Holidays.... and learners inheriting the earth

Well, you can tell the last week of term went by in a gallop!  Not a peep from this direction - too busy with everything else!

Also, I do love the tentacle in the last blog entry.  So very much.

A bonbon to leave with you to tide you over till the holidays end.




Will Richardson at TEDxNY in March 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni75vIE4vdk

A screenshot of my favourite slide from his presentation: a quote I was using years ago, and which still (despite all that has changed) applies.

If you're on holidays too, enjoy.  If not, we will for you.  Ain't that kind?!

Cheers

Ruth

NSW public schools resume on the Wednesday after Easter for teachers, and the Thursday for students.

GIFSL* 58: Enchantment and your school library

@brainpicker on Twitter, and the associated blog Brain Pickings, provide a constant supply of inspiration and ideas on a huge range of topics.  Not narrowcast "teacher librarian-focused stuff", but all sorts of things from left field and out there and what about?, and hey, here's something to think about.  I love foraging among the wider world to bring back good things to inform my teaching (eg. this blog! - see the intro reference to a flypaper mind).

Take this infographic from a recently published business book, Enchantment: the art of changing hearts, minds and actions, by Guy Kawasaki.  Not something I've tripped over in education circles, but a great lens to use in thinking about our business as teacher librarians, promoting our libraries and their services.

Read the whole blog entry on Brain Pickings here, including links to an enchantment aptitude test, an interview with the author, and more. 

As school library staffing is being challenged, our work as teacher librarians evaluated, the ill-informed happy to spout that 'it's all on the internet now' and so forth, this infographic is, to me, valuable professional reflection for considering what I do and why and how, and how I can do it better.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

So what are they doing better in Finland (in education)?

Teaching less and learning more.  Read an excellent overview with handy graphs and a video in Less is More. Teach Less, Learn More by David Truss on Connected Principals.

“This creativity aspect is very important because in Finland we believe that risk-taking, creativity and innovation are very, very important for a society like ours. And particularly working in this global and globalized world it is more important than what you actually know and remember, it is more what you are and what you are capable of doing.” ~ Pasi Sahlberg


Worth reading the whole piece - click on over.  We seem, here, to be using the UK and US as our educational models, far more than places like Finland, even though the Finnish approach is more successful.
 
Cheers
 
Ruth

Effective study: ethnicity vs good habits

There is, wandering about in the education world, an assumption by some that the success of some ethnic groups is related to their ethnicity.  A recent SMH article, reporting on a  DET NSW forum, debunks this.  Chinese students top the tests out of habit, not ethnicity, study shows, by Anna Patty was published on 29 December 2010.  (nb: sometimes the SMH only leaves articles up free for a couple of weeks, and then you have to pay - try the link, but apologies if it doesn't work).

Key points:

• The place where children do their homework - whether at a desk or in front of the television - may play a big role in how well they do at school
• ''Successful students see homework as a daily routine,'' Mr Coutts-Trotter said. ''They have a desk of their own and a school and family that help them develop scholarly routines.
• "Visiting libraries regularly is another thing successful students do.''
• Children do better sitting at a desk than on a bed; implies a different attitude
• From primary school, some groups establish better habits - study each day, and for longer.  In the year 3 group studied, the children of Chinese background spent about an hour every night of the week, compared with children of Pacific Islander background - 10 minutes for two to three nights a week - and Anglo Australian children - about 20 minutes on only some nights during the week.
• Socio-economic background wasn't necessarily a factor in success/failure - good habits helped at any level

I'm interested in this because I'm working on a study skills program for Year 11 which will be running in term 1 this year.  This sort of information demonstrates that students can choose how successful they are; one theme running through the program will be the small choices that add up to greater achievement.  Time.  A desk.  Habits.

I've been bookmarking some resources for this program over in my Delicious Diigo; I'll likely highlight some here, but if you want to toddle over there for a squizz, you're very welcome (there is a preview of the most recent ones over on the right).  If you have ideas/bookmarks you'd like to share in return, please do leave a comment.

