• Revising workshops and presentations and maximizing school visits.
• How to minimize the risk of delayed or cancelled flights.
• If I packed enough clean underwear and socks.
• How best to support the folks in my district when I am gone.
• What to do if I caught H1N1.
• And experiencing flitting general nervousness about zombies, the IRS, and my third grade teacher.

This morning I fell back to sleep rather quickly since my worry list had disappeared. Except for the IRS.

Some how, in some way, my idiot booking agent (me) had me working for six different organizations doing god-only-knows how many different workshops in four different countries between October 23rd and November 17th. While I enjoyed each and every place I went and person with whom I visited, I am really, really glad that this marathon is done, that I don't do this for a living, and that I am home for a couple months.

I gotta have a talk with that booking agent.

Home from the back deck, Middle Jefferson, Le Sueur County, MN, Nov. 18, 2009

I was in a workshop a few years ago where a trainer was working with a group of teachers and showing all the wonderful things that can be done with Google Earth and other online tools to make learning more engaging for students. One of the teachers said, with no small amount of exasperation in her voice, "look, I have two young kids at home, I'm in school all day, I correct papers at night, and so when am I supposed to find time to explore all this stuff and then figure out how to integrate it with my instruction?"

The trainer, who happened to be from a teacher preparation program in South Dakota calmly responded, "You no longer have a choice."

This conversation made me think about how perhaps that teacher is doing things the same way she has been doing them for several years - and maybe they've worked reasonably well-- but she has not really looked to see what could be done in a different, more effective way. She has not engaged with what might be a more relevant experience for her students. The "you no longer have a choice" response has stuck with me as I struggle in my own work to do things better, to do them differently, to do things that make a positive difference to the schools I serve.

By the way, I am not be a school library media specialist. I am, however, a huge school library media specialist advocate. I am very distressed by what I see happening to the profession. I agree there are people who are disengaged from this conversation, and that is very unfortunate. I am very active in a professional organization whose mission is to get school library media specialists to engage and to be strong, proactive, viable educators.

I have, however, also participated in and delivered a number of staff development programs to school library media specialists and classroom teachers. I am sorry to say I have observed that that such disengagement is often a choice. I am not just picking on school library media specialists, but I see this in classroom teachers and administrators as well.

I know in economic times like these, it is very hard for school library media specialists to get the training and time they need to keep up with all they are expected to know and accomplish. There is little money for staff development across the board. Positions are being eliminated right and left, many school librarians have been cut to part time or are expected to serve multiple buildings. They are being set up for failure due to high expectations and low support.

Yet I can't help but think, how much do we as humans perform tasks a certain way because "we've always done it this way." Because it is what we know. It is comfortable. It is what we believe. Is this maybe a big part of what is impacting the profession? The stereotype of shushing and card catalogs lingers on because our human nature inhibits the ability to look at what we are doing and make some hard decisions about doing things in a different way that might have a greater impact, be a better use of time, and provide a better experience for students? Do you suppose it is possible that the positions are cut because administrators and school boards do not have a good understanding of what a school library media specialist does because all they see, if they happen to visit the media center at all, is a person standing at a desk checking books in and out? This is not to say school library media specialists all need to be technology wizards or that those who believe reading is critical and love to promote books are doddering fossils in a Web 2.0 world. What really matters most is the impact on the student. What is the best way to achieve a visible, positive impact on a student? No matter what your belief system is about the nature of school librarianship, is that what your work is designed to do?

There will always be economic problems. We will never, ever have enough resources in our schools to do everything that needs to be done. There will always be politics, policies and work rules that interfere. But what we do have is the creativity, excitement, and passion that I see in many of my school library media specialist friends, their understanding of information and technology literacy skills, and their incredible base of knowledge - knowledge that is meant to be shared. With students. With other teachers. With parents. Not hidden under a bar code scanner.

School library media specialists are ESSENTIAL. Their relevancy might be questioned in this day of massive digital resources, but I shudder to think of an education system and society without their influence. So engage. In whatever way works for you. You only have the kids 30 minutes a week. So make the most of those 30 minutes. Your filter blocks social networking. Talk to your technology coordinator and see if there is another application you could use to accomplish the same goal. Invite your administrator in to watch you TEACH. Just please, please don't hide in your media center and wait for the world to come to you. There is no longer a choice.

Well said, Mary. We need friends like you!

I am not quite sure how to feel about this. Our profession seems to be one that shares freely and openly by nature, but has no qualms about buying text books or other teaching resources from commercial vendors. It's easy to say that those materials created during one's off-hours should be owned by the author, but since when has teaching been a 9-5 job? Are good teaching materials created in the performance one's job owned by the school or by the individual - regardless of when they are created? (Technology has made both the creation and distribution of excellent teacher-made materials indistinguishable from commercial products, as well.)

Post-secondary institutions seem to have dealt with this matter in contracts and agreements. Maybe K-12 teaching contracts need to openly address the issue as well.

I have always made materials and tools I've written in the course of my job freely available online, but neither have I worried much about including them along with support materials in books and articles I've sold. I've lost no sleep over this.

Have we all become entrepreneurs in this long-tail economy?

