Digital Library- Part 1

The 21^st Century Library: Fruits of the Digital Tree.

Growing up in Small Town USA, I have early memories of going to the local library and combing through the books, magazines, and even cassette tapes, trying to find adventures to take with me. The library was housed in an old Victorian building that added an ambiance of mystery and authenticity to the experience, at least from the perspective of an elementary school-aged kid. As I grew older, I still loved books, but libraries didn’t hold nearly the same power and mystique for me as in my younger years. For most of my friends, whatever hold libraries may have had was lost by the time they entered high school, never to be seen again during their teens.

Now, as I begin my professional journey as a teacher, I find myself torn between my understanding of the benefits that libraries have to offer for students of all ages, and the reality that most teens are not very interested in going to the library. In addition, school libraries often have limited resources, while community/town libraries are often at too great a distance from the school to be of real use during the school day. So how can educators incorporate meaningful use of library resources, while keeping students interested in what they are doing?

The answer to this question came to me during my student-teaching placement at School Without Walls-Foundations Academy (SWWFA). SWWFA is a small school within the Rochester School District that tries to maximize the use of community resources throughout the school year. Because of this, the school’s library is actually the Rochester Central Library, on South Avenue. While this is the physical location of the library, I learned from librarians at the teen center (thanks Zandi!) that the county library system also has a virtual location. Another thing I learned from my student teaching experience is that most of my students would rather jump on the computer for information than peruse the stacks for that same content. The solution to the above problem emerges: have students go digital in their use of library resources.

The Monroe County library page (http://www3.libraryweb.org/home2.aspx) has more than just the catalog and hours. The website is much, much more extensive than I realized even a few months ago. Stuck at home with no way to get to the library? Users can find a Download section, with audio and e-books, as well as podcasts. Want to investigate local history? No problem- the library has pictures, both old and new, of the life, events, and landmarks of both city and county. Resource guides help students and teachers alike navigate the website and the web at-large. Want to have your students read primary documents? Among a variety of newspapers, students could look at an article from the Rochester Daily Democrat detailing Lincoln’s assassination: (http://www.libraryweb.org/~digitized/newspapers/ ). Want to have your students (or children) research their genealogy? The website has podcasts, databases, FAQ’s, and other resources. There is even a separate section just for teachers.

Needless to say, this is not the library of my youth. No worries, that library is still there, and if I want or need to peruse the stacks for a good adventure, I can still do so. But now, many of the same resources available at the physical library, and a whole bunch that aren’t, can be accessed on-line. For the student that wants no part of a library, but will happily jump on-line, this may be the best of both worlds. My next post will concentrate specifically on the teen section of the library website, which is set up as a blog for teens and librarians to co-construct. Between now and then, if you can’t get to the physical library for your needs, (either try the digital library or go to the digital library) - you may be surprised by what you find!

Tom Andrews

Video Games

Video Games as an Educational Tool

The idea of using video games as a learning tool has been around for a while. The military, which includes the air force and both marines and army, utilize video game simulations to train with such as America’s Army (http://www.americasarmy.com/aa3.php). Police forces across the United States also use video game simulation for training purposes. The question is whether or not video games can be used for educational purposes for the industries main target market, children and teens and the answer is yes!

As technology becomes more and more a necessity in every day life, the idea of incorporating it within education programs is becoming more of a reality. Both teachers and parents are becoming familiar with the benefits available to students who use video games (http://www.adultlearn.com/video-games-education.html). Now let’s be clear here for a moment, when speaking of video games we most certainly are not speaking about games which incorporate violence such as the popular Call of Duty series or the Grand Theft Auto series and which have no educative purpose, what we are referring to are games that take a specific learning topic or objective and offer a virtual way of mastering said topic. The idea of such video games is that the student will hopefully learn but not realize they are doing so.

Examples of such educative video games are Re-Mission, which features Lead Roxxi, your gutsy and fully armed nanobot, who through challenging missions and rapid-fire assaults searches and destroys malignant cancer cells wherever they may hide (http://www.re-mission.net/site/game/index.php)

Another game, The River City Project, offers an interactive simulation for middle grades science students to learn scientific inquiry and 21st century skills (http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/muvees2003/index.html). The idea of the game is that students would travel back in time to the 19th century, with their 21st century skills and technology, to problem solve many health related issues that societies faced during that century. A kind of detective game, students would find clues that would hint at causes of illnesses, form and test hypotheses, develop experiments to test their hypotheses, and make recommendations based on that data (http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/muvees2003/index.html).

The great thing about such games is that students can go home and complete certain missions and then report back to school on what they learned. In addition to this video games can be used in-class to further enhance a lecture. With the interface of such educational games being so simple, both teacher and student would be able to quickly navigate through the medium and therefore the learning curve that exists with most video games used on the XBOX 360 or PS3 game consoles would virtually be non-existent. The availability of such educational based video games is becoming a lucrative business, which for instructors means a wide variety of games for a multitude of topics be it math, social studies, science, foreign language etc.

Below is a list of other educational video games:

Fun School Games

EcoQuest

Scholastic Games

America’s Army

Quest Atlantis

Immune Attack

In future posts we will look at techniques for instructors on how to best incorporate video games within the classroom and as take home homework.

