Well after looking at several web pages I am torn between a web page as the traditional style and a wiki. The main reason that I would lean more towards a wiki is the fact that things can be added by others instead of everything being the media specialist job. When I say others I really mean the teachers when they find great information that others teachers would like to use.
I found some really great stuff on the other web pages that I look at but some just had to much. I think that a web page, whether traditional or wiki, should be user friendly and simple. This is where I think that a wiki would be easier to use. A wiki could have links to many different topics without all the clutter. Some of the things that I think would be essential on a web page or wiki for the media center would be:
Contact information
Hours
Calendar
Library News and Upcoming events
Policies and Procedures of the media center
How to use equipment and technologies
Pathfinders of assignments, project, or research that teacher have assigned for students
Pathfinders for teachers as resources to teacher lessons and the material available
Catalog
Book list and awards
AR information
Research and citation information
This is just a few things that I think would be helpful to teachers and students. Make the web page or wiki interesting and inviting for the users. You want the students and teachers to use your web page for information that they deem necessary. This is probably one of the most visited pages on a school web site.
Another thing that I was very excited about was the tutorial on the Creekview High School web page that had to do with the GALILEO tool bar. Many of you may have known about this before but I really thought this was wonderful so installed it on my computer and tried it out and it was so much easier to get into GALILEO. This was what I learned today. It is always good to learn something new everyday. I wish I had seen this earlier because I have used GALILEO alot and it is always so frustrating to use.
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I am glad yo ufound a way to make Galileo useful for you. As a teacher I useit all the time and show my students how to use it. It saves me time if I require them to have sources from Galileo...I know that they are reliable. I agree with you that some of the web sites had too much information, and I am right there with you on how beneficial a Wiki can be. I am torn between traditional and new, but I am also excited at the prospect of combining the two. I vistited one site that had a traditional web site but had wiki links that studnets could access for specific assignments and classes. I also like the idea of starting a wiki for students in a particular book club.. that would be a way to combine traditional with old school.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Raina
Thanks for sharing the information about GALILEO. I am going to have to go back and look at that site and that tutorial. I enjoy all of the information in GALILEO, but easier entry would be a great thing!
ReplyDeleteI also agree that sites like GALILEO should be included on a media center’s web site. In my county, GALILEO is linked to the county school board’s site as well as many schools’ individual sites. Yet, there are still many students who have no idea it exists, much less how to use it.
A few months ago, I did my full day in a high school. It just happened to be a day that the GALILEO password changed, and I helped the media specialist by replacing all the password signs she had hanging up around the media center. A guy was sitting underneath one of these signs, doing research on a computer. I asked him to excuse me while I reached over him to hang up the new password. He asked me about the password and what it meant, and I told him it was for GALILEO. He’d never even heard of the resource. I explained it to him briefly, and told him how to access the site, and I think he started using it then for the research he was doing. But I couldn’t believe he’d never heard of such a valuable tool before – especially one that was literally right in front of him.
My mentor teaches classes about GALILEO every year. But I also think it is important to post resources like this on media center web sites. Just think how much easier this guy’s projects could have been if he’d known about GALILEO before!
I too am glad that you gave us the Galileo tip. I to an going to install it. I agree with you in that a lot of other sites that I looked at contained too much information and were hard to navigate. I feel that the sites should be relevant to the students and the parents should be at ease to use the sites also. I too like the fact that wikis can be used and that you could make the wikis very organized and easy to use.
ReplyDeleteThis year we have a new media specialist, and she has really brought with her a lot of new ideas. On her school blog, she has integrated calendars where teachers can sign up for labs or pieces of hardware. She has taught a parent how to use Google Calendars, and there is a calendar for our Media Moms. Mrs. F has included her media center orientation and interesting websites she has found.
ReplyDeleteAltough this isn't a website or wiki, I do think she is mixing the best of both of these worlds with what she has available. Her excitement about her position in the school leaps off of the pages.
DeeAnn, I can understand you being torn between a Web page and a wiki. I can see the benefits of each. Most Web pages seem to be customizable, and it's almost a sure bet that a school's filter is not going to block it's own site. On the other hand, wikis seem accessible to everyone, not just tech savvy Webmasters.
