Just Joyce! Joyce Valenza's Keynote Presentation at ISLMA

Transliteracy:  An Unintentional Film Fest

It was certainly exciting to meet Joyce Valenza at the Illinois Library conference (ISLMA).  See all ISLMA presentation handouts! ...her presentation not only motivates me to explore more tools for students to make/create stuff but also to think about re-imagining our library facility.

Valenza effectively drives home the point that our libraries are not just for
finding stuff.  We need to evolve to a library where students come to create projects and share their work.

So, how do we direct transliterate learning?

First, Joyce spoke about digital citizenship and promoting compassion for others to prevent harassment and hurtful messages on social media.

The tricky thing is that in trying to manage kids' digital profiles we have obscured their academic profiles.

Valenza explains that must  move in a direction where kids share work with their names on and pictures embedded.  An positive academic digital footprint is necessary because teachers need to be involved with teaching their students "how to navigate in mediated public landscapes".  "Public is the new default".


College admissions are not only looking at kids on social networking sites, but are also looking to evaluate what types of contributions they have made online. Human resources are looking to see "who you are online".  So, we need to our students to use people search tools to look at their online profiles.  

Experiment with and expose your students these tools:

• pipl --one of the most comprehensive people search tools on the web

• Set up a "Me alert" for  Google on Me on the Web --to get notification of what's online under your name
• Rebel Mouse --a tool which aggregates everything done on social media.

Important reads:

Howard Rheingold's Net Smart --must have for your library curriculum

Sherry Turkle - 

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

We need to teach about respect for intellectual property.  Essential read:

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries

Tools for Transliterate Learning:

Noodle tools is a favorite tool
Mendeley - reference manager and academic social network --remarkable place to store your own research
Turnitin.com  has new taxonomy of new types of plagiarism

While meant to be a helpful resource finder, student use of the Research tab on Easy bib is becoming problematic because kids are taking others' bibs & ignoring library resources --they are even copying others' annotations.

Libraries should teach students about the use of Creative Commons - a shared culture. Everytime students produce media online, they should put Creative Commons licensing on their own work using the embed code!

see LibGuide of Creative Commons resources - please attribute to Valenza
FLICKR Creative Commons image page
FLICKR Blue Mountains
matrix of images--image editor there (one stop-shopping)

Wylio.com  - (Images from Flickr Creative Commons)Wylio is the fastest way to find free pictures for your blog. Millions of free, legal, pictures are available from online sources citation comes with image.

FLICKR Storm - better for younger children
Can create a tray of images for them to select

See libguide for more image resources.

Jamendo  - copyright free music - 370,000 tracks

Not all images are found in the Creative Commons area. Let's teach our students that it is OK to use copyright images if you follow codes of fair use. If the media is repurposed and if the use is transformative, it is OK to use that nugget of information or media to tell another story.

What's new in Search?-- new stuff to show your students:

• new favorite instagrok! -- "what would you like to learn about"? --a new search tool designed to help users learn about a topic by facilitating the finding of context and educational content. Good brainstorming -topic selection tool.  Go Grokking to find key words.

• Teach Google results list

• Teach Google advanced search screen

(filter for date, type of result; advanced search screen --search for doc or pdf and find really big documents)

• image search --click on camera and it will identify photos  - does not do facial recognition

• Wolfram Alpha - computational engine --all sorts of graph generation
• Mashpedia for current news ---helps discover the #hashtag they need to do twitter searching

• TV NeWS Search and Borrow--archives TV news--for news clip --search by hashtag and it gives you the transcript

Do not demonize wikipedia --use the right tool for the right task

Tutorials - Cooperative Library Instruction Project

(CLIP) --another tool videos on using info literacy stuff --tutorials on many topics and a libguide template of tutorials to use from Western Oregon University

Tips for evaluating truth in Wikipedia  from Debbie Alcock
Use featured articles as a starting point!

