Not So Distant Future

  Things of beauty attract our eye, refresh our spirits, calm a troubled moment, and bring joy and inspiration to our lives. 

I would even posit that good design can encourage us to “do better.”

Continuing my thoughts from previous posts about design, I’m contemplating points that Daniel Pink made in Whole New Mind regarding the significance of it.   He writes about a study at Pittsburg’s Montefiore Hospital that demonstrated that patients in well designed rooms have quicker recovery times, and a study at Georgetown University that enhancing a school’s appearance could even increase test scores.

Design really is about communicating something to the receiver–whether it’s the special lilt of a well-put written phrase, or the feeling of luxuriousness that a fine hotel imparts, or the comic turn of a slapstick movie, or the inspiration that society cares enough to make a beautiful learning space for students.  

On Beyond School, there’s been an ongoing discussion about written versus nonwritten communication.  But somehow I still think this all goes back to the idea of the audience and the issue of design.

Sentences and writing are things that are designed.  Presentations are something that are designed.  Videos are designed.   Maybe students don’t realize they are designing something–but there is an element of choice in every thing we create.   And we should scaffold students in understanding that.

For example, you can have written the most elegant of books, but if the publisher picks a poor cover design, chances are, the book will sit on the library shelves and be rarely read.   If you can write the most eloquent of essays but can’t stand before a class and present your ideas, then your communication with your audience is hampered.    If you memorize every joke in the book, but can’t deliver the joke with panache, then the joke falls flat and the message never is conveyed.

The point is, there is design behind everything we should be teaching students.   Yes, truly, they are sometimes struggling to master the basics, but almost all students can respond to the effective design of a story, of a YouTube video, of a superbowl commercial, of a poem, of a painting.   By illustrating the technique–by having conversations about how things are constructed, we really deepen their understanding of something–but we also are giving them important tools for communicating more effectively themselves.

Showing students two items they could purchase like these air cleaners (pictured below) and asking them which is more appealing to them helps them flesh out those ideas about what important intangibles design communicates. (I of course got this idea from Daniel Pink’s discussion of toilet brushes–but these two designs just were begging for me to compare them in the store).

Which one would you want in your bedroom or kitchen?

So, let students see one another’s projects in progress and see if that inspires them to better work themselves.    Share good presentations with them, good writing with them, good video work with them, good advertising with them–and see what it inspires.  

As one student on David Truss’s blog commented about a wiki project he did with students,

“I thought this was a great project because it was always fun, and when you needed inspiration, it was easy to just click on someone else’s page, and see all the neat stuff that they’ve done, and then it makes you want to make your page just as good (or, it did for me).”

Interesting and good design inspires students to reach farther, to stretch themselves.

Daniel Pink shares some excellent ideas in Whole New Mind for encouraging students to think about how things are designed –like keeping a design notebook, asking students to redesign a product they dislike, looking at magazine layouts, writing about an object they love because of its design, etc.

If writing or making a video or anything our students do is about conveying who they are, then what is really important?   The grammar details will come, the spelling can be fixed, the lingo can work, but if they know what they want to say, and how they want to convey it, their message will come through clearly and with impact.

Daniel Pink shared a quote which summarizes it well: 

“Aesthetics matter.  Attractive things work better.”  (Don Norman, author)

Shouldn’t this be a significant part of Language Arts and information literacy curricula?

It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writing, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it.
- William Bernbach

A lengthy debate has been going on at Clay Burell’s blog regarding the weight and value of writing in Language Arts education, the effects of technology, and the importance of other aspects of communication like verbal or visual.

I’ve been thinking about this in reference to the new Pew Internet Poll regarding student writing and technology ‘diversions’ like texting, etc.

In the Pew study, teens reported that:

“They are motivated to write when they can select topics that are relevant to their lives and interests, and report greater enjoyment of school writing when they have the opportunity to write creatively. Having teachers or other adults who challenge them, present them with interesting curricula and give them detailed feedback also serves as a motivator for teens. Teens also report writing for an audience motivates them to write and write well.”

Those findings are what we might expect–that when they are challenged, passionate, and have an audience, they feel more motivated to write well.   But they seem to understand that the technology cannot “give” them the ideas they need to communicate:

“Many teens feel that while technology can help them compose, edit and present their ideas, it cannot improve the quality of the ideas themselves.”

