Webinars and other Learning Experiences

One of the readings for class was titled "When Teachers drive their learning" and was a fascinating example of true educators improving their classroom strategies. The article describes school district using the Fusion system to improve individual teachers skills in the classroom. A teacher completes the full "course" in the following way:
1. chooses from a list of teaching strategies which ones he or she wishes to improve on
2. reads literature on the subject
3. meets with a study group
4. observes a peer who implements the strategy in his or her  classroom
5. experiments with the strategy in their own classroom
6. a mentor, who is considered an expert in that strategy observes the teacher work the strategy in the class and evaluates their mastery of the learned strategy
One of the profound statements of the article was that the "three key elements of motivation, time to develop professionally and teacher leadership" makes for an energetic teacher.
Surprisingly, each teacher that completes a strategy course receives a stipend! I think that is exactly what schools need to do to motivate teachers to improve their own skills in the classroom; I just envision that being difficult for districts in poor communities (like the city of Detroit schools) to sustain. This school district also had to have the study groups during school days, which I think is key to having participation. What I saw as one of the best parts of Fusion, was that reciprocal relationships existed between teachers and many of them are considered masters in at least one strategy so all of them feel respected and valued for their individual skills.
The next article was "Computers in Libraries" where a library system in North Carolina realized basic training for troubleshooting computer problems for their librarians was very important in this changing world. Going beyond these basic computer skills, the system created an "online self discovery program" to learn new technological web 2.0 tools.
Lastly, the final article "planning an online professional development module," described how one library media specialist incorporated what the NC library system in Charlotte did to teach the school staff how to discover web 2.0 tools. She modified the program to suit the teacher's needs and so that it could remain flexible in terms of time.
[Side note: I always thought it odd that school librarians were supposed to teach computer classes; perhaps that is why they made the title change to library media specialist--to force school librarians to teach those classes? All I know is that the schools I went to had librarians who would definitely not be qualified to teach tech classes; that is why we had a computer teacher.]
Anyways, I really liked that the project fostered collaboration in the absence of an expert; that was the best part of the project evaluations I thought.  

Last week, I participated in 4 webinars on topics ranging from serving Native American populations in your library, teens, young professionals, blind and deaf patrons, and those with limited access to fast (necessary for most utilization of the Internet) digital connections. I absolutely loved seeing the varied perspectives (especially those varying from my own opinions and knowledge) presented on these topics by my peers. Without a doubt, the biggest issue with the class presenting webinars turned out to be technology! We all struggled a bit, hampered by technological difficulties. Reflecting on my own webinar (how libraries can make those areas deemed handicapped accessible warm and inviting--on a budget), I think it was hardest for me and my team members to learn how to navigate the software effectively enough to host a webinar. It was a rewarding experience, both in terms of learning how to use Elluminate and learning how to present important content in such a different, previously unknown way. The assignment really summed up much of what I have learned this semester and I feel these readings today do as well:

•  Technology might be scary, but it also so darn useful! I would be foolish to let my timidity keep me from engaging with it.
• Collaboration with your peers, especially when discussing ideas and experiences, can be unbelievably rewarding and not at all discouraging! This has been a very different experience from when I've worked with teams that do not possess similar goals or interests. 

PS. Just about everything I have done and learned this semester I referenced in a recent interview--SI 643 has been the most important library class I have ever taken here at U of M.

Thank you classmates and Kristin for providing me with such unparalleled knowledge.

All About Twitter

I've had a Twitter account since 2008 and can count on both hands the numbers of times I've posted on it since then...until now. I started checking out my chosen bloggers' Twitter feeds awhile ago, pretty much because "Agnostic, Maybe" always has a lot of entertaining things to say in both places. I always found Twitter to be less of a professional tool and more of a celebrity watch--which doesn't interest me in the slightest. But this is the assignment and I'm willing to have my mind changed.

