Nicosia, gecko and tulips

Nicosia is a divided city, with the more prosperous Greek Cypriot side in the newer part of the city and the Turkish Cypriot side in the old part of the city. From 2003, people have been allowed to cross into the Turkish part of the city. However, actually doing the crossing is a bizarre experience for most people, as it represents a step back in time. Firstly, you have to fill in a small piece of paper, giving your name and passport number. When you get to the head of the queue, you hand over your passport and form, and the man/woman then manually inputs your details on a computer, stamps your piece of paper and returns it to you. When you return, you have to show both passport and paper. The Nicosia divide is a very complicated issue and no doubt my criticisms of the process would be contested by some in the Turkish part of the city. It is a strange experience nonetheless. The old part of the city (see photo 1) is historically very interesting and the highlight is the Selimiye Mosque - a magnificent piece of architecture to be admired whether you have religious beliefs or not. The mosque was a former cathedral - interestingly, there is no mention that I can see of this fact in the first link to the Mosque. This reminds me of my teaching and writing about website evaluation. We also went to see the impressive Buyk Han or Great Inn. When you enter the courtyard and look up, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were in a former monastery, but it is a 16th century building built as an inn for travellers. Today, it is a busy restaurant/cafe.

I’ve seen geckos in many parts of the world and I love watching them. Photo 2 shows a larger gecko on a limestone wall in Cyprus. Geckos have ability to cling on to rock surfaces and you often see them soaking up the sun on the rocks. They are fairly tame creatures and will willing sit and pose for your camera shots, ony daring into crevices if you get too near. You can also spot geckos in rocks as they often leave their tails sticking out of the crevice. They dart about very quickly and have great acceleration for their size.

In my garden recently, a dozen double headed tulips appeared. I had forgotten that I had planted them in the autumn, so this was a pleasant surprise. What is fascinating about these flowers is that they change colour, being brighter and predominantly white, with pink lines, during the day when the sun is out. However, when the sun goes down or it’s dull, they become more predominantly pink. Photos 3 and 4 show a close up and a group of these charming flowers. It is thought that tulips – so often associated with Holland – originated in Turkey, thus giving a nice symmetry to this posting.

North Nicosia

 

Gecko

 

Double headed tulip

 

Double headed tulips

New book and ‘The girl with…’

My new book Improving students’ web use and information literacy: a guide for teachers and teacher librarians  will be published next month by Facet Publishing. The first half of the book is directed at school staff, including teachers and TLs/SLs and covers the learning and teaching context of the school; finding and using information on the web; evaluating websites; web 2.0 in schools; and information literacy. The second half explores improving students’ use of the web; developing learning websites for student use – design and tools; developing learning websites for student use – content; and the next phase of ICT in schools. The book is designed to be a practical book for use in schools but with a sound theoretical context. Of course, books like these are never completely up to date e.g. with new aspects of web 2.0 arriving daily but my book is focuses on improving learning in schools and not just identifying the latest fad. Naturally, I recommend that you check it out. What am I saying? Just buy it!

I’ve always been a bit wary of buying books that appear to be overhyped and also appear to be being  pushed very hard by the marketing arm of a large publisher. However, having just finished Stieg Larsson’s The girl with the dragon tattoo, I have to say that the book does deserve to be widely read, as it is an excellent thriller, with unusual characters and an atmospheric setting. It’s not the greatest crime novel – there’s no agreement as to what is – but it is very intriguing, well written, carefully plotted and certainly keeps your attention. I never read two books by the same author one after another, so I’ll wait a bit before reading the 2 sequels, although I am looking forward to reading them also.

Teacher tap and spring tide

Doing some web searching for a new book, I came across a useful site that may or may not be familiar to you. Teacher Tap is a portal which contains ideas and resources for teachers and TLs – although the site actually says ‘educators and librarians’ as if we weren’t educators! – who want to use ICT for learning and teaching in schools. As an aside, the site also talks of ‘teaching and learning’ – I always tell my students, TLs and SLs that ‘learning’ should always come first, as that’s the key point of schools. One of the sections on this site which is certainly worth looking at is the Effective Web Assignments  page which has many good links. Check it out and book mark it.

