RIMS CTAP DPLC

Here is the link to the HQ video of the State Student Technology Showcase - http://ctap10.org/~jdurham/SSTS_4x3.m4v

Could this be what kids are doing with technology? How do we tap into this energy and creativity? This video went viral quickly after it was posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMYWuGUZlM

Interestingly, though, there's a comment posted: "Activision hired an ad agency called Droga5 to produce this video to
promote their game. This isn't some labor of love, and madflux was paid
to post this on Youtube".

A little more research reveals that indeed, this video was created by an ad agency. Droga5 has been extremely successful in creating viral videos ostensibly posted by ordinary people. These creative ads seem to work, and certainly generate buzz!

See the video with the credits at http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=0c9a0da0.

Jamendo has more than 10,000 albums by more than 5000 artists, all free for teachers to download,  use and in some cases even edit in their classroom. Each album is labeled according to its Creative Commons licensing, whether it's attribution only, non-commercial, and/or no derivatives. You can search for music according to artist, style, and/or licensing.

It may not be Top 40, but there's a LOT there in a lot of different styles! 

Today I'm at the CSLA annual conference at the Ontario Convention Center. This morning I attended a session called "The Wiki Way: Building Better Collaborative Library Projects." Granted, it was a tech-themed session, but I was shocked when the presenter, Doug Achterman, asked for a show of hands as to who had personal blogs, created web pages, and/or had created wikis. More than half the hands in the room went up for each one! It really struck me that this is a group we should be tapping into, and probably for more than just information literacy!

Another thing that piqued my interest - the presenter suggested that all librarians should have access to modify the network filter. After all, he said, who better to decide the instructional and research value of online resources?

Doug shared several interesting templates and graphic organizers that would work well in shared document or wiki environments. One of them seems like it might be the basis of a good chart for our Technology and English Language Learners program. It used elements of expert groups and the process grids - I think we can make it work as a powerful example of using technology to support GLAD strategies, as well as the Marzano pieces of advance organizers and cooperative groups.

Another item he shared struck me with its simplicity - a chart for students to use to learn how to take notes using copy and paste, as well as how to avoid plagiarism:

As Robert noted, there isn't much curriculum on copyright and fair use, and teachers don't really know what it's about. Although we do a piece on it in all of our trainings, it will be interesting to see if there will be a demand for a trainer of trainers program that addresses all of the areas in the Chavez legislation.

One thing I'd like to see us suggest for a student curriculum piece are some key questions - how would you feel if... what would you do if... what are the possible consequences of.... Kids definitely have opinions (whether informed or not) about internet safety, plagiarism, peer file sharing, etc. We need to help students engage their critical thinking and problem solving skills as part of the info lit curriculum, because otherwise it's just one more list of do's and don't's we're throwing at them.