And the survey shows that teens are doing all sorts of writing–from creating powerpoint presentations(73%) to writing journals(both personal or for school) (65%).

Also interestingly, some students find that computers help them write better(witness the discussions on Clay’s blog) and some think they help them write less well:

“In comparison, three in ten teens who write on a computer for non-school purposes at least occasionally feel that computers help them do better writing—and twice as many (63%) feel that computers make no difference in their writing quality. A small minority of teens feel thatwriting on a computer makes them write less than they would otherwise (12% feel this way) or that they write more poorly as a result (6%).”

After looking at this survey, and thinking about the discussion on Clay’s blog, it’s no wonder there is a difference of opinion.  The end users themselves have a difference of opinion!

Another interesting finding of the survey which is important for those of us having students write blogs:

“Teen bloggers in particular engage in a wide range of writing outside of school. Bloggers are significantly more likely than non-bloggers to do short writing, journal writing, creative writing, write music or lyrics and write letters or notes to their friends.”

Personally I wonder if blogging provides the sense to students of an audience who is interested in their writing, which motivates them to engage in more writing of more kinds.  And that the sense of writing for an audience actually serves to improve them as writers, because they are making that transformation to “communicators”?

Which brings me back to the quote at the beginning of this post–that a communicator is concerned with what the reader gets from the writer(or the visual or the oral presentation).  

Our students need to be skilled communicators, whether they are communicating visually, orally, or in writing–they need to have mastered the craft well enough that they can focus on the reader/audience.  They need to have enough encounters with communicating that they become much more aware of audience.   And they need to have these encounters in a variety of ways.

One of the Pew findings, which wasn’t that surprising, is that most in school writing is done primarily in English classes, and that the writing done in other classes mainly consists of short paragraphs.   If we want students to grasp the finer points of communicating–if we want them to have finesse as communicators, then whether they are writing, speaking, Skyping, or presenting a visual, they need to practice enough across the curriculum that they internalize the skills they need.

Do we need to emphasize one skill over another?  Or do we need to do a better job of reaching across the curriculum to help students become more able to reach their audiences, no matter the subject, no matter the topic, and no matter the means of presentation?

             And a complete sidenote, but important to librarians:   One thing the Pew study discovered is that many teens are connecting and writing via libraries–60% use it from the library and 76% from school;  also the usage in libraries varies by socio-economic group (making libraries a real democratizing force for these students).

I’m sure some teachers or others wonder why I blog or don’t really understand the point of sharing what’s going on in our school. And I’ve seen recent comments around online about the proliferation of blogs–wondering if we can get overwhelmed or there be too many, etc.

But this post at the Principal’s Page blog speaks to one of my primary reasons that I think blogging is important.

The principal writes plaintively about how we hear more negative stories about schools than positive ones, and asks:

“Why don’t we have someone who specializes in publicizing what we do well? Why are we not getting our positive messages across? . . . . Why aren’t we more proactive in sharing all of the good things that happen in education on a daily basis?”

I blog because it is one way of opening the walls of one school and one library, and sharing the ideas of educators to demonstrate all the complexity that goes on in our practices.    Perhaps it’s only one window, but I think as you add all of the windows of education bloggers around the globe, it provides those interested in schools–either policymakers, parents, students, or other educators–a glimpse in through that window.

It’s fascinating how schools work and how learning in a classroom works.   It’s fascinating to watch a child think through a problem with you in a library until you both find an answer or solution.    It’s rejuvenating collaborating with a teacher on something and bringing it to fruition.   It’s exciting when students reach out to you with ideas and share their thoughts.

I realize that blogs are only one means of opening that window, but it’s important that we think about sharing the positives that go on–and not just the teams winning, or the scores being good, but sharing the day-to-day struggles and learning and growing that happens.  If we don’t want the non-school world to have a one-dimensional picture of what we do, then it’s up to us to show and share what an exciting, engaged learning environment looks like.

I often think of the model set by former principal Tim Tyson at Mabry Middle School–the masthead of their website, as I’ve mentioned before, proclaims “Making Learning Irresistible for 25 Years.”    What a powerful way to begin telling that positive story, even in the design of the campus website.

