If you are interested in following along here are the presentation topics and times:

Tuesday, 1:30 – 2:14   Twitterlution:  Changing Advocacy
I’ll be talking Twitter, and its role in revolutions, and as Diane Cordell says, contributions and evolutions, as well, and how we can apply lessons learned to education.

Wednesday 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.   How To:  live blogging class discussions
We’ll talk about different tools for live blogging in the classroom (or other venues) like Chatzy, CoveritLive, TalktoMe, etc.

Thursday 9:15 – 10:15   iPads in the Library
I’ll be covering several methods of implementation of iPads in libraries, from learning stations, to e-readers, to 1:1 adoptions.

Thursday 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.  Library Design
This session is more interactive and takes place in the Web 2.0 area (They’ve moved it to a Ballroom if you have been there before).    We’ll talk about how to be “anthropologists” and listen to our students, how purpose enters into good library design, how technology changes that, talk examples, and do some brainstorming.

Hope to see some of you there!  If not, after the conference, I’ll be posting summaries and links to session information!

In Kansas State librarian Jo Budler’s session at ALA Midwinter,  “Do I Own These E-books or Not,”  Budler summarized the issues that Kansas State had faced with Overdrive’s e-book contract, which in its earlier iteration, allowed libraries to “keep” their content after discontinuing Overdrive.   The newer version of the contract uses different languaging so for many libraries, the experience she had is perhaps a moot point.  But what I learned from the session was to be willing to negotiate with our e-book providers.  We are the customers and we need to increasingly be pro-active and willing to ask our providers for what we need.

Overdrive’s e-book platform currently operates on what I consider to be basically a “subscription” basis.  Since I am accustomed to databases which operate in that fashion, I bought it knowing that.   Of course that means, once you quit paying their annual fee, you will no longer have the e-books you have selected.

Other vendors do have an opportunity to move into this market.  For my library, the ability to deliver the content to the iPads was critical since we are a 1:1 ipad school and Overdrive really has been the main provider of that sort of ability.  But at ALA, I also discovered that Follett’s Shelf product is rolling out an iPad app on January 27.    The e-books we currently have in Follett can be transferred to their “shelf” product and then we can utilize the app to access them.   Follett has a no-annual fee model;  however, the experience with Overdrive makes me wonder if we would be able to keep them if we migrated to some other system in the future.   I believe Follett has or is considering a multi-user model as well; if anyone has more information on that, I would be interested in knowing more.

Gale has an e-book reference product that many of us use, which integrates into their database, and has MARC records that can be embedded into your catalog.  You “own” the book if you pay the annual maintenance fee, which is fairly low for school libraries with a smaller number of Gale titles, and Gale has an app from which you can access their e-book content easily.

I also spoke with Ingram at the exhibit hall, after hearing about their e-book offerings, since they are a large book jobber that was mentioned at the Kansas State session.  Currently, their primary offerings are nonfiction and reference, but they are negotiating as we speak with major publishers such as Random House, etc. for fiction collections.    They have several different pricing models–I’m not sure how feasible they are for schools or not, but they are interesting and will become even more interesting once they offer fiction.   Ingram allows you to purchase the e-book as part of a single collection for one cost(a $10 to $15 markup per book), or as part of a multi-user library (multiple users can access at once) (a 1.67% pricing over book price).  And they are looking into a very exciting possibility–leasing “class sets” of novels to a school for a few weeks when they are needed, rather than the school purchasing the e-books.  (I hope I’m supposed to blog that!)  From my understanding, Ingram allows you to keep the content which they store on their server.

The pricing model for all the e-book content is also pretty fascinating.  Publishers make far more on e-books than on print books, and publishing houses that dove into e-books full force are showing profits.    In a fascinating blog post, author Kristine Rusch explains at length the reasons that publishers are making more on e-books, while authors make more on print books.   Basically, in older contracts, authors were paid 50% of the cover price of a print book for an e-book, even if an e-book cost substantially less.   But now, the way the contracts are constructed, they make only 15% profit from e-books.   And in addition, the e-book is cheaper for the publisher in the first place, due to reduced production costs and distribution costs.  So between those two things–paying authors substantially less, and having fewer costs, the publishers are doing quite well with the e-book market.

So, I bring this up for a reason–if publishers are making much larger profits on e-books, then why are they charging libraries more for them?

That is the question we need to be putting to every e-book vendor we as librarians do business with.   As consumers, as an audience member at Jo Budler’s ALA session pointed out, librarians need to be savvy and we need to ask vendors the tough questions and need to put the pressure on.   Yes, we are a pittance of the book market, and the e-book market particularly, but statistics clearly show that libraries play a significant factor in driving readers to purchase books later (I can’t find the statistic but heard this at ALA)  So what we do counts in sales for publishers later.

The fact that publishers and vendors are listening to library concerns and getting into the e-book market means we are listened to.  And I’m not opposed to products that work well and are convenient for students.  But they need to be cost effective for libraries and public institutions.    So we need to continue our efforts to speak up, ask questions, and advocate for cost-effective e-books for libraries.

( Caveat:  Amazon and Apple and Barnes and Noble don’t typically charge a tremendous overhead for e-books,  but their devices and distribution model aren’t really designed for library use either.  Another thing we need to be continuing to advocate strongly for.)

While our library has been experimenting with a variety of e-book offerings the last few years, finding a model that worked easily and well with the iPads was now important.  So among other things, we have chosen to try Overdrive’s e-library service which allows you to build an e-library that students can “check out” books from.

Overdrive has many limitations, but it’s the major player in the e-book market for 1:1 devices.   It’s fairly costly, only offers certain publishers, is an annual subscription (again, costly), and using it with Kindles or Nooks is a little complex. But with the iPad app, it’s a pretty easy implementation once the actual collection is built.

Students simply install the app, locate your library in the “Add a library” list, star it as a favorite, and then they are ready to borrow materials.  Much like Amazon, they put items in their cart, and “check out” of the store when done.  Books return themselves automatically when they are due, eliminating “overdues” as a concept.  Just like Mission Impossible (a reference lost on most of the students), the e-books dissolve in a puff of smoke on their “due date.”

Overdrive can also be used by any students with Nooks, Kindles, iPhones, and mp3 players as well, so it’s pretty flexible in terms of how students can retrieve a book.

I have learned lessons during the implementation process:

1.  Initial Implementation–
Overdrive charges an annual fee, half of which goes to new titles and half of which is a subscription fee.  Even taking into account both fees, that makes our average “cost” about $30 per book/audiobook, which since many of them are only in hardback release currently, isn’t an entirely unreasonable cost.  You do keep titles and then add more each year, but that half/half model continues.  If you quit Overdrive, currently, the titles purchased are “lost.” I think this is a model Overdrive needs to strongly reconsider as that is a deterrent, but I decided to think of it in terms of a subscription like a database, which we pay for annually.  In any case, you “fund” the account ahead of time, which does make purchasing easier.

Once you have committed to the service, it takes some advance time to implement Overdrive because as the librarian, you have to help develop the design of your custom site as well as developing the e-book and audiobook collection based on your school’s needs.

2.  Designing the site–
The first step is designing the look of the website and completing training sessions on purchasing.  Somewhat frustratingly, Overdrive controls the website design process, so there can be quite a bit of unnecessarily time-consuming back and forth as you design the look and feel of your site. Though many elements are common from one site to another, the overall look can be customized.  After a bit of frustrating design back and forth,  I finally “drew” a picture of the colors I wanted and eliminated having a masthead in the interest of getting the site to go “live”sooner.  Because there is an intermediary sales person between you and the web design team, things can get lost in translation and the quality of the design can be problematic.   The basic format of the design does look a lot like Amazon or other sites students will be familiar with, which is a plus.  But Overdrive does force a few features on the site which feel like advertising for Amazon, and I was disappointed those couldn’t be removed.

3.  Collection development –
The next step in implementing Overdrive is material selection.   While Overdrive has excellent training sessions on this, some of it doesn’t make complete sense until you actually are done and utilize the site, because once you use it, you see the reasons for some of the collection development decisions.  I think Overdrive could develop graphic materials (like charts that map your choices) that would make this more clear in guiding the initial collection development.   Initially, your Overdrive subscription gives you a set amount for purchasing books, but you can add individual titles over that amount.  So when you are purchasing, it generates a p.o. that “subtracts” your purchases from the already paid amount.  That makes purchasing quick as books can be added within 24 hours in the system.   Their Content Reserve site is easy enough, but it is pretty slow in terms of searching, and the speed of it needs to be improved.
a.  Book collection–  The device your students will be using matters.  In our case, students would mostly be using iPads.  Books come in different formats;  some are ONLY offered in Kindle editions, and some are offered in both Kindle and ePub formats.   Using the Kindle format is more cumbersome on the iPad because students have to take the further step of logging into Amazon after searching your library in order to actually download the book.  Also, Amazon keeps track of their check-outs, which is a privacy issue for libraries.   And if the book only comes in Kindle format, it prevents a large segment of your students from using those books if they have Nooks or other devices.   So I steered towards items that came in both formats, Kindle and ePub.
(But this was only something I realized after getting the collection going, so that’s one thing I wish I had paid more attention to, as I did end up with some Kindle only books).  Also, on the patron side, I think Overdrive still needs to work a little on the way the books are displayed on your library site, so that it is clear what format students are selecting because that appears in the “fine print” so to speak.
b.  Audiobook collection — Similarly, audiobooks come in two formats; WMA and MP3.  Audiobooks in WMA format obviously won’t play on i-Devices, so for our purposes, MP3 audiobooks make more sense.   Again, an element that didn’t register with me when I was purchasing the first few audiobooks, so I ended up with a couple of WMA only format audiobooks.

4.  Setting up patrons and check-out periods –
This process is relatively simple.  Overdrive can help you upload your student id numbers or account information, depending on what library software you use.  We have Follett Destiny, so we had to extract a file of student IDS and upload them to Overdrive.  Students aren’t identified in the system by name, only by their ID number in that case.  (This process seemed fairly easy but one of our IT staff actually did this step for us).

5. Going Live and Training
At that point you are ready to go “live” after completing a staff webinar training with Overdrive.  Overdrive does include a lot of training tutorials for students that are divided into short easy segments.   Of course, it’s important to demonstrate it to students as well, particularly in our 1:1 environment since all of us would be using the same device.  Publicity is key, and can tie into your public library offerings if they have Overdrive as well (which many of them do, but judging from the response of our students, it’s not something students are aware of.)  The implementation in a multi-device environment is of course much more challenging, so tutorials are very helpful.   And coincidentally, when I was visiting classes to introduce Overdrive (as well as our other e-book services), I discovered that one of our students actually created all the training videos for our local community library!  Check out her materials here.  Because there are so many formats, having tools like this for students is helpful.

The marketing of library e-books is still a “work in progress.”  This morning Joyce Valenza shared an interesting article from the Washington Post, “As Demand for E-books soars, Libraries struggle to fill their Digital Shelves” which is an excellent summary of the issues facing libraries when implementing Overdrive and other e-book solutions.  Often there won’t be enough titles to go around, since it’s cost prohibitive.

But as we all know, this is a rapidly evolving market.  Publishers are trying to figure out how to wrangle the electronic book market, (as music companies did a decade ago), librarians are trying to figure out how their services can be a choice in the offerings, salespeople are trying to market all sorts of solutions to librarians, and it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.  It’s critically important that librarians make their voices heard in this debate.  Vendors need to hear what we want, publishers need to hear from us as well (as they have been when Random House limited the number of check-outs of their e-books), and salespeople need to carry that message back from us to their companies.

For a further overview of all sorts of e-book offerings and issues, check out the new ALA title No Shelf Required 2 (Ala 2011) which collects essays by librarians across all service levels(myself included, I have to admit)  in discussions of e-books and issues surrounding them, along with specific examples of implementations.   (It does come in e-book format as well as print).  This isn’t a “sales” pitch as I have found the other essays extremely informed and helpful in understanding this market in terms of school, public, and academic library issues.

Now that we’ve implemented Overdrive, I’ll be following up later on how it’s being received by our students and how it dovetails with our iPad rollout overall.  But one thing is clear, though this model works pretty well, the entire market has a long evolution to go before it standardizes.  And the inconsistencies across services are creating headaches for libraries around the country until things do standardize more.

My recent article in Internet @ Schools summarizes some of my observations.  But I will add that what has transformed is how we work — how students work and learn, how teachers work and learn.   And I do think there is something different about using a tablet like the iPad versus a laptop.  Maybe it’s because a laptop is a device they’re familiar with, but using a different sort of technology forces some creative problem solving, or maybe it’s because a tablet becomes a camera, notebook, video camera, writing device, textbook, all in one..  Another shift is that the lack of wireless printers at our campus has also really forced a more paperless climate on us, and teachers and students have become savvy at exchanging documents paperlessly.

As I mentioned in the article, I think the most transformative part of the process is how the newness of the device created a climate where all of us were learning together — that created a more democratic learning process for our campus because everyone was thrust into the position of “learner.”  It was like starting a new school in that sense.

We have work to do and hurdles to deal with, but it will continue to be a collaborative learning process, and that’s the shift that has been most significant.

Best individual blog– Wow, this is a toughie for me.  So many blogs where educators are pouring their hearts into their work and reflecting their dedication to their students or their profession.   But I’d like to honor my colleague, Carl Hooker’s blog, Hooked on Innovation, for the way his blog has grown, and  his creative writing style and clever use of visuals.

Best individual tweeter–@shareski    Dean Shareski uses Twitter to share pride in his students and solicit assistance on their behalf, but also he’s willing to be real, to share pithy observations on daily life, to ask for help and to shoot the breeze.  The perfect blend, just  like the perfect donut  with a great cup of coffee and some good meaty conversation.

Best group blog–In the Library With a Lead Pipe
A thoughtful group blog that deeply explores issues of concerns to librarians of all stripes.   For example, check out this post–Occupy Librarianship:  5 Variations on a Theme

Best new blog — Virtual Dave: Real Blog
Dave Lankes’ blog (or vlog) pushes our thinking about libraries with his “traveling road show” video series that helps us explore what new librarianship is all about.

Best student blog– Lakin’s Blog
Lakin is a new blogger whose creative story writing moved me, and I want to recognize and encourage it.  Keep at it, Lakin!
Best ed tech / resource sharing blog Free Techology for Teachers
Of course.  Best resource sharing site around.

Most influential blog post — Expeditions
This video blog by David Lankes on the libraries as community has influenced my thinking about libraries all fall.   Well worth reading/viewing.

Best twitter hashtag–#txlege
As educators kept a close eye on the proceedings of the Texas legislature this spring, this hashtag became an essential way of keeping up with budget cuts to education and keeping educators informed.

(My runner up is #mbteamS
Where else could a group of educators be tweeted on to winning two brand new Mercedes but Twitter using the power of their social networks?)

Best librarian / library blog — Unquiet Librarian
Buffy Hamilton’s blog is a must-read for in depth, reflective thinking on the library profession.

Best School Administrator blog–Burlington High School Principal’s blog
Great example of how an administrator can blend blogging about their own school with blogging about what inspires them at the same time.

Best free web tool–TodaysMeet.com
Today’s Meet is an easy to use backchannel or collaboration tool that takes two minutes to set up; very user friendly.  This is a tough category though.  I also want to mention Scoop.it or Livebinder or Simplemeet.Me as well–all helpful, easy to use tools.

(closely related is best app–another category which I think is needed)

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast — The Blackline Mystery (K12 Online Conference Session)
Jess McCulloch’s wildly creative use of video and audio at the K12 Online conference is a must-watch for its sheer freshness and creativity.

Best educational wiki– Joyce Valenza Springfield Township Virtual Library
simply the best “go-to” resource for tools, copyright free resources, research and more

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series   Global Education Conference (organizers Lucy Gray and Steve Hargadon)
a insanely ambitious global conference that showcased educators from around the world beautifully.

Best use of a social network– Teacher Librarian Virtual Cafe
What if a group of library geeks got together and created a virtual space for their own professional development?  That’s what the Virtual Cafe is–a generous group of sharing individuals who have built a community.  (spearheaded by the indomitable Daring Librarian among others.)