First,  found it extremely difficult to locate all of my bloggers (and I've added some since the blogging assignment) on Twitter. Many of them did not have their Twitter name on their blog or it wasn't easy to find, if they did. I ended up having to investigate further or guess by their real name. etc. And then I added HootSuite and that as made all the difference in the world! I really like how it organize things by columns and it is user-friendly (speaking as one who is not comfortable with virtual gadgets and widgets). I put in my 5 posts and I think only 2 of them are actually relevant and show there is thought behind them. I'm not the type who updates her Facebook status every day or every few hours; I don't usually have anything to say that is only 140 characters. That portion of the assignment was difficult for me. I am also not thinking too much on the pertinent issues facing libraryland at the moment. Outside of class, my thoughts center often on making dinner, getting ready for tomorrow, driving through commuter traffic, finding an internship for the summer,etc. I feel somewhat distanced from these issues--and that's ok for me right now! Being a first year I don't feel as though I comprehend everything the librarians are saying and I'm not employed by a library--so there's a disconnect. That's where using these tools like Twitter with HootSuite and following the blogs really come into play; even if I don't have anything to say on these topics I can still follow along and read the different points of view posted by people who do have something to say. This class has been so valuable in teaching me how to bridge the gulf between where I am now, in school, and what is happening "out there" in the libraries.

Lastly I changed my Twitter name because I had numbers attached to the previous one and I noticed the vast majority of people I follow do not have numbers in their name. Isn't that funny? Is is because having numbers in your name is reminiscent of an AIM screen name and that's considered juvenile?  Or is having numbers in your screen name as way to mark yourself as not creative enough to find a name that isn't taken already? My previous name was SpecialK86 and now is SpecialKlib which I think is infinitely better because I snuck a little library love in there.

March 27, 2011 Much to cover: all about engaging with students via technology!

Chapter 7 in How People Learn discusses how teachers can teach subject matter that students have stereotypical trouble grasping, such as math, in ways that help students grasp overall concepts, not just facts.  Certain teachers were singled out for their understanding of the important concepts of their particular discipline and the best ways for their students to learn those concepts (hint: it wasn’t by memorizing data or facts). They figure out that way by knowing the challenges of their particular discipline, knowing their students and knowledge of academic content. Another important lesson noted by the authors was that a set of general teaching strategies will not simply apply to all disciplines or even all classes and these great teachers were learners themselves.

Montgomery 2010: “Online Webinars!...”

This article discusses the ways librarians are reaching out to a new generation of college students who are actively engaged online and prefer to communicate online in many situations. Beyond using chat, email and text services, academic librarians are starting to use webinars to help their users, especially when they are embedded in specific courses.  Matos et al. goes further to expand on virtual interaction between librarians and classes, noting the difficulties and benefits therein. I really liked their point about how virtual library sessions accomplish two important things: “integrating library instruction” without actually taking time away from the scheduled lectures and exposing students to a form of technology that they might use in their professional lives.

The webinar I watched was “Crisis Webinar” by Chris Harris and Buffy Hamilton and moderated by Gwyneth Jones and Carolyn Foote. The webinar was about the crisis in the job markets school librarians are facing today. Chris Harris reminded me a lot of Eli Neiburger, he too believes in the digital shift away from print books. Except he’s not a librarian, he’s an administrator, oooh. Anyways, in general one of the things I noticed thanks to this webinar is that it is very difficult to listen to the speaker, visually process the slide show and also pay attention to the conversation progressing in the chat window.  I think that wasn’t a huge issue for the webinar we watched in class because Bobbi Newman’s talk centered on our questions; she didn’t really have a prepared lecture. Thus, slides would have added to her webinar, not distracted. Mr. Harris actually said it was hard to keep up with questions while reading his notes, on his end. I know you can archive it, as one of the moderators mentions, so maybe we should be encouraged to ignore the chat unless we have a question and focus on the lecture, then go back later and read the chat. I’m not sure… I can’t decide if it’s worth it to have all three: a prepared lecture, slides, and chat operational. Thoughts?

Also, Mr. Harris’ slides didn’t transfer from his Keynotes software very well, definitely a reason to preview and test our webinars first. Buffy’s portion of the webinar echoed much of our readings for this week, in that she voiced the need to pay attention to the types of technology our students are constantly using and take advantage of that notice. And wow! does Buffy have a thick accent! It was rather delightful to listen to as a nasal Midwesterner. I felt that Chris’ talk was a call to action and Buffy’s talk was specific examples of how school librarians can act today, now, in this moment. A webinar that was very well balanced in terms of content and I think for a soon-to-be graduating school librarian, essential to watch. (I’m not one, but the perspective was great to hear as a public librarian I want to collaborate with school librarians.)