The guide pointed out these now sealed holes in Lubomirski's bathing pavilion, a lovely 17th century building in Warsaw's Lazienki Park, during the first stop of the tour and asked why they were there. Flag poles? Something from an earlier structure? No. They were holes for dynamite charges placed by Nazi's at the end of WWII meant to completely destroy the building. While they didn't get the chance to set these charges, the Germans did destroy 85% of the buildings in this city and kill over 50% of its civilian population.

Building in Wilanow Palace gardens

You wouldn't know that 60 years ago, there was little left of this old city sitting on the banks of the Vistula. The buildings, streets and people are back, rebuilt in the original style. Business is robust and shopping is national pastime despite it being only 20 years since the Poland was under the thumb of the Soviets. But past history seems very, very close here.

Those who've read any Polish history (I re-read Michner's excellent Poland just before coming here) know that this country has been the battle ground for a millennium. The Tatars, Swedes, Prussians, Austrians and Russians have all battled, destroyed and annexed this crossroads at one time or another. A weak central government delayed modernization for centuries. For over 100 years, the country of Poland did not exist politically. Yet, as Michner writes, "every Pole is born with a brick in their left hand and a sword in their right hand." Poles rebuild.

Were it not gray November, this would be a city as lovely and vibrant as any in Europe. But as one of the librarians with whom I am working here put it, Warsaw has three kinds of days - gray, grayer and grayest. The sun goes down at 3:30PM. It's rained four of the five days I've been here. And the ever present reminder of the Nazi occupation during WWII and Soviet oppression is reflected in every museum and monument.

Chopin sculpture, recreated from a small model, after the original was destroyed. Site of concerts in the summer with the benches surrounded by red roses.

As long ago as the 16th century, Warsaw's emblems have included a mermaid.

 The Warsaw Mermaid sculpture in Old Town

The legend says that two mermaid sisters in the Aegean were tired of the hot weather and decided to find a better place to live. They swam out through the Straits of Gibraltar. Iberia was far too hot. They continued north where one sister found the Danish peninsula to her liking (becoming the inspiration for Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid), but the other continued through the Baltic Sea to the mouth of the Vistula and kept swimming to Warsaw. She was promptly captured by a fisherman then rescued by a farm boy. In gratitude, she pledged to protect the city. Personally, I am not sure she gets real high marks for her efforts.

The infamous Jewish Ghetto, where 25 people were crammed in 600 sq ft apartments and given a diet of 300 calories a day, no longer exists. But this monument (and others) stand in memory of the suffering and the uprising that speaks to the honor of going down fighting. Unlike Berlin and Washington DC, Warsaw does not have Holocaust Museum. Yet.

Moat surrounding Old Town.

Perhaps because I am rather a scary looking soul in my damp overcoat and gray stocking cap, I received no smiles or nods as I passed people on the street. Seasonal Affective Disorder must set in early here. That and the fact I've learned no Polish - even a few words.

The one bright spot I've enjoyed is the American School of Warsaw. Like so many international schools, it is small with a devoted staff, a diverse student population, an outstanding facility, and a strong educational program. In the school, smiles are returned.

I'd like to come back to Warsaw in the spring or summer. I am sure it would rival any European capital in charm and beauty. But in present memory, it is and will remain a gray place.

It made me reflect on all of the little rules one develops over the years for handling decisions without the benefit of sufficient data. You always start with the easy questions, such as...

1. What do the experts say you should do?
2. How much experience do the experts have with this question?
3. Does the expert have a conflict of interest?
4. What's the worst thing that could happen?
5. How easy is it to switch course if you choose wrong?
6. What information can you find on the Internet?
7. Who has made this choice before? Were they satisfied?
8. If I delay, will I learn something more that is useful?
9. Is there a way to do a limited test?
10. Does the decision make logical and mathematical sense?
11. Do the experts make this choice with their own money?
12. What do the well-informed people in my situation usually do?
13. What does the competing vendor say about this vendor?
14. Have I seen all of the alternatives?

Those are the questions with relatively clear or quantitative answers. It's the next category of questions that intrigue me, because they involve pattern recognition, and I can't always tell whether I am being influenced by fear and bias, or keen intuition informed by my experience. The questions in this category look like this...

1. Does this situation follow a pattern I've seen in scams?
2. Is someone giving answers that seem intentionally vague?
3. Is information conspicuously missing?
4. Is someone trying to rush me?
5. Could someone unscrupulous easily take advantage of me?
6. Have I regretted this sort of decision before?
7. How do I imagine other people will react to this decision?
8. If the expert is so smart, why isn't he rich?

What questions would you add to the list?

I don't think a week goes by that a teacher doesn't email me asking if an e-mail is spam - even those that seem most obvious. (Uh, do you actually have an account with that bank that wants you to verify your information?) I don't think a day goes by that I don't have to make quick choices based on limited information. Even big choices that are well-reseached often leave on a little concerned about evidence that may have a political or hidden bias.

Personally, I think we've moved beyond having a complete knowledge of any situation that requires a decision - there is just too much to sift through online. An educated guess is about as good as it gets.

But Scott's set of questions is a good one to have our students and staff think about when it comes to evaluating information.

Is it possible to make decisions anymore that are "beyond the shadow of a doubt?"

I've been reading and recommending Ann Collier's NetFamilyNews blog for some time. If you're not follwing it, you should be. I don't know a source for more balanced and informative information on making kids comptetent online. This ought to be on every parent's reading list too. (Parents are the primary target audience.)

In a recent post School libraries: Vital filter developers, Anne writes:

Actually, the library is both a filter and a developer of the most effective filter there is: the software between students' ears (as my ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid first put it years ago). It's a great filter as school's nerve center of media competency and literacy (hopefully including new media as well as the traditional kind).

As for the filter the library helps develop in students' heads: If properly developed, it can guide and empower them the rest of their lives. Its other pluses:

Comes universally pre-installed, free of charge

Has no socio-economic barriers to "adoption"

Is automatically customized in micro detail as it's used

Works at the "operating system" level

Not only doesn't conflict with, but supports and enhances, all other "applications"

Improves with use

Is the No. 1 online-safety tool.

Now is that a great POV or what?

Ever since we opened up lots more of the Internet in our school district earlier this year, the district has received several requests from teachers and other staff to block resources that are distractions in the classroom.  I’ve written a stock response to those requests that I thought might be worth sharing.  It’s my hope that their requests and the conversations that come from this response lead to changes in classroom practice.

Here it is:

Thanks for your question.  When we implemented our new filter this school year, we looked at all the things we were currently blocking, what things were required to be blocked by law, and what we were blocking that we shouldn’t be.

What we’ve decided is that we will no longer use the web filter as a classroom management tool.  Blocking one distraction doesn’t solve the problem of students off task – it just encourages them to find another site to distract them.  Students off task is not a technology problem – it’s a behavior problem.  It is our intention that we help students to learn the appropriate on-task behaviors instead of assuming that we can use filters to manage student use.  Rather than blocking sites on an ad hoc basis, we will instead be working with folks to help them through computer and lab management issues in a way that promotes student responsibility.  We know that the best filters in a classroom or lab are the people in that lab – both the educational staff monitoring student computer use as well as the students themselves.

This opens up possibilities for students and staff using websites for instructional purposes that in the past were blocked due to broad category blocks.  It requires that staff and students manage their technology use rather than relying on a third party solution that can never do the job of replacing teachers monitoring students.

That said, we will still block sites that are discovered to violate CIPA requirements.  If you discover one, please do not hesitate to share it with us.  Also, if you discover a site that shouldn’t be blocked, please pass that along so that we can open it up.

I hope this makes sense.  I’d be happy to speak further with you if you have further comments or questions.

 

If we are serious about trying to remove all distractions from our classrooms for easier classroom management, we might be better starting off with pencils and paper (doodling), windows, announcements coming over the intercomm, and, of course, girls.

Of course some kids might say we should remove the teacher who distracts them from their personal online information seeking activities.

Thanks, Bud, for a great letter and post.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-hierarchy-of-digital-distractions/

Yes, the glasses above have little LED lights built right into them! I found these at a Brookstone store in the Atlanta airport. Are they cool or what?

One of the first signs of aging eyes was my having trouble reading small print in dim light. Perhaps had I had little LEDs built into my forehead, I'd still not need the damn reading glasses today.

BTW, my cheaters (that I buy from Target in packs of three) are migratory. In the middle of the night, they all get up and move to the same room - family room, bedroom, porch - where I am sure they have a little party and find themselves too exhausted to return to their original positions by morning. I have no other way to explain why I can never find the damn things.

Predicting the future is easy. It’s trying to figure what’s going on now that’s hard.
Fritz Dresser

One of the more interesting characters in literature is Cassandra from Homer's Illiad. She was a Trojan woman so babe-i-licious that the god Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy. But when Cassie told horny Apollo to get lost, he put a little curse on her: While her predictions would be dead on, nobody, but nobody would believe them. Which turned out not to be a wise move by the Trojans, as you know.

I thought about Cassandra reflecting on a comment to my post Dangerously irrelevant libraries. Michael Doyle eloquently responded:

Since I often play the role of futurist/charlatan in my own talks, Michael's strong words made me pause. What impact does predicting, warning, excoriating, and building dread or hope in teachers and librarians really have in how we actually act?

By describing the future are we creating a better future ... or is it just a coping mechanism for dealing with the present? Do we do a disservice to ourselves by not fully processing the implications of future trends and putting perspective to them?

Michael, thank you for your comments. You've give me deep pause.

By the way, Cassandra came to a rather bad end. She was raped, lost the power of prophecy, was taken to Greece as a war prize, and was promptly whacked with an axe by a jealous wife (as I remember). Perhaps futurists have never been all that popular.

Cassandra warns the Trojans. Engraving by Bernard Picart (1673-1733)
Online Source: http://hsa.brown.edu/maicar/Cassandra.html

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs
Blockin' up the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign - Five Man Electrical Band

I walk into too many libraries with signs like this:

What might happen if we replaced our welcome signs with ones like these?

Where would kids learn best?

OK, let me have it.