Lifetime achievement -  Will Richardson.  Whose ideas I always pay attention to even if I’m not reading blogs sometimes.

I’d like to propose two more category–

1. Best use of Facebook posts.(or Google +)
My nominee is Gary Stager.  Always interesting mix of education posts, jazz music, travel, and pop culture.

Second runner up–Buffy Hamilton.  By sharing  blog posts and interesting articles she mines on Twitter,  she keeps me informed.

2.  Interesting posts on school design
My nominee would be David Jakes, for his interesting ponderings on re-envisioning school spaces.   As we move forward in our conversations, school design is a critical piece of school change that should be recognized.

Lastly, Katy Perry sings about the inspiration that lives in all of us, about realizing that what we do counts.   So this is a shout out to all those of you who write, podcast, video blog, tweet, and share your passion about education.   It matters.  And baby, you’re my fireworks.  Thank you.

This quote cuts to the heart of what good design shows–when everything in a space just “clicks” and feels comfortable, it’s really because the design is just reflecting the philosophies and beliefs behind it clearly.

How do we get to that point when redesigning educational spaces?

Most importantly we get there by knowing, as the participants at the recent Reimagine:Ed conference discussed, how people learn.  And in a library, it’s about understanding how people learn in a space like a library, specifically, and how the space can support the learning of students and teachers better.

One thing that the Reimagine:Ed conference organizers  did was collect video interviews of students answering some questions about how they learn, what types of environments make them feel comfortable, how they work, etc.   We taped a few interviews from our students here and it was fascinating to hear them reflecting on their own learning environments.  If you are designing a space, this might be a great way to gather feedback from students and teachers alike about how they learn.

We also have to question things and see what might commonly be overlooked.  We have to re-see, re-envision.  David Jakes evokes this wonderfully, exploring how we can rethink hallways as  usable learning spaces in schools.

Since designing our own library, in my wanderings, I try to notice places and pieces with good design that reflects the principles that I held important when designing our own library:  transparency, playfulness, creativity, comfort, light, collaboration.

Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has it right when he reminds us  about borrowing ideas from everywhere for good  design:

So, here’s a few more pieces I’ve collected lately that reflect the philosophies that our students and staff have shared with me about our library space.  (And reflect my own design aesthetic as well, I must admit).

Playful light fixture from Ikea

Another playful light fixture, also from Ikea–sort of an interesting play on literacy and reading.   It’s also transparent, which fits the theme of our library.

This is a menu stand at Galaxy Cafe, an Austin restaurant.  The menus are hard laminated cards, and are well designed.  That gave me the idea to make cards like this for our library services, bringing in modern graphics and making our services more visible and easy to follow for students.

These signs at the University of Michigan are a clever way to promote the “faces” of the library.   They have several different series of signage similar to these, which inspired me to create something similar for our hallways.

This chalkboard at Galaxy Cafe advertises their new “specials.”  It inspired me to buy this chalkboard easel at IKEA so we could do the same.   We have many students who love to write decorated signage for us, so it allows us to invite them into the process of publicizing new books or other events.

After getting the idea at Galaxy Cafe, I stumbled over this nice and inexpensive combination whiteboard/chalkboard easel in the children’s department of Ikea.  It’s already being put to use in our library.  (and our students like to do the lettering on it, so it becomes quite collaborative.)

Inspiration can come from everywhere–for example,  I noticed that the meeting rooms at the University of Michigan Law school are called “Ponds” and loved that idea.  What a great name for a learning space! (although the signage itself could have certainly been more appealing to the eye!)

To see details like these we just have to look around us with a mindful eye–we have to become like children just learning to read, and see our environment for all its details and take the time to really see.  We have to be willing to be playful and curious.

For more inspiration, check out these  beautifully decorated design quotations.   Then take a camera, and go play.

We spoke specifically about how backchannels can be used by educators as:

• 1)learners
• 2)information gatherers
• 3)presenters (including speakers, principals, board members, etc–any sort of meeting)
• 4) in classroom settings

As learners, tools like Twitter can be invaluable ways to tap into professional development workshops that we could never attend, and become aware of conferences that may have escaped our notice.   We can even participate in the conference from afar, ask questions, discuss the merits of ideas presented, etc.