Cheers

Ruth

How to learn? from mistakes (Diana Laufenberg)

To start the new school year*, an inspirational TED talk about teaching



Her three key points (and please do watch the video, don't just clock these and click on in your travels - it's a great ten minutes) are:

• experiental learning
• student voice
• embracing failure

Page URL if the video doesn't work for you:
http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_laufenberg_3_ways_to_teach.html

Cheers

Ruth

*Yes, the Australian school year follows the calendar - we've just finished our summer holidays and are back for a new school year.

A vision of 21st century teachers

YouTube URL for this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4g5M06YyVw

One for staff meetings/professional development?

Found via Lowden Clear blog.

Cheers

Ruth

Designed for Learning: school libraries

As you may know, I've been doing some presenting at conferences and staff development days on "Re-imagining your school library".  (Will be at MANTLE in May).

This 27 minute video (can't embed it, so click here to watch it) is from CILIP in the UK, and is all about the design and functions of 21st century libraries - showing spaces and possibilities, how students and library users find these, what they want, how library staff and teachers find these, what they want.... full of ideas, and SO positive about the IMPORTANCE of school libraries now and into the future as learning spaces.

Watch it.  Definitely.

I'm going to have to watch it more than once, to unpack the ideas and think about how to use them.

Cheers

Ruth

Found via Twitter @sandynay

Laptop Policy - another view

Our school's laptop policy is still being tweaked and revised, evolving in light of experience.

I was interested to read Will Richardson's take on school computer policies on Weblogg-ed.  Make sure you read the comments, too.

As a significant architect of our school's policy - not its final arbiter, but a carpenter creating a structure - one focus was to put things in positive terms, wherever possible.  One does not of course want to discourage students from using their laptops - instead, fuelling and directing their enthusiasm is a great educational opportunity.  On the other hand, the reality of life in schools is that it's important that students are aware of the necessary boundaries, such as respecting copyright, and treating other people respectfully.

So ours is still a work in progress.  Feedback from the students has been positive - they appreciate clarity, because it's calmed some fears they had, from gossip/chat, about what might happen if...

Cheers

Ruth

I'm a happy camper!... (Year 12 present)

Can't say any more yet, and I will show you a photo when the secret's out...but the Year 12 present to our school this year is coming to the library to live.  I was in conversation with the Year 12 year adviser, and happened to mention something I'd like for here (but couldn't afford), and thought she might like, and the students too, and had any decision on the year group's present been made? (Always a useful conversation to have in Term 3, if your year 12 group commonly gives a present to the school...and you have something appropriate in mind.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, but if you say nuffin, nuffin happens).
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And it hadn't.  But it was.  She liked the idea VERY much.  It's something that can be a part of the school for all the kids, long-term.  It has the approval of the year group too, and the main element of it arrived in the post yesterday.
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WOOHOOO!
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Now what she doesn't know is the present the Year 12 students are planning for her, and which I'm facilitating with space/assistance next week...
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Plots and plans!  The happy life of teacher librarians...
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS vague clues in the tags on this entry...but the reveal has to wait till it's finished and formally presented at the end of term.

GIFSL*: 25. Rearrange more furniture.

We've already done some furniture rearranging, and it's worked really well - is still working well, weeks later.  Read about that here.  So we started looking at other areas of the library, to see how else we could rearrange furniture to make the spaces work better for teachers and classes and library users.  Here's the fiction section before we started:

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And from the other end..

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It worked OK, had been in this separate-table configuration for years.  Having seen how the seminar-style rectangle downstairs worked, though, we wanted to try it.

