La localidad madrileña de Villaconejos funda una comunidad de aprendizaje en la que los padres también enseñan


La Casa de Niños de Villaconejos, en Madrid, es una comunidad de aprendizaje, lo que significa que todo el pueblo está invitado a participar en la educación de sus 55 alumnos de uno a tres años: desde el electricista que viene a enseñar por qué se enciende una bombilla, al frutero que invita a un picoteo sano.

Una casa de niños (centro educativo público de gestión municipal) se basa en el principio de participación de los adultos responsables de los pequeños. Las cinco educadoras de la de Villaconejos, que funciona desde 1997, han decidido dar un paso más y convertirse en comunidad de aprendizaje (la primera surgió a finales de los setenta en Cataluña, donde esta corriente tiene mayor presencia junto al País Vasco).


How Twitter can make History - with Clay Shirky


This timely presentation looks a how to effectively use social media - Facebook, Twitter and other tools to convene and convey a message with a pattern of 'many to many'. The message of this brilliant lecture is the tradition of one-way authoritative delivery of information is becoming extinct.




Librarians Fighting Google's Book Deal


Critics of Google's book-searching agreement with publishers and authors were cheered last week when antitrust regulators in the Justice Department set their sights on the search giant's publishing deal, demanding more information.

"This is a monumental settlement that's at stake, and for the government to show this kind of attention is heartening," says Lee Van Orsdel, dean of university libraries at Grand Valley State University. "The increased scrutiny on the part of the DOJ tells us that our concerns are resonating far beyond the library community," concurs Corey Williams, associate director in the office of government relations at the American Library Association.

Goliath Google facing off against a legion of librarians and, possibly, the U.S. Justice Department — now there's a fight.

La revolución de los libros sin papel


La creciente difusión de los libros digitales está cambiando el mercado editorial e introduciendo unos nuevos dispositivos: los 'ereaders'. Disponibles desde 250 euros, bajarán de precio en unos meses; la descarga de contenidos ronda los 1,5 euros.
La Biblioteca Nacional cabe en una tarjeta de memoria y se puede consultar en un libro sin papel. Ésta es la gran revolución que han provocado el libro digital (ebook) y el dispositivo para leer este formato (ereader).Pero, ¿es cómodo leer en una pantalla digital? ¿No pierde el romanticismo un libro sin papel y con tinta electrónica? ¿Son caros estos aparatos de lectura? ¿Habrá ferias del libro digital? La realidad es que, como ocurre con todas las novedades electrónicas, todavía hay mucho camino por recorrer.

Los menores y jóvenes en la red

anuncio del Defensor del Menor de la Comunidad de Madrid sobre la responsabilidad que han de tener los menores y los jóvenes a la hora de colgar su imagen en las redes sociales.
Fuente: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugmShCOi3zM

Is Twitter Really That Big?


Web security SaaS company Purewire evaluated the profiles of millions of Twitter users to show the depth of a new tool it has created called Tweet Grade. While the tool itself is not unlike numerous other Twitter grading services, the company has uncovered some very interesting user statistics.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/Is_Twitter_Really_That_Big';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'normal';
It seems as though far fewer people are actually using and contributing to the site than Twitter's recent hype and massive growth would suggest. In fact, the data shows that a large percentage of Twitter users have not "tweeted" since the first day they joined the service and at least a quarter of its users don't have any followers at all.
Fuente: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_twitter_really_that_big.php

Literatura gratuita en Internet


Ante la llegada de los lectores de libros electrónicos, conviene conocer qué sitios web ponen a disposición del usuario material libre de derechos de autor.

Lo que hace menos de un año parecía una quimera comienza a hacerse realidad. Los lectores de libros electrónicos (también conocidos como "ebooks") se hacen populares y sus ventas ya son notables. Su ligereza los hace fácilmente transportables y las mejoras en la tinta electrónica les permiten ofrecer los contenidos con la calidad suficiente para que no cansen la vista en exceso. Ante tal panorama, a las editoriales tradicionales no les queda más remedio que pensar en poner sus títulos a la venta en este formato, aunque de momento lo excluyan de sus ferias. Sin embargo, también se puede gozar de la buena literatura sin tener que pagar. Por ejemplo, acudiendo a las plataformas que recopilan y digitalizan obras cuyos derechos de autor han expirado.

Schwarzenegger apuesta por la enseñanza con Facebook y Twitter


El gobernador de California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ha presentado un plan de ahorro mediante la apuesta por la enseñanza on line en detrimento de los libros de texto tradicionales, según informa la BBC. Con esta iniciativa, el gobernador pretende reducir el gasto anual en millones de dólares. Además, añade que al privilegiar el estudio digital los alumnos conseguirán una mejor formación.