As information gatherers, even the news media has picked up on the ability of twitter to report the news instantaneously.   This means that Twitter can be an invaluable tool for gaining first hand knowledge of an event.   Earthquakes,  government upheavals, drastic weather events–all are easily researched on Twitter.  It’s the new “primary source” and as educators, it should be included in our arsenal of information gathering tools.

As presenters, wherever we are speaking, we almost have to presume now that what we say is being backchanneled.  Cliff Atkinson, the author of Backchanneling, suggests that consequently as presenters, teachers, etc. that we need to be sure that our presentations are tightly focused, but that it is important to make an effort to interact with, embrace, and invite in the backchannel as a way of connecting with and engaging with the audience.  So if you are a school board member or superintendent, you should be sure that your meeting is probably being written about on some backchannel or another, so why not announce a hashtag for the meeting(one that you could look back at later?)  With our school conducting a 1:1 iPad initiative for teachers, it occurred to me the many ways that administrators could incorporate backchanneling into local workshops and faculty meetings and create a more interactive dynamic in the meeting.

For example, a principal could have a hashtag for the faculty meeting, where teachers could tweet their questions, or if she wanted to keep the discussion internal, set up a chat room on many of the available tools like TodaysMeet, Simplemeet.me or Chatzy, so that she could review the questions or comments later.  With a faculty at a large high school, this could be helpful way of moving the discussion along in workshops or at meetings.

Of course, backchanneling can be so effectively used in the classroom or library to help a large group be more actively engaged in the discussion at hand. Many of the tools we talked about in the workshop (see Prezi below) also lend themselves well to use in library settings, like backchanneling student research presentations, or inviting guest speakers in for students can interact with and also talk to via a backchannel like Skype, or a chat tool.

In the classroom, using a chat or backchannel can really help students focus on and engage more with a film, with a panel discussion, with an inner/outer circle discussion, or a teacher led discussion, or even small group assignments.   This isn’t “new stuff” but more and more tools are becoming available to us to use in these settings (check out our Livebinder to see some of the newer ones available.)

For our session we used SimpleMeet.me  which worked very effectively, and can be used on the iPad (which many of the others can’t.  The only issue with SimpleMeet on the iPad was that if the participants switch out of the chat to do something else, and come back to it, it starts the chat over.  But that’s hopefully a way to keep students more on task )

While our session was just an introduction for administrators to the possibilities of backchanneling, check out our Prezi and Livebinder for some new tools and interesting video examples of backchanneling at work.

We often ask students to expound upon their ideas, add more details to their writing, or explain further. But it’s equally a skill for them to be able to crystallize an idea into one word or image, and it’s an exercise that can challenge them to really think about their concept.

During his inservice presentation at our school last week, that’s just what Dean Shareski asked a group of our teachers to do.

After some small group discussion revolving around the idea of “learning”, we used compfight.com to locate a Creative Commons photograph that represented a word or concept that encapsulated what learning meant to us, and then used the Fotolr Studio HD app to import the photograph, add the word, and select the font and size and arrangement to create a dynamic visual.  The teachers emailed the images so we could collect them into one slide show.  And then each teacher had twenty seconds “Pecha Kucha” style to give a rapid fire explanation of their slide’s meaning.

Below are some of the slides created by our staff representing what learning is to them, collected into an Animoto. Interestingly, without the specific teachers’ explanations, each slide has to now stand on its own.  But also, by combining all the slides together, a new reflection also emerges about how we define learning collectively.

Learning is….

This phrase especially resonated with me after Dean Shareski shared his vision of story in workshops at our high school last Thursday, as well as in his keynote at Tech Forum Austin.

His eye for story in the most amusing details is clear in the video he opened his presentation for our teachers with.

The backstory–his wife was on the decorating committee for his daughter’s graduation party and as part of that was charged with creating paper flowers.  So he chose to use video to convey the story in a very particular (and amusing way).  Watching this with a group of our teachers, as the surprising visuals unfold and hearing the ensuing laughter, convinced me that when we chronicle the ordinary absurdities of our lives, there is a story there.

