Organizing new middle school libraries

Learning to blog has opened a who new world up to me. I’ve occasionally run into blogs and read them while surfing the web, but I’ve never really participated in one. Actually, learning about Web 2.0 is really responsible for bringing the new experiences to me. I find that I can actually go out onto the web and interact with information (blogs and wikis) rather than relying on the static Web 1.0 that has informed me for years, but never really allowed a novice the chance to inform.

I’m currently in a graduate class learning about Web 2.0. Many of the ideas of an interactive web has prompted lively conversations between my husband and myself. My husband is a college professor who is frustrated by the students that have come in ill-prepared to his chemistry classes. They don’t work, they don’t prepare for tests, and they often don’t show up for class. Their test score averages have been horrendously low. He doesn’t think that they’re any less intelligent, but he doesn’t have any idea how to reach them. Since I’m in education as well and have also noticed a difference in student learning behaviors over the years, I suggested that we discuss his teaching style and that we discuss the students new learning styles.

I truly believe that you can’t teach a lecture hall of 300 students in anything less than a “sage on the stage” style because the lecture hall is not set up for cooperative collaboration. The new “business model” of university education will not allow for separation of the 300 hundred students into small groups due to the cost of hiring the instructors and staff and due to a shortage of rooms. It is my opinion that some direct instruction is necessary anyway along with other collaborative exercises in any learning experience. I truly wish the university education departments would see the value in direct instruction instead of coining the phrase “guide on the side” without qualifying that that style too requires some direct instruction. All students at all levels need direction.

Teaching today transcends the lecture hall. Educators must reach the “computer generation” of learners that we have. I suggested that my husband look into developing and incorporate educational gaming into his chemistry classes whereby the students can use the median that they know best (the computer and the web) to formulate their ideas. He would still give his lectures, but the students’ discussion sections and labs would be supplemented with interactive games and problem solving. Now I realize that bringing computer games and problem solving into the classroom is not a new idea, but using the interactive web to do it on the Internet is new. My husband is a total computer geek anyway. He writes scientific software for companies as a second job using lots of interactive graphics within the software, so this would not be a huge leap for him. I also suggested that he collaborate with the computer science department to find professors and graduate students who would be willing to join him in the work and seeking funding to support the development of his new educational gaming classes. Although education departments all over the U.S. are developing educational games, we need the experts in each of the fields of satudy to develop their own interactive learning. Just because I have a degree in education does not make me an expert in chemistry, nor could I write a game for that discipline. I couldn’t begin to know what two chemicals to mix to keep from blowing up the lab. I’ll be anxious to see what develops from this discussion for my husband.

Wow, I’m off the topic of my library. But, it’s nice to know that I can write anything I want. Hee, hee. Blogging is really a stream of consciousness.