California afronta un agujero presupuestario de 24.300 millones de dólares y el gobernador Schwarzenegger ha desechado financiar contratos cerrados tras el 1 de marzo.

Schwarzenegger señala que actividades digitales como Facebook, Twitter y descargar contenidos para el iPod muestran que los jóvenes son los primeros en adoptar nuevas tecnologías on line, y por lo tanto Internet es también la mejor manera de aprender en las clases.

Libros y material digital en la secundaria


El Ministerio de Educación hace dos semanas creó su proyecto para implantar las nuevas tecnologías, con la medida estrella de repartir un ordenador a cada alumno de quinto de primaria - unos 420.000 en total-.Todavía no se sabe cómo se va a pagar el ordenador. En Catalunya afirman que no van a poner ni un euro adicional para cofinanciar el plan del ministerio-, pero además coincide con los proyectos digitales de cada autonomía. El Departamento de Educación tiene el suyo propio, que ya presentó hace más de un mes. Consiste en un plan piloto que se inició en el curso 2009-2010 y al que se podrían acoger unos cien institutos de educación secundaria con 10.000 alumnos.


The State of America's Libraries Report 2009


Introduction

The importance of libraries in American life continued to grow in 2008—and accelerated dramatically as the national economy sank and people looked for sources of free, effective help in a time of crisis.
A Harris Poll released in September revealed that 68 percent of Americans have a library card, an increase of 5 percent since 2006. In-person visits increased 10 percent in the same period, and 76 percent of Americans had visited their local public library in the year preceding the survey, compared with 66 percent two years ago. Online-visit data were even more remarkable: 41 percent of library card holders visited their library websites in the year before the poll, compared with 24 percent in 2006.
Libraries, an excellent community resource in ordinary times, in extraordinary times become something of a goldmine.“When economic times get tough . . . many families across the country are turning to a familiar place, the public library,” for support, wrote Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association (ALA), in a contribution to the Huffington Post. “As the nation continues to experience a sharp and jarring economic downturn, local libraries are providing valuable free tools and resources to help Americans of all ages through this time of uncertainty. . . . [N]ow more than ever, libraries are proving that they are valued and trusted community partners.”


School library media programs hold their own in difficult times


In tough economic times, the status quo becomes an acceptable outcome—for now.
Data from 2008 concerning school library media programs revealed little significant change in their status from the prior year. The good news: about half continued to be staffed full time by a school library media specialist. The not-so-good news: the specialist found little time for professional activities outside the center itself.And sometimes, the news was downright bad. In April 2008, the Mesa, Arizona, public school system—the state’s largest, with 74,000 students—decided to remove all teacher-librarians from 87 schools over three years, mainly because of a deficit of more than $20 million caused by declining enrollment and a state budget deficit of $1.2 billion.


Copyright and licensing


After two years of negotiations, Google and author and publisher groups reached a proposed settlement that requires the approval of the presiding judge in a lawsuit over the search-engine company’s scanning of copyrighted books.
Under the settlement, reached in October 2008, Google was to pay $125 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit brought in 2005 by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate suit filed by five publishers representing the membership of the Association of American Publishers, according to American Libraries Online (Oct. 29, 2008). The payment would go toward creation of a book rights registry in which authors and publishers can register works and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions and book sales.In return, Google may show as much as 20 percent of a book’s text to users at no charge, and the whole book will be available online for a fee. Libraries, universities, and other institutions are to be offered subscriptions for online access to large collections of those books. Google’s Book Search Library Project will continue to scan in-print books from publishers not among the 20,000 members of its Partner Program; they will be searchable, but none of the text will be available. Public and academic libraries in the United States will be offered free, full-text access to Google’s digitized collection at a single designated computer.
Google will share revenue from online book sales and advertisements with copyright holders.
Google partners Stanford University, the University of California, and University of Michigan announced their support for the settlement agreement in a joint news release. The ability to search and preview millions of books online “is a service that libraries, because of copyright restrictions, could not offer on their own,” said University of Michigan Librarian Paul N. Courant. The Harvard University Library, however, announced that it will not take part in the program’s scanning of copyright-protected works. One of the original library partners in the project, Harvard plans to continue its policy of allowing Google to scan only books whose copyrights have expired, the Harvard Crimson reported Oct. 30.


