School TV News

Northgate High, where I currently do my field experience, doesn’t have a TV broadcast like Orenco Elementary or Wyckoff Public Schools does. The media center houses a tech room where the principal or assistant principal every morning will post the schools announcements to run “Scrolling Announcements” throughout the school on the flat screen televisions posted throughout the school all day.

I have done field experience in another school. The school was West Side Magnet School in LaGrange Ga. There the media specialist also was not in charge of the daily TV broadcasts. The drama/theatre teacher, Ms. Carol Cain, was in charge of this. Some of you may have heard of her, she is a well-known local story teller. The TV broadcasts were simply supervised by Ms. Cain and the students in the club would do the broadcast almost every morning. The students would direct, tape, and perform pretty much all the aspects of the broadcast. They would present school news, special announcements, book reviews, sometimes little skits, dress up in costume, of course a little storytelling, etc. A different student was selected by the schools teachers each broadcast to say the pledge. All were very similar broadcasts to the broadcasts by Orenco & Wyckoff. The school has since been closed, which is such a travesty.

Now if there were technical difficulties this is where the media specialist, Ms. Jacque Hornsby, would step in. Even Ms. Cain had get help from Ms. Hornsby. For example, if there was a problem with a microphone Ms. Hornsby would have to troubleshoot. West Side’s broadcast was filmed in front of a camera then feed to all the TV’s in the school, LIVE.

I miss that school. It thrived with excellence. The staff and students were so creative. I’m proud to have been a part of it even if was only for a short while.

Blog 4- Social Media

The generation of students that are attending school at this time are definitely motivated by technology. They are exposed to it daily for many different reasons. I will say that, I am still up in the air about the benefits of social media being included in the schools. I think that it could be a great aid for collaboration for students, but I also believe it could be a major distraction.

 In my district we do have a website that teachers and students can use that is called, "My Big Campus". It is a collaboration tool for students and teachers, and can be monitored by administration at the school level. This would be the social media that our district uses in schools. For instance I used this website today by connecting with another teacher about a video for math. It was on her page, and we were friends, so I was able to pull it up. Very resourceful! However, I have also been in the computer lab after the fifth graders and their My Big Campus page pulls up a video of Rhianna. So again, with that being said I don't think elementary students are mature enough to handle social media collaboration.

After reading the article by, Fiehn I realized I did not know quite as much about the OPAC, Destiny Quest. I had no idea that it would allow students to submit audio, video, or text reviews. I am hoping to further explore the OPAC next week with the media specialist at my school. I think that many of my students would enjoy posting audio or video about the books that they have read.

Media Center Web Pages

What better way to get your information out there than by using a web site!  The amount of information you can provide to students, faculty, parents and administrators is enormous.  Not only can web sites be used to provide information, they can also be used as a tool to help gain awareness and fulfill media center goals for success.  Media specialists want their students to be successful lifelong learners. The media center web site can open a gateway of information to all who visit.

After looking at web sites, blogs and wikis, I have found for me websites to be easier to navigate. Web sites can be designed to be user friendly and have a nice flow to them. I find wikis to be less appealing and hard to navigate.  Blogs are easy to make and seem to be more personal. Web sites that have a nice design and flow to them invite the reader to explore them.  Investing in a good design gives the media center web site the blueprints it needs to be a success.

After reading Chapter 6 in our text and the supplemental reading for this blog, I thought of a good useful tool that had not been mentioned. It’s something I find useful in a web site. I like to use a site guide. I love to use a search tool for the site also.

Many of the sites I surfed had links that did not work or were expired or information provided on the site was not up to date. For instance, the North Elementary School Library Media Center site had many resources, but many of the subscriptions had expired. I would remove them until they were back up.  I feel it is important to keep the site fresh and updated. You can tell when a site is stale; you can almost feel the cobwebs and the neglect.  Keeping the media center web site current will help it to succeed.  Keeping your viewers coming back and having the viewer leave the site feeling like they found the site useful is important. All the wonderful tips and information I’ve learned will be such a great help to me when creating my own media center web site in the future.

Wiki post

 "Ways to use a Wiki"

Why would you want to use a wiki in a media center or classroom? There are many ways to use a wiki to collaborate with each other with ease. A media specialist could definitely use a wiki to their advantage. Teachers are always asking the LMS for recommendations on books that align with their current standards or websites that are appropriate for their age group they teach. A wiki could be created for teachers use and stored on the share drive at school. When a teacher/media specialist uses a book or website to help guide the curriculum they could enter the information on the website. 

After reviewing Cobb County's wiki page I decided that in order for the wiki to work at its best there needs to be a format that is followed when entering the information. A "How To", page would let anyone editing see the requirements when posting to the wiki. 

I would like to think that a wiki could be used in all levels of education, by all students. I have only used a wiki in courses at West Georgia, and have always had to be a group member to edit. After reading the first part of, " 7 Things you should know about wikis", and seeing that a lot of wiki's are open to editing by anyone was surprising. I believe that in order for a wiki to run with the least amount of errors or inappropriate language   students would be required to use there login information to edit. This will hold them responsible for there actions. I do think that monitoring the website would be a large task that would have to be done daily and would take a lot of time for one person to check. 

I have used a weebly page in my class for communication between myself, students, and parents. I could see how a wiki could help parents communicate with other parents in the classroom. They could upload any resource they are using at home for helping their child, and the other parents could use this as well. I think parents sometimes like to hear what others are doing outside of the classroom to help their children.