ANNOTATED citations are necessary and a must for high school
who wrote it? why did they write it? and how will it help me argue my case?

New primary sources
United Nations History Project --primary sources

Twiplomacy --world leaders tweeting (or official offices)
Information is not the destination --teach them how to think like detectives, reporters, scientists, citizens of the world

Read Henry Jenkins on participatory culture  - audience changes everything.  Students need to be creating for authentic audiences/purposes

We need to recognize creative thought
Have students make own infographics!

• PiktoChart
• infogr.am
• pictogram graph

Rubrics   ---for multimedia projects on   Digitales


CREATE "maker space" in your library - hang over new counter tops to put high stools around reference stacks; add electrical outlets
Making stuff is the killer app!  Are you honoring your filmmakers and storytellers?


Lend out portable blue/green screens

Have conversations about books within your catalogs
see also:   YALSA TEEN book finder  - a free app to help teens, parents, librarians and library staff, educators, and anyone who loves YA literature access to the past three years' of YALSA's awards and lists on their smartphone.

Students need to collect information in new containers
play with Mentor Mob  --creates a learning playlist - a way to curate content

The overall goal in transliteracy is to allow students to gain the skills they need in order to navigate the world.  Can our students make brave decisions?  Can they lead?

Joyce Valenza's presentation on Curation Tools is also linked.
                                                              

The Need to Teach Transliteracy

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. –  www.transliteracy.com



I connect this idea of transliteracy to the recent rush to judgement on the initial media coverage of USDA official Shirley Sherrod. Organizations, newscasters, media pundits and professional journalists need training in research to verify stories. Consider the flap caused by a Tea Party activist when he deliberately edited film to defame Sherrod.

The NAACP’s statement:

With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.
Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.
The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.
Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA…
Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding. The tape of Ms. Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP banquet was deliberately edited to create a false impression of racial bias, and to create a controversy where none existed. This just shows the lengths to which extremist elements will go to discredit legitimate opposition.

This makes me wonder how increasingly flawed the nightly news is on any channel.
This certainly isn't the era of Walter Cronkite. Therefore, it is our duty and mission as librarians to teach critical thinking, the value of verifying sources, and the need to look at a variety of perspectives and viewpoints. As you can see, FOX news isn't the only culprit in this story. The NAACP went along with this story on racial bias before making any serious inquiry into it. Is it really necessary to come out with a statement in the middle of the night? Yes, information is coming at us like a firehose, but our responses to it require deliberation.

Libraries and Transliteracy

Buffy Hamilton, the Unquiet Librarian contributes to the Libraries & Transliteracy blog.

"Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks". –  www.transliteracy.com

She makes active use of LibGuides pathfinders (150+) and even posts her yearly report on her library homepage. On her blog she posted the top 25 circulating books for the school year. Her website is a good example of the new media ecosystem.

Another contributor is librarian Tom Ipri who writes today about Libraries and the New Media Ecosystem .
He reviews Lee Rainie's presentation which explores 8 ways that the Media Ecosystem has changed and has affected the way people relate to each other and the way they relate to information.

Another writer for the Transliteracy blog is Bobbi L. Newman, librarianbyday on Twitter. Today on her blog she picks up on this topic with a post:  What Do You Think Libraries Will Look Like in 2015?

Newman pulls together several presentations, videos, and web links to examine how libraries will be changing in the next five years.
As we look down the road in decision making we need to pay attention to those who envision the changes we'll all eventually be living with.


Following them on Twitter is part of my professional development plan for the summer months.  Another goal is to really absorb/follow David Warlick's CoLearners Wiki.  It is an amazing resource for thinking about student learning.  Read his post about Long-Tail Libraries. It speaks to how libraries can address learner's needs by "harnessing today's information environment" and "teaching them how to teach themselves".

More info on Libraries and Transliteracy

 What is Transliteracy?

"Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. –  www.transliteracy.com"

ALLA Preconference -- Flip Your Collection -- Wendy Stephens

View more presentations from wsstephens.