Library construction and renovation


The world’s increased awareness of the environment was reflected in the design of several new libraries that opened in the United States in 2008. Architects aimed for low impact and sought sustainability while still responding to the rapidly evolving needs of a wide range and growing number of library users, from toddlers to senior citizens.
The Durham County (N.C.) Library takes top honors in this regard for building three 25,000–square foot branches that followed the LEED certification process. (LEED refers to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System,™ a program of the U.S. Green Building Council, a private nonprofit organization.) Visitors and staff enjoy the use of natural light (daylight brightens 75 percent of the buildings), views of the attractive, drought-resistant landscaping, and healthier air (buildings are smoke-free, have carpet made of low-emitting, recycled fibers, and are maintained with green cleaning products).
The remains of a building demolished to make way for the South Regional library were separated, tracked, and recycled, and some of the brick from that building is being used in the new library. In fact, recycling is required for everything from building materials to the paper, bottles, and cans used by visitors and staff.


Library advocacy and legislation


In Washington state, the “Spokane moms” grassroots campaign to secure state funding for school libraries made important advances in 2008. Begun in late 2007 by three determined women, the movement coalesced into the Washington Coalition for School Libraries and Information Technology (WCSLit) and persuaded the state Legislature to approve one-year “bridge” funding of $4 million. The bill provided all school districts with funding for a certain number of certified-teacher librarians, based on the size of the district, and allocated $12 per child for acquisition of materials. School libraries in the state were previously funded locally.
A second, perhaps more lasting achievement was the formation of a task force comprising 14 legislators and representatives from the public school system that spent more than a year looking at the research and issued a report in which teacher-librarians are listed as “core teachers,” not support staff (nurses, counselors, social workers, school psychologists, etc.) as in the past. The campaign for permanent funding for teacher-librarians continued into 2009 as that state and others struggled with burgeoning budget problems.

Librarians in January 2009 won a one-year stay of enforcement of a new law that would require testing for lead in books geared to children younger than 12. Some librarians feared either having to ban children from their facilities or to cordon off the book collections in youth services areas until federal regulators ascertained that the books complied with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.



Una breve historia de Internet


I. Los primeros pasos
El origen de Internet lo encontramos, aunque parezca mentira, en una red militar ideada en 1969 por la Agencia de Investigación de Proyectos Avanzados (ARPA) del Departamento de Defensa de EEUU que se bautiza como Arpanet. Posteriormente, y tras estos primeros pasos "militares", Arpanet se abre a las universidad, que la acogen con muy buenos ojos. Ya en los años 80, el uso académico que se le estaba dando a la red se extiende al mundo de la ciencia y aparecen entonces redes paralelas como Bitnet y Csnet. Pero, lo más importante en este periodo de "balbuceos" de la red es la creación del protocolo TCP/IP, que es el lenguaje estándar que permitirá la comunicación entre ordenadores.El salto a la red que conocemos actualmente comienza a darse en 1989, cuando Tim Benners Lee, investigador del Centro Europeo de Investigación Nuclear (CERN), inventa la World Wide Web, que se quedará después en las populares siglas WWW. El nuevo sistema de comunicación proporciona los servicios que hoy todos usamos prácticamente a diario como son el correo electrónico, los grupos de noticias, el intercambio de archivos y un largo etcétera.


II. Era del nacimiento de Internet y las "Autopistas" de la InformaciónLa eclosión de la red de la redes, como también se la conoce, se produce a partir del célebre discurso del que en aquel momento es el vicepresidente de Estados Unidos. Nos referimos a Al Gore, quien acuña el término "autopista de la información", que se extenderá como la pólvora a todos los lugares del planeta.Internet se concibe ya como un gran medio de comunicación de alcance global, en el que cabe todo tipo de contenidos y servicios.


III. El boom comercial y la Web 2.0: el usuario es el "Rey" de InternetCon la llegada de las primeras apuestas comerciales comienza la fiebre del oro digital, las .com que desembocarán en una crisis bursátil sin precedentes en el Nasdaq, índice norteamericano de las empresas tecnológicas, y la explosión de la burbuja de las .com.Pasada la resaca, surgirá una nueva generación de aplicaciones Web llamada Web 2.0, que priman la participación, los contenidos multimedia, las redes sociales y la multiplataforma. Se descubre el valor del prosumer (productor - consumer), y se centra en el usuario todo el valor de las nuevas aplicaciones online.


Higher Education in a Web

Supported by the principal bodies and agencies in UK post-compulsory education, the Committee was set up in
February 2008 to conduct an independent inquiry into the strategic and policy implications for higher education
of the experience and expectations of learners in the light of their increasing use of the newest technologies.
Essentially, these are Web 2.0 or Social Web technologies, technologies that enable communication, collaboration,
participation and sharing.