Thoughts on Last Week's Class (3/14)

Since they are no readings for this week, I will focus on last week's class. Definitely the focal point of the class was the interactive talk about the #hcod debate with "Librarian By Day" Bobbi Newman. I'm trying to remember what else we did that night...planned our upcoming workshop (hope you guys are ready to get down and dirty with e-books!), discussed ethics, and kind of "debriefed" our book clubs somewhat. Thank goodness for Kristin's emails about what we do or I wouldn't be able to remember all of the things we accomplish in 3 hours!

Ok so the talk with Bobbi Newman. First, it was a great way to see Elluminate in action and see how we will navigate it ourselves when the time comes. Second, I didn't take notes on Bobbi's opinions and statements as the webinar proceeded. Perhaps that would have helped me write this post, but my intent was to let Bobbi's discussion sort of wash over me and help me build a better picture of this debate raging in libraryland. I absorbed much of what she said but the thing that struck me most was Bobbi's clear intent to remain as neutral as possible on the issue. Not just neutral in whether or not HarperCollins is the most evil publisher ever (which they are not) and we should boycott them or whatever, but rather quiet on how to proceed. As far as I can tell, Bobbi feels libraries needs to collaborate with publishers, but I'm still fuzzy on how they would actually do this. Ask to meet with HC? And who would meet? Reps from each consortia? ALA reps? But not everyone belongs to ALA or "believes" in their tenets, as Kristin reminded us in class. By the way, that totally shocked me. Naively, I believed every librarian had to belong to ALA to "matter" as a librarian. What an eye-opener!
Lastly, I attended "A Day in the Life of a Visiting Librarian" yesterday and Eli Neiburger was one of the visiting librarians from Ann Arbor District Library. Eli is the polar opposite of Bobbi, in my opinion, he makes very inflammatory opinionated statements with no hesitation! Despite my use of these inherently negative terms, I really like his attitude and I respect him greatly for taking a stand. One of the things he said, was that in a few years we will be begging for the "26 checkout" policy to make a return. In other words, it's going to get far worse for libraries, in terms of e-books (well and other things, too). His big push is for libraries to get a seat at the discussion table and not proceed though an intermediary, like Overdrive. If you want to hear his entertaining talk on why "Libraries are Screwed" here are the links to the Youtube videos. Keep in mind he If you're in SI 620 right now, you already watched them so ignore this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAwj5ssU2c  (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0lIKVstJg     (Part 2)

I just feel that I believe Bobbi's talk was the perfect entree for our class, to get a broad overview of the issue, I wanted to know, to have a little dessert at the end, what her total and unequivocal opinion was on this issue. I am worried that librarians have a tendency to be too nice and these days to get the best and most for our users we might have to get firm with big businesses out there and let them know we won't be steamrollered into submission.I still feel as a librarian who has yet to work out in the field, I don't have a fully developed idea of what the solution to the e-book problem is. Yet, I believe if enough librarians like Eli and Bobbi get fired up, they can save the day.

#hcod, book clubs, and workshops. oh my.