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There is a catch.  You need more tables, when you're only using one side of them.  We scrounged a couple of tables from around the school, did a bit of bait and switch with library tables so the nicest ones were up here and the scrounged ones covered up (making the best of what we had).  It's not yet finished - we need to get a couple more tables so it can seat a full class around the outside, and we're aiming for the rectangle-with-a-gap such as we have downstairs.  But it's different.

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We chuckled that it's kinda magnet-like, with those coloured ends (we couldn't do matchy-tables with the lot, so we made the best of it).

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We have found, with this seminar-like table arrangement, that it has a positive effect both on class groups and on the use of the space during breaks.  For classes, as I discussed in the blog entry on downstairs, it breaks up little chatty groups and makes kids have their unguarded front to the world, so they are more visible and feel more visible.  The teachers find they can eyeball a class more easily, use the centre to move around the class, check work, do a Geoffrey Robertson if they choose, and so forth.  Classes are quieter, by and large. 

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 During break times, this configuration actually allows more individual work - there are more spaces than with six separate tables, more chances for a kid to work individually (because all you need is one space either side of you - one kid at a table could easily get overtaken by a group choosing to sit there).  Group work is still possible, still workable, using ends and corners.

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There is at least one room in the school where this configuration has also been adopted already, and teachers are expressing a preference for it because of the positive effect it has on their classes.

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What you need: enough tables.  Try doing a bit of graph paper scale work before shifting tables around - measure up, see what's possible.  It does eat a tad more acreage than separate tables.  If you have the budget for new tables, perhaps investigate slightly narrower ones, if your space is tight.

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Cheers, Ruth

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* GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries

Renovation: the entrance, part 3

Ah, school holidays.  If you believe the view of some, it's when teachers become lotus-eaters, lounging around on yet another long holiday.  No, and not this little black duck.  I am blessed with a lovely school assistant who offered to come in for a day too so we could get a start on the wall.

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It takes longer than you might think to paint wall words.  Consistent with the rest of the library - the purple wall downstairs, the aqua walls of the foyer - this was our plan all along.  As I've probably said before, I like this idea, which I borrowed from a Robin Hood poverty-alleviating school library renovation in New York (I provided some links in this blog entry), because the text is meaningful.  Sure, we could paint a field of daisies or something, I guess (harder to do, I'd say as well).  But this is a secondary school, and words carry meaning and convey messages and ideas, so this is what we've been doing for the last eighteen months, gradually, as time and money permit.

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We figured we'd get about six larger-scale words up and painted, over the seven or so hours we had available (we were working in with the general assistants' hours and when the school alarms are off/on, and so forth).  Maybe more, but we'd start with that goal.  We plan to paint more, as time permits.

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I've been asked how we do this, where to buy the stencils.  You don't.  It's low-tech, with equipment to hand in a school: photocopied transparencies (from printouts you've prepared yourself, I use Microsoft Publisher), an overhead projector, chalk.  Like this.

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Back at the start of our first wall, I chose a font to be our 'library' font, and it's the one we've used on all the walls.  I'd recommend a sans serif one (less fiddly bits).  I chose one that's modern, but with the odd vintage allusion in the shape of a few letters, because I like it.  I do all the library paperwork/signage in this font.

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The choice of our words is something to which much thought has been given.  It's an important part of the process, to think about the messages you wish to convey about the library's purpose; and the choice of words so it's accessible and inspiring to the kids, too.

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I'm unlikely to post our master list (an evolving beastie) on this blog, for a couple of reasons: I don't want it taken by a commercial enterprise, so they can do vinyl words or other signage based on it - we've thought about it  a great deal, as I'm sure you understand (so if you're a commercial enterprise, please don't).  Secondly, if you're a TL, that process of coming up with your words is an invaluable journey for you in your renovation process.  It's an expression of philosophy, intent, purpose, vision.

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I had to decide on six words to paint in a large size, that would express my philosophy about the library.  What would your six words be for your library?

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Time for another picture?