As we began our work, the online lifestyle of young people going into higher education was inescapable, and
those working in it had sensed a clear change in their students’ pre-entry experience. The time was ripe for an
informed, impartial assessment of this and what it might herald for higher education policy and strategy. This
was our remit. Since they represent the future, we took young learners as our baseline. We have, however, been
concerned with learners of all ages.
We reviewed the findings of completed and, where they were available, ongoing studies related to our remit; took
oral evidence from a range of practising academics and researchers; and commissioned briefings and studies,
including one substantial piece of work on current and developing international practice in the use of Web 2.0 in
higher education. We met six times in full session and held one event dedicated to hearing evidence.
We structured our Inquiry into a consideration of the prior experience of higher education learners, their
expectations, and international practice in the use of Web 2.0 in higher education. From our findings in these
three areas, we identified a number of critical issues, the exploration of which then informed our conclusions and
recommendations.

Web 2.0 use in higher education now
We looked at the nature and extent of current deployment of Web 2.0 technologies in higher education and sought,
in the process, to gauge the UK’s position relative to that of other countries. Here we found that institutions of
higher education in the UK are presently as advanced as any internationally in their developing adoption of Web
2.0, and that the UK is generally well served at present in the infrastructure – specifically broadband width – that
is necessary to support Web 2.0 technologies. Other key findings were:
„.Web 2.0 technologies are being deployed across a broad spectrum of university activities and in similar ways in
the UK and overseas
„.Deployment is in no way systematic and the drive is principally bottom up, coming from the professional
interest and enthusiasm of individual members of staff
„.In learning and teaching, usage is patchy but a considerable working base exists, as it does in other areas of
university business, including administration, student support and advertising and marketing
„.On the basis of the strength and reach of its broadband infrastructure at least, the UK is presently well placed
to be at the forefront of future development
„.Advice and guidance is available to institutions, but there is no blueprint for implementation of Web 2.0
technologies, and each is currently deciding its own path.

Conclusions

Web 2.0, the Social Web, has had a profound effect on behaviours, particularly those of young people whose
medium and metier it is. They inhabit it with ease and it has led them to a strong sense of communities of interest
linked in their own web spaces, and to a disposition to share and participate. It has also led them to impatience – a
preference for quick answers – and to a casual approach to evaluating information and attributing it and also to
copyright and legal constraints.
The world they encounter in higher education has been constructed on a wholly different set of norms.
Characterised broadly, it is hierarchical, substantially introvert, guarded, careful, precise and measured. The two
worlds are currently co-existing, with present-day students effectively occupying a position on the cusp of change.
They aren’t demanding different approaches; rather they are making such adaptations as are necessary for the
time it takes to gain their qualifications. Effectively, they are managing a disjuncture, and the situation is feeding
the natural inertia of any established system. It is, however, unlikely to be sustainable in the long term. The next
generation is unlikely to be so accommodating and some rapprochement will be necessary if higher education is
to continue to provide a learning experience that is recognised as stimulating, challenging and relevant.
The impetus for change will come from students themselves as the behaviours and approaches apparent
now become more deeply embedded in subsequent cohorts of entrants and the most positive of them – the
experimentation, networking and collaboration, for example – are encouraged and reinforced through a school
system seeking, in a reformed curriculum, to place greater emphasis on such dispositions. It will also come from
policy imperatives in relation to skills development, specifically development of employability skills. These are
backed by employer demands and include a range of ‘soft skills’ such as networking, teamwork, collaboration and
self-direction, which are among those fostered by students’ engagement with Social Web technologies.
Higher education has a key role in helping students refine, extend and articulate the diverse range of skills they
have developed through their experience of Web 2.0 technologies. It not only can, but should, fulfil this role, and
it should do so through a partnership with students to develop approaches to learning and teaching. This does
not necessarily mean wholesale incorporation of ICT into teaching and learning. Rather it means adapting to
and capitalising on evolving and intensifying behaviours that are being shaped by the experience of the newest
technologies. In practice it means building on and steering the positive aspects of those behaviours such as
experimentation, collaboration and teamwork, while addressing the negatives such as a casual and insufficiently
critical attitude to information. The means to these ends should be the best tools for the job, whatever they may
be. The role of institutions of higher education is to enable informed choice in the matter of those tools, and to
support them and their effective deployment.

