60 in 60 by Chris Harris

If you can spare an hour of your time, either at work or at home or somewhere in between, I highly recommend 60 websites in 60 minutes, Chris Harris’ latest presentation from the New York School Library Media Conference.

Being a somewhat of a self professed nerd techie in libraryland, I can appreciate Chris’ analysis of available 2.0 tools and their best use in academic and educational settings. It’s a pretty comprehensive list of what’s on the Web to help you in your own quest to digitally reshift.

The School Librarian as a Leader

I enjoy reading my old pal Harry Tuttle’s blog. Harry has a wealth of experience in K-12 learning environments, and he’s a straight shooter. He’s been a classroom teacher, a technology coordinator, a consultant, a NYSCATE president, and now exists as an educator in residence in the academic realm. But more than anything, Harry’s practical.

Harry recently had a post that speaks to me a teacher librarian and represents a major tenet of School Library 2.0.

Tuttle writes….

“I worked with many respected teachers but these teachers did not serve as central expansion into their grade level, team, or school. Although they did fantastic technology-based learning projects with their students, the word never got out. Their brilliant learning lights were hidden behind the doors of their classrooms.

I did work with a few teacher leaders. As soon as they found out about a great technology integration application, they would tell others or bring them in to see it. The other teachers would follow the lead of the teacher.

If you are in a school, identify those teacher leaders and concentrate on them. They can become the biggest advocates for integrating technology. They can create meaningful ripples throughout the building. If you have a respected teacher who is also a teacher leader, then help that person’s light to shine brightly throughout the school.”

This philosophy is critical for the 21st century librarian. Identify the teacher leaders in your building. Create in-roads and work with them. Find creative ways to use all of your available resources and the 2.0 tools Chris Harris is pimping over there on Digital Reshift. Show what’s possible with the services that you have to offer. Like Harry says, it will create meaningful ripples.

School Library 2.0

Chris Harris just sole the show with School Library 2.0. It’s day two of SLMS, and Chris Harris was easily the best speaker from the entire conference. His presentation was of great interest to me, and it should be to you too, if you work in a school library. His slides are available online, check ‘em out.

Here are some of his ideas that I’ll keep in the front of my brain when I head back to work on Monday:

>Make your library the “Intel inside.” Start making your activities noticed. If you didn’t tell people you did it, it didn’t get done.

>The Fixed vs. Flex scheduling debate was so 90’s. Library 2.0 treats the school library as a platform. We offer services 24/7 in a digital workspace.

>Create a rich library experience and make your focus happy users.

Chris rocks. ‘Nuff said.

Photo borrowed with permission from http://xkcd.com

Word of the Day

For all of you that are sick of the most overused and over hyped idea in education- NCLB I’d like to propose a new term, and I hope it catches on and spreads like wildfire.

The new hot term is going to be pedagogical automaticity.

I want it to become big because its something that effective teachers possess. I want it to catch on because it’s something that all of us in the field should be striving towards. And I want it to catch because its such a freakin cool word to use in a conversation. Go ahead and say it.

See what I mean?

Lamenting Chicago

Have you ever made a poor professional decision? I have. In fact, I’ve done it many times. And I can’t help but think that I made a very bad decision by not accepting an invitation to attend School Library Journal’s Leadership Summit in Chicago, IL. I let a golden opportunity slip through my fingertips and I’m pissed.

I’m just starting to read the initial feedback and reaction from the Friday sessions from Chris Harris and David Warlick. This brain trust seems to be right up my alley. So, if you’re reading the libraryland feed and you’re in Chicago at the Drake Hotel, keep the updates coming. I’m living through you guys….and gals.

I’ve also been intrigued by Negroponte’s 2B1 laptop project, so reading about David Cavallo from MIT is an absolute pleasure. I’m aware of some of the criticism this project is facing from some of my fellow librarians. But I must say, as someone who has grown up digital, this project will change the face of libraries and information. The OLPC project will provide the opportunity for increased knowledge sharing and global collaboration. And, anyone who doesn’t see this has blinders on to the world.

I’m looking forward to reading more about the summit and hearing the reflections from my digital colleagues.

 

Image borrowed from Gallagher.

The Best Web 2.0 List

Just a quickie here. I found a good collection of Web 2.0, or if you’re boycotting that term, the next generation of web resources off of a link from Digg yesterday.

I was intrigued with with the way I was evaluating the tools from this list. The librarian in me had wished that who ever put this list together would have provided an annotation for each resource. Something to the effect of how its been successfully used, and how it helps people.

As an educator, the one question I kept asking in my head was, “How can this be useful in helping students learn?” If I couldn’t find a reasonable application or a tie to the curriculum, I moved on and asked myself, “How can I put this resource to work for me and use it to my advantage in my daily routine?”

I had mostly positive experiences interacting with the tools. I’d like to get more into images and using them in education, so naturally I spent most of my time with the photosharing and photocasting software. There a literally hundreds of good curricular connections when planning to use Flickr, Funtigo, and zoto.

Completely off of the topic, my overall favorite is still craigslist.

Oh, and if you’re in need of a hot date, try this one…

The future

I glanced at the clock. Sh&*! It was 3:45pm on a routine work day and I had again fallen miserably short of accomplishing the tasks on my ‘to-do’ list.

 

I needed a change of scenery. I decided to meet my girlfriend for an after school snack at Panera before the evening PTA meeting at my school. I arrived about 20 minutes before our planned rendezvous with every intention to tap into Panera’s free Wifi. I found a secluded comfy chair near a window, and set up shop. Within 30 seconds, I was connected to their network and right back where I left off at school. Interestingly, I found myself more focused than I was at my job site and more productive, too.

 

I had never been to Panera before to eat or work, but somehow this scenario seemed eerily familiar. I then realized who I borrowed the idea from:

 

David Warlick writes…

“There is no way that we can predict the technologies, cultural and social characteristics, work environments and experiences, or learning opportunities that our children have to look forward to.

For Instance:

My wife is out of town today. I’ll go to Starbucks in about an hour and write, working on a new book. At lunch, I’ll pack up my computer and walk over to Panera Bread for a sandwich and then a few ours of programming (working on Son of Citation Machine) tapping into their free WiFi. Now how could I or my teachers have possibly predicted this kind of work environment in the 1950s and 60s.

So what we have to do is to create an irresistible void of possibilities for our curious and communicative students and say think, dream, wish, and describe.”

That gosh darn David Warlick. He always has a way of wrapping his head around a concept then spitting it out in ways that anyone (including me) can understand. His anecdote and assessment regarding changing work environments and learning opportunities is dead on. Work is becoming less of a destination, with more mobile workers and informal communication in less structured systems. In the world of email, the WWW, and instant and text messaging, it's never been easier to work remotely with people you never have met or businesses you've never visited.

In the 20 short minutes before my girlfriend arrived, on Panera’s wireless network, I was able to: 1) digitally analyze and work on my collection with Titlewave, 2) catch up on a backlog of email, 3) IM my brother (who’s also a librarian) for informal mentoring and moral support and 4) work on my magazine budget for 06-07.

Warlick talked about how no one could have predicted such working environments. I’m a relatively young guy, and I often catch myself wondering the same thing. What will it be like in 2025? How will all of our digital systems further advance? Enter Web 2.0. I also wonder what the impact will be on my position as a library media specialist. Enter Library 2.0.

More importantly, I am curious about changing work environments, and the impact it will have on how we educate our youth.

In what ways will schools equip themselves to support and educate the increasingly diverse needs of students?

Who will be the future leaders in education and why?

Photo borrowed with permission from FlickrJunkies photostream.