No longer on an island

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What is the value of being networked?

Yesterday during my Hill Country Librarian Presentation on “How to be a Networked Librarian,” I threw that question out to my twitter network.

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The responses from my network were so varied and tremendous, that I wanted to share them as a resource when we talk about the power of being part of a learning network. Thanks tweets!

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John Maklary’s comment that he is no longer an island is such a significant one. We are no longer islands, nor do we need to be. We can not only draw from the wisdom of so many other educators, we can share with others the strides we are making, lessons we are learning, and our own strengths and passions.

One of the things we talked about in the workshop was the importance of contributing to the network instead of just “borrowing.” I do think librarians are attuned to that–because we are used to the idea of sharing everything we find out and to connecting people with ideas.

Our difficulty tends to be that in our own buildings, we don’t have people who do that for us as often. We’re the “connectors” more often than the recipients, just due to the nature of our roles. So a network can be a significant way to get new ideas, to get re-inspired, to learn about new books or new resources, and to just find support for what we do.

As Andrea Hernandez(edtechworkshop) points out, a network can inform, improve, and enhance everything we do.

We do not have to be stranded on our islands anymore. As Cathy Nelson(cathyjo) points out, our “Verizon-like” networks can travel with us wherever we go.

Ways to get in the boat and get off that island? Here are a couple of blog posts with ideas:

How to start building a network

A Path to Becoming a Literate educator

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23209605@N00/2126012577

One thought on “No longer on an island

  1. W00T! So where’s my pingback? Yes, I read thru them yesterday too, just to see what our network would use to describe networking. It was amazing. I hope your participants were particularly amazed and impressed.

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