Journal #4 - Jennifer S.

Journal Review # 4

Kenney, Brian. We Don’t Need No Tech Control. School Library Journal Jun 2006: 11.

After finally accepting the usefulness of blogs and wikis in education I learn about D.O.P.A. No, it’s not a drug…well, in this case it isn’t. DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act) is a bill that proposes to control technology in schools and libraries that receive federal money. At the moment the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires schools and libraries to operate "a technology protection measure with respect to any of its computers with Internet access that protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors," and that such a technology protection measure be employed "during any use of such computers by minors." CIPA requires that schools and libraries filter content they deem harmful and inapproapriate keeping control is local. In attempt to protect minors even more DOPA was proposed and would require blocked access to online social websites or chatrooms such as MySpace. Basically, any site will be blocked that “allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users.”

Kenney claims this propsed bill is “overly broad and too restrictive.” If DOPA passes social interent tools such as MySpace, Blogger, AIM, and parts of Google and Yahoo! will be restricted. The Internet is undergoing amazing growth and if schools and libraries are not allowed access to these new tools they will be stuck in a “ ‘technobubble’ cut off from the evolving Internet.” The solution to keeping children safe is not to block them from using these sites but to teach them “resposible behavior, in life and online….our best defense is education.”

Here is a link to ALA’s opposition of the bill - http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/may2006/dopa06.htm

If you want to read the bill here is a link to the Library of Congress http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c109:./temp/~c109AAWjwr

I support ALA and their opposition of DOPA. We need to keep control of filtering local and we need to teach our children how to use the Internet safely. There are predators everywhere in the world…we cannot shelter our children in hopes that they will remain safe forever. We need to teach them how to live in the world with all its goodness and evil. And we as LMTs need to teach our patrons to value their privacy and remain protected while using the Internet.

Journal Article # 3 - Jennifer S.

O’Leary, Mick. Wikipedia: Encyclopedia or Not?. Information Today; Sept 2005: 49-53.

Persistent link to this record: http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=18175052

The Library and Reference Powers That Be continuously denounce Wikipedia as a fraud that is out to misinform people worldwide. However, according to Mick O’Leary, Wikipedia has a dual identity: part highly successful collaborative Internet project, part genuine encyclopedia. As of 2005, Wikipedia had 1.8 million entries in over 100 different languages with 13,000 active contributors and hundreds of thousands of visitors who make changes daily. O’Leary discusses Wikipedia’s strengths and weaknesses and states that, as with any reference source, one should know both in order to use it properly.

Wikipedia’s Strengths:
· Every article is conscientiously recorded and preserved
· Comprehensive and up-to-date
· Brings forth information that proves challenging to find

Wikipedia’s Weaknesses:
· Some “articles” are too short to even be considered such
· Search options are limited
· Inconsistent in emphasis, indexing, and classifying of articles

Like an encyclopedia, it has quality control, a consistent format, editorial direction, and comprehensive coverage. However, it is less consistent, less organized, and generally less accurate. O’Leary suggests using this encyclopedia freely, but cautiously.

I says do the same. I find Wikipedia to be easy to use and it provides information that is sometimes beyond reach with traditional encyclopedias. If a student is researching a topic that is well known and well documented in print encyclopedias or books then I steer them that way. If a student has some obscure topic and we find absolutely nothing in print materials then I sit them down at a computer and give them full reign to use Wikipedia. Heck, I sometimes tell them to use Wikipedia as a starting point for their research but remind them that it is not the end all be all in sources. To be honest, I like Wikipedia and have it bookmarked ; ) This article has assisted me in understanding this new collective encyclopedia more and I say “Go collective wisdom, go!”

Journal Article # 2 - Jennifer S.

Horwath Jenn. Dr. Bloglove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Blog. Feliciter; 2006: 66-68.

A persistent link to this article can be found at:
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=20673322


Creating a blog that captivates its audience is a great way to expose the tremendous skills and expertise librarians have and advertise their services. Ultimately a blog will excite the users and community about the process of discovering information. Because so, this article begins by posing two questions: how do small libraries (public, school, or academic) without a strong IT department participate in blogging and, secondly, once a library creates a blog how do they ensure their patrons continuously return to it? Jenn Horwath, the blogging eLibrarian at the Library @ Mohawk College in Ontario, suggests the following:

1. Determine the mission and purpose of the project and who the target audience will be.

2. Use other blogs to find content and news that will assist your patrons. Horwath suggests:
Gary Price's ResourceShelf http://www.resourceshelf.com/,
Paul R. Pival's Distant Librarian http://distlib.blogs.com/, and
Jenny Levine's The Shifted Librarian http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/.

3. Create in-house tutorials to link to the blog in order for it to become a one-stop-shopping site for patrons.

4. Due to busy schedules, no need to publish more than bi-monthly. This way you "let the service drive the technology, rather than the other way around" (67).

6. Make it fun!

The BrainBlog from the Library @ Mohawk College won the CTCL Innovation Achievement Award in 2005 (http://mohawklrc2.blogspot.com/). It is a very useful blog with a simple design. The other blogs that Howarth suggests are directed toward public and academic libraries. I find the information interesting but a little too advanced for my patrons. I read them to gather information that will help me as a professional. I find blogs for high school libraries to be very useful in gathering ideas for my new blog. The amazing Joyce Valenza’s blog (http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org/) has great tutorials on how to use Google, how to create a thesis, and how to use an online database, just to name a few. Check them out to see a large hotdog learning how to do an advanced search on Google….very funny!

MCSD Technology Plan

Kathey did a most excellent job of summarizing this document so here are my comments only (thanks Kath!) .
I wasn't able to find our Information Literacy Standards either, although I have a hard copy of the document, it would be nice to have it on our website with this document. (everything on the web please!)
It's nice to be reminded that Technology literacy is "the abliliy to access, evaluate, and use information from various electronic resources to make decisions or solve problems." (pg.11)
But after reading Will Richardson's book I'd say it's much more.... it's also the ablitiy to communicate effectivly with others and express yourself both creativly and honestly too.
The document also says that "Technolgy is a tool, not an end product." (pg. 11). I'd like some clarification on that. Do they mean that we're only teaching our students to use the information they find, but not add to it or publish on it or keep their finished products on the web/computer?
I'll also comment on the list of Activities that should be occuring annually (pg 69). LMT's should be supporting and traning a variety of programs and technology skills for the school and staff. Again, this is hard to accomplish when many of the teachers don't come to your after school trainings, because "they'll never have their own website" or "they just don't have time for that." Or they just don't have the skills to get that far in the time you have allotted. It is an obstical, but we will try to overcome it by offering traings more often, one-on-one trainings, invite guest trainers, offer candy, gifts and a free car...
This was a fairly complete document, it just lacked passion. I read it after I got done with Richardson's book! (can't really compare them.) I'm proud of our tech people in our district. They mean well. It's just up to the budget and people like us to reach the tech goals.