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A tip, from my school assistant, who is a painter.  Make up a palette record, like this - it's just a bit of cardboard, with a decent coat of the background colour, and then a record of every paint colour you plan to use.  It helps you see the possibilities and shows you how the paint colours look against the background (they can come up quite differently, one purple pot looked green on the first purple wall).  We also record which colour we use for which word, so if we have to do a touch-up, we know the correct colour to use.

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These are craft-shop folk art paints from Spotlight, some new colours plus the purples we have left from the first purple wall and the chartreuse-olives we have from the aqua foyer.  The chips were a terrific beginning, the idea of going with oranges and chartreuse-olive on the purple, but we didn't need big cans of paint (and couldn't afford them).  These pots and tubes are between four and about eight dollars each.

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In terms of how to make each word fit, and where to put it, that's an individual decision.  We sketched out a rough idea, but then it's trial and error, moving the OHP around, printing up another size transparency, fiddling and looking till you get the size on the wall that pleases your eye.  We aren't signwriters or professional painters, (nor is the budget for that expertise available - this is done on a very small shoestring budget) (so that means we're not doing something you can't do, for lack of money - isn't that good?).

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And then you paint.  This wall involved greater challenges than the earlier ones - the paint sat differently on the doors to the bricks, and we had to chalk around the in and out of door frames.  Once again, on the brick, we skipped over the grout: trying to paint in and out of this would be difficult and look pretty dicky/iffy, I think.  This does mean, however, that you're doing a lot of edges.  The foyer was mostly flat walls, so we had to get used to brick again.  We are happy with the handpainted look of it - here, we haven't yet touched up the edges or washed off the chalk, but that's to come.  Also, there is only one coat of purple around the red resource centre and we have not yet finished with that.

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Enough of the explanations! Doesn't it look good?  Positive comments welcome!

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Remember, this is what it looked like towards the end of term 1.

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And now it looks better - more inviting, conveying a message about the library and its purpose, much more attractive.  We are creating a positive and engaging learning environment, not just doing pretty for pretty's sake - and first impressions count.

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Another view of our progress so far.  This is where we got to by day's end.  We have more to do, and it may take some months to get it done, but when the kids arrived back at school, the transformation had started.  I'm so appreciative of my school assistant for giving up a day of her holidays.

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One question people ask: what about when the kids graffiti on this?  Well, they haven't done any graffiti on the other wall words; this is likely to be a bit less supervised.  We'll paint over it, New York Police address the little before it gets big style.  But the potential graffiti of a few kids sure isn't enough reason to say we oughta do nuffin.

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I'll blog about this again when we've made more progress.  But the library's easier to find, now.  Even if people get told to look out for the purple wall.  It's a start.

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Cheers, Ruth

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PS. Of course I brought in fudgy iced chocolate brownies, and invited the general assistants to join us for morning tea.  Why do you ask?!  I took home an empty, clean dish...

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PPS: the airconditioner is for one room off the library: the main library areas are not airconditioned.  Just in case you wondered.

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Renovation: the entrance, part 2

So there we were with permission, paint and by a stroke of luck, the main general assistant had a little bit of time and manpower up his sleeve.  I smiled very sweetly, fed the lovely general assistants good coffee and cupcakes (cupcake diplomacy, remember? gingerbread diplomacy works too, and indeed all sorts of diplomacy of similar kind - even if they weren't charming blokes, we'd still be nice to the general assistants!)  and said, do you think the background painting could be done by, oh, the school holidays, so we can do our fussy next bits, which we wouldn't DREAM of asking you to do?  Pretty please?

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They ain't stupid.  They saw right through that.  But they're also good blokes.  And there was a little flexibility.

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Well, that looks better already!

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Yup, the old paintwork on the doors had certainly lost its mojo.  The kids liked the purple, as we had hoped, and we did too.  We'd picked it to sorta tone with the library doors, and with the purple/chartreuse net curtains.

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It wasn't a one-day job, and we had to juggle where kids put their bags and how they lined up to come into the library, but that was no trouble.  Not when you're seeing change like this.

