Rainie discusses the findings of a major national survey that examined how Americans use the internet and libraries when they face significant issues or milestones in their lives. The survey looks at the pathways people use to get to the information they want and the kinds of information they use when facing issues such as health problems, furthering their education, and exploring government benefits. The Project’s work pays particular attention to those who have limited access to the internet and the ways in which libraries might serve them.

RSS is a tool that can be used in all aspects of our profession. Join Steven Cohen for a high-energy, in-depth discussion on how to use RSS to keep current on any topic as well as using the technology to assist you or your students in research. Tips and tricks and favorite RSS feeds will be provided to allow the teacher/school media specialist to get the most out of their RSS experience.

Be there for your students, no matter what day or time. Using screencasts, you can teach your students to work with your catalog or online databases or create quick, video-based user guides to help them with their assignments . . . and that’s just the start. Learn from Steve Garwood about software that allows you to record your on-screen actions with your voice explanations. Just post the recording to the web, and your staff or students can learn anytime, anywhere!

Learn from Terry Cavanaugh how using interactive mapping tools can support reading instruction, literacy, standards, and reading in the content areas. Online mapping tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth can be used to create interactive maps that relate to a student’s reading. These maps can range from a digital interactive map of story location to a class reading map showing the location of all the stories read to comparison maps to show the student’s physical location to the reading material’s story location. You’ll learn locations of free online resources that can be used to create individual or group online interactive maps, as well as additional resources that allow the teacher or student to download the “story data” and fly the locations offline. Cavanaugh will instruct you on how mapping tools can be used as educational resources providing reading scaffolding for reluctant and remedial readers.

Imagine the impact on reading at a school if, for 10 minutes each month, every student met the author of the book they were reading; for 20 minutes each month, each educator met the author of the book they were teaching; for 10 minutes each semester, every family watched an author of a book their student was reading and then engaged with other families and educators in a conversation about it. These specific, school-initiated actions represent part of a paradigm shift: to use online technologies to bring authors and book resources to everyone, equally, the moment books are used throughout the K–12 environment. In this session, Nick Glass will demonstrate specific ways the Internet has emerged as a vital tool for effective literacy instruction using technology, along with ways to excite readers and stimulate discussions through multimedia book resources. He’ll explore specific strategies for using virtual author programs for library-teacher collaboration, and much more.

School districts are all facing a tremendous budget crisis. Schools are being told that the funds for new textbooks just aren’t there. Textbook publishers haven’t kept up with changes in technology, teaching philosophy, and the world of Web 2.0. Are textbooks becoming extinct? Welcome to the Age of the Wikitextbook!” In this session, Dave Fontaine helps you imagine a classroom where the textbook is digital; where students, with teacher guidance, write the text collaboratively; where the textbook is constantly changing, evolving, and improving through the collective knowledge of the students and teachers; and where it includes online, interactive tutorials chosen by the students and used by parents to help children with their homework. Hear how Fontaine has collaborated with his peers to create wikis for classroom use. Learn how you can build new connections with your fellow teachers to create wikis that will make their jobs easier, integrate technology, and make learning more fun for the students.

Discover from Sheri Massey and Ann Weeks how to add more than 2,000 multicultural books to your library collection free of charge—no cataloging or shelving required. The International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) is a collection of fiction and nonfiction children’s books from around the world, written in their original languages, that children can read for free online. The mission of the ICDL Foundation is to support the world’s children in becoming effective citizens of the global community—citizens who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages. and ideas—by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. In this session, you will learn more about ICDL and discuss how to use this wonderful resource in your library.

FEATURING:

MEET THE AUTHORS
Meet authors Rachel Singer Gordon (What's the Alternative? Career Options for Librarians and Info Pros and The NextGen Librarian's Survival Guide), Marylaine Block (The Thriving Library: Successful Strategies for Challenging Times), Randolph (Ran) Hock, (The Traveler's Web; The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook, Second Edition; and Yahoo! to the Max), Michael P. Sauers (Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide), and Jane Dysart and Mary Lee Kennedy (Intranets for Info Pros) on Monday, April 7, from 5:00-5:45 pm at the Information Today, Inc. booth. Stop by to meet the authors and get your signed copy!