ReplyDeleteThere was a brief moment I thought I might want to be a Web designer. I didn't get any formal training, but I began playing with forums and home pages for various groups I belonged to. I even created a couple of pages for myself while at UWG. But page design requires about 40% of designer creativity but no less than 60% of having a user-friendly Web site development application. Many require a learning curve, especially if they are free. Programs such as Dreamweaver are much easier but quite pricey, even with the student discount. Oh, and did I mention you probably need to purchase a domain name and pay for hosting to get it up and running? There are far too many options for the services you can pay for, and not all are necessary. So it requires the user to know exactly what he or she needs to get started. Perhaps you've seen ads advertising "how to generate additional traffic to your site." Speaking of ads, if it's free, count on having them.
Fortunately, many school districts contract with a company who provides Web products. I can say from experience that whatever our district has is next to impossible to manage. Everything requires working in frames, and when you format content and save, it seems to revert back to something else. Media specialists in our county are scratching their heads and it was a hot topic at the last meeting. The company has provided one training session, and support is average. Douglas County uses School InSites, and teachers are able to customize their own pages, but every home page in the district looks identical except for school colors and mascot. Since Web pages require training or self-teaching and even HTML coding skills, they are less likely to be updated as often. Besides, one or two people control Web sites, whereas with wikis, the opportunity for collaboration is limitless.
With wikis and blogs, you can choose a template and customize it to some degree. There are options to work in the regular WYSIWYG editor or the text or HTML editor. So, no special training is necessary. There may not be a lot of tech support for these, but there are help files and help discussion forums. The content can be updated more often because the permissions can be set to allow anyone to edit or just those who subscribe to the wiki. In the spirit of collaboration that wikis promote, others would be able to edit the content. This encourages others to participate but does require media specialists or those in control to monitor what is posted, however. But at least that's easier than most of what is required for the upkeep of Web sites, and whether that be a company tech support or the Webmaster, someone has to maintain the site.
The bad news is that many schools block wikis and blogs. They can be unblocked if you know the right people and ask nicely, but it's also up to the district as to how to fine-tune their filters. Some restrictions are dictated by CIPA, but their guidelines are not as stringent as I once thought. Other organizations may impose tighter restrictions. I have been told by multiple professors that Web 2.0 tools can be run from a school's own domain. At least it's safer than being on the Internet if that's the main concern. In my opinion, we as aspiring media specialists need to learn how to argue a strong case to show the value in these so that they may be utilized. There's always going to be a need to protect children from harmful images and predatory behaviors, but by over-filtering, schools really ARE missing out on a good thing.
Thanks for sharing the GALILEO tip. I must try it out. I am struggling with the idea of choosing between a traditional web page or a Wiki for my MC, as well. During our research, I have found some really great Wiki's that make collaboration look like a breeze.
ReplyDeleteOur media center has a web page, but it does not offer much to parents or to students. Most of our students never visit it. I had a parent email me this afternoon in regards to our monthly parent meeting. She needed basic information, like the date and time. That should have been readily available to her from the Internet.
We also just added Brainpop as a resource for students. They should be able to access that from the MC web page. When I asked the students who had been using it, they were not aware that they now had access.
A MC web page should be a resource, just as the MC is a resource. It should have current information for parents and useful websites and resources for students and teachers, as you stated.
I liked that you compared wikis to Media Center Web pages. I also believe that a Wiki would be preferable to a traditional media center web page so that teachers can add to the site. I think that previewing the media center website is something that should be done during media center orientation or taught by the media specialist to the students and teachers at another time. Students will not know to use this important resource if they haven't been taught how to do so.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for the information on Galileo. I am planning a Galileo training for students, and need to get familiarized with the tool myself.
Thanks for the information on Galileo. I very rarely used it because it was difficult to get into when I was at home.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of doing a wiki instead of a traditional webpage like I have now. It would make it easier to add and delete items when teachers want additional resources and options for classes and lessons.
Deeann, I too am torn between the webpage and a Wiki for my media center page. I think the thing that is most appealing to me about a standard webpage is that it is more in my comfort zone. I do not have near as much experience with creating and using a Wiki. Nonetheless, you made a very good point, when you said that teachers would be able to contribute should the media specialist choose to create a Wiki. I like the idea of teachers having involvement, and including information that will be useful to other teachers. After all, teachers have a better understand and foundation of their academic content area. They should be able to generate a more fundamental approach to lessons in their core academic area.
ReplyDeleteDeeAnn, your statement of "The main reason that I would lean more towards a wiki is the fact that things can be added by others instead of everything being the media specialist job" (as opposed to a web-page). I think I would prefer a web-page for that fact. I would want to control the content of my media center web-page. However, I would probably have a wiki as well for shared communications/collaboration.
ReplyDelete