No Wikipedia for a day and harbour walk

Reading today’s Guardian with my breakfast cup of tea, I find an intriguing story about how  Wikipedia is planning to shut down for 24 hours in protest at a proposed bill in the USA, which Wikipedia claim will lead to a form of censorship on new media outlets such as itself, Google and Twitter. I’ve just tried to access Wikipedia and instead of being able to search, there’s a black screen with Imagine a world without free knowledge as the headline, and accuses the US Congress of ‘considering legislation that could damage the free and open Internet’. The article goes on to cite the views of both new media and ‘old’ media such as a newspaper proprietor. The bills which are being proposed, appear to be trying to stop illegal streaming, but Wikipedia and others think that this could be the thin edge of censorship.

One of the pleasures of living in a seaside town such as Dunbar, is that you can enjoy a walk to, or around, the harbour at all times of the year. Normally, in January, the bridge connecting the new (i.e. 1890s built) harbour and the old harbour, is up, so that boats can go to the old harbour for shelter from the winter storms. However, it’s been unseasonably mild and calm this winter, so on Sunday, the bridge was down and my wife and I walked across to the harbour wall side. The picture below shows a view towards Dunbar Castle  with a set of creels roughly stacked, in the foreground. There are a few boats in the harbour which use creels to catch crabs and lobsters, and you can see a creel boat in action off the Fife coast (visible from Dunbar) on YouTube.

Creels on Dunbar Harbour

Schools in the digital age and a butterfly

Reading Mal Lee’s article in the new edition of Scan (in which I and my CSU colleague Judy O’Connell also have articles), I followed up the reference to Schools in the Digital Age. The authors argue that digital media is a ‘disruptive technology’ and will change the way that schools are organised in the future i.e. digital media will not just change the delivery of education. The authors point out that while many businesses have changed their management structures, school still operate on what they call an ‘industrial model’ which has remained unchanged for over 100 years. For TLs, it is worth downloading the 28 page summary and to look at some of the ideas presented there, especially those about learning spaces in schools, as there are implications for virtual school libraries here.

Out walking last weekend near Coldingham Beach, I spotted a flash of colour in the grass. The picture below shows the butterfly, which proved to be a very willing subject for a close up photograph by, from the butterfly’s point of view, a giant. The butterfly is the reasonably common Red Admiral whose proper name is the splendid Vanessa Atalanta – sounds like a great name for a film star, or female sleuth who solves murders in Madrid. I like the contrast of the vibrant colours of the butterfly with the grass.

Red Admiral aka Vanessa Atalanta

Digital Teacher Librarian and cygnet time again

A new issue of Digital Teacher Librarian  is now available. The focus is on learning commons and what the 21st century school library might look like. There are three very thought provoking articles which focus on both primary and secondary schools and they reflect their authors’ opinions, as well as their practices. We should always be looking to plan ahead, so if your thoughts have been going along the lines of planning the future look, functions and services of your school library, this is a very good place to start. I’ve talked about the idea of a learning commons here recently and these articles build on the issues I’ve raised about what constitutes a learning commons, and why that phrase may be a useful one for TLs in the near future.

It’s summertime here in Scotland and the two swans that I’ve been following in recent years, have returned to the site next to Dunbar Golf Course just along from where I live. This year, as you’ll see in the photo below, there are 5 cygnets - this is the same as last year, although one of the cygnets last year got trapped and was killed by crows. We’ll see what this year brings. The one good thing about swans, from a photographer’s point of view, is that they are very approachable. As long as you do not show any aggression towards the parents or young, swans will allow you to get very close to them. They are a very welcome addition to what I can see on an early evening walk along the golf course and on to the short beach and stretch of rocks.

NOTE: There will be no blog entries forthe next 2 weeks as I am on annual leave.

Swan and cygnets

E-books and an intriguing boulder

A bit of a stramash over the last couple of weeks about e-books and publishers wanting to restrict the time period for an e-book which is sold to a library for borrowing. An article in the NY times yesterday reported that Harper Collins would only allow a book to be loaned 26 times before it expired. Now exactly where the publishers got this figure is fairly easy to see i.e. 52 weeks in a year, 2 week loan = 26 loans. However, this does not represent the average lifetime borrowing for most printed books in public libraries i.e. the amount of loans until the book has to be replaced. Publishers fear that if libraries have too many e-books and lend them out too often, that this will affect their growing sales of e-books. On the other hand, it could be argued that if people borrow e-books from libraries, this could increase sales – as it does with many printed books. However, the power appears to rest with the publishers. Most schools now have e-books and these restrictions will apply to them also.

