Book Review: In the sea there are crocodiles

Author: Fabio Geda

This is the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari, a boy who was forced to leave his home and family behind in Afghanistan at age ten. It follows his remarkable journey from Afghanistan to Italy with many hardships, and even life threatening challenges as he tries to find a safe place to live and belong while running from the Taliban.

I couldn’t imagine at age 10, being left alone in a new country or a new city with no family or friends, not even any food or a place to sleep. This is exactly what he is faced with in one day after fleeing his small town of Nava in Afghanistan. His mother feels the only way for Enaiatollah to be safe is to give him a new start away from the Pashtun, a group who wish to take him, and will surely end up killing him just like his father. I think she would prefer to know he has a chance at surviving, rather than surrender him to a fate with the Pashtun.

I am amazed Enaiatollah is still alive after reading this story. He moves to find a better life, a safer life but to do this he has to get trafficked from country to country in horrible conditions, with no idea if he will make it to the next place. He is forced to hang off and hide in a lorry, walk for weeks through mountains and cross the ocean in a rubber dinghy. Then after all this, there is no guarantee that once he undertakes the dangerous journey and risks his life, the police won’t just catch him and throw him back over the border to where he started. It shocks me what he can endure at such a young age. It is only when he finds a safe place, one where he belongs and can’t be sent back to the horrible places he has been, will he be able to stop.

Fabio Geda tells the story for Enaiatollah as he recounts the journey to him. He describes the sights, smells and each place with detail. I found it easy to imagine what these places might be like in my own head with never having been there.

This book would be ideal for middle to senior school students because it is a true story of a boy at the same age, and enables them to see how different his life is, compared to their own.

Review written by Clare McDonald

Support Staff

Barkly College Secondary Campus

Further musings on Digital Citizenship

Becoming a digital citizen and being a digital native is the way of the future. It can’t be stopped and it can’t slow down. The material world that we live in feels sometimes as though it fades into the background and we are communicating more and more via digital methods.

For those of us that are old enough to remember, the internet was something that you did research on and received information about a topic. You could basically look at the internet as a one way street; giving us information without giving us the means to return the favour. This was called Web 1.0. Today however, Web 2.0 is here and this is the natural habitat of the digital native. Within this habitat, the digital native has many tools that it needs to survive. These tools include: blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, ebay, twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Wikipedia, Skype, Photobucket, flickr and visual thesaurus, just to name a few.

Many of the tools that the digital native is competent with are also useful in an educational setting. What does this mean for the modern library and more importantly, for this particular library? Do we need to think about changing the way that we provide information to many of the digital natives (students) that we assist every day?

With the introduction of eBooks, iPads and media players, we already have a big fat foot plonked heavily into the digital world.

So where to now? We use facebook, ebay and many other Web 2.0 tools every day. Many of them could be utilised in schools to deliver information efficiently because of the collaborative capabilities of Web 2.0.

Although this all seems fine and dandy, there are a few complications. How do we control the flow of information so that it is still beneficial to our students learning? We have a duty of care with our students and it would be necessary to make sure that they are aware of online privacy laws and what that means for them. Do they know that you are not allowed to put up any one else’s photo without their permission, and what can they do if someone has done this to them? Do they know how to adjust the settings on Facebook or similar to block out unwanted people/comments? How do we moderate digital conversations so we know that students are safe from bullying in the library, the one place where students traditionally come to feel safe and secure at recess and lunch times?

Questions I think we need to ask ourselves/to ponder upon.........

·        Most of today's young people are comfortable with technology, but are they using it appropriately – or even capably?

• Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society?
• What are our own personal standards / ethics, especially if we think we cannot be caught or seen?
• How can we, as adults, help children to become responsible digital citizens?

These are challenges that at some stage, every school library is going to have to face. To provide relevant information to students we need to be in tune with the ways in which they are comfortable with receiving, and in using it. Libraries have been doing this reasonably successfully since around 3 A.D, and this is just another step along the long road of information storage/retrieval and usage. We just keep changing our methods of doing this to suit the clientele we are working with.

The scary part of this ramble is that it sounds like I know what I am talking about – and I do, to some degree, but in actual fact, I am being a duck. Calm and unruffled on the surface – but paddling like crazy underneath, just to keep my head above water. The good bit is I don’t think I am alone – and that is comforting in a way – we can all keep paddling along together and learn from each other. After all, isn’t that what this digital and social world is all about – collaboration?