The full moon has just passed 2 days ago, so we have had some very high tides (photo below)  here in Dunbar  with big waves slamming against the harbour wall and leaping way into the air. ‘Spring tides’ of course do not just happen in Spring - into which we have supposedly arrived, it being March, but it’s to be -3 tonight – but arrive just after the full moon. A Spring tide is a high tide and the highest occur nearest the 2 equinoxes in the year. So it’s not seasonal, with ‘Spring’ meaning to jump up. The opposite is a neap tide which is a calm tide. Nothing of course to do with the Scottish word ‘neep’ meaning a turnip or swede. When someone does something stupid or forgetful (e.g. like me driving to the shops and walking home), they are described as having ‘a neep for a heid” (i.e. head and pronounced heed).

Spring tide

Four things every student should learn and primroses

From eSchool News this week, an article from Alan November who is known to me mainly as an advocate of teaching students how to be discriminating web users e.g. his well known 1998 article Teaching Zach to think. In the present article, November highlights what he sees as 4 things every student should learn, and adds that not all schools are teaching these 4 things. OK, you cynics out there might argue that he wouldn’t write about things that every school was teaching. His 4 things are: global empathy; social and ethical responsibility on the web; the permanence of information posted online; and critical thinking about the information found online. November refers to the importance of teaching students how to ‘tear apart information on the web’ and I think he’s right. Maybe no great surprises in this article for many TLs. Get your teachers to read it!

Spring has not sprung yet here in the south east of Scotland and the cold winter we’ve had (lots of older people saying ‘It’s nice to have a real winter) continues. I should explain that this means that day temperatures are about 4-5 degrees this week – that may or not be cold for you, depending on where you are in the world. However, the crocuses are out, albeit that they stay closed nearly all the time. What is adding a nice splash of colour to my garden are the primroses in different colours (see photo below) . Primroses mean ‘prime’ or ‘first’ roses as they flower in the winter/early spring. If flowers have characters, maybe these ‘prim’ roses are well behaved and dress conservatively, and maybe ‘wild’ roses cavort about in the dark when we’re not looking. If you can absolutely prove that they don’t, let me know.

Primroses in February

Website evaluation and cycling

This week, my eager beaver students are reading about, discussing and (I hope) are well into their preparation for the first assignment which deals with website evaluation criteria. There are many sets of criteria on the web and there is no definitive set which will meet all the needs of an individual TL. The key criteria are educational criteria which focus on the needs of the students who will be using the sites being evaluated. In particular, sites need to be chosen in relation to the level of language used on the sites. Given the differing reading abilities within primary and secondary schools,  TLs need to consider providing students with more than 1 site on a particular topic as one site is unlikely to meet the needs of the range of reading levels.  The value of sites mediated by the TL is very high and can save students much time as it takes them directly to a resource they need and is suitable for them.

Out cycling yesterday and it’s harvest time here in East Lothian, so my mate and I passed fields where combine harvesters relentlessly mowed down the ripe barley and were followed by balers which sucked up the straw and gave birth to round bales, which look like huge empty cotton reels. In other fields, the machines had gone and in some, even the bales had gone, leaving only the yellow stubble. Farmers are no aesthetes and quickly empty the fields of the artistic scattering of bales. Elsewhere in some  fields, what were once slender plants are now burgeoning cabbages almost ready for cutting or tall and stocky brussel sprout plants with large leaves but, as yet, only miniscule sprouts. And the cycling? Hard at first against the wind and up the hills but coming home with the wind behind us was exhilarating.

Digital participation and hill running (watching not doing)

From Futurelab, a new project on what they are calling Digital Participation. This is interesting for teacher/school librarians as part of the project will be looking at digital literacy, which is defined by Futurelab as “more than functional ICT skills” and relates to students accessing, creating and communicating with ICT, as well as students taking a critical and evaluative stance in relation to digital media. The overall strategy is to make students more active learners. So aspects of information literacy will be covered by the project, which will be worth following.

At the weekend, my wife (in training for the Loch Ness Marathon  in October) went along to see members of Dunbar Running Club (ex non-running President being yours truly) take part in the Traprain Law Race. This involves runners leaving the picturesque village of East Linton, running along and then through the River Tyne  (see photo below) before going on  series of uphill stretches to get to Traprain Law.  So about 5K uphill (s0me of it very steep and 5K downhill. The top hill runners are  a race apart – strong on the uphill and fearless on the downhill. Not for the faint hearted.

Runners in the River Tyne

Web literacy and Edinburgh

There are many sites related to various aspects of students’ use of the web and one of the terms commonly used is web literacy. A very good site on this topic is one of the great sites for teaching about  series, and focuses on aspects of web literacy such as website evaluation (Kathy Schrock), quality of information (Hope Tillman) and some sites on internet safety. So worth a look, even if you question the term web literacy, which I would see as a subset of information literacy but, on this site, information literacy appears to be a subset of web literacy. Whatever term we use with teachers and students, the key aspect is to focus on students using information and accepting that finding information is overrated as a skill.

