Getting There

School librarians have always been on the forefront of identifying, using, and introducing new technology tools into the curriculum and know that the Internet is rich with (mostly) free tools that allow students and teachers to collaborate. A different sort of concern I have is the increase of technology directors and staff blocking access [...]

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If you haven’t attended a seminar sponsored by ALA or ISTE on Second Life, then you are missing a valuable opportunity to hear about some timely topics and converse with your colleagues from around the U.S. and the world. In January, I logged into Second Life for the first time so that I could hear [...]

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Even though it was 16 degrees outside, participants were hot with effective and innovative ideas for integrating the Big6 and higher level thinking skills into their Idaho science standards. Groups of librarian and science teachers from around the state participated in a 2.5 day seminar: Critical Learning Skills in the 21st Century:Collaborating for Student Success [...]

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How often does a high school librarian teach classes as a result of collaborating with teachers? That is my passion, yet I do not feel that I do this enough. I believe that teachers get busy with the daily-ness of their lives and we fall off  their radar. I try to encourage teachers to plan [...]

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Attending a seminar in Second Life is in itself an engaging experience. But, what made it really memorable was Mike Eisenberg–a visionary, a radical, and someone, who after fourteen years, still makes me think. Of our three main responsibilities: information literacy, information management, and reading advocacy, we should be concentrating our efforts on articulating, implementing, [...]

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Why wouldn’t a technology teacher, classroom teacher, and library media specialist use an information search process (e.g. the Big6) to teach content and meaningfully integrate ICT skills into the curriculum? It makes good sense for the educators and students. Using the steps of the process to plan the lesson/unit and delineating the roles all collaborators [...]

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Meeting with our American History teachers this morning to iron out the big paper requirement brought out that the teachers offered their students a choice to use the online bibliography/notecard creator NoodleTools or do them all by hand. They thought that either would serve the purpose, as that is the way they learned and it [...]

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I am making the case for a full time 1-12 Instructional Technology Director. Right now, I am the Chair of 1-12 Instructional Technology along with being the Upper School librarian and technology coordinator. The main responsibility of my position as Chair is to work with the other two tech coordinators and the library coordinator to [...]

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A professor at out large university requested some information from me over the holidays. My quick replies are here:
1. How receptive is your school to the way you approach technology and learning?
It has been slow to catch on. Many faculty are reluctant to move into a true technology environment (meaning that they are using the [...]

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