I found this boulder – OK, call it a big stone if you think that a boulder has to be bigger in the photo below while walking across the rocks when the tide was out, in the vain hope of getting close to some shelduck. I was intrigued by the various holes in the stone face - some like little caves, others like bullet holes and there was a skull-like appearance of the whole thing, as if at one point in time, it could speak and see and hear. The moon craters or thumb prints on the top – the more you look at it, the more you see. Another seashore sculpture.

Seashore sculpture

SIGMS article and Edinburgh in early Spring

Thanks to my colleague Joy McGregor, I can alert you all to an article in ISTE’s Learning and Leading with Technology journal, which you would do well to add to your favourites and to pass on the link to colleagues. The article - rather naffly entitled Not your grandmother’s library - gives some very good examples of teacher librarians using technology to very good effect i.e. by enhancing student learning. From the very well-known Joyce Valenza, to Keisa Williams and Wendy Stephens, the article highlights examples of the work of these three teacher librarians. Also in the issue of the journal are articles on tagging, Google sites, collaboration and advocacy. Well worth a look.

In Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city, yesterday. A glorious early Spring today in (relatively) warm sunshine and a big blue sky. Edinburgh is a city for walking and you can reach most of the eye-catching attractions with fairly short walks. The centre of the city is dominated, on Princes Street which is the main thoroughfare, by the Scott Monument, the largest monument to a writer in the world. It is in praise of Sir Walter Scott , author of famous novels such as Waverley and Ivanhoe. At this time of year, it’s a joy to walk through Princes Street Gardens and enjoy the masses of crocuses which line the banks. The picture below shows the flowers below the Scott Monument.

Scott Monument

TL abilities and snowy sprouts

Firstly, a very Good New Year to you all. The ever informative, imaginative and practical Joyce Valenza has presented us with a list of abilities that she would like to see TLs/SLs have, in order to be ‘fully loaded’. Now, the term ‘fully loaded’ may have many meanings and not all of them suitable for a family show, but in this instance, Joyce Valenza is talking about the ability of TLs to have mastery of a range of areas in order to be fully effective. The article highlights mastery of: publishing platforms, web based pathfinder creation tools; applications for digital stories; “cool tools for publishing digital work’; search tools and strategies – and many more. I’ll certainly be getting my teacher librarianship students to read this article and discuss it. It is aimed at practitioners, so I hope many of you will access it and think about how it fits in with your present role and your possible future role.

Over the midwinter festivals period here in Scotland, we’ve had – by our standards – a lot of snow and very low temperatures. If you are reading this is north America or Scandinavia however, what we’ve had will be fairly mild. One of the great features of snow, of course, is that it’s a boon for photographers. I took the photo below on a walk not far from where I live. It’s a field of sprouts which look like an army of terracotta warriors with white helmets. Sprouts taste horrible! How people can eat them with their chicken, turkey, veggie roast is beyond me. A recently cropped field of sprouts up the road from here had a flock of sheep in it, munching away. I think that the sheep should go in first. I’m sure that those of you who are sprout lovers – and the farmers – would not agree.

Sprouts in the snow

Not so Delicious and snowy creels

For those of you who engage in social bookmarking, you will no doubt have heard that Yahoo are going to close their Delicious site. This is potentially bad news for the many people in schools who have used Delicious and for many TLs/SLs who have encouraged their teachers and students to use this site. It’s also potentially embarrassing for authors of new books who, on p55, sing the praises of Delicious. fortunately in my new book I also cite other social bookmarking sites. All is not lost if you’re a Delicious devotee, as a very clearly written article by Webologist shows everyone how to save and export their bookmarked sites from Delicious. The other lesson, of course, is the transitory nature of most of the web, especially sites which are owned by multinationals like Yahoo.