As you can tell from the title, this week's readings are leaving many thoughts swirling in my head. I shall attempt to capture them and pin them down on paper, or at least digital paper.
Last week's book club was probably one of the best "practical" classes I have ever participated in. Beyond the veritable fun I daresay was had by all, our book club conveyed usefulness, timeliness (after a week off to get back in gear), and some impressive experience. [Random thought: do we receive PEP credit for this class? We should.] Despite our gruesome and morbid readings (with the lovely exception of our practical reading "Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians") our book club engaged in excellent and entertaining discussion. Preparing for the book club and reading the evaluations afterward was an eye-opening experience for me. I learned much about myself last week: most notably, I have yet to fully learn when to shut my mouth and when is the best time to speak. An ever-evolving process, I resolve to do better and speak less the rest of this semester, so that I might learn more.
I have read the ALA's Code of Ethics before for another class, but certain statements jumped out at me this time. A always, I like to note the caveat in the beginning that says these are broad principles and every specific situation is different. "We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties..."--this statement is hard for me to digest. Don't misunderstand, I believe in this statement wholeheartedly but I find it difficult to imagine myself upholding it when I am practicing the profession. My values are so deeply entrenched  within me that to know me, is usually to know what I stand for. I think this is another way of the good Lord telling me I need to (again) learn to keep quiet in those situations. Lastly, the statement that librarians are to commit to "maintaining and enhancing our own knowledge and skills" put me in mind of Agnostic, Maybe's recent barrage on older librarians. Could it be that he was trying to point out some older librarians no longer uphold this part of our code of ethics, for whatever their reasons? If he had quoted the ALA, would his points be more respected?
"Creating a Library Assignment Workshop..." gave me profound respect for the librarians at Texas A&M Univ. I found it interesting that they collaborated with another well-known center on campus to engage the faculty's interest; I see that as one of the biggest challenges to anyone attempting to create a workshop for the same purpose. I think one of the best portions of their workshop was the brain-storming exercise early on; I saw it as having multiple functions, all very useful. One, it was an ice-breaker; two, the exercise got faculty thinking about the usefulness of any library assignments they designed on their own; and three, it informed the librarians what they needed to focus on, content-wise, in the workshop. Very cleverly designed. Overall, the thought of attempting a workshop on a similarly large scale scares me. I'm worried how next week will go.


#hcod
I read Martin Taylor's post (he's pro-HC). His argument seems logical and I feel that he definitely pressures librarians to come up with the solution to the e-lending problem. I advocate more of a collaborative solution between both libs and publishers. Perhaps Taylor's point is that HC came up with a solution, if we don't like it, then we have to come up with our own version. I vehemently disagree that libraries/librarians think "authors and publishers make excessive profits"-perhaps patrons believe that but librarians know better. We're taught in our collection development & management class here at SI exactly what the cost of publishing one book is and how much of the retail actually goes to the publisher, much less the author. I find it hard to believe the rest of the country's librarians have their heads in the sand as to this fact. Taylor frightened me with his thought that e-book lending would lead to even fewer libraries, with fewer jobs. Scary to imagine for those of us about to graduate in a year or so. His concept of a "loan fee" as a possible solution I don't understand what that is or what it would look like; yet, my instinct is that it goes directly against the ALA's code of ethics (perhaps they have no such ethics in New Zealand?).
I chose to read the CBC's article on HarperCollins's new policy. Dan Miserer is the technology columnist there so I would suppose he is less biased than librarians. He really focuses on the magic number 26, in his article; Taylor didn't mention it at all. As far I can tell, Miserer anticipates libraries acquiescing to HarperCollins will set off an avalanche in which librarians will be crushed under a mountain of arbitrary numbered caps on lending and loan fees. Oh how terrifying to think that could be the case!
Lastly, I read Laura Crossett's blog post on the issue because she is in a public library and that's my area of interest. She too, insisted that HarperCollin's cap on 26 circulations is a ridiculous made-up number that is not realistic. She doesn't thin that libraries are big enough to impact the market with a boycott; instead she advocates for getting the public on our side so that HarperCollins and other publishers, will have to take notice of such a combined force.
My opinion? I feel that I am not well-versed enough in the knowledge of e-books versus print books, in terms of money and circulation, etc enough to even have an opinion. Still, I acknowledge that libraries cannot afford to pay what HarperCollins is insisting on so there has to be another solution.

Week 7, Book Club Bonanza

Summary of readings:
I belong to the Diamonds Book Club which happens to boast, incidentally, some shining examples of good readings. Our readings for the week were "The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians" by Todd Gilman, "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde, "The Landlady" by Ronald Dahl, and "Hansel and Getel" by the Brothers Grimm. Oh and my cohort and I picked "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift.
How fascinating that we all picked texts of such sinisterly gruesome tones (with the exception of "The Four Habits..." of course)! From a range of genres not to mention the variety of contexts in which authors penned their works comes 4 texts that explore death, loneliness, child abuse and so much more! I am looking forward to discussing these storied works on Monday; should make for a very dark (and fun!) book club.