Virtual Field Trips in the Social Studies Classroom: Real Opportunity or Red Herring? (Part 1)

The school field trip has become a rarity, if not a complete impossibility, for many teachers and their students in this era of budget slashing. The Memorial Art Gallery (where I am an educator) and most other cultural institutions in the region, and indeed in the nation, have experienced a serious drop in numbers of teachers bringing their students for school visits. It is a loss for all parties involved, on many different levels: the students miss out on a multi-modal, horizon-broadening, informal learning experience at a unique cultural connection in their own community; the teachers lose the chance to extend the basic curriculum with a hands-on, minds-on, real world experience; the institution loses fees which affects funding of general operations as well as educational program development, and misses the chance to connect with young people who might become future supporters and lifelong learners.

In order to combat these circumstances, many institutions are developing ways to reach out to schools and teachers in the classroom. While some of these outreach materials are in the form of physical supplements (books, lesson plans, posters, artifact kits, etc.), the seemingly ubiquitous presence of the internet offers unique and powerful ways to deliver multimedia, interactive, immersive experiences. These experiences, called Virtual Field Trips (VFT) come in the form of videoed tours of places, interviews or lectures by on-the-spot experts, animated or still images with text and/or voiceovers, layered links of deeper or tangential information. For the technologically well-equipped school and well-trained teacher, the VFT appears to offer a less expensive, highly customizable option for replacing the old fashioned field trip. Additionally, the VFT incorporates technology into the classroom practice, thereby addressing another of today’s required curriculum standards.

There are many sites with listings of potentially enriching VFTs. A Google search of Virtual Field Trip yields a State of Utah educational site (http://www.uen.org/tours/), the Tramline company website which developed a do-it-yourself software package called TourMaker for designing one’s own VFT (http://www.field-trips.org/ ), and TechTrekkers (http://www.techtrekers.com/virtualft.htm), among others, all offering extensive listings and links to various VFTs produced by cultural institutions, school groups, libraries, and other entities. All you need is a mouse and a screen, and you’re off on a virtual adventure! But what is the objective of this field trip? What will students gain from the experience? Is the cool digital image of a far-away place an educational experience in itself? What about deeper questioning, critical thinking, and other high level skills? Do the VFTs themselves offer such skills, or is the teacher responsible for developing lessons based on offered digital content?

In my next posting I will address some of these questions, exploring the opportunities for and obstacles to authentic learning afforded by VFTs. In the meantime, I offer to you a sample of some of the more celebrated VFT sites, discussed and recommended in various educational publications.


Some VFT links to explore –

American History:
Colonial Williamsburg’s Electronic Field Trip - http://www.history.org/history/teaching/pscufs/

Deliberating in a Democracy - http://www.deliberating.org

Fort Ticonderoga - http://www.fort-ticonderoga.org

Historic Jamestowne - http://historicjamestowne.org

Plimoth Plantation - http://www.plimoth.org

Pathways to Freedom - http://pathways.thinkport.org/following/

Quest Atlantis - http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/


World History:
BBC History, Virtual Tours - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/virtual_tours/

Nova Online: Pyramids, The Inside Story - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/

Roman Open Air Museum Hechingen-Stein - http://www.villa-rustica.de/tour/toure.html

Pompeii: Unraveling Ancient Mysteries - http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/pompeii/index.html


General Categories:
eFieldTrips: several selections, mainly science, some SS; requires registration for access –
http://www.efieldtrips.org/Schedules/searchResults.cfm?searchType=all

Tramline - http://www.field-trips.org/trips.htm

Museums with “virtual” exhibits or tours - http://www.virtualfreesites.com/museums.museums.html
Beware: many links are inactive!

Scholastic Internet Field Trips: http://teacher.scholastic.com/fieldtrp/socstu.htm

Introduction!

Greetings fellow bloggers and followers! Since this is the start of a new blog, it is our intention to give a rationale as to why our blog is focused on implementing digital media, including video games, film, websites, etc. into the classroom.

1. We are awesome: This fact is irrefutable and suggestions as to otherwise will not be tolerated.

2. As a mixed group of both technology skeptics and enthusiasts (Collins & Halverson, 2009), we feel it necessary to provide a forum to discuss both the potential pitfalls and benefits of using technology in the classroom through our individual blog posts.

3. The media listed above are multi-billion dollar industries which account for the majority of our students’ spent free time. Therefore, instead of falling prey to the familiar “[games] are entertaining and motivating. School can’t compete with that” (Gee, 2004) argument, we are attempting to explore the ways around that thinking; eg., what are the obstacles in implementing video games, film etc. and how can we overcome them?

4. Perhaps most practically, this blog will serve as a means to confront our own thinking about this topic and, hopefully, will allow a growth of individual knowledge unprecedented in the blogosphere. Side note: it will also allow us to use words like blogosphere without getting beaten up.

With that said, get your seats in the upright position and your tray tables up because learning will soon be inevitable!

References:

Collins, A. & Halverson, R. (2009). Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: the Digital Revolution and Schooling in America. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gee, J. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional Schooling (Literacies). New York: Routledge.