Maybe this is a new tool we need to add to teacher training toolkits–how to share what exciting learning is going on in their classrooms?   And to principal toolkits as well?    We do have a responsibility to our own campus and classrooms and getting things done there, but I believe we also have a larger mission to serve education well.    And part of that must mean telling about the complex and amazing living organisms that are our schools.    We will help to inspire support, inspire one another, and help create a community that better understands what we do.

A video promo is a great way to publicize your library. A group of librarians in our district are meeting tomorrow to work on some video messages for our programs. But videos like these could be used on campus websites as well. Imagine energetic, amusing, enthusiastic video messages that convey what your campus is all about and create more of a dynamic sense of your campus on your website.

If we are excited about learning and about libraries, shouldn’t we show it? And shouldn’t we enlist our students to be a part of creating that message?

Here are a few idea starters, mostly from Gale’s Librareo contest submissions on YouTube. Quite a few of these use humor to make their message “sticky.”

This clever video is a way to demonstrate (humorously) the impact of a library:

Green Gables Elementary School Library–a former student sends a video love letter

Herrick Library–they don’t just tell about their services–they show them.

Library movie trailer–using humor to convey your message.

More humor from Irving Library

from Patrick Henry Library –students carry the message

This video below (my favorite) from Love Library in Jamestown, NY is brimming with energy:

And I had to include this classic –the Betty Glover Library Workout (this is strictly librarian humor )

Sometimes it just takes the seed of an idea to inspire others.

Last night I was checking in on Twitter, feeling a little discouraged, and fellow librarian Jenny Luca just happened to tweet that her students’ live Project Global Cooling concert was just starting their broadcast from Australia. This was a concert they organized for free, donated their time to on a weekend, and broadcast around the world for free via Ustream.

If you’re not familiar, Project Global Cooling was the seed of an idea sown last summer by Clay Burell–an attempt to interest students in hosting world-wide concerts to, as Clay wrote, “implant a consciousness of climate change” around the world.

And now, last night, I was watching the fruits of that seed–students who not only inspired their own school, but inspired artists to appear for free, and even received a letter from a government official in Australia honoring their efforts. And Clay’s site lists other efforts going on around the world in the next week or two.

Sometimes we cast seeds out into the world-wide garden and don’t know what will come of them, or if anything ever does. But seeing the work these students around the world are doing to participate in something larger than themselves makes me believe that it is important for all of us to keep casting those seeds of the idea that we can each of us, no matter our age, make a difference.

Thanks Clay and Jenny for sharing your efforts.

Image Credit goes to Jenny Luca’s school.

Rather than write about ideas for improving presentations that I’ve gleaned from wiser minds than mine, I decided to just “present” them:

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Design

Are we challenging our students enough when it comes to design?   A recent article in Library Media Collection by Joyce Valenza, led me to consider how we need to take more leadership to help students improve their presentation skills.   

With great thanks to Joyce–whose links led me to other links( in the random, yet not so random way that happens online)–I’m sharing some hints and tools that can help students be more innovative and effective presenters.

Dean Shareski’s helpful “Powerpoint Extreme Makeover” presentation is one that could be easily shared with teachers and they can watch it on their own or it could be used in a presentation.  He taps into the frustrations that probably many teachers are aware of with using the tool and offers some helpful suggestions.   I think a fun take off of this would be to have STUDENTS design a presentation on how to improve powerpoint presentations (as I am sure they have also sat through many poor ones!)

By following some links to Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen’s website, I found a wealth of ideas (of course–love his site) about different methods for teaching presentation design to students.  For example, Reynolds shares:

–Guy Kawasaki’s method of presenting 10 simple slides each with one key point.  Reynolds explains that “His talks usually evolve around ten key points, no matter the topic. His visuals, then, will consist of ten slides each with one key message spelled out. That’s it. Simple. The visuals keep Guy on track and help him tell his story and give a strong feeling of organization to the tone of the talk.”

Imagine scaffolding this for students. Assign them ten slides.  Each with one key message.  How would that change their approach to their presentation?

Reynolds also shared:

–The Takahashi Method–Masayoshi Takahashi created a style of presenting slides with only text–but the difference is that he uses GIANT text, and tries to simplify by having a few key words(in Japanese) on each slide.  According to Reynolds this style has become so popular in Japan that it has been named the Takahashi method.  Lawrence Lessig has similarly pioneered the use of just text, black and white, to convey ideas simply and at a very rapid presentation pace.

