Twitter PD in Action

I am a huge Twitter fan.  I have blogged about it before but when I am put on the spot I always struggle to show just how often it helps me with my work.  So I thought I would look back through my tweets this month and choose the information I found that inspired conversations with teachers at my school or with other librarians.  I have had a busy month, so I haven't been on Twitter that much, but I still found the following gems:

MT @TeacherTuttle: project proposal plan for students to complete #geniushour. pic.twitter.com/rA8WG74PRV @abcchays @JhMarkotsis @RachelHarvey6
— Annemarie Hyde (@mrs_hyde) February 7, 2015

This retweet from Annemarie, a DP in Rotorua, was very timely as only the day before I had been discussing how the library could support one of our Year 6 teachers trying out genius hour.  She was pleased when I flicked this plan through for her to have a look at.

Why digital natives prefer reading in print. The Washington Post http://t.co/wvdC0JVXAB #tlchat #edchat #RU575
— Joyce Valenza (@joycevalenza) February 24, 2015

Earlier this week Joyce Valenza, an American teacher-librarian, tweeted a link to the above article.  Given the National Library in New Zealand is making cuts to its curriculum loan service, seeking to replace it with online resources, I shared this link with the NZ librarians' listserv.  It provoked a lot of discussion about what librarians were noticing about their students' preferences for print.  Some decided to send the article on to their English departments and others decided to create their own surveys of their students.

A1- Our Y8 Leadership Academy means our learners are actively involved in making a difference in our wider community #edchatnz
— Bridget Compton-Moen (@BridgetLCM) February 26, 2015

@MSimmsNZ Absolutely! http://t.co/pJQKUtP8oz Here's a wee bit of what the girls have blogged abt over past 2 yrs. We wrote our own handbk
— Bridget Compton-Moen (@BridgetLCM) February 26, 2015

This conversation illustrates the friendliness and helpfulness of the Twitter community.  I was having a flick through Twitter last night and there was an #edchatnz conversation going on about "developing students as actively involved members of our communities".  I noticed Bridget's tweet and because our Year 5/6 team leaders are starting their own leadership programme thought it would be worth asking if she had information she could share with me.  I was delighted with the information that has been shared on her class blog and I'm sure our team leaders will be too.  

I've followed Bridget on Twitter for a while but she is a teacher in Christchurch and I live in Hamilton.  The beauty of Twitter is that I can learn from the experiences of people like Bridget and Joyce and Annemarie, who aren't geographically close and who aren't doing exactly the same job as me.  It broadens my knowledge and exposes me to ideas that excite me.

E-reading Trial - Further Developments

Last week I met with two of our senior management team to discuss our e-reading trial.  I had heard that we were looking to bring iPads into the school and given the benefits of the bigger screen we agreed to postpone the e-reading trial until they arrived (hopefully next term).  This makes sense but I must admit that I'm not a patient person and I hate having to wait!

  by  Yutaka Tsutano 

Another topic we discussed was how to measure whether the iPads make a difference to students' reading.  While the studies I have seen so far have measured improvements in attitude the senior managers felt that we should also try to assess improvements in reading level.  They also questioned whether we are able to know what reading level the e-books are.  These are two areas I will be looking into.


More research
Thanks again to the library listserv another interesting article about e-reading was brought to my attention - Middle school boys who are reluctant readers value reading more after using e-readers.  I think an interesting point is that reluctant readers "liked other students not knowing their reading level or choice of book".  The ability of an e-reader to enable anonymity around book choice is something I hadn't considered but I can see how this would be important to struggling students whose books may look small and babyish compared to those of more able  students.


New technology for the library
The introduction of the new iPad and subsequent drop in price of the iPad2 meant that I was able to purchase an iPad2 for the library.  Combined with an Apple TV I am hoping teachers will take the opportunity to occasionally show an e-book on the TV during their library time.  I have loaded up several Dr Seuss apps and start tomorrow.  Yay!

Welcome to my blog

  by  m.aquila 

This is my first post for my first blog.  I have some interesting projects happening in my library this year so I've decided to take the plunge.


E-Reading Trial
One of the projects I am most excited about is our e-reading trial.  A couple of weeks ago an article called e-Books engage me was posted on the SLANZA listserv.  It is about an Australian research study that gave reluctant readers in Year 5 and Year 6 e-books and found that "boys are more interested in reading fiction when it involves the use of technology".  It also suggests that "emerging tools such as e-readers can have a place in changing the behaviour of reluctant reader to becoming engaged leisure readers".

I forwarded the article to my principal, Brian, and asked if we could buy four Kindles.  I suggested that we conduct an e-reading trial with our target students (boys and girls) in Year 4 and Year 5.  Brian was very interested in the trial and asked me to price the Kindles.

The key point to note here is that we are not looking to lend e-books to students with e-readers, instead we will be providing e-readers to promote reading at school.

Further Research
At this point I have to confess that I wasn't sure I would get the green light for the project and hadn't done a lot of research about different e-readers and e-books.  The reason I had asked to buy Kindles specifically was because they were mentioned in the Australian study (along with iPod touches, which we already have in the school).

Thanks again to the SLANZA listserv I was aware of a fabulous wiki called NZeRT, the New Zealand eReader and eBook Taskforce.  I also had a look at information from the National Library.

Angela Soutar's checklist on the NZERT site (item 5) includes this article - Amazon Alters Rules for Kindles in School Libraries.  Basically while home users can share up to six Kindles on one account, and therefore buy one book and share it over six Kindles, libraries have to have separate accounts for each Kindle and therefore would have to buy separate books for each Kindle.     I approached Dick Smith to get a quote for four Kindles and at the same time they confirmed for me that the same rules apply in New Zealand.

When I forwarded the quote through to Brian I added the following thoughts about the Kindle:

Pros

• It is only used for reading so there are no distractions with other apps on the device
• It is lightweight
• The battery lasts about a month before it needs recharging
• It has a larger screen size than the iPod touch

Cons

• Illustrations are in black and white
• It uses a proprietary format so we can only download books from Amazon (however they are cheap and have a good range)
• For the price you could almost get an ipod touch and be able to use more apps and view books in colour
• You need to open a separate account for each of the Kindles

When Brian asked what I would recommend I chose to conduct the trial using our iPod touches.  I didn't discount the Kindles altogether (or any other brand of dedicated e-reader), but felt that it was worth seeing whether the students did need a bigger screen and no distractions from other apps before spending money. 

  by  chrisdejabet 

Where to Next
I will be meeting with our Deputy Principal and Assistant Principal to come up with a plan about which students to target first and how we can reach as many as possible using the iPod touches available.  I also need to research the best places to purchase e-books from and learn how to download them onto the school's iPod touches.  I will keep you updated.  If you have any advice or suggestions please let me know.