More snow hereabouts and it looks like the 25 December will be a white one. One of the pleasures of snow is looking at how artefacts can be highlighted, and sometimes transformed, by a coating of snow. In the picture below, taken at Dunbar harbour, I like the way the creels are enhanced by the snow and it changes a utilitarian stacking of working creels into an abstract montage – at least that’s what I see. No blog next week because of holidays. Whatever your midwinter/midsummer festival is, I hope you en joy it.  

Creels at Dunbar harbour

Digital learning and early snow

From eSchool News a new report on digital learning and, in particular, on high quality digital learning. The report outlines what it regards as the key elements of high quality digital learning and these include: all students can be digital learners; all students have access to high quality course and content; all students have high quality teachers; funding and infrastructure to support digital learning are available. High aims indeed and the report recognises that these are aims and also that key barriers need to be removed. The report focuses on blended learning – a combination of ‘live teaching and a variety of technological tools, including online learning’ – which could help to produce more high school graduates in the USA, as well as more skilled workers. The 3 barriers? Time, funding and access. Plus ca change…

Here in Scotland, we’ve had an early dose of snow and ice which we’ve not had for many years in November. Of course, global warming will produce cooler conditions in the UK. The snow produces lovely, picturesque scenes and you can (as Australians say) rug up against the cold with hat, scarf, gloves, winter coat and boots and walk in the crisp sunshine we get at this time of year. It’s just than when you’ve had 4 weeks of mid to high 20s in terms of temperature, it tales a wee while to get used to. The photo below shows seagull tracks in the snow at Dunbar Harbour. It looks like hieroglyphics and for all I know, these seagulls may have Egyptian ancestors and may be leaving messages in the snow for the cognoscenti.

Seagull footprints in the snow at Dunbar Harbour

No books in the library and Burj Khalifa

In some quarters, when the future of school libraries in discussed, there’s an elephant in the room that is ignored. Debate about the future of school libraries and TLs/SLs has gone on for generations, including discussions about what the ‘school library’ should be called. Now there is a major difference. Take away books from the school library and what is the role of the TL? Ask most people in a typical school and they will find it difficult to find a full time role, and this is mostly because most teachers and students find it difficult to conceptualise that a digital collection needs the same amount of work as a print collection, and maybe more. So we need to start discussing the future – the real, digital future – of school libraries, and working out what the TL’s (whatever s/he may be called in the future) role can and should be. A good place to start is Mal Lee’s article - see it as a challenge.

I have been travelling for the past 4 weeks, to New Zealand, Australia and Dubai, where my wife and I spent the last 2 days of the trip with our son Stuart and daughter in law Catherine. If you’ll pardon the pun, the highlight of the visit was going up the 124th floor (of 160 floors) of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building by quite a long way. From the observation deck, you get a superb view of Dubai, and there is a strange loss of perspective because what would normally seem skyscrapers in cities such as Sydney or London, appear to be quite small. I took photos but the ones on the website are better. Outside the Burj and the surrounding area, there is a large lake and on the hour and half hour, music plays and fountains rise in time to the music. Quite a spectacle, part of which is caught in the photo below.

Fountains at the Burj Khalifa

National digital library and grey seal

Every so often, The Guardian , which faithfully appears in my letterbox on 6 days a week, includes with the Saturday Review, a section from The New York Review of Books. Last Saturday, this included an article by Robert Darnton, entitled Can we create a national digital library? He defines the NDL as ‘a comprehensive library of digitised books that will be easily accessible to the general public’. It’s an interesting article and Darnton refers to providing schools with a huge range of e-books ‘million s of books’.  The question here – and of course, it’s not a new one – is whether the NDL (or a similar version in Australia or the UK) would be useful mainly for TLs/SLs or for students. Giving Year 7 access to ‘millions of books’ to enhance their learning e.g. on volcanoes is unlikely to be very useful without serious mediation by the TL. That’s not to say that the NDL or its equivalent would not be an excellent resource, but it would have to  be carefully managed.

Having a walk along Dunbar Harbour, you will often hear a sniffling noise from the water and when you locate the noise, you will see a grey seal popping its head above the water, sniffing and then elegantly rolling its body beneath the water. One is pictured below and it struck me that seals always have a very doleful look, as if they struggle through life, catching the occasional fish, but generally being grumpy about their prospects. I did try to ask this seal whether s/he was happy or not, but the response was a disdainful look and a slow dive under the water. Maybe s/he spoke a language other than English.

Seal in Dunbar Harbour