learning and growing together with such Web 2.0 tools as Voicethreads, wikis and of course my classroom blog. I love my "bag of tricks" and I am more than thrilled to be adding to it on a regular basis as I enter this digital world that my students (and my own children) have been born into.

Check out my cute digital natives! Is this a familiar site in your home?

I think my favorite quote (which is posted on my blog), fits this week's issue to a tee...

"If we teach as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." - John Dewey

"Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

"Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!"

- Dr. Seuss




No more famous words could be spoken after reading the articles in the School Libraries Worldwide Journal vol.14 or after hearing (and reading) the empowering and motivational Manifesto of the 21st Century Librarian created by Joyce Valenza. I can honestly say I'm not sure what made me think of the book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss... but all of the sudden I found myself sifting through my 7 year old's extensive and (unorganized) collection of picture books stored under her bed, just to locate it. I opened its pages and began reading through the inspirational words and intriguing snippets of advice Seuss weaves into rhyme, all the while thinking about the role of the 21st century librarian. You have to read it, again! It was amazing how parallel the whole story and theme fits with the challenges and "exciting times" that lay ahead for a teacher-librarian; a TL who is ready to engage the newly identified learner of the Net Generation, accept the new literacies of today's students and begin to teach these students with a whole new arsenal of tools and techniques! (That was a mouthful!)


At the risk of sounding too corny and bit "over the top", I have to say I was truly moved by Joyce Valenza's podcast of her manifesto. As a 15 year teacher who has finally come to the realization that I want to play more of a leadership role as an educator (but not as an administrator) and I have always loved the environment and ideals of the library as a "learning commons", I couldn't be more excited about the prospect of becoming a "teacher-librarian of the 21st century"! That being said, I couldn't help thinking..."Can I do all this? Can I make Valenza's manifesto a reality in my school and in my career as a new TL?" Like the young lady in the podcast who had just graduated Library School, I could definitely relate to her question, "What should I be doing?" Whether Joyce's Manifesto of a 21st Century Librarian is used as a checklist, an instruction manual or a set of guiding principles, I found it an amazing springboard from which to launch myself in the right direction towards being an effective and indispensible teacher-librarian for my school and most importantly the students of the Net Generation.

After reading the articles in the School Libraries Worldwide Journal vol.14, I seemed to hear the same underlying message being stated but in a variety of different ways and under a myriad of statistics and research documentations...students of the 21st century have changed and we as educators need to keep up with these changes in order to make school and specifically the library a useful and relevant place for learning in their digitally carved lives! That being said (very simplistically I might add), these articles tackled many diverse aspects of the 21st century learners; from defining their characteristics as in Doiron and Asselin's article to analyzing the validity and usefulness of Web 2.0, videogames, popular culture media and open source journals as the "new literacy" in our traditional school libraries.

So what did this all mean to me as I read through these articles?
The good-ole fashion student that I am, I had printed off each of the articles, pulled out my handy-dandy highlighter and pen to take notes as I read. It all seemed quite ironic as I read about the Open Source Journal Systems where Kopak shares the reading tools of the OJS with hypertext linking and an annotation area to store your ideas as you read...hmmmm! (I'm definitely still a work in progress in the 21st century learning department.)

As I look back on all the keypoints I had highlighted from the various articles, they all seemed to be the "action phrases"; the sentences and statements that were urging educators and librarians on to what they needed to do to "keep up" and be effective for our students of today!

I learned SO MUCH in reading these articles, it was almost a bit overwhelming and intimidating. So I thought I'd attempt to construct a list of the ideas and 21st century learning principles that I'd like to (someday) incorporate into my libratory or "learning commons" and make it part of my own little manifesto (not surprisingly similar to Joyce's I'm sure!):

• "develop students competencies in a variety of print and digital technologies to communicate and learn" (Doiron and Asselin)
• educate students on how to properly use a search engine instead of the "click and grab"
• help students to develop their critical literacy skills to evaluate information and not take it at face value
• make research projects in school more meaningful opportunities for inquiry, creativity and collaboration
• help our Net Generation with their quest for "social transformation" by assisting them with the tools they will need to accomplish this such as using Web 2.0 technologies
• foster the respect and values that our students require when working in an open source environment ensuring they know they have responsibilties when working in the Internet
• stay current myself in such things as popular culture media, video games, social networking, etc.(not hard with 3 daughters aged 4 through 15!) in order to create the "literacy of fusion" (Doiron and Asselin) in my school library program
• make the library an "interactive learning community" for students to "develop their own personal knowledge and understanding of the curriculum" (Todd)
• be a leader in the educational field to share the amazing potential as a learning tool that Web 2.0 and other media-rich literacies can play in our schools and libraries to keep our 21st century students engaged...

I know my list will grow and continue on as my experiences as a teacher-librarian become more real and my knowledge in this field expands in the coursework and personal professional developoment that I pursue. For now, I see a lot of challenges that lay ahead for teacher-librarians. The educators/authors of these articles are sending the "library world" a clear and urgent message; the needs and interests of our 21st century learners are constantly changing as their digital world continually evolves and pulls them further and further away from the idea of school being a fun and important learning environment. It is now one of the most integral parts of our job...to keep our students engaged, challenged and feeling that their school is "listening to them" and providing them with the tools they need in order to survive in the 21st century world. I loved the analogy by Doiron and Asselin, to "make school libraries the bridge between in-school and out-of-school literacies".

"So...

be your name Joanne or Christine, Carol or Kathy

or Chris, Danielle, Shiela, Rhonda, Jes, April or Joanie

you're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!"

-Dr. Seuss