Dean’s Prezi presentation for his session on Story illustrates the power of good stories and illuminated some new forms for telling them that go beyond the ordinary–through creative editing, creative use of text only(kinetic typography), with remixing, with many words, and with few words(one word and six word stories).  Sites like ZeFrank’s very cool “young me/menow” or his “earth sandwich” project are other creative ways to tell story in new ways.  (btw, Brian Doyle has a nice summary post  of the activities that Dean shared at our campus.)

But one thing that was especially enlightening in spending time in these workshops was in seeing how Dean has developed his own unique voice through photography and video, and it reminded me how we need to help students find their unique voice visually as well. As he mentioned  at Tech Forum, his project of taking one photograph per day has been one helpful tool in developing mindfulness about images and the world.  Of course, there are a number of photo-per-day projects, but imagine the value of challenging your students to participate in them?

Another project he shared that must be very impactful for students–he is having his university students spend x number of weeks learning something new and chronicling their learning through video and what it teaches them about their own learning.  Having them tell their learning story as they do the project is an excellent way to help them see the power in becoming “chroniclers of the particular” as well.  What if we asked students to document their research for a paper on video and post it?  How would that help both their self-reflection and our understanding of their processes and needs?

Dean reminded the audience at Tech Forum of Gary Stager’s comment that ‘youth are intense.’   As he pointed out, we just need to illuminate the things that they are intense about and help them share them, because as he repeats from Jill Taylor’s TED Talk–’To feel and to be felt is what’s important.’

And telling stories, of course, is very importantly about the emotions they resonate with.  Learning can be a joyous feeling, and so Dean gave the audience at Tech Forum a much needed reminder that we need to find opportunities to bring joy into what we do in education.

He visualized that by sharing these wonderfully playful photographs that his family creates of themselves jumping into the air in various vacation spots.  What a joyful approach to a family photograph and what more memory that will create (like the backstory of how each photo was created).

We all have special gifts, and like Andy Rooney’s, Dean Shareski’s is in the power of noticing and appreciating all the ways stories can be told, and in seeing the world in mindful ways.  Our students (and teachers) can all find ways to tell those stories of the particular in interesting and unique ways because all of us have a unique voice.

As we walked on a tour of Austin or toured small town BBQ Texas with colleagues yesterday, I felt like I was seeing with new eyes–the eyes of a storyteller.  I’ve always seen things as a photographer, but of one moment in time, that wasn’t necessarily connected by story.  Yesterday I saw everything in terms of how I could tell it as a story and how much more that would add to the experience, both in my observation of it at the moment, but also beyond that moment, in sharing it with others.  It is all in what we bring our attention to, as I learned when designing our library.

So, expect more stories from me soon.  Thanks, Dean, for the insights and for your time with our teachers.

Postscript:  Dean Shareski’s prezi is below

Internet Librarian West (my favorite of uber-librarian conferences) held a two-day e-book strand this week, which I was able to catch quite a bit of the live stream for.

The complexity of issues involved and the number of entities engaged in discussion are almost staggering.  The strand was a really deep window into what is going on, and I’m going to try to summarize a few of the sessions I caught as food for thought.

In a session on E-books and the future of publishing, Oxford Press representative David Bowers talked about the challenges with reference, because as he put it, publishers are aware that there are a lot of ways to ‘slice and dice’ nonfiction so that users can access the book’s content in many different ways.

Stephen Abrams(Gale Cengage) noted the differences between the types of texts that academic libraries might want as compared to public libraries or school libraries.  But more specifically, he asked a lot of good questions about e-textbooks.   He wondered how publishers can move the ‘hard line’ dividing textbooks and database content, for example, envisioning that the library becomes simply part of the blend of instructional textbook content.  There are things the industry knows: textbooks need to be  device agnostic, browser independent and ADA compliant.  But there are questions that are much harder to answer that Abrams posed:

Should a professor be able to look into a textbook and see if the student even read the chapter?

Should the professor/teacher be able to see inside the etextbook and see what questions the student missed?