For the past 2 days, I’ve had my colleague Bob Pymm staying here in Dunbar. Yesterday, I took him into Edinburgh which is 20 minutes away on the train. Edinburgh of course is the capital of Scotland. On my travels round the world, I’ve met many people who would put Edinburgh near the top of their favourite cities to visit. Bob was suitably impressed by the stunning architecture in Edinburgh and it’s city that you can walk round and see many of the key cultural and historical sites. We briefly visited the castle and then walked down the Royal Mile, with a wee detour to look in at ( as you might expect for 2 librarianship lecturers) The National Library of Scotland . On then to the Museum of Childhood  (mentioned before on this blog as being as much for adults as it it for kids), before visiting the new Scottish Parliament  building. One of the good things about getting visitors is that you can become a visitor yourself for a while. A grand day out.

Web literacy and Hailes Castle

Searching for something else, I (yet again) came across something interesting. The term web literacy is used in different ways by different people. For example, Alan November’s new book  entitled Web literacy for educators looks at making teachers better searchers and, in turn, making their students better searchers. Another web literacy resource is a video on teachers.tv which is based in a UK school where students were asked to look at websites, 2 of which were racist and one of which was a spoof. The students’ reactions are interesting – and disturbing – about what they believe about the web. If you haven’t seen this video, then check it out and spread it around your staff. I’ve come across the teachers.tv site before but not paid it much attention but a browse through could reveal some interesting material and although it’s UK based, it looks to me to be potentially useful in Australasia and elsewhere.

Out on the bike today, trailing as usual behind my two companions, both 5 years older than me but both still very fit ex-marathon runners who can’t run any more because of injuries but can cycle as if possessed by demons. Our route took us past the ruins of Hailes Castle, a picturesque spot with a wee burn running through it and great views over the River Tyne. The original castle was built in the late 13th century and some of the stonework survives from that period. It’s a very peaceful spot if you drive or cycle there and the thick castle walls are a reminder of the castle owners to protect themselves but also to keep out the cold. If you have romantic notions of going back to the time when the castle prospered, better go back as one of the aristocrats and not one of the servants whose lives were harsh.

Evaluating sources and Le Tour

After a huge session marking, I got back to writing up some of my research this week and yesterday I was analysing student diary comments about evaluating resources. What was interesting was that it was clear that a sizable minority of year 7 (1st year secondary school) students had difficulty understanding the concept of evaluating sources which they use for assignments. While most students could cite a range of criteria such as relevance to the assignment, readability, authority (e.g. as established by other students or the teacher or teacher librarian), some students clearly had difficulty in understanding the concept of evaluation. In short, these students accepted what they found especially when searching the web and not only did they not discriminate between sources, they appeared not even to think about discriminating. All the students in the study had been told about evaluating sources but this was not necessarily reinforced – which may well be the problem.

Le Tour de France started on Saturday, so it’s time to sit back and goggle at the sheer strength, energy and commitment of the riders; the bikes they are riding – which cost a fortune; and the French countryside which is historic but also lush with abundant crops at this time of the year. Le Tour is three weeks of excitement, intrigue, drama, victory, loss and visual excellence – and you don’t have to be a cyclist to enjoy it. On my list of things to do in the next few year is to go to France when Le Tour is on and take in the atmosphere deep in the French countryside, not to mention the wine, the cheese, the baguettes and of course, Les Francais and Les Francaises themselves.

Quality principles and green fields

From the ever reliable Becta, the UKgovernment’s ICT agency, there is a good guide to the principles to be used when selecting digital resources for schools. This Becta guide  contains some well known and recognised evaluation criteria but it also contains some wider principles for selecting digital resources. I’ll certainly be using it with my students next semester when they are asked to critically evaluate the criteria used for selecting digital resources and then to do some evaluation of websites. Ths doesn’t mean that it’s just an academic guide – it’s not – as it is a very practical guide and worth bookmarking and sharing around the school.

At the weekend I was out taking photos of members of Dunbar Running Club  – including my wife – who were doing a 5 mile (8K) race, starting  in the next town of Haddington and going out into the countryside. Photos are on my Flickr pages.  This is not to make those in the drier parts of the world – e.g. all my colleagues and friends in Wagga Wagga – jealous but to give an example of the lush greenery we get here at this time of the year. One of the photos is below.