Technology Skills

My interest in information technology, coupled with my love of learning and information, is what led me to this program, and it is an interest whose orgins I can pinpoint with relative exactness. Throughout high school, my undergraduate experiences, and in my early teaching career I had used computers extensively for word processing purposes and the occasional game. However, one evening in early 1995, while hanging out in a friend's apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I logged on to the Internet for the first time and, using a program called Netscape, surfed continuously until about four o'clock in the morning. The potential for this new (to me) technology as a learning tool was immediately evident, and since that long night I have been steadily increasing my skills through a combination of curiosity, persistance, and the joy of solving problems without ever reading a manual.

Therefore, upon entering the dMLIS program, I would have referred to myself as an experienced, but entirely self-taught user of technology. I had used Internet technologies and multimedia extensively in my classroom for ten years (one of the first things I did back in 1995 was establish an email exchange between my students in Argentina and my former students in Seattle) and maintained a simple Web site as an academic hub for my classes for over eight years. Among my colleagues I quickly became known as a "techie," and for the last four years have served as one of the resident Technology Resource Teachers at Wenatchee High School. However, I had never taken any kind of formal technology training, and any thought given to the architecture of my information was entirely intuitive. LIS 541 filled many gaps in my understanding, but was still relatively easy for me. Therefore, I had to seek to continue to push my technological skills on my own as I incorporated them into a wide variety of course assignments.

Thinking About Information Architecture

While I still think I need to take just about every course in the 540 decade to get where I'd like to be from a technical standpoint, Terry Brooks' LIS 540 course has helped me enormously in terms of the application of instructional technology. It has caused me to dedicate much more time and consideration to the user perspective when developing an interface, and thinking much more intentionally about the architecture of the information I'm presenting.

Wenatchee High School Library Home Page

I've been able to apply my new "information architecture perspective" in a variety of ways at Wenatchee High School. Over the last few months I've been engaged in the development of a new home page for the Wenatchee High School Library. The nice thing about a project like this is that is has no end, and I can continually apply new skills to the process--not only from a technological standpoint, but also in terms of developing a comprehensive tool for the promotion of information literacy.

LIS 566: Web-Quest

As most Washington State residents are aware, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL, is a significant event for our 10th graders. An article in our school newspaper, The Apple Leaf, inspired me to create Meeting Standard: Passing the WASL and Moving on with the Rest of Your Life as a "Web-quest" assignment for LIS 566. The school newspaper article reflected a great deal of misinformation and ignorance on the part of the students (and I suspect of adults as well) regarding the WASL.  Considering it's such a pressing information need and source of stress for our students, I felt compelled to put together this tutorial as a means to provide context and rationale for the exam.  Also, I have never found a good, easy-to-use source of information about the WASL that was directed at students.  Overall, the student reaction was very positive as it served as a catalyst for a lot of discussion. My ulterior motive of getting more adults to discuss the context of the WASL with students was also realized, and many of my colleagues found it useful for their own edificiation. Here are some notable comments I received:

"What a great resource for your students and school; the photos are terrific. I only wish more schools had something like this for their kids!" - Jocelyn McCabe, Director of Communications, Association of Washington School Principals

"Absolutely awesome!  What a great resource for our students.  The information is outstanding and formatted in a way that will attract student attention and help them understand what they need to do to be prepared.  Thank you!!" - Brian Flones, Superintendent, Wenatchee Public Schools

"Excellent work on this for the high school.  I would love to have middle schools emulate this as well for our parents and kids.  Way to go!" - John Waldren, Principal, Foothills Middle School, Wenatchee

Wenatchee School District Libraries

Another technology initiative I undertook as part of my Directed Fieldwork studies at Wenatchee High School was the creation of a Wenatchee School District Libraries Web site intended to serve as a community portal for all Wenatchee School District libararies, as well as a clearinghouse for vital library information that all of our librarians can share.

Information Literacy at Wenatchee High School

As a project for LIS 568, Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning, I completed an online presentation using Macromedia Captivate focused on Information Literacy at Wenatchee High School. Interestingly, though it's been less than a year after I completed the assignment, it already seems outdated. I didn't even mention blogs, wikis or other "Web 2.0" social spaces. That's why I love information literacy education--it requires constant attention, and you can never use last year's notes!