Again, imagine the student assignment.   ”Your presentation can only be done with one GIANT word per slide, but must convey the key ideas.  You do the talking.  The slides convey what’s important.”

I found more presentation links via this site which  led me to an excellent presentation by Dick Hardt, CEO of Sxip.  (Click on one of the versions of his presentation to see its simplicity combined with his clever delivery.)

One thing that Guy Kawasaki points out, according to Reynolds, is that for a presentation to be really good, if you are using just images or simple text, you really have to be prepared.  You have to “know” the information.  How often do we have students begin with the design and the content is just the add-on, rather than the design growing out of the content, or the content being the real focus?    If we don’t want students to just read off of the screen, they have to have been focused on the content and also the presentation of that content.

The Challenge

Another really playful use of powerpoint I discovered was musician’s David Byrne’s artful attempt to play havoc with powerpoint, as he explains here.  Why don’t we ask our students to stand the software on end and play with its boundaries?   Challenge them to shake it up a little?  And to venture outside the templates, and design art to appear on their own slides.

Seth Godin talks about the idea of an “idea virus” which spreads rapidly by word of mouth.  So maybe what we need to do is unleash an idea virus that student presentations can be dazzling, and continue as Joyce Valenza and Dean Shareski have done so well to share with teachers and students the creative approaches they can take to these tools, and then watch it spread by example and word of mouth?

We need to throw the gauntlet down, and part of that is expecting more from our students.  We should ask them to dazzle us.   Challenge them to step out of their powerpoint rut, and show us what visuals mean.  

How can we help students convey their messages better, and “make them stick”?

 I’ve been tagged by a few people for the High School Daze to Praise meme so I thought I’d toss in my contribution! (thanks Diane, Susan, and Doug).

The name of the game started by Paul at Quoteflections is–pick a book you’d recommend for teens, include a photo, entitle it Meme: High School Daze to Praise, and tag four people.

The book I’m picking I haven’t read in awhile, but it’s one of my favorites, called The Day I became an Autodidact by Kendall Hailey.   It’s her account of how she “schools herself”, starting in her junior year of high school, reflecting on her learning, the classics, and everything in between.  Her writing really sparkles and her self-drive and motivation for learning are inspiring.  It may be out of print as it came out in ‘88, but it was inspiring to hear such a strong young voice with such a passion for her own learning.

I tag new bloggers and bloggers from outside the U.S.  If you have only been blogging for the last six months, or live outside the states, I tag you!

image credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmtucker/2067237433/

You can observe a lot by watching.
YOGI BERRA

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.
VICTOR PAPANEK

One of the interesting things about planning a new library is thinking about design. This is another area where we have to begin with the end in mind and to know what our goals are, so that we aren’t just following a pre-set template of what a library “looks like.”

After visiting High Tech High in San Diego last year, and thinking about how our library could apply “web 2.0″ principles to our physical space, I envisioned the metaphor of a transparent library–where you could see collaboration and learning going on in the space. The book Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools by Prakash Nair and Randall Fielding, as well as their website, DesignShare, (which I have to thank Christian Long’s blog for leading me to) helped me think about how the different areas of the library could be designed.

In her article, “Power Users” in Library Journal (Dec. 2005), Beth Dempsey led me to think about obstacles users face because of library design. She chronicles Carnegie Library’s use of focus groups that determined how confusing and jargony libraries can be, which led them to try to design a library whose “focus was to remove barriers, ease access to resources, and encourage the development of self-reliant users,” according to Mike McConnell, their coordinating librarian.

I knew that I wanted the library to be a campfire space where students could gather, a collaborative space where they could work together in small groups, a transparent space, where learning in the school could be “seen” through the windows, a more barrier free space in terms of student use, and an innovative space, where the design would reflect the innovations that are going on inside our campus.

So how to get there? For one thing–as Yogi Berra said, you learn a lot by watching.

Watch how students are using your current space. Watch what is giving them problems or causing confusion. Watch what their preferences are. Try to identify those key things about the space that do or do not work for your customers.

Secondly, observe other places. Carry some sort of camera with you everywhere–a cell phone or digital camera or iPhone, and snap photos of places that work, designs you like, color combinations that appeal to you, furniture that looks comfortable. (Use a site like I used my flickr site to collect sets of design photos that I’ve shared with the architects). Browse Google images for photos of new libraries. Tear out photos out of design magazines and create an idea collection.