Summary of class:
A few interesting things to note about our last lecture. I was disappointed in the content presented by our guest lecturer from AADL. She seemed like a lovely person and I was glad to hear that her branch was trying to reach out to teenagers to hold a book club of their own; yet I felt she didn't really have a lot of experience in book clubs over all. Maybe it was how she presented? I just wanted to know more details; for example, if we could have heard "this works, this doesn't work, groups can be started in this way but if you market them in this way won't get too many people, etc." She seemed to have more knowledge of the book club she participated in. I found her answers to our questions rather confusing and vague as well. Was I the only one who felt something was lacking? I'm really interested in what you all thought.
Moving on, the modeling of the Socratic seminar was fascinating! It never occurred to me when I was doing the readings but if a teacher does a Socratic seminar with his students this is a perfect opportunity to see who has done the readings and who hasn't. You could clearly tell who had done the readings last class and who maybe, shall we say, skimmed them.  Also, I don't know how students who aren't in the "inner circle" could keep their mouths closed; there were so many moments during last class that I wanted to leap down to the circle and put my 2 cents in! I had so many thoughts and I had to keep them to myself (or whisper them to Mallorie lol). This probably doesn't surprise any of you by now; clearly, I could benefit from the binder clip regulatory system.
I'm really looking forward to book club on Monday because I cannot wait to see the reactions to these texts, especially the fiction ones. Still, it will be interesting to hear the discussion on the non-fiction text. I have a feeling it might be hard to generate but could be surprising once it gets started.

Book Clubs, the Socratic Way

Summary (feel free to move past this if you attended class & did the readings):

Last week in class, we discussed the different responses to our viewing the McGonigal video presentation which was interesting but the most interesting part of the night is when we gathered in our large cohorts to discuss the trends we saw in our different blogs.It was fascinating to see how people intepreted the same blog posts so differently. Certain bloggers that I found wisdom in other people found annoying.

This week's readings discussed how libraries can move past the traditional borrowing service and make a "bridge to entire community" and how educators can move past traditional lecturing to engaging ALL students in discussion.

Hoffert recommends a thematic approach to library book clubs, so that the library isn't slammed with 20 requests of the same title and more people in the community including teens and men are included. Ms. Hoffert also mentions a library can mix in other media with the books as well as inviting authors to participate. She really demonstrates going the extra mile as librarians.

Tredway profiles the uses of Socratic seminars in the classroom, when students read a text or study materals then engage in discussion about the text instead of their professor lecturing at them. This encourages critical thinking and, then eventually, critical writing.

Metzger describes how she tailored a Socratic seminar to run her high school literature classes. She found she could reach nearly all of students, even the ones who were considered "mediocre" readers and those with learning disabilities, and improve their reading AND comprehrension skills.

My Responses:

I firmly believe in teaching through Socratic seminars, when appropriate for the subject matter. The Honors Program at my undergrad taught all the classes using the Socratic method (very fitting when we studied Aristophanes and Plato). We'd closely read the text for the week and then discuss it in class, with
our professor providing important historical context or guidance, especially with the Greek texts. It's amazing how much I retained from those classes but even more so how much my wring improved. Comparing my freshman year essays to my senior year ones felt like comparing the writing of two different people. No other
classes affected my abilities while doing my undergraduate work.

A variation of the Socratic seminar comes to mind when thinking of elementary schools. Teachers read aloud from a story, a chapter or two every day and then engage the children in discussion about what's happening in the story and what they think will happen next (I'm recalling a specific direction during a recent subbing job). There are some flaws in what I've seen though; teachers do not always ask probing questions that really compel children to do more than reiterate what's happening and make predictions.

I loved that the students asked Ms. Metzger leave the discussion part of circles! Isn't that the goal of every teacher, to help their students become self-sufficient?

To bring the readings together, I see some potential for creating book clubs that run like Socratic seminars, so patrons get more out of them than just the usual agreement of "I liked this one" etc.