Not So Distant Future

As I come away from Internet Librarian and try to pull together a thread running throughout the conference, I would say it is this:

Web 2.0 is here to stay, but we must be cognizant of our users, whether they are “library patrons” or students or teachers. This theme has been running around the blogs recently as well.

Sarah Palmer, a librarian at the American Bar Association, did an excellent presentation on suggestions for how to introduce users to web 2.0 tools. Since she works with attorneys, she pointed out the confusion that business professionals have about web 2.0 tools (I would say this is true of educators as well). They associate the tools with frivolous fun—like social networking becomes “MySpace” instead of a tool to help attorneys or educators find other colleagues and assistance for developing their own knowledge.

She comments that the often “jargony” terminology, RSS being a prime example, is a barrier for new or casual technology users as well, yet it is a tool that can be extremely powerful for those who need to keep up to date in their field.

Couple this with the fact that according to the Pew Internet survey that Lee Rainey shared in his session, as many as 25% of adults are mildly or not at all interested in technology use, and 50% are in the mild user category. So this begs the question, how do we address this as librarians/tech educators/teachers? Because the more serious users are younger, and eventually these numbers will change—so we want to be preparing our students, because 75% of teens are creating some sort of online content already.

One big draw for busy professionals is showing them how it increases their efficiency. But the tool has to be easy enough to use, so you have to start with something that is easy.

Another issue that Mary Ann Bell pointed out in her presentation on blogging is to be sure you show the safety as well as simplicity and value when introducing tools to educators.

In her presentation on digital literacies, Pam Berger talked about one of the biggest obstacles that we face in working with new technology users, what Marc Prensky identifies as “navigational literacy.” Many, not all, of our students have the ability to easily navigate technology, because they understand it’s “geography” so to speak. But for many of our teachers, it is truly like driving in a foreign country—they are on the wrong side of the road and it feels awkward and uncomfortable.

As we struggle with successful ways to bring these tools into our classrooms and libraries, and how to help teachers with them, we have to keep in mind these factors.
As David Warlick points out, we have to work with the students we have(and with our own navigational skills), both the K-12 students, but also the teacher-learners, so we need to address both groups of learners “where they live.”

I was planning to live blog the IL Schools West conference, but unfortunately the one room we are meeting in doesn’t have internet access because we’re not in the conference center, so, I’m taking a quick fire minute break to post an update!

I feel like my limbs are missing since I haven’t been able to blog anything, check email or twitter all day long–I realize how entertwined my work has gotten with my online network!

One of the most interesting sessions I saw today was Aaron Schmidt’s on gaming in the library.  His presentation was clever–he showed images of different video game characters to test our visual literacy(what score would our students make compared to us?) and challenged us to think of the ways that video games help students with skills of reading, collaborating, team building, planning, etc.

I’ll be posting more about that later!

Also I learned of a new Classroom 2.0 self-training site that I’m hoping to share when I get back.  It’s similar to the Library 2.0 program from the California School Library Association, but for teachers.

More later, as I am getting ready to head back into the conference room to hear Mary Bell talk about blogging.   Here’s Mary with her library action figure in the audience from my presentation earlier, which was about web 2.0 tools that librarians can share with their administrators(available on my wiki sidebar)!

   Little does she know we have the action figure on our front desk as well! 

Something about being in a different place, or maybe a place so rich with literary history, makes you realize that learning isn’t just something that can go on in school, but all around you.

The Monterey area is like an outdoor learning laboratory–you hear sea lions barking at night or can watch them from the wharf, you can explore tide pools or watch sea otters swimming off shore–or you can look out and see farms much like John Steinbeck must have seen 75 years ago.

Being away from familiar sites makes me realize how much the world around our students wherever we live is a learning laboratory.   There is much potential for us  to expand our thinking about what school “looks like.”

On the plane, I watched Brian Crosby’s K12 Online presentation video on “obstacles to opportunities” which was awe-inspiring.  I think what I found so moving about it was the way he has expanded the world for his students and what opportunities they will now believe are open to them as a result of his teaching.

I’ll be sharing ideas from the Internet Librarian conference this week that we can use to open up our schools and libraries so that they can become  global laboratories for our students.   (Edublogs is having some difficulties by the way, so if my blog becomes unavailable during the conference for any length of time, you can follow me on technolibrary.tumblr.com, which is a scrapbooking site where I’ll share my thoughts.)

 InfoToday, who hosts the Internet Librarian conferences, has posted a list of bloggers attending this year’s Internet Librarian West at the end of October; while this is a small conference, it is a powerhouse collection of librarian technologists.    

This is a  great list of bloggers to get a preview of what’s going on in libraries and technology today, ranging from public, to school, to academic libraries; I feel honored to be on the same list!   By the way, the technorati and flickr tags are il2007 or ISW2007 if you want to follow along, and the conference wiki is here.

  I’m gearing up for a conference in late October, Internet Librarian and particularly Internet Schools West.

It’s one of my favorite “librariany” conferences, and the first one I blogged from last year as a new blogger, which was such a cool experience (and challenging since the beautiful Asilomar lodge didn’t have internet access in the rooms!) 

Part of what I like about this conference is that it’s small and intimate, and that long before other conferences included very many internet “strands,” this conference was pulling together trends in the academic, corporate, and school worlds all into one conference that is always cutting edge.

This year there looks to be a lot of focus on “gaming” and libraries, as well as a focus on how libraries are responding to web 2.0 and how that affects our services.

I’ve learned to create my own “mashup” at the conference of events from the school library sessions and the corporate/academic library sessions(like David King’s cool one last year on videoblogging and flickr), that always challenge me.  

I’m presenting a session this year on how librarians can help support administrators with web 2.0 tools.  

I feel that some of the obstacles school districts face in integrating web 2.0 tools is the fear factor, but often the fear is caused by the unknown.   Administrators are busy, and have so many varied responsibilities, so I think librarians and tech staff can play a significant role in helping their administrators stay on top of, understand, or utilize web 2.0 tools.   And I think getting the information out there for administrators helps them make better decisions regarding technology and helps them better support the campus when technology issues arise.

There has been quite a bit of debate in the blogosphere(great discussion here) about whether or not administrators have a duty to be technologically literate, and I don’t have the answer to that question, although I do think it has reached a point where that literacy is very important to a campus moving forward.   

And so this is my small attempt to share tools with librarians that particularly may help their administrators who may or may not have an awareness of how web 2.0 tools can help them do their jobs, more effectively, more efficiently, and with more transparency for their district.   There are so many excellent models out there to draw upon of administrators using these tools, but as I found when I spoke about this at the TASSP conference here this summer, some administrators haven’t “stumbled upon” them just yet.

This conference falls right at the end of K12 Online, so October promises to be a month filled with much personal learning for me, which is truly energizing.  One reason I set up my blog last year around this time was that I was learning more than I could possibly share via any other means, and the blog was a vehicle for not only sharing, but storing things I had learned.

I’ve been collecting examples of administrative tools and blogs and links on del.icio.us (of course Tim Lauer’s, Chris Lehmann’s, Kim Moritz’s, Kelly Christopherson’s, LeaderTalk, etc.)  for several months, but if you have any you’d especially like to recommend, please share!