Should the owners of the etextbooks be able to gather data from across the school about its use?

How does “social” affect textbooks?

And what violates the students’ privacy?

As for fiction and libraries, Abrams mentioned new models being floated out–like Bookish, a social network for books which a conglomerate of publishers including Simon and Schuster and Penguin are working on; Lendle, which allows lending of a book one time from a Kindle; and 24 Symbols, which is a cloud-based subscription method for accessing books (like Netflix).  How libraries will fit into those pictures is yet to be seen.

A scintillating panel on the future of e-books and libraries included:

Alison Griffin, Account Manager, Ingram’s Coutts Library Service
Michael Porter, Libraryland Watcher
Robert Miller, Director, Books, Internet Archive
Sarah Houghton, Assistant Director, San Rafael Public Library & Author,
LibrarianInBlack.net
Andromeda Yelton, Gluejar
Brian Gurewitz, Director of Content Sales, OverDrive

This panel’s discussion really challenged the relationship between publishers, authors, e-content and libraries and brought diverse viewpoints to the table.

Michael Porter shared his new venture, Library Renewal.org, which is drawing together those interested in e-content and libraries to come up with solutions that include library content in them.  He spoke about possible direct relationships between libraries and authors, or a co-op sort of model.  (Interestingly, Sarah Houghton pointed out  that according to Freakanomics, publishers are making more money on e-books, and authors are making more money on print books.)  Library Renewal is interested in how libraries can deal with e-books that are in high demand (pointing out Overdrive lenders sometimes have exceedingly long waits for books, for example).  As Porter describes it, Library Renewal is by libraries and for libraries, and we don’t have to accept the e-book model that is handed out to us.  (You can imagine the Overdrive representative was squirming by now.)

Andromeda Yelton shared GlueJar’s new model, called Unglue It, which is based on crowdsourcing e-books.   As their vision statement explains, “Gluejar is building a place for individuals and institutions to join together to liberate specific ebooks and other types of digital content by paying rights holders to relicense their works under Creative Commons licenses.”    The community would band together to raise funds to ‘liberate’ as she says, certain e-books for increased access.   Andromeda made an interesting point, that now, content is everywhere, which means  “content isn’t that exciting.   If you are providing the local value add that Amazon can’t do, that’s where the excitement is.”   (and isn’t that what libraries do or sites like Good Reads that build a community around reading?)

Sarah Houghton, aka the fierce Librarian in Black, asked a series of very important questions for libraries:

–Are we trying to create digital content that looks like print content and do we need to?
–What about limited check out periods?–why should it expire at all?
–Why limited numbers of checkouts?
–What do we do about a long term problem for libraries–we license it, don’t own it. How does that affect us as the preservation of record for our community?
Shift in the way that libraries function and it’s not been thought out too well.
–What do we do when some models aren’t even including libraries in the equation like Bookish-where  Simon Schuster, et. al. are  not even including libraries in their market?
–Can libraries work with content creators directly?
–In 10 years, will we see free open marketplace and will books move the way music has?
–How will library access work with other digital media types as we change the notion of what a book is?
–What about locked down systems like Apple?
–What about privacy in models like Overdrive and Amazon’s partnership, particularly for kids?
–Do publishers have a long term role in content creation and distribution?  Or will self-publishing will take off really fast?

One thing this panel discussion made quite clear is that there is a lot of work to do, and a lot of complex questions to be negotiated.  The role of aggregators as mediators in delivering the content, the role of the publishers, how libraries fit into all this, and where all the models leave authors are all complex.   But it was heartening to see so many professionals seriously engaged in thinking about these problems and how they can come up with creative and innovative types of solutions.

My hope?  My hope is that the school libraries and the k-12 readers don’t get left at the roadside in these models, and we’re left to adapt to using models more fitted for other venues with different needs.

More in another post on another e-book panel led by Sue Polanka with some excellent questions for libraries

Postscript:  All of the e-book strand was live-streamed and saved, and when I find that link, I’ll post it.  This link connects to the slides from the conference.  Another good “round up post” is on the Internet Librarian blog and from the Librarian in Black’s blog.