Digital citizenship and what it could mean.

Have you ever used the internet to comment on what you see online, share information about yourself or others, communicate with friends, play games, get material for an assignment or buy stuff? If you answered YES to any of these then you are a digital citizen.

According to Wikipedia:

"A digital citizen commonly refers to a person that participates in society using a certain amount of information technology...through means of digital tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices...

People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use information technology extensively, creating blogs, use social networking and other means of modern communication. Digital citizenship begins the first time any child, teen, and/or adult signs up for an email address, posts pictures online, buys merchandise online, and/or participates in any [kind of] electronic function."

Using the above criteria, at face value, it would seem that most, if not all of us are digital citizens.  However, a discussion has been happening in the Library over the difference between digital citizen and digital native, terms which are often used interchangeably. The feeling in general here is that these are actually distinctly different terms.

One of the ideas put forth is that most students would be considered digital natives as they have been born into this era, where it is all there for them to access, they are not afraid of using the technology and have reasonably unrestricted access to it.  Depending on our ages many of the staff fit into the digital citizen term – or in some cases may even need to be ‘naturalised’ before fitting into this terminology.

Another comment made was that instead of digital citizen, maybe digital immigrant is a better term, with digital citizen being used to define someone who can manage their digital footprint safely and responsibly in our online world, and this is a comment that I can feel comfortable with.    

I cannot give you my own definition. This is because the definition is a collaboration of what many people think, not just one singular person coming up with the idea. Many websites split the population up even further. Digital toddlers, digital deniers and digital immigrants are some of my favourites. I don’t know how far I have to go until I earn my digital citizenship but I am excited about the places that it will take me (digitally of course!).

Worthless Wisdom # 4

Here is another worthless wisdom post - because we can, and because we were asked to.  No idea whether or not these are true but they are certainly fun to read about and share.  Enjoy!

·       A snail can sleep for three years

·       The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt holds a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit

·       People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers

·       Human eye detects 10 million colours

·       One California law states that sunshine is guaranteed to all people

·       Blueberry juice boosts memory

·       If you keep a Goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white

·       'Jedi' is an official religion in Australia with over 70,000 followers

·       Frogs use their eyes to help them eat their food: frogs can pull their eyes inward toward the mouth to help push the food down their throat

·       Some kinds of frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living

·       Butterflies smell with their feet

·       An egg laden goldfish is called a twit

·       The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

·       On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

·       The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.

·       During thinking, we use only about 35% of our brains

·       Ants never sleep

·       The study of flags is called Vexillology

·       The human brain is 80% water

·       A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

·       Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

·       A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down

·       Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite

·       A lover or collector of books is called a Bibliophile.

Weblinks of Interest

Below are some sites that may be of interest to staff and students.  These are ones that cover study skills, help with generating bibliographies, as well as cyber safety and digital citizenship.

Check them out and see what you think.

http://www.studyvibe.com.au/home.aspx

is a new free resource for students between the ages of 13 – 17.

It has been designed by a small group of teacher librarians and teachers from Perth, including Leonie McIvenny.  The site focuses on research and study skills, from motivation to referencing to suggested iPad apps.  It also offers many downloadable documents and subject specific resources (for maths, sciences and English amongst others).

A Teachers’ Lounge is currently in the works and should be available in the next month.

http://www.schools.ash.org.au/dckc/refgen/refgen.html

This is a site for helping students to put together a Harvard style bibliography for their assignments.

You simply choose a category from the left side bar that is closest to the item you need to reference and fill in the boxes with the information from the item.  Then click generate reference and you will be given a bibliographic entry to add to your work.  Continue with each item until you are finished.

http://cybraryman.com/cybersafety.html

The internet catalogue for students, teachers, administrators & parents.
Over 20,000 relevant links personally selected by an educator/author with over 30 years of experience. 

http://www.cyberbully.org/documents/cybersavvyschools.pdf

Trying to prepare students for their future and teach them about Internet safety without Web 2.0 in schools is like trying to teach a child to swim without a swimming pool!

A combination of factors should ~ and will ~ lead schools to reassess how they are managing student Internet use, addressing Internet safety education, and responding to the concerns of youth risk when using technologies.

A recognition of the relatedness of these factors provides the opportunity for schools to address these issues in a more comprehensive manner. This document will outline how these issues interact and how Cyber Savvy Schools can embrace the future.