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Remember that view from the quadrangle?  Reckon you could work out that there's SOMETHING going on over there now?

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Ah, chartreuse.  A favourite colour.  The paint colours used here are both Dulux ones, but were used in bases from other paint companies, so they might look a tad different to the chips.  The purple is Regalia, and the chartreuse, Golden Passionfruit.

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We like.  So did the kids.  And the holidays were one day away.  Hurrah for the general assistants!

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What do you think?  Bit of a transformation already?  Comments welcome!

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Come back tomorrow for what happened in the holidays.

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Cheers, Ruth.

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Renovation: the entrance, part 1

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may have been wondering what it would be like to visit my school and come to the library.

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Sad to say, you may find yourself with the problem others have told me about.

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Where is it?

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This is the view from the quadrangle.

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OK, getting a bit closer, but this could be any block, any faculty (well, unless you've spotted the purple/chartreuse net curtains, which sure ain't standard issue!).

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Ah, right.  Resource centre.  Must have been built in the seventies (yup).  Now to you, dear teacher librarian blogreader, resource centre, school library, schmibrary, you're not fazed.  But to the mug punter, is a resource centre a library? 

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Bzzzzzzzzzzzt. Not sure.  And it does get referred to around the school, and by me, as the school library, because that is a beautiful lovely term, as is 'teacher librarian'; and also resource centre can be used as an umbrella term for 'can we give you lots more not necessarily relevant things to look after/do, because they're resources', which you can instantly see may lack appeal.  But I've had parents who couldn't find it, new students who couldn't find it, tradespeople who couldn't find it...

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Yup.  It's still a resource centre from this angle too.  The lettering is the signwriting standard used around the school to identify buildings.  Also very seventies, that font.

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So recently (I do like to tell stories, don't I?  But you are enjoying it, and this is illustrated....) I had some teacher librarian friends to visit one afternoon, and I towed them outside and said, what CAN be done here?  And they offered various suggestions and ideas.

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Take-away message? Don't just do your own thinking.  Get your TL pals to offer their ideas.  Remember, you don't have to do ANYTHING they suggest.  If they think that painting it all pink with orange spots and black stripes would be just the ticket, you can nod and smile as gratefully as you do when they offer suggestions that don't make you shudder.   My pals didn't make me shudder.  (Also they read this blog, so of course none of the above refers in any way to their exquisite taste and helpful suggestions).  Paint was on my mind, and on theirs, and we talked about where it might go.  I then took these ideas to my school assistants, and we looked at the entrance area, and talked some more.

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In the education system within which I work, some things are possible, and some are not; and that's the same for everyone.  The budget for this area is small, very small, but there are also other constraints (no horizontal surfaces can be painted, so the beautiful concrete ceiling will remain a beautiful concrete ceiling).

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I got permission from the Principal for some painting.  Then my staff and I played with paint chips.

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Remember these?

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Don't you love showing paint chips that thrill your soul to men who roll their eyes?  It's a beautiful moment.  But the school general assistants are obliging and charming (they don't read this blog, but it's still true) and so they went and bought paint.

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Having whetted your appetite, or so I hope, more tomorrow. Come and visit, and see what happens next.

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ANYTHING we do has to look better than what you see above, doesn't it?  And surely we should be looking at ways to create a better first impression from outside than is the case right now?  Oh yes.

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More tomorrow!  Cheers, Ruth

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Good ideas for school libraries: 15. Playing with paint chips

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Dream big.  Play with paint chips.  Imagine what might be possible.  I won't tell you where these are for yet...but one day I hope you'll look at this blog and go AHA! as you see pictures of what I am currently imagining.  They are, from left to right, light olive, chartreuse, purple-blue, orange and a dirty apricot.

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The great thing about paint, however, is how cheap it is and how much it can achieve.