Begin observing how places that are attractive are designed. Look everywhere–at the ceiling and how it looks–at the lighting fixtures–at the seating–at the colors used–at details small and large. For example, we ended up with a somewhat different circulation desk than is typical because I found a reception desk I liked at our architect’s warehouse-style offices.

Be willing to use all of these observations to think outside of the traditional box. Why not use bookstore signage to help students navigate dewey better? Does the circ desk have to be a large immobile behemoth that separates you from students and has no flexibility of use? Can bookcases be more mobile for rearrangement so the library can be used for different gatherings?

How will the space be used ten years from now? If you don’t know, and you probably don’t, plan for some flexibility of space. Can walls be moveable? Should you put wiring scattered about, so when you rearrange, you aren’t without any wiring in some areas?

I was influenced in some design features by Prakash Nair and Randall Fielding’s concepts. They envision a learning studio type of space for classrooms, but that can be related to modern library spaces as well, where you have students creating projects using computers, books, and many other materials that you might have available. How can you design some spaces that are flexible and can be merged or separated, depending on the collaboration needs of various projects/groups? Is your physical system reflecting the way you envision the space being used by real students?

Another area that is important to observe is how teachers use the space, and to think about what spaces teachers have in a building to gather or work together(usually not many). Nair and Fielding refer to these gathering areas as watering holes. The library is really a natural watering hole, where both students and teachers gather to relax, read, work, and collaborate, so the space needs to be designed with that in mind. Creating a comfortable teacher area that is near students but away from them invites them into the library, but also gives them an area to come collaborate with library staff or with one another.

Another area to consider is how do the outdoor spaces(if there are any) outside the library blend in with the space? Can they be utilized to take the library outdoors? Can they be upgraded to be a part of the library’s “space” to create some comfortable gathering area for a class to engage with books? After visiting schools like Poway(pictured) and seeing their courtyards, or John Jay library in San Antonio, and seeing how they used an outdoor enclosed courtyard as a learning area and extension of the library, we were inspired to find a way to incorporate the outdoor areas around our library as well.

The designing of a space can also be a learning experience for students. Share what you are doing along the way. We conducted a survey to see what features students most valued in a library remodel. Display architectural drawings for students as you go through the process.   We are trying to use green materials and will create a learning display of the green materials used once the new library opens so that it can be a learning tool for students as well.

We have brought in some sample furniture and let students try out some new chair options. And when planning our courtyard, we’ve been calling on the services of one of our seniors who won a national architecture contest for school redesign, and having him actually help do the sketches for the courtyard so that it is student friendly and student driven.

Having a defined sense of what you want the library to become is helpful when faced with the actual planning process with architects and in construction process, because it allows you to be better able to stand up for design features of the library and to explain the purpose of the space overall.  ( And finding a like minded architect is of course very key to the project!)

Think about how to recreate your space so that it is an inviting and comfortable space for your students and staff, whether you can be completely renovated or not.  What can you do to incorporate better design into your space, into flyers you put out, and into the workflow?   Because ultimately it is about creating a positive and inspiring space for people to learn.   As Victor Papanek so aptly writes, “The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.”

quotes courtesy of: http://designjerk.com/quotes.html

Do we always keep our end purpose in mind when using technology tools in the classroom?  It’s easy to get pulled in by the lure of the bells and whistles and perhaps lose sight of our learning goals for students.

Our teacher Bill Martin made an interesting comment during a recent workshop that we (along with Kris Phelps) did for teachers on using wikis in the classroom.

Bill had been using his wiki as a place for students to post their writing, and then for other students to comment on or discuss the student’s piece in the discussion tab of the wiki.    The writing they are posting are personal essays that he calls Occasional Papers, and his students are also accustomed to discussing them in the classroom.   

During our workshop he remarked that it seemed difficult for students to interact with one another.    What he was looking for was students not just posting a comment in isolation to meet some requisite number of comments, but to interact with both the original essay and one another in their responses.   He commented that it seemed most students simply responded to the original paper, and not to the comments that others were making, making it  less of a conversation and more just a string of comments, (though there were some exceptions.)

I considered what Konrad Glogowski had commented on during his Educon 2.0 presentation on blogging with students, and how it took time to develop both the teacher methodology of using the tool, and to develop students as bloggers.  

