Class…today we are going to Mount
Everest on a field trip.
The world we live in is getting smaller and smaller due to
technology. School librarians have the
resources to help lead our schools through technology integration (Johnson, 2012) . One excellent
resource are blogs from professionals in the technology, library, and education
industry. The two blogs that I am
recommended you to view are the Disruptive Library Technology Jester by Peter
Murray (DLTJ.org) and the Library Girl by Jennifer LeGuarde
(librarygirl.net/blog). They both have
had blogs for years and advocate for libraries with every fiber of their
being. So interesting to see what they
have to say about our industry and many of their blogs make you ask questions
and strive to research for better understanding.
Today, I am also blogging about Google Expeditions kits. This online technology using phones and VR
headsets to send students anywhere in the world to reinforce learning in the
classroom. Google Expedition is not a
relatively new product, but it is new-to-me.
A blog post from 2016 by Janice Mak on the ISTE website is titled,
Google Expeditions offers stunning field trips without leaving school (Mak, 2016) . She describes in length how to guide the
students through the lessons and the excitement of the students. This website has an entire section of their
site for teachers to blog about their student experiences with a variety of
technology platforms.
Currently, I am collaborating with a 5th grade
teacher to work on an Ecosystem project.
The students will be working in groups and choosing an ecosystem for
their project. Through the Google
Expedition kits, I can help them travel and view that ecosystem anywhere in the
world. Desert – the Sahara, Tundra –
Alaska, Grasslands – Scotland, and Mountain – Mount Everest are just a few of
the choices. Each student will be led by
myself on a journey. They just sit back
and enjoy the ride. This technology will
definitely be “effectively meet student needs and keep them actively engaged
during instruction” (Smith, 2010, p. 617) . My goal is that through this technology they
will have a personal experience and retain more information than just viewing
the information in a book.
The principal is absolutely on board and the teachers each will
get time during the week that we will be housing the kit at our school. She loves the opportunity for the library to
collaborate with the teachers. The kits
are owned by the school district and I signed up for the kit through the
technology office. They will bring it to
our school and then pick it up at the end of the week. I would not be surprised is more school districts
do not have kits to be used by the teachers in their district.
Johnson, M. (2012). School librarians as technology
integration leaders: enablers and barriers to leadership enactment. School
Library Research, Vol 15.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ978840.pdf
Mak, J. (2016, February 5). Google expeditions
offer stunning field trips without leaving school. ISTE:
https://www.iste.org/explore/In-the-classroom/Google-Expeditions-offers-stunning-field-trips-without-leaving-school
Smith, D. (2010). Making the case for the leadership
role of school librarians in technology integration. Library Hi Tech, Vol
28(4), 617-631. https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5dd6acf5e22a7/6257667?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Making%2520the%2520Case.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200208T040607Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY%2F20200208%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=f26651c1cfad160c8ca4789115e34cf6f14aa8a5e70dfc1a3e378ecc484a42aa
Hi! I love the idea of Google Expedition kits. Children are fascinated by the world and allowing them to really SEE it makes more of an impression than just pictures and writing in a book (although I am a HUGE fan of those as well). It is great to have such a supportive principal because from both personal experience and our reading this week, NOT having that support can really hinder our effectiveness. Thank you for the blogs you shared. I am definitely going to delve deeper into Library Girl :-)
ReplyDeleteHey Heather,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I have followed Jennifer LeGuarde since she was the keynote speaker at SCASL in 2016. Very inspirational.
Thanks for sharing about Google Expeditions! VR headsets seem like the "new thing" that districts and schools are beginning to purchase, but I have had a hard time finding resources that would make them useful. Many of my school's students have never been out of Columbia, much less out of SC, so this could be a really cool resource.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather - Thanks so much for sharing about Google Fieldtrips. This sounds like an amazing technology that definitely has the power to transform teaching and learning. I'm wondering, is there any way that the kids can use existing technologies to design their own "fieldtrip," maybe a program that could help them share their ecosystem with others? If something like this were possible, I can see it really adding to students' understanding. Again, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete