A final word

I realize that the semester is over, but I wanted to have a final word about the class. Our last class was spent sharing our action learning projects for the semester. I was amazed at the variety of projects that were presented. Some people completed teacher training, some people created wikis or webquests or web pages. It was so interesting to see the variety of work and it was exciting to see projects that represented work that would be ongoing and helpful beyond the scope of this one course.
I truly enjoyed the experience of this class and the new technologies to which I have been introduced. I have used delicious.com for my personal use, for class, and shared with the teachers at my sons' elementary school. I have also found a use for community walk with my church responsibilities. I have made a prezi for Dr. Nita's class. Now I know about wikis, podcasts, folksonomies, tagging, social networking, social bookmarking, playaways . . . I feel so much more in tune with what's out there in terms of technology. I still have a long way to go, but I am excited to keep going. I am the type of person that has a compulsion to share things with people--especially information or tools that I feel will be useful. This course has helped bring this to my attention and solidify in my mind that this choice to pursue a career as a librarian is the right one for me at this time.

Final learning set meeting

My learning set met again tonight for our final meeting before our Action Learning Project is due next week. Because I held my training session today, I was extremely tired. Two hours of sleep does not a night make. Anyway, I was hoping to have a brief but productive learning set meeting. It wasn't as brief as we had originally planned. We planned for about an hour. We ended up going about two hours, but each of us got to have a final word and a bit of discussion about our projects and it was a good wrap up. Overall, several of us faced the problem of finding appropriate times and ways to train teachers. Teachers have so many demands on their time, that it is difficult to find adequate times to train and even more difficult to find willing participants. In my project, the key is to let teachers know ahead of time how the training will benefit them, and it doesn't hurt to lure them with promises of delectable morsels.

Delicious day comments

Well, my "delicious day" is nearly over and I think it has gone relatively well. Teachers came by during their planning time throughout the day; some stayed their entire 45 minutes. Several teachers were completely unfamiliar with delicious.com so we set up accounts for them and introduced them to the capabilities. We also linked everyone to the Salem Media Resources account on delicious and showed people how to "borrow" bookmarks from people on their network and place them in their own bookmarks. Overall, I would say everything was a success. I had a handout for teachers to take back to their classrooms, and for those who were already familiar and using delicious, I pointed out the need to tag items consistently with other Salem teachers so we could find each others' bookmarks efficiently. Of course, I worked into the very wee hours last night getting food ready as well as my training materials, but I believe it was worth it in the end. One of the participants commented that the food really WAS delicious. That was the point. I hope the entire effect is that teachers will remember to use delicious.com.

'Twas the Night before D-Day

Delicious day is tomorrow. Working in the wee hours on preparation--mostly of food. I'm adhering to the time tested philosophy of "If you feed them, they will come." So I am fixing food that I consider to be delicious in order to lure the teachers in. I found a "too late to fix it now" glitch in the system, but I don't think it will be too bad. I had wanted to demonstrate to the teachers how to install an add-on or bookmarklet which would add delicious icons to their toolbar, but I found out today that they won't actually be able to add those on to the computers at school because of restrictions placed on computer downloads. It may be possible for the IT at the school to add it to the teachers' "ghost image" of Internet Explorer, but that would only come after a small act of congress--not in time for tomorrow. Oh well. I think it is a good possibility we'll be able to add that later. Well, I am off to make a lot of sausage balls and dip a lot of strawberries in chocolate. Wish me well.

Let's not doom ourselves

Ok, so what in the world would be so emotional about reading a textbook? Well, I found myself thinking about the writer's relationship with his father, his own religious journey as well as his father's, my own children and my failings as a parent. There was a lot more in Whither the Postmodern Library than just an author passionate about reading and concerned about the doom of the library as we know it. I connected with a lot of his arguments and I am also looking toward the future of our society with trepidation. However, I am not ready to condemn the library as we know it to oblivion. I believe there can be a balance between the new and the old or I would not be in this program. It is vital to make the connection between the new and the old, or as the author suggests, we will be dooming ourselves.

I know we are not supposed to discuss our reading of Whither the Postmodern Library? yet. We are to save it for tonight's class discussion. I have been reading the book for only the last two days because I have put if off in favor of other things in my hectic schedule. So, not proudly, I admit this, but because I have read it so fervently and in a relatively short amount of time, I have been moved by the author's perspective moreso than I think I would have been if I had read in short pieces. At two or three points in the book and of course, at the end of the afterlogue, I was moved to tears. Granted, I am an inherently emotional and empathetic person, but I don't think I've ever cried while reading a textbook for a class before! That reaches a new level of empathy or perhaps even insanity! I am looking forward to tonight's discussion of the book. Hopefully I can get through the discussion without embarrassing myself.

Planning a Delicious Day

Today, I think I finally received personal acceptance that the direction I am heading with my Action Learning Project is a good fit for the school. I had been struggling with how to introduce the delicious account to teachers and today I have my final answer. I am planning a "delicious day" where I will spend the school day on Tuesday, April 13. I am going to be available all day to help teachers as they drop in to the computer lab during their planning time. I will help them set up their delicious accounts and be able to show them some sample web pages on the account and show them some of the features of "delicious.com" as well. I will lure them in with the promise of something else delicious--tasty snacks. I've already got the Principal and Instructional Coach on board and they are planning to help bring in snacks. My challenges now are to prepare the advertising to lure teachers in, to prepare a handout with complete instructions to be used as a reference tool for teachers, and to prepare my information to be presented on "delicious day." I definitely have my work cut out for me.