So I posited to Bill that it takes time for students to learn to react not only to the prompt, but to one another in their responses.  Bill spends a lot of time in his class using the Socratic method and eliciting student discussion and does it very well.   But it takes time at the beginning of the year, I presume, for students to become comfortable and trusting with that format.   So, similarly, I think having students use online discussion tools is just another venue at which students may need practice, particularly in an educational environment.   

Bill also surveyed his students about how he used these tools in class(he used Nicenet, and then Pbwiki), and one of the things that was clear that not surprisingly, his students had varying comfort levels with using online tools. 

A couple of sample comments:

“Everytime I log onto Pbwiki.com, I feel like I’m trying to decode a nuclear bomb.  I clearly am incompetent. . . .If I could even post them, I would like it.  I like telling people what I think.”

and alternately,

“After you make a posting it is always interesting to go back and see what replies you got to your first comment.”

“They let you write thoughts that you might not want to say in class during the discussion.”

“I was afraid to talk to someone because I didn’t think that we had anything in common but I read a posting of theirs and it opened up the doors to talk.  There was a time when I couldn’t get out a word in class and wanted to say it so when I got home I posted it to get it out.”

and alternately, (my favorite):

“I’m not comfortable on all these sites.  I can’t seem to figure them out.  The internet just confuses the **** out of me.”

Clearly, for some it was liberating, and for some it was a big obstacle.  Our assumptions that all students enjoy posting things online are clearly just that, assumptions.     So one obstacle that obviously would need to be addressed is the actual use of the technology.    As we talked, we were in agreement that more access to computers where students could get some regular practice with it during class initially would be an important key. 

We do need to  provide some scaffolding to the tool for those more reluctant users, and we also need to provide other alternatives at times, like class discussions, etc., so that we aren’t wrapped around one method, and can tease out the skills of different students. 

  Also, I’m making a generalization here, but we have asked students for so long to simply turn in their work, with the teacher as the primary audience, that the idea of not only sharing it with a group audience, but then interacting with that audience, is a different school experience for them initially.  And for those in the “audience,” the idea that they can interact not only with the author of the piece, but with one another, may also be a little foreign.   

Do students innately understand what a conversation about ideas is?    Or do they need us to model for them what that looks like and create the kind of environment where they feel at ease doing that?

The live blogging efforts of students at Arapahoe High School demonstrated that through classroom practice, they have become adept at this sort of responsive, conversational blogging or online discussion.   I’m curious to know how Anne Smith and Maura Moritz have fostered that in their own classrooms?

The value in all of this for me was this–as a teacher, Bill knew what he was looking for from the tool, (as did the other teacher presenting with us, Kris Phelps).    Maybe this wasn’t the right tool, and maybe students needed more time with it, but he knew what he wanted from it, and so as students used it, he was analyzing it with that in mind.   He also asked students to reflect on their experience using the tools, which then has become a tool to improve his own use of them.  And because of that reflective teaching, his use of the tools will deepen (and that will be shared with other educators as well.)

I think the best thing those of us who support classroom teachers can do is help teachers articulate the goals they have for a particular assignment and then truly try to match those tools to their goals, and to also help them assess and reflect on its usefulness along the way.   Bill’s applying that thoughtful habit of mind to his use of the tools really modeled that for me.

Bill has recently shared a phrase he heard at a workshop–that the only true learning students do (or any of us?) is through conversation.  How can we help our students become better at that?

And as a postscript that is semi-related:

 I’ve been thinking recently about my own blog, and reading some posts from Christian Long particularly reminded me that blogs that really deepen are those where the writer and audience are having a conversation with one another, with back and forth involved.

Christian Long points to this on his own blog as he recently has decided to comment on people’s comments on his blog.   (Which leads me to wonder if on his wiki project, Bill should also ask the author of each piece to  go back and respond to the comments that others are leaving on their essays, rather than just read through the collection of comments on their essay.   That way the interaction is truly two-way, and more of a dialogue is created.)

Turning back to my own blog, it also leads me to believe that I need to be more responsive  to commenters, and circle back around to respond to them in order to create more of a dialogue space instead of a “display” space.  So I plan to do much more of that so my own blogging is more interactive and conversational.  (so…come back and visit again after your initial comment!)

image credits:   

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/487876892/

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/diannam/56099452/