What if your library catalog was a social network? What if readers could connect to other readers based on similar reading interests, favorite authors, or lists of best books? What if your library catalog was a destination and not just a pass-through? All this and more is possible . . . not to mention free. Come learn from Chris Harris and his colleagues how the open source next-generation school library portal Fish4Info is being used to build a more social library experience.

At Luther Jackson Middle School, they’re using the after-school program to host weekly console and online gaming events to promote the middle school library as a cool, relevant, encouraging, fun place to be. It’s another channel you can use to meet children where they really live and engage them in exciting, complex thinking. And it’s a way to prove that school is relevant to their lives and that you “get” what they find interesting. Hear from Bob Hassett how it’s done, how it’s working, how it’s continuing a conversation that boosts library use and, ultimately, literacy . . . and how much fun it is!

In this session, Dale Hilton showcases and introduces a framework for creating live, interactive, customized lessons with videoconference content providers—including no less than the Cleveland Museum of Art! You’ll learn ways to plan videoconferences that are integral to curriculum, taking them a giant step beyond enrichment field trips. The session includes tips for successful collaborations, examples of unique customized programs, and a timeline for planning such projects.

The Read/Write Web facilitates inquiry learning projects that integrate subject-area content with information technology projects that are ripe for classroom use! Students learn best in social environments where they can apply their understanding of new content in collaboration with peers. In this session, Susannah Tamarkin explores the Read/Write Web as an emerging instructional tool and presents a curricular unit of research pathfinders. The innovative instructional sequence employs students’ higher-order thinking to find, assess, and synthesize information from a variety of sources, form conclusions, present findings, and reflect on the process using wikis and remote server word-processing. By combining content knowledge with information fluency, students learn the tools necessary to retrieve and evaluate the best resources, and manage their own learning experience in collaboration with peers. The materials presented include assessments, daily lessons, and student work products, all designed for ready-to-go classroom use.

With ever-increasing digital resources available in their 2.0 world, understanding copyright remains vitally important for students and educators. In this session, Kathryn Miller will bring you up-to-date on copyright issues in the digital classroom. Specific attention will be paid to internet use in class, and student and teacher presentations using internet and Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook. Attention will also be given to copyright implications with plagiarism detection software programs. This will be an informative, take-home session where attendees can gain a real sense of copyright management in the 21st-century school library.

Are you blocked from using Web 2.0 tools at your school? As teachers who are very interested in using new technology in their school, these educators understand the unique challenges of using Web 2.0 content as a learning tool. Many of these challenges involve restrictions imposed by the school district, and the presenters will inform you about their own situation and effective solutions they have worked out. They will share strategies developed as well as what other districts are doing to promote technology and avoid bureaucratic pitfalls. Additionally, they will introduce ideas about using Web 2.0 in their English classrooms and talk about what other teachers are doing to make technology work as they blend it with mandated assessments and other aspects of the curriculum.

In another of his rapid-fire Internet@Schools closing sessions, web search guru Gary Price reviews what’s happening with the major web search players. He offers a hearty helping of specialized databases, as well as tools that you and your K–12 colleagues can use to make work online easier and more productive. As anyone who’s heard Price speak will tell you, you’ll leave his session very up to date!

The Second InfoTubey Awards: YouTube Productions & CIL 2008
7:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.

Hosted by: Bill Spence, VP, Information Technology, Information Today, Inc.

Sponsored by:

These awards are presented to those organizations or individuals for outstanding YouTube productions. Presented on the red carpet at the Computers in Libraries conference, these awards recognize those creating YouTube library-related productions. Awards are presented to the top five productions that demonstrate creativity and innovation in marketing a library or library services or enhancing the library's value. The winning productions will be shown at CIL 2008 on Tuesday evening, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. For a look at what happened last year, check out — https://www.infotoday.com/CIL2007/InfoTubies.shtml.

Free and open to all registrants, exhibitors, and exhibit visitors. Visit www.infotubey.com for more information.