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What you need: a hardware store, and probably some plans to put your case.  Take some pictures of dreary before, and have some images of thrilling after.  Time to prepare the surface and to paint.  Maybe some extra willing hands.  Everything you'd expect, and the possibility of something special to come.

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Skerricks in the world (thank you, thank you very much)

A couple of nice mentions of this blog recently - thank you!

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The Feminist Peace Network liked our International Women's Day activities. (And I learned a new webbreviation, h/t meaning hat tip!)

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Moonlightquill liked our Harmony Day ideas (more of those coming later this week, to show what we did this year).

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Good ideas for school libraries: 11. Rearrange the furniture

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I will admit, up front, to being a burglar of ideas.  The reading lounge (as previously blogged) came from something I saw at a colleague's library.  Holiday borrowing was influenced by another colleague's practices.  Ditto bookmarks, Ditto lots of things.  Imitation.  Flattery.  The creative soup of sharing (and I guess by coming here to this blog you're aiming to pick up some possibilities to burgle and use too - hope you do!).

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Last week a few colleagues and I gathered at my school library to share ideas.  Everyone brought photos of their libraries on their flash drives/nerd necklaces, and we took a 'tour' of each on the big screen.  To admire, to suggest, to enquire, to ask for help, to give advice, to see what had been done and, hey, let's be honest, to see what we could burgle!

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In one library, there was an arrangement of tables in a hollow-centred square, seminar-like.  "How does that work?" I asked curiously.  It does, I was assured.

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The idea took root, and I talked about it with my school assistant the next day.  Could be interesting, we thought.  Could be interesting.  The photo above gives you a glimpse of the nonfiction seating arrangement before we started.  Six tables, six chairs around each, the tables arranged in two lines of three tables.  It's the layout I inherited when I came here and which, until now, I haven't seen any way to change.  This idea, however, seemed to have possibilities worth exploring.

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We would need more tables.  We did some rejigging of what was where - in the glassed in seminar rooms for example, we could reduce four tables to two without major negative impact, and those two tables could go to the classroom area down the back, while two of the tables there (larger, and the same timber laminate veneer top as the other nonfiction tables) could come into the nonfiction section....

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A teacher came by while we were rejigging, and I asked her what she thought.  Hmmmm.  She didn't like the idea of a closed rectangle, she wanted to be able to get into the middle of it for teaching (or what I think of as "Geoffrey Robertson Hypothetical Mode").  Fair enough.  Useful feedback.  We swapped in one smaller table, leaving a gap.  Here's how it looks now:

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It faces, you will note, away from the entrance to the library on the right, so kids are less distracted by the general comings and goings of people.

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We observed, interested to see how it might go.  It's not going to suit every teacher instantly, but then that doesn't mean it doesn't work.  It means it's new. 

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What I like about it, and these are first thoughts: it presents a nonverbal message about the library as a learning space, thanks to its 'seminar' style.  It breaks up groups (which can become rowdy) and says, we're here to learn together.  That said, it's still possible to do group work.  It makes the kids more accountable - instead of being clustered in groups, with friends across the table, it makes each student more visible.  Their front is to the world, not protected by the mates across the table.  Psychologically, it's a different game, and the impact of this is something we're only gradually seeing.  Of the classes who have used it so far, our unscientific observation is that they're quieter, maybe because of that visibility.  I also like that it looks more mature, more sophisticated, treats the kids in a more adult way.

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Remains to be seen how it goes in the longer term.  I'm asking teachers and kids for feedback, and observing classes as they use it.  Our lovely cleaner says it's easier to vacuum around, and my helpful school assistant wants to try this in our other two classroom areas (not sure if we have enough tables for this, or enough space, but it's noted as a possibility!).

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What you need: enough tables, enough space and some musclepower to move them.  And a shiny optimistic enthusiastic smile for the staff members who look at it and say "Oh..." in that tone.  And a grin for the students who stop dead and say, "Oh!" because it's different.

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Experiences with netbooks

The netbooks are coming to the school system in which I work.  Will Richardson blogged about them the other day - I found the comments very interesting as a snapshot of how netbooks are being used in a variety of school systems, the issues and benefits.  Read the blog entry and comments here.

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The secrets of storytelling

Our love for telling tales reveals the workings of the mind, according to Jeremy Hsu in his article, The secrets of storytelling, from Scientific American.  The article covers the following key concepts:

Storytelling is a human universal, and common themes appear in tales throughout history and all over the the world.


These characteristics of stories, and our natural affinity toward them, reveal clues about our evolutionary history and the roots of emotion and empathy in the mind.


By studying narrative’s power to influence beliefs, researchers are discovering how we analyze information and accept new ideas.
 
Which means to me as a TL that stories/fiction (and I've heard people say it could be done by local libraries, and the fiction section isn't necessarily an essential part of a school library...) are most important to education and learning.  Who'd'a thunk?!
 
We tell stories about other people and for other people. Stories help us to keep tabs on what is happening in our communities. The safe, imaginary world of a story may be a kind of training ground, where we can practice interacting with others and learn the customs and rules of society. And stories have a unique power to persuade and motivate, because they appeal to our emotions and capacity for empathy.



Storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal across culture and through all of known history.

Worth reading.  I found the reference to this article here.  Hmmm.  Might save this article to use to promote the next round of holiday borrowing.


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Education and technology: pros and cons

I've been browsing the New York Times, as you can tell.  Today's blog entry includes two recent articles about technology.  First,  reconsidering the role of technology in education: At school, technology starts to turn a corner, by Steve Lohr.

The educational bottom line, it seems, is that while computer technology has matured and become more affordable, the most significant development has been a deeper understanding of how to use the technology.


“Unless you change how you teach and how kids work, new technology is not really going to make a difference,” said Bob Pearlman, a former teacher who is the director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

and, from an English school program:

Sir Mark says he is convinced that advances in computing, combined with improved understanding of how to tailor the technology to different students, can help transform education.


“This is the best Trojan horse for causing change in schools that I have ever seen,” he said.

Conversely, another NYT article, Seeing no progress, some schools drop laptops, by Winnie Hu, discusses the pros and cons of issuing students with laptops.

“After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement — none,” said Mark Lawson, the school board president here in Liverpool, one of the first districts in New York State to experiment with putting technology directly into students’ hands. “The teachers were telling us when there’s a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the box gets in the way. It’s a distraction to the educational process.”

and...

Districts have dropped laptop programs after resistance from teachers, logistical and technical problems, and escalating maintenance costs.


Such disappointments are the latest example of how technology is often embraced by philanthropists and political leaders as a quick fix, only to leave teachers flummoxed about how best to integrate the new gadgets into curriculums. Last month, the United States Department of Education released a study showing no difference in academic achievement between students who used educational software programs for math and reading and those who did not.

It's not just technical glitches and students behaving in the ways that students inevitably will:

In the school library, an 11th-grade history class was working on research papers. Many carried laptops in their hands or in backpacks even as their teacher, Tom McCarthy, encouraged them not to overlook books, newspapers and academic journals.


“The art of thinking is being lost,” he said. “Because people can type in a word and find a source and think that’s the be all end all.”

And that final point is the one that, as a teacher librarian, I see happening all the time as a mindset and choice among kids, and that, as a teacher, is the one that I think needs serious thought about how we teach - process/information literacy, not just content.

What is a netbook? And will they rule the world?

If you've seen the little Asus Eee pup computer that was out just before Christmas last year in Australia, then you've seen a netbook.  Smaller than a standard laptop, with more limited functions, and thus cheaper, they are finding a ready market which will likely include schools.  David Flynn had an informative article, Mighty Mouse: will netbooks rule the world? on them in the Sydney Morning Herald recently.