Maratón de los cuentos de Guadalajara 2009


En un año un tanto gris y triste –ya saben: crisis económica, paro, depresión- en el Maratón de los Cuentos de Guadalajara estamos de celebración, porque cumplimos 18 añitos. Vamos a contracorriente, lo sabemos, pero pensamos que es bueno que así sea. Es porque los cuentos, afortunadamente, no son como la realidad. En ellos se puede uno enfrentar a dragones y fantasmas –reales o imaginarios–, ser más alto y, sobre todo, mejor, tener superpoderes, salvar a príncipes o princesas…
Luego, claro, hay que volver a la realidad. Pero siempre se vuelve con algo aprendido, una pena curada o consolada, un amor renovado o planes para un viaje a una región remota o a nuestro yo más íntimo.
En esta mayoría de edad que estrena, el Maratón de los Cuentos se conserva lozano y fresco como una rosa recién cortada, pero es bueno volver la vista atrás para seguir con más fuerza hacia delante. Por eso, hemos querido que ell tema de este año sea la Memoria, el Sonido de la Memoria.


GOOGLE WAVE COMPETIDOR DE FACEBOOK Y TWITTER


El 28 de mayo tuvo lugar la presentación de Google Wave, el nuevo producto de Google que permitirá a los usuarios comunicarse casi instantáneamente y trabajar en grupo a través de la web. Los usuarios podrán crear una "ola" (wave) en la que ir añadiendo contactos, fotos, videos, mapas, gadgets, feeds de otros sitios, usar texto enriquecido, etc. La edición de texto es concurrente por lo que se podrá ver casi al instante lo que los demás colaboradores de un grupo de trabajo están escribiendo en su "ola".
Google Wave se presenta como un competidor de grandes y populares redes sociales como Facebook o Twitter, con la pretensión de crear un modelo único de comunicación que integre la tecnología y la mayoría de las aplicaciones y servicios ya existentes en la web. En un Wave se podrá incluir por ejemplo, la posición geográfica de nuestros contactos a través de Google Latitude, charlar con ellos utilizando el Videochat de Gmail, llamarles por teléfono con Google Voice o compartir documentos con Google Docs.
Google, al igual que ha hecho en otras ocasiones, lanza Wave en abierto invitando a los desarrolladores para que aporten sus ideas y añadir y mejorar el producto antes de ponerlo a disposición del público, por lo que todavía pasarán unos meses antes de poder usarlo.

'Google' nació en 1910


En 1968, mientras la revuelta estudiantil traía de cabeza a las autoridades de buena parte de Europa, un estudiante australiano recién licenciado descubrió un auténtico tesoro en el viejo edificio de Anatomía de la Universidad Libre, situada en el parque Leopold de Bruselas. El joven, William Boyd Rayward, estaba muy interesado por la figura de Paul Otlet , un abogado y visionario belga de principios de siglo, así que decidió acudir a la oficina donde se encontraba lo que quedaba del exhaustivo trabajo de Otlet. Allí, en una inmensa habitación llena de libros y montañas de papel cubiertas de telarañas, encontró restos de la primera pieza de lo que hoy es Internet.

Paul Otlet es uno de los dos visionarios que, a principios del siglo XX, y cuando nadie siquiera intuía la revolución tecnológica y social que supondría Internet, pusieron en marcha una iniciativa que podría considerarse como la abuela de la Red y, particularmente, de los buscadores como Google.

Otlet conoció en 1890 al abogado y político Henri La Fontaine, también belga y posteriormente galardonado con el premio Nobel de la Paz en 1913 por fomentar las buenas relaciones entre Francia y Alemania. Otlet era ambicioso. Antes de conocer a La Fontaine ya había imaginado "una máquina para el trabajo intelectual, soporte de una enciclopedia total y colectiva que refleje el pensamiento humano y la materialización gráfica de todas las ciencias y de todas las artes. Todos los pensadores de cada época colaborarían en su creación, y el resultado sería un esfuerzo intelectual conjunto".
Cuando se conocieron, ambos se propusieron poner en marcha la idea de Otlet, y hacerla aún más ambiciosa, recogiendo la información contenida en todos los libros publicados durante toda la historia, y hacerse con revistas, periódicos y fotografías que las bibliotecas desechaban.

Su ingente trabajo dio como resultado, en 1910, al Mundaneum. Construido en el Palais du Cinquantenaire de Bruselas, la biblioteca llegó a albergar millones de entradas, organizadas en pequeñas fichas. Otlet habló, incluso, con el arquitecto Le Corbusier en 1929 para construir un edificio gigantesco